Enthrall Me (The conclusion to Enchant Me) (4 page)

“What are you trying to see?” I asked, and reached up to touch the hand closest to me.

In a flash her body tensed, and she shot straight up. She leaned forward as if to get closer to something. With my now elevated powers I could sense the spike of energy about her, and knew she was having a vision. Just as quickly, the feeling faded and I could see her shake her head. She was so still it scared me. I tugged her hand gently, ready to help her down. “What did you see Alexis?”

She turned to me, her eyes blank with shock, and jerked out of my hand, leapt down on the opposite side of the tree, and took off. I fought off the desire to chase her. I knew if I tried to stop her now she would fight me.

The sun had started to set when I finally returned to Ward house. I still didn’t know what was wrong with me, the only thing I did know was that I needed to talk to Alexis. Yet at the same time I didn’t know if I could face her. The shame I felt burned inside of me.

When I walked into the dining room, Alexis was conspicuously absent, and Brianna was avoiding my gaze. Worried, I stretched out with my mind, and immediately sensed that Alexis was upstairs, safe at least. Liam and Neila greeted me as normal, like they hadn’t been informed of this afternoons events, but Ciara stared at me with dark, impenetrable eyes. It was then that I noticed the woman next to her. A frail old woman, her thin grey hair pinned tightly to her head, watched me with faded blue eyes. That stranger inside of me knew she was the seer Ciara had sent for.

“Christian this is Cassandra, she’s part of our Grove.” I noticed Ciara didn’t mention what Cassandra was here for. Cassandra and I stared at each other, but said nothing.

Besides the periodic outbursts between Liam and Neila, the meal passed in uncomfortable silence. Eventually everyone, besides Brianna who escaped to her room, moved to the reception room.

Ciara stood in the middle of the room to get our attention. “The rumors have been confirmed. Everyone in the Grove near Waterford has disappeared, and as Liam mentioned, they are not the only Druids that have gone missing. A council has been called for all the Groves in Ireland, and we’ve decided that the safest place at the moment is here at Ward house.” Cassandra looked at each of us, “Many people will be arriving in the next couple days, so I ask for your patience and help.”

We nodded in understanding, and for awhile the adults discussed the arrangements on how to house everyone, and I mentally drifted away from the discussion. I remembered Alexis’s face, and her reactions earlier. What had she seen? Did I even want to know why she had reacted that way to me? I wanted to storm up the stairs and demand she talk to me, but I didn’t want to advertise our problems.

A barely perceptible wave of sensation coursed over me, and I blinked a couple of times as I stared into the fire, coming mentally awake. The feeling was similar to what Ciara did but different, softer, like someone with decades of experience that had learned to be almost ghostlike with their gift. Cassandra was trying to read my future. The stranger inside, rose up in a defensive fury, the urge to block or burn out her powers, raged through me. In my peripheral vision I could see Ciara’s hands grip her arm rests, and she glanced at Cassandra.

I fought the instinctive urge to protect, and willed myself to remain calm. The sensation waned, and I could see Cassandra shake her head. A stronger tingling wave came over me again, and I steeled myself to not react. It faded, and Cassandra once again shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Apparently she was unable to see my future, I wondered what that meant.

After a couple of minutes, I loudly yawned, and excused myself to bed. Once I heard Liam and Neila go to their respective rooms, I snuck back downstairs, and hid behind the door to the reception room.

“What did you see?” Demanded Ciara.

“Nothing.” I could hear the confusion in Cassandra’s voice as she said it.

“That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, you can’t always get a reading on command.” This from Grady.

“I didn’t mean ‘nothing’ in the sense that I didn’t see anything, but rather, what I saw was a murky essence. I saw nothing that I could understand or describe.”

“I wonder if he blocked you?” Ciara mused aloud.

“What?” Cassandra asked alarmed.

“He has that ability? And you let me read him without warning me?” Cassandra demanded in her thin thready voice.

“We needed to know,” replied Ciara, sounding apologetic. “But I could feel his fury when you were trying to read him. I don’t know if it’s safe to allow him to remain here.”

CHAPTER 4

With Brianna in Alexis’s room, I had been unable to talk privately with her last night, but I wouldn’t let another day go by with this cloud of doubt over my head. I felt groggy and irritable from lack of sleep, which made me even more determined to confront Alexis.

Knowing Alexis took a long time in the bathroom, I waited for everyone else to go downstairs, and posted myself right outside the door. As soon as she stepped out, I grabbed her hand, and led her down the back stairwell.

“What are you doing?” she hissed at me, jerking her hand out of my grip, and headed back upstairs.

Stunned by her anger, and the furious tears in her eyes, I watched her walk away from me. With every step she took, my heart squeezed; I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran up, grasped her wrist, and walked back down again. “We need to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you right now, Christian,” she shot back, coming to a dead stop that almost jerked me off my feet.

We were almost to the back door, and if I had to carry her out I would. “I want you to tell me what you saw.” I tugged on her hand again, when suddenly she shoved me against the wall with her power.

“I said no!” Without another word, she stormed back up the stairs.

“Alexis stop!”

No response.

“Alexis!” I yelled louder, and struggled ineffectually against her power. Anger and fear crashed over me, and that dark stranger inside of me, woke up. I felt like an outsider in my own mind, as my powers reached out, infiltrated her mind, and blocked off her own. Immediately I fell away from the wall, and relief flooded me as I regained control over my body. It wasn’t until I heard her pained gasps, that I came to my senses.

I released Alexis’s mind, and ran back up the stairs to find her crouching against the wall, I reached out to help her up, but she slapped my hand away. She used the wall for support as she stood. Shame filled me, and I wished I could see her better in the dark stairwell. “I am so sorry Alexis. I didn’t mean to. I swear I will never do that again.” I tried to step closer, but I could see the palm of her hand swing up, her power spiking, ready to defend.

I stepped back down. “Alexis--”

“You want to know what I saw?” she flung at me. “It was this. You struck out at Ciara, and now me?” The tears in her voice shook me, and I moved to take her in my arms, but she darted away. “I don’t even know you anymore,” she choked out, and ran away from me.

I leaned against the stairwell, bent over with pain. Unwelcome tears stung my eyes. She was right, how could I reassure her, when I couldn’t reassure myself. I stumbled back down the stairs, and out into the morning mist.

I headed south, walking for hours on autopilot. At first I tortured myself with the images and thoughts of the last couple days, but eventually everything faded to an abject numbness. Night fell by the time I reached Dublin. Exhausted, I staggered into the first pub I came across, and collapsed on the closest bench with a table. Locals filled the pub with boisterous laughter, but my own thoughts were so loud I barely noticed. I laid my head on the cool wood surface; it reeked of alcohol, but I didn’t care.

Someone nudged my arm, and I glanced up to find an older man holding out a glass of dark beer. “You look like you need to ease your troubles,” he said with sympathy.

I smiled my thanks, and took a sip. The strong, smoky bitter taste hit me immediately, and I wanted to hand it right back to him, but I looked at all the happy intoxicated people around me, and drained it. My stomach didn’t feel so empty afterwards, and since Ireland’s drinking age was 18, I ordered the next one myself. One after the other I drowned myself in beer.

Lassitude hit me, and then alarm… I needed to be in control, I couldn’t risk the stranger having any control over me. But as more minutes passed an even greater lethargy spread over me, and I relaxed back against my both. The worry I had, was it minutes ago, seemed distant and unimportant. Musicians on a small stage in the corner, played overly energetic traditional music, and enthusiastic customers started to tap their feet and pound the tables with their hands in rhythm. My head began to pound with them, which annoyed me. I wasn’t in the mood to be annoyed.

I glared at the band, internally demanding that they stop and go home, now... Abruptly to everyone’s surprise, the musicians stopped playing and packed up to leave. I watched them bemused, but pleased.

“Hey, it’s not closing time yet,” the bartender called to them with a smile.

But that didn’t stop them, like zombies, without a word or flicker of expression, they left the bar. A suspicion floated into my mind. Did I make them leave? I laughed to myself, just thinking that. Wanting to test the theory, I looked about the pub for a good test subject. Sitting at the bar, a shy blonde girl was being aggressively hit on by a tall overbearing jerk. Burdened with too much politeness, she was having difficulty getting rid of him.

I quickly slid into her mind, amazed at how simple it was. With a thought, I told her to slap the guy, and cuss him out. Shockingly right before my eyes, she did, and I laughed out loud in drunken exhilaration. The look of surprise on her face matched the guy she slapped, and she slinked off in embarrassment.

The stranger inside of me wanted more, and I found myself wandering the streets. With this type of power, I could have anything, do anything. A part of me rejected this thought, but it was weak, too weak to fight the stranger. When I spotted a small casino, a new idea came to mind. I confidently crossed the street and prepared to walk in the doors, when a doorman grabbed my shoulder, and hauled me back. “You have to be 21 to go inside.”

I looked up, and smiled at the bulldog faced man. With ease I infiltrated his mind. “I am 21.”

The man blinked his eyes, and nodded. “Have a good night sir.”

“Thanks,” I said, shrugging off his hold, and walking inside.

Since I had played poker with my grandparents since I was little, I headed straight for the poker room, and sat at a table. The three men at the table looked at me suspiciously, but didn’t voice their thoughts about my age. I ordered a beer and sat back, briefly touching each man’s mind, familiarizing myself with them. As each man’s turn came, I could influence what cards they played, but the more hands I won, the more suspicious they became.

As time went by, the constant effort of controlling their minds became exhausting, and combined with all the alcohol I’d consumed, I felt sleepy and irritable. Bored with the game, I grabbed my winnings, and left the casino. I got no more than twenty feet away before I felt a tap on the shoulder, and I turned to find the three poker players had followed me out.

“I have a feeling you were cheating some how,” accused the older man dressed in a business suit.

I sneered confidently at him. “And how would I have done that?”

“I doubt you’re even 21. Just give us back our money before you get hurt,” the ex-convict looking guy ground out, and shoved me.

Anger burst through me. Whether it was right or wrong, sane or insane, I was blisteringly angry. I felt myself seething with it. All around me, people became agitated, and with a mental nudge I incited the three poker players to fight amongst themselves. As fists started to fly, I made my escape.

“Christian!”

I jerked at the sound of Alexis screaming my name. Then realized I had heard her only in my mind.

“Christian, stop!”
This time louder and more urgent then before.

The part of me that wanted to go to her, fought for control, fought to turn my body around and go to her, but it wasn’t as strong as the stranger’s desire to escape. It felt like my body moved without my permission, ducking behind a building, and running down the alley. Without conscious thought, my mind opened to the Otherworld vision in a sickening rush that made me sway on my feet.

I peeked around the corner, about half a block away I could see the glow of magic from the people of our Grove. With all the locals still fighting amongst each other, I couldn’t see who they were, but I could sense them. I took off down the alley stumbling over drunks and garbage, knowing Alexis and the others could sense me just as I sensed them. I needed to get as far way as possible. I couldn’t risk slowing down to look back, but I felt Alexis, Liam and Neila, they were closing in on me.

I turned the corner and saw a young woman getting into her car, she gasped in surprise at my sudden appearance, and glowing silver eyes. I tried to approach her in a unthreatening manner, but when she opened her mouth, preparing to scream, I quickly invaded her mind.

I gave her the thought that I was a long lost cousin who needed a ride. Her face grew slack, and then she smiled and unlocked the door for both of us. I jumped in next to her and we drove off. When I looked back, I saw Alexis, Liam, and Neila, their powers glowing, skid to a halt, and look about them, confused. Alexis… Would I be able to go back to her after this? Watching her under the streetlight looking anxiously about, broke me down from the inside out.

“What’s going on?” my driver asked alarmed.

In my distraction, I had released her mind. Quickly I renewed the thought that I was a cousin that she had promised to take to a place as far away from Dublin as possible. She smiled vacantly again, and headed west. Since I couldn’t risk falling asleep, I turned the radio to a rock station, and opened my window for the chill breeze to sting my face. But with every mile I became more and more drained by the constant effort to control the woman’s thoughts; her mind kept struggling for the true reality. Eventually, my Otherworld vision slipped from me without any conscious effort, simply because I couldn’t maintain it.