Ritual Magic

by Selena D. Hunter

  "I see that we are all of the same caliber...a Native American Chieftain with remarkable longevity and agility, a warlock of the highest ranking, a king vampire and warrior, as well as myself, the king of demons." He squared his shoulders as if he was savoring being in such unique company. "Yes, this is a very select group."

  Leo's eyes scanned the table until they finally fell upon Cora, instantly lighting up upon recognizing her. "My darling daughter! Come here and give your old Babbo a hug, will you?" He threw his arms open and there was a brush of a chair as Cora rushed into Leo's arms for a deep and loving embrace.

  "Babbo." She whispered, but everyone in the room could hear her clearly. She sounded like a little girl that needed reassurance and support. I immediately turned to throw visual daggers at Von before returning them back to watch as Leo and Cora embraced.

  "That's okay," Leo patted her back as he continued to scan the room as if he were looking for danger. His eyes finally rested on Von's stoic face and a moment of panic struck a chord in my mind. We need him, Leo. Don't hurt him...much. Von was going to be the weak link in this impossible scenario, it was becoming painfully clear.

  My eyes were still watching Leo and Cora as I heard Von's quaking voice from across the table. "Explain."

  Flicking my gaze back towards him, I realized that he was piercing me through with what he probably figured was his most stern expression. I couldn't resist as I rolled my eyes and placed my hands in my lap, wringing them for all they were worth underneath the table.

  Cleansing breath. Count to ten. Close your eyes. Center yourself. I was working as hard as I could to ensure that the words that I spoke came out in the right order and with the correct sentiments.

  "Cora is our daughter. And when I say our daughter I mean OUR daughter." I waved around the room, pointing to every single male except for Jack. "She is a miracle child, conceived by magic in a ritual that must take place in less than four days." My heartbeat picked up as I looked over at Solomon and then back towards Von's side of the table. "She will be the child of all five of us, and she will be skilled beyond compare. She is absolutely incredible, indescribable, and you would know that if you took a moment to actually see her." My voice seethed with anger that was impossible to disguise.

  Suddenly Solomon's hand was on my shoulder as if he was trying to hold me down in my spot. Maybe he knew me a little too well.

  Von stared over at Leo and Cora as Leo rubbed her back and whispered to her in Italian. Cora nodded as she rested her cheek gently against his shoulder, closing her eyes as she appeared to be submitting to his words and support. The two were almost the exact same height, which obviously seemed to bother Von as he straightened in his chair.

  "You don't need me for this." He shook his head and looked over at the window. "I don't need to be a part of this...farce." He pushed up and out of his seat as he walked over to the window, pulling back the heavy curtain to scan the tall line of buildings standing across from ours and the expanse of Central Park below. "Nice view."

  "Yes, we do need you, Von." My voice shook slightly. I was panicked at what losing Von's cooperation might cost us. "Without you...the prophecy will not be fulfilled." I shook with fear, my heart raced, and I could hear the pounding in my ears, echoing as if I were in a huge tunnel.

  Solomon's hand gripped my shoulder supportively and my eyes darted up towards him, pulling what strength I could from him as I scrambled for ways to defuse this disastrous situation. As I looked up into his eyes, I could hear the subtle roll of the ocean in the background as well as smell the salt of the sea against the back of my nose. It still made no sense how that would be, but I was finding that a sudden sense of calm was washing over me as I looked around the room for more support. Tisha was watching Von from her seat on my left, and her vibe gave off a distinct glow of power.

  "Von, I sense that you are apprehensive about this unique situation, but as you can see...we all agree that this must be done. Cora must be conceived by the five and the ritual must take place before the new moon."

  Von shook his head as he continued to look through the window, down at the flow of ants below us, rushing off to their busy lives filled with daily stress and worry. "I won't be a part of this. I know the prophecy of which you speak, and I doubt seriously that the girl standing next to that demon is actually the child of prophecy." He shook his head in adamant idiocy. "You are all just kidding yourselves."

  "Ask your questions, Von, please." I pleaded, "You will instantly know that we are all telling the truth if you would just take the time to get to know Cora. You have to convince yourself that we are telling the truth, but the only way to do that would be to ask the questions that you know could only be answered by your own child. By your own daughter." My breathing hitched as my heart continued to pound in my ears ever so slightly. "Just take the time to know." I shook my head because a part of me just knew that he was way too stubborn to listen to any voice of reason.

  Tisha stood up and walked over to Von's spot by the window to place a hand on his shoulder, just like Solomon had done for me. Von's head turned slightly towards hers as if he was reading her mind. "No," he said simply as he turned back to the park scene outside, his eyes glazed over.

  Leo looked up at the group as we all sat in deadly silence. "I would like to invite everyone here to my castle. You would, of course, have the freedom to come and go as you please, so fear of confinement would not be a question. We need to be somewhere where Cora will have the resources to train and we can discuss this ritual in more depth." His growing, lecherous grin was meant for only me and I knew it.

  "I don't think anyone touches me during the ceremony, Leo." I snorted at him as he blinked his eyes innocently.

  "Is this the truth?" Gabriel straightened up, seemingly glowing as he pivoted in his chair to face me directly. He was obviously overwhelmed with the exciting idea that he wasn't going to have to touch me to give me the child of his vision. Of course, in his vision it had been a boy, but still, he was seeing nothing but benefits from this whole ritual business. "No one will touch Celeste during the ceremony to conceive this child?" His strong, baritone voice rang with excitement as I shifted in my seat uncomfortably.

  "Geesh, Gabriel," I huffed, "let the whole world know that you would be thrilled not to have to touch me, will ya?" It wasn't like I wanted him to touch me at all either, but he didn't have to act like it was such a wonderful bonus. "I would prefer to keep you at arm's length myself, but why be so obvious about it?" I shook my head and rolled my eyes.

  Solomon chuckled underneath his breath, which earned him a sideways glance from yours truly. He liked the idea of no one else touching me, just as much as Gabriel was savoring the idea of keeping his distance from my person.

  Gabriel beamed at me, clearly wanting to explain what direction his thoughts had taken him. "I told you that we didn't have to love each other to be soulmates." He smiled at me broadly, a final nail in the coffin of my feelings towards him.

  At some point in my life, my mother and his had pledged us to each other. We had released each other from that commitment but we knew somewhere, deep down, that we were soulmates. But for us, as soulmates, we just had to be in each other's lives one way or another. It was not like we had to be together, which Gabriel was making obnoxiously clear. He had said before that he didn't have to love me to be my soulmate, and it made the idea of a soulmate even less attractive to me every single minute.

  My mind flicked through memories like a Rolodex as I accessed information about soulmates. I faintly recalled a belief that one person could have several soulmates—that a person could have individuals that kept popping up lifetime after lifetime until you finally got it right. Maybe they weren't all soulmates, but they were supposed to be there. I felt like, if anything, this was what Gabriel was like to me—a bad penny that kept popping up in my life until I finally got it right with him. This seemed to be exactly what he wanted. Do I even believe in past lives? I didn't know.

  T
urning my head back to look towards Von, I figured it was time to move things along. "I think that we should accept Leo's generous offer for accommodations. Trust me when I say that his furnishings are lavish, and he has more than enough room for all of us to attend to our concerns in comfort." Did I sound convincing enough?

  Solomon snorted next to me and we shared a quick smile before I turned back to the rest of the room. Unless you are being 'accommodated' in the dungeon, I thought to myself.

  "And why should we trust this...demon?" Von turned on Leo as he bristled at the look of affection that Leo was giving to Cora, brushing her hair back off her shoulder like a loving father as he continued to whisper little bits of comfort to her in Italian.

  Releasing Cora from his arms, Leo turned to face Von. "Because I took a vow." He nodded in my direction.

  "He is bound to Mother's protection and safety. Her will is his." Cora giggled underneath her breath because she knew that she had forced him to take the oath, and he was now bound to the whims of a shaman queen.

  Leo looked at her as if he knew the joke was on him, but he tilted his head in Von's direction. "No one under her protection will come to harm. There is plenty of room to practice, discuss and plan. All will be accommodated richly and in perfect safety." He bowed down formally, sweeping one arm into his waist and the other out to his side in a fluid sweep. I instantly liked Leo even more than I had before—he admittedly had style.

  "We will accept your offer." I said firmly, ensuring that everyone in the room could hear me clearly.

  Von's head snapped over in my direction as he furrowed his brows in dissention. "I would prefer not to be involved in any of this," his steely voice sank in the quiet of the room and my eyes automatically narrowed on him, tiny tints of red hedging along the outskirts of my vision.

  "But you do not have a choice," I said flatly. I was pulling rank and he knew it. Queen me, baby!

  Pausing for one intensely uncomfortable moment, Von gave me an empty stare as he nodded slowly, almost painfully so. He knew that I was pulling his chain, and he was not going to make it easy to convince him. He would set his heels in every inch of the way and it would be like pulling teeth to get him to listen to anything that we had to say.

  Cleansing breath, Celeste. I released the breath that I had been unknowingly suppressing as I turned back to Leo. "Let's go—there's no time to waste."

  Leo nodded with a broad grin and a deep bow, drawing attention to his perfectly tailored suit just once more for good measure. "Yes, my queen."

  9

  The castle was different when I was no longer a hostage. The rooms were well lit and the fireplaces were glowing with warmth. I now noticed that a door connected my room to Solomon's, and someone had removed the tapestry that had originally covered the main hallway door so that I could find it without going on a hunt.

  Walking over to the connecting door that divided Solomon's and my rooms, I opened it to find Solomon standing by the window. His body was set in profile against the midday sun and it appeared as if he were posing for a painting that would immortalize his godlike perfection. He was a vision of muscular power and absolute manliness, eyeing the perimeter of the castle with his amazing blue-green eyes that never failed to spot the smallest of motions and tiniest of details, completely invisible to the eye of the everyday individual.

  My knees went a little weak as I took in his profile. Amazing muscles on top of sinew and bone, golden sun-kissed skin that spoke of hours spent outside, when I knew that his vampire nature would have kept him from the sun. But I had placed a spell of protection on him and he was my guard, willing to follow me to the ends of the earth to ensure my safety. How sexy was that? Now, as I watched him with the window in the background, he was the very definition of male perfection. His dirty blond hair flared at the edges, spiked in random peaks that cried out 'I'm wild and I like it, baby!' My heart skipped a beat when he finally turned to look at me.

  "Do you like your room?" I asked as he turned away from the window completely, leaning up against its frame as he crossed his arms against his chest, drawing my eyes to his bulging biceps. As if just standing there wasn't enough for me. His eyes skipped around the room until they settled on me, lighting up with a soft glow as he drank me in.

  "It's slightly better than the last time I visited." He shrugged. "But it doesn't matter, what made it worthwhile was that you were here." He eyed me up and down like he was deciding how to get my clothing off fast enough.

  Gulp! What the heck am I wearing? I don't remember paying any attention to that! I looked down at my jeans, boots and black button down blouse quickly to assess the view that he was staring it. It was nothing to write home about, but I felt like myself.

  "Yeah, a virtual five star resort," I laughed.

  Pushing away from the window, Solomon walked over to me and immediately wrapped me in his strong and capable arms. His actions made it clear that he wasn't hesitating, and it felt as if we had already waited long enough for us to feel comfortable around each other.

  Rubbing his hands up and down my back, Solomon seemed to be deliberately bumping against the outline of my bra, drawing my attention to the cool feel of his hands lightly shifting the fabric that kept his palms from making direct contact with the skin. His clean and masculine scent swirled around me, engulfing me in every dream that I had ever had of Solomon. I was embarrassed to admit it even to myself, but Solomon had frequented my dreams in a starring role for quite a while.

  I smiled up at him as he reached down to kiss me, grasping my chin with his powerful hand. Pausing for a second, his lips hovered just above mine as his eyes skimmed my features as if he was taking full stock of every detail, committing it all to vivid memory.

  We simply stood there for a moment, staring at each other, until he released a cool breath that kissed my lips and sent electric sparks shooting down to my toes. It was becoming almost too much for my overly taxed nervous system to take as I stared up at him, waiting for him to take the kiss that I was holding in reserve for him and his strong lips.

  Sighing deeply, I realized that there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to survive the rest of the day without him kissing me. What was he honestly trying to do? Kill me? But I was bound and determined to have what I was being tempted with, and I did what any red-blooded American woman would do...I leaned in to take the kiss that he was so devilishly withholding from me. And then he moaned.

  His kiss was gloriously cool against my scorching lips. We were fire and ice, and I wanted every part of him to quench the fire that I felt growing rapidly in my body. I leaned deeply into him and the kiss that he was assailing me with when there was an abrupt knock at the door.

  Neither one of us moved to answer, and Solomon refused to cut away from the kiss while he pulled me in closer to him, his muscles bulging as if inviting me to run my fingertips across them, hungry for my touch and the feel of skin on skin. He was insisting that we ignore the rest of the world, and my body was eagerly agreeing with him every inch of the way. A soft moan escaped my lips before I realized it was happening.

  The knock persisted and Solomon groaned as he turned his mouth to the side, insisting on still kissing me. "Yes?!" He mumbled against my lips, his hands reaching down across the back pockets of my jeans as he caressed and squeezed, lifting me slightly in his cupped hands and causing my heart to race like Secretariat.

  "The group is awaiting you down at the training grounds." A snarl came from the other side of the door. "The king requests your attendance." The demon on the other side of the door obviously didn't like what he was sent to share with us.

  "What direction?" Solomon pulled away from my lips and began to paint tingling kisses against my skin from my chin to my neck, flicking his tongue slowly against the skin gently to tease me that much more. His hand slowly moved upward to tenderly rub the side of my neck and skim up against my chin, where he followed with his lips, drawing a dotted line of seduction across my neck and chin. Who kne
w that area was so incredibly sensitive? I tried not to giggle because he was actually tickling me as he finally worked his way behind my ear, nudging in with his nose.

  "Northwest corner of the castle. The training grounds are located past the forest's edge."

  "Got it." Solomon snapped. "We'll be there in a moment."

  I looked up at him as he pulled away from me slightly; a distinct fire in his eyes as he then leaned in to take my lips under his control again, pulling my bottom lip in between his teeth with a tiny tug. A velvety moan escaped my lips and I realized it was all just too much. There was no way that I was going to be able to hold myself at bay, not with him next to me and the desire overtaking every inch of my body as it was. Soon I would simply combust if nothing came of all of this moaning and exploring. What was a girl supposed to do?

  Solomon groaned deeply and his hands were instantly all over me, everywhere you could imagine, skimming my waist, brushing up against my bra, grasping my shoulders as if he was afraid that I was going to dash away, and then back down to my hips where he tugged me tightly against him, making me fully aware of how his body had been reacting to mine the entire time. There was absolutely no way to disguise his lust, and I immediately wondered if there was any way that I would be able to handle his distinctly abundant...attraction. But it was like being consumed by a fire of passion as his personal desires began seeping into my own, and my mind instantly began to cloud over from lust.

  "My god, Celeste," he whispered into my mouth, "you're just so damned gorgeous." He returned his attention back to my neck and kissed it affectionately from my earlobe down to my collarbone, the touch of his feather-soft kisses causing my eyelids to automatically flutter down to cover my cheeks with the brush of my eyelashes.