The Trouble With Spells (6 page)

“I’ll be fine.” He
smiled at me, giving me a wink. “If I get cold, you can keep me warm.”

I blushed, unable
to speak as I wondered what he expected me to do exactly.

“I’m just kidding,
Portia.” He chuckled. He swung his leg over the seat of the motorcycle and
handed me his helmet.

“You remember the
drill?”

I nodded and
placed it over my head. He had to help me with the strap, but soon I was on the
seat behind him, ready to go.

Vance jump-started
the engine, and it roared to life. I brazenly wrapped my arms all the way
around him, laying my bulky helmeted head against his back as he took off.

We raced through
the night air up to the stop sign on the main highway. Vance turned to the
right and we proceeded up the road toward Oak Creek Canyon.

We’d traveled a
few miles when Vance slowed down and made a left turn onto a small dirt lane. We
crossed over a small bridge that spanned the creek and drove up the steep
narrow road on the canyon wall
.
We only went a short way before the road
ended.

 Vance parked the
bike behind a stand of trees. He helped me off, removing my helmet and placing
it on the motorcycle seat.

“Where are we
going?” I whispered.

“I’m taking you to
a little place I like to go when I need to be alone.”

I silently
pondered the reason he would bring me to his private sanctuary.

He reached over
and grabbed my hand, leading me through the trees and brush. We climbed our way
upward for several minutes before we stopped
,
and I looked around in
amazement.

We were on a large
stone slab that jutted out over the edge of the cliff. Below us were the tops
of the trees, and here and there we could see Oak Creek glittering in the
moonlight through them. Above us were some of the sheer rock cliff faces that
dotted the valley, and above them was the beautiful bright moon and stars.

“This is
breathtaking,” I said, listening to the sound of the river below us.

“I thought so,”
Vance agreed. He sat down on the rock, letting his legs and feet dangle over
the edge and leaned backwards onto his hands.

“Have a seat,” he
said, nodding to the space next to him.

I sat down, opting
to cross my legs and rest my hands in my lap. After a few minutes of easy
silence Vance spoke up.

“So, you’ve had a
busy day,” he commented, flashing me one of those dimpled grins, making my
heart do flip-flops all over again.

I nodded.

“Still taking it
all in?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied
and then let out tiny laugh. “Well, I would be if I knew where to begin.”

“I figured you’d
have questions you wanted to ask me after tonight.”

“I do,” I said
honestly. “If you don’t mind.”

“That’s why we’re
here.” He seemed completely relaxed with the subject. “So go ahead.”

“Are you really a
warlock?” I jumped straight to the point, realizing I really needed someone to
talk to about all this.

He looked directly
at me and nodded once.

“And what exactly
does that mean?” I asked, still feeling more than a little baffled over
everything, but comfortable with him for some reason.

“It means, like
you, I can do magic.”

“But I don’t do
magic,” I replied quickly.

“But you can,” he
responded. “That’s the difference.”

He sat up
straighter and lifted his closed fist toward me. He suddenly flung his fingers
out, and a small ball of flame danced in the center of his palm. I could feel
the heat generating from it.

“It’s hot,” I said,
my eyes wide in amazement. “Why isn’t it burning you?”

“Because I
generated it,” he explained, the light of the flames flickering over his
chiseled face. “Now hold out your hand.”

I held out my open
palm and he placed the ball of burning fire into it, and it was so hot I could
hardly stand it. Before I could drop it a cooling wave shot through my
fingertips, and suddenly the fire was frozen, locked inside a piece of ice.

Vance’s quiet
laughter rumbled in his chest.

“How’d you do
that?” I exclaimed, lifting my hand to examine the peculiarity.

“I didn’t. You
did.” He smiled at me. “The magic’s inside you. You just need to learn how to
consciously use it.”

He took the
ice-encased flame and threw it onto the rock. It shattered into a million
pieces and disappeared.

“Other than no one
telling me about it, why didn’t I know about my powers until now?” I asked him,
truly curious about what he was telling me.

“It seems to
manifest itself around the age of sixteen for most people.”

“Is that when you
got yours?”

He shook his head.
“No. For some reason I started manifesting around the age of five.”

“Is that good or
bad?”

He shrugged. “No
one really knows. My mom and dad were excited since they were both magical.

“My dad was the
leader of their coven. Of course, that was before he got involved in some
heavy, dark magic. My mom started to notice the signs, though at first she was
in denial. It wasn’t until she started observing that I was taking on some of
his dark traits she became really scared. She thought he was molding me to
become like him. I was ten by then.”

“What did she do?”
I asked captivated by his story, wondering what kind of dark traits he actually
referred to.

“She ran with me
at first, but he was always able to find us. Finally, she met this witch in another
coven. Her name is Marsha—you met her tonight. She explained the situation to
her and begged for her help. Marsha agreed. She got someone to fake some
documents so Marsha looks like my aunt, and she took legal custody of me. We’ve
been running ever since.”

“What about your
mom?” I asked, my heart feeling a twinge of guilt for pushing him to divulge
things which were difficult.

“I don’t know what
happened to her.” I heard a touch of longing enter his voice. “That was part of
the agreement. We were never to contact her again.”

“That must’ve been
horrible for you both,” I replied, knowing how I would’ve felt if I’d have been
in his place.

“It is for me. I
just want to know she’s all right.” He stared out wistfully into the night sky.

“So what brought
you here?” I tried to gently steer the subject in a different direction.

“Marsha heard of
your family and their coven. She came here and explained our situation, and
they agreed to offer us protection. That’s part of what your dad is doing when
he’s gone. He’s scouting things out, making sure we’re still safe.”

“Wow,” I said in
surprise, thinking about all the times my dad had been gone from home recently.
Could he have been out helping Vance? “I’m starting to see my dad in a whole
new light.”

“He’s a very good man,”
Vance said sincerely.

“Oh, I know that,”
I replied. “I just mean … encyclopedia salesman? Really?”

Vance laughed with
me.

“So why all the
mystery and everything at school?” I asked, changing the subject to a slightly
easier topic for him.

“I figured if I
stayed aloof, people wouldn’t get too close.” He shrugged. “It’s easier to stay
hidden that way.”

I mulled that over
in my head for a few moments. “Then why are you here with me?”

He sighed,
sounding a little frustrated. He stood up placing his hands in his pockets and
began walking back and forth in a line.

“Well, for one
thing, you’ll be the thirteenth member of our coven, which will make us the
strongest we can be. That’s a good thing.”

“Oh,” I replied,
almost feeling a little sad but not really sure why. “Is that the only reason?”

 “Well.” He
paused, looking slightly uncomfortable. “No, not exactly.” He hesitated again.

“It’s okay. You
can trust me,” I said, trying to offer him some kind of encouragement to
continue.

He stared at me
for several seconds. “You’ve been calling for me,” he finally blurted out.

“I’ve been …
what?” I said, confused. When had I ever called for him?

“You’ve been
calling for me,” he said again. “Maybe you don’t realize it, but it’s happening
a lot lately—mostly when you’re asleep. But you did it consciously today when
you were blowing out the candles on your birthday cake.”

My face flushed
crimson. “How can you know about that?” I asked in amazement.

He walked back
over to me, reaching a hand down. I slipped mine into his, and he pulled me to
my feet. We were standing toe to toe, and a breeze stirred up slightly,
swirling around us. He reached to tuck a stray hair blowing across my face back
behind my ear.

“We’re linked for
some reason, you and I.” His eyes searching mine intently.

“Linked?” I
whispered, my throat dry.

“It doesn’t happen
very often,” he explained. “But when it does it’s usually something very
special. I hate to use the word, but it’s kind of like,” he hesitated again,
“like we’re soul mates. Connected in a way that’s extremely unique.”

“But we barely
know each other,” I said, my heart beginning to beat rapidly at what he was
telling me.

“I understand why
you feel that way, Portia, but try not to be afraid when I tell you I know you
better than you think I do. I’ve been watching you for a long, long time—a
couple of years, in fact. I just couldn’t say anything to you until you found
out about your magic. I promised your dad I’d stay away from you until then.”

He seemed almost
relieved to share this with me. I knew his words should’ve struck me as being
odd; however, something in the depths of my spirit began to sing. I knew he was
speaking the truth. My eyes began to water as the emotions flooded my body with
no place to go.

“What does all
this mean?”

He shook his head.
“I don’t know. But I’m betting we’ll find out,” he whispered back. He reached
down and took both of my hands into his, interlocking our fingers together,
resting his forehead against mine.

We stood that way
for a while, looking deeply at each other for the first time. I felt like we
were reading, without words, into one another’s souls.

“I’d better get
you back to your grandma’s,” he said, finally breaking the silence.

I nodded, unsure
of what to say.

He led me back
through the woods to the motorcycle, and a short time later I was safely
through the window once more, into the guest bedroom.

“Goodnight, Vance,”
I whispered to him.

“Blessed be,
Portia,” he said quietly, running a finger down my cheek, and then he was gone.

I thought it would
be even more difficult to go to sleep this time, but I’d been awake almost the
whole night. I fell asleep quickly, but my dreams soon turned to tortured
nightmares. I was running from something, trying desperately to get away, but I
couldn’t see through the mist that was following me. I only knew whatever was
in there was bad, evil, and I couldn’t let it get me.

“Vance!” I called
his name into the darkness as the fog threatened to overcome me, and suddenly
he was standing there before me. He grabbed me with both arms, pulling me to
him.

“Portia,” he said,
and I reveled in the heat and close contact of him. I buried my head in his
chest. “Portia, it’s only a dream. You’re safe at your grandma’s house,
remember?”

I suddenly sat
straight up. I was wide awake and trembling in my grandma’s guest bed. The
dream had seemed so real. Vance had seemed so real.

I calmed my
breathing and lay back on the pillow, wiping the sweat from my brow.

My mind was
buzzing with remnant thoughts, but I tried to latch onto something safe and comfortable
to ease my mind.

Soul mates. The
word kept ringing over and over again. What did it really mean to be someone’s
soul mate? Was it even a real thing? I wasn’t sure of what was happening
between us, but I could think of a lot worse things in life than being the soul
mate of Vance Mangum. I found myself hoping he was right.

After several
moments of dwelling on the possibility, I finally drifted to sleep once again.

Chapter 5

Something was
tickling my nose, and there was a loud motor-like sound ringing in my ear, but
I couldn’t quite place what it was. I rolled over in bed and buried my face
into the pillow.

There, that was
better.

No. Now something
wet was licking my ear.

What?

I instantly made
the jump to full awareness, bolting up in bed. I snatched the covers up
protectively, looking around for the intruder.

I didn’t see it at
first, since its white fur blended in with the down comforter, but a large,
fluffy cat climbed up the blanket and nuzzled itself under my chin.

“Well, hello,” I
said, amazed to find my unexpected visitor. “Where’d you come from?”

As if in answer to
my question the cat looked over toward the window and I could see I’d left it
open.

“Oh. Well whose
kitty are you?” I stroked the long white fur.

The cat jumped up
and placed both paws on either side of my neck nuzzling against me as if it
were hugging me. I laughed while I checked the cat, looking for a collar or
identification. There was none.

“Well, I’m sure
someone is missing you. Maybe I should advertise I’ve found you. Are you male
or female?”

The white ball of
fur then proceeded to drop down to my lap and rolled onto its back. I reached
over to scratch its belly.

“I see you’re a
female,” I said, laughing.

It was almost like
this cat could understand everything I was saying. I picked up the ball of
fluff and proceeded to pad out into the hall, toward the kitchen where
breakfast smells were coming from.

“You’re up early,”
Grandma said without turning from the stove.