Fighting Destiny (Central Coven) (18 page)

“I haven’t thought about it much.  Just having powers is a bit much for me to handle.  I haven’t thought about the destiny portion of this yet.”  “Anyway, there will be time to think about that later, but for now we have the small matter of preventing more disappearances.” 

“You said once Grey had a charm to prevent the necromancers from gaining control over him.  Can you create charms we can use to break the spell controlling the vampires?” Finn asked. 

“There is an icon of a sun and moon together. It cancels out the darkness that comes over them while they are under the necromancer’s spell.  The moon is combined with the sun because vampires are unable to enter the daylight, it must be balanced with the night.  Not only is the amulet, charm, talisman, what ever you prefer to call it, representational of the spell that is cast on it, but also it has psychological effects for the recipient of the charm.”

“Can we use this against them?”  “There is a chance.  I think.  But we are going to have to find their daytime resting place.  We are going to have to figure out how many of them there are.  And then we are going to have to make the charms, and place them on the vampires without getting caught.  Of course, this is not going to work on Alexander, because he isn’t under a spell.  And that is assuming the rest of the vampires are.” “Are we sure it is more than one?” Finn asked.  “Yeah, Anita picked up the scent of more than one vampire in the library.”

“Where are we going to get these charms?” he asked.  “There is a silversmith here in town I met that can make them.  He will need to know how many we need, of course.  So before we make charms we need to take a vampire census.”  “We won’t have to do another one ten years from now will we?” “No,” I picked up my phone, “I really should read this.”  “Yeah, I guess you want privacy for that.  We’ll talk again later.”  Finn looked at me seriously, “Chloë, don’t give up on me yet.”

“Finn…I care about you, a lot, but until you are sure.  One hundred percent sure you want me and only me, you gotta let me be.  I can’t keep doing this.  Don’t you see you are breaking my heart slowly and repeatedly.”  “God, Chloë.  Shit, I’m sorry.  I don’t have an excuse except for being an ass.  I’ll try okay?”

“Do better than try. I’m not sure I have it in me to give you another chance, and if I do keep in mind you are running out of them. But, I do have some things to figure out before we go out hunting vampires.  The sooner we get going on this, the sooner it is over.  Maybe we can still salvage some of this year and have a normal college experience.”  Finn laughed a little darkly, “As normal as a witch, an elf, a shape-shifter, and a half-vamp can have.”  “Alright, normal for us,” I replied.

An eighteen and older dance was being held at the Elks club downtown.  Grey’s text alerted me that some of Alexander’s vampires were planning on attending the dance and abducting another student tonight.  How was he getting this information? 

It had been a very long day already, and the last thing I was looking forward to was another party.  Especially one I knew was likely to end in a violent confrontation. 

Anita and I stood in front of our wardrobe mirrors getting ready.  She was putting the finishing touches on her make-up.  She was wearing bronze colored metallic pants, a black sleeveless shirt, black leather boots, and a black leather jacket.  She wa
s applying a bronze lip glaze, to match her eye shadow. The effect made her appear sun kissed.  Ironic really, a sun kissed vampire.

I chose to wear my hair in large curls. I applied a little more make-up than usual, still less than the skank brigade from the second floor, but a lot for me. I slicked nude colored lip-gloss on my mouth. My eyes were enhanced with smoky eye shadow.  I wore a crimson silk t-shirt and a pair of tight black pants.  Like Anita, I paired my outfit with black leather boots and a leather jacket.  I grabbed my small black purse and threw in what I would absolutely need inside and we walked out the door.

Downstairs Dean and Finn were waiting for us.  Dean was dressed casually, in jeans, nice tennis shoes, and a Puma brand sweatshirt.  “Funny,” I said pointing to his sweatshirt.  He shrugged with a smirk on his face.  “That’s my guy, always making a joke out of this whole thing,” Anita said lovingly.  Dean grinned his white boy-next-door smile.  “So long as its an inside joke, what can it hurt?”

Finn was wearing designer jeans, a black button down shirt with white stripes, and black shoes.   Their different choices in clothes represented their different personalities.  Dean is more laid back, more comfortable being himself.  Finn is more of a planned person; he takes longer to get to know.

Dean retrieved his keys from his pocket and jingled them in front of all of us.  Anita and Finn looked longingly at me.  I chuckled.  “Sorry guys, but my car only seats two comfortably.  It looks like we are taking Dean’s beast of a truck.”  “Fine, but I don’t have to like it,” Anita grumbled.  “There is nothing wrong with my truck.”  “Oh, com’on, let’s go.  We are only going downtown anyway,” I refereed.

It took longer to find a parking spot in Ellensburg’s tiny, but quaint, downtown considering a majority of Central’s student body seemed to be making an appearance at this dance.  When we arrived there was a line half way down the block. “I still don’t know why we are doing this. It seems so pedestrian,” Anita complained.

“Do you have a better plan to figure out how many vampires are around, and how to stop them from abducting another student tonight?” I asked.  “Is this like a telethon?  We are going to dance to fight vampires?  I mean, seriously.  What is this the after-school special version of fighting in the supernatural world?” Anita replied sarcastically.  “Alright smart ass, I know it doesn’t sound reasonable when you put it like that.  We need to see if Grey’s information was right, and see if we can mark any of them,” I answered.

“Mark them?” Anita asked confused.  “Yeah.  I have these small charms for all of you.  They look like unisex dog tag style necklaces with a sapphire moon. There is a small indentation on the back you press when you see a vampire, while pointing the moon in their direction.  I charmed them so it will leave an invisible tracer that will help us find them after tonight.  Necromancers do not have the ability to perform this level of magic, so Simone will not be able to detect the spell either.”

I spoke to Grey briefly earlier in the evening.  He told me about the vampires plan, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to come tonight or not.  He did not want us getting too close to the vampires to get hurt.  That would risk too much.  So I had to figure out how to learn as much as possible about the vampires without getting near them.

I remembered telling Finn about the silversmith I had met, and that gave me an idea.  I made a call and found out a local environmentalist group had cancelled an expensive order for necklaces for their club.  I told him I would take five of them.  He dropped them off, and I got to work charming them. 

I didn’t have to speak Latin, or compose a rhyming stanza, but it did take a few extra steps.  I bought a state map, a container of invisible ink, and a paintbrush.  Next, I painted the invisible ink across the map. Then, I laid all of the necklaces out on the map.  I held my hands above the entire set up, my eyes became green, and the space between the map and my hands glowed with a brilliant green light also.  “Now you’ve been found, let you be known, seen by my eyes, and marked by this stone.” Okay, so I did get a little creative with this spell.  Completely unnecessary, but it kept my mind off of romantic drama.

With the spell all of the stones glowed blue for a few long seconds, and then slowly dimmed.  When they were back to their pre-charmed appearance I placed them in a velvet bag.  I took the bag out of my pocket now and handed one to everyone.  Now my friends and I were all wearing them. I still had one in my jacket pocket in case Grey did show up.  I was not sure if he would want one, but I thought it would be helpful if he would wear one. Especially since I had no idea how many vampires he ran into daily.

Slowly, we made our way to the front of the line, paid our cover charge, and received our ugly stamp to indicate we were too young to enter the bar area of the dance.  In the main room, the music was blasting, the lights were pulsing with the music, and more bodies were filing in.  A popular dance song with a Latin beat came on.  “I love this one!” Anita exclaimed.  “Come on, dance with me,” she demanded. 

Without waiting for a response she grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the dance floor.  The only thing I had time to do was hand my jacket and purse to Finn as she dragged me away.  I was trying to enjoy the song, but I was also trying to remain alert.  “Do you see anyone?” I asked her.  “No, not yet.  I don’t smell anyone either,” she replied.  “Right, I forgot about that.”

I looked in the corner and saw Grey lounging, watching the crowd.  I took out my cell and texted him.  I wrote.  he responded.  I texted back.

“Anita, I have a charm for Grey too.  He is leaning in the corner near the DJ.  Can you go take it to him?” I asked.  “Why me?” “I am trying to keep Finn from going ballistic.  He hates Grey.  Even though he and I aren’t a couple we did come here together tonight, and if I go and talk to Grey that is going to piss him off.”  “Fine, give it to me,” she said and held out her hand.  I dropped the last charmed necklace into her hand, she turned and headed toward Grey.

Anita returned in a blur of movement.  I scowled at her.  “What mom?” she snapped.  “You know what.  We are supposed to be keeping a low profile.  Humans can’t find out about us,” I warned her.  “Geez, you are just a barrel of fun aren’t you.  Relax.  The only ones that could see me we need to mark with these oh so fashionable accessories you provided us with.  Humans are too slow any way,” she retorted.  “Besides,” she continued, “Grey is in a horrible mood.  I didn’t want to be around him a second longer than was necessary.  I gave him the charm, told him how to use it, and then got the hell away.”

“Fantastic, now they are both in a bad mood,” I grumbled.  “Well, what do you expect Chloë?  You can’t keep stringing them both along, and expect them to thank you for it.”  “Have I done something to you?” I asked annoyed.  “I’m just tired of all of this drama.  I can’t wait for this to be over.  We certainly don’t need any extra with this crap that keeps brewing up around you.  I know it isn’t 100% your fault, but you aren’t doing much to stop it either.”  “Alright, do you have a suggestion?”  “Yeah, pick one or cut them both loose,” she said.

“You’re right.  Who should I pick?”  “Uhh!  You are impossible.  Well there I can’t help you.  I was hung up on Grey forever myself.  He is mysterious, he has a little of that bad boy thing, and he never lets you down.  Not to mention he is the definition of gorgeous.  And Finn, well he is Michelangelo’s David in the flesh.  But he knows that.  He adores you, but he keeps changing his mind.  You know what, I’ve been too hard on you. I’m sorry.  Can we blame this on PMS?”  “I have no problem forgetting the entire thing and blaming PMS.  In fact I’m all for blaming all sorts of things on that or on men,” I agreed and gave her a hug.  She laughed, “I knew there was I reason why I loved you.  You are just so reasonable.”

“Is this a private party or can we join in?” Dean asked from behind Anita.  Anita and I stepped apart before bystanders started to get the wrong idea.  Dean quickly swooped in and pulled Anita into his arms.  Finn stood awkwardly on the outer edges of our discussion.  He shuffled his feet, looked down at the floor, opened his mouth to speak, and instantly closed it again.  For a moment I caught his eye, and then he shifted his gaze away from me trying to conceal his discomfort.

A fast song started to play; Dean and Anita migrated toward the dance floor.  Once again Finn’s eyes, steel blue tonight, met mine.  Immediately his mood perceptively shifted.  He took a step towards me.  I turned my head sideways, and looked at him curiously.  He smirked at me.  Suddenly he slid his hands around my waist and pulled me to him.  We began to wind and twist around each other, not in the vulgar way so many others were doing around us, but as if we were carrying on a conversation without words.

I saw the scowl on Grey’s face from across the room.  I realized then what the smirk was about.  He had upset Grey, so he was happy.  I should have known. Finn was always playing a game.  He couldn’t simply acknowledge his feelings and give in to them.  No, he had to play a game.  As much as my heart wanted to choose him, my head told me it would be a bad idea. 

I pulled back.  “I knew there had to be a catch.  There had to be something more than just wanting to dance with me.  Why?  Why, can’t this ever be simple?”  I demanded.  “What are you talking about?” he asked.  “This little show you are putting on for Grey.” I pointed to where he was skulking.  “I can’t help he doesn’t like what he sees,” Finn stated coldly.  “Well you won’t use me for your revenge,” I snapped and started to walk away. 

“Chloë if you walk away now, this is it.  I’m done with this back and forth,” Finn threatened.  “That is fine with me.  I was done when you started ignoring me the first time we kissed, definitely after we got back together and you left me at that horrible party to talk to Cynthia of all people.  But tonight you are only paying attention to me to hurt someone else.  I’m walking away because I’m done with this!”

I walked up to Grey, and he put up his hand to stop me from talking.  However, stubbornness like mine is hard to fight, even for someone as formidable as Grey.  “I am sorry.  I had no idea what he was up to, but I should have.  I don’t know what else to say.”  I turned to walk away.  Then, his strong white hand firmly, yet gently grasped my shoulder, and prevented my departure.