A Witch's Blood

Chapter 4

Nathan Marsh

The standoff between Ben and Carl has been bothering me for quite some time now. I have no doubt that they have figured each other out – that is probably the only thing that is keeping the two of them from coming to blows with each other. I just hope that they continue to keep their hands off of each other. They both seem to respect the Truce, but males tend to forget civility very easily when there is a woman between them.

The unfortunate thing is that, because of Ivy, neither of the two is going to step away. It is said that no witch can spell 'coincidence'. There is a reason why both of these men have come to know Ivy. I just wish I knew what that reason was.

Of course, there is also some reason why I have come to know Ivy, and I have not figured that out, either. Why a vampire, a werewolf and I have all caught the attention and some sort of affection of Ivy Sparks is quite the puzzle, and if I had any need of sleep, it would certainly keep me up nights.

I go out after dark to the woods near Ivy's home, to the circle she keeps out there. Ten gray stones - five dark, five light – all in a circle, with a small depression dug in the center. Even without my natural abilities to sniff out magic, I would be able to tell she'd been by within the last hour or so. Her grandmother's line tends to burn amber and clove as the base of their incense blends, and the sharp scent remains in the cool, still air. Mixed in with that are some other herbs that I know mortals associate with divination.

I step closer to the ring of stones, and see that the hollow in the center of the circle is dry. So despite the divination herbs, she was not scrying. I would hazard a guess that our Ivy also has the matter of Carl and Ben on her mind.

I take a step closer to the stones that mark her circle, and I get a little twinge in my gut. Not unlike nausea, but also not exactly the same. I find myself having to really want to come in closer to take another step toward the stones. The young lady is growing stronger in her power by the day, if I can still feel the presence of her general protective circle around her space after her spell has ended.

A short walk takes me to where the trees end at the edge of her yard. Emily, her grandmother, has both the power and skill to keep me off the property entirely, but we've known each other for a very long time, and from years of working together have built a solid friendship. This lets me cross the property line at will, though Emily still feels it when I do so.

As I approach the house, I can see that Ivy is upstairs asleep, while Emily sits in her chair in the den, watching me walk across the yard. I come in through the kitchen door – the one friends and family use, not the front door that strangers go to – and join her in the recliner next to hers. I touch the little end table between us, and a glass of wine appears. Emily and I may be friends, but she is still very fastidious and cautious. She's never once offered me food or drink, or accepted any from me.

"Carl's been here," I say.

"Yes. Did you see what happened at school?"

I give her my account of what went down between the two boys. She nods in satisfaction, presumably because Carl's version mostly agrees with mine. "Life would be much easier if Ben would just move on," she says after some thought and a drink of beer.

"He isn't going to," I say.

"Can you help him along?"

I look at Emily, but she is careful to keep her eyes on her yard, instead of looking back at me. She normally speaks very plainly, and not in inference or suggestion. Especially not when she's talking to me. She knows the danger in being ambiguous with my kind.

If she's not going to clarify, I will need to do it for her. "Two vampires slain out here in three months would be too much for them to ignore, or to let go unchallenged."

"It doesn't have to happen in my woods, like the other one," Emily says.

"They'd both have my mark on them."

"They know better than to go after you. And with Ben, you'd be doing them a favor."

I find I do not like where this conversation is going.

"If you want me to remove a problem for you, you are going to need to do a proper binding and command," I tell her.

She finally looks at me. "Oh, sorry, Nathan. Just letting my mind wander out loud."

"Good," I say. "In all of the time you've known me, you've never sent me out to kill anybody. I'm glad that you're not going to start now."

"What is it about Ben that bothers you?"

"Do you need to ask?"

"No," I say. "He's captured our Ivy's heart in a way that nobody else ever has. Not any of the local boys – even the good ones, and not Carl."

"Nor you," Emily says, smiling a little bit at me.

"Nor me," I have to admit. "Though, I would think you would rather have her cavorting with a hundred-year-old vampire than with me."

"It isn't about your ages. It's about who you are."

"Have you even met Mr. Wake?" I ask. The last time she and I had talked about him, she had not even seen the man.

"Not yet. But I am uncomfortable with how quickly Ivy has taken to him. I don't trust that he isn't using any of his power to influence her feelings toward him. I know you haven't. You've always tried to win her affection on your own merits, and I can respect that."

"It would be troubling if Ben were influencing her," I say. "With the power she has already, he could do a tremendous amount of damage to her."

"And she would then do a great amount of damage to those around her."

"But I think it best for me to not interfere with him, unless we can prove for sure that he is influencing her affection," I say.

Emily frowns at me.

"You know it to be true,' I say. "Stepping between them will only strengthen their attraction to each other. Else you would have done something yourself already."

"I know that I would make a mess of it if I tried," Emily says. "Ivy still thinks of me as a shriveled old prude and resists any attempts I've ever made at giving her advice on relationships or more personal matters."

"If only she knew," I say.

Emily laughs. "It's better that she not know. Nobody likes to think of their grandmothers as s****l beings. But I was hoping there was some way you could distract Ben without him or Ivy knowing it was coming from either of us."

"Intent," I say. "Intent is always clear for those who know how to look for it. And one of those two has survived the Great War and the clan wars for a century, and the other is your granddaughter. There is no way we could hide our involvement from either of them."

"So are we back to me binding you?" Emily asks, with a little laugh.

"Do not make jokes about such things," I tell her.

The next morning. I come into school on my own. Kate has a dentist appointment, so she is not sitting on the front steps with me when Carl arrives and sits down next to me.

"Nathan," he says.

I nod to him and offer him my bag of granola. I can tell how distracted he is by the fact that he actually takes some and pops it in his mouth. Normally, being almost exclusively a meat eater, he scowls at me offering him 'wood chips and hamster food'.

I have learned Carl's rhythms over time. I let him take another handful of my breakfast and wait for him to talk.

"I really shouldn't have threatened Ben yesterday," he says, frowning at me and pushing the granola away from him.

"But you did," I say. "And people liked it."

"I know. But it's not what I want them to like about me," Carl says. "I mean, yeah, I'm big and strong, and always there for somebody that needs some help." He balls up one of his hands into a fist and flexes a bit. "You know."

Over the years he's been in town, Carl has stood down every bully in the school at Stokers Mill, taken care of a couple of boys who've roughed up their girlfriends, and has probably helped half the school cut wood, move earth, haul furniture, or anything else that just requires some raw muscle. Even he and I had it out once, a couple of years ago when I had a hard time keeping my nature contained, and was, quite frankly, a bit of an ass to just about everybody. I had pushed things too far, offended too many people close to him, so Carl ambushed me on the way home from school one day and pounded the tar out of me.

The next day, when he saw me walking up to the building, he gave me a tentative wave. The kind that asked if we were cool, or if he needed to meet me after school again. I looked him in the eye when I waved back and nodded, and that seemed to settle things for him. He has never mentioned it since, nor have I, and we are probably stronger friends now than we were before.

I would wonder about his regrets over it, but for the Truce. Carl dealt with Ben in the way that is most natural for him, but it was the wrong way under the circumstances. It is more than that, though.

"Ivy is pretty sweet on Ben," I say.

Without thinking, Carl grabs another handful of my granola and tosses it into his mouth. "Everybody liked what I did yesterday, except Ivy."

"At least you stuck to just words instead of laying him flat out on the floor."

"Oh, I wanted to," Carl says. He balls his fist again, briefly, then very self-consciously relaxes it. "Lots of reasons why it's a good thing I didn't. But I embarrassed myself in front of Ivy. That's the one that hurts."

"She was upset at him herself. Maybe the restraint you did show will matter to her. Look," I say, pointing to Ivy walking toward us.

She comes up and sits down next to me, reaching around my back to touch Carl's shoulder quick.

"How are you two this morning," she asks, looking more at him than at me.

I cannot completely figure out the look on her face, her body language. She is clearly interested in how Carl is, but also has set herself with my body in between them. I suspect that her working in her circle last night had a lot to do with Carl, but that she did not find any clarity.

"Sorry about yesterday," Carl says.

"About time you apologized for that," Ivy tells him. She tries to make her tone sharp, but I can feel some softness in it.

"You know I'm not always all that swift on these things," Carl tells her.

"I know."

All three of us look to the parking lot, as we hear Ben's motorcycle pull in. Carl looks to Ivy, who very carefully keeps her eyes off of Ben as he parks the bike and locks his helmet to it, still keeping his dark glasses and scarf on. For his part, Ben needs only a glance at the three of us to decide to just walk straight into the building instead of approaching.

I keep an eye on Ivy as he walks past, carefully watching where she is looking. By the time Ben passes us, I am greatly relieved to see that she had just given him a quick glance and a small smile, and that was it. If Ben had been using his powers to influence her, she would have had to work to keep her eyes off of him. I still don't have to like him, or his attention for her.

"Are we still on for tonight?" I ask Ivy, to break out of that line of thought.

"You and Kate, yes? Grandma left way more food than I'd ever eat while she's gone. Carl, you're welcome, too, for dinner."

"No thanks," he says. "Working late tonight, and I have been slacking pretty hard on homework."

"You sure?" Ivy asks, reaching around me again, to poke him playfully in the ribs. She has a smile on her face, but it still looks conflicted, as if she both does and does not wish him to take her up on the invitation.

"I'm sure," Carl says. "Maybe tomorrow night, if I get caught up some tonight."

"We can make sure you study," I tell him.

"Please, Nathan. Kate, Ivy, and you together? There's no way the three of you will be able to focus on keeping me focused. Remember the last time we all hung out and Grandma didn't leave us food? Took us what, ten minutes to figure out what we wanted from 'Nics, and more than two hours to actually place the order?"

I remember that night well. Carl does have a point. When the four of us get together, there is a certain energy that builds up and does a whole lot of going nowhere very fast.

"We need to do that again some time," Ivy says, shouldering me right into Carl.

"I'll call 'Nics before I leave my house."

"Good call," Ivy says.

"Well, me and food. You know how it goes," Carl laughs, playfully butting me with his shoulder hard enough that I almost knock Ivy over.

"How did I end up in the middle of this?" I stand up quickly, just in time to miss Ivy trying to shove me back at Carl. She loses her balance and ends up with her head in his lap. I think she lingers there just a little longer than she thinks she intends to before getting back up. "Come on," I say. "The bell is about to ring."