Page 49 of Midlife Vampire Unexpected

“Noted,” Mae agreed.

Jane looked at Kartika pensively. “I can do a mind meld.”

We all looked at Jane as though she was crazy.

“You want to have that experience?” Trina said. “It won’t help her. It’ll give you the same experience she’s living at the moment.”

“We have to change what she is thinking about,” Hilda explained. “We have to override it.”

“How do we do that?” Mae asked.

“With a very powerful magical spell we all have to put everything into.” I’d never seen Hilda look so serious about anything.

Chapter 35

Mae, Bianca, Jane, Hilda, and Trina turned up to help with the spell. They had even shut the bakery down to bring Anita and Drake over. Jane did a quick compulsion spell on Sheriff Ted so he gave us access to Kartika and even stood guard at the door.

“We have to build a better feeling for her to counterbalance what the wraith did,” Hilda explained. “A wraith works by controlling your thoughts, so we need to make a golden light. A bubble of happy thoughts to bring out all the best moments of Kartika’s life. That’s the only way it’s going to override what she’s going through.”

“How do we do that?” I asked.

“I want each one of you to think of the best experiences you ever had in your life.”

Instantly the night with Antonio came to mind. I felt the tingling in my body of those good sensations. My skin heated up and a vibration of light surrounded me.

“Once you feel energy of goodness, dig deeper,” Hilda said. “Find other memories that are sparked by the feel-good sensation. It doesn’t have to be the same type of memory. Then we’re going to feed those feelings into a light bubble.” She raised her chin to Trina, who nodded. A moment later, glowing above the bed, was a huge bubble of golden light.

“We have to fill it up with good memories and good moments.”

“We’ve got this,” Bianca said.

I stood there silently for a moment, waiting for my thoughts to simmer down. Antonio was there in the forefront, but right behind him were years and years of unhappy memories of trudging to work. Those years had felt like living in quicksand. I’d been trying to fight the good fight, of going to work every day trying to find camaraderie with my colleagues before going home alone at night. As I went farther back, I found memories from my childhood of joy and light and color. I remembered sunlight dappling on my arms as I ran through the sprinkler and the warm breeze of a summer’s day as I lay on the grass with nothing to do but enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin. The simple things like finding a four-leaf clover one afternoon at the church picnic. All of these thoughts and feelings filled me with joy.

As I felt the energy well up inside of me, I opened my eyes and focused on the ball of golden light that hovered above Kartika.

There was a movement inside of me and as the energy built-up, it started funneling into the light bubble. I could see it and as I looked around the circle, I saw all the good thoughts and energies of the rest of the coven filling up the golden bubble with a glowing light.

The brightness and the feeling of goodness and safety and security was so full and rich in the room. I soaked it in myself, even though I knew it was meant for Kartika. There was still plenty left over for her.

Hilda started a low chant in the corner we all began to reprise.

“Malancha mala tutor Patis“

Soon we were all chanting and as we intoned, the glowing ball grew brighter and brighter, as if our good thoughts and energies were getting supercharged. I felt so powerful, as if nothing in the world could stop me and everything was perfectly in its right place and its right moment.

“Let it drop,” Hilda said as the energy in the room built. We did as she said and let go. The ball splashed down on Kartika making her body sizzle with golden light. It shone out of her and through her.

“Keep chanting,” Hilda insisted, her voice straining against the whorls of energy that moved through the room.

The chanting reached a climax. The light flashed brightly, and then it slowly dimmed down. Kartika’s skin tone was back to being golden. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Thank you,” she said before she closed her eyes again.

The door opened and the medics came in. We parted the way, letting them get close to Kartika. They took her blood pressure and all of her vital signs.

“We’re going to take her into the clinic,” they said. “We need to do some blood tests and take a look. It seems she suffered some form of a stroke or something.”

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