Burkheart Witch Saga Book 2 (5 page)

"On the lips."

David leaned down, puckered up and kissed the beast on what would be lips if it were not actually a snout.

"No," Carolyn weakly protested, but no one paid attention. They were all rapt, waiting for Kayla to come magically back to life. Violet held her breath and then let it out after a few seconds when nothing happened.

Everyone in the room dropped their heads in disappointment. Joy let out an exasperated sigh, followed by a steady stream of quiet tears.

"Wait!" David exclaimed. "She moved."

Everyone in the room gathered closer to the bed, watching intently.

Kayla lay there on the bed, and her body began to vibrate. The hair covering her body receded and her frame shrunk to its normal, petite size. After watching incredulously, David sighed.

"It really is her!"

"Did you think we were lying to you?" Gus asked, and Violet shoved her elbow into his ribcage to shut him up.

As they watched the transformation back to human complete, Kayla's eyes opened gingerly. She looked around at the group staring at her. When her eyes met David's, she sat up.

"David?" She asked tentatively, not sure what his response would be.

"Kayla." He reached down and took her hand. She gripped his hand back and he leaned in to hold her.

"I love you, baby. I've missed you so much!" David cried as he held her tight.

"I love you, too, David. Where's my dad?" She looked around.

"I'm right here, Munchkin,” Richard called from the doorway of the room. As he stepped forward to speak to his daughter for the first time in twenty years, Carolyn rose weakly from the floor and pulled the bloody knife from her stomach. She plunged the tip of the knife into Richard's abdomen, causing him to fall to his knees.

"No, Daddy," Kayla cried out and instinctively put her hand out in front of her. Carolyn's face twisted in a mask of surprise when her body lifted off the ground. She began to sail through the air with incredible force, slamming against the far wall of the bedroom and then falling into a lifeless heap of black lycra and blood.

Kayla looked out the window at the horde of monsters standing outside the gate. She lifted her arms and a wail of misery bellowed forth from deep inside her. The dwarves watched in amazement as a seemingly nuclear wind shot across the property and rolled over the mob, instantly turning all of them into nothing more than piles of dust.

Kayla scrambled off the bed and rushed to where her father lay dying.

"Daddy, no. You can't go now," she pleaded as tears ran down her face and landed on Richard's shirt, making little dark blue circles on his light blue polo.

"It's okay, Munchkin. You're all right. That's all that matters. I'm dying anyway; this is just a little faster." He took her hand in his and kissed it weakly.

"I just got you back. You can't leave me now. Please," she sobbed, holding him in her arms.

"I will always love you, Kayla." Richard smiled at her and reached his hand up to touch her face. She nuzzled her cheek against his palm as it dropped to his side, lifeless.

"No!" she cried, and buried her head in his chest as she sobbed for the father she had missed for so long.

T
he coven
of witches had called the police and reported that Carolyn had tried to kill Kayla and stabbed Richard, who had then wrestled the knife away from her and stabbed her in self-defense. The detective had seemed a little suspicious, but after a small dose of Gus's fairy dust, he agreed with the sequence of events and left them alone.

Kayla sat at the table, drinking a mug of very strong coffee while David held her hand and tried to comfort her.

Once all the police technicians left the house, all with a little fairy dust on their cheeks, the coven of witches came and sat at the table offering their condolences to Kayla.

"We need to talk about what you did, Kayla," Doc said, trying to get down to business.

"What did I do?" Kayla asked, bewildered.

"Your magic, dear," Joy answered in a motherly tone.

"Oh, that." She turned to David and grinned half-heartedly.

"Can you be married to a bona-fide witch?" she asked, secretly afraid of his answer.

"I think I can manage it, with a little help from our friends." He smiled reassuringly and kissed her cheek.

She rested her forehead on his shoulder and wept quietly.

"I love you, David." She sat up and wiped her eyes, trying to get serious.

"All right, Doc. What do I need to know?"

"Nothing, right now," Doc said, softening.

"Does this mean that we get to plan a wedding?" Daisy asked excitedly.

"Yes, it does," Kayla replied, infected with Daisy's excitement.

"Oh, goody!" she said, clapping her hands together.

Kayla rested her head on David's shoulder again, but this time, she smiled at the new family she had acquired from these tragic events.

O
ver the last few months
, Kayla had become quite adept at using her magic. She found Joy was right, she was a natural witch, her powers boosted greatly by having two magical parents. She had no real need for potions or ceremonies, other than those thanking the God and Goddess; her magic was strong in her mind and flowed through her body.

After she had buried her father, she found she was still able to communicate with him sometimes in her dreams. He was happy, and that was all she needed to know.

David was supportive of her while she learned how to control her new powers, even though she had broken more than one lamp trying to get a handle on them. She was actually getting pretty good at it now, she thought proudly.

She had sat locked in a kennel in the backyard during the last full moon, waiting to change. When nothing happened, everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the effects of Lou's scratch had worn off.

Carolyn's house had been cleansed of evil by the coven and then sold for well below market value to a nice non-magical couple named the Colliers. Kayla had collected the proceeds from her father's insurance policy and purchased a new home for her and David to live in. She had also splurged on a new Corvette Stingray for herself.

She was looking out the bedroom window of Doc's home when Joy, Daisy, and Violet burst into the room in their matching bridesmaids dresses.

"Get your dress on! It's almost time!" Daisy said frantically.

Kayla got up and unzipped the bag containing her beautiful wedding dress. She turned around and looked at the bridesmaids as tears of happiness threatened to ruin her make-up.

"Don't you say anything. You'll ruin all of our mascara!" Joy said in a mock stern voice with her trademark smile betraying her seriousness. "Just get ready."

The three ladies helped Kayla step into her dress. She turned to look in the mirror and make sure everything was in place. Inside the glass, the reflection of her father stared back at her.

"Daddy?" she asked, trying to hold back her tears without much success.

"I just wanted to see you and tell you how proud I am, and how much I love you. Blessed be, Munchkin." With that, Richard's visage faded away.

Kayla turned to see the three women crying. She looked at Joy, who nodded her head, silently saying she had seen him, too. Kayla dried her eyes carefully and headed out the door to the courtyard. As the bluebirds she had enchanted brought her bouquet and dropped flower petals on the guests waiting for her arrival, she smiled and stepped out into her new happily ever after.

"
D
avid
!" Kayla screamed from her perch on the couch. After a second of no answer from him, she yelled again.

"David! Help me!"

"Yeah baby, I'm coming!" he shouted, making his way downstairs, running.

"What the hell is taking you so long?"

"I'm coming as fast as I can, my love,” David sang, entering the living room.

Kayla looked up at David from her seat with a look of shame, mixed with impatience and a hint of relief.

"What can I do for you?" David asked with a smile.

"I have to pee and I can't get up."

"Oh honey, that's because you're so big!"

"You are an asshole."

"No, you're eight months pregnant."

"You're still an asshole." This time, she was smiling and accepting the heave-ho he gave her from the couch. Kayla waddled her way down the hall, toward the bathroom.
Eight months and big as a house
, she thought.

"You need any more help?" David called out sarcastically.

"Maybe. I'll let you know."

As Kayla relieved her extremely abused bladder, she reflected on everything that had happened in the last year. After they were finally married, with Joy as her maid of honor and Doc as David's best man, they had stood together at the end of an extremely strange and dangerous journey.

Her dad,
Goddess rest his soul
, was dead. Her mother,
may she burn in hell
, was dead, too. Kayla had battled werewolves and vampires, had even turned into a werewolf herself. She had gotten a new family in the form of seven dwarf witches, one of which had sacrificed his life to save hers.

She couldn't help but think to herself that even after all of that, her happily ever after had finally come true. David was the love of her life, and now they were having a baby. They had not asked the doctor what the sex of the baby was, because they wanted it to be a surprise. Hundreds of strangers and friends alike had speculated on the sex based on the way that she was carrying the baby, or how many times she had to pee in a day, which was a lot! The proud parents had told everyone they did not want to know. Joy and Daisy had even hinted that they could find out magically, but Kayla put a nix on that idea, too. It was a fifty-fifty chance that this baby would be naturally magical, and she didn't want any kind of exposure until they found out for sure. The two dwarves had reluctantly agreed not to cast any spells of their own. Kayla even refused to use her own magic after finding out that she was pregnant.

It had been difficult, knowing she could ease her own discomfort with a flick of her wrist or levitate her own fat ass off the couch without David's help. She viewed using her magic during pregnancy in much the same way she viewed her former addictions. Willpower was necessary to just say no. She just wanted the best for her little boy or girl.

Getting up off the toilet proved less difficult than she had thought it was going to be. She was grateful that David hadn't needed to come in and help her. One thing she had learned was that pregnancy had a way of stripping you of some of your dignity. After the morning sickness had finally subsided in the third month and she no longer needed David to hold her hair while she puked up everything she ate, the cravings had started. Late night tacos, morning ice cream, and spicy Chinese food at all hours, David had made uncomplaining runs for each of these. In the sixth month, she gained thirty pounds, all in her now protruding stomach. Kayla had insisted to the doctor that she was carrying triplets, but at her last appointment, there had only been one perfect little heartbeat.

Coming out of the bathroom, she felt as though she had just finished running a marathon. Hauling around a spare tire was a big deal for her medium frame. In reality, she was not that big, and she knew it. Most days had been filled with prenatal yoga and walking as much as possible, but today her energy level was bouncing at zero. It was around 9:00 p.m., and she just wanted to lie down and go to sleep more than anything in the world.

When she reached the top of the stairs, there was a knock at the front door.

"What the hell?" She huffed, turning to go back down to the front door.

"I got it, I got it!" David stopped her mid huff and hurried down the stairs himself. She smiled at him as he passed, thankful for all his help.

The knock came again as he reached the door.

"I'm coming!" he said irritably, and opened the heavy oak door. Kayla couldn't hear or see exactly what was happening, and she started to feel a little nervous. David said a quick thank you to the person at the door then closed and locked it. He headed back upstairs with a small package in his hand.

"What's that?" Kayla asked, wondering who normally delivered packages at nine at night.

"The delivery guy said he missed the delivery earlier, so he dropped it by on his way back to the yard," David explained, shaking the little package.

"Who's it from?" For some reason, that little package made her feel uneasy.

"Doesn't say." He studied the label and then began opening the special delivery. As the outside tape was removed, and the inside packaging taken out, the knot in Kayla's throat grew. When David pulled the contents out of the box, she relaxed with an audible sigh.

The silver baby rattle gleamed in the artificial light. David held it up for her to see as he turned it in his hands. It was one of the old-fashioned style rattles with a round bubble on one end and a baby-sized handle on the other. On the silver stalk, a red ribbon was tied in a little bow.

"Cute." David handed the rattle over to Kayla. She took it and smiled.

"Wait, there's a card." David pulled it out and unfolded the little paper. As he read silently, his face turned a sickly shade of pale.

"David, are you ok?"

He looked up at her and seemed unable to speak. He finally mustered the strength to read the card aloud.

"Congratulations. Signed, Uncle Lou."