Well, here's the next chapter! I'm trying to make these chapters longer...so...
Leave me a review!
~Christianne
Nikki POV
I groaned as I woke up; my shoulder was killing me.
I sat up in bed, then froze.
The last thing I remembered was leaving Sam a voice mail, then passing out from the singing on the floor.
Now, I was comfortably in bed, cover up and everything, my arm was wrapped up in what looked like strips of one of my shirts, and my mind was completely clear. And all'a that told me someone else was in my house.
I slowly got up from my bed and picked my knife off the floor. I slowly made my way down stairs. I mentally cursed myself; Sam was easily twice my weight and taller than me by at least a foot, and when he walked he was damn near silent. I sounded like a friggen' elephant walking through my foyer.
I heard someone in my kitchen, and prepared myself before I peeked around the corner.
My jaw just about hit the floor.
I knew right away it was Sam, but just how I knew was what made my tummy feel all fuzzy.
I saw a bowl of cereal on my counter, and Sam's bare back next to it. He was half-bent over, looking through his duffle bag. The way the muscles worked, pulled and flexed with every arm and neck movement. He turned halfway towards me, and the sight was truly something out of my dreams. His jeans were slung low, showing off that V by his hips and his hard chest. There was a slightly comical edge to it, being that he had a spoon on his mouth. His brow furrowed for a second as he struggled to get his cast-encased arm through the arm hole in his t-shirt, and an adorable, triumphant smile graced his face (as best as it could while his lips were holding onto a spoon) and he pulled the shirt over his head.
In my gawking, my knife slipped from my grasp. Sam spun around quickly, it was almost laughable how he looked; that scary 'I'll cut your head off' hunter look in his eye, but still had a spoon in his mouth. It changed in a spit second when he saw it was me.
He took the spoon out of his mouth and tossed it back in his bowl. "Hey." He said awkwardly.
"Hi." I said slowly, a little confused. "Not that I'm not happy to see you…but what are you doing here?"
"I got your message." Sam said, going to the coffee maker and grabbing a cup from the cupboard like he owned the place. "Came here as fast as I could." He added, pouring me a cup of coffee.
"Oh…" I said, bending down to get my knife before walking into the kitchen and taking the cup from him, carelessly dropping the knife on the counter.
"So, what happened?" Sam asked, taking his bowl of cereal back as he leaned on the counter opposite me.
I took a deep breath and started to tell him about what happened. He listened intently, nodding a little. He didn't bother with the stupid questions about hex bags or if I had devil's traps, he knew I did.
"Ok, so, what do you think it was?" He asked once I was done.
I shook my head. "I don't-Ah!" I yelped uncomfortably as I tried to shrug my shoulders.
"What is it?" Sam asked imminently, setting his bowl down.
"It's-It's my shoulder," I said, my nose wrinkling in pain as I struggled to get my sweatshirt off. It was over my face when I felt Sam step in and grab the top, pulling it off me easily. I didn't let myself blush.
I grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled it up, bunching it up at the back of my neck while keeping it over my chest. "Anything?" I asked.
"Uh…" Sam said stupidly. "Just-Just gimmie a second." He said. I heard him go through his bag next to me, then the small sound of his phone's camera.
"Take a look." He said, leaning over my bare back to put his phone on the counter. I pulled my shirt down quickly and picked up his phone. He'd taken a picture of my left shoulder, which looked like it had been branded.
The skin was red and puckered, like the mark on my ribs had been. It was the shape that really freaked me out. It was round for the most part, a pentagram in the center, with shapes reminiscent of flames or the rays of a drawn sun surrounded it.
"Holy shit." I said, holding the phone closer to my face. I looked at Sam, who looked just about the same way I felt, stunned.
"U-Um…" I said, trying to think straight. "It-It's an anit-possesion symbol…" I pointed out dumbly.
"Do you think…Do you think Jane did it?" Sam asked.
"Jane?" I asked, looking up at him. He nodded. "Well, considering she's not walking around anymore, I don't really see how that would work.
"Well, she bound your souls, right? So, what if her half is trying to…protect you?" It sounded like he was just thinking out loud.
I just shook my head and put Sam's phone down. "OK, enough about me and the things the witch inside me may or may not have done. What's brought you here and not Dean?"
I just blinked. "Oh…Wow…" I breathed, looking at Sam wide-eyed.
"Yeah." He said simply, pulling on a button up over his t-shirt. I almost wished he wouldn't. You could see his toned chest in just that t-shirt.
"So…What are you gonna do?" I asked, pulling my legs up to sit cross-legged on the stool in my kitchen.
"I…I'm gonna find the other ones, the other 'special children' the demon made." He said, putting on his shoes.
"Give me one hour." I said, grabbing my knife and starting towards the stairs.
"Why?" Sam called after me.
"You wanna find the other freaks like us? Then I want in!" I yelled down stairs, ignoring what he yelled back to me. "And, you know, I have to shower and stuff."
"Well, I didn't think this through." I said as I got out of 'Sam's' car.
"It'll be fine." Sam assured me as he held the door open.
"Yeah, that's what you said last time." I muttered as I walked through the door into the Roadhouse.
I felt all eyes on me and Sam as we walked in. I squirmed a little, but kept my head high and didn't look away when someone half-glared at me.
"Sam." I heard Ellen say. "Nikki."
"Hey Ellen." I said, shoving my hands in my pockets.
Sam shifted uncomfortably, an awkward smile in his face. "You don't seem that surprised to see me." He said.
"You're brother's been calling, looking for you." Ellen told him. I jabbed Sam in the ribs, looking up at him with a 'I told you so' look in my slightly narrowed eyes as I shook my head a little.
"Yeah." Sam said, nudging me away. "I figured he might."
"What's going on between you two?" Ellen asked, her gaze flickered to me for a second.
Instead of answering, Sam changed the subject. "So, um…How's Jo?" I left Sam and Ellen to talk about Jo and other real hunter stuff while I slowly paced around the bar.
I didn't tell Sam, but in the past day of driving, it felt like all my power was building up, growing to the point until I thought I was going to burst. If someone were to poke me in the ribs I might break all the beer bottles in the state.
"Hey, Nikki, get your butt over here." Ellen called me. I quickly turned away from the window and sat next to Sam at the bar. "What brings you two to my neck'a the woods?" I looked at Sam for the answer.
"I need help." He said honestly.
"So, what am I looking for, Sam?" Ash asked, rubbing his chin.
"Other people, other…Psychics, like us." Sam said, gesturing to himself and me.
"I thought she was a witch." Ash said, pointing at me.
"Wicca." I corrected him. "And who says I can't be both?"
"As many as possible, and I need a nationwide search." Sam said, down to business.
"But, I thought there was no way to track them all down." Ellen pointed out. "Not all of them had nursery fires like you did."
"Some had to." I said, my mind working to try and think of a spell or ritual I could us to find the other psychics, but they all required blood or a hair or something from the person I was looking for.
"Ok, Gimmie some time." Ash said, going to his back room again.
I sighed and sat back at the bar. After about half an hour I ran out to Sam's car and grabbed one of the books I'd brought with; specifically anything about putting a temporary cap on my magic. I was at the corner of the bar, away from the rest of the patrons.
"Here." Ellen said, setting a beer in front of me.
"Thanks." I said, not looking up much from my book. I reached for the beer with one hand, and jumped when it shattered.
"Holy shit!" Ellen yelled at the same time I jumped back, pulling my book with me so the beer wouldn't get my book wet.
"Ah crap." I frowned, my face screwing up in a pout. "Ellen, I'm sorry, I'll-I'll clean it up." I said, putting my book down.
"What were you looking at in that book'a yours?" Ellen asked, grabbing a few towels from under the bar.
"Trying to figure out how to get stuff like that not to happen anymore." I told her. I'd already looked cover to cover for a location spell.
"Well, then you keep that up. I don't want you wasting any more of my beer." Ellen said in a serious tone, but she had a little smile on her face. I smiled (it came off a bit nervous) and went over a few bar stools to set my book down on a dry surface.
After a few more minutes of searching, I found something.
The Reiki Symbol
While the symbol has Asian origins, it wasn't until the First Crusades that it was fully recognized and drawn into the grimoires of White Wiccans. Brought into the Wicca world by Middle Eastern Wicca, or כֶּשֶׁף, a branch of Wicca with ties to Judaism.
The Reiki Symbol's original use was to gain power and control, through many years of White Wiccan manipulation, it's power and control have been twisted and transformed to give the symbol (when drawn by a Wicca or someone blessed by a powerful White Wicca) to give power and control to the part of the Wiccan soul that controls a Wicca's outward abilities.
This was utilized in the time of the Crusades to stop young Wicca children from exposing their families through accidental charms and spells. It does not stop magical abilities, but make it harder for the Wicca to use their abilities.
For example; if a child is prone to making her toys come to life (a simple movement charm), the Reiki Symbol won't deny the child the abilities she possesses, rendering her defenseless, rather it will raise the level of concentration and intensity of feelings needed to use their instinctive Wicca powers.
Below that was a picture of a complicated looking symbol, basically an upside down, backwards L-shape with a spiral coming front the bottom end.
As I looked at the page, I couldn't help it as a smile came across my face. Wiccans were always referred to in the feminine tense. One) because more Wiccans were girls than guys, and two) women were just better at Wicca than guys.
"Ellen? Do you have a Sharpie anywhere?" I called to the woman currently in the kitchen.
"Behind the bar. Just grab it." Ellen called back.
"Thanks!" I said as I kneeled on my barstool and leaned over my grimoire to reach behind the counter. When I didn't find it, I grunted as I scooted myself up more, so my hips were lying flat on the bar. "Ok…Where are you, you son of a-"
"Uh…" I heard behind me, just as I grabbed the black capped marker with a triumphant 'Ah-ha!' I looked over my shoulder and saw Sam standing behind me with two beers in his hands, and a mildly stunned look on his face.
"Hey." I said, falling back in my seat and uncapping the marker.
"Uh…Yeah, hey." Sam said, clearing his throat awkwardly as he sat down, pushing a beer towards me. Nodded gratefully and went back to my book.
I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and bit down on it in concentration as I dragged the marker over the skin of my palm, trying to replicate the symbol in my book.
"What-What'd you find?" Sam asked from his seat next to me.
"Hm?-Oh, its just something I'm trying…" I trailed off as I started the spiral, counting until I had three lines, then flicked the end towards my fingers. "The Reiki Symbol." I said, showing Sam my palm.
"My book says it's supposed to make it harder for me to use my powers, unless my deep rooted Wicca-instincts kick in." I explained vaguely.
Sam reached for my hand and inspected the symbol. "Never seen this before…" he muttered, unintentionally making my throat clench and my stomach flip as he traced the black lines on the sensitive skin of my palm with his callused, rough fingers. The feeling sent a shiver up my spine.
"It-It's really old." I said stupid, trying to make myself pull my hand back, but that didn't happen.
"So, you just draw this on your hand and then no more broken beer bottles?" Sam asked, finally giving me my hand back.
"Well, yeah, I mean, I have to draw it on my other hand somehow, but…yeah…" I trailed off, swallowing down the lump in my throat.
Friends. Friends. Friends. Friends. I chanted over and over in my head as Sam pulled the corner of my grimoire closer to him, only to give a small, pouty frown when he couldn't understand anything on the pages aside from the symbol. As usual, I offered to read it to him. And, as usual, he declined.
"Gimmie the marker," Sam said suddenly, taking my hand and turning it palm up. The skin of his palm was calloused, but soft at the same time; it was pressed against the back of my hand while his large, warm fingers curled around my palm and pushed my fingers flat. He took the marker with his cast-encased writing hand and turned the book more towards him. Sam brought the Sharpie to the side of his mouth and bit down on the cap to pull it off.
"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
"'oo 'ant 'raw on yer 'iting 'and." Sam said with the marker cap still in his mouth. He made a face and spat it onto the bar. "You can't draw on your writing hand." He repeated, bringing my hand a little closer to his face.
I bit the inside of my cheek as Sam's face contorted slightly in concentration; his eyebrows pulled together a little in the middle, he bit down on the corner of his bottom lip and was breathing out of the other corner of his mouth. The soft, warm breaths blew against my palm as I watched Sam's large hands draw the delicate symbol on my palm with more precision than a heart surgeon, and with his hand in a cast nonetheless.
I took the time to admire Sam's face. The smooth, strong lines of his nose, jaw and cheek bones. The way his lengthy brown hair swept over his forehead and brushed his equally dark eyebrows. Sam seemed to hunch his shoulders inward all the time, and have his head ducked down a little, like he wasn't trying to show his broad shouldered and tall he really was.
I sighed quietly as Sam slowly started working on the spirals, stopping now and then to go over the same line a few times. The month or so I'd spent back in Janesville, my mind was constantly going back to Sam. Debating whether or not to tell him I had a little (huge) crush on him (I was head over heels) or not. The day with Andy kept spiraling back into my mind, how when Andy asked if we were together Sam laughed. That really should have been enough for me to get on with my life and flirt with some of the men who had come up to Janesville to hunt and fish for the weekend, but it wasn't. Yeah, him laughing at the idea of us together hurt a little, but then he'd go and do something like come all the way to Pennsylvania because of the message I left on his phone, or what he was doing right now (drawing on my palm in what had to be the most seductive way possible), made me fall for him all over again.
"Ok…Done." Sam said, releasing my hand as he capped the marker. I nodded, mumbling a 'thank you' as I looked at my palms, now baring identical permanent marker symbols.
One was clearly better drawn than the other.