Penny stood at the railings, her hand holding it firmly as she looked at the empty space the elemental bearer had been standing a few seconds ago. The wind moved her hair around her face and she lifted her hand to push back her hair which had dried up in the time they had spent out on the patio.
“She’s right,” Penny said, turning her head to look at Damien, “No matter how many times we do the ritual the outcome is going to be the same. I am not even sure if I met the wind bearer before. What if I did and my mother erased the memory.”
Damien twisted his lips thinking about what the woman and Penny said, “Even if your mother did erase your memory, the bearer should have shown up by now. Maybe there’s some sort of order which needs to be followed. After all, you never summoned him and he came on his own. We need to see how to get hold of him,” she nodded her head to it.
“You are right. I should probably try rem-” Penny didn’t know what happened later. The next thing she knew she felt someone push her and she was on the other side of the railing.
Her eyes went wide as both Damien and she had not expected it to happen, her hand tried to grab the railing but she couldn’t. Damien, who had looked away for a second, jumped forward but the distance wasn’t enough to close as Penny had been pushed far away. Her body started to move down towards the water and Damien jumped following her, both of them falling into the cold water of the night.
With the force both of them fell into the water, their body submerged itself where Penny moved her hands trying to lift herself to surface back out of the water but the water was too cold that numbed her movements as well as mind.
She didn’t know why the ritual pointed her to have a water element when she was always being thrown into the water as if the water was waiting to engulf her to death.
Damien swam towards Penny, pulling her up for the second time in this sea of cold water. Swimming back to the land, Penny coughed as the water had gone into her mouth and nose. She continued to cough to have Damien rub her back to ease her coughing.
“What was that?” Penny wheezed for air, her hand on her throat while taking in air right now.
“You need to learn how to swim,” Damien proposed and she nodded her head.
“Yes, that too,” she was sure her mother had tried to use the voodoo doll on her but did she really want to drown her in water every single time? She placed her hand on her forehead, letting herself breathe out of the panic that had taken place right now.
After rubbing Penny’s back, Damien asked her, “I thought the voodoo magic wasn’t going to affect you anymore.”
“I thought so too,” Penny breathed heavily, “I placed the rosemary in and around the house. Got it planted by asking Durik too,” letting go of her head she turned to him to hear him say,
“Apparently it didn’t work.”
“It should have worked,” Penny responded back as she had made use of the rosemary plant when her mother had tried to work the voodoo magic which had deflected the spell away from her.
“Your mother seems very persistent in wanting you dead. She must love you dearly,” came the sarcastic remark from Damien, and Penny tried to manage to give him a smile that was unsure.
“Mother of the year,” muttered Penny under her breath, “Only if we could figure out somehow and receive my water element, I wouldn’t be getting pushed into it to be drowned in the water.”
“Stay away from the patio for now,” Damien pulled her to hug her close. He was glad that this time when it happened he was there to pull her out but it worried him on what could happen if the voodoo doll would work on Penny in a way where she would be forced again like today.
Going back into the room, both Damien and Penny changed their clothes and they got into bed. Penny had only washed her hair tonight and to dip back into the water, her body lulled to sleep quickly with her eyes closing as she slept next to him.
Damien let her sleep longer without moving until he was sure she was sound asleep. Opening his eyes he saw how she breathed softly in and out. Her lips slightly parted and the side of her head rested on the pillow near him.
Rolling out of the bed, he pulled the blanket closer to cover Penny’s body. Locking the door to the patio, he stepped out of the room and mansion to go meet his associate who was soundly sleeping in his small bed.
Kreme woke up with the knocking of the door wondering at first if it was the thunder of Bonelake that had woken him up.Scattering out of his bed, the man went to get his door with sleep-filled eyes until he caught sight of Master Damien, the pureblooded vampire who had shown up at his door.
“Sire!” Kreme straightened his back, pulling himself out of sleep to look at Damien.
“I have work for you. How good are you when it comes to drawing, Kreme?” the vampire asked Kreme that had the human blink his eyes wondering why the councilman wanted to know about his drawing skills in the middle of the night.
“Decent,” the man replied and Damien stepped inside the small house without permission.
“Get your parchment and your pencil,” without a question the man gathered the parchment and pencil that was filed in the morning by him.
Damien then started to describe what he wanted his subordinate to draw, detailing every feature he remembered and in forty minutes, Kreme had drawn what Damien wanted.
“Is this it, Master Damien?” Kreme asked looking at the person he had drawn. It was a woman who looked to be around in her thirties.
Damien didn’t respond to it immediately as he stared at the drawing before saying, “Make multiple copies of this and have it stuck in every village and town of Bonelake with a bounty on it.”
“How much do you want to place the bounty for?” Kreme inquired, waiting for the vampire to answer.
“Two hundred gold coins.”
