Chapter 7
The bookstore Angela wanted me to take her was the same new age, flashy one I had avoided entering a couple months back when I was looking into what Edward is.
"You wanted me to bring you here?"
She snorted
"It's not as bad or as cheesy as it looks. Believe me"
I parked out front and walked around to give her a hand.
"My mom and my uncle own it. It's an occult bookstore and I work here after school"
With her arm slung over my shoulder we pushed the glass doors open. The store was small and dim. Angela hobbled to the reception desk with the register and plopped down behind it. I hovered near her and gave myself time to adjust after the bright spring sunlight outside. It was almost funny how crossing the town lines of Forks made the weather better. The air was heavy with unfamiliar incense, and I could almost feel the coiling smoke brushing against me and winding around my legs.
After blinking a few times, I saw that the shop was not in fact small as it had first appeared. Instead it was long and narrow, with a very high ceiling. Wooden shelves that looked homemade lined the walls and divided the store into halves. The half I could see down was floor-to-ceiling books: old, leather-bound volumes, bright-covered modern paper-backs, cheesy pamphlets.
"Mind if I look around?"
"Knock yourself out"
Her voice seemed far away and I trailed closer to the bookshelves. I read some of the hand-lettered category signs: Magic, Tarot, History, Womancraft, Healing, Herbs, Rituals, Scrying... and within each category there were subcategories. It was all very orderly, though it didn't give that impression at first.
Just looking at the books' spines, I felt that my mind was blooming like a flower. Prue had said places like this existed but hearing about it and seeing it were two very different things and I began browsing the books. The first isle I found myself in described "Ancient volumes describing magic and rituals". I was seeing a whole new world.
The other side of the store was the over the top things I had feared before. One large shelf unit was like candle mania. There were huge pillar candles; tiny little birthday-style candles; candles in the shape of people, men and women; nice dining-table tapers; star-shaped votives: You name it, this store had it. Most of the other candles were pretty, hand dipped in graduating shades of color, some in earth tones, and some in rainbow colors.
Another shelf was full of glass jars, each filled with herbs or powders. One section was called essential oils, with row after row of tiny dark brown glass vials. The air was heavy with scent there: jasmine, orange, patchouli, clove, cinnamon, rose.
As if my hand had a life of its own, I took a small bottle and opened it. The scent of roses after a summer rain filled the air. It was so instantly uplifting that I closed it and took one that was behind it, full to the brink and had a satin ribbon of a soft grey color wrapped in a bow around the neck.
I longed for... this. These books and these smells and these things. New emotions and curiosity had been woken up inside me six weeks ago were now rearing up and demanding to be paid attention.
I felt a slight prickling on the back of my neck. I looked up and was startled by the intent gaze the store clerk had fastened on me. The clerk was an older guy, maybe in his early thirties, but with short gray hair that made him appear older than he probably was. And he was looking at me with a focused, un-moving stare, as if I were a new kind of reptile, something incredibly interesting.
Angela was sitting next to him rubbing some lotion on her leg and laughing to herself. I blushed and turned my back to them opting to keep exploring the store.
"Find anything interesting?"
Angela called
"Yeah, this"
I responded said raised the bottle in my hand. It was called 'Love Me Tonight'. Angela laughed and stood. She put her green goo covered sneaker back on and walked to me without a single grimace
"No more pain?"
She shook her head.
"Nope. Demon attack trumps personal gain"
She winked and took the bottle from my hand. With a grin she asked
"Planning on using it on Edward?"
"It's a burning oil Ang, not a sledge hummer"
Laughing, we headed for the bookshelves and started reading titles. There was a whole shelf of books labeled 'Books of Shadows'. One by one I opened them, and they were all completely blank, like journals. Some were like cheap notebooks; some were fancier, with marbled endpapers and deckle-edged leaves; and some were bound in gold-stamped leather, oversize and heavy, like the one in the attic of Prue's house. None had the homey reassuring feeling that one had however and I shied away from them.
Angela was a great salesgirl and within fifteen minutes she had guided me away from the touristy, teenage-y 'oh look at me I am a witch and it is so cool' part of the store to the hidden depths that felt a little more serious and were hidden behind heavy velvet drapes. I felt a slight resistance as we stepped in and turned to Angela with a raised brow
"Wards to keep non magical people outside"
"Cool"
Was my grownup awesome reply.
This room was larger with a faint woodsy smell. It followed the pattern of the outside and had a larger selection of...well, everything. Books, small pots with herbs, inks, and loose feathers even animal furs in plastic packets. As I stood there, it seemed as if everything around me was actually vibrating, almost. As if it was full of energy, like a beehive. I blinked and shook my head. My head suddenly felt heavy.
"What the..."
Angela snorted
"I know right? I have no clue who actually buys animal hairs or feathers but we sell them"
"Ew"
The store clerk was still staring when we went back.
"Bella this is my uncle Sebastian. Uncle Seb this is Bella, we go to school together"
"Nice to meet you"
I smiled but he was stone faced. From the corner of my eye I saw Angela frown
"This it for you?"
He asked me and rang the bottle of burning oil and the two books I had selected. One was about the Sabbats, a history and celebrations and one that was an encyclopedia about the Great Clans of witchcraft out of Salem during the time of the trials, Prue had let slip once that Melinda Warren was one of the witches burned at the Trials, and I wanted to know more.
Angela's uncle had a weird smirk on his face as he put them in a bag and handed it to me. Angela rolled her eyes at him and walked me out
"Is something wrong with him?"
"He gets a little too obsessed with witches vs people that like to boast they are ones yet they have no clue what they're talking about. Don't worry, he's harmless. I think"
"Thanks for the reassurance"
I popped my tongue out at her and got back in the truck
"Need a lift back?"
"Nah Uncle Seb will drive me home later. Thanks for vanquishing demons with me today"
"Any time"
I put the truck in gear and grinned
"We should catch a movie too sometime"
