Releasing my hand slowly, he pulled out the chair that was next to mine. "May I?" He smiled a mouthful of sparkling white teeth at me that looked incredible against his perfectly tanned skin, complimenting his high cheekbones as well as his sparkling black eyes.
I simply waved towards the chair as he took the seat and leaned forward over the table to offer Mortisha his hand. "Gabriel Running Wolf. Mortisha, is it? It is a pleasure to meet you, finally." He beamed at her with his winning smile and she glowed right back at him with a frighteningly white smile of her own.
"A pleasure," She offered back to him with knowing eyes. What?! That was quick acceptance of someone she had never met before. Hmmm.
Cora quietly turned from the window and walked over to the table to take the seat next to Mortisha, softly scooting closer towards the table as if she was trying to melt into the background of the conversation.
I couldn't help but look at her as I consciously understood that, from the way she sat up straight in her seat, that she was uncomfortable with the meeting and she didn't know how to behave around Gabriel.
Yeah I knew it—he really must be a stiff of a father, I thought to myself as I turned to eye Gabriel suspiciously. He had absolutely no idea what he had just walked into.
Gabriel's gaze skipped around the room quickly, taking everything into account and probably reading information about everyone present that would normally be lost on the average Joe. "I don't recognize everyone here." He waved his hand to indicate a few new faces, especially Solomon's. "May I be so bold as to request introductions?"
Clearing my throat, I nodded cautiously, gathering my wits about myself before beginning. "Yes, Gabriel, of course." I waved my hand to Solomon and he walked over to me and took it from the air, clearly asserting his position in my life. "This is Solomon Ryker, my personal guard and general."
Gabriel looked up at Solomon with a cold eye. "The vampire king. Yes, I have heard quite a lot about you. Actually, I have read an extensive amount about you and your family. There are a plethora of books on history that refer to you but never hint to your vampirism. Isn't it interesting that those little details fail to be relayed through the countless volumes of history? No matter how hard one may look." His voice rang with insincere respect, and it was obvious that the testosterone had just spiked without me even realizing it.
Solomon nodded down at him, giving him a cool stare of his own as he narrowed his eyes on him. "And I have read quite a bit about you myself, Gabriel Running Wolf, Chieftain and general leader of five separate tribes. I guess if you live as long as you do people just agree that following your lead is a good idea. One might think that you had personally taken a dip in the fountain of youth or accepted a vampire curse of your own." His words came out cold and calculated as Gabriel eyed him from head to toe, taking full stock of Solomon and his menacing form.
Gabriel's eyes flicked over to Jack in the corner and skipped right over to Cora, settling in on her and taking account of every little detail, clearly dissecting her every uncomfortable movement. His forehead furrowed in confusion for a brief moment, but he seemed to be shaking it off before anyone caught him.
What did he see in Cora that threw him off? I guessed I was about to find out.
"So, who is this girl before me?" He set his eyes on Cora and tilted his head over to the side. "Do I know you?" The question was deep in his eyes but his expression was hard, calculated and demanding. It looked like he recognized her but could not understand from where.
"No sir." Cora answered simply. She was clearly put out by sitting at the same table with him, her shoulders hunching over slightly as she fiddled with her shirt underneath the table. Oh, Cora. What have you been put through by this man?
Gabriel eyed her for a moment longer and then turned his gaze on me, shaking off the look of discomfort that practically made him look...human.
"So, I'm here. What did you want to talk about?" He leaned on the table as if he was ready to talk about a business contract.
"We're here to talk about Cora." I started simply, waving my hand in her direction. "We have to ask for your help."
Gabriel's eyes darted over to scan Cora again and then back to me to cover me with the same suspicion. "What? Is something wrong with the girl? Why would you need my help? I don't even know her."
"Gracious as always, Gabriel." I stared him down as he continued to look at me with numerous new questions in his eyes. "No, we need your help because..."
I just couldn't get my mouth to say the words. How in the world was I going to tell him that this beautiful creature before him, the one that he was turning into an uncomfortable little girl, was his daughter...our daughter? I looked up at Solomon with a pleading look in my eyes, fear sending a cold wash of chills across my skin. I needed his help, but I didn't know where to begin.
"She's your daughter." Solomon spoke up and watched as Gabriel's back stiffened and his head shot straight up.
"No." Gabriel shook his head as his eyes bored into Cora's uncomfortable frame, still as a deer in the headlights of oncoming traffic. It appeared as if she wanted to crawl underneath a rock to die. It even occurred to me that she could have actually run to the first shadow and disappeared, but she was fighting the instinct to run as she sat underneath his watchful eye.
"Yes." My voice was steeled by the fierce desire to protect Cora. "She is your daughter and mine." I nodded at him, with a new sense of strength and direction. "Or she will be."
Gabriel shook his head and raised a hand to his face, dragging it over his eyes like he wanted to claw them out. "What?"
"Look, I know this is hard to believe, but Cora is your daughter. She is my daughter. Hell, she's everyone's daughter!" The irony of the complicated situation was beginning to overwhelm me in a flood of fierce reality. I felt myself gripping to the sides of sanity by my fingernails, and I was desperately losing the battle. "Cora is your daughter, at least partially."
"Excuse me?" Gabriel looked at me with an agitated air. "What are you trying to say, Raven? Just come out with it, because I find that I am losing my patience for this game."
"Father," Cora's voice floated from her side of the table, sounding distinctively like a frightened little girl, "Father, I am your daughter...and I can prove it."
Gabriel was obviously put off by her voice. He leaned back as he straightened his shirt front and looked down at her with a stern, but regal face. "How?" His chin inclined slightly as he spoke.
Sighing, she raised her left arm and pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, revealing a black outlined tattoo on her arm. "You insisted that I get this tattoo. It is a custom of your tribes, for tattoos to be placed on the most sacred of your women." She held out the arm for him to see clearly. Gabriel leaned over the table to get a better look and then his eyes cut up to her.
"It's the White Buffalo, and the tattoo is on the left arm because it is considered the strongest...spiritually," she said firmly as his eyes flicked back down to her arm and then back up to her. "You've always said that I was going to bring peace and blessings to our people. You taught me the ways, customs and history. You shared the ancient stories so that I wouldn't forget...so I could carry on the oral history of our people." She looked so small and tired against the huge table, but she continued in what may have been a distinct knowledge of her responsibility. "You taught me the weapons and how to prepare them. The bow and arrow, the knife and spear. You taught me respect for the animals and to take care of them just as our people did. We live in harmony..."
"We are one with the land and the animals that share it," his voice continued the line.
"We hold our traditions close...," her voice rattled slightly.
"And we hold our family closer." He nodded down at her, looking at her now with a newfound respect. "Yes." He nodded slowly, his eyes glimmering in their black onyx glory as if tiny stars had appeared against the black of night. "Yes." He turned to me with absolute awe and then his eyes went back to Cora. "What is your name, my daug
hter of legend?"
"Cora Elena Ravenwood." I responded automatically.
He shook his head at me gently and then turned his eyes back towards hers. "What is your name, my daughter?" Right. Her Native American name. I never thought to take the time to even think about that.
She released a monster of a cleansing breath and then sighed deeply as if she was admitting to liking Barney the Purple Dinosaur. "Starlight Fawn of the Forest." She looked down at her hands as I watched Gabriel's head bob up and down in acknowledgement. Cora looked like she wanted to die right then and there from sheer embarrassment.
"Fawn?" Solomon's voice rang in the air and his eyes cut over to Cora as if he was just suddenly noticing her in the room. "It doesn't seem like your personality."
A sharp laugh came from the corner of the room and Cora's head immediately snapped in Jack's direction, practically pinning him to the wall with the daggers her eyes were throwing at him. Hmm, he's distracting her from what was making her feel uncomfortable. Well...kind of.
Cora straightened herself when she finally pried her eyes free from Jack's bouncing shoulders and sat up straight in her chair with her own air of regal beauty.
My eyes wandered back over to Jack, who had resumed his military appearance, noting that he no longer had any sign of a smile on his face. No emotions, no thoughts, no words...just action. My lips spread into a smile as I nodded a silent thank you to Jack. Cora was back in her element.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, drawing our attention away from Cora. Actually, it was more of a staccato pounding.
"And that will be the ex." Solomon grumbled as he walked towards the door yet again.
I straightened my shirt as I sat up straight in my ornate chair before I turned to catch Cora staring at me, eyeing me with a tiny smile on her pink lips. "Hush," I snapped.
Von stormed into the room, clearly not willing to keep the pace that Solomon was using, which was a combination between the Sean Connery stroll and the Batman stalk. Maybe I watched too many movies. You think?
Von stopped short of the table and eyed everyone sitting there suspiciously as if we were all in cahoots, planning to steal his monster set of Magic The Gathering trading cards to sell at a garage sale for a buck. Does Von even HAVE a hobby? I eyed him suspiciously. Who knew?
"What the hell is this?" Von turned on me and waved his arms around the table to point out the people he thought that I had forgotten were sitting there.
"We need to talk, Von." My voice was strong. I was tired of this whole process and Von was the final piece to the puzzle. It was about time to get the show on the road, as Cora had said before. "We need your help."
"Help?" His sharp tone dropped a fraction, but his body remained rigid with stress. He was clearly taken aback that I was saying that we needed his help at all, and it was a new development that I was willing to use to my advantage.
I simply stared at him, expressionless. "Yes, we need your help. You are an integral part of a ritual that needs to take place before the new moon." My eyes were fixed on the imaginary 'third eye' location on Von's forehead. I couldn't really look him square in the eye, so I stared at that spot in between the eyes where the nose met the forehead. Looking Von in the eye at the moment just wasn't feasible, but not making eye contact with him could kill this conversation all together, and I was well aware of his need for formality.
"What ritual?" He continued to look at me, but his voice was calm. This was something he understood—magic and rituals.
"A conception spell." The words floated across the table, skidding across the grain of the impossibly beautiful table and slapped him right across the face.
"WHAT did you just SAY?" He was standing so rigidly that I was afraid his knees might lock and he would faint right away. Has Von ever really fainted? I eyed him warily.
The best tactic was to act like it was all business—that seemed to be the only thing that Von understood...business. I hated him for it.
"Look, Von." My voice took a businesslike tone as I waved towards an empty seat on the other side of the table. I wanted him as far away as possible, or I was going to want to hurt him...a lot. "We need to perform a conception spell to ensure that Cora..." I swept my hand over to her and it looked like Von was noticing her for the first time, "is conceived." I said it like I was explaining the color of shoes—very matter-of-factly.
Von's head turned slowly towards Cora and he eyed her up and down. I noticed Jack flinch in the corner of my eye as Cora sat motionless under Von's intense scrutiny. Von finally turned his eyes back to me and he shook his head. "So what are you expecting me to do?" He didn't even ask to be introduced.
"Well, first I expect you to act like a human." I snapped at him. "Von Edwards, this is your daughter, Cora Elena Ravenwood." My tone was covered with anger as my eyes threw bitter, icy daggers in his direction. My eye contact was dead on as my anger sparked and a pop of energy sounded off the walls. "Make nice and meet your daughter."
Von shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, considering what I had just said. He turned to face her fully and nodded sharply like he didn't want to believe any of the new information, but he was willing to play along...at least for the moment. "So you are my daughter?" His voice sounded hollow. Damn. He wasn't buying it.
"Yes." Cora smiled lovingly at him, a bright twinkle in her eyes.
I could immediately see the way that she adored him—she absolutely oozed love and kindness towards him, even though he didn't deserve it in my eyes. She was compassionate towards him and worried about his feelings about me. I could tell by the way her eyes kept jumping from him to me like she was watching a tennis match happen from one end of the table to the other. Table tennis. She was swirling with love and adoration, hitting me dead in the heart as I realized that I was slightly jealous of the way that she was looking at Von. She was consumed with the fact that he was her supportive, loving Daddy even though he was looking at her like she had just grown a tail. He really pisses me off sometimes.
The room was dominated by silence as Von eyed Cora and then me. He eyed Cora again and then flicked back to me. He was doing a great job of looking like a complete idiot when, of all people, Gabriel spoke up.
"I am afraid that this situation may call for a little more proof for our friend Edwards here." He shrugged and continued to sit with his chin high in the air. He looked so stuck-up when he did that and I wanted to growl at him, but I simply glared in Von's general direction instead.
"Ask your questions, Von. You need to get to know your daughter." My voice shook on the word daughter.
Why did he have to be a part of the equation? I mean really? Couldn't we have had another vampire, demon or anything?! Why Von? He just rubbed me in all of the wrong ways, and he was doing a damned good job of finding a few new ones to add to the list. Are we still angry about the lack of passion when you went missing? Yes, we are!
Von looked down at the table like he was organizing his thoughts, causing all of us to sit quietly as he contemplated the information before him. He looked up at Cora and turned his head so that he wasn't looking at her straight-on. He was looking at her like he was suspicious of her, ready to take anything she said as a complete falsehood, and I wanted more than anything to scream.
"I can't think of anything to ask." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't believe any of this." His voice trailed off as he turned his attention back to me. "I can't even believe that you are idiotic enough to buy into this, Celeste. You have to think and act like a queen. You can't go around accepting the story of every stranger you meet willy-nilly." He shook his head at me as if I was stupid, and that made my back zip with energetic tingles and burning sensations.
Oooh, if he was JUST within my reach! What would I do? SMACK him, but good!
Knowing that I held a bit of information that he was not privy to, I grinned across the table at him before I continued. "Gabriel, Leo and Solomon all agree that she is telling the truth." I shrugged at him like
he was the odd man out. "And so do I."
"Who the hell is Leo? And what does it matter what Solomon believes? This is our daughter, right? At least supposedly." Von leaned forward onto the table like the topic was suddenly getting very interesting. Little did he know that what he was about to hear was going to set his world on edge.
"Actually," Solomon's voice rang through the room, the rich timbre of his baritone drawing Von's eyes to his, "Cora is the daughter of five. You," he pointed at Von with a finger gun, "Gabriel," he flicked his thumb in his direction, allowing the gun to dissolve away, "Me," his thumb thumped into his own chest, "Celeste's," his other hand swept in my general direction for effect, "and his." Solomon gestured to the darkened doorway over in the back of the room, where a dark shadow was now standing.
Leo's timing was absolute perfection. He sauntered into the room like he owned the place and straightened his blue pinstriped Italian suit with one, strong, sinewy hand while gazing leisurely over all of the tense faces at the table. His hair was slicked back and his eyes were the vivid blue that he swore was his natural eye color. Contacts, they have to be contacts. No one has eyes that amazing in real life.
I smiled up at him as he swept through the room with an air of dominance and sauntered over to me, leaning over my chair to place a scalding kiss on my cheek. I could immediately feel a fierce blush on my cheeks because I was wondering if everyone would be able to see what his touch did to my skin. But now everyone could clearly see what I thought of the kiss and how Leo just seemed to push my buttons without even trying. What a crafty, sneaky demon.
"Thank you for coming, Leo." I smiled up at him, genuinely thrilled that he had appeared when he had. "We have a few new guests that you need to become acquainted with." I couldn't even lift my hand because of the sudden exhaustion that had practically tied me to the chair, every muscle entirely depleted of energy. I just flicked my chin towards the end of the table.
"Charmed." Leo's voice oozed of elegance and something I was instantly suspicious of. "It is quite enjoyable to make your acquaintance, both of you." He nodded first from Gabriel and then to Von. "I am Leonzio Emilio Castillion, king of the demons." He bowed deeply to add an air of formality while everyone in the room, besides myself and Solomon, were trying to decide if he was honestly for real. "It is an immense pleasure to meet the final two of the ring of power." His comment sounded snide but his eyes gave away that he actually meant what he said. He was sincerely impressed with the gathering before him.
Ritual Magic Page 9