Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (26 page)

‘
Hmm, we didn’t see her. I wonder
if Daniel found her?’

‘
Maybe, look I need to explain to
Daniel about what he saw. He thinks it was more than what it
was…’

‘
More than saving your life? He
should be thanking me,’ Luke said, his frown returning.

‘
Please Luke, don’t start. You
know we can’t be more. We’re past that, but maybe we can be friends
now?’

‘
Like old times?’ he said with a
smile. I nodded.

‘
Take us down angel-boy,’ I
said.

Chapter Nineteen

Luke set us down in the tree line,
towards the rear entrance of the church. There were a couple of
dazed teenagers wandering around with glazed expressions, but the
majority appeared to be collected around the front of the
building.

‘
Why do they all look like
zombies?’ I whispered to Luke.

‘
They’ve been corrected. They’ve
obviously seen too much. Maybe they were the ones stuck in the
building when the bomb went off, but either way they’ve had their
memories blanked. They’ll be herded up and sent home. Tomorrow they
won’t remember a thing.’

I frowned, I wasn’t comfortable
with the apparent ease and frequency humans memories were tampered
with, and knowing Luke was an angel made me wonder if I too had
ever been
corrected.

‘
Luke, have you done this to me? I
mean when I was human. Did I ever see anything I wasn’t supposed
too?’ He went silent, and glanced down at his feet, before meeting
my eyes.

‘
No, I nearly did, but I didn’t. I
didn’t want to… again I was reprimanded for being weak. Story of my
life,’ he said with a shrug.

‘
But I don’t remember seeing
anything. It was a total shock when I found out your were an
angel.’

‘
Was it really? Think back
Jess.’

I shook my head, I couldn’t remember
anything.

‘
Think back to when you mum was in
hospital, that last day. I was sure you’d spotted me
then.’

I trawled my memories. My mum, who
turned out to be my step-mum and not my genetic mum at all, had
died of cancer two years ago. The last couple of days in the
hospital had been hard on all of us, but Luke, then seventeen had
been my rock. I still didn’t remember anything. I shook my
head.

‘
I was with your mum… as myself,
as she died. You had gone to get coffees and she was scared. She
was scared of leaving you, scared of what lay ahead. I helped her,
I showed her who I was, I told her I would protect you. She died in
peace…just as you should have done,’ he said, sadness flashing
across his features.

‘
I came in just as she died. I
remember now, there was this bright light from behind
you…’

‘
My wings, Jess,’

‘
Wow, I thought it was the sun
from the window,’

‘
It was a cloudy day,’ he said
grinning.

‘
I didn’t really think about that.
I mean I’m more likely to think,
Oh, it
must be the sun
, than
Oh, my
boyfriend has wings,
aren’t I?! But sometimes in bed
at night, I remembered and imagined it was the light to heaven.
Thank you for not taking that away.’

He shrugged, dismissing my thanks. ‘I
was pretty sure you weren’t suspicious. I knew if you started
looking at me weirdly, then I’d have to do something about it, but
you never did.’

The teenager had wandered away, so we
came out of the shadows.

‘
Is that Caoimhe, over there?’ I
asked, pointing to a girl dressed in yoga pants, herding a small
group of kids towards the front and out of the grounds.

‘
Yes, we’ll wait till she gets
back, and ask if she’s seen them,’ Luke said, ‘but you really need
to stay in the shadows. You look a state. Don’t you know a glamour
charm you could use?’

‘
A what? Like from TV?’

‘
Yes, pretty much. A spell to
change how people perceive you. It doesn’t actually physically
change the clothes you are wearing, but it casts an illusion so
anyone, including yourself, who looks at them will see something
different. You really have a lot to learn, don’t you?’ he
teased.

‘
Yes, I do, and maybe if you had
deigned to tell me about being a witch when you first knew me, I
could have learnt enough to protect myself from the girl gang in
the first place, which would have prevented any of this from
happening.’

‘
Jess, you know I couldn’t. I was
instructed to watch and wait. Your DNA didn’t trigger until you
died, or was turned. You wouldn’t have been able to do any magic
before then anyway,’ he added.

‘
Right, well, give me a chance.
I’ve had all of about ten days to practice since I was initiated,
and the last four have been pretty full.’

‘
And yet you learned a pretty
difficult conjuring trick, to create fireballs?’ he
said.

‘
I did the fireballs, when I was
learning to create energy. It happened by accident, and I learned a
transmutation spell the other day to fix the table, but I don’t
think that would work,’ I said.

‘
Wanting to fit in? How about
this?’ The voice came from the shadows behind us. I turned quickly
and as I did so I felt a blast of energy nearly knock me off my
feet, followed by a giggle from behind some bushes.

Luke had pounced forward, drawing his
sword from its sheath, scanning the hedges for the perpetrator. Not
seeing anyone, he looked back at me and gaped. I followed his gaze.
I was dressed head to foot in goth gear. A tight, black boned
corset cinched in my waist and doubled my usually tiny cleavage
into an embarrassing display. My filthy jeans had disappeared
beneath a black lace tutu skirt, my legs were now sheathed in black
lace tights, finishing the look with a killer pair of bright pink
Doc Martins. I grinned. This was not my normal style, but I could
get used to it.

‘
Brittany, is this you?’ I asked,.
but she stayed silent. ‘Luke put your sword away. She’s obviously
not a danger to us, unless you’re worried about getting a wardrobe
change too,’ I said.

Luke shrugged and stepped back, then
replaced his sword and dropped his arms. Brittany appeared from
behind a tree right opposite us.

‘
How did you do that? Were you
there the whole time?’ I asked, as she smiled.

‘
Camouflage spell. You can only
see me when I want you to see me,’ she said, watching Luke
warily.

‘
Is that how you escaped?’ I
asked.

She nodded, and this,’ she said, running
her hands over her black satin gothic dress and stripy tights.

‘
You were responsible for Jess
being unable to escape and protect herself. She nearly died because
of you. As an accessory to Cole’s crimes, I will have to hand you
over to the authorities,’ Luke said.

‘
I’m sorry.I tried to help.
I…’

‘
Luke, it’s not her fault. She was
seduced by him; she thought she was in love with him. She’s only
young, and she did try to help me in the end,’ I said.

‘
I’m not that young. I’m sixteen,’
Brittany interrupted.

‘
She left you with Cole, to die,’
he accused, ignoring the girl.

‘
She escaped because she had too.
That vampire you think was Cole’s sister…Mary was it? Well she
grabbed her by the hair. Cole had instructed her to kill Brittany.
If she hadn’t escaped, she’d be dead right now. Let her be.’ I held
no grudge against this girl, and I selfishly thought of all the
spells she could teach me, when we got through this. ‘She could
testify with me, against Cole…if you don’t set her up as his ally,’
I finished.

‘
Fine, I guess she has solved the
wardrobe dilemma. Fried vampire is never a good look!’ he
joked.

‘
Brittany, have you seen two
Manchester vampires, a girl and a boy? Daniel, he’s tall, has dark
wavy shoulder-length hair, looks like a European football player,
and Eva is petite with a dark pixie cut. They would have been
fighting the other vampires,’ I said, but she shook her
head.

‘
No, sorry. I’ve been pretty much
keeping out of the way. The only vampires I’ve seen were round the
front doors, and the angels had rounded up a couple more, but I
think a few got caught up inside when the null bomb went off,’ she
said.

‘
Right, let’s go,’ I
said.

‘
Let’s wait for Caoimhe to return
first,’ Luke said.

‘
No, we’ve wasted enough time.
No-one will recognise me like this anyway. Brittany, are you
coming?’ I said.

‘
Sure, I could do with a friend,’
she said shyly.

‘
Me too.’

‘
You’re not going,’ Luke
said.

‘
And you’re going to stop me how
exactly?’ I retorted.

‘
Wow, is he always this
controlling?’ Brittany said.

‘
He tries to be, but mainly he
doesn’t like associating with bloodsuckers, do you?’ I said, aiming
a wink at Luke, who scowled in return.

‘
Are you coming?’ I asked
him.

‘
Fine,’ he sulked, ‘lead the
way.’

We started off keeping to the tree-line,
edging our way past a few more human stragglers, who were being
rounded up and sent home with a headache, to wake the following
morning thinking they’d had far too much to drink.

Just as we rounded the far corner of the
church, which was actually the front, Caoimhe appeared suddenly in
front of us.

‘
Oh! Thank goodness. I was so
worried about you Luke. I’ve been looking everywhere,’ she said,
her eyes full of concern and happiness.

‘
Sorry, we saw you a minute ago,
but you were taking some human kids back out, so I didn’t want to
interrupt,’ Luke said, moving forward to give the girl a quick
hug.

‘
So Jess, you’ve healed I see.
That’s amazing. I really didn’t think you’d have the energy left to
self-heal. Your wounds were so all-encompassing, so deep, I thought
you had minutes to live…’ she said, trailing off,
confused.

‘
I know, it
was
amazing. Luke h…’, I paused, catching a
sudden quick frown from Luke, and realised he didn’t want her to
know... ‘helped me so much. He gave me the strength to do it, I
guess,’ I said with a weak smile.

‘
Vampires, huh!’ she said, with a
little sigh, ‘but your extra powers must have helped. No ordinary
vampire could heal that fast,’

I smiled and looked at my feet. Why
didn’t Luke want her to know?

‘
Come on,’ Luke said. ‘Caoimhe,
have you seen Daniel and Eva anywhere? Jess wants to find them.
She’s worried.’

‘
Oh, erm, no I haven’t, sorry. The
last time I saw them was in the church. They came racing back up
from the cellar steps, Daniel was in front and Eva looked mad, but
he looked so upset. I’m sorry, I figured he got there too late,
that he’d found you dead,’ she said.

‘
Did they go outside then?’ I
asked.

‘
I’m so sorry Jess, I don’t know.
At that minute the gong sounded. I rounded up the nearest people I
could find and led them out through the front door, away from the
dead zone area, and then we had to wait, like you. We’ve only just
re-opened the entrance,’ she said.

‘
But you didn’t see them come out
at the front with you?’ I asked, my voice catching in my
throat.

She just shook her head, her eyes sad.
‘No, but there are other possible exits they could have taken,
although they should have stayed around to check in with us,’ she
added.

It was then that I thought I saw him,
across the other side of the churchyard. I set off at a run, trying
to curb my natural speed and tone it down to blend in, as I passed
a small crowd of teenagers being led away from the church. They
were sticking together like startled lambs, the slightest noise
spooking them and making a girl dart across my path and huddle
against a boy. Their eyes were huge, terrified. Whatever they had
witnessed inside the church haunted them, scared them and needed to
erased.

I pushed my way gently through the
scrum, keeping my eyes locked on the dark head of wavy hair, so
much so, that I didn’t see the girl come charging out of the church
screaming. I didn’t see her until she ran into me, and clamped her
arms round me, sobbing and keening, shaking from head to foot.

‘
Help them, help them… something
terrible happened. My friend, my friend… he turned to dust. He’s
gone. They died, all of them,’ she said, haltingly, in between
renewed sobbing.

I looked around shocked, not knowing
what to do, but absently patting the girl’s head. Seconds later, a
tall male angel appeared and stared at me for several seconds,
looking with wonder at my eyes before speaking.

‘
Were you with these kids?’ he
said.

‘
No, I was with Luke,’ I said,
looking behind to see him jogging over, with Brittany just
behind.

‘
Oh right… well, I’ll take these
now. Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine. We’re taking them
straight to the cleansing area,’ he said, gently prising the girl
from my side.

As soon as the girl had been led away,
with the group behind her, I looked across to where I thought I’d
seen Daniel. He was gone.