Ritual Magic Read online

  "Oh! And then there was the time that he taught me to drive a stick shift! I had run us into a ditch and he made me drag the hummer back out on my own, basically proving that I was strong enough to move a military grade vehicle. Dad actually had the nerve to seem upset with me about the accident, but when I looked deeply into his eyes all I truly saw was pride." She smiled warmly to herself. "That man could never hide his true feelings from me or you."

  "And what has Solomon taught you besides how to ride horses and drive a stick?" Don't ask the questions, Celeste...just breathe in and out. In and out...

  "Well, you know that Dad's a weapons expert, right? So he taught me about every kind of weapon under the sun and how to fight effectively with them. I'm actually lethal now with over two hundred different weapons and fifty different fighting styles." She stopped to place a hand against the countertop, leaning into it before kicking a booted foot over her other, looking relaxed and beautiful as her hair cascaded forward towards the counter.

  "He was a very effective teacher." Cora continued as she reached down with her long fingers to begin tapping the granite countertop. "Of course, he had to sneak my lessons in while you were off doing other things. Meetings, shopping, girl time, alone time...he would sneak it in whenever he could. Dad never wanted me to admit to you what we were honestly doing together because he was afraid of what you would say. He was afraid that you would put your foot down and require us to stop. But he couldn't—he always promised me that he wouldn't stop until I was prepared, ready." She stopped with her hand flat across the counter's slick surface, sweeping her hand across as if she was wiping away words on a chalkboard. "Hence the riding lessons—it was our cover."

  Cora looked up at me to smile and I couldn't help smiling back at her, thinking about the time that she had spent with her fathers...all of them. They were bonding moments, every single one of them and, even though many children would never picture their lives the complicated mess that Cora's was, she considered herself extremely lucky. Her smile dropped suddenly, though, as if something had just occurred to her.

  "Oh. My. GOSH! I just told you what Dad is going to be doing with me in the future. Our training!" She paused and stood straight up as if she heard something dangerous approaching. "MOM! You have to promise to never admit that you know anything about all of this! I LOVE fighting with weapons, Mom. I'm actually a fifth degree black belt! It's way too cool!" She stopped to place a hand across her chest and inhaled in a huge breath, pausing to wait before releasing it in a cleansing whoosh. "Promise me you won't say a word. Mom, please!"

  Shaking my head, I looked at her pleading eyes, trying to read every emotion that she was experiencing. There, deep down inside, I could see the fear that she held. It was the fear that I would keep her away from her fathers, the ones that had prepared her for what was coming in the future. But what was it truly? My child, my little girl was now a lethal weapon, honed by Solomon and the rest of her fathers for what purpose I wasn't sure. But she had saved my life along with her own using those wicked blades of hers. My daughter was basically a badass, but she didn't act like one—she was just a girl.

  "I promise."

  She sighed deeply with relief before walking back towards the couch to throw herself back down, happy to be seated again.

  "Where did you get the blades you used today?" Leaning over, I pinned her with a raised eyebrow. Maybe she didn't realize that I was absorbing every bit of information as ammunition against her fathers in the future.

  "Oh," she dusted off her hands as if she had just magicked them away, "Dad actually had them made especially for me and my size. They are absolute perfection to hold, and their construction is just as precise. Being forged with silver, they are deadly to vampires and demons when you strike them through the heart or decapitate them." She smiled slyly. "Like those jerks today on the beach."

  I paused for a second, thinking about the disgusting trio that we had met earlier on the beach. My mind recalled every single detail about the experience, including the distinctive desire that I had to scream like a little girl and throw myself into the sea to drown myself. Well, maybe it hadn't been that bad.

  "Hmmm, interesting." I honestly appreciated knowing that my daughter could kick a demon's butt. I liked it very much. "Demons..." I thought about it for a minute, playing with the word on my lips before my body took over and I found myself jumping to my feet, my body rigid with a flash of fierce anger.

  "LEO!" My ears rang with the name of the demon, "Get the HELL in here! I want you here now! I have to TALK to you!"

  There was a brief moment of silence as my eyes flicked from left to right to look for Leo as he entered the room. But there was nothing...only silence.

  "Mom, geesh! You know that Babbo is not allowed to come into the beach house—demon blood, remember?"

  I shook with anger for a few seconds and it slowly dawned on me that I had been acting foolishly. "Oh yeah."

  Taking a cleansing breath, I lowered my voice and made my tone as welcoming as I could...considering, "Leonzio Emilio Castillion, I invite you to come to the beach house tonight only." I paused to take a swift breath before continuing. "You'd better damned well come to speak to me—I have an URGENT question!" Okay, I wasn't very nice at the end but hey, I was angry!

  There was a soft rustle of fabric near the far corner where the shadows were gathered and Leo, gorgeous, dark and sleek, stepped out in a perfectly fitted Armani suit as if he were entering a photo shoot for an elite men's magazine.

  His eyes sparkled with a bright, rich red as he strode towards me and didn't break step before sweeping me into a warm embrace, lifting me slightly off of the ground as he purred. "I knew that you would miss me before too long, my love. You can't stay away, no?"

  His smell permeated the air around me—rich, aromatic, sensual and all man, beating me senseless with the sheer maleness of it all. My hands gathered on the lapels of his jacket as my hands fisted and began to push his intimidating body away from me. This was where being a determined female was going to come in handy.

  A sharp, short cough came from the direction of the couch and we both stopped where we stood. Leo's eyes darted over to Cora and he slowly began to release me, even though it was obvious he was only doing so because of her. He was reluctant to let me go and his body twitched as if he was afraid something was going to attack. Eyeing Cora up and down, he tilted his head to the side and narrowed his eyes, looking more dangerous than he ever had in the past.

  "Do I know you? You seem oddly familiar." A deep frown creased his forehead and it occurred to me that he appeared uneasy.

  "Yes, Babbo, it's me, Cora."

  Leo stood rigid, his body adding to the sharp lines of his suit as he glared at Cora and immediately hissed.

  Uh, oh! We were going to have a come to Jesus meeting, and soon!

  2

  Cora smiled sweetly at Leo as she slowly inched over to the shadowed end of the living room couch, clearly preparing herself for what was to come. Her actions looked as if she was simply making room for him as she scooted more and more to the far end, but I figured that she intended something else. The reassuring smile she offered Leo never left her face, but a bright twinkle began to dance in her eyes as she eyed him thoughtfully. Her smile twitched and I could see Leo's eyes narrow even more slightly.

  "Why, would you be calling me Babbo, little girl?" Leo's voice was menacing, dripping with hostility. "NO one calls me that!" He flicked his hands at his sides, releasing the claws that were hidden underneath the surface to accentuate the fact that he was going to lay down the law. Leo's eyes flicked as he noticed the shadow that Cora was now sitting within and his mouth drew up in a wicked grin.

  For some reason I wanted to roll my eyes in their sockets just so that he could see that he was being ridiculous. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have helped even if he had registered it, because he was a man. Men just had to figure things out on their own.

  Cora grinned right back at him as she watche
d him take one footstep cautiously into the shadows closest to him, hugging the wall. "Oh! Hide-and-seek! We haven't played this in forever!"

  In the blink of an eye both Leo and Cora were gone from the room, or at least they weren't physically present. I could hear the gushes of wind in the corners of the room and I could feel the push and pull of the energy that surrounded everything around me. My mind was swimming with fierce concern as the gravity of this experience struck me. What if Leo killed Cora? What if Cora killed Leo? What if one of them killed me? It would suck either way because the future would be devastated.

  Slowly and cautiously, I sat back down on the loveseat as I listened to the shadows whine in the constant movement. In the darkness there was a sudden giggle and Cora's laughter rang through the air, possibly giving away her location to Leo, but it seemed she didn't care. Cora was clearly enjoying the game of hide-and-seek with her Babbo. It was kind of sweet. A sigh escaped my lips before I realized that the air in front of me had shifted again.

  Immediately Leo was in front of me, glaring down with anger and confusion. "Where in the world is the little minx?" His voice sounded just a tad impressed and I could tell that he was fighting the desire to like Cora.

  "Here, Babbo!" Cora answered him as she slid her blade directly underneath his chin, "Tag! You're it!" She giggled.

  Leo's eyes shone bright and he took a moment to stand quietly, clearly assessing the situation. I looked up at him innocently as he retracted his claws and placed his hands slowly up in the air in front of his chest, conceding the loss of whatever challenge he considered this to be.

  "I give, I surrender." His voice was cautious but rich.

  Don't trust the devil, Cora. He will say and do anything to take down the weak. Where had that thought come from?

  "Ahhh, tsk, tsk, tsk. Babbo, you raised me better than that!" Cora pulled her blade even closer to his throat, placing pressure against his back and flexing her arm enough for him to see the strength that lay there. She leaned into him and allowed her cheek to rub his as she stood directly behind him, clearly comfortable with the contact of his skin. They were the same height, I noticed. "Say what you know you have to say." She leaned over and kissed his cheek sweetly, causing him to shudder angrily underneath the touch of her lips as he glanced down at me with an eerie red glow pulsing from his eyes.

  "This is your fault, woman. You will explain...everything."

  Cora pushed on his back lightly and he shook his head slowly.

  "I would rather die than concede to you, you demon woman." He looked me up and down since he clearly couldn't do it to her. Cora laughed at his irate response.

  "Yes, I guess you can say that I am...a demon woman." She smiled broadly at me, a twinkle in her eye again. That mischievous little sparkle was clearly mine. "Say it to Celeste then." She winked at me knowingly before shoving her shoulder into his.

  Sighing deeply, Leo placed his fist across his chest, lowering his chin slightly, still avoiding the blade pointed at his throat. "I, Leo Emilio Castillion..."

  "Your FULL name." Cora chuckled and shook her head at me, rolling her eyes and tilting her head towards his as if to say, Can you believe this guy?

  Sighing deeply, Leo nodded and began again, "I, Leonzio Emilio Castillion, pledge my eternal protection and loyalty to you, Celeste Ravenwood. I pledge my honor and my power to your protection and your will shall be done for all eternity. May I die a million deaths if I ever break this oath." He shuddered as Cora released him and pushed him gently away.

  Leo immediately turned on Cora and growled in the depths of his chest, the sound growing slowly to finally resonate deeply inside my own chest. His anger was evident as he narrowed his eyes and stared at her as his claws began to slowly descend from his fingertips again.

  Cora shook her pointer finger sharply at him as she said, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, Babbo. Don't underestimate your opponent."

  She smiled wickedly as she lowered to a defensive stance, bending her legs slightly, spreading her hands out at her sides and flicked her wrists just as Leo had done earlier. Her own set of deadly claws popped into place as she lowered her forehead slightly, allowing her to throw a deep and burning glance at Leo from under her eyebrows. She growled lightly in her chest as a tiger would in the depths of the jungle, and she glowered at him. "Tu sottovaluti il tuo avversario e si muore. You underestimate your opponent and you die. You taught me that." She smiled at him smugly as Leo narrowed his eyes on her.

  "What is this confusion? Who is this crazy demon witch?" Leo turned on me and held his hand out, pointing to Cora's now straight and smiling face. She was positively glowing, and it was clear that she had won a victory in the name of all daughters on the face of the globe. This woman had some guts, that was for sure. So much for being more my daughter than her fathers'.

  For a moment I just sat there watching as Leo's head flicked from Cora's to mine and then back again. It was disarming to see him appear to be so befuddled, but here he was, looking like a fool that couldn't quite make sense of everything going on around him. This was a moment in time that would definitely stay with me for years to come. Or would it?

  "Her name is Cora, and you can speak directly to her if you would like." I smiled back at him with a wicked twinkle in my eye. He was getting a little taste of his own medicine and it was going to be fun! "But I would prefer to talk to you about the demons that attacked us on the beach. Why did you send them to kill us?" My voice spiked on the word 'demon.'

  "What?!" Leo shook his head at me, "That is impossible! All of my demons are accounted for in the castle. We were having a team building exercise." He looked at me suspiciously and it hit me that he had just said something profound.

  Team building? Demons do team building exercises? We were in some serious trouble if the demons learned to work as an even stronger team than they already did.

  "Mom, why didn't you tell me what you were calling Babbo about? I could have told you that they were shadow demons—not under Babbo's control at all. They are a whole other faction...more like mercenaries." She walked over to the couch again, sitting on the side that was lighted again. "Filthy jackals."

  Leo's eyes flicked to Cora and then back to me, his eyes flaring with a subtle ruby glow that assured me he was keeping track of the conversation. "Shadow demons? Here? Attacking you and the little demon witch?" He looked at each of us again and again, separately, appraisingly. "Wait! Did she just call you Mom?!" He shook his head as he looked at Cora and then back to me yet again. Was he broken or something?

  Okay, this was going to be weird.

  "Yes, she did in fact call me Mom. She also called you Babbo." I nodded, "Now, back to the shadow demons..."

  Leo didn't answer my question. Instead, he was staring intently at Cora from every angle that he could see from his perspective. Kneeling down on one knee, he reached out slowly to take her hands into his own, turning them over and looking carefully at her nails, her skin and her palms. There was no telling what was running through their minds, but she sat like a statue under his scrutiny. He continued to touch her and take full stock of her every feature, moving slowly over each detail that I could imagine he would scrutinize. He peered into her eyes as if they were beautiful gems and my heart stuttered. He then slid the back of his hand against her cheek as if it was the most fragile porcelain and reached across to grasp a tendril of her hair gently to bring it up toward his nose. He paused for a moment before taking one slow breath, his eyes closing as he processed what must have been thousands of bits of information. We all simply sat there quietly as he concentrated on what he was doing and I considered what his behavior meant. None of his actions were sensual or were meant to appear as such—he was simply gathering information. For a second, I felt like I could trust him.

  Finally, after what seemed to be a lifetime of tension, Leo nodded and pulled back to see the entire picture. "Cora." He said the name sweetly.

  "Yes," she nodded, "Cora Elena Ravenwood." She smiled broadly at him,
as a child smiling on her loving aging father.

  "Cora Elena." He whispered, "My mother's name was Elena."

  "Yes." She said softly, nearly whispering the single word.

  "Cora, you know of course means 'maiden', but Elena...well, that is the name of a goddess—'shining light' or even translated as 'bright one.'" Leo was rambling on about her name? Really?

  Cora smiled at him again, drawing attention to her sparkling hazel eyes as she glowed at him. "I love it when you talk about history. You always sound so loving when you talk about my grandmother."

  Instantly Leo was on his feet, pacing the room, demanding that every eye follow him as if he were an actor on a stage.

  "What have you done, my dear? Why are you here?" His eyes flicked to me and I shrugged. "What are you doing in the past when your mother and I have never consummated any kind of a relationship, much less had a child?" His eyes settled back on Cora.

  "There's a problem. I had to come to ensure that the future actually does come to be, Babbo." She looked at him with passion in her eyes. "If I hadn't have come back, I would never have been born. It has been foretold." She smiled widely at him, making me worry about the next words that would come from her perfect lips. "And I absolutely LOVE 90's music! I was hoping to see some of my favorite groups while they were still together." She beamed at me and I realized she was actually making a joke meant for only me to understand. Thankfully I did and we sat there smiling at each other. Well, she was definitely my daughter alright.

  "This is not a game, my child." Leo shook his head, walking to the far wall to lean up against it as he turned around to face us. He obviously believed the story. "You are definitely of my blood, but...I must know...do you have the power?" His voice lingered in the air.

  "Power?" I looked over at Cora as her wicked smile returned to her lips.

  "Yes, Mother. I can command the demons. Well, the ones under Babbo's rule, yes." She nodded to Leo as he turned his head slightly, never allowing his eyes to leave hers. The two of them seemed to glow with anticipation and excitement as their eyes and body language communicated better than any words ever could.