WitchLove (15 page)

‘No Mike, you know you cannot stay for the ceremony. How many times do we have to go through this?’ My aunt’s voice was steadily rising. ‘In fact you shouldn’t even be here now. I don’t know what Saffy was thinking.’

‘Don’t you go blaming our daughter! She’s always caught up in your precious coven’s dramas and now she’s told me about how insecure she feels having this damned
vampire
in the house, so I took it upon myself to come over and check out the threat for myself.’

‘Now you’re being ridiculous. Jessica is no more of a threat than any young untrained witch or warlock,’ my aunt said.

‘I think not. Only last weekend Saffy told me how you struggled to control the circle’s power when Jessica connected with the earth force in the forest,’ he said.

‘Well,
Saffy
had no business to tell you that and it is not true. It may be true that Jessica does, as we suspected, have a strong natural connection with the circle’s power, but as the firstborn daughter of my elder twin that is to be expected. Susannah is just as powerful, from what I have seen.’

‘But Susannah is not here, is she? Your firstborn daughter decided to leave, just as Jessica’s mother did, and why would they do that if it’s such a nurturing environment, Sarah? Or is it because black magic runs in their veins, as I always suspected?’

‘Black magic is not inherited Mike, it is taught, as well you know. Neither Susannah nor Jessica is past redemption by any means.’

‘Saffy has told me of many times that Susannah bullied her when she was growing up, of spells she has cast that must be grey for sure, if not black, and now your younger daughter is having to take the flack. You expect so much of her, when all she wants is to have her old life back.’

‘You make it sound so simple Mike, but you were always very good at seeing things from one perspective. Now I know for certain that Susannah never bullied Saffy. Sure, there were sibling squabbles, but Susannah has her own reasons for leaving, which we are trying to work through, and if all goes well she
will
return, maybe tonight even and then Saffy can carry on at Harvard as planned.’

There was a pause and Brittany and I exchanged glances and began to creep back, away from the staircase, but just as we turned away they started up again.

‘I don’t think you can let Susannah back into the coven, Sarah,’ Mike said suddenly.

‘What? Are you mad? You just said you wanted Saffy to get her old life back,’ my aunt said, her voice sounding weary all of a sudden.

‘I know, and I do. However it would be far too dangerous for my daughter,
our
daughter to be under her influence. Goodness knows what she has planned for the coven. She’s probably in cahoots with the vampire.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous Mike. They have never even met until this week.’

‘This week? They met?’ he demanded.

‘Yes. Noah used Jessica to lure Susannah here, in order to bring us together to talk things through. We had a good chat.’

‘How did Noah use Jessica? She is a vampire and he is just a boy. It strikes me as odd that you seem so set on vindicating this girl whom you know nothing of, while all the time so happily blaming your own children for wrongdoings.’ His voice was cold, sneering and I hated him instantly.

‘Why does she put up with him?’ Brittany whispered.

I shrugged my shoulders and listened once more as Sarah tried again to get him to leave.

‘The point is Mike, no matter what you think of how I run my household and bring up my children, this is the coven’s house, you own no part of it and I am requesting politely that you leave now, as we have an important celebration to organise. One which men are forbidden from taking part in, as you well know.’

‘I will happily stay in the house during the rites, or I will leave once I have met this vampire and decided for myself that she is no threat to my daughter,’ he said sullenly.

‘Fine, I shall get her. Wait here please.’

Brittany grimaced at me and we both turned and fled, running silently up the stairs to our attic as fast as we could, which was somewhat easier for me than Brit.

‘Well, something tells me I don’t need to explain the conversation I have just had with Mike, concerning you?’ Sarah said, raising a single brow at us.

I smiled, and Brittany stared out of the window.

‘Come on then,’ she said.

‘Shall I come?’ Brittany asked.

‘No need. It’s Jess he wants to see,’ she said.

‘Are you okay with this?’ she asked me.

I nodded. I was intrigued and wanted to meet this man that Noah had such contempt for.

‘So you’re Jessica, the vampire?’ he said, eyeballing me as I entered the salon.

‘Yes sir,’ I said, deciding to go ultra-polite, like I’d seen in American movies.

His eyebrows shot up, then he quickly blanked his expression again. Good! I’d surprised him.

‘So what do you hope to achieve by coming here and ingratiating yourself with my family?’ he asked.

‘Well, I didn’t have much choice. Until I have passed my Level Six I cannot get a license and be free, so my aunt kindly offered to help me achieve that aim… and after all, this is my family too.’

I glanced at Aunt Sarah to see if I was doing okay and she smiled warmly.

‘Well if this is your family, why then have you not bothered to contact us your entire life?’

‘Mike, please, you know her story. She was unaware of her ancestry until very recently,’ Sarah interrupted.

‘That maybe the case, but the angels knew of her latent powers and did nothing. They even let her be changed into a vampire…’ he said, his voice beginning to rise again.

‘Mike, none of this is the girl’s fault. I’m sure she didn’t ask for this.’

‘No, I didn’t! And I’m not the vampire you think I am. I’m not here to take over the coven or anything. I’m just here to learn,’ I said.

‘Ahh! So you bring up the fact that you
could
run for high priestess position?’ he scoffed.

‘No! I said I didn’t want to,’ I said.

‘Maybe not now, but Sarah is grooming you, it’s obvious.’

‘That’s rubbish, Mike,’ Sarah said.

‘And in the meantime Saffy has been thrust out to live at Harvard and I’m not surprised, because I know how she hates living with a vampire under her roof,’ he said.

‘That’s ridiculous! She would have applied to university last year, before she even knew I was coming here… and it’s she who is the danger, not me! She…’ I paused and caught my aunt’s expression and quick head shake.

‘I think that’s quite enough, Mike. Jessica is staying here until she passes her exams and my children are as welcome as ever to come here, live here, stay whenever they like, but
you
are not. We have an Equinox to arrange, so I’d appreciate it if you could finish this conversation another day.’

Mike gawped silently for a second, his eyes flashing as they darted between us.

‘Fine, but I’m warning you, that girl is trouble,’ he said, before pushing between us both and marching from the house.

‘Thank you, Jessica. I’m sorry you had to be involved in that, but don’t worry about him. He hates the fact that I have power here and he has none.
That
I’m afraid is the problem with having relationships and being a witch, even more so a High Priestess. I fear you will have it even harder, as the more power one wields as a woman, the less attractive you become to men. It will take a special kind of man to cope with your talents.’

I climbed the stairs back up to our attic slowly. I had
had
a special man, and he didn’t care about what powers I had. He’d helped me, he’d been fascinated by my magic and would be proud of how much I’d learned… I sighed and sat down on the top step, resting my back against the door. Images of Daniel came unfiltered in an onslaught. He had loved me so much that seeing me with another man had driven him to do the worst thing imaginable, something I just couldn’t forgive, and yet still I was wishing he was here now.

‘Hey! What you doing?’ Brittany said suddenly, opening the door so that I had to catch myself before falling backwards.

‘Nothing, just thinking.’

‘Well come on, I want to go through this ceremony again. It’s not long now, so we’d better get showered and dressed soon.’

The coven witches arrived in a trickle, over the next hour. We watched, peeping out of the front attic window as cars drove up the drive and their occupants entered the house. They were a mix of ages, some in their twenties, thirties and some looked to be in their sixties. There was one elderly woman who looked ancient, but she still carried herself effortlessly. They all wore black dresses in a mix of styles and carried their cloaks draped over their arms, though some had them stuffed in carrier bags.

‘Hey, I’m sure that’s Franny,’ I said, as a woman in her late sixties stepped from a blue car with another younger woman, and made for the house.

We’d seen Franny, who I now knew was the aunt of both my mother and Aunt Sarah, several times since coming to America and the bond between the two women was obvious. I liked Franny and it was comforting to know she was here. Some time later Aunt Sarah came to check on us. She explained that the coven would be performing their Sabbat without us, and then Franny would come to get us and lead us to the circle where we would be introduced.

‘Great! So I’ve spent the best part of the day learning this stupid ritual and now we’re not even going to be there,’ Brittany said, once Aunt Sarah had gone.

‘It doesn’t matter. I wonder if Susannah has turned up.’ I said. ‘I didn’t see her arrive, did you?’

‘No, and I doubt the coven will be too impressed if she does a black vortex arrival,’ Brit said, grinning.

‘So, we’ve got an hour to waste now. Fancy a game of Mario Kart? I’ll beat you this time,’ I said.

After getting hammered by Brittany several times in a row, Franny came to collect us and saved my utter annihilation.

‘Right girls, everybody’s waiting to meet you, so come on. Oh and by the way, you should have bare feet,’ she said, looking down at our feet.

‘You’re joking, right?’ Brittany asked.

Franny just smiled and lifted up the hem of her dress slightly so we could see her own bare feet.

I looked at Brit and shrugged, smiling at her look of horror. We both bent down and removed our boots and socks and followed Franny down the stairs, being careful not to step on our long black dresses as we went. Franny was dressed the same as us, in a floor length black dress, but unlike us she had a beautiful cape draped around her shoulder, a long pixie-style hood falling down her back.

‘Brrrrr, it’s freezing,’ Brittany said as we stepped out into the dark, curling her toes up in reaction to the freezing path.

‘You’ll get your capes soon and it’s warmer in the circle. Come on,’ Franny said leading the way across the garden. I grabbed Brit’s hand and pulled her after the older woman, putting my arm around the girl and trying to rub some warmth into her, but my own cool hands did nothing to alleviate her shivers.

Clearly the forest path didn’t bother Franny in the slightest. Her feet had obviously toughened up over the decades and my own barely registered a difference. The pine needles tickled my soles and I enjoyed the crunch of the leaves under my feet; but Brittany struggled and winced her way down the path, lagging behind. Franny and I waited at the end of the path till Brittany caught us up, and then Franny simply picked Brittany’s feet up one by one and held them between her palms, as Brittany smiled and oohed her thanks.

‘What did she do?’ I whispered, once Franny had disappeared into the circle to announce our arrival.

‘Healing spell. It was lovely.’

‘I bring Miss Jessica, already initiated into the family coven, and her friend and our Priestess’s guest Miss Brittany to the coven.’ Franny’s voice carried easily across the clearing and back through the trees to us. We stilled and I glanced at Brittany.

‘Come,’ Franny said, reappearing in front of us.

We stepped through the guardian trees and into the circle. Ten witches stood, one in front of almost every tree in the circle, their heavy velvet cloaks falling in sensuous folds to the forest floor. They wore their hoods up covering their hair, foreheads and even down over their eyes, masking half of their faces. The entire clearing was lit with twelve inch pillar candles, one in front of every tree and several in the middle where a makeshift altar was set up, then others of corresponding colours to the north, south, east and west. Even so, the night was cloudy and the moon’s glow was negligible. The only person I recognised was Aunt Sarah, who stood in the middle of the circle clad in a stunning black satin gown and heavy velvet cloak. Unlike the other members her hood was back, so I could see her blonde hair falling gently around her shoulders upon which beautiful silver jewellery sparkled in the candlelight. Her eyes shone and you could almost see the power flowing through her from the earth under her bare feet. Franny let us pause at the entrance and stepped past us, pulling up her hood and taking her place in front of another tree.

The bodies of the gathered coven turned in our direction and I wondered if they were desperate to lift up their hoods and inspect us both. My aunt smiled and spoke.

‘Jessica, Brittany… welcome. Enter the circle with an honest heart, take these robes and join our family.’

I stepped forward and with Brittany behind me, we stepped into the circle. Immediately the coven seemed to take a step inwards, their bodies pressing closer, tightening the circle, a low hum suddenly emanating from their throats. The glow of the candle flames floated around me, the shadows cast by the tall spindly fir trees increasing the spookyatmosphere. Brittany paused and huddled closer to me. I sensed she too was feeling a little creeped out, so I gave her a nudge in the ribs and a quick smile.

My aunt stepped towards us and first placed a heavy hooded cloak around my shoulders and next moved onto Brittany, who smiled her thanks and pulled it tight around her body, instantly snuggling into its folds.

‘Now let us raise the power and welcome our newest members,’ she said.