Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss (10 page)

Brad passed on the information and then Juan
replied back.

“He says that he offers his services to you,
and if there’s anything he can do to help to please let him
know.”

Vance stood and nodded his head again toward
Juan, being careful to stand back from the nervous man, as Brad
shook his hand.

The four of us went back through the beaded
curtain and through the store to the outside to get into the
car.

Vance climbed inside and sat there for a
second before he slammed his hand hard against the steering
wheel.

“A demon kiss?” he growled, and I could feel
the heat and anger rolling off him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, placing my hand gently
on his shoulder. He leaned his head back onto the headrest with his
eyes closed.

He lifted his hands and started rubbing at
his temples with his fingers.

“I’m starting to think I’m the spawn of Satan
himself,” he said with a sigh. “I didn’t think it could get any
worse.”

“Let’s go back to the hotel,” I suggested.
“We need to call Dad and figure out what to do from here.”

Vance gave a nod of his head as he looked
over at me for a moment, reaching out to pat me on the leg. He
started the car then, put it in drive and pulled out, speeding
through the slower moving traffic. I could tell by the set of his
jaw he was very angry.

No one spoke for the entire trip back to the
condo.

We parked the car in the lot, and Vance came
around to open my door, reaching a hand in to help me out. He
didn’t let go of my hand, but he didn’t say anything either, as we
waited to board the elevator to head up toward the sixth floor.

I followed him into the living room, where he
led me over to the couch, and we sat down together, Brad and Shelly
joining us.

“I think you all need to go back home,” he
finally said to all of us, though he was looking directly at me.
“Things are way worse than I could have ever anticipated. I don’t
want to place any of you in any kind of danger.”

“Not a chance,” Brad piped up. “Shelly and I
are no threat to your dad. If he wants to take our magic away, all
he has to do is take these amulets. Even then it won’t give him any
more magic since the charm will lose its power if it’s
removed.”

“But what about Portia?” Shelly asked him, a
concerned look on her face as she glanced over.

“That’s my fear. I think he’d find her powers
too desirable to pass up. He could use my power to help him perform
a kiss on her,” Vance said, continuing to look only at me.

“Or vice versa,” I said, getting a little
angry that they were talking over me like I didn’t have a say in
this discussion. “Vance, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do
or say to get me to leave, especially if you’re still here.”

“So, you’d bring the whole coven down here to
possibly have this kiss thing performed on all of them? You heard
what Juan said. No one can stand up to him. He’s just too
powerful!” Vance exclaimed.

“And what are you going to do about it? Are
you just going to waltz in there and face him by yourself? And how
do you intend to accomplish that? Jedi mind tricks? ‘I am not the
warlock you are looking for.’ How is that any better?” I asked,
waving my arm in frustration.

“That’s different,” he replied, shaking his
head. “I won’t be risking anyone else if I go by myself.”

“So you’ll just become his ‘little protégé’
like he always intended?” I protested loudly to him, knowing that
my feelings about the situation were starting to get the better of
me. “Think, Vance! If he turns you, where do you think the first
place is that you’ll go hunting? The whole coven will be sitting
ducks, waiting for you to come and destroy them, just like you’ve
always been afraid that you would do! No. We need to call Dad and
start uniting some forces to see if we can come up with some sort
of plan to stop your maniac father.”

Everyone sat quietly for a few moments while
my comments sank in. I tried hard to calm myself by taking a few
deep breaths.

After a few minutes of no one speaking, Vance
reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, pressing a
button. I heard the speed dial activate with a short series of
beeps.

“Hey, Sean,” he said after a moment, staring
into my eyes. “We found my father, and it’s a lot worse than we
thought. I think you are all going to need to come down here.”

The two talked back and forth for several
minutes, as my dad plagued Vance with questions about the
situation, before he finally hung up.

“They’ll be here tomorrow,” he said still
looking at me, as he reached out to gently squeeze my hand.

“Okay,” I nodded, thinking of the date in my
head. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!” I added in surprise, wondering
where all the time had gone.

Vance nodded his head.

“Your dad said we’re not to go anywhere near
my father or that warehouse again until they’re here to help. He
said to go buy a tree or something and decorate for Christmas.
We’ll have the holiday with everyone and make a plan about what to
do then.”

Dad knew I loved Christmas more than any
other holiday. He was trying to distract me and I knew it, but I
also knew I didn’t want Vance out snooping around by himself,
possibly getting into some trouble while we waited for the others
to get here.

“Well,” I said, as I looked at the three of
them sitting there. “Let’s go shopping then.”

We spent the afternoon searching through
several stores, purchasing decorative items, gifts for each other,
and lots of groceries, before coming back to the condo.

I had purchased a classical Christmas CD, and
soon the sounds of holiday favorites were floating in the air. The
music was very soothing to the somber yet anxious mood we were all
in.

That evening, Vance and Brad put together the
artificial tree we had purchased, while Shelly and I wrapped up
some presents we had bought. When the guys were done getting the
tree assembled, Shelly and I came in and shaped the tree‘s
branches.

It turned out to be a very Spanish-styled
tree, complete with hanging red chili lights, little colorful
sombrero hats, and maraca ornaments. There were gold-colored beads
in strings and brightly striped ribbon which we had carefully
twisted to drape over the branches. The top of the tree was graced
with a plain metal gold star.

Vance surprised me after I had placed the
star on the tree. He walked up to touch it with his finger, and it
started to glow.

“Beautiful,” I said. He stepped back and came
to stand behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist.

We stayed that way for several minutes, with
Shelly and Brad doing the same next to us. The moment was
magical.

“I’m glad we’re doing this,” Vance said
softly as he ran a hand gently through my hair. “I know your dad is
just trying to keep us occupied, but this is nice, in light of
everything that’s going on.”

“Christmas is my favorite holiday.” I smiled
as I leaned into his touch. “I love everything about it. My dad
knows it, too. It’s just a shame it has to be marred by all this
crazy stuff that has been going on.”

“Well, hopefully things will work out for all
of us and this will be the first Christmas of many for us,” he
whispered into my ear, as he nuzzled at my neck with his nose.

“I hope so,” I said, enjoying his touch.
“How’re you doing by the way?”

He shook his head slightly.

“I’m still reeling, just trying to take it
all in,” he said, as he ran his hands down my arms.

“Well, I hope you aren’t comparing yourself
to him,” I replied, leaning my head against his chest. “You’re
nothing like him. You know it, right?”

“I hope that’s true. It’s just hard to
believe, since it turned out both of my parents were involved in
this.”

It was the first time he had remotely
mentioned his mother, since the day he had killed her.

“You did what you had to do,” I said, knowing
what he was thinking, and wanting him to not blame himself.

“I murdered my own mother,” he stated softly,
and I could feel the despair rippling through his voice.

“Krista wasn’t your mother anymore,” I
replied, trying to comfort him. “She was just a pawn in your dad’s
little web of lies and deceit. It was because of his actions she
died.”

“It still hurts,” he said, very softly, next
to my ear. “I had hoped to find her safe again somewhere, someday.
I wanted her to be a part of my life.”

I just turned in his arms and hugged him
then.

“I know you did, and I’m sorry things turned
out the way they did, for you and her. You saved me, though,” I
reminded him tenderly. “So … something good came from it,
right?”

He stared into my eyes, searching my
emotions.

“I would do it exactly the same if we had it
to do all over again,” he said seriously, watching me intently.

“I know,” I replied. “I’ve never doubted
that.”

We continued to stare at each other, those
looks passing many unsaid messages to one another.

“Hey!” Shelly piped up suddenly, breaking the
intense mood between the two of us as we remembered that we weren’t
alone in the room. “Let’s make some holiday goodies now.”

“That sounds fun!” I said, standing on my
tiptoes to give Vance a quick peck on the lips. I had forgotten
about all the groceries we had purchased this afternoon.

The guys voted to have us bake some brownies
first. Shelly and I had fun stirring up all the ingredients
together, and soon we were fighting over who got to lick the
bowl.

I ended up winning, and I shared the leftover
batter with Vance, spooning it into his mouth, while Shelly and
Brad licked the beaters.

Afterward, while the brownies were cooking in
the oven, we all cuddled up on the couch and watched ‘It’s A
Wonderful Life’ in Spanish.

Brad chuckled over the movie translations
quite a bit, while the rest of us had no idea what was being said,
until Vance had the bright idea to turn on the English subtitles,
which, of course, made the movie much more enjoyable.

When the program was over, we decided to call
it a night. After a chaste hug and kiss goodnight with our
significant others, the four of us headed to the directions of our
beds.

This time, I found sleep claimed me
quickly.

When I woke up in the morning I was surprised
to find I was the last one to get up, despite the early hour. I
crawled down from the enormous bed and made my way out into the
living room, finding Shelly curled up on the couch with a glass of
juice in her hand and a fashion magazine in the other.

“Where did the guys go?” I asked, when I
realized they weren’t in the apartment.

“They’re working out down in the weight
room,” she replied and took a sip of her orange juice, as she
flipped her magazine shut. “Vance felt the need to work off some
aggression after his withdrawal pangs this morning. They said for
us to join them when you woke up.”

“Oh. Sounds fun,” I said, watching Shelly
closely to try and judge if she were hiding anything from me. “Is
Vance doing okay?” I finally asked.

Shelly nodded her head. “He seemed perfectly
fine to me when they left.”

“That’s good,” I replied feeling
relieved.

Soon we were both dressed in some
workout-appropriate clothing and headed down to the gym.

Shelly opened the glass door, and we walked
into the large room to find Vance spotting Brad over at the weight
bench. Brad was lifting what appeared to be a very heavy set of
weights on the bar, up over his chest. They were the only two
people in the room.

“Three hundred and twenty!” Brad breathed out
hard, as he dropped the bar with a loud clank back into the bracket
above him. “Beat that!”

Vance traded places with Brad and easily
lifted the weights, not even breaking a sweat, let alone allowing a
tremble to pass through his body.

“You’re cheating aren’t you?” Brad asked with
a laugh, poking his finger into Vance’s chest as he stood up.
“You’re using magic!”

Vance shook his head. “On my word, I’m not
cheating,” he replied.

“How much can you bench press then?” Brad
asked, looking doubtful as he eyed Vance up and down.

“Four twenty-five,” Vance said with a grin,
as he adjusted a pair of fingerless gloves on his hands.

“Bull!” Brad challenged, shaking his head in
denial. “That’s the school record.”

“I know,” Vance replied, as his smile
widened. “I’m the one who set it.”

Brad shook his head again.

“You’re unbelievable,” he muttered as he bent
to pick up some more weights. He quickly loaded the bar up to four
hundred twenty-five pounds. “Prove it,” he said, as he stepped away
from the bench and gestured for Vance to sit down.

Vance slid into the seat and leaned back. He
placed his hands at even intervals and lifted the bar with a grunt,
bringing it completely down to his chest before fully extending his
arms and replacing the bar back in the brackets.

“You stink!” Brad said, grinning as he
punched Vance in the shoulder.

Vance stood up and stepped away from the
bench. He looked at the bar and slightly waved his fingers in an
upward motion. The weight bar lifted easily by itself and floated
into the air as if it weighed nothing at all.

“Now that one was magic,” he said laughing,
while Brad’s eyes widened in awe.

“What a stud!” Shelly giggled, in a whisper
next to my ear, as we watched the exchange.

“What a show off,” I replied back to her with
a smile, as we walked over to them, my insides quivering a little
in pleasure at his awesome display.

“Hey!” Vance said as he saw me, dropping the
levitating bar back into the brackets, without even looking.

He came over and gave me a kiss on the
cheek.