“Hey,” Maureen called, “don’t use up all the hot water.”
“Out in a minute!” I yelled back.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Solomon said. “We need to talk.”
I smiled. “I know.”
****
Once Solomon and I had changed into fresh clothes, we realized we were still too wound up to sleep. Together, we wandered back into the living area. On the couch, Anthony lay with his arms behind his head sound asleep. I walked over and looked down at my son. Earlier, he’d called me mom. Love and pride swelled in my heart. Overcome with emotion, I wiped tears away with the heel of my hand.
“Loretta is in the kitchen and Alice is out on the deck,” said Maureen as she wandered out of her bedroom with nightclothes and a couple of toiletries. “I think we’re all too hyper to rest.”
She motioned to Wayne sitting in the recliner. He rose and entered the bathroom with her. Tossing me a serene smile over her shoulder, Maureen shut the door.
I looked at Solomon. “No way.”
He shrugged and laughed, grasping my hand and leading me through the apartment and into the kitchen where a door opened out onto a second-story deck. At the kitchen isle, Loretta sat eating sliced cantaloupe and paged through one of the shop’s catalogues. She said nothing to us as we passed.
Outside, Alice sat at a small patio table on the opposite end of the porch. Half a dozen citronella candles glowed brightly on the glass top, which reflected the yellow flames.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“A little after three a.m.,” Alice answered. She picked up a bottle of red wine and poured two more glasses. “I figured you’d need to unwind after tonight. It’ll be daylight before any of us settle down to sleep.”
I sat down and sank into the vinyl-covered cushion. Despite the calming, balmy tropical wind and the comfort of the brilliant stars above, I couldn’t turn my mind off. Every time I shut my eyes, I saw the images of all my past lives, but worse, the vision of the White King’s death haunted me. I looked up at Solomon, who sensed my gaze. He reached for my hand and threaded his fingers with mine.
Alice handed me a glass of deep purple wine. As our fingers made contact, a familiar yet bizarre tingle race down my arm, but I jerked away too slowly. Sparks shot out of my fingertips, illuminating the glass. The liquid within it glowed purple-black, and the finger-fire leapt from the glass to whiz up Alice’s arm. To my amazement, the magic failed to knock her out of her chair. Instead, her hair blew back from her face as if she’d been blasted by a gust of wind.
“Don’t worry.” She smiled. “You didn’t hurt me, and a good witch always protects herself from the magic of others. You’ll soon learn to control and wield your power. You’ve already learned so much on your own. And the Key West Coven is eager to get to know you too. Many of them will offer to teach you.”
“I’m guessing the money and document was all a story to force me here?” I said as Solomon pulled out the other chair and sat next to me.
“You figured right,” she answered sheepishly. “I’m sorry that—”
“I understand why you did it.” I picked up my glass. The wine tasted heady and sweet. “The greater good,” I replied in a faux narrator’s voice, “and all that jazz.”
Alice nodded, smiling. “There’s more to the Nutter family and how you and I know one another.” She held her hand out across the tabletop. “Would you like to see?”
“Sure,” I replied, but after all that Azazel had shown me of the past, I wasn’t actually certain if I wanted to see more. Against my better judgment, I put my hand in hers.
She withdrew a small silver dagger from her robe-style dress and cut a short, shallow incision in the palm of her right hand. “Now yours.”
She sliced my palm so quickly I didn’t even feel it. A small weal of blood appeared on each of our palms, and she clasped my hand so suddenly I gasped. Our blood meshed, and a jolt shot through me.
Buried memories surfaced and swept me away, bearing me toward yet another era. A picture formed, and I witnessed her, this Alice Nutter, as my great aunt times four and a wealthy noblewoman of Pendle, England. The year 1612 floated through my mind. Alice had been accused of witchcraft, and weeks later, she swung from a tree by a noose. Others hung alongside her, including me and a woman who looked remarkably like Maureen. On the lush, green Pendle Hill, the three of us strangled to death.
She released my hand, and I fell back into my chair, breathing hard and trembling from head to toe.
“Ruby?” Solomon leaned over, gazing into my face. He brushed my hair back.
“I’m...I’m okay.” I touched my neck, still feeling the coarse rope choking the life from me. Tears trickled down my face. With embarrassment, I used the hem of my nightshirt to wipe them away then pressed it to the thin wound on my hand.
“Now you understand,” said Alice. She pulled a tissue from her dress pocket and placed it on her cut.
“Well, it’s obvious why my father hates me and refuses to talk about the Nutters.”
Alice snorted in disgust. “Those with unique abilities are treated with suspicion and disdain.”
“But I’m his daughter!” Anger rippled through me. I sighed and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s time for me to think about my life and what makes me happy instead of trying to live according to Dad’s rules and expectations. Besides, I inherited my power through him.”
Alice stared at me expectantly.
“You know, don’t you?” I said.
“Yes. You’re father knows where you are and why.” She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of mine. “You do remember why the garage burned, don’t you?”
The memory impaled my brain, the pain of it whisking my breath out to sea.
“Ruby?” Solomon said. “Are you all right?”
“She must remember and admit the truth.” Alice’s voice sounded as if it came from the end of a long tunnel. “She cannot bear the blame any longer.”
“I saw my father,” I gulped hard, “saw him...” Hot tears rolled down my face. “I walked into the garage to ask my dad if he was going to drive me to the movies when I saw him talking to a...” The word sliced through my tongue but I spat it out anyway. “To a demon.”
The memory surfaced clearly in my mind as if I was watching it play out on a big screen. I told Alice and Solomon about the nightmare that my father had summoned. The pentagram for evil had been scrawled on the floor in chalk with black candles burning on each point. Dad was bargaining for riches. Through gambling at the racetrack, he had put us in financial jeopardy and we were about to lose our home, and the creditors were threatening to take him to court.
The demon had granted him money before, but my father had even gambled that away. He’d paid the price by allowing the thing to take five years off his life, but my father’s sickness, his greed, and desperation had driven him to the brink of insanity. He begged to be rich, to pay off his debts, and to always have good financial luck.
“I will grant you payment for only your debts,” said the demon. It stomped cloven hooves, the sound thunderous in the little garage. “Unless you are willing to give up your soul, you do not possess enough to bargain for such riches.”
“No, I can’t do that,” Dad said.
“Then only your debts will be rectified and nothing more given to you,” the thing said, “but the price is still dear.”
“Anything but my soul.”
“It is done!” The demon clapped its clawed hands together. It turned toward me and pointed. “Little witch, you will serve as a useful tool.”
Fear leapt within me. It permeated my brain, pierced my heart, and turned my limbs to lead. The new, unusual power I possessed chose that moment to appear. My body glowed, and the magic spilled forth in the form of white fire. I covered my face, backing away. The flames shot from my hands and struck a garbage bag full of grease and paint rags Dad had been too negligent to haul to the curb. Startled, m
y father yelled and rushed to stomp out the flames, but knocked over an opened can of paint thinner. More fire erupted from the chemicals, and, hearing the disruption, my mother had raced into the garage.
Overwhelmed by the fumes and smoke, I fell to my knees. My mother found me, but she, too, collapsed. “Crawl, Ruby,” she wheezed. “Get out of here, honey!”
On all fours, I scrabbled to the first doorway I found.
“I lay outside the garage on the damp evening grass, blinking the smoke from my eyes,” I said as I finished my story. “I watched Dad stumble from the garage without my mother. Dad promised that demon anything but his soul, but my father blames me for it taking my mom as payment.”
Solomon leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Ruby, you were used.”
“Yes, I know, but it still hurts.”
“Now that you’ve admitted the truth,” said Alice, “your heart can mend.”
I stared at Shunka, who lay sprawled on his side by the railing. As if he sensed me looking at him, the dog raised his head and returned my gaze.
A familiar, indeed.
Sam’s theory about Shunka’s appearance and role in our lives wasn’t accurate, but it had been close. Somehow I doubted the truth would surprise the old man. Any person who could hold off a dozen smoke monsters with Native American magic couldn’t be shocked by much.
I knew I had a lot to learn, but I felt I could now welcome the one thing I’d always deemed a curse and even enjoy learning about it. My life in Columbus was a part of my past now. I wanted to learn about my power, use it for good, and make a new home.
My home was with Solomon, but that nagging part of my brain kept telling me it was too risky.
“What are you thinking about?” Solomon asked.
As a cover, I asked one of the many questions that tumbled through my brain. “Is Loretta a Nutter too?”
“Yes,” Alice answered. “Nutter is Loretta’s maiden name.”
“This just gets better and better,” I said. “And she’s a...?
“A witch.” The older woman appraised me. “And it didn’t take much of her cake to enhance your powers either.”
“Cake?” An image of Loretta’s Million Dollar Fudge Cake rose in my mind’s eye. “So, that’s why I began wielding the power so much better after that! What was in it?”
“The same ingredients as always,” Loretta said behind me.
Twisting in my chair, I regarded her wrapped in a lightweight satin robe.
“The cake is not only a delicious recipe,” Loretta explained as she strode toward us, “but it has a few key ingredients that bring out the powers of those who are unaware they have them or then deny them, but it takes one special ingredient to activate the spell.”
“Such as—no, don’t tell me!” I held up a trembling hand and shook my head. “I don’t really want to know. Obviously that’s why no one has ever guessed the secret ingredient and received the one-million dollars.”
Loretta chuckled throatily. She dragged a smaller chair over and placed it between me and Alice. Once Loretta had filled a glass with wine, she sat back, crossing her legs, and watched the night sky.
The stars resembled brightly lit pinholes in a black-velvet shroud. The full moon had begun its descent in the ebon expanse, a perfect, white pearl suspended above the Earth. A seagull’s cry carried above the laughter drifting down the street from a nearby all-night saloon.
I struggled to wrap my brain around the Sons of God and all the news, images and revelations that had been dumped on me that night. Inwardly, I chuckled. As wild and crazy as it all seemed, I couldn’t deny any of it.
“What about Wayne?” Solomon asked. “Will he stay on the side of good?”
“Well,” said Alice, “that’s entirely up to him, isn’t it?”
“What happens now?” I asked.
“I think you need to learn about your powers and how to use them,” Solomon suggested and patted my leg.
“As you saw during tonight’s battle, there’s a large coven here,” said Loretta. “We’d love to teach you about white witchcraft.”
“What do you say?” Alice asked.
“I think it’s definitely something to think about.” Taking another sip of wine, I enjoyed the warmth and lethargy spreading through my high-strung nervous system. “Right now, though, I need to just assimilate everything, process it. I know it’s real, but it’s still difficult to accept.”
“Wait until you see the coven’s records on your lives,” said Loretta, her laughter punctuating the night.
I gaped at them. “You’re kidding, right?”
The two women glanced at one another and chuckled harder.
“Great, just great. I’m a poster child for Reincarnation’s Most Wanted.”
Solomon guffawed at that.
Alice and Loretta finished their glasses of wine and pushed back from the table.
“I need to set up a cot for Loretta,” Alice stated with a yawn, “then I’m going to bed.”
“I’m leaving tomorrow, Ruby,” said Loretta, “but I know we’ll talk again soon.”
“Goodnight, ladies,” said Solomon.
Alice placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. “I’m sure you have a lot to tell Solomon, so I’ll see you both in a few hours.”
Once they’d left, Solomon pulled me from my chair and into his lap.
Sighing with contentment, I snuggled against his chest, his arms around my waist, and nestled my head under his chin.
“So,” he began, “what’s this I hear about me being a White King?”
For a moment I just sat there pondering everything and enjoying the warmth of his body. Solomon waited quietly, his fingers stroking my lower back. I thought about the power that I had evoked for our battle, the strength I’d drawn from Solomon, Maureen, and my son, but the memory of Azazel’s forced seduction tainted me.
I knew what I had to do.
“Come with me back to the landing where we fought tonight,” I said, raising my head.
Frowning curiously, Solomon asked, “What for?”
“There’s something we need to do. Something important.” I looked over at Shunka. “And you have to stay here, okay?”
He dog issued a disgruntled sigh.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Taking Solomon’s Excursion, we drove back to the most southern tip of the island. The only sign of the battle was debris that could have been easily left by a bad tropical storm.
Solomon parked the Ford. I grabbed a picnic blanket from the back. We got out and threaded our fingers together, walking across the landing and down to the area Azazel had cleared to seduce and claim me.
“What’s going on, Ruby?” Solomon asked quietly.
In the center of the sandy clearing, I stared out over the Atlantic Ocean’s dark rolling waves. The aroma of fresh water reached me, hinting that it had rained somewhere out at sea.
“Ruby?”
I spread the blanket out on the sand and placed a rock on each corner so the breeze wouldn’t ruffle it. Turning, and with my decision made, I faced Solomon. “I love you.”
He blinked, his expression so comical I burst out laughing, the sound echoing oddly over the shore.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s amazing how battling paranormal beings and monsters to save the world can put your life into perspective.”
He chuckled and enveloped me in a tight, comforting hug. “Besides that, what finally gave you the courage to take this leap?”
With my thumb and index finger barely apart, I held them up in front of Solomon’s face and stared into his blue-white eyes. “I came this close to losing myself forever. Azazel almost seduced me. I wanted him so badly, but it was pure carnal lust caused by his power of seduction. It wasn’t real, Solomon. I defeated him all by myself, so if I can do that then I can have the strength to love you again and to accept what may come.”
Solomon favored me a smile of understanding and delight.
/> “These past few days have taught me a lot,” I said. “I’ve realized I was afraid of allowing myself to love someone, even Maureen. I was often cruel to her and I was so harsh with you. I welcome her friendship now. I also have a son and I’m determined to enjoy being his mother. And,” I kissed him quickly, “I want to be with you, Solomon.” I pressed my breasts against his chest, and he groaned with desire. “I’ll love you for the rest of our lives, no matter how many more lives we may have.”
Solomon picked me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. “You want to erase what happened here on the sand, don’t you?” he said.
“Yes, we need to make it a place of love.”
“I need you, Ruby.” He nuzzled my neck. “Let me make love to you.”
I slid down his body and took off my clothes. The wind caressed me as I watched Solomon disrobe too. He pulled me into his arms, and we stepped onto the blanket. Dipping his head, Solomon sampled first one nipple then the next. Desire seared my body, blazing into my core. I arched against him, the need to be one so intense I almost cried out in frustration.
“Tell me you’re mine because you want to be,” Solomon whispered against my breast.
“I’m...I’m yours,” I said. “Forever and always.”
He pushed me down on the blanket. I lay on my back staring up at him framed by the first faint traces of dawn. He straddled me and leaned forward, his body pressing me into the sand beneath the blanket.
Writhing under him, my body acted of its own accord. Every flick of his hot tongue, every caress of his callused hands or his fingers upon my skin nearly sent me over a precipice of ecstasy I’d only dreamed about. I wanted this man to own me body and soul.
My hands wandered the planes and muscles of Solomon’s body, each one taught beneath my fingers. I dug my nails into his buttocks, and he rewarded me with an excited intake of breath.
He rained kisses along my abdomen, his tongue flicking the flesh here and there, the ocean’s breath cool against the damp places he left behind. He reached the dark, trimmed triangle at the junction of my thighs. I tensed, but the moment his tongue delicately sampled the bud of my sex, I lost all rationale, all thought processes, and knew loving Solomon was the only thing important to me,
The Sorcerer King and the Fire Queen Page 30
