Walking over to my husband, I took his hand in mine. “Want to get out of here soon, Theo?”
“I’d love to but I think we might be missed. We need to stay until the end.”
Theo never wanted to stay at a party. I realised he was watching Charlie and Kai. “Let them just get on with their lives.” I held his arm.
He placed his hand over mine. “Oh, I just haven’t had a chance to talk to Kai about the furniture yet. I hope to do so before I leave. Only the sooner he gets the order done the better. It’s not going to be long now before I open our B&B, Shelley. I’ve been designing and ordering the brochures today.”
“Theo, that’s fantastic. Okay, I’ll get Charlie. I don’t think she’s had anything to eat yet, and you can chat with Kai.”
"Thank you. That would be most helpful."
Charlie looked over at the buffet. “Mum, is Jax trying to tempt fate, because that looks like a large plate of sausage rolls to me?”
I laughed. “She’s become addicted to the ones Rebecca sent Samara. She was annoyed that she couldn’t eat one of them in case they had been poisoned, so she took the card and ordered some herself. I think she’s going to add them to the cafe’s menu. I presume Ebony’s sausage roll predictions are over and done with now, and we can once again enjoy a good roll.” My daughter sniggered. Then she looked around the room.
“Mom, why is Dad directing Kai out of the doorway?”
My jaw dropped. “Oh, shit. Your dad is bloody clever, I’ll give him that. I completely fell for the ‘I want him to make the B&B furniture' malarkey. I’ve been hoodwinked." Legging it over to the doorway and out into the street, I saw Theo had poor Kai held up by his shirt collar.
“You have claimed my daughter’s innocence and now you shall marry her.” Theo hissed. His eyes blazing red.
“Dad, oh my god, Dad. Put him down.” Charlie screamed. When Theo didn’t take any notice, she thrust out her blue webs and peeled him off her boyfriend. It was the first time I had seen her in control of her powers and I realised that the work she’d done over the last few days had paid off. Theo looked shocked as he stood there wrapped up in his daughter’s handiwork.
“Could you let me go, Charlie, please? I’m only doing this for your honour.”
“Theo. You were not a virgin when we married, and neither was I.” Yet again, I felt I should put my fist in my mouth to stop myself from digging a deeper hole. Oh God, even my thoughts were inappropriate. I hoped he hadn’t heard them as my guard was down. A hiss told me he had, so I immediately blocked my thoughts off.
“Dad.” Charlie then did the weirdest but most amazing thing. She sent out an icy wisp that traveled down her father’s body and cooled his temper. His eyes went back to their normal brown and his fangs retracted. “What you have just done to Kai is inexcusable. He has been nothing but a gentleman from day one, and I seduced him. You understand that? I’ll say it again. I. Seduced. Him.” She kept him wrapped in tendrils of the cool wisps. “Last night, Kai proposed to me, and I accepted. TAKE THAT SMUG GRIN OFF YOUR FACE, DAD. I’ve a good mind to unaccept it now, but I can’t because I love him too much. Now please can we go back inside and enjoy the party?”
“Now you want to enjoy the party?” We turned to find Lucy and half the guests outside. “You announce your engagement at my wedding do. Talk about a topper. Not content with being Queen and taking my husband's attention from me, you want to take the attention away again tonight too. Disgraceful.” Lucy stomped off back inside.
A terrifying, chilling scream came from indoors and we all ran in to find Ebony on her knees, looking in severe pain while clutching her head. “The heat. The heat. Oh my god, I feel like I’m burning from the inside out.” Her eyes went wide and then rolled up in her head and she passed out. The new Satan walked through the door.
“Oh dear. My apologies. I’ve not quite got the hang of controlling my heat levels on earth yet.” He said. “Sorry to intrude but I wondered if I might have a word with you, Shelley?” He spotted the buffet. “Oh my, it’s years since I’ve had a good British buffet. Do you mind?” He looked around.
“Help yourself.” Jax told him.
We walked over to the table and I watched as we both dived for a sausage roll at the same time. Our hands collided and I recoiled at his touch, getting a reading of who was really in the body of the new Satan.
The old one.
His expression told me he knew, I knew.
“It was nice knowing you. Actually that’s a lie, you’ve been a pain in the arse from start to finish. See ya, wouldn’t want to be ya.” He said, and he sent a shot of flames out in my direction.
The pain was so bad. My last thoughts were that I’d forgotten I was no longer the powerful wyvern I used to be. Now I was only a witch/vampire hybrid. Everything went black…
And then everything went white, and I was standing in a completely white room at the side of Angel Sophia.
“Oh my god. Am I dead?” I asked her.
“Shelley, you’re already dead. You’re a vampire.”
“Oh yeah. Well did I succumb to his flames though?”
“No. He needs to stake you through the heart. Always has been overconfident that one.”
“So where am I?”
“You’re in a holding bay here in heaven. You were wrapped in hellfire which is agonizing and I was asked to bring you up here to keep you comfortable until it leaves your system. We only found out fifteen minutes ago that he was back. That he had taken over the body of the current Satan.”
“How did you find out?”
“Hell has changed drastically in the last few days. It had been running more as a democracy and then all of a sudden, we’re back to having a tyrannical, egotistical leader. It wasn’t rocket science to work it out. What I don’t know is how he’s managed it.”
“I broke my agreement with him. I matchmade my sister with Drake. A human and a supernatural.”
“Well there must have been a glitch in the system because once vanquished, he should have stayed that way. Not been able to be brought back. The elders are looking into it. However,” she picked up a scroll from the seat beside her and passed it to me. “While you are here, read this. We have had student scholars reading the ancient files and transcribing them onto more modern systems. This is from our archives.”
After unrolling the scroll, I read it.
To one there will be a blessing. And from this shall come forth a child of the angels. This child shall hold immense supernatural power, and at the time of the Great War, will inherit her celestial inheritance.
The balance shall be restored.
I stared at Sophia.
“Charlie.”
She nodded.
“Charlie.”
Chapter Nineteen
Charlie
It all happened so fast. One minute I’d been dealing with my father. Then the next Ebony was passed out on the floor, and the devil walked in and shot fire at my mum. She fell to the floor, smoke pouring from her eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils.
“Muuuuuuuummmm,” I screamed.
Satan spun around.
“Charlie, babes. We’ve not met. I’m Satan. Not the one whose body I currently inhabit, although I have to say it's not bad. Not bad at all. But the one who had a bit of beef with your mother. Think that beef is well cooked now, don’t you?”
My father ran to my mother’s side.
“Oh look, how sweet. Little Theo running to his newly barbecued wife’s side. Probably too late, Theo, mate. I can do a two-for-one deal if you like?” Flames threatened at his fingertips.
That was it. The coffee shop erupted and every single person in the room began to surge towards Satan. Using my wyvern powers I froze them all in place, looking at them in mid-step: my family and friends. Every single one of them, with the exception of Ebony and my mother, were prepared to battle on my behalf. I felt the power surge through my veins as I embraced all of their battle cries and powers. Every single species,
supe and human alike was joining the battle and their power sang in my veins. I waited to turn into my wyvern, but instead a brilliant white light sank into me, and white feathers fell as if from the sky, falling to the coffee shop floor like a carpet of snow.
Satan’s eyes widened. “Nice party trick." He shot out flames at me.
I caught them, turning them to ice with the power of the sea. Then the sirens call came through me as I sang a melody that brought Satan to his knees, his hands over his ears. “Stop, stop it.”
A clawed fist, a gift from the shifters appeared, and I walked over to Satan and swiped across his abdomen. He screamed a gutteral unearthly scream as a slash appeared in his skin. It filled with the bright, white light.
Words appeared in my mind, a spell, my witchcraft heritage. I began to speak them.
“Oh son of darkness
Creator of destruction
Now it is time to heed my instruction
Every atom
Every cell
Come to me as I weave my spell.”
Satan’s mouth opened and with a silent scream he began to disintegrate from the inside out. I continued.
“Each single particle
Travel far and wide
Never again to assemble side by side
One in each kingdom
One in each realm
Locked within the bark of an enchanted elm.”
The red cells he had broken into danced before me and turned white and then they shot through the walls. One small cell remained and although it should not have been visible to my eye, it was suspended in the air and magnified so I could see it.
“The last of you
The evil one
Shall stay in heaven until time is done
You will never escape
Your time here is ended
Now balance will restore
As Fate intended.”
With that the feathers swirled up from the ground, wrapping around the final cell and they disappeared through the ceiling. He was gone. It was done.
The freeze on the room lifted as people surged forward before realising that he was no longer there. Then they looked at me and dropped to their knees.
As I looked down at myself I saw that I was glowing with a white light from the inside out. I heard the words ‘My Queen’ fall from everyone’s lips.
Then the white light slowly dimmed until it was no more, and Ebony and my mum came around with large intakes of air.
My father took my mum straight to the caves. Frankie, who used to be a physician, checked over Ebony to make sure she was okay. My grandparents, Dylan and Margret, came rushing towards me, Kai not far behind.
“Charlie. Are you okay? My goodness. It was so strange. We came to help you and then it was like we froze. I could see and hear what was happening but I couldn’t move a muscle.” My grandma said.
“Granddaughter, you were simply amazing. You must conserve your powers for the next couple of days, let Kai look after you. Come, we will drop you off at the farmhouse as I’m sure your parents will wish to see you soon as your mum is discharged from the caves.”
The door opening made us all jump. Samara stomped through, a fawn coloured whippet at her heels. The dog immediately ran up to Maisie and barked its head off.
“Oh my god, every time we see a cat it’s the same. Johnny, you are driving me insane. I’ll have to put you in a kennel if you can’t behave.”
“You could try putting it on that lead you’ve got in your hand. That might be a start in getting him to behave.” I told her. “Anyway, why have you called your dog the same name as your husband? That’s got to be confusing.”
“That’s because it is my husband.” Samara yelled. “It’s part of my stupid punishment for not being a good Cupid. Apparently, the managers don’t believe I should have a happy love life when I’m not working hard enough to make sure anyone else is. Therefore, they have turned Johnny into a whippet and he won’t turn back into my husband until I have done their stupid training. Now, what does a girl have to do to get a drink around here because I’ve had a really difficult day.”
I couldn’t help it. I burst into laughter, and within a minute the whole cafe was laughing along with me.
Chapter Twenty
Shelley
Six weeks later
We gathered outside Withernsea church. Charlie and Kai had already had a wedding ceremony under the sea and now they were having another on dry land. Things had been pretty settled for the last month. We had said goodbye to Samara temporarily, who had gone to begin her training.
I looked at the crowd gathered in the pews. Kim sat with her husband and Alyssa, a baby on each lap. Bartholomew sat at the other side of Alyssa. She had him eating out of her hand, and Darius had accepted they were dating after Alyssa had reassured him that she was taking it slow and that she wasn’t even sure Bartholomew was the one for her.
Frankie and Lucy were getting ready to set off travelling again. Ebony had decided to expand into the menswear line, and so now had reemployed my daughter as the business was so busy.
My adoptive father had been taken to the caves where his mind had been wiped of all the trauma. My adoptive mother had decided that it was time for them to start afresh and they were looking for a new place to live. She apologised that the places they were looking at were a plane journey away such as the south of France, Spain, and Florida. The truth was, neither Polly or I would mind too much that they were further away. It left us to get on with our lives. Drake had taken a page out of Kai’s book and had proposed to Polly. They were getting married next year.
Theo had got the bed-and-breakfast ready at last and was having an official opening on Halloween. His mum and Alistair had proved a great help around the place when they weren’t trying out each of the new bedrooms much to Theo’s disgust.
When Satan had been destroyed, it had unfortunately destroyed his replacement too. There was therefore a brand-new Satan employed, and after discussion with the Angels it had been officially agreed that I was no longer bound by my deal with the devil and could matchmake both humans and supernaturals alike. This was welcome, given that Lucy was about to travel again and Kim was still on maternity leave. My real mum had offered to come and help with the agency for a while, saying that it would be nice for us to spend more time together.
I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew one thing for sure.
I was pregnant.
It would appear that Cupid himself could consult Fate and ask for favours where he felt them to be deserved. He had gone into battle on mine and Theo’s behalf. Therefore, when I had felt recovered from my ordeal at the cafe, and we had had an evening with no one else home, we’d ended up gaining more than a few love bites that night.
I watched our daughter walk down the aisle in her fairytale white dress, beaming with happiness that Kai stood at the end of the altar. She had her arm through Theo's and I saw her have to use her strength to pull away from him to move to Kai's side. I shook my head smiling at his over-protectiveness. Later tonight, when we were alone, I would tell him our news. But this dusky late afternoon belonged to my daughter and her new husband.
Charlie had refused point-blank to have a wedding reception.
I couldn’t think why…
Epilogue
Fate
People thought that good and evil battled for control of the earth. But ultimately everything that happened in life was my call. Shelley and Theo had endured so much in their first year together. Charlie was a beautiful daughter that they could be proud of, but they had missed out on a lot of the delights of having a baby and watching it grow up. Therefore, when Cupid had asked if Shelley could be blessed with another child before one hundred and one years had passed, I had agreed and set the ball in motion, or as Cupid cheekily said, the balls in motion.
It was very early days in Shelley’s pregnancy, but I knew that in seven-and-a-half months she would give birth to a son. He would not have an ac
celerated aging, and the witch part of Shelley would be strong in him, meaning that he would age as a human. Poor Louisa would have overprotective were-brothers and a part vampire/part wizard bodyguard.
When I threw down the dice for good versus evil in Withernsea, Charlie had embraced her destiny and won. Withernsea would be peaceful now for some time. Had Satan won, Withernsea would have been destroyed by his greed. Though I could engineer largely what I wanted to happen, sometimes I got bored and left things to my brother, Chance. He was most disgruntled that Satan had lost. He had to serve me now for the next ten years.
So now, it was time for me to take my leave of Withernsea. Whether I'd ever return, I wasn't sure. For now I had other projects- including that of a certain Samara Leighton.
She was a crazy, stupid, lazy, Cupid. But there was a saying:
Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.
Either way I’d win.
THE END
Not ready to say goodbye to all the residents of Withernsea?
Can Samara survive Cupid training?
Read on for a sneak peek.
Andie M. Long is author of Amazon Number One Erotic Thrillers Saviour, and The Alphabet Game amongst others.
She lives in Sheffield with her son and long suffering partner. When not being partner, mother, employee or writer she can usually be found on Facebook or walking her whippet, Bella.
The Complete Collection: Supernatural Dating Agency Books 1-6 Page 75