Immortal Love Book #2. Evil

33. "Channeling"

According to my calculations, we had about five hours left before they tuned the cameras and microphones back on, so the clock was ticking, and the stakes were high. I was sitting down on the floor, trying to focus on my breathing, just like Alexander had told me. He had also said to try and reach into the places that helped me use my powers before, but I didn't know how to do that. My powers usually made an appearance when I was in a life-threatening situation, and not just whenever I wanted them to. I kept my eyes closed and my muscles relaxed, trying to focus on Merissa.

"I think I know what's wrong." Alexander said after I spent a whole hour trying, unsuccessfully.

"What?" I asked after I opened my eyes. He was now sitting in front of me with his legs crossed.

"You don't really have any magic on your own." he said, and I nodded. "Then you need to channel some." he said. I looked around, nobody else was there. No 100-year-old witch to channel magic from, just the two of us. "You have to channel me." he said. I wasn't stupid, of course I'd thought of that, but knowing that contacting Merissa took a lot of power, I was afraid I'd kill him. A while ago I would have thought it was impossible to hurt Alexander, especially impossible for me, but after knowing what I was capable of doing, I didn't want to risk it.

"What if I take too much of your magic?" I asked. Alexander shook his head.

"I think you can channel all of us." he said. I looked at him with a confused expression. All of them? "I bet there are at least fifty vampires in this place. I think you could channel us all if you tried. That has to be more than enough magic to contact Merissa." he said, and I couldn't find any holes in his logic.

"I've never channeled that much magic." I said. Alexander nodded. A part of me was afraid that it would be too much magic for me to channel, and that maybe it could kill me, but that didn't take up a lot of my mind. I didn't care if I died, as long as all the people I loved lived.

"Stella." Alexander said in a worried tone. For just one second, I thought Alexander could read my mind. "I won't let anything happen to you." he said, looking deeply into my eyes. I blinked a couple of times to deal with the intensity of his eyes, and then I looked at the floor. "I'm telling you, there is no amount of magic that you can't handle. I read it." he assured me. I nodded. I believed him.

"Alright. So, what do I do now?" I asked. Alexander moved closer to me and grabbed my hands with his.

"You just have to channel magic. You've done it before." he said. He was right, but the fact that I'd done it before didn't mean I still knew how to. It had been a while since the last time I used my powers in any way, but especially to channel magic. There were some things I couldn't help, like feeling what humans around me were feeling.

"Right." I sighed. No pressure, I just had to use my powers to save the world, again. I took a deep breath and tried to focus for the fifteenth time. But before I could, a question popped into my head. "Wait, what exactly should I tell her?" I asked. Alexander thought about it for a second.

"Tell her to go to Dennis' house." he said. I gave him a confused look. "He has a notebook inside the first drawer of his nightstand with a bunch of phone numbers and names on it. Tell her to call Sibyl and ask her to break the spell that's keeping us trapped in here." he said. I thought about it for a second and I came up with more questions.

"And what if she doesn't want to help us?" I asked. Alexander shook his head.

"Sybil is one of the good ones. Once she knows what's at stake here, she'll help us." Alexander said, and I nodded. A minute later he added something else. "And if she needs some motivation, Merissa can tell her that if she helps, I'll help her see her sister again." he said. I nodded. "Then you'll tell Merissa to tell Sybil we're in Willowdale, she'll know where it is." he said, and then he squeezed my hands slightly. "It's going to be fine." he assured me. I nodded. Now I just needed to channel some magic.