by Bella Falls
Luke gave me a critical once over with intentional drama. “Hmm. You’ve got a little dried drool at the left corner of your mouth. Other than that, you’re practically perfect,” he teased, kissing the tip of my nose. “Now, bring me the rest of the zucchini you didn’t eat and dump it all in. Then you can grate some parmesan cheese into that bowl on the counter.”
Following his orders, I saluted him once before I got the cheese and grater. After I finished and put the bowl beside him to add to the pot when he was ready, I opened up the cupboard to pull out dishes to place on the table.
“It’s already set,” Luke said with a warm smile. “If you want to go sit down and have a glass of wine, I’ll bring dinner with me in a moment.”
Since Dani was driving to the coven meeting tonight, I saw no reason not to indulge in a glass of chilled crisp Pinot Grigio. My boyfriend had chosen my good plates without any chips in them and had found some orange and red placemats to match my new clivia he’d set in the middle of the table. A simple salad of arugula dressed in olive oil with thin slices of parmesan on top waited to accompany the delicious meal. Pulling a bite of bread off the crusty loaf warmed and waiting in a basket underneath a towel, I sipped on wine and enjoyed the goodness of a simple moment together.
Luke carried the pot he’d been stirring over to the table and poured out the creamy Italian rice dish onto my plate. “There’s plenty more, so eat as much as you want.”
My mouth watered at the sight of the risotto. “I’m glad you don’t mind my curves,” I gushed, barely holding back from digging in until he’d served himself.
He placed the hot pot on a trivet and poured himself a glass of white wine. Lifting it in the air, he toasted, “I could quote some old Italian saying or come up with something really romantic. But all I want to say in this moment is that I love you, Ruby Mae Jewell. And each day I get to be with you is a gift. I will do better not to take that for granted.”
The heat rose in my cheeks, and I clinked my glass against his. “I think that was very romantic.” Although I adored when he spoke Italian to me, the truth in his words knocked me silly.
I scooped up the first bite of risotto and put it in my mouth. An obscene groan emanated from deep within, and I closed my eyes to enjoy the intense flavors. “So good.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad you like it, cara. But if you don’t mind, I’d prefer if you kept your eyes open. I’ve got some things to say while we eat.”
If he wanted me to do a handstand or backflips, I probably would attempt either as long as I could be fed this dish the entire time. With effort, I peeled my eyes open and did my best to focus on him rather than the fantastic food.
He pushed some of the risotto around on his plate but didn’t eat any. “I know I allowed it when you drank a drop of my blood not that long ago. And I don’t want you to feel badly that you did. But I chose not to give you my thoughts about it then and only realized the full dangers after you did it. I confess, I should have given voice to my worries rather than brooding and regretting our actions that night.”
I stopped shoveling food in my mouth. “You regret sharing your blood with me?”
He grimaced. “I know it helped you to overcome whatever force was attached to the crystal ball. And I’m glad you destroyed it in the long run, so if my blood was instrumental in that act, then I guess it’s hard for me to resent it completely. But you know that there were consequences afterwards.”
I put my fork down and wiped my mouth with the napkin. Sliding my chair back, I made my way to the other side of the table and waited for him to scoot back just enough for me to snuggle into his lap. No matter what we talked about tonight, I refused to have any unwelcome space between us. “Yes, I told you about all the extra sensations openly. And every time I did, you got angry.”
“Not angry, Rue. Worried. There are bigger consequences than just enhanced senses for you. And a part of me was concerned it might affect you on a cellular level.” He brushed his fingertip down my cheek. “That even that small amount you ingested might have turned you.”
“Into a vampire? I thought it required you draining me of all my blood and then making me consume all of it back from you. And then you’d bury me in the ground, and I would have to claw my way into my new undead life.” I hoped my joke would lighten the weight of this discussion.
“Movies have not been kind to us, although blood is definitely the doorway.”
Despite the need for us to talk, my stomach groaned, interrupting him. Without asking, he used his own fork to feed me some more so I could stay put. I liked being an independent girl, but it also pleased me to be pampered by my man.
“Rue, there are reasons I have not revealed to you everything about my past,” he continued. “At first, I was glad that you didn’t probe into it, even though I know you like to solve mysteries.”
I pointed at my chest. “Who? Me?” My response earned me a playful pinch on my behind. I squirmed in his lap until he held me still and fed me another bite.
“It’s for your safety that I have not told you everything about myself. There are some secrets about my life that if delved into would set events in motion that I wouldn’t be able to stop.” He stopped feeding me as he got caught up in his past.
Smoothing the wrinkle between his eyebrows with my fingertip, I leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. “I know you’ll do everything you can to keep me safe. But, as old as you are, you have to know that secrets can be dangerous, too.”
Luke hugged me to him, and the deep breath he drew in and let out tickled my ear. “I know. It’s the choice I’m making until I think that your knowing everything is the safer path. Can you at least give me that?”
It went against my very nature not to know everything. I think I’d allowed him to keep his past from me because I assumed as a vampire, there might be violent acts or other things he’d done that might scare me away. Having him insist he was keeping things from me for my safety piqued my curious nature, but I didn’t want to ruin the night.
“I’ll concede that you believe keeping your secrets from me is for my own good.” I lifted his chin with my finger so he had to see my sincerity. “For now. But you know me well enough to know that won’t last very long. You’re going to need to figure out what you can and cannot tell me in the very near future. Starting with what any of this has to do with you worrying I took a drop of your blood. Not a whole body’s worth. A drop.”
Luke patted my behind and let me go. I took the hint and moved off his lap, taking my place across from him again. Unlike me who popped up and said things before my brain got a chance to think about my words, he liked to take his time and deliberate. I drank some more wine and ate a little of the peppery arugula salad, waiting.
“I already told you I was afraid that it could have changed you on a cellular level. That means changing your biology. It terrified me how long you remained with heightened senses. The effects of my blood should have worn off quickly, but for you, it lasted far longer.” He ran a finger around the rim of his wine glass. “It proved the strength of my own blood.”
“Or it demonstrated that my powerful lineage of witch blood running through me bonded with yours, and the combined magic lasted longer than you expected.” I finished the rest of the cold wine in a couple of swallows. “You may be overthinking things.”
His eyebrows raised. “You know, it never occurred to me that your own blood might have been a factor. That’s something I can research…” Luke trailed off, lost in a train of thought he didn’t want to share.
I cleared my throat to regain his attention. “Does this mean you might stop worrying about me and keeping me at arm’s length?”
Luke glared at me from across the table. Without saying a word, he got up and stalked over to my side. With his hand on the back of my chair, he waited for me to slide out of it. Finally, he wrapped his arms around me and rocked me back and forth, reminding me of the few good moments from the wedding reception.
He kissed the top of my head. “Closing the distance,” he answered in a quiet voice, still leading me in a silent slow dance.
“Good answer,” I whispered back.
Luke hadn’t given me responses to all of the questions I’d been asking myself. And he created new ones for me to consider. But he gave me what I wanted most, and that would satisfy me.
For now.
Chapter Eleven
Gloria stood with me and my girlfriends in place on the outer circle for the final ritual of the night. I didn’t know how other covens ran things, but I kind of liked the meditation and attempt at focusing all of our energy together to put light and love out into the world. I squeezed my eyes extra tight and added a little more intent for it to affect Azalea and Harrison’s lives a little sooner rather than later.
At the center of the ritual, Ebonee held up her hands. “We honor the elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and ask for balance in our lives as you live in all of us.”
A little of my own magic zinged to life at the mention of my particular element. Although most witches had a mix of the elements in them, thanks to the witchy genes from my mother, I leaned so heavily to fire that I often wondered if it meant I was off balance all together. Then again, Cate practiced earth magics while Crystal’s gifts with water influenced her entire life. We all lived with the powers life dealt us as best we could, and maybe relied on each other to bring stability rather than solely on ourselves alone.
As a coven, we faced each of the cardinal directions in the final salutation to close the ritual circles. Holding onto Gloria on my right side and Dani on my left, I readied myself for the little burst of power the collective passed on to each other at the very end. Tonight, I looked forward to the boost of energy to fuel us for our planned brainstorm.
“So may it be,” finished Ebonee, waiting for the rest of us to repeat the phrase.
The zing of energy flowed through Dani and into me. It passed into Gloria, and she yanked her hand away with a yelp. She doubled over as if someone had punched her in her gut.
“Are you okay?” I asked, breaking the calm after the ritual had finished.
She pulled in a sharp breath and cradled her stomach. “Yeah, I think so. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that chicken salad before coming. I’ve been so busy staying with Azalea at the hospital, I think it might have been too old.”
I held her about her shoulders. “Let one of us take you home.”
“I can drive as long as I don’t stop anywhere else,” she reassured us. “Don’t worry about me. Stick to your plan.”
The coven members who stayed to check on her moved away, and I spotted Azalea’s parents walking in our direction. “Uh oh. Maybe you should go right now.”
“Gloria,” Azalea’s father called out. “We’d like to ask you about our daughter.”
“Not now, sir,” I insisted. “She’s a little under the weather and should go straight home.”
Azalea’s mother stepped forward, ignoring me. “We’d like for you to convince our daughter to let us see her. We have things we need to talk through with her.”
Gloria’s face crumpled in pain. “After everything you put her through, I don’t blame her for keeping you away. Her husband has yet to be discharged from the hospital. I think for now, you need to accept that no news is good news until she decides if she wants to connect with you again.”
“Why is it that ever since that boy came into her life, she has always chosen him over us?” Azalea’s father accused more than asked.
Tired of him not even listening to the most important bits, I got in his face. “Maybe because you can’t see past your own discriminations. You definitely don’t listen, and from everything I’ve seen, you don’t consider or respect your daughter’s own choices.” I held up my hand in front of his face to keep him from saying something vile to me. “And you think you can buy her love with money. Which, if you even knew your daughter in the slightest, was never going to work.”
Azalea’s mother’s puckered face soured even more. “I don’t think any of this is your concern.”
Dani, who hated confrontation and rarely stepped willingly into the fray, spoke up. “It is when you choose to be as free and open with your vitriol as you are. Now, I suggest you leave Gloria alone and think about allowing a little love and light into your own lives. Maybe then you’ll appreciate what you’ve already lost.” She put her hands together and bowed. “So may it be.”
Any other time, I would high-five her for her uncharacteristic snark. But Gloria bent over and grabbed her knees with her hands as if she were going to need a bathroom. Crystal placed her body between our friend and Azalea’s parents, rubbing Gloria’s back. “I’m going to take you home right now.”
Ebonee insisted that the lingering coven members depart and stop watching the spectacle. “Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham, I think it’s best for you to allow the young lady to depart. She is clearly unwell.”
Not even listening to their leader, Azalea’s father fired one final shot. “If you’d be willing to help us and get our daughter to at least talk to us, we can make sure you are well compensated.”
“Stan,” Ebonee took him by his elbow. “You will not try to bribe one of our members. You’ve been asked to stop harassing her and requested to allow her to leave.”
The man yanked his arm out of the leader’s grip. “You risk losing our support for your position,” he threatened. “Don’t forget, it took you having all the right friends for you to get where you are.”
The rude comment cracked some of Ebonee’s cold, professional veneer, and she sneered. “But you’re forgetting that I am where I am, here and now. And if you continue to dishonor the intent of our coven with your attitude and words, then I can make sure that as of right now, you are no longer welcome here.”
His wife grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt. “Come on, Stanley. Let’s go.”
Ebonee instructed two nearby members to make sure they didn’t bother Gloria or Crystal in the parking lot. Seeing her take such quick action impressed me, and I considered my own prejudgments of her. Until I remembered how much she clamored for the crystal ball at my family home and reminded myself to be watchful and wary.
“Why is it that whenever there seems to be drama, you are present, Ms. Jewell?” she asked.
Aw, somebody replaced the stick up her behind again. “Total coincidence. And you can’t blame me for their actions.” I pointed in the direction Azalea’s parents had departed the room in a huff.
“No, I suppose I cannot. But if I can take you away from your friends for a moment, there is something I’d like to discuss with you. With a little more privacy.” She walked away, not even checking to see if I agreed to her request.
Dani waved at me. “I’ll wait for you in the car. Text me if you think it’s going to take more than a few minutes and I’ll let the others know we’ll be late.” Wesley had gotten Pops to let us use his diner to meet in, and it would take a good twenty minutes to drive out to the beach from where we were.
I rushed to follow Ebonee into the office at the back of the building. In my head, I’d pictured her sitting on a huge gold throne, plotting ways to rule over all of us. Instead, I entered a room with simple office furniture with the usual filing cabinets, folders, and other mundane items.
“Sit down.” She gestured at the cushioned chair in front of her desk. “Would you like something to drink? Maybe some water?” Without waiting for my answer, she drew a cold bottle out of a small fridge behind her and handed it to me.
Being in her presence activated my nerves, and I unscrewed the top and took a sip. “It’s like being called into the principal’s office. Can’t lie, I feel like I’m gonna get detention or something.” I fidgeted in my seat, trying to find any personal items to give me even a hint about the leader’s personal life.
Ebonee folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “Why doesn’t
that surprise me? Now, I’d like to discuss what you have found out so far.”
I scrambled to think of what she might be referring to and came up blank. “About what?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Ms. Jewell.” She leaned forward, holding me in her intense scrutiny. “You didn’t allow the authorities to do all the investigating when your uncle was suspected of murder. I’m assuming you have been scheming ways to discover who we might be looking for with Harrison’s unfortunate incident.”
Well, grits and ghosts. I hadn’t counted on her suspecting my involvement. At least not quite so early in the process. “Who says I’m doing anything?” I tipped the bottle back again, hoping I could deflect any specific questions.
Ebonee pointed at my drink. “If you give it enough time, perhaps the potion of truth I placed in that will kick in.”
I spit out my mouthful and set the bottle down on the edge of her desk, staring at it in disgust. “You would give a potion to one of your coven members and not tell them? Isn’t that breaking a lot of rules you love to live by?” Sticking out my tongue as far as I could, I wiped it down with the back of my hand.
“Relax, it was just a crude joke to try and break the ice with you.” The leader cracked a rare genuine smile. “What, you think you’re the only one well-versed in sarcasm and sass?”
My jaw dropped, and I blinked at her, unable to come up with a pithy retort. Or any response.
“Now that I have your attention, how about I show you my hand so you know I’m sincere?” She leaned back in her chair and nodded once as if having to accept her own idea. “I’ve been working with Lieutenant Alwin to try and keep Azalea from being considered a suspect due to probable cause. So far, I know that only her prints were found on the hilt of the knife they collected after Mr. Dobbs’ surgery.”
The spell phone in my purse vibrated once with a text. Ignoring it, I responded, “She probably obscured prints from the assailant when she tried to remove it from her husband’s body.”
