you say he is, I don’t want you to lose that. You really should be honest with him.”
When Kevin left, I decided it was time to suck it up and call Vittorio. Of course I wasn’t going to leave him. I didn’t want to fight over this, but it was time to be honest, and I thought that would almost certainly lead to an argument. That’s if I had luck on my side. If I didn’t, well, I couldn’t stand the thought of that.
Maybe I could put it off a little longer. If he did hate me for it, he might not help me find another teacher, and as much as I hated having this power, it was necessary to learn how to control it. I had no idea how to go about finding a teacher on my own. It’s not as though I could find someone with power to help me in the yellow pages.
No, that was selfish. I would tell him. Kevin was right; I deserved whatever I got.
“Vittorio, can I come over and talk to you? I’d like to discuss something with you in person rather than on the phone.”
“You are always welcome.” I noted the careful lack of ‘mio amore,’ as if he were certain I was going to leave him and was already trying to put a wall around his heart.
“I’ll be over soon. Bye, Vittorio.”
“Goodbye, Elena.” The word seemed to hold more meaning than simply ending a phone call.
When Vittorio opened the door, I wrapped my arms around him and held on for dear life.
After a few moments he pulled away. “Elena, are you alright?”
“I’m not leaving you, Vittorio. I don’t want to.”
“Are you certain?” His eyes widened in disbelief.
“You sound like you want me to leave.” Surely he wasn’t going to push me away?
“I can hardly bear the thought of losing you, but I want you to be safe.”
“Safe is nice, but I’d rather be with you.”
He pulled me close again and relief washed through his body and into mine. His power was tinged with apprehension.
“We’ll be fine as long as we have each other,” I said.
“You are absolutely sure you want to put yourself in the middle of all this?” He pulled back and held me at arm’s length.
Since I couldn’t wrap my arms around him, I rested my hands on his forearms. “I told you I’m not leaving you. I love you. And if you don’t stop trying to push me away, you’re going to make me think you don’t love me in return, so why don’t you shut up and kiss me?”
He did just that.
Again, I found myself trying to pull him to the bedroom, and again, he stopped me. I groaned in frustration. “Are you trying to make me lose my sanity with wanting you?”
“Elena, we have discussed this.”
“I know, but you make it so hard.” I pouted.
“I make it hard?” He raised an eyebrow at me, and I playfully slapped his arm.
“You know what I mean. Alright, I guess we better get down to business if we can’t have any fun. What’s the next step in my training?”
Vittorio led me down the hallway into his study as he spoke. “There are now two things I need to teach you, and the sooner you learn, the better. You need to continue working on controlling your power, and more specifically, not draining yourself of energy when you use it. Then, we will work on what you can do with that power.
“I also need to start teaching you the ways of witchcraft, its history, the way the coven works and how its members fit together, the rituals, holidays - “
“Slow down. That’s a lot of information.” My head spun from the prospect of so much information.
“It will be much to take in. First I must ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me.” He pulled two chairs to face each other.
I sat. “Alright.”
“Do you want to join the coven?”
Silence filled the space between us as if it were something tangible. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know anything about it, so it’s kind of hard to make a good decision. Can I learn about it before answering?”
“Of course, but if you fight by my side during this power struggle, depending on the outcome, you may not have a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“I should rephrase that. You always have a choice, but if the outcome is in our favor, it is possible you will have earned a