Birthright (Residue Series #2) (15 page)

Alison emerged from the closet, bag in hand. She hastily went about
placing
candles on nearly every flat surface. When her bag was emptied, she barked, “Dillon!”

He glanced up from the desk, where he was now laying out his ‘reserves
.
’
He
did a sweeping look
around
the room
at the
candles
. Without
delaying the set up of his tools,
he mindfully recited,
“As these candles burn and energies mend…may good health return and sickness end.” With that
,
he rotated his head, blowing air toward each of the candles.
But he
didn’t wait to confirm the wicks flicker t
o life, h
is head
falling
back
toward his
task
at hand
.

Dillon had set up pungent herbs,
snake head
talismans
,
lizard bones, dried snake eyes, and small cauldrons that steamed
, mingling
with the smoke of Alison’s candles.

Charlotte was at the window, calling to the spirits of the north, south, east, and west, allowing the breeze to enter
, which caused
the flames to waver.

Dillon and Alison joined Charlotte
,
as Burke squatted on the opposite side of Jameson’s bed.

I remained at Jameson’s side casting my own healing spell
and
noticing my voice
beginning to fail
,
coming out
in
a wheeze. But I still tried
. As
I kept
my hands wrapped around his
arctic grasp, I was
desperate for the soft warmth of his touch again.

“Should we try blocking it?” Burke asked
,
to no one in particular.

“Won’t work,” replied Dillon, confidently.

“How do…” I had to stop and clear the lump from my throat to
better project
my volume. “How do you know?”

Burke frowned. “Trust me. He knows. He’s our resident professor.”

I glanced at Dillon
,
and Spencer’s face flashed in my mind
.
In
the Weatherford household
, he was the equivalent
.

“Should I get my family?
Maybe they can help…”

Without delay, Burke cocked his head and called for Miss Celia, who appeared in the doorway a few seconds later.

“They are on their way,” she announced. “’Cept for Lizzy. She’s on a business trip.”

At that moment, the doorbell rang
,
and I deduced that
Miss Celia had
made the call back when they found Jameson and me
on the front porch. I wanted to thank her but she
faded
down
the
stairs to let them in.

“Can we retract it?” I asked, still facing Dillon.

“I’m…” He shook his head desperately. “I’m trying to think of a way
,
but…”

I gripped Jameson’s hand tighter. “Why won’t my healing…
why
can’t I heal him?”

My question elicited blank stares
from everyone in the room.

Dillon blinked a few times, stunned
. He reasoned,
“Whoever cast against him knew you were a healer. They prepared for that.”

I sighed as a sinking feeling rose in my stomach
. If we couldn’t find the problem how were we going to find the cure?

Following my line of thought, Estelle entered the room responding, “Which virtually everyone in our world knows.”

There were no greetings.
A combination of the
brief summary over the phone and a look at the expressions around the room told my family, as they filtered in, there was no time for
pleasantries.

Spencer
wasted no time in
recommending, “Let’s narrow down the possibilities.”

“Good,” stated Dillon. “Good idea.”

“Who are Jameson’s enemies?”

“He doesn’t have any,” stated Charlotte, offended by the suggestion.

I let her finish before answering, “
The
Vires.” I
then
waited to see if she would react after
I blatantly
opposed her.

She didn’t, apparently recognizing that her ego wasn’t the concern here.

“And The Sevens,” reminded Oscar.

Spencer and Dillon disagreed
,
but it was Spencer who answered. “They’re too far away. It had to have been someone close…
someone here
in the city.”

“Has he had any altercation…any fight with a Vire who is now in the city?” asked Spencer, sensing we might be heading in the right direction.

“No,” Charlotte
snipped
.

Again, I was forced to counter her.

“Today, he did,” I said
,
and all eyes were suddenly on me. In an effort to soothe any damage to Charlotte’s self-esteem, I added, “He never had the chance to tell you.”

Disliking the morbidity
my choice of words suggested,
I
recanted.
“He hasn’t gotten the chance to tell you
yet
.” I cleared my throat after feeling it dry out, and
proceeded to
explain
.
“Mrs. Gaul attacked me-”

“Attacked you?” Nolan repeated, sitting forward in his chair. He wasn’t the only one
who seemed
alarmed
by this news
. To my astonishment, a few Caldwells looked unsettled too.

“She cast against me
,
and Jameson tried to stop it.”

“Did she see him?” Spencer
questioned
, remaining
in his analytical state.

“I-I don’t know. She might have. She never retaliated though
, and she
was too busy casting against the shop owners after that.”

Vinnia
drew in sharp,
purposeful
gasp
.
“So that’s why Mrs. Gaul wasn’t in my fifth period class.”

“She’s watching you, too?” I asked, shocked, never having considered
this
would happen.
“
I thought Jameson and I were their
main
focus.
”

Burke’s response wasn’t comforting. “They are
all watching
. We have them in every class.”

“Us too,” Oscar
noted.

After a moment of hesitant glances
being exchanged
throughout the room
, Spencer summarized it for us…

“So, Mrs. Gaul attacks you. Jameson intervene
s. And she
left for The Quarter shops
, to
cast against them.”

Nolan added, “For no obvious reason.”

Dillon and Spencer
shared a look of recognition, and
Dillon replied, “Oh…I think we just discovered that reason.”

“Which is?” Charlotte demanded
,
in a tone we all ignored.

Speaking
directly
to me, Dillon answered, “Mrs. Gaul trapped you…well, you and Jameson. She set you up.”

“I’m still not understanding…” I admitted.

He allowed Spencer to clarify. “Mrs. Gaul knew she couldn’t retaliate in public. So she set up a scenario where she could cast against you and Jameson without anyone knowing it was her. The Quarter shops were perfect
, both
quiet and private
.
She
set her cast and waited for you two to show up.”

“I don’t get it,” said Nolan. “What cast?”

“She set up two of them, actually. One
,
against the shopkeepers
…
to lure Jocelyn and Jameson
…
and one
,
lying in wait for them.”

“Lying in wait?” I
was
barely
able to utter
,
sensing goose bumps rising on my arms.

“As you healed the shopkeepers, you absorbed the hex.”

“Right,” agreed Dillon. “She only needed you and Jameson in the same place at the same time for it to work.”

“Why?” I asked, still trying to put it all together.

Spencer replied softly, knowing what he was about to say would disturb me. “You were the bait, Jocelyn. She drew you in under the premise of healing others. She needed you to get to Jameson.”

Those words, that understanding
,
sent a
stream of
fire through me, a rage
more intense than
I
knew was possible
. If she had been in the room, there
wasn’t
a person or a spell that could have kept me from her.

“Then why was only Jameson affected,” Alison demanded, not
opposing
,
but
seeking
clarification.

“Because,” I answered stiffly. “I can heal myself.”
Choking
on my next words, I
muttered
, “I just…I can’t heal Jameson.”

Someone placed a hand on my shoulder
, trying to comfort me.
It was large
,
so in the back of my mind I deduced
it
was
Oscar.

“Then we find someone else to do it for you,” declared Nolan, his voice edg
y and bold.

“Another healer?” offered Charlotte but was denied by
the shake of
Dillon’s head.

“We can try to channel for Jocelyn,” Oscar
offered
, lifting his shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.

“This
curse
,” said Dillon, “will
require
everything we’ve got.”

Over the course of the next several days, multiple rituals were performed. We requested and received detailed casting instructions from the most powerful practitioners in our world. Favors were called in by both families
, obtaining
the strongest talismans, potions, and salves available. Ms. Veilleux appeared with a coven and personally worked on Jameson. Mr. Thibodeaux hand-delivered a package from my mother – a potion designed to cure all. Nothing worked.

Sometime between the sun rising and setting, Aunt Lizzy was located and brought to the Caldwell
’
s
house
. She attempted her own sorcery but failed. Sometime after, Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell
arrived at
Jameson’s bedroom door, the
news
of Jameson’s illness having
finally
reached them. Their hair was windblown
,
so I knew they hadn’t bothered with the airlines. They had taken their own form of transportation. This didn’t seem to impact their energy level, though
;
removing my grip from Jameson’s hand
, they insistently ushered
me aside. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. Despite laboriously performing their own rituals and spells
,
even their practice on Jameson
failed.

During this time,
Miss Celia fed us
,
Miss Mabelle called in our absences at school
, and
Spencer and Dillon ravaged the library
searching
for a solution
…the
rest of us waited.

I kept my focus on Jameson, watching his steady, undeniable decline
and
chanting my incantation so often my voice grew hoarse
, eventually disappearing entirely.
But o
nly once did he respond.

It was early morning, well before dawn, when his lips opened and he
whispered
just one word,
chasing
my heart
up
into my throat
. Not only
because he finally spoke
, but also
because it was the first
word
I
was hoping
to hear from him.