by Kris Calvert
A bolt of lightning struck outside in the street and dark clouds amassed overhead. The longer I stood in his presence, the more emotional I became.
“You cannot kill me. You are not capable!” he shouted as crumbs flew from his lips with each word.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of,” I said, pointing my finger at him causing his body to levitate from the chair. Hanging in midair, I felt the rage of three hundred years course through my body. Without thinking, I shoved my palm forward, causing him to crash through the glass door of the bakery and onto the sidewalk. On his knees, he crawled into the street.
With deliberate steps, I made my way toward him as a funnel cloud formed overhead.
“No!” Barnabas shouted. “Deliverance! Stop!”
Hale struggled for breath as he clawed his way down the street, gathering a crowd of Witches and Shifters to witness the goings on.
“Deliverance?” Hale let out a satanic laugh. “Finally. Finally.”
Another bolt of lightning struck and everyone took cover—everyone but me and Hale.
“Abomination. That’s what you are,” Hale rasped. “And I’ll see you dead and in hell before I allow you to roam this earth any longer.”
“You shouldn’t speak so ill of yourself, Hale,” I said leaning into him.
Without warning, he grabbed my throat and began choking me. The Death By Chocolate cake hadn’t been strong enough. It had been a risk I was willing to take. I needed him alive in the street to reverse the original spell.
“Deliverance!” Barnabas shouted.
Felix held him back with magic, shouting over the howling winds. “You can’t! She must break the spell without the aid of another. If you attack him, she will surely die!”
My powers depleting as I conjured new strength to break his grip, the skin of my mother dissipated, leaving me in my own form and my own clothes. With each second that passed, the storm raged more mercilessly, but my power over Hale seemed to diminish. It was as if my gifts were conjuring up the wind and storm, but leaving me defenseless against Hale.
“Barnabas!” I shouted over the rage of the storm. “I will always love you!”
“No!” In the blink of an eye, Barnabas shifted into the powerful bobcat I knew him to be. The fur stood up on the back of his strong body as he paced to and fro, looking for a way into the fray.
“Stay back!” I shouted, getting a better grip on the hand around my neck.
Mustering up every ounce of power I had, I channeled all my love, all my intentions and the rage and emotion of three hundred years into my words.
“Thunder my anger, lightning my might. Bring to me clouds, clouds black as night.”
“Stop, heathen!” John Hale shouted over the howling of the wind. “I’ll burn you just as I did your mother and sister!”
“Never on Earth you ever shall be. Cast into Hell, I banish thee!”
The storm raged around us, the spell holding us captive inside a vortex of magic. Hale, unable to keep his footing in the gale force winds, came back to his rotting knees, releasing the hold he had on me.
The freight train sound behind us only meant one thing. A tornado was approaching quickly.
“If I go to hell,” Hale ground out through his teeth. “You’re going with me.”
I dropped my shoulders. I’d done everything I knew to do. The spell was cast, the storm raged above our heads. Hale may be dead soon, but I would be too—caught in the rapture of his demise.
I stared into the eyes of the man I loved, his helplessness evident as he paced back and forth.
“Deliverance!” Barnabas shouted, moving closer to us.
“No!” Felix cried, holding him back. “You’ll desecrate her incantation. Wait it out. She can do this.”
I looked to Hale and ground out the words. “Die motherfucker.”
The storm gathered in the sky directly above our heads, the electricity circling in swirls of light and energy that caused the hair on my body to stand on end.
“Barnabas!” I shouted. “The seas gang dry—”
“Now Barnabas! Attack!” Felix bellowed.
Felix’s words barely passed his lips when Bazel, still in his bobcat form and under the influence of the love cake, bolted through the rotating storm, tackling me to the ground with enough force to drive both of us thirty feet from the vortex as the loudest crack of lightning ever to hit Mother Earth landed right on Reverend John Hale’s bald, age-spotted head.
With an explosion that rocked everyone to the ground, the cataclysmic bolt of lightning hit with the force of a thousand tons of dynamite, evaporating Hale in an instant.
Just as quickly as the storm appeared, it was gone, leaving me alone in the street with a mouse and a pair of naked men—Barnabas and Bazel. No longer were they long and lanky twins with salt and pepper hair, but were back to their original form—tall, dark, and unbelievably handsome.
“Deliverance?” Barnabas called out out as he rushed to my side. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, looking behind me for Bazel. “Your brother saved me.”
Pulling himself from the ground, Bazel stared at the two of us. “What the hell was in that cupcake?”
“The power of love, hot stuff,” Felix said, staring up at the two naked men.
I bit my lip and twirled my finger. With what little energy I had, I dressed them both in gym shorts.
“Ah, c’mon,” Felix moaned now that the naked floor show had come to an end.
“It’s over,” Barnabas said, pulling me close and kissing me on the head.
I’d not even caught my breath when a strong wind blew in and with it, came Baba Yaga. “Well, well, well. This looks like it was a fun party. I don’t know why I didn’t get an invitation.”
No one knew what to say. I couldn’t tell by the look on her frosted pink lipsticked face if she was angry or impressed.
“Hey Babs. Long time no see,” Felix said.
“Silence, Felix.”
“I think we can all learn a lesson here,” she said, looking around.
“Yeah?” I asked with a pant—my hair still standing on end from the remnant electricity in the air. “What might that be, Baba Yaga?”
“Don’t fuck with a Witch.”
“Damn straight,” I agreed, finally catching my breath.
“Deliverance, your mother would be proud of you. My work here is done.”
“Baba Yaga,” I said, breaking Barnabas’s embrace to climb to my knees. “I—”
“Now don’t be getting all mushy on me,” she said adjusting the pink feather boa that complemented the sequined tube top she wore. “You did good, kid. End of story.”
I nodded. “But I couldn’t have done it without you. You hid Barnabas and Bazel, you led me back to my soul mate.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
“How will I ever repay you?”
She thought for a moment. “I’m heading to Tao in New York City tonight. Got any more of those Kamasutra love muffins with sexual sugar?”
A smile broke out across my lips and I nodded. “Felix, would you be so kind as to wrap Miss Baba Yaga a special Kissy Cake?”
“Lawd have mercy,” Felix wailed. “I feel sorry for the poor soul who is on the receiving end of your wrath tonight Babs.”
“Wanna tag along?” she asked Felix.
“Does a shifter shit in the woods?”
“No,” Bazel shouted. “No, a shifter does not shit in the woods.”
“Whatever, Hot Pants,” Felix sneered. “I’m in. Let’s do this.”
* * *
Glossary
Abramelin the Mage
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage is said to have been an English translation of a 15th century Hebrew work written by Abramelin the Jew to his second son, Lamech. In it, Abraham the Jew (1362-1460) describes the six month (or longer) operation taught by Abramelin the Mage “to seek the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel” and thus further his magical studies.
This tedious ritual requires daily dedication and focus with the intent of awakening your Holy Guardian Angel from deep within you.
Caligula
One of history’s most iconic bad guys, Caligula ruled Rome for just four years (AD37 – AD 41), but exhibited enough cruelty and lunacy during his brief reign to live in infamy. He is said to have committed incest with each of his three sisters, not to mention wearing out his long-suffering male lovers with his insatiable appetite for sex. He was assassinated at the age of 28.
Harriet Claypoole
Harriet Claypoole was one of the five daughters of Betsy Ross. Born on January 11, 1863 in Philadelphia, her mother is widely credited for making the American flag. She grew up with five sisters, Rachel, Clarissa, Jane, Aucilla, and Susannah.
Thomas Corbett
Thomas Corbett is known as one of the men responsible for killing John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln. He was born in England and immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was seven years old. While in his 20’s, he became a born again Christian and took the name “Boston” in honor of the city where his metamorphosis took place. But Corbett had a weakness for prostitutes, and he castrated himself with a pair of scissors to avoid sexual temptation. Interestingly, the Massachusetts General Hospital records noted that he did not bleed particularly badly externally, but what caused worry was that his scrotum swelled and turned black. He turned out OK, though. Later that day he went to a prayer meeting, took a walk, and then enjoyed dinner.
It is perhaps not surprising that Corbett was later locked up at a Topeka mental institution. He had threatened members of the Kansas House of Representatives with a gun claiming that some of them had been disrespectful during opening prayers.
Gallows Hill
Despite all the surviving court records and documents from the Salem Witch Trials, the exact location of the real Gallows Hill, where the Salem Witch Trials victims were executed and buried, remains a mystery to this day.
In 1867, Historian Charles Wentworth Upham determined in his book Salem Witchcraft that the hill currently known as Gallows Hill, located in Gallows Hill Park at the intersection of Manswell Parkway and Witch Hill Road, was the probable location of the executions but admitted that there is no actual evidence to support this conclusion. More recently, it is believed that Proctor’s Ledge is the true site of the Salem witch hangings in 1692. There’s been no evidence that the bodies were buried there and in fact, the location of the graves is still unknown.
Reverend John Hale
John Hale was born on June 3, 1636, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The oldest child of Robert Hale, a blacksmith, he was educated at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduating in 1657. He began preaching in Bass-River-Side, later called Beverly, about 1664, and was ordained as the first minister of the parish church there on September 20, 1667, when the congregation formally separated from Salem.
As a child, Hale had witnessed the execution of Margaret Jones, the first of 15 people to be executed for witchcraft in New England between 1648–1663. He was present at the examinations and trials of various people who were accused of witchcraft in the Salem witch trials of 1692, and supported the work of the court. However, on November 14, 1692, 17-year-old Mary Herrick accused his second wife, Sarah Noyes Hale, and the ghost of executed Mary Eastey of afflicting her, but his wife was never formally charged or arrested. A later commentator on the trials, Charles Upham suggested that this accusation was one that helped turn public opinion to end the prosecutions, and spurred Hale’s willingness to reconsider his support of the trials.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, third president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia. He voiced the aspirations of a new America as no other individual of his era. As public official, historian, philosopher, and plantation owner, he served his country for over five decades.
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Mortenson, was an American actress and model. Famous for playing “dumb blonde” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s, emblematic of the era’s attitudes towards sexuality. She died at the age of 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her home in Los Angeles on August 5, 1962. Although the death was ruled a probable suicide, several conspiracy theories have been proposed in the decades following her death.
Mary Ayer Parker
Mary Ayer Parker was executed on September 22, 1692, with several others, for witchcraft in the Salem witch trials. She was accused of having afflicted Sarah Phelps, Hannah Bigsby, and Martha Sprague of witchcraft. William Barker, Jr. named her in his confession on September 1, 1692, testifying that he and Goody Parker had afflicted Martha Sprague, and that the two of them had ridden upon a pole and had been baptized in Five Mile Pond. Mary Parker was examined on September 2, 1692, when several “afflicted girls” from both Andover and Salem Village fell into fits. When the “touch test” was employed during the examination, the girls were “cured.” She was also accused of torturing Timothy Swan with iron spindles, pins, and other instruments. Mary Parker was found guilty of witchcraft on September 16, 1692 and hanged just six days later on September 22, 1692.
Sarah Parker
Sarah was 22 years-old when she was named in the confessions of Elizabeth Dane Johnson, Sr. and Susannah Post in their confessions of August, 1692. Although her mother, Mary Ayer Parker, was accused at about the same time, and within a month was tried, and executed, it doesn’t appear that Sarah Parker was ever indicted. There is nothing more known of her.
Prince Rupert’s Poodle
The dog Boye, also Boy, was a celebrated and iconic white hunting poodle belonging to Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the 17th century. Puritan propagandists alleged that the dog was “endowed” with magical powers.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. His works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Andy Warhol
Born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing, and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics.
In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting, and in 1961, he debuted the concept of “pop art”—paintings that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. In 1962, he exhibited the now-iconic paintings of Campbell’s soup cans. These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world, bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first time. Warhol died on February 22, 1987, in New York City.
*Thank you to Wikipedia, the official site of Marilyn Monroe, The Sacred Texts and The History of Massachusetts for the information contained in this glossary.
THE KAMASUTRA LOVE MUFFIN/KISSY CAKE
WITH SEXUAL SUGAR BUTTERCREME ICING
CREAM:
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
ADD:
2 unbeaten eggs, one at a time
1tsp. vanilla
SIFT TOGETHER:
3 cups flour
6 Tbsp. Cocoa
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. Soda
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
ADD to creamed mixture alternately with:
2 cups buttermilk
Pour int
o lined cupcake pans.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350º (depending upon your oven)
ICING:
2 sticks of softened salted butter
6 cups of powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
Heavy whipping cream (if needed)
Cream butter in mixer until smooth on low to medium speed. Add vanilla and mix well. Then slowly add the powdered sugar in batches. If the icing is too thick, add a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream to soften it up.
SEXUAL SUGAR:
1 cup extra fine granulated sugar
2 tsp. cocoa powder
Place ingredients in a food processor or blender of 20 seconds and sprinkle on top of the cupcakes.
A RED, RED ROSE
By Robert Burns (1794)
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!
* * *
Other Great Magic & Mayhem Series Authors
Robyn Peterman (Kindle World Creator)
Magic and Mayhem Series Page
Releases in Magic and Mayhem Kindle World
Michele Bardsley
Website
Amazon Author Page
Kris Calvert
Website
Amazon Author Page
Deanna Chase
Website
Amazon Author Page
Claudy Conn
Website
Amazon Author Page
Melinda DuChamp
Amazon Author Page
Renee George
Website
Amazon Author Page
