Chapter 19

Intrigue.




My strained muscles began relaxing as I stood in the shower, the warm water surging over my aching body. For some reason I knew that I was safe. Jasper was asleep, wounded and trapped. He was hiding something from me, but I didn’t want to think about that now. I was tired of violence. I closed my eyes imagining Nathaniel’s fingers tracing my body in the warm water, whispering calming words into my ear. I was alone, a hundred miles away from him, but every time I brought memories of us together my heart betrayed me. Without judgment I wanted him with me, shielding me from all my problems and worries. Flashes and memories of Paris, Brighton, and the time that we spent in his apartment collided in my mind. Nathaniel wasn't right for me in everyone else’s eyes, but for me, I knew he was the one. My love for him hadn’t faded.
I found a fluffy robe hanging on the door and wrapped it around my body tightly. Jasper was completely out, and I was glad, not glad that he was injured, but because I didn’t have to deal with him. Earlier I took care of the deep wound on my back, covering it with thick crocodile paste. My other injuries were minor, only a few scratches and cuts. I grabbed my phone from my bag and switched it on.
The text messages started coming through. Most of them were from Kelsie who wanted me to call her as soon as possible. She knew that I was out of town, but she thought that I was visiting Grandma. It was nearly midnight, but Kelsie was awake. As a shifter, she didn’t need eight hours of sleep like humans.
"Julia! What’s wrong? Why didn’t you answer earlier?" she asked.
"I'm fine, still alive. I'm with Jasper and he was battered quite badly."
"I don’t care about that bastard."
"My magic is getting better and better." I chuckled.
"Listen, I need to tell you something," she said, probably forgetting that most of the time my magic was all over the place. "I saw your hot ex today at work."
I rolled my eyes, wondering why she wanted to talk about Nathaniel. She knew that I wasn't quite over him yet. She worked at La Caz Pharmaceutical and I expected her to see him in the corridors now and again.
“That's normal. Do we really have to talk about him?"
She made a growling sound into the phone.
"This is fucking important, Julia, so stop pretending like you don’t care," she hissed. "Your fine piece of arse was talking to someone on the phone and I accidentally overhead him."
Kelsie was determined to give me the whole run down about his latest affairs. I took a deep breath and glanced back at Jasper to make sure he was still out.
"Come on, give it to me straight. I'm ready. He’s dating that witch, but he isn’t ready to marry her, right?"
There was silence on the other side of the phone.
"What are you talking about? What witch?" she asked, confused.
"The one I saw him with the other night."
"I have no idea who you’re talking about. This isn’t about who he fucks from Monday to Friday, Julia," she said with a loud sigh. "From his conversation I gathered he was throwing money away, big sums to witches."
I had to stand up and pressed my phone harder to my ear.
"What? Nathaniel and witches? I don’t understand. Tell me exactly what you heard."
"Well, I was just about to leave the office because the whale had been moaning all day about a fresh cup of coffee. Nathaniel was by the lift talking to someone and didn’t see me coming out. He said something like, "I gave them fifteen thousand, so I should know the location. The money boosted up their network. There are witches in the factory unaware of the new coven and I want that spell." She paused. "I don’t know, Julia, he sounded like he wanted to be included in their meetings, but the person on the other line wasn't budging."
I didn't think Kelsie heard the whole conversation. Nathaniel was a businessman; he wouldn't get involved in any witchy business. Okay, so he kept investing money in many dodgy paranormals, but why on earth would he deal with witches?
"Right, is that it?"
"He wanted to know where this whole gathering was held, and he was looking forward to seeing someone there, because of a really important spell."
"Strange, really bizarre," I muttered.
"I thought that too, but then right at the very end he added, “Don't worry, mate, I can use my source to bribe the police, so they won't get involved. She should be pleased.”
"Okay, so let me summarise. Nathaniel’s gifting large sums of money to a group of witches in exchange for information about some meeting and a rare spell. Also, he’s bribing the police, to keep them away from the witches?"
"Well, yeah, that’s what it looks like," she said.
Now I was pacing around the room, wondering if maybe Kelsie misheard him. I knew Nathaniel. He was one of the good guys. Then again, he didn't look pleased when he had to introduce me to that witch from the restaurant. What the hell was he up to?
"Okay, thank you for the heads up," I said, trying to sound like this news hadn’t affected me at all. "Keep your eyes and ears open."
"All right, but what do you think? I mean, doesn’t this worry you? He’s clearly up to something."
"I can’t be worried about this now. I'm in Wales and I'm very close to finding the white witch…"
Right, I wasn't supposed to say anything, but I felt like a coward, pretending that everything was all right. She was my best friend and she could handle the truth. I went through what happened with Julian and how I turned his own spell against him. When I finished talking, Kelsie was silent for about a minute.
"Unbelievable. I hope that old bastard was telling you the truth."
"Fairy magic binds them to keep their word. I can’t believe that I'm so close."
"I'm happy for you but be careful. Jasper can’t be trusted, and I don’t want you to be disappointed."
She didn't need to tell me this. Jasper had his own plan, but I was the one in control tonight. There was no way anything could go wrong tomorrow. Then again, Jasper had screwed up and now he was barely conscious.
When I hung up I wasn't entirely sure what to think about Kelsie’s news. Nathaniel had always done things his own way, but I didn't want to believe that he was somehow involved with Elvira. I stared at my phone wondering if I should call him and simply ask what he was up to. A few minutes later after nearly dialling his number, I threw the phone back into my handbag. It was his business and maybe I just didn’t know him as well as I thought. I switched off the lights and went to sleep, focusing on what I needed to do tomorrow.
When I woke up early in the morning, Jasper was still asleep. I went downstairs for breakfast. The hotel was run by humans. I felt a little odd not being around any paranormals. I didn't each much. My stomach had been empty since the dinner in the cottage, but I was simply too nervous to think about food.
I could feel it in my heart that we were close to finding the white witch. I brought some toast for Jasper, who woke shortly after I walked through the door.
"Julia!" he said, trying to get up, but pain passed through his face, so he laid back down. The injuries that he’d sustained yesterday were severe. "What’s going on? Where are we?"
"Julian nearly killed you yesterday, but don’t worry I dealt with him, so we’re all right," I said, sitting next to him on the bed. "Toast?"
He flopped back on the pillow, breathing heavily and narrowing his dark eyes on me.
"I remember now. Julian used Inferno; it’s old and a very powerful spell." He scowled, touching his chest and checking his wounds. "Talk me through everything that happened yesterday."
"Well, I don’t really know. Somehow, I used his own spell against him. He was frying and if it weren’t for me he’d have been dead. In return, he agreed to take us to the white witch today."
Jasper got up then, clenching his teeth. Some of the bandages came off, revealing some small burns that looked infected. He grabbed his wand from the dressing table and started casting healing spells.
"You did well, darling," he sighed, looking at me intensely. “You're more powerful than you even realise."
I smiled, feeling proud of myself and a little relieved about what happened. Maybe I wasn't that bad at magic. Tron helped me a lot and now his lessons were finally paying off. After the blackouts from a few months ago and killing Craig, I lost faith in my magic, but things had begun to turn around. I just wished I knew where Tron had disappeared to. Thoughts of him drifted in my mind from time to time, especially when I found one of his lessons useful.
"I can be useful sometimes," I added, picking up the crocodile paste from the dresser and handing it to him.
"And you got us a room in a human hotel, I presume? I thought you weren’t comfortable sleeping in the same bed?"
"You were out, so I wasn't worried."
"Shame, I want you now more than ever."
"Shut up, Jasper."
He laughed and started putting some paste on his chest. Ten minutes later he was dressed and looked a little better. My legs were aching, but I wanted to see Julian as soon as possible.
"I hope it’s not a trick. He gave me his word," I said, after we checked out and put our bags in the boot. It was pretty early, but I didn’t want to waste any time. The sky was completely covered with grey clouds and it looked like rain was on the way. Jasper put his magic wand on the dashboard and took my hand.
"Let me do the talking. He might have given you his word, but I should be dealing with him."
I nodded, not particularly happy with this arrangement. As we drove off, I was confident that the white witch was out there. Now I had to convince her to help me. Jasper drove using his wand to point us in the direction. Within forty minutes we were back on the same road that led to Julian’s haunted house. I was planning to ask Jasper later why Julian lived away from other paranormals in the middle of nowhere.
The rain began pouring down as we stopped in front of his grey, disturbing-looking property. Once we jumped out of the car I felt the same strong spells that surrounded the place yesterday. My mind was racing, and my breathing became heavy and laboured as we approached the door.
"How do you know him anyway?" I asked. Jasper didn’t answer straight away, keeping his eyes on door.
"We met once long ago," he said after a moment without giving much away. I didn’t want to guess, but it probably had something to do with his black magic.
Then the door opened, throwing me off balance a little. Julian stood in the entrance with a stone-cold expression on his face. In the grey surroundings he looked like a typical fairy, breathtakingly beautiful. Judging by the wrinkles on his forehead, and grey hair, he looked to be in his fifties. His radiant appearance hadn’t changed much with age. I didn’t like the creepy smile that was spread across his face. There was something about him that made every hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"Take off your shoes and leave your wand by the door," he barked.
"I'm not stupid, Savage."
"I gave the half-breed my word, wizard. I just want to get this over with."
Jasper clenched his hand around his wand, hesitating for a long moment before he placed it on the floor next to his shoes. I was anxious to get back on the road and just speak to the witch, see if I could convince her to come to London with me. The chilling fear in my bones was no longer there. Yesterday’s event gave me some confidence, knowing I could defend myself if Julian was planning to deceive us.
As we walked inside the cottage, the burning smell from yesterday was still intense, turning my stomach upside down. Julian sat in a recliner smoking a cigar. His intense green eyes were fixated on Jasper.
"Wizard and a half-breed. I didn't know you liked such filth," he snarled, blowing out a circle of smoke.
"Another word and I’ll forget who you are again," Jasper muttered. "Where is it? Where is the blood?"
Julian laughed.
"You came here for a white witch, right? The blood shouldn't be important."
"Jasper, he’s right. The white witch," I reminded him, getting pissed off with his games.
"Shut up, Julia. That bastard took something from me years ago and I want it back, right now."
Anger overwhelmed me, thick and crushing. Now I understood why Jasper was so keen on coming here. He wanted to catch two birds with one stone. All this time I thought maybe he’d changed, grown up. Now it was clear to me that it was just another game for him. Julian laughed and kept smoking his cigar.
"It was a gift, wizard, but I would be willing to exchange it for something else."
"Jasper, what’s he talking about?"
"What the hell do you want?" Jasper asked, ignoring me completely like I wasn’t even in the room.
"Her blood; it will do great in my collection."
"Jasper! This isn’t why we’re here," I yelled. Then he finally looked at me, his eyes were full of regret and discomfort.
"Julia, I really need this. Please, do me favour and give him what he wants. Then he can take us to the witch."
"You’re kidding me, right? I'm not giving him my blood. You promised me this trip was about my father, not about you!" I shouted, getting up, my hands charged with power, ready to squish him like a small little worm.
Julian laughed, and Jasper sighed. My limbs felt heavy all of a sudden, as I choked on my tears. My heart rate slowed down, and I felt tired, so exhausted, unable to keep my lids open. Jasper’s dark eyes began to fade. I didn’t know what was happening, but I was slipping into darkness.