CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
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True quickly looked over her shoulder to where the mates were standing, lined up watching like a silent army on the decking. The witching hour was upon them, and the spell was in progress. It had taken Nana’s hard line in the sand to get the protective shifters to give more than the inch that they demanded by shadowing their mates and staying a distance away from the area of the beach that Nana and Moira had prepared.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that those mates would be antsy enough to run across the beach at the first sign of trouble, and that was why Lex was their supernatural guard dog.
To break the circle mid-spell would be bad, and he was the battering ram that would keep the mates at bay. At least, that was the general idea; whether that happened in practice was another matter. True wasn’t sure even Lex could keep a determined pack of shifters away.
“Concentrate,” Nana urged them, and True felt the instant flush of guilt in her mind, straying to what could happen instead of focusing on what was happening.
True was heartened to see that she wasn’t the only witch to snap to attention at her grandmother’s tone. Hope leaned in, nodding to the shifters on the deck. “What are the odds?”
“Not good,” True replied.
“Let’s focus on Jennifer and Faith,” Hope said, nodding to the two occupants of the circle.
Jennifer looked a little nervous but also awestruck that she was witnessing such a spell taking place. While Faith kept her gaze locked on the child and ignored the circle of witches around her, ten witches, including True’s baby, not an entire coven, but nothing to be sniffed at, and Jennifer was eleven if she could work her magic from the inside of the spell.
Nana and Moira had briefed them on how they had devised the spell and how it should progress. A beach bonfire sat close with a wrought iron cauldron of the foulest smelling brew sat over the flames and brought the stench upwind as the winds from the sea picked up.
When the chanting started, low and heartfelt, Faith felt the pull of the magic that filled the circle around them. Jennifer’s nervousness increased with the level of the collective chants, and she screwed up her face and grabbed her stomach as the wind started to whip up around the outside of the circle.
Faith took a long step towards Jennifer, but she stopped herself out of fear that whatever darkness was growing within her own body couldn’t be trusted any more than she could. “Jennifer, look at me,” she demanded, and the child snapped-looked at her. “Join the chant, concentrate on the magic you’re feeling around you, and open yourself up to it.”
“It’s starting to hurt,” Jennifer said, immediately giving Evie the wobbles.
Faith snapped a look at Evie as the witch debated breaking the circle and going to Jennifer. “Hold the line,” Faith said, shaking her head and holding her palm toward Evie to keep her in place. She turned back to Jennifer. “You’ve got this; you’re strong; it”s what scares the darkness the most – that you can beat them.”
Jennifer rallied at Faith’s words. “Faith,” she said so quietly that she was sure she and Lex were the only ones who could hear her. “The sand.”
Faith scanned the circle; behind the witches” backs, the sand started to rinse as the winds increased. She looked to the sea; it had been calm before but was beginning to get choppy. She turned to Lex. “The wave,” she said, reminding him of the thing that had killed her and swept Jennifer away. “We save the child and True,” she begged him, only loud enough for him to hear.
Lex nodded, moving slowly around the circle to stand behind True. “I won’t let go,” he promised.
Faith took another step closer to Jennifer. She knew she could reach her before a wave hit, but she wanted to give herself extra time to escape if possible.
Lex snatched a look across the rising sands to the shifters. He could tell by their stance that they were getting ready to intervene, and he felt the rush of guilt that his attention was on saving True and her baby should the worst happen.
The wind started to howl, and the sand rose to their shoulders, swirling like a sandstorm on an otherwise quiet beach.
“Faith,” Jennifer said, lurching towards her, arms outstretched. “It hurts!”
Faith reached out and grabbed Jennifer’s hands. There was a heartbeat when the bloodlust rushed through Faith’s veins, and she could taste blood on her tongue, but Faith’s will to batter that desire down was enough to chase it away.
“Marvin, True, with me now,” Nana demanded, breaking the circle only long enough for the witches on either side to rejoin hands. She rushed to Jennifer, flanked by her family, and snatched a dagger from her belt.
Nana sliced into the palm of her hand, opening a wound that sent Faith’s bloodlust soaring before turning the sharp blade on Marvin. She grasped his hand, their cuts meeting, their blood mixing. “My blood to your blood,” Marvin repeated the words.
Then she turned to True and did the same; before grasping her hand, she offered her the knife, and True took it. “My blood to your blood.”
True nodded. “My blood to your blood,” she said, sure in her heart.
“Cut Faith’s palm, then give her the dagger,” Nana said.
Faith was trying her damnedest not to notice the scent of blood in the air and concentrate on Jennifer. “What? Why?”
“Blood, it’s still in there somewhere, Faith, and your strength to Jennifer’s. Take the knife and cut yours and both of Jennifer’s palms.” Nana demanded.
“Are you crazy?” Faith said. “It’s vampire blood from me to Jennifer and True…”
“Not enough to turn them,” Lex said from the sidelines.
“Evie?” Faith demanded, turning to question the witch.
Evie nodded. “It’s fine,” she said, not entirely sure it was, but she had trust in Nana and was heartened by what Lex had said.
“Now, Faith,” True demanded.
By the time Faith turned her attention to Jennifer, the young witch had both palms ready for the cut. “Damn it,” Faith grumbled under her breath; doing as she had been instructed, she pushed back the demand of her instincts to taste the witches and slapped her hand against True’s. “My blood to your blood,” she said after True had proclaimed the same.
Faith dropped the dagger into the sand before she turned to Jennifer and did the same, clasping the child’s hand in hers. “My blood to your blood,” she said, and Jennifer followed her lead, saying the words before Marvin grasped Jennifer’s palm in his. The words followed, and the circle inside the circle was formed.
“Faith’s strength to Jennifer’s,” Nana said. “Join the chant.”
Faith didn’t hold out much hope that chanting the words would do the spell any good, but if she could give Jennifer every ounce of strength to fight the Others she possessed, she would.
That was when Faith felt it, like a tight cramp that twisted her insides and dropped her to her knees in the sand. The sound of Jennifer’s chants, raised in pitch as the pain took her, fired up a desire in Faith to rip the Others from inside the child. It sparked an idea, and she didn’t know if it was a good one, but it was worth trying.
“Lex, kill me now!” Faith called into the chaos unfolding around them.
“No!” The panic in Jennifer’s voice made Faith more determined to save the child. She gently squeezed her hand.
The wind was blowing, the sand was rising, the waves were battering the shoreline, and Lex didn’t hesitate for a second. He ducked under the first circle of joined hands and raced to Faith’s side.
“Hold tight,” Faith said, gripping True and Jennifer’s hand a heartbeat before Lex snapped Faith’s neck and caught her, slowly lowering her with him to the sand as Nana, True, and Marvin joined Jennifer on their knees.
“Why?” True demanded, looking to Nana for answers.
It took Nana a moment to understand what Faith had done, but she got it. “Out of Jennifer into Faith,” she informed them. “All of your efforts into freeing Jennifer.”
Without question, the witches obeyed. Jennifer cried out in pain as the darkness started to leave her body, forced by magic to look for a new home. Faith had taken the risk that the only way the Others could gain entry was through death, and they sought refuge in the only dead person around.
“Should I be worried?” Lex said, eyeing the darkness that leached from Jennifer’s body and moved like a ghostly snake toward him and Faith. He didn’t expect an answer from anyone, but he wished they would tell him what was happening.
Lex was in no position to stop the mates should they come to protect the witches, but he wouldn’t leave Faith’s side for anything. Come hell or high water, and he hoped another giant wave wouldn’t happen, but he was there for her if it did.
Jennifer gasped in a breath and snapped to attention as the last of the darkness left her and entered Faith. “But, Faith,” she whispered.
Marvin squeezed the child’s hand tightly. “You’ve got this,” he said, reassuring her. “It’s magic.”
Jennifer nodded, concentrating hard on Faith, determined to free her. She drew on her innermost core, feeling the light and heat of her magic swell within her until finally, she broke free of Marvin’s grasp and placed her palm against Faith’s stomach, channelling all of her energy into Faith.
Faith’s body jerked as she snapped back to life. Her eyes snapped open, and she gasped in a breath she didn’t need. Her hand tightened on Jennifer’s out of instinct, and she felt the red-hot magic sweep through her body.
“Whoa!” Lex bit out as a cloud of darkness swept from Faith into the air and hung ominously above them. The wind stopped blowing, the sea calmed, and the grains of sand dropped.
“Break the circle!” Nana wailed, tearing her grasp from Marvin and True and forcing the darkness across the beach at the cauldron. The instant the darkness hit the brew, the liquid exploded from the confines of the iron container, covering the darkness and taking it down to the sand. The sound of popping was matched only by the loud fizz and the waft of a stinking white cloud of smoke that drifted their way before vanishing to nothing.
“We did it!” Jennifer said excitedly as she scampered closer to Faith and threw herself on top of her, wrapping her arms around her and holding on tightly.
“Vampire alert!” Evie said, rushing forward.
“And here comes the cavalry!” Lex said, noting a pack of shifters running across the sand.
“Jennifer, no,” Faith said, worried that the bloodlust would be too much to subdue after the energy it had taken from her body to die and come back. “You have to be careful.”
Jennifer lifted her head and grinned at her Faith. “I’ve got your back, Aunty Faith,” she said, a heartbeat before Evie reached down and peeled the child away.
“No offence,” Evie said, turning Jennifer and wrapping her inside her arms, holding her tightly.
“Squishing me!” Jennifer groaned.
“Sorry,” Evie said, grimacing as she loosened her grip on the child.
“Anyone hurt?” Heath demanded.
“And here they come to save the day,” Lex said, chuckling at the alpha’s expense.
“We were told to stay away,” Heath growled, turning True into his arms and holding her against him.
“Nobody needed the negative vibe,” Nana said, rolling her eyes. “And look, we managed without the growling and pacing.”
“I…” Heath bit his tongue when True placed a hand against his cheek. “Fine,” he grumbled, knowing what True would say before she said it.
“That’s the spirit,” Lex said, mocking the alpha with a smile.
Heath sneered at his friend. “At least I didn’t kill my mate.”
Faith pushed to her feet. “I had a nice nap. Did I miss anything?” She turned her nose up at Heath and turned to Lex. “That seemed to be becoming a habit.”
“Indeed,” Lex replied.
“That stops now,” Faith said.
“Understood,” Lex said with a slight bow.
“You seem to have him right where you want him,” Amy said, grinning.
“Not yet, but maybe later,” Faith said with a wicked grin for Lex that hit him hard.
“Maybe now,” Lex said. “Car is right over…”
“Heel,” Faith said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I can do that,” Lex replied.
“Is that it?” Heath asked, looking to Nana for answers. “Are the Others gone?”
Nana gave a slight shrug. “We still need to send the ghosts on their way, and that should close the veil, but yes,” she said, nodding. “I think they are gone.”
A collective sigh went up from the group.
Faith frowned. “And I didn’t get my damn treasure,” she grumbled.
“Sure you did, you got me,” Lex said with a dastardly grin.
“Ugh! I think I might have just puked a little,” Amy said, turning her nose up at Lex. “Yep, I did. I need a beer.”
“Damn, that sounds good,” Duffy said.
“You didn’t do anything; you don’t get a beer,” Amy said, screwing up her face at the bear shifter.
“I did,” Dani said, holding her hand up like she needed the bathroom.
“And let me guess, you’ll give your beer to him?” Amy asked.
Dani pulled her head back. “Hell no!” she said. The sound of her mate having a Scooby Doo moment and questioning her with a curious look made her chuckle. “But I want two beers.”
“And I can have one of those?” Duffy asked.
Dani took a moment to consider it. “Maybe,” she said, shrugging.
Amy leaned in toward Evie. “I think we created a monster when we set out to toughen Dani up,” she said.
“Points to us,” Evie said, chuckling.
“Can I go home with Faith?” Jennifer asked, looking up at Evie, who still had a hold on her and kept her close.
“No!” Everyone said together.
Faith lifted her chin in defiance. “I haven’t sampled the goods from any of you – yet.”
“See, it’s the yet in that sentence, Faith,” Amy said.
Faith pouted for a long moment. “I’m working on it.”
“Then can I go home with Faith?” Jennifer asked.
“Decade or so?” Evie said, shrugging. “Sure.”