“Fine, it’s just easier to talk when I’m not moving, that’s all.” She straightened up like the air was physically holding her down. “There are others who have been trained, spread out over America.”
“How many like us? And why are they spread out?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, it’s all kept under wraps. But I guess not too many, if you’re so important. From what I can gather they need each one.” She took a few more heaping breaths. There was concern and something grim in her eyes. “Make sure to never, ever, use your powers in a public place. Put the ring back on whenever you’re not practicing. You won’t have powers, but no one else will detect what you are either. And don’t get seen with the mutt.” She glanced to the side at Wolf. “We need to keep who you are hidden.” She stopped, the grimness in her eyes displaced by something much graver. “If they find you, Amy, they will kill you.”
Her words dropped a fog of chill down over my whole body and crept to the core, freezing me from the inside out. “Who will kill me?” I asked hoarsely.
“Whoever it is that wants access to the waters, if they find the grimoire, they will remove any threats, including you.”
My head felt like a screw was being twisted in slowly. This whole thing was surely too absurd to be real. Me, an ordinarygirl, a witch, but not just any witch. A genetically charged fighting machine, if Dahlia was to be believed. The look on her face was genuine, there was no question there; she was to be believed. The screw wound tighter.
I rubbed my head which had been throbbing since I’d thrown Dahlia. “Who do you think will want access? Vampires hardly need it. Surely between us and vampires, if we work together, we can handle any humans who would try.”
“We don’t know, it could be vampires wanting eternity for their loved ones without turning them. It could be humans, other immortals—it could even be witches. Anyone who wants immortality is going to fight hard for it.”
“When will they come?”
“We don’t know. Could be a month, could be a year. All we know is it’s coming.”
I folded my arms around myself trying to ward off the chill. “That’s a lot of, I don’t knows.”
She was so still it seemed like she was hardly breathing. “We do know, when it comes, there will be deaths on both sides. You need to train hard, Amy. Learn all you can.”
Fight hard to keep the waters safe. Some would fight until death for immortality; the irony didn’t escape me. A catch sounded in my throat as I swallowed. “And if I don’t want to?
“They have ways of making you.” She stretched her shoulders back, I heard a crack, she flinched.
I snorted. “Your witch clan sound like a bunch of A-grade assholes.”
“You’ll get no argument from me there.” She turned and shuffled towards home.
“Why do you help them then?” I called out, adjusting the backpack, trotting after her.
“It’s bigger than you or me, or a few stab wounds in your friend’s leg. If the wrong people get their hands on the waters . . . Can you imagine what might happen?”
She was right; if the increased speed, strength and immortality the waters gave were used for warfare, it would be diabolical. Still, it didn’t justify leading people to their deaths and stabbing someone. Sacrificing those men and using BJ as a means to an end wasn’t something I could simply forget about or forgive. Neither could I ever forget about my years in the foster system. The bitterness festered inside me like a wound.
“The fanged bastard might help keep you safe, at least until he gets bored of you. Use him for sex if that’s what you want. Just don’t buy into his bullshit, there’s no such thing as a caring vampire, Amy. They take what they want, when they want it. Mark my words, he will throw you out like trash when he’s done.”
The words bit into my heart but I remained quiet. I trailed behind and watched her walk. Her ponytail swung to the right as she limped, a small patch of black strands separated from the rest and glinted like a black web against the sun’s rays. I tried to make sense of it all, caught in a tangle of scepticism. The fragments of thought jumbled like jigsaw pieces. Would I eventually secure the pieces to the whole puzzle and fit them neatly together? And if I did, I would like what I found?
I walked to catch up. “What else will I be able to do?”
“I’m not sure exactly, fight obviously. You connect with animals,” she said glancing at Wolf again. He’d moved closer and trotted, in long, loping, near soundless strides, off to the side. “You might be able to communicate with them at some stage, maybe read minds, telepathically connect. Maybe heal to a degree, get psychic flashes, talk to the dead. But everyone has slightly different strengths and weaknesses, some people can doone thing well and nothing else, others can do a lot of things but not so well.”
Moved by disbelief, I wandered numbly through the forest. I’d seen my mother’s face already, but I’d convinced myself I had imagined it. Talk to animals, read minds. My conscious mind was blown. It grappled with knowledge of an infinite realm. A realm where the kind of stuff I’d thought to be fairy tales, stories made up to entertain, were no longer the stuff of urban legend but existed as part of my world.
“What can you do?”
“Fight . . . well, use my intuition to read any danger, heal to a degree, see the odd spirit.”
“Can you telepathically talk or read minds?”
“No, I wish. That’s a rare trait to have, even for the strongest witches.”
Not even a week ago, I thought her deranged, yet today I found myself believing her and felt bad now for ever doubting her. “I’m sorry, Dahlia, I thought you were a crazy, gay stalker.”
She laughed. “That’s fine, I am crazy.”
