Everspell (7 page)

“Owww! What’s that?” I thought afterward that was a pretty stupid thing to say, given the circumstances. It felt like I had just been stabbed by a needle! I tried struggling against the hold Colton had me in. But the yummy guns I had admired earlier weren’t just for show. Pretty boy turned out to be pretty Strong-Boy. It felt like trying to move bricks with jelly. It just wasn’t going to happen.

“Nothing for you to worry about, precious. You could call it research.” Larissa and Colton giggled at their private little inside joke. I did not find it funny. She produced a small doctor’s bag and carefully pulled out several vials. While Colton held me still, she continued extracting blood from my arm. I tried not to look but it was taking so long, I finally had to. I wished I hadn’t. Just the look of the filled vials of blood, my blood, and I started to feel faint. I was about to lose consciousness when I heard my sister’s voice.

“What’s going on here?”

Larissa was apparently startled by the entrance of my sister, my Aunt Elizabeth and Logan, and she dropped the vial she had been filling. I looked down and watched it shatter on the tile floor, spattering my fresh, bright red blood all over the floor.

“Oh my stars, is that blood?” I felt so faint now, I could hardly focus, but that voice I knew as Elizabeth’s. Then I heard Colton’s voice next. It sounded so much different than it had been earlier. Before, it seemed so handsome and welcoming, warm, like a blanket. Now, his voice resembled sandpaper.

“Larissa,” he snarled, “take care of the other vials.”

“I am!” she snapped back. “You take care of our guests.” Larissa hissed that last word at him while she placed the surviving three vials of blood into her doctor’s bag and clicked the top closed. Then she sort of crouched and sprang straight up into the air onto the top of one of the book shelves. Dizzily, I remember thinking, is she a witch or part dog?

Colton had been holding me this whole time in the arm lock. Now, he flung me to the side, like I weighed as much as crumpled paper. Then he, too, sprang straight into the air from a crouched position. When I hit the ground, it really woke me up. I shook my head a little and rubbed my eyes to clear my vision. Colton had seemed to morph right in front of me. His legs became thicker and more powerful and suddenly, from the waist down, he
was
a dog, a giant, misshapen, wild dog. Larissa was the same. They crouched, ready to pounce, atop the tallest book shelf nearest me.

Serena and Logan rushed over to where the Colton-dog had thrown me. It didn’t feel like any of my bones were broken, but I felt certain I would be bruised and sore for days. Gently Serena removed the rubber tubing and transparent tape that was still attached to the inside of my arm where Larissa had taken my blood. Logan lifted my head and tenderly laid it on his lap. He took a handkerchief out of his back pocket and began wiping my head. When he pulled the cloth away, I could see my own blood on the fabric. I hadn’t realized it, but the fall must have caused a small wound on my forehead and Logan had kept the blood from running into my eyes.

Elizabeth crossed the room and went to take care of Larissa and Colton. She held her hand out in front of her and waved her other hand over it. A small spark ignited and suddenly, in her hands appeared two strong leather dog collars with long leads. She waved her hands again and swished them upwards toward the top shelf. The collars obediently shot heavenward and headed straight for Larissa and Colton like homing missiles. At her command and with a final wave of her hand, they latched themselves onto each of their necks, despite both of them struggling against it. The moment the collars latched on, Larissa and Colton’s true forms became evident and they shape-shifted back into feral dogs. After that, Elizabeth dispatched them swiftly. She cast a reverse-spell on them and I watched, fascinated, as the dogs reversed in age in a matter of seconds. They went from adults, to puppies in the blink of an eye. Serena and Logan were as amazed as I was. Elizabeth lifted the puppies down with a floating spell and we watched them descend from the book shelf. I thought puppies were supposed to be cute, but even in youth, evil is evil. These puppies still snarled and snapped and foamed at the mouth, as though they were rabid or disease-ridden. And they continued their backward transgression. They became younger and younger, until they were fetuses, then eggs, and then they finally just winked out and disappeared. Then she grabbed the doctor’s bag with the vials in it.

“Wow!” said Logan. “Leave it to you, Elizabeth, to find a humane way to dispose of even that kind of garbage.”

Elizabeth blushed. “They don’t really know any better. I don’t think it’s fair to punish them. They won’t hurt anyone ever again.” She turned her attention to Tabitha. “How are you, Tabby?”

“I’ve been better. I’ll probably be black and blue for awhile. Mostly I feel pretty stupid. I should have realized why cool people would like me.”

“Hey!” said Serena. “Cool people would like you for you, Tabs. Don’t think that you can’t get friends unless they’re crazed shape-shifting creeps and only want your blood for some strange reason. You are a wonderful girl and if they can’t see that, then they’re the uncool ones.” My sister gave me a huge hug. She was mushy most of the time, but I loved her so much. I hugged her back, really hard. I could see why Logan loved her. Who wouldn’t?

Logan put his arm around me. “Tabitha, I don’t like any underclassmen, but I like you. And I hardly like my
own
sister. That’s saying something. So, don’t worry. I think you’re cool, too.” He grinned. He was so full of it. I remembered how mad with worry he had been when Jade was kidnapped by those warlock freaks from the old Council.

“So,” He gestured toward the front entrance of the library. “Everyone about ready to get out of here? I do
not
want to be around when Ms. Hannerly comes in tomorrow to open the library and sees that door.”

“Oh, right. Let me take care of that.” Elizabeth walked over to the front door and waved her hand over the frame, wiggling her fingers along the splintered wood as though she were playing it like a piano. The bits of fractured wood stitched themselves back together and we heard a low creaking sound as the standing beam righted itself back into position. She then turned her attention to the handle. Twirling her index finger in a circular motion over the steel-cold puddle of metal on the ground, it re-liquefied and snaked up from the ground in a golden ribbon, following her pointed finger like a lemming. She directed it to the gaping hole left in the door and I watched, amazed, while it poured in and formed a perfect door handle. She turned to us and smiled.

“There. That’s done. Let’s get Tabby home now.”

Chapter Eleven

LOGAN

The four of us, Elizabeth, Tabitha, and Serena and I, all drove home to Serena’s house. Tabitha appeared so exhausted from the ordeal that as soon as we got to their house, Elizabeth and Serena took her right upstairs to bed. She still felt faint from the blood draw, but otherwise she was in pretty good shape. I had planned to leave and head home, but Elizabeth had specifically asked me to stay.

“Can you, Logan? I think we have something to talk about.” She reached out and touched my arm as she asked, something she rarely did. Elizabeth wasn’t one for such rare moments of vulnerability. My answer came out simple and immediate.

“Of course. I’ll wait in the living room.”

While they were upstairs, I ran the recent events over in my mind. While those shape-shifting dogs were certainly not of this world, my jury was still out on who sent them. I didn’t want to jump to the obvious conclusion that Christophe had returned again, but if not him, then who else? And didn’t I see him fall into that forsaken pit from hell with my very own eyes back at the St. Patrick’s Day Party? How in the name of all that is holy could he come back from that? And if that couldn’t stop him, would anything? Would Serena and I spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders for the next time he decided to blow into town? It sounded like the exact kind of life Serena’s mother had tried so hard not to live, and the exact one my own mother swore not to. My head swam with questions and not one blessed answer when Serena and Elizabeth came back downstairs and into the living room where I sat. Serena curled comfortably next to me and Elizabeth took a seat in the easy chair across from us.

She spoke first. “It seems clear to me, we have a new problem.”

I jumped right in. “Do you think Christophe’s behind it?”

Elizabeth appeared to weigh her words. She looked at Serena first, then looked down. It seemed as though she was considering whether to choose her words carefully or cushion her answer. She chose not to. “Yes. I do.”

Serena sucked in her breath and leaned in to me heavily. I draped an arm across her shoulders and scooted her bodily closer to me. “It’ll be okay, Serena.” I whispered into her velvety hair. “I’ll make it okay, I swear.” I turned to Elizabeth, and asked, “What makes you so sure it’s him? I mean, didn’t we destroy him back at the barn?”

“I can’t tell you how he got out. I can tell you why I think it’s him.”

“It was the blood.” Serena interrupted. She got up from beside me and began pacing. “You’re so sure they were Christophe’s underlings because they were after Tabitha’s blood, right?” She turned to Elizabeth for confirmation.

Elizabeth silently nodded.

Serena turned to look at me. “They didn’t get me last time, Logan, so they went after Tabitha. They went after my baby sister.” She said the last few words in a choked whisper.

I looked at Elizabeth over Serena’s head.

You know, we may have to call in the troops on this one again.
I said this to Elizabeth in mindspeak, not wanting to upset Serena even more than she already was.

Elizabeth responded the same way.
I know.
While upstairs, I communicated with a few ‘old friends’.
We’re expecting company by tomorrow night.

Wow.
I can’t believe we’re here again.

I know.
And somehow the stakes seem so
much higher now.

That’s because they are, Elizabeth.
Now, besides your family, there’s me and my mom, Sully and Jade, and even Skylar.
Plus we’re even more spread out with me, Sully and Skylar living in the other house.
How are we going to protect everyone now?
I asked Elizabeth in my head. It had begun to sound so impossible to me, even unspoken.

I know it sounds impossible, Logan, but it’s not.
We can do it.
We just have to coordinate with each other and make sure we are in contact.

Communication is the key.
As long as we stay in constant contact with one another, we’ll stay on top of it.
If you think about it, that’s really all that went wrong last time.
The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing.

Until the end, when it counted, right?
That came from Serena. She finally realized we were mindspeaking with each other and jumped into the conversation.

Right, Serena
, said Elizabeth.

So, we’ll have company tomorrow, then?

Elizabeth nodded.

To my surprise, Serena smiled. Even in the face of this distressing news, her smile still had the power to change my whole view of the situation. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. I smiled back. Man, she should really bottle that thing.

Elizabeth, though, seemed puzzled by her change in demeanor.

Serena, what in the world can you find to smile about?

I know I shouldn’t be happy, but I get to see my
wonderful
friends again.
Given the circumstances, I think that’s plenty enough reason to smile, don’t you?

Yep, I thought. Given the circumstances, and what I knew about that amazing bunch of women, I thought that was a darn fine reason to smile.

Chapter Twelve

LOGAN

I’d lost all track of time when I finally arrived home. I knew it had to be late and that’s why I was so surprised when I opened the door and found Skylar sitting on the raggedy sofa, waiting up for me.

“Hey, Skylar.” I said, tossing my keys on the coffee table in front of him and falling down onto the cushion. “Man, am I beat.”

“You look it. I never thought you’d ever have a bad night with my sister.”

I laughed.

“Nope. Never happened.” But I figured Skylar had a right to know what had been going on, so I told him. He listened stoically, interrupted a few times with questions, but for the most part just sat and listened to me tell the fantastic story.

“I can’t believe that. What’s going to happen?”

I stretched and got up from the couch.

“Well, it seems like the fun around here is just getting geared up again. Elizabeth has called in the cavalry and they’re all on the way. I’m gonna get some shut-eye. You should think about doing the same thing. Looks like tomorrow will be a pretty long day.” I headed up the stairs to bed. I heard Skylar follow after me not long after. And I could hear Sully snoring away in his room as well. I felt better with everyone tucked all snug in their beds. I needed to make a couple of calls, though, before I felt perfectly at ease.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mom. You still up?”

“Logan! Elizabeth called earlier. She told me everything. Are you all right? Where are you? Are the boys there too?”

“I’m at my place. I’m fine. I just turned in. Skylar’s here and if I held the phone to the wall, you could hear Sully sawing logs in the next room.”

My mom laughed and said, “Oh honey, that sounds so normal. It makes me feel so much better. I love hearing your voice. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

“Well, that’s not all my fault, Mom. You’ve been wining and dining with this new guy almost every night. How’s that going, anyway? He treating you right?”