I love it when worlds combine. No
sooner did I sign up for this years Withcraft Reading Challenge than
I got chance to review a brand new witchy offering. What a treat!
Judging from the twenty
voicemails, and house phone ringing off the hook, I’d say the demon woke up the
whole town. Every witch he came within fifty feet of felt him. I know this
because it’s in the book right in front of me Auntie Sara brought over. I sit
at the kitchen table with Cora curled up in my lap as I scan the pages. She
hasn’t let me go since I retrieved them from the office. Sophie was throwing
ingredients into the cauldron as Cora watched. I think it was a protection
spell. I just grabbed them and brought them downstairs with me into the kitchen
where we’ve set up camp.
Adam hands
Auntie Sara a cup of coffee, which she takes with shaky hands. Sophie sits
across from me staring at her sister, face made of stone. Adam plops down in
the empty chair beside me, sliding a coffee cup over. “Thank you,” I say.
He nods.
“So…a demon. I thought they were just myths.”
“Says the
werewolf,” I say with a crooked smile. It’s all I can muster right now.
“I cannot
believe you lied to me,” Auntie Sara says to me.
I had no
choice but to tell her everything. “I’m sorry.”
“What do
you know about demons?” Adam asks me.
“Not a
whole lot. It’s not something I ever thought would come up. They’re rare, at
least the kind I think this one is.”
“There’s
more than one type?” Adam asks.
“There’s
the kind you summon and the kind that just sneaks through the dimensional
cracks,” Auntie Sara instructs. “With the latter you get your basic demonic
possession. They’re too weak, so they need a host body. The summoned kind is a
specific demon. They have specific traits and powers, depending on who was
called.”
“What do
they look like?” Adam asks.
“Human,”
Sophie says. All eyes dart to her in surprise. “He’ll look like whoever gave
the blood for the ritual.” Auntie Sara, Adam, and I all share a concerned look,
and Cora grasps me harder. “The murder of something innocent, usually an
animal, helps open the doorway. It comes out of the portal, looking like a
demon. It’s…” She shakes her head and winces. I get a chill. “It’s unnatural.
It doesn’t belong here and can’t survive, so the witch gives her blood and it
takes human form.” She looks down at the table away from our stares. “Um, it’ll
look, sound, act, even bleed like us. I guess it sort of is us. Just…a little
more. And powerful.”
“So it can
be killed,” Adam says.
“It’s not
as simple as that,” I say. “It’s like a psychic on steroids. If she summoned
the demon in charge of fire it can make you spontaneously combust from twenty
yards away. If it can read in its dimension, it can invade your mind and trap
your consciousness inside yourself.”
“And it’s
strong,” Sophie adds. “Probably as strong as you. And it heals fast too.”
My stomach
clenches again. “What—what else do you know about them, honey?”
“People
can’t tell what they are, but we can because we’re from here and they’re from
there. They don’t like us because of it. And they don’t like it that they have
to listen to the person who brought them here. But they only have to do one
thing, and they’re free. We can trap them, though, with sigils and spells. They
can’t hurt us then. Not even with their brains. And they don’t like certain
smells, and silver hurts them real bad.”
“An—anything
else, honey?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady.
She just
shrugs.
I clear my
throat. “Okay um, girls why don’t you go in the living room and pop in a
movie?”
Cora
burrows deeper into my chest. “No, I don’t want to leave you,” she cries.
“I’ll be in
here. I’ll be able to see you the whole time, okay?”
“Come on,”
Sophie says as she stands. “We’ll watch Toy Story 3.”
I manage to
extract the child from my body and get her to her feet. A stoic Sophie takes
her hand and leads her into the living room. Oh hell, what on earth am I going
to do? “Mona, how did she know all of that?” Auntie Sara asks. “You don’t
think—”
“Auntie
Sara, that is a not now question, okay?” The telephone starts ringing again,
sending splinters into my already throbbing temples. “Can you just field calls
for me?”
“And what
am I supposed to tell them?”
“The truth?”
My brain is swimming. I rub my temples to focus. “Tell them we’re having an
emergency meeting in the morning, time and location in an e-mail to follow.”
“Okay,”
Auntie Sara says as she stands. She grabs the portable phone and walks out.
I glance at
the girls sitting on the couch, then at Adam. He plays with his cup but his
weary eyes stay on me. “Are you okay?” he asks.
I don’t
know what it is about those words, or maybe it’s his gentle expression, but I
almost burst into tears. Tentatively, he places his hand over mine, squeezing
it. No, not now. I gasp and cover my mouth but a few tears make it to my eyes.
I shut them. Using all my willpower, I push them away. If I break now I won’t
be able to pull myself together again, so I do what I do best. I swallow my
emotions so deep an archeologist couldn’t find them. I pull my hand away and
wipe the stray tears off my face. Problem. Fix the problem first. “Um, what did
you find out from Cheyenne? What time did she get to the bar?”
“She was
there when I got there at 10:30.
We talked until about 12:30,
when I walked her to her car. We woke at 4:30,
so she had plenty of time to summon it.”
“What did
she say?”
“About you?
Not a lot. She thinks you’re prissy, unimaginative, and holier than thou. Her
words, not mine.”
“I don’t
give a shit what she thinks about my character flaws! In between the make-out
sessions did she give you any indication she hates me enough to do all this?”
“I don’t
know. I couldn’t get much out of her, I’m sorry.”
I stand, practically making
the chair fall back. “Well, I can’t do much with sorry, can I?”
I can’t
breathe in here. I need to breathe so I can think. I stalk into the backyard,
taking in huge gulps of air. Instantly, I feel like a jerk. I can’t keep doing
that. He is in no way, shape, or form deserving of mu ire.
Even still,
a second later he steps outside to check on me. “Mona?”
“I’m
sorry,” I say, “I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to speak to you like that, I really
don’t. I’m not normally like this, I swear.”
“I know.”
“I have no
idea what I’m doing, Adam. A killer? Now a demon too? What the hell am I going
to do?”
“We’ll
figure it out.”
“How? I
can’t think. I can’t…” Shit, the tears are trying the damndest to get out. I
take a ragged breath. “I am so scared.”
“I know.”
He steps toward me, and the next thing I know his arms are around me, pulling
me into his warm body. Dear goddess does this feel wonderful. He’s so solid and
even smells good, like hyssop and soap. “I know,” he whispers. He simply holds
me, my head on his shoulder and hand against his racing heart. I just want to
melt into him. For a fleeting instant all the world fades except for me and
him, and I can actually believe everything will be okay as long as he never
lets me go.
But only
for an instant. I’m too realistic for false hope. Lust, be gone. I pull away,
my back straightening to gain some respectability back. “Thank you. That
helped.”
“Happy to
oblige,” he says, for some reason unable to look at me.
I step away
and turn my back to him. Okay, I can think now. This is good. “So, um, I have a
request to make of you.”
“Anything.”
I knew he’d
say that. “I need you to take the girls away from here. Take them to Jason’s or
your house or wherever, and keep them safe for me.”
“That’s not
a good idea.”
I spin
around. “The hell it isn’t! There is a fucking demon here to kill me!”
“Then you
come with us.”
“I can’t! I
can’t leave everyone here with a demon on the loose. Just take them and go!”
“I am not
leaving you alone here!” he says with enough force to punch through a wall.
“This isn’t
your fight.”
“Yeah, it
is.”
“The game
has changed. It’s far too dangerous around me now. Just take them and go!
Please!”
“No. I made
a promise and I take promises very seriously.”
I throw my
arms up. “I absolve you! Take them and go!”
“No!”
Sophie shouts from the door. I turn around as she leads her sister toward us.
“If you send us away, we’ll just come right back! We will!” she says, voice
shaking. “I can protect you! I can! I know what to do! Please!” She looks at
Adam, eyes wild. “Don’t take us away. Please, don’t take us away.”
“Sophie—” I
say, my voice breaking along with my heart.
“We are not
going anywhere,” Adam says to Sophie. “I promise.”
“You
can’t—” I say.
He grabs my
arm and yanks me away from the girls, all but dragging me to the other side of
the yard. “Now, you listen to me,” he says in a low voice. “You are letting
your fear cloud your judgment, and you are scaring the hell out of those girls
there. More than even the demon is. Is that what you want?”
“No, but—”
“We are not
leaving, do you hear me? Do not mention it again.” He takes a deep breath to
regain his composure. “Look, I know you’re used to doing everything on your
own, but you cannot do this alone. You can’t. So, I am here to protect
you and those girls so you don’t have to. But to do that, we all need to be
here. Together. A cohesive unit working together. A pack, okay? And since you
aren’t thinking clearly right now, I’ll do it for you. If you die, who will
take care of them? They need to be near you, a strong you. If they go
away, and you die, they will never ever recover. They have lost too damn
much already.”
“It could
kill them to get to me,” I whisper.
“Mona, if
that thing wants them, and is as powerful as you say it is, it won’t matter
where they are. It will find them and use them anyway. At least here they have
you, and me, and an entire army of witches in this town to go through first.
And I will die before I let anything happen to any of you. Do you
believe me?”
I
absolutely do. I shake my head.
“Good. Then
trust me on this. Then we’re sticking together. We will be cautious, but we
will not let fear rule our lives. We stick to the plan. We fortify this place
and ourselves as best we can, we find who summoned this thing, and stop her.
Together. You…and me. I am not going anywhere. I swear it to you.”
I have the
strongest urge to hug him again, among other things I won’t admit to. He’s so
sincere I can’t help but feel…relief. At least that’s what I think it is. It’s
a new sensation. Take me awhile to get used to it. “Okay,” I whisper. “Okay.”
“Then let’s
get started.” He turns away from me and walks over to the girls, picking up
Cora as if it was the most natural thing and holding his hand out for Sophie.
She looks at it, but after a second of indecision, puts her hand in his. He
leads them inside, off to find a way to save my life.
This time I
let the tears flow. Because I can.
With her to-do lists growing longer each day, the last thing Mona
McGregor—High Priestess and owner of the Midnight Magic shop in
Goodnight, Virginia—needs is a bleeding werewolf at her front door.
Between raising her two nieces and leading a large coven of witches,
Mona barely has time for anything else. Not even Guy, the handsome
doctor who’s taken an interest in her.
But now there’s Adam Blue, the sexy beta werewolf of the Eastern
Pack who’s been badly hurt, warning Mona that someone wants her
dead. Hell’s bells! A demon is stalking her, and Mona starts to
suspect her coven members and even her own family could be
responsible for it. With two attractive men and a determined demon
after her, Mona teams up with Adam to find out who really wants her
dead.
.. . and who really wants her.
