This Soul Magic

by Michele Hauf

  “I do want what I once had. But if it means never having sex with you...?”

  “That shouldn’t be the reason for you to deny your birthright. We can manage without sex.” Really, Libby?

  Yes. Really.

  “Maybe. The faery said I had to ransom my soul to get back my powers. And I know what the soul bond is.” He picked up the feather from the vanity and drew it along my cheek.

  I closed my eyes to focus on the sensation. It was as though he touched me with warm liquid that permeated my very being. Indeed, it touched my soul. How to make him understand we were soul mates?

  “You would do that?” I whispered. “After you just got your soul restored to you? That would make you a soul bringer again, wouldn’t it?”

  “No, I wouldn’t have the duties, only the angelic immortality and skills.”

  “Hmm...Yet Vika’s research tells it differently. Maybe if you held off from sex until you got your powers. But after, could you?”

  “I’m not sure. The faery was specific about needing this soul bond to make it happen.”

  “That sounds suspicious. I can see your aura. It’s not like any mortal aura. I think maybe your powers are latent, and if we could just find a way to bring them up...Oh, there I go again, telling you what to do.”

  He wiped a teardrop from my cheek and studied it. “I don’t like it when you cry. Do I do this to you?”

  “Yes. No, it’s me struggling with my own bad self. You really went to see a faery about this? What was the faery’s name?”

  “Didn’t get it. But she knew my angel name.”

  “What is it?”

  “Kryatron, Angel of the Seventh Soul.”

  “Wow. That sounds—” Ominous. Important. And— Oh, but the man needed to get all that back. “The seventh soul?” I tugged open the buttons on his shirt to reveal the blue dots. “Seven dots in your sigil. Interesting.” I kissed the sigil and he hugged me closer.

  And yet the visit with the faery sounded suspicious. The sidhe and angels were similar, yet not. They kept to their own territories, usually.

  “So you’re going to dive in to all this without any references, any real proof?” I asked. “Just hand over your soul and hope it all works out?”

  “I think you’re trying to tell me what to do again.”

  Shoulders sinking, I nodded that yes I was. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I like it. I never asked the questions you’re asking right now. It’s a good thing I told you about this. I have a lot of thinking to do before I return to the faery.”

  “When are you going?”

  “Soon.” He kissed me. “Can we kiss for a while?”

  Despite the heavy subject, I liked the ease with which the man’s mind turned onto a new course. I took the feather from him and stroked it down his chest. “Maybe I can distract you so much you’ll stay here with me and forget all about some silly old immortality.”

  “There is that possibility.” He lifted a brow in challenge.

  The lights flickered, and thunder followed. Outside the window a flash of lightning brightened the dark sky briefly.

  “A rain storm,” I said. “I adore making love while it rains. Well, we don’t have to make love. I know how important it is to you to remain a virgin. I respect your choice, no matter what you decide. We can fool around. Do everything but.” I sighed. Strength, Libby. You stand behind your man. No matter what. “There are ways for a man and a woman to please each other without the actual act of intercourse.”

  “I have a few hours,” he reassured, “before I forfeit the faery’s offer. Let’s think about it while we’re kissing.”

  Reichardt kissed along my neck, tonguing the pulsing vein and giving my skin a few testing nips. I moaned, but I was distracted by the flashes of blue light outside the window. Strangest lightning I’d ever seen. It looked more like—

  Glass shattered, and the blue streak of light hissed through the open window and struck me on the shoulder. I cried out in pain.

  “Libby? What is that?”

  “It’s magic,” I gasped, then dropped my head in a faint.

  * * *

  Standing outside, framed by the broken glass, the short, stout woman who had spoken to me at the bazaar held an orb of blue light and wielded a wicked grin. She flew through the window. I slid off the bed and dashed toward Libby, but a slash of lightning kept me from getting close to her.

  I was no match for a witch who could fling blue streaks of lightning. But I wouldn’t let her hurt Libby. Grabbing the stem of the ugly floor lamp, I swung the iron stick at Hester.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” Hester shouted. She dodged my swings with a surprising ease for one so stout. “I just need your blood!”

  “You’re a vampire? I thought you were a witch?”

  “It’s for a spell, pretty virgin boy.”

  I narrowed my brows. She was after me because I was a virgin? I glanced at Libby, who was still unconscious on the floor. “No one is taking any part of me!”

  Using the lamp like a spear, I aimed at Hester and gave it a thrust. The witch waved her hand, turning the lamp around. The lamp shade flew off and the lightbulb broke, exposing the inner wires and sharp parts. The lamp arrowed toward me.

  With a gesture she redirected the lamp to land in the wall but a foot from my head. It stuck in and the long stem wavered up and down.

  “Witches,” I muttered. “How to fight them?”

  “Don’t fight it,” Hester said. “I need your blood for an angel-summoning spell. I want my own angel lover. So give me what I want, and I won’t hurt Libertie.”

  A female groan preceded “What’s that about hurting me? There isn’t enough magic in your big toe to take me down, you ugly old hag.”

  Now on her feet, with a gesture Libby swept the mattress up from the bed. It slammed into Hester, crushing her body against the brick wall.

  “Are you okay?” I rushed to wrap Libby in my arms and kiss her.

  “No time for tenderness now, sweet lips. I’m fine. But she’s not down for the count. What does she want?”

  “My blood,” I said. “Because I’m a virgin. It’s for a love spell to summon an angel.”

  Libby nodded and shoved me toward the door. “Faeries and witches want you. What next? Demons? You need to get away from here, and I’ll hold her off as best I can. Go to the faery while you’ve still time!”

  “I’m not leaving you!”

  “Yeah? Do you know what a witch can do with an ancient virgin’s blood? It’s not pretty. And it’s not like she’ll take a few drops. You won’t survive, Reichardt.”

  “I won’t let that stout, angry witch push me around.”

  The mattress flew toward us. I saw it coming and spun in front of Libby, putting my back to the soaring object. It hit me hard, but I managed to protect Libby by caging her against the wall with my arms.

  “Let me do what I can,” she said, then kissed me quickly. “One witch is a better match than a mortal, no matter how many muscles you have.”

  “You see what me having my powers could do?”

  The mattress fell to the floor. Hester’s blue lightning streaked past my head and surrounded Libby’s shoulders. Angered, I turned and put up a palm to block the lightning. Then a remarkable thing occurred. My palm actually cut off the stream of lightning and released Libby.

  “How did you do that?” Hester asked.

  “This home is protected against foul magic,” Libby called. “You are not welcome here!”

  “I’m not leaving without the virgin!”

  Charging forward, I plowed into Hester, jamming my elbow into her gut and slamming her against the wall. The witch put her hands over my skull and it felt as if thousands of stinging insects were crawling over my skin and chewing at my bones. I fell to my knees.

  She would kill this feeble mortal body to get what she wanted. And that meant I’d never see Libby again. Never kiss her gorgeous red lips. Never again eat one of her chocolat
e-chip cookies. Never hold her. Never make love to her.

  Never again stand in her air.

  That was not going to happen.

  Head-butting the witch in the stomach put her back for but a moment. Drawing up from my core, I willed all the unknown power I contained out through my hands and sent a storm toward her. The energy waves were purple and green and wavered like tentacles about the woman. The witch flew out through the window and landed in the cobblestone courtyard below.

  I pulled back my hands. They tingled and shot off tiny sparks of green, electric and bold.

  “What in great Herne was that?” Libby asked from the floor.

  “I’m not sure. My powers? Stay here. If I’ve got some magic, I need to use it before I lose it.”

  Stepping through the broken window, I leaped to the ground two stories below and landed with ease. Didn’t hurt—it felt as though I’d the grace of a cat. I stood over the fallen witch. With one hand I reached out and twisted, which lifted Hester up to her feet and then to her toes, where she hung before me a pitiful, defeated wreck.

  “Apparently no one ever taught you manners,” I said. “If you hurt Libby in any way, I will come after you.”

  “Big talk for a mortal.” Hester spat at me.

  “Silence!” A sweep of my hand closed her mouth, sealing it so I could not see a crease between her lips.

  Startled at that, I maintained the authoritative manner so she wouldn’t see me sweat. However I was utilizing this power, I didn’t want to lose it until I’d made this witch fear me.

  “You will leave this property never to return,” I said. “Or I will retaliate.” A twist of my hand turned her head, and when Hester’s lips broke open in a scream, I released the hold before her neck could break.

  The witch dropped to the ground and scrambled upright.

  “You’re powerful,” Hester said in shaky tones. “I thought you were mortal. Are you neither a virgin? So Libertie has already gotten her claws into you. This was a foolish endeavor.”

  She turned and ran off. I let her go. I didn’t want to end her life and suspected she’d stay away from Libby and me now.

  I got startled when I felt a hand on my back and turned, raising a palm to fend off— “Libby.”

  “Whoa. Holster that hand, lover. How did you do that?”

  “I’m not sure. But I know one thing.” I swept her into my arms and leaped back up and through the broken window. “I can do that. And I can do this.”

  With a grand gesture that squared my hands in the shape of the window, I put back the glass and then returned the mattress to the bed frame. And then with a powerful breath, I blew toward the window and it glowed yellow.

  “That’s a ward,” Libby said in awe. “You’ve your angel powers back? Reichardt, what are you?”

  “I’m not sure. What time is it?”

  “You still think you need to go to the faery?”

  I sighed. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The powers I’d just utilized— Hell, I couldn’t know if they would last. Handing over my soul to the faery would guarantee they stayed with me.

  I kissed Libby on the crown of her head.

  She nodded and stepped away from me, looking aside to the havoc around the room. “Right, then. You should get going.”

  And so I left. Because I didn’t know what to say, and if I had looked into Libby’s eyes one more time I wouldn’t have been able to leave.

  Eight

  Once back at home, I flopped onto my bed and caught my head in my hands. Tears wobbled in my eyes but I was too proud to let them fall. He’d left. Just like that! After defeating Hester’s dark magic with such ease—and some magic of his own—Reichardt still believed he needed to ransom his soul again to have what he desired.

  Immortality. Strength. Power.

  I could understand how that might mean something to him, to any man, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

  By ransoming his soul, he was changing our relationship forever. Damn it, but I’d held on too tightly. I had forced him away from me.

  “Should have used a love spell on him,” I muttered.

  I shook my head. No. I’d tried my best. The man needed to spread his wings and be free to learn the world.

  And other women?

  A teardrop plopped onto my hand. And then I couldn’t hold them back anymore and burst into a fit of tears.

  It was the only right thing for Reichardt Fallowgleam.

  I’d just lost my soul mate.

  * * *

  The walk to the sixteenth arrondissement was a long one, but I inhaled the fresh night air. I needed the breather after the battle with the stout witch. And after walking away from Libby.

  Had I actually done that? Walked away from the one perfect thing in my life? And for what reason? A stupid, selfish desire to have something I probably wouldn’t utilize too often anyway.

  Libby had been so selfless toward me. In everything she did, I could feel her kindness, her warmth and her genuine care for me. Always on her kitchen counter, that cookie jar was filled to the brim. Even if I took out a cookie or two (or three or five) when I returned, the jar had been replenished. And seeing that made me smile.

  Was that love? If so, it was an amazing feeling.

  So why now did I intend to ransom that love for the unknown?

  Handing over this feather and my soul would give me power. But did I already possess power? I knew I did. I just wasn’t certain if it had been a one-time, in-the-moment reaction to someone threatening Libby. And how long would this new strength last?

  It shouldn’t matter. Libby had made my heart beat by giving me my earthbound soul.

  I stopped and tugged out the blue feather. It wavered in the breeze. This was the symbol of what I had once been. Something I couldn’t even remember let alone grasp the enormity of once possessing such power.

  I closed my eyes and imagined the feather leaving my grasp and circling skyward, and when I opened my eyes, I watched the delicate thing spiraling upward and away.

  “Adieu,” I whispered. “There’s something that means more to me.”

  * * *

  I knocked on the pink door of the white hexagon house. The yellow flowers planted beside the door swayed and I spied Salamander creeping along the foundation, stalking a mouse. The door opened and Libby’s eyes flashed wide.

  “Reichardt?”

  “I didn’t go to the faery,” I said.

  “But...?”

  “I’d give up immortality to hold you, Libby. I don’t know if the power I used earlier is here to stay, but I don’t want to risk losing you in an attempt to keep it. Will you accept me back?”

  “Will I?”

  She lunged into my arms and kissed me soundly. Every gorgeous curve of her melded to my skin and I sighed into her mouth, relieved and elated to have won the only thing that mattered to me. No matter what the future handed me, I knew that she would be at my side.

  “I bet that faery just wanted to get her hands on your soul,” she said. “It could be a powerful tool in her hands.”

  “Perhaps.” I studied my hand that curved against her hip. “I feel as though it is mine, this power. But if not, at least I had a moment to utilize it when it was most needed.” I smiled at her, triumphant in the new knowledge. “There’s so much I’ve yet to learn, so silly powers would have been a nuisance.”

  “What about sex?” Libby pressed both hands over her mouth, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Sex is important to you.”

  “Yes, but, well—yes. I love you, Reichardt.”

  In her bright green eyes I did not see fear but a stunning respect. It was the first time she had really looked into my eyes and said not a thing yet spoke volumes with her eyes.

  “What I am,” I said, “is madly in love with the most beautiful witch in the world. And I know that because my heart hurt when I thought Hester had hurt you. And it ached a little more with every step I took away fro
m you to go to the faery. I had to turn back.” I stroked her cheek. “Whatever I am now, can you love me, Libby?”

  “Oh, yes. But don’t you want to know what’s up with the power? Reichardt, what if you’re not completely mortal? What does that mean?”

  “Who to ask?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe Vika will know.”

  I brushed a thumb over her lips. “You are a smart and bold woman. I love you for that. And I believe I know the meaning of that word when I speak it.”

  “Love can be many different things.”

  “Can it make my heart feel strong and warm?”

  She nodded.

  “Can it make me want to always be with you, powers or not?”

  Another nod.

  “And it can change my air.” I kissed her, then said, “I love you, Libertie St. Charles.”

  “I love you, too, Reichardt,” she said on a sigh.

  Her kiss captured my breath and as the air about me lightened, my heart swelled with the immense feeling of newfound love. I didn’t ever want to lose this witch who challenged my every reason for existence. And I had a good idea exactly how to seal our bond forever.

  “And love is also cookies,” I added.

  “Cookies?”

  “Whenever I look in the cookie jar you keep on the counter, it’s filled to the top. No matter how many I eat, you replace them. And I realized it’s because you like to do good things for me, to make me happy.”

  “Cookies are love,” she said, beaming. “Should I get one for you?”

  “I had something even more pleasurable in mind. But I suppose the mood has been lost,” I murmured.

  She smiled and bowed her head. “I never lose the mood around you, big boy.”

  “I do have this sudden urge to take care of this virginity issue before the next crazed, blood-hungry witch arrives at my windowsill.”

  “Then let’s do it.”

  * * *

  I mapped out the freckles that littered Libby’s hips and lower back to the indents above her derriere that I could fit my thumb into, and I followed with my tongue. She cooed and wiggled her derriere. Mmm, she tasted like all the rich desserts she had ever baked for me, but even better.