WitchLove (12 page)

A small blue car appeared a few minutes later and swung around in the turning circle, sliding with a crunch of old brakes across the pebbles, coming to rest next to my aunt’s car. I watched as the guy that matched the photos stepped out of the car, after quickly checking his reflection in the driver’s mirror. My eyes caught everything, the way he frowned slightly as he looked up at the house, the way his eyes darted around, as if he were looking for something. I stayed back, in the shadows. What was he bothered about?

After a couple of minutes he disappeared into the house and I turned and ran back to Brittany, my smile reappearing as I bounded through the trees.

‘There you are. Where’ve you been?’ she asked as I leapt into the clearing with a laugh.

‘Just went for a run, and guess who I saw?’ I said.

‘You didn’t? Did he see you?’ she asked.

‘No. I ran down that path over there, and it leads back to the house. It might even be a shorter way, I’m not sure as I ran at full pelt. It was fun though. We could try it later…’

‘Yes, but what about him? Is he as cute as the photos?’

‘Um, yes, I think so. He looks about the same age as Luke. His hair is a bit different to the photos; still dark but shorter than in the pictures. He has nice eyes,’ I said, thinking about how his dark eyes had flicked over the house nervously. ‘He seemed anxious. It was a bit weird actually.’

‘Maybe he’s worried about meeting
you
, or maybe he doesn’t get on with his
mom
,’ Brittany said, exaggerating an American accent. ‘We should go and find out. Come on.’

‘In a bit. I need to just practice this spell a bit more first. How long did it take you to learn it?’ I asked, sitting next to her on the log.

‘I don’t know, not long; but then we didn’t do everything by the book, so to speak. We didn’t really know the difference between black and white magic. There was just
magic
, and some kids were nice and some were…not so nice. You’d want to protect yourself against them, but heck if you got caught using magic… Anyway, that’s given me an idea. You need an incentive,’ she said grinning.

And just like that, a long sturdy branch came out of nowhere and wacked me across the back of the neck.

‘Ow! What the hell!’ I said, jumping up from my seat. The branch chased me, attacking me, stabbing me with its branches relentlessly. ‘Quit that, will you,’ I shouted at Brittany, getting angry as the branch whipped across and caught me on the cheek.

‘Protect yourself then, doofus,’ she shouted back, grinning.

‘No! Try protecting
yourself
, instead,’ I yelled back, irritated. Flinging my hands out I connected with the earth energy as easily I as had done in the tree circle and instantly felt the transference of power, as I stole control of the branch and flung it at the surprised Brittany. The branch, flung with my vampire strength would undoubtedly have connected with the girl’s skull and done some serious damage that I really didn’t want to think about, had she not protected herself at the last second. I dropped the branch and rushed over.

‘Oh God! Sorry,’ I said.

‘I was trying to help Jess,’ she said, her face failing to conceal the hurt feelings.

‘I know, I’m sorry. Can we try again?’ I asked.

‘Alright. Well, I have a slightly different idea,’ she said, obviously still slightly shaken, but smiling none the less.

‘Go on. I promise I won’t chuck any more branches at you,’ I said.

‘Okay, well you know how a protective bubble will protect you against all kinds of attacks, not just physical? Keep that in mind.’

‘Hmmm...’

‘So we need to go into the middle of the clearing and I’m going to create a kind of invisible barrier, so we can’t leave it, okay?’

‘Okaaay,’ I said, not feeling overly happy to be leaving the comfort of my trees, but also aware that the September sun was now getting lower in the sky and only tingled against my skin.

‘Now trust me, right. I’m not going to hurt you and you can do this.’

I nodded and the heat level instantly rose. Somehow the sun appeared to rise in the sky and what had been a mid-September sun quickly changed into a midday summer sun. Its rays instantly scorched my skin and burned my eyes. I darted for the treeline, but was bounced back by Brittany’s invisible barrier.

‘Brittany, what the hell…’ I shouted.

‘Jess
think
, protect yourself,’ she shouted back, keeping well away from me.

I wanted to jump over there and shake her until she stopped manipulating the elements, as Carrigan the dark priestess had done several months back in England. I wanted to throw her across the clearing and let my anger soar, but I didn’t. I reined it in. I absorbed it into myself and thought about the spell Brittany had spent the morning teaching me. I let the energy pulse within me for two more seconds and then I let it burst out, throwing my hands out and pulling them round me to create a perfect, shiny iridescent orb of cool, healing light.

‘Yes!’ Brittany whooped and jumped up and down next to me, dropping her spell so the sun retreated back to its original position. ‘Now can we go and meet the lovely Noah?’ she asked, grinning.

It took a lot longer than I’d expected, taking the new route and going at Brittany’s speed.

‘I thought you said this way was quicker?’ she asked.

‘It seemed to be. I got to the gate in no time,’ I said.

‘Yes, but you were hardly running at a normal pace were you,’ she quipped.

‘I suppose. Come on, we must be getting there now. I can see the trees thinning.’

We entered the house through the front door and I called through to Aunt Sarah, whilst Brittany leant against the wall, grumbling about her aching legs.

‘Oh, there you are girls. I was wondering when you’d be back. How did it go?’

‘She did great! With a little incentive she produced a fantastic protective orb,’ Brittany said, smiling sweetly and giving me a nudge in the ribs.

‘It was tricky, but I got it in the end… I think,’ I said.

‘Excellent. Have you seen Noah? He went looking for you.’

‘Oh! No, but we came back via the path that leads round the front of the house,’ I said.

‘Why did you go that way? It’s so overgrown and much longer,’ she said.

‘Tell me about it,’ Brittany said. ‘That’s the problem with being mates with a vampire.’ She stopped and we both watched Sarah’s face pale slightly. Brittany grinned.

‘We’ll go find him,’ she said.

‘He went down through the garden path, about ten minutes ago.’

‘We’ll track him down,’ Brittany said, springing up from her slouch and grinning.

‘Sure you’re not too tired?’ I asked. ‘I could always go and get him while you rest your tired feet,’ I teased.

‘Jess, you’re a vampire, not a comedian,’ she said, sauntering past me and heading towards the kitchen with a smirk.

I looked at my aunt, who thankfully had recovered from her earlier discomfort and smiled, shaking her head.

‘I think Brittany’s a bit young for him,’ she whispered, as I walked past and smiled.

We crossed the lawn together and once again found ourselves on the little path in the Enchanted Wood as I now called it, named after my favourite childhood bedtime story. We heard the music well before we reached the clearing, the melodic tune fitting well with the nature surrounding us. As we neared the circle we slowed down, careful not to disturb him and peeked between the guardian trees into the opening. He was sitting on the mossy grass, clad in frayed low-slung jeans and a cosy navy hoodie, playing his guitar. Unfortunately the beautiful chords were being somewhat ruined by his tuneless droning, which came halfway between humming and singing. He paused and looked up, straight at us.

‘Hi,’ he said, placing his guitar on the ground beside him.

I smiled back and looked at Brittany who suddenly hung back and hovered by my side. Giving her a slight nudge I stepped forward, through the trees into the clearing.

‘Hi, I’m Jess,’ I said walking over to him, feeling Brittany following behind.

‘And Brittany, if I’m right?’ he said, smiling at the girl half-hidden behind me, who answered with a quick nod and knelt next to me on the moss.

‘Well, you probably know already, but I’m Noah, Susannah’s twin.’

‘Twin?’ We both said, Brittany suddenly finding her voice.

‘Yeah… didn’t you know that?’ he said frowning.

‘Um… no! We knew you were their brother, but we didn’t realise you were Susannah’s twin,’ I said.

‘I’m not
Saffy’s
brother, well I suppose I’m her
half
-brother, but we don’t get on.’ He looked at his guitar and fiddled with the strings.

‘Whoa, we didn’t know that either. Family secrets, hey?’ Brittany said. ‘So you and Susannah have a different father to Saffy?’ she asked.

‘That’s generally how it works,’ he said, with a smile.

‘Sorry, stupid question… but, well, we wondered why there were no men around here…’

‘Brit, it’s none of our business,’ I said.

‘No, it’s fine, and it’s best you know the messed up workings of
The Family
anyway. You need to know what you’re getting yourself into.’

I paused and looked at Brittany, and we both turned back to Noah, who gave a little shrug and grinned.

‘So neither yours nor Saffy’s father is around now?’ I asked.

‘Unfortunately for us, Mike is very much around - that’s Saffy’s father. He doesn’t live here anymore though so you may not have met him yet, but he
meddles
, I’m sure of it. He wants Saff to be High Priestess.’

‘But Susannah left anyway, so…’ I began.

‘Susannah was pushed out, by the cuckoo sibling,’ he said, his face grim.

‘Told you,’ Brittany said.

‘That’s why I want you to help me bring her back,’ he finished.

‘No way, she tried to hand me over to the Coven of The Blood Moon,’ I said.

‘She practices some bad mojo,’ Brittany added.

‘She doesn’t, not really. She made a mistake and doesn’t know how to make amends. Anyway, she wasn’t among the witches that the angels rounded up in England and charged in court. So maybe it wasn’t her.’

‘What do you mean? Of course it was Susannah that took me from my room. She even told me her name, said she was my cousin. She was there, she handed me over to Carrigan,’ I said, my voice rising.

Noah shrugged again.

‘She wasn’t taken to court,’ he said. ‘She didn’t tell me.’

‘Then she must have escaped when everyone was fighting. She
was
there and she paralysed Luke, so she’s hardly going to tell you about it, is she?’

‘Well, the coven’s been disbanded now anyway and Susannah won’t come home,’ he said.

‘Good,’ Brittany said. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m with Jess here. She’s clearly dangerous.’

‘She’s not the one you need to be worried about. The coven needs her. Mike and Saffy will destroy the coven.’

‘How do you expect
us
to bring her back anyway, if you can’t get her to come home?’ I asked.

‘She won’t come back for herself. If she thinks everyone’s fine she’ll stay away. She’s afraid that she has done the coven harm by leaving and she doesn’t want to cause more upset by coming back. She won’t listen to me.’

‘But Aunt Sarah… I mean your mum, said that Saffy was distraught by Susannah leaving. Can’t Saffy bring her back?’ I said.

Noah laughed, short and hard.

‘Saffy is
not
distraught. Saffy and Mike chased her away. It’s all an act,’ he said.

‘So if you tell her that, why won’t she come back?’ Brittany said.

‘I told you! Because she doesn’t want to cause any more trouble and she thinks Mom won’t forgive her.’

‘Then how can I help?’ I said.

‘She’ll come back for me…’

‘But you just said she wouldn’t,’ Brittany interrupted.

‘She’ll come back to stop me falling for a vampire again,’ he said, looking straight in my eyes.

‘What?’ We both uttered simultaneously.

He smiled and shrugged.

‘Last year I fell in love with a vampire; her name was India. Every time she bit me, Susannah felt it… twin thing,’ he said with a shrug that was becoming familiar.

‘No!’ I said, stopping him before he could carry on. ‘No way!’

I got up from the mossy ground and began walking over to the path. There was no way I could even entertain the idea. It was ludicrous and my aunt, his mother, would kill me… but even as I discarded the idea, saliva began to pool in my mouth and my canines became just a tiny bit sharper.

‘Living off blood packs must be weakening you, Jess. If you do this for me, just once, I can take you to a club where I know you’ll be able to feed safely without the coven knowing. Jess, you’re a vampire and I know more than any other human that you aren’t evil, that how you feed isn’t terrible and that you do need fresh blood.’

I looked back at him and glanced over at Brittany, who had also stood up, but was hovering between the two of us. She caught my glance and shrugged.

‘No,’ I said and left the clearing.

Chapter Ten

The truth was I was so very tempted. After three weeks of living solely off pasteurised blood I was yearning for some of the good stuff. I had even lessened my intake because the taste was so cloying, the texture a little too thick. In truth I was hungry, and he smelled delicious. Consequently I spent the following twenty-four hours avoiding him, and also avoiding Brittany who had decided to side with him.

‘He’s right Jess, you are getting paler each day and your cheeks look a bit sunken. You need fresh blood, or at least you need to drink more of those packs,’ she’d said, when we were curled up under our duvets that night.

‘I’m fine, and do you not think I’d
like
to feed properly? But you heard what Sarah said. She would kill me if she found out I’d bitten her son. She’d probably send me back to Manchester and you’d be stuck without a sponsor. It’s too risky.’

‘We could be here for months, Jess and you can’t live off those packs the whole time. He can show us this club and then even if you only went once a fortnight it would help.’

‘Well, maybe we can find it ourselves,’ I said.