by Cahoon, Lynn
The assigned Fairy Guardian has limitations. She cannot do your homework. She isn’t allowed to clean your room and can’t tell you the future. Especially when you’re asking about serious concerns, like birth, death, or marriage. Focus your questions on a specific subject and make sure the fairy can answer with a yes or no, these practices will give you better results. Remember, most of all, never tell the fairy your secret name.–The Academy of Witchcraft Manual. Volume 3, page 142.
Ty pulled his Mercedes onto a parking spot in front of the bar. Four hours with Matilda, Parris’ grandmother, and they’d only started breaking the forgetting spell. He’d left her searching through her old spell books, hoping she’d left herself a clue. If she had, she’d hidden the clue well.
When he’d called to check on Parris and Derek, he’d found Derek had been unsuccessful in getting the woman to focus. Parris had bailed. Again.
She needed to prioritize, like him. First thing in the morning, he’d checked in at the law office, placed a few phone calls, delegated other tasks, and finished his work. He was a freaking lawyer. Parris needed to learn to let April handle management of the bar for at least a few hours a day.
Pushing through the heavy wooden door, he caught a whiff of her, reminding him of the first time he’d walked through The Alibi’s door and discovered one rogue witch with no clue about who she was or what she could become. The smell of chamomile, thyme, mint, and a surprising touch of vanilla, mixed with a slight scent of sulfur now meant Parris. Anytime, anywhere. Even in this dark, dive bar filled with spilled beer odors and lingering cigarette smoke. Parris, his soul mate.
The thought sent chills up his spine. He’d been struggling with the idea of Parris since they’d met. When he realized the strength of their connection, he’d been ready for the commitment. After his research uncovered she’d been born to First Bloods, both in and out of The Council, he’d questioned their union. Now that The Council had issued an edict for him to train her in her powers, he’d pushed his feelings aside. Right now they had business. Serious business that would keep her alive and her grandmother safe. Now was not the time to imagine stripping off her black cotton sundress and taking her right on the bar.
“Hey, Ty.” April waved at him from behind the bar. “You want something? Soda, beer?”
“Coffee.” He walked toward the table where Parris sat, an open book in front of her. Slipping into the chair, he frowned. “You shouldn’t be reading here.”
“A fairy told me today I needed to study harder. She said my life is in danger.” She paused as Ty’s coffee was delivered.
“Thanks.” Ty smiled at April but when he saw her face, he frowned. “You okay? You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”
“Mid-terms.” April shook her head. “Why I ever thought I could take fifteen credits and work full time, I’ll never know.”
“I should be here more, helping.” Parris touched her arm.
April put her hands on her hips. “No. You hired me to manage the bar. I just got a major promotion. You hanging here all day tells me one thing. You don’t trust me.”
“Seriously, I’m not that much of a mother hen, am I?” Parris blushed.
“Cluck, cluck. Look, I know you love this bar, but you have to let me do my job. Let me prove I can manage everything.”
“If that’s what you want.” Parris finally took a breath.
“So, you’re going to leave right after Mr. Wonderful here finishes his coffee?” She raised her eyebrows. “Maybe go have lunch together, like a date?”
“I can do better than that.” Ty asked, “When is she due back on the schedule?”
“Monday morning – day shift and payroll.” April’s attention diverted to the opening door, and she waved at the entering couple of regulars.
“You won’t see her until then,” Ty promised.
“Guys, I’m sitting right here.” Parris held up her hands in surrender. “Fine, I’m out of here unless you need me. Like today.”
“I promise I won’t call until I look everywhere for the missing boxes. I can’t believe I didn’t see the stack in the alley.”
When they were alone, Parris told Ty the highlights of her conversation with Toki. “So a fairy and a troll are guarding the house. They say someone is watching us.”
He frowned. “Another witch?”
“Toki said yes and no. What good is having a fairy attached if she can’t give you a straight answer?” Parris shut the book and finished her club soda.
“There are rules to follow.”
“So I’ve heard.” Parris looked over at April who chatted with a young man sitting at the bar. “You think she’s okay?”
“I think you trained her well. The bar is in good hands.” Ty sipped his coffee. “Relax.”
“She looks worn out. I mean, she’s always taking too many classes. Maybe taking on more responsibilities came too fast.” Parris kept watching her second in command.
He tapped her hand with one finger. “She’s fine. You want a reason to worry.”
“I do not.” Parris’s eyes flashed with a touch of anger.
He smiled. There was her spark. He changed subjects before she turned the fire on him. “Your grandmother says hello.”
Parris started. “I’d forgotten you went to see her. Could she break the spell?”
He shook his head. “The woman is good. Her spell has more twists and turns than any I’ve seen in the last ten years. She’s almost…” Ty paused, Robert’s face popped into his head for the first time in a long time. He needed to talk to his mentor and teacher. The man had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
Parris laid her hand on his arm. “What?”
Ty grinned. “I think I thought of someone who might help. Last I heard, he lived in Cincinnati. Feel like a road trip?”
“We’re going to Ohio?”
“Why not? April said your schedule is clear until Monday. That gives us four full days, time to work with Robert and see if he can find your name. Until we know your secret name, you’ll be useless in training.” Ty finished his coffee and stood. “Come on. Let’s get some provisions.”
In two hours, they were on the road. Derek reluctantly agreed to stay with Dragon. Ty stuffed overnight bags in the sedan’s trunk. Parris sat next to him, eating peanuts. In his Mercedes. The woman was impossible. At least she’d bought already shelled nuts. He shuddered thinking about the mess peanuts shells would make in the carpet.
“Don’t drop any.” He sped up on the freeway entrance, merging with traffic. He couldn’t believe the amount of food she’d bought at the gas station. The woman had provisions for a week of camping in the back country, not a six hour drive.
“Worried I’ll get your pretty car dirty?” Parris grinned. “Can’t you clean it with a wave of your hand?”
“I send it to the car wash for a detail every week. I don’t use magic for things I can hire out.” Ty turned up the stereo, an old George Jones song drifted from the speakers.
“I guess having money and magic are a lot alike. I don’t understand what you use magic for then. Will the books enlighten me?” Parris opened the volume on her lap, and scanned the page before her.
“Different people use magic different ways. I never saw a need for making my entire life about magic.”
“And yet, hunter, your real world is about magic,” Parris said, her voice flat.
She had him there. He could preach all he wanted on the subject of using magic for noble reasons, but for months, maybe years, he’d been The Council’s pawn. His recent assignments consisted of tracking down runaway kids and concubines more often than rogue witches.
“Sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” Parris turned a page in the book. “You’ve been nothing but nice and I’m being a royal butt.”
He smiled. The girl could turn him six ways to Sunday, yet in the end, she oozed sweetness and light. A very non-witch skill.
“Ask me the questions you have. What don’t you understand? Maybe
we can finish up the preliminary training before we get back. That way Derek can take you into foundations.” Ty sped the car forward passing a minivan filled with what looked like an entire girl’s baseball team. “Thank God I’m not that driver.”
“What, you never wanted to be the dad of a teenage athlete?” Parris smiled, watching the blue minivan disappear behind them in the side view mirror.
“I never wanted to be a dad,” Ty blurted, checking the rearview mirror before switching lanes.
Parris shot him a look. “Really? No wanting a boy or girl you could teach to ride a bike or take fishing?”
Ty glanced down at his expensive suit. “Do I look like the fishing type?” He waited, but Parris didn’t answer him. “I mean, I’ve never thought of the whole kid, family, and white picket fence future. I didn’t think I’d live past thirty when I became a hunter. People in my profession tend to have short life spans.”
“I don’t understand. You bring lost witches back to The Council. How could your job be dangerous?”
“If a witch is in hiding, there’s usually a good reason. Like they found the dark side or more commonly, the dark found them. Evil exists, Parris. In the human world and in the magical world. Where there’s good, there’s evil. It’s the yin and yang principle.” Ty sped the car around a sedan with an older couple in the front seat. Sunday Drivers. “When witches don’t want to be found, they get testy when you tell them you’re taking them to The Council.”
“They attack you with magic?” Parris stared at him now, the book forgotten in her lap.
“With magic, with guns. Hell, last year, a succubus stabbed me. Took ten stitches and a pint of blood to get me able to travel. I spent a week in the makeshift hospital on Council grounds.” Ty grimaced.
“How’d you explain your absence to your boss, the law office, I mean?”
“I took an impromptu Caribbean vacation and had an unfortunate zip-line accident. By the third time I told the story, I felt like I’d been on vacation.” Ty tapped the book. “Read, you need to read.”
Parris sighed like he’d sent her to the library for detention. She opened a packet of strawberry licorice and started reading.
As he drove, Ty let his thoughts wander. Robert Nelson had mentored Ty once he’d been tapped for placement into the prestigious hunter program. They’d fought when he’d taken Rowena to meet Robert. The man had been cordial, but curt. He’d told the couple although the girl seemed perfectly nice, she wasn’t Ty’s soul mate. When Ty protested saying he’d asked Rowena to marry him, Robert laughed, and called him an idiot being led around by his penis.
Two years later, Ty knew Robert had been right. Ty couldn’t see it then. All he knew, all he wanted, had been Rowena. Then she’d betrayed him. Now, being honest, the woman had probably set up their chance meet that had led to a hot and sex-filled first date.
Kind of like his relationship with Parris. They’d been thrust together too fast, too quickly. And he felt the danger. Not just with Coven X, but between the two of them. He needed to keep this relationship professional. At least until he could sort out his feelings. Protection mode wasn’t the best reason to enter a relationship.
Now, he hoped Robert would even talk to him. He prayed the man would tell him Parris wasn’t his soul mate too. He’d been wrong back then and Robert had been able to see through the emotion to the truth. This time, he’d listen and maybe not play the patsy like he had for Rowena. Something in his heart knew history wouldn’t repeat itself. Not this time.
B. O. R. E. D. Between the hum of the tires on the asphalt and the chapter on using herbs in magical spells, Parris fought sleep. She looked over at Ty. The man still gave her chills, with a glance.
Since she’d been kidnapped by The Council and then placed into Ty’s hands for training, things had felt different between them. He kept a professional distance. Maybe their relationship had been a one night stand for him, but God, she still wanted him. Wanted to run her fingers through his dark, curly hair, and pull him down for a kiss. The thought of a single kiss sent a wave of tingles through her body. She had it bad.
Ty shifted in the leather seat, shooting her a quick glance before his gaze returned to the road, almost like he’d known what she thought.
Parris reviewed the last month with this man in her life, the times he threw her a calming spell, how he knew where she lived or where she was before she told him. Of course he knew what she was thinking–duh. Although, it didn’t seem like he was totally tuned in. More like he heard her thoughts on a radio station too far away to get a clear signal. Clearly, if she would have any privacy at all, she’d have to figure out how he got into her head and, more importantly, how she could stop him.
The book in her hands flipped pages. Frowning, Parris grabbed at it, attempting to keep the pages from turning as if a gale force wind ran through the car. “What the heck?”
Ty glanced over at the book. “You asked a question?”
“Not out loud, at least not directed toward the book.” Parris shook her head. This magic stuff felt hard to control. “Why would the book respond to my thoughts anyway? It hasn’t done anything like this before.”
“Relax, it’s a good thing.” Ty turned down the stereo.
“How in any stretch of the imagination this okay?” Parris felt her pulse race. Inanimate objects responded to her unspoken commands. He thought this was a good thing?
“The book has bonded with you. It’s trusting you now. It takes a while for your grimoire to accept you and know you’re serious about learning. Some witches study for years before the book reacts to them at all. You’ve only been reading a few weeks.” Ty tried to see the page open in her lap. “Why are you wondering about soul attachments? That’s kind of advanced for what you’re reading now. Did you find the Sleeping Beauty story?”
“What? No. I…” Parris paused. No way would she tell him she needed to keep him out of her head. What the heck did he mean soul attachments? She slipped a book mark into the book and closed it. She’d read the section later, alone. “Do I want to ask? The fairy tale or the movie?”
“You know, most fairy tales are actually witchcraft sightings. The Council invented the stories to explain the incident. Kind of like your modern newscasts.”
“Derek explained something like that. He said it made it hard researching sometimes because he had to sort through fiction to find the truth.” Parris sat back in her seat, her shoulders dropping. The conversation had moved away from her initial question.
“When a witch cursed her rival over the love of a powerful warlock, the myth of Sleeping Beauty developed. Of course, the witch in her agitated state went a little overboard. Most of Western Europe fell into a coma along with the offending witch.” Ty shook his head. “The rival witch held the position of liaison between the European coven and our Council. When she didn’t show for a meeting, The Council sent a hunter.”
“Who kissed the girl, waking the entire kingdom. I read the story.” Parris ripped a new licorice stick from the package.
“No, the hunter couldn’t even get close. The taint of the witch’s spell led him to the conjurer who happened to be mixing up a soul breaking spell. The hunter put the pieces together, then the warlock swept in on a dragon and took his bride away. Once the spell’s target was removed, the town awoke. Unfortunately, on the dragon, the warlock succumbed to the sleeping spell.”
The car’s speed slowed and Ty turned into a rest stop built for truckers and long distance travelers. The welcome center stood in a large log cabin in the middle of the picnic areas.
“Why are we stopping?” Parris tucked the book into her purse. Flipping open the vanity mirror, she sighed, and ran her fingers thorough her mussed hair.
“A lady wouldn’t ask such things.” Ty grinned, his smile making Parris squirm a bit in her seat. She turned and stared out the window. Two semi-trucks sat in the parking lot, otherwise, the rest stop was empty.
Parris climbed out of the car, stretching her
arms out, yawning like a cat woken from an early morning nap. “Hey, what happened to Sleeping Beauty and her warlock?”
“The dragon dropped them into an active volcano. The end.” Ty clicked his remote, locking the car to set the alarm.
“No. Seriously?” Parris stopped in front of the car, watching him.
“What, you thought you’d get the sanitized, fairy tale ending?”
“I hoped the ending would be at least happy for someone.” Parris knew she’d never be able to read a fairy tale again without wondering what real story of pain lay beneath it.
“I’m joshing you. The dragon dropped them off at the warlock’s castle he’d warded against magical attack. As their feet touched the castle’s rock floor, the spell dissolved, and the two awoke. She pledged her undying love to the warlock and they lived happily ever after. You happy?”
“Ty, this isn’t a bed time story. I don’t have to be happy. I need to know what happened. Maybe I can figure out a way to help.” Parris trudged up the pathway toward the restrooms. The man infuriated her. It wasn’t bad enough everything she’d ever known as true had been turned up on its ear, now he played games with her? She pushed the restroom door open and stopped, frozen in the doorway.
“What? You didn’t believe I existed again? We talked. Are you going to look like you’ve seen a ghost every time I show up?” Toki shook her head and went over to the sink, where she played with the automatic water faucets.
“I didn’t think you’d be here.” Parris looked around. For a state run rest stop, the fixtures were pretty high end. The marble floors, wall sconces, even the wall paper, reminded her of the bathrooms at the Opera House. She and Grans attended a few performances at the renovated historic venue every year. She shot a look at Toki who grinned at her through the mirrored wall in front of the sinks. “Hey, did you glamour this?”
“You’re not using your powers for anything. I thought I’d show you how most witches live.” Toki turned and half sat, half floated above the vanity. “I’ve always loved the opera.”
“Dork.” Parris entered a stall. When she finished, with Toki still hovering, Parris washed her hands, and asked the question troubling her since she’d seen Toki earlier. “Have you always been here? I mean with me and I couldn’t see you anymore?”
