Dark Realms (36 page)

“The opposite of my mom, usually,” I
mumbled.

Rebecca turned to me. “I take it you didn’t
find her?”

I shook my head sadly. “No, we have no idea
where she is.”

“What about your sister?” asked Clarice,
taking a step closer.

“Actually, I haven’t spoken to her since
this morning.” I hadn’t even considered how much danger my twin
could be in.

“We’d better take a drive to the school and
check on her then,” said Clarice. “Quickly, before Vivian gets her
mitts on her.”

“Um, Kala’s supposed to be getting a ride
home with Mark Davis. They’re going to the library after school to
surf the Internet.”

Clarice frowned. “Did you say “Mark
Davis”?”

I nodded.

“I don’t know. There’s something about that
boy that doesn’t sit well with me,” she said. “I’ve seen him around
town, getting into all sorts of trouble. He’s definitely not the
type of boy your mother would want for Kala.”

“He’s a total jerk,” I said. “I don’t know
how she can even stand to be near him.”

Rebecca went behind the register and grabbed
her purse. “Let’s go find your sister, Kendra. If we’re lucky,
we’ll locate your mother, too.”

I sighed. “Can we drive by my house again,
just in case she’s there?”

“Of course, dear,” answered Rebecca. She
turned to Clarice who was digging around in her purse. “Are you
coming?”

Clarice looked up. “Yes, I was just looking
for my wand. It’s got to be in here somewhere.”

Rebecca opened up her own purse and held it
away from her body. “Manifest,” she said.

I watched in awe as a thin black magic wand
shot out of Rebecca’s leather handbag. It twirled in the air for a
few seconds and then sat hovering in front of her face. She grabbed
the wand and smiled at Clarice. “You may as well use magic now that
Vivian’s aware of our existence in town.”

Clarice nodded and then held out her purse.
“Manifest!” she ordered. Unfortunately nothing happened.

“Where is it?” asked Rebecca, stepping
closer.

Clarice frowned. “Manifest!” she yelled.
Still the wand did not appear.

“Is it possible that you left it at
home?”

“I never leave home without my wand. It’s
just giving me a hard time. I think it’s still angry that I
hollered at it the other day.”

“Oh,” said Rebecca. “You
have one of
those
.”

“What do you mean?” I asked incredulously.
“What… you hollered at your wand and now it’s acting out?”

Clarice nodded. “Some wands are sensitive.
Mine is very temperamental,” she murmured.

“I heard that!” boomed a feminine voice from
somewhere inside of Clarice’s purse.

My jaw dropped as a long thin wand shot out
of the purse and hovered close to Clarice’s face. “Madame, you owe
me an apology!” it announced.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” said
Clarice, with a stiff upper lip. “You’ve been ignoring me all day.
With Vivian around we have no time for such petty games.”

“I’m not playing games! I’d just like a
little respect, is all. I’ve served you for over fifty years,
witch. Have you once ever asked me to perform a spell nicely?”

“Whatever do you mean?” she asked.

The wand snorted. “A simple ‘thank you’ or
even a ‘please’ works wonders. Is that too much to ask?”

Clarice’s eyes narrowed. “Fine. Thank you
for all your magical assistance, I greatly appreciate it. Now get
your petulant, bony butt into my fist before I turn you into a box
of toothpicks!”

The wand immediately flew into Clarice’s
hand.

She smiled smugly and then
looked at me. “You have to teach the wand who’s in charge or they
won’t serve you properly. They like to test you from time to time.
S
ome
more than
others.”

I was still flustered from seeing a wand
talk, let alone think on its own. “Um, okay.”

Clarice stepped closer to me. “You do
realize you’re a witch too, don’t you, dear?”

“Me?” I asked, hoarsely.

“Oh yes. Your powers are dormant right now.
But you and your sister have the genes to be very powerful
witches.”

Chapter Twenty

I chewed on what Clarice had told me on the
way to the school but had a hard time really believing it. I was
still trying to imagine my mother as a powerful sorceress. It just
didn’t seem logical. She changed diapers and served macaroni and
cheese to children during the day. Did she really have the ability
to teleport or put a hex on someone when she wasn’t potty
training?

“You okay?” asked Tyler, touching my
knee.

“I think so,” I said, staring at his
hand.

“I know this whole thing is hard to grasp,”
he said, looking down, suddenly shy. He removed his hand.
“Sorry.”

I smiled. “You didn’t hear me
complaining.”

He grinned and put his hand back on my
knee.

“Tyler,” warned Rebecca, who must also have
eyes on the back of her head.

He removed his hand and smiled
sheepishly.

I turned to look out the window as we pulled
up to the high school. The last bell hadn’t rung yet, so I knew we
still had some time.

“Kendra and I should go into the school
alone,” said Tyler. “You ladies can keep a lookout for anything
unusual on the outside.”

“Just be careful,” said Rebecca. “If you run
into Vivian, send me a signal.”

He nodded and we got out of the car.

“So, how
are
you going to let your
mother know if Vivian’s around?” I asked.

He pointed to his head. “If she opens her
mind up, I can send her a telepathic message.”

I sighed. “Oh, of course. I should have
known.”

The bell began to ring right as we entered
the school and the sound of chaos soon filled the halls.

“I’m not even sure which class Kala has for
final period,” I said, as kids started rushing past us towards the
exit.

“Maybe you should watch for her at this side
of the building,” he said. “I’ll go to the other exit and keep an
eye out.”

“Okay.”

I watched as Tyler put his sunglasses on and
walked away. He seemed so much older and sophisticated than the
guys sprinting past me on their way out of the school. Some of them
were belching out loud or skateboarding towards the exits, and I
began to wonder if Tyler was older than what he’d said. It was
feasible since he only came to the school looking for us.

“Kala!” hollered Hailey coming straight
towards me. She obviously had me confused with my sister.

“Hi,” I said, gritting my teeth.

She looked down at my dress and grinned like
a Cheshire cat. “Oh, I see they do make that dress in regular
sizes. It certainly looks nice on you.”

I forced a smile. “Well, thanks.”

She nodded. “Too bad your sister can’t lose
all that extra weight. I’d have thought seeing you in the exact
same dress would inspire her to eat less.”

“Why are you so interested in my sister?” I
snapped.

Hailey’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not. It’s just
that I know you were talking about running for student council
president and having a sister like her can’t be good for your
image. Maybe you shouldn’t even waste your time running.”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled cruelly. “Well, you’re popular,
of course, but she’s pretty much in a class all by herself. Think
about it, you’ll lose a lot of votes and that would be totally
humiliating. You could save yourself the embarrassment and just
help someone else win.”

I folded my arms under my chest. “Let me
guess, you’re running for president as well and would like me to
back you up?”

Her face lit up. “You’d do that?”

I was speechless. Words just couldn’t
describe how much I despised Hailey at that particular moment,
although, if I had the power to turn her into a toad right now, I’d
turn myself into one instead. Then I’d turn her into a fly, so that
I could devour her.

“Listen,” she said. “Don’t forget to meet us
at ‘The Pointe’ after school. Mark mentioned that he was giving you
a lift?”

The Pointe?
That was a popular partying spot. I cleared my
throat. “Oh, yeah. I’ll see you later.”

She stared at me curiously for a minute and
then walked away.

~~~

As I continued to search for Kala, I noticed
Tyler hurrying towards me.

“Did you see her anywhere?” I asked.

He nodded and then ran a hand through his
hair. “I did, but unfortunately Mark hustled her out of the school
so quickly, I didn’t get a chance to talk to her.”

I sighed. “Well, I know where they’re
going,” I said. “The Pointe.”

“What’s “The Pointe”?

I smirked. “Exactly.”

He snorted. “Do you know where it is?”

“I think so. There’s a park a few blocks
from here with a great view of the valley below. If you climb down
the hill underneath it a few feet, you’ll supposedly come to this
hidden cave. That’s where the kids hang out to drink or do
whatever.”

His eyebrows went up. “So you’ve been there
before?”

I shook my head.

He looked a little relieved. “Let’s go find
it then,” he said, taking my hand.

Chapter Twenty-One

“Clarice checked your house while you were
inside and Adrianne is still not there,” said Rebecca as we slid
into the back of her car.

“Yes, I left her an encrypted note so she’d
know you were safe, as well,” said Clarice.

“Did you teleport from the car?” I
asked.

“No,” she answered, patting the outside of
her purse. “I flew on my broom.”

My jaw dropped. “You actually flew on a
broom and now it’s in your purse?”

She smiled weakly. “I just can’t teleport
like I used to. The last time I landed, my knees were sore for a
week.”

“But, seriously, you can fly on a real
broom?” I asked. If I wasn’t so worried about my sister and mom,
I’d make her fly for me.

Clarice nodded. “Oh, yes. I find the
old-fashioned way is much easier. Plus, I can see exactly where I’m
going.”

I sat back. “I wonder where my mother is?
What if Vivian has already found her?”

“Your mother is not an easy witch to put
down,” said Clarice. “She’s just as powerful as Vivian, remember.
They’re twins.”

Rebecca sighed. “Yes, but Vivian practices
Black magic, which Adrianne wouldn’t touch.”

“What’s the difference?” I asked.

“Black magic is evil and it’s used for one’s
own good. A witch who uses this type of magic learns how to control
demons and spirits, using them for his or her own selfishness.
Usually,” Clarice added with a scowl, “to do harm to others.”

“We don’t dabble in Black magic,” said
Rebecca firmly. “It’s dangerous and against our beliefs. Instead,
we use only White, which works with the spirits,” said Rebecca, “to
heal others or create spells that help us defeat evil.”

“Oh,” I said. “Which is stronger?”

Rebecca and Clarice looked at each
other.

“It depends on the witch and her inner
strength,” said Tyler. “If she believes she can conquer the other’s
magic, no matter what it is, she usually succeeds.”

“So White magic doesn’t always win?” I
squeaked.

“Only if the witch knows what’s she doing
and believes her powers are the stronger of the two,” said
Tyler.

That revelation gave me goose bumps. I only
hoped my mother’s inner strength and beliefs were enough to keep
her alive.

~~~

The park was crawling with high school
students, most of them attempting to climb down the hill, many
carrying small brown bags.

“Looks like a B.Y.O.B.,” remarked Tyler.

“Bring your own broom?” asked Clarice. She
smiled and her eyes lit up. “Oh, how wonderful. I used to enjoy
those parties as a young girl, you know.”

Rebecca laughed. “No Clarice, bottle, not
broom.”

Her smile fell. “Oh, those naughty
kids.”

“I can’t believe my sister is going to this
party,” I said. “She told me Mark didn’t drink alcohol.”

“Hey, there they are,” pointed Clarice.

Sure enough, my sister followed Mark towards
the hill, although neither of them carried a bag of any sort. Kala
didn’t look very enthused.

“I’m going to talk to her,” I said, opening
up the car door.

“I’ll come with,” said Tyler.

“We’ll keep an eye out for Vivian. She might
be drawn to this kind of thing,” said Rebecca.

Clarice raised her hands in the air and
closed her eyes. “Yes, I can sense an aura of evil and deception
radiating from some of these kids. This party screams of bad
news.”

“Sounds like a blast,” answered Tyler with a
humorless smile. “On that note, we’ll be back as soon as we
can.”

We stepped away from the car and walked
towards the edge of the hill.

“Hey, it’s vampire boy,” snickered Trevor
Danes, coming up behind us. He was holding a two plastic bags
filled with ice and plastic red cups.

I smirked. “Wow, Trevor, looks like you’re
all set.”

Trevor was in our math class – a total
surfer type of bonehead. He was also close friends with Mark.

He bobbed his head up and down. “You know
it. Say,” he said, motioning towards Tyler. “I didn’t know you had
a thing for bloodsucking-losers, Kala.”

I opened up to let him have it when Tyler
removed his sunglasses and motioned for me to remain silent.

“There goes the shades… hey, watch out for
the burn, dude!” laughed Trevor.

Tyler looked into Trevor’s vacant blue eyes.
“Stay put, and keep an eye out for a woman with long, red hair. If
you see her coming this way, howl like a wolf as loudly as you
can.”