He kissed her tenderly, just the way she wanted. His lips barely parted to moisten hers. “It’s after midnight, so technically, today’s my birthday.”
She leaned back to look at him. “Really? So close to mine?”
Aaron’s smile was sly and mischief danced behind his eyes. “Ask me what I want.”
The corners of her mouth turning upward, Maeve asked, “What would you like for your birthday, Aaron?”
Aaron pressed his forehead to hers and spoke softly, “I want you to come for me. I want to hear you laugh like you did when I held you against that tree. I’ve never met a woman who laughed when she orgasmed and I need to hear it again.”
He reached up and put his palm on her cheek, grazing her lips with his thumb. His other hand slid up her long skirt. Aaron brushed her most sensitive part with his knuckles. Up and down he rubbed, the movement and placement creating a fast repetitive motion, almost a vibration. Again she was stunned at his talent. “I don’t laugh when I come!” she exclaimed as best she could with the rising flood impeding her thoughts.
“You did last time. I want to hear it again for my birthday present.”
She took breaths of the cold December air in gasps. It was happening faster than even last night. His fingers, still on the outside of her panties, tickled her nerve bundle. She could feel the tingle, the white magic rising. “But there is n-no one here, w-what distraction will keep me from c-casting?”
Aaron moved his hand from her cheek to behind her neck and clamped it there, thumbing the front of her throat. “Perhaps because I haven’t given you permission to cast. This is for me, not you. I want to see you lose your shit. I want the people inside to hear it and know it was me to did that to you.”
Once again, he knew just what to say to make her feel vulnerable. Apparently feeling out of control, not being the aggressor, was what she needed to keep the magic at bay.
“Pull up your shirt. I want to see your tits and my hands are a little busy.”
She did what he said. She loved being exposed to his hungry gaze. She kept her eyes on his, watching him lust after her. The tingle and heat coursed through her body and her limbs. Euphoria hit and she realized she was giggling. She let go of everything and threw her head back. She laughed, and with that laughter began the quick succession of contractions that made her knees weak. Pleasure washed over her and she could not help but exclaim, “F-fuck…Aaron, fuck me.”
Aaron lowered her skirt. He brought his fingers up to his mouth and tasted her orgasm. “Tonight.” The wolfish smile made a reappearance. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Oh, wait, I forgot. Tonight’s the Winter Solstice celebration. We have a big ceremony that I really can’t miss.” She paused to think about it. Outsiders were allowed; many women brought their families and friends. The mothers’ celebration was always a lot of fun. Why shouldn’t Aaron be allowed? “Would you like to come as my escort? I’d really love for you to be there with me.”
“Of course.” Lowering his chin he looked at her over his glasses, “But after…”
With a hand on his chest, she applied enough pressure to put some space between them when what she really wanted was to pull him closer and never let him go. That was not to be, she knew. “Yes, after that I’m all yours.” Tonight would be their one and only night together. Maeve had broken her sacred vows by allowing herself to fall for Aaron. She must remedy that. Her heart clamped down, contracting tighter and tinier than ever. She tried to deny the hurt, keeping it from showing, but that only amplified the pain in her chest. It was her own fault, she told herself. Her heart was supposed to be protected. Absentmindedly she put a hand to her stomach, feeling the rigid stays of her corset.
THE SWEET tangy stench of elemental magic ripened the night air. Blanketed by the blackness of the near-new moon, a small group of women moved in a circle around a large pentacle carved in the ground. Taken from an entire grimoire dedicated to this very ceremony, the ancient shape in its center was new and frightening to the SOFE. This was a test, their new priest said. If they could complete the ritual successfully, he would stay with them. If not, he would move on. Already, they had learned so much from him. His power was beyond anything they had ever experienced.
That new priest and the high priestess stood at the center and the five other coven members danced around them. Their bleeding feet made gory prints on the ground, slowly overlapping and joining until the dark red circle was solid, unbroken. Light pulsed between the two in the center and then they flashed out and back into existence. They collapsed, breaking the circle, cutting the tie to the others. Their followers rushed to them, further severing the connection.
Though everyone in attendance wanted to ask, they waited. The priestess first gained consciousness and cohesion. She had seen them with her own eyes and yet could barely believe it. The Gods of Old lived. They were blocked from this earth and none too happy about it. They wanted free.
The high priestess addressed the coven, “The Shining Ones are pleased that we could come to them. They cannot come to us until the veil between their world and ours is cut. Long ago a criminal betrayed them and selfishly claimed earth as her own. She stole from them and they banished her, putting up the barrier to keep her from coming back. She tricked them. Yes, the veil kept her from going home, but it also prohibited them from stepping through to her. We will cut down the barrier with this.” She held up a white dagger, carved from bone. “The Shining Ones will walk with us once we can activate its power.”
She didn’t mention the bloodshed it would take to destroy the veil. The virgin blood she had witnessed her new high priest collect had been stronger than she’d imagined possible. She had more of a stomach for the blood that was necessary. Some SOFE might need more persuasion than others to get behind more murders. Not she. The priestess had seen Them, basked in Their light of life and wanted more. There was no length too great to go in order to please and free the Gods of Old.
“ALL PRIMOS are accounted for,” Alicia said from her place in the doorway. Her two young daughters were safely asleep upstairs in their quarters, but she did not like being away from them.
“Who was killed tonight?” Ingrid asked as she served the Abbess some tea.
Nathalia answered her, “The lesbian couple matched right after John and Mary.”
Libby, keeper of records, identified them immediately. “Deborah and Monica? No, Maeve’s gonna be devastated.” Someone was picking off Maeve’s most recent accomplishments one by one. “Oh sweet goddess! Andrew and Vincent could be next.” Not her jewel, not her greatest accomplishment! Maeve was the first ever to match a gay couple. She was determined to do it but she had a lot of obstacles. Andrew could not get aroused by women. She had gotten around it by bringing Israel along as a distraction for Andrew. Every couple in her book was special to Maeve. None would be any less tragic than another, but they all knew how hard she had worked for that particular match.
Nathalia did not value their match as much as one with a female or two. After all, a gay couple didn’t add power to the Capacitors’ stash. “Don’t worry,” she said. “Andrew and Vincent ‘won’ a month-long cruise around Europe. I arranged for them to leave in the morning.”
Nathalia couldn’t bring herself to invite more men to the compound, but she did the next best thing. Maeve would be grateful.
Camilla leaned over the arm of the couch and threw up into the wastepaper basket. The darkness growing at the center of communal power affected her more than before. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and said, “Maeve should be here.”
Ingrid smeared a salve on the Panacea’s forehead and blew on it. Camilla’s face lost its green hue. The Ingenium Primo moved on to the next woman.
“The Vinculum Primo is resting. She has work to do tonight.” Margaux was the only woman strong enough to stand. Originating at another chapter, she had no link to the Capacitors here like every Primo hunched over, clutching their stomachs or heads. Margaux took
a sip of her tea. “Why is your Animaverto unable to predict these deaths?”
Nathalia jumped to Jolie’s defense. “It’s we who failed to interpret her dreams correctly.” Since the day Margaux had warned her of her death, Nathalia had seen every evil omen, every deathly prediction as a sign of her own death. It had not crossed her mind that “the last breath” was not about her own.
“In all the history of our order no Capacitor ‘as ever been killed, none ‘as ever done harm to another. This black magic murder is horrific and blasphemous and must be avenged. More than that, we must prevent it from happening again.” Margaux, with her French accent, took over the meeting.
Last night one of their Capacitors, overcome with the pain and corruption created by the latest murder, bludgeoned another Capacitor to death. The darkness further spread by the killing of sister by another sister. Camilla would take a month to remove that evil, leaving the holy ones susceptible to more tragedy. “We must find the leak,” Margaux said, “and now we are certain there is one, for how could this many occurrences be coincidence? Is there anything else that links these women together? Anything else that could indicate who the next target could be, if this is a conspiracy against us?”
Nathalia suggested, “They’re all women. Not one man has been hurt.” Physically, at least. John might never recover from having his mate abducted from their honeymoon suite and ritually murdered. “And they seem to be the most recent matches. Maybe Maeve leaves some trace of power on the matches and the SOFE have some way of detecting it.”
Margaux held up her hand to stop the conversation. “What is SOFE?”
Shit. They’d forgotten to mention to the representative that they knew who was doing the killing. “SOFE are sorcerers who work in blood magic. I’ve some history with them from my childhood. They usually just use small amounts of their own blood. They do a lot of invocation circles and talk about the old gods.”
Libby said, “Our seer had a dream about a circle ceremony centering around a man and woman. There was blood everywhere, and the two people in the center are slicing at the air, hacking through something. Bright light shines through the lines they’d cut in the air. She says the light felt good at first and then she realized it was stealing her magic, pulling it from her. Then something stepped out, tearing a hole in the air.”
Margaux stood frozen for several heartbeats before whispering, “Great Mother ‘elp us all,” and then a little louder, “I need my Guardian. You will find ‘im near the Matchmaker’s resting place. Bring ‘im here.”
Camilla dashed out.
“What’s wrong?” Nathalia asked.
Margaux turned to the Abbess. “If these SOFE have found the DakuAhu, the Nephilim must be informed.”
Alisha spoke up, “Should you cancel Midwinter? I only ask because the children will start preparations soon and if it’s gonna be called off, I’d hate for them to go to all the trouble just to have their expectations dashed.”
“No, of course not,” Nathalia decided. “The children don’t know about the deaths, so it would only raise their curiosity if we canceled. We’ll ring in the Solstice with Yuletide cheer as always with a celebration of the evergreen mothers.”
“I agree, Abbess. I ‘ave not celebrated Solstice in a long while and it was always my favorite. I would love to see your version.”
“Good. We’d be glad to have you,” Nathalia said. “It’s Maeve’s favorite too.”
“We should keep these deaths from the Vinculum Primo for a while. She ‘as a very important job to finish with Aaron and we need her not to be distracted.”
Nathalia argued, “Won’t she feel the darkness and pain of the Capacitors?”
Margaux shook her head, “They must have Aaron mated immediately. My Guardian is now her Guardian and will block any discomfort. That is why she is able to sleep when the rest of you are in agony. Guardians are powerful beyond imagination.”
As he walked up the road, Aaron heard a rumble of a hundred people talking, punctuated with happy squeals. The large area between the road and a grove of ancient trees was covered with people. Men and women of all ages gathered around a giant bonfire, laughing and talking. Children ran like mad.
Aaron crossed over toward the jolly and bundled people. Most adults drank a spicy-smelling hot drink, but the children were much too busy to slow down long enough for that. Nobody touched a table with homemade cookies and golden apples. He stopped near another one covered with popcorn and peanut butter jars to watch the boys and girls.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Maeve’s voice was more relaxed than he’d ever heard it. He nodded, noticing how she could make even winter clothing sexy. She slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. “This is my favorite holiday with the sisterhood. It feels so...normal. Just people enjoying other people and sharing their lives.” She leaned her head against his shoulder.
A group of teens brought them two steaming mugs. Before Maeve would take them, the girls had to sing:
Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand’ring
So fair to be seen.
Love and joy come to you,
and to you your waes haeil too.
Mothers bless you and send you a happy new year
Solstice bring you a happy new year.
Maeve reached into her giant purse, took some small bundles, and gave one to each caroler. After receiving their gifts, the teens ran off one by one. Aaron felt under prepared. He said, “I didn’t know we were supposed to bring gifts,” smiling at the two remaining girls.
“You’re my guest tonight. Only Primos give out gifts for Midwinter.” She handed a couple presents to the lingering girls. “You should taste your drink. It improves blood circulation and is a mild but natural stimulant. Wait, are these…?”
“Only children’s brew, Vinculum Primo,” the last girl called over her shoulder before running to catch up with the rest of her group.
Maeve raised her glass to Aaron and they clinked mugs. Assured the drinks were not alcoholic wassail, Aaron took a sip. Spicy and delicious, the mix even smelled warm.
“So, what did you give them?” he asked.
“Oh, they were little paper-wrapped pastries.”
From their delighted reactions, Aaron had expected an answer like jewelry or MP3 player. “It has been awhile since I’ve interacted with teens but, from what I can remember, teens aren’t the kind of creatures normally thrilled by gifted edibles.” He raised his eyebrow and waited for elaboration.
Maeve replied, “The gifts themselves are nothing special. It’s what they symbolize that gives them meaning. They’re a promise to each recipient that I will provide for them as long as they honor the Great Mother Earth.”
She surprised him by taking his hand in hers. Maeve had been so hesitant to have any nonsexual contact with him before. Aaron took it to mean he was winning her over.
Turning him so he was looking right at a beautiful live oak tree, she pointed out the three women seated in front of it. Maeve explained, “For us, Midwinter’s a celebration of mothers, who bring life. Those three women represent the three stages of motherhood and are being honored tonight.”
Maeve pointed to the youngest one, a girl Aaron had seen at Heaven a few times. Her bouncer husband was hovering over her, his full attention on her every breath, her every movement. “She’s our Maiden Mother, dressed in green to symbolize fertility. She’s pregnant. If any of our girls want to conceive this year they make an offering to her and hang something on the tree. It’s an old tradition and kinda fun.”
Aaron fought the urge to squeeze her hand, not wanting to scare her off. He knew that sharing about her religion wasn’t something she did for the average mark. He’d hoped for this when she invited him here. The more she opened up to him, the harder it would be for her to dismiss and reject his attempts at a real relationship. Connecting with Maeve on a physical level wasn’t a challenge. Not that he didn’t want th
at. Everyone wanted that from Maeve. He was a human with a pulse, after all. He just wanted her heart more.
The next woman over wore red. No man stood with her, but many children ran around her. Two in particular kept giving her kisses and refreshing her mug. “Alisha’s our Full Mother. Red symbolizes the blood she’s shed bringing life into this world. She’s who you go to with family issues or concerns, or any health problems.”
The third mother, her gray hair pulled into a snug bun, saw them looking at her and raised her arm in greeting. So did the older gentleman seated near her. Maeve, with her fingers laced tightly with his, steered Aaron toward them. “Libby’s our Mother Crone. She’s given birth but is now past the age of childbearing. The white indicates that she’s in the last evolutionary stages of life. She’s who you go to for long lasting love.”
They stopped right in front of the older couple. Aaron didn’t know what he believed and what he didn’t but he knew he wanted long lasting love—with Maeve. Reaching into his pocket, he examined its contents quickly, searching for anything that might work as a small token gift. Unless the Mother Crone needed pocket lint or a couple nickels, he had nothing. He snapped his fingers when he remembered he had a gift card for a secondhand bookstore in his wallet. Pulling it out, he handed it to Libby and explained, “I used some already but it should have ten or twelve dollars credit left.”
Libby smiled warmly and winked at him as she placed his token on the top of the pile. “May your life with your mate be good and long upon the earth.” Then she turned her attention to the next bestower.
For the Love of Magic Page 12
