Chapter 16

Another shot.


The woman in front of me wasn't beautiful; the shape of her face was odd, like someone had wrongly stitched together some parts with others. She had really high cheekbones, a pale complexion, and wide blue eyes. Nathaniel kissed her on the cheek stiffly and then backed off. It was clearly a date or something close to it. Either way, I wasn't in any position to get angry about her. Nathaniel stated on a number of occasions that he was going to start dating again.
"Nathaniel, sorry, I'm a bit early. My other meeting finished half an hour earlier than expected," she said. She sounded like she had been living in England for years. Nathaniel tightened his jaw, probably not expecting us to meet under these circumstances.
"Julia, this is Elvira," he said. The energy that surrounded the witch almost swept me off my feet and I nearly lost my balance. It connected with mine almost instantly. She didn’t look too impressed seeing me with Nathaniel. She nodded with a tight smile, scanning me up and down quickly.
"Nice to meet you," I said. “I've got to rush, Nathaniel. I’ll see you soon."
I didn't want to stay and get engaged in conversation, so I left, not waiting for Nathaniel’s response. I got what I wanted from him. Now I needed to put this money into my account as soon as possible and get to Jasper. Something was off with Nathaniel and that witch. He acted like he wasn't happy introducing us. Besides, she was a witch and vampires weren’t too keen on them. Their magic pushed away their thirst for blood.
Elvira wasn't his usual type, but the more I analysed this, the more it hurt me, so it was better for me not to think about them at all.
After I left the restaurant, I stopped at the hospital and spoke to Mum for a little bit. She looked much better than the last time I saw her. There wasn't any change in Dad’s condition. They were giving him another fifteen to twenty days to live.
When the clock struck ten, I managed to convince Mum to go home and get a decent night’s sleep. I dropped her home and settled in my own living room for the evening, thinking about Gordon and Jasper. No one was going to screw me over this time.
The next day I woke up early and I deposited the cheque as soon as I could. Then I went to work.
Rufus was in the office today. He had a few meetings throughout the day, so he was kind of busy. In the afternoon we had an invasion of stinky trolls who were searching for retail work. It was me who got stuck with most of them. I had to pretend through the whole registration I didn’t have a gag reflex.
Close to five, I knocked on Rufus’s office door, aiming to talk to him about the work schedule.
"Oh, Julia, come on in."
I sat down in the chair opposite him wondering how I was going to tackle this request without telling him exactly what I was up to.
"I need to ask a favour," I began.
Rufus had been through a lot: he was kidnapped and held for months by vampires, all because of the contract with La Caz Pharmaceutical.
"Yeah, what is it? Something to do with Kate and your father?"
"No, I need to take a few days off, but I'm not sure when. This might be unexpected, so I just want to give you the heads up."
He frowned, and his giant eyes narrowed. I hated hiding the truth from my friends, but it was easier to lie. He would’ve tried to talk me out of it straight away.
"What do you mean, you don’t know when?"
“It's complicated. I might need time off soon, but I don’t know for how long and when. Please, Rufus, this is important."
Okay, I had to admit my request sounded ridiculous and he was staring at me like there was something wrong with me. He exhaled and shuffled some papers on the desk.
"Fine, just let me know. I hope you’re not doing anything stupid."
"No, of course not."
Shortly after that, Rufus started asking a few questions, trying to dig some information out of me, but I couldn’t share my plans with him. The less people knew about what I was up to, the better. It was best to keep everything a secret.
Once I was done with the money and sorted the time off with Rufus, I went to the hospital, remembering what my mother had said about a family meeting tonight. I really didn’t want to see everyone, but I went there for my dad’s sake. My grandmother had already tried to contact me on a number of occasions, but I purposely avoided her phone calls.
In the car park I looked at my reflection in the mirror and took a few deep steady breaths, clearing my mind. My grandmother could read bits of my thoughts. Normally I knew how to close my mind, but I’d been through a lot of shit in the past few weeks, so my mind was all over the place. I didn't even know how I was still functioning after what I’d done to that poor Dhampir girl in front of Gordon.
Not wanting to think about the past few days, I marched into the hospital building wondering what my grandmother wanted from me. We hadn’t talked probably since the night in the hospital when she told me to let my father go, and that family party when my cousin announced that I was seeing Quentin, a giant. Grandma hated Nathaniel. In her opinion I was the black sheep of the family, because I dared to get involved with a non-elf or non-fairy breed and she considered it disgraceful.
I took the lift to my dad’s floor and then decided to buy a cup of coffee first before I had to face everyone. Mainly the paranormal creatures were treated in the same part of the hospital where Dad and Kate were staying. These days no one really minded if humans hung around the ward, as long as magic wasn’t performed in front of them.
I turned and walked towards the vending machines when I heard a familiar voice.
"What about your contacts, Mum? For God’s sake, you’re the head of the Elves Association."
It was my Aunt Dorothy who was talking, so I automatically stopped to listen in. I wasn’t stupid enough to interrupt them.
“It's not that simple. Paranormals don’t believe white witches exist. Everyone I know claims they have no idea how to find them. My friends are washing their hands of it all."
Aunt Dorothy snorted loudly, like she didn’t believe her.
"They’re afraid, and let me guess—this has something to do with that new coven?"
Silence. My heart began to beat faster, and I wasn't sure if Aunt Dorothy hit the right spot, but I’d definitely heard the rumours. This wasn't good. Either way I was staying put.
"Probably, elves are scared, and no one wants to talk after what happened to Jerry. I went to Jonathan Trayis, but he refused to help me, claiming that he had nothing to do with these Swedish witches."
I had heard that name before; this guy was some minister in the government. From what I could remember, he owed Grandma some massive favour in the past.
"What a stuck-up twat… pardon my language, Mum. After all you’ve done for him."
"Yes, so I'm stuck. Julia’s probably running after that vampire, infecting her blood, not caring about her own father. If Jerry would’ve married a paranormal, maybe she wouldn't be pulled towards other creatures," Grandma said sounding irritated.
"But that’s better, right? That Julia’s away. Any paranormal who’s close to Jerry is only draining his energy."
"True, but she can at least show some respect and visit him. At least Mary’s turning around. For a second I thought their marriage was over."
"Human love and emotions."
I walked away then. My brain felt too wide for my head. Instead of going to my father’s room to meet the rest of the family I went home.
In the car I felt like there wasn’t enough air. Maybe I intentionally kept away from being close to my father. It was a difficult decision and my mother was probably going to hate me for it later, but he needed as much peace as he could get.
Jasper didn’t answer his phone when I called him later that evening. I was anxious and barely slept.
I had to wait at least two days before that cheque cleared and finally on Saturday night I managed to transfer the cash to Jasper’s account. He insisted on taking the money by himself. Jasper assured me that Gordon wouldn't screw me over. Then he asked me not to wait for him, saying he would call me on Sunday. I was hoping to see Ella, but then decided against the idea, knowing she would try and talk me out of this whole thing.
Nicky and Kelsie, we were close, but I already knew what they would say, well, especially Nicky who detested Jasper as much as Ella did.
When I woke up on Sunday morning, Jasper called asking me to pack a bag for a few days. He didn't say anything else, only adding that he would be outside my apartment in an hour.
I had no idea where he planned on taking me or if I was going to come back. For the first ten minutes I contemplated if I should call Kelsie, Nicky or even Mum. Someone needed to know I was going to be out of town, but at the same time I didn’t want Nicky to know I was with Jasper.
After staring at my bag for several minutes, I started packing, thinking I could deal with questions later.
I heard a horn outside and with my stomach churning, I ran downstairs. Jasper was smoking, staring at me through the window of his car.
"Where are we going?" I asked once I met him outside.
"Wales," he replied with a shrug. "I don’t know how long we’re going to be away. It depends on how quickly we find a white witch."
"Gordon gave you the exact location?"
"Yes, you impressed him. Besides, despite everything, he likes your father."
"Right," I muttered, thinking that was the most ridiculous statement I had ever heard, but I chose not to comment. "And how are you so sure he gave you the right location?"
"Gut feeling."
"What? So, I had to cut someone’s finger off and pay twenty thousand pounds just to rely on your gut feeling?"
He was fucking kidding me. This entire trip was probably pointless. Gordon could’ve given him any location just to shut me up.
"Trust me on this, Julia."
I folded my arms together and sat back, drowning myself in misery.
"Just chill out. We’re going to find that witch and help your dad. Stop worrying."
He moved his hand over my thigh and squeezed, only making me more uncomfortable. I pushed his hand away and glared back at him. He shrugged his shoulder then pulled out onto the road.
We drove through Sunday morning; the traffic wasn't bad, as we were on the motorway. I texted Rufus to say that I wouldn't be in on Monday. I hoped he remembered our conversation from Wednesday.
Jasper kept the conversation going, trying to lift my miserable spirits, but he gave up after some time realising I wasn't even listening. Questions and worries were mounting in my head. My family thought I didn’t care about Dad and my friends thought I was slowly going loco. Nathaniel had moved on—all right, it was my own fault that he was dating someone else—but my heart bled.
Jasper drove, listening to some rock station, glancing at me from time to time. Deep inside I was torn, knowing I was doing the right thing, but relying on a man who still had strong feelings for me and the situation I was in could have fatal consequences. Jasper was unpredictable and dangerous.
We stopped for a coffee break and a quick spell casting, so I could drain my excess magic away. Shortly after that we passed a sign and paid for the toll going into to Wales.
"Wales. I can’t believe this is it," I said looking around.
"Abergavenny, that’s where we’re heading. Gordon gave me a very specific and a very accurate location. Exciting, right?"