Chapter 3

More bad news.




Jasper agreed to meet with me in a public place, a few minutes away from the office in a small coffee shop. Now that Nathaniel was going to start dating again, he would be too busy to care about Jasper, and I didn't need to get him involved. I kept staring at the clock at work, counting the minutes until six. Jasper had saved my life once, and he would know much more than Nathaniel about dark spells and curses. After all, Jasper was obsessed with black magic. It was time to overlook his behavioural problems that sometimes bordered on psychotic, well, nearly all the time. I had no other choice but to deal with him, though. Kate was dying, and I couldn’t stand by and watch that deadly curse slowly sucking her life away.
When I finally left the office, my nerves were getting to me. The Latin spell I’d learned from Tron, helped to calm me down a little, but any meeting with Jasper was always unpredictable. My head was thumping, and my anxiety kicked in as I walked into the coffee shop. Jasper was already there, waiting for me.
My ex-boyfriend number one still had a major crush on me. I had promised to stay friends with him after he’d agreed to help me with my blackouts a few months ago. We both came to the conclusion that it was time to put the past behind us and become friends again, but until now I hadn’t even thought about calling him. Jasper knew that I owed him one for saving me, but I couldn’t see myself hanging around him again, especially after what I’d witnessed in that old abandoned building, among other things.
I sat down in the chair opposite him, calm and controlled. This wasn't a particularly safe place to talk, but I preferred it to any other shabby bar. Jasper had lost a lot of weight, but he still looked pretty good, except I noticed a few more scars along his hollow cheeks. His last encounter with magic thieves had left him injured. He stared at me for several minutes, running his finger over the edge of his espresso cup. For some reason, Jasper insisted on loving me, despite countless rejections. Now, his deep brown eyes told me that nothing had changed.
"You phoned because you need something, Julia," he said, narrowing his eyes and reminding me that my promise from months ago was unfulfilled. Now I sort of felt bad. He did help me, and I’d just cut him out of my life. The thing was, he was psychotic on his best days. Now, I just needed to suck it up and do what needed to be done in order to help Kate. I only hoped I was making the right decision.
"I know what I said. Trust me, I wanted to get in touch earlier but—"
"Yeah, I'm aware of what’s been happening in your life. You and the leech broke up and your parents are getting a divorce," he said, cutting me off all of a sudden.
My jaw dropped, and I stared back at him wondering if he could now read minds.
"How do you know all this?"
"It doesn’t matter how; what matters is why? Paranormals talk, I think a bit too much, about you. Mrs. Taylor senior is trying hard to keep her business away from all the gossips."
"My grandmother?" I hissed, but I shouldn't have really been surprised. Grandma’s reputation was on the line, so she would protect it like a lion. "The situation at home… well, yeah, it’s complicated, but that’s not why I'm here," I began, glancing around to make sure no one was listening in. "Do you know anything about black rituals or anyone who has such a hobby?"
The coffee shop wasn't that busy, but we were surrounded by humans, so I had to be careful what I was saying. Jasper sipped some of his espresso, not taking his eyes off me. After having Nathaniel in my life for so long, I didn’t pay attention to other men, but Jasper still had this powerful aura around him that had brought us together all those years ago.
"Julia, get to the point. I don’t want to waste my valuable time on theories," he said, shrugging. I wanted to know if he had heard about someone in London who performed black magic rituals before I mentioned what happened to Kate, but Jasper was an intelligent guy. He was getting impatient with me, so I went ahead and told him everything that had happened in the past few days. When I was done he didn’t look surprised or even curious.
I got a bit annoyed. "So, what do you think?"
"I nearly paid with my own life when I helped you the last time," he said, sounding bored.
"All right, I get it, but I'm only asking for information. Come on, we both know black magic is your area of expertise," I said, leaning closer. "Besides, I'm done with love and boyfriends. I can only offer you friendship."
He sat back, pinning me down with his dark eyes. “I've never been one of them anyway, but I do need a date for a party next week and since you’re single?"
"Okay. I’ll be your date, but you’ve got to give me something. Have you heard about the white witches?"
"Julia, forget about white witches. You’ll never fine them, and to be completely honest with you, I don’t know how to help your friend."
"What about the rituals?"
He didn't answer straight away but drank his espresso while I kept cracking my knuckles.
“I've heard about this new coven. A very powerful group of witches arrived from Sweden a couple of weeks ago."
My heart started pounding in my chest.
"What witches? What do you know about them?"
"Nothing much, apart from the fact that they’re looking for other witches to teach them what they’ve learned. One of the wizards approached me the other day, asking if I would be interested in speaking to them."
"And what did you tell him?"
"Nothing yet. I'm waiting to see what happens. These witches are very powerful. They use magic on a different level. My interests are a little less eccentric."
I felt like my brain was burning.
"Can you take me to them? Maybe if I—"
He started laughing hard and loud, bringing attention to us. People were staring, and I clenched my fists, getting angry because he wasn't taking this more seriously.
“Don't be stupid. Their meetings are kept in secret and no one knows who they really are. Their magic is complex, and necromancy is part of their uniqueness. The ritual that your friend got tangled up with must have something to do with them. You can’t start sniffing around like that. You’d be dead before you even had a chance to find anything out."
I didn’t want to think about getting myself into more trouble, but I wanted to help Kate. Necromancy and bringing people back from the dead? This didn’t sound good.
"So, what are you expecting me to do?" I asked, angry that he was sitting in front of me thinking he knew it all. "Go out with you to that bloody party and wait until my friend dies?"
“Don't be so melodramatic, Julia. The party is just a cover. Many paranormals will be there and they can help you. This is about being in the right place, around the right people."
I sat back pissed off that Jasper was so calm about this whole thing. We started discussing the party. I wanted him to give me some advice, but he kept saying that he wasn't interested in necromancy. He told me that I still had time and that I couldn’t rush into anything. These witches were dangerous, and they were reaching out to vampire and troll gangs.
When I finally left the coffee shop and got home, Kelsie was waiting for me outside my apartment. Michael, her shifter boyfriend, was out of town. I went through everything Jasper told me. Neither of us knew what to do. I asked her to stay at my apartment for the night. Partly because I still had nightmares and partly because I just didn’t want to be alone.
The next day was my day off and my mum and dad’s first divorce hearing. I hadn’t spoken to Dad since last Friday. He had been miserable since he found out that Mum started seeing other men. My heart was breaking yet again because I felt guilty. If I’d paid more attention to training with my grandmother maybe Craig would have never known what I was capable of. Then my mother would’ve never found out about me and Dad and I would’ve never exposed her to magic.
A few days before the hearing I’d decided to bring Ella to court hoping she could help my mum understand. She was human just like Mum, well, most of her genes were human, but at one point my father had to use a memory spell on Ella because she witnessed a terrible crime involving magic. We all thought that the spell worked fine. Unfortunately, after several days she began remembering bits and bobs from that night. Her mother was a nurse and her father had left when she was just a baby. Kelsie, Kate, Nicky, and I believed that Ella must have had some paranormal blood in her family, possibly from her father’s side. We were spot on about it being from her father’s side. In the end we had to reveal the whole truth to Ella and, similar to my mother, she didn’t take the news too well. For the first few months she refused to acknowledge me as a friend, but slowly and steadily we managed to rebuild what we had. Ella finally accepted that magic was real and part of everyday life, like rainy days in Britain.
I picked Ella up from her home and headed to Croydon court. I kept chewing my lip wondering if there was anything else I could do to stop this nonsense. My mother didn't even want to look at my father. A few weeks ago, she told me that he had tricked her into marriage, that she should’ve listened to her own mother when she was alive. Apparently, my dead grandmother had told her many times that there was something wrong with Jerry Taylor. My mother had made up her mind and there was nothing I could do. She was divorcing the man who she’d loved for over twenty years, all because of magic.
"How are you?" Ella asked as she sat in the car next to me. I didn’t tell her about Kate because I didn’t want to scare her.
"Fine, I guess, trying to cope with this whole thing. I feel sorry for Dad. He’s heartbroken."
“I'll try talk to your mum. Maybe there’s still a chance," Ella muttered, looking at me intensely.
"Thanks for coming," I said, although I was doubtful this would help. "Mum feels betrayed and doesn’t want to talk about magic. She doesn't even believe that I'm paranormal."
Ella didn't say anything, and shortly after that I changed the subject. In the past few months my half human friend had been seeing a guy named, Will, who worked at a bank. Ella’s life had gone back to normal. She understood and accepted magic, but we both knew there was still a piece of the puzzle missing. We’d all suspected that her father, who had been absent from her life, might be magical. And we were right. It turned out that Ella was half fairy and she met her father a few months ago. On top of everything she was a royal fairy princess.
The drive through morning London traffic was long. It took me another half an hour to find the parking lot. The hearing was set up for half past ten in the morning. I had no idea what to expect, but I had to be there just in case Mum wanted to talk about magic to the judge.
Ella and I were the first to arrive. My mother showed up twenty minutes later wearing a black expensive-looking suit. There was another human with her. From his tight expression and grey suit, I assumed he was her solicitor.
"Julia, Ella, what are you doing here, girls?" my mother asked, raising a brow.
"We’re here for support, Ms. Taylor."
Mum looked at Ella like she wasn't too happy with her being there. I told the solicitor to give us a few minutes alone with my mother. He twisted his lips a little bit and muttered something about a phone call.
"Yeah, Mum, Ella’s here to talk to you about magic," I said once I was sure that we wouldn't be overheard. We were in a long corridor waiting outside a large door for the hearing to start. "And about the fact that you should at least talk to Dad before you go through with this."
Mum shot me an irritated glare, patting her blond hair nervously and glancing around like she was expecting to see Dad jumping out of the corner.
"Ms. Taylor, I was scared like you when I found out what Julia was. It took me a long time to understand that—"
"Darling, magic doesn’t exist; it’s just an illusion and tricks." Mum cut her off pretty quickly. “It's all nonsense if you ask me."
"So, why are you getting a divorce, Mum? Dad’s an elf, but he’s still your husband. If you think paranormals don’t exist, then at least talk to him."
"I'm not going to discuss this with you," she said, angrily. "You shouldn't have brought Ella here. This is between me and your father!"
"But, Mum, why are you being so stubborn? Dad loves you. He’s never laid eyes on another woman. He has a decent job and brought me up right. We were only protecting you from the truth. Humans aren’t supposed to know, and what happened a few months ago was my fault not his," I hissed, wanting to shake my mother back into reality.
"He lied, Julia. He’s a devil worshipper like that man in our home who tried to kill me. I won't let him do the same to my only child," Mum added, leaning closer to me, her voice low.
I looked at Ella, totally gobsmacked. Anger crawled under my skin along with frustration and resentment.
"Devil worshippers? What on earth is she talking about, Julia?" Ella asked.
"I don’t know. She just blocked this whole idea of magic out of her mind."
"I'm sorry. I don’t know what else to do."
“It's okay, Ella. The problem is, that there’s nothing you can do." I sighed, feeling like I needed to sit down.
My family was falling apart, and my mother was seriously losing her mind. Ella and I sat down on the benches waiting for my father to show up, but he never did. After twenty minutes, Mum looked like she was going to lose it. The judge was about to reschedule the hearing, but my mother insisted on going through with it without my dad being present. I tried to talk to her, convincing her that he deserved a proper conversation, but no, she was having none of it.
A few seconds before we were all supposed to go inside the hearing room, I saw Stewart and Dannika walking through the door. They were with another officer that I didn’t recognise.
"Mum, hold on. Dad’s co-workers are here."
"Oh, for goodness sake, what’s going on now?" she asked.
"Julia, we need to speak to you urgently."
Trying to read anything from Dannika’s blank expression, I walked away from Ella and my mother, who was muttering something about wasting her time.
"What’s going on? Where’s Dad?"
"An hour ago, we received a phone call from a member of the public. Another body has been found. Your father was working last night; his shift was supposed to end at four a.m."
I stared back at her wondering where this was going. Dad knew how important this hearing was.
"Your father… Julia… he’s been found in an abandoned warehouse. There was another body, and the ritual looked like the same setup as the last one. He’s in the hospital and he won't survive if we don’t find a white witch."