“Okay, now I’m worried. Was I that bad?”
“We all were, dear. We all have had much growing to do. In the past, you wielded great power...and sometimes misused it. You are being given a chance in this life to balance the disharmony—or karma—from past lives.”
“By doing goodness?”
“Yes.”
“What if I don’t do goodness in this life?” I asked.
“Then we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Just know that a lot has come into place to help you in this life...to aid you, here and now.”
Millicent sat before me, her knees bending, but I knew it was just a front, a ruse. She had no knees. She could have just as easily appeared to me as a beautiful ball of light energy, except, of course, it was hard for humans to relate to balls of light energy.
“You have been given great gifts, child, gifts that could help others. Witchcraft is not for personal gain, remember that. We are extensions of Mother Earth herself.”
I motioned to the spell books and the vials of ingredients. “But I’m really no good at this stuff.”
“Maintain your strengths,” she said to me, reaching out and touching my hand. Energy crackled through me and around me. “And work on your weaknesses.”
“That’s a very zen thing to say,” I said.
“Truth is truth,” said Millicent.
“I am good at this,” I said and raised my hands. As I did so, all of the spell books and vials and candles and even the eagle statue lifted into the room. I motioned my hands and now, the various items swirled in a slow vortex. I motioned my hands faster and the pages flapped and vials tumbled in the air, faster and faster. Wax flung far and wide throughout the room. I was going to have to clean that later.
“A nice trick, Allison.”
“I know, I know,” I said, lowering my hands. The items all settled in place, mostly where they had begun. “Work on my weaknesses.”
“Good, child.”
“And what are your strengths?” I asked.
“My gifts now are more spiritual in nature, Allison. But in the past, I was gifted at connecting with all of nature, from plants and animals, to even the rocks themselves. All of nature spoke to me. And still does.”
I thought about that. “And Samantha Moon was our potions expert back then?”
“She was,” said Millicent. “But not anymore.”
“Because now she’s a vampire.”
“Her life—this life—has taken a different path, it’s true. However, I have brought to you another.”
“You mean Ivy?”
“Yes, child.”
As she spoke those words, a past life was revealed to me...surely it was a scene approved by my spirit guide and higher self. In it, I saw myself in the woods with two other women...women who did not look like either Sam or Millicent...but who were still them, all the same. Indeed, I recognized their soul imprint. And in the shadows, in the background, watching all of this, was a young girl. She was, in fact, one of our sisters, an understudy, if you will. Waiting for her chance.
“She is strong,” said Millicent when I opened my eyes again.
“But not as strong as Samantha?”
“Strong in a different way...but she is reckless.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“Some more than others, child. But...she is one of us. And she has been waiting for this chance.”
“Do you miss her, Millie?” I asked.
“Do I miss Sam, our witch sister?”
“Yes.”
The spirit thought about it, then looked away. “More than you know.”
“She’s still here,” I said. “She’s still part of my life.”
“But not part of mine,” said Millie. “Now, let’s get back to work.”
I thought about all of this as I continued working again on my spellcraft—in particular, money spells. Working, as Millicent put it, on building up my weaknesses.
So far, I hadn’t won the lottery, perhaps because magic wasn’t supposed to be for personal gain. Okay, so if I won, I would help a lot of people.
My weaknesses sometimes held me back.
But I’m trying.
Chapter Fourteen
Detective Smithy made it happen.
The next afternoon, after my morning shift at The Psychic Hotline, I found myself seated across from a young woman wearing orange prisoner clothing. Separating us was ultra-thick, bullet-proof glass. Samantha Moon had once told me about her encounter with such a bulletproof piece of glass. Advantage: vampire.
Although Smithy had pulled some strings, I still had to wait nearly an hour, along with the rest of the dregs of Los Angeles. I think I might have been murdered a half dozen times—at least in the minds of those sitting around me.
Anyway, I was finally ushered into booth two, where I waited only a few minutes before a young girl appeared, blinking at me rapidly and looking generally confused.
I knew Liz Turner’s face by now, thanks to the many pictures in Billy’s home. I nodded encouragingly as she continued to blink uncertainly, letting her know that, yes, she had arrived at the right booth. She looked at me some more, looked back from the doorway she’d just appeared from, glanced at the guard who was making his slow rounds behind the prisoners, and then looked back at me and shrugged.
As she shrugged, I saw it, of course. It was hard to miss, after all: the same dark energy that swirled through Billy Turner’s aura swirled through hers as well. Perhaps it was even darker, if that was possible.
This wasn’t good; in fact, it was very, very bad. This meant she was going to die...and die rather soon.
Unless I was dead wrong.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I was reading people incorrectly. Maybe I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about.
No. I had seen Billy’s impending death—his horrible, horrible death—as he had brushed up against me at his home. True, I couldn’t know for sure if Liz Turner was going to die, unless I touched her, which wasn’t going to happen with this thick piece of glass between us. And, unfortunately, I wasn’t a vampire who could punch my way through it. But I could make an educated guess. And my guess suggested that she was going to die...within days, if not hours.
Holy shit.
A moment later, she reached for the red phone receiver hanging on the partition that separated her from the prisoner in the booth next door. I was already holding my own red phone receiver. I was proactive like that.
“Hi,” I said.
“Who the hell are you?” Liz asked.