WitchLove (22 page)

I used my extra energy to pour into my friend, my hand placed between the top of her shoulder blades, using my energy to power us both and speed us forward.

‘Jess, slow down. You’re going to run out of energy,’ Brittany shouted, as the sky rushed passed us so fast that an American Airlines plane blurred in our vision as we overtook and dived beneath it.

‘I will once we find cloud cover,’ I shouted back, speeding on.

Unfortunately it appeared to be a glorious autumn morning across the entire southern half of America and so I kept going for more than an hour, only forcing myself to slow down once the blue sky turned grey. The humidity had now been replaced by a fresh, cool autumn wind and the landscape beneath us turned mountainous, before a vast coastal city appeared beneath us.

‘Where are we?’ I asked, weariness creeping into every inch of my body, making my bones ache and my head pound.

‘I don’t know. My US geography isn’t great, but we can’t be far from New York now. I’m pretty sure that’s the Atlantic,’ she said, pointing slightly east.

‘Where shall we head for? We can’t land in central New York, or we’d get spotted. It must be mid-morning now,’ I said.

‘How about visualising New York and once we see it we can pass over and wait till we see some countryside to land in,’ she said. ‘Have you still got your phone?’

‘Yes, I switched it off. So it should have some battery left.’

‘Good thinking, Batgirl! We can phone Noah and he can come and pick us up and drive on to Malden.’

Brittany was right, and after another half hour or so, we saw New York. We flew higher into the ley lines and sped up, careful to keep out of the busy airspace below us, my hand still feeding Brittany with my own sapping energy. Eventually, the urban sprawl below us petered out and became wilderness once more and we were able to fly lower to look for a landing spot.

After passing a small town and veering away from a busy highway we spotted a suitably uninhabited acreage. Using my last remaining dregs of energy we tumbled out of the sky and landed with a soft thump on the damp, cool grass beneath us.

‘Where the hell are we?’ Brittany said, lying back on the grass shivering.

‘I have no idea, but there was a town that way, so we can go and find out. Just give me a minute,’ I said, beginning to feel sick and suddenly acutely thirsty.

‘No, I’ll go. You fed me energy the entire way back. I have no idea how you did that Jess, but I feel okay now.
You
on the other hand look decidedly predator-like. Jess are you
hungry
?’ she asked, her eyes betraying her worry.

‘A little, but I’ll be fine,’ I said.

‘Okay. Look, there’s a copse of trees up on the hill. Let’s get you under cover while I find out where we are and phone Noah.’

I nodded and wearily dragged my aching body up and over the field, to the shelter of a small wood.

‘Stay here, right? Don’t move,’ she said, taking my mobile phone and smiling at me.

I nodded and lay back, savouring the crunchy leaves and damp earth beneath my uncomfortably warm skin, feeling an urge to dig myself down, deep into the rich soil and bury myself until the sun sank beyond the horizon once more. I closed my eyes and waited, drifting off into a semi-conscious slumber.

‘Jesus! She looks dead,’ a familiar male voice said, interrupting my weird hallucinations. ‘You didn’t say she was this bad.’

‘She wasn’t. She must have gotten worse. Jess? Jess, are you okay? Jess!’ Brittany said bending over me and shaking me hard. The scent of her blood awoke the hungry vampire within me.

I opened my eyes and stared at her neck, the veins seeming to bulge with excess blood. I licked my lips.

‘Oh shit!’ she said, jumping back from me. ‘Jess, stop it! It’s me, Brittany. Noah’s here and he’s going to drive us back. It won’t be long as we’re already halfway there. It took Noah two hours to get here. I’ve been waiting in a café in town. I thought you’d be okay…’

Her voice drifted off and Noah leant down, coming into my view.

‘Jess, do you need my blood?’ he said.

I shook my head and focused on my friends, willing my fangs to retract and the thirst to dissipate.

‘Susannah would kill us both,’ I said with a small smile.

‘Come on then. Just think of all those blood packs waiting for you back home,’ he said grinning.

For the first time I relished the thought and managed to increase my stumbling pace over the field to the road, linking my arm through Brittany’s, who after a filling lunch was already looking much perkier.

In the car I told Brittany and Noah all about the Voodoo ceremony I’d witnessed. I could see that Brittany was obviously shaken, but she didn’t want to believe that her grandmother would be capable of hexing anyone, never mind her own granddaughter.

‘It can’t have been what you think, Jess. I feel fine. You admit that you didn’t actually
see
her cutting my hair. It probably wasn’t my hair that was on that doll at all. Look at me. I’m fine,’ she said.

‘Your eyes went really weird when she spoke to you at the house,’ I said.

‘I was just tired, that’s all. Look, they’re normal now, aren’t they?’

I nodded, but then maybe the hex only took effect when the priestess wanted it to; like a well-hidden parasite undisturbed in its host’s body.

‘I do agree though, we needed to get out of there, and maybe they
are
up to something, but she wouldn’t have let us go so easily if they were that bad,’ Brittany added.

I looked at Noah out of the side of my eyes and said nothing. His face was grim, concerned. We needed more information, so I let it drop… for now.

With Noah’s foot firmly on the accelerator, we were greeted by the now familiar forests that bordered Malden less than two hours later. He’d barely taken his foot from the pedal before I’d bolted from the passenger door, darted across the pebble path and let myself into the house. Thankfully, no one was around to see me as I sped along the hallway in a half-starved frenzy. I ran through the kitchen and into the pantry, where without bothering to warm them up or decant them into a suitable mug, I quickly downed three packs of life-giving, nourishing, and heavenly blood. The processed gloop had never tasted so good and as the pounding in my head began to disperse, the chill in my muscles faded away. I smiled and turned round to see Noah and Brittany running through the kitchen door, skidding to a halt, their faces concerned.

‘You’ve already had
three
?’ Brittany said, looking at the two empty packs in one hand, the third I was just sucking the final drops from.

‘Yup, but I might just warm the fourth and savour it a little,’ I said, grinning at them both and grabbing a mug to decant it into.

‘Ah, you’re back,’ Aunt Sarah said, walking into the kitchen, a frown flashing across her face as she spotted me.

Luckily I’d heard her coming and had already hidden the three empties. After barely using the packs at all over the past month I didn’t want her wondering why I suddenly needed four in one go.

‘Jess you’re looking very pale… paler than normal even. Are you okay?’ she asked.

‘I’m fine. Weekend away, no dinner,’ I quipped, holding my mug up to her with a weak smile.

‘Well you can both rest today, but we have a busy month ahead of us. I want you both to pass your Level Six examinations next month. We shall have a coming of age celebration for you Brittany, and on Samhain you shall both get your licenses.’

‘Samhain is Halloween, right?’ I asked.

‘Samhain, Halloween, Day of the Dead… yes they’re all the same. Essentially they’re festivals honouring our ancestors… our dead. This year we’re holding Samhain in honour of your mother, Jess. It seemed fitting, seeing as we finally know what happened to her.’

I smiled, nodding my thanks, but my head was whirling. Was Day of the Dead the same as Fête des Morts? It must be… I was sure ‘mort’ meant dead in French. We had agreed to return to Louisiana for Halloween in a month’s time. What would happen when we didn’t arrive?

Chapter Seventeen

The following couple of weeks passed in a blur of activity and before we knew it, we were in the second half of October. I’d discussed the Voodoo ritual with Noah, and he with his southern witch friend. When he’d visited the house we’d done some Googling together, and it was actually pretty difficult to find any information on black Voodoo magic. I guess like witchcraft, those who practised the dark arts didn’t want to publicise it. Voodoo, it seemed was to all interested parties pretty harmless. The Voodoo altar may look scary to the uninitiated, but the skulls and the black cloth all appeared to be innocent and Brittany herself acted just as normal. I didn’t notice her eyes glaze again, so we decided maybe it was tiredness after all… and an overactive imagination on my part.

Ten days prior to Halloween all that changed and I called Noah from my mobile, unsure what to do.

‘Noah? It’s me. Something’s happening to Brit. Can you get over here this weekend?’ I asked.

‘Sure. What’s going on?’ he asked.

‘I’m not sure. She seems normal, but she’s asking really intense questions. It’s odd.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, Brit’s never been that interested in the coven. I mean she’s learnt all the stuff your mom has given her for the exams, but other than that… well you know Brit, she’s pretty self-sufficient,’ I said.

‘And?’

‘Well suddenly she’s started quizzing your mum on loads of coven stuff. How it works, what happens if Susannah and Saffy both left, how old the coven is… I could go on.’

‘Maybe she’s just interested?’

‘No. Noah, I’m telling you, something weird is going on. Your mum’s even getting a bit bothered by it, I can tell. Also, when I asked Brit what the hell she was playing at last night, she didn’t have a clue. She accused me of making it up and causing trouble. She was either really good at lying or she had completely forgotten.’

‘Do you think it’s the hex?’ he asked quietly.

‘Maybe; I never quite forgot the creeped out feeling I had in that house. I’m sure they hexed her and I think they’re using her to find out about the coven… maybe find out more about me,’ I finished.

‘Okay, I’ll speak to Tara, and see what she can find out. There might be a way you can break the hex. I’ll let you know and I’ll be there on Friday,’ he said, hanging up.

In my mind, Friday couldn’t come soon enough. By Thursday, Brittany was quiet, her face transformed into a strangely vacant mask.

‘Brit, I need to talk to you,’ I said, after our morning magic practice.

Brittany stayed silent but nodded, following me down the path and into the woods.

‘Brittany, you know I said I thought your family had put a hex on you? Do you remember what I said about the ritual I saw them performing in the cellar?’

Brittany sat on the log in the clearing and stared ahead.

‘Brit! What’s going on with you today?’ I asked, my voice rising slightly.

Suddenly she turned her head and looked at me, her eyes full of life once more.

‘What? Sorry, I was miles away,’ she said.

‘Brit, you’re freaking me out. I think your grandmother has hexed you, but I’ve asked Noah to come. We’re going to try and sort it out tomorrow.’

‘What? Not that again,’ she said, her face darkening.

‘Brit, I’m sorry. I know you don’t want to believe me, but you keep going really weird and then not remembering. Do you even remember how you got here?’ I asked.

‘What… of course I do,’ she said, but I caught the split second of confusion as she glanced around the clearing anxiously.

‘You don’t do you? You were out of it,’ I said.

‘Don’t be stupid, Jess. My own Grandmother wouldn’t hex me, okay. I’m just knackered. We’ve been at these high level spells for two weeks now and it’s wiping me out. That’s all.’

‘No, it’s wiping me out,’ I said, smiling grimly as I thought about the amount of blood packs I was getting through each day. ‘But
you
can already do most of the spells… well you could anyway.’

‘What are you talking about? I’ve never done a Level Six spell in my life,’ she said.

I frowned.

‘Brit, I saw you. Twice now, I’ve seen you perform the defluo spell. Remember? You escaped from Mary in London that day when she grabbed your hair, and then when Daniel flew at you in his house, you did the same,’ I said. ‘I don’t understand why you’re having a problem doing it for Sarah.’

‘Oh… right, yeah. I guess I just forgot. Maybe it’s easier when you have an incentive,’ she said, standing up. ‘Look I’m just tired. In fact, I don’t need this inquisition from you. I’m going for a nap.’

The following day I was in the clearing alone, attempting to evaporate into nothingness and failing on a grand scale.

‘Damn, blast, and damn again!’ I said to the wind as I stomped an angry dance in frustration. Sarah had shown me the spell over and over again. The principle I understood. It was actually the same basic source as the easy Level Three transformation spells I’d mastered weeks ago. It worked in the same way, but instead of willing my hair to change colour, or my clothes to morph into designer threads, I had to get my entire body to dissolve. I’d managed the slightly simpler invisibility spell. That was just a case of taking in every detail of your surroundings and willing yourself to look the same, so much so that you actually disappeared from human sight; but an invisibility spell wouldn’t help if someone grabbed you. No, for that you needed to dissolve into thin air and even more difficult than the first stage, you then had to reappear in a new place without losing any atoms along the way.

Much to Brittany’s amusement the previous week, I’d so far only managed to perform the spell once, with very mixed results. What had caused her hilarity was that I’d only managed it on one arm. The effect only lasted a spit second, but it wasn’t a pain I fancied repeating, and since then I’d been holding back. What would happen if I split my body in two, or spliced my head and left my body behind? Would I survive?

Aunt Sarah didn’t understand how I’d managed it. She said it wasn’t possible; that either you disintegrated as a whole or not at all. Your atoms, she said, should automatically cluster together. We’d wondered if it had something to do with my undead status that made them lose their stickiness. I didn’t want to test it further, but if I wanted to pass my Level Six I had to perform this spell successfully at least once. I sat on a log and sighed, wondering if Noah had found out how to remove Brittany’s hex. All I’d come up with on the internet was an ever-increasing number of phoney Voodoo businesses willing to sell us a hex removal spell for the grand price of $84.99. I could get the money, but something told me it wouldn’t work.