Once Caleb Danvers defeated Chase in the Putnam's barn, the city of Ipswich fell into a mock normalcy. Pogue Parry was still in the hospital for weeks after the battle. Mrs. Parry grew concerned for her son's health and she could only think of one family to help. The Ravencrofts were an ancient coven that specialized in healing spells. They were the allies of the American coven and Ms. Parry understood that they would help one of their kind. She called up the head of the coven, Jonathan Ravencroft, and told him her story. He agreed to come over and help Pogue. He told her he would bring his daughter over.
They arrived the following evening and went straight to the hospital. Pogue's mother met them there.
"It's been far too long Jonathan." She kissed his cheek.
"This is my daughter, Melania." He gestured to the girl standing next to him. She had bright red hair and freckled skin. Her eyes were a golden shade of hazel.
"Melania?! My you've grown!" She hugged the girl.
"It's good to see you ma'am." She smiled warmly. "Where's Pogue?"
"This way." Mrs. Parry led them towards the ICU. When they got to the room, Melania walked to the side of his bed.
"Pogue," she said gently, "if you can hear me I want you to squeeze my hand." His hand twitched slightly, it was the closest thing to a squeeze he could manage. "I'm going to boost your immune system, ok? It's going to hurt, it will strain your body until it gets in your system."
Pogue let out a small cough in an attempt to show he understood. Melania took a sturdier grip on his hand so he couldn't pull it from her. She closed her eyes and concentrated. When her eyelids flew open, her eyes were completely gold. Energy flowed from her hand to Pogue's, and then it ricocheted through his body. Pogue winced when the energy burned through his hand and then cried out when it played pinball in his organs. Melania's expression faltered when he cried out and her eyes went back to normal.
"I'm sorry that it hurt…" she whispered, "trust me, it hurts me just as bad." Pogue's eyes were closed and his breathing was labored. Sweat covered his face and his hand was shaking. Melania moved a stray hair from his face and kissed his forehead. " Sleep, the spell will work faster."
She walked past her father and Pogue's mother and leaned against the wall. She rubbed her temples. Her father sliently walked forward and handed her a powerbar. She thanked him quietly.
"Whats wrong? What did you do to Pogue?" Mrs. Parry asked.
"I just transferred some of my energy over to Pogue so he can heal faster. It takes a lot out of me to do that, but he should be better soon."
"Mel, I want you to stay with him and watch him for a while to make sure the spell doesn't backfire." Her father insisted.
"Yes, sir." She nodded, as she ate the powerbar.
"How long until Pogue gets better?" His mother looked concerned.
"No more than a week." Mel finished her bar.
They sat in silence as the heart monitor beeped ominously. A nurse walked in to tell them visiting hours were over and led them to the main door. They walked out to Ms. Parry's car and she drove them to her house. Melania went up to her room when they got there. The spell had taken so much out of her. Sleep overtook her as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The following afternoon, Melania went to the hospital alone. The nurse approached her when she walked towards Pogue's room.
"Are you looking for Pogue Parry?" She asked politely.
"Yes."
"He was moved out of the ICU this morning. He made a miraculous recovery last night." The nurse smiled.
"That's good, could you show me to his new room?" Melania was bragging inside about her handiwork.
"This way." She led Mel down the hall up a flight of stairs and down another hall. "Room 613."
"Thank you." When Mel walked into the room, Pogue was sitting up in the bed reading a book. "Hey there miracle boy." She teased.
"Uh, hi." He looked up at the girl.
"I'm Melania, just call me Mel." She said as she sat on the side of his bed. " How are you feeling?"
"Loads better, thank you so much." Pogue was lost in her golden eyes.
"Not a problem." She smiled at him. "You have a good while to thank me."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"My father says I need to stay and watch my handiwork."
"Oh so now I'm your handiwork?" he teased.
"Yes I'm British, so I must own everything I touch." She tossed her hair over her shoulder ostentatiously. They both started laughing.
"So you're from the Ravencrofts?"
"Next in line to be the head of the family, then it's my brother."
A nurse walked in with a new IV bag for Pogue. She attached it to the IV in his arm then hung it on the stand next to his bed. Before she left she turned and said, "That's a sedative, so you can get more sleep."
"Sleep will help you a lot." Mel turned her head to make sure the nurse had truly left the room, "the spell will begin working again when you sleep."
"Will it hurt again?" Pogue asked in a slightly stressed tone.
"No, it's already in your system, it will just repair you from the inside out."
"Man, this stuff works fast…" Pogue slurred.
"I'll come back later to check on you." She stood up to leave.
"Don't go…" he whispered, his hand flew up and grabbed her wrist.
"Pogue, I don't want to keep you up." She turned to see that he was already asleep. "I guess I can stay." She sighed. Mel noticed how much more peaceful he looked now that he was getting better. When she had sat beside him the night before, he looked as if everything was a struggle, he was struggling to live. Inside she knew she had saved his life, but she wasn't about to tell his mother how extremely close to death her son was. Mel couldn't tell people the blunt truth, she omitted things here and there, stretched a few things, and added what they wanted to hear. Mel felt so weak, she gave him so much energy so she could pull him back from the hands of the reaper. Now, when she was looking down on his young, beautiful face, peaceful with sleep, she was glad she had expelled that much energy. She sat back down on the bed and stroked his hair with her free hand. Then a loud bang broke her from her reverie.
"Hey Pogue, I heard you were getting better, I thought I'd come bother you." A blonde boy burst into the room and then stopped when he saw Mel and Pogue. "Am I interrupting something?" he cocked his eyebrow.
"No, he's sleeping and he's got a vice grip on my wrist." Mel said annoyed.
"Oh, who are you?" he asked rudely.
"I'm Melania Ravencroft, but just call me Mel."
"Ah, you're the British chick Pogue's mom called in, right?"
"Yes, and you must be from Pogue's coven."
"I'm Reid Garwin, Just call me Caleb." He held out his hand.
Then another guy walked into the room and looked a Reid, "You using my name again, Reid?" he walked up to Mel and held out his hand, "I'm Caleb Danvers."
"Caleb?!" Mel squealed. "Please tell me you remember me. Melania Ravencroft."
"Mel?! Wow, you've changed." He gave her a hug.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You two know each other?" Reid waved his arms as if to clear the air around him.
"Remember when my father used to take me and my mother to England each summer?" Caleb asked, "Well, I would always play with Mel when I was there. We were practically inseparable. Then my father got…sick…and we couldn't go anymore."
"It's been so long, Caleb, how are you doing? I heard about Chase and that whole ordeal. I'm glad you're alright." Mel smiled.
"I'm alright, just worried bout Pogue," He turned to Reid,"Tyler said he'd be here soon too."
"Oh, ok. When will Pogue wake up?" Reid asked Mel.
"I don't know, they just gave him the sedative." At that moment, both of Pogue's arms wrapped around Mel's waist and pulled her close to his body. The other two boys laughed at the look on Mel's face.
"Ok what did I miss?" Another guy walked in. He looked at the scene before him and laughed. "And who are you?"
"I'm Melania and Pogue must be dreaming or something."
"Oh you're the mage." It clicked in his head.
"Yes that would be me."
"I'm Tyler."
"Ok, now that I know all of the coven, can someone please dislodge him from my waist?" Mel pointed down to Pogue.
"Oh I forgot to tell you that Pogue's the physically strongest member in our coven." Reid said nonchalantly.
"Are you serious?" Mel whined, "This is so not cool."
"Sorry babe, but you're stuck til he wakes up." Reid winked at her. Mel's eyes went completely gold and the shelf above Reid fell and came down with a loud thud on his head. "Geez, harsh." He said as he rubbed the point of impact.
"Don't call me babe, and don't wink at me and we'll get along just dandy." Mel's eyes had returned to normal.
The other two started cracking up. The four sat around and talked for three hours waiting for Pogue to wake up. A nurse walked in and changed the IV bag. Pogue was awake in minutes.
"Good morning sleeping beauty." Caleb said as he ruffled Pogue's hair.
"How long was I out?" He asked as he yawned.
"About three hours," Mel said, "The nurse came in a few minutes ago and changed the IV bag." Pogue realized he was embracing her. He quickly pulled his arms away and sat up.
"I'm sorry." He looked down, "I always cling onto my pillow, and I guess it's just a habit to grab whatever's close to me."
"It's fine, the fact that you're strong enough to hold me here for three hours without letting up is a good sign you're getting better." She fixed a hair that was out of place. "You should be out of here in a day or two."
"Good," he said happily, "I'm sick of being in a hospital, I haven't seen the sun in weeks."
"So Pogue, you think you can get away with not saying hi to us or anything. We took time out of our busy schedules to come visit you." Reid whined dramatically.
"Hey guys, sorry I was asleep for so long." Pogue turned to face Caleb.
"You needed it, I mean miraculous recoveries must take a lot out of you." Caleb joked.
"Well now that I am free I need to get some food." Mel's stomach growled loudly.
"We'll take you to the cafeteria in here." Caleb stood up.
"Let me see if I can go with you guys." Pogue hit the call button on the wall and the nurse came running in.
"Are you alright Mr. Parry?" the nurse looked distressed.
"I just wanted to see if I could go with them to the cafeteria." Pogue put on his best pouting face.
The nurse almost melted, "I was just on my way to take out your IV, you're probably going to be out of here tomorrow." She pulled the small tube out of his arm and put a band-aid over the hole.
"Thank you so much" Pogue moved his arm with more freedom now.
"Your friend here," She gestured at Melania, "brought you some pajamas, we're keeping them at the desk at the end of the hall."
Pogue stood up and looked down at what he was wearing. It was one of those hospital gowns that opened in the back. "Let's hope I can get down the hall without anything happening." Pogue glanced at Reid who tried to look innocent but when Pogue turned around to walk out the door, a wicked smile slid across his face. The others followed Pogue out the door. They made it almost to the end of the hallway, then Reid lunged forward and yelled.
"Marilyn Monroe is in the building!" he flipped the bottom of Pogue's gown revealing his bare bottom. Reid then fell to the floor laughing and Pogue turned bright red. Mel stared blatantly at him as Caleb and Tyler slapped their foreheads simultaneously.
"Reid, what the-?" Pogue yelled.
"I had to do it dude." Reid laughed.
"But in front of a girl?" he pointed at Mel, who turned a deeper shade of red.
"Oh, you know she enjoyed it." Reid had gotten up but was still laughing.
"I'm sorry, Mel." He said shyly.
"It's fine, it wasn't your fault." Mel's mind was yelling at her loudly. She pushed the thoughts away and walked forward to Pogue, "let's go get you in some real clothes."
"You alright?" Pogue asked as he was being dragged down the hall.
"Uh… Kinda." She tried to make eye contact with him but she turned a brighter shade of red.
"You did like it didn't you?" Pogue said with a half smile.
"Shut up and get dressed." Mel pushed him towards the desk. The nurse behind the desk had already put the clothes on top of the counter. Pogue grabbed them and hurried to the bathroom.
"You're a lucky girl, you know that right?" Mel turned to face the young blonde nurse behind the desk. "He's cute, and he's a miracle."
"What do you mean?"
"He's your boyfriend right?"
"No, no, no, I'm just a friend of the family."
"Oh so he's single?" The nurse perked up.
"He's also seventeen." Reid snuck up behind Mel.
"Hey Reid, nice move back there." Mel laughed.
Reid bowed as he said, "I'm only here to entertain."
Caleb and Tyler walked up to the desk and the nurse behind it looked as if she was going to melt. When Mel turned to see where Pogue went, he was walking towards her. His white wife beater clung to his muscles beautifully making him look like some Greek god. He wore a pair of pajama pants low on his hips revealing the bottom portion of his abs. Mel concentrated all of her energy to her knees so they wouldn't buckle underneath her.
"Nice pants." Reid pointed out the Cheshire cat design on his pants.
"Hey Alice in Wonderland is the best movie and an even better book." Pogue said defensively.
"Alice in Wonderland was an acid trip." Reid laughed. "Pogue do you need to tell me something?"
"Reid shut up" Caleb put himself between Reid and Pogue.
"Can we eat now?" Mel whined, "I'm starving."
"Let's get some food before the Brit goes berserk." Caleb joked as he poked her side.
"Oh so now im just a bloody British pig, aren't I?" she cheesed up her accent to make her sound snooty.
"Food courts this way." Tyler pointed down the hall.
They all walked towards the food court. Mel walked next to Pogue. She kept glancing at his rock hard body, and had to control her blushing. She couldn't stop thinking about the Marilyn Monroe moment that just happened. In her head, she came to the conclusion that Pogue was in excellent shape. She wondered why he didn't heal without her help. He should have been strong enough to heal himself. Maybe he didn't want to get better, she thought to herself, Maybe he just gave up on life. Mel's eyes looked at Pogue's face. Because she was a mage, and everything she studied was on the human mind, body, and spirit, she was excellent at reading people. In his eyes, she could see a sadness that burned deep in his heart. She knew that under that rock hard chest, there was a broken heart, and she planned on putting it back together.
Once in the food court, Reid, Caleb, and Tyler went to go get a table as Pogue and Mel got in line to get food. Pogue's mind was still reeling from the night before.
"Mel, back when you healed me, you said that the spell hurt you, too. Why?" Pogue broke the silence between them.
"I gave you energy straight from my body. I had close to the same feeling you had, but I felt the energy being torn from my cells, not pushed into them." She said as she grabbed a tray. "Spells like that take a lot out of me. I got home and went to go to sleep and I passed out. I had used too much energy."
"You passed out?" His eyes widened, "Ok so now I feel really bad."
"Don't worry about it. It happens all of the time." She lied, he was one of the few times she had used that much energy. "It's just like running around for a long time then passing out with exhaustion. That's probably the best way to describe it."
"Oh, ok." Pogue couldn't see through her lie, so he just continued the conversation. "So where in England do you live?"
"I lived near Newcastle but I went to an art and drama prep school in London."
"You're an artist?" he raised one eyebrow.
"I sketch mostly, I've painted here or there, and I love drama." She grabbed a plate with chicken fingers and French fries on it. "I just hope your school doesn't chew me up and spit me out. My last school was pretty mellow, most of the students were high on something."
"It's not that bad, we have a really good drama program and we also have great art classes. I would like to see your work sometime."
"Well, when all of my stuff gets shipped over, I'll show you." She turned to him, "So do you act?"
"Yeah," he lied, "I love acting, and we actually have a huge play coming up. We should try out together." He dug himself deeper into the hole he started.
"That would be great, but I probably wont get a major role because I'm new."
"I doubt it, they are pretty unbiased about that."
"Are in you in any other activities?"
"I swim, breaststroke is my best, I was pretty close to number 1 in the state."
"Wow, you must be really ripped." She blurted out, and then her hands flew up to cover her mouth. "I'm sorry." She said under her hands.
"It's ok. I get that a lot." Pogue's expression faltered for half a second but Mel saw it and read it quickly. He looked absolutely devastated.
"Pogue are you alright?" Mel asked before he could speak again.
"Yeah I'm fine." He lied again. This lie Mel could see through.
"No you're not, what's bothering you?"
"My girlfriend hasn't come to visit me, and I've been in here for more than a month. Before I was hurt, she was in here because of Chase. So on my way to see her, Chase cut me off. Let's just say we weren't the happiest couple before that incident. It isn't the easiest thing to try to explain to your girlfriend. 'Katie, Chase is the fifth son of Ipswich and he's trying to steal Caleb's powers'"
"I know how that is. I freaked out one of my boyfriends by healing him after he had a fight, and in his confusion, he stumbled out in front of a car. I never even had a chance to explain it." It was another lie, she wasn't about to tell a newfound friend one of her worst memories. "Go ahead and grab a coke."
"No, you don't need to spend your money on me." He argued.
"Pogue, its $1.75, that's not even a pound." Mel snatched another coke for him, and put it on her tray.
"Mel, you've already done so much for me. You don't need to buy me a coke."
"Pogue, I'm a bloody brit, and I can do anything I want, and don't forget I don't listen to Americans." She cheesed up her accent.
The man behind the register laughed at Mel's joke. He rang up her lunch and flirted with her. She smiled and flirted back. Once he was done with ringing her up, Mel paid and grabbed her tray. Her eyes scoured the crowd and found Caleb and the gang sitting at a table close to the window.
"Mmmm…chicken tenders." Caleb said when she sat down. He snatched one off of her plate and shoved it in his mouth. "So when are you leaving us Mel?" Caleb asked once he swallowed his mouthful.
"My father said I should stay the rest of the school year at least. Since Pogue made such a miraculous recovery, I need to make sure that his body doesn't just give out one day when the energy I gave him is used up."
"Wow that long?"
"Yup, it seems like you guys get into a lot of trouble here, and I guess having a mage around wouldn't be a bad idea."
"I agree" Pogue chimed in after chugging half of his coke. "I mean we saw how easily Chase found us, what if one of the other covens find us, like that German one. They would leap at any opportunity to tear us apart."
"He has a point." Mel stole the floor again, "I heard stories from my Grandpa. He was a doctor in WWII. People kept getting brought in with unexplainable diseases and such. It turned out the Nazi's had recruited this coven and used them as a secret weapon. My coven tried to help take them out. They got most of them, but a few escaped and well who knows how many there are now."
"Wow I didn't know that." Tyler raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I did. My dad told me they ran to Argentina to regroup." Reid said as he stole Pogue's coke.
"Hey!" Pogue snatched at it, as Reid chugged the last half. "I heard about it in passing but it shouldn't be our major concern. My mother always told me the Vatican is looking to bring down all of the covens. They feel like we're pest who need to be exterminated. They even have like a secret branch to search for us. It's called the Left Hand of God. They know exactly what to do if they want to kill us. All of the agents go through years of training supposedly."
"That's a scary thought." Mel said quietly.
"They think that we are "Antichrist infidels", I don't think we have to worry too much because we don't use unless we need to." Pogue glanced at Reid. "Besides him"
"What about the shelf thing she pulled back in the room?" Reid pointed at Mel.
"Like Pogue said, the rest of us don't use unless we need to." Caleb sighed.
When Mel finished her meal, the five walked back to Pogue's room. Caleb, Tyler, and Reid left first to go tell everyone that Pogue would be out of the hospital the following day. Mel stayed behind for a little while to talk to Pogue but left 15 minutes later, when the nurse said Pogue was going to get sedated again. She said goodnight and left the room. Mel drove home in her borrowed car. When she got to the house, she immediately went to her room and took a shower, then got into her PJs. She pulled the black tank top over her head and then looked down at the front. It had a picture of a psycho Cheshire cat and said, "I'm not all here" above it. She pulled on the grey pants with the same Cheshire cat on it, but in different poses and the suits of cards dotting the fabric too. She picked up her Harry Potter book and began reading. Three words later she put it down. Her concentration was already being absorbed by a certain Pogue Parry. His smile was already burned into her mind; she really liked how he was so awkward around her. It was almost as if he was trying to impress her, and make sure that she wasn't embarrassed. But he had brought up how much he missed his girlfriend, which had cut her deep. She knew love had never been in her future just because she was a mage. Her father didn't want this life for her, but she was the second born and had to make a name for herself before she was gone forever. Pogue should have been the least of her worries, but she had fallen and fallen hard. She wanted to protect him and make sure he never was hurt. Just hearing about his girlfriend, she caught a bad vibe. She made a mental note to keep an eye on this girl. There was no telling what Mel would do to her if she did something to Pogue. Since she spent her whole life taking care of other people, Mel seldom thinks of herself, she lets other people's problems absorb her life until they are fixed. She couldn't stop thinking about that look of hurt on Pogue's face, no matter how fleeting it was, that emotional wound has yet to heal.