Family Magic (6 page)

I left the kitchen with my distrust rising
past my fury even though I had no idea what was going on. Which
meant when I answered the door I was already antagonistic and
definitely not in the mood for anything to do with Mom’s betrayal
or her grand plans for me and my future.

I pulled the door open a little harder than
necessary and scowled at the three people standing on the front
step. An immediate wave of unease hit me, scrubbing away my anger
and leaving me cold. What appeared to be middle-aged mother, father
and teenaged son screamed magic at me. For a moment, I flinched
from the usual flood of nausea. The power came and went so fast I
wondered if maybe I imagined it.

I must have been silent, staring for an
unusual amount of time, because the woman’s smile began to fade as
she held out her hand to me.

“You must be Sydlynn.” She forced her smile
back to its original width, stretching her tacky lipstick so much
it showed where it bled into the lines around her mouth.

“So I’ve been told,” I muttered.

The woman glanced at the older man beside her
and tittered a laugh so fake it made my cheeks ache. She was short,
shorter than me, with badly dyed brownish- blonde hair and faded
blue eyes made up with too much eyeliner. Her dress tightly hugged
her plump figure, excess flesh bunching over her bra. The man
beside her stood only slightly taller, dressed in a tweed suit
complete with leather arm patches. He even had a pipe in his breast
pocket. Imagine.

“Clever,” he said to the woman beside him. “I
like that.” He beamed at me in a male chauvinist kind of way that
made me want to slam the door in their faces and tell Mom it had
simply been a mysterious walk-by ringing.

“Thanks,” I said instead. “Can I help you
with something?”

The woman’s expression tightened enough a
teenager would notice but a grownup would miss. She did not like
me. I can say the feeling was instantaneously mutual.

“We’re the Moromonds, dear,” she said, as if
that explained everything.

“And?” I prompted.

Mom’s firm grip on the door saved me from the
woman’s curt reply. She pulled it from my hand and stepped up
beside me in the now fully opened entry.

“Batsheva! Dominic! So lovely you came,” Mom
reached out for the woman and grasped her hand. Batsheva Moromond
plastered her fake smile back on and air kissed my mother on both
cheeks.

“Miriam, dear, it’s been too long,” she
said.

Dominic took Mom’s hand and kissed it,
lingering just a little too long, his eyes never leaving hers. Mom
actually blushed.

“Yes, Miriam,” Dominic said. “Beautiful as
ever.”

Mom pulled her hand free and I could tell she
struggled for a way to change the subject. It was so weird to see
my all-powerful mother floored by a man hitting on her in front of
his wife. Go figure.

She finally settled on the teenager standing
in their shadow.

“This can’t be Quaid,” she said to Batsheva,
holding out a hand to him. As he stepped forward to greet her, I
took my first good look.

Wow. His parents may have been creepy, but he
was hot. In fact, Quaid was everything they weren’t. Tall, lean in
his punk band t-shirt, black hair shaggy with curls. He offered my
mother his large, slim hand, the other shoved in the back pocket of
his black jeans. I was never into bad boys. Whether I chose to
finally stop hiding who I really was or because he was just that
attractive, I found myself wondering, ‘Brad who?’

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hayle,”
Quaid offered in his deep, smooth voice. I imagined he was a singer
with pipes like that. His eyes flickered to me, deep brown to
almost black with a little curiosity behind them. I tried to play
cool but think I came off as weird and goofy. So what else is
new?

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” he answered.

“Splendid!” Dominic interrupted. Heat flushed
my cheeks. Crap.

I quickly glanced away and caught Mom
watching me out of the corner of my eye. I ignored her and backed
out of the way as she welcomed them inside.

“Syd, why don’t you join us?” My mom motioned
me toward the living room we never used. From the pleading in her
eyes, she expected a fight. No way, not this time. If these people
were important enough to warrant Mom’s descent into domestic
humiliation, I needed to know why. Of course, it didn’t hurt I
would also have the chance to spend a little more time imprinting
Quaid Moromond into my memory for later.

I was the last to leave the entry. For some
reason, I felt compelled to look back outside as I pushed the door
closed. A huge black dog sat at the end of the driveway, watching
me. I caught the door and watched right back. We faced off, stare
to stare. It felt like the showdown went on forever. Mom’s voice
calling me from inside the house finally broke my eye contact. I
turned to answer her, looked back.

The dog was gone. Stupid mutt.

I shook myself a little and closed the
door.

They had already taken a civilized seat
around the coffee table. I joined my mother on the sofa as Mom
proudly handed out cookies. Quaid passed and sat back. He watched
me the entire time, my plan all along, although I never intended to
be so open about it. I refused to back down. He gave me a tight,
sideways grin and glanced away.

It took me a breathless moment to accept I
won the battle. I never won. Wicked. I grinned on the inside while
I finally decided to pay attention to the conversation. “It’s the
sweetest little high school,” Batsheva was saying. “We just know
our Quaidy will love it there, won’t you, honey.”

I highly doubted ‘Quaidy’ would do anything
of the sort.

“Of course, Mother,” he said. Either he was
whipped or knew how to pick his battles.

“Thank you so much for the invitation,”
Batsheva went on. “Since our coven disbanded, we’ve been hoping to
have a chance to come back to the family.”

“I’m happy you chose to come home,” Mom
sounded genuine, like she really cared. “I’ve missed you all these
years.” Surprising how she was being so nice. It seemed like they
had a history. Interesting. And what was this home business?

“Such a wonderful family,” Dominic answered.
“When Batsheva told me you wanted her to return to the fold, I
couldn’t wait to see if we would fit in here.”

It started to sound like a done deal. What
did Mom need me for? Maybe to run interference? The thought of Mr.
Slimy looking at my mom that way in front of my father made my skin
crawl. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see if Dad
thought as little of it as I did. I doubted old Dominic was strong
enough to face off with a demon.

“Of course I immediately
remembered your offer to bind our families together,” Batsheva went
on. “We’re thrilled, positively
thrilled
, at the prospect. Aren’t
we?” She looked back and forth between the two males, getting a nod
and a wink from Dominic. Quaid’s eyes flickered to mine and his
sideways grin came back. I was beginning get a horrible feeling in
the pit of my stomach.

Mom did not to look at me. Why did she seem
so nervous? I’ve never seen my mother’s hands shake.

“Of course,” she said. “But we’ll discuss
that at another time.”

“I don’t see why we should put it off,”
Batsheva said. “Especially since the kids are both here.” She
smiled her oily smile at me. “Such a lovely little thing. Don’t you
think so, Quaid?”

I frowned as Quaid’s grin widened but came
nowhere near his eyes. In fact, if I had to guess, he was as pissed
as I was confused. My walls slammed up so fast it left me
breathless. I turned to my mother who bit her bottom lip.

“Mom?” I said softly, slowly. “What’s going
on?”

Batsheva and Dominic exchanged a glance
before turning to the very uncomfortable Mom.

Instead of talking to me she addressed their
unspoken question.

“I hadn’t said anything to Sydlynn, yet.” Mom
said. “Your arrival was so sudden… I take it you talked to
Quaid?”

His eyes hadn’t left mine, although they
softened a little.

That feeling in my stomach solidified into a
hard ball of something I couldn’t yet identify. My shoulders
tightened.

“Mom?”

She finally looked at me.

“It was something your father and I thought
might help all of us, dear.” Wary but resigned. Not a good sign. I
could feel her deep in the regret of being unable to turn away from
a massive disaster she knew was of her own making. “We were waiting
for the right time to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” I kept my
voice as flat as possible, not wanting to hate her again but
feeling it rising within me, an unstoppable tide. I knew,
knew
, she did something
she was afraid I would never forgive her for. And I was pretty sure
she was right.

Quaid broke the news.

“You and me, Syd,” he said. “For the good of
the coven. We’ll make really powerful babies, don’t you think?”

I had absolutely nothing to say.

***

“Syd. Open the door.”

Mom’s voice sounded tired, so tired, but I
didn’t care.

I remained where I was, buried under the
covers, door firmly locked.

“Go away!” I yelled at her.

“Syd, honey, please,” she begged. “Let me
explain…”

I sat up and threw the hideous pink silk
pillow she forced into my life at the door as hard as I could. It
made a less than satisfying thunk.

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” I searched around for
bigger and more breakable stuff to throw.

“Sydlynn Thaddea Hayle, you open this door at
once!” Mom’s voice went up an octave and about a decibel in
volume.

“NO!” I scrambled from the bed and stood
right in front of the door, so close I could see the veins in the
wood and screamed at her as loud as I could. “NEVER! I HATE YOU! I
WISH YOU WEREN’T MY MOTHER!”

The tears started, mine and probably hers,
but I sobbed too hard to care about her at all. I threw myself back
onto the bed and poured my heart out onto my pillow. How could she?
How could Dad? Wasn’t it bad enough they made me this way? Did they
have to try to sell my body and soul too? I sobbed harder, heart
absolutely broken. My mother, my own mother tried to further her
own power by making me marry for magic. I was sixteen for crying
out loud. What were they thinking?

I was so out of there, she had no idea.

I lurched to my feet and started cramming
clothes into two backpacks before I even knew I decided to leave.
It floored me, took me totally by surprise, so much so I collapsed
on the carpet, tears forgotten. Was I really willing to go to that
extreme? To run away from my family and never come back? To be
honest, until now the thought never really crossed my mind. Where
would I go? I had nowhere to go. No money, no means of making any,
at least that I even considered engaging in. What was I
thinking?

I kicked the closest bag hard and climbed
back onto my bed, miserable and unable to hold the tears back any
longer. These were silent ones, though, in some ways better than
the sobbing and in some ways worse.

I felt the soft touch of Sassy’s particular
brand of magic and, despite the rules of its use, the lock on my
door eased open. I heard the subtle creak of the old hinges and the
pad of little cat feet. Sass jumped up beside me rubbing his soft
body against my face, rough tongue licking at the tears that simply
would not stop. I took him in my arms and hugged him and for once
he didn’t fight me. He lay there, purring, surrounding me with his
touch.

“Oh Sass,” I cried, “how could she?”

“I honestly have no idea,” he answered, voice
very quiet. “In all my years, I’ve never… I’m with you on this one,
Syd. All the way. It was inexcusable. You are a Hayle witch, not
some common magicker to be bought and sold for power.”

I snuffled. The tip of his tail started to
twitch. I knew he wasn’t mad at me.

“What am I going to do?” I whispered.

“I don’t suggest your first course of
action,” he said, eyes drifting to the two messy backpacks before
flickering back to me. I shook my head.

“Already gave up on that one, Sass. Stupid
idea.”

“We agree again, it’s a miracle.” He winked
his slow cat wink at me. I smiled through my easing tears. Nice to
have an ally, even if he was a twenty-pound fur ball.

“I can’t stand it,” I said. “How can I
possibly face the family? And don’t try to tell me they don’t know.
They must by now.”

Sass licked my cheek. “As much as I disagree
with her methods, Miriam was only trying to find a way to link you
to the rest of us. There are things happening outside your
knowledge. Your mother is doing her best to protect the coven.”

I hated Sass when he was cryptic. “From
what?”

He shifted his sleek cat shoulders, thick fur
rippling. “Perhaps you should ask your mother.”

Not very damned likely.

Sassafras fixed his golden eyes on me, pupils
narrowing. “She’s right about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Quaid Moromond is a very powerful witch from
a long line of powerful witches. He will make a good addition.”

“Sass!” I protested.

“As a member,” he reassured me. “A duly
tested and accepted member.”

“I want them to go away,” I whispered,
feeling very small and very young.

“I wish I could tell you that’s going to
happen,” Sass answered. “But I think you’re out of luck there,
Syd.”

“Why?” I challenged him. “There are more than
enough covens out there for them to hitch themselves to.”

“Batsheva was a member once,” he told me.
“She and your mother were best friends. Miriam was devastated when
Batsheva married outside the family. So when their coven recently
broke up, leaving them free to apply to other groups, Miriam wanted
her back in the fold.” Clearly he disagreed with my mother’s
decision.