The Doctor Witch (The Ward Witches) (8 page)

She woke up gasping for breath. What had just happened? She went into the bathroom for a drink and tried to calm her nerves. She even tried to get back to sleep, but what she did get was restless and full of images she couldn’t quite make out.

The next morning, she woke up a little less than ready to face the day. She had gotten up especially early so she wouldn’t have to see Leo, especially not after that dream, which was still as vivid as if she had actually run through the forest. She packed a simple lunch of a prosciutto and chicken sandwich with a homemade sauce on the side, with a side dish of carrots. She left a note next to a pile of pancakes, and she set off for the Coven House.

She knew she was really early, but Justin still answered the door before she knocked. “You realize lessons start at nine, right?”

“
Yeah.” She blushed.

“
Then why are you here at seven thirty?”

“
More to the point, why are you up at seven thirty?”

“
I was going to the gym before the rest of the house wakes up.”

“
Fair enough. If there’s somewhere I can sit, I’ll just wait until nine. I brought a book.”

“
No way. Now that there’s a beautiful woman here, I’ll leave the gym for tomorrow.” He winked and brought her back to the room they had been in the day before. “Really, explain why you’re here so early,” he led her into the sitting room they had been using yesterday.

“
Why don’t I meet my potential teachers first, and I’ll explain it on the way out?”

“
No way, babe. Your evasion makes me wicked curious. Besides, I doubt they’re awake and ready to go this early.”

“
That’s a good point.”

“
So spill. It’s just you and me.”

She didn’t know how much to tell him.

“
I don’t need to be an air witch to tell what’s going on in your head. You’re torn, wondering whether you’re in love with me and should just confess or if you should just kiss me and let me figure it out myself.”

She laughed and jabbed his arm. “You wish.”

“
Alas, you wound me.” He made a show of grabbing his chest and leaning back in the chair.

“
Seriously, though, I’m having a hard time puzzling out some strange emotions. It’s not just when I’m awake, either, but when I sleep as well. You know,” Skylar jumped upon an idea. “You may actually be able to help me.”

“
That’s what I’m here for.” He was all seriousness now, knowing that she needed an ear to talk to more than she needed jokes. He sat down, and she did the same, perched on the edge of the couch.

“
I’m having guy problems. I’m not used to having guy problems, either. I hate to be like this, but I usually have a few dates, some sex, and a month later, I’m ready to move on. So I do, and I don’t look back. Yet I’ve never really, you know, meshed with any of them, no matter how much I tried. So I don’t understand what’s going on with him at all.”

“
It’s because you’re a witch.”

“
Come again?”

“
Part of being a witch means that you have an instinctual need to find someone who calls to you magically. It could be another witch, or even a non-witch. But this attraction is strong. I hate to be like this, but you’ll really never be satisfied with anyone whose soul doesn’t align with yours. There is usually only one out there for each person, so the likelihood of meeting one of them is rather slim, and the odds of meeting more than one are practically minuscule. It can be a fulfilling relationship or a harmful one, but it’s a strong bond. Then there’s the fact that once you have sex with this person, the bond will be complete and even stronger. You won’t even want to be with anyone else, for one thing.”

“
That’s hardly fair. So people, or non-witches, can find love with a whole variety of people, really. But I can’t even have a normal relationship without unintentionally sabotaging it? Is that what you’re saying? You mean that Jeremy left me because I was too cold because something about my magic was off when we were together?” Her voice got louder and shrill, but she didn’t even care. He covered her hand with his.

“
Sadly, yes. And indeed, it isn’t fair; I agree. Speaking from personal experience, it sucks. I am old enough that I feel I should have found someone already, but even my flings don’t work out.  If you’ve found someone whose magic is aligned with yours, you’re about three steps ahead of me.” He kissed the back of her hand. “Not to say that I won’t still flirt with you. I flirt with all pretty women.”

She smiled.  “How do I know if it’s true?”

“
I think you already know. I imagine, and correct me if I’m wrong, that you’re already thinking about a lasting relationship with this lucky man when you’ve never wanted one before.”

“
That is true.”

“
Would you like my advice?”

“
Please.”

“
No matter how your body and your magic is making you feel, don’t sleep with him yet. Make sure you’re compatible in other ways as well. It’s better to live without the bond than it is to have a destructive relationship. Remember that, Skylar.”

“
I see.”

“
If you don’t now, you will later. There aren’t many destructive relationships like that, but any number of them is too much. There’s a few of them in our coven’s quadrant, and it’s painful to see. Now look, I’ll bring you to the practice room then go round up your potential teachers and we’ll see who’s right for you.”

83

CHAPTER FIVE

They went down a labyrinth of hallways and down to a basement with no windows. There were mirrors on all four walls, with many doors, and padded blue mats on the floor. Other than that, there was nothing out, making the room look especially large.

“
There’s another part of the basement through that door that leads to the gym.”

“
Then why were you leaving the Coven House to work out?”

He didn’t answer, but deflected the question with a comment about finding people.  Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, he showed back up with five people.

“
Now this is a weird part,” Justin explained.

85

THE DOCTOR WITCH

“
As if any of this wasn’t weird,” she grumbled under her breath.

“
They will send out a kind of finger of their magic to touch your core, or the seat of your magic that you were working with yesterday. If it feels right on both sides, you’ll work together. If not, you’ll try the next teacher. Sound good?”

“
Sure.”

The first woman, a middle aged lady with dyed black hair introduced herself as Margarita, and soon enough, Skylar did indeed feel something questing around in her chest. But it felt invasive more than anything. She shook her head when Justin looked at her.

The next, Carlos, was Margarita’s husband. His hair, at least, was showing its gray. The problem was that his magic felt similarly invasive, and she wasn’t comfortable with it at all. After another shake of the head, she moved on.

Surprisingly, it was Suzy next. The magic tendril sent out felt flighty and light, much like the woman. They both shook their heads, and Suzy gave Skylar a large smile.

The fourth was an attractive man with short black hair and welcoming brown eyes. His name was Timothy. When his magic touched hers, she felt warm and calmer.

“
Skylar? Timothy?”

“
I think it’ll work,” Timothy said, and Skylar nodded. The other four, including an older man named Josiah, walked out, patting Skylar and Timothy on the shoulders.

“
Good. I’ll leave you two to it. Best of luck.”

“
So Skylar, I’ll go first. I’m a fire witch. My mother was a witch, and my father was not, but they resonated with each other and loved each other very much. They were both pleased when I shared my father’s fire magic. After I finished high school, I got a degree in criminology. That landed me the position as second to Justin in Coven Security.”

“
Do you like it?”

“
I do. A lot. But when Justin asked me if I wanted to take my first student, I figured I had to at least try. That’s why I’m here.”

“
Are you excited about having a student?”

“
I’m not sure yet.” He grinned.

“
At least you’re honest.”

“
What is your experience with magic, Skylar?”

“
Very limited, unfortunately. My father was a witch, and after he died, my mother showed that she really hated witchcraft. She forbade me from ever practicing my magic. As a child who both wanted to please her mother and to stay out of serious trouble, I obeyed. It was hard, knowing that there was this power in me that wanted to get out. But then I learned some meditation skills to keep it all suppressed until I couldn’t use it even if I wanted to.”

“
Then our first priority is to fix that barrier. I understand that Justin did some meditation with you yesterday to work on loosening it.”

“
Yes.”

“
If you’ll let me, I want to try something that would probably do it faster, but it’s more invasive, and quite possibly painful. Basically, since we’re both fire witches, and we’ve got the student-teacher bond starting to form, I want to burn away the wall around your core. See yesterday, Justin had you quietly coaxing it away. It’ll take a long time to do it that way, and as I understand it, we only have a little less than six months. In that time, we need to learn control and some skills. I’ll leave it up to you which method you want to do.”

“
Let’s light it up. I want to know what I can do, and I’d rather have it now, even if it’s painful to get to, than waiting a long time to shed its protective wall.”

“
I knew I liked you,” he laughed. “Sit on the floor here and begin your meditation.”

She crossed her legs on the floor and the room fell away. She felt rather than heard Timothy’s voice telling her to breathe in and out. Then his finger of magic went questing back into her chest to find that core while he pressed his hand to her chest to guide it.

Breathe in, breathe out.

There was more exploratory poking around until they both had an idea of what kind of preventative measure she had built through her meditations. Then the fingers of magic became a kind of hand that gripped her core and burned as it squeezed. As if it were a wall of bricks, her barrier exploded in shards all over her chest, and she felt it go.

Screaming, she fainted.

When she woke up, Timothy was reading a book.

“
Welcome back, Skylar.”

She was woozy, and had a hard time sitting up, so Timothy helped her.

“
What happened?”

“
A huge success.”

“
Then why does it hurt so badly?”

“
We destroyed that barrier in an explosive manner. Your body wasn’t quite ready for it, and no one’s would have been, which sent you to the ground.”

“
How long have I been out?”

“
About three hours, which, plus the time in the spell adds up to it being four in the afternoon now. Impressive, by the way, you stood up to quite a bit of magical trauma, if you will.”

“
I feel...” she looked around the room, noticing that something was off. “What happened to the room?”

“
Your magic was so suppressed that it was affecting how you saw the world. Ideally, you’ll see the world better.”

“
I feel more alive, certainly, which is weird.”

“
Again, you’ve been crippling yourself. Now you’re not. It’ll be a great rush of feelings, so open yourself to them.”

“
Wow, that’s crazy. It feels so good.”

“
Excellent. Now, for a while, we’ll work on erecting a temporary shield so you don’t do any harm with this new-found power. We’ll have to do a little today, just in case.”

“
Alright.”

Breathe deeply, in and out. Now envision a layer of silk that you’re going to drape over your core, exactly where that wall was.” She tried, but it kept falling away. “Keep working on it.”

Then it clicked, and she wrapped it like a ball within her chest.

“
Perfect. Now drop it and put it back again.”

He had her do it five times to make sure she was capable of taking it back down. Then, with both of them spent, they wandered back upstairs. All that work meant it was six, and she had taken an extra hour of magic school.

“
Are you alright to drive?”

“
I’m fine.”

“
Do you have something easy to cook back at the Ward Manor?”

“
No, I do most of my cooking from scratch. I don’t think I’m up to that.”

“
Sit in here, and I’ll be right back.”

In a few minutes, Timothy was back with three frozen pizzas. “Seb won’t miss these. Now Skylar, I want you to eat an entire pizza by yourself. We did some serious magical heavy lifting today, and that saps your strength. To replenish it, you need the calories.”

“
Got it, boss.”

“
Tim.”

“
Got it, Tim.”

She left and headed straight back to Ward Manor. Once there, she called Dave and apologized for not coming to the hospital that afternoon to relieve him. He laughed and said they’d work something out when he got home.

Only thirty minutes later, Tim and Leo came back to find her pulling the second pizza out of the oven, with the first cooling.

“
What’s this?”

“
I hope you don’t mind, but it’s frozen pizza. I’m pretty tired, and Tim gave me these for tonight.”

“
I don’t mean the pizza. I love pizza. What I mean is that I can feel your magic, even through your shield,” Leo said.

“
We did it. Or rather, Tim did it.”

“
Justin said it would take at least a month to get you to this point. What did you two do?”

“
It was like he shattered it with a fist of fire.”

“
Good God, no wonder you’re tired. That kind of magic requires a lot of power, both from the witch doing it and the witch receiving it.”

“
I think there was a compliment in there,” Dave commented over the pizza he was quickly tucking into.

Ignoring both of them for a moment, Skylar slid the last pizza into the oven.

“
How does it feel?” Leo probed.

“
I feel alive like I never have before.  It’s incredible. Even when it’s shielded, I can feel it, and it’s just exhilarating.”

“
Excellent.” Dave was on his second slice.

Skylar grabbed a slice, not to be outdone by him. It was tasty, and just what she needed. Tim had been right about that.

There was only half a pizza left with Dymphna got home an hour later. She dove into it with a grunt.

“
Hard day, sister mine?”

Another grunt. Once all the pizza was gone, she looked somewhat better.

“
Hey Skylar, looks like you found your magic.”

“
You betcha. It’s great.”

“
I’m happy for you. Dave, can I have last watch please?”

“
I’ll take second,” Skylar offered.

“
OK, I’ll take first. You sure you can do it, Skylar?”

“
Yeah. I may be tired, but I’m going to pull my weight around here.”

Dymphna muttered something about going to bed early and went upstairs. The other three laughed over a movie and a few bowls of popcorn. Feeling content, Skylar went upstairs to sleep before her shift.

All too early, Dave was knocking on her door to start her time. “He’s having nightmares again.”

“
Yikes.”

Indeed he was, sprawled out on the bed with his covers all tangled up around him. Pushing the thoughts her conversation with Justin had put into her head aside, she resumed Pride and Prejudice. She even took another hour before going to get Dymphna so that the other woman could have a little more sleep.

The next morning, she reported for duty at the Coven House again.

“
I see Tim had a different method of releasing your magic,” Justin greeted her.

“
Hello to you too.”

“
I’m happy for you.”

“
Thanks. It feels great.”

“
Tim’s down in the practice room. Remember how to get there?”

“
I think so. But I’ll get there.”

“
Good.” He kissed her cheek. “And have a good time.”

“
Without you? I hardly think so.”

She found it with only one wrong turn. Tim was sitting in the exact center of the room, meditating. Not wanting to disturb him, Skylar sat down facing him.

“
Join me in my meditation,” he commanded without opening his eyes. When she did, he asked her to shed the shield off her magic.

In this state, she could not only feel her magic rushing through her body in a most delightful way, but his magic, which felt red, despite the fact that her eyes were closed. It was strong, she realized, and marveled.

Minutes that felt like hours later, he broke the connection.

“
Very good. We’ll start each day with meditation, as it is essential to harnessing your magic. I’m glad to see you’re already familiar with the idea.” She nodded. “Now for the actual magic, since we freed your core.”

“
Why was everyone so surprised at that? Couldn’t Justin have done that the first day?”

“
That kind of magic is well,” he blushed, “A dramatic one. Since I’m your teacher, I could see a glimpse of how powerful you are, and I’m familiar with my own power. If either one of us were not strong enough, it could land us both in the hospital. We likely wouldn’t die, but it wouldn’t be good either.”

“
And you didn’t tell me?”

“
It needed to be done. Besides, like I said, there’s enough power between the two of us that a big magic like that would work.”

“
So,” she let the point go, “you said I was powerful. Stroke my ego for a second. How powerful am I?”

“
Damn it, Skylar, I hate answering that question. Of course usually, it’s the witches who aren’t particularly powerful on their own who ask it. You, and how shall I say this, are very powerful. I couldn’t tell how much until we got that barrier off you because it was blocking almost everything. And I don’t want to stroke you ego and have you get a big head or think you’re ready for anything that you’re not. But in terms of sheer raw power, you’re stronger than I am. And that’s saying something. When you’re trained, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”