Chapter 5: Quality, I Possess, Some Say I'm Fresh

Sometimes, the wrong thing is the best thing you can do and the right thing is the worst thing you could do.

Very few people would have understood my relationship with Julia Ann. After my father's death, I was lost. It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that your life works when in reality you've only adjusted to the constant movement needed to keep your balance. I had been spiraling to the point that the Coven's entrance into my life was actually a destabilizing force even though I thought they gave a new foundation. It wasn't until I woke the next morning pressed against Julia Ann's back that I found a new equilibrium.

We cleaned the house, throwing away every scrap that reminded us of her ex-boyfriends. My father's pictures went back up on the walls. We switched bedrooms; she thought with the Coven I needed the master bedroom more than she did. I agreed, thinking that unless one of the girls stayed over Julia Ann would be in my bed anyway.

Julia Ann found a group to talk about my father's death and the search for her own equilibrium, which had put her on the path of being abused.

We fucked morning, afternoon, and night.

Having Julia Ann changed things for me. Sex with her was very different than with the girls. It was more! I wanted the same with the Coven. I took Julia Ann's advice and treated them like my girlfriends.

Jenaveve was the first because I lost my virginity with her. I stopped having sex with the Latin girl so we could go out on a couple of dates. Jenaveve was confused for a bit but got into my teenage attempt at seduction. After a week of slow burn, she arranged for a night together by having Barbie cover for her. I used everything that being with Julia Ann taught me on Jenaveve. It was different too.

I moved on to Barbie ... it was a mistake.

Trying to be romantic with five girls who talked about EVERYTHING with each other was tough. Julia Ann told me that I couldn't seduce the girls in the same way: different restaurants, schedules, and conversations. They had to feel like I was treating each of them special.

I sat in the gym bleachers staring at the ceiling windows. A couple of nights before had been the sex portion of me treating Barbie like a girlfriend instead of someone who had given me power over her. She cried! I didn't really know what to think about it, so I was moving on to figuring out how to be original with Gianna.

"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT MY MOTHER!" Barbie screamed. All the boys stopped and turned towards the girls' side of the gym. The divider between sides of the gym was not up so we had a good view of the action. Three girls were tripping over themselves to get away from Barbie. I frowned recognizing the beauties that had been hazing the leader of the Coven.

"Oh shit!" I whispered when flames shot up from the girls' bleachers. Barbie's body was covered in blue flames. Her eyes sparked with red fire.

The blonde walked down the bleachers after the girls.

"You cunts!" Barbie yelled and raised her hands. The three girls split and ran for it, which saved their lives as Barbie's fireballs exploded on the spot they'd been standing.

The gym teachers approached Barbie but changed their minds when the blonde's eyes tracked to them. Barbie raised her hands and the doorways to the gym filled with flames. The three girls' escape was cutoff! They turned towards Barbie and knelt down, screaming for her not to kill them. I had never seen so much terror on anyone's face.

An epiphany hit me--a girlfriend was the last thing Barbie wanted to be. It would mean being a normal teenage girl. It would mean being happy while her mother still suffered.

Barbie's flames burned white-hot! I stood up and jumped down the bleacher steps one by one. Walking about ten feet behind Barbie, I put my hands on my hips.

"That's enough, Barbie!" I yelled over the three girls' pleading.

Barbie turned towards me. "Don't, Michael."

"You've made your point," I told her. "They're probably going to beg mommy and daddy to transfer them away from you."

"Do you know what they said about my mom?" Barbie looked at the girls and raised her hands towards them.

"Barbie, no!"

The blonde lowered her hands and took a deep breath. Raising her hands, she shot a stream of fire at me.

"She's gonzo," I whispered as the flames enveloped me.

"Michael!" CJ yelled when the fire extinguished as Barbie took a breath. The tiny Asian girl had the same gym period as Barbie and me. I frowned at her; she did not try to stop Barbie.

"Shit!" I said.

CJ was moving towards me fast! At the last second, her movement sputtered. I spun and put a back kick into her gut. CJ went flying backwards and rolled to Barbie's feet. If the blonde had been about to gain control, watching one of her Coven get trounced sent her back into the stratosphere. Barbie put both her hands together and shot a bar of white light towards me. It struck my chest, but I felt nothing from it. I walked toward Barbie. Her face turned red and she appeared to bear down more and more on the beam.

"Hmm," I said when the light disappeared. Barbie looked like she was still doing something, but it must have crossed into being more Magic Energy than a fire construct. I shrugged and kept walking forward.

I grabbed Barbie by her wrists. Pulling her against my body, I made her look into my eyes.

"Stop!" I told her. Bawling piteously, Barbie collapsed into my arms.

CJ groaned.

"You need to leave," I told the three girls at the doorway. "If you even look at Barbie the wrong way again, you're going to wish I'd let her roast you."

"Why did you attack me?" I asked CJ. Barbie's dad was driving us to their home. CJ sat in the front seat. Barbie and I were in the backseat. The blonde was asleep with her head in my lap.

"She lost it, Michael," CJ told me. "But she needed to hit bottom."

"Jumping me helped?"

"Barbie would have stopped," CJ replied. "What if you weren't there the next time?"

"You can't stop her?" I asked. "There are four of you."

"We're sisters." The set of her shoulders and neck told me the conversation was over.

CJ stayed with Barbie in the blonde's room. Gianna, Persephone, and Jenaveve appeared a half hour later so I decided to head out.

"Michael, can you come in here?" Barbie's dad asked from the living room.

I walked in and sat down. "How is the school going to handle this?"

"They'll ignore it," he told me. "Barbie proved she could be quite destructive even if you stopped her from doing any real harm."

"The kids might think it's a trick," I said.

"Jenaveve and Gianna spread around a couple of rumors that you're the real leader of the Coven."

I whistled. "Your idea?"

Mixed Covens were not so uncommon, but they usually didn't form among kids.

"I thought Barbie might lose control eventually," he told me.

"And you didn't do anything about it?"

"Barbie hates me for what happened to her mother," he replied softly. "She blames herself, but she thinks I should not have let her mother do it."

"Do you hate yourself? Do you blame yourself?" I asked.

"For what happened to Barbie and her mother." He stared at the wall. "I try to figure out what I could have taught Barbie that would have prevented her from being tricked."

I sat back in the chair.

"He's a master of deception." He wept for a few seconds before he gained control of himself.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"One of the most powerful Wizards in the country, maybe the most powerful behind Tolson," he replied. "I've seen his Black Grimoire--it's got hundreds and hundreds of pages. No one challenges him! Our government has a hands-off policy for that monster.""

"How the hell did Barbie get on that guy's radar?" I asked.

"He saw her on the street. I heard that every few years he does it to an innocent--tricks them into Magical slavery. My wife figured it out first."

"She didn't tell you!" I leaned towards him.

He shook his head.

"But Barbie blames you for her mother taking the deal!"

"Any pain my daughter pushes on me instead of herself is fine with me," he sighed and smiled weakly. "I would take all the blame and hatred in her heart on myself if I could."

He went back to staring at the wall. "You can help her, Michael."

"I doubt it! I'm pretty sure I caused her to lose it."

He nodded. "I can tell you that you did."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically. "Who knew treating someone like a human being instead of like a piece of meat would bite me in the ass!"

"She can't fight you," he told me.

"A whole lot of people saw it today," I said. "If we want to hide that I'm a WellSpring, we're going to need more than a few rumors."

"I wasn't talking about Magic," he replied. "She entered the Covenant willingly. You can help stabilize her."

"I don't understand?"

"CJ is right--Barbie has hit bottom. You can make her come to you when she's dropping again. You can make my daughter accept help!"

I thought about it for a second. "My stepmother goes to a support group for abused women."

He nodded. "Tell Barbie to go."

I twiddled my thumbs.

"I thought you would go further, considering the power they gave you over them," he told me. "You haven't even made them Spell other women into your bed."