Chapter Eight #2
Beyond the ballroom, there were raised voices, ordered and commanding, either police or paramedics.
Neither would be helpful. I really did not feel like sitting down to give a witness statement with my hands stained by my friend’s blood.
Yes, officer, I saw the wolf. No, officer, I don’t think it was just a very large dog.
Why, officer? Because I’m a witch and the wolf was a Were and I suspect it was here to kill me because it knows I killed its packmate.
Any more questions? Who is my legal guardian? Well, I’m so glad you asked …
‘You’re sure we shouldn’t stay and tell them what happened?’ Jackson asked, nodding at the uniformed officers just outside the door. ‘Maybe they can help. Or at least warn animal control?’
If I’d had the energy to laugh, I would’ve been hysterical. It was only two months since I’d said the exact same thing to my grandmother.
‘There’s nothing they can do,’ I said, forcing one foot in front of the other. ‘Unless you want to explain why we’re both covered in blood but neither of us are injured, we should probably leave now.’
But leaving was easier said than done. The police were already at the door, looking into the ballroom, and I knew there would be more outside, guarding the terrace.
‘How do we get out without anyone seeing us?’
With a grim smile, I reached out once more and in the same moment the thought passed through my mind, a flash of lightning lit up the sky.
The world slowed down until it seemed to stop.
All the loud voices quieted and the droplets of water falling from the sprinklers lingered in midair, as if waiting on me.
Beyond the terrace, I saw cars paused in the middle of the road, people stopped mid-stride on the sidewalk.
The whole world had come to a complete standstill.
Jackson gazed at me with something like awe.
‘Are you doing this?’ he asked, looking back out at his static city.
I grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the ballroom and through the hallway, past his friends, his coaches, and more men in uniform than I could count.
‘I’ll explain later,’ I said. ‘Keep moving. Don’t stop until I say so.’
With blind determination, I pushed through the frozen crowds, across the marble foyer, down the front steps.
Raindrops burst like water balloons on my hot skin as we wove our way through the living statues on Liberty Street.
By the time I stopped and took a deep breath, we were safely hidden around the corner, both of us leaning against a low brick wall on Drayton Street as the rain began to fall again.
‘I didn’t know you could do that,’ Jackson said quietly, eyes on me as his bloodstained shirt flapped open at his stomach.
Flushed with fear, relief and the unwelcome reminder of my otherness, I felt tears well up in my eyes.
‘Heal wounds or slow down time?’
He didn’t reply. Instead he just swallowed hard.
The rain began to slow around us, naturally this time.
The worst of the storm was over and through the yelling and sobbing that still rang out all around the block, I could feel the pull of Bell House, summoning me home.
She wanted me where she could see me, where she could keep me safe.
We both knew this wouldn’t be an isolated incident.
The Were would return and any dream I might have nursed of escaping the consequences of Cole’s death had just been extinguished.
But that wasn’t why my hands were shaking at my side.
The thought of another attack didn’t frighten me nearly as much as the rush I’d felt when standing face to face with the wolf, willing it to attack so I could surrender to the seductive strength of my magic.
‘Hey,’ a voice said. ‘Come back.’
A strong hand cupped my face, long fingers brushing my wet hair away from my face.
‘Where did you go?’ Jackson appeared in front of me as my eyes refocused on the here and now. ‘You looked like you were miles away.’
The rough finish of the bricks behind me sawed into my skin, reminding me of what was real.
‘Just tired,’ I said. ‘I’m here, I swear.’
‘Good. Because I need to thank you. For saving my life.’
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I looked away.
‘Don’t thank me. You never should’ve been in danger in the first place.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ He gently turned my face back towards his. ‘Those dances are known to be vicious. Getting out alive was only ever a fifty-fifty possibility, and that was without the threat of a giant magic murder wolf.’
Jackson gave me half a smile, working his own kind of magic, distracting me from my darkest thoughts.
‘Not sure how I’m going to explain to my grandmother what happened to this shirt,’ he said, pawing at the stained and shredded white cotton. It was hanging from his body by the only two buttons still fastened, just below his throat. ‘You don’t happen to have a mending spell?’
‘Not that I know of.’
But that didn’t stop my fingertips from trembling as though they might like to try. With shaky hands, he undid the last two buttons and balled the shirt up before tossing it into a trash can on the street corner.
‘Where do you reckon this falls on Ashley’s spectrum of behaviour?’ he asked.
‘Mortal peril should balance out the shirtless part,’ I said. ‘How do you think Lyds will feel about the water damage to her dry clean only dress?’
‘Oh, certain death. Wolf attack or no wolf attack, you’re toast.’
He gave me a once-over, from the top of my wet-through head to the soles of my now bare feet. I couldn’t remember when I’d lost my shoes, but now the pavement felt hot, wet and sharp against my soles.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Better get you home.’
We turned away from the hotel, Jackson leading the way.
I managed a few steps before a roaring wave of exhaustion overwhelmed me and I stumbled over my own feet, careening into the window of a neighbourhood dive bar.
Before I could protest, he had slipped his head underneath my arm and scooped me up off my feet, light as a feather.
‘You don’t have to carry me,’ I said as he started down the street, picking up his pace when a police car rolled by. ‘I can walk two blocks.’
He cast me a sideways glance.
‘I could crawl two blocks,’ I corrected myself as we turned onto Harris Street and the world seemed to pull away from me, everything zooming out of perspective as my head lolled back against his chest. ‘Or maybe I can’t.’
Two blocks from home and I could see the edge of Lafayette Square. Being carried back to the house was embarrassing but it was better than crawling. I relaxed into my friend’s arms and saw his mouth curve upwards out the corner of my eye.
‘You might not believe this,’ he said. ‘But I gotta say, that was still not my worst date ever.’
‘Really?’
‘Alison Worthy, eighth grade Valentine’s dance. She ditched me halfway through the night so she could slow dance with Julian Lopez. I never got over it.’
‘So much worse than almost being mauled by a Were,’ I agreed. ‘Why are male egos so fragile?’
‘Hey, isn’t that Ms Stovell?’ Jackson said instead of answering my question.
Across the street, I saw the woman I’d met at the dance stumbling down the sidewalk, her arms stretched out in front as if to keep her from running into something that wasn’t there.
‘Ms Stovell?’ I called out, but she did not stop or look back.
‘She looks like she’s in shock or something,’ Jackson commented when she kept going, stumbling on.
All the trees around us quivered with dark anticipation.
A cherry blossom that should’ve shed its petals months ago shook until every last pastel pink petal was on the ground, as though it had been saving them for this moment.
My stomach twisted with an unpleasant flash of familiar magic that was not my own.
I slipped out of Jackson’s arms, still holding onto him as I found my feet.
Ileen Stovell stopped in the middle of the crosswalk then turned slowly until she was facing us, silently mouthing words I couldn’t make out.
I walked towards her, ignoring the sharp stones digging into my feet, only a fingertip’s distance away.
I didn’t see the car coming, didn’t hear the rumble of its engine, until it was almost on top of us, yellow headlights blinding me.
‘Em, watch out!’
A rope of Spanish moss wrapped itself around me and dragged me out of the path of the car right as I shoved Ms Stovell into the safety of Lafayette Square. Dazed but safe, she stared at me as though she’d seen a ghost, the Spanish moss lying slack at her feet.
‘What just happened?’ she asked, still upright somehow, bracing herself against the live oak that sat at the corner of the square. ‘You silly children. Don’t you know not to distract someone when they’re crossing the road? I could’ve been killed.’
‘We’re so sorry, Ms Stovell,’ Jackson said, eyes cutting over in my direction as I clutched the rope of Spanish moss like a safety blanket. ‘You think you can get home OK or do you need some help?’
She was not amused.
‘I should think you’ve helped quite enough already,’ she said. ‘First the chaos at the DeSoto and now this. I swear, this town is going straight to hell.’
Pausing to look me up and down, she gave an audible tut, the slightest hint of a smirk colouring her disapproval.
‘I’m glad your grandmother isn’t here to see this.’
I opened my mouth to reply but before I could say anything, a rush of someone else’s magic swept me off my feet and sent me stumbling into the tree.
It was back. It was back and here and so strong, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it as Jackson’s terrified face disappeared and the whole world crumbled into darkness around me.