Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss (18 page)

“I understand,” I said, moving my arm to rest
against his, patting it slightly. “Goodnight, love.”

“Goodnight,” he replied softly as he cradled
me in his arms.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and
tried to relax. After a moment, I realized that I could hear music
coming from somewhere. It took me a minute to place the source.

“Are you singing the Star Spangled Banner in
your head?” I asked, unable to suppress a little giggle.

“Yes,” he replied, gruffly. “Now go to sleep
before I have to move on to church hymns.”

“All right,” I said smiling, as I closed my
eyes again, letting my body rest against his loving arms.

It warmed my heart that he was trying to be
so conscious of himself around me. I was happy that he had let me
come in here with him. I was just sorry that I was the reason he
often had such a difficult time.

My breathing became slower and deeper, and I
found myself snuggling closer to Vance, albeit somewhat
subconsciously. I hadn’t realized how physically draining all this
emotional turmoil had been weighing on me lately; it just felt so
good to be lying in his arms.

The last conscious thought I had, though,
actually came from him, something about a red glare and bombs
bursting in air. He was repeating the song, I realized. I slowly
smiled once more and let sleep claim me as the sound of his
beautiful baritone voice danced and swirled in my head.

It was before dawn when I was awakened very
abruptly, due to the fact that Vance had nudged me hard in my ribs
with his elbow.

“Portia, I need you to leave now,” he said,
his voice sounding like he was speaking through gritted teeth.

My eyes opened instantly. I could see his
eyes were glowing brightly. He was shaking violently against me,
and I could see the cords in his neck straining as he fought for
control.

My heart went out to him instantly, and I
just wanted to gather him to me, so I could help him through this,
but I resisted the urge to wrap my arms around him, knowing it
would only make things worse for him.

“Portia … please go now,” he pleaded with
me.

“I love you,” I said and threw the covers
back and crawled out of the bed. “I’ll get you some help.”

He didn’t answer me, as I quietly slipped out
of the room, shutting the door behind me.

I turned and hurried into the living room,
finding Dad and Grandma sitting in there on the sectional, visiting
together quietly and looking over some papers together. They both
looked up at me as I approached.

“Is it time?” my dad asked, his gaze washing
over me with a disapproving glance, as he took in my t-shirted
appearance.

“Yes. He’s shaking pretty badly this morning.
He had to wake me up and ask me to leave the room,” I replied,
concerned about him, as I lifted my hands to comb my fingers
through my wayward hair, trying to straighten it a little so I
wouldn’t look quite so bedraggled.

“Go get yourself ready, so you can leave when
it’s time,” Grandma said, nodding her head toward my room. “I’ll
take care of him.”

“Don’t you need everyone from the coven to
come?” I asked her, wanting to help Vance somehow.

“No. I want to try something a little
different with him today, and if he asked you to leave, then I
don’t want to make it harder for him by having you in there with
us,” she said.

I nodded my head as I watched the two of them
gather up several magical items they had with them and head into
the bedroom.

I sighed, feeling a little bit dejected, and
I turned to go into the room Shelly and I shared, trying to be
quiet so I wouldn’t wake her. I had only made it two steps into the
room before I heard her speak.

“How’s Vance this morning?” her sleepy voice
said from the bed, and I could hear the concern there.

“Sorry to wake you,” I apologized to her
quietly, looking over at her. “He’s bad, not doing well at
all.”

“So what happened between the two of you last
night?” she asked, as she sat up a little.

“What do you mean?”

“Did you sleep together?” she asked me
bluntly.

“Yes,” I replied, suddenly knowing right
where she was heading. “Emphasis on the sleep,” I added.

“So the two of you have never …?” she let her
sentence trail off as she watched me curiously.

“No. Never. Not that it’s any of your
business,” I said with a laugh as I bent over to pull some clothing
out of the bureau drawer.

“How come?” she asked, continuing to press
the issue, moving to sit up completely in the bed now to look at
me.

“Really?” I replied, as I turned to face her
again, with a little bit of an incredulous look. “Not feeling any
boundaries here with this line of discussion this morning, are
you?”

“Sorry,” she replied, though she didn’t even
try to look apologetic. “I don’t mean to be nosy. It is just that
Brad and I decided to wait a long time ago. From my experience of
listening to others at school, most kids don’t do that. We’re
different from them. I just wanted to know why you were waiting. I
mean, you’re engaged and everything, so why not take it to the next
level?”

“Well, part of the reason is Vance wants to
wait until we are married, and the other reason is his current
condition. He’s afraid he might want to hurt or even kill me if we
try it. This whole demon bloodlust thing is pretty mixed up with
his hormones right now,” I explained, finding myself interested in
the fact she and Brad had chosen to wait also.

“Oh,” was all she said for a moment while she
considered what I said. “So if that were different, would you try
it?”

I was surprised at her comment, and I had to
stop to really evaluate my morals in that moment. I knew I wanted
to be with Vance in every way possible and physically being with
him was one of the top items on the list, I had to admit. Then I
thought about all the things that I had been taught over the years
of my life and really looked deep into myself.

What did I believe?

Shelly sat patiently in the bed, waiting for
an answer, while I struggled to find out what the truth was in my
heart.

“No. I wouldn’t,” I said, after several
moments, a little shocked at my own answer. “I guess being able to
be with him in that way would be something so special to me I
wouldn’t want to mar it in any way. I would want it to be perfect,
at the right time and place. Waiting for marriage is the right
thing to do, I think.” I sighed, before I continued, amazed with my
own self-revelation.

“I remember when my mom would take me to
church when I was younger,” I spoke, letting the images of the past
wash over me. “The minister would talk about the scriptures,
doctrine, and the laws of God. He said the act of physical intimacy
was a beautiful thing, but it’s considered an abomination if you
aren’t married to the person you’re with. I don’t think I ever
really understood what he was talking about at the time. Whether or
not the perspective of the church is the truth … well, I don’t know
if I’ve really ever thought about it for myself. But Vance likes to
talk about our relationship in the terms of an eternal perspective,
so I guess if we want to be together for eternity, we shouldn’t do
anything that God might frown on.”

“Makes sense,” Shelly said, with a slight
shrug, after listening intently to me.

“You aren’t getting off that easy. This
street goes both ways.” I laughed at her. “Why did you and Brad
decide not to?”

“Well, it was mostly because we both just
wanted to make sure our feelings for each other were real before we
took it to the next level,” she answered. “Neither of us wanted
some casual fling that we would just walk away from someday. Don’t
get me wrong. It isn’t like the attraction isn’t there or anything.
It’s there, and sometimes it’s hard. I don’t know. I just don’t
want it to happen because we lost control or something. I want it
to be planned and special when it happens.”

“I know what you mean,” I replied, as I left
her sitting there, so I could make my way into the other room. “I’m
going to get cleaned up now,” I called out to her. “I don’t want to
keep anyone waiting on me this morning.”

Once I was in the bathroom, I turned the
shower on so the water could heat up while I undressed. I climbed
in when I was done and closed the shower curtain, letting the hot
water stream over my skin for several minutes.

After I felt really good and awake, I
proceeded to shampoo and condition my hair. When I was finished
with my shower, I turned the water off and stepped out to dry
myself.

My mind continued to wander over the things I
had discussed with Shelly while I moved about automatically,
getting ready for the day.

I got dressed in a form-fitted, long-sleeved,
black turtleneck and blue jeans with a black stripe running down
the seams.

After I was done dressing, I decided to wear
my hair up in a French twist, secured with a claw clip, since I
thought it could be breezy out on the water while we were in the
boat. I carefully applied my makeup when I was finished with my
hair, so I wouldn’t be terrible to look at. After all, I was going
to be with Vance all day. I wanted to look good for him.

When I was done, I left the bathroom to find
Shelly sleeping soundly once again on the bed. I quietly sat down
on the overstuffed chaise lounge chair beside the bed as I pulled
on my slim black sneakers. When I finished tying them, I quietly
left the room, closing the door gently behind me.

No one was in the living room when I entered
it, so I went straight to Vance’s room.

“How’s he doing now?” I asked quietly, as I
entered the room cautiously, knowing that Vance hadn’t wanted me in
there with him.

“He’s having a hard time,” Grandma said,
stepping away from him. “This is the strongest one he’s had yet. We
can’t stop the shaking.” She shook her head in discouragement. “I’m
beginning to think he’s getting worse instead of better.”

I moved the rest of the way inside the room,
shutting the door, before going over to his side and sitting on the
edge of the bed.

“You shouldn’t be here, Portia,” he said,
with a slight stutter to his speech, and I felt like my heart was
breaking into a million pieces for him.

I could see he was in agony as the spasms
wracked his body unmercifully, calling out for him to do something
against his nature to appease them.

“May I try something?” I asked him quietly as
I observed him. “I’ll need to touch you, though.”

He looked at me for a moment, his eyes
flaming red, before nodding his head.

I reached over and gently placed my hands on
either side of his head. I closed my eyes and thought of healing
him like I had before, when he had been going through the
conversion. I concentrated every effort of my being into my hands,
before I finally felt a warmth move through them.

When I opened my eyes, it was to see a gentle
white light passing from me and into him. I could actually see the
light as it penetrated his skin, passing down through his veins and
moving over his entire body. After a minute, his tremors began to
ease. When he stopped convulsing completely and the red had
disappeared from his eyes, I removed my hands from him.

“Thank you,” he said, the relief apparent in
his voice and in the relaxed position of his body.

“It occurred to me that we’d never tried to
heal you again, after the conversion was stopped. We just assumed
that I’d already done everything there was to do. I doubt that this
will stop the withdrawal, but apparently it can stop an attack once
one has started,” I said as I looked between the three of them.

He lifted one of my hands to his lips and
kissed it.

“You truly are an angel,” he said softly, his
eyes full of a deep emotion as he looked at me.

I laughed out loud with a snort.

“Not even close!” I said, as I bent over to
kiss his forehead lightly, feeling like his tortured morning must
have addled his brain a little.

“I’m not joking, Portia,” he said, seriously.
“You have no idea what this means to me.”

“Vance, you’d do the same for me if our
situation were reversed,” I said squeezing his hand. “Now I don’t
mean to rush you, but you’d better get ready or we’re going to miss
our boat.”

He nodded his head, sitting up easily
then.

Dad, Grandma, and I, left the room to give
him some privacy.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,”
Grandma said as she shook her head. “I guess I’m just still getting
used to the fact that your powers are so much stronger than most of
ours. We need to start utilizing them more.”

“I’m willing to try whatever you want,” I
said, with a shrug. “I just don’t know what to do most of the
time.”

“Maybe when all this is over and we have a
little more time, we can play around a bit,” she said.

“We should run back through our genealogy and
see if any of our ancestors experienced anything like this before,”
my dad suggested. “I mean, I assumed Vance’s powers were so strong
because he was the product of two magical parents. But Portia only
has one. It doesn’t make any sense unless there’s some genetic
thing we’re unaware of.”

“That’s actually a really good idea, Sean,”
Grandma replied with a nod. “I’ll look through our pedigree
sometime when I have the chance and see if anything pops out at
me.”

Vance came out of his room a short while
later, fully dressed and ready to go, looking like complete
perfection as usual. One would never guess at the suffering he had
been through this morning.

He walked straight up to me, pulled me into
his arms and kissed me hotly, not caring that Dad and Grandma were
watching both of us.

“I have no idea what I’d do without you,” he
said seriously when he was done.