Crescent Bound (16 page)

“
Well that
’
s
okay
;
as long as you have a blanket handy I
’
m sure
you
’
re
good.
”
Megan gives Marc a quick wink.

As he takes a drink from his bottled water, he chokes.
Instantly covering his mouth coughing and clearing his throat he replies back
,
“
Megan
,
who do you talk to at school?
”

Her smile brightens
even more as she says shrugging,
“
You would be surprised at how much the guidance counselors know, Marcus.
”
 

Lisa elbow
s Megan and changes the subject
.
“
If you hang with us long enough, you
’
r
e
go
ing
to
get addicted sooner or later
.
”
  Without pausing Lisa
continues
,
“And
Dawson, have you met him yet, he is my man and that
,
”
pointing
over by the office to a
gorgeous white dodge challenger,
“
i
s
his car, I know my boyfriend has two loves in his life, sometimes I wonder if he secretly loves
me or his car more,
”
she says
laughing
softly.

“
Lisa, you know there is no choice, you
are
it and you know it,
”
I say adding a grin to her nervous laughter.  I silently thank Lisa for shutting Megan up.

After a couple of races we
’
re all getting hungry and head towards the concession area.  At the food court, my father is standing by one of the tables, talking to several
racers
.  I have a feeling he is telling the witches to keep control of their magick tonight.  Everyone is on their best behavior acting all
casual
.  There is no shifting going on around us, no floating objects, nothing on fire, things of that nature. 

“
Is everyone having a good time?
”
My father greets us. 
“
Marc, are you enjoying yourself as well?
”
 

Marc nods to him
.
“
Absolutely, this is quite a place.  I have only been to the drag races once before when I was younger
, but
it
’
s nothing like this.
”
 

Marc and my father start
conversing
a bit and they both seem to enjoy talking to each other.  Marc is quite relaxed as they both joke about something sports related.  I tend to zone out at the mention of sports, sorry, but I do. 

Anyway, everyone in our coven and throughout the witch world has the utmost respect for my father and being who he is allows h
is very presence to help keep
things in control.  Dad says goodnight to everyone and heads back to the office.

We order a huge supreme
pizza;
I walk over and get several bottles of water.  A couple of guys from the track come over and introduce themselves to us.  Marc did the hand shake without a secon
d thought as if he did it naturally every
day.  One of the guys is the driver of the Toyota Supra so we talk cars for a bit.  Now I notice that Marc
’
s eyes glaze over because he must not have a clue what I
’
m talking about with these drivers.  I guess live and let live, huh.

I glance over my shoulder,
and
notice David and Dawson walking up to our table.  I am sitting
beside Marc
, Megan is on the other side of him, and Lisa sits just across from us. 
Dawson
sits down first and takes a bite out of Lisa
’
s pizza. 

David stands behind me.  I don
’
t turn around, I just keep talking to Lisa, and eventually the other guys leave.  Megan turns
patting the vacant seat next to her
.
“
Hey David
sit
here, beside me.
”
  David looks at Megan
, but
doesn
’
t move
a muscle
.  I start to introduce Dawson and David to
Marc, when David interrupts me.

“
I need to talk to you,
”
he says abruptly
.  I
’
m starting to get a bad feeling as I
turn
,
look
ing
at David annoy
ingly
.

“
I
’
m kind of busy right now, can
’
t you see,
”
I say as
David grabs my arm and pulls me up from my chair.
At the same time Marc j
umps up and
quietly
, but
fiercely
gets
in David
’
s face. 

“
Let her go and back off,
”
Marc says with no hint of fear at all. 

David shoves Marc across the food court
, but
it wasn
’
t with his hands.  David uses his telekinesis on Marc who flies through the air about twenty feet
before hitting
the
wall hard.

For a minute I think he may be unconscious but to my surprise Marc stands up brushing his clothes off as he heads towards David with a look in his eye that
,
should he have been a witch
,
would make me worry that David was about to pay for that.  Marc picks up speed and charges towards David. 

I shift in front of David w
hile Dawson and Lisa grab Marc,
stop
ping
him.  Marc struggles against
Dawson
, but
soon stops.  I
’m
stand
ing
in front of David when I realize that David
’
s hands are blazing with fire.  I look down at my own and see that from finger tip to shoulder I
’
m a walking inferno too.

Megan
sit
s on top of the table
sipping her drink with a casual e
xpression, and then
breaks the silence
.
“
Well, I guess the
black
cat is out of the bag now.
”
  I stare at her briefly with an arched brow then turn my head and see Marc
’
s face.  He has this absolutely astonished look to him. 

When I turn back towards David he shifts away.  I close my eyes in frustration and know what we have to do.  For the first time ever I really don
’
t want to do a mind
-
sweep
-
spell, not on Marc.  I realiz
e
just
how much I really like him. 

Dawson
asks
releasing his arm,
“
Marc, are you okay?
”
  Marc nods and
Dawson
shifts after David.  
Dawson
dissipates into a faint vapor right in front of Marc.

Lisa walks Marc over to the table as if he is about to pass out and sits down beside him.  Megan shifts to me still
sucking on her now empty drink as she asks,
“
So, do you want Lisa and
me
to take Marc back to the office?  We can do the mind sweep spell there
,
or
maybe
you and I
can
play with him first
,
since he won
’
t remember anyway, come on just this once, be bad with me, Alyssa.
”
 

Megan
is
being very casual in her approach to this situation.  I look down at my hands to make sure they are not still on fire. 
“
What? No!
Let
’
s
take him to the office,
”
I say shaking the last remnants of fire from my finger tips while walking over to the table with Marc and Lisa. 

Marc runs his hands through his hair and then asks,
“
You
’
re… hands were on fire, and don
’
t tell me they weren
’
t,
”
his voice strains.  Then he looks over to Lisa and Megan
and says,
“
You...
”
p
ointing to Megan and drags his finger over to me
,
“
move so fast…almost like you disappear into thin air and reappear, how?
”
  I look again down at my hands just to make sure I won
’
t hurt him.  

I reach out and touch his hand as I kneel down by him and softly say,
“
Let
’
s
walk back to the office, okay?
”

As we walk towards the office, Megan hands Marc his drink, thinking this will help.  Marc opens the lid and sniffs the drink as if there is more in it than water and ice.  Megan shakes her head at his antics. 

“
See Alyssa, this is
a
first for you, oh
my,
you
’
re
a virgin
.
”
Megan points at me and grins wickedly. 

I sh
ake my head at her in disbelief and reply,
“
Yeah
and this will be the last one too, never again.
’’

Megan pats Marc on his shoulder.
“
You see
,
lover boy, our dear Alyssa here has never done a mind sweep spell on one of her own male interest before.
”
She leans behind him and winks at me.
I c
hang
e
the tone of my
voice towards more of a command
.
“
Megan
,
why don
’
t you and Lisa go
and
get the necessary item
s—
like now.
”
They both vanish.

I stop walking and Marc looks at me questioningly.  I face him, there
’
s something I need to say to him, even if he will n
ever remember. 
“
Marc, I
’
m sure you
’
ve heard the old fairytale stories about old goblins, horrid trolls, and wicked witches, right?
”
  His deep brown eyes answer me
, but
he never says a word so I glance away debating wit
h myself and decide to continue,
“
Marc, I
’
m a real witch, kind of like from the movies, not the evil ones
, but
the good ones
similar to
Practical Magic.
”
Marc narrows his eyes at me an
d then slowly glances
wearily
around
.

I can tell what I
’
m
saying to
him is not really sinking in yet,
sighing I try again to explain,
“
Okay, remember the movie Hocus Pocus, well, I
’
m like the fat redheaded one and Lisa is like the dingy blond
e
,
and Megan is the really round brunette with all the moles, well, maybe not so much tha
t we look like them but…o
kay, scratch that
—
forget I even brought that up.
”
Nervously
,
I run my hands through my hair and continue,
“
Lets try
this;
my
natural born element is fire, that
’
s why you saw my hands on fire.  It doesn
’
t hurt me, but I can hurt others,
and that is the
reason why I didn
’
t go to you
.
I was trying to protect you from David.
”