Spellbound [COMPLETED]

Chapter 3 Old Strangers

The bell rung and lunch ended pretty smoothly. Ben got along with Ana's friends, and also earned a big approval from Ryan, and they walked to fifth period with the beginning of something special.

"Your friends are pretty cool. Like you," Ben said, looking down and giving a shy smile

"Thanks," Ana responded with the same modesty, "They can be a bit overbearing sometimes."

"I didn't mind."

They walked in silence towards Spanish, sneaking glances at each other. Then inspiration struck Ben.

"So are you busy Friday night? We could have dinner at my house or something."

Ana's eyes widened with glee.

"I'd love to. As long as your parents are cool with it."

"Well, my parents are out of the country and my sister may or may not enjoy company."

"What do your parents do?"
Oh you know, work with a secret protection program that's part of the Supernatural Authority, he thought.

"We could talk about it with my sister," he answered.

Yeah, I wish.

• • •

Ben came home that day to his sister and an unexpected guest.

"Hey Ben, look who stopped by," his sister, Carly said.

Carly had brown hair, flushed-pale skin, and brown eyes. The only thing that made them look related were their eyes. And their powers of course.

Alongside her was Arrianne, a close friend of Carly's. She had dirty blond hair, green eyes, and a beautifully clear, alabaster complexion. Carly's known her for thousands of years, give or take a few years between death and birth.

Ben, however, has only known her for about three hundred years.

"Wow, Arrianne Millers. I haven't seen you since the seventies."

"Nice seeing you too Ben. Wow, are you taller in this lifetime?"

He rolls his eyes.

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore. In every lifetime I've met you, I was between sixteen to twenty three."

"When your sixteen in your five-hundredth lifetime or are over three thousand years, we'll talk."

"I do have to respect my elders. And I'm already two thousand; Roman Empire era, remember?"

"Hey, I can't keep track of everybody's era. I barely have time for that now that I'm in the council."

"Wait, what?"

"That's what I wanted to tell you Ben, Arrianne is now a new member of the county's council. She got me a job where their hideout is," Carly said proudly.

"You? Work in an office?" Ben couldn't picture it. This was the same girl who was a photographer, a merchant's wife, and a flight attendant in her past lives. At one point, she even worked in a brothel.

"Not exactly," she smiled at the thought, even she knew she could never take such a dull occupation.

"The council will have more of a library rather than an office. And it won't be hidden behind such a dull location," Arrianne's eyes widened in excitement.

"What do you mean?"

"We decided to make a little hangout for people like us, just us. To humans, it'll be a restaurant-bar sort of thing, with people we've already hired. But if a caster comes through the door, they'll walk into a bar/cafe nightclub. We're calling it The Brew, and your sister will be a bartender there."

"And by 'we', do you mean you and my sister own the place?"

"Well, yes and no. She has ownership, but the council's funding it. We help her, she helps us."

"Helps you with what exactly? Other than getting a bunch of witch-bitches drunk and dry-humping each other."

"Just little things; finding new-born casters, erasing mortals memories if they see anyone doing magic, that kind of stuff."

Arrianne was being too nice about this, which meant something was up. And Ben wasn't sure about his sister being the witch council's little helper. Partly out of concern for her, but mostly worried about Ana. He still hasn't found out what she is yet.

But for the sake of his sister, he decides to play it cool.

"Sounds pretty good. As long as my sister's safe and happy, I'm satisfied."

"Good. Now I need a favor from you," Arrianne means business now.

"What kind of favor?"

"You're in high school now, right?"
Ben nodded.

"Well, I need you to help your sister find new casters, as well as report the regulars who've gained back their powers back to either me, Carly, or the other two counselors. We need all the info we can get, and you know better than anyone how teenagers are about their powers, newborn or not."

"I will. Remind me, how can you tell if someone's a newborn?"

"Well, as always, there's the surge of energy if you touch. There's also things like changing eye color, but it really depends on their powers. Remember, they can have up to two different powers, but you already knew that."

"And what if say, I don't know, they have more than two."

"Ben, be realistic. It's not like we're gonna find a powerhouse anywhere."

**Powerhouses are a special type of caster. They can have any power their exposed to at anytime. So if say, they meet a mind-reader, a healer, and a person who controls the elements, they can gain all of those powers. Kind of like mimicry. Only once they learn it, they keep it. Normal casters are born with the powers their parents have. But powerhouses can use any powers at any given time. And if that wasn't enough of a threat, they're also hard to resist. Normal casters instantly gravitate towards powerhouses. Kind of like Fae's blood to vampires (seriously, look it up).The same goes for people who are half-powerhouse. Only thing is that half-powerhouses lean more towards one power (ex. Half-powerhouse, half-elements controller would prefer to control the weather, but can still use any other power they desire.
Probably the only weakness a powerhouse has is that they can use one power at a time and since there are so many powers they can use, they probably don't know how to use all of them.
Also, powerhouses are so rare, they're often never found and live their lives like mortals as much as possible.**

"Ok, got it," Ben responded,"So who are the two other counselors?"

"Cam and Peter, have you met them?"

"I only know Cam. He's your husband right?"

"Technically, my boyfriend. We haven't gotten married yet in this life."

"Whatever. But I don't know Peter."

"Oh, you will soon enough. Remember, you still have to meet all of us. I'm simply here as a friend."

"I remember you being a lot more fun Arrianne. What happened to you?"

"A clean slate. And I already raised enough hell years ago, and that was before juvie. I gotta get going."

"We'll walk you out," said Carly.

• • •

That night, Ben looked through his bookshelf for his spell book from 1200 BC (every caster's past life journal's kept in the family records with The Supernatural Authority until reborn).

He decided to pay a visit to Ana that night in her dreams.

So he got prepared for bed and focused on the spell.

"Ana," he said, then everything went dark.