The Second Covenant

I felt ridiculous. Embarrassed as hell. My dad and my uncles, and the guys stood around me in a ring. They had made the circle just a few minutes ago and I’d felt the charge of power race up, protective walls now surrounding me. It was cold outside, at almost three in the morning, I was freezing my butt off. My Red Riding Hood dress was not made for this kind of weather. But at least there was no pagan tradition that said I had to do this skyclad. Thank God.

Personally I thought this was a bad plan. Out in the open behind the old colony house, where anyone might stumble across us…I felt damn stupid just standing here, shivering and exposed. “Here, put this on or you’ll get sick.” Uncle Pogue tossed me his old leather jacket and I snuggled into it with a smile. “Thank you.”

An electric feeling charge raced across my skin and I looked up. Bad, bad plan. There was a full moon tonight. Funny how all of the birthdays, and dates of Ascension collided with a full moon. Clouds were starting to roll, faster than normal across the inky black sky and I swallowed. The guys hadn’t really talked about what happened when you got the power boost, it was almost like they couldn’t find the words, so they didn’t try. I licked my dry lips and heard the beeping of someone’s watch. “Daddy, does it hurt?” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded very small. I met my father’s dark eyes and saw the apology there. “It’ll be okay Cherish, we’ve all done this.”
A big fat yes if ever I heard one.

The way they were looking at me, made me wish that no one was here to watch me, at my most vulnerable, my most weak. I may have projected the soft spoken shy kid to the world. But I was a control freak, I hated people seeing me as anything other than calm and serene. Shit.

The hair on my nape rose and I closed my eyes, I shuddered as the first wave rolled over me gently. I opened my eyes on a gasp as the next wave took hold, like sticking my finger in a socket. I felt like something had whacked me in the back of the head, a solid blow that sent me to my knees, grasping my temples, power lashed out of me, the circle leapt to life, a whoosh of hot air that turned into flames, which meant that something other than my magic and my father’s magic was trying to get past the circle right now.

But let them worry about that, I was dying. If I had an analogy it would be like what I’d been told going into labor feels like, contractions. Small at first, but building and building until it felt like the pain would never stop. Wave after wave crashed until I was on the ground writhing and screaming. It hurt like nothing I’d ever felt before. Like every bone in my body had cracked and was reshaping, shifting into something more. Like my blood was being boiled inside me.

The flames of the circle rose until I couldn’t see anything but the flickering behind my eyelids, I could only scream, only struggle to breathe and scream some more. I could hear someone yelling to me, tried to listen, but I was in to much pain to truly care. I whimpered softly and then cried out as I felt myself burst into starlight.

I came to, on my back, gasping for air. My skin was burning, like my entire body had gone numb and the blood was rushing back to my veins. I heard running and then nothing, and then a thump that registered as someone taking a running leap. Arms slid under my limp body, but I was too weak to do anything other than lie there and try to remember how to breathe. “Cherish?” I felt a pair of tears leak out of my eyes. Peyton. Another set of hands touched my face. “Daddy.” I sighed.
“Sweetheart? Talk to us.” He sounded worried, but I couldn’t see his face.

I dumbly realized my eyes were closed. It took some will power, but I forced them open and stared up into the circle of faces looking down at me. “Is it finished?” My voice sounded different, husky almost. “Dear god I hope so.” My dad took me from Peyton. “You know Cherish, I never really pegged you for a screamer.”

I looked back to see Riley’s pale face, the worry he tried to hide with his sarcasm. “Scale of one to ten, ten being call the cops someone’s being murdered, how loud was I?” No one answered. My cheeks heated and I rolled my face into my father’s chest, so mortified I felt like crying. “Can we go home now? Mom’s probably worried.”