by Sandra Ross
He gathered her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “Calm down, baby.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “We’ll just go down and greet the inconsiderate bastards!”
LOLA STALKED toward the door with Marcus trailing after her. They found their way back down to the main floor’s sitting room.
Her anger was almost palpable by the time she stormed into the room to find thirteen men and women warming themselves by the fire and drinking tea. Marcus’ staff was doing a perfect job, it seemed.
“What the hell do you people think you’re doing?” Lola demanded. “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re on our honeymoon. There’s nothing so urgent that it couldn’t have waited until we returned. My husband and I are not at your beck and call!” She steamed even more after her eyes focused on Adair. “By the way, Adair, Marcus is my husband and not fair game to you so you can just stop looking at him as if you’re planning to devour him. It is not going to happen.”
Adair was one of the younger members of The Council and she was quite attractive. It was also clear that she had taken a shine to Marcus almost immediately upon meeting him. Lola had done her best to ignore it, but the witch was becoming more open about her intentions all the time.
Adair flinched a little at her look, then continued to sip her tea as if she had not heard anything. She wore a haughty look on her face.
“Lola, my dear,” Augusta, one of the older witches, said in a soothing voice, “we do apologize for intruding on your private time together. You must believe that we would never have done so if there was any other way. But it is vital that we speak with you both right now. Please sit down and listen to what we have to say.”
There was something about the tone Augusta used that caused Lola and Marcus both to sit down on the love seat. Marcus took Lola’s hand in his and they turned their attention to Augusta.
“I’m not sure if you know this or not, but The Council is a rather new ruling regime, even though it’s been in place for over a hundred years. This wasn’t something that any of us wanted, but it became necessary. The rulers of the past were always a King and Queen who were true soul mates and had found each other through various lifetimes.”
Upon hearing that, she and Marcus threw a look at each other. They knew this. Didn’t the Council know that they remembered this from their past? Their royal lives had happened so long ago, though, that it had become almost insignificant.
But Augusta continued on talking and they both looked back at her.
“However, finding true soul mates has started to become more difficult and we could not be left without a ruling body in place,” Augusta continued. “Now that the two of you have found each other, we would like to step down and have you both take your rightful place as rulers of the magical world of witches.”
Chapter Ten
BOTH MARCUS AND LOLA were speechless.
Of all things that they thought The Council wanted, this was not one of them. They could not seem to respond with anything except an open-mouthed stare. Were they serious?!
Finally, Marcus found his voice.
“Augusta, you surely know what a huge surprise this is to both Lola and myself. Obviously, we’re honored that you would bring this to us, but I believe I speak for both of us when I say that we’re not interested in taking on something of this magnitude just now.”
Or ever, Lola silently added.
“You do not understand, Marcus,” Augusta replied. “There really is no choice involved. The two of you must do this and we are here to turn over our duties to you.” The older woman sighed heavily, and talked further in a grave voice. “There is something else of great importance that you both need to know.”
Lola sighed impatiently. “What is it, Augusta?” she asked in a tone that said they were willing to hear it, but they would not tolerate more than that.
Augusta sighed, too. “Something very bad is headed our way. None of us have been able to see clearly what it is, but we have all felt its hatred towards us and the evil it intends to use. The only way that we can successfully defeat it is through the union of our new King and Queen. There is much strength between the two of you, even if you aren’t aware of it just yet. It is this strength that will defeat this evil.”
Lola laughed. She really could not believe the gall! “Are you freaking kidding us, Augus—“ But she suddenly stopped because Marcus put a restraining hand at her arm. She turned to him to see him looking at Augusta with concentration on his face.
“I think I know what she’s saying, Lola. I’ve been feeling it, too, for a long time now. It’s like a shadow… a gathering storm. But I can’t tell what it is. It’s like I’m missing a piece of a puzzle…” He was frowning heavily, looking very worried. Then he looked at the others. “How bad are your symptoms?” he asked.
At Marcus’ question, Lola gasped. Augusta was using magic to send pictures to their heads. They were both silent and were suddenly chilled to their souls as they saw the lifeless eyes in the images: dead bodies; fog; electricity in the air. It was bad magic. And it had killed a number of magical beings, even non-humans who were also magical. Elves… fairies… and unicorns!
Lola was shivering. The chill was now a physical manifestation. She looked at Marcus’s pale face. She knew he was remembering their past lives as King and Queen, and the knowledge gained from those lives told them both that there was no other choice.
They needed to rule, or many more would die.
They could not live with themselves if that happened, because they were supposed to protect them. It was the honor and duty of soul mates, to serve the weak.
They looked at each other. Without any need for words, they nodded.
“We accept,” Lola said, her voice still trembling because of what she had seen.
“We accept our new responsibilities and will lead the fight in defeating whatever is coming,” Marcus repeated.
Everyone sighed in relief. That is when they realized that the members, except maybe for Adair, truly respected their honeymoon, because after having gotten what they came for, they quickly departed, with apologetic promises to visit the next day to begin their searching and planning.
How could they protest? Lola was seeing those chilling lifeless eyes in her head again. The sooner they started working, the more lives would be spared.
Holding his wife as they both sat in the love seat in front of the fire, Marcus felt something he could not remember ever having experienced. He felt protective of Lola. She was his life now and he would do whatever it took to protect her.
Lola was having similar feelings. Even though she had been hiding her powers for many years, she knew that they were strong—possibly stronger than Marcus’s since he had just come into his own.
Together, they could do this. Whatever evil was headed their way, she knew without a doubt that she and Marcus could lead a successful fight against it.
Marcus and Lola kissed deeply and knew that that their love could carry them through anything.
~ ~ ~ ~
Continue with Soul Mates Cry (Witching Call Part 3)...
If you like this book, you'll also like Soul Mates Cry (Witching Call 3):
How can You Make a Soul Mate Cry?
Hurt One, and Hurt the Other, of Course!
The enemy wanted to destroy the Soul Mates. As King and Queen of magical witches, Marcus and Lola were powerful together but worthless apart. So he planted a traitor deep in the Council. He knew that to hurt one would be to hurt the other. Destroy them by making one forget...
When Marcus lost memory of his wife, Lola tried everything to get him to remember her. Not only was evil on its way to destroy the world, she could not live without the love of her soul mate! He has to remember what they were to each other. She'd tried everything! With the darkness looming over them and the world, she has to get him back. But how?
Then she realized she still hasn't tried everything. There's still one thing... weren't they on their honeymoon? And didn't Mar
cus want it to always be... spontaneous?
So what the hell was she waiting for?
Unravel more of this fascinating story, continue reading Soul Mates Cry (Witching Call Part 3)...
~ ~ ~ ~
Craving more fantastic books?
I recommend reading these related ebooks, available on Amazon:
Soul Mates Kiss (Witching Call 1)
Soul Mates Cry (Witching Call Part 3)
Soul Mates Rise (Witching Call Part 4)
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Chapter One
“BE VERY careful with it,” Silver cautioned the moving men as they made their way up the staircase with her antique full length mirror. This was a true rare find even if she did say so herself and she wasn’t about to let it crash into thousands of little pieces. She still wasn’t sure why her aunt had been so against her buying this mirror but it didn’t matter. It was hers and was about to be installed in her bedroom.
Things had really been moving fast for Silver ever since she and Austin had broken up. It had taken her a very long to realize just what an energy vampire he was. The entire time they had been together, she had always been the one that had to keep the relationship going. He had no motivation for anything, it seemed, other than playing video games and reading conspiracy theories online. He read these theories on the Internet that she paid for and played the video games on a big screen television that she had also paid for.
Eventually, she decided that it wasn’t enough for him to work a little part time job that didn’t even go to help pay the bills. He used his small amount of money to buy personal things only for himself. Then, it had become a chore to get him interested in having sex with her. That was when Silver decided that enough was enough. She hated that she had wasted so many years on him, but she was too young to start having a serious relationship with her shower massager.
Of course, Austin had no clue what he was doing wrong. That much had been expected. She was so tired it of all by then that she didn’t even bother to try to explain it to him. He wanted to know what he was supposed to do. Well, if she had to make a list of what was expected in a relationship, what was the point? He was cute enough that he wouldn’t have any trouble finding someone else to take him in, at least until he started showing his true colors.
Silver had actually been the one to move out of their small apartment. She was ready for more room in her life and that included renting an older home on the outskirts of town. It had been remodeled but still carried the charm of being built in the last 1800’s. It had two stories plus a basement and came with three acres of land, one of which had been turned into a beautifully landscaped garden. There was also a swimming pool with a pool house a little ways from the house.
She had fallen in love with this house as soon as she set eyes on it. While the house wasn’t exactly in the center of town, she had a country setting without being too far away from everything she needed. There were plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms so that when she wanted to entertain, she could do it in style.
Yeah, she thought as she looked around as what she had been able to do with the place, Austin would have loved it here. That only made her laugh in delight at what she had taken away from him. She really must invite him to one of her parties so that he could drool in envy.
At the moment, though, Silver had her hands full with getting her mirror safely upstairs and set up in her bedroom. As she guided the men carrying her mirror all the way up the stairs and down the hall into the master bedroom. She showed them the space that she had picked out for the mirror to set and supervised as they put it carefully into place. When she was satisfied that it was just the way she wanted it, she paid the men and sent them on their way.
Now that she was alone with the mirror, she sat on the end of her bed and stared into it.
Silver couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Something had spoken to her about this mirror the instant she had spotted it in the old antique shop. There was a luminescence to her reflection when she looked into the mirror. It was almost as if there was something a little extra, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Now, though, she had all the time in the world to look at it and study it to figure out what was so different about this mirror.
This mirror brought a sense of peace and well-being to Silver as she looked at her reflection. There were other things in the mirror, though.
For just a brief second, she could have sworn that she was looking at the reflection of totally different room.
It was still her bedroom but it had different furniture in it; older furniture.
Then she blinked and everything was as it had been. Shaking her head to clear it, she laughed a little at herself.
She might just be seeing too much from a moment of daydreaming and imagination.
Chapter Two
JUST THEN, her front doorbell pealed through the house.
Jumping up, Silver hurried down the hallway and then down the staircase. Through the glass windows of her door she could see a man standing there.
She went to open the door and he smiled at her.
That smile was a dazzling one and turned him into the most handsome man she had ever seen. When he turned those emerald green eyes on her, she nearly melted right there on the spot.
“Hi,” she said. “Can I help you with something?”
“If your name is Silver, then I might just be able to help you with something,” he replied.
“I’m intrigued,” she laughed. “Keep talking.”
“I suppose I should introduce myself,” he said, joining her in laughing. “My name is Colton Pierce and I saw your ad for a landscaper.”
“It’s great to meet you, Colton,” Silver said. “So you’re a landscaper?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” he replied. “It started out as a pretty serious hobby and then I decided that it was what I wanted to do all the time. If you need references, I’ll be happy to supply you with some.”
“References? Oh, I’m sure I don’t need any of those,” Silver laughed. “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll talk about it?”
Stepping aside, she allowed plenty of room for Colton to enter her impressive foyer. His face had the appropriate expression on his face as he took in the décor. She had to smile as she always did when someone saw her house for the first time. It gave her a feeling of satisfaction to know that her home was a place of beauty, amazement and peace.
“Would you like a tour?” she asked Colton.
“I would love one another time, if you don’t mind. It does look remarkable just from here. But I have an appointment I need to make as soon as we’ve spoken about the job.”
“Ah, ok, that’s fine. Why don’t we go through here, then, and you can see exactly what’s involved?” Silver said as she led Colton down the hall and through to the back entrance. “I hope you don’t find it to be too much to take on. I was really hoping to get it restored to its former glory.”
“Well, let’s have a look,” he said and smiled that amazing smile once more.
Silver
was very pleased to see the look on Colton’s face as he surveyed her garden. He didn’t speak for a full two minutes. She took that a very good sign so she remained quiet while he took it all in. Finally, he turned to her.
“Do you know what a phenomenal garden you have here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I kind of have an idea,” she said trying not to sound smug. “As you can see, there’s mostly maintenance involved but I don’t really want to take a chance on things getting out of hand. The one thing that I would like to add is a gazebo, but the rest of it doesn’t need any changes.”
He was nodding as she talked and looking around as if still taking stock of her lovely garden. She could almost see the wheels turning in his brain as he surveyed the area.
“I completely agree!” he said. “There’s nothing here that needs changed at all. As for the gazebo, I think that’s a great idea, depending on where you want to put it. I can actually do that for you.”
“Really?” Silver exclaimed. “I was worried that I was going to have to find some builders to do that for me. But if you can look after my garden as well as build a gazebo; that would be completely perfect!”
“So does that mean I’m hired?” Colton asked, smiling.
“Absolutely! I would be a fool to turn down such ability. Let’s go inside and talk terms.”
After coming to an agreement on a fair rate for them both, Colton got to his feet.
“I hate to rush off like this, but I really do need to make this appointment. I’ll be by tomorrow afternoon if that’s ok and get started with some of the weeding and sectioning off. We can also talk about the best place for that gazebo you want.”
“I would love that! I’m really so excited to get this going. I’ve always wanted a gazebo. This one needs to be special, though, so that I can spend lots of time in it.”