The Gathering Darkness (35 page)

Saturday, September, 23rd 1912:

It is the day of the eve of the equinox. As witches, we should be celebrating, but the others know about Christian and me now. Margaret has known for a while that I took the amulet of immortality from her. It is rightfully mine.

It is also the day in which Christian and I bound our souls with our blood. A ritual we wouldn’t have known about if not for Beth. I shudder to think of what might happen to her if Margaret finds out she helped us.

Besides Christian, Sally is the only person in the coven I can trust. However, even she won’t risk her own life to save mine—not when she knows how powerful Margaret is. But she doesn’t know that Christian and I will become more powerful than Margaret at the time of sunset, on this eve. It is then that darkness and light will have the ability to absorb all other elements, thus make us stronger.

We must stay alive until sunset.

Someone is coming … .

“What? That’s it?” I whispered loudly, flipping frantically to the next page. I took a deep breath to make up for the breath I’d been holding while reading Claire’s—my message to myself.

The rest of the pages were blank. I’d never made it back to the journal. I fell back against the pillows, hugging my book close to me, trying to decipher what I’d just read. It was as if I’d written it to myself for future reference in case something went wrong, and it obviously had.

Our secret blood binding. Uncle Edmund hadn’t said anything about a binding. What was it? And Beth—she had helped us. Maybe Marcus’ injury was meant to happen. Marcus had received two bags of blood so far. I wondered if one had been mine.

Thursday during lunch, Uncle Edmund picked me up at school again and took me to the hospital. With the grimoire on my lap and the amulet in my hand, I read to him what I’d read last night. He didn’t know anything about the soul binding.

Like every other day, Uncle Edmund and I sat and listened to the unwavering beep of the heart monitor. I became in tuned with its lulling melody to a point where I thought I would miss it if it wasn’t there.

“It’s been almost a week and there’s still no change,” I said grimly.

“He’ll get better, you’ll see,” Uncle Edmund said reassuringly.

After a couple long hours, he left me and went home.

I’d only been given the opportunity of being alone with Marcus a couple times since he’d been injured. His parents weren’t here yet, so I slid my chair up against the bed and laid my head on his chest with my arm draped across him. I was exhausted from lack of sleep and had just started to doze off, when a nurse entered the room carrying a bag of blood. I fought off the fatigue and sat up.

“You’re giving him more blood?”

“As long as he’s anemic he’ll need blood,” she answered softly.

“But, I thought the blood he’d had helped with that.”

She picked up his limp wrist and pressed her fingers to the inside. “It did, but only for a couple days.” Her smile was sympathetic.

She was right. Why hadn’t I noticed how pale Marcus was today? The gray hue was back in his skin, and underneath his eyes were the beginnings of purple crescents.

“This is your blood,” she said thoughtfully as she hooked the bag to the support frame.

I gasped softly. “You mean … .” I was too overwhelmed to speak.

“We saved the best for last.” She winked at me and then busied herself with connecting the intravenous line to the inside of Marcus’ arm.

“How is he, really?”

“His vitals are good. Everything is working the way it’s supposed to, except for the fact that he won’t wake up.”

“But he will,” I said.

“Yes he will,” she said.

The nurse stayed a short while; she’d said to keep an eye on the line. Once I was alone again with Marcus, I snuggled up beside his feverish body, stretching out the length of him and watched the crimson love dissolving into his left arm.

The sight of blood didn’t really bother me when it was contained behind plastic, so I watched the point of entry until my eyes grew heavy.

I imagined the fairy magic flowing through his veins. Bright red liquid followed by a trail of sparkly fairy dust, being absorbed by every cell in his body. I imagined it rushing through his heart, draping it in a blanket of sparkle. As my mind wandered through his veins, I even thought I detected a slight change in the beep of the heart monitor. It was the most optimistic I’d felt since his accident.

Then I decided to do something I hadn’t done for a long time. With the fairy quartz in place over the entrances to the room, I figured it would be safe for me to take the amulet off. Maybe Marcus would come to me in a nightmare, but then I thought if Maggie couldn’t reach me because of the quartz, I might not have a nightmare. There would be no reason for Marcus to come to me.

I took the amulet off anyway and shoved it under Marcus’ pillow. In its absence, I felt odd. But I was so tired I had no problem falling asleep.

At first there was nothing but emptiness as I slept, and then suddenly, besides the steady beep of the heart monitor, which followed me into dreamland, a sound way off in the distance made me alert. At first I couldn’t make it out. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. I tried to yell out but couldn’t move my mouth.

The difference this time was that there was nothing to fear. I felt relaxed and at peace. As the sound grew near, I recognized Marcus’ voice. This time he was calling me Brooke.

My eyes and my mouth flew open and I yelled back. “I’m over here.” Wherever here was. It was so dark.

“Brooke, I see you. Don’t move. I’m almost there.”

My heart beat anxiously as I waited. After what seemed like forever, I saw a faint glow in the distance. Excitement bubbled inside me. Once again, he was bringing my light to me.

I craved the light this time. Slowly it came closer. “You’re so close now,” I yelled out. “I can almost see you, just a little farther.”

The aura that surrounded Marcus brightened as he drew near. All of a sudden the brightness blinded me, and I had to shield my eyes from its brilliance. Then the darkness that surrounded me absorbed some of the light, creating a perfect balance. I lowered my hands from my eyes. Marcus stood in front of me, garbed in a hospital gown, wheeling the support frame the blood bag and IV fluid were attached to.

It wasn’t what I’d expected, but it was Marcus, standing and talking. His color was still an odd shade of gray. In fact, the whole dream was colorless except for the crimson hue that tinted his mouth and cheeks and the bright red blood that flowed through the tube and into his body.

Although I couldn’t feel a floor under my feet, I ran to him and threw my arms around him, ignoring the plastic tubing. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“We’ll be together again soon,” he soothed. He pulled me close. His heart beating against my chest kept time with the monitor.

“When?” I whispered.

“Your fairy blood is already making me stronger. I can feel it absorbing the witches’ spell. They won’t get us this time, Brooke. I remember everything.”

He slid his hands up my arms and rested them on my face, leaving a trail of warmth behind.

I pulled back to look at him. “Everything?”

He nodded. Although colorless, a glimmer of life smoldered beneath the surface of his eyes. I stared into them, willing that faint glimmer to surface.

He brought his face closer until I felt his feverish, reddened lips melt into mine. When he pulled away, the sun-kissed color was back in his face and the spark back in his eyes. Warmth seeped under my skin and into my soul. The empty blood bag hung from the frame beside him. My blood was in him now. At the thought, a tingle shot through me.

“You see, I’m better now. You saved me. And now I’ll fix you.” He gifted me with one of his brilliant rare smiles.

Relieved, I let out a deep breath. Then to my horror, I felt myself floating backwards, back into the dark, away from Marcus. “No. Don’t go,” I yelled out desperately as the brilliant light engulfed him, leaving me behind in the dark, alone.

I heard myself whimper and felt the weight of a hand on my shoulder as someone shook me awake. Distressed, my eyes flew open. The room was softly lit by the night-lighting.

“Brooke, you were dreaming,” Marcus’ mom said softly. She was sitting in the chair beside the bed, which I lay on beside Marcus. How embarrassing.

She slid the chair aside so I could get up.

Through the hospital window, I saw the lights of Salem. From above, it sort of reminded me of Boston—well not quite, but it was a lot brighter than Deadwich was.

I rubbed my eyes. “What time is it?”

“It’s nearly seven-thirty,” Veronica said.

“Crap. I fell asleep sometime in the afternoon. I can’t believe I slept that long.”

“You’ve been putting in some pretty long hours here. It’s no wonder you’re so tired.”

I wondered briefly if I should tell her about my dream, then decided against it. I didn’t want to give her false hope. I however, firmly believed in my dreams. In my head, I saw Marcus’ glorious smile and felt it wrap around my heart. My insides were bathed in the cozy warmth of his essence, and things didn’t seem so hopeless anymore.

I
t wasn’t until I was getting dressed for bed that I remembered taking the amulet off and forgetting to put it back on. I pressed my hands to my chest where it usually hung. How could I be so careless? I knew it would be safe under Marcus’ pillow with the wards of protection I’d placed over the entrances to his room, but
I
was vulnerable without it.

It was nearly ten o’clock, and I had no way of getting back to the hospital. Too scared to sleep, I put laundry away and cleaned my room. Both were things I’d been neglecting lately.

When I finally did go to bed, Sammy burst through my bedroom door. Right away, I noticed a change in her. She exuded confidence. Her presence felt threatening. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

She came into the room uninvited and sat down on the edge of the bed, idly twirling a lock of hair between her fingers. I pulled the covers up under my chin, hoping she wouldn’t discover the absence of the amulet. Terror held my mouth shut. Sammy’s black pupils were fixed on my widened eyes. Her breath was cold on my face. With a sardonic grin, she tucked the quilt around my shoulders, like a mother would a child. I trembled beneath the covers.