The warlock’s mist disintegrates with the sweep of my arm, and out of the palm of my hand fly hundreds of little silvery white electrical sparks, they flit like fairies, flying through the air at the warlock before me. His eyes widen in shock before the sparks make contact with his face and singe his skin. Oh God, that felt empowering and amazing. Suddenly I’m not so wary of this ball of magic Rita says I’ve got bubbling up in my belly.
The others are staring at me now, and Rita’s got a massive smile on her face. “Nice one, Tegan,” she calls, clapping her hands together.
Finn grabs my arm and drags me the rest of the way to Rita’s garden. “You’ll have to teach me that trick some time,” he says in a low voice, eyeing me with interest.
I’m still in absolute shock when I reply, “You’ll have to wait until I figure out where it came from first.”
When we join the others, an older warlock with short grey hair comes walking into the middle of the road where he stops and surveys our motley crew. His eyes land on me almost immediately and he asks, “Who are you, child?”
“Like she’s gonna answer to you,” says Rita in a pissed voice.
Simultaneously, Finn, Gabriel and Alvie stand in front of me, shielding me from the warlock’s gaze.
“You have lost your way, little one,” he says, still talking to me, his voice is almost hypnotising. “Come back to us,” then he opens his arms as if to welcome me home. There’s not a chance of me going anywhere near him. And what does he mean by ‘come back to us’? Does he think I’m some lost member of his family or something?
“She does not and never has belonged to you,” says Rita’s mother, speaking up. “You have destroyed my home Michael, is that not enough for you? Do you wish to see myself and my daughter dead too?”
There is a moment of silence, and all I can hear is the crash of wood as something breaks inside Rita’s house, it sounds like an entire floor has fallen through. The warlock named Michael’s gaze flits to the house, and a cruel smile covers his thin lips.
“Take this as a warning Noreen Doherty, if I ever find you trying to corrupt the children of my family again I will do a lot worse than burn your house down.” His eyes meet mine through a gap in the bodies that are currently shielding me. “We will meet again, little one,” he says with an intrigued expression.
At this he motions to those behind him, and it only takes a few moments for them to drift away and out of sight. Gone. Noreen slumps to the ground, her posture betrays her exhaustion. Rita hurries over to her mum and pulls her into a tight hug. Then a window from the top floor smashes outwards and we all just barely avoid being struck in the face by shards of glass.
“We have to leave now,” says Gabriel. “It’s not safe.” The sound of a fire engine wails in the distance, one of the neighbours must have called for it.
“Come on, I’ve got the van parked just down the road, we can go to my place. You lot can figure out what you’re going to do from there.” Finn offers.
We all huddle into the van. I sit across from Rita and her mother as they hold onto each other and cry silently. Seeing Rita display this kind of emotion startles me for a moment, since she’s always so confident and breezy about things. I suppose losing all of your worldly possessions as well as your home will do that to a person.
Gabriel is examining a small cut on Alvie’s face, perhaps not all of us avoided the shattered glass after all. Gabriel tries to dab away the blood with the sleeve of his shirt, it seems sort of intimate for some reason, but then he catches me watching and pulls away. Alvie’s expression is wounded. It makes me wonder if something is going on between the two of them.
When we get to Finn’s house everybody sits around the kitchen table, while Noreen goes about making a big pot of tea. A plan is going to be hatched. I leave to use the bathroom and end up staying in there for a good long while just staring into the mirror. The magic that I used tonight has me both fascinated and terrified. If I could summon up burning sparks like that without even consciously thinking about it, then what could I be capable of if I really put my mind to it?
Perhaps I’m a witch after all. Or perhaps my magic is an in built form of defence for women with my blood type. It makes sense that if we are going to be at the mercy of invincible vampires then we should at least have a fighting chance at defending ourselves. The magic I used tonight serves that purpose very well.
Finally, I splash some water over my face and leave the bathroom to find Finn coming up the stairs toward me.
“You were in there for a while,” he says, “I was just coming to check if you were all right.”
“I’m fine, I just needed a minute to process what happened tonight. What I did.”
“Yeah,” says Finn, rubbing his neck thoughtfully. “About that, is there something you’re not telling me?”
“What, that I’m a witch? Finn, I’m so fucking confused right now it’s not funny. Ever since I came back to Tribane I’ve been realising that my blood isn’t the only thing that’s different about me.”
“Well I’m sure Rita will help you figure it out,” he says, in an effort to comfort me.
“Yeah, I hope so.” We stand there on the landing for a minute in silence.
“So, um…” Finn begins. “We came to a conclusion downstairs while you were in the bathroom. That warlock from tonight, Michael Ridley, not only did he burn down Rita’s house, he also put spells on Gabriel and Alvie’s apartments. If anybody steps foot inside them their skin starts to melt.” I make a face of shock before Finn continues, “Disgusting I know, Gabriel found out the hard way. It’s a good thing dhamphirs heal quickly, or he’d be going around with a face like the elephant man for the rest of his days. Anyway, what this basically means is that our friends below don’t have any place to live at the moment, so I told them they could all stay here for a few nights. Is that okay with you?”
I nod. “Of course it is, it’s your house Finn. But where are they all going to sleep? There are only three bedrooms.”
Finn smiles and scratches his elbow, before saying, “Rita managed to haggle me into giving her and Noreen my room, the master bedroom. She’s going to perform a healing spell on my leg to help me walk normal again. If you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been limping like a motherfucker since I got shot.”
“That’s great. She can really heal it with magic?” I question.
“So she says,” Finn gives a shrug. “Alvie and Gabriel will be taking the empty room at the end of the hall, and that leaves me sleeping in with you for the time being.”