Parlor Tricks

by Mara Lee

She screamed and struck out. The power bounced harmlessly off the shield.

  “NO!” Tabitha raged, waving her wand furiously. Each of her spells fizzled as they hit the wall of the field. She was inches away from her kill and yet could do nothing now but continue in her hate.

  “You will harm us no longer.” Sass gripped Griffin’s hand fiercely and raised the magic. She began to chant and force invisible bonds around Tabitha. “I’m going to bind you, Tabitha … I must. For your sake as well as ours, I must.”

  Tabitha’s body began to shake and her eyes bled slowly from raging red to brilliant orange.

  Sass gasped, her chant died upon her lips. “No, Tabitha, you must stop … STOP!” She screamed.

  Griffin, too, sucked in a breath. “What’s she doing?” He had never seen anything like this before. Then again, lately he seemed to be experiencing lots of things he had never experienced.

  “She’s called upon too much magic. She can’t … she’s contained within a field and if she…” Sass’s words broke off in shocked horror, as Tabitha’s entire body began to glow and the force-field began to rock back and forth.

  The power was building at an incredible rate, a rate that no one, not even a top-notch witch, could control.

  It exploded. The ground quaked, rocked by the incredible force.

  And then, silence reigned supreme.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sass’s hands shook but slightly as she accepted the gleaming wand from Sheriff Carrie. The wand was all that was left of Tabitha. By the terms of battle, the wand of the defeated was now hers. The pretty sheriff was eyeing her with those strange amber eyes of hers. She had always seen too much—always.

  Sass swallowed. She hated this hospital room almost as much as she hated those probing, searching eyes of Sheriff Carrie Edding.

  Sass had refused to be admitted to the hospital until she knew that Henrietta and Tina were safe. Carrie assured her that no harm had befallen her friends. They had made it to the morgue—and had gotten the shock of their lives. Tabitha had sat up and spooked them good.

  The moment Tabitha had come to, she had knocked Henrietta and Tina out with a very strong spell. The two of them had been found on the floor of the morgue, sleeping and snoring. Humiliating perhaps for them … news to rejoice to in Sass’s opinion.

  “It’s not your fault.” Carrie didn’t blink as she spoke the words.

  Sass clenched her jaw.

  Carrie tilted her head. Still, her gaze remained steady. “You did not kill her … she killed herself.”

  Sass gripped the bedrail so hard that her knuckles turned white. Finally she spoke. “I threw out the force-field.”

  Carrie nodded. “Yes, you did. But could you have saved yourself and Griffin if you hadn’t?” Carrie smiled slightly. “I thought not. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and the man you love.” Carrie’s eyes grew sharper and brighter. “It was her choice and hers alone. She drew in too much … the combustion was bound to happen.”

  Sass closed her eyes against the pain of the memory. Tabitha had tried to kill her and Griff … and yet … yet … the memory of how Tabitha had met her end would live with her until she, too, died.

  It mattered little how much power Tabitha had wielded. In the end … it had brought upon her destruction. No one being could call upon so much magic while contained within a field. The magic had no outlet and would build and build until it exploded—taking the wielder with it.

  Tabitha had spontaneously combusted, and unlike the movies would lead you to believe … it was not clean.

  The mess had been substantial between what was left of Tabitha and the magic she had spilt when she had burst.

  It was awful—the ruination of a mad witch.

  “I’ll leave you to rest now.” Carrie turned to leave the hospital room. She stopped at the door and spoke over her shoulder. “Just remember one thing, Sass … we who are governed by fate … are loved eternal by destiny.”

  Sass’s forehead wrinkled. “Wha…” she didn’t get to finish.

  Carrie’s amber eyes glowed. “You, Griffin … destiny has found you both.”

  Sass blinked.

  Carrie gave her a short salute before exiting. Her feet made not a sound.

  * * * *

  “So … how was I?” Griffin toyed with the end of Sass’s singed hair.

  Sass groaned and buried her head under one large pillow. “Griffin,” she said, her voice mumbled by the pillow, “I’m sorry … I’m so sorry. Do I have to say it again?”

  Griffin yanked the pillow away. He smiled. “No, you don’t. I just like to hear you say it.”

  Sass blinked. “Are you really not mad at me for taking advantage of you?”

  Griffin’s laughter was thick and rich and he nuzzled the side of her neck. “Baby, you can take advantage of me anytime you like.”

  Sass shoved his shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Really, be serious.”

  Griffin winked. “I am being serious.” He sobered when he saw the look on her face.

  “I shouldn’t have done it. It’s just that I … well you were … and I was so … and it was so…” Sass’s words trailed off and she blushed a deep crimson.

  Griffin nestled her into his body and breathed in the scent of her sweet hair. How she always smelled so sweet—gardenia, strawberries—was still a mystery to him. “No apologies, you saved me. If you hadn’t found me,” he grinned, “and fucked me, Tabitha would have sunk her claws into me.”

  Sass frowned at the mention of Tabitha’s name. It pained her … knowing that Tabitha had housed the madness for so long. And she had never known.

  Deep within the recesses of Tabitha’s ancient house—or what remained of it—diaries had been discovered, diaries filled with the awful secrets of the Spencer legacy. They told of Tabitha’s grandmother, who had dabbled in black magic and gone mad. Of Tabitha’s father, and his obsession with Adeline and Sass Riley, and finally they had revealed Tabitha’s own horrible secret—how she had murdered her own father.

  Centuries upon centuries of sickness, hatred and madness, and no one had known until this moment.

  “Love?” Griffin cupped her suddenly cold cheek.

  She swallowed.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “I’m fine … just … thinking.”

  Griffin tensed. He knew what she was thinking about. His own thoughts had strayed down that path these past few days. But he was learning to banish such evil from his mind.

  His father had spent years trying to beat and scare him into submission. He had tried to eradicate the magic in his son completely. He had filled his head with tales of his ‘uncaring’ and ‘daft’ mother, making him believe that he had been abandoned by his preoccupied witch mother. When the truth had been the very opposite—it was his father who had abandoned him. He had abandoned him the moment he had tried to shape him into something that he was not—the moment he had tried to separate him from his power.

  And then his Sass had come into his life and with her the evil of Tabitha.

  Tabitha had tried to take, as his father had tried to take, but Sass, her love and her sharing of the magic, had fulfilled and completed him. He thanked his lucky stars every day that he had been blessed. That he had won the love of the woman of his dreams—the one woman who could banish such evil and sadness from him and fill him with the beauty of magic and the world around.

  Sass kissed the corner of his mouth. “Now you’re thinking too hard.”

  Griffin laughed, wrapped his arm around her and rolled her beneath him. “Have I told you that I love you?”

  She caressed his face. “Only every five minutes.”

  Griffin kissed the tip of her nose. “Mmmmm … then let’s make it every two minutes, shall we?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Sass moaned as Griffin’s hand curled around her breast. “My love,” she whispered.

  “Yes.” He tweaked her hardened nipple. “I am. I am, for always.” Griff
in nuzzled the soft patch of skin right below her ear and began to suck.

  “For always,” Sass gasped, “Always sounds very good.”

  He grinned and nudged her legs apart. “Know what else sounds good right about now?”

  She ran her hand down Griffin’s back. “I couldn’t imagine.”

  “Wench.” He tickled her side. Sass began to laugh and squirm.

  Her laughter stopped abruptly when she felt his hand dip between her thighs. She held her breath, inching her hips forward. She needed him. She needed him so badly.

  “Know now?” His fingers lightly danced around the soft flesh of her pussy lips.

  “Griffin…” Sass dug her hands into his back and thrust herself at him.

  He continued to tease her now dripping pussy with his agile fingers, while his other hand kneaded her full, aching breast.

  “Don’t…” she moaned.

  “Don’t?” He bent his head and began to suckle her taut nipple.

  Sass threw back her head and clutched his head to her breast. “Don’t tease me … please Griff…”

  Griffin lifted his head from her breast. His eyes were bright with passion. “Please … yes baby, I want to please you…” He slipped two fingers into her wet passage and held still. “But you have to tell me … tell me everything. What do you want baby? Tell me.”

  Her pussy clenched around his fingers. “Please fuck…” the words died on her lips. She smiled a tremulous smile. “Please … make love to me, Griff. Love me.”

  Griffin groaned and dropped his head to her neck. He smiled against her skin. “I do, God I do.”

  She gasped as she felt his fingers begin to move. They were sliding, caressing, soothing, her wet and needy flesh.

  The fire in her body was burning out of control.

  “More.” Sass arched against his fingers and moaned when he obliged her by squeezing her tight clit. “Ohhhh yes…”

  Griffin began to suck and pull on her nipples fiercely while his fingers quickened their pace. “So gorgeous.”

  She raked her fingers down his back. “Now … Griff … I need you now!”

  He spread her legs further apart and positioned himself at her opening. He captured her mouth in a savage kiss as he plunged his hard and aching cock into her pussy.

  Sass screamed.

  Griffin growled.

  They both went wild.

  He grabbed the globes of her ass and squeezed. His cock was plunging in and out of her hot, wet flesh. Her muscles were already clenching tightly around him and he felt himself grow harder still at her insistence.

  Blood was roaring through his veins and his head was wracked by a haze of pleasure. Still he kept his eyes trained on her, watching each shudder, each shiver and the thrill of need as it tore through her body.

  She was all that was, and all that would be.

  Sass’s breath was trapped within her throat. Her heart was pounding so loudly she was certain Griffin could hear each thud.

  She was sopping wet and aching all over. His cock was hard and demanding and she loved it.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and clung to his shoulders as his thrusts quickened.

  Her own pussy muscles were shivering wildly and with each powerful thrust she felt herself nearing the edge of the abyss.

  Sass sucked in a breath as Griffin latched his mouth onto her neck and bit. Her orgasm hit her in a sudden breathtaking rush. Lights exploded in her head and her legs stiffened around him.

  She screamed as her body was wracked with uncontrollable shudders.

  Griffin ground his hips into hers and nipped the sensitive flesh of her neck with his teeth.

  Her sweet shivers and beautiful screams sent him over the edge. He felt his balls tighten and his cock pulse, a moment before he shot his seed into her welcoming warmth.

  Sass’s legs fell with a thud to the bed and she dropped her head heavily to the pillow.

  Griffin laid his head against the soft cushion of her breasts. His hands played idly with her soft, silky curls.

  “Mmmmm … the stars are out,” Sass whispered.

  Griffin twisted his head and smiled. Sass’s room was filled with brilliant, twinkling stars. All else had been eclipsed. The stars dominated.

  “So,” she grinned, “where are we going to live?”

  Griffin placed a kiss to the side of her soft breast just before he lifted his chin. His eyes when they met hers were shining brighter than the stars. “I hope Daring can use a tofu-eating lawyer.”

  Epilogue

  The bride wore a gown the color of ripe strawberries, the groom a tux and a long blue cape.

  And all of Daring had come out to witness the marriage between its most beloved witch and its prodigal son.

  The chapel was full to overflowing. The scent of gardenias filled the air. And the instruments, sans musicians, played ‘Danse Macabre’.

  It was a wedding to make a witch proud.

  Henrietta led Sass down the aisle.

  Tina stood as her brother’s ‘best man’.

  And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

  Sass reached Griffin’s side and turned to face him. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed and her mouth was turned up in a brilliant smile.

  Griffin in turn wore an expression that could only be called sappy—he was, after all, a man deeply in love.

  “For always,” Sass murmured, face alight.

  Griffin’s eyes flashed. “And forever.”

  The End

  About the Author:

  Ever since I could pick up a pen, I have been writing. I became fascinated with fantasy at the age of eight, when my mother bought me a copy of “The Hobbit”. Not too long after, that I became addicted to anything and everything about vampires. The duality of nature fascinated me.

  But it was an event four years later that would shape my future career as an author of erotic romance. At the age of twelve I discovered my grandmother’s stash of romance novels, hidden, of course, in her closet. I devoured them. My grandmother kicked me out of the closet. But alas, the damage had been done… I was a hopeless junkie—a romance junkie.

  To this day I keep my love of fantasy, vampires and romance. What’s more, I have learned (through much practice) to meld the genres to create, for myself, the perfect environment to pen my erotic romance novels. I live, quite simply, for love, lust and the complex nature of the human heart. And I write to share my love, lusts and complex nature with others.

  Meet LSB Authors At Http://Lsbooks.Net

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  for other exciting literary erotica romances.

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  Destiny's Magick—Rae Morgan

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  And many, many more!!