Aquarius: Haunted Heart, Copyright © 2009 by Sèphera Girٕón
Book Two of the Witch Upon a Star Series
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Digital ISBN: 978-1-62601-268-4
Print: ISBN: 978-1-620601-269-1
First Edition 2008 published by Ravenous Romance
Second Edition March 2016
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Welcome to the Witch Upon a Star series where anything can and does happen.
A few years ago, I wrote a couple of books about sexy witches casting spells for romance. These witches belong to a coven, ruled by a High Priestess named Lucy, in a little New England coastal town called Hermana. After I wrote and published the first few books, my real life took a bit of a turn and so my lovely ladies and the remaining books were put aside for a few years. However, Lori Perkins, who has always championed these witches and this series, gave me a call in the fall and asked me to consider resurrecting my lovely ladies and their magical adventures for her new publishing company Riverdale Avenue Books.
It wasn’t too difficult to persuade me to revisit Hermana and Lucy and the witches. I’m thrilled to be working with Lori on this series and I can’t wait to see what my witches are going to do next!
Part of the fun of working on this series this time around includes the fact that the television shows American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful, Bates Motel and Scream Queens are hugely popular right now. I love these shows. They have a great knack for telling wild stories with sex, horror and comedy while everyone looks fabulous.
Why does this matter to an erotic writer?
The Witch upon a Star series combines love, lust, horror, passion, comedy and life in much the same way these favorite shows of mine do. People who enjoy watching these shows will understand this series. Even if readers don’t watch TV, they will enjoy this series. Each book contains a complete story, a complete roller-coaster ride that follows a birthday girl and her quest for sex and love. A reader can pick up any book and enjoy a lusty magical adventure.
Witch Upon a Star is set in the fictional New England town of Hermana, Massachusetts, which was founded by twin sisters who escaped the Salem witch trials in the 1700s.
The sisters’ names were Sorona and Serephena. They both lived well into their 90s, sharing their holistic healing secrets and building up the mystical vibrations of the area. They married twin witches, Nigel and Nathaniel, who shared their voracious sexual appetites and magical healing abilities. Consequently, the foursome enjoyed a long line of descendants who continued to grow the town and add to its magical and erotic qualities.
The town is rich in tradition and combines the beauty of both ocean and forest. Much like Cassadaga in Florida, Lily Dale in New York or Sedona in Arizona, Hermana resonates with some sort of vibration that attracts spiritualists, occultists, ghost hunters, witches and divination experts from all over the world.
The town is about forty-five minutes from Boston, a few miles from a major highway, by way of a long, winding road that weaves through a forest, a meadow with a ring of trees and then into the village. The road leads directly to the ocean, where there is a large, public beach. Some of the residents enjoy nude sunbathing, and in Hermana, anything goes. There are many funky little shops, several pubs, dance clubs, bed and breakfasts, a gym and library. The town is inhabited both by people who believe in the power of the sisters and those who do not.
The biggest and most well-known landmark is a huge New England Gothic-style house complete with turrets which is where the sisters originally lived. Of course, it was just a shack when they first cobbled it together in the early founding days, but over the generations, wings, tunnels, wrought iron fencing, and lush gardens were added.
One of their descendants lives there now. Lucy, who is about eighty, opens her doors now and again to the town for various celebrations. She has a core group comprised of twelve of the local ladies who meet with her monthly if not more to discuss life and love, cast spells and welcome the various equinoxes. Guests are often welcome when there isn’t a private ceremony and are allowed to bring questions to the witches.
People flock to Hermana for answers. Some find them. Some do not. Others go for the rumored hedonistic pleasures and usually find something to entertain and entice them.
Each month, the Witch Upon a Star series will focus on the romantic quest of a different lady connected to Hermana. February will tell the story of Madeline, an Aquarius.
The power of love and lust, magic and mysticism is at the heart of the town, which keeps beating as steadily as the waves that crash along the beach. Connections are made and lost. Passion ebbs and flows. And still, the town continues to beguile the seekers, the wanderers and the lost to experience its hedonistic pleasures and unearth its darkest secrets.
Welcome to Hermana.
I hope you enjoy your stay.
Welcome to the second book in Witch Upon a Star!
Blessed Be!
Sèphera Girón
January 23, 2016
AQUARIUS
January 21–February 19
Element: Air
Ruling Planet: Uranus
Symbol: The Water Bearer
Primary Mode: Thought
Key Phrase: I know
Life Lesson: Think twice before giving your opinion.
Colors: Electric blue, silver-gray, fluorescent colors, violet, light yellow
Stones: Amazonite promotes communication; aquamarine releases emotions, combats depression; hematite grounds Uranian influences; amber calms restlessness, mood swings
Famous Aquarians: Abraham Lincoln, Alice Cooper, Ashton Kutcher, Ayn Rand, Babe Ruth, Benny Hill, Phil Collins, Adam Lambert, Bill Maher, Brandon Lee, Burt Reynolds, Buzz Aldrin, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Charles Lindbergh, Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Christina Ricci, Clark Gable, Elijah Wood, Ellen DeGeneres, Eva Gabor, Frederico Fellini, George Burns, Germaine Greer, James Dean, James Joyce, John Belushi, John Grisham, John Travolta, Justin Timberlake, Lewis Carroll, Matt Groenig, Oliver Reed, Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Paul Newman, Paul Stanley, Ronald Reagan, Sèphera Girón, Seth Green
Aquarian Buzz Words: analytical, opinionated, humanitarian, free spirit, stubborn, progressive, open-minded, adventurous, futuristic, loyal, honest, fair, curious, nosy, masculine
Aquarius Traits: People think of Aquarius as easygoing and flippant, yet as a fixed sign in the zodiac, they can be quite rigid and stubborn. It can be hard to get an Aquarius to change her mind about something when she “knows” she’s “right.” You can preach ’til the cows come home, but if she’s right, she’s right and nothing is going to budge her. Aquarians have a strong sense of fair play and hate cheaters. If you hurt an Aquarian, she will take it to heart. An Aquarian will take it personally if you lie and may even call off a friendship. When an Aquarian is hurt by someone she trusts, she carries it for life. Once she’s written you off, consider yourself as good as dead. Aquarians are playful and eccentric. They can be really messy or really tidy. They are open-minded sexually though are often accused of being cold be
cause they aren’t terribly expressive. They are usually on too many committees since they like to be helpful and are so damn curious.
Madeline’s Forecast: Be open-minded with a healthy dose of skepticism. Seeing things from someone else’s point of view will help you understand the situation better. Travel will open the door to new opportunity. Make new friends. Read between the lines. When analyzing a situation, trust your gut instinct.
Chapter One
Reflecting on your past will help you make wiser choices in the future.
The heat of the sun bore down on her. She squinted against it, pushing her hands against the broad shoulders of the faceless stranger as his velvet tongue sought out her innermost desire. She spread her legs wider, allowing him deeper access with his fingers and mouth. He slowly ran his tongue along her labia, in and out of her moist folds, until her found her clit again. She moaned and pushed up against him, urging him to suck her hard little nub. His noisy slurps excited her, and she braced herself for a quick and powerful orgasm.
The alarm clock buzzed.
Madeline slapped it off with a groan. The dream image faded, but her urgent desire didn’t. She curled up under the blankets, pressing her groin into the mattress until she made herself come.
Another day had arrived.
* * *
It was a cold February morning as Madeline stared at herself in the mirror. She had just emerged from a hot, pounding shower, and it was the best time to indulge in a bit of self-scrutiny. It was a daily ritual and one she imagined most people in North America performed. But probably unlike most people, after she’d had her morning glance, she usually didn’t bother looking at herself again until the next day. Even when she brushed her teeth, she often stared down into the sink instead of checking out her appearance. She often realized she didn’t really look how she felt.
With her birthday just past, Madeline still felt on the inside like a gawky, misinformed teenager. Yet, according to her birth certificate, she was now the ripe old age of 31.
Thirty-one and never married.
Thirty-one and never even engaged.
She had no one to blame but herself.
And in looking into the mirror, she could see that though she didn’t look as though she was in her thirties, she was certainly well past the gawky-teenager stage of her life.
Now she was a gawky over-thirty-year-old woman.
She wasn’t the best-looking girl on the planet, but she wasn’t the worst either. Her hips, thighs and stomach were a bit too round for her height. And who was to blame for that?
No one but herself.
Sitting at her desk for hours and hours made her round. Eating chocolate every few minutes helped. Her sugar addiction was going to kill her one day, or so she was told on a regular basis by the media and by her friends.
Her eyes were steel gray, and she had soft, light brown, wavy hair. She turned sideways, staring at her pendulous breasts and pear-shaped hips. She had to get back to the gym. Jessica, her trainer, was going to kill her for not sticking to it this time.
It just was so hard to get exercise. The endless days sitting at the computer writing articles and books and then the skulking around haunted houses with recording devices didn’t give her much time for anything else. Not for exercise. Not for dating.
She sucked in her stomach until it almost was flat. She ran her hand along it, imagining it toned and tanned like a model’s. Imagination was all it would ever be. She’d never been that toned in her life, and at 31, she couldn’t dream she’d ever have the focus and self-discipline it took to be truly buff.
She huffed out the stale air and ran her hands through her hair, pulling it on top of her head. Maybe if she wore more ponytails, she’d look younger. Leaning closer to the mirror, she peered at the crow’s feet lining her eyes. Character. Yes, she had character because she’d been through so much.
No more and no less than anyone else, when she really thought about it. But unlike many others, she held her wounds deep. Her heart ached constantly until sometimes she thought she couldn’t take it anymore.
Why did she ache so much?
She wasn’t sure if she believed in love. Real love. A true, faithful love where there was no hurt and no cheating.
She had never truly loved, she didn’t think. Not in a romantic-love kind of way.
Sure, she had loved her parents, her relatives, puppies and kittens. That kind of love was easy for her. She loved the starving children in third world countries, the displaced flood victims in New Orleans, the shooting victims in Paris and the orphans from September 11. Her universal, unconditional love had no boundaries and no limits.
She loved peace, not war.
But these things were easy to love. These were ideas, abstracts. They were emotions of hope and victory.
But to love another human being, to fully trust another human being with her heart, with her mind, with her body? She didn’t know if she was capable of that. She didn’t know if any honest and true human was capable of that.
For in her mind, love was an illusion. Love was a word made to be broken.
Falling in love was just one short step from falling into despair. Giving oneself completely to another for a lifetime was against human nature. Logically, no one could truly be committed and satisfied with one other person forever. Could they?
She knew many people in long-term marriages who seemed happy, compatible, complementary. But she often wondered how much of it was a front for people like her watching them, and how much bitterness and despair seeped behind closed doors.
How often was the news full of shocking tragedies perpetrated by people who were so “happy,” so “peaceful,” so “gentle,” and, of course the all-time favorite, “kept to themselves”? Happy faces to the public, nightmare existence behind the scenes. That was the stuff history was made of.
Murderers like Kelly Proctor.
The more she delved into real-life mysteries, real-life haunting, the more cynical she grew about human nature, secrets, and the dreaded idea of love.
She hadn’t always been quite so bitter. She had started off life wanting to be open-minded with an open heart as well. In kindergarten, she clung to the idea of happily ever after. But it was only a few short years afterward that she learned about reality. What men were really like. What she was really like. The cruel darkness of the human condition.
Like Jimmy McMurry back in ninth grade.
She thought he was the greatest. He was tall and handsome and had a quirky sense of irony that amused her. They were science lab partners and had been put together for group projects in a couple of other classes. She had known Jimmy since fifth grade. They had gone through two different schools together, and she’d figured their bond was strong.
After school one day, Jimmy walked her to the bus and asked her if she wanted to go to the park after dinner. Madeline had agreed. It would be fun to be out and about with a guy. They had hung out and had a good time, talking about school, life, movies, and swinging on the swings.
They made a habit of meeting several times a week after homework and chores were done. At first, the meetings were harmless. They sat at the park on the swings gossiping about their fellow classmates, lamenting over their marks, and worrying about their futures. They had a lot in common, or so Madeline had thought at the time. They liked the same foods, they saw the same movies—sometimes even together—and both thought the principal of the high school was an arrogant asshole.
It wasn’t long, maybe a few weeks after they started hanging out in the park, when Jimmy made his move on Madeline. The minute he slung his arm around her in his nervous, twitchy fashion, she knew right then and there what he was up to. Had all those weeks of hanging out really just been a front for him trying to cop a feel? Or had he suddenly looked at her and realized he found her sexy?
She had rather liked the feel of his arm around her and didn’t protest when he clumsily tried to kiss her.
From that moment on, whene
ver they met at the park, they went into the woods and found a place to make out.
As the weeks went by, they went a little further with their petting. One day, he tried to slip his hands down her jeans. She pushed him away.
“No... I don’t think we should do that,” she said.
“Why not? I just want to feel you.”
“I just don’t feel like we should,” she said.
His face fell, and he turned grumpily away from her.
“I thought you liked me.”
“I do like you. I just don’t think... I mean, we’re not going steady or anything, are we?”
“No.”
“I mean, you don’t even talk to me at school except in the classes we have together.”
Jimmy nodded.
It was true.
In the hallways, when they passed each other and Madeline said hi, Jimmy pointedly looked the other way. As if he were embarrassed to be seen talking to her. She wasn’t cool. She wasn’t popular.
And she was beginning to wonder if she was his dirty little secret.
They decided to go their separate ways that night, and she thought that was the end of it. However, the next day, it was apparent that some sort of rumor was going around about her. The other kids whispered and pointed at her when she walked down the hall.
Finally, she managed to get the truth from her friend Maria. They were standing at their lockers, juggling books and tugging out papers.
“What is going on?” she asked as a group of girls catcalled her in passing. There was whispering and an eruption of giggles. Madeline scowled and stared at Maria.
“Maria, tell me what you know. It’s only fair,” she demanded.
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