Call Of The Witch

Books in this series include:

THE WITCH’S LADDER

EYE OF THE WITCH

THE WITCH’S KEY

BONES OF A WITCH

WITCH HOUSE

KISS THE WITCH

Other titles by author Dana E. Donovan:

ABANDONED

SKINNY

RESURRECTION

DEATH & OTHER LITTLE INCONVENIENCES

Author's notes: This book is based entirely
on fiction and its story line derived solely from the imagination
of its author. No characters, places or incidents in this book are
real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places,
events or locales is entirely coincidental. No part of this
publication may be copied or stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopy or otherwise without the express written permission of
the author or author’s agent.

CALL OF THE WITCH © Dana E. Donovan 2011

Cover design by Vickie Donovan © 2011

Many things went through my mind the night
Lilith took me through the Rite of Passage ceremony with her. I say
ceremony for lack of a better word. After all, that’s what Lilith
called it. Certainly, it was an event, a violent episode filled
with fire, wind and a blinding light as hot as the sun. I remember
thinking something terrible had gone wrong. I held Lilith tightly
against my body, sheltering her from the angry winds trying to rip
her from my arms. And I remember kissing her, goodbye I
thought.

When I opened my eyes, everything was gone,
the house, the furniture––everything. Only Lilith and I remained.
My heart pounded so loud I could hear it through my chest. I
blinked at the dust still swirling lazily around my eyes. I felt a
vague sense of shock give way to dull relief, then confusion.
Lilith held a piece of broken mirror to my face and showed me the
man looking back, his blank stare undeniably familiar.

I suspected the illusion was surely a product
of witchcraft, or a hologram perhaps. I had seen such things at
theme parks and on PBS science shows. I knew she possessed the
skills of a witch to pull it off. She had already demonstrated a
repertoire of magic rivaling the best in Hollywood-style visual
manipulation.

Then I looked at my body, a body I hadn’t
seen in over forty years. It was lean. Muscular. Void of scars. It
was the body of a young man. The body I remembered having when I
first graduated from the academy.

I looked into Lilith’s eyes, her hauntingly
deep, dark beautiful ebony eyes. She appeared younger too, though
only by a few years; as if shaving another year off her age could
have made her look any more stunning. She told me she returned us
to our prime, to that quintessential age when our bodies were at
their physical peak and our minds at their sharpest. And they
were.

A million thoughts raced through my mind
simultaneously. They ran wild, ricocheting off brain cells I hadn’t
used in years, finding cognition in their receptors. I thought of
the life I was about to start over; the things I would change. The
things I would not. I thought of Lilith. Wondered if I would marry
her. I wondered about my job. If I still had one. Hell, if I still
had an identity.

Later, we watched from a neighbor’s yard,
cloaked in the shadows of night, as Carlos, the men from the Second
Precinct and the NCFD sifted through the rubble that was once
Lilith’s house. I held her in my arms and wondered about my future,
about the second chance I was given to perform a life of
do-overs.

Strange enough, but the one thing that never
crossed my mind that night, of all the regrets and curiosities of
what might have been, of all the wrongs I now had the chance to
right; I never thought about babies. More specifically, about
having one with Lilith.

So, those were the things I thought about on
a cloudy Saturday afternoon as I daydreamed out the window. I
wasn’t scheduled to work, but came in anyway. I do that sometimes
to avoid the occasional protracted argument with Lilith. She hates
when I do that. I hate the arguments. I guess that makes us
even.

Carlos came in and caught me in my daydream,
my chair pitched back, feet up on the desk, fingers laced behind my
head. He dropped into the seat across from me with a thud. Until
then, I had no idea he was in the room.

“
What are you thinking
about?” He picked up a pencil and began tapping it on the
blotter.

I turned my head to him, blinking until my
eyes adjusted to the office lights. “Huh?”

“
You look like you’re a
million miles away. Something on your mind?”

I lifted my feet, planted them on the floor,
swiveled my chair forward and parked my elbows on the desk. “It’s
Lilith,” I said.

He dropped the pencil into a cup holding a
half-dozen others. “Figured that much. Trouble in paradise
again?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s the same damn
thing again, that consummation ritual. She won’t let it go. Thinks
I don’t appreciate tradition.”

“
Well, no. I don’t suppose
you do. Not as long as you keep referring to it as that damn
thing.”

“
So now you’re taking her
side.”

He smiled at that. “I’m not taking sides. I’m
just pointing out that you might demonstrate a greater
understanding of her if you don’t refer to it as that damn
thing.”

“
Carlos, I don’t refer to
it as that damn thing to her face. You think I’m crazy?”

“
No. Pathetic maybe, but
not crazy.”

“
Pathetic? What’s so
pathetic about not wanting to participate in some black magic
ritual where I’m tied to the bedposts, blindfolded, splayed naked
and subjected to her every whim?”

“
The fact you don’t want
to be tied to the bedposts, blindfolded, splayed naked and
subjected to her every whim is pathetic. Come on, Tony. It’s
Lilith. She doesn’t practice black magic. You know that. What are
you afraid of?”

“
I’m not
afraid.”

“
Sounds like you
are.”

“
Yeah, and you sound like
Lilith. What did she do, put you up to this?”

“
Up to what?”

“
This. You coming here and
badgering me into doing something I don’t want to do.”

“
I’m not badgering. Look.
Forget I said anything.”

“
Fine. I will.”

“
Besides, I’m here because
I’m scheduled. Why are you here?”

I settled again into the back of my chair,
breaking eye contact with Carlos long enough to think of something
almost believable. “I came in to finish the McDowell report.”

He gave me that boyish smile of his, the one
I used to think so innocent, but now I liken to a serpent’s grin.
“The McDowell report? Didn’t you submit that three days ago?”

“
I added an
addendum.”

“
An addendum.”

I pulled the pencil he was playing with
earlier from the cup and pitched it at him. “Bite me,
Rodriquez.”

He snatched it in mid-air before it crossed
the desk. I kicked back once more and returned my gaze to the
window. A long silence followed. I don’t know, maybe not so long.
Time often drags when I’m waiting for some snide comeback from
Carlos, a comeback that all too often doesn’t come. Fearing he
might try to redirect the conversation back to me and Lilith, I
said to him, “You look nice. Going somewhere after work?”

“
I got a date.”

“
Same girl?”

“
Yup.”

“
You’ve been seeing her
for a while now, haven’t you?”

“
Yup”

“
What’s her name
again?”

“
Lauri.”

“
Oh, right. Without the E
if I remember.”

“
That’s right. Without the
E.”

“
She have a last
name?”

“
Of course.” He let the
silence drag.

“
You going to tell
me?”

“
I told you once
already.”

“
When?”

“
The other day. You and
Dominic were asking. I told you all about her.”

“
Well, tell me again. I
forgot.”

“
Shullit. Her name is
Lauri Shullit. I met her at a club on Edgewater. We’ve been seeing
each other for about three months now. You would know that if you
ever took an interest in your best friend’s business. But nooo, why
would you? You’re too wrapped up in your paranoid little world
where a smoking hot witch wants to ravage your body in a night of
sex-filled ecstasy-driven bliss. Ooh, but wait. That’s right.
You’re too afraid to enjoy it.”

“
Shullit?” I said,
ignoring his rant. “What’s that, Jewish?”

“
You’re going to ignore
it, aren’t you?”

“
As long as I
can.”

“
See, this is what Dominic
means.”

I turned my gaze from the window. He turned
his from me. “What does Dominic mean?”

“
Nothing.”

“
Carlos, tell
me.”

He came back; a smug grin tied to his hooked
brow. “He says you’re chicken.”

“
What?”

“
Yeah, chicken when it
comes to women.”

“
Me? Chicken with women?
He should talk.”

“
Well, with strong women
like Lilith. He says you’re afraid to let your guard down around
her. I think he’s right.”

“
I’m not chicken. You can
tell him that. Hell, I’d like to see him survive one day with
Lilith when she’s in one of her moods.”

“
Whatever.”

“
Speaking of Dominic.
Where is he? I thought he was on today.”

“
He is, but he had to go
home for a while.”

“
Ursula?”

“
Yeah, she’s having a
tough time––still.”

“
What’s she like…three
months now?”

He thought about it. “Yeah, right about.
Maybe thirteen weeks.”

“
I thought morning
sickness goes away by the second trimester.”

“
It does. That’s not her
problem anymore. Dominic says it’s mostly the dizzy spells now,
that and the fainting.”

“
What’s her doctor
say?”

“
Tony, see this is what I
mean.”

“
What?”

“
If you took a little more
interest in your best friends` business, you’d know she doesn’t
have a doctor.”

“
Why not.”

“
Duh. Her blood
pressure?”

“
Oh,” I said, remembering
that Lilith’s normal BP is forty over twenty. “I supposed if
Ursula’s blood pressure read anything like Lilith’s, then that
would raise some alarms with a doctor.”

“
They would think she’s in
a walking coma and admit her into the hospital, stat.”

“
Yeah, I suppose. Between
that and whatever other anomalies they found, it’d only be a matter
of time before the real freak show began.”

“
Now you get
it.”

“
So, with no doctors in
her prenatal plans, is she going to be all right?”

“
Nice that you
care.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
She’ll be fine. She just
needs to stay off her feet until her body’s natural baby-making
instincts finish kicking in.”

“
Baby-making
instincts?”

“
Dominic’s words. Not
mine. He said Lilith explained it to him. You see, pretty soon her
veins and arteries will start to constrict on their own. That will
create more resistance in blood flow, which will make her heart
pump harder and increase her blood pressure. Once that happens, the
baby will begin getting more blood to the brain and organs and
everything will be fine.”

“
Uh-huh. So in the
meantime, Dominic has to stay home and hold her hand.”

“
Tony. Did you lose your
heart along with your balls in that coven ceremony?”

“
Excuse me?”

“
It’s just that…. Wait.”
He held his finger up to shish me while he answered his phone.
“That might be Lauri. Hello?”

I don’t usually make a habit of eavesdropping
on other people’s personal phone calls, but this one caught my
attention. Carlos switched hands to press the phone to his good ear
and stood while he talked.