“Do you have what you need for your spell?” I ask her, shouting so that she can hear me.
“Yes,” she answers, “everything except for your blood.”
“Okay. That’s good. Get down underneath the platform and make a start, I’ll figure out a way to get off this ride and I’ll meet you down there.” I hadn’t noticed until now, but Gabriel is right behind Rita and a look of confusion passes over his face. I know what he’s wondering. He’s wondering why Rita needs my blood to perform her spell. Nonetheless he follows her as she crawls under the shallow space beneath the platform, and once they’re gone I panic, because I know that the only way I am getting off this wheel is if I jump. But at least I can wait until it gets to the closest possible position to the ground before I leap.
I suck in a deep breath for courage, as I rise up to the top of the wheel and then slowly lower to the ground. I pull my feet up onto the seat with me and crouch, getting ready to leap over the safety bar. But as it gets close to the ground my heart begins to hammer and my hands shake, I start forward but I just don’t have the courage to make the jump. Okay, I tell myself, the next time I really will do it. Unfortunately my cowardice plays up and the wheel has gone around another three times and I still haven’t moved from my position on the seat.
On the fourth try I finally let go, but my fear makes my jump sloppy as hell and my knee whacks off the safety bar as I fall onto the damp, muddy grass below. Most definitely I’ve broken a bone somewhere, I’m just too filled with adrenaline to figure out where yet. Although the fact that I landed on my wrists means I have definitely damaged them in some way. My knee screams in pain, and I realise with a manic laugh that this the second time I have been injured in the last twenty four hours. I have got to get away from the vampires, as soon as is reasonably possible.
I decide there’s no point in trying to stand up since I have to go to Rita and Gabriel, so I simply crawl forward on my injured wrists. When I join them I find they have set out a wooden board on which they have placed all sorts of intricate looking spell ingredients, and not just the herbal kind Rita had used before. The light of a torch shines on us as it leans against one of the support beams, illuminating the space, and on the board I notice a small bowl of dead spiders, and another containing slimy earth worms, the kind that populate your back garden when it’s damp out. They wriggle in the bowl, still alive.
“I know,” says Rita, gauging my reaction, “the things required to open up a portal into a hell dimension are a lot less savoury than my usual gear.”
“You can say that again,” I reply, eyeing another bowl that holds a mixture of maggots and dead cockroaches. Completely out of place though are the chopped up lemons, I wonder what they’re for. Perhaps they’re used drown out the smell of the other ingredients.
Rita hands me a blade that looks exactly like the one my mother had used to cut herself when she cast the spell to protect me. “It’s not the same one,” says Rita, practically reading my mind. “But it needs to be silver for the spell to work, so it’s sort of similar to the one she used.” I turn it over in my hand, watching as the light of the torch glints off it and shines in my eyes.
“Are you okay Tegan?” Gabriel asks gently, speaking for the first time.
“Yes, I’m just a little out of sorts,” I laugh nervously. “It’s only to be expected.”
“Yeah,” says Rita. “But do you mind me asking what on earth you’re wearing?”
“Don’t. Let’s just say that Theodore is even more insane that we thought. He put these clothes on me while I was passed out.”
“Eww, creepy,” Rita replies, while crushing ginger over the dead spiders. I don’t bother to ask about it. I assume she knows what she’s doing.
Then she gives me a small glass vial. “Here,” she says. “I need you to fill this with your blood. Cutting down the centre of your palm will probably be easiest.” I nod and brace myself for more pain.
Gabriel coughs. “Um – why do we need Tegan’s blood?” he asks, trying to sound casual. I stare at Rita for a minute, deciding what to say.
“You might as well tell him,” she says. “We might not survive the night anyway. If we do you can blackmail him into keeping it secret. Say you’ll lie and expose him as a cross dresser on the weekends or something.” She grins at Gabriel who scowls in return. I nod and prepare myself for the revelation. But I can’t get the words out so I ask Rita to tell him. She shakes her head and looks directly at Gabriel.
“She has die Äußerste Macht blood,” says Rita simply. “That’s why I need it for the spell.”
“And,” I add, “that’s what you and Marcel and all the rest of them have been so eager to find out about me. You were right, it was my mother who’d cast the spell on me. She made it so that my blood would be hidden from the vampires and the slayers. And apparently the magic users too, since I’ve recently discovered it can be used to cast very powerful spells. Like this one,” I finish, gesturing at Rita’s display.
I expect Gabriel to exclaim shock and interest but all he says is, “I am sorry I allowed Marcel to convince me to help him unravel the spell. Die Äußerste Macht is not something people should know about you.”
It surprises me that he is expressing his apologies rather than looking at me like he wants to drain me of my blood and keep it for his spells. I’m almost certain that’s the way Marcel would have reacted. I slice the blade down the centre of my palm, just like Rita instructed, and it is surprisingly sharp for silver. I squeeze my hand tight and allow the drops to fall down into the glass vial.
I hear somebody scream wildly out where the others are fighting. “I’ll go check what’s happening,” I say to Gabriel, and he nods while Rita continues preparing her spell. What I find when I get out from under the platform is Theodore standing atop the steps leading up to his house, he has Delilah’s red hair twisted around his fisted hand, and he pulls her down each time she tries to get away from him.
I keep low to the ground so as not to be spotted, and watch as Ethan steps forward, addressing Theodore. “Let her go and we will leave,” he says. “It is clear we are no match for you.”
“I will let her go just as soon as you return my human to me,” Theodore replies. “I can see she has been taken.”
“What human?” Ethan asks. “We didn’t come across any human.”
I freeze, realising that I am who Theodore is talking about. The fact that he referred to me as his human makes me want to punch him in the face. I don’t belong to anyone, and I will not go down without a fight. If Theodore wants my blood he’s going to have to pull it from my cold dead hands. Metaphorically speaking.
“You know exactly who I am talking about,” Theodore goes on. “Tegan is her name and she is of great value to me. I had transported her to a safe place and now she is gone. Return her and I will return this one,” he finishes, pulling down hard again on Delilah’s hair. She lets out another scream, and a scream like that can only mean that Theodore has definitely pulled out some roots. Ouch.
“Tegan?” says Ethan, mildly confused. “She does not belong to you, and if you have taken her I will make sure you suffer.” His bravery on my behalf touches me. But I doubt he’d have much of a chance going up against the Sorcerer.
“Ah, so you are aware of her value,” says Theodore. “I have always found that the blood of die Äußerste Macht was notorious for evading those of the vampire race. It’s ironic really, since it is vampires who have the most to gain from finding it.” I presume this is a jibe at the fact that the DOH tend to find girls like me and kill us before the vampires can benefit from feeding from us.
“That’s what she is?” Ethan almost whispers, the puzzle pieces finally fitting