The Witch Is Back (21 page)

I nodded, feeling like I was a student on the receiving end of a quiz. “Yes, they are humans with vampire powers and they want to kill all of you.”

“Succinct,” Bella said with distaste, as if I were a complete and total idiot. “Give me your hands.”

I obeyed and awaited more direction.

“Because you cannot visualize a Lurker, given that you have never seen one, all I need from you is your energy,” Bella started. “I want you to close your eyes and funnel your power, your energy into me. I will do the rest.” Then she turned to face Sinjin. “We will see if she has enough power within her.”

Sinjin said nothing but glanced at me with a wink.

“How do I funnel my energy into you?” I asked, facing Bella.

“Each witch has her own way of channeling her power. I find it easiest to imagine pulling my energy from all parts of my body into my center. Then allowing it to spill out into whatever requires it, filling up a void.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Do whatever feels natural.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, imagining any power that might actually be within me pulling into my center. It felt as if energy was suddenly springing up from my fingertips and feet, like tiny pricks all over my skin. It was akin to when your foot falls asleep and you have to shake out that feeling of pins and needles. I continued to imagine that energy moving to my middle; when I felt the busy hum of bees in my stomach, I then concentrated on sending the energy to Bella, bathing her in it.

I clenched my eyes shut as I felt the energy leave me—then I could suddenly see Bella before me, in my mind’s
eye. There was a cord of white light joining us, which I imagined was my power going into her. Even though my eyes were closed, I could see her as clearly as if they were open, which was odd to say the least. How that was even possible I wasn’t sure, but I was also past the point of asking how and why. I mean, I
had
sort of accepted the fact that I was a witch. When my energy hit her, she jumped slightly and I could hear her intake of breath.

“I can see them, the Lurkers,” she said in an awed sort of voice.

“How many?” Sinjin demanded.

“It is difficult to say but perhaps hundreds. They are building their numbers, concentrating only on replenishing their army.”

“How are they building it?” Sinjin probed.

In my mind, I could see Bella shake her head.

“Dig deeper,” Sinjin demanded. “Find out how they are adding to their battalions.”

Bella nodded. “I need more power, more magic.”

I figured that was my cue, so I focused even more resolutely, scraping up every last inch of whatever it was inside me that was fueling her abilities and sent it over to her. The white light around her glowed even more brightly.

“By way of magic,” she said, sounding surprised. “It appears they blend magic with their own blood in some form of ritual.”

“Are the victims taken by force?” Sinjin asked.

I felt myself swallow at the term
victims
.

“I can’t tell,” Bella answered. “I just have this feeling that there are many of them and they choose not to attack us because they are focused on growing their numbers first.” She paused for a moment or two, then took a deep breath. “I believe there will be a battle, and it could be devastating for our kind.”

Then she dropped my hands and I suddenly felt like I
was going to pass out. I started to swoon and Sinjin immediately caught me. I blinked a few times, trying to clear the stars from my vision, and gazed at him in shock.

“Are you well, my pet?” he asked.

I nodded. “I think so. I just feel a little light-headed and weak.”

Bella glanced at me and frowned. “It is to be expected. You just gave me all your power. It will take a few hours for it to return. Eat a large meal.”

Frowning over the fact that I probably wouldn’t be acquainted with a large meal in a long while, I tried to focus on the conversation and not the fact that I felt completely wiped out. “We will need to locate the prophetess,” Sinjin said as he took a seat on her sofa, with me in his arms. He ran a hand through my hair as I relaxed against his chest, still feeling like I wanted to pass out.

“The prophetess?” Bella repeated, obviously surprised. “Impossible.”

“Not impossible,” Sinjin replied, smiling down at me as he did so.

“There are those who doubt her very existence,” Bella continued.

Sinjin finally glanced up at her and there was impatience in his eyes. “I am not one of them.”

The next day, I was back to feeling like myself—aka not about to pass out from sending all my life energy to the bitch, Bella. After we’d left Bella’s, I’d questioned Sinjin about this so-called prophetess, but he hadn’t admitted to much—just that she was some sort of super-witch and we needed her talents to help us combat the threat of the Lurkers. He’d also said that contacting her would be a feat and I wasn’t up to it just yet: I’d need more lessons with Bella. So for the time being, I wasn’t supposed to be concerned with prophetesses or Lurkers.

I took a deep breath as I stood behind the counter of my store while Christa prattled on about her last date and what a disaster it had been. I actually had been paying attention to her until I caught sight of a woman walking down the street. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have looked twice at a passerby, but this woman seemed out of place somehow, dressed in a white-and-yellow dress that skimmed the ground, the high collar and wrist-length sleeves looking like something out of
Little House on the Prairie
. Her incredibly long, flowing silvery hair seemed just as odd. She appeared to almost float down the street even though she looked old and frail, like she was in her eighties. The closer she came, the more I realized her aura was beaming out of her in an exquisite bright blue. That had to mean one thing …

“Oh, fuck,” I said under my breath.

“Are you listening?” Christa persisted as she took a seat on the stool behind the counter and stared at me with irritation on her face.

“No,” I said rather absentmindedly. My mind, instead, was wholly focused on what to do about this woman. She was clearly a witch, or something similar. Her aura was the same color and intensity as Bella’s and Rand’s.

Rand.

Something warm flowered within me at the mere thought of his name. It was a feeling I couldn’t categorize and didn’t have time to, because the witch opened my front door.

“Hi, are you …” Christa glanced down at my appointment book, tapping her long, fake orange nails rhythmically. “… Mathilda?” she finished with an expectant stare.

The old woman nodded with a sweet smile at Christa before her gaze fell on me and she smiled even more broadly. I saw something like recognition passing through her intense green eyes. “Yes, I am,” she said in a soft voice, the cadence of which sounded like the trilling of bells.

All at once the panic that was welling up inside me evaporated, leaving me with nothing but a feeling of complete trust. I felt sure this woman would never harm me. ’Course, by now I was also well aware that anything I might be feeling could be due to her witchcraft.

“Hi,” I said, sounding a bit too harsh. I decided right then and there, however, that I didn’t want this Mathilda woman to know that I knew what she was. Better to play it safe; and by
safe
, I meant dumb. “Are you ready for your reading?” I asked in a much friendlier, softer voice.

She nodded and offered me a charming smile. I forced
a smile of my own, but all the while, anger was bubbling up inside me as I wondered what in the hell she wanted from me. All I knew was that I had to remember every second of what happened here today because I would report it back to Sinjin tonight.

I led her into the reading room and wondered if I should alert Christa to the possibility that this might turn out to be unpleasant. But then I thought better of it. It wasn’t like Christa could do anything to help me; furthermore, I could be endangering her. No, I was just going to play it cool—find out what this woman wanted and send her on her way.

Once we entered the reading room, I shut the door behind us and lost sight of everything in the darkness for a few seconds until the glow of the red light overhead illuminated our surroundings again. I motioned to the small table in the center of the room and said, “Have a seat.”

“Thank you,” she responded, pulling out the chair. Her gnarled hand confirmed that she had to be pretty old. It was strange, though, because despite her advanced years, she appeared so statuesquely beautiful and serene. It was almost like her age made her more beautiful.

“Is there a particular person you were hoping to make contact with? Or did you want a card reading?” I asked as soon as we were both seated comfortably.

She smiled at me. “I was interested in you reading my cards.”

Hmm … That surprised me but whatever. Besides, reading cards was way easier than trying to make contact with the dead. I grabbed the stack of tarot cards, unwrapped the red silk scarf from around them, and handed her the stack. “Please shuffle the cards, then choose seven of them, and hand them to me.”

She nodded and separated the deck between her gnarled hands, carefully shuffling them four times. She
cut the deck and then shuffled them another four times as if she had OCD or something. Then she removed two cards from the top, cut the deck again, and removed four cards from the middle, then the remaining card from the bottom, before handing them back to me.

When her skin touched mine, I felt a wave of electricity course through me, much like what I’d experienced with Rand. I abruptly pulled my hand back and realized I’d given myself away.

“I am not going to harm you, child,” she said in a soft voice as she stared at me with her beautiful green eyes.

“Then what do you want?”

Her gaze didn’t waver. “I am here to inform you that Rand is not your enemy.”

“Oh my God!” I felt my face go white with fear as I realized she was one of Rand’s emissaries. “So, what, he got too freaked out when I zapped his ass across the room and now he’s sending his grandma to retaliate?” I wanted to throw her off the scent of the truth, which was that Bella’s spell was protecting me. The less Mathilda knew, the better. Although, I had a mind to yell at Bella for not ensuring that all witches had to keep their distance from me. ’Course, then that would include her as well, I supposed. And maybe me too, for that matter. And how the hell would that work?

Never mind, Jolie!
I yelled at myself.
All that matters is this woman! Find out what the hell she wants and get her out of here!

“No, that is not why,” she said simply.

“Let’s stop beating around the bush then. What the hell do you both want from me?”

She took a deep breath like the answer was going to be long and complicated. “We want you to know the truth.”

And then I remembered how anxious Sinjin had been when I told him Rand had come into my store and sent
me that package—how he’d warned me that Rand was dangerous. I mean, Sinjin had taken major steps to ensure that Rand would have to keep his distance from me. So, as far as I was concerned, this woman might be equally dangerous. “You can leave now.” I stood up, but she made no motion to follow suit.

“You need us,” she said simply.

“I want nothing to do with you and I want nothing to do with that warlock. Do you understand?” I said, my voice deadly serious. “Now if you don’t leave, I’m going to call the police.”

She took a deep breath and rose from the chair, wobbling as she did so. I had the sudden urge to help her but another part of me wouldn’t allow it. She was a witch or something magical—all of this was probably just a game, something meant to evoke my sympathy. Well, I wasn’t going to fall for it.

“The vampire is not telling you the truth, child,” she said in a soft voice.

I shook my head, although her comment made me apprehensive. Still, as soon as the worry reared its unwanted head, I shot it down. I just couldn’t believe it—wouldn’t believe it. Sinjin wouldn’t lie to me. He was my protector, my teacher. He was the one person who had promised to guide me into this Underworld. He was the only one I could turn to, the only one I had.

And suddenly it seemed readily apparent that Rand had sent this old woman to shake my foundation regarding Sinjin. Her whole purpose was to weave lies and cause me to distrust him. Rand and this old woman wanted to woo me to their dark side. Well, I wasn’t going to fall for any of their Jedi mind tricks. Yoda be damned. “Leave him out of this,” I warned and started for the door. “And neither you nor the warlock is welcome in my store or anywhere near me ever again.”

She reached out and touched my hand when she
brushed past me. I felt my knees buckle, then I hit the ground hard. I had no time to even wonder at what the hell had just happened because her voice was suddenly in my head.

You must trust Rand and me. We are here to help you
.

I tried to fight against her but she was too strong and the control she had over my mind and body was too powerful. I grabbed my head between my hands and closed my eyes, trying to force her out of my head. At the same time, I willed my legs to move, to stand up, but it was useless.