Aconite (The Elektita Series Book 1) (17 page)

Jo wasn't shy,
bubbly, or even worried, she was pissed. She stood in the entryway with her
arms crossed. The black long sleeved shirt had slits up the arms defining her
very feminine muscles. The tight form fitting jeans even had the slits up the
dark denim. If I would have to give an opinion she looked like a biker on a
mission. It was as far from her steam punk norm as possible.

"I didn't
want to ruin another of my outfits." I must not have hid my assessment as
thoroughly as I thought. I stood on shaky legs and made it the few feet to the
bed, falling into the plush comforter. The soft mattress felt great against my
sore body. If I didn't think I would drown, a bath sounded like an actual
vacation right about now. But relaxation in any form was a gift.

"So where
have you been the last few days?" Yup, she was pissed. Her voice was laced
with venom directed at me.

"Didn't Linda
tell you? I was on vacation." I wasn't going to play nice if she wasn't.

"A vacation;
where you learned of us and of you. It must have been a hell of a
vacation." That’s right. I thought back to my dream. Jo was in it, she
must be Lupo as well. So that meant that she is either of Sebastian's blood,
which I doubted, or she took on the curse voluntarily as well.

"Why did you
choose to become a werewolf?" Her sudden outburst of laughter darkened her
face even further. How could Jonathon have left me with her?

"I am not
Lupo." That caught me off guard. If she wasn't a werewolf, and I was the
only one given the curse of reincarnation, then what in the hell was she?

"You really
cannot feel it? The bond is strong but you must be far too weak to truly feel
it." I tried to feel whatever it was that she was talking about. All I
could do was see, more than feel, the anger that rolled off her entire
demeanor. I ran back through all of our encounters. Something sparked but I
couldn't grasp on to it.

"Just tell
me, I am sick and tired of riddles and games." I curled myself up in the
thick wool comforter. This was what I loved about this particular inn. The
blanket and pillows weren't the commercial that kind most all other motels
carried, they felt like home. Jo walked towards me and sat on the edge of the bed.
Her anger had dwindled if only a bit. I would take it though. I didn't want to
have to spend the night surrounded by anger. I don't think my fragile psyche
could take it.

"I am your
familiara, or your familiar, in English." She stopped to let that sink in.
I knew what a familiar was, and she is not what I had expected. I thought
familiars where the little black cats that followed witches but clearly she
wasn't a cat.

"I know
strange, right?" I think strange was undermining what any of this was but
if that’s the word she had chosen who was I to argue?

"How?"
That is all I could say anymore. I could no longer form more elaborate
questions.

"That is the
strange part; nobody knows. Even our elders believed such a thing was a
myth." She laughed, harsh and short.

"At first the
village thought me a sign of forgiveness from the Gods. I was birthed from an
unwed mother said to be barren. Then when you died as Alexandria I woke in the
night screaming. Blood poured from my woundless chest. It was frightening for all.
My mother rushed me to the chambers of the Elektita. By the time we reached
them each of the women had already begun to feel your death. When they laid
eyes on my woundless, blood soaked body as I writhed from ghost pains they
declared me that of a familiar, only to lock me away."

I had fallen so
deeply in her story that it took me a moment to recover once she had paused.

"How
horrible!" I sat up in bed suddenly wide awake. The pain had thankfully
begun to fade. "You felt her death." It was still too hard to equate
Alexandria and I as one person.

"I felt them
all." She took a deep breath before continuing. "They kept me chained
up in a tomb for many weeks. It wasn't until Jonathon freed me that I learned
more of my fate. It wasn't long before I realized that I was no longer aging, I
didn't fall ill like so many around me. It was as though I was frozen in time.
We searched, Jonathon and I, for any old stories of familiars that we could
find. All the old stories had one thing in common, the familiar died with the
witch it was bound to."

"But I
died!" Would it be so hard to make some part of this crap easy to
comprehend?

"You did.
There was no denying that especially once your body had been delivered in a
heavy casket during the night."

"Let me get
this straight—Sebastian stabbed me in the heart then delivered me back to the
people that I had run from?" Jo gaped at me wide eyed. All the anger had
drained from her face replaced with shear shock at what I had just revealed.
Surely after so many years they knew who had dealt the death blow.

"If you know
what happened how could you have taken off with Richland knowing his ties to
Sebastian?" At least she already knew who murdered Alexandria all those
years ago, and I wasn't the one to cause an ever deeper rift between them.

"To be fair I
found that out after I had taken off with Richland." I still didn't want
them to know that I had indeed spent the last few days with Sebastian.

"Now that you
know, you also know that he is dangerous and why we shouldn't trust him."
I didn't know any of that for sure. It seemed as though everyone involved has
something to hide so for the time being I wasn't planning to trust anyone. They
all hid themselves from me in the beginning being far from forthcoming with any
of this.

"I remember
not too long ago your complete ignorance when it came to all the weirdness in
my life. Looks to me you are just as good at hiding things as him."  I
didn't think she was hiding herself as an accomplice to any of my untimely
deaths but still she hid things just as well.

"You have got
to be kidding me! I think murder is a hell of a lot worse than small things
like your past."

Was she kidding
me? They are both equally important from where I am standing. I tried to summon
any of the magic anger that I possessed but nothing happened. There was no
mist, or the sudden silence of anything in the room. That seemed to make me
even angrier; reminding me of the time Jonathon had overdosed me on Vero.

"It doesn't
work with me; it’s one of the perks of being your familiar. My job description
makes me immune to your magic. You should be happy it also makes it impossible
for me to turn on you."

"You are
forced to be allegiant to me?" It reminded me of Jonathon's blind love.
They followed me whether it was good for them or not. Jo gave me a fraction of
a smile.

"At least I
have always liked you." The reminder of Jonathon also reminded me that I
had left him or possibly pulled him into a mess that I couldn't fix.

"I left you,
too." My words came out small, barely a whisper. I was ashamed with
myself. I was really that much different as Alexandria. I couldn't imagine
myself running from those bound to me without a choice.

"Ironic isn't
it? I am irrevocable tied to you, unable to do harm to you, yet you do not have
to suffer the same burden."

I slid across the
bed and wrapped my arms around her stiff frame. All my anger had been washed
away with her words. She smelled warm and inviting and I felt a small sense of
relief as her body melted into mine. I held her. Even though I was suffering
inside and could use some TLC, she has had to endure centuries of torture due
to being magically tied to me. I couldn't image having to feel someone’s death
over and over again while having them push you away at the same time.

"I promise this
time will be different," I whispered into her ear. I didn't know how it
was going to work but I was determined not to scar her any further.

"History
always repeats itself." She wasn't confident in the fact that I would make
things right. Maybe I had promised something similar in another life. I let go
of her fully facing the girl that had been bound to me even beyond death.

"You knew who
I was the minute I walked into the cafe didn't you?" Her smile was large,
filling her cheeks and letting her laugh lines show through.

"I knew who
you where the minute you were born." I didn't know what to say to that.
All I could do was lay down and pat the mattress next to me. Maybe tonight I
would finally get a dreamless sleep. 

The smells of
chestnuts and roasted pig filled each room of the house. They hadn't come for
me yet and I wasn't ready to take the fight to them. We would just enjoy this
time as if tomorrow was guaranteed the same. Sebastian and Jonathon had finally
agreed to hold back their hatred and celebrate Christmas with me. Jo and
Richland had even agreed to come. None of them held any faith in a God but they
would put that aside. It had taken me hours to explain to each of them that
Christmas was also about family. We may be a dysfunctional, hate filled,
untrustworthy bunch, but we were still family. In the end I had to threaten
them all, each with a threat that hit closest to home.

I worked nervously
making sure all the place settings were perfect. They should be arriving soon.
Even the baby felt my anticipation, she had begun her favorite game—rolling and
stretching her way across my belly. I had apologized profusely to her once we
had made it to bed the night I had invited them all to dinner. She was the
threat
I had used the most; the threat of never seeing her come into this world and
growing up around them all. I even kicked Sebastian out of the house so he
would stop hovering around me. Jonathon had hated the idea of meeting here but
in the end we all agreed this was the safest place. It had been spelled in such
a manner that I could only hope that Sebastian had given them the proper
incantation to find it this evening. It still amazed me that Jonathon could not
find his own gift. It had surprised me even more when he left it to me with no
strings attached.

The doorbell gave
way to nervous butterflies. It had to be Jonathon and Jo; Sebastian didn't need
to use the bell. Even with my protruding belling I half skipped to the front
door jerking it open. I felt my smile die instantly when I took in the cloaked
figure standing at the door. Wolves howled their deadly cry. Why hadn't they
warned me of the intruder? I tried to shut the door before they could get in
but I was far too slow. The cloak brushed against me as they made their way
down the hall. My flower flared to life for the first time in quite a while.
The pain sang along my nerves quieting the baby's acrobats. She must have felt
the warning as well.

The wolves’ angry
cries began to come closer until I felt them not yards away.

"Be still
child. I will not hurt you." The voiced traveled through the house.

Death sang through
my mind as the world grew black all around me.

I woke up
screaming and clutching my now empty womb. The emptiness felt foreign even
though I knew that it was only a dream. Jo was up and alert scanning the room
for danger that I knew she wasn't going to find. There was never any physical
danger just mental danger that lurked in the night. Pain shot through my chest
making it hard to breath. I panted and swayed while Jo made sure the room was
clear. I didn't know what she was looking for but right now was not the time.
She sat back down on the bed searching my face and the bed for what would have
caused such a reaction. Finally she scanned my face for some kind of answer.

"What did you
see?" She must have finally realized that it was a dream. I didn't know if
I should tell her the truth. These new dreams scared me even more than the
others. The others were of a life that wasn't mine. I could lump them into the
category of a true dream not a memory because this me didn't truly experience
them. The dreams seemed to be more like glimpses into the future. They were
about me, this me.

"Talking
about Alexandria's death must have triggered a repeat of that memory." I
lied.

"Do you want
to talk about it?" I could tell by her tone she really didn't want to hear
it. She had lived through it just as I had experienced it. I didn't want to
reawaken that pain for her as well. I didn't want to talk about that memory
anyway. Not that memory or this latest edition to my life.

"No, not
really." She looked as visibly relieved as I felt. We were both on the
same page when it came to the subject of my many deaths. Neither of us cared to
remember.

"So hey, I
have to get to work. Do you feel up to tagging along?" Jo said, heading
for the bathroom. "I need to stop by my place first of course." Her
invitation made me laugh for the first time in a while.

"I thought I
would have been fired by now." Her laugh rose over the water that ran in
the sink.

"Don't think
you’re getting away from him that easily," she said peeking out of the
doorway with her toothbrush in hand. She had come with necessities on hand. I
was beginning to think I had been played.

"Sure, why
not. Let me take a shower first." I answered back.  I like it at the cafe
and I especially liked the coffee. Plus, an opportunity to see where Jo lived
was something I just couldn't pass up.

Just before I
turned the water on I heard Jo on the phone. The bathroom door was closed so I
couldn't make out what she was saying but I was positive she was checking in
with Jonathon. Even though she had declared that she was bound to me and that
she was magically unable to betray me her loyalties still lay with Jonathon
above me. I couldn't blame her though. From what she had hinted at would have
made anyone hesitant to blindly follow someone just because they say their
different. I still wondered what she was telling him and fought the urge to
crack the door to find out. I had trust issues of my own to work through and I
needed to start somewhere.

The heat and pain
that had coursed through my body had me taking a cool shower. I hadn't taken
one in years and even then I didn't like them very well. This one though was
soothing. The ice cold droplets pelted my skin, icing my nerves, and dulling
the pain. If I didn't know better it felt like the water had its own magical
properties that would shut out everything else around me.

When I stepped out
of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body and another held my hair Jo
sat expectantly at the desk with two cups of coffee in Styrofoam to-go cups
waiting. The mid length lace up dress let me know she was feeling far more
confident than she had on arrival. Her happiness gave way to my own.

"Hurry up,
chick or we're going to be late." She gave me a once over. "Or we
could go now. I think Jonathon might overlook my tardiness if I brought you to
him naked."

I untwisted the
towel from my hair and threw it at her.

"First, I
don't think he will mind if you are a bit late today. Secondly, I won't be
going to work naked, thank you very much." I began riffling through my bag
as Jo laughed and sipped her coffee.

"So what did
you call Jonathon for?" She had proved to be an excellent liar in the past
but this would act as a test to see if she really wanted me to trust her enough
not to leave her behind once again.

"Nothing
sinister, I promise. I just called to tell him he needed to pay up. See, I had
made a bet with him after you stormed out of the office the other day. I
thought that you would come back to work and he didn't think there was a chance
in hell."

"Huh, so how
much did this little bet win you?" I cannot believe she put a wager on be
coming back to work or not. I couldn't figure out if I should yell or laugh.

"Five hundred
dollars." My jaw dropped at that. She had won five hundred dollars just
because I was going back to work. I was running on fumes and had pennies in my
name and they just threw money around.

"Don't worry,
we're good for it." That was easy for her to say. They have had centuries
to fill their pockets. I was a drop out that hadn't even received my first
check yet. I shrugged it off. There was little I could do about it now. It did
feel like such a trivial matter when you really thought about all the other
crap I was dealing with.

"That reminds
me, Jonathon owes me a check." Her smile broadened at that.

"Well then,
let’s get out of here. I think I may learn what it feels like to drop dead for
real when you see what you're getting paid," Jo said with a smile.