by Marcus James
Kathryn wiped the tears from her eyes, smearing them down her cheeks and turned her attention to the door. “I’m fine Mags, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah I am. I just broke a glass.”
They both stood there staring at each other, listening for Magdalene to say more but she did not.
“I deserved that.” Sheffield stepped back from the table and folded those strong, tan arms across his chest.
“You deserve a lot fucking more than a glass.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Whatever you want to do to me, I deserve it and I’d let you.” Sheffield made his way over to the bed and hesitated for a moment before sitting down quickly in defeat.
“I was fucking scared. I was still a kid. What the fuck did I understand of any of this? Sure, back in Savannah we had ghost stories and voodoo priests and hoodoo doctors and colorful gothic stories, but what I knew of witches was all just rumors and old tales and ex-hippies and metal kids reading the Satanic Bible or whatever-”
“Borrowed magic...”
“What?”
Kathryn sighed and took a seat next to him. Her eyes focused straight ahead at the closet.
“There are witches who are born with innate gifts... then there are witches, magicians-whatever they want to call themselves-who have no innate gifts and get their power solely from external forces; invoking deities, relying on the power of the tools etcetera.”
“Oh. Huh.”
Kathryn stifled a laugh. “I know. Not at all relevant to the conversation, but that’s what most of those people are. It doesn’t make them any less capable... just not the same.”
“Look, I know I fucked up. There is no excuse. But I never stopped thinking about you. I never stopped missing you... I never stopped dreaming about you. I’m not going to lie and say I’ve been some celibate priest or anything; I’m not going to lie to you like that. I have no illusions. It wasn’t like it took eight years to realize I wanted to be with you. That only took a couple of years, the rest were spent being scared to death to come back for you.
“It was the belief that you had moved on by then and wouldn’t want anything to do with me. It was accepting my mistake and choosing to live with the consequence. In the end though, I couldn’t do it.
“In the end I could fight it no longer. In the end, I had no choice but to try to get you back.”
His heart was pounding. His palms were sweaty and his leg began to tremor. She held his fate in her hands and there was nothing that he could do about it. She was judge, jury, and executioner. It all rested with her.
Kathryn turned and looked at him. Her breasts heaving, her skin delicious with the heat of her anger, the perfume on her skin had been reinvigorated by the perspiration that always came from crying, and those eyes-those cool eyes were softened to him.
“I don’t want to talk anymore.” Kathryn grinned. It was that same grin that she had in the prom picture in his wallet. It was the grin that was so familiar to him. The secret smile that was only for him.
“Neither do I.”
Sheffield reached out and placed his hand behind her neck and pulled her towards him. Their eyes closed and their lips collided. Tongues wrestling, hands searching and fingers fumbling and his cock was rock hard and aching beneath his briefs.
Kathryn tugged on his hair and climbed on top of him-straddling him-her sex hot and her skin soft like silk.
She was ferocious. Her kisses desperate and thirsty. She curled her fingers under his tee and the brief grazing of his skin with her fingers was enough to force his dick to rage in his pants.
He lifted his arms and she quickly removed the shirt, then Sheffield found the zipper in the back of her dress and pulled it down. Kathryn stood briefly to let it fall to the floor, revealing her naked body. Those delicious breasts with those pink nipples, and her sex covered in black lace panties.
She pushed him down on the bed and Sheffield removed his jeans and underwear, his dick was already slick with precum, and he pulled a condom from his wallet. It had been in there since he first arrived in L.A. wishful thinking he wagered at the time, but now here they were. Together. Devouring one another and making up for lost time. Closing that eight year gap and erasing it.
In this moment it was as if it had never happened. It was as if they had never said goodbye that summer in the courtyard so long ago, with the freshly buried body in the orchard beyond the gate.
There was only the here and now.
“Aren’t you afraid this is all because of a spell?” Kathryn asked him as she slipped off her panties and slipped the condom down his hot, aching cock.
He sighed as she mounted him, his dick moving slowly inside of her, her face looking down at him as she began to grind her hips. He held tight to her waist and thrust his cock methodically within her.
Sheffield looked up at her and shook his head.
“The only spell I’ve been under is the same spell that ensnared me eleven years ago...” he propped himself up with one arm, and with the other, he pulled her lips towards him. “The first time I saw you.”
Nothing mattered any longer. All that had happened was forgiven. They both knew it. They were each other’s person-the other half that made them whole-and nothing would separate them ever again.
“So...” The guy named Richie said to her. They had moved to the sofa and were looking at one another hesitantly. After they had heard the glass breaking it had gone quiet in the bedroom, and the two of them had remained silent for several minutes after that.
Magdalene liked Richie. She found him sexy. He looked to her like a cross between Sid Vicious and Robert Smith without the makeup. She loved his tattoos on his arms and the way he smoked his cigarette.
The attraction made her nervous.
“You want a drink?” She asked. She stood and adjusted her T-shirt, “I want a drink.”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
Magdalene nodded and walked over to the dining table and grabbed one of those bottles of Jack Daniels and made her way back to the sofa. She unscrewed the cap and took a swig as she sat back down and crossed one leg over the other.
“How do you like L.A.?” he asked her.
“Lots of artifice.” She responded. She passed the bottle to him and tried to ignore her racing heart.
“Definitely.” He smiled. “But, scratch the surface of all of this glass and Hollywood glamour, and you find a lot under the surface. A lot of dark and grittiness.”
Magdalene laughed. “No kidding.”
“It was good of you to come. I haven’t known your cousin for very long obviously, but I know that the minute she found out you were coming she seemed to be relieved.”
“That’s nice to hear. Though I think she and I are both in way over our heads at this point.”
Richie offered Magdalene a drag of his cigarette and she accepted. She liked his kindness. She had never allowed herself to spend this much time talking to a guy. She had never been interested in the men back home, and she had been so weary of the Legacy and all of the damage it caused, that unlike Kathryn, she had never wanted to take the risk.
Her cousin Francesca Blackmoore was much like Kathryn, a carefree girl who moved through her native Rome, seducing Italian boys and she often sent Magdalene letters and pictures of her in front of the Trevi Fountain looking chic and sultry with her raven hair, and told Magdalene tales of adventures on the backs of Vespas and hot nights at discothèques with various lovers and friends.
It was a life that Magdalene had never understood, nor really desired. She had never wanted to take the risk of being the cause of another’s death, and she had known that allowing herself to desire another would only make her resolve all the more weak.
But now, sitting next to Richie and taking in the look of him, the scope of his beauty, she found herself more at odds with her resolve than ever before.
“What is happening? What did you guys find out?”
Magdalene sighed and handed the cigar
ette back to Richie. “We should wait for Kathryn. I’m new to this game. She is the one who should explain it. I will say though, it’s not good... and I’m afraid it is only going to get worse.”
“And Angelina? What happened with her?”
Magdalene looked at Richie. The concern for his friend weighed heavy on him, and she wished that she had answers to give. She knew she could tell him everything that had happened at the band’s house, but she knew it wasn’t her place.
“Let’s just wait for Kathryn.”
Kathryn’s body trembled from the residual energy of her and Sheffield’s love making. It lingered like a ghost over the bed, enveloping them in the familiarity-the sweet musk of sex that caressed their skin and filled the air with cognizance of all the times their bodies had been entwined before.
The room felt tranquil, and Kathryn realized, while lying on her back staring up at the ceiling while smoking her cigarette, that it was the first time this room had ever felt at peace. She was sated, and the burning hunger-that desire and longing that had been eating away at her insides for the past eight years, the thing that had allowed Kuri between her legs was now still.
Kathryn’s head rolled to the side and she looked deep into Sheffield’s eyes, those green emeralds that shone in his sockets and reflected the indirect light from the brass wall lamp like glittering jewels around one’s neck.
She loved the strong lines of his Cary Grant-like jaw and the classic Roman nose and his short chocolate hair which was now disheveled from the sex. In his youth he had always made Kathryn think of a mix between Richard Gere and Shaun Cassidy, with his shag of hair, but now, looking at him eight years in the future, groomed and hair trimmed, he was a dead ringer for a young Cary Grant. Yes, a young Cary Grant was the perfect description.
“If we could have babies, we’d make some beautiful ones.” Sheffield said. Her pulse quickened, and the pang of guilt took hold of her insides and gave them a squeeze.
He smiled and the smile was serene. He showed no visible hesitation or regret.
“Where did that come from?” They were locked eye to eye, and neither would break away.
“When I went to your house looking for you. I ran into your mother—”
“Oh,”
“Yeah. She tried to steer me away from finding you. I guess I understand-anyways, she told me about the Legacy, and what would happen if we made love without a condom. It sucks, but I’m not really sure I want to be a dad anyways.”
Kathryn sighed and rolled her head back into its former position. She counted the crevices in the ceiling as if they were constellations and took another drag from her cigarette.
“But hey, there’s always adoption.”
Kathryn looked at Sheffield and shook her head. “No adoption. It’s not permitted.”
Sheffield let out a bewildered laugh. “Why?”
“You know why. A Blackmoore has to be one by blood. And if you have been told everything-plus, everything you have seen, everything you now know, a child without our... gifts... would be helpless.
“It’s been this way for centuries. By blood or nothing.”
She felt bad. She knew how it sounded. Cruel and elitist, especially when there were so many children out there without homes and families. But it wasn’t right to bring a child into her world; into this life with all of its terrors.
“Well, what about borrowed magic? You said that there are a lot of witches out there who are not born like you, but they learn and they can still do spells and stuff.”
Again, Kathryn shook her head and sighed.
“It’s just not the same. Look, it doesn’t even matter, okay!?” she didn’t want to shout, but the words of the cloaked spirit came back to her.
“Sorry.” Sheffield frowned and rolled onto his back. They were both staring at the cracks now.
“Can we just talk about something else?”
“Anything.”
“How did you get Annaline Blackmoore to tell you where I was? I am pretty sure I didn’t even tell her where I went.”
“Oh, you didn’t. Your mother has no idea where you are. Magdalene told me.”
Kathryn sat up straight and looked down at him. “Magdalene?”
Sheffield nodded. “Yeah, I went to see her after I saw your mother. She told me the other day that you were here... I figured she would have told you by now that I was looking for you.”
“No, she did not.”
Kathryn could feel the rage boiling inside, it made her chest feel tight as she tried to search for a reason that Magdalene would have decided not to tell her that she had been in contact with Sheffield. That he had been looking for her.
“Fuck!” Kathryn shot out of the bed, grabbing her dress and pulling it on. “Zip.” She said. Sheffield climbed out from under the covers and zipped the back.
“What are you going to do?” he was already pulling on his jeans while hopping after her.
“I’m going to get some fucking answers!”
Kathryn threw the door open and began to make her way quickly down the hall. She couldn’t believe it. She felt so betrayed and of all the people in the world who could commit such a transgression against her, the last person she had ever thought it would be was her cousin.
She found Magdalene and Richie on the sofa, passing a bottle of Jack Daniels between them, laughing about something, and this laughter enraged her even more.
“You fucking knew!”
They both stood and looked at her. Confusion all over Richie’s face and shameful recognition all over Magdalene’s.
“Shit!” Magdalene said.
“You fucking knew this entire time and you didn’t say a thing! After all of these years, after the constant questions about Sheffield since you got here, and you didn’t say anything?”
Kathryn knocked her fist against her leg. Sheffield had appeared behind her, not saying a word and Kathryn kept her eyes locked on her cousin.
“Kathryn, I’m sorry. I-”
“You what? You were going to but it just slipped your mind?!”
Magdalene shook her head. “No. it didn’t. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Magdalene folded her arms across her chest and averted her amber eyes to the floor, her auburn locks falling over her face.
“What the fuck does that even mean, Mags?” Kathryn was shaking. The anger that burned inside of her was nothing short of an inferno.
“Maybe Sheffield and I should step outside.” Richie looked at Sheffield, and Kathryn glimpsed him nodding from the corner of her eye.
“Yeah, I think that is a good idea.” Sheffield responded.
Richie got up and slinked past Kathryn, offering a sympathetic glance to Magdalene as he did.
“Wait.” Kathryn said, turning quickly to look at Sheffield. “Don’t leave. Please.”
Sheffield smiled warmly and shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right out back.” Kathryn felt the cool wave of relief wash over her and she nodded.
She watched them go, taking the other bottle and a pack of smokes with them, then as soon as the patio door was shut behind them, she turned her attentions back to her cousin.
“Why did you keep this from me? You should have told me the minute you first spoke with him that he was back-that he was looking for me!”
Magdalene took a deep swig from the bottle in her hand and gave a defeated sigh. “Look, I was going to, but first I wanted to make sure you were okay. I wanted to make sure you even still wanted him back!
“The last thing I wanted, after all of these years, was to disrupt everything in your life, especially if you were over him. Then I walk into all of this shit, and I just didn’t think it was the right time. I didn’t know what kind of emotions telling you would bring up, and right now you need a clear head.
“He was supposed to wait for me to call him. Either to tell him that you had moved on, or to tell him that I had told you and that you wanted him here.
“He wasn’t supposed to just
take it upon himself and come here walking around the city looking for you!”
Kathryn wanted to slap her cousin. She wanted to rage against her and punish her for her secrecy. There were so many emotions now, and memories of Kuri and Arish. That passion. That primal desire that she had felt for them both. She felt as if she had betrayed Sheffield, and what was worse, was that Magdalene had allowed her to get swept up in Kuri and follow him drunkenly to his bedroom.
Kathryn looked to the patio door and made sure that Richie and Sheffield were away from the door before continuing in a loud whisper.
“I fucking slept with him, Mags! I slept with Kuri and you just let me go with him. If you had told me about Sheffield, then everything would have gone so differently.”
Magdalene’s arms fell to her sides. “What do you want me to say Kathryn? I’m sorry! I wasn’t purposefully keeping this from you. Once we had taken care of this...situation... I had every intention of telling you. But you can’t blame me for going to bed with him.”
Kathryn walked over to Magdalene, closing the distance between them, and she could see by the way her cousin flinched when Kathryn snatched the bottle from her trembling grip that she was bracing herself for Kathryn’s open palm.
“I’m not going to fucking hit you.” Kathryn said just as she took a swig from the bottle. “Though you deserve it.” the burn of the liquor felt good to her as it made its way down her throat.
Kathryn walked over to the sofa and sunk into it, taking another drink from the bottle and letting the alcohol begin to work its magic. She didn’t want to yell anymore. It was too exhausting. She was too exhausted.
“You’re right Kathryn, I should have told you. But there was no malice or duplicity in keeping it from you. You know that. I just-we’re in some very real and very dangerous deep shit right now. Shit that takes precedence and my number one concern is keeping you safe and alive.
“Honestly, after Spago, this whole situation with Sheffield slipped my mind. And if you were honest, you would admit that you understand. Especially after what we learned tonight... and with whatever has or hasn’t happened to Angelina. You’re in a fight for your life.”
The whole thing made her sick. She didn’t want to be part of the prophecy. She didn’t want carry the burden of her family’s survival. She just wanted to live a life like any other twenty-something, and now with Sheffield back, all she wanted to do was get back to planning her life with him. She wanted to plan adventures and a wedding someday, and to start making plans to move in together.
