Ritual Magic (10 page)

"Lir. For goodness sake." Tisha's voice
actually had a tinge of...girlish glee as she spoke to herself. "Oh
my goodness!" She began to blush as she looked at me.

"Tiiiish, I don't think I like the way that
you are beginning to smile, and blush...and was that just a
giggle!?"
Leaning forward to check her eyes for dilation, I
arched my head around to follow her progress throughout the room.
"Look, this is my dad we're talking about here. He's my majorly
absentee dad and I would prefer not to..."

"Absentee?" Tisha shook her head back and
forth with so much vigor that I watched her hair swat her in the
lips as she turned back in the other direction. "He's the
OCEAN
, Celeste. He has
always
been with you."

I thought about that as it began to seep
into my consciousness. My father, my dad...the man that I thought I
would never see or ever have any hope of knowing anything
about...he was the personification of the ocean.
My
ocean.
My beloved ocean that I could barely stand ever being away from for
longer than one week. It turns out that my father had been right
about something—I had loved the ocean almost all of my life.

That's when it happened—a loud DING rang in
my head and reality hit me between the eyes as I recalled how
extremely rude I had been to him. I had treated Dylan with teenaged
angst and suspicion. Maybe I really
did
deserve to be
spanked.
Wonder if Solomon would offer to help with that
matter.
I cleared my mind quickly, kicking the idea out the
back door.
Get with the program, Celeste,
I told myself as I
continued to straighten my thoughts out.

"Celeste," Tisha continued, "You can't
exist
without being near the ocean. It's always been that
way—you grow restless, you fall ill, you become cranky as hell.
You're basically a little witch when you can't get back to the
ocean soon enough." She nodded as if it all made sense. "It's your
father that helps to ground you, or at least keep you sane. You are
much
closer to him than anyone could have ever dreamed." Her
eyes glazed over and her lips mouthed the word, "WOW."

It was going to be difficult to introduce
Tisha to Dylan because I could picture the droolfest already.
Leaning back against the couch again, I thought about all of the
guys that I had ever truly seen Tisha drool over. Basically, now
that I knew it had all been an act, it became painfully clear that
Tisha had never honestly been serious about anyone in our time
together. That is, until this very moment...

"So...got the hots for the Dyl, huh?" I
giggled under my breath as I heard Tisha spit out her words in a
breathy gasp.

"Oh my gosh, Celeste! Don't call him 'Dyl'!
That's absolutely disrespectful...and it sounds so very
wrong
."

I shrugged and snickered as I threw another
air dart at the light fixture. "It's not like he doesn't play
around, Tisha. 'A girl in every port' you know?"
Wow, that came
off pretty jaded
.

"Oh, but Celeste. He's just so...beautiful."
She had a faraway look again and I shook my head and concentrated
on my game as she sighed deeply and continued her train of thought.
"Haven't you ever taken a good
look
at him?"

"Yeah, he looks super-hot with the sun
rippling off his manly ... waves." I snickered again. "Can we
please stop talking about him like he's some regular guy? He's my
dad. He's the Ocean. I'm over it."

We sat there in silence for a while as I
listened to the wind kick up outside the window. Suddenly, I was
feeling very jittery and I sat up against the cushions, shifting in
my seat for a better position.

"Do you think everything is going to be fine
out there?" My eyes cut to the living room curtain now covering my
view of the horizon. Yeah, my amazing view of my
DAD
.
Ugh.

"So, what
did
your dad want with
you?" Tisha started off with a new topic, but it didn't convince me
that she had let the old one drop entirely.

My eyes glazed over a fraction as a faint
blue light glowed in front of me. "He wanted to return my powers.
Shake things up a bit and make sure I can fulfill the prophecy. It
turns out that he's looking forward to being a grandfather." I
exhaled loudly. "You know. Dad stuff."

"Dad stuff, huh?" Tisha's voice sounded a
bit funny, like she was smiling. "So he spoke of the prophecy? And
he returned your powers to ensure that it would actually happen?"
Tisha walked over to the armchair, sat down and patted her lap
before rocking back and forth in a thoughtful manner.

"So...you haven't had
all
of your
powers?" She was thinking through the situation and it seemed that
she just barely hit this valuable bit of information. "For how
long?" The frown that fell over Tisha's expression seemed to suck
the life out of my opportunity to poke fun at her.
Well, there
goes the button I was going to push every chance I got.

"Since I was a baby," I shrugged. "You know
that power has never meant anything to me, Tish. I don't care a
rat's butt about any of it. What I care about is protecting those
that I love, and keeping my kingdom safe." I couldn't have meant
the words that I was saying any more than I did, and Tisha knew
that. She nodded as I continued my little speech. "I wouldn't care
if I had no powers at all as long as I had a way to protect what's
mine. A pitchfork, a hoe, a knife, a really pointy stick—I would do
it all with my bare hands if I was strong enough. I would protect
everyone with my sheer will if it were all that I needed to do." I
sighed, closing my eyes as I concentrated on what I had just said.
"But it doesn't work that way, does it?"

Tisha was deathly quiet as I waited for her
to start the conversation again.

"Tisha? Tish...?" I turned to look at her
but a sudden feeling of distress hit me when I laid eyes on her
face—it was sheet white and she was gaping like a fish.

Immediately pushing off of the loveseat, I
ran to the closest arm of her chair, dragged her out of the seat
and onto the couch so that we had room to be closer together.
Wrapping my arms around her, I pulled her in tight as I rubbed her
arms up and down as if she was frozen in place and needed to be
thawed out.

"What is it? Did something get in the
house?" My head snapped around as my eyes scanned the room with
alert consideration. I couldn't see anything that would harm or
threaten us, but I didn't have Solomon's senses, so I was still on
the alert.

"Tisha! Talk to me, girl!" I shook her
lightly as she finally turned her eyes to me, discomfort written
all over her face.

"Celeste." Tisha swallowed loudly before
turning her head to look towards the window facing the ocean.
"Aside from Cora, I have never seen your equal in the quality and
strength of your magic. You could level a city block with your
sheer will if you were ever pushed to do so." She shivered at the
thought even though I had her wrapped in my arms.
Damned skinny
arms.
"You are a magical powerhouse, and now...if your father
has returned your powers...powers that were kept from you since
birth..." She blinked her eyes slowly in disbelief. "I can't even
imagine what kind of damage you could do if that were not kept
under control." She looked back to me so that we were staring into
each other's eyes. "What kind of good you could do as well."

I sighed deeply, overcome with relief that
no one had tried to break into the house...and yet.
Cleansing
breath, Celeste
.

"My father
did
say that was why he
had originally removed my powers as a child. He said that I
couldn't control them and I was a danger to everyone but my mother
and myself." I shrugged, "But he also said that I needed all of my
powers to be able to fulfill the prophecy. Without my full powers,
I would not be able to conceive Cora by magic. And, just between
you and me, I am not up for the traditional way with the majority
of the men involved in the equation."
Clean thoughts, Celeste.
Clean thoughts...puppies, kittens, the smell of a field, a dead
fish...anything but...

Tisha looked at me sideways. "Hmm, I guess
that would be true, wouldn't it?" She laughed openly now and her
gorgeous smile was back in place on her pixie face. "Yeah, I can
see why you would need more of your real magic to be able to
conceive Cora. I'm just going to leave it at that." She smiled
wickedly as she bobbed her head at me in a motion that assured me
she was taking a great amount of pleasure at my expense. Either
way, we weren't going to have to talk about it...at least not for a
while.

"Thank you." I sighed deeply.

Cora

So, my mother showed up on the beach as I
was tracking a pair of shadow demons and something else. I had to
convince her to leave by magic and not take the human stairs back
up to the house—we didn't have the time. Luckily she was quick on
the uptake, because just by my
thinking
about the living
room...she was gone. She had always been a fast learner.
Gotta
love that about my mom.

My eyes scanned the cliffs and the beach as
I squatted down behind a large clump of rocks rising out of the
sand, appearing as if they had been tossed there by giant hands. I
was casting out all of my senses to get a reading, if you could
call it that, on the location of the demons. This was something
that I was able to do because I'm part demon
and
vampire.
Both bloodlines provided me with impressive skills and abilities,
but combined...well, I could see, smell, taste and sense anything
with demon or vampire blood a mile away. I also had permanent night
vision that was crisper than anything made by man. My vision was as
HD as you could ever get—details upon details were what I saw when
I looked at anything.

A quick motion out of the corner of my eye
caught my attention as I turned my face to the left. Feeling the
air behind me, I could tell that there were no enemies anywhere in
that direction. Turning back to focus my full attention on the
motion to my right, I began creeping closer...crawling slowly on my
stomach to snake my way up the beach towards the rocky cliff.

Come on, come on,
I thought to
myself
. Just show your damned face—I want to cut it off just
because I can.
My lips went up in a grimace as I caught a whiff
of something I didn't completely recognize. Well, maybe I did.
Is that
cologne?
What kind of a self-respecting shadow
demon wears cologne?!

Shaking my head clear of the scents of a
woodsy musk, I blinked and felt my favorite sabers sitting firmly
in the palms of my hands as I held them flat on the sand. Nodding
to myself, I began to inch forward towards my prey, keeping account
of all of the shadows that the demon could choose to jump through
at a moment's notice.

He's not getting away from me. Not today.
Not with my mother so close.

My movements were soundless and my motions
were precise. Not a single action that I ever made in combat was
wasted—a dance choreographed to near perfection. And, aside from
not sounding very modest, I like every single second of the
hunt.

My breathing narrowed as I scanned the beach
ahead and noticed an area of deep brush. It was the perfect place
to hide.
That was where the movement halted
, I thought to
myself, as I counted off the seconds in my head, waiting for more
movement. Minutes ticked by as I watched and waited...patiently.
Finally, in the light of the moon, I caught movement and my body
went into instant auto-pilot.

Pushing up just high enough to tuck my legs
underneath me, my legs tense and ready for action, I rushed towards
the brush in a blur. I had never really been clocked, but I could
honestly say that I have left quite a few demons and vampires
choking in the proverbial dust. I sneered as I lunged for the demon
in the bushes, drawing out my sabers and listening to them sing in
the crisp night air.

A wide swipe was made at my head and I
ducked below it as I rolled on the ground, to my head, back and
heels until I was crouching on the other side of my opponent. I was
ready to attack, and my stance was poised for defense. My sabers
were held at the ready as I took full stock of the creature before
me, but my anger became even more evident as a deep growl grew in
my chest.

"Damned werewolf!" I hissed underneath my
breath. "What the
hell
are you doing here?" My voice seethed
with anger and my revulsion was easy to hear in my voice. "I don't
remember calling in the dog squad."
Huh, that was a good
one!

The man before me bristled at my words,
growling under his breath as he hunched behind the brush to dart
his eyes around the beach. "Yeah, I didn't know they had any
witches around the area either. Sorry, chick-witch, but you don't
really fit in here with the
real
fighters. You should run to
the mall now and go buy a bra or something."

I looked down quickly and caught that I had
a serious case of titty erection going on.
Hey! It's chilly out
here!
Shifting my shirt with a quick tug, I cleared my throat
and quipped back. "Stay out of my
way
you shaggy were (a
term I enjoyed using whenever around a werewolf I couldn't stand).
You cramp my style and I'll have you neutered." I hissed as I
turned back towards the beach, scanning with my senses as I lowered
myself to my stomach again, ignoring the werewolf behind me.
As
if I could ignore that musky wet dog smell
. "And what the
hell
is that scent you're wearing? Is that Old Spice?!"

The werewolf got down on his stomach as well
and tried his best to act like I wasn't there. His eyes scanned the
beach, pausing on a rock near the stone staircase that led up to
the beach house. "No," he growled openly, "it's not." But he wasn't
offering any answers to what cologne he was actually wearing, and I
could tell that it was a subject I was going to have to use to poke
the bear with later.