The Witch's Dream - A Paranormal Romance (The Order of the Black Swan, BOOK TWO)

by Victoria Danann

  Last, the two of them talked about their wedding.

  "I'd like to get married on May Day, but it looks like it's on a Thursday. That's not going to work for your sisters because they just took time off work. We'll have to settle for the third. That's the next Saturday after May Day."

  Kay ran his huge hand over her hair. "It's perfect, Trina. So why are you sad?"

  She didn't cry, but her eyes got red around the rims and he could tell she was working at holding back tears. "I feel so guilty about Litha. I'm here with you. Free of that..."

  "Demon," Kay supplied.

  "And she's there in my place. I hope she's safe, but I can't know that."

  "Just look how resourceful she is, Sugar. There wasn't a soul in this outfit that thought there was a chance in hell you could be retrieved from another dimension. Criminently. I still can’t believe it, myself. And here you are.” He just had to gather her in his arms again to reassure himself, again, that she was there and okay. Fully present and accounted for. “It was impossible right up until Litha did it. She's a miracle maker. And one of these days she's going to turn up just like you did."

  "You really believe that?"

  "On my honor as a Black Swan knight." Kay felt like a shit lying on his honor as a Black Swan knight.

  She gave him an I-adore-you look. "You know it's not at all hard to think of you that way."

  He smiled. "What's going to be hard is keeping our secret. No one else can know any of this. Not ever. Not even after I leave."

  ***

  CHAPTER 16

  Deliverance returned a few minutes after he'd left. Litha had barely had time to look around. Not that there was much to see.

  The demon nodded toward a section of wall. She turned to see why he gestured toward it and part of the wall slid open to a large room beyond that was quite contemporary, if not futuristic. Unlike much of contemporary style, there was plush, comfortable furniture set in a minimalist context with a white shag rug on a terrazzo floor and a glass coffee table. What caught Litha’s interest was the view of a dark blue lake with pink gravel beach. Nope. Not in Kansas anymore.

  He handed her a white paper sack wafting a heavenly aroma that smelled like hamburger and made her salivate, then gestured for her to enter the adjacent room with the hand that was holding the glass long neck of IBC root beer, also meant for her.

  Litha took a quick look around at the surroundings and sat down on a divan. One entire wall of the room was glass looking out at the lake which featured large bowls of fire above the water line and near the shore. One entire wall was made up of a grid of dozens of monitors simultaneously playing TV shows, movies and news. Most of them seemed to originate in her reality... the, uh, Loti Dimension. A third wall could only be described as an altar to fire and the fourth was smooth, rectangular stones; bare except for an enormous oil painting of a woman who looked a lot like Litha except for her fair skin and light brown hair.

  Deliverance slouched on the divan facing hers and tracked her every movement. Until that moment he hadn’t realized that it was strange for a demon who certainly never planned to entertain guests to have furnished his living space with a pair of matching divans that faced each other as if inviting dialogue.

  She pointed at the monitors. "Bored much?"

  He lifted a bare shoulder. "I like to keep up." He had removed his shirt and shoes after handing over the food.

  "I thought you said no hamburgers from London."

  He snorted. "That didn't come from London. It came from a 6th Street bar in Austin. Casino el Camino." He casually threw an index finger toward the burger. "Well done with everything including onions and jalapenos."

  "Texas?"

  "Not dignifying that with an answer." He chuckled to himself looking mischievous. "Right now I’ll bet there's some irate fool standing at the counter yelling, 'Hey. Where's my burger?'"

  "Where did you leave the woman?"

  "As agreed... " He inclined his head toward her. "...she was deposited where I took her. The lobby of the Hyde Park Hotel, London, Angland, United Queendom of Great Britannia, Loti Dimension, Gods Save The Queen." Litha opened her mouth to say something else, but he went on. "And! She was in absolutely perfect condition, sound of body and mind, at least to the limited extent of her potential."

  Litha took a bite and chewed. "Condescending. Don't you have, uh, sex with humans?"

  "Sure. Among others. I'm an Abraxas. I'm nourished by emotion. In my particular case, being a subspecies called Incubus, I can only be sustained by sexual excitement. Don't misunderstand me. I like them. But, bottom line, they are food.”

  "Excuse me, but, ew. Trying to eat here."

  Deliverance looked unrepentant and amused. “Have you ever seen a biogram of a woman’s brain when she orgasms? It lights up with an array of kaleidoscope colors like she’s powering up the universe." He looked out the window toward the lake and shook his head a little. “It's amazing.”

  He turned to watch Litha eat. “I’m sure it ‘tastes’ better to me than that hamburger does to you.”

  “No way.” She chomped down on a bigger bite.

  He smiled. “Glad you like it.”

  "I get why you don't have a kitchen, but, as you can see, I do eat actual food. Are you going to fetch all my meals? I’m a grazer. That means I like to eat little meals. Often."

  He snorted. "Little meals like the third pound burger you just devoured in six minutes?”

  “I was hungry.”

  “The answer is no. You're going to earn your food."

  Litha stopped chewing. "How?"

  "You will dine anywhere you wish, eat anything you wish, anytime you wish, but you have to successfully navigate a pass to get us there."

  "Is that hard to do?"

  "Not for me." He seemed as perky as if it was all a game.

  Litha glanced at the wall where the portrait hung. "What about her? Was she food?"

  The demon's face fell and, for the first time, she saw something other than variations on smugness. It might have been a flicker of guilt or remorse or any one of a hundred emotions. Maybe just plain old sadness.

  "No," he said quietly. "I loved her. I still do."

  ***

  CHAPTER 17

  When Kay and Katrina emerged from their hideaway the next morning, they looked like they had been rebooted. Katrina seemed polished bright in her own clothes. Kay looked relaxed and happy. They'd called and asked that Ram, Elora and Storm have breakfast with them in the Director's newly redecorated outer office.

  When the little group was assembled, they announced their plans to wed in a week's time and shared that Simon had given them all leave to go to Hunt, Texas for the wedding and festivities. Storm took one look at Kay and knew in his heart what Kay had not yet said; that he wouldn't be coming back.

  Elora asked Katrina if there was something she could do to help with the event.

  "Thank you, but, you know his sisters are not only on the scene, but they're also very, ah, take charge."

  Elora chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. Still, if there's anything that requires lots of brute strength, I'm your girl."

  Katrina’s eyes drifted upward and roamed over Elora's hair. "That really is your natural color isn't it?"

  Elora sighed, "I'm afraid so. I've thought about changing it to blend in more because I don't like the attention, but I always chicken out."

  "That's not chickening out. It's your heart telling you to be yourself. Plus, there’s also the it’s-amazing factor."

  "Katrina, I like the way you think. Now tell me what the bride is wearing."

  After breakfast Kay asked Storm to take a walk. They crossed Princes Street to the Gardens side, walked east and turned right onto the bridge. They naturally fell into the easy and relaxed way in which they were accustomed to interacting with each other. They talked about ideas for the wedding, the logistics of getting everybody there and putting it together so fast and, of course, about how badly Katrina's abduction had sca
red Kay.

  Halfway across Kay stopped on the bridge and leaned on the rail looking off toward Calton Hill. "Probably goes without saying, but, just to make it official, I'd like you to stand up with me. Can’t dive into the deep end without you at my back. You know I was thinking that best man is kind of a funny expression. This may be the first time in history when it happens to be true."

  Storm turned and looked at Kay. "You're not coming back."

  Kay looked down at his boots for just a second before meeting Storm's gaze head on. "She doesn't want to wait, says now she understands just how fast things can change. And she's not the only one who's learned that lesson.

  "I've got enough money so I can spend however long we’ve got just trying to make her as happy as a person can be - for however long we've got. And that's what I'm going to do. Make her happy. Keep her safe."

  Storm took in a deep breath and let it out. "You're right. She's not the only one who's learned that lesson." He was reliving the feeling that he had when he was standing in a Siena side street with handfuls of beautiful, warm, wicked witch one minute and nothing but silent, unforgiving, stone wall the next. "Black Swan will be losing its best."

  Kay guffawed. "That is such a lie. All three of my teammates are better knights than I am."

  "Now that is a lie." Kay just smiled while his eyes wrinkled in disagreement. “I don't have to dance disco, do I?"

  Kay laughed. "Polish your boogie shoes, brother."

  Storm groaned.

  Ram answered the door and invited Kay and Katrina inside.

  Elora was shocked when Kay asked both of them to stand up with him.

  "Well, of course." He barely got that out when Elora plowed into him for an excited hug. "What did you think? This is a progressive Black Swan team. Ladies welcome."

  Katrina smiled when Elora looked her way for confirmation. "He's spent the past twenty four hours explaining things to me and I agree. It's fitting. As it should be."

  They sat down and Kay delivered the news that he wouldn't be coming back to The Order after his honeymoon. There's always a sadness accompanying the turning of a page, but there's usually a joyful anticipation of transition as well. Ram surprised Elora by saying that, since his mate insisted on going wherever he went, he'd been thinking that the only way he could keep her safe was to retire from active duty himself.

  It was news to Elora that they were retiring, but she wasn't heavily invested in fighting for Black Swan. The reason she had become a knight in the first place was to be sure she could keep those three men alive. What she really wanted was a nice fifty acres of green grass where she could breed wonderful Alsatians, or rather, German Shepherds and at least one, probably rowdy, strange-haired little boy with beautifully pointed ears.

  As counterintuitive as it may seem, sex demons are solitary creatures who prefer to live alone. Normally, sharing a residence would have been torture for Deliverance, but there was something almost divine about this creature who was partly him and partly the witch he loved. He dreaded the day, fast approaching, when he would have to let her go and wished he hadn’t been foolishly hasty in telling her that a pact of fire binds even him to an agreement.

  He had been forced to relent on his proclamation that she should not eat until she could take them through a pass. He fed her for a full two days while she struggled with acquiring the skill, but, finally, on the third day she began to show promise. By the fourth day she had the hang of it. For a demon, or a creature like Litha with sufficient demon blood, slipping dimensions is only slightly out of the ordinary in the same way a yawn is just a different way of drawing breath. Not painful or difficult. Just different.

  The first time Litha successfully slipped dimension without assistance she giggled with a child's delight and Deliverance reacted with an embarrassing rush of sentiment. It wasn't like she was a six-year-old learning to ride a two-wheeler for Cromm's sake!

  She learned that most of the passes are about the same size as a large doorway, but that some are huge and in flux like the one off the coast of Florida.

  Once she caught on to the possibilities she'd gone a little crazy with wanting to exercise the power. He'd watched her crash a beach bake and eat lobster on the coast of Maine. She'd tried twenty-seven different kinds of seared peppers with flank steak in Rio, crawfish on a pier at Fairhope, Alabama, Szechuan beef in Chongqing province, sushi on a deck with a view of Mount Fuji, and Hungarian goulash in a Budapest bistro.

  They fell into the habit of enjoying conversation together during her meal, then they would find a place for her to occupy herself shopping while he took care of his own sustenance. As much as she loved sampling the fare and exploring the cultures of her own dimension, he found her to be aggressively adventurous, for a Terran, when it came to some of the more exotic pleasures available in other dimensions.

  By that time she had learned to control her ability to gather fire. She could start fire at will without an emotional stimulus and control the size of the flame, making it as big or small as she chose.

  He had proudly introduced her to Sylphic Warriors in a wind dimension where they travel by sailing just above ground on ships with saffron sails like sampats. He told her that some people call them archangels.

  "You're friends with angels?"

  "Not a lot. Just like Fae sometimes have Elf friends."

  Litha considered that. "What's the difference between Fae and Elf?"

  "There may be a little difference in dialect? Or in their histories, but the origins are the same."

  "So you're saying that angels and demons are basically the same as well?"

  "We're children of the ancient elements. Like siblings."

  "You know what most humans think.”

  "Well, they're good at naming things and pointing fingers."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Sometimes it's who gets there first. The Akasus, which is the species you call demons, angels, and some others, are one of the oldest races that evolved on this planet. By the time other worlds began to produce similar species we were advanced relative to them. The Nephilim made a hobby of watching the worlds to see when a new batch of upright creatures was ready to be impressed with godlike abilities. They have a sort of perverse need to be worshipped. Fire demons weren't into that and didn't care if the Nephilim wanted to fuck around with primitives.

  My mother told me that, in the old days, they were fond of wearing cloaks covered with white feathers when they went among the primitives. That's how they came to be associated with wings."

  "And the, uh, primitives saw some of the demons start fire? And that's where the whole demon from hellfire started?"

  "Hmmm. There are some advantages to being trusted the way the Nephilim are. But there are also advantages to being feared."

  "It all comes down to spin.”

  “Well said."

  "They… you’re… just like us, only more powerful.."

  "Every sentient in creation is light and shadow, Litha. The only absolutes are in Batman comics."

  "You know, you sound a little like the monks who raised me."

  "In that case," he said smiling, "I must meet them. I'm sure we would be great friends." He grew suddenly serious. "Certainly I owe them a lot."

  Litha looked thoughtful. "You have a mother?"

  Deliverance grinned. "Want to meet her?"

  ”Yes.”

  “I haven’t seen her for awhile. Not since Rosie…” He trailed off and seemed to withdraw into himself.

  "Have you explored all the worlds?" The question brought her father out of his reverie.

  Deliverance laughed good-naturedly. "No, love, a thousand years isn't nearly long enough for that. On this plane alone there are countless dimensions, some hospitable and some not. Some are not fit for travel because of the occupants and some have been ruined by explosive waste or chemical warfare."

  "Do you travel between planes?"

  He shook his head. "No. Think of it like a multistory build
ing with eleven stories and each story represents a plane. On that story there are hallways with lots of doors and each of those leads to a different dimension, but there's no elevator or stairway to get from one story to another. There's no proof that there are eleven planes, just speculation. It could be more or less. As to where we are, we could be on the first floor or the eleventh. The main thing is that there are a lot of possibilities on every plane."

  "How do you know which ones you've been to and which ones you want to go to?"

  The demon beamed at her like she was the brightest student in the class. "Now here is an interesting bit about your heritage. Only a few of the entities tethered to the earth's gravitational field can move between dimensions and, of those, there are only a few who can do it effortlessly." He smiled and held his arms out like a performer inviting ovation.

  "And Abraxas demons are among the few who don't break a sweat." She seemed unimpressed. "Of course only birds can fly effortlessly, but that doesn't stop hu... Terrans from doing it anyway."

  "First, birds are not the only creatures who fly. Second, what are you talking about?"

  "I know somebody who came to my world from another recently. They call it 'slipping dimensions'. She was transported in a machine."

  "Uh huh."

  "Well, is there a lot of that going on?"

  "I wouldn't say 'a lot' per se."

  She cocked a hip and shot him a look.

  "It's been going on for awhile and the traffic is picking up."

  "What's awhile?"

  "I don't know how far back. It's not a subject that has ever interested me, but certainly all my life." Litha seemed to need a minute to digest the implications of that. "But, you sidetracked me while I was trying to make a point."

  "Okay. What?"

  "Do you understand how special you are?"

  He waited patiently while she stared at him for a long time trying to sort out her feelings and decide how to answer. "I could learn to appreciate my demon side."