Ana Mourns (The Clermont Coven Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Damien looked between the two of us. There was a flash of something in his eyes, maybe jealousy, which didn’t really make sense, but it was gone too quickly for me to be certain. “Your mom said you were out with Alex today. I hoped I might be able to catch the two of you here.”

  “You went to my house?”

  “It seemed like the place I was most likely to find you or be able to find out where you were.” He smiled. “Mom wanted to make sure you heard about the party we’re throwing, and I wanted to make sure that the both of you were coming.”

  Sharing a look with Alex, I did my best to seem calm when I looked back at Damien, this fake smile on my lips. “I don’t know if we can. I think we already had plans for that night.”

  “Can’t you change them? It’s not like this is going to be the kind of thing we do every day, and you were the first person who took the time to get to know me. I really would like it if you could be there.” His eyes met mine. For a moment, I thought I could feel the way he was trying to change my thoughts, which was uncomfortable, to say the least. “Obviously, if your plans are that important, I understand, but…”

  Alex squeezed my hand gently. “That’s entirely up to Ana. I don’t mind one way or the other, but I know how important our time together is to her.” He glanced at me. “What do you want to do? I won’t feel at all hurt if you decide to go to the party.”

  “Both of you are invited.” Damien shrugged. “It would be similar to a date, but at my place instead. Mom’s never been this excited about moving before, and I know Jessie’s really looking forward to it, because she’d like a chance to get to know you better. Being able to do something like this is unusual for us, but Clermont is the only place that’s ever truly felt like home.”

  What I really wanted to say was no, but I had a feeling that no wasn’t going to go down well. I knew I needed to say yes, even though I didn’t want to go, in order to make sure everyone I cared about would be safe. Giving Alex another look, grateful he knew me well enough to know exactly what I was thinking, I turned back to Damien with a smile. “I guess we can change things around a bit. I don’t know if we can stay for the whole night. I’m honestly not much of a party person, but we can make an appearance, at least for a little while, and see how things go.”

  “Great.” Damien looked relieved. “I’ll make sure to pass that on to Mom, because I know she’s been wanting to meet you for a while.”

  Chapter Eight

  “We’re all going.” Sabrina’s eyes met mine. “I don’t see it being that complicated.”

  Sabrina being the only one who didn’t know there was a problem did make things more difficult. Part of me wanted to tell her, but I knew it was best for her not to know everything. I nibbled my bottom lip. “It probably won’t be, but we need to be ready for the worst-case scenario because we don’t know the Easons. We have no idea what a party at their place is going to be like. I don’t trust them.”

  “None of us do.” The way James spoke almost made it possible to see the way his tails were twitching. He probably had a better idea of what we were dealing with than Sabrina. “That’s why the best thing we can do is try to stay together, all four of us, and not do anything that might lead to any of us being in danger.”

  “It’s a house party.” Sabrina looked at James. “How much danger do you think we could be in?”

  “More than you realize. It only takes one spiked drink, Brina.” He shook his head. “There might not be any reason to worry, but I do believe it’s better to be safe than sorry, especially in these kinds of situations. I know it’s ‘just’ a party. At the same time, parties are the places where things are most likely to go wrong, even if the parents are there. How are they going to be able to stop us from taking alcoholic drinks when there are just four of them? I know my parents aren’t going to be watching over me that closely, and it really does seem likely we’d split into two parties - the adult party, and our party.”

  “James is right.” I sighed. “Going into this without being prepared for every possibility could very well lead to one of us making bad choices.” I squeezed Alex’s hand under the table. Once I got home, I was going to see if there was some way I could protect them from having anything done to their memories. “Considering what we’ve already been through, it makes the most sense to not trust the Easons yet. We don’t know who they might end up being.”

  “Unfortunately.” Sabrina sighed. “Finding out Principal Woods was capable of murder wasn’t something I could ever have imagined, yet that’s exactly what happened, even if most people don’t know about it.”

  “That’s going to make them much more trusting of Principal Eason than we will be, which isn’t a bad thing. Being the ones to keep a watch over things is definitely going to be for the best. I hate that we need to do it, but as James said, it is definitely better to be safe than sorry. We know what people are capable of. I don’t want to make bad choices that might lead to us being in an even more complicated position than we were before.” I looked at Sabrina. She had to wonder why her wounds wouldn’t heal, but it wasn’t something she’d ever brought up before. “We don’t need to make it obvious we’re suspicious of them. All we need to do is act as we would normally, while also keeping our eyes open. Personally, I’ve always been the kind of person who stays close to the people I know at a party.”

  “As am I.” Alex smiled. “Keeping together is the most logical thing we can do, so we make certain that’s what we do.” He glanced at me. “I know there have been certain issues with Damien may be showing a little more interest in Ana than she’s truly comfortable with, so I’ll make sure to stay with her, to keep her as safe as possible.”

  For a few seconds, Sabrina stared at him. “Do you really think he’s that much of a danger?”

  “No, not really, but I want Ana to feel comfortable, and I know she doesn’t feel comfortable around him. It makes much more sense for me to stay with her, so she doesn’t need to worry about being rude.” He shrugged. “It’ll also keep me from being cornered by Jessie, since I have heard that might be a possibility. I don’t have any interest in anyone who isn’t Ana, and I get the feeling she isn’t the kind who’d take no for an answer, so I don’t want to have to tell her no.”

  Damien sat with me in chemistry. I felt uncomfortable, but I tried to focus more on the work than on him. The only problem with that was the way he kept looking at me. I could feel his eyes on me. Ignoring it slowly became harder and harder, until finally, I glanced over at him. “What’s up?”

  “I don’t know that anything’s up.” He shrugged. “I was just wondering how you ended up with Alex. I don’t see the two of you spending any time together in school.”

  “We often don’t. There’s no real reason to. He does his thing, and I do mine. Then we get together after school. Most of the time, he’ll come to hang around my house, since it’s quieter there, but he also knows I have things going on sometimes. He’s also never been the kind to push.”

  “How often do you spend time together?”

  “At least four or five times a week, normally. If we have busy weeks, it might be less, but we do always make sure to get together on a Saturday evening to do something, and that’s how things have always worked for us.”

  “Jessie said it was a little unusual. Sabrina and James spend all their time together here, so it’s definitely different compared to them.”

  “Alex and I don’t compare our relationship to those of other people, in part because we’re happy with things the way they are. We don’t see any reason to act like anyone else, purely because other people think we should. It might be unusual, but we’re unusual people. I have things I need to do after school, which is something he’s always understood.”

  “So that’s what makes it harder? Can’t Alex join you for whatever it is?”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Damien, but why does this even matter to you?” I shook my head. “My relationship with Alex has nothing to do w
ith you, really.”

  “I only want to understand you better, Ana.” I could feel that sensation again, like he was trying to make me to think a certain way, but I was still stronger than him. He wasn’t going to get me to think the way he wanted me to, no matter how hard he tried. “Your relationship with Alex has to be a big part of your life, but from the outside, it really doesn’t seem that way. I know he was sitting with you this morning while you were talking to Sabrina and James. I thought about coming over, but the bell rang before I could. I just…I barely know him. I’ve spent a lot of time with Sabrina and James, so I guess I just wanted to understand why things worked out the way they did. I’m sorry if you think I’m prying.”

  “No, I get it. From the outside, I can see how it would look strange, but it’s really not that way on the inside.”

  Mom was home again when I walked into the house. “Okay, why aren’t you at work this time?”

  “We need to talk, Ana.” She gave me a smile, and that was enough to worry me because of what I knew about who she’d become. “Madeline was telling me how Damien hasn’t stopped talking about you since the day he started at Clermont High. I know you have some kind of flirtation going on with Alex, but do you really think he’s someone you’re going to be with far into the future, like I am with your dad?”

  “This is not a conversation we’re going to have.” I shook my head. “You’ve never gotten involved in my life before. I don’t want you starting now.”

  “Ana, that isn’t fair. You never let me be a part of your life before. I really thought we were trying to change that.” Mom stepped closer to me. “The only way that’s going to happen is if we both work towards things being different. You can’t keep blowing hot and cold on me. I know things have been hard because we’ve moved so much, but now that we’re here, we have a chance to start again. To actually get to know one another.”

  Raising an eyebrow, I studied her. “I already know who you are, Mom.” I almost managed a smile, but it didn’t quite work out. “You might not be willing to accept that’s who you are, who you were, and who you will always be, but my memories are still the same as they always were.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “Why did you leave Clermont?”

  She sighed. “You know why. After the accident, I couldn’t stay here. There were too many memories. William and I made the decision together, because I couldn’t be here, and that is the best choice I could have made. Being able to come back decades later helped some of those memories to fade.”

  “How well did you get on with your mom?”

  “As well as could be expected, considering the fact that we were two very different people.” Mom shrugged. “I loved her, she loved me, and we did the best we could, even if it wasn’t always easy. We argued occasionally about how she wanted me to live my life, but that’s normal.” She nodded. “Okay, I see where you’re going with this. Every time Mom did something like this, I didn’t appreciate it either. I’m sorry. I wasn’t saying I thought you should get into a relationship with Damien, though now I can see why you would think that. No, I just want to understand you better.”

  Looking down, all I could think was how much better she knew me before her memories were taken and how much Madeline had to pay for undoing all the progress we had made together. Mom wasn’t dead, but she was as good as dead. All the time she’d spent teaching me what she knew about being a witch was gone, because she didn’t remember being a witch. I had no idea how I was meant to get through a week of her being someone so different. Once the party was over, I could test out some of my ideas to get her memories back, and then we could go from there, the two of us working towards the same goal again. Hopefully. I raked a hand through my hair as I tried to work out what to say next, especially as it seemed like everyone wanted to understand me better. Everyone who happened to be an Eason.

  “My decisions are mine.” I shrugged. “You might not like them, you might not agree with them, but I’m not going to change them purely because that’s what you believe I should do.”

  “I know, and I wouldn’t ask that of you.” She reached out to take my hands. “All I want is to help you make the best choices you can. When it comes to the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, I don’t think you can ever be too careful, and I have to admit, I’ve never much liked Alex. He’s always been someone I haven’t quite been able to get comfortable with, like he’s always judging me silently, and I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t believe it wasn’t in your best interest. If I can’t get on with him now, do you really think you’re going to be able to spend the rest of your life with him?”

  Chapter Nine

  Before the Easons, Mom hadn’t had anything against Alex. Now that they were the ones in charge of her memories, it was obvious she wasn’t going to like him, because they were going to keep trying to push me in the direction of Damien. What I didn’t really get was why they were bothering. Did they really believe they were going to save the three of us from death by taking our memories of being witches? I could see how that might be a possibility, but…there was only one journal that talked about the vampires, and Violet had said she was the one who’d been close to Damien before, without ever actually saying much about him as a person. Maybe it was better that way. If she didn’t think about him too much as a person, it would be a hundred times easier for her to kill him. Unfortunately, their plans hadn’t worked out. The vampires had survived. Violet, at the time, was the only living member of the coven because all the others had been killed, which really wasn’t a good sign.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, I turned my attention back to the spell I was crafting. If the Easons were able to change the memories of the people who were around them, there were two things I needed to be able to do. One was to give back the memories that were lost. To be honest, I didn’t think they were truly taken. I thought they were overwritten, so the old memories were still there, but the memories that had been created were so strong, it was impossible to regain the old ones. The second thing was to make it impossible for the memory to be overwritten in the first place. I was going to give that to Sabrina, James, and Alex, so they could be safe at the party. Damien had already been trying to affect my mind, and it hadn’t worked. I didn’t need a spell to protect me from him. What I needed was to keep my distance, but that wasn’t going to be easy. I never should have tried to get to know him.

  As I looked through long lists of herbs, I tried to work out what would be best to use for that specific spell, because that was the one that came first. I’d bottle it and then make sure they drank it before we walked into the party. I wasn’t going to let my friends be changed by the Easons. I wasn’t going to lose them to a group of vampires who would do what they could to isolate me. That was why they would try to make it impossible for Alex to say no to spending time with Jessie, in the belief that she’d probably be able to make him think the two of them were working towards being in a relationship with one another, and possibly even take away his memory of what happened with Principal Woods.

  Miss Cane stepped into the sanctuary. “How are you getting on?”

  “Not too badly.” I glanced back at her. “I’m still working on the best herb mix to use, because I’m not going to have a chance to really test this. They’re going to be walking into the party with just this between them and their memories being overwritten by whatever the Easons want to put there.”

  “There is a chance James will be safe even without it. He is a kitsune. I still think you should give him the potion, in order to be certain, as long as you believe it is going to work.”

  “Believing is all I can do right now. Every time I have to talk to Mom, it’s a reminder of why I can’t go through this again.” I shook my head. “I understand why they went for her first. Mom was always going to be the one who was easiest to work on, and it also means it affects both of us.”

  “Lilah has barely spoken to me since they changed her memories. She doesn’t know she’s a witch, and she doesn
’t know what she went through in order to get to be who she is now. Not that she is the same person she was a week ago. Madeline has been letting her take extra time off, as she’s been looking for a new job, which I know is Madeline trying to get her away from me. I feel like I might be able to help her to regain her old memories, but I don’t want to try until I can be certain it’s not going to cause any more problems.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry you have to deal with her every day.”

  “It could be worse.” I shrugged. “There was no warning?”

  “From what I know, it’s likely the vampires kept any Seers from being able to See what was coming next, because they wanted this to be a surprise. I wish we knew more about their capabilities, even though part of me thinks what we already know is bad enough, because their ability to create memories for people…it’s not something witches have ever been able to do.”

  “Us not having that ability isn’t a bad thing. I’ve been thinking a lot about what Violet wrote in her journal, as she was the only witch left after the attack on the vampires, and she said that everyone who’d fought had died. The coven barely existed, but there were those who had their memories changed. After the vampires left, it seemed like Violet never mentioned them again, and that…maybe it has to do with time. The longer someone has those different memories, the more likely they won’t be able to regain the old ones. If that’s the case, we can’t leave Mom like this for too much longer.”

  “Just until after the party.” Miss Cane stepped to one side. “Are you willing to share your notes with me?”