Reaper (23 page)

He struggled against the force. “I won’t tell you!”

“Ok,” I said calmly. This wasn’t going as smoothly as I wished. I wanted information, to know who cursed me and why. I felt my brow furrow and immediately pushed those thoughts away. At least I had him here, even if it wasn’t his true form, it was enough to reverse the spell. “I must be pretty important,” I stated as if I knew it were true.

“Hah! You wish.”

I inspected my nails. Well, pretended to. It was too dark to actually see them in detail. It was something I had seen people do in the movies when they want to appear like they don’t care…I found it fitting. “If I wasn’t, then why are you messing with me?” Thomas’ face faltered. The more I talked, the better I felt. Maybe it was the weird plane I was on, or maybe it was just the fact that I knew I had the upper hand.

Thomas narrowed his eyes. “We’re going to get you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll believe it when I see it.” I rolled my eyes. “But what do you mean by ‘get’?” I patronized. “Were you actually going to come get me, like physically? Or was it more of a death threat?”

He lunged for me again. I simply held up my hand to stop him. “BITCH!” he cried.

This was getting redundant. “So how do you know about me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he jeered.

“Duh, I would like to know,” I sassed back. “That’s why I trapped you here.” I emphasized ‘trapped’. But truth be told, I didn’t know how long I could stay here, inside the mirror. “Look,
kid
, two things could happen: you can tell me what I want to know or you don’t tell me. But that doesn’t change the outcome of this situation.”

He froze. “The outcome?”

“You think I brought you here just to question you?” I stood, feeling oddly confident. “You think I’m
that
desperate? Your little tricks didn’t scare me that much.” Something was suddenly in my hand. I opened it to reveal a smudge stick, the ends already smoldering.

“W-what? Ho-how?” he stammered.

“This is goodbye, Thomas. I take the curse that was cast on me,” I began. Thomas shrieked, “and turn it around so now you can see, that all the pain and all the trouble—” He began to fade. “—you’ve caused me is reversed to you, only double.” A pathetic outline of the boy hovered in front of me.

“This isn’t over,” he warned hoarsely.

“Oh, but it is!” I laughed. I closed my eyes, still laughing. It was over. The curse was on the sender. I was free.

“Anora!” René shook me. Someone was laughing; the sound crazed and evil. “Stop! You’re freaking me out!” Oh…it was me. The candles extinguished.

“Well?” Ethan looked warily at me. “Did it work?”

“Yes.” I snapped my attention to him. “I think it did.”

“You didn’t do anything,” he said slowly.

“Yeah, I did. I uh, went into the mirror.”

“What?” Ethan and René asked in unison.

“Mentally, at least.” I stood and turned on a lamp. The smudge stick sat smoldering on the table. “I was there and Thomas was there. We talked and then I did the spell.”

“That is sooo…awesome,” René whispered slowly.

“What did you talk about?” Ethan asked.

“I tried to get him to tell me who he really was and what he wanted with me, but I got nothing.” I took a deep breath. “Well, not nothing. I feel so much better. There’s no looming presence anymore.”

“It’s not over yet,” Ethan sighed, his face telling me that he didn’t want to admit to it either. “We still don’t know who the real person is, or if they’re gonna try something again.”

“And how do we find out?” I asked quietly. Ethan just shook his head.

“This person knows where you live,” René reminded me. “Don’t you think he’s gonna be majorly pissed you reversed the curse?”

“Oh, I’m sure he will,” I agreed. “I have a feeling that whoever cursed me didn’t think I was able to reverse it. Thomas seemed genuinely shocked. Well, as genuine as a hallucination can seem.”

“It should give us a few days, at best,” Ethan speculated. “It’ll give you enough time to rest, Anora. I can’t imagine being under a curse is easy on you, mentally or physically. And it gives you enough time to come up with some sort of spell. Isn’t there a curse-blocking spell in your book?”

“Yeah, there is.” I yawned and sat on the couch next to Ethan. “It’s not that general, though. There are a few, like love-spell blockers and negative energy deflector spells.”

“Do all of them,” he suggested. “Except the love spells, I suppose.”

“I’ll do them later,” I told him. “That drained my energy.”

“So you’re really good for at least tonight?” René asked.

I nodded. “I feel so much better. And I have Ethan and Hunter to watch over me. You can go home and get some sleep.”

She smiled and raised her eyebrows. “Thanks girl, but I’m not going home.”

“You’re going to Tyler’s?”

“Yeah,” she admitted with no shame. “He wants me to.”

I returned her smile. “Have fun.”

“Oh, I will!”

I walked her to the door. She paused after she put her shoes on. “Anora,” she said and faced me. “Be careful. You’re kind of amazing. I don’t really know what to say right now, just…be careful.”

“I will be. Don’t worry about me; I think I can handle this.”

“Ok, night.” She hugged me goodbye. Hunter and I watched to make sure she got into her car safely before locking the door.

Normally I was so tired after doing a new spell that all I want to do is sleep. Tonight was different. I was physically worn out, but I was unable to turn my brain off. Excitement and satisfaction kept me awake. I wiggled close to Ethan and pulled the blankets tight around us.

“What’s a Proeliator?” I asked.

“Where did you hear that?” Ethan asked, a bit of shock in his voice.

“Your fan club at the Zodiac said you’re the best. You’re good at a lot of things, so I can only assume what they are talking about. I’m guessing it’s something naughty.”

“You’re right,” Ethan said seriously. “It’s what Order members call people who are insanely good in bed.”

“I should have known! After I caught Jay checking out your butt for the fifth time…” We both laughed.

“Really, it means ‘warrior’ in Latin. It’s a term for fighters. In the Order, you can roughly divide everyone into two categories: Expiscors and Proeliators. Expiscors do the research, know the facts. They’re who you talk to when you reach a dead end.”

“We could really use one of those right now,” I said dryly.

 
Ethan laughed. “And the Proeliators might not know as much, but they’re good at killing and fighting.”

“Brains and muscles,” I summed up.

“Yeah. But of course you get people who are good at both.”

“Oh, well those guys said you were the best and that they want you to train them.”

Modestly, Ethan just shrugged.

“And,” I continued. “The guys said they didn’t think you’d ‘mess around with magic’. Are you not allowed to date a witch if you’re in the Order?”

“If we aren’t, that’s news to me,” Ethan replied.

“Then why say that?”

“Order members typically date other Order members. It’s just easier than having to live a double life with a normal person. But I’ve never been told I
couldn’t
date anyone.”

“So what did they mean?”

“I have no idea,” he sighed.

“Do you guys typically not like witches?”

“Eh, I can’t really say. I’ve only come across a few witches before you, and none that were
real
witches. They had all gotten their power from another source. The ones that use borrowed power sometimes get a little power-hungry. That’s probably what they were referring to,” he decided before he moved on top of me, kissing me passionately. Then he showed me just how good he was at something else.

~*~

The next few days following Thomas’ retreat passed by so blissfully normal that I was able to convince Ethan to play football with his friends from the gym on Sunday. He left around noon and René came over soon after to ride. We cleaned stalls and tidied up the barn in record time, laughing and talking as we cleaned.

Since today was record breaking warm spring day, Hunter wanted to stay out while I went inside to shower. Deciding that the hardwood floors were in major need of vacuuming, I used magic to enchant the vacuum cleaner to run by itself. And almost every surface in the living room needed dusted…another charm later a dust rag moved without me holding it over the coffee table.

Feeling rather proud of myself, I decided to get a chocolate reward from the pantry. The vacuum had moved to the dining room, the whirling motor drowning out Hunter’s snarling bark. An image of a man flashed in my brain. He smelled familiar to Hunter and his memory did a quick search: a night not that long ago, the guy was here, standing in front of the house. It was the same night I saw the horrible vision of Romeo hanging from my fan. I ran behind the breakfast table, staying low and out of site. A man, holding a stick with a rope noose attached to the end, was approaching Hunter. His hunched shoulders and jerky movements let us both know he was scared.

Weapon. I needed a weapon. I wasn’t going to hurt him, he was just human. But what if he was the very human who created Thomas? I ran upstairs and emerged with a shotgun. I went out through the front door, communicating with Hunter the whole time. Hunter was going to slowly circle, making the man back into the corner of the fence. I silently slipped through the open gate. Hunter took a careful step backward. The man followed suit. Hunter moved to the right. Then again, and again, until the man’s back was to the fence.

Dropping his fake apprehension, Hunter lunged forward, grabbing the stick from the man’s grasp. The man backed up and panicked when his back hit the cast iron.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, gun raised and aimed. The man looked at me, gasped, and then tried to make a desperate run for it. Hunter latched onto his ankle and down he went, landing on a crumbling old stone planter that Ethan promised to remove once the weather got nicer. He scrambled up and tried to yank free from Hunter’s hold. The logical thing for me to have done was to drop the gun, yell at the guy to stop, and then telekinetically hold him in place. But I panicked. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and swung it like a baseball bat, hitting the gun in the back of the head. He slumped to the ground.

“Ohimgod, is he dead?” I asked Hunter. The gun slipped from my fingers and I covered my mouth with my hand.

Hunter could hear the heart beating. No, he was just knocked out, thank God.
 
For a good half a minute, I just stood there, staring at the guy, feeling rather shell-shocked.

“Ohmigod,” I repeated. I inched closer to the guy and nudged him with my foot. I looked at Hunter, wanting him to tell me what to do. I shook my head and looked back at the guy. “It was self defense,” I told myself. “I-I had to.” I moved to Hunter’s side and put my hand on his head. “What do I do? Call the cops?”

I walked back to the guy and shook my head. He wasn’t a large man and it might be believable that I was able to defend myself, and he was trespassing in my yard after all.

“No,” I said and went back to Hunter. “He was trying to kidnap you. I need to know why. If the cops get him, I might not find out.” I paced back to the guy and then to Hunter once more. “How long is he gonna stay knocked out? I’m not going to get any answers this way.”

Actually…this could work very well to our advantage. “Watch him,” I told Hunter and sprinted into the barn, grabbing every lead rope I could.

With much difficulty, I attempted to drag the man inside the house. Hunter grabbed the hem of his jeans and pulled. I was a bit nervous the man would get depantsed, but I grabbed the other leg and pulled anyway. It took Hunter and my telekinesis to get him into a chair.
 
I tied his left hand to the arm of the chair with Mystery’s baby blue lead rope, and his right with Neptune’s hot pink one. A rainbow striped lunge line went around his torso. Another rope— this one black with metallic silver threads weaved in it—tied his feet and legs to the chair.

“Th-this is so illegal,” I stuttered, shaking my head. “I assaulted this guy
and
kidnapped him!” I stood back to look at my work. “Are the ropes tight enough? Hell, I have no idea!” I pulled on them; afraid the guy would wake up and snarl at me while I was close to his body.
 
“Maybe I should put duct tape around the ropes,” I thought out loud. “No, I don’t want to take the finish off the chair.” I shook my head at the thought. “Chairs won’t matter when I’m in jail!”

I let out a deep breath and realized I was shaking. The most illegal thing I’d ever done was drink underage…and one of those times was at the Zodiac, so I didn’t think that even counted.
 
I stood next to Hunter, regaining some confidence with my Guardian near.

“I should call Ethan,” I said aloud and hurried into the kitchen to grab my phone. My hands shook a little as I waited for him to answer. Crap…voicemail. I hung up and called again. And again. On the fourth try I left a message: “Uh, Ethan, you need to come home.
 
I-I sorta have a hostage.”