Channie grabbed it before he dropped it. “No. Only the most powerful mages can manipulate non-living matter.”
“Can you fly?” He widened his eyes and lowered his voice. “Or cast a spell on me...so I can fly?”
“There’s a cost to every spell. It takes so much power to make something fly it’s rarely worth it.”
“But you could do it, if you needed to.”
“Yes. For instance, if CoCo had slipped when I was trying to haul him in off the roof, I could have cast a spell to lower him safely to the ground. But I would have to be fairly close to him to make it work. And I’d be so drained, I’d have to go to bed for a week.”
A spell like that would most likely kill her, but Josh was taking things much better than expected. He’d even let Daddy put a no-speak spell on him so he couldn’t tell anyone else about magic. Channie didn’t want to freak him out with too much information.
Josh put the last plate in the dishwasher and opened the cabinet under the sink. “Where’s your dishwashing detergent?”
“It’s right there in front of your nose. In the white bottle.”
“Nope, that’s only for hand washing dishes. You don’t want to use that stuff in a dishwasher. Believe me, I found out the hard way.”
“What happens if you do?”
“It overflows and spills soapsuds all over the place.” Josh kept digging around under the sink as he talked. “A couple of years ago, we were getting packed up to go to a race in Pueblo. It was my turn to do the dishes but we were out of dish detergent so I just filled the dispenser with Dawn. We were only gone for two days, but when we got back, the hardwood floors in the kitchen were so warped they looked like a BMX track.”
“Did you get a whipping?”
“What? No! Of course not. They knew I didn’t do it on purpose. And even if I had, they might ground me for a month or make me miss a race, but my parents would never hit me.”
“Never?”
Josh closed the cabinet door and turned around, but instead of standing up, he knelt on the floor and sat back on his heels. “Channie, do your parents beat you?”
“No.”
“Have they ever beaten you? Or the boys?”
“We’ve all been spanked, but those boys have never been switched, much less given a beating.” She didn’t mention the beating Daddy had given Abby when he found out she was pregnant.
“Switched? What’s that?”
“You know, whipped with a willow switch?”
“Jeeze! Your parents hit you with a stick?”
“A switch is not a stick and I haven’t been switched since I was about twelve-years-old. Are you telling me you’ve never been switched? Not once in your whole life?”
“No. I’ve never been spanked either. Not even with a bare hand.”
“Then how come you aren’t spoiled rotten?”
“What makes you think I’m not?”
“Are you?”
“Most definitely.” Josh grinned at Channie and said, “We have two choices. We can either unload the dishwasher and wash all these dishes by hand, or we can ride our bikes down to the 7-Eleven and buy a box of Cascade.”
Channie would have loved to use the fancy appliance, but since Daddy was trying to cooperate, she decided not to push any more of his buttons. “Let’s just do them by hand.”
Josh washed and rinsed the dishes and stacked them in the drain rack. Channie dried them with a dishcloth and put them away. She had to keep reminding Josh to keep his distance. Even though he wasn’t generating any lustful energy and Channie’s power-well was still pretty low from zapping him earlier, there was enough leftover magic in Chastity to zap him again if he got too close.
Josh asked, “So what sort of things can you do?”
“You mean other than curse boys?”
“Can you do any cool stuff like mind control?”
“When I still had my old power name, Enchantment, I could influence people to get what I wanted because they had such a strong desire to please me. But I could never make someone do anything they were dead set against. Magic can’t prevail over free will. I can’t make an honest person lie, or steal something for me. And I can’t make a liar tell the truth.”
“Can you...make someone fall in love with you?”
“No. Magic is powerful, but nothing is more powerful than love.” Channie lowered her voice. She didn’t want Momma or Daddy to hear what she was going to say. “The spell I used to make you kiss me is called a come-hither spell. It’s powerful magic, but it’s temporary—and it’s only lust, not love.”
Josh’s ears flamed red. He turned around and leaned against the counter. “What did you do to make your parent’s feel like they needed to change your name?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Josh didn’t know anything about Channie, but it still offended her. “They wanted to protect me from my sister’s fate.”
He pulled his eyebrows together. “To keep you from running away?”
Channie rolled her eyes. “To keep me from getting pregnant.”
“Jeeze, haven’t they ever heard of birth control?”
Channie nearly dropped the plate she was drying. “It’s not just that. They don’t want me to...you know…”
“Have sex?”
“Josh!”
“What? Sex isn’t a dirty word.”
“It is in this house!”
~***~
Josh was washing the last fork when music started pouring out of his pocket. He held the soapy fork in one hand, wiped the other on the side of his pants leg and pulled out a cell phone. He rolled his eyes as he flipped it open. Channie couldn’t understand what the person on the other end was saying, but who ever it was, they weren’t happy.
“I’m at a friend’s house. They invited me to stay for dinner ...
“You don’t know her ...
“Yeah, mom. It’s a girl. And you’re kind of embarrassing me. I’ll talk to you when I get home.”
Josh rolled his eyes again and turned his back as if that would keep Channie from hearing what he said. “I’ll come home as soon as I finish helping out in the kitchen, okay?”
There was a long pause while Josh listened to his momma give him a scolding.
“Whatever. I’ll see you when I get home.”
Channie asked, “Are you in trouble?”
“Nah. She’s just pissed off because—”
Josh gagged and started spitting in the trash can under the sink. Channie couldn’t help but hope that he’d wipe his tongue with his shirt again so she could get another glimpse of his belly. No such luck. He just leaned over the sink, turned the water on and rinsed his mouth out straight from the faucet.
“Yuck! What is that nasty taste?”
“It’s a clean-speech spell. Momma doesn’t like bad words.”
“I said a bad word?”
“You sure did.”
“What was it?”
Channie lowered her voice until it was barely a whisper and said, “P. I. S. S.”
Josh made a few more sour-lemon faces then finished explaining why his momma was upset.
“My little brother, Elijah, threw a huge fit when Mom got home from work because I didn’t rescue him from Mrs. Guffy in time for Sponge Bob.”
“Rescue?”
“Mrs. Guffy is a sweet little old lady that lives next door. She takes care of Lijah after school, until Mom or I pick him up. She feeds him homemade cookies and lemonade, but she makes him do his homework. I let him play video games and watch TV.”
Josh rinsed the fork and handed it to Channie instead of putting it in the drain rack. His hand barely grazed hers, but it sent a tingle up her arm. She looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
“I’m fine. That one didn’t hurt much.” Josh bumped her with his hip. He jerked and twitched when Chastity’s magic zinged him again—but he also laughed. “Maybe if I trigger the curse often enough, I can get used to it.”
Daddy’s voice drifted
into the kitchen from the parlor. “Don’t count on it.”
Chapter Five
THE RACE
Channie left for school fifteen minutes early the next morning. Josh was already there, waiting for her, sitting on the floor in front of his locker. He stood up as soon as he noticed her and grinned.
“Hey, Channie. What’s up?”
She couldn’t keep from grinning back at him. His smile was contagious. “Nothing much. How about you?”
“I’m great. Except for one little problem.”
“Oh? What’s wrong?”
“I’m grounded.”
“What’s grounded?”
“It’s a punishment. I can’t leave the house except to go to school, to practice, or to a race for the next two weeks. It really sucks.”
“Does this mean you can’t come over to my house?”
“I could sneak out tonight—if you want to meet me in the park, sometime around midnight?” Josh’s voice was deeper, seductive. Chastity’s magic buzzed. Channie frowned and took a step back.
Josh drew his eyebrows together. “What’s wrong?”
“You know ...” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “My curse.”
“No way. I swear I wasn’t thinking anything...inappropriate.”
“Really? What were you thinking?”
A faint blush crept into Josh’s cheeks and across the tops of his ears. “I was thinking that I would really like to talk to you again, without worrying about anyone overhearing us.”
“That’s all?”
“Pretty much.”
“That wouldn’t trigger the curse.”
Josh’s ears and cheeks went from pink to cherry red. “Well, I might have...sort of...maybe...been thinking that you look really nice today.”
“So do you. Your eyes are so beautiful.” Heat flooded Channie’s face and neck. Josh was an Empty, with no magical abilities whatsoever, so why did she feel compelled to blurt out the first thing that flitted across her mind every single time she looked into his eyes?
Josh’s grin widened. “Uh...thanks. So are yours. They’re really...green.” His energy field buzzed with power. There was plenty of lust but it was mixed with...affection? It was hard to get a clear read on Josh’s energy when her own was so active.
Magic percolated under Channie’s skin. She took another step back. Apparently, Josh couldn’t take a hint. He stepped closer and pulled a folded red triangle of paper out of his back pocket. He tried to hand it to Channie. “Your dad mentioned that he might like to come see me race on Saturday. This flyer has all the info.”
Josh was too close, but with her back against the wall of metal lockers, and two couples making out on either side of her, Channie had no room to maneuver. She was trapped.
Chastity’s magic pulsed and surged, feeding off the lust in the now crowded hall. Sparks of power shot across Channie’s skin. She shook her head and said, “Josh, don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
Channie held on with all her strength but it didn’t do any good. Power shot out of her with a blue-white flash and hit Josh in the middle of his chest. He flew backwards and slammed into the opposite wall of lockers with a metallic crash. Everyone stopped what they were doing, even the couples making out, and stared at Josh. He swore and shoved the paper through the vents of Channie’s locker then spun around and took off, pushing and weaving his way through the curious onlookers.
Channie wanted to cry. Even though Josh believed in magic and understood that the curse was hard for her to control, that didn’t mean he’d be willing to put up with it just to be her friend. She blinked back the tears that threatened to undermine her tough-girl persona and read the note Josh had shoved inside her locker...
Help us kick off the fall season with the nationally sanctioned BIG AIR Series.
Come support the Redman/Rockstar National Factory Team and nationally ranked number one and two in their age-groups…
Josh “The Jet” Abrim and Wesley “The Weasel” Wickam.
Below the text was a map with detailed directions to the race track. Channie hoped with all her heart that she hadn’t hurt Josh bad enough to cost him the race.
She was disappointed but not surprised when Josh failed to show up for their first period class. Channie’s concern turned to anxiety when she went to get her bicycle at the end of the day and Josh wasn’t there. She’d zapped him pretty hard, but he should have been fully recovered by now. His funny little bike was still chained to the rack so he had to be around here somewhere. She waited as long as she dared, but when it was obvious Josh wasn’t coming, she went home.
As soon as everyone else was asleep, Channie snuck out through her bedroom window. Momma and Daddy couldn’t keep her from leaving any old time she felt like it, but she couldn’t keep them from cursing Josh if she made them mad enough. She sat on the picnic table under the pavilion in Heritage Park where she’d kissed Josh and waited. He never showed up.
~***~
Josh wasn’t at school the next day either.
When Channie saw Eric fiddling with the combination on his locker and talking on his phone, she got an idea.
“Hey Eric, I need to borrow your phone.”
He barely glanced at her then turned his back and strode off down the hall without opening his locker. Channie felt her power build as she ran after him. She put a hand on Eric’s shoulder and let a little magic trickle out to reinforce her request. “I said, I need to borrow your phone.”
He twitched and jerked away from her. “Stay away from me, freak.”
Channie wanted to hit him with everything she had, but she maintained control and only used a tiny bit of power to zap Eric. He yelped and dropped his phone. What a wuss. Channie picked his phone up off the floor and said, “Thanks, Eric.” But he was already gone.
However, the person he’d been talking to, was still on the line.
“Eric? Baby? What happened? Are you there?”
Channie said, “Sorry, Eric’s not available.”
“Who is this?”
“Channie Belks.” She didn’t need to ask who she was talking to, she recognized Kassie's nasally-rich-girl voice.
“What the hell are you doing with Eric’s phone?”
“I’m borrowing it.” It gave her a great deal of pleasure to antagonize the girl that had called her an inbred hillbilly. “I don’t have time to chat. Bye-bye.” Channie closed the phone and waited a few seconds. When she reopened it, Kassie was gone.
Channie had been watching the other kids use their phones since Daddy had agreed to buy her one so it didn’t take her long to figure out how to use Eric’s. Josh answered on the first ring.
“What do you want, jackass?”
“Josh?”
“Uh...Channie?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing with Eric’s phone?”
“I borrowed it.” Channie leaned against her locker. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“How come you didn’t come back to school?”
“I’m in the hospital.”
“The hospital! What are you doing in the hospital?”
“I’m fine. I just made the mistake of going to the nurse after you...after I started feeling bad. When the school called my mom to come get me, they told her my heart beat was a little erratic. She panicked and took me straight to the hospital. Hang on a minute.” Josh muffled his phone, but Channie could still hear him. “Come on, Mom. Give me a little privacy. Go grab a cup of coffee or something...okay, Channie, I’m back.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? An erratic heartbeat could be serious.”
“I’m fine. I promise. They did a bunch of tests—I feel like a damned pincushion—but they didn’t find anything wrong with me. I guess there isn’t a lab test for magical curses.”
Josh laughed, but Channie didn’t. “If it’s not serious, why are you still in the hospital?”
“Probably because m
y mom was so freaked out. They gave me an IV and insisted on keeping me overnight for observation. A pediatric cardiologist just checked me out an hour ago. He said the school nurse must have made a mistake because my heart is in excellent condition and there’s no reason I can’t race tomorrow.”
“That’s fantastic.”
Josh said, “I sort of miss you.”
Channie grinned and wondered what a pediatric cardiologist would say about her irregular heartbeat if he could hear it now. “I sort of miss you too.”
“So...are you going to come see me race?”
“The whole family’s coming. I showed Daddy that paper you gave me.” After he promised not to curse Josh. “He’s so excited, he can hardly stand it.”
“What about you?”
Channie spoke without thinking.
“I can’t wait to see you again.” She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against her locker. She’d better learn to keep her mouth shut. If Daddy ever heard her say something that forward to a boy—he’d kill her in her sleep.
Josh laughed and said, “Guess what I just figured out? Your curse can’t touch me when we’re this far apart.”
“Of course not, silly. I’m a mage, not a super-hero.” Channie giggled then realized she was being rude. She’d never explained the law of distance to Josh. “How did you figure it out on your own?”
“I...Uh...think I hear my mom talking to the nurses in the hall. I need to go. But, tell Eric I appreciate him letting you borrow his phone.”
“He didn’t exactly let me. I sort of coerced him.”
“How?”
“He was talking to his girlfriend, so I just tapped into his lustful energy and zinged him a little then picked his phone up off the floor when he dropped it.”
“Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. I swear I didn’t hurt him. It wasn’t anything like what I did to you—which was an accident. You know that, right? You know I’d never hurt you on purpose.”
“I sure hope not.”
Channie had a hard time returning Eric’s phone. Every time he saw her, he ran away. She finally caught up with Kassie between classes and gave it to her. Pissing her off was a huge bonus.
~***~
Daddy waited until bedtime to give Channie her new cell phone. She was too excited to be mad at him for not giving it to her sooner and stayed up till eleven-thirty studying the instruction book.
She couldn’t wait to tell Josh about her new phone, but she didn’t want to wake him if he was already asleep. His ringtone for phone calls was a song called “Next Go Round” and it was loud enough to wake his whole family. His text message alert was a high-pitched noise that most adults couldn’t even hear, but it would still wake him if his phone was turned on and Channie didn’t want to disturb his sleep the night before his big race.