Ritual Magic
Authors: Selena D. Hunter
Tags: #vampire, #demon, #paranormal romance, #magic abilities
Book 2 of the Magical Tendencies Series
By Selena D. Hunter
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2013 by Selena D Hunter
All rights reserved. Except as permitted
under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the
prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or
are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons,
living or dead is purely coincidental.
This book is dedicated to all of my
supportive family and friends. All of your support means a world of
magic to my astounded mind and soul.
A big thank you should go out to the people
that have helped to make me want to write and be excited about it.
Kym, you are my most supportive reader and your input has become
the highlight of my writing adventure. I love the way you
think!
Cori, Mom, Loretto, Laura and
Virginia...thank you for reading and for giving me the feedback
that helped me to believe in myself.
Thank you especially for my cover artwork
prepared by Killbot Design at
www.killbotdesign.com
.
The amount of work and talent that was poured into the cover has
brought this dream of mine to life. Thank you again for all of your
help!
Contents
1
Okay, so I wasn't prepared for any of this.
First, I met a daughter from my future...my future daughter. Uhg!
Second, she knocked Solomon, my overprotective vampire personal
guard, out with a sleeping spell she said that
I
taught her.
I don't even know a sleeping spell.
Third, she killed some
shadow demons and used weapons like an expert.
Huh.
Fourth,
and certainly not least, she actually has demon blood. ICK! Who is
her father...I mean who ARE her
FATHERS
?!
Geesh, I must
be a tramp in the near future.
My head hung a tiny bit. This was not
possible. I wasn't an idiot—I knew about biology. One sperm, one
egg, one child. Twins maybe, but not multiple fathers for one
child. That was just...wrong.
I shook my head at my random range of
thoughts as we walked up the steps towards the beach house. The
steps curled against the wall of stone and cut a distinct path
towards what felt
more and more
like my private sanctuary
with every passing moment.
My eyes kept flicking towards Cora every now
and then, making it clear that I was expecting her to disappear out
of view at any given moment. She couldn't be real. She just
couldn't. As the wildness of the future came crashing down upon my
shoulders, I realized that there was a distinct feeling of defeat
that was beginning to take hold of my psyche. Was this a losing
battle that we were fighting? Was there anything worth looking
forward to?
Could this honestly be happening?
Cora began humming a tune that was oddly
familiar to me.
Accentuate the Positive
rang through the
back of my mind.
Well, maybe this could be happening
. That
was one of my favorite WWII songs.
We reached the top of the steps and Cora
stopped abruptly, pulling back on my arm gently. "Mother, you have
to
invite
me in." She looked at me pleadingly, her hazel
eyes swirling with bright colors and mystery. Her smooth olive skin
accentuated her face, drawing my eyes to her captivating beauty.
My daughter.
Just for good measure, I eyed her once more.
Could she honestly be real?
She was clearly taller than I
was, standing at about 5'11'' with a shapely and beautiful body.
Her long, brown hair looked so much like my own, and yet.... I
gazed deeply into her hazel eyes and saw exactly what I had been
waiting for, hoping for—a glint of my own deep brown that assured
me that this was definitely
not
a dream. I nodded
knowingly.
"Cora Elena Ravenwood, I invite you into the
beach house." I smiled up at her as a warm, dazzling smile crept
across her perfect face.
She reached out and took my hand in a blur.
"I can't wait to see it, Mom! You have told me soooo much about
this beach house..."
Cora now ran towards the house, pulling me
like a child, eager to get to the surprise inside. She stopped at
the doorway, holding her breath. Finally turning the knob in slow
suspense, she took the first step inside only to drop my hand
abruptly and gasp loudly enough to make me watch her in wonder. It
was as if I was seeing the house for the very first time again and
it was a beautiful experience.
"Oh my gosh!" She whispered under her
breath, "It's exactly like you described it!" She rushed over to
the curtained window and pulled the curtain back with a sharp tug,
revealing the moon hanging high in the sky, painting the beach in a
soft white glow. She then ran over to the couch and threw herself
down upon it, floating her fingers over the fabric as if it were
something unique to experience. Turning her head quickly towards
the rest of the room, she swiftly pushed herself off the couch and
ran to the loveseat, the coffee table, the end table, the kitchen
counter. She touched everything lovingly as she said, "Yes, oh my
goodness, so soft, so perfect. Ooooohhh!"
Cora's eyes danced as she finally turned
back towards me. "WOW! This place is absolutely amazing, Mother. I
can hardly believe that I am truly here." She spun around on the
spot before turning back towards me with an excitement that beamed
on her face. "Do I have a room?"
"Um, I don't know. Solomon was the one that
bought this house." I looked around the room as if an extra doorway
for Cora was going to appear out of nowhere. "I believe that there
is a downstairs area with extra rooms...possibly there?"
"Right! He always loves to shower you with
gifts." She smiled broadly, "He's definitely one of the more
generous of the fathers. You would take it the wrong way sometimes,
though, Mom. Solomon just likes to give you gifts—it makes
him
happy. Remembering that will help you two in the
future."
For a moment, I just stood there staring at
her as I thought about what she was saying. She knew Solomon
personally, she was my daughter, and I was...confused.
"Okay, Cora, you are going to have to stop
talking like that." I turned my head and waved a hand towards her
as I headed for the loveseat to collapse on just in case my mind
decided to blackout. Sitting down, I leaned back against the firm
cushions and placed my twitchy hands in my lap. "Please sit down."
I waved towards the couch to my left. "You need to explain
everything to me so that I can actually
believe
that this
is...well,
real
." I still had an odd sense of dread.
"Right!" Cora smiled as she walked over to
the side of the couch that was closest to me. "Now, let's see..."
She tapped her chin with her finger and appeared as if she was
putting all of her thoughts into sequence. "Dad said that this was
going to be hard for you...that you were not going to believe me,
at least, not at first." She smiled at me, still beaming with joy.
What is wrong with this girl? Does everything make her
happy?
My empathic abilities seemed to surge to
life as I watched Cora, aware of every thought and feeling that
pulsed through her veins. It was an odd sensation, that was for
sure, but it was an absolutely joyous moment to watch her and see
her as I was at that very moment. It almost felt as if I was new to
the world of joy.
I quirked my head to the side as I thought
about what she had been saying. "Dad?"
"Uh huh, you know, Solomon Ryker."
Gulp!
"What...the..."
"Mom!" Cora sat up straight as a board and
waved both hands at me as if she was trying to stop traffic. "You
really do need to watch your language. You
know
that Daddy
can't stand it when you cuss." She wagged a long, slender finger at
me.
I could feel my eyebrows furrow.
"Daddy?!"
"Yes, you know, Von Edwards." She bounced up
and down on the couch, causing me to instinctively blink with each
bounce.
This was all a bit too much for my addled
mind to accept. I couldn't imagine Von Edwards as anything other
than a stiff jerk, and thinking that he might allow a twenty-two
year old woman to call him 'daddy' just seemed too insane for
words. Cussing immediately began to hold a fascination for me that
it never had before—Von hated it when I cussed.
Hmmmm
.
Shaking off the direction of my thoughts, I
straightened and tilted my head to the side as I closed my eyes to
concentrate.
"What the
heck
is going on, Cora? You
had better talk faster than you are at the moment because my head
is beginning to spin and I think I'm going to throw up."
Cora smiled as she reached over to pat my
knee, the brush of her skin drawing my eyes to her slim fingers. "I
know, it's a bit confusing, but please realize that my whole life
has been surrounded by these men, my fathers, and I wouldn't have
it any other way." She beamed at me.
"Okay..."
How was I honestly expected to
take this?
"Okay, so here it is in a nutshell." Cora
nodded at me and made sure that I was still watching and listening
as if she needed me to do just that.
I narrowed my eyes on hers before she
continued, realizing that she had my full attention.
"I wasn't conceived in the normal sense of
the word. You know, with sex and sweating and all of that." She
paused for a second and then jumped right in to continue the story,
"I was conceived magically in a ceremony with all of my fathers
involved. You were there, of course, and my four fathers."
"Your forefathers? Like in the forefathers
of the United States of America?" My voice sounded incredulous but
it was definitely a place to begin. Get the information correct and
then you can move on with your crazy future.
"No, my four
fathers
as in I have
four men that are my fathers." She looked at me with concern. "Mom,
are you getting all of this? I thought that we had already covered
this subject."
"Yes, I think I am..." I shook my head in
denial. This definitely could not be happening...not to me anyway.
"Just bear with me here..." I held my hand up to express my need to
slow everything down, if only for the moment. "So you have four
separate
fathers?" My eyes found her face to register that
her eyes were agreeing with everything I was saying as a sudden
chill began to creep up my spine.
She was being honest, or at least
she
was convinced of what she was saying. Could all of this honestly be
happening?
Is there really a world out there where I'm actually
a mom?
"Yeah, that's basically it." Cora leaned
back against the blue and white cushions smiling softly at me as if
she knew what difficulty I was experiencing at the moment.
"Who...who are they?" My voice shook, "I
mean, I know of Solomon and Von, but...who are the other two?"
Cora's confused expression surprised me as
she leaned forward to brace her hands on her thighs. "You mean you
don't know them already? Huh, that's weird. I was under the
impression that you already knew them."
"No. I need to hear their
names.
"
"Oh!" Cora sighed and leaned back again
against the couch, "Gabriel Running Wolf and Leonzio Emilio
Castillion." She shrugged like it was no big deal, "Otherwise known
as Father and Babbo."