Chapter 1
I rolled my eye's at the phone. " Yes Beebee ( aunty in Romanian ) I know we have spells to try, I will be there in about 20 minutes." I let my aunt continue talking at me down the phone a while longer. Geez I just got in, how did she know? Oh that's right, she has 'Dook' or 'the sight' to you and me. She was telling me that hope is not lost, she's come up with another spell she found in her book of shadows, and this time she just knows it will cure me...sigh.
" I'm leaving now Beebee...yep, ok." I placated her. Silence, then... " I know you're still at home Chavi ( girl ) I see you !"
Dammit! I just love coming from a family of witches, and clairvoyants, I thought to myself bitterly. No god damn privacy. I whipped my jacket of the back of my desk chair, and headed out the door of my attic apartment, slamming it behind me. That seemed to do the trick and my well meaning aunt let me terminate the call.
My name is Savannah Cross, and at 19 I have been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. As well as chemo, I have endured every spell, and ritual my family could throw at me. Before my aunt's call, I got back from my doctor's appointment where he told me the final round of treatments hadn't helped. I am still dying. Not ready to give up just yet though, I kind of like living too much. So here I go again, making the short trek to my aunt's herbalist/wiccan supply store, where she will chant, and make me drink a number of potions that taste like ass.
I dawdle down the rickety steps, through the crumbling old mansion I call home. No I am not loaded if that's what you're thinking? I live in a converted building, knocked into a bunch of apartments. I scored the attic one, which is actually pretty cool because it spans the entire top floor of a pretty huge
building. I digress... I step back out into the blustering wind, and wiggle my face under my scarf. Here we go again!
*********
The wind chimes above aunt Pru's door tinkled wildly, and a dry leafy rustle filled the air, as the bunches of dried herbs, and flowers that hang from the rafters were disturbed by the breeze, as I slipped inside.
" Beebee? Where are you?" I call out , peering into the gloom past the rows, and rows of jars, dried herbs, creams, and medicinal teas , where the counter at the back is located.
When I was little, I would sweep the straw bristles of a broom across the dusty stone floor, marveling at the alien bits of ingredients littering it. Surrounded by craggy roots, strange jars with their mysterious contents, candles every colour of the rainbow, and endless piles of dusty books. Now I just wonder how the hell she finds anything...ever?
"Back here Manglipe ( love)" The silken voice of my aunt calls out to me.
I navigate my way to the back room, through the plush velvet curtain behind the counter. My aunt is sat on a round table in the center of the room, the table holds a variety of coloured candles. White for cleansing, clairvoyance and healing, light blue for health, gold for success, black for destroying evil, healing powerful illness', and purple! Wow she's really going all out, I thought to myself. Purple expands on all the other candle abilities, represents the third eye, for healing, and most of all power.
A cauldron hangs over the hot coals in the stone fireplace, the blackened lid jittered against the boiling pot like chattering teeth. " Uh..what's in there?" I stab with my finger at the ominous bubbling potion.
" Come chavi ( girl) sit!" My aunt ignores my question, and takes my sweaty hand in her smooth, cool fingers, pulling me to sit at the table with her. I
stare at her bright green, feline shaped eye's, and I glaze over a little. Already she's doing something to calm me. I come from a long line of witches, and having abilities myself makes me more susceptible to her magic...except of course , not with all the healing apparently.
" This time we will have success, I feel it manglipe." She tells me.
****
An hour later, all spells exhausted, the pretty velvet table cloth is spattered with rainbow colored wax, and I am gagging on the final concoction! The table is full of empty jars, and potion bottles. There's a dry brush of hands as my aunt dislodges the last of the spell ingredients from her long fingers. " I feel the taint in your blood still." My aunt groans. " The disease still lives!" She waves her hands over my head, her eye's scrunched in concentration, her usually quaffed hair sticking up at odd angles,and beads of sweat above her full ruby lips.
Suddenly my aunt's eye's glaze over, and her jaw goes slack. "Beebee?" I waved my hands in front of her eye's...nothing! I followed her gaze to a braid of garlic hanging on the wall, and before I can try and make a connection, a barrage of Romanian curses turned the air blue. Aunt Pru was pacing like a caged tiger, speaking her native tongue and throwing her hands in the air repeatedly. What in the world was she talking about? When she spoke fast like this, it was hard for me to understand, and I yanked at my electric blue, and blonde striped hair to jolt myself into concentrating on her words. Then..."vampir!" She yelled, making me jump in the hard wooden chair.
" Oh shit, I know that word." Vampire? " Beebee what are you talking about?" My hand shoots out like a viper, catching her wrist, and pulling her to sit.
" You're cure manglipe! " Aunt Pru drawled into my ear.
" A vampire. We will find you immortality arvah? (yes) "
" A what? Vampires actually exist?" My voice squeaking with growing hysteria. She wasn't listening. She whirled around the room, gathering crystals, and one extremely large crystal ball .
" We find your vampire, and you go." Aunt Pru said with conviction, her jade eye's gleaming with excitement, as she centered the crystal ball on the table, sprinkling the circumference with the smaller crystals. I rubbed my brow, blinking rapidly. Was this happening? A vampire? I guess by now I really shouldn't be surprised at these things, considering my upbringing. My head was spinning, and my vision swam. Could this be what I've been searching for, a way to beat this illness that was eating me from the inside out?
My aunt began to chant an unfamiliar incantation, and before I could prepare myself, 'Thwack' a pale hand clamped across my head. 'Ow!' dear god why does she have to wear a zillion, heavy silver rings, I muttered to myself. She waved her other hand across the crystal ball, still chanting loudly, as her eye's began to roll in her head, leaving only the white's glowing in the gloom.
My blood was pounding in my ears, as suddenly an image appeared in the crystal ball. A bird's eye view whipping over swampland, ancient weeping willows lined the inhospitable environment of what looked like the Bayou in Louisiana, as we raced over alligator infested waters, ancient , gnarled tree roots, twisted into ominous shadows in the twilight, as a solitary old creole building, sat on a rickety jetty, loomed into view. The house dominated the stillness, and a solitary light shone from the ground floor. The only other source of light, an old gas lamp perched on the jetty, illuminated a puttering speed boat cutting through the inky water, as it pulled up to the moorland. A aging man hauled a box of goods from the boat, and waddled up the jetty toward the house. He used his free hand to scramble around in his pocket, yanking out a white handkerchief, and swatted at his dewy brow. As he reached the front door, it swung open with a heavy 'thunk.'
The most beautiful man I have ever set eye's on filled the doorway. He glowered out under long, dark lashes, his ice blue eye's drilling into the
sweating little man at his door. Beside him, a ginormous , black furred, red eyed hound , bristled , a low rumble of a growl building in his huge chest, as he snarled , huge white fangs visible in the fading light.
He snatched the box away from the man who held it out to him with trembling hands.
"My full order had better be here this time Carlos! Last time the red meat for Fang was underweight, and there were a dozen nails from the hardware missing." He boomed at the quivering delivery guy. The man flinched, and threw his hand to his brow cowering slightly.
" I....I..I'm sorry Mr Diablo, my humblest apologies, you won't find any problems this time, I promise you." The man sniveled at the towering adonis. The angry man swept his long black hair out of his eye's, and pushed his face into the delivery man's.
" Look into my eye's Carlos. You saw nothing strange here, just a reclusive man, and his pet dog. He took his order, paid you, and that was that. You will speak of me to NO ONE! Understood?" He hissed. His icey blue eye's narrowing , as he jabbed his index finger into the man's shoulder. He raised himself back to his full height, reaching around and pulling a wad of cash from his back pocket. He slapped the pile of bills into the waiting man's hand, raised his chin, sniffed, and retreated slamming the heavy door behind him. The delivery man wobbled unsteadily, turned around, his eye's glazed and unseeing, and waddled back toward his waiting boat.
The scene faded into blackness.
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