faster. My breathing increased and my pulse with
it. The energy hummed within me, raw power crackling all over my
body, like static electricity on a party balloon. I opened my
eyes.
Oh Hell! The mini fireball I’d visualised so well was still there,
flying between my hands, faster and faster. Was that supposed to
happen? What if I dropped it? I desperately tried to remember how
to get rid of it, but I’d only read the chapter through once, so
instead I concentrated on not dropping it, and let the fiery glow
hypnotise me.
‘ Jess, what the hell are you
doing?’ Eva said, her shocked voice startling me and breaking my
concentration. Unfortunately, as we both soon discovered, you don’t
want to be the person who breaks a witch’s concentration. The
fireball went flying, straight across the room in the direction of
my distraction, Eva. Luckily for her, she was a vampire and saw it
coming. Had she been graced with regular human speed she would have
had no chance. As it was, she dodged the fireball which flew
through the doorway, across the hall and unluckily for me hit a
mirror. Mirrors it would seem, don’t absorb energy, they reflect
it. So a second later we found it hurtling back towards
us.
‘ Jess, stop it!’ Eva
yelled.
Unthinkingly, I put out my hand to catch
it, my theory being, that if the energy ball came from me, then
surely it could do me no harm? In theory I was right, but let’s
face it, I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing and a couple
of seconds later my whole body was fizzing, and from the look on
Eva’s face, I looked somewhat horrifying.
‘ I ca.ca..can’t hold it anymore
Eva,’ I stammered. ‘I…I…’
As I said the words my body let go,
releasing it, and as relief and a soothing chill settled over me,
the electric blast shot out across the room in all directions,
making everything explode. The light bulbs popped like corn
kernels, shattering tiny bits of glass all over my bed. The mirror
over my dresser cracked into a million tiny shards, which then
proceeded to fall out of the frame and scatter themselves across my
carpet. We both winced as we saw the window explode. It happened
slowly, like the first cracks on an icy pond, zig-zagging their way
across the pane, then more joining the race, until it formed a
beautiful starburst which gave a final sigh before its ultimate
destruction.
As we watched in horror, Daniel came
rushing up the stairs.
‘ What the...? Oh! Thank God you’re
okay,’ he said, as his eyes roamed the room, taking in the damage.
‘I knew this was a bad idea. Francesca should have stayed to help,
not left her alone like this.
‘ Oh, she’s fine Daniel. She had to
learn at some point. It’s me you should be worried about. She
nearly turned me into a vampire fireball,’ Eva said with a
grin.
‘ I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.
Shit! Look what I’ve done to the room,’ I said, my body shivering,
as shock crept in.
‘ Hey, it doesn’t matter. You can
sleep in another room until we’ve got it fixed up. I’ll call
Sebastian - he’ll sort it out. There are always worse clean-ups
than a bit of broken glass Jessie,’ Daniel said, striding over and
wrapping his arms around me.
Chapter Five
That I keep secret, what I am asked to
keep secret,
That I will learn and try to master our
art,
But never forget our rule,
What good be the tools without inner
light
What good be the magic without pure
insight.
That I will never use the magic for
wrongful ends,
That I consider these vows taken before
the Gods,
And understand the threefold law.
Ahh! Why couldn’t I get it right? And
this was only half of it. I’d been attempting to memorise the
ritual all morning, after I’d had a pretty good sleep in one of
Daniel’s guest rooms. The vampire world being what it is, it didn’t
shock me when two guys turned up to replace the window at about
eleven-thirty that night, a couple of hours after my little
accident.
‘ We need a secure house, now more
than