The spell I used in this chapter, is a real spell from one of my own books...but I have slightly rewritten it and changed parts to fit into my story. Please don't go messing about with it at home, unless you know what you're doing! Thanks! And now...here is the next chapter! Thank you as always for the lovely feedback...sorry I haven't been getting back to people - I will try!

Chapter Six

"Magic"

"Okay," Coreen turned from the phone on the kitchen breakfast bar and began reading off her wire bound notepad. "Just spoke to Aviva about tonight. She wants you there no later than two hours after sunset. The ritual has to begin three hours after, and she wants time to prepare. Oh, and she said to tell you to have a bath before you come." Coreen frowned at that bit herself, thinking it sounded weird.

Vicki sat on the couch, flicking through one of Coreen's magazines, chuckling to herself. "Can't do spells when you stink huh?"

"It's a ritual bath," I rolled my eyes at her. "It's to prepare yourself mentally for the magic, calming the heart rate and hopefully creating a peaceful state of mind."

"Well, what do I know about Hocus Pocus Voodoo?" she wiggled her fingers in mid air, supposedly creating a mystical effect.

"It's not Voodoo Vicki," I whined, losing patience with her reluctance to me doing this.

"Whatever," she shrugged. She thought I would be better off seeing yet another specialist doctor, not wasting my time with some Wiccan High Priestess.

"You're coming with me, right?" I asked Coreen.

"Absolutely," she nodded eagerly. "Been dying to see Aviva at work."

"Speaking of work, lunch is over Coreen…" Vicki reminded her. "Time to head back to the office, don't you think?"

Coreen turned to grab her jacket and rolled her eyes in my direction.

"And you can quit rolling your eyes at me," Vicki advised her sternly, heading for the front door of her apartment.

********

Aviva had everything almost ready in her back yard by the time Coreen and I pulled up in Milly. Her alter was decorated with a blue cloth, along with matching flowers as well as various incense, oils and crystals that I knew would help strengthen the magic being performed tonight.

"Thank you so much for doing this for me," I smiled gratefully after we were introduced.

"Of course. You have been marked by dark magic, I will do what I can to revert that for you," she smiled kindly.

"Well, thank you. I really appreciate it."

She merely smiled as she went to change into her ritual robes and then led us both outside. She began to cast the magic circle, as Coreen and I stood quietly to the side, letting her work.

"Okay, Catalina…if you sit in the middle of the circle and hold this candle. This is the astral candle." she handed me a thick pillar candle. And then began placing five blue candles within the circle at the points of a pentagram.

Aviva then lit the white working candle and used this to light the astral candle that I was holding in the centre.

"I light this candle to represent Catalina and all that she is."

Before moving quietly around the blue candles, lighting each in turn.

"I light this candle that represents Spirit, I ask it for strength, cleansing, healing and tranquillity. An it harm none, so mote it be."

The remaining four blue candles representing the pentagram were lit and the words repeated for the remaining natural elements - earth, air, water and fire. Once all the candles were lit, a length of green ribbon was wound around myself and the candle in the centre, before being wound around each blue candle within the circle to create the pentagram. When that was complete, Aviva spoke again.

"Elements five lend me your power and heal Catalina in this desperate hour. An it harm none, so mote it be."

With the words spoken, Aviva sat down quietly, within the circle, but not within the pentagram, focusing on the flames and breathing in a controlled manner. Being familiar with spell casting myself I knew that she would be envisioning the candles burning brighter and surrounding me in a warm, golden glow of healing. I offered up my own powers, figuring that more couldn't hurt as I envisioned the spell doing the job we were asking of the elements.

After a few moments of peaceful silence, Aviva extinguished all the flames with her candle snuffer and brought the ritual to a close in her usual way, lighting a white candle as a thank you to the elements.

"Do you feel alright?" she asked me, helping me up from the floor.

"Fine, thank you. That was very peaceful."

"I'm glad. To get the best result from this, I want to repeat it for the next four nights. Would that be alright?" she checked with both of us.

"Sure," Coreen readily agreed. "Anything that might help."

"Good. Then I will see you tomorrow, about the same time?" she checked.

We both nodded.

"Then, blessed be," she embraced us both fleetingly.

"Blessed be," I returned the customary Wiccan sentiment, before we returned to Milly parked out front.

****

Striding down the hallway, I opened the office to 'Nelson Investigations' with a cheerful smile on my face, feeling more content than I had in the last few days, weeks even. My latest infection had all but cleared up and I felt fine. I believed these sessions with Aviva were going to work and best of all, I hadn't had my recurring dream about Henry last night - for the first time since he'd made a reappearance in my life!! And, if at first I had mourned it's loss, now I felt glad that perhaps I was finally getting over him and finding it within me to move on.

"Hey Coreen. You alright to go?" I asked her with my new found jollity.

She looked up at me from her laptop, startled. Not that she seemed to have been doing anything - her fingers poised silently over the keys, but she appeared to have been concentrating on something.

"Oh, Cat…hi. Is it that time already?" She faked a huge grin.

I nodded, I had my third session with Aviva tonight and I was looking forward to it. She was also going to help me conduct a few charms on protective crystals and amulets.

"Erm…" she looked towards Vicki's office edgily. "Just give me a minute and we'll get going."

"Is something wrong?" I wondered, examining her expression and then following her glance towards Vicki's inner office.

"No, no….everything, erm… fine." She stood up hastily and began rooting in her bag. "Look, why don't you go downstairs and wait in Milly…I'll be right there," she suggested with a smile and thrust the car keys at me.

"Okay," I took them from her. "But I'll just say Hi to Vicki whilst I'm here."

"Oh!" Coreen gasped as I reached for the door knob. "But she…she's….in a, erm…meeting," she stammered.

I turned to study her again - this wasn't like Coreen, since when had she been so edgy and spluttering over her words? And as I did, the door I still had hold of by the handle was suddenly thrust towards me and whacked me right on the forehead.

"Ouch! Shit!" I hissed, stumbling backwards and then tripping over my own feet as I fell into a heap beside the coffee table, whacking my elbow on it for added measure. I rubbed my head in one hand and rubbed the opposite elbow with the other. "Fuck's sake!" I grumbled, trying to get to my feet.

"I'm so sorry," spoke that exquisite, velvet voice that haunted my memories as he reached down to help me up. "I didn't realise you were so close to the door…"

I looked up and my eyes met with the cerulean depths I saw on a nightly basis in my sleep, currently gazing at me with concern rather than the devotion of the frustrating dreams as he thrust his hand at me, offering to help me up.

"I can manage," I slapped his hand away and awkwardly hauled myself up from the floor.

"What have you done now?" Vicki stepped around Henry and accused him, her hands on hips.

"I haven't done anything," he retorted.

"Apart from try to knock out my cousin!" she slapped his arm and then turned to me. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," I winced, my head hurt a little - but I would live. "Coreen, can we go?" I asked her urgently.

"Are you sure? You don't want to sit down for a moment?" she checked.

"No," I shot a brief glare in Henry's direction. "I'd rather just go, now!"

"Okay," she swooped and picked her car keys from the floor where I had dropped them. "I guess we're going," she pulled a face at Vicki and gave a slight shrug.

Henry reached down and picked my bag and jacket up for me, holding them out with an apologetic smile on his face.

"Thanks," I muttered snatching them from him.

"Cat…can't we…" he began.

I never stopped and I never turned to look at him, heading for the door. "I have somewhere I need to be Henry." I spoke his name with feigned contempt. "Bye." I left the office, slamming the door after me.

Coreen pursued me down the stairs. "I'm sorry….I did try to get you to leave," she grimaced, thinking I was going to be angry with her.

I shrugged. "My own fault. I will be an idiot…and fall in love with stupid undead assholes!" I hissed. My cheerful mood from before had all but vanished now. I suppose a vampire ex-lover trying to knock you out with a heavy wooden door would do that to you!

Coreen merely grimaced silently as she unlocked the car and slid in behind the wheel.

*****

"Argh!" I screamed playfully as Henry picked me up in one fell swoop and flung me down on his bed. He leaned over me, those luscious curls of his hanging down to frame his equally luscious face.

He laughed blissfully as he gazed down at me and began tickling me once more.

"Henry…" I panted, squirming beneath him. "Stop…please." I begged. "You know I hate being tickled."

He laughed again and tickled me even more as I spluttered relentless giggles and rolled around the bed, trying to break free from his grasp, to fight his hands off of me, but never quite managing it.

"Henry…" I sighed. "Enough…" I gasped.

Leaning down to kiss my lips fleetingly, he finally acceded and flopped onto his back beside me with a contended sigh of his own.

I lay beside him, panting, trying to calm both my heart rate and my breathing down, before I rolled to my side and snuggled into his cool body. "Tell me again," I pleaded, my fingers trailing through the light dusting of hair adorning his masculine chest.

He grinned to himself and sighed, before leaning on his side, his head cradled in his hand as I rolled to my back beside him. He kissed my lips softly. "I," he whispered. His lips kissed the hallow of my throat teasingly. "Love," he murmured softly, before his lips kissed the space between my breasts. "You." he looked up at me and grinned impishly.

I leant my head back into the pillow and giggled delightedly, wondering when I was ever this happy, if ever. And then his mouth began to explore further, licking my skin as my hands buried themselves in his head of curls, writhing beneath him, luxuriating in his touch.

Achingly slow, he crawled back up my body, caressing me as he did before kissing me deeply and lowering his body to meet mine, where my hips waited to cradle his weight against me. I gasped against his lips, waiting for the pleasurable moment as his hand ran over my hip and held my leg against his body.

And then my eyes shot open and slowly focused on the dim light from Coreen's green lava lamp on her dresser. My heart was racing and my breath coming in sharp pants. God damnit! I grumbled to myself as I turned, thumped the mattress and buried my head in my pillow - dreaming again!

I should have known it would be too good to be true, one night without a Henry dream - who was I kidding!! And it was all his damn fault for bumping into me, quite literally that evening!! Every time I thought I was getting over him, he would creep back in there somehow. I groaned audibly, frustrated with myself, as if the dreams weren't bad enough. They always left me feeling…unfinished! They always ended just before he bit me or just before we…well, you know! As if my subconscious couldn't possibly forge the sensations the act would elicit, so it gave up before trying.

This wasn't fair - at this rate the sexual frustration was going to get me much quicker than this damn curse I had raging through my body.

And yet, there was something else that always irked me about the dreams. They were always so…sweet, romantic and loving - the perfect little kind of love story. My recollections of being with Henry were much more passionate and intense between the sheets, rather than soft, sweet and romantic. He had been loving, in his own way - I knew he cared for me and was considerate in his ability. But being sappy simply wasn't Henry's style and I doubted it ever would be.

I rolled over again with a deep sigh, deciding I needed a glass of water. Flinging the duvet off me, I swung my legs out of bed and then looked up, swearing I had seen movement again - that there was something in the room with me. I closed my eyes and shook my head, aggravated and when I looked again, it was just that damn lamp!

"Stupid bloody thing!" I muttered under my breath before dragging myself from the bed and shuffling to the bathroom.

*******

"…and I'll have a chocolate shake with that," Coreen finished giving her order to the waitress, whilst plopping the menu back into it's stand behind the salt and pepper shakers.

The waitress nodded, popped her gum and headed back to the kitchen, scribbling notes on her order pad.

"Just going to the bathroom, be right back," Coreen whispered then, sliding out of the booth and heading off.

"Okay," I nodded in reply.

We'd just returned from the fourth session with Aviva and had decided we were both starving, so popped into the small diner down the street from her home for something to eat. Tapping my fingers atop of the napkin dispenser along to the beat of the music playing from the old fashioned juke box in the corner, I gazed across at the notice board with today's specials on, trying to make out the handwriting of the bottom item.

Someone slipped into the space in front of me. "That was qu…" I began, expecting it to be Coreen back already. "Oh God," I groaned, when I realised who it was.

"No, just me, Henry Fitzroy." he grinned that dangerously dazzling smile of his.

I rolled my eyes at him. "If you're looking for your dinner, I think you came to the wrong place. There's nothing in here to suit your…appetite."

"Oh, I don't know about that…" he glanced across towards the window, where a rather buxom blond sat with her nerd like boyfriend.

I huffed loudly and folded my arms, both jealous and annoyed with him at the same time. "What do you want Henry?" I tried to ask him in my most exasperated sounding voice.

"To talk," he offered innocently, a flash of his hand out towards me meant to act as a peace offering.

"We have nothing to talk about," I muttered, looking anywhere but at his face - to do so would be the fall of me, and I knew it.

"Not even about your book cover?" he offered.

"Have you done it?" I suddenly became interested.

"Erm…no, not yet," he cringed. "I kind of forgot." He flashed a sheepish grin at me.

"Then don't bother…it doesn't matter. I'll tell them to stick whatever they like on the front."

His smile faded and I knew my rebuff of his work now had hurt him.

"Cat…please…" he reached across the table to hold my hand. I snatched it back before he could, knowing he'd never use his preternatural speed in front of so many. He sighed then and folded his own arms, leaning back in the seat. "What do you want me to do? Beg?" he asked with the arch of a perfect eyebrow.

"I want you to leave me alone!" I hissed at him. "I could always call Mike and tell him you're stalking me."

"And that would be a lie," he offered back.

"Really? You usually frequent diners do you?"

"Sometimes…" he shot back.

I sighed - this ridiculous bickering was getting us no where.

"I miss you…" he suddenly announced then. I gasped and had to bite my lip as my heart leapt at the possibility that he meant it. Mentally I forced that heart to calm down - even if he did, this was no good - I couldn't let him in again, I couldn't go through all that again, and especially not with all I needed to keep from him.

"You miss me?" I laughed with what I hoped was believable sarcasm. "Well, perhaps you should try remembering that you were the one who pushed me away, the one that broke my heart. You made me cry, you turned your back on me and you moved on…without me." I pointed out in a harsh whisper, whilst fighting back tears. "It's over Henry…it's just too damn late!" I spoke louder than I meant to and heads turned to look at us.

He blinked in bafflement as he frowned at me, appearing as though he hadn't a clue what I was talking about - did vampires have really lousy short term memories or something? He opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment he spied Coreen hurrying her way back to the booth we sat at. With a deep poignant sigh, he slid from the seat as she eyed him warily. "Well…if you change your mind…I…whatever." He looked down at me through narrowed eyes, his mouth set in a grimace as he shook his head and solemnly left the diner.

"What did he want?" Coreen asked eagerly the moment she sat down.

I shrugged. "To torture me a bit more?" I suggested, before the waitress placed our order in front of us and I grabbed my soda, taking a huge slurp up the straw before she could ask me anything else and I firmly fought back the threat of tears, telling myself I was not going to cry over him - not again.

********

The last night of the ritual had started off normal enough. The familiar serenity of the candle flames flickering in the breeze and the calm tones of Aviva's voice as she invoked the elements to grant her purpose - to heal me of the offensive dark magic which had seize of my body.

Coreen had sat on the back porch, fascinated as always with her friends work as she observed the spell being cast in the garden, under the light of the moon

But now, something was dangerously wrong, something was definitely going awry with the whole affair. As the last words of the spell had been spoken, the wind had turned surprisingly fierce . At first I didn't make much of it, thinking it just a freak breeze. But, now the wind was whirling around us in a tight cyclone, blowing out the candles faster than Aviva could relight them. Her voice loud as she called over the howl of the wind.

"Stay in the circle!" she instructed me. "You're protected there…no matter what happens!" she yelled

I nodded nervously, shielding my eyes from garden debris that was flying around now - bits of leaves and twigs already caught in my hair as it whipped around my head. I looked up towards Coreen on the porch, she didn't seem to know what to do - rush inside out of harms way or try to save me. Aviva took the choice from her.

"Get inside and stay there!" she ordered her young friend. "Don't come out until I say so."

Coreen gave me one last glance, before looking back to Aviva and doing as she'd been told.

I sat in the middle of the circle still, clutching the now unlit candle to my chest, a hand over my eyes as I squinted at what was going on. It seemed to have gotten darker still, and then I realised that the moon and stars so visible moments before were nowhere to be seen - a cloud of dark smoke appeared to be covering the garden, almost like an umbrella over us. Suddenly there emerged a flash of lightening from the murky mist above us and the lamp on the porch exploded. I screamed, before all the lights in the garden and those emanating from inside the house went out and we were in complete darkness.

"Stay in the circle," Aviva reminded me as she glanced around anxiously, trying to work out what was going on.

And then, quite abruptly, thick grey smoke swirled before me and I screamed again, wanting to screw my eyes shut against whatever it was and yet not being able to take them off the form that was now emerging within the smoke. A figure was standing there…an almost transparent shape of a person - a female judging by her long dark hair waving about in the wind - looking something akin to Medusa's snakes.

The woman, spirit, illusion - whatever it was, turned slowly and faced me, throwing her head back and letting forth a hideous cackle of laughter. Somewhere behind that there was another terrifying sound almost as loud. It took me a few moments to realise it was myself screaming upon the realisation of who this was - Sinead.

"You think you can destroy my magic?" she snarled, pointing a finger towards Aviva. "I'm stronger than you bitch, even in death!" she screeched manically again.

So…Henry had killed her then…I thought to myself and then shook my head, focusing on what was happening in front of me whilst clinging to my candle, as if that alone would save me.

She then pivoted in mid air, to face me. "You can't defeat my magic. You can't impede the curse I set in motion, running rampant through your veins! You. Will. Die!" she laughed again, finding the whole thing highly satisfying.

Vaguely, in the background behind the raging wind and her threats, I could hear Aviva's voice chanting words quickly and I prayed she was reciting a spell to banish this evil bitch back to hell where she belonged!

Sinead spun around, seemingly aware of what Aviva was doing. She turned back to me. "Tell the bloodsucker I'm waiting for him!" she mocked. "As for you bitch…I shall see you soon…there's nothing you can do. I. Killed. You!" She broke out into more bloodcurdling hilarity, completely arrogant about her performance. And then, the grey smoke swirling around her began to suck in on itself, taking her form with it, until she vanished and was gone.

The lights in the house flicked back on abruptly and the dark cloud that had materialized over the garden disappeared - revealing the moon and stars exactly where they had been before. Aviva lay on the floor - utterly depleted from the exertions of magic she had been forced to invoke as I sat in the same spot - huddled in the middle of the garden, the candle clutched to my chest with my arms wrapped around my knee's, trembling in absolute fear. Coreen came rushing out of the back door onto the porch, surveying the scene before her. I looked up slowly and our eyes met over the top of Aviva. For once Coreen was as stunned into silence as I was.