A.N.: Thanks for the reviews: By popular request—another chapter! Thanks, and keep the reviews coming, uh, please!
Reid couldn't believe how well their date went on Friday night. He met Lilah at her door—hell, they were boarders, and he wasn't normally this chivalrous, but some things he knew how to do, like meeting the girl at the door even if he'd never actually done it formally before—and instantly regretted her having a roommate. She looked stunning, a real femme fatale, dark and alluring, with her hair tousled, her eye makeup dark, her lips coated with poisonous red, dressed in black cut-off leggings, a black chiffon top with billowy sleeves and a black bra easily—purposely—visible underneath, and black high-heeled T-bar Mary-Jane's that gave her an innocent, childish part to her otherwise utterly seductive outfit.
He drove them over to the Regal plaza and—he was so proud of himself—told the hostess he had booked a table for two. He was on a date! Lilah looked gorgeous, her shoulders framed with black leather as she held his hand casually, walking with him to their table. The hostess handed them two menus and took their drinks order, placing a loaf of steaming bread and a dish of oil and vinegar on the table for them. Their little tea-light candle guttered and died. Lilah smiled, leaned over slightly, blew on the wick, and the fire sprang back into life.
"You know, you didn't have to bring me here if you didn't want to," Lilah said casually, breaking a chunk of bread off and chewing on it nervously. Her neat fingernails were painted in what his mother used to call a 'French manicure', with subtle white tips rounded gracefully, and her mother's engagement ring glittered on her right hand. It looked so beautiful on her elegant fingers, the brilliant diamond flashing in the dim lighting of the busy restaurant. Nervously, he took her hand over the table, stroking his thumb over her fingers. She smiled warmly.
"I wanted to take you out," Reid said honestly. He'd been nervous about going on a date with Lilah all week. He'd almost drowned during swim-practice, thinking about her instead of his breathing pattern as he did freestyle against Caleb. "We haven't been out alone since Putnam Barn." He grinned over at Lilah. She smiled bashfully; he knew she was shy about her Powers. He'd Used several times since that night, sometimes right in front of Caleb. Their coven leader hadn't even noticed, and Reid no longer felt that hit like a drug that always left him yearning for another, stronger rush. He bet he could win a fight against Caleb now. If only Lilah had turned up last year, he might have been able to help when Caleb's life was threatened and Pogue was in the hospital after he was in a 'motorcycle accident'.
"So, what do you want to eat?" Lilah asked, unfolding her menu. Her eyes glowed as she looked at the desserts; he knew she had an über-sweet-tooth. She beat him in her sugar-consumption levels. "Oh! Look at the 'Smothered Chocolate Cake'. Man, that looks orgasmic." Reid laughed. Some of the things she said came out so naturally from her mouth, even things with sexual innuendos. Well, those were particularly appealing because she was saying them in that mellifluous accent.
"I don't know. I like the look of the three-course deal," Reid frowned at his menu, debating over Fettuccine Alfredo or Chicken Cannelloni for his entrée. Lilah turned to the same page and hummed softly as she examined the menu. She closed it with a snap.
"Well, I know what I'm having," she smiled. Reid settled on Fettuccine when she announced she was going to have the lasagne; they were going to try each other's entrées and desserts. She was having the chocolate cake, of course, and he liked the sound of the tart Lemon Passion Cake.
Reid was suddenly nervous when his salad arrived. He'd never been nervous before about eating with Lilah. It wasn't really a problem when everyone else was pigging out in the dining-hall and all eyes weren't on him. But Lilah ate daintily, carefully cutting her lettuce, and he relaxed. You can do this, he thought, egging himself on. It wasn't so different from trying to show Mrs Simms he was somewhat civilised after years in the boarding-house. He liked that Lilah didn't just stick her head down and eat; she talked. They talked. About his parents, and her friends. He was intrigued by them, about the coven of children who went to the same private boarding school—which had two parts, one for boys, one for girls, thoroughly old-fashioned in its rules that were broken hourly by its students—and how close they were with each other. It was like hearing about his own little coven with the guys. Except bigger.
"She's really crazy and very flirty, and we've been best-friends since we were about—well, conceived," Lilah laughed, taking a sip of her soda. Reid grinned. Her best-friend, whom she called Talli, or 'Totti' (Lilah had to explain what posh-totty was to him so he would understand the nickname); a little eccentric, adventurous, boy-crazed, totty.
"She sounds a lot like you," Reid grinned, paying her a compliment. Lilah chuckled, digging into her chocolate cake and offering him the spoon dripping chocolate syrup on the white china. He chuckled softly and leaned forward, letting her feed him. She smiled prettily and licked the back of the spoon of the leftover syrup.
"So you miss her a lot," Reid said, after swallowing his cake with a wash of soda. Chocolate and caffeine. Bad combination late at night for him. Lilah quietened and nodded glumly.
"Yes. We've never been apart this long before," she sighed. "I love being here, of course," she shot him a beautiful smile. "I love being with you, and the others, but it's kind of like losing a limb. Talli is my gangrene-infected limb." Reid wrinkled his nose amusedly.
"Nice visual," he smirked. They'd finished the desserts, and Reid found it highly annoying—and Lilah found it rude also—that the hostess bustled up to clear their plates and hand them their bill, basically just kicking them out of the restaurant now that they had finished eating. From Lilah's descriptions of her favourite places to eat in Europe, it wasn't like that there. She described restaurants to be relaxed; you had the table from the minute you sat down until the minute you chose to leave.
"Come on, let me pay my half," Lilah protested, snatching the little sleeve out of Reid's hand. They'd been squabbling over it for a few minutes. Reid narrowed his eyes, reached forward, and plucked the bill out of the top of the sleeve. Lilah gaped indignantly.
"I worked hard to earn this money to take you out," he said, tucking the cash into the wallet she surrendered, pouting. She laughed softly. "I did! I had to beat Ryan twice at pool to pay for this dinner." He hadn't really. He just liked making her laugh.
"Perhaps I should have cut out the middle-man and gone out with Ryan instead," Lilah laughed, and Reid gripped her knee under the table, making her eyes fly open and bite her lip to prevent a giggle escaping too loud. After dinner, they walked around the nearby park—Lilah was complaining about being stuffed by the American portion-sizes—and Reid drove them back to the dorms. Not exactly the most romantic place in Ipswich, but, well, he was new to this dating thing. Lilah seemed to like making-out on his bed just fine though, so he wasn't going to complain!
"We thought you guys were gonna come to see Stardust with us," Tyler said, and Lilah gasped, glancing at Reid. He smirked evilly behind his English textbook. She really wanted to see Stardust, mostly because Ben Barnes from The History Boys play she'd seen in the West End was in it and so was Henry Cavill from Tristan and Isolde. Reid wanted to see it for Sienna Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer, which she would excuse him for.
"We're gonna see the eight o'clock showing," Tyler said hopefully. "We'll be at Nicky's before that, if you finish in time." Tyler left the boy's dorm, closing the door softly behind him. The boys—no, Sarah—had been planning for them all to go out as a group to watch a movie; safe, harmless Stardust was what was settled on, after Lilah told her all about Halloween. Trust Reid to leave all of his homework for the last minute.
"Have you finished your work yet?" Lilah whined, glancing over her shoulder. Reid grumbled and slammed himself down against his headboard, picking up his legal-pad and biting his pen as he flicked through the textbook. Lilah sighed and stretched, slinking off the bed. "I'll go and get ready so we can go out and go over to Nicky's."
"Alright Mom," Reid said, scribbling down a paragraph in one thought. Lilah rolled her eyes amusedly and closed the door behind her. Twenty minutes later she had returned, dressed very prettily. She always dressed up after lessons, even if it was only to do homework. And unlike the other Spenser girls, he had seen her wear the same items of clothing many times instead of just once before tossing it into the charity bin. She was wearing a pretty black dress with little puff sleeves and a scooping V-neckline trimmed with black lace, printed with tiny little plum-purple flowers, black opaque silk stockings and plum-silk heels with a tiny strap around the ankle.
"Wow," he grinned, eyeing her up. Lilah smiled and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Maybe we could stay in tonight?" he suggested cheekily. Lilah chuckled softly.
"You do all that work and you don't want to go out?" she smiled. "All work and no play make a very tense Reid."
"Well, I know what makes me relax really well," Reid grinned, and Lilah rolled her eyes.
"Come on, we'll have fun. You've been complaining about going out all day," Lilah smiled, tugging him off the bed.
Nicky's was busy, as usual, but not as much as on Friday nights or the weekends, although it was Thursday evening, and Reid liked it the most now, when he could play some pool or foosball without having to wait half an hour, and could talk normally and hear everyone else. He did have a good time, and didn't resent Lilah for making him come out with her, even though he'd have liked to stay at the dorms and read up on the coven some more. God, you're beginning to behave like Caleb…or Sarah…That's even worse, he chastised himself.
"Hey, I have to go and put petrol in my car," Lilah said, jingling her keys. He rolled his eyes, choosing not to correct her use of the word 'petrol' rather than gas. She always slipped little things like that into her sentences. He was getting used to hearing the lovely English accent, and he loved it every time he did, and the little words, like 'biscuit' instead of cookie and 'chips' instead of fries, and the way she always said 'please' and 'thank you' even if it was only to Nicky. "I'll meet everyone at Regal. Do you want to come with me or are you gonna go with the guys?" He hadn't spent much time with all of the guys together, alone, since pretty much before Sarah had arrived. They were getting to that point in their lives when they were beginning to diverge.
"I'll go with the guys," he said, smiling. Sarah went with Lilah—they had similar musical tastes, and anyway, they could talk about the boys without them hearing and vice versa. He was always curious as to what actually went on when they weren't around, but Lilah sure as hell wasn't gonna tell him. Comments on Lilah's and Sarah's Facebook accounts were just as ambivalent as their comments when he asked what was up—though they seemed to have their own language and meanings for words he didn't understand. Inside jokes of roommates.
After soda and too many chilli-cheese fries, Reid was beginning to feel it when Tyler took them off-road to the old Ipswich colony for a drive before meeting the girls at the movies, talking and laughing loudly. He sat in the passenger seat, and both he and Tyler were looking back at Caleb as he told them a joke while Tyler held the steering-wheel centred to cross the brick-and-flint single-lane bridge.
"TYLER!" Pogue yelled, and glancing in front, Reid realised too late to help that they were colliding with a glittery dark-red vintage Mini. Tyler hit the brakes but it still didn't change the fact that the engine of the Mini exploded and the entire car dismantled as they bulldozed on over the bridge. Tyler hit the brakes hard, so they screeched to a stop in the field the other side. Reid was pelting across the bridge away from the Hummer as soon as he could get his seatbelt off. The Mini had reassembled a quarter of a mile down the road and black tyre-tracks marked her progress as she skidded to a halt. He threw himself against the driver's door and flung it open, squatting to stare at Lilah. She had her hands clenched on the steering-wheel so tight her knuckles were white, her face was bloodless, she was drenched in sweat and was gasping for breath as tears slid down her face. Sarah sat in the passenger seat, completely shaken, staring at Lilah with wide, frightened eyes.
"Lilah, it's me," Reid said softly, stroking her cheek tenderly, trying to pry her fingers from the wheel.
He heard heavy footfalls and Caleb appeared at Sarah's side.
"I'm okay," Sarah reassured Caleb quickly, relieving him of the stricken expression that pulled his features taut. "I'm fine, it's okay. Lilah… I don't know what happened." Lilah whimpered softly, eyes wide as she stared beseechingly at him. He cradled her cheek and kissed it reassuringly.
"You're okay, baby." Her bottom lip trembled and he enveloped her in his arms. It had shaken him too, but it had hit her harder; the bridge. Where her mother had been hit and killed. After a few seconds she was calm again, wiping her face with her hands, sighing chokingly.
"I suppose I have to tell them, don't I," she mumbled miserably to him.
"Tell us what?" Caleb asked, cradling Sarah as if for dear life. God he loves that girl, Reid thought. Lilah sighed, glanced at Reid, who nodded reassuringly, and turned back to the leader of their little four-member coven.
"I'm a witch." It took a few seconds for the statement to kick in with full impact. Of course, Caleb was immediately incredulous and disbelieving. Pogue said; 'Well that explains a lot about why Mom and Dad agreed to take care of you' and Tyler just let his eyebrows rise, as he was prone to when he couldn't think of anything clever enough to say.
"That's impossible, she can't be," Caleb said, staring at Lilah. She shared a secret little smile with Reid, and her eyes flashed and turned black, glittering like stars in a midnight sky, stunning with her ivory skin and her black hair, and she made the Hummer's engine rumble and guided it over to them.
"Oh. Okay," Caleb accepted it as he fell back on his butt on the grass, completely stunned.
"If we can go back to the dorms," Lilah said awkwardly, squirming in her seat, "I could explain properly. Reid already knows everything."
"Told you I wasn't the one Using," Reid smirked deliciously. Caleb's face paled.
"Reid, I'm—I'm sorry," he said honestly, and Reid smirked again.
"Well, if you grovel really well, Lilah might lift the curses on you too," Reid smirked, gloating in the fact that, for once, he knew more about the Power than golden-boy Caleb did. Caleb only knew their history. Not all of history.
"What curses?" Caleb asked warily. Reid exchanged a smirk with Lilah. This is so cool, he thought, loving the fact that he could taunt straight-A student Caleb about lack of knowledge.
"You mean I actually know something you don't?" Reid gasped tauntingly. "I think I'll just take a moment to relish this…" He took a deep breath, smiling benignly, closing his eyes.
"Reid!" Caleb snapped, and Reid smirked as he opened his eyes.
"It's not mine to tell," he said. "It's all Lilah."
"I want to see the film first," Lilah said, jingling her collection of key-chains—he'd bought her one, a little silver rose that matched her tattoo. His tattoo.
"Can't you tell us now?" Caleb demanded.
"No, no," Reid said eagerly, "it's better in the dark."
"That's what she said," Tyler spoke up quickly, and he giggled until Reid swiped at him.
"'…yeah you and me, we can ride on a star—'"
"'—if you stay with me girl—"
"'—we can rule the world'—!" Lilah sang really loudly, with a great twirl, dipping low as Reid clutched her waist and laughed. Lilah was a really good singer, but he was never gonna tell her that.
"That movie was just so sad, so warm, so loving," Reid swooned theatrically into Tyler's arms as his best-friend clutched his candy like a five-year-old child at the county fair. Tyler laughed, almost toppled them over, and pushed him back upright.
"I want a beer," Pogue grumbled, biting his thumbnail gloweringly. Reid rolled his eyes. Pogue had been in a bad mood all week.
"You guys are such nerds," Tyler said, watching the girls cavort around like loons, sipping eagerly on his jumbo-sized soda, giggling as Lilah jumped on him, cradling his head in a headlock, laughing. Tyler's eyes were so wide and green Reid knew he had taken in way too much sugar. But he was so giggly around Lilah and Sarah that Reid knew he was finally relaxing around strangers. Tyler had always been shy and reserved, but having assertive, exuberant Lilah around kind of yanked him out of his shell. They were all hyper on too much sugar and caffeine; Caleb liked nachos with jalapenos and a giant soda, Pogue loved melted-butter on his popcorn, Tyler had wanted Airheads and Sour Patch Kids in a little kiddie tray with popcorn and a small drink, Reid was hyper on Swedish Fish and Milk Duds and full-fat Coke and the girls had been helping themselves to whatever candy was within their reach. Reid was still carrying Pogue's half-empty bucket of buttered popcorn and sipping a giant soda and smiled softly as Lilah strutted quickly, Sarah almost running to keep up with the taller girl's stride, both talking so fast it made his head hurt, Lilah's quick English accent overriding Sarah's slow Boston slang, as they compared the male actors in the movie, Lilah gesturing ecstatically, giggling with Sarah as they shared a secret little comment.
"Come on, are we goin' back to the dorms now?" Pogue asked impatiently.
"Pogue, don't be bitter," Lilah admonished delicately. Pogue grumbled all the way to the parking-lot where they'd parked side-by-side.
"Do you want us to give your little toy-car a push?" Reid teased, and Lilah narrowed her eyes, lowering her versatile eyebrows.
"We could tow it, or put it in the back of the Hummer," Tyler giggled softly. Next to the Hummer, Lilah's Mini looked, well, mini!
"Speak to me when there's a credit-crunch and the price of petrol shoots up," Lilah said haughtily (AHA! mellowenglishgal gives an evil little chortle at the intentional irony).
"Whatever. Who's going with Lilah?" Pogue asked.
"Me!" Sarah bubbled brightly, bounding over to the Mini. "Can we listen to Footloose again?"
"Absolutely," Lilah grinned, and they both slung themselves into the car and had peeled out of the lot before the guys could even unlock the Hummer, Bonnie Tyler screaming through the metal, the girls' lips moving rapidly to follow the words enthusiastically.
"I think our girlfriends are mildly unhinged," Reid said thoughtfully, and Caleb chuckled and slung his arm around Reid's shoulders, shoving him towards the passenger seat. I just said girlfriend, Reid thought with an internal giggle. He had drunk way too much caffeine.
"So what's with this magic thing, huh?" Caleb asked, as soon as the doors were all closed, leaning through the centre-divide between the two front seats. Reid glanced at him and shrugged. "Lilah has the Power and you didn't say anything about it."
"Hey, I only just found out last week, okay…okay, so it was the day we got the tattoos, but she asked me not to tell you 'cause she didn't know how you'd take it," Reid said quickly.
"What does that mean?" Caleb asked, shaking his head exasperatedly.
"She didn't know whether you were going to try and kill her," Reid said.
"I wouldn't—"
"The past is against you," Tyler spoke up, turning the key in the ignition.
"And what curses were you talking about?" Pogue asked, leaning in beside Caleb. Reid remained mute.
"Is that what you've been reading about all week?" Tyler asked perceptively. Reid nodded. "I knew you weren't just reading it for fun." Some of it had been for fun, but he wasn't going to admit that.
"How powerful is she?" Pogue asked. Reid glanced directly into their eyes before answering.
"She's next in line to leadership of the coven in Britain," he said. "When she Ascends, she'll get the power of all her ancestors, the same as every other leader before her. Her direct lineage has always been Leaders. And her family goes back to the 1000s." Beat that with your little 1693 covenant, Reid smirked indulgently. It's your covenant too, you twat. God, now you're using the same cuss-words as her!
"So what's she doing here?" Tyler asked, as they drove out of the plaza.
"Her dad's dying," Reid said quietly, glancing in the rear-view mirror at Caleb. "Pogue's dad was her mom's cousin. They're her last real family members."
Technically they were all related; five sisters of a W. Shakespeare, Lilah's direct ancestor, leader of the coven at the time, had married; one to a James Danvers, one to a Thomas Garwin, one to William Parry, one to Harry Putnam, and the last to John Simms, all prominent young men of the coven. It was their sons who had committed the crimes that landed a curse on their descendents, they who had been shipped to the New World and founded the Ipswich Colony, and subsequently banished John Putnam to Salem for continued misuse of the Power.
"There are more of us?" Tyler asked quietly. Tyler had handled gaining the taste of Power when they were thirteen the worst; incredibly shy already, the last thing he wanted was to be different from his friends. He never talked to anyone he didn't know and only really talked to Reid within the coven. Until recently, that was, when Lilah had plucked him out of his little shell and tossed it in the trash.
"Hundreds," Reid shrugged unconcernedly. He'd looked over every family tree of the coven; a few dozen families, all tight-knit—but by no means inbred—some had died off, the last members choosing not to pass on their power, some driven mad by too much of it and killed in an accident, some unable to have children, their lines dying out before the eighteenth century. Other families—especially Lilah's, had flourished throughout and were still going strong. Gender was not an issue in heritage of the coven, so Lilah was indisputably first in line.
They returned to the dorms; even Caleb and Pogue, only because Lilah had promised to tell them everything about her. But Lilah hadn't returned to Reid's dorm, so they migrated to Lilah's; the girls were eating Meadowlark Dairy ice-creams and giggling as they stared at the screen of Lilah's laptop.
"What're you girls giggling about?" Reid asked, straddling Lilah's butt as he climbed onto her butt, resting his chin on her shoulder. Facebook. Lilah snapped the laptop shut.
"Nothing my lovely," she said, giving him a vaguely reproving look. She glanced at the guys in the doorway. "Well come in! Don't make the place look untidy." Reid had thought he was messy, and usually the guys would agree. But he'd never really known a girl well enough to ever be invited casually to hang out in her room: clothes were strewn everywhere, the desks were littered with makeup and hair products and straighteners and curling-irons, hair-dryers, scented candles, jewellery boxes, books, DVD cases, random CDs, empty Amazon boxes, teddy-bears.
They got right down to it: Lilah was a witch. She was the most powerful in her coven due to her pure lineage and the rightful heir to the coven when her father passed away. She showed them the books; Caleb instantly settled in Lilah's easy chair and started reading about the Tryals of the Banished. Tyler wanted to know about the other kids in Lilah's coven. Pogue listened to everything silently, taking it all in. Sarah wouldn't stop asking questions. It was annoying Reid. I wonder if she talks during sex, he thought, looking her over intently. His eyes slid over to Lilah, who was lounging on her bed as she showed Tyler her Facebook account. Just the same as everybody else, Reid thought, with a tiny sardonic smile.
A.N.: A little bit of silliness with the Stardust thing, I'd just been listening to that Take That song, so… Anyway, hope you liked it. Please review!