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  “What? Oh, I don’t remember. She was just so scary and nasty and it surprised me she knew about me. She tried to crush me with dictionaries!” I gave a half-‐‑hearted little laugh, hoping to distract Logan from his question. To my relief, it worked. He relaxed too and reached for me with both arms. Soon I was crushed, but by the warm strength of his protective embrace. I melted into his chest and fitted my head into the area between his chin and shoulder. Maybe he couldn’t protect me as well as I could protect myself, but I never felt as safe as I did right at that moment, cutting class, sitting on the baseball bleachers, with my head resting on the chest of my perfect, normal boyfriend.

  “It’s only the beginning, you know Logan. She acted as a messenger. I don’t know why they want me, but they do.”

  He gripped me tighter.

  “I told you before. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to face this together.” He sounded so sure in his resolve.

  “They’re going to have to go through me to get to you. And they’re not going to get through me.”

  I relaxed in spite of everything. Such a typical guy. They all thought they were immortal. Problem though, there happened to be a breed out there that actually was immortal and someone like Logan going against them would never be a fair fight.

  Chapter Eight

  LOGAN

  Serena checked with her sister and she said it would be alright for me to drive her home. I skipped baseball practice and waited for her after class in the parking lot. I got to my car first and talked to some of the other kids while I waited for her. I guess Serena and I were becoming something of an item. We were the hot topic. Couldn’t they talk about anything else? Gossip ran rampant in a small school.

  “Hey Logan!” Sully came bounding over. “So, where’ve you been, Buddy? Haven’t seen you for a while.”

  “Hey Sully, ‘sup?” It made me genuinely happy to see Sully.

  He’d been a good friend from the team, and was one of those people who just seemed to be happy all the time. Today he seemed even happier than usual. “Something going on Sul?”

  “Yeah. I bit the bullet and asked Brainless to the dance Friday.” I raised my eyebrows at him in surprise. I didn’t even know he liked Patty. He answered my questioning face. “Figured I better keep the matched set together.” He and I laughed together.

  He referred to the fact that Dave and Tamera were undoubtedly going to the dance together and now if he took Patty, she and Tamera wouldn’t have to separate for those few hours. We all joked they shared the same brain and if one of them had it too long, the other would die.

  “Good deal.” I nodded my approval when we stopped laughing from the inside joke.

  “Hey,” he asked, “You takin’ Serena?”

  “Yup. Asked her last week and she said yes. Waiting to drive her home now,” I said with pride. And at just that moment, she came around the corner, walking with Tamera and Patty.

  Tamera and she were engaged in a conversation and Patty walked a little to the rear, straining to hear and be a part of it. So struck by the sight of Serena, I just stared. I think Sully might have been saying something, but at the sight of her, he fell silent as well. She had on another of those sundresses she favored, this one in light peach-‐‑colored cotton, taking advantage of an unseasonably warm day we were having. The fabric clung to her creamy skin and swished around her long legs as she walked. Her blonde hair bounced as she walked and the slight breeze created by her steps carried it over her shoulders and cascaded it down her back.

  Behind her I caught Patty watching Serena’s hair and could almost feel her coveting it, wishing her own lifeless brown helmet of hair could ever move like that.

  The girls came walking up to us and Patty slipped a proprietary arm around Sully’s waist. He rolled his eyes at me where no one else could tell but did not remove her arm. So like Sully not to hurt Patty when she’d made it obvious she needed to feel wanted. I moved close to Serena but didn’t force anything. I wasn’t sure, but I thought we had reached some new level in our relationship on the bleachers. She’d revealed more and more to me and that meant she trusted me. I knew that had to be hard for her.

  Many parts of her I didn’t yet know, but small pieces of the puzzle that was Serena were dropping into place. I knew she was a witch, or a twitch. So she had powers. How many and what kind, I didn’t know yet. She wasn’t too keen on showing me, either. I wasn’t going to push her. I didn’t want to scare her away. So I would go slowly, as slow as she wanted. The word ‘slow’ still rattled around in my brain when I felt her soft little hand slip into mine.

  “Are you ready to take me home now, Logan?” Her voice was small and tired and she moved slowly. Today’s encounter with Natalie had had taken a lot out of her.

  “Sure am. Let’s go.” I took her books and opened the door of my car for her. I helped her in and then walked around to my side.

  “Very nice, Logan.” said Sully.

  “Yeah.” said Dave, who had just joined the crowd.

  “Impressive. I’ll have to remember that when I write my book.” He pretend-‐‑wrote in the air. “How to Be a Gentleman by Davis Nathanson.”

  “Shut up, Dave. When’s the last time you opened my door?”

  Tamera petulantly asked Dave and stalked away.

  “Thanks a lot, man” Dave muttered to me under his breath.

  “Hey, can I help it if you’re an inconsiderate tool?” I chuckled and opened the door to my car. Serena smiled weakly; I could tell she’d been wiped out. I was mad at myself for jerking around when I should have been driving her home. Who’s the tool now? I threw the car into drive and jammed out of the parking lot at top speed.

  “Logan, watch out. You’re going too fast.” Serena admonished me. I started to depress the brake but realized the car had slowed down. I glanced at Serena.

  “Sorry. I know you are trying to get me home, but let’s get there in one piece, okay?” She winked.

  “You did that?”

  She just stared straight ahead, smiling like she had a secret.

  “Should I bother steering?

  “If you like.”

  “You mean I could just let go and you could drive the car home from the passenger seat?”

  “You’re not going to let go, are you?”

  “No. But could I?”

  “Promise you won’t, and I’ll answer you.

  “Okay, I promise I won’t.”

  Okay, then. Yes.”

  “Will you ever tell me everything you can do?” Did I want to know everything she could do?

  “Honest, Logan. It’s not like I have a checklist. Plus, there are things I am still working on, mastering.” I must have acted crestfallen, because she added, “But I do promise to answer your questions. Just,” and here she hesitated, “can we do it another time?

  I’m so tired right now.”

  I felt like a heel again. She was tired. I already knew that.

  “Absolutely. I’m sorry Serena. I just find this all so, so fascinating. I’ll take you home now, baby.” The endearment slipped out and I shot a quick glance to check how it got received. But my baby had fallen asleep in the passenger seat, her head tilted to the side facing me, eyes closed, breathing even and measured.

  We reached our street and I swung into her driveway. I didn’t kill the engine, not wanting to interrupt her dreams. In her sleep, she resembled an angel. Her hair fanned out on the headrest and her soft, kissable lips were parted and moving, as though she were talking in her slumber. I leaned forward to listen, but couldn’t make anything out, it being largely unintelligible. I gazed at her one more time, cementing the picture in my mind to recapture later and later and later, and clicked off the engine. She awakened slowly, looking bewildered and beautiful. Languid, she stretched and gave a little kitten yawn.

  “Oh. We’re here. Thank you Logan. I can’t believe I actually slept.” She stretched again. “I had the most delicious dream.” She kept the details t
o herself, unwilling it seemed, to share them. She gave me a quick kiss on my cheek and rested her hand on the side of my face. The gesture struck me as both tender and loving.

  Quickly, before I had time to react, she jumped out of the car and ran into the house. At the front door, she paused and gazed at me and before she had fully closed the door I knew, for the first time in my life, I‘d fallen in love with this crazy, witchy, powerful girl. I didn’t know what it meant, or where it would lead, but I was surely in love with Serena Starr.

  Chapter Nine

  SERENA

  My plan: go and lie down the second I got into the house.

  My encounter with Natalie had left me strangely drained. Even though I normally didn’t need much sleep – usually I slept only a few hours a night anyway – I thought tonight I could sleep for hours and hours! But, like almost everything in my life lately, what I wanted and what I got were two different things. I supposed I should have been clued in by the strange rental car parked in the driveway, but my fatigue made me miss that sign completely.

  Then, when I got inside, I should have noticed that only Tabitha stood in the living room by herself, practicing her tricks. She had several items from the shelves levitating and worked on keeping them all equally balanced in the air. Without being seen, I watched Tabitha wave her hands in the air and the levitating items alternately dipped and curved according to her non-‐‑verbal instruction. She handled them pretty well, I thought.

  “Hi Tabby,” I said, walking into the room. All at once, everything in the air crashed to the floor, candles, books, a jar of potpourri, and some pencils. I laughed at Tabitha.

  “Holy cow, Serena!” Tabitha jumped and leaped around.

  “You scared me half to death!”

  “Obviously,” I drawled. “You need to concentrate harder.”

  “Oh, you think so? First clue?” Tabitha bent and started picking up all the fallen items.

  “Where’s Elizabeth?”

  Tabitha straightened with a gleam in her eye. “Did you notice the car parked out front?” I nodded. “We have a visitor. It’s a lady I’ve never seen before and Elizabeth wouldn’t talk in front of me. She took her upstairs to her bedroom and they’ve been up there forever!” Tabitha had a great flair for the dramatic, but I had to agree with her here; this had its share of drama. Luckily, my bedroom shared a wall with Elizabeth’s and I was willing to bet that I’d be able to overhear something if I went to my room right now. I didn’t dare try and jump into Elizabeth’s head…she would skin me alive for that. Quickly, I headed upstairs; confident I’d hatched a brilliant plan. True to my life it wasn’t.

  Just as I reached the top stair, my sister’s bedroom door opened (of course she would know my plans) and she beckoned to me.

  “Serena, I’m glad you’re home. We’ve been waiting for you.

  Come on in here.” Elizabeth had been poking her head out of her bedroom door. Now, as I reached it she opened it wider and ushered me into her room.

  “Serena, I’d like to introduce you to someone. This is Eden, a friend of mine from Salem.” She stepped aside and motioned to the sitting area in the back corner of her bedroom where a tall willowy brunette sat in the lounge area, balancing a cup of tea on her knee.

  I knew my manners. “Hello,” I said, and stepped forward, offering my hand. My sister’s guest placed her teacup on a small table and rose to meet me. Tall, with her hair in a loose, messy braid that hung down the right front of her almost to her waist, she took my hand in both of hers in an easy, motherly gesture. I noticed she could be our mother’s age, if our mother was alive.

  “Hello Serena. It’s so nice to meet you. Your sister has shared so much about you, I feel as though I know you already.

  And your sister Tabitha.” She had a smooth, gentle voice and even though I didn’t know this person, I found myself already liking her.

  Her face broke into a warm smile and she said, “You have grown into such a beautiful girl.”

  Immediately my head snapped back to Elizabeth. Grown into a beautiful girl? Did this person know me from before? From somewhere else? A million questions swam around in my head and spilled into Elizabeth’s, but one well-‐‑delivered evil eye from her shut me right up. Clearly, now was not the time. I eyed her right back, but she just motioned for me to sit down. I took a chair opposite our guest and Elizabeth sat down at the other end of the sitting area.

  “Serena,” she began, “Eden has known us since we were children. In fact, Eden was our mother’s best friend.” I shot a look at our guest, who didn’t look like anyone I remembered from my childhood.

  “Lucinda, your mother, was my dear, best friend for many years. We were young twitches together and received our Council approval for witchhood at the same time. I thought we’d practice together our whole lives. Ah, but then your mother fell in love.”

  Our guest, Eden, gazed heavenward and winced, as if remembering a painful, yet precious memory.

  “She was so young and beautiful, so full of life and love, who could have blamed him.” My father! We never talk about my father! I knew little of him. He and my mother had been taken from us when I was so young; I hardly remembered anything about them. I had some small memories, some so fleeting they seemed more like stop action movies I played in my head or possibly I even made them up. Tabitha wasn’t even born yet in most of my memories, so I had faded, blurry photos of a happy, smiling family, a loving mom and dad, and two pretty little girls everyone’s arms all wrapped around one another, hugging, laughing, and loving one another. So perfect it couldn’t be true. If this stranger from my past had memories of my parents, I wanted to see them. Desperate to get inside her head, I knew I better not. And something told me I wouldn’t even be able to. I just knew our guest was one powerful witch. But what else did she know about my life that I didn’t?

  “It didn’t matter what anyone told her,” the stranger’s story filled in holes about my mother’s early life I had never heard about.

  “Your mother knew true love. And nothing would stand in her way.” I gasped, wide-‐‑eyed. So did Elizabeth. And we were both on the edge of our seats.

  “What happened?” I asked, breathlessly, my fatigue all but forgotten.

  “Well,” said Eden, “They did what all star-‐‑crossed lovers do when no one approves of their love. They ran away. Heath,” she spoke directly to me, holding my gaze captive; I could hardly breathe. “So like your father. He knew about your mother’s powers and he knew the Council; he knew they would never allow them their happiness. And your mother knew it too. So they ran as far away as they could. They were already with child.” Her face glazed over with tenderness at my sister, who had tears in her eyes. She reached out and they joined hands, both thinking, I know, of the fear and the journey of the two doomed lovers who were my parents.

  “They settled in a small town in England,” she closed her eyes and stopped speaking for a few seconds, then slowly opened them. “I forget where, and busied themselves with the business of raising a family. They had a sweet little girl, a precious blond,” she gestured toward me, “whom they named Serena, and completed their family with a scamp of a redhead…”

  “Tabitha!” I burst out.

  “Yes, Tabitha. They were so happy. So in love with each other, and with you girls. They thought nothing could invade that perfect joy. Lucinda should have realized that couldn’t have been further from the truth.” Eden’s face darkened. “My dears, your father, Heath, he could never be one of us. He could not have understood. There is a code of conduct among witches, girls. The Council hasn’t enforced it for centuries, not since the time of those embarrassing witch trials in Salem in the 1600’s, but there have been some grave and disturbing changes in the Council that have many of us concerned.” Eden got up from her seat and began to pace around the small sitting area, circling the couple chairs and table.

  “Leadership has changed hands and they did not take kindly to the fact that a promising witch had
left her coven for, well, for a mere mortal. They set it to a vote and unbelievably, incredibly,” Eden paused, swallowed, and when she spoke again, she almost whispered, “they decided.”

  “Decided?” Elizabeth and I both asked in unison.

  “What got decided?” I demanded.

  Eden again circled in front of the small lounge couch. She appeared defeated at my question. She sat heavily, the weight of my inquiry visible on her shoulders.

  “They decided that your mother should answer for her insolence and your father should be…be terminated.”

  “NO!” I screamed and sobbed into my sister’s arms. She held me tightly even as I felt the tears falling from her own face.

  “How could they do that?” I wailed into my sister’s chest. “They had children!”

  “In discussions I’m told they felt if they handled it when you were younger it would be easier for you to overcome.”

  “Easier!” My sister spat the word. “Younger! They weren’t younger! Serena still remembers the smell of his flannel shirts!

  Tabitha still has the memory of waking up and hearing them laughing together in the morning, making breakfasts before any of us were awake! I still recall walking in on them kissing and looking into each other’s eyes! They were so happy! Overcome! I’d like to speak to the genius who came up with that piece of snap psychology!” I’d never seen my sister so mad before. She punctuated every word with a punch in the air with the arm not holding me in a death-‐‑grip. Her eyes flashed.

  Eden acted like my sister had actually hit her.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t come here to upset you girls. I came here only to warn you.”

  “Great,” I muttered, disentangling myself from Elizabeth

  “my second one today.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Elizabeth, “Who else warned you about anything.”

  I twisted to face my sister. “Well, I haven’t got a chance to tell you yet, because of this,” I gestured toward Eden, “but I got a nice little visit myself today, from Miss Congeniality, Nasty Natalie. Just two tons of fun in the Library. Warning me that the Council didn’t like my boyfriend.”