"Wel , I ought to," he said softly. "I'm from New Orleans, you know, the home of voodoo."
"Voodoo?" she said, a cold shiver going down her spine. Caleb laughed. "I'm just playing with you," he said.
"Voodoo. Jeez, what a load of crap."
"Oh, right. Total y," Elena said, forcing a giggle.
"One time, though," Caleb continued, "back before my parents died, Tyler was visiting, and the two of us went to the French Quarter to get our fortunes told by this old voudon priestess."
"Your parents died?" Elena asked, surprised. Caleb lowered his head for a moment, and Elena reached out to touch him, her hand lingering on his. "Mine did, too," she said.
Caleb was very stil . "I know," he said.
Their eyes met, and Elena winced in sympathy. There was such pain in Caleb's warm blue eyes when she looked for it, despite his easy smile.
"It was years ago," he said softly. "I stil miss them sometimes, though, you know."
She squeezed his hand. "I know," she said quietly. Then Caleb smiled and shook his head a little, and the moment between them was over. "This was before that, though," he said. "We were maybe twelve years old when Tyler visited." Caleb's slight Southern accent got stronger as he went on, his tone lazy and rich. "I didn't believe in that stuff back then, either, and I don't think Tyler did, but we thought it might be kind of fun. You know how it's fun to scare yourself a little sometimes." He paused. "It was pretty creepy, actual y. She had al these black candles burning and weird charms everywhere, stuff made of bones and hair. She threw some powder on the floor around us and looked at the different patterns. She told Tyler she saw a big change coming for him and that he needed to think careful y before he put himself in someone else's power."
Elena flinched involuntarily. A big change had certainly come for Tyler, and he had put himself in the vampire Klaus's power. Wherever Tyler was now, things hadn't turned out the way he'd planned.
"And what did she tel you?" she asked.
"Nothing much, real y," he answered. "Mostly just to be good. Stay out of trouble, look out for my family. That kind of thing. Stuff I try to do. My aunt and uncle need me here now, with Tyler missing." He looked down at her again, shrugged, and smiled. "Like I said, though, it was mostly just a load of crap. Magic and al that nutty stuff."
"Yeah," Elena said hol owly. "Al that nutty stuff."
The sun went behind a cloud and Elena shivered once more. Caleb moved closer to her.
"Are you cold?" he said, and reached a hand out toward her shoulder.
At that moment a raucous caw burst from the trees by the house, and a big black crow flew toward them, low and fast. Caleb dropped his hand and ducked, covering his face, but the crow angled up at the last minute, flapping furiously, and soared away over their heads.
"Did you see that?" Caleb cried. "It almost hit us."
"I did," Elena answered, watching as the graceful winged silhouette disappeared into the sky. "I did."
Chapter 10
Elder blossoms can be used for exorcism, protection, or prosperity, Bonnie read, lying flopped down on her bed, chin propped on her hands. Mix with comfrey and coltsfoot and bind in red silk during a waxing moon to make a charm bag for attracting wealth. Distill in a bath with lavender, feverfew, and motherwort for personal protection. Burn with hyssop, white sage, and devil's shoestring to create a smoke that can be used in exorcising bad spirits.
Devil's shoestring? Was that real y an herb? Unlike most of the others, it didn't sound like something she'd find in her mother's garden. She sighed noisily and skipped ahead a little.
The best herbs for aiding meditation are agrimony, chamomile, damiana, eyebright, and ginseng. They may be tossed together and burned to create smoke or, when picked at dawn, dried and sprinkled around the subject in a circle.
Bonnie eyed the thick book baleful y. Pages and pages and pages of herbs and what their properties were in different circumstances, and when to gather them, and how to use them. Al written as dryly and dul y as her high school geometry textbook.
She had always hated studying. The best thing about the summer between high school and col ege was that no one could expect her to spend any time tucked up with a heavy book, trying to memorize excessively boring facts. Yet here she was, doing just that, and she'd total y brought it on herself.
But when she had asked Mrs. Flowers to teach her magic, she had expected something, wel , cooler than being handed a heavy book on herbs. Secretly, she had been hoping for one-on-one sessions that involved casting spel s, or flying, or summoning fantastical servants to do her bidding. Less reading quietly to herself, anyway. Shouldn't there be some way that magical knowledge could just implant itself in her brain? Like, wel , magical y?
She flipped forward a few more pages. Ooh, this looked a bit more interesting.
An amulet filled with cinnamon, cowslip, and dandelion leaves will help in attracting love and fulfilling secret desires. Gather the herbs in a gentle rain and, after drying, bind them with red velvet and gold thread. Bonnie giggled and kicked her feet against the mattress, thinking that she could probably come up with some secret desires to fulfil . Did she need to pick the cinnamon, or would it be okay to just get it out of the spice cupboard?
She turned a few more pages. Herbs for clarity of sight, herbs for cleansing, herbs that had to be gathered under the ful moon or on a sunny day in June. She sighed once more and closed the book.
It was past midnight. She listened, but the house was quiet. Her parents were sleeping.
Now that her sister Mary, who'd been the last of Bonnie's three older sisters to leave home, had moved in with her boyfriend, Bonnie missed having her right down the hal . But there were also advantages to not having her nosy, bossy big sister so close.
She climbed out of bed as quietly and cautiously as she could. Her parents weren't as sharp-eared as Mary, but they would come and check on her if they heard her getting up in the middle of the night.
Careful y, Bonnie pried up a floorboard under her bed. She had used it as her hiding place ever since she was a little girl. At first she had kept a dol she'd borrowed from Mary without permission; a secret candy stash bought with her al owance; her favorite red silk ribbon. Later, she'd hidden notes from her first boyfriend, or tests she'd failed. Nothing as sinister as what was hidden there now, though.