The Witch and the Stag

by Victoria Rogers

  “The Frisbee really got you, didn’t it?” His fingers brushed the bruise lightly.

  “Mmm-hmm,” she got out. He wore a wonderful cologne, not too overpowering as she found most to be. His boldness, while a bit frightening, was boiling hot. Hoo boy, Maddy. Get it together.

  “Is he gone?” Frisbee guy whispered.

  Maddy glanced over his shoulder. Her would-be suitor was sidling away toward the other end of the bar. “Yes, he’s gone.”

  Regretfully, Frisbee guy pulled away. He waved at the bartender who immediately began pouring a glass of bourbon. Top shelf. Maddy arched a brow. The bar had only just opened, and he was already a regular, was he?

  “Do you always perform exorcisms in the park?”

  Maddy choked on her beer. “Only at lunch,” she said, wiping her mouth with the napkin she had been using as a coaster.

  Her remark got the hoped-for laugh. “I’m really sorry about that. I hope the ghost didn’t get away.”

  “Poltergeist,” she corrected automatically. “And no. I got it before the uhh… incident.”

  “I’m glad. Even so, I know that would have been a rude awakening coming into your body like that. I’m really sorry. The least I can do is get you another beer.”

  So, he knew about astral projection. Maybe there was more to Frisbee guy than she’d originally thought. She was just about to focus on his aura when a light through the front window caught her eye.

  “What the --” She squinted past the patrons and watched in horror as a flashlight, or something like it, flashed in the paned windows of her store. “Someone’s in my shop!”

  She shoved her e-reader in her bag and hopped off the stool.

  Frisbee guy grabbed her arm. “You can’t just go over there. What if they’re armed?”

  “So what? That’s my store they’ve broken into. It’s probably just kids.” She pulled her arm out of his loose grip and rushed toward the exit.

  “I’m coming with you,” he said.

  Fine. Whatever. He could come in handy. She wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

  She marched out the front door, across the cobbled street, and straight to her shop door. The window was dark. She fumbled for her keys and unlocked the entrance. Strange. No sign of a forced entry from the front. Maybe they came in through the back of her office?

  Maddy took in a sharp breath from her nose, steeling herself for what was to come. Frisbee guy’s presence reassured her as she wasn’t going into this alone.

  She threw open the door and hit the light switch. “Got you!” she yelled, not really knowing what she was saying. Got you? What are you doing, playing peekaboo?

  There was nothing there. Not a thing was out of place.

  “What the hell? I swear someone was in here.” She walked to the back and hit the switch in her office. The office door was bolted as usual. No one there either. Well, this was embarrassing. She turned around and faced Frisbee guy. What was his name, anyway?

  Blushing, she shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. Someone was in here.”

  He smiled and stood aside for her to pass him in the doorway. Her hip brushed his thigh. She felt the heat rush up to her cheeks.

  “I believe you,” he said.

  “Even when the evidence says otherwise?”

  Something whizzed by their heads. A cellophane-wrapped tarot deck crashed into the doorframe.

  An ethereal and raspy hiss filled the room. A light flashed near the standing display of a selection of tarot and oracle decks. “Wiiiiitchhhhhhh!”

  Another tarot deck went flying toward them. Frisbee guy was ready this time. He pulled her against him just as the deck would have connected with her head. She felt his chest expand as he filled his lungs with air.

  “BEGONE!” he boomed, throwing out his hand toward the poltergeist. His hand glowed a pale yellow for a moment before a rush of light radiated from his palm.

  The poltergeist squealed and fled through the window in a brownish flicker. Maddy swore it was the same poltergeist she had banished in the park. But it had worked! Her exorcisms always worked. Maybe being hit in the head had interrupted things after all.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded into his chest. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

  “Good,” he said resting his hands on her shoulders and gently separating the two of them.

  She shook her head. “Who are you? What was that? Not the poltergeist, I mean what you did. That wasn’t witchcraft.” That was some powerful magic he had demonstrated. She would have needed to complete a ritual in order to have done what he did with one command.

  His phone buzzed. He glanced at the name on the screen and chuckled. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to get back. You’ll be safe. It won’t come back. Not for a while, at least.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He slipped out a card with his thumb and pressed it into her hand.

  “Thank you for the interesting evening,” He paused as he picked up one of her business cards from the holder next to the cash register, “Madeline. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again.”

  Bewildered, Maddy looked down at the card in her hand. Cedric Bligh, Fox and the Stag, owner. And that was definitely a cell phone number.

  Chapter Two

  Cedric Bligh closed the door of Cerridwen behind him with a slow exhale, wind chimes tinkling. He did everything in his power to keep himself from leaning against the glass-paned door and to keep walking.

  I’m sure we’ll run into each other again? Really? Those had been his parting words with the most electric woman he’d ever met? He’d been so terrified of saying the wrong thing, so he’d exchanged business cards. Business cards, Cedric? C’mon, man. Great. Now she -- Madeline -- was going to think he only wanted to be the friendly neighborhood business owner.

  Cedric waited as a large group of pedestrians wandered down the street before he crossed.

  Gods, she is hot. Smokin’ hot. The way he could see the silhouette of her body when the light hit her white dress just the right way… He couldn’t help himself. That long neck of hers exposed with her hair braided up and around her head. She was elegant. Ethereal. Beautiful.

  A group of cyclists came around the corner and he waited for them too. Truth be told, he was taking his time getting back to the bar. He needed to compose himself. Having her pressed up against him like that had been… Deep breaths, man. Cool it. He could still feel the spot where her face had been pressed into his chest.

  Not only was she attractive, but she was a witch of the old country. With hair like that and the last name of McKinley she had to be. He had watched her at the park, preparing her spell. Her ritual reminded him of his aunts which was why he had paid attention to her.

  He’d felt the poltergeist’s presence for the past few days whenever he walked by, but it hadn’t actively been doing anything but lurking, so he let it be. But a witch of the old country protected her community. Her role was to ensure her community was safe, secure, and in balance. He loved this section of downtown Serenity. It was vibrant, green, and quiet. This sense of balance was why he’d opened his business here.

  It was also why he hit her with the Frisbee. He was too focused on what Madeline had been doing and realizing how lucky this neighborhood was to have her, that when he threw it, he’d been looking straight at her. Gods, it had walloped her. He winced at the memory and mentally batted it away into the sun.

  At least he’d managed to keep her safe this time around. The poltergeist wouldn’t be coming back to her shop any time soon. The residual magic from his burst of energy would keep it away. Cedric ran a hand through his mid-length brown hair and pulled it into a bun with the elastic around his wrist. He probably went a little overboard with the magic thing. He used up quite a bit of his reservoir, and he would need to let it build up again before he would have the power to do much. His power was flashy, yes, but in limited supply. He could train to hold more the way an opera singer learned to use all of their lungs, bu
t it had never been something he pursued.

  Yeah, he was a godling, but so what? So were a whole bunch of other people. He did what he could for his community, much like a solitary witch, but he had no ambitions to save the world. He preferred a much simpler -- and low key -- life. Anonymity suited him, unlike some of his divine siblings. They could have the attention. He was happy with a few restaurants. And a sexy witch across the street.

  Pedestrians and cyclists passed, he crossed the street and smiled at the patrons seated on the small three-tabled patio. “Glad you could make it!” he said when one of them waved.

  He pulled open the door of Fox and the Stag and hurried to help Kaylee behind the bar. The place was packed. No wonder she’d texted him.

  “Sorry to interrupt, lover boy, but Sasha called in sick,” Kaylee said as she punched in an order into a tablet.

  Cedric glanced at her as he washed his hands. “Hey. ’Nough of that.”

  Kaylee laughed. “Everyone saw how you were looking at her. Witch, huh? Never took you for the type. Wonder who she got in a fight with, though.”

  “Leave it, Kaylee, and get that man down there a drink.”

  “Right, boss.” She laughed again before she greeted the customer at the end of the bar.

  Everyone? Shit.

  * * *

  “He just gave you his card and walked out? Swoon!” Felicity closed her eyes, tilted her head back and clasped her hands to her chest. She held the pose for a moment to dramatic effect. “Seriously, though,” she said while leaning against the office doorframe, “you gonna text him?”

  Maddy looked up from her end of month accounting. “I dunno.”

  “You don’t know?!” Felicity threw her hands up in the air. “You’re hopeless. Maddy, please, text him. Gimme your phone, I’ll do it for you.”

  “Oh, No, you don’t!” Maddy cried, scrambling to grab her phone from atop her file inbox before Felicity did. She snatched it from Felicity’s manicured hands just in time. “If I text him, and that’s an if, I will do it on my own terms, thank you very much.”

  The wind chimes at the front door jingled. Felicity frowned down at Maddy behind her desk. “Ok. Fine. But don’t think this is over.”

  Maddy got up and shooed Felicity out of her office. “Customers. Your job, remember?”

  Maddy shut the door behind her nosey employee and sighed. Cedric. Cedric Bligh. Of course, his name was Cedric Bligh. Look at him with his square jaw, high cheekbones, and hair that framed his face. Cedric fucking Bligh.

  And a business card? That was far too suave for her. The way he slid it out with his thumb, it had been so practiced, smooth. He probably gave those cards out a dime a dozen.

  She sat down at her desk and stared at the inventory list. She’d dreamed about him last night after she had finished tidying the thrown tarot decks and gone back up to her loft. She blushed at the memory and buried her face behind paperwork. It’d been hot, steamy, and featured blindfolds, hair pulling, and filthy language. She had immediately opened her bedside table drawer upon waking, fingers reaching for her vibrator.

  It was infuriating. Why were good-looking men always so damned… predictable? She stabbed her index finger at some numbers on her calculator. He owned a bar of all things. That meant he was outgoing, fun, and surrounded by women. All her alarm bells were going off when it came to Cedric Bligh. But why did her mind keep going back to him?

  The door opened and Felicity stood there. “Just looking,” she said waving her hand at the departing customers. She sat down on the corner of Maddy’s desk. “Wonder what he is. If he’s not a warlock, what is he? Not a were, ’cause they don’t have that kind of magic. Vamp? He does own a bar. No. He was out at the park during the day. Huh.” Felicity tapped her bottom lip.

  That was something Maddy had wondered about. She’d gone through the entire list and the only thing she thought fit was godling. Maybe demon-touched, but she doubted it. She wondered which god was part of his parentage. Gods rarely raised their mortal children. That responsibility fell on the mortal parent.

  “But then there’s this deal with the poltergeist,” Felicity was saying. “I think its haunting you.”

  Maddy shuffled some pages. By the gods, she didn’t want to do this right now. “I did try to banish it.”

  “I wonder what it’s going to do next. Bide its time until Cedric’s residual power wears off? And then what? What if it tries to suffocate you in your sleep?”

  “That’s not how poltergeists work, Felicity.” It was concerning, however, this being haunted by a poltergeist thing. Numbers flashed on her computer screen. It was no use. She couldn’t focus on accounting. She closed her books and logged off. “I’m done for the day. I’m going upstairs.”

  It was Felicity’s turn to sigh. “Fine. Have a good one,” she pouted.

  Maddy left the store, entered the recessed doorway next to it, and climbed up the stairs that led to her home, closing and locking the metal gate behind her. Yoga. Then shower. That was what she needed.

  She moved toward the old wooden screen she had inherited from her grandmother and disrobed. She grabbed leggings and a sports bra from her dresser.

  Why was she being haunted by a poltergeist? They usually didn’t jump from place to place like this one did. It had showed up in the neighborhood park a few days ago. It hadn’t done anything yet, but she preferred being proactive. If she could bring it rest, then she was going to do it. Nothing in her experience had ever followed her around like this.

  She pulled her mint green high-rise leggings up past her thighs. And it kept accusing her of being a witch as if it were a bad thing. What did the poltergeist have against witches? Witches protected communities. Well, at least those of her heritage did. What was there to dislike?

  Witch hunts still happened from time to time by overzealous whatever they were, but the last hunt had been nearly a century ago, and even then that one had been short-lived and never gained much traction. This poltergeist was old, then. She wondered why it had only now resided in her area of practice.

  Maddy climbed into the matching compression sports bra with cute cutouts and picked up her yoga mat. She sprayed it with her favorite focusing blend of essential oils and laid it down on the ground.

  But why her? Sure, she had tried to banish it, but normally if an exorcism didn’t work it stayed in place. This one was an enigma. Perhaps it was a known entity in Serenity?

  She tapped the screen of her phone and set the parameters of her yoga session. Thirty minutes, core strength focus, strings and piano music accompaniment.

  She stretched out into child’s pose and focused on her breathing for a few breaths before the subject of the poltergeist came floating back. There were the generational journals. She had some of them, not all. She shared the library with her mother, Aunt Vivian, and Aunt Bridgette.

  She moved from child’s pose and leaned forward into puppy dog pose.

  Maybe the journals had something in them she could use. A large chunk of her family was from Serenity, after all.

  She missed the pose transition and hurried into downward facing dog. Focus, Maddy. Focus. It’s just you and the breath. She pushed the thoughts of poltergeists and hot godlings from her mind and focused on breathing into the movements.

  * * *

  Yoga had done wonders to clear her head. She was much calmer and collected after coming out of a three-minute corpse pose. Hot and sweaty, she reached for her water bottle with the phases of the moon on it only to find it missing. Damn it. She’d left it downstairs.

  She picked up her keys and went down the stairs two steps at a time. She could hear Felicity flirting with someone long before she saw her.

  “Oh? I love that, too! How serendipitous,” came Felicity’s purr from behind a stand of Japanese resin incense.

  Maddy stopped dead in her tracks when she rounded the corner. There was Felicity smiling and fluttering her long lashes at Cedric who held a basket on one arm.

  Cedri
c startled at her appearance. “Madeline! There you are. Felicity here was just telling me that you had finished for the day.”

  “I did, just came to grab my water bottle. Felicity, meet Cedric. Cedric, I see you’ve met Felicity.” Maddy said, stuck in position. All she could think of is how bad she probably smelled, how much her core was fatigued, and the trail of boob sweat on her sports bra.

  Felicity’s eyes went wide. “Cedric? Oh, yes! I’ve heard all about you.”

  Maddy felt her face flush. “I believe there are other customers who need attention.” She regretted that the moment it came out of her mouth.

  “Uhh… No one else is here,” Felicity said, her voice dripping with thinly-veiled interest.

  Maddy gritted her teeth.

  “I, uh --” Cedric cut in, turning to face Maddy, “-- am here for two reasons. One, you left your credit card at the bar last night, and two, I was wondering if you had eaten. Picnic at the park?”

  Maddy’s heart melted as he lifted the wicker basket up. One, who had wicker baskets these days? Two, how could a player be so damn sweet?

  “She hasn’t eaten, and she’d love to,” Felicity filled in for her.

  Cedric smiled. “Great. I’m ready if you are.”

  “Oh, now? I should probably shower.”

  Cedric waved his hand. “You look fine. I can’t smell you from here, I promise.” A strand of hair had fallen out of the elastic and was in his eyes.

  Maddy pursed her lips for a moment. Fine. What the hell. You only lived once. “Ok. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Three

  He even brought a blanket. The food was from the deli down the street -- a selection of salads, cheese, olives, and lunch meat, plus an olive oil and vinegar bread dip with a fresh baguette from Stephan’s Bakery. There was even a bottle of sparkling water to wash it all down.

  Maddy lounged on one hip and reached for another piece of feta.