Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 93: Chapter 93

Heather

"What’s on the list?" West whispered.

"Saints’ ashes, oil from a weeping icon, feathers and blood from a black chicken...you know, the usual," I said.

West laughed. "Nice."

Rosa held a brown paper bag when she came back. She rolled the top of it down a few times before handing it to me. "One more thing, before you go."

She looked at my feet. "Shoes off."

I wasn’t one to obey a command, and I didn’t think twice about it. I pulled off my socks and shoes.

She had a tiny vial of liquid. Dipping in a Q-tip, she moved toward me.

She traced a cross over the center of my forehead as she said a prayer. She did the same to my cheeks and chin before motioning for me to hold out my hands. She dipped the Q-tip back into the liquid, and did the same to the tops of my hands, then palms.

"Feet."

I lifted them into the air, and she did the same to the tops of my feet.

She finished by putting her hand on the top of my head and saying a final prayer. Her words were soft and so fast that I couldn’t make them out. The little bits and pieces I could hear were sort of Catholic, but different.

The top of my head grew hot as she prayed, and by the time she finished, I felt much lighter—as if a weight had been lifted. It might’ve sounded crazy to say that I was touched by a higher power, but that’s what it felt like.

"There. I’ve given you a blessing. I hope it keeps you safe. I’m going to light some lámparas for you tonight."

"Thanks." I cleared my throat. "I thought witchcraft and Xandertianity were separate."

She laughed as she capped the little bottle. "Oh, they can be. Very much so. But when the Catholics came to this land they combined their religion with our old ways. In Peru, you’ll see the Virgin as the Pacha Mama. It might not seem very Catholic, but it made for an easy blending of our peoples."

She grinned, and if possible, the wrinkles around her eyes deepened. "Spirituality is very personal. And what a person pulls from their magic, that’s personal, too. It’s why I said the words don’t matter so much. I use my faith in God to back the little things I can do. It helps me to use His words. Others find their faith and will in other things. Does that make sense?"

I thought for a second. It kind of really did. "Yes. I think so." And I liked it. Mom had always raised us going to church. I liked that if I did do this whole bruja thing, I didn’t have to give up my childhood beliefs. I’d already given up enough of my old life.

I put my socks and shoes back on. "Thank you for everything."

"De nada, mijita. If Luciana gives you trouble again, you come back. Don’t try to fight what you don’t yet understand."

I nodded. "I think I’ll do that."

She opened up her arms, and I hugged her. "Follow your heart. It’s good." She pulled back. "And keep that one around." She winked at Brent. "He’s nice to look at, no?"

I laughed at the uncomfortable look on Brent’s face. "He sure is."

West hugged Rosa. "Thank you."

"Come back this weekend, mijito. I’ve something to show you. And you can tell me how your sister does."

"Sure thing, Tía." He kissed her cheek.

We dropped West back at his dorm, and sped back to campus. I felt lighter. Like I knew what I was doing, and everything seemed a little more in control. That lightness that Rosa talked about was nearly tangible.

Traffic was thick, so it took us forever to get back. Brent tried to keep my mind off of everything, switching music, talking about DJs coming to town, but with each passing moment, the bag of ingredients weighed heavier in my lap. I needed to focus on what I was going to do tonight.

By the time we finally pulled through St. Francis’s gates, I’d convinced myself that I could do this. The ingredients were all here. Everything was lining up, and even if it wasn’t easy, I hadn’t hit that many road bumps.

Okay, so the curse was not cool at all, but I was going to let that one go. Focusing on Serena was key, and I’d gotten everything I needed for the spell.

Even counting the curse, everything still seemed a little easy. I wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. Usually, it meant that the proverbial shit was about to hit the fan, but maybe I was finally on the right path and this was how things were meant to go.

Brent left to go check on something, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I waved him off and jogged to the metaphysics classroom. As soon as I stepped into the stairwell, I could smell the stench coming from the labs. It was horrendous. I shoved my nose under my T-shirt, but it didn’t help. The closer I got, the worse it smelled.

I plugged my nose and opened the door. "What are you two yahoos up to?"

They were huddled over some beakers on a table by the window. When they turned to look at me, I laughed. They had clothespins on their noses.

"Do a girl a favor and toss one my way. This stuff is rank." I caught the pin that Xander tossed, and quickly clamped my nose. It hurt like a bitch, but it was better than the stench. Now I could actually walk into the classroom.

Two cookie sheets rested on a lab table covered in what looked like a solid layer of hard candy on them. A mixture was boiling in a beaker over a Bunsen burner.

I started to say something but Adrian held up a finger.

As I watched, the mixture in the beaker turned from a bubbling brownish-yellow sludge to bright blue. Xander grabbed it off of the fire with a pair of tongs and placed it in an ice bath. I leaned down to look at the little balls of black floating in the blue.

The urge to touch it was strong, but I ignored it.

"What is that?" My voice sounded funny with the clothespin on my nose.

"That’s the part of the second potion." Adrian pointed to one of the cookie trays. "We’ve got to pulverize that into a fine powder for the first component, and it’s got a couple more steps." He pointed to the other cookie sheet with white and gray speckled stuff on it. "That’s the third. We still have one more step for that one."

"Okay. What can I do to help?"

"You got the rest?" Xander said.

I held out my booty. "I sure do."

"Nice work. Let’s see it."

I emptied the contents of the bag onto the lab table.

One small jar of ashes.

Two black feathers.

A small bottle of brownish congealed liquid. Blood. Yuck.

A thimble-sized bottle with a cotton ball soaked in a light yellow oil.

Adrian picked up the last bottle. "Whoa. I can’t believe you found all this stuff."

"Honestly, me neither. But apparently I have a great aunt Rosa who has everything."

"Sweet. I need this for the blue potion," Xander said, picking up the tiny bottle of oily cotton balls.

"Where’s Brent?"

"Checking on stuff." I motioned to the potions. "So, what now?"

"We saved some steps for you to do. Since you’re the one who has to cast the spell, your energy has to go into it." Adrian handed me some papers and a hammer.

I glanced down at the papers. They were photocopies of the spell book. When I looked up at him sharply, he said, "Just for now. We can destroy them after if you want. But we each needed to know what the steps are."

That was reasonable. "Fine."

"Okay, so we’re here." He pointed at the sheet. "The next step is to break that one up," he pointed to the brownish-yellow stuff on the cookie sheet.

"When it’s in smaller pieces, you can use the mortar and pestle to grind it." He pointed to the large black stone on the table. "It’s a pain, but you have more control over the powder with it, and if we use a blender, the friction causes heat which would mess the whole thing up. Once that’s done, we add the blood and minced feather."

"Gross." I took the cookie sheet to the next table over and started pounding at the sheet of solid potion.

Whatever it was, the stuff was as hard as granite. A few more whacks and a jagged crack formed. After that, a couple more whacks and it shattered into manageable chunks. I read through the steps in the spell. It was to be as fine as powdered sugar.

This was going to take a while.

Working in circular motion to break the pieces faster, I separated out sections in the mortar and did a little at a time. It was boring as hell, but we had to get this right.

By the time the consistency was powdered sugar-like, I was sweating. I found a knife in the supply closet, and started mincing the feathers. The spell said that they had to be finely diced, but not grain-like. I got to chopping.

I rocked the knife back and forth on the table and found the motion to be surprisingly soothing. When the little bits seemed small enough, I added them in.

The book said it needed three stirs, counter-clockwise.

That done, I moved onto the next step. The blood.

I stared at the jar. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

I carefully unscrewed the lid and looked down at the paper again. "Christ. We need an eighth of a cup of this stuff?"

Xander paused from the green thing that he was breaking up to check his copy. "Yup. You got something to measure it?"

"Yeah." I took a breath and focused on happy thoughts, even if the blood made me a little queasy. I carefully measured it—not wanting to spill any on myself—and poured it into a glass pyrex, stirring to mix the elements together until it formed a thick paste, and then stopped stirring. Over-stirring would nullify the mixture. "This looks really foul."

"Good thing you don’t have to eat it," Xander said.

I made a gagging sound and the guys cracked up.

"Cool. I’ll take care of the last step on this one. I think this other step needs you to give it some of your juju."

Sounded awesome. I didn’t want to be around this sludge more than I had to be.