The Thirteenth Witch ~Chapter Ten~

Chapter Ten

“I’m leaving Melanie in charge the first day,” Dave said. “Adam on the second day. Who else will be the first day?”
“Me, Chris, Doug, Suzan and Deborah,” Raven answered.
“All right.” Dave nodded. “The rest of you will be the second day?”
They all nodded.
“All right, let’s work!” Dave clapped twice and the group dispersed. Raven was heading to her cashier lane when Nick reached out and tapped her shoulder, meaning for her to stop. Raven kept going and ignored him.
“What did she do that for?” Deborah asked her cousin as he stared after Raven’s retreating figure.
“She won’t talk to me, that’s all,” Nick answered.
Deborah eyed Raven who was ignoring Nick’s little waves for attention.
“What did you say to her that made her not want to talk to you?” she asked.
Nick turned to her, his eyes narrowed in anger. “How come every time someone refuses to talk to me you assume that I made them upset?” he demanded. “You did that when Cassie wouldn’t talk to me, you did it when Faye wouldn’t talk to me, and now you’re doing it again with Raven. Why am I always the one at fault if they won’t speak to me?”
Deborah stared at Nick in surprise. He didn’t usually say that much, and he rarely raised his voice to anyone.
“Well, sorry,” she muttered.
Then Nick paused in his yelling and looked down at her. The anger drained out of him leaving him looking as if he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“I would never hurt her anyway,” he said softly and turned away, vanishing into the back.
Deborah pondered over his words for a moment. There was something strange about the way he’d said them… She’d have to go talk to one of the Circle leaders. She turned and went off to find Diana.

Raven saw the conversation between the two cousins. For a moment Nick towered over Deborah, his eyes flashing and his body tense. But then the anger drained away leaving him looking exhausted. Raven could see the sadness in his eyes. Her heart went out to him for just a moment – then she remembered her promise to herself and steeled herself against him.
Deborah went off to see Diana. Raven watched them, trying to gauge the reason of their conversation when pieces of another floated to her.
“…A girl, kind of short, with black hair and maybe she calls herself Raven, maybe Dove…”
The voice was familiar. Raven turned and saw a tall girl with a mass of dark curls tumbling down her back, framing an oval face with feline green eyes.
Raven stared. It was Portia, and she was talking to Dave. Logan and Jordan stood behind her.
“…A girl named Raven, and her friends in the Club…lane five,” Dave said, and pointed. Portia followed the direction of his finger and her catty gaze came to a rest on Raven. Her lips curved up in a cruel smile, and she winked. Raven glared at her, a death look that could turn the sand on the beach into a sea of glass in a matter of moments.
Portia waved, thanked Dave and then turned to go. She breezed past Raven with a wave. She paused, cast a look around the store, saw all of the others, then stepped out into the sun. Logan was close on her heels. Jordan sauntered after them, whistling, his hands in his pockets. He passed close by Raven, glanced at her once, then took a hand out of his pocket and tossed something at her. He winked, gave her the trigger sign and strolled to join his siblings. Raven caught the brown thing automatically and stared at it in her hands. It was a brown leather collar with silver studs and a name carved in the inside. Raj. Raven slipped away from her post and headed down towards Adam.
“Did you see them?” she asked urgently, her voice sharp and panicked.
“See who?” Adam asked, looking at her strangely.
“It was Portia and her brothers,” Raven replied.
Adam’s eyes darkened. “Any police?”
“No, this is personal for them,” Raven answered. She held out the leather band.
Adam took it and stared at it in horror. “Raj…”he gasped. His eyes took on a faraway look and Raven knew he was reliving every moment he’d had with his dog.
“I told him to run, to go to the forest and stay there,” he whispered. Then he blinked the tears out of his eyes. “Now I know how Chris and Doug felt.”
Cassie noticed something was wrong and came over to see.
Raven let her handle her boyfriend. She headed back to her post. Cassie ran past to warn the others.

“Whose turn is it to cook tonight?” Diana asked as the group stepped into the house.
“Ours,” Doug answered glumly.
Laurel and Melanie exchanged looks and burst into laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Chris demanded indignantly.
“I’ve eaten your food,” Deborah muttered.
Adam laughed. “You’re brave.”
Melanie grabbed Chris’s arm and led him into the kitchen. “Come on, Henderson, let’s go cook.”
“I’m coming,” Doug said reluctantly, and followed.
“So you saw Portia and her linebacker brothers today?” Laurel asked.
“Not exactly a welcome sight, if you know what I mean,” Raven replied. “There were no cops with them and they only asked for me.”
Suddenly the doorbell rang. The group exchanged looks and Adam went to answer the door.
“Yes?” Adam asked, opening the door a crack.
“Hey, is Dove there?” a familiar voice asked.
Raven’s eyes widened.
“Dove?” Adam echoed, confused. “Sorry, I think you have the wrong house,” he replied and was going to close the door when Raven ran to his rescue.
“Adam, wait!” Raven reached out and caught the door. “Hi Alex,” she said to the befuddled guy standing on the doorstep and gave him a pointed look. “It’s okay, Adam, every birdie name is the same.”
AJ nodded, still confused. “Uh…Raven, the guys and I are having a party tonight. Want to come?” He gave her a charming smile.
Adam glanced between them like he was trying to gauge their relationship.
Raven glanced at Adam. “Sorry…Uh, AJ, but I have stuff to do.” She made a little circle motion with her hand and AJ nodded. He’d known she was a witch when they were little, and he remembered now.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right, next time then. Nice meeting you,” he said to Adam and turned away.
“Why did that guy call you Dove?” Adam asked. “It doesn’t sound anything like Raven.”
“Well, they’re both birds, he probably got his animals mixed up.” Raven grinned impishly. “For the first week I met you I called you ‘Eve’s husband’ because that’s what I knew your name was and seeing how I didn’t have a Bible to look it up…”
Adam laughed and they headed back into the den. “I remember that. You came around asking for me like that and Chris said, ‘No, he’s Cassie’s husband’.”
When they got into the kitchen, they found that it was empty.
“Where is everyone?” Adam asked, staring around in confusion. The two of them stood there for a few moments, and then Raven heard the sound of a breeze. Turning, she found that the porch door was open a crack. She pushed it open further and a saw the bonfire on the beach.
“Hey, everyone’s outside,” she said, and the two of them headed down the beach together.
Chris and Doug were roasting hot dogs on toasting forks while Laurel was cooking vegetables shish-kebab style.
“So, this is how you two cook, huh?” Raven sat down between Deborah and Suzan. Cassie handed her a pre-speared hot dog on a fork and Raven began roasting away. They had light, cheerful conversation and Raven had a heated debate with the Henderson brothers about why girls would make just as good drummers in a punk band as guys. She and Deborah also planned to get back at Chris and Doug for kidnapping her in the middle of the night for her initiation. She and Melanie and Laurel had an interesting discussion about crystals and she talked to pretty much everyone but said not a single word to Nick, avoiding his gaze through the whole meal.
“Are we having a meeting tonight?” Sean asked.
Diana shook her head. “We’re fine for now, even though I think we should keep a low profile around town in case Portia and her brothers are anywhere near.”
“They won’t come after us on their own,” Melanie said confidently. “Not unless they have the police with them. If they do, they’re really stupid.”
“Yeah, we’re a full coven now, we can kick butt, can’t we?” Doug gave his barbaric grin.
Chris threw his head back and howled like a wolf. Melanie nudged him in the ribs, shooting him a look. Chris fell silent obediently.
Raven could go to the party down at Alex’s after all. She wouldn’t mind meeting his friends, and they had a lot to catch up on. She didn’t notice Diana and Deborah looking between her and Nick and exchanging looks and nods. Nick was sitting on the other side of the fire, a blur beyond the dancing flames. But Raven could feel his eyes on her, could see them through the fire, like flames of black fire flickering at her.
Raven finished eating and stood up. “If we’re not having a meeting tonight, can I go to that party down at AJ’s?”
Adam nodded. “Sure, that’s fine.”
“What party?” Chris asked curiously.
“One of her friends,” Adam answered. “The crazy guy who calls her Dove because she has a birdie name.”
“Like you being ‘Eve’s husband’, huh?” Diana teased, her green eyes dancing.
Raven brushed the sand off her shorts and headed away from the fire down the beach. She walked with a bounce in her step and didn’t notice the rest of the Circle staring after her intently.
As soon as Raven was out of sight, the whole Circle turned to look at Nick.
“Why wouldn’t she talk to you?” Adam demanded. “What did you do to her?”
Deborah’s eyes widened at the sound of those words and turned to give Adam a warning when Nick blew his fuse.
“Why does everyone blame me when someone else gets hurt?” he exploded, his eyes blazing and his face angry. His breathing was light and rapid and his anger was only growing. “I didn’t hurt anyone! I didn’t do anything to Raven, didn’t say anything to her, didn’t say anything behind her back, absolutely nothing! I’ve kept to myself the whole time we’ve been a group, and yet you always dump on me when someone gets hurt! Why is that? I haven’t done anything to any of you and yet you accuse me again and again like this! Give it up, will you? The only person I ever hurt was myself when I knew I would lose Cassie, all right? I didn’t hurt Raven! ”
They all stared at him in shock as he stood over them, breathing hard and glaring. Then the fury drained out of him and he sank to his knees, his eyes bleak. “I’d never hurt Raven,” he finished in a whisper.
Deborah and Diana exchanged looks.
“Obviously she hurt you, too,” Cassie said tentatively.
Nick stared down at his hand that was clenching a fistful of sand. He held up his fist and watched the sand drain out from between his fingers.
“Tell us, cous, we’re worried about you,” Deborah urged.
“You seem like you’ve been in a lot of pain because Raven’s been ignoring you,” Diana said, sounding for the world like a shrink to Nick.
He lifted his head, shaking black hair with blue highlights from the fire’s glow out of his face, his eyes as fathomless as space itself, laughing mirthlessly.
“You have no idea.”
“Tell us,” Laurel urged.
Nick said two words. “We’re soulmates.”
There was instant silence as everyone stared at him, then conversations erupted.
“Are you serious, cous?” Deborah asked.
“You mean, like me and Cassie are?” “So, are you over Cassie now?” “Wouldn’t you have seen it before?” “When did you find out?” “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” “You should have told us!” “This is so exciting, more soulmates!”
Nick sat with his head bowed, all the words washing over him as he gazed into the flames. The rapid firing of questions stopped when they all noticed him.
“How did you suddenly discover it?” Diana asked. “It would have happened the first day you met, like it was for Cassie and Adam.”
“Well, it took us a while to realize it,” Adam put in.
“Have you been dating or something and we just didn’t notice?” Cassie asked.
Nick shook his head.
“Why is she suddenly not talking to you, anyway? Did you have a fight?” Deborah asked.
Nick, his head bowed, shook his head ‘no’ again.
“When did you find out?” Melanie asked.
“The night before she was initiated,” Nick said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“But you would have known before,” Suzan said, perplexed.
Chris was thinking again, his breath held as he tried to piece together an actual thought. The others waited patiently. Melanie whacked him upside the head.
“Of course he is, stupid,” Sean said.
“All that hard thinking for a question like that?” Doug guffawed.
For maybe once in the history of the group, Adam was nice to Nick without it being grudgingly.
“Maybe we should let him talk,” he suggested gently.
“Yeah, tell us,” Deborah urged.
“It was the night of Cassie and Adam’s date,” Nick began.
Realization dawned on Deborah’s face. “When you two were having that argument about love…”
Nick nodded, not meeting anyone’s gaze.
“Huh?” Chris asked.
“Raven was telling him how much she thought love and romance sucked and he was telling her that love was beautiful and all, and they started arguing really loud so I got up and left,” Deborah said for him. Nick nodded. She slanted a sidelong glance at him. “I didn’t feel any Power then.”
“After,” Cassie said softly.
“Tell us,” Diana urged gently.
“She told me that had made sure she would never fall in love, and I said she would fall in love with her soulmate when he came along,” Nick said, his voice barely above a whisper. The others had to lean in to hear. “She told me that if her soulmate should ever appear, she wouldn’t see the silver cord and it wouldn’t affect her. I told her that there was no way to deny the silver cord, and then she told me about her charm.”
Adam raised one eyebrow. “ ‘Charm’?”
Nick nodded and cleared his throat. “That blue crystal she always wears, it shields her from the silver cord, and if her soulmate is near it grows warm as a warning and then, I guess, she avoids him.”
Diana looked at Melanie.
She nodded. “It’s possible.”
“She never avoided you before, though,” Laurel pointed out.
“Unless both of us were conscious of it, we couldn’t sense the silver cord,” Adam said. “Although sometimes it couldn’t be denied.”
“Well, I never thought of it around her, and she obviously never thinks about it at all,” Nick said, his voice bleak and yet bitter. “So I guess it never really showed up. But then we got to talking about it. And after she told me what it was, I could suddenly sense the Power in it. I reached out to touch it. It was burning…” Nick broke off and got to his feet. He turned away, kicking sand angrily. Then he headed up the beach, constricted anger in his movements. Deborah jumped up and ran after him.
“Raven’s wearing a new necklace,” Suzan murmured mostly to herself. “What happened to the old one?”
Chris and Doug doused the fire and gathered the toasting forks as the rest of the Circle headed up to the house after Nick.

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