Blood of the Pure [COMPLETE]

Chapter 1 - Part 5

Part 5

As expected, the house was empty when I returned home. And so I went to the kitchen and started on the steaks my mom had seasoned and left out for dinner. While the rice cooked I took a quick shower and put on my old bears pajamas, something I had since I was twelve and that still fit me perfectly. I dried my hair so it wouldn't turn out even more disheveled than it already was, and went down once more to grill the meat. I ate too aware of the time and the homework I still had to do, and saved Rachel's dinner in the oven, so she could have it when she returned.

Before going up to my room, I passed by the living room to grab my things and dropped them on my desk before practically fainting on the bed.

We'd walked the whole afternoon and my feet throbbed painfully. Besides, it had been a long day and I felt really tired.

Classes, the thing with Michael, the strange woman and her even stranger reading, the heavy book I had been forced to carry around all afternoon, the stores we had visited and that, by the end of the day, had been packed with people, the constant dressing and undressing. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wondered if I still had enough energy to study.

My eyes found the old book under the bag with the only jersey I'd ended up buying. I'd promised to take good care of it, which meant finding it a place in one of my overcrowded bookshelves. With a sigh I stood up once more and picked it up, feeling how soft its leather cover was, and ended up sitting on my bed with it resting on my legs. The engraved title glistened lightly under the lamp light and I couldn't help notice that, even though its letters had looked silvery in the store, now they were more of a metallic red. The title, Magic Spells and Enchantments, made me smile.

It sounded more like one of those children's book, filled with fairy tales, and so I opened it carefully to take a closer look. As expected from such an old volume, the pages were yellowish and some of the corners had crumbled from old age. All the pages had a silver frame and the letters inside it were similar to the ones in the cover, almost as if they'd been handwritten. To my surprise, as I flipped through it, I noticed that unlike a tales' book or even a romance, its structure reminded me more of a cooking book, filled with recipes carefully organized by chapters. I looked for the index, which was also divided in three sections, and read it out loud.

"Magic Spells - of Friendship, of Love, of Communication, to Heal, of Prosperity, of Protection, of Purification, of Spiritual Evolution, to Bless, to Cast Away, to Cause Pain, to Be Successful, to Cause Failure, to Bind, Spells and Curses. Enchantments - of Animals, of Elementals, of Spirits, of Minerals, of Objects, of People, of Plants. Magic Circles of Protection, Seals and Talismans ..."

I could almost laugh, or I knew I should probably be laughing. But since I was alone there was no need for me to act accordingly and so I simply caressed the shiny letters. It really sounded like something out of some fantasy movie. How could someone living in the twenty-first century believe in things like that?

Still my eyes stopped over a page number written in roman characters and my hands flipped through the yellow pages once again. On the top of the page, in letters that ended in delicate swirls, was written - 'Love Spells.'

Smiling in what I knew would be a perfect expression of amusement, I went through the next pages reading the titles of the magic recipes that filled the chapter.

'To attract a rich husband (or wife),' 'To make sure of fidelity,' 'To attract a new love,' 'To avoid jealousy,' 'To enjoy a satisfying sexual life,' 'To protect lovers,' 'To attract a predestined love ...'

My eyes stopped on that page, refusing to read more than the title. What the old woman had told me replayed in my mind. She had also spoken of a predestined love.