The Second Covenant

“It comes at night, from the East. Salem.” I said and all heads turned to me. “What?” I rubbed my cheek against the smoothness of Druex’s chest and shuddered against the fear that took me. “When I went up to see Peyton, the minute I got out of the car, I felt the buzz of…something. I thought it was the echo of the Witches burned and tortured. The echo of their magic, the blood spilled. But what if it wasn’t?”

The witches in the room frowned at me. “Cherish, we live there. I’ve never felt a buzz from anything other than the beer.” Riley told me and I half laughed. “I bet. But I’m not all witch Riley. Wolf too. Animals are more sensitive to echoes of things. I stepped on that grave and felt the dead person under me. None of you did. Not even when you touched me. So what if something, dead, has gathered the echoes of that power and made it into something else?” Silence. I looked around the room at my coven, at my pack and felt the weight of power throbbing, rising in the room. “That’s very…possible. We’ll need to go through the books. See for sure.” Tyler said and the coven agreed.

“And what will we be doing while y’all are at the library?” Dom drawled and my mother huffed. “Protecting your…Lupa.” Druex’s wolf rubbed along mine in a comforting gesture and I melted even more into the heat of his body. “We can do that. Let’s not forget though, that once it couldn’t get to Cherish, it went after them.” He nodded to the younger witches. “If it can’t get them, it’ll go for the next link in the chain.” Black eyes flashed and fathers grabbed their wives. “Right.” My dad said tightly. “Will you stay then?” Dax gave a low growl and stretched. “Protect the women and children. We can do that. We’re good muscle.”

Soon as the witches were gone my mother heaved a sigh and put her arm around my shoulders. “Attic?” She asked and I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll only be a little while.” I looked around at the pack and tried to decide who to leave with my mother and the Aunts. “Daire, could you and Dom stay down here?” I asked and though they knew something interesting was going to go down they nodded. Daire was quiet and easy to relax around and Dom would make easy jokes to keep anyone from getting nervous. “Okay?” I asked my mom and she grinned. “Of course, I’ve got some coffee on…”
Dom made a mm sound. “In the kitchen, it smells really good.”

And just like that the moms went off asking all kinds of questions. I smiled and started for the stairs. “Cherish, were are we going?” I braided my hair as I went and answered Declan‘s question without looking back. “The attic, time for some witch stuff. You don’t
have to come if you’d rather stay with the others.”
“Eh, no. Thanks.” Druex slid up beside me and gathered my hand in his. “What kind of witch stuff?” I smiled at him gently and felt the pack following behind us. “My coven is a bit backward, men and all.” I said with a wink. “There’s lots of different kinds of magic, black, white, gray. Male and female.”

“So what, you going to strip naked and dance around some kind of fire?” Dax said from behind me and I cast him a frown. I was very tempted to send a zap of electricity his way. “No. Stop staring at my butt.”
“Do it again Dax and you can go downstairs to baby-sit.” Druex said with a growl, a menacing, commanding growl. Dax sighed heavily and shut up. In the attic was my own personal work room. It smelled like earth and herbs. Clean, the tickle of magic a familiar comfort.

I let go of Druex and gathered candles up from a shelf. “My bloodline doesn’t require rituals or certain days where we’re more powerful. The Power only takes a thought to do your bidding. But sometimes, the ritual works beautifully. Especially when I need to focus on something specific.” I waved my hand and the rug on the floor rolled up on itself and slid back over to the wall. “You know, that’s a little creepy.” Donovan said and I smiled, a little shyly. “You might want to wait outside then.” I set five white candles down on the carved pentagram on the floor. Donovan stayed put. I did slip off my sweatshirt, I had a tank top on underneath it now, and put it over a chair.

The drapes over the attic window snapped shut at the point of my finger. “Honey, what are we expecting here?” Druex asked me, his feet braced, arms crossed over his bare chest. My body temperature spiked up. “Nothing dangerous. Promise. You guys just stand there, behind me and try not to get offended.” They frowned. “Offended?” Declan asked with an arch brow. I tossed my braid back over my shoulder and took a deep breath as I walked around the circle, hand flat above the candles. One by one, the spears of flame shot up. “I call forth from space and time, the Patriarchs of the Danvers line.” I murmured and the air shimmered in the circle like a heat wave. “Fathers, sons, brothers, friends. Our family‘s spirit without end.”

I finished my third round of the circle and ended back, with the pack behind me. The air swirled, churned in the candle lit circle, and shapes began to form. I stood, with my hands clasped in front of me, waiting calmly. “Holy Shit.” I heard someone breathe. “Hi grandpa.”