After a long, hot shower where I used half a bottle of shampoo, and an even longer nap, I was finally ready to face my cousin. Mia was sitting outside on our tiny patio, sipping wine and watching the sun set. I joined her, beer in hand, but I said nothing.
"Some crazy couple of days behind us." I finally whispered, after several minutes of silence. Mia chuckled.
"More problems in a few days than in all the years we have been living here, that's for sure." She drank a whole glass of wine and turned toward me.
"But to be honest, we haven't really done anything besides work and slept, have we?" She said with such a bitter tone, it surprised me.
"What do you mean by that?" Mia, obviously intent on getting drunk, refilled her glass and put it up for a toast.
"For years we have done nothing but hide in this apartment."
"You mean because we don't go out every night? Because we don't invite people over?" I was more confused than ever, but those two things are what has come up in the past.
"I have been so good, Sasha, so damn good. For you! I've been waiting for you to forgive me and finally climb out of that shell of yours, but all you do is mope around the house." I leaned back in my chair. Mia was staring at me with anger and resentment, clearly wanting me to say something but I didn't know what to say.
"I don't know what to say Mia. What do you want me to forgive you for?" She huffed as if I insulted her. She finally hissed at me.
"For taking you away from home and bringing you here. If I had known just how much you would pout and be a buzzkill I would have never invited you!" I started laughing and she got the most ridiculous expression on her face.
"Mia, you never invited me in the first place." I exclaimed with a smile.
"Then why did you come?" She demanded of me.
"When I was eight years old I dreamed about a witch in trouble and because I wanted to help her, the bond was forged and I can't break it." Brutal honesty. I drank my beer and looked at the sunset, praying for the courage to be brutally honest until the conversation passes.
"Mia, whether you want to admit it or not, you broke me and shackled me with your magic, making absolutely sure I would always be there with you, or be able to find you in case something happened to you."
"You are lying!" She whispered with big wide eyes full of fear.
"Did you not feel the bond? Do you not feel it now?" I was more surprised than anything else, I thought she could feel just how connected we are. Although, I have to admit, I always suspected I was bonded to her more than she was to me. It took me a few minutes to realize that our bond hasn’t been as strong lately so maybe that was what was bugging her?
"Do you really never question why I always know how you feel, where you are or how I know your deepest darkest secrets?" She shook her head in denial so I continued.
"Since I was a teenager I've been dreaming about you, about your most intense feelings and what caused them, about your shameful little secrets and all that is in between. I have learned to not focus on the details so admittedly you have had some privacy in the past decade or so, but girl, I know you better than you know yourself. So I truly don't understand what you mean by saying you've been good? Like, I live my life for you, so what do you want from me?" I put my hand on the table between us, but I failed to recognize just how horrified Mia was by my confession.
"What do you mean, that can't be true. We are not bonded that deeply, our bond is only superficial." She turned away from me, not accepting my hand. I was the one who sounded bitter now.
"Mia I don't know if you are for real or not, but I am not lying. Why would I even lie about something like that?"
"Why didn't you tell me sooner then?" She almost yelled at me. It was my time to shrug.
"Because I was a stupid kid who grew up to be a stupid teenager. At first I assumed you feel as much as I do and once that was proven wrong I just didn't know how to bring it up."
"That's not an excuse! Are you really saying I bound your soul with magic to mine?" The last sentence was said with such horror that I almost felt bad for her.
"Yes, I believe you have." We stared at each other until the last rays of sun finally went down and disappeared. We sat on the patio in darkness.
"I planned this whole speech how tired I am of you being depressed and suicidal, but I just can't bring myself to talk about it now." She finally said. I was drinking while she said that and I was so surprised that I choked on beer.
"Repeat that please? I would like to have this discussion now." I said as soon as I stopped coughing. Mia didn’t elaborate, but I was not ready to drop the topic so quickly.
“Mia, I will tell you this one time, so listen to me. Our bond is deep, and yes it was forged when we were kids and we didn’t know what we were getting into, but it is how it is. Once you started talking about leaving home I went to the matriarch and the coven leader and talked to them about everything and they admitted that they don't know how to break a bond and not kill one of us in the process. So I learned how to live with it, and I guess this is a shock to you, but you also need to deal with it.”
I gave her a few moments, but I was not done with the conversation.
“I need you to explain to me, why do you think I am depressed and suicidal.” I finally said. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked at me, but avoided looking into my eyes.
“Because you never want to do anything but stay at home and mope. What kind of life is this Sasha, you work, you sleep, you read a book, you shift and go kill something, and that is it? You never go out with me, you have no friends besides me, you have no social life,” I rolled my eyes at her.
“Did you really call me depressed because I am different from you?” My tone of voice was becoming louder.
“You are like a weird robot Sasha! Just think about it, if you discount Tim, when was the last time you kissed someone?” Mia kept pushing her point. It was a classic argument of extrovert vs. introvert.
“That is besides the point. I could say that I have been busy with keeping you safe, you know.” She suddenly got up and towered above me.
“That is the only time you do anything. When my life or yours is in danger. You will jump into any situation with no thoughts, no plans, as long as there is a possibility of death you jump right in!” She wasn’t done, because I could see her taking a long breath to continue, but I didn’t let her.
“Are you hearing yourself? What do you want me to do next time a wendigo starts killing people?”
“Wait for help!” She was staring at me as if I was making her point.
“There was a person alive, who might not have been alive, if I hadn’t rushed into that situation, so I don’t think you’re making your point as sufficiently as you think you are.” I was trying to be rational, to calm down the situation. Somehow I went from being a victim to being a villain.
“Fine, then let's visit a similar situation that happened just days before this one. You were supposed to protect me and Penelope, and instead of protecting us and the circle, you took a teenage wolf shifter and went to hunt a monster in the woods! No thoughts about going inside the protective circle, no thoughts about keeping a teenager safe, nooooo, you just go and follow a wounded monster that might have killed you and I wouldn’t even know about it!” She was finally done yelling. I was getting a headache from all of this and was seriously considering going inside and letting her cool off.
“Think about it,” I finally said to her.
“I was given an order from Mother to protect the children and the best way to do that was to let you finish the ceremony. Everything that I did in the past few days was to keep those two children safe and fulfill my purpose. Yes, maybe I could have shifted, given Sam the mark and maybe it would have worked and maybe he could have gone inside the barrier and been safe, but we never actually tested that theory so we don’t even know if it would work! Also, it would have disturbed the ceremony. Now, what would happen, if the very next day, you would go to the house without all the magic and the dark creature would have been there? Would you, or the children, survive without the successful ceremony?” Mia slid back in her chair, tears streaming down her face. She was trying to wipe them with her sleeves, but all she was doing was smudging her mascara.
“We would have all been killed if I didn’t have the extra magic,” she finally admitted. I feel like I’ve won the argument, but somehow lost something more important.
“So, can you really call me suicidal for doing the best I can?” I asked quietly.
“You died Sasha. You jumped into the darkness without a second thought and you sacrificed yourself with no qualms. The worst part was, when I tried contacting you, part of you was reluctant to come back and even Tim said that you might not want to return.” I looked toward the forest and avoided the conversation, because I knew that she was right. Part of me would have been happy to be dead, to have a different life.
“I love you Mia,” I finally said,
“And maybe you are right and I do jump into dangers without actually thinking about it, but it’s also because I know that you are going to be right there for me. No matter what I do or how far I jump, I know you are going to be there to catch me. Just like I will always be there to catch you no matter how far you jump.” I added and hoped I sounded playful.
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She was wiping her tears with her sleeves.
“I want more. The bakery is suffocating me, my little magic store has barely any customers and it’s all just so boring. I just want more Sasha. I want to go out to dances and events, maybe go out drinking and seducing people, I want to randomly find a cursed object that needs me and only I can find a solution for the curse. I am so bored of living my life in the shadows, on the edge of society.” And there it was. The reason for her outburst, the underlying problem. It wasn’t me jumping into danger or me not thinking ahead, it was the fact that this life bore her. She wanted to live in the city, with many races mingling, she wanted excitement. Does that sound like hell to me? Yes. Last time we lived in the city Mia was in constant danger, mostly from vampire families who wanted to claim her magic and her blood and we only left the city because Esther was coming too close to actually killing her. Mia got up and wouldn’t even look at me.
“Something needs to change, because I can’t live like this anymore.” She left to go inside and closed the door behind her.
I rolled my eyes. Spoiled little brat. Maybe I should leave her to go into the city and live her life the way she wanted, letting her find out for herself what she is getting into. The vampires in Memphis did offer her an exclusive contract if she would come work for them and she would love to live there. While I was deep in thought about our future I caught a whiff of a vampire in the air, coming from the forest. I watched him walk toward me and Sebastian, our landlord, sat on the chair that was previously occupied by Mia. He looked skinny and not well fed at all, and I almost offered him a bite, but then I remembered that he refused my blood once before.
“Evening Miss Sasha,” he finally said with a slight southern accent.
“Evening Sebastian,” I replied with a smile.
“Would you like something to drink?” I asked, remembering my manners. Sebastian shook his head but smiled at the offer.
“No thank you, I just came over because I wanted to talk about your problem.” He probably came over as soon as it got dark, but didn’t want to interrupt our heated conversation.
“We have several problems, although we did solve some of them, I guess.” I told him.
“Do you know who the mastermind behind all of this was, or is that still a mystery?” He asked. I shrugged in response.
“We think that most of it was the sorcerer, husband of Laura, who was hunting for his children via an abomination that either he created, or someone created for him.” Sebastian sighed.
“Are you sure?” I returned the sigh.
“No. The shadow died without revealing its master's name and the other... Creature now belongs to Mia. I believe she is trying to set it free somehow, but she said it was a familiar of some sorts. She is still investigating it.” Sebastian looked thoughtful.
“So you defeated the minions of the man, but have you defeated the man itself?”
“No, we have not, but the children live under the best magic protection we can offer, and I don’t know what else to do, besides kill the sorcerer. Which would most likely be a mistake since we know nothing about him, if he is working alone or if he has someone who would take revenge on us. Honestly, beside keeping the children protected, there isn’t much we can do. That's of course if our theory is correct and the father is the villain.” I took a deep breath.
“Honestly,” I finally admitted to Sebastian, and to myself.
“This all feels so counterproductive you know? I mean, what have we even achieved? We put a family on house arrest, we killed a soul eating minion and captured a bigger soul eating minion, but I almost died in the process? I mean, I guess I did kill a wendigo,” Sebastian looked at me in surprise and smiled.
“A wendigo? By yourself?” I almost giggled, because he seemed more impressed with that than with the magic part of the conversation.
“I called a friend who has more experience with killing wendigos, but yes, I pulled its head right off.” I had to brag a little. Sebastian seemed thoughtful.
“Was that friend a vampire by chance?” He asked quietly, maybe noticing that Mia was listening behind the closed door.
“Maybe,” I replied whispering.
“I would love to talk more about the wendigo, but you have distracted me enough. I may have found a permanent solution to the family problems, but I don’t know if it’s an acceptable solution.” My heart skipped a beat in anticipation.
“Permanent solution?” Mia suddenly asked from behind the closed door. She opened the door dramatically and grabbed Sebastian’s hands. For a second I thought I saw him wince, but he patted her hands in response.
“Maybe. I inquired around about creatures that you talked about and there is a group of people very interested in them and when talking about it, we discussed the family being afflicted with the creatures.” This all seemed like the worst kind of foreplay.
“This all sounds a bit vague,” I finally said. Sebastian wasn’t bothered by my comment.
“They want to meet them and discuss possibilities.”
“What kind of possibilities?” Mia whispered, moving closer to Sebastian.
“If the family is agreeable they would make a contract. They would keep them safe, but in exchange the kids would work for them once they grow up, at least for a couple of years or so.” And there was the catch 101.
“Let me guess,” I interrupted, rolling my eyes almost audibly.
“It’s a certain law office that is offering this deal with certain people who 'can claim kinship with the demons?” Mia gasped and Sebastian nodded.
“Yes, the half demons are quite intrigued by the minions you have mentioned, so much so that they have offered to protect the family in exchange for some information. And future service of the kids of course, they do like when witches work for them.” I wanted to protest but Mia beat me to it.
“That is preposterous.” She exclaimed, and while I did agree with her, I also saw the bigger picture.
“What are our options then?” I may have said that with a little too much hostility because Mia took a step back.
“We keep them safe!” She exclaimed.
“How Mia? Keep them under house arrest for the rest of their lives?” Sebastian was looking from one to the other, not wanting to get in between.
“The sorcerer will stop once he realizes that he can’t get past my defenses!” I wanted to say that she wants to move away and then who will keep the family safe, but luckily for me Sebastian had something to add.
“That might not happen. My sources have told me that there is a certain ritual that grants near immortality and if what you’ve told me is correct and the children were conceived with that in mind, they might be quite rare and replicating the ritual with new children might be too difficult.” We were both staring at him in awe and distrust at the same time.
“So your problems might have just started.” Mia started thinking so hard you could almost see the fumes coming out of her head.
“But wouldn’t he need the children alive for any kind of ritual? Both the shadow and familiar would have taken their souls or their magic and killed the children in the process?” Sebastian looked at her.
“Was the target primarily the girl or the boy?” Mia gasped.
“I believe the girl was the primary target as she is an extremely powerful witch, and I’m not sure about the boy. He might just be a sorcerer and I’m not sure how they came into power, while the girl is already showing great promise.”
“So the shadow and familiar targeted the weaker in body, but stronger in magic child which would probably open up a hole in the defense and loudly broadcast the location, so the sorcerer would swoop in and take the boy. He would have the magic of the girl and the boy as a sacrifice.” That shut us all up.
“So to summarize, if you are correct the attacks won’t stop? If you are correct at least?” I finally said defeat. I glanced at Mia, who was desperately wringing her hands.
“I don’t know the situation very well and neither do my contacts. But they have offered to host you and the family over the weekend and discuss possibilities.”
“Do you trust them?” Mia finally said.
“I would very closely look at the contract given, but once the contract is signed they will adhere to it.” An idea occurred to me.
“Could they have been the one to set all of this in motion? And this is just a cover up?” Sebastian looked at me surprised.
“I haven’t thought about that, but my first instinct would be no. Half demons, believe it or not, despise sacrifices of any kind, especially children and while they do love witches' magic they would not know how to harvest magic from a person. They hire their own witches who then do their bidding and if they can find talented children even better, because they can raise a loyal witch. They love to throw money at the problems, and let's be honest, that amount of money solves a lot of problems.” That gave us all a lot to think about. Sebastian got up and gave me a card with a phone number.
“Call this number after you talk with the family and set up a meeting. I do believe this is the safest way to proceed for both you two and the family in question.” He walked away, into the forest and disappeared in the night.
The night ended the same way that it started, Mia and me sitting on our little patio, drinking.
“What are we going to do?” She finally said. I looked at the calling card in my hands and gave it to her.
“We will talk to Laura tomorrow and suggest that we go to this meeting. We can tell her that we did the best we could, but it might not be enough. Unless you want to take on a sorcerer?” She put her head in her hands.
“How possible is that? Can we take on a sorcerer that might have created the horrors we have seen?” I shrugged.
“I would rather not. Even if you call on all of the Gods, and I devote myself to Mother completely, I don’t think that will give us enough magic or strength to go after someone of his stature. Remember, Laura said he is a part of a prominent sorcerer family and if we kill their son they might want revenge.”
“How sure are we that he is the culprit anyway?” She asked, although she already knew the answer.
“We don’t know but if it isn't him we have no idea who might it be, and that is even more terrifying.” She took the calling card and put it in her wallet.
“I will go talk to Laura tomorrow and see what she thinks.”
“I will come with you,” I said in solidarity, but she shook her head no.
“Tim called while you were out here talking with Sebastian and asked if he could come visit tomorrow, because he would like to talk to you.” I thought about it for a while.
“He probably wants to do the cleansing ritual that the elder was talking about,” I said, mostly to myself. Mia nodded in agreement.
“Probably. And Laura trusts me more than you anyway, so it might be best to go by myself and have an honest conversation with her.” She got up and indicated that she wanted to go inside, but before she left I grabbed her hand in mine.
“So, what are we going to do?” I asked her, while gently caressing her hand.
“We just discussed this Sasha.” She said, annoyed.
“I mean about us.” I added quietly.
“Would you like to sell the bakery and your shop and leave for the city?” I didn’t dare to look her in the eyes, because I knew that she would see my resentment. My voice was neutral, devoid of any emotions, but I knew my eyes weren’t. After several minutes of silence she pulled her hand away from mine.
“I don’t know what to do Sasha, that's what this whole outburst was about. I thought we were hiding here while making some sort of plan for the future. I did not realize that this is what you wanted all along. It is not what I want, that's for sure. So, I don’t know what to do or how to solve this.” She walked toward the door and instead of goodnight she whispered something else.
“I guess we will see where the future leads us.” She left and closed the door firmly behind her. I sat there, again, alone and thinking.