Grasp Heart

Chapter 5: Walking on Sunshine

When I awoke the next morning, I noticed the pale, tentative brightness through the sheer curtains. I bounded to the window, throwing it open and sticking my head right outside to get a whiff of the crisp air.

"No clouds... it may be a perfect, sunny day," I murmured excitedly, snapping the window shut and practically skipping to my dresser. "No bloodsuckers at school today! Not unless they want to burn!"

Narrowing my eyes, I paused, realizing that I hadn't exactly confirmed whether they possessed spelled items to protect them from the sun's rays... but today would determine that. Even non-magical UV makeup couldn't protect them from the full-power of a clear, sunny day. They'd have to stay home.

I donned warm clothes and began my morning round of the vast property, feeling the vibrating thrum of magic in my chest as I rounded the property-line. A sign that the magical boundary was intact and functioning as it should be.

Through the whispery grasses of the windy meadows, around to the squelching, boggy evergreen-woods at the fringes I trotted along beneath the beaming, azure skies. Aside from a few cotton-lump clouds, it was a vast, pure canvas - an brighter one than back home by a few hours - but the extra sunlight was welcome.

At the Southern boundary, however, I took pause.

Mint-scent. Vampire-scent. I bared my teeth as my body trembled. It was old, perhaps by quite a few hours, but familiar. I couldn't quite place it with the ones I'd learned just yet. This coven was still new to me.

The scent traced Northward, across the gravel-road back entrance, and toward the Western side where it hesitated. I smiled, almost smelling the uncertainty in the vampire's pause here. The magicked boundary was designed to force supernatural stalkers into confusion, rewiring their sense of direction. Sometimes, they'd go in circles until giving up.

One day, I'd watched with my brother, Bruno, as a vampire-scout circled our Italian home-village aimlessly, unable to see, hear or smell anything within the boundary and unable to make his way into it either. He'd traversed the circumference of the town nearly three times before giving up; a journey that had taken him over mountains, into snow, and through rivers. We'd laughed at him for hours.

This would-be intruder retraced his steps, going Southward to where the main gravel drive lay. That was where he gave up, heading back to the main road. This didn't require immediate concern. It was true that my scent likely led here, but as long as the magic wasn't weakened from the inside, it would hold. I could withstand a siege on this property if required.

As I entered my first class, I almost didn't notice the hunched form of my budding friend and chatterbox. Her crunched-over, flour-sack posture made her low in her seat. Taking initiative, I headed over, pulling up a chair.

"I take it things didn't go as hoped," I assumed, trying to dampen my tone for her sake.

She shook her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, but the teacher strode in.

I returned to my seat. Putting my feet up on the chair in front of me, I reveled in the absence of Kira's inky hair. I breathed deeply, and while the aged-mint scent lingered, the air smelled infinitely cleaner. Felt more buoyant. At the end of class, I packed quickly and caught Alissa, remembering to tone down my excitement about the weather.

"So, later we should work on Calculus together – to keep your mind off of it," I proposed, to which she nodded mutely, "Or we can even have a sleepover? It is a Friday night. I'm not super up-to-date on all my two-thousands movie classics; I'm told I need to watch Legally Blonde and Mean Girls."