Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Carissa's pov

"Clyde" I called out surprised, what was he doing here?

"Are you off to your workplace?" He asked

"Yes" I answered

"Well, you should know that it's full to the brim with creatures. Waiting to see if you can

call up your powers again" he explained

"I thought we'd..." I started before he stopped me with a sign of the hand

"Would you let me take you out for the day instead?" He asked and I saw Sarah coming toward me. I excused myself from him to talk to her for a few seconds. I had found Mr. Davies earlier at her place, I ow.

"Do you mind if we just...?" I asked

"Yes, sure" he quickly answered

****

"Carissa? Erm...I, er...I just wanted to explain about Mr. Davies being at my house.

"It was you who told him about my powers." I blurted out

"I told a friend. She asked. I... I couldn't lie to another witch." She defended

"I trusted you."

"You haven't exactly been honest with me. You've used magic for your gain"

"Did Mr. Davies tell you that?" I asked

"He's a good man. He's at a high level. He's worried about you and so am I."

"Well, you don't need to be."

"Look, I know that you're angry with me. I understand. But that does not mean that you need to spend time with that." She replied referring to Clyde and without another word, I turned my back to her.

****

"I can open my door." I protested when Clyde opened the door

"This is my house. I spend most of my time in the town, but...I come back here

very occasionally." He says

"This whole place...it's like a time capsule," I observed

"Mm. Can't stay in the same place for too long. Humans tend to get suspicious, so...I closed it up and left. But I've dropped by over the years. Updated the plumbing. Put in the electricity." He explained as he walked me through it

"Who's she?" I asked pointing to a painting on the wall

"My sister, Louise" he calmly answered

"Did you have to change your name?" I asked, curious

"I always keep my Christian name. Otherwise, yes."

"What is your real name?"

"Baron"

"You're French?"

"Don't you ask a lot of questions" he jeered

"Yeah. It's the historian in me." I defended

"I took my mother's name when she sired me. She lived in France with my father. He's no longer with us." He said sadly

"He died?" I asked in shock, did vampires die too?

"Mm. Yes. We can be killed...if you try hard enough" he explained seeing the look of surprise on my face

"Have you got siblings?" I asked trying to change the topic of discussion, forgetting he had just a few seconds ago told me about Louise but he was ever so gracious to answer

"An elder sister"

"Well, she must be pleased"

"Were you a scientist?" I inquired

"No, no. I inherited those from my brother. He was fascinated by it. Science with magic, magic with science. He never knew which way round it was. I'm not sure either, to be honest. That's why I'm drawn to it. Did you... cast a spell to call your power up?" He asked

"No. No. No, I've never been very good

at spell casting"

"Well, then...perhaps...there was a spell on it and you just happened to meet its conditions"

"What are you doing?" I asked breathing hard when he had tried to hit me and I was out of there in a matter of seconds, what just happened?

"I thought so. Your magic's instinctive. It just comes out of you when you need it. You needed...powers for your work"

"It's not that simple"

"Well, no, of course not. There's something else, some kind of link between you and your power"

"Maybe you're right. Maybe my magic is connected to need"

"Don't you have any memories of it having surfaced before?"

"No. I don't remember much

about my childhood. My parents died when I was young as my aunt told me. Yes, I know. Living without magic isn't... bad. I've survived without it"

"Well, that's not quite true. You use it all the time. You can feel me when I'm looking at you"

"That feels cold. Like ice growing under my skin"

"Witch power is in your blood and it's in your bones. You were born to be a witch, just as you were born to have blonde hair. Or those blue eyes"

"And you?" I asked

"Well, I was born a human. We didn't keep track of birthdays back then. But I'd estimate it was in 500 and then I was reborn as a vampire in...the year 1886?"

"The things you must have seen"

"Mm. And do" he helped complete my statement

"Would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow?"

Aunt's pov

"Babe?" My husband had called out

"I thought I was getting something there." I sighed

"How was I to know you were doing magic?"

"I couldn't sleep. Dreams about Carissa.'

"What?"

"Odd things. I thought I'd try to peep"

"Did you see anything?"

"A man...in the shadows. With her, following her"

"It was Mr. Davies"

"No, he wasn't a witch"

"We have to call her" my husband advised

"Hey, aunt" Carissa greeted

"What are you doing...hanging around with a vampire?"

"Have you been spying on me Anyway...

most of the things we've been told about them aren't true. I'm sure that's not true."

"That's what they do, Carissa"

"He could have fed off you already. You wouldn't remember"

"He wouldn't do anything like that. I'm not in any danger with him"

$We are putting two and two together

and making five. We have no idea who this vampire is or what he wants!

"Well, he's coming to dinner tonight...so I can just ask him"

Carissa's pov

"Morning" Matthew greeted, I had seen him a few times with Clyde

"I presume it's not a coincidence you're outside my workplace" I noted

"Clyde is away at a conference. Molecular biology techniques. He asked me to keep an eye on you"

"Is he always this controlling?"

"With us, yes. But with a witch...it's a first" and I smiled

"Okay, then, I may as well utilize you. I'm feeding Clyde tonight. Talk me through it"

"Look, I'll tell you what Clyde likes if you come to the lab and get your blood done. We're taking DNA from witch remains and we've identified four original lineages. Don't you want to find out which one your family belonged to?

This is our archive. It's not for vampires.

"Test of Carissa's powers." Who is Carissa? Surely, you've wondered about your blood?" He finished

"I certainly have. What will this tell us?" I asked

"Your inherited traits and powers and where you come from. Through your DNA we can trace descent back to one of four witches who..." He explained piercing me with the syringe needle

"What the hell are you doing?" Clyde yelled walking in

"Stop now. If any vampire is going to take her blood it's going to be me" he said and took the syringe from Matthew.

"Are you all right?" He asked and I nodded shyly.