Witchcraft (#2 Witchblood Series) (20 page)

‘
Alex, look at me. Alex, I’m going
to get us out. I’m so, so sorry they got to you. It’s me they want,
and I’ll tell you the whole story later. It’s pretty strange I
guess, but basically, yes I am a vampire…but I haven’t bitten
anyone yet, I promise,’ I said quickly, as I watched the new hope
fall from her face with her remaining tears.

‘
Why are your eyes different? Why
do they want you? Why did they get me, when you haven’t even seen
me? You let me go through all that pain and grief after I thought
you died. God Jess, your dad killed himself because he couldn’t
bear it anymore,’ she stormed , sudden hatred blazing in her
eyes.

Alex, I’m sorry, but I promise I did try
to see you, but I wasn’t allowed. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near
you, or anyone I knew, but I saw dad just before he died. It was
really weird, a bit like a dream, but I saw him… I saw him
die.’

‘
You were there? In the hospital?
But how?’

‘
It doesn’t matter, not now. I’ve
got so much to tell you, but first we have to work out how to
escape. When did they bring me down here? How long have I been out
of it?’ I asked.

‘
Not long, a couple of hours
possibly... it’s hard to tell. I think I’ve been here five nights,
but I’m not sure. What day is it?’ she asked.

‘
Um.. it’s Sunday… I think. It’s
all been pretty hectic the last few days. Luke came to tell me you
were missing on Thursday night, and then…’

‘
What, Luke knows you’re alive
too? You’ve seen him? Did he know about you and not tell me? That
lying son of a… why though? Why would he hold me, crying, night
after night and not tell me? Why Jess?’

I felt awful. I thought I’d been through
so much, but I’d failed to realise just how much it had affected
Alex. I wasn’t going to keep any more secrets. I didn’t care if
Luke and The Council got pissed at me. She already knew about
vampires, what did it matter if she knew the rest as well?

‘
Alex, Luke couldn’t tell you
because
he
isn’t human either,
and don’t worry, I didn’t know that either. All those years I knew
him, and the months I dated him and thought I loved him, he was
lying to me. You’re not going to believe this, but he’s an angel!’
There, I said it, and it felt really silly, so silly in fact that I
let out a muted giggle. Alex caught my eye and her mouth twitched
upwards, crinkling her eyes in the way I loved, and we both laughed
out.

‘
You’re joking!’ she exclaimed,
looking at me as if I was demented.

‘
No, I’m not. He’s really an
angel, a fallen one apparently, and I’m warning you, he has some
serious vampire issues. According to him, he loved me so much that
he couldn’t bear to let me die, so when the girl gang attacked me,
he could sense that Daniel and Eva were round the corner they’re
the vampires that turned me, and he left me to them. That would be
great, if it wasn’t for the fact that he now regrets it, hates what
he did and has a massive chip on his shoulder about me being a
vampire. Apart from him managing to fly me up to London this
morning, and bring Murphy back to me, he’s been a right royal pain
in the rear!’ I stopped talking, aware that Alex had gone silent
and was just staring at me, her jaw slack, her eyes
wide.

‘
Sorry, have I freaked you out? I
forget what a weird world I live in, but I am going to get us out,
okay?’ I said.

‘
Jess, why do they want you? If
vampires are the norm round here, why do they go to such lengths to
get you?’

‘
Well,’ I said, taking a deep
breath, ‘Luke wasn’t the only one lying to me, when I was
alive…’

‘
You’re alive now Jess, you are,
aren’t you? I’m not dreaming this?’

‘
No, I’m here, but you know what I
mean, before the attack. My dad and mum had both been lying to me,
my whole life. She
wasn’t
my
mum you see, not my
real
mum.
My real mum had died in childbirth, and here’s the bit you might
want to stay sitting down for, because she was a witch.’

‘
A what? A
witch
?’ Alex shrieked.

‘
Yes, again something new I’ve
learnt these past few months is that there are real witches, and
when a witch gives birth they pass on their power to their child,
as it is born. The power splits and can cause a massive heart
attack. My mum had run away and refused to go to hospital, so she
died. My dad didn’t know she was a witch and remarried and they
decided not to tell anyone, including me. So I get turned into a
vampire, and in doing so they awaken this latent witch DNA which
means I’m not a normal vampire.’ I sighed and studied Alex. I knew
I had so much to tell her, but for now we needed to get through the
basics for her to understand and not be too freaked out, when I
started putting my plan into action.

‘
So you’re a witch too?’ she said,
‘Is that why you’ve got green eyes?’

‘
Bingo! Yes. Actually they only
turned green a couple of weeks ago, when I was initiated into my
family’s coven. Turns out I’m half American as well!’

‘
Whoa! Information overload. Is
this for real?’ she demanded.

‘
Yes, I’m afraid so. My life for
the past six months has been just that…information overload - one
thing after another. But I am a witch, I can work spells,
and
that
is how I intend to
get us out of here.’

‘
So that’s why these vampires want
you, because you’re a witch? But they’ve got a witch here. I’ve
seen her,’ Alex said frowning.

‘
What? Are you sure?’

‘
Yes, I think so. I mean, I didn’t
know what she was before you came, but now I’ve seen you I realise
what she was. She came in with that tall, young, posh
vampire…’

‘
Cole?’ I asked.

‘
Yes, I think that was what she
called him. Anyway, they came down here last night. They switched
the lamps on, so I saw them quite clearly. I think they thought I
was asleep, because one of his friends had just been down to… see
me.’ I felt crushed as I watched the shadows pass over her face,
hoping beyond hope that feeding was all they had done to my dearest
friend. After a slight pause she carried on, ‘The girl had green
eyes, just like yours, but she wasn’t as pale, she had a tan,
looked Spanish or something. Anyway, they both went in your cell
and she chanted something, they laughed a bit, and then they
left.

‘
Oh! I wonder what spell she cast
in here?’

‘
What were you planning?’ she
asked.

‘
I’m not sure. I was kidnapped a
few weeks ago by a dark witch, she created a vortex in my room and
pulled us both up into it and carried us away. I escaped, but if I
knew how to create a vortex that would work.’

‘
But you don’t?’ Alex said with a
smile.

‘
No sorry, I’ve only been a witch
a few weeks, and believe me, I’ve not had much practice time, or a
tutor. However I did a really cool transmutation spell the other
day.’

‘
A what?’

‘
Transmutation spell, I broke a
table by accident, so I used this spell to transmute the matter,
turn it from solid matter to liquid matter, then I concentrated on
pulling it back together and smoothing it over. It worked, so what
if I could turn the iron bars from solid to jelly?’ I grinned back
at her.

‘
Fine but then how are you going
to get us out of the building? There are at least four vampires up
there, because I’ve seen four different ones.’

‘
Are they two girls and two boys?’
I said, thinking back to the two couples I had seen with Cole at
the café.

‘
No, I’ve only seen the one you
call Cole and three other male vampires.’

‘
Right, well, there’s definitely
another female vampire hanging around as she was a passenger in the
car they brought me in, and knowing vampire leaders I bet there are
more up there. I wonder if I could make these windows any bigger?’
I said, gazing up at the tiny, windows.

‘
That would be the best bet,
because then we wouldn’t have to get past any of those creeps
upstairs,’ Alex said with a visible shiver that coursed the length
of her body.

‘
Okay, I’ll give it a shot. I’ll
do yours first and then if that works I can do mine. If I do it,
will you be able to climb up and get out, if you push your bed
underneath,’ I said, taking in her skinny frame and wondering how
much energy she had left. ‘Have you got some water? Here have mine.
Drink it now, because if we get out we might need to run,’ I said,
passing her my water through the bars and pushing it across the
smooth, stone floor, so it was just within her reach.

‘
Thanks. They haven’t refilled
mine today,’ she said, as she sat back on her bed and began to
drink.

I pulled my mattress off the bed
and pulled it over to my wall of bars, where I was directly
opposite Alex’s window, and sat down. This time I wouldn’t be able
to touch the object, so I had to concentrate with every atom of my
being. I crossed my legs and grounded. It came immediately, maybe
because I was underground and so close to the earth, but I felt my
body fill with energy and power, which I directed out at the window
ahead of me. I imagined the stone wall crumbling, the window
expanding, the bars falling out like rotten teeth in a recurring
nightmare. Except this wasn’t a nightmare, it was a dream,
we
would
escape.

‘
Jess, it’s working,’ Alex said,
with a high-pitched yelp of excitement that broke my concentration,
so the shimmering window frame wobbled back and
solidified.

‘
Ooops! Sorry,’ she
whispered.

‘
Shhh,’ I said and concentrated
once more.

This time the magic worked quicker and
the window frame doubled in size, just large enough for Alex’s
skinny frame to squeeze through. I intensified my magic and
watched, as the shimmering outline solidified and took shape. I
breathed in, realising that whilst concentrating I hadn’t taken a
single breath, and Alex was watching me, somewhat freaked out.

‘
Sorry, it’s a vampire thing,’ I
said taking another gulp of air. ‘Do you think you can squeeze
through that?’ I asked.

‘
You bet. I’d climb through that
if it meant having to chop my arm off. I’m not becoming a vampire’s
dinner again today, no-way,’ she said with a smile that brought
back the old sparkle to her eyes. ‘Now you.’

‘
I just need a minute. I want to
see you pull that bed over and climb out first, and then I’m going
to drink this blo…erm drink. I need some more energy, before I do
mine,’ I said.

‘
But I thought you said you didn’t
feed like they did?’ she said, her face falling again.

‘
I haven’t bitten anyone, but Alex
I am a vampire and I do have to drink blood to stay alive. This
will be from a blood bank.’

‘
Oh, I guess. I think I’ll just
turn this way and erm, move my bed then,’ she said
quietly.

I drank the blood they’d left for me and
watched Alex struggle to pull the little camp bed across the cell.
Her arms were so skinny and she looked so frail, I just wished I
could offer her some of my strength, but eventually she did it.

‘
Right, you climb through,’ I
said.

‘
No, you do your window first,’
she said.

‘
No, I want to see you out first.
You know, it won’t take me long to do and I will be able to jump
through easily once it’s open. You climb out and then crawl around
the perimeter of the building. It won’t be far till you reach my
window, but stay low down in case there are any ground floor
windows. Once you’re outside my window I’ll open it and we’ll be
off. I don’t think there’ll be many vampires about, as it must be
midday by now, and they’ll prefer to stay indoors.’

‘
But what about you?’

‘
I’ll be fine, we can go out in
daylight. The sun burns us, but slowly and it’s not too bright
today, thankfully. Don’t worry. You get out.’

Whilst I kept an eye on Alex slowly
pulling herself out of the window and wriggling through onto the
grass, I pulled the mattress back onto the bed and dragged it under
my own window. This window I could touch, so it should be a simple
matter of enlarging it, moulding it, and climbing through. I waited
for Alex, aware that my near-dead heart had sprung to life and was
beating much faster than usual.

‘
I’m here.’ Alex’s hand poked
through my bars and her face grinned down at me. ‘There’s no-one
about, and I can see the road.’

‘
That’s great. Now just stand out
of the way so the magic doesn’t hit you,’ I said, with a nervous
giggle.

Once again I grounded and drew up
energy, the blood had revitalised me and given me the boost I
needed. I took hold of the bars with both hands and willed my magic
to do its thing.

Except it did something else. As I
pushed my magic into the bars I noticed they began to glow green. A
strange green luminosity sparked beneath my fingers, causing
electric currents to spit and snap. Suddenly an eerie, wailing
siren started up, vibrating around my cell, getting louder and
louder with each second. They’d alarmed my cell against magic.