“Alright Maria,” Isabel said dryly the next morning in school. “You called us here at a very uncomfortable time last night, so this had better be important.” “See you later Ms. Marks,” Tess said pointedly as she glared at Isabel. The absentminded and eccentric art teacher smiled as she ran out of the classroom for a parent-teacher conference that she had scheduled, leaving her three student assistants alone. “Ok,” Tess added as she turned to Maria expectantly. “Start talking.” “There is no need to talk about anything,” Maria said with a dark look that made even Isabel and Tess shiver. Suddenly the bubbly and likeable Maria was looking more and more like a demented leopard about to attack. With a ice cold expression in her eyes, Maria went to the classroom door and shut it before returning to the table where she laid down a small object beside her ever present spell journal. “We have work to do. There is a situation with Courtney that we need to address, and I think we should address it now.” “Hey,” Tess said as she picked up the silver necklace that Courtney was never without. “Isn’t this Courtney’s? How did you get it off of her?” “We found it,” Isabel said as she took the spell journal and began to thumb through to the spell she knew Maria had composed with Courtney in mind. “Somehow it ended up at the Junior Hunters’ apartment. Maria here is going to get us to help her do this to it,” Isabel pointed to the spell, “so that she can keep tabs on Courtney.” “Hey,” Tess said in surprise as she scanned the spell. “Isn’t this the spell that you showed me in Bio.?” Maria nodded as Tess whistled under her breath. “Well, it’s got some of the same words as the spell that you showed me in Bio. Goddess above Maria,” Tess exclaimed as she looked at her friend in trepidation. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.” “Look,” Maria said sternly. “Let’s just get to work. I don’t know what it is but I’m getting the feeling that we don’t have much time to fool around anymore. Whatever it is that is coming for us is still coming and I can’t shake the feeling that the resident thorn in our side has something to do with it. I just found my soulmate and my soultwin, I’m not about to lose them because I wasn’t prepared to do whatever was necessary to protect them. Now are you guys in or not?” “What do you need us to do?” Isabel asked seriously, all joking was gone now. Tess moved to stand beside her and nodded at Maria. “I need you guys to just say it with me. I’ve made it so that only with the power of three can it be cast and only with the power of three can it be revoked. I’ve already purified the necklace and readied it for the spell…What?” She asked when they both stared at her in amazement. “I had some excess energy after some people,” she glared at them angrily, “came back a little early last night to check on us.” Both Isabel and Tess had the decency to blush. They really did feel bad about busting in on Michael and Maria like that, but well…they had no choice in the matter. “Come on Maria,” Isabel finally whined. “You can’t still be sore about that. We were merely looking after your best interest.” “Yeah,” Tess joined in with a blush. “I mean, Kyle and I heard Amy yelling for you to come home and we were on the other end of the beach. So you had better be glad that it was us four that came to get you and not your mom. I don’t think Aunt Amy would be to accepting of your relationship with Michael if she knew how intense it was.” “Fine you have a point there,” Maria said with a sigh. She supposed that she really should be glad that her interlude on the beach with Michael had been interrupted by her friends as to opposed to her very overprotective mother. “Now let’s get back on subject. We have more important things to do than talk about how my mom is gonna handle my sexlife.” “Well then let’s get started,” Isabel said with a serious look in her eye. Suddenly she was remembering just how she had felt earlier walking into that apartment and thinking that Alex and her brother had been in the middle of whatever had been going on in there. “What do you want us to stand for this?” “Basic triangle formation,” Maria said in a calm voice. “We only have a few minutes cause Michael, Kyle and Alex are going to skip out of class as soon as possible to meet us in here. We have a lot of things do, and I’d rather have this done before the guys get here and go into…” “Overprotective boyfriend mode?” Tess finished as she moved to the other side of the table. The girls were in a triangle now with the necklace in the middle. One by one they reached out their hands until they were all physically as well as mentally connected. “On the count of three we say it together,” Maria said to them in their minds. “One…two…three…” In darkness cloaked My thoughts unspoke As Hecate’s daughter I invoke With blood of thine I bind Work my will upon her mind With light’s fair veil Our powers we’ll weild Our vengeance thrice upon thee With every harm done A love’s heart is strung With every drop spilled Our power, our will For all those against Nature summon thee hence Child of hell Serve thy parents well Their combined voices fell silent as they felt a jolt of power run from their entwined hands into the locket. The silver locket briefly glowed red, then black before returning to its normal silver color. “She’s ours now,” Maria said as she scooped up the necklace and looked at it closely. “She won’t make a move that we won’t be party to. We control her and through her we have access to whatever she’s mixed up in and to wherever she put the Hunters.” “Then let’s go Hunting,” Michael said darkly as he enter the classroom with Kyle and Alex close behind him. “We’ve played nice way to long. Come on Maria,” he added as he held out a hand to his girlfriend. “Kyle and I will walk you and Tess to class so you can give Courtney that little trinket. What?” He said when the girls turned to look at him sharply. “You didn’t think that I would really be that blind to what you three were planning did you?” “Please,” Alex said as he grabbed Isabel’s hand to walk with her to class. “You three have had it out for Courtney since pre-school. This is the perfect opportunity. We knew as soon as you found the necklace that you would be cooking something up.” The bell rang, interrupting the rest of their conversation. The six of them made their way down the hall, Kyle with his arm wrapped protectively around Tess. Michael and Alex had taken the opportunity of a substitute teacher in their class to inform him of the situation and now he wasn’t going to let Tess out of his sight unless he had to. TBC

Part 25