With You In Spirit (The Bassinville Witches Series) (9 page)

Catherine took a sip of the coffee, her morning feeling brighter and brighter every moment. A new boyfriend, sunshine, and the bastard who sent her that note was now in jail.
Not to mention the new gorgeous boyfriend was supernatural himself, and knew she was a witch.
She felt like turning cartwheels. “So who was it?”

Ellis chimed in this time, his high-pitched voice sounding full of excitement. He hugged his coffee mug, leaning back against the granite work-top. Catherine’s mum had always liked the European style when she was over in England, which was why the inside of their house was anything but traditional.
“Turns out it was a stranger who had been staying here a few days. We picked him up an hour ago at Mrs Delfoy’s guest house. Name of Caden Rouquette.”

Catherine nearly dropped her coffee mug. She just managed to place it on the kitchen table, her face turning ashen-white.
Her hands trembled
as she placed it down, making a clattering sound. Her mother and the two police officers turned and frowned at the movement.
“W-What?
That…that can’t b-be.”

“Why not?”
Joe walked over, and looked down at her, his brow furrowed tightly. “Do you know him?”

Shakily, Catherine nodded.
“Y-Yes.
Shawna and I met the other day. But…it couldn’t be him. It couldn’t be.” She thought over the events of the previous night, and the past few days. If he had wanted to harm her, surely he would have done it then.

“And why not?”

Catherine’s
face flamed
, as she realised she was going to have to explain where she had been last night. Not something one really wants to do in front of their mother.
Feeling her stomach knotting up, she stuttered, “Well…I, um…I-I was with him last night.”

Mya raised her eyebrows, and folded her arms across her chest, her floaty robe rippling at the movement. “Oh? What do you mean?”

Clearing her throat, Catherine tried to look at the floor, ending up looking at Ellis’ shoes instead. “I mean…I-I spent the night with him.”
There has never been a better time for the floor to open up and swallow me…
”There was plenty of chance for him to
hurt
me then.”

Ellis and Joe looked at one another, chancing a glance towards Mya. She looked as though she couldn’t be more confused. Joe shrugged. “I’m afraid I’ve worked my job for over fifteen years…and I still couldn’t work out what goes through a criminal’s mind, Catherine. I’m afraid it was definitely his fingerprints we found. The lab sent the results this morning.”

As if he was bored of explaining this to her, he turned abruptly to Mya, and nodded at her. “I’ll come by later, Mya. I’d appreciate it if either of you could come down and just look over a few things with us at the station. Good morning to you, hon.” Turning back, he tilted his hat at Catherine.

After they had left, Catherine and Mya just looked at each other, an uncomfortable silence filling the space between them. Catherine licked her lips nervously, and turned her attention back to her coffee mug, staring deep into the dark liquid. Mya sighed, and strode across the kitchen, her robe floating behind her like a cape.

Pausing behind one of the chairs, she rested her hands on the back of it, and tapped her fingers. Catherine continued to stare into her coffee. Mya pulled the chair out, and sat down, seating herself so that she was looking directly at Catherine’s face. “Honey…you needn’t be embarrassed about having found a young man you like. Believe me, I was the same with your dad. But they found his fingerprints-“

“Mum, I don’t know how they matched them up with him, but I promise you it wasn’t him.” She thought once more about telling her mum about the car, but decided it was long past the point for that. “I don’t know how to explain to you that he didn’t do it, but he
didn’t!
I haven’t imagined how he feels for me, and he cares about me.” Angrily, she took a sip from the now warm coffee, and banged the ceramic back down onto the table.

Mya put a hand out, and
laid it tenderly on her daughter’s arm. “Sweetie…I think this is going to sound like the stupidest thing I’ve ever said, but…if you know he didn’t do it,
then
maybe you’re right.”

Catherine looked in shock, blinking at her mother. “Sorry?”

Mya held her hands out in an apologetic gesture, and shrugged. “I trust you darling. I am not, by the way, saying go down there and profess your undying love for him. But…I understand how the ones who killed your father can trick people, and maybe they
got into the lab, I don’t know.”

Narrowing her eyes, Catherine looked ponderingly at her mother. “Look, you have to tell me something-who are these ‘ones’? You’ve always talked about them as if you know who they are.”

The chair scraped across the floor as Mya rose up again. A far-away look on her face, she looked out of the window, watching two birds busily making a nest high up in one of the trees in the garden.
The sight made her think back to her husband and she closed her eyes, the sadness bubbling behind them. “I know who took your father, honey. And what’s more, I know why. I didn’t tell you because…well, you were too young at the time, and then it just became harder and harder to tell you.
’

‘You know your father was a Wiccan, but not how important a Wiccan he was.
Your father, Declan Adams, was part of a worldwide
witch’
s council known as The Gathering.
Their purpose is to protect people from witches who might go rogue, witches who preform, shall we say…unsavoury magic. They hold a centre of power, and the source of this power is twelve orbs. Your father had gone to search for one of these orbs, and I was expecting him back the night he disappeared.”

“What happened? Why did he never come back?” Catherine whispered, her mother’s story
weaving
out for her in her head, lost in it.

“Well, do you remember that knock on the door that night?
It was one of them. They left before I got a chance to see them, but they left a parcel for me…a…your father’s ring finger, with his wedding band. It was their way of saying his was dead
, the sick bastards!
” Mya’s voice cracked, and she
held back a sob. As she regained her composure, she continued. “I knew then that he had failed. But you see
,
he was special even amongst Wiccans. What is the rarest thing a Wiccan can be?”

Thinking for a moment, Catherine then answered,
unsurely,
“A spirit elemental
…?
”

“Correct. And that’s exactly what your father was.
A very strong one.
I’ve always thought the reason you couldn’t find your element all these years was because you took after him…you’ve never tested to see if your element was spirit.”

Catherine’s jaw dropped.
“W-What?
My father was a
spirit elemental witch
? Why have you never said anything?”

As if to comfort herself from an unseen cold, Mya rubbed her hands up and down her arms, shaking her head. She turned around, and leaned against the sink, tiredly looking into the vivid
green
eyes of her daughter. “Because I never wanted them to pick up on you. I thought if perhaps you didn’t use your powers, then they wouldn’t be able to track you. I know it was selfish of me, but…I just wanted to protect us both.”

“No, mum, I understand.” Catherine rose up from her chair, and ran over to her mum, throwing her arms around her. Mya sobbed and hugged her daughter back, while Catherine murmured soothingly to her. After a few minutes, Mya’s sobs quietened, and Catherine sat back down, as her mum wiped at her face with her robe sleeve.

“So, do you think I could have the same element as dad? I wouldn’t even begin to know how to train for that.”

Mya smiled slightly, remembering her husband training in front of her. “He used to say it was all energies that he used. That he would draw them in somehow from people and objects around him, using their lifeforce. He used to joke that he was like an ‘elemental vampire’.”

At her mother’s words, Catherine jumped. Mya
narrowed her eyes. “What did I say?”

“Nothing.
Nothing
mum
. I…I just have to be somewhere, that’s all. I’ve got to go and talk to someone.” Jumping up, Catherine spun around, kissing her mum on the forehead, and ran towards her bedroom.

“C
ome on Susan! I only need to see him for a moment.”

The middle-aged woman behind the desk looked up at her, blond hair piled up into a tight bun on top of her
head, fifties-style glasses perched precariously on her nose. She wrinkled her nose as she looked upwards, chewing her gum noisily. This was Susan Mattner, who worked as a secretary for the station every other day.

She held out her hands. “Look, I’m sorry honey, but I just can’t let you see the guy without Joe or Ellis giving their say-so. And they ain’t here right now.”

Catherine actually stamped her foot. This was ridiculous. She wasn’
t going to break him out;
she was just going to speak to him for a second.
Gripping her bag handle tightly, she chewed her lip, trying to think of what to say. “Look, Susan…”

Susan shook her head again
, giving Catherine the librarian stare over the top of her glasses. “I said no, honey. Now stop asking me.” She spun around on her chair, and began tapping away busily on her computer keyboard, ignoring the woman stood before her.

Sighing in exasperation, Catherine shrugged, and began to walk over to the jail cells further back in the station. Susan stopped what she was doing, and jumped up, gasping in horror. “No, Catherine, I said you-
Catherine!”
As Catherine was ignoring her, she began to run towards her, teetering in her heels.

Catherine looked back and held up her hand, raising her eyebrows to show she wasn’t planning anything untoward. Stopping Susan in her tracks, she pointed over towards the cells. “Look, I’m just going to be one minute, I swear. Joe and Ellis will never even know.”

Susan wrung her hands in
anxiety
, glancing over towards the clock, and then the front door of the station. She gave another quick glance at Catherine’s
intent face, and then nodded, sighing.
“Alright.
But just
one
minute, D’ya
understand
?” Smiling
appreciatively
, Catherine nodded, and made her way over to the cells, peering into them.

As she came to the last one, she saw Caden, hunched over on one of the benches, his head in his hands. He appeared to be muttering to himself. Catherine gripped the bars on his cell, and pressed her face against the cool metal. “Hello.” She said, in a quiet voice.

Caden’s head slowly lifted, and his stormy eyes met hers, filling with love and relief. He began to run over to her, but then stopped, pausing in the middle of the grey concrete room. A look of doubt fell over his chiselled features.

Her mouth forming an ‘
O
’, Catherine shook her head. “What’s wrong? Come here.”

Swallowing nervously, Caden took a glance to the outside of the cells, looking for any sign of the police officers. He turned back to her, running a hand over his mouth. “Do you believe I did all those things, Catherine?”

“No!” Her lips curved into a brilliant grin, and she reached her hand out for him. “I saw what happened last night-you saved me, and you had all that time to hurt me and didn’t. No, I don’t believe it for a second. I feel it, in ‘here’.” As she said
‘
here
’
, she pointed to her chest with her free hand. Caden moved forwards, taking her hand and kissing it tenderly, until he came to her lovely face, and pressed his lips through the bars, tasting her.

Catherine pulled back then, and looked at him, beaming. “I found out who it was though-well, sort of. My mother told me that my father was part of this organisation called The Gathering. Whoever is after my mother and I killed my father because he was looking for this orb.”

To her surprise, Caden nodded, and hung his head, leaning his hands on the bars. “I know how this will sound, Catherine, but I know all this. You see, I’m–“

“What the hell is going on
here!
” The bellowing voice of Joe rang out, reverberating around the station, as a door slammed. Susan leapt up from her desk, and began stammering something about
how she was sorry, and hadn’t meant to leave Catherine with him, but Joe marched on past, his face turning red.

Catherine spun around, her mouth forming soundless words. Joe marched right up to her, and stopped. He looked from her to the vampire watching him intently from behind the bars, and his beard bristled. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, young lady, but you know damn well you don’t just barge into my station and start talking to prisoners. Especially ones that threatened to kill you!”

“But I told you he didn’t do it! I don’t know how to prove it to you, Joe, but you’ve got to try and believe me!” Catherine pleaded, her mouth setting in a determined line.