An Ordinary Fairy (17 page)

“Just one other person has seen this room since they died,” she said. “Rowan has seen it once.”

And you want to show it to me?

Willow pushed the door open and walked in. She took several steps into the room and turned to face him, waving him in.

Noah walked into a gust of energy as plain as a stiff breeze. He stopped, shocked, and got his bearings before taking cautious steps forward.

Here is a place enchanted!

“I knew you would feel it,” Willow said. “My parents’ presence lingers, even after such a long time. I sense it throughout the house and some places on the grounds, but especially here.”

Noah nodded, silent.

Bright sunlight poured through the tall windows. The room was L-shaped, wrapped around the southwest corner of the atrium. The inside corner was occupied by a stone fireplace built at a forty-five degree angle. Fine white curtains hung by the windows, the ones he had noticed on his first visit. Everything in the room indicated someone lived here on a day-to-day basis. The curtains, the linens on the bed, and the pillows against the headboard were all new, all clean, spotless and wrinkle free. Fresh wallpaper glowed in the sunlight, and the floor and the woodwork gleamed. The antique furniture appeared in pristine condition. Pictures hung on the walls, lamps sat on tables. Firewood waited in a cubbyhole built into the fireplace. A glance through the door to the sitting room revealed the same condition.

“Willow, this is wonderful,” Noah said as he wandered about. A hairbrush sat on the table, a wind-up alarm clock on the bedstead showed the correct time.

Willow watched as he toured. “I’ve kept it as they left it. First, it was a hope. A hope they would return, that it was all a big mistake. They would drive up one day, home from an unscheduled trip. It became a refuge, a place where I could be with them, where I could escape from the world. Now it’s a sanctuary. I mean that two ways, I suppose. It’s a place where I can escape to safety and a place where I can worship their memory, after a fashion.” She lifted Noah’s spirits with hers as she spoke. “Louie’s never been in here, in all these years. He’s never once asked about this room, why it’s locked.”

Noah’s eyes fell on a sepia photo on the wall, done to appear antique. A younger Willow peered out at him, with long, wavy hair to her shoulders, in a white dress. “Look at this,” he said, pointing and turning to look at Willow. “It’s the girl from the ball.” Her eyes widened, but then she smiled, and walked over to look out a window.

Noah explored the back part of the room and found a walk-in closet with a single garment bag hanging in it. Behind this was a large bathroom situated against the service hall beyond.

A dazzling pattern reflected on the wall before him and he turned to locate the source. He gasped at what he saw.

How … stunning.

Willow stood peering out the sunlit window with one foot on the low sill, her wings sparkling in the bright light. The sun outlined her head and torso in a golden glow. It didn’t matter she wore jeans over a swimsuit and high top tennis shoes. She could have been in the most elegant gown and not be more captivating.

Rushing images and sensations played in reverse all that had passed between them, reinterpreted in this new light, bright as the sun through the window. Every word, every gesture, every look, and every touch, even her fragrance was redrawn on this new canvas: the scare on the balcony, the dance, the courthouse, her breakdown at the motel, speaking her name, verbal sparring at the cottage. Last was her flight at the pond: the moment she burst from the water and hovered naked before him. It was, he understood now, a most sensual, provocative display of her beautiful form.

Noah’s mind blazed through these images in an instant while Willow’s tiny figure in the window came under his appraisal. He saw her wonderful curvy hips from a new viewpoint. Her tight jeans accented luscious legs and a tight abdomen. Even the diminutive swellings of her breasts spoke of sensuality. A flash of gold shone from each perfect, tiny ear. Her face in profile was adorable, her mouth curved into a subtle smile surrounded by soft round cheeks.

“I love the view from here,” Willow said.

Me, too.

You’re not just a beautiful little fairy. You’re sensual … sexy—

Oh, no! Not that!

Noah’s body betrayed his feelings. Willow felt something, either his mood or his sudden panic, for at that moment she turned toward him. Her eyes grew wide. Her mouth opened and Noah could sense her breathing grow shallow. She closed her eyes and her mouth and drew in a deep breath. In the space of a few seconds, her appearance altered. She reopened her eyes halfway, in a slow, seductive way, and tilted her head forward and to one side so she peered at him through her eyelashes. A faint, sumptuous smile brushed her lips and radiance shimmered on her cheeks, spread across her face and down her neck and chest until the skin between her breasts shone. Her hands pressed to her hips and found their slow sensuous way to her bottom while her chest thrust forward. An unseen breeze waved her wings.

Noah’s situation grew more embarrassing by the second.

What’s going on? We’re just exploring an old house on an October day.

Willow seemed about to saunter across the room.

If you touch me, I don’t know what might happen. I want you, but …

Noah could sense some outside energy penetrating his brain. He had little will left, not enough to think for himself. Willow moved toward him.

Run away, Noah! Run away!

Deep inside, a voice tugged at Noah’s consciousness.
Protection,
it kept saying,
protection
. Through the fog, a star and a circle floated before him. He unzipped his jacket and fumbled to pull out his pentacle. He clasped the silver emblem in his hand.

The power dominating him evaporated. He breathed heavily as his body relaxed.

Thank you, Goddess.

Willow remained under the enchantment. She worked her sinuous way across the room.

Well, there is a humorous side to this, I guess.

He beckoned her to come. Her smile oozed arousal and she moved close, twisting, undulating before him. Part of him hated to shut this off, but it was time.

“Willow, look at me.” She turned her sexy glance on him. He put his hand on her cheek, holding the pentacle tight to his chest with the other. Her face went blank and the glow winked out. She shook her head for a moment and her face went crimson. Noah’s own ears warmed. She took a step backward and put her hands over her mouth.

“Oh, Noah!” she croaked. “What was I doing?” She turned her back.

“It’s okay. We weren’t in control of what was happening. Come on, let’s get out of here.” Willow turned but kept her eyes averted. Noah reached out a hand to her. She hesitated a moment before taking it in hers. He led her onto the balcony outside the room and went back to close the door, making sure it locked.

Noah walked back to Willow, who stood looking at the floor. He took her hands in his and coaxed her to look at him. “Willow, it’s alright. It wasn’t you. Something about that room affected us.”

“I’m sorry I took you in there, Noah.”

“Don’t feel bad. I think I started it and passed it on to you. You looked so … well … attractive standing in the window and…” Noah’s face burned.

We both know I wasn’t going to say attractive.

Willow smiled and patted his chest, and then examined the pentacle.

“Handy little thing. Maybe I’ll drop that room from the standard tour. Let’s move on.”

They walked in silence around the fourth floor balcony, lost in their own thoughts. Noah’s mind was full of Willow. He was acutely aware of her beside him with her hands in her back pockets as usual. Noah didn’t want to judge everything between them through this new lens of sexuality. He stole a look at her as they walked. She looked like the same stunning Willow. Maybe he had changed.

Time for a new subject.

“How do humans get to the widow’s walk? Not that I want to go up there, I was just curious.”

“A door in the back stairwell leads to steps up to the attic. From there you climb the spiral staircase to the indoor walk platform. Another door there leads to the outdoor walk.”

They completed the circuit of the fourth floor and arrived again at her parents’ room. Willow stopped before the door and stared at it for a moment. She looked up at Noah, pensive.

“You must think I’m crazy the way I’ve kept their room.”

“No, I don’t,” Noah answered. “Obsessive-compulsive maybe, but I like to see that in you. Makes you seem human.” He grinned.

Willow fought smiling, but gave in to his mirth.

“You bum!” she said, and shoved him. He stumbled and almost fell.

“Careful there, Supergirl.”

“Smartass! Don’t call me that.” She stood before him with her hands on her hips and her wings twitching, trying hard not to smile.

“Well … she
is
blonde … beautiful … strong … she can fly. No, wait, my mistake. She’s
tall.
”

“You
rat!
” Willow said and lunged at him. Noah was ready this time and flew down the stairs—in human fashion. “Wait ‘til I get a hold of you, Noah Phelps!” she yelled.

“Please don’t hurt me, little fairy!” he said amidst peals of laughter. He pounded down the steps as fast as he could move. Buzzing sounded behind him for a moment but it faded. He thought he saw a blur to his right. Just as he reached the third floor, Willow appeared before him out of thin air. Noah slid to a halt almost nose to nose with her. She floated in the air with a gleeful look on her face, her hands raised as if about to catch a basketball. She screwed her face up into an evil grimace and adopted a witchy voice.

“Now the wicked photographer must pay for taunting the poor little fairy!” Noah leaned left, then right in a futile attempt to get past her, but she moved with him. With an impossibly fast motion, she darted close and grabbed his head in an iron grip, the air wash from her wings brushing his face. Her features softened, she smiled and leaned in close as if to kiss him. Instead, she gave his nose a slobbery lick then let him go and darted away backward, cackling so hard she couldn’t stay upright.

“Gag! Fairy spit!” Noah said, making a big show of wiping his nose on his sleeve. Willow floated into the atrium and doubled over with laughter, spinning out of control. Noah laughed at the sight of a fairy in blue jeans and tennis shoes turning upside down holding her belly.

“Carry your own coat!” he yelled and flung the coat and hat out into the atrium. She swooped and caught both before they reached the floor. Noah laughed and walked down the stairs to the atrium. Willow waited for him with a satisfied smirk, her face all mischief. She wore her silly fisherman’s hat again.

I’ve never just … played … with a woman like this before.

“You know what my motto is?” Noah said. “Don’t get mad, get even.” Willow giggled. “So watch your step—Supergirl.”

They walked to the door and Noah went out. Willow locked the door and put the bar in place. A minute later, she floated down to join him at the foot of the porch stairs.

Nine

N
oah helped Willow put on her jacket. He picked up the box he had left on the porch.

“What’s in the box?” Willow asked.

“My dowsing rods. I thought I would dowse around the house and see if I find anything interesting.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. That’s why a person dowses. This place has strong energies. If I dowse maybe I’ll … find a source.”

Or some clues to your parent’s death
.

“Okay,” Willow said. “I still don’t understand this dowsing and energies thing you do. How does it work?”

“Well,” Noah said with a thoughtful look, “it’s sort of a combination of physics and magic.”

“Guess I deserved that.”

“Yes, you did. You use a sensitive object, a pendulum or rods, to indicate changes in the energy fields where you’re walking. The actual detection is all in your head, so to speak, and your sub-conscious creates tiny movements in the object to indicate the changes in the energy fields.”

“Okay,” Willow said, frowning. “I guess. What kind of energy is it? Magnetic or something and that’s why you use metal rods?”

“It’s not magnetic energy. It’s not any energy modern science can measure. Shoot, scientists won’t even admit it exists. The rods don’t need to be metal. It’s just easier to make them from metal. The important tool is here.” He tapped his head.

Willow shook her head. “You’re going to have to show me.”

Noah laid the box on the ground and extracted two l-shaped rods. “You hold them like this,” he said and held them before him, holding the shorter legs in each hand while the longer legs pointed straight ahead.

Willow grinned. “Now you
look
like a cowboy!”

“Thanks. You let the rods stabilize and walk over the area you’re exploring. It’s best to walk a regular grid of evenly spaced lines in one direction, and then walk another grid perpendicular to the first. As you walk you can record how the rods swing and plot the energies.” Noah looked around at the woods close to the house. “The brush isn’t too bad around the house. I’ll start two hundred feet north of the house and walk east-west lines two hundred feet either way. Then I’ll walk north-south lines. That way I’m sure to catch everything. It’s possible to walk along an energy line and never know it because the rods stay straight with it.”