CarnalHealing

by Virginia Reede

  Carnal Healing

  Virginia Reede

  Leonore has always known she’s a witch—the direct descendent of the legendary Witch of Caernathen, whose power flowed from the sensual pleasures of sex. After years of searching, Lenore has found six women, each of whom has one of the magical gifts of their mutual ancestress. The circle of seven now prepares to perform the ritual that will restore all of them to the awesome power that is their birthright.

  Dr. Jeff Carson thinks Leonore is only interested in a one-night stand. But he soon learns the mysterious woman is impossible to forget, and not only for the astonishing—and puzzling—sensations that he experiences during their lovemaking. For once, Leonore is having a hard time leaving a lover behind once she’s used him to restore her power.

  Jeff and Leonore barely have time to explore their new connection when an ancient enemy appears. The Draíodóir, an order of sorcerers who will do anything to stop the ritual from happening, threaten not only Jeff and Leonore’s love, but their very lives.

  An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

  www.ellorascave.com

  Carnal Healing

  ISBN 9781419927775

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Carnal Healing Copyright © 2010 Virginia Reede

  Edited by Shannon Combs

  Cover art by Syneca

  Electronic book publication May 2010

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Carnal Healing

  Virginia Reede

  Author Note

  If you would like to know more about the original Leonore and Geoffrey of Carnaethen, you can read their story in Witch’s Knight by Virginia Reede, another Ellora’s Cave title.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Boston Red Sox: Boston Red Sox Baseball Club Limited Partnership

  Volvo: Volvo Personvagnar AB Corporation

  Forward

  In the time of King Arthur there lived a powerful witch named Leonore. A woman of legendary beauty and wisdom, she had many lovers, for she drew her magic from the pleasure given to her by sex. Leonore’s adventures were numerous and varied, as were her powers, and she was content to live her long life in the company of the men—some powerful, some humble—from whence her strength was drawn. It was, however, not until she met her one true love, Sir Geoffrey, that her powers reached their full potential.

  Despite her belief that she had grown too old to conceive, Leonore and Geoffrey had many children together, for her magic preserved her youth and his love made her fertile to the seeds he planted. These children, having sprung from the potent magic created when they were conceived each grew to discover they carried at least one of their mother’s powers. This was especially true of the daughters, who were numerous and inherited their mother’s beauty along with her magic.

  Hundreds of years later, the female progeny of Leonore and Geoffrey still carry the seeds of her magic. When they are fortunate enough to find one another, they can become a powerful force for good.

  But in their lifetimes, Leonore and Geoffrey made enemies, and they too, have passed something along to their descendents—a dark power that has been nourished and honed for centuries. These warlocks—for the seeds of resentment flourished best in the hearts of men—have one purpose that unites them: To find and destroy the Leonoreans.

  Chapter One

  “She won’t come,” said Ludmilla, noisily sucking the foam from her cappuccino. “She thinks it’s all a bunch of hocus-pocus.”

  “She says that’s what she thinks,” said Letisha. “She knows it’s real. She just doesn’t want any part of it. But I agree with you, she won’t come.”

  Leonore listened to the other women as she sipped her own coffee. She sincerely hoped they were wrong. “She’s showed up before, even if she argued beforehand.”

  Letisha’s snort expressed a world of disdain. “That’s because we all browbeat her into it.” The foam from her chai had left a mustache that contrasted with her cocoa-colored skin, and Leonore suppressed a smirk before replying.

  “Then we’ll do it again. She’s too important to the circle. She’s probably the most powerful of us all.”

  Ludmilla shook her head. “I don’t think you realize how dead set against it she is this time. And you’re stronger than she is, Leonore. You’ve even got the Ancestor’s name.”

  “Coincidence,” said Leonore. “My mother just thought it was pretty.” This comparison always made her uncomfortable. She knew her own magic was strong.

  Letisha snorted again. “Your mama knew exactly where that name came from, girl. She studied the legends too. Ain’t no coincidence and you know it.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Leonore, dismissing the subject. “Millie, would you try to talk to her? She’s still mad at me from the last time and she’ll listen to you.”

  “I’ll try,” said Ludmilla. “But I’m not making any promises.”

  “Well, do it soon. We’re running out of time. The equinox is in less than a month, and she’ll have to request the time off work. You two already take care of that?”

  “Yeah, I took care of it,” said Letisha. “It’s gonna use up the last of my vacation, though. And Jamal’s pissed off—he wanted to take me to Jamaica. Why do we have to go to England, anyway? It always worked just fine right here in Massachusetts.”

  Leonore sighed. Getting seven of us to agree on anything is like trying to herd cats. “We’ve been over this all before, Tish. The stone circles here are replicas and, although they do seem to help magnify the power in rituals, it’s not the same as the real thing.”

  “So? I mean, this is all just an exercise, right? It’s not like we’re gonna save the world or something.”

  “Maybe not,” Leonore conceded, “but that doesn’t mean we won’t have to someday. And we need to be ready, in case the Draíodóir decide to cause trouble.”

  “The Dr—gawd, I can never pronounce that word.”

  “Dry-oh-dwar,” Millie enunciated, rolling her r’s elaborately.

  “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, the Draíodóir are a myth,” Tish scoffed. “My grandmother used them and the word ‘bogeyman’ interchangeably.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if you paid attention to the writings,” Leonore argued. “They’re all over the Vycerian manuscripts—”

  “Which were written six hundred years ago,” Tish interrupted.

  Leonore ignored her. “And when the sisters of that age united against them, saving the world might not have been too far off the mark.”


  “The Draíodóir were more interested in wiping out the Leonoreans than the Earth,” When Leonore raised her eyebrows, Tish continued. “Yes, I read the damn Vycerian manuscripts. All eight volumes, if you must know. And even if you believe they’re not about three-quarters fairy tale, the sisters destroyed the Draíodóir. Totally kicked their collective asses.”

  “Defeated, not destroyed. Depending on the translation, they may have just been driven underground.” Leonore said, not backing down. “If even one survived, he could have passed on the powers. We need to be ready.”

  “Which we will be,” Millie cut in. “I was trying to find out more about this henge we’re going to use. It’s not very famous. I would think you’d want to try Stonehenge or another one of the big ones.”

  Tish laughed aloud. “Girl, can you imagine what Stonehenge would be like on the autumnal equinox? Half the Wicca wannabes in the world all trying to jam in there at once, covered in crystals and chanting some spell they got off a website. Most of them wouldn’t know a real witch if they tripped over one.”

  “Some of those wannabes might be Leonoreans, and just not have been as lucky as we have been, to know one another,” chided Millie. “You shouldn’t make fun.”

  Leonore looked with affection at the two women, closer than any sisters. Ludmilla’s high cheekbones and almond eyes gave her an exotic look, especially when she had her waist-length hair coiled up in the elaborate coif she favored for work. She claimed eastern European royalty in her ancestry, and it was probably true—some Leonorean women had certainly formed liaisons with men of power.

  Letisha, on the other hand, was pure American home-girl, and even the stern lines of her police uniform couldn’t disguise her lush curves. Contrast the two with Leonore’s own freckled face and too-curly red hair and she figured they probably looked like the cast of a politically correct sitcom.

  “Tish is right, though,” she said. “We need to make sure we don’t have to compete for space in the circle when the time comes. The equinox happens at exactly nine minutes before noon, and we need to time the ritual precisely or we’ll miss the peak of power. You have been practicing your parts, haven’t you?” Leonore eyed Millie pointedly—she was notoriously sloppy about her spells.

  “Relax, Leonore, I’ll be ready. Why are you so cranky, anyway? When was the last time you had sex?”

  “Too long ago,” admitted Leonore. “I’ve been busy, and it’s such a pain in the ass to go out and find someone.”

  “If you kept a regular guy around, you could just make a booty call whenever you need a little pick-me-up.” Letisha grinned wickedly. “Did I tell you girls how fine Jamal’s ass is? And his cock—”

  “Is so long he can’t even wear shorts,” finished Millie, rolling her eyes. “You may have mentioned it twenty or thirty times. Spare us another description. Leonore prefers anonymous lovers, don’t you, darling? Less complicated—gives you more time for all your precious research.” She stretched like a cat. “Me, I like to keep a few on the line, begging and pleading for it.”

  Leonore laughed out loud. Mille’s lovers really did pursue her endlessly, which would have driven Leonore crazy, but she seemed to thrive on the attention.

  “Whatever,” said Tish, pouting a little at Millie’s rebuff. “But you gotta get laid, girl. You keep telling us to practice the rituals, but you know it takes power even to do that. And you can’t make any sparks if your battery’s dead. Besides, it’s fun. Go on out tonight and get you some. Promise?”

  “Okay, okay. It’s time, you’re right. I just need to figure out where to go.”

  “Try that new sports bar over near the hospital—Jake’s. Wednesday is ladies’ night, so of course it’s all men.” Tish looked at her watch. “I need to get back to the station. Sisters?” She offered one hand to each of her companions, and Leonore and Ludmilla each took one, then joined their own to form a small circle.

  They chanted softly and quickly, so that no one else even noticed the small ritual that always marked their parting. “Dominatus consociatum. I give to you and I accept your gift.”

  As Letisha headed down the sidewalk in the direction of her patrol car, Millie stood and gathered the assortment of accessories she always seemed to carry—handbag, sunglasses, scarf, cigarette case and lighter—and looked at Leonore with concern.

  “Your powers are weak, Leonore. I didn’t realize how weak until we joined. You need to keep strong.” Ludmilla’s special power was the ability to sense emotions and even read thoughts through touch.

  “I’ve already told you I would do something about it tonight, Millie. It’s not like you to be concerned about my ability to perform spells. You barely practice your own.”

  “It’s not that.” Millie made no move to leave, and her face was uncharacteristically serious. “I think you need to stay strong all the time, not just to get ready for the equinox.”

  “What’s wrong, Millie? Is there something you’re not telling us?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know.” Ludmilla’s brow furrowed, and Leonore felt a mild sense of alarm.

  “Tell me.”

  Without putting down her burdens, Millie sank back into the chair. “I had a walk-in customer yesterday—a man. He said he was from out of town, and he wanted a manicure. All my technicians were busy, and I was done with the bank deposits, so I took care of him.“

  Leonore nodded. She knew that Millie’s day spa had grown to such a size that she only handled a very few favored customers personally, but would sometimes do a manicure or pedicure when things got especially busy.

  “He was very handsome, if you like that too-smooth Latin-lover look.”

  “Which you do,” interrupted Leonore, who was surprised when her jibe did not draw a smile.

  Millie just shrugged. “Yes, sometimes. But there was something about this man that gave me the squirms. And not the good kind, either. He sort of scared me”

  Leonore was intrigued. “Did you read him? Did you find anything bad?”

  “That’s just it,” replied Millie. “I started to, and an image was just starting to form, and then wham!” She made a sharp gesture with the hand still holding the scarf. “It was like a door slammed closed right in my face. I got the impression that he…that he felt me reading him and blocked me out intentionally.”

  “Really?” Leonore was surprised but not shocked. “Well, it’s not common, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first time this happened to you. What’s different about this incident?”

  “It wasn’t the blocking me out that scared me, although I don’t think anyone has ever done it that violently before. It was what I was starting to see just before the wall came down.”

  “What did you see?” Leonore felt a chill, as if she was catching a bit of her friend’s apprehension.

  Millie shook her head, a gesture of frustration. “I’m not sure. Something bad. It felt like…hate. I couldn’t really tell. It was over too fast.”

  Leonore considered. “Well, that’s not very pleasant, but I’m sure you have clients who have negative thoughts like that every once in a while. People have a tendency to open up to you, even when you don’t read them.”

  “This was different. This felt…” Ludmilla seemed to search for the right word. “Directed. Personal, maybe.”

  “Directed toward you?” A frisson of alarm prickled the back of Leonore’s neck. “Did he want to hurt you?“

  “Not exactly,” Millie said, sounding less than confident. “But I thought about it afterward. I think…I felt like if the image of his thoughts had come fully into focus, I would have seen something I recognized, and that’s why he cut me off.”

  Leonore took a deep breath and asked the question. “Millie, do you think he could be Draíodóir?”

  Again, Millie shook her head. “No, nothing like that. I’m probably being silly. I mean, I didn’t really see anything, and he was perfectly pleasant to me. Gave me a huge tip, even though I told him I owned the place and it really wasn’t ne
cessary.”

  Leonore wasn’t convinced. “Maybe when you talk to Vinnie about the equinox, she can conjure up a vision—see if this guy shows up.”

  “I doubt it.” Millie got back to her feet. “Denial about her power is the reason Lavinia doesn’t want to participate in the ritual in the first place. I’ll have enough trouble talking her into the trip to England without trying to get her to predict the future.”

  “You’re probably right. It would be a long shot, anyway.” Like most Leonoreans blessed—or cursed, if you took her word for it—with the sight, Lavinia had little control over the subjects of her precognition. “Call me after you talk to her, okay?”

  “I will,” promised Millie, and the two women both headed for their cars, parked in opposite directions.

  Chapter Two

  Jake’s sports bar was surprisingly crowded for a weekday night, and Tish had been right about the male-to-female ratio. It was a big place—three large rooms, each centered around an oversized projection screen and dotted with many smaller televisions, all tuned to sports channels. Most showed baseball games, but the Red Sox apparently didn’t have a game that night, and the commentary was mostly drowned out by jukebox music, which was piped to all corners of the building. The four bars were all full, as were most of the tables, and waitstaff scurried by carrying trays laden with burgers, chicken wings and potato skins.

  Perfect. Packed with men, and with too many people for them to all be regulars. No important ball game on that it would be hard to drag someone away from. The best kind of place to find what she was looking for without the complication of questions.

  Millie had been accurate about Leonore’s preference for anonymous lovers. She had the rapacious sexual appetite that was her birthright, but sometimes got so caught up in her work as a writer and her research of Leonorean lore and magic that she didn’t take time to satisfy it. Once her powers were restored, the last thing she needed was some smitten man hanging around, taking up time she couldn’t afford to give him.