A Study of Poisons

SEVENTEEN

     The bell charm over the door jingled, both witches stood in the corner of the store with their arms folded over their chest. They knew. "Your friend nearly killed someone at that bar down the road. I'm guessing you're here to handle it." I wasn't about to admit it, but I hoped Sabien killed that creep from last week. I wouldn't mind him taking charge and doing the thing I wasn't able to do.

"I need your help." My boots snapped as I came to the counter. My hands down on the wood as I surrendered myself to them.

The younger woman stared me down, her eyes reading daggers. I never really looked at her until now. Her skin like caramel and her black dreads that were jeweled in colored beads."Why would we help a Keeper?" She bucked her chin at me, like a ram about to attack its prey. I refused to back down from her.

I considered my opinion and took the one that led to least destruction. "If you do, I don't tell anyone that you're keeping up shop here." It was a gamble, they could just say not and relocate. They could just kill me where I stood. However, is they were true witches they would honor their beliefs and do what they think is right. Something completely different than the Keepers.

"What did you do?" The old women ask as she slammed her wooden cane onto the ground, it felt like the entire ground shook as she did so.

I opened my mouth to confess, "The blood that the Lost drank from was sealing a curse I put in a jar. Anyone who kills the Lost will have a death curse tied to their name." After I finished, I breathed. My heart was plummeting in my chest, rattling without a sound it went on. Then again. It rose and fell. I knew the Vampires could hear this, I knew they'd wonder what I was doing.

The old woman turned around and began to pick things off the shelf. "I told you there was a reason to let her handle it." She mumbled to her child, my guess was that the younger woman wanted to kill the Lost. I'm glad I got here on time then.

"Mama, it's not the time." The younger woman playfully hit her mom's arm. A storm buried in her eyes as she turned back to me. "You sealed it instead of breaking it?" She asked me as if I did something illegal.

I nodded, "I'm not strong enough." That was the first time I admitted it.

The older woman pushed past the counter and came to me. Grabbing my hands her fingers circled in my palms. "Of course you aren't, Keeper magic isn't real magic." Real magic. I knew what it felt like. Like power at the center of your being. It drug you down into the earth but then it made you feel like your flying. I liked the feeling of real magic than Keeper magic.

"Mama." The younger woman corrected her.

I ignored her and just blinked as the old woman pushed her power into my skin. It was like electricity was moving around my bones. My entire body felt like it was vibrating, like it was electrified. "What do I do?" I asked in a single breath, I never wanted this feeling to end. I wanted to step deeper into it. Even if it meant losing everything.

The feeling was addicting, like a poison I'd never be able to stall. The younger woman finally gave away an answer for me."You need a coven's power to untie the curse from the Lost, but then break it altogether- that now has to be done by you. Since you imprinted on it." She acknowledged me for the first time, I wondered about what they were seeing right now that had them so rattled.

If I was discovered using witch magic, my memories would be bound. I'd be banished. I'd be forsaken. "How do I break it?" This was more than a job. I finally recognized, these were lives. People. Vampires. All I was doing was being self centered and only worried about a mission. Screw the mission.

"You have to use the same magic that made it." I knew that but I was hoping for an alternative.

I shook my head, "I don't know how to call black magic."