After opening the door at the bottom of the stairs, Samuel looked around. He didn’t need light; his eyesight was impeccable even in the darkest of areas. Moving clockwise around the room, Samuel cleared a spot on the table next to the door where he could put all the things he needed to dispose of. He moved debris from another area, leaving it for the things he could take to the antique shop like he promised.
Most of the items on the first table were your common workroom related objects. There were knives used to cut herbs, a mortar and pestle, and various bowls for mixing ingredients. All of these things Samuel put aside in the second pile for the shop. They would be worth quite a lot of money considering they were old and still in excellent condition.
In the first pile he placed the cursed tinderbox, a set of chains that once wrapped around an object would never come undone, and some spelled jewelry he wasn’t quite sure about but held a dark aura. Moving to a second worktable, he picked up a hand mirror and looked into it. He wondered what its purpose was as it didn’t look like a scrying mirror to him. Those were sitting in the first pile for dangerous objects.
Samuel frowned, bringing the mirror closer to his face. Suddenly a woman jumped at the glass, causing him to stumble back several inches in surprise. Placing a hand over his racing heart, he got a better look at her. She was gorgeous, her red hair plaited and wrapped around her head with several curls artfully framing her face. Her pouty lips were a delicate shade of rose, and she had light blue eyes a man could get lost in. And, many had he knew, for this little succubus was a destroyer of hearts. She was crying and holding her arms in a gesture that screamed innocence and vulnerability though he knew she was anything but.
“How did you get trapped in the mirror, Morena?”
Morena stopped crying immediately and squinted as if trying to see through the glass. “Samuel?”
“Who else would be in this hell hole?”
“Turn on a light, I can’t see anything.” Her voice was demanding, and she crossed her arms with a sullen pout. Gone was the woman that needed rescuing and in her place was the vixen he knew best. Samuel searched the room for candles and a piece of flint and steel to light them with. After igniting the remaining tapers on the candelabra he found, he placed it next to the mirror on the table.
“That’s better. So sexy, are you going to let me out? I’ll make it worth your while,” Morena purred, giving him a lascivious wink and wiggling her eyebrows in a very come-hither way.
“Maybe. How did you get in there?” Samuel had no intentions of letting her out but he wanted information, and he knew she wouldn’t be forthcoming once she realized he wasn't going to release her. Samuel shuddered to think of the damage she would do once let loose on the world.
Morena rolled her eyes and pouted. “It was an honest mistake, honestly!”
“I’m listening.”
“I slept with the coven leader’s husband. I didn’t know he was married! You think that would be something he would tell a girl.”
Samuel closed his eyes trying to remember back to the time before he was trapped. “Wasn’t he the Governor?”
“Perhaps.” Her eyes shifted to the side, and she refused to look at him for a moment. Then she chuckled. “He was not pleased when he realized I kept calling his wife a witch because she was one and not because I didn’t like her.”
“I thought you just said you didn’t know he was married.”
Morena blinked several times and cleared her throat. “Anyhow, I’m glad to see Fannie’s curse worked.”
Samuel’s eyebrows shot together as he frowned at the mirror. Fannie was his partner before his incarceration. Their liaison was casual, but he always felt the lack of commitment was more on his side than hers. She was another demon he wanted nowhere near Sara. “What was Frannie’s curse?”
“Let me out, and I’ll tell you.” She watched him with a shrewd stare.
“Tell me, and I’ll let you out.” He had no intention of letting her out.
“You promise?”
“Have I ever lied to you?” He gave her a dashing smile. There was a first time for everything.
“If the witches didn’t release you in thirteen days, then in thirteen generations you would be released to rain vengeance upon the thirteen daughters of the thirteen witches who cast you into the circle.”
Samuel sniffed, doing the math in his head. This generation would be the thirteenth since his imprisonment. Apparently, the original witches either didn’t believe Fannie, or they didn’t care about their descendants. Fannie’s curses were legendary among their people, you didn’t cross her if you could help it. He wondered if the curse had predestined his meeting with Sara.
“So now I’ve told you, let me out!” Morena said, her face full of hope.
“After a fashion. I’ll take you somewhere someone can find you and you can convince them to free you. I’m a little too tied up at the moment to take care of you, and I refuse to put that burden on the people who freed me.” Samuel winced as she cursed at him, pounding on the glass of the mirror. He flipped it over and placed it face down on the bench to muffle the screaming before he continued his searching. Samuel felt terrible knowing her imprisonment was almost the same length as his. If she were more trustworthy, he would consider letting her go.
Samuel looked through the rest of the items in the basement while giving the area he had been trapped in a wide berth. The singular other interesting thing he found was a box filled with old silver coins. He grabbed them thinking it would be fun to show them to Sara.
After locking the cellar back up, he carried the box upstairs to find Sara and Ash sitting together with their heads bent over cups of coffee. “Morning.” To his delight, both of their heads flew up, and the soft pink stain of a blush spread across Sara’s face. “What were you talking about?”
“Nothing,” she stuttered and cleared her throat. “Where have you been?”
“I was looking around the cellar.” He carried the box of coins over to them and placed it on the bar in front of them. “Look what I found. I’m sure they aren’t worth anything now. In all honesty, they weren’t worth anything in my time either.”
Ash made a gurgling sound in her throat and cried slightly after he opened the box to show them the silver coins. “Holy shit! Are you serious?” She looked up at him with wide eyes, her face pale, while she kept opening and closing her mouth. Reaching into the box with great care, she pulled out a coin, holding it by the edges with her thumb and forefinger, and almost cried. “Do you have any idea what these are?”
Sara watched her with an amused expression and looked up at him. “Ash works for an auction house. They mostly sell old weapons and currency. I think she just had an orgasm.”
Ash, ignoring her, ran to her purse and pulled out a jeweler’s magnifying glass. Holding it up to her eye, she examined the coin in the light from the windows.
“She’s the one that certifies the coins, so she is in town this week for a convention. Tell us about it, Ash.” They watched her roll the coin around to see it better with a cloth she also extracted from her bag.
“This one is a New England Shilling. These coins were minted around the sixteen fifties or slightly later. It has the NE stamped on one side for New England and the Roman numeral for twelve stamped on the other for the denomination of 12 Pence. This is probably one of the rarest coins, the last time I saw one, there were only about forty known. I would grade this one around,” she paused, tilting her head. “Maybe a fifty-three? It must have been sitting in that box for a long time, it’s nearly perfect.”
“How much do you think it’s worth?” Sara gingerly took the box away from Samuel. He suspected it was to keep him from fingering through the coins as he had been reaching to do.
“At auction?” Ash bit her lip, moving her head back and forth as she thought about the prices, and continued, “I would have to check to be sure, but around two twenty-five?”
“Two hundred and twenty-five dollars?” S
amuel looked at the two women, confused. From what he knew about currency today, that wasn’t a lot of money. At least, not enough for Ash to be so excited about.
Ash walked over to Sara and relieved her of her burden, eyeing the rest of the contents. “No, two hundred and twenty-five thousand. That one coin is worth around a quarter of a million dollars. In fact, even the most common of the coins in here will go for ten to twenty grand.”
Sara gasped and looked at him in astonishment. He grinned at Ash while leaning back on the counter, holding the towel that kept trying to fall off his hips closed. “And here I was going to just melt them all down for scrap silver.” He noticed Sara eyeing the towel and heat flared to life inside him.
She cleared her throat and looked away, a slight tint of rose burning across her cheeks. “Maybe you should go shower, you’re covered in dirt. I’ll find you a clean towel.”
“Can I take these and sell them?” Ash looked up, not noticing the currents of lust moving between them.
“If Sara says yes, I don’t care.” Samuel shrugged and brushed past Sara, leaning down to nuzzle the top of her head.
“Go for it, Ash. I’ll set up a bank account you can deposit the money into. We can transfer it into his name once he exists.”
“What do you mean once I exist?” Samuel frowned with confusion. Looking down he flexed for her and smiled. “I haven’t existed this much in a long time.”
Sara made a noise deep in her throat, and he saw her shiver as she walked to the utility room to grab a fresh towel. When she came back, she seemed more composed. “That’s the issue. You haven’t existed since technology took over. This is the digital age, almost everything is stored in computers. I can create an identity for you, but I’ll have to reach out to my contacts to set you up with a birth certificate and papers.”
“I will take your word for it.” Samuel took the towel from Sara and accepted a plastic bag with clothing in it from Ash.
“I got you a few different sized shirts, some basketball shorts, and a few different sizes of flip-flops. Sara can return anything that doesn’t fit.” Ash smiled at him but immediately went back to her prize, pulling out the coins one by one and laying them on a clean cotton dishcloth.
Samuel looked at Sara as he backed down the hall towards her bedroom shower and winked at her suggestively. Her eyes grew wide and her gaze flicked to Ash whose focus was on the coins. Shrugging, she followed him down the hall much to his delight.
22. SAMUEL
Samuel couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the morning. With Sara wrapped in his arms when he awoke then soaping up her lush body in the shower and keeping her there until the water ran cold, he was enjoying his freedom.
After the shower he dug through the bag Ash brought him and pulled out a pair of underwear which resembled small tight shorts. He put them on and turned to Sara to ask her what she thought. Wearing them was short-lived after she saw him and they ended up on the floor.
Another thirty minutes and he was back in them with a happy and satisfied Sara laying on the bed, watching him. He didn’t realize how sexually greedy the woman was and it pleased him to no end. With him, stamina was never an issue, and he vowed to himself to see her pleased as often as she wanted. There was something about the way she lay there, watching him get dressed, that made him daydream about staying in this room all day with her.
Unfortunately, she said they had errands to run, and then there was the matter of food. Samuel may not need to eat as often as a regular man, but he still enjoyed it. At some point, he wanted to try that bread and cheese thing she ordered sometimes.
“Get dressed,” he grinned and smacked her ass before picking up a pair of basketball shorts. “You’re the one who said we needed to get moving.”
Sara groaned and rolled off the bed, walking to the bathroom with a sultry sway to her hips while smiling over her shoulder at him.
“Keep looking at me like that, and we won’t be leaving today.” He laughed, enjoying the way she stretched as she walked through the door and disappeared from sight. Sighing when he grew hard again, he tried to put her out of his mind while he pulled the tight black t-shirt over his head. The shorts he wore didn’t do anything to hide his arousal.
Sara came out of the bathroom a few moments later wearing a pair of jeans and a V-neck shirt that clung to her in all the right places. It was going to be a long day.
They exited the bedroom together to find Ash sitting where they left her, still researching the coins. She had a laptop open on the bar and her phone in her hand, scrolling through different pages and working between the two machines.
“We’re heading out. Do you need anything?” Sara asked her friend, who finally looked up from what she was doing.
“I’m good. I’m going to do more research before I get packed up to leave this afternoon. You guys have fun. The mall isn’t my thing anyhow.” The two women said goodbye and Sara grabbed a jacket and her keys before she led him out of the house.
Samuel welcomed the experience of being outside. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt the wind and sun on his face. The weather grew colder every day, and the first colors of fall tinged the leaves on the trees.
“What day is it?” He walked with her to the vehicle sitting in the driveway and watched as she opened the door on the driver’s side. Copying her motions he folded himself into the passenger seat, trying to take up less space as his knees pressed into the dashboard.
“Sunday. There is a lever under the seat you can use to push it back so you aren’t cramped.”
Finding the lever, he pulled on it, and the seat slid back faster than he expected, coming to an abrupt halt with a thud. Sara didn’t seem to notice as she undid two latches on the roof of the car and pressed a button. To his astonishment, Samuel watched as the ceiling lifted from the rest of the car, tucking itself into the area behind the seats.
“I meant the date and month. What did you do?”
“What? Oh, this is a convertible, the top retracts, and I figured it’s such a nice day out we should enjoy the cooler weather. It’s October thirteenth.” Sara started the car, backing out of the driveway as he fastened his seatbelt the same way she had. It was the first time he ever rode in a car, and he was nervous, holding onto the seat with one hand and the bar on the door with the other. Samuel hoped they would survive. Most of the cars he saw on television ended up engulfed in flames after horrible accidents.
Sara drove slowly through the streets until they reached a set of lights hanging over the road and she stopped. So far, the trip wasn’t that bad, though his knuckles were turning white from his grip on the door handle. Sara looked over at him and smirked but said nothing as she pulled away from the light. The car started to pick up speed.
They traveled faster and faster until he had to close his eyes. He thought it would help, but he soon realized he wanted to see their inevitable death coming towards them and opened his eyes to peek again. Sara reached over to turn dials on the center of the dashboard, causing warm air to flow from the vents and smiled at him. “I’m a good driver. I haven’t gotten into an accident once, knock on wood.”
“You have to understand,” he turned towards her and tried to loosen his hands from their death grip, “The fastest thing I’ve ever ridden is a horse.”
“Good point. Don’t worry, this Mustang won’t throw you.” She rubbed the dashboard, cooing lovingly at it and Samuel wondered if she was insane. He had to remind himself that she was more eccentric than he was used to. Times had changed.
He was thankful when they reached the parking lot around the large mall because it forced her to slow down from the breakneck speeds she drove on the streets. Since all the other cars were going the same rate, at least he knew it wasn’t just her.
He stared in awe at the sheer number of cars parked outside as Sara drove through the isles to find a free space. After they parked and got out of the vehicle, Samuel wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and they walked towards
the building.
“We’ll find your clothes first and then get food.” Sara smiled up at him, lifting her hand to twine her fingers with his on her shoulder. He loved being able to touch her, and for a moment she was all he could think about again. Leaning down, he kissed the top of her head and then withdrew, knowing it wasn’t proper to make public displays of affection.
They entered the mall, walking into a giant two-story atrium with potted plants and a fountain in the center, and he stopped in his tracks. People milled everywhere, some holding bags painted in bright colors, while others just stood in groups talking. Still more people walked along the outsides of the others, moving between stores.
Samuel’s eyes nearly fell out when he saw a group of young girls standing in the middle of the public place wearing hardly any clothes. “Why are those little girls naked?”
“Stop staring,” Sara chuckled, following his gaze. “Their clothes are fine, and people will think you’re a creeper.”
“What’s a creeper?” He let her drag him into the flow of traffic, still shooing glances over his shoulder at the indecently dressed children.
“Someone who stares at teenagers,” she replied and elbowed him in the side. He looked around the area they were moving through and saw a store with several half-naked women on banners posted in the windows. Mannequins stood and displayed sheer pink and black lacey lingerie. He once again marveled at the difference between this time and the Puritan Salem of old.
Samuel pulled Sara into the shop and over to one of the racks. He held up a frilly garment to her front, grinning like a kid in a candy store. “You should try this on.”
“Not right now.” Sara rolled her eyes, taking the hanger from his hands and replacing it on the rack.
Pulling her to his side, he nuzzled her ear and whispered, “Later then.” He could feel the shiver that ran through her body as she led him out of the store.
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