Mystic Embrace (12 page)

As we were walking back to the car, I whisper to Sophia, “It’s really nice to see you and Danika getting along a little better.”

“
Yeah, it makes the life that home a little easier,” Sophia admits.

***

Walking the path up to the meadow, I get a chill. It is almost as though something has passed straight through my soul. I’ve never had a sensation like this before; I turn to Alexander wondering if he senses anything.

“
Did you…” I begin to ask.

“
No, I can’t sense, anything outside of our group and the animals in the area,” he quickly answers.

“
What’s going on, Ebony, are you okay?” Matt worries.

“
Yeah, I think everything is okay. I just have this really strange feeling. It must have something to do with the baby; having something growing inside of you put’s off some weird sensations.”

It doesn’t take us long to meet Eliza, Isaac, and Constance in the meadow. They already have everything set up for the ritual. Now that we’re all here, Eliza casts the circle and begins the ritual.

“
Tonight we call upon the spirits of Wenham, Massachusetts in peace and in light. We invite them to walk among us. Tonight we call upon the spirits of the water, air, fire and earth. We ask thee to lift thy veil between realms and allow the gates between the worlds be open wide. We come to celebrate the New Year and remember those who have gone before us. We call upon you to accept our offerings on this sacred tonight of the New Year. May you bless us in the year to come.”

Eliza lifts up all of sacred harvest fruits and vegetables in offering to the gods and goddesses.

“
With the gates open, we call upon our ancestors, those known and unknown to celebrate with us and guide us into the New Year.”

Sh
e continues on with the ritual and a small feast in honor of the celebration. Throughout the ritual we see and feel various spirits around us. The feeling is absolutely unbelievable. To be surrounded by so many of our ancestors. We can learn so much from them. Once the ceremony is complete, Eliza closes the ritual.

“
We thank you spirits for coming among us in peace and blessing our rite. Join us in peace, as we walk into the New Year. We thank our ancestors for coming among us. And remember you in love, for you will one day join us again and we wait for your return. Blessed be.”

“
Blessed be” we all repeat

Eliza passes around paper and pens, “Now I invite you all to write down anything you would like to let go of from the past year. Once you’re finished, concentrate on it and throw it into the fire watching it burn and the smoke rise, leaving us forever.”

We each take a turn, happy to release some the negativity that has surrounded us for the past year and start this New Year with peace.

As the ritual comes to a close, Eliza reopens the circle. Everyone assists in cleaning up and restoring the area. I have to admit it’s nice to have vampire friends. They are very quick and very strong and help load the cars with all the supplies in no time. After one more sweep of the area, we start back down the path towards the cars. All of a sudden, I get the strange feeling again. It almost feels as though I’m floating, walking on air.

“
Umm, Ebony,” Matt tugs on my hand.

“
Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“
I think he is concerned that you are about a foot off the ground,” Eliza points out.

“
What the hell are you…?” I bark back and the look down only to notice she is right. The entire group is staring at me.

“
I guess this could explain the funny feeling I keep getting, but how is this possible? I’m telekinetic, I can’t levitate.”

“
Well apparently you can now.” Matt lets go of my hand and gives me a little push.

“
Hey what the heck are you doing? I am not a beach ball,” I joke.

“
Yet!” Sophia shouts as she runs up and gives me a little push.

They have their fun playing with me as I float slightly off the ground. It doesn’t take much for me to concentrate and ground myself.

“
Now you’re all in for it.” I start chasing after them.

It is not really fair playing tag of sorts with vampires; they are just too fast and like to sneak up on me.

“
This isn’t fair!” I shout with a laugh.

“
Aw muffin, too bad. This is how we vampires have fun, teasing our prey,” Isaac jokes.

“
Oh so we are prey now, good to know. Maybe I should start carrying garlic,” Matt shoots back. Knowing that garlic doesn’t actually ward off vampires, but he enjoys playing into the classic stereotype.

We goof around for a bit down the path before reaching the cars, but I think it may be time to get back to the manor and find out what is going on with me floating. Everyone decides to come over to our
place; they want to know what’s happening as well. Maybe I can even learn how to control it a little. I start to get excited over the possibility of a new power.

Chapter
Seventeen

Power Confusion

Walking into the manor, Eliza quickly goes to the office for the book of shadows. Hoping that we can find some information about gaining new powers she flips through the pages. Constance goes to the kitchen and brews some tea, as Matt tries to help me understand my new power.

“
Okay, so tell me exactly what you felt before we noticed you levitating.” Matt takes the pen and paper Sophia grabbed for his notes. Matt takes note of everything, like the good little guardian student he is.

“
Well it is kinda hard to explain. When we were first walking up to the meadow I had this feeling as if something was passing through me. It only lasted a moment.”

He jots down some notes. “Now what about when we were heading back to the car?”

“
Well it was the same feeling, and that is when you told me I was levitating.”

“
And how did you make it stop?” He asks.

“
Not really sure. I just concentrated and focused my energy and willed myself to the ground,” I admit.

“
Have you ever had this feeling before?” Isaac asks.

“
Nope, never, and the weird thing is that, it happened at almost the exact same spot of the pathway both times.”

Constance comes back in with the tea. “So, are you guys making any headway?”

“
Not really but it’s kind of interesting,” Sophia admits.

Eliza jumps up and slams the book on the table, pointing to a page. “Here we go, I think I got something.” She says with excitement. “It says here that we can gain powers as we improve on our original ones. Also, sometimes during pregnancy, a mother, witch or mortal can absorb her baby’s powers. So it appears that a mortal mother can give birth to a magickal being, just the opposite of our mortal father and a magickal mother.”

“
So we just have to find out if it is me or the baby.”

“
Well, there is another option too, and not as favorable.”

With slight concern I ask, “What is not a good option?”

“
Well, basically it says that if you enter an area occupied by a spirit. You can sometimes adapt to their powers.”

“
That doesn’t sound too bad.” I breathe a sigh of relief.

“
That’s not all, if the spirit finds you favorable, they can attach themselves to you and take over,” Eliza explains.

“
Okay, which one of these options do you think happened to me?”

“
I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like the spirit. Because of the feeling you received of something passing through you and the levitation occurring in the same spot. I can’t help but think that it could be a spirit with tonight being Samhain and the veil being so thin. You have to admit, it makes sense.” Eliza sits next to me.

I can’t help but wonder if a spirit attaches itself to me, can it harm the baby. I don’t know what to do. This baby has only been growing in me a few months and I love it so much already.

“
Matt, there has to be some way we can figure this out. We have to protect our baby and I’m scared the spirit will harm it.”

“
Don’t worry, Ebony, we are going to protect our baby. Spirits cannot harm you or our baby. If a spirit attached to you, it is only because it needs your help. Would you harm anyone you want help from? Plus we don’t even know for sure that it is a spirit.” Matt tries to calm me.

“
Why would a spirit need my help?”

“
Let’s just try and find out if that’s what it is before we figure out why it needs your help,” Eliza suggests.

“
How exactly do you suggest we find out if it is a spirit or not?” I ask.

“
I think the easiest way is to use divination, we can use the Ouija board. This is a tried and tested way for us to speak with a spirit. Matt, would you mind getting it out of the office in the bottom drawer of the desk.” Eliza begins to clear the table.

“
Is there anything that we can do?” Sophia offers.

“
Just being here for support, you never know when we may need some muscle,” I joke.

Matt comes back with the Ouija board, and we try for almost an hour to contact the spirit attaching itself to me. Nothing happens, which proves that no spirit is attaching to me. This leaves my powers growing or the baby is projecting its powers.

“
Ebony, we’ll figure this out somehow. At least we know it is not a spirit, so this is good news,” Eliza encourages.

Matt also tries to comfort me, “I know how hard this is for you Ebony, not knowing what is going on and having no one to talk to that has been through it. I wish there was something more I could do to help.”

“
It’s okay Matt; I’m not the first teenage witch to go through pregnancy. I am just a little extra emotional these days.”

“
Just know that I am always here for you and my parents are too. Because of my family’s history they are very understanding to anything of the supernatural.”

“
I know and thank you.”

The Pierce family decides to return home, and Matt calls his parents to explain what happened. They suggest that he stay the night, just to ensure I am alright. I feel so blessed to be gaining such a wonderful family. Maybe tonight Matt can help me and Eliza with our lessons. Soon I will be in my second trimester of my pregnancy and it will be time to go after Naberius. It is time to increase training and begin preparations, assuming he continues sending his minions instead of coming after us himself.

“
So where should we start?” I ask.

“
I think we should work on strengthening your existing powers. Ebony we’ll work on increasing your telekinetic abilities and Eliza we will work on strengthening your time control,” Matt suggests.

Eliza’s powers have progressed a lot faster than mine. I assume because she is a few years older than me. Her first power was time control, and from there she has learned to astral project. I like this ability; she has used it to take me with her to alternate realms. It isn’t really a new power just an extension of her time control.

Eliza sneaks behind Matt poking at either side of his waist, “You’re the boss soon to be brother-in-law. Okay, so what activities do you want us to do?”

“
Well for starters, instead of just freezing time, I want you to concentrate on strictly slowing it down. This is similar to what you do when you astral projecting yourself. I want you to do the same thing, just stay here.”

“
Hey what can I do? I don’t really understand what I can work on. I move things, what else is there to do.”

“
There’s lots of things you can do, Ebony. One thing I want you to try though, move something and then change directions. This will be handy when in a fight; you can even work on using multiple weapons at the same time.”

We work on Matt’s skills and exercises until the sun comes up. Matt’s a really good teacher. Everything that the great ones have taught him, he is using to help us. He’s doing his job as a guardian even before his time. I don’t want to think of the day that I lose him, but I know that he is going to be great help to the lucky witch that has him for a guardian.

The thought brings me to ask, “I love having you help us, but I’m just wondering if we’ll ever get our own guardian?”

“
When you need it most your guardian, he or she, will appear to you. I am guessing that since you had your Grams to guide you, the great ones must not have felt you needed one. Then right before she passed your parents came to you, and after her passing she came to you. Not to mention me, you two have more people to teach and guide you than anyone could hope for. You have no need to for a guardian right now, which is not a bad thing,” Matt explains.

“
Okay Ebony. I think you need to get some sleep. We’ve been working all night, and you have a little one that you need to think of. My little niece or nephew needs to grow and their mommy needs to get some rest. Okay, so Matt, you should take my baby sister upstairs and get her tucked in to bed. I’ll bring up some warm milk for both of you,” Eliza orders

“
Who am I to argue with the big sister? You heard the lady let’s get you upstairs to bed.” He scooped me up in his arms and carries me up the stairs.

“
You know I can walk right?”