Marston, England
A week later.
Jared sat up abruptly, causing a severe ache to resound in his head. He looked around. Where was he? At once, his vision sharpened, as if on command. All he saw was white… white walls… dull; lifeless… he knew where he was. He was in the Highest Coven's hospital wing. He was alive… Jared wasn't sure how long ago the fight with Alex was, but it seemed like yesterday. Horrible floods of images came into his mind, causing his head to hurt even more. The fight… the destroyed room… Alex…. covered in blood. Jared sank back, not sure weather to be relieved, or sad. He knew Alex was still out there somewhere. His spell hadn't killed Jared, so Jared's spell must have not killed him. Jared closed his eyes, searching for a solution of what to do next. He wasn't going to track Alex down and fight him, not right now, not in this condition. Jared knew that Alex had left, probably right after had had awaken. He knew that Alex always hated when things messy. Jared pushed everything out of his mind, and waited for something… anything to help him start his revenge… to ruin and kill Alex Cordova.
The day was very bright and sunny. Tabitha stood right by the bus stop in some unfamiliar, small town, feeling like a child again. Since she couldn't drive, didn't own a bike, and couldn't skateboard, she figured riding the public bus was the best way to go. Right before she had left, Tabitha had broken open her piggy bank, which contained several hundred dollars, and packed her whole wardrobe in her backpack. Now, with a beyond-bulging backpack sitting on the ground, Tabitha kept sticking her neck out, and standing on her tiptoes, looking around for the bus. In the last two weeks, and a day, Tabitha had made it from Manhattan, to a small town just outside of California. The bus trips have been long… and boring, and also hot, the bus drivers never turned on the air conditioning, but Tabitha had to keep reminding herself that it was all worth it. She was one bus ride away from her brother, or at least his house. A faint noise caught Tabitha's attention, and she immediately craned her neck and stood farther on her toes. It sounded like an engine. Excited, Tabitha whipped her head, left and right, searching for the signs of the bus. But…. It wasn't the bus.
A bright red convertible was backing slowly out of a driveway, packed with trashcans, two on each side. Tabitha watched, slightly amused. The convertible backed right between the narrow spaces between the trashcans, and quickly sped away.
"Goal!" Tabitha yelled, throwing her hands up. She laughed too, but then stopped immediately. Did she just laugh? That sensation hadn't swept through her in a long time. Suddenly, she felt guilty.
Why should I be laughing when my mom is dead, and my brother is in trouble? She thought.
Tabitha stayed straight-faced the rest of the time….
What seemed liked hours later, a low rumbling noise shook the whole pavement and the houses.
That has to be the bus, Tabitha thought, fighting hard with the excitement that was bubbling up inside her.
A big tour bus turned a corner, and came onto the street, shaking the whole entire neighborhood. For being so slow, it took only minutes to reach Tabitha, and came to a big, dull stop in front of her. The doors opened. A cold breeze floated out and hugged Tabitha, and immediately, she liked this bus better than any of the others. She glided on, and handed her money to the big, women bus driver. She snorted, and pointed towards the back, not even turning around.
"Sit down." Tabitha could tell she was stressed, who wouldn't be stressed as a bus driver?, so she looked around for a place to sit, preferably in the back. The bus was fairly empty; only six or seven seats were filled. Tabitha started walking towards the back.
Near the back, there was a boy. He looked maybe sixteen, a year older than Tabitha, and he had dark orange that looked messy, but not nearly as bad as James's always was. He looked up at her as she got closer to him, and smiled. The smile echoed off his thoughtful gray eyes, and all over his freckled face. Tabitha decided, at once, that she would sit with him. He looked slightly alarmed when she sat down, like his smile was in a friendly way, not a please-sit-with-me-because-I-saved-you-a-seat way. Tabitha took no notice, or pretended not to; she turned and faced the boy, putting her extremely bulging backpack on the floor.
"I'm Tabitha," she said, smiling. The boy smiled.
He's good looking, Tabitha thought.
"My name's Charlie." He shifted, causing all the books on his lap to snap shut and fall to the floor. Tabitha hurried and picked them up, glancing at their titles.
'Communications and Magical Experiments.'
'Learning the Vanishing Spell.'
'Magical Laws: A Wizards Guide From The Order.'
Innocents: How Do They Live?
Tabitha smiled in an absent-minded way as she handed the books back to Charlie. This boy was….something wasn't he? Charlie stuffed away the books in his backpack quickly, and turned to the window, trying to keep calm. He hoped desperately that Tabitha thought he was just a mental case…. A crazy physo that pretended to believe in magic, instead of what he really was, a wizard.
Should he tell her? She seemed nice enough, and he could tell already that she was very open-minded… but this was pushing it. Would Tabitha believe him? Would she believe that a really old friend of his called him and said that they had needed him? Charlie didn't think so. Still, he found himself opening his mouth, but, realizing what he was doing, quickly clamped it shut again. He was pretty sure that the Order had rules against that, and he really didn't want to die because he broke the Statue of Secrecy. When Charlie turned back around, he was surprised to see that Tabitha was looking at him, her perfect, dainty face framed by a tumble of pure, white blonde waves, lit up with interest.
"So," she started, her apple green eyes trying to catch his. "What brings you to California?"
The conversation mostly picked up from there, right after Tabitha asked to switch seats with Charlie so that she could be by the window.
Tabitha was doing most of the talking, and questioning, but Charlie was spared of answering the very difficult questions, because Tabitha didn't ask very many. He did, however, make sure to keep things vague when she got curious about what he was doing, or who he was seeing. Jared, and probably the Order, too, would honestly kill him if Charlie ever gave that kind of information to an Innocent.
Tabitha, on the other hand, had nothing to hide. She talked freely about her brother, her mother dying, and even her incident about a floating ball of light –which Charlie found very odd, but he figured a Lumokinetic had played a trick on her, even though they were very rare these days –. Charlie mainly listened to her though, occasionally throwing in comments so she knew he was still listening. In fact, Charlie was soaking up everything she was saying, and he found it hard to talk about himself when he was so fascinated. Never before had Charlie been able to talk to an Innocent in so much detail. He had grown up with all witches, wizards, and Immortals. Plus, Jared hated associating with them, so he banned his coven from Innocents, too. Charlie wasn't actually a part of the Ninth Coven, Jared's coven. Oh no, he was far from worshipping the same God, the Horned God, that Jared and most of his coven worshipped. Charlie wasn't really sure who he worshipped, he had grown up in a very divided home. For now, he was a true wizard, he followed and performed White Magic, and drew all his energy from the moon, The Goddess. He had just began to take magick seriously though, and Jared had taught him all he knew. But… why was he going to Jared now? That was a question he had asked himself many times while he was riding buses, or walking, from place to place. Charlie hadn't talked to him in almost five years now….
"You know, Charlie." Tabitha's voice made him jump, and instantly, all his thoughts blew away. "It only been— Tabitha checked her watch— Five and… a half hours now, but time has flown by, hadn't it?" Charlie nodded his head fervently, in danger of looking like a bobble head. Tabitha turned towards the window now, and pressed her nose against it. Charlie was startled to see that it was pouring down rain. How long had he been in his thoughts?
"Charlie, I really like you." Tabitha said again, her voice slightly off-pitch from her pushed-in nose. Charlie suddenly felt his face grow hot, and was relieved that Tabitha was facing away from him. He cleared his throat. Obviously, Tabitha wanted a reply.
"I…. um… I really like you too."
She turned to face him, her eyes glowing and a triumphant smile running along her lips.
"Really?" her voice sounded anxious, but also happy, like she really wanted to believe Charlie. He nodded again, but an image of a bobble head came quickly into his mind, so he stopped, and smiled at her instead.
"Of course," he assured her. She echoed his smile, and turned to face the window again. Charlie laughed, and dug into his backpack, thankful that Tabitha had not seen his spell book. He quietly opened it, and began reading.
Jared had called a Meeting. Lee glanced at the clock that hung directly in the middle of his and Justin's beds and shook his head.
It was 2:15 in the morning…
Justin was probably already outside, where most of the Meetings were held, because he had had patrol duty until 4. Lee slowly got dressed, trying to keep himself from worrying too much that he might be late. Jared would hate him for that. Jared, ever since Alex had swooped in and took James and Taylor, had been a big bundle of nerves. In all the Meetings, Jared's voice, and sometimes appearance, was tightly strained from stress. There had also been a more tighter security command, hence the patrolling, and all of the prisoners were moved down to the cellar, where James and Taylor were once held.
Lee was very glad that he did not have prisoners duties now. He had far too much to do, now that he was Jared's right-hand man, because Elizabeth had left. Lee remembered that night, because it was on the same day that Alex had come. Jared and Elizabeth had gotten into a huge, heated argument about who was actually in charge. Lee had to admire Elizabeth, even though he was still scared of her, because she had actually stood up and told Jared that he shouldn't be in charge. That took guts… especially to say that to Jared. So, she left that night, taking one of the very few cars that they had left. Lee wasn't even sure she had her license. Lee had figured that that's why Jared was always on edge now, because he was fearing, or getting ready, for an attack. Elizabeth had specifically said that she was going to find Alex. Elizabeth knew the whole house, inside and out, and she knew all of the coven's weakest points. Losing her had been a serious blow.
Lee ran into something, causing a sharp pain to spread from his nose to his face. He blinked and stepped back, startled to see that he had run into the heavy wood door that lead outside, to the Meeting place. Lee was also surprised to see that he was walking; he never remembered actually taking any steps. Lee opened the door quietly and walked out to where Jared's backyard met the forest.
Everyone was outside already, all sitting together in a tight-knit circle, except, the circle had two gaps. Jared stood in one, staring hard and icy at Lee as he approached. Lee sat down quietly in the other gap, his eyes never leaving the ground. Jared was in one of his extremely stressed modes.
Jared stepped back from the circle a little, making sure everyone could see him, even in the dim moonlight. He thought for a minute about starting with an introduction or something, but none of them seemed appropriate for this situation. He decided to say it straight out.
"I have reason to believe that the Cordovas have rediscovered the secret to the Black Ruin."
The effect was almost immediate, and Jared felt slightly bad for starting their Meeting off like that. He should have talked first, he guessed, but no matter. He was tired, and wanted to get back to planning his grand revenge on Alex.
Still, eight horrified faces kept looking at him, not wanting to believe it was true, and truthfully, Jared couldn't blame them. He nodded grimly at them, remembering the last time Orvil Cordova had come here and conjured it.
Jared was almost too pained to continue his remembrance, but he forced himself to remember. He was going to remember, so that it never happened again. Five years ago to this day, Orvil had set the Black Ruin loose on this house and forest. He had lost at least thirteen people that night, all because of the magically enhanced fire, and swirling, soul-sucking blackness that was the Black Ruin. Jared stopped, coming out of his daze.
Still, everyone had a scared expression on their face. Everyone except Emmett. Emmett was looking at Jared skeptically.
"How do you know?"
Emmett was always questioning his authority; he was almost as bad as Elizabeth had been. He never worked anything out for himself, and for such an, almost, innocent question, this sent Jared into a boiling rage.
"Because maybe I actually work and find things out Emmett! I don't sit on my butt and criticize everything someone does or says!" Jared's voice was at top level, and he was aware that he was probably scaring everyone half to death, but still he kept going, the knot in his stomach was finally loosening. "Because guess what, Emmett? GUESS WHAT? Things are happening MUCH faster than you realize. ALEX is back on the loose, his father knows the secret of the Black Ruin, and—."
Jared broke off mid-scream, a thought just popping into his head. Emmett didn't care. The most Jared was doing, was making a fool of himself and scaring everyone, the way he was shouting and ranting like that. He stood back even farther, and waved his hand dismissively.
"Go," he said, his voice, strained even more, cracked. From what? Shame? Humiliation? He wasn't sure. "Go eat, sleep, do whatever… just go."
Everyone scrambled up and left, they didn't have to be told twice. Emmett was the last to leave, and he smirked, and then walked off. As soon as all his coven members had gone inside, Jared tore off into the forest, his real, only true friend. He was thinking about Emmett, and how smug he was being lately. Emmett knew, probably better than anyone else, that Jared was losing… losing control of the coven… losing control of himself. Abruptly, Jared stopped running and sank to his knees, his hands burying his face.
"What is happening to me?" he whispered, but it was drowned out, by a sudden gust of wind that howled through the trees and brought the midst of an upcoming storm.