Power of the Witch

Chapter 15

Rachel was tempted to check the wards but she knew it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't sensitive enough to the witch energies to gauge them. They'd been put up by Grandma Harman and checked by Meg and she would have to trust to that. The wards were keyed so that only the Hartman family and ordinary humans could enter except Ruby, Meg, Rachel and Gabriel. Which meant, Rachel thought with a grim smile, that any lost witch relatives of Rebecka's mother who came by were going to get quite a surprise. An invisible wall was going to be blocking them from crossing the threshold. As long as nobody on the inside removed the wards, the house was safer than Fort Knox. Grandman Harman had also taken the limo, Rachel found. Sometime during the night, it had been replaced by an inconspicuous Ford Sedan, parked on the curb. The keys had been in a manila envelope dropped through the mail slot in the front door along with a map of Lucy Lee Bethea High School. Circle Daybreak was efficient. ''I didn't finish my hair.'' Rebecka complained as Ruby hustled her to the car. ''It's only half done.''

''It's looking terrific.'' Meg said from behind her. And the thing was, it was true. There was nothing that could make that shimmering waterfall of silvery-blond look anything less than beautiful. Whether it was up or down, braided or pinned or falling loose, it was glorious. I don't even think the little nitwit has to brush it, Rachel thought. It;s so fine that she couldn't make two hairs lange if she tried. ''And I left my scarf-'' ''Here it is.'' Rachel lassoed her. The scarf was ridiculous, crushed velvet in muted metallic colours, with a six-inch fringe. Purely decorative. Rebecka choked as Rachel wound it around a few times and pulled it tight. ''A little aggressive, Boss?'' Megara asked, extricating Rebecka before she could turn blue. ''Worried about getting late.'' Rachel said shortly. But she saw Ruby eyeing her, too. Gabriel was last to come out of the house. He was pale and serious – that much Rachel saw before she shifted her eyes past him. Rebecka's mother actually remained standing at the door with the baby in her arms. ''Say bye-bye to your sister's friends. Bye-bye.'' ''Kee-kee.'' The baby said. ''Kee-kee!'' ''Wave to him.'' Megara stage-whispered. Rachel gritted her teeth. She half-waved, keeping her senses opend for any sound of an impending attack. The baby held out his arms toward her. ''Pui!'' ''Let's get out of here.'' Rachel almost shoved Rebecka intp the backseat. Ruby took the weel and Gabriel sat up front with her. Meg ran around to get in the back on the other side of Rebecka.

As they pulled out, Rachel saw the outside of the house fort he first time. It was a nice house – white clapboard, two and a half storeys, Colonial Revival. The street was nice too. Lined with dogwoods that would be a mass of white when they bloomed. The sort of street where people sat outside on their rockers in spring and somebody was bound to have a stand of bees in the side yard making sourwood honey. Although Rachel had been all over the United States, sent from one Circle Daybreak group to another, the hospital where she'd been found hand been near a neighbourhood like this. I might have grown up in a place like this. If they'd kept me. My parents... Do I hate her? Rachel wondered suddenly. I couldn't. It's not her fault. Oh, no, of course not, the voice in her head said. Not her faulttht she's beautiful and perfect and has parents who love her and blue fire in her veins and that she is going to be forced, whether she wants it or not, to marry Gabriel... Which I don't care about, Rachel thought. She was shocked at herself. When had she ever let emotions interfere with her job? She was allowing herself to be – she had allowed herself to be distracted all morning – when there was something vitally important at stake. No more, she told herself fiercly. From now on, I think about nothing but the mission. Years of mental discipline came in handy now; she was able to push everything to the side and focus with icy clarity on what had to be done. ''- stopped a train in its tracks.'' Megara was saying. ''Really?'' There was faint interest in Rebecka's voice. At least she'd stopped talking about her hair, Rachel thought.

''Really. It was one of those BART trains in San Francisco, like a subway tarin, you know. The two girls were on the tracks, and the Wild Power stopped the train dead before it could hit them. That's what the blue fire can do.'' ''Well, I know I can't do anything like that.'' Rebecka said flatly. ''So I can't be a Wild Power. Or whatever.'' The last words were tacked on quickly. Ruby raised a cool eyebrow. ''Have you ever tried to stop a train?'' While Rebecka bit a fingertip and pondered that, Meg said. ''You have to do it right, you know. First, you have to make the blood flow, and then you have to concentrate. It's not something you can expect to do perfectly the very first time.'' ''If you want to start practising, we can help.'' Ruby added. Rebecka shuddered. ''No, thank you. I faint when I see blood. And anyway, I'm not it.'' ''Too bad.'' Ruby murmured. ''We could use the blue fire on our side today.'' They were pulling up to a charming old brown brick high school. Neither Gabriel nor Rachel had said a word throughout the ride. But now Rachel leaned forward. ''Ruby, please drive past it. I want to check the layout first.'' Ruby swung the car into a circular driveway that went past the school's oversized front doors. Rachel looked right and left, taking in everything about the surroundings. She could see Meg doing the same thing – and Gabriel, too. He was focussing on the same danger spots she was. He had the instincts for strategy. ''Go around the block and circle back.'' Rachel said. Rebecka stirred. ''I thought you were worried about me being late.'' ''I'm more worried about you being dead.'' Rachel interrupted. ''What do you think, Ruby?'' ''The side door on the west. Easy to pull up reasonably close, no bushes around it for nasty surprises to hide in.'' ''That's my pick, too. OK, everybody, listen. Ruby is going to slow the car down in the right place. Slow down, not stop. When I give the signal, we're all going to jump out and go directly to that door. We are not going to pause. We are going to move as a group. Rebecka, are you paying attention? From now on, you don't go anywhere unless Meg's in front of you and I'm beside you.'' ''And where is Gabriel?'' Rebecka asked. Rachel cursed herself mentally. She wasn't used to working with a fourth team member. ''He'll be behind us – OK, Gabriel?'' She made herself look his way. ''Yes. Whatever you say.'' There wasn't the slightest hint of sarcasm in his face. He was dead serious. Absolutely miserable, earnest and dead serious. ''And Ruby, once you've parked, you join us and take the other side. What room's your first class in, Rebecka?'' ''Three twenty-six.'' Rebecka said dismally.'' U.S. History with Mr. Wanamaker. He went to New York to try to be an actor, but all he got was some disease from not eating enough stuff with vitamins. So he came back, and now he's really strict unless you can get him to do his impressions of presidents-'' ''All right.'' Rachel broke in. ''We're coming to the door.'' ''-and he's actually pretty funny when he does Theodore Roosevelt – or do I mean the other one –'' ''Now.'' Rachel said and pushed her as Meg pulled. They all made it out smoothly, although Rebeckaq yelped a little. Rachel kept a good grip on her arm as they hurried to the door. ''I don't think I like this way of coming yo school.''

''We can turn right around and go back home.'' Rachel said. Rebecka shut up. Gabriel kept pace behind them, silent and focussed. It was Ruby's usual position when the team wasn't heading for a car, and Rachel couldn't help feeling the difference. She didn't like having someone behind her she couldn't trust absolutely. And although the enemies didn't seem to know yet that Gabriel was important, it they found out, he'd become a target. Face it, she thought. This etup is a disaster, security-wise. This is a horrendous accident waiting to happen. Her nerves were wound so tightly that she jumped at the slightest sound. They shepherded Rebecka to her locker, then up the staircase to the third floor. The halls were almost empty, which was exactly as Rachel planned it. But of course that meant they were late for class. Ruby slid in beside them just as they opend the door. They entered as a group and the teacher stopped talking and looked at them. So did everybody else in the room. Quite a few jaws dropped open. Rachel allowed herself a grim inner smile. Yeah, they were probably a bit of a shock for a small town. Four Night People – well, former Night People, anyway. A witch who was almost as small as Rebecka, with long curly dark blond hair and a face like a pixie on holiday. A vampire girl who looked like cool perfection straight out of a magazine, with long straight black hair and a strangely penetrating gaze. A shapeshifter boy who could have taken the place of any prince in a book of fairy tales, with jet black hair and a classically sculptured features. And, of course, a panther. Which happend to be walking on two feet at the moment, in the guise of a tall girl with a tense, wary expression and wavy dark brown hair that swirled witchlike around her. And, of course, there was Rebecka in the midst of them, looking like a ballet dancer who had blundered in from the Nutcracker Suite. There was a silence as the two groups stared at each other. Then the teacher snapped shut his book and advanced on hem.