Heirloom Magic (Paranormal)

Chapter Eight

Harper's stomach was in knots by the time Mallory knocked on the door promptly at eleven. She opened the door, her eyes widening when she saw the array of things the vampire had shoved into an enormous cardboard box. "Do you want me to give you a hand with that?" Harper offered politely, making Mallory laugh.

"I'm a vampire, remember?" she smiled. "This box would be much harder for you to carry." Harper nodded, blushing a bit for misremembering such a simple thing, and Mallory shifted the enormous box to one hand just to show off.

"What do you have in there, rocks?" Harper asked with a joke, and Mallory nodded.

"Yeah, basically. I have crystals for the séance."

Harper motioned Mallory into the living room where Jasper sat waiting. He had insisted on pushing the furniture out of the way earlier, and Harper had allowed it, even though she had no idea why.

"Hey, you already cleared a space," Mallory approved as she set her box down in the middle of the floor and began to pass Jasper all sorts of different stuff that he seemed to know exactly what to do with. Harper sat back, feeling useless, and watched as they arranged a ring of large crystals in the very center of the floor before turning to her. Mallory held out a small burlap bag.

Harper's fingers shook when she took it. "What is this?" she asked, hating how little she knew about all of this.

"Salt," Mallory said. "It burns our skin, so you'll have to do the honors."

"Just sprinkle it inside the ring of crystals, but be careful the circle doesn't have any gaps or spaces."

Harper started to sprinkle the salt thickly, careful that the entire circle joined. Contact with the salt tingled her skin, but didn't actually hurt. "What happens if there's a gap?" she asked.

"The salt keeps spirits contained inside the circle. If there are any breaks, they could escape." Harper looked at the two vampires, her jaw slack.

"It isn't a big deal usually, unless we accidentally summon an evil spirit. Summoning them could allow them to cross over into our dimension," Mallory told her, and Harper began heaping on the salt, just in case.

"That sounds...terrifying," she admitted to them, and they both nodded. "It can be. There have been a lot of problems created from people summoning the dead without the proper safeguards," Mallory explained.

"Humans usually," Jasper interrupted her with a snort, shaking his head in disapproval. "That's how you get all the demonic possessions and poltergeists."

Harper's mind flew to every horror movie she'd ever seen, and she pinched the bridge of her nose as she remembered all the head spinning and demonic vomiting.

"It's alright," Mallory said warmly as she took Harper's hand in her own cold one. "We know how to do this right. Everything will be fine."

Harper nodded. She was so tired of feeling weak and terrified. It wasn't who she was, granted in her old life it had been things like having bigger balls then the men at her firm, and not being squeamish about the dark, but still... she needed to shake this weak woman complex. "Okay, let's do it," she said, mustering a grin, and Mallory beamed.

Harper's new resolve faltered when Mallory pulled out a ceremonial dagger and took her hand. "Why does everything need blood?" she asked with a groan, and Jasper grinned as he used his fangs to nick his own wrist and let his blood fall into the wooden bowl in Mallory's hand.