Hidden Magic

Charles

The cold air hit Rosie like a slap in the face. She sighed and wondered how she was going to get out of here. It reminded her of a zoo with all the gates securely locked. She supposed she could ask Shane to lend her his handy pass card, but there was no way he’d let her go if he knew where she was planning on going. With or without the amulet. She walked round the corner to the reception doors. Miss Brown sat there labelling files. She looked up and smiled kindly when Rosie walked through the doors.


“Hello, Rosie. How are you doing?”


She returned the friendly woman’s smile and tried her best to bring some tears to her eyes. It wasn’t hard. All it took was Amy’s young and pretty face to set her off. God, I miss her so much.


“Are you okay?” The receptionist’s voice was worried and startled.


Rosie shook her head and took a deep, sharp breath. “I... I’m not feeling so great... Everything with Amy is just...” She paused, trying to capture the right words. “Too much.”


“Oh, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t even begin to imagine if my sister... Would you like to sit down?”


She shook her head, and politely said, “No, thank you, Miss. I’d just really like to go home now please. Could you open the gates?”


Miss Brown gave her a suspicious and stern look. “I would need your Mum to pick you up and make sure you get home safely.”


“No,” Rosie said too quickly. “I mean, I only live a few short blocks from here. And I don’t want to worry my Mum, at all. I’ll go straight home, I promise.” She tried her best to keep the guilt out of her voice.


The receptionist ran her hand through her hair, as if she was stressed. “Okay, you can go. But straight home.”


“Straight home,” Rosie confirmed, and practically ran out of the box shaped room.





Rosie stormed through her front door and ran straight upstairs and into her bedroom. She ran to the bin and fished inside for the torn up note. She pulled out a few pieces and spread them out on her bed. One of the ripped pieces of paper said dreams lately? Another with just the word broken and another with the words long run written on it in that creepy, curly, italic writing. It was beautiful and neat writing, but the words written on them had Rosie’s blood running cold. The final piece had just what she was looking for written on it: friend of mine, James.


She got her breathing under control and put the pieces of the note in her jeans pocket. She changed out of her blue t-shirt for a soft, plain black one, hoping she wouldn’t stick out as a school student on the streets as much if she was dressed more ordinary and unnoticeable. The last thing she needed was the town’s truants noticing her and questions being raised about why she wasn’t home like she’d said she would be. It wasn’t that Rosie didn’t feel bad about lying; she did because she was anything but a manipulative person. But she knew this was as important as dangerous. She had to find James. She had to find answers. Rosie had a feeling they weren’t going to find Amy without them.


Rosie sprinted back down the stairs and out of the front door, locking it swiftly behind her. She walked hastily down the chilly streets. She always felt like someone was watching her these days. It had been the same when she’d walked to Shane’s yesterday. She picked up her pace to a slow jog as she made her way down the streets that led to Amber’s house.


Amber had said James had been staying with the Fenty’s. Rosie had no idea how that was ever working out from Lorraine’s attack on James and her the other day. They hadn’t looked so friendly. She wouldn’t be surprised if she’d find him dead on the floor with a stake in his heart when she arrived. It also struck her that Lorraine might be home too. If she wasn’t at work, what would she do? She didn’t know. Instead of thinking about the eerie, evil woman she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and ignoring the feeling of piercing eyes on the back of her head.


Finally she reached the right house. She knocked nervously on the front door, heart beating fearfully with the thought of being alone in a house with a strong, scary vampire and/or a psychotic witch. But it turned out she would only have to live with half of the horror because a moment later James swung open the door with a big grin plastered on his strangely young looking face. Rosie thought he couldn’t be any more than twenty-five.


“Rosie,” James didn’t sound at all shocked at her standing there. “What a pleasure. Come in.”


She brushed past him, and looked around the weirdly familiar hallway. She shivered.


“Familiar.” James’s voice came from behind her, making her yelp and jump back in surprise. He chuckled. “Jumpy?”


“When you do that, yes. And of course it’s familiar.” She rolled her eyes. “I have been here before, remember?”


“Ahhh, I’m aware. We had such fun last time, didn’t we?” He chuckled again as Rosie frowned at him. “But I think you know that’s not what I was talking about. Never mind.”


She sighed. “We need to talk.”


He smiled crazily. “I figured that much. May I escort you into the living room, young lady?”


“Actually, no,” she said quickly. The idea of being in that dark, forest-like room without Shane beside her sent shivers up her spine. “I prefer the study.” She led him to the end of the hall and through the door into the big, old-fashioned room. Rosie loved the smell of fresh wood in here. It was still very out-doorsy, but it wasn’t dark or creepy in the slightest. It was the only room in the house beside Amber’s room and the bathroom that didn’t give her an eerie, uncomfortable feeling.


Rosie sat tensely in the chair and looked straight into James’s bright, emerald green eyes. “What’s your part in all of this?” Her voice was harsh. “Or are you just playing someone’s messenger again?”


James was unfazed by the tone of her voice and the hardness of her stare. He just sat there, studying her. “You really don’t know.”


“What?”


He gave her a smile that was full of pity, and then diverted the subject. “I’ve only ever been one person’s messenger, and that’s not my only part in this.”


Rosie swallowed her fear, and asked, “Who? Who’s sending the notes?”


“Charles, an ancient vampire.”


She had never been so terrified by four words before in her entire life. The vampire part had her heart racing, and the name and the word ancient had her even more scared by the clue it gave to his age. His strength, power... what could he possibly want with a girl like me? “Vampire...” was all she could utter.


“Rosie.” James’s voice was surprisingly soft and concerned. “It’s okay.”


She shook her head, tears threatening at her brown eyes. “No, it’s not. How is that okay?”


James flashed at inhuman speed towards her, and knelt down beside the chair. She flinched as his hand reached out to touch her. He pulled away. “Don’t be scared.”


She took a deep breath. “What does this mean? Tell me.”


“It means he might... come and get you.” James shook his head. “I don’t know. All I know is what I can tell you about him, Rosie. What did the last note say?”


“What, you don’t know, messenger boy?” She asked sarcastically. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out the other scraps of the note she’d brought with her. “I don’t know what it said exactly, but I’ve got a pretty good understanding.” She sighed, and pressed the pieces of the note in his cold, pale hand. “Knock yourself out.”


James looked down and spread them out on the coffee table. He frowned and recited one of the scraps. “Dreams lately. Do you know what that means?”


“Do you?”


“Yes, but do you?”


Rosie sighed. “I don’t know. I....”


“Rosie,” James said sternly. “Tell me.”


She ran a hand through her hair. “How do I know I can trust you?”


“You don’t.”


“That’s not really helping, James.”


He shrugged. “It’s your choice entirely. You can keep it all locked inside or you can confide in me. Your choice.”


She sighed. What could it hurt? Well, a lot. But... “Okay,” she said finally. “I’ve had some strange dreams lately.”


He nodded in encouragement.


“It’s like I’m trapped in a dark hallway, and I can’t feel anything. It’s strange, like I said. And then there’s this shadow, of a man, and when I try to call out to it, it disappears.” Rosie gasped. “Is that Charles messing with me?”


“Partly. Somehow he’s managing to get into your dreams, but if I remember correctly, you’ve had more than one of those dreams.”


“I have?”


“Yes. When you were close to finding out about witchcraft the first time, Amber, Shane and Lorraine cast a spell on you to not remember. Do you remember that?”


She vaguely remembered their voices telling her to forget. “Barely. I don’t know.”


“Well, he got into that too. I don’t know how.”


“Maybe he has a witch of his own?” She suggested.


His voice made Rosie’s blood run cold. “That would have to be a very powerful witch to get past three as strong as their family. And if that’s true, as you kids say these days, you’re screwed.”


“James!”


“Did you want the truth or not?”


“Yes, but it’s hard.”


“Well, the truth is hard, Rosie.” The unfamiliar kindness that had been in James’s voice before was now completely gone as he examined the other bits of the torn up note.


“James, why are you helping him? You don’t seem to like him very much.”


He looked up, and Rosie could have sworn she saw fear flash in those emerald eyes. “I owe him. He saved my life once. That’s all I’m saying on the matter.”


“Okay.” Rosie couldn’t help but wonder what kind of thing Charles had saved James from. She also couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of person... or vampire Charles was that left James so scared to break his word. She wondered how far she could trust James, really. It didn’t look like she could. She knew he’d break any trust she gave him if it meant saving himself first. “What does he want with me?”


“I honestly don’t know.”


“So what am I supposed to do?”


James looked back up at her, annoyed. “He says to stay where you are and not cause any trouble. You cannot tell anyone about this. Do you understand?”


Rosie shook her head. “You’re such a coward, you know?”


“Maybe, but I’m not stupid, and neither are you.”


“What if we could stop him? Maybe Amber and Shane can help?”


“Do you have a death wish? Are you trying to kill them both? Charles is the oldest and most powerful vampire of all time. Do you honestly think your little friends can do anything to stop him, and possibly a hugely powerful witch too?”


Rosie gulped. “I don’t know. I don’t understand why he wants me! Why won’t you tell me?”


“Because I can’t!” He roared back, making Rosie jump back in her chair and her breathing quicken. She could see a flash of fangs in his mouth, and a glimpse of red in his eyes. “I can’t! Leave it, child!” He blinked and it all disappeared.


She caught her breath, and said, “Okay, just tell me one thing. Has he got Amy?”


James looked down. “He’s behind it.”


“Why?” She cried.


“I still can’t tell you.” The kindness was back in his voice, and Rosie even thought she could hear a trace of guilt there too. “I’m sorry.”


Rosie wiped stinging tears from her eyes. “Screw you, you selfish asshole!” She got up from the chair and stormed angrily from the room. She was just about to open the front door, when James suddenly appeared in front of her. “You can’t go,” he said urgently. “There’s no doubt he has watchers on you. You’re lucky you’re not with Amy.”


“Tell me where she is!” Rosie screamed, right in his face.


He put his hands gently on her shoulders. “She’s not hurt, Rosie. She’s okay. She’s in town, and he’s not even with her because he is not here. He’ll have the vampires around here watching her someplace. He wants you anyway, and there is nothing you can do about it. He’ll let her go eventually.”


Rosie tried to breathe through the tears that overwhelmed her. “When?”


He squeezed her shoulders lightly. “I don’t know.”


“For his messenger, you don’t know much.”


James smiled, and said, “I know.”


Without thinking about it she leaned into him. He felt cold and stiff, like he hadn’t been hugged in a very long time. He patted Rosie’s back awkwardly as she cried into his brown shirt.


She pulled back and wiped her eyes. A hysterical giggle escaped her lips. “When did my life get so messed up?”


James laughed. “Again, I don’t know.”


She looked at the time on her phone and saw she had a couple of hours before she had to meet Shane at the school gates and pretend she’d been at school all day. “Do you have anything else left you’ve been permitted to tell me?”


“No. Do you have any more questions though? I can answer I don’t know a few more times.”


Rosie smiled and shook her head, almost trying to not let herself believe that this side of James existed. It’d probably only hurt her more in the end if she did. “It’s kind of a weird question, I guess, but why didn’t you die when Lorraine stabbed you the other day?”


James grinned playfully. “Why were you worried?” He chuckled when she glared at him in response. “Because she never intended to kill me. If she had she would have used silver or wood to kill me, or her very own magic, like she did you.”


“So she did mean to kill me.” Rosie didn’t even mean it as a question. She knew it was a fact. A deadly fact.


“Yeah,” James said softly. “Don’t take it personally. She’s crazier than I am.”


“Even I didn’t think that was possible.”


“Hey!” James said, and shot her a glare of his own. “I’m not crazy, I’m colourful.”


“Oh, so that’s what you call it.”