Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss Page 14

  “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 hea
d. 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.

  “Let’s not find out, okay?” I replied with a smile, placing my hand lightly against his face, and he leaned in to kiss me again, and I responded by wrapping my arms tightly around his neck.

  “I hate to break up the love fest, but we need to get moving,” my dad reminded us, turning to walk over to knock on Brad’s bedroom door. “You ready, Brad?” he called to him through the door.

  We stopped kissing, although it was reluctantly, and turned to follow him into the hallway.

  “Brad’s coming?” I asked, just as the bedroom door opened and Brad stepped out, running a comb through his blond locks.

  “Yeah, I figured we might need to use him as an interpreter,” Dad said, as he clapped Brad on the shoulder with a grin.

  “Thanks for everything this morning, Milly,” Vance called back over his shoulder to Grandma as we walked down the hall toward the doorway.

  “No problem. I didn’t really do anything to help, though.” She smiled before calling out after us, “Oh! Wait, Sean! Don’t forget your cooler.”

  I turned to see her grab a very large, very heavy looking cooler off the counter and waddle after us.

  “Oh thanks, Mom,” my dad said, quickly hurrying back to take it from her. “Your mom is afraid we’re going to starve today,” he added to me with a grin, nodding his head toward the object in his hands.

  “I don’t know how that would be possible. This thing looks like it’s laden with enough food to feed an army,” I laughed.

  We went out to Vance’s car and loaded up the cooler, along with Dad’s duffle bag, which contained who knew what in it, into the trunk. Then we got into the car and headed off to the marina.

  We found the boat called the Deep Fisher easily, even though the sun was barely beginning to peek over the horizon, and were soon welcomed onboard by the skipper whose name was Enrico. He politely introduced us to the three other men on the boat named Miguel, Mio, and Pablo. Enrico told them we would be doing some observing of a possible wanted fugitive who was hiding in the area and that everything we said or did was confidential.

  The men nodded their heads in understanding, as they helped to haul the cooler full of food and Dad’s bag of equipment onboard.

  Brad asked them to please place the items in an area where we would be out of their way, letting them know that we would work around them as needed throughout the day.

  They ended up placing our belongings in the forward cabin, which had a table with two benches that sat beneath the large windows and offered a full view of three sides of the craft.

  “This is perfect!” Dad said to Enrico, while Enrico started the engines up, and we began puttering out to sea.

  We had been moving for several minutes when Mio appeared in the doorway, smiling broadly.

  “Come!” he said with excited eyes, as he motioned with his hand for us to follow after him.

  We moved after him to the stern of the boat, peering out over the edge as Mio pointed down into the water.

  Suddenly a dolphin jumped from the water into the spray that the engine from the boat was making, followed by another one.

  “Dolphins!” I said happily, brushing at the minute droplets of water that sprinkled up onto my face.

  Vance stepped forward, kneeling down to reach one of his hands outside the watercraft. He emitted a low series of whistles, and to my surprise one of the dolphins jumped up to touch his outstretched hand, nudging it higher into the air.

  “How did you do that?” I asked in amazement, as I watched him, feeling a little like a giddy schoolgirl as I stared at the display.

  “Come here!” he shouted to me, with a smile, over the loud noise of the engine and churning water.

  I knelt down next to him, and he motioned for me to reach my hand out like he was doing.

  He began the low set whistles again and this time both dolphins jumped out of the water, at the same time, to hit our hands with their bottled noses.

  “How are you getting them to do this?” I asked again, laughing at the interaction I was getting to experience with these beautiful creatures of the wild.

  “I just said hello.” He smiled as he winked at me.

  “Whatever! How do you say hello to a dolphin?” I asked, leaning over to elbow him slightly in the ribs.

  “Like this!” he shouted and whistled again.

  The dolphins jumped into the air once again.

  “Dad! Brad! You’ve got to try this!” I hollered to them over my shoulder.

  They quickly traded places with us, stretching out their hands, as they had seen us do. Vance whistled into the air once more, and the dolphins jumped to greet my dad and Brad.

  “This is so cool!” Brad called out, above the engine noise.

  Soon we had Mio, Miguel, and Pablo also leaning over the edge, as Vance worked his magic with the playful sea creatures.

  Miguel shouted
something over to Brad in Spanish.

  “He wants to know you are making the dolphins dance,” Brad translated for him, relaying the message to Vance.

  Vance just shrugged with a smile.

  “I’m not doing anything,” he said with a grin. “They’re just friendly, I guess,” he said, but I knew better.

  He might be trying to be modest, but he was definitely using his powers to communicate with them.

  The dolphins followed us until we reached the coordinates Dad had wanted, and Enrico had called out to him, letting him know we had arrived. After the boat had come to a complete stop, the mammals disappeared under the surface of the water, not to be seen again.

  I sighed in disappointment when they left, having enjoyed the unexpected treat of interacting with them. Our little group left the stern and went back into the forward cabin.

  “I wanted to start farther out this morning, and then we’ll work our way in closer to the house as we crisscross the area to avoid suspicion. The only time we’ll stay in one spot is if the crew starts making a good haul in that area,” Dad explained to the rest of us, as he started digging through his giant duffle bag.

  We watched the men working on the boat, while Dad was setting up a telescope so we could see from the far distance. The crew soon had large fishing nets unraveled on both sides of the boat and hanging from two big pulley systems with mechanical arms, which they used to drop the nets into the water.

  “Okay,” Dad said finally, straightening back up from leaning over the sensitive piece of equipment in front of him. “It’s all set up. I want each of you to look through it and make sure you can see everything well enough. I figured we would each take turns using the glass to break things up a little for all of us.”

  Vance moved forward to lean in first, looking things over carefully as he moved the scope around slightly to check the area out.

  “Looks good to me,” he said, before stepping back so Brad could look into it and give his opinion.

  He agreed, and I went to look after he was done.

  “No signs of life yet,” I said, as I stared into the big empty windows of the gigantic beachside house. “Whoever is in there must still be sleeping or they’re gone,” I added as I stepped away.