Family Magic, Chloe Price [christmas read aloud .txt] 📗

end of her exploration, neither of us had any answers despite the fact I felt like I just wrote a killer final exam. Part of me was pretty sure I failed.

Mom finally sent me off to bed with a hug, a kiss and an "I love you". As I scrunched under my covers in the dark and quiet of my room, I pored over and over the last week, struggling to come up with something that might help Mom figure out what was going on.

In the middle of it, I must have fallen asleep.

I dreamed about fire and a desolate place of rock and heat. The sky burned yellow and orange, faint light flickering over the horizon. I walked a long, narrow path at the top of a cliff of dull, black rock, looking down over a chasm so deep there was no bottom in sight. The rift made me very afraid. I didn’t know why except whatever waited at the bottom was my deepest fear and greatest hope and I wasn’t ready to face either.

I felt someone close by. A demon stood next to me, dressed in a black robe, her ebony hair pooling around her in a curtain of gloss. Her amber eyes flashed fire. I realized with a start she was me, or the demon me. We stared at each other. Her face had no expression. That total blankness terrified me. I reached out for her, wanting to touch her, to make sure she was real.

As I raised my hand, she pushed me.

I stumbled back toward the edge of the chasm, fear driving my heart’s pounding so fast I was sure it would burst. I reached for her but she simply watched, still emotionless, as I lost my balance and fell.

and fell and fell and fell

And woke up, gasping. I hated falling dreams.

Something close to me growled. Disoriented, still overwhelmed by the dream, I located Sassafras at the bottom of the bed. He hissed and spit at my door, fluffy tail twice its normal size, thrashing and thrashing against the quilt.

“Sass,” I whispered. “What is it?”

He turned to face me. His yellow eyes glowed with demon fire.

“I don’t know,” he snarled, “but something isn’t right, Syd. Something isn’t right at all.”

I climbed out of bed and eased to my bedroom door. I opened it a crack and peered out. The hallway was dark and quiet. Nothing stirred in the house. I jumped a little as Sassy’s fat cat body brushed over my leg, his tail hitting me once on his way out. He vanished down the stairs so fast I almost missed the blur of him as he bounded into the darkness.

“Sass!” I hissed. “Where are you?” I went to the top of the stairs. The house was no longer pitch black. It was very close to dawn. The coming sun began to thin the night.

I eased down the steps after Sassafras, listening for him. But the house was quiet. I briefly debated two things, both of which made total sense under the circumstances: wake my mother so she could check it out or go back to bed and hide under the covers. Instead, I kept going into the growing light and followed the hallway to the kitchen.

Sassy was nowhere to be found. I walked past the kitchen to the back door and glanced out.

The black dog stood on the other side of the screen. This time he snarled at me, his huge eyes burning red.

My demon tore through my surprise and took total control. Before I knew it, we hurtled after him. We flew out the back door as he turned tail and ran across the grass, huge feet silent, disappearing around the side of the house. We made it to the corner but he vanished.

Dog gone, my demon went with him, her power draining away as she backed off and returned to hover in my mind, grumbling to herself. The whole thing left me shaking and nauseated and more than a little afraid to be standing out there in the semi-dawn alone with who-knew-what waiting in the shadows. This time, though, I listened to what my demon tried to tell me all along. This was no ordinary dog. Time to tell my mother about it, kicking myself that I’d failed to understand the dog was important enough to bring up in our conversation last night. Frustrated, I stomped my bare foot in the dew dampened grass. I felt something soft under my toes. I glanced down and my heart dropped in fear.

A familiar shape lay crumpled and broken on the wet grass. I collapsed to my knees, terrified. Sassafras! I reached to lift the limp form of my friend, fingers brushing the long, soft hair, tears welling in my eyes at the coldness, the empty feeling of it.

I had to get Mom. She would know what to do. Sass couldn’t be dead, he just couldn’t!

But as I tried to lift Sass’s lifeless body into my arms, the solid form dissolved into a loose pile of fur. I sifted through it, blinking back my tears, confused. There was no Sassafras, no poor dead cat body, only a large pile of silver fur.

I stood up, hands full of damp cat hair, confused and scared. I brushed the clinging stuff from my fingers, wiping them on my pajama pants as I turned and ran back to the house. I went inside, aware only then somehow the door was unlocked.

As I passed through the back entry, I fought a brief dizzy spell. I heard the distant roar of my demon for a heartbeat, like a warning or a challenge while a familiar thread of power tinted green slid into my mind, the feeling so much a part of me I allowed it to spread itself thin before it faded away. My demon suddenly fell silent. I had a shifting feeling, like déjà vu only a lot more intense. I froze on the threshold, shaking my head. Why was I downstairs? I came back to myself when the back door, spring loaded, bumped my back as it eased closed.

The door was unlocked! My heart leapt to my throat. I ran to Gram’s room, relieved the wards were all firmly in place. I felt around and touched the sleeping minds of my mother and sister. They were safe, too. Whatever happened, they were fine. But when I tried to find Sassafras, there was nothing there.

My friend was gone and I had no idea where.

Again, why was I downstairs? And why had I gone outside?

I considered going out there alone to check it out but something held me back. Instead, I headed for the stairs and my mother in the growing light of morning, hoping she would be able to help me locate Sass and find out what happened. As I passed the living room, something made me turn and look into the clear dawn of the gently rising sun.

Uncle Frank lay on the carpet below the picture window.

It took me a few seconds to process what I saw. I ran top speed toward him, watching in horror as his body began to smoke. I grabbed his arms and tried to pull him, but his literal dead weight was too heavy for me. I reached out in desperation and found my mother.

Mom, Uncle Frank! I threw an image of what was going on at her as I felt her wake. I went back to pulling on him for all I was worth. I reached for my demon and felt her envelop me as I heard Mom throwing herself down the stairs.

“Mom,” I panted, “use your magic!”

She shook her head, also breathless. “Doesn’t work on vampires,” she grated as she set herself and pulled.

Between the two of us, we managed to haul his body through the living room door and down the hallway to the kitchen. By that point, Uncle Frank’s body was smoking heavily. I knew the only thing keeping him from immediately combusting in a ball of fire was the fact he was clothed. Despite my opening fully to my demon, I felt a blocking, a barrier between us making it harder to help Uncle Frank rather than easier. I released her, disgusted, and kept pulling.

Mom stood and wrenched open the basement door. I heaved with one massive jerk and forced him past the threshold and partway over the first step.

In that heartbeat, the sun cleared the horizon. Uncle Frank burst into flames.

Mom threw herself on top of him and pushed so hard the three of us slid and bumped all the way down the stairs, collapsing in a heap on the cold concrete. I was pinned under Uncle Frank, head pounding from a blow I took on the way and unable to offer any help to my mother who beat out the flames rising on his body.

The last of the fire extinguished, Mom collapsed next to me. We shared a moment over the body of Uncle Frank.

“Mom,” I whispered. “Will he be okay?”

“I think so,” she said. “Thanks to you. Why were you up?”

Panic resurfaced. I managed to get myself free of the heavy vampire body holding me down. “Sassy!” I said, louder.

Mom frowned. “What about him?”

“I don’t know, Mom!” I gripped her hand. “I woke up downstairs. The back door was unlocked and Sass… I was worried about Gram, but I don’t know why. I felt around for everyone, but Sassy isn’t here.” I started to cry from the tension of the last five minutes, the fear of losing not only Sass but my Uncle Frank as well.

Mom squeezed my hand, bringing my attention back. Her strength calmed me.

“Tell me everything,” she said.

I told her about the dream, about waking up at the back door, although I had never been known to sleepwalk. About the weird feeling of fear and anxiety about Sassy. About finding Uncle Frank and calling her. She listened in silence until I finished.

“Did you unlock the back door?” She asked.

I frowned as I thought about it. Maybe I had? But why would I?

“I don’t know,” I said, feeling like I missed something, something really important. “Maybe Sassy’s outside? Did he want out?"

" No,” I shook my head, confused now and a little distracted even as I felt her power stretch out across our property in search of the Persian. “That’s not it. I don’t know, Mom.”

She reached out with her fingertips and brushed my face. I felt her magic slide over and into me. I tried not to fight her. The pounding headache eased. She healed me while she searched. She sat still and silent for a long time. When she dropped her hand at last, the power leaked out of me as she let me go.

“There’s nothing there, Syd,” she said.

“So I must have been sleepwalking after all,” I said even though a part of me shrieked it wasn’t right.

Her blue eyes were serious.

“No, honey,” she said, very quiet, very still. “There is nothing there. No memory, no whisper of why. The only thing I can see is you holding silver fur.”

“That’s not good,” I swallowed hard, tears rising at the thought.

“No,” she said. “It isn’t. Someone, probably the same someone who left Frank to burn to death, has taken your memory of the event.”

“So we are being attacked,” I said.

“Our family is under threat,” she agreed. “And Syd, if it hadn’t been for you, we would most likely all be dead right now.”

“Sorry?” I said.

Mom smoothed her hand over Uncle Frank’s chest, gazing at him with sisterly concern.

“If Frank was left in the sun,” she whispered, “he would have burned this house to the ground.”

It was I all could do not to shudder.