Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (13 page)

‘
What are you doing here?’ he
hissed.

‘
I’m looking for Alex, same as
you,’ I said, instantly annoyed.

‘
You can’t come here anymore. Are
you stupid?’ he continued.

‘
No, I’m not stupid. No-one’s
recognised me, and no-one will. Have you seen her?’

‘
No, I haven’t. I said I’d tell
you on Monday, when I’ve done looking.’

‘
Where does she live now?’ I
asked.

‘
I’m not going to tell you. You
can’t go there. She’s not allowed to know about us
anyway,’

‘
Us?’ I asked,
confused.

‘
Not
us,
us… Just me being an angel, and you being…one
of them,’ he said under his breath, nodding at Eva.

‘
A vampire you mean,’ I
said.

‘
Shush will you! This is the exact
reason why you can’t come here. You might have bought some tea and
be sitting here thinking you look all normal, but you don’t. Your
eyes are
not
a normal
green…’

‘
So they could be contacts. I’ve
seen people clubbing with much stranger ones in,’ I
said.

‘
You’re not drinking your tea -
they’re both full,’ he said, driving his point home.

‘
I could if I wanted too,’ I said,
as I nonchalantly picked up the mug in front of me and had a
sip.

I looked at it. It sure looked like
strong tea, but to me it tasted really bland, like very weak tea,
too milky. The milk covered my tongue, and I fought the urge to
gag. Instead I smiled up at his shocked face, and took another
mouthful.

‘
Eva, let’s go. He’s ruined the
atmosphere,’ I said, as I stood up and waited a second for Eva,
before leaving the shop.

‘
Please tell me you’re not going
to start drinking tea now?’ Eva said once we were alone again,
walking back to her car.

I smiled and momentarily considered
fibbing, but in the end I giggled and pulled a face.

‘
No, I don’t know what was wrong
with it, but that was possibly the worst cup of tea I have ever
tasted in my life. It shocked the hell out of him though, didn’t
it?’

Chapter Eleven

Thanks to British Summer Time, and
the clocks going back, the sun was still up when we returned to the
house, and while Eva and Daniel had grumbled about it for the past
month, I had revelled in it. Even before I’d become an initiated
witch, I had preferred the light to the long winter nights. Sure,
the sun would burn us - to a crisp if we stood in it long enough –
but the English sun was rarely hot enough to do that. There were
always shadows to seek out and dappled tree shade to cool off in.
It also made a good excuse to nip into the odd cool shop or two.
Back home I had already persuaded Daniel to order
a
gorgeous patio set with a huge canvas sunshade for the garden, and
I was looking forward to chilling out in the fresh air.

‘
Has the patio set been delivered
yet?’ I shouted through the house, when we closed the front door
behind us.

‘
No, but this has,’ Daniel said,
walking out of the kitchen with an envelope in his hand. ‘Who have
you been talking to, Jess? Who knows you’re here?’

‘
No-one,’ I said, shrugging my
shoulders. ‘Maybe it’s from Franny?’

‘
It has not got a stamp Jess. It
was hand delivered, before I got back,’ he said.

‘
Oh, weird! Let me open it
then.’

‘
You don’t know who it’s
from?’

‘
No, I told you that already, but
if I open it I can find out.’

‘
I think I should open it Jess,’
he said.

‘
No way! It’s my mail, it’s for
me. I’m not a child. Give me my mail,’ I said, feeling hot and
irritated all at once.

‘
Jess, I really think… we don’t
know who it’s from,’ he insisted, backing off a couple of steps
down the hallway, holding tight to my letter.

‘
Give it me… now!’ I yelled,
looking at the letter. I wanted the letter and in that split second
I decided to put my magic to the test and show them not to treat me
like a child.

I imagined the letter leaving his
hand and sailing through the air to me, a bit like something out of
a Harry Potter movie. Maybe I should shout
Wingardium Leviosa
I mused, but it turned out
that I didn’t need to.

Seconds later Daniel let out a primeval
howl, and I watched, horror struck as all the fingers on his hand
uncurled from around my letter and straightened out. Unfortunately
the spell didn’t stop there, and his fingers carried on stretching
backwards, until one by one they started to break, and the sound of
his finger joints cracking reverberated through the shocked
silence, as my letter left his hand and fell to the floor.

‘
Stop,’ I yelled, running towards
him.

‘
Jess, what the hell have you
done?’ Eva shouted as she flew past me and blocked Daniel from my
view, protecting him.

Luckily, it seemed that as the letter
had been released the spell had broken, and Daniel cradled his
broken hand to his chest.

‘
Daniel, I’m so sorry. I didn’t
mean to. I…’

‘
What? So you didn’t mean to break
all his fingers one by one, or you didn’t mean to perform magic
that you know nothing about, on the one person who sticks up for
you through everything?’ Eva said, glaring at me.

‘
Look, I’m sorry. Daniel please…’
I said, trying to push past Eva to see Daniel and
apologise.

I looked at his face. The pain had made
his fangs protrude, and I could tell he was struggling with a very
real fight urge, as his vampire instinct told him to attack his
assailant. His eyes burned bright, the red flecks in them
glittering. His vampire blood had rushed to his cheeks, flushing
them, as his muscles tightened, contracting, ready to pounce. He
glared at me. This was one pissed vampire.

‘
How could you Jess?’ he snarled,
before pushing past me so forcefully, he knocked me flying into the
wall. I steadied myself and rubbed my arm, as Eva followed him into
the front lounge, sending a quick look of contempt my way, before
slamming the door in my face. His bones would heal, quicker than
our relationship, so I needed to give him space. I picked up the
abandoned envelope and took it into the kitchen.

Dear Jessica,

Recently I have become acquainted with a
friend of yours. She is very sweet and most interested to find out
about your big deception. However, unfortunately for her I am
becoming bored with her teenage youthfulness – there is only so
much sugar one can consume, before needing a shot of something
bitter. Therefore I am proposing a swap. She may return to
Manchester, but you will need to come and fetch her, as I fear she
is too weak to make the journey by herself, and of course Sebastian
has forbidden me to pass Birmingham.

Yours Affectionately

Cole

Ps I fear that if you involve those
pesky, winged control freaks, she will not survive the delay.

‘
Daniel,’ I shouted. I jumped up
from my chair, knocking it flying, as I charged from the room. I
might be a witch, but thankfully I had kept my vampire speed, and I
didn’t wait for a reply before I exploded into their room. They
both shot out of their seats, Eva, obviously thinking I had lost
the plot and was going to attack again, went immediately on the
defensive, but Daniel knew from my face that something was up. I
flew into his arms.

‘
He’s got her, Cole. She’s in
London, with Cole,’ I said.

‘
Wait, wait, calm down. What do
you mean he’s got her?’ he said.

‘
The letter, it’s from Cole.
Here,’ I passed it over, into his perfectly healed hand and sank
into the sofa they had both jumped up from. I couldn’t believe it.
Why would Cole, leader of the London clan, bother with
Alex?

Daniel read it quickly, his eyes
darkening as they passed quickly over the words, before he passed
it to Eva and sank down next to me.

‘
Jessie, it’s a ploy. Cole must
have heard about you by now. You know how he and Sebastian are
always vying to have more power. He knows that Sebastian has you,
and now he wants you,’ Daniel said.

‘
He probably hasn’t even got Alex.
Like Dan says, it will be a ploy to get you down there. You can’t
go,’ Eva added.

‘
He
has
got her, or where else would she be? Even
Luke can’t find her,’ I said. ‘I have to go for her.’

‘
No way! It’s too dangerous. We’ll
tell Luke and he can get his cronies to fetch her back,’ Eva
said.

‘
We can’t. You’ve read what he
says. He says not to involve the angels, else she won’t survive,’ I
said, trying to be the strong, powerful vampire Sebastian said I
could be, and not crawl sobbing into Daniel’s arms as I wanted
to.

‘
It’s all empty threats Jessie. He
wouldn’t dare. The council would be on his back in minutes. We’ll
give Luke the letter and let them fight it out. It’s too dangerous
for you to go.’

‘
Jess, you can break every bone in
my body, but I’ll heal and come straight after you. You’re not
going, and that is that!’ he said.

‘
And after you’ve broken all his
bones, you still have to get through me,’ Eva said. ‘I know Alex is
your best friend and you miss her, but
you
are
my
best friend, and I’m not about to let you go hang yourself in
Cole’s lair.’

‘
I thought you said he wouldn’t
dare harm anyone? So why is it so dangerous for me to go?’ I
asked.

‘
Daniel said he wouldn’t dare
kill
Alex
, as she is human,
and the Council would get involved; but as you are a vampire, they
would probably let us sort it out ourselves, unless it got too
messy…’, Eva said, trailing off with a shrug of her
shoulders.

‘
And the last thing we want to
start is a full scale vampire war, with you stuck in the middle,’
Daniel added.

‘
Okay, look, I don’t mind telling
Luke and seeing what he says, but I don’t want all the angels and
the Council involved. I don’t want to risk Alex,’ I
said.

‘
It will be up to Sebastian,’ Eva
said, ‘but I suspect he won’t want to involve the Council either.
I’ll go over to the club in an hour and see him before it opens. I
need a snack anyway. I still feel sick from watching you drink that
tea.’

‘
You what?!’ Daniel said, one
eyebrow disappearing under his floppy waves.

‘
We bumped into Luke in a coffee
shop. He thought we shouldn’t be there and told me I couldn’t drink
the tea,’ I said, remembering the foul taste it left in my
mouth.

‘
So she showed him,’ Eva said,
winking at me.

‘
But I could do with a proper
drink now,’ I said, still feeling the claggy milky residue on my
tongue.

Without waiting for Daniel’s predictable
lecture, I left the front room and went to the kitchen to find
myself a blood pack. It was an improvement on the tea, but it left
me feeling unsatisfied, with old memories resurfacing of the scents
of the human boys in the night club, and my thoughts about drinking
from them, tasting them.

A couple of hours later I was curled up
on the sofa, talking to Daniel. I needed to talk to someone, and
Daniel was the only person I knew I could trust one hundred per
cent. He might be bossy, he might be pig-headed and
over-protective, but I knew he would listen and never betray me. I
was suspicious that the initiation had done more than release my
magical talents, and I needed to discuss it.

‘
Do you remember when I first saw
Luke after becoming a vampire, at the cricket club?’ I
asked.

‘
Yes,’ Daniel said, pointing the
remote at the screen in front of us and muting the
music.

‘
Well, do you remember when he
said that he’d been placed to watch over me when I was a teenager,
to monitor my dormant witch DNA, and that once it kicked in he was
supposed to help guide me to become a white witch, as opposed to a
dark one?’

‘
Yes, and obviously it didn’t
matter, because it didn’t kick in until you were made a vampire. It
would have been pretty useful for us to know, before we turned
you,’ he said with a smile.

‘
Would you have left me to die, if
you knew what you know now? If you knew I wouldn’t do what you
wanted, be who you wanted?’ I said, not daring to meet his
eyes.

‘
I don’t know Jess, but I do know
that if I knew everything I know now… how you are worth every
broken finger to me,’ he said pulling my face up, so my eyes met
his, ‘I would fight both Sebastian
and
Eva tooth and nail to have you by my
side.’

I smiled and pulled him in for a kiss,
feeling my insides somersault, my heart quicken, and my fangs push
outwards through my gums. It would be all too easy to forget this
conversation and lose myself in his kisses. I gently pushed him
away.

‘
Daniel, I need to
talk…’

‘
About Luke? Again?’ he
said.