Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Read online

  “That’s great!” Vance said, a slight smile moving across his face. “Good job, Stacey.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled and looked around at everybody. “Well, I guess I need to go change so I can get dinner for this brood started. We need to get everyone fed before you all have to take off again.”

  “You want me start cooking anything for you?” I called after her, as she walked off down the hall, toward the door.

  “I bought stuff we can grill tonight,” she called over her shoulder. “You can start the coals in the barbeque grill out on the patio if you’d like.”

  I did as she asked, and after several minutes the coals were ready for cooking, though Dad insisted on being the grill master, since it was a “man’s job” as he put it. I didn’t argue with him, but I realized I’d never understand the whole male testosterone fascination with cooking outdoors.

  Vance, Shelly, Brad, and I helped Mom out in the kitchen. We all did a little magical slicing and dicing, since there was so much more food to prepare this time around.

  As soon as Dad had the meat all cooked and ready, dinner was served. Steaks, hamburgers, and pork chops graced the table, along with mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, and green salad, followed by a gelatin dessert.

  “This looks delicious!” Hal exclaimed, as he reached over to grab up a plate and start the buffet line.

  When everyone had their food dished up, we had a blessing on the meal and over the evening’s activities. Then we began eating.

  “So, each of you are clear with your assignments for tonight?” Dad asked, as he looked carefully around the room.

  Everyone nodded their heads, between mouthfuls of food.

  “Good. I think Hal and Bruce should go down to the marina as soon as they are done with dinner to start trying to catch the fishing boats as they come back in,” Dad suggested. “Mom, you, Brad and Shelly should head out as soon as it’s dark to get the camera set up. Vance, Portia and I will leave right after dinner also to get things set up at Juan’s place.”

  The sun sank speedily after that, so it seemed, and soon it was time for all of us to get to our jobs we had been given.

  “Let’s take our car since Stacey drove yours earlier today,” Dad said to Vance, as we headed out of the elevator and into the parking lot. “Just to be safe, in case anyone would remember seeing it from this afternoon.”

  We walked over to the dark-tinted Toyota Camry and climbed inside together, though we were silent for most of the drive.

  There was a lot of traffic out for the evening. We weaved our way through it, across town, over to Benito Juarez. Dad pulled around when we arrived so we were behind the shop in a little alleyway.

  “I think we shouldn’t have the car out in the open, since it should be well past closing time by now,” he said, though neither Vance nor I had questioned his motives.

  Juan was waiting for us at the back door. As we exited the vehicle, he eyed Vance carefully, with extreme caution, the distrust still plainly visible in his eyes.

  Vance greeted him kindly and pretended he didn’t notice the nervous stares coming his way as he helped Dad unload some surveillance equipment from the trunk. They carried the items into the store.

  Juan stood nearby the whole time but stayed out of our way, choosing just to observe us instead. We soon had the monitor and recording devices all set up on a small table ready to go.

  “Should be anytime now,” Dad said looking at his watch. “My mom should be checking the building perimeter for any magical barriers as we speak.”

  We each pulled up a folding chair and sat down to wait. It seemed like the time was dragging slowly, and I watched as Vance rubbed his hands slowly together, trying to calm his own anticipation.

  Soon the point where we should have received a signal had come and gone. Dad stood up and started pacing the floor nervously.

  “What is going on out there?” he asked in frustration, to no one in particular as he kept checking and rechecking his watch.

  He had ordered that no one use their cell phones during this time, so as not to draw attention to the trio while they were setting things up.

  Suddenly, a flicker crossed the television, followed quickly by a clear, black and white picture which popped into view.

  “There we go!” Dad said in relief as he clapped his hands together. He sat down and adjusted a few things until we had some audio also, although it sounded a little bit scratchy.

  His cell phone rang then causing us all to jump as the unexpected sound pierced the silence.

  “All clear,” Grandma’s voice came out from the speaker. “Sorry for the delay. There was a man out walking his dog by the building, and the dog chose that place to sniff around for a little potty stop.”

  “No problem,” Dad said, smiling. “I’m glad it all worked out okay. Everything looks good from this end of things, so you three go ahead and return to the resort for now.”

  He hung up after he said goodbye, and we all pulled a chair up then to watch the streaming feed.

  The delivery truck from earlier in the day was still there, parked up against the bay. Though we couldn’t see into the back of it, it appeared to have been completely unloaded as several of the crates were stacked upon each other against one of the walls inside the roll-up door in the storage area.

  “I wish the truck would move,” Dad complained, as we watched the small screen. “I can’t see into the warehouse or if anything is going on inside it.”

  After several minutes of nothing, we finally saw some movement. We watched with piqued interest as a worker came out onto the dock and lit up a cigarette while checking his watch.

  “He’s waiting for someone, it looks like,” I said, after he continued staring off into the distance and repeatedly looking at the time.

  The nervous man paced back and forth for a while, until we noticed that he straightened up suddenly and quit moving completely, after flicking his cigarette to the ground beneath him, crushing it out with his foot.

  A long black sedan pulled into the picture then, the sound of the tires crunching on gravel as it moved. The car pulled up next to the truck at the dock, and the man jumped down to open the back passenger door.

  A tall man exited the vehicle. He was dressed to the nines in a dark suit, his semi-dark hair cut close to his head. He turned a bit, looking around while he adjusted his sleeve and cuff links.

  “That’s him,” Vance said, leaning back into his chair a little, a strange emotion flitting briefly over his face.

  I could see Vance must have gotten some of his looks from his dad. I might have called Damien handsome, except that his face was so hard looking that it was more like I was looking at the devil himself. There was no friendliness there. He exuded danger in his very persona.

  “Why was the truck so early today, Marco?” Damien’s smooth cultured voice echoed out into the lot. “And why is it still here so late?”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to get here so early. I must have miscalculated due to the change in time. Peter’s asleep in the truck cab. He had a long night last night after we picked up the shipment.”

  “Did he indeed?” Damien quirked an irritated eyebrow at Marco, as he walked up the steps of the platform and inside the warehouse.

  He passed out of view behind the truck, Marco following, and we could no longer see anything useful.

  “I knew that truck was going to be a problem,” Dad grumbled, but he stopped as the speaking resumed.

  “Open this one,” Damien’s voice came over the scratchy speaker.

  “Right away, boss,” Marco said.

  We could hear some scraping sounds, like metal rubbing against wood, and we assumed one of the crates was being pried open with some sort of instrument like a crowbar.

  “Ah! Very good! Where is this one from?” Damien asked about something we couldn’t see.

  “India,” came the reply.

  “Yes. I can see that now. I should have known. Very nic
e indeed and quite refined looking.”

  “Maybe he’s still importing regular artifacts,” I said softly, wondering what else he could possibly be speaking about.

  Damien began talking again.

  “Let me see the invoice,” he demanded.

  There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again.

  “Bring these four to the house. The rest you may divide amongst yourselves,” he said.

  “Will do, boss. Thanks!” Marco said, and we could here him scuttling around, making loud sounds.

  Damien exited the building and walked toward the waiting car. The driver suddenly hopped out and opened the rear passenger door. He held it while Damien climbed back into the vehicle, then closed it and returned to the front, before slowly pulling away from the lot, out of the range of the camera.

  “Well, we know for certain that he’s here now,” Dad said, as he looked at Vance. “I don’t think we’ve learned anything else, though. We still have no idea what he’s shipping in the crates.”

  “What would he be taking to his house and dividing the rest among his staff?” I asked, completely perplexed at the conversation we had just heard.

  “We need to get hold of Hal and Bruce and see if they were able to charter us a boat for tomorrow. We have to start surveillance on that place,” Vance said to Dad. “That’s probably the only way we’re going to be able to find out what’s being delivered there.”

  Dad nodded his head in agreement before he flipped out his cell and dialed up Bruce, talking for a few minutes before hanging up.

  “He got a boat called the Deep Fisher. It frequents the waters in that area regularly. He’ll have a light crew on so there’ll be plenty of room for the three of us to go with them. They leave at first light.”

  “We’ll be ready,” Vance said, reaching for my hand.

  We continued watching the monitor until we saw Marco reappear and shut the door. He hopped into the truck and drove out of the picture.

  “Let’s call it a night then,” Dad said as he reached over to turn off the equipment. “I doubt they’ll be back again this evening. We’ll set people up in shifts around the clock in the morning if we need to.”

  My dad thanked Juan in broken Spanish and informed him that someone would be probably returning in the morning.

  Juan shook hands with him and followed us as we left the shop, locking the door behind us.

  We went back to the hotel, where we met everyone in our condo and told them what we had learned this evening.

  Dad set up a schedule of assignments for Juan’s shop, to begin first thing in the morning, and then the group broke up and headed off to their own condos.

  “So how was your evening?” I asked Shelly, after everyone had left and we were straightening up the condo.

  “It was awesome!” she replied, smiling broadly. “Brad and I had a great time with your grandma when we went to set up the camera. We were all dressed head to toe in black. It was like we were spies or something.”

  “Well, you kind of were,” I replied, grinning at her enthusiasm.

  “Your grandma showed us how to use our crystals to reveal any hidden alarms or charms that aren’t visible to the naked eye. We could easily see the fields surrounding the building next door, but there was nothing on the building we put the camera on. It was so cool,” she added, her eyes flashing brightly.

  “I’m glad everything went all right for you. We were beginning to worry about you when the signal was late,” I said.

  “Stupid guy and his dog held us up,” Brad said over a mouthful of leftover mashed potatoes and gravy. “We could have been in and out of there in the amount of time we had to wait for him.”

  “We’d better call it a night, baby,” Vance interrupted, looking at me. “We have an early morning ahead of us.”

  “Oh!” I said, thinking of something else I had wanted to ask him about. “Are you going to be okay to go? What about your withdrawal?”

  “I’ll wake up early,” he said with a shrug. “Hopefully that will help.”

  “I hope so, too,” I replied feeling worried about him and wishing there was some way I could help him.

  He reached a hand down, pulling me up off the couch and started walking me toward my room.

  I pulled back on his hand to stop him from going any farther, and he turned to look at me with a puzzled expression.

  “What is it?” he asked, stepping closer to me.

  “I want to spend the night with you tonight,” I said, searching his eyes for some clue that he wanted to be with me, too.

  “You know that isn’t the best thing for us anymore,” he said softly, and I saw regret flash over his face briefly.

  “I know,” I agreed, knowing that he had been trying to protect me. “It’s just you found your dad again tonight and I can feel the conflicting emotions running through you. I don’t want you to be alone. That’s all.”

  He sat there staring at me for a moment, weighing the situation in his head, before turning and walking toward his room, pulling me behind him.

  “Goodnight,” I said to Shelly as I passed her.

  “Goodnight to you,” she said giving me a knowing smile, along with a wink in my direction.

  Vance flipped the light on in his room, without touching the switch, as we walked through the doorway. He let go of my hand, and I crawled up onto his king-sized bed, while he went over to the dresser and removed his sweatpants.

  I laid my head down on one of the pillows, watching as he pulled his shirt off over his head, and I was glad that he didn’t look over at me, because I couldn’t take my eyes off his fabulous physique. When he reached for the button on his pants, however, I demurely closed my eyes. I felt him sit on the end of the bed to remove his socks and shoes, before he stood up again.

  “Here,” his voice said to me, and I felt something soft hit my face. “Get comfortable. I’ll be back in a minute.”

  I opened my eyes to find one of his t-shirts lying there. He wanted me to sleep comfortably. It melted my heart.

  I stood up and quickly removed my own clothing and pulled the soft shirt over my head. It hung to mid-thigh on me. I looked in the mirror, rubbing my hands down over the fabric. I liked wearing his clothes.

  Suddenly, I realized that seeing me dressed like this might be a huge turn on for him, though, so I quickly folded my clothes and laid them neatly on the dresser and climbed back into the big comfy bed.

  I flopped back onto the fluffy pillow and pulled the comforter up to my chin, just as the door to the room reopened.

  “All comfy?” he asked casually, softly closing the door behind him.

  “Yes,” I replied, as I snuggled down farther into the pillow, suddenly feeling very relaxed.

  “Good,” he said, as he flipped the light off with a snap of his fingers, enveloping the room in darkness.

  He walked over to his side, but he didn’t get in. Even though it was dark, I could feel his stare as he looked at me.

  “Do you promise to be good tonight, Portia?” he asked me from the edge of the bed.

  “Of course I do,” I replied, knowing I wouldn’t move an inch all night long if he would let me stay with him.

  I was very surprised at his next move, when he lifted the covers and crawled in next to me, scooting over to be clear up against me, with nothing in between us. This was something he rarely, if ever, did … and certainly not given the circumstances surrounding us lately.

  “I know. I’m tempting fate,” he said with a sigh, as he wrapped his arms around me. “I hope you’ll forgive me, but I’ve missed you, too. So, I’m going to do my best to think chaste thoughts and not about how sexy you might look in my shirt right now. Tonight we sleep.”

  “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 mome
nt, 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.

  Chapter 13

  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.