Ritual Magic Page 7

Scanning the room around me, I thought about the ways that I might be able to help Cora. What could I do to protect her? And then, where was Solomon? Was he out trying to protect us as well? That's a stupid question—of course he is. I shook my head. Really stupid.

  I was instantly frustrated with what little I could do to help. "Useless." I berated myself as I walked to the couch and threw myself down with a loud huff. In all reality I was the one that needed the protecting...so why did I want so desperately to protect Cora? Why did it matter so much to me that I know that she was safe and away from those beasts known as shadow demons? Why did she have to be so very fierce and...capable? How had I ended up the mother of Xena, Warrior Princess?

  "Celeste?" A voice came from downstairs, where the guest rooms would be located. "Is that you?" Tisha's voice rang from below.

  My heart sped up as I pushed off of the couch and rushed towards the stairs that led down to the lower level of the beach house. Thank goodness. Tisha's here!

  "Yes!" I half whispered and half giggled. I was absolutely thrilled to see Tisha—she was a constant in my life, and without her I was rudderless. She had always been my friend, my sounding board. I could be as insanely silly or serious with her as I wanted and it would always be the same old story—she was just Tisha, my dearest and closest friend. But is she honestly your friend? I thought about it for a second. Yes. Yes, she is.

  I listened as I heard footsteps ascending the wooden staircase, taking brief moments to pause before continuing to skip upward. My heartbeat increased and drove my sense of suspense even further past my limits. Tisha's head finally bobbed into view and my heart beat even faster. Relief! Waiting until she stepped to the living room floor, I swept over to her and gave her a monster-sized hug before she could throw her arms out to stop me.

  "Oh my gosh, I have missed you so much, Tisha! It's been crazy around here." My eyes actually began to prick with the desire to cry. Why the HECK would I even want to cry? This is happy stuff, you dummy!

  Tisha laughed softly as she wrapped her arms around me and rubbed my back like a sister. "That's okay. It's okay. I know about everything. I have been filled in on every detail that they had at their disposal. Although," she pulled away from me slightly to look up into my eyes, "it felt like there was something...missing." She pulled back even further, quirking her head to the side and finally gasped, covering her mouth with one hand in surprise. "Celeste!" Her fingers went to her lips as her eyes grew wide. "Oh my word, your aura!"

  Squinting at her, I shrugged my shoulders in agitation. "Is that something like my eyes changing again? Because you know, I got really tired of everyone caring about my eyes so much. Who cares if they are brown, or lavender or silver...who cares?!" Oooh, still a sore subject.

  Tisha gathered my face in her warm hands and began to inspect me as if she had all the right in the world to do so, but I didn't fight her even if I wanted to because it was inevitable in a sense. Turning my face this way and that, Tisha finally released me, stepping backwards to get a broader perspective. And then finally, she did a full circle around me as she tapped her finger on her lips.

  "Yes, it is distinctly different and...much, much more powerful." She was talking about my aura, right? Not my bitchiness.

  Shrugging, I tried not to let her qualms with my aura bring me down. "Can't we just have normal girl time like other women? Why does it always have to come down to something about my eyes, my aura, my choice in men?"

  Tisha tilted her head to the side yet again and gave me a lopsided grin while shooting me with a finger gun, "Good one!" She laughed and winked at me while I glowered at her. I was not amused.

  I pushed away the dismay that I was feeling about this new conversation and walked over to the loveseat, my favorite spot in the entire room. You could see every piece of beachy fabric, every grain of whitewashed wood and every little sprinkle of dust from this loveseat. I was in heaven on my loveseat.

  Throwing myself into the seat, I kicked my feet up to rest my legs on the loveseat cushions with my feet hanging off and reclined on the arm of the chair. "Straight and to the point—I met my dad today." Twirling a ringlet of dark brown hair around my pointer finger, I released a deep breath from what felt like my shoes. I need a vacation.

  You know what gets on my nerves about Tisha? She's never shocked.

  "Yeah? What was he like?"

  "The Ocean." I said simply, tossing my hand forward like I was throwing darts at the ceiling.

  "Oh, really? He's like the Ocean?"

  "Nope. He is the Ocean." My voice grew a little musical on the words the Ocean.

  Tisha paused what she was doing and walked straight to the edge of the couch that was closest to me. This conversation had piqued her interest and she was going to get everything that she wanted out of the entire conversation, so help her... "What was his name?"

  Looking at her sideways, I answered, "He wanted to be called Dylan, but I really think he looks like an Andre." I looked back at the ceiling as I continued to throw air darts and give myself points for making the bullseye. Woohoo!

  "Dylan..."

  I looked over at her to make sure she was still conscious. "Yeah, Dylan."

  Remember when I said that nothing ever fazed Tisha? Well, forget it—she was actually freaking out. Her eyes were wide, her forehead was beading tiny girly pearls of sweat (always the lady) and she was shaking...actually shaking in her literal shoes.

  "What is it, Tisha?" I instantly had the urge to run over and shake her, but I was almost afraid to move. "What's wrong?!"

  "Lir...," Tisha muttered under her breath, as if she was whispering to only herself, and wrung her hands thoroughly. "Lir...as Dylan...oh my gosh, what to do..." She shook her head and began muttering incoherently to herself as she pushed up from the couch and began pacing from one side of the room to the other.

  "What's the big deal? So he's a god, so what? He's not my God and that is what matters to me."

  "This isn't a joke, my girl." Tisha sounded ill as she continued her path around the room. "He really is the Ocean. Not a god in the sense that everyone would automatically assume. He exists everywhere...is everywhere. You can't even go to the bathroom without him knowing because he controls all water."

  "GROSS!" I blurted out. Thank goodness I wasn't drinking milk or it would have been flying through the air, threatening my beautiful fabrics. I cringed at the idea of going to the bathroom anywhere near the coastline, that was for sure.

  "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.

  7

  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 completel
y 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!