There's Witches In Those Mountains

s e v e n

*****************AUTHOR'S NOTE*****************

Here's a link to a playlist that accompanies this entire story, updated DAILY.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/40fNHonHOnIPYwby75jhmH

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Lydia flipped idly through the stack of notes Jacob had compiled for her. It had been a couple of weeks since he had been over to the house, since they both told each other how they felt, and frankly it still gave her butterflies to think about. She had never noticed earlier just how beautiful his handwriting was. It was something out of the Victorian era, which made no sense because he's only been a vampire for about 20 years. She laughed at the thought that she was dating a 37 year old man.

Her grandmother was still having those spells, but never mentioned it to anybody, so it was hard to tell what exactly was causing them. She put the stack back together, got up, and walked down the stairs to her.

"MawMaw, what is causing these spells you're having all the time?" Lydia asked, sitting down beside her on the couch.

Her grandmother swallowed hard and leaned toward her. "That boy you brought over the other day, he carried an evil energy with him, one I haven't been able to shake since he came." She leaned back and coughed loudly into her handkerchief and continued, "Whatever it is, he needs to be cleansed before he comes back into the house. Work a spell, smoke him out, do something. I won't survive if he comes back into this house again."

Lydia gasped as her grandmother sat back in her chair and drifted off to sleep peacefully. She rose to her feet quickly. She needed to call Jacob.

As she stepped out of the house, she pulled her phone out and dialed his number. After a couple of seconds, she hears a phone ringing off in the distance. Soon she heard running footsteps crunching through the leaves.

Jacob.

"Hey!" He called from across the way.

For the first time since she had met him, she was scared. Not of him, no, but rather for him.

"Jacob, I need you to not come any closer to the house. MawMaw is sick. Meet me at the place we first met!" Lydia called after him.

Jacob gave her a thumbs up and ran toward the clearing. Lydia ran back into the house to grab her alter. She grabbed her sage, black candles, white candles, moon water, salt, anything she could use to cleanse him.

She ran down the stairs and from the house, not even bothering to grab a coat. Blood coursed through her as fast as the air moved in and out of her lungs. Her head pounded as her feet practically sunk in the ground below her with each step. She had to get to Jacob. She had to do this for him.

As she approached the clearing, she could see Jacob looking as perfect as he did in the sunlight. The pounding in her head grew worse and worse, like it was a bomb getting ready to explode in her head. She was so close to where she needed to be, and she knew this, but her eyes started to tunnel, everything going dark around her. She slowed down and closed her eyes for only a moment, trying to compose herself, but when she opened her eyes again, things got darker as she saw Jacob running towards her. Lydia's head was spinning at a rate that she couldn't keep up with. She fell to her knees as Jacob came closer. Her caught her just as her shoulders were about to hit the ground.

"Lydia, what's happening? What's wrong?" he asked her, running his hand over her head as he held her.

Lydia weakly shook her head, opening her eyes to her dark surroundings. She couldn't see. The pounding in her skull was so powerful it had practically taken her out. It was as though something supernatural was happening to her.

"There's no way this young vampire found a witch!" a voice boomed in her mind. She wanted to cover her ears, block out the voice, but whatever had incapacitated her was trying its hardest to not let her have autonomy over herself. "We must kill the witch, we must kill the witch. The witch is too dangerous to our kind. She must be destroyed!"

Lydia's heart pounded as she came up out of her trance, taking in deep breaths. Jacob looked at her with shock and confusion, but mostly relief, that she was ok.

"Lydia! What on earth happened to you?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "I have no time. Please, Jacob, do you remember in that fantasy series where there was a governing body of vampires to rule over all of the vampires?" Jacob nodded his head. "Jacob, is there such a thing in real life? Please tell me there isn't."

Jacob hesitated for a moment before nodding. "They live in eastern Europe, though, they haven't stepped foot on the continent in thirty years or so. At least, according to my mother, they haven't. Why?"

Lydia let out a heavy sigh and slowly came to her feet. "I'm going to sound crazy so bear that in mind: I heard voices in my head saying that they must 'kill the witch' and that they couldn't believe that 'this vampire'" she pointed to him. "'Found a witch,'" she finished, pointing at herself.

He shook his head, almost as thought he couldn't believe what she was saying. Could it have been possible that the council had found out? "I promise to look into this. I promise I'll keep you safe, Lydia."

Lydia nodded and slowly rose to her feet. "Now, the reason I had you come out here to begin with was the cleanse you. MawMaw said you carried a negative energy into the home last time you came that took nearly everything out of her. She still hasn't quite recovered from it." She leaned down and picked up her box of cleansing items and walked toward the clearing. She laid out a blanket and sat the box on top. She opened it up and started pulling out items. "I'm going to light these candles, perform a spell, and cleanse you with a cedar smudge stick. Hopefully that'll help you be able to come over more and maybe it'll help my MawMaw get better." She laid out the five candles around them and lit them clockwise while saying aloud:

After she lit the candles, she sat him down in the middle of them and lit the bundle of cedar. As the bundle burned, she passed the smoke over his body. Lydia could see his aura, and it was a shade of black she had never seen anyone have, mixed with brown and gray. No wonder her grandmother was feeling so ill - his aura was all kinds of out of whack. She passed it over him several more times and the colors started to shift from dark colors to brighter ones: pink, rose, orange, and yellow. There was something that had been previously unseen that was showing through. Finally, his aura matched his personality and it was brilliant.

Lydia felt tears well in her eyes. The aura around him was dazzling, unlike anything she had ever seen before. He had a beautiful soul to him.

"Lydia, are you ok?" Jacob asked, breaking the silence between them.

Lydia sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I'm good." She put out the bundle and sat it down on the box. "How do you feel, any different?"

Jacob shrugged. "I'm a bit choked up due to the smoke, but otherwise I'm fine. I don't know if I feel too different. Does my aura look different?"

Lydia smiled. "It's dazzling how beautiful your aura looks now. It should be safe for you to come back into the house." She sighed and snuffed the candles out. "We do have to slow things down a little bit, don't we?"

He reached over and grabbed her hand. "At this point, Liddy, we know way too much about each other to slow things down and act like we haven't seen each other vulnerable."

She sighed. "We've rushed a lot and I really never wanted to rush things. I've never been one to leap into a man's bed without at least having dinner first, right? But with you, things are incredibly different." She lifted her hand to his cheek and stroked it with her dawn. "I have such strong feelings for you that I can't deny."

They sat in silence for a few moments, his cheek leaning against her hand. For the first time since she had walked outside, the wilderness seemed at peace. Birds were chirping softy, wolves called each other in the distance, and the sun was starting to set. Lydia felt a sense of warmth in her chest that she hadn't felt in such a long time. What was that feeling? Love? Lust? Infatuation? She felt something she hadn't felt since her mother was alive, but she could never pinpoint it personally.

She looked up and saw the sun was starting to set. "I think I need to go home soon. The sun is setting, and you know how my eyes are."