Angel Magic

 
Angel Magic

 
Copyright @ 2012 by Brooklyn O’Bannon

 
This e-book is a work of fiction. While references may be made to actual places or events, theNames, characters, incidents, and locations within are from the author’s imagination andare not a resemblance to actual living or dead persons, businesses, or events. Any similarity is coincidental.
   

Warning

 
This e-book contains language that some may find objectionable. Store your e-books carefully where
they cannot be accessed by younger readers
.

 
Dedicated to my long-suffering family and to e-book lovers everywhere.

                                                                                           
~Brooklyn O’Bannon

Chapter One

 
At sunset Kari stood, shivering and naked, in the middle of the summoning circle.

 
The special chalk circle had taken hours to prepare with intricate symbols and stones.

 
She took the special cleansing bath and stood naked in her living room, careful not to look at herself in the mirror on the wall of the adjoining dining room.

 
She lit the anointed candles, sprinkled the herbs like the spell directed and began the chant she’d memorized.

 
She sat in the center of the circle. “Kay fawn, kay fawn,” she chanted over and over while staring at the center candle. The room darkened until nothing but the dancing flame filled her vision and it seemed to flicker in time with her chant. As she chanted, her hearing became sensitive and picked up the faint sound of the flame. The world around her began spinning, but she and the flame were one, anchored in the center.

 
The icy sting of her feet tucked beneath her body told her she had been chanting for a long time. The discomfort pulled her away from her focus on the dancing flame. Her throat was dry and she paused in her chanting, wondering how long she’d been meditating, and whether anything was going to happen. She had a strange sensation in her ears, like when an airplane begins to descend. Pressure.

 
Maybe it was the spirit who would make her thin.

 
Something icy crept down her spine and she lurched with a surprised cry. Pain ripped through her abdomen as sharp ice stabbed through her. In panic, she tried to get away but she couldn’t. Long clawed fingers of bone pierced through her abdomen, she couldn’t breathe. Horrified, she watched blood, her blood,
drip
to the carpet in a crimson rain as the fingers raised her from the floor and she dangled, impaled above the floor. She tried to scream, but her voice was nothing but air. She tasted the copper tang of blood on her tongue.

 
“Let me go. I don’t want to be thin.” Her voice was harsh, her breathing ragged, tears streamed down her cheek.

 
She twisted to see what held her, despite the tearing pain in her abdomen. A giant skeleton, larger than any man, with dark eye sockets full of an amber glow, held her like a fish on a spear. Its bare teeth smiled at her pain, and it held her with no effort. It didn’t acknowledge her plea and as she watched, small dark shreds of flesh hanging on his face began to meld together.

 
Then there was a crash that sounded like breaking glass. With a cry she swiveled her head toward the sound, but it made her dizzy. All she could see was a translucent blur circling close. Icy air, like a blast from a freezer, wafted over her until the only warmth she felt was her own blood dripping down to her thighs. The giant hand clutched her tight in its fist as it swung her out of the way of the moving blur. The pain of the movement made her cry out and she squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see this new evil.

 
“No more,” she sobbed. “Let me go.” Then she realized that when the monster pulled his fingers out, she would bleed more. Could she make it to the phone?

 
“Help,” she cried, barely able to speak.

 
The glassy monster and the skeleton began fighting, jerking and twisting her through the air. In panic, she squeezed her eye shut, knowing she could be smashed into a wall at any moment as the two crashed and thundered through her mom’s living room.

Flashes of light burst through her closed lids. There was a series of sharp moves, the sound of something slicing through the
air,
heavy breathing from the fighter, though the skeleton was silent. Kari could no longer open her eyes to see what was happening.

Shivers racked through her and Kari was certain she was about to die.

Just as quickly as it began, she was free of the bony hand and she fell hard to the floor. Kari strained to see, opening her eyes wide, but all was black. The room was quiet. A cold hand touched her forehead and slid down, closing her sightless eyes.

 
“Sleep a while, little one,” a masculine voice crooned in a strange accent.

 
Funny, his hand doesn’t feel all bony now
, was her last thought before she began to spin and spin into a dark, quiet vortex.

Kari awoke in her candle-lit living room. The candles had burned down a little. She was lying on the couch with grandma’s afghan thrown over her. Then she remembered her wounds. She flung back the blanket and searched her abdomen for the wounds, wondering if she could make it to the phone to call 911.

 
“Oh my God.” She stared at her body.

 
Her stomach was flat. She felt for the wounds, but saw only four small scratches on her lower belly and one up higher, under her breasts.
Her perky breasts.
She had ribs.

 
Slowly, she ran her hands over her body, registering their movement, that this was truly her body.

 
Her legs were slim and they looked longer. Her arms had no flab. She shook them extra hard to be sure.

 
She was thin—really thin. Size four
kind of
thin. She hadn’t been smaller than a size fourteen since sixth grade.
A Summoning to be Thin
,
 
the
spell from the old book, had worked.

 
Memories of the spell flooded her. She shivered, remembering the skeleton that had skewered her in her dream. It had enjoyed her pain.
That had been no helpful spirit
,
it would have killed her
. The whole incident seemed real, the blood running down her legs, the sensation of swinging through the air—she never dreamed movement and sensation like that. And there was another spirit, who had fought the
skeleton
…Maybe the anointing oils and herbs on the candles had made her hallucinate, because that had been unlike any nightmare she could remember. But it couldn’t have been real, because 7

 
Melisse Aires

 
she
had no wounds, nor was she covered in blood. She must have crawled to the couch and covered herself, though she couldn’t remember doing so.

 
If I’d known how intense the spell was going to be, I wouldn’t have done it.
 
But somehow it worked.

 
I wonder how much I weigh now?
 
She leapt off the couch and walked to the bathroom for a weigh in.

 
Her foot landed on something wet and cold.
Ice. What is ice doing in the hallway?

 
There was a lot of it, big chunks scattered on the carpet leading to the bathroom.

 
I’m never doing magic again. Weird things happened…

 
The
full length
mirror on the outside of the bathroom door showed her reflection.

 
Kari forgot the ice and the weirdness when she saw her new body.

 
“It doesn’t even look like me,” she whispered as she stepped close to the mirror.

 
Her face was different, eyes larger, cheekbones noticeable and no double chin. Her hair seemed longer, the way it flowed over her slim shoulders. She traced her cheekbones with her
finger tips
and then tapped under her chin, where she used to have a roll of skin. Her neck seemed longer with pronounced
collar bones
. Her wrists, hands—they were different now, too. She had never been tall, but now she was delicate, with slim arms and legs, a tiny waist. Her breasts were round and high. She didn’t need underwire support anymore, light and lacy bras with thin straps would work.

 
Her fingers slid over her ribs, easy to find now, but she was pleased to see they were not sticking out. She wasn’t too thin. Her stomach was the best change. It was flat, with even a little muscle definition.
I’ll get a belly ring right away
, she thought. She’d always envied girls who had belly rings that showed when they raised their arms, and now she would be one of those girls. She turned around and craned her neck to see her backside. Her butt was round and high. She stomped to see how much she jiggled...and the bathroom door swung open.

 
She jumped back from the door with a screech, the memory of the dream skeleton flooding her mind.

 
A man stood in her bathroom doorway, so tall his hair touched the top of the
door jamb
. He was nude except for a towel wound around the bronze skin of his groin, leaving his sculpted chest and abs bare. He had muscle everywhere—shoulders, arms, thighs. Long, silky, golden hair fell past his shoulders in waves. Light blue eyes, tilted upward just a little, framed in long dark lashes and straight dark brows, and focused on her naked form. His jaw line was square,
cheek bones
high, a straight nose and full, carved pink lips.

 
“You did this to me?” For some reason, she did not feel at all embarrassed about being nude in front of the beautiful, strange man. Everything seemed like a dream. She ran her fingers down her slim torso, and his eyes followed the movement. “You are Kay fawn?”

 
“No!” His eyes widened. “Don’t say that name. He could return if you call him.”

 
He moved so swiftly he was a blur. Suddenly he was in front of her, and Kari found herself facing his back, from which two huge white wings grew from his shoulders, arching down to his muscular calves.

 
“An Angel,” she said aloud, in awe. “You’re an Angel?”

 
He grunted.

 
She reached out one hand and touched the feathers...so, so silky soft. Beautiful. She ran both hands down his wings, careful not to ruffle them the wrong way. This must be another crazy dream.

 
He made a funny gasp and whirled around, leaving her with her hands in the air where his wings had been.