by Anya Breton
I stepped back for a quick drink while Nell explained about the gift bags. She told them how the incense focused the mind so it was easier to slip into a meditative state. Next she discussed the good luck charms from sacred places. Once the bags had been distributed, Nell slipped into her seat at the edge of the gathering so that I could take over.
I strode out in front of them. “The first item up for grabs tonight is this focus bracelet in etched silver.” I held up the bangle with the Celtic design scrawled along it. “It’s a feminine piece, so the guys might want to sit this one out. This bracelet improves its witch’s focus by clearing the mind of distractions. It works much like the incense in your bag except it doesn’t require you burn anything and the benefit is constant instead of fading when the stick is consumed. This bracelet will improve casting time for most of a witch’s abilities, it will improve accuracy, and in some cases increase the impact of the casting.” I snagged Avery’s attention with eye contact and a pause. A half smile curved my lips. “And it comes in silver for added protection against Were and undead.”
Nell brought forward a taper candle in a silver holder. She pulled a lighter from her pocket and then lit the wick. I stepped into the periphery so she could start the game.
My employee took the spotlight with a commanding voice. “Since we don’t have any Fire witches here tonight, we’re going to use fire for this game. You’re going to take turns. Whoever can extinguish the candle using the fastest magical method will win the focus bracelet. Extra points for a clever or original method of extinguishing. We’ll vote as a group who gets the bracelet. Who wants to go first?”
Logan popped up. “Me!”
Nell and I had made certain there was a little bit of each element in the shop. Logan would be able to use the softly tinkling fountain on the shelf to the left. Terran would be able to manipulate one of the hanging plants Nell had hung Sunday. And Avery had the whole room of Air to play with. Only Jacqueline might have problems because I hadn’t added anything shadowy.
We stood aside for Logan to do her thing. Predictably she shot a spritz of water from the fountain, extinguishing the candle. Pleased with herself, she perched atop her chair.
Nell dried off the wick and then lit it once again.
Avery stood next. Air burst through the space. The flame guttered out.
Nell relit the wick for Terran. The Earth witch used the long, spider-like arms of one of the hanging plants to pinch out the flame.
Jeff the Water witch stepped up to the plate to try his hand at extinguishing the flame. Like Logan, he used the fountain, but his action was flashier, calling an arc of water through the air that landed directly on the flame. Not to be outdone, Veronika strutted to the center of the room in her skinny jeans, fitted black blouse, and platform pumps. She used the fountain as well, but rather than snuffing out the flame, she sent the water into the blue portion of the flame and then forced it to explode from within with a pop of water vapor.
Nell looked toward Jacqueline and Desmond to see if either intended to try their hand at the candle game. Desmond shook his head. His quirked mouth and relaxed recline appeared mildly amused with a side of boredom.
Jacqueline hadn’t budged from the corner. Her darting gaze gave her the impression of being both paranoid and wanting to be any place but a room with plenty of windows. She did manage a small shake of her head.
My employee called for votes. The result was a tie between Jeff and Veronika. Desmond served as the tiebreaker. He, of course, chose the hot blonde.
Veronika shot to her lofty heels, a happy squeal more appropriate on farm animals emitted from her as she darted for the bracelet.
I held it aloft. “I will gladly give you this costly bracelet if you’ll agree to extinguish the candle once more while wearing it and tell us if it was any easier.”
Veronika gave me a twisted frown even as she snatched the silver out of my fingers. She shoved the jewelry over her wrist with careless regard. Nell glared at the woman in between flicking the lighter over the candle. Maybe like me, my employee was irritated Veronika didn’t understand how priceless that bracelet on her wrist was.
Rolling her pale blue eyes heavenward, Veronika aimed her finger at the candle for one last go. But when the flame exploded into a miniature fountain much like a Roman candle, every individual in the store gasped. Except me. I turned, hiding my smug smile.
“Oohhhhh. My. God!” Veronika’s said. “That was fucking awesome! Light it again!”
“One more time,” Nell said.
I turned back in time to watch the Water witch explode the flame from the inside out twice as large as she’d done the second time.
It was Desmond who spoke next. His rear was on the edge of his seat as he stared at Veronika’s wrist with an expression akin to hunger. “How does it work?”
“I don’t know,” Veronika said.
But Desmond’s eyes were already on me. “Is it some sort of Healing weave?”
“I don’t sell weaves.” I barely managed to snap the words out rather than snarl at the man. “And weaves don’t have to be attuned to their owner.” I jabbed a finger toward the Veronika’s wrist. “That does. It’s a rare magical charm, but it isn’t a weave.” I glared for a half second, allowing myself at least that much. “Let’s move on.”
I drew a foot-long box out from beneath the display case. With care befitting what was hidden inside, I lifted the white top off then spread the golden tissue paper aside to reveal what it protected.
“This is a Candle of Truth,” I said. “It’s a single cast spell. This candle will only burn for one hour and if it’s snuffed before that hour is up, the truth spell fades and the candle is ruined. Any words spoken within a five foot radius centered on the burning candle will be true words.”
A broad grin came over Nell’s face. “So we’re going to play truth or dare for the Candle of Truth!”
Truth or dare seemed immature with Desmond and Jacqueline among the attendees. I’d let Nell come up with the majority of the games because she knew her friends better than I did. Now I felt silly.
“Whoever has the best answer or does the most daring dare will get the candle,” Nell said. “We’ll vote for the winner. Who wants to go first?”
“Who asks the questions?” Desmond asked.
Her ordinarily light eyes darkened in his general direction. “I do.”
He made a dismissive gesture before settling back in his seat.
“That’s not much fun,” Veronika said. “Play it like real truth or dare. Whoever just went gets to ask the next question.”
Nell glanced at me for support. I shrugged because I didn’t care one way or the other. “We’ll do whatever Nell wants to do.”
“Fine,” Nell said. “Whoever just went gets to ask the question. I’ll go first. Logan, truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Logan said.
My employee’s lips spread into a full grin. “Who did you lose your virginity to?”
Logan’s mouth dropped open. She darted a look at Desmond. I leaned forward.
Had she lost her virginity to him? Was he some sort of feudal lord who claimed the right to defile new wives and virgins within his domain? With some of the covens’ archaic customs it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
If Desmond had noted Logan’s look, he hid it because his focus was still on Veronika’s silver bracelet.
Logan whispered an answer to Nell. “The quarterback at Sedona High.”
“No!” Avery’s shock manifested all across her features.
I drew in a sigh because this wasn’t at all how I’d wanted my promotional event to go. My noise must have been too loud because I found Desmond watching me with that slightly amused expression he’d used far too much.
Nell nodded toward Logan. “Your turn.”
“Avery, truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to kiss Jeff.”
I set my head upon my palm, stifling a groan.
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br /> When had I’d grown too old for these games? Maybe I’d never been the sort to play them. When a person’s childhood is spent running from the gatekeepers of Hades, pranking harpies and escaping torture from their nemesis, truth or dare seems like small potatoes.
Terran was the object of Avery’s question. She chose dare and was asked to see how high she could shoot herself up using Air magic. The youths trekked into the parking lot to watch. Desmond, Veronika, Jacqueline, and I remained inside.
I covered a yawn because it had been a long day. And the pizza looked good. Almost good enough to get up. But it wasn’t what I really wanted… If I lived to see the sunrise on tomorrow, I’d get myself a massive cheeseburger with all the fixin’s.
Terran must have questioned Jeff next because he stripped off his shirt to do who knew what.
“For the record, this part was not my idea,” I said.
Desmond inhaled a soft breath I now knew was a laugh.
After Jeff ran around the building twice, naked, the group tramped back into the shop. Fortunately the young man had pulled his pants back on before he’d returned.
Jeff dropped onto his seat. “Veronika, truth or dare?”
“Truth,” the young woman said, voice dripping with boredom.
“Uh … um … where is the strangest place you’ve ever done it?”
“In a bed.”
I didn’t laugh, but the younger witches did.
Veronika faced the handsome male lounged in the corner. “Dr. Marino, truth or dare?”
“Truth.” He’d sounded weary. Or perhaps wary. I didn’t know him well enough to guess which.
“If you had to sleep with one person in this room, who would it be?”
The high priest cleared his throat noisily but not before glancing at me. “Myself,” he said, confounding me again. I’d never learn if he were gay at this rate. Desmond smirked. “It’s the only way I’d get any sleep.”
“Lame,” someone said under their breath.
“Mrs. Washington, truth or dare?” Who knew Desmond could be a team player?
“Truth.”
“Did Ms. Walsh really show up in Caesars Palace with only a stack of towels and save you from a vampire this morning without lifting a finger?”
My lips twisted. His question was as lame as his previous answer had been.
Jacqueline nodded. “Yes.”
“Let’s vote,” Nell said.
The younger witches voted for Jeff’s naked run. The rest of us didn’t care. Jeff got to take the Candle of Truth home.
We played one more game in which the prize was a ring to deflect empathic links. Nell devised a version of blind man’s bluff that let the blindfolded person use their magic to locate each person in the room and “tag” them. Whoever completed it first would win the item.
Desmond declined play, citing he didn’t need a ring to deflect empathic links. I hid my smirk because he’d been unable to deflect mine. Jeff and Veronika sat out of the game because they’d already won a prize. Though Jacqueline tried, she had no chance of winning using her Dark magic. Avery won thanks to Air magic’s ability to give a wielder a picture of the area without sight.
Door prizes exhausted, I sent Nell off with her friends and promised I’d clean up everything. Apart from packing the leftover pizza and snacks, I’d clean up Wednesday morning before I opened the shop.
The sun had recently slipped beneath the horizon. I needed to get out to Maximo’s house so I could warn him about the vampire. There was just one problem: Desmond Marino.
He’d sent Veronika to wait in the car so he could vex me. I asked Jacqueline to wait for me in the Nissan because I fully intended to lambaste him.
“You had no right—”
“Hush, Ms. Walsh.”
He positioned himself in front of the shop door, regarding me with a frosty eye. I couldn’t leave until he let me. Or until I went downstairs, walked out the front door, and then trekked the miles between my Sedona parking lot and the Wipuk one.
“We’d already discussed my taking responsibility for you,” he said. “I merely made it official.”
“I never agreed to that, Marino. It certainly doesn’t make me beholden to you for a fourth favor. Especially since you only did it so you’d have leverage to make me act as your mole.”
He made one of his dismissive gestures. “I can compromise. Three favors it is.”
“Two,” I said even as I lifted my chin in defiance. “I dropped that hot little Water witch on your doorstep. That counts as a favor.”
Desmond’s eyebrows drifted to the middle of his forehead. “Listening to her nonstop prattle about shoes and rebuffing her near-constant attempts to get me in bed is a favor?”
My brows lifted right along with his. Veronika annoyed him? She was everything I wasn’t. She had style. She had looks. She was his own species. If he’d tackled her into bed, she’d probably shut up about shoes.
“Any other red-blooded male would think so, Marino.”
He released a small disgusted sound. “That’s debatable.”
“Those rumors about you have to be true,” I said before I could stop myself.
The Water witch’s eyes hooded in irritation. His delivery slowed. “What rumors?”
“Uh…” My voice trailed off uncomfortably. I shifted my weight onto one hip.
“You’ve never kept your opinions to yourself before, Ms. Walsh. Surely you can repeat the opinions of others with little trouble.”
“They say you’re gay.”
“Oh.” The syllable’s sour sound reminded me of our first few meetings. There’d been a time when he’d wanted nothing more than to see me run out of Wipuk. Now he was bartering for favors at every opportunity.
His pretty lips pressed flat while his eyebrows drew down into a deep, dark V. “I would have thought you of all people would have worked out the truth.”
After only a beat he turned on his heel and walked out the door. His long legs had him to his BMW before I’d figured out what he’d said.
He thought I should have worked out the truth? Why? Because I’d had an empathic link to him once or twice?
Oh Styx take it. I’d never understand that man. And right now I had more important things to do than try.
Chapter Nine
“This is an unexpected surprise.” Maximo de Sole’s crooned voice was a nice accompaniment to the classical guitar music his speakers piped.
I glanced over my shoulder at the vampire goon hovering three feet behind me. Though it was a new face at Maximo’s house, I’d seen him once before. He’d been the vampire who had coordinated the charity auction at the solstice ball. That was a step up from the ginger asshole who had punched me and murdered a Water witch.
At Maximo’s nod, the vampire faded into the corridor, leaving me alone with him in the dramatic office. There were so many competing design elements that I couldn’t work out what to focus on first. It meant I’d looked at Maximo instead.
The indulgent curving of his lips caught my attention. I forced my gaze away, focusing on the Bengal tiger carpet on his black floor. The faux fur had been cut to look as if someone had skinned the animal. At least I thought it was fake. Next I took in the chocolate brown sofa holding the position against the wall to my left. The orange throw pillows kept my attention twice as long as they should have thanks to my love affair with the color. Arguably the room’s focal point was a large painting of a woman gazing at a marble statue in her peripheral vision.
Maximo reclined behind a sable desk strewn with papers, dusty books, and brochures for far off places. He was clad in one of his simple black suits. A thin black tie bisected his white dress shirt. His generally wild hair was slicked back today as if he were taking on the role of legitimate businessman. He pulled off the professional look well despite his trademark Caesar wave of hair.
He leaned his chair back and to the side. A jaunty smile formed on his face. My heart skipped a beat, not because he smiled but rather be
cause his gaze wasn’t on mine. It had dropped to my lips. I fought to keep my hands at my sides rather than reach for my tingling mouth.
The memory of the Mexican restaurant flared to life. He’d danced like a pro, sung like a ballad-crooning Latin star, and kissed as though he’d put his entire being into making love to a woman. Recalling his cool touch sent my heart in a flutter. A flush crept into my cheeks. No doubt Maximo would note these physiological reactions as easily as if I’d announced them aloud.
Coming here had been a mistake.
“I need your phone number,” I said.
He bounced his chair, gaze fixed on mine. “And then what reason would you have to visit me?”
My lips pressed thin.
The wave-patterned ring coiled snugly around his pinky was why I’d visit him. I needed my mother’s ring back. But what would I have to do to get it?
My voice was as stiff as my rigid spine. “I came by to warn you of a potential problem. If I’d had your phone number, I could have warned you this morning when it happened and removed the chance you’d be blindsided.”
Maximo settled his chair on flat ground, adopting a professional veneer to match his suit and hair. Fortunately, the indulgent smile had faded. That expression always made me feel like a child.
“What potential problem would that be?”
I took a quick breath. “Early this morning I rescued six witches from Las Vegas. A vampire kept them as some sort of supernatural harem. They’re enthralled. I expect he’ll come here looking for them.”
