“His daughter winning the cup this year brought it all home. Oh, and the heavenly host may not have wanted to be tagged ‘stingy’. They would prefer that tag to be remain with the other side.”
“The dark side, you mean?”
“Hmm. Anyway, Gaea was petitioned to provide a sanctuary of sorts for Samael and his family. Samael will be able to appear in human form at the Two Witches whenever he wants.” Teddy looks down at me. “Apparently Gaea agreed, but said that there would be conditions, a price has to be paid. Do you know anything about that?”
I look over at the pub with my mother and father still in each other’s arms. “Thanatos Moerae,” I whisper to Teddy.
For a second he looks up to the sky, and then he slowly nods his head, as though some rough understanding of what that title would mean had just been given to him. He looks very serious for a moment, but then he smiles at me. “This will be your family’s sanctuary too, somewhat like Pulania’s home is, there will be magikal protections for you all here.”
We walk down to where the others are in front of the pub. They’re sitting around one of the outdoor tables now, and I notice something as I get a bit closer. Both Jonathon and Samael have daiquiris with little umbrellas in them. I smile at that.
“We should go inside now that we’re all here. We have a table waiting.” Teddy gathers us all up and we head inside to the bar.
We pause as we come in through the entrance. The walls are freshly painted, the floors have been freshly polished and there’s new furniture about.
“Pretty sweet compared to before,” Susan comments as we come in.
“Good music too,” Pulania adds.
Teddy takes us over to a table near the bar. But I do a double take, Josh is there minding the table for all of us.
“What the feck?”
“It’s alright Amura, he’s one of my henchies,” Master tells me.
“What?”
“A daiquiri, Miss Amura?” It’s the barman, Roger.
“Oh, ah yes, thanks,” I’m a bit distracted by the Josh revelation, but manage to remember to comment on the place. “By the way, nice clean up job.” I’m wondering where he dumped the bodies.
“Roger! Good man, can you please bring Miss. Amura that piece of paper we talked about,” Teddy adds.
“Sure thing, Master.” Roger takes everyone else’s order and rushes back to the bar.
I eye off Teddy, I always thought he had that name for a reason.
When my daiquiri arrives the mysterious piece of paper is placed in front of me. “But… this is a building title, and it’s in Pulania and my names?”
Master is smiling at me. “It seems that the Black Rose is owned by two witches.”
“Really?” Pulania asks.
“Yes, the heavenly host thought that it would be better if the ownership were legalised rather than…”
“Hey, we took ownership by blood and sweat, it was perfectly good evil doing, we already owned the place by right of conquest.” Pulania almost seems huffy. “Still, it’s nice to have the legalities looked after.”
“Hmm, it seems it’s going to take a bit more than a piece of paper to get on Pulania’s good side,” Teddy whispers in my ear.
“Yeah, she’s being quite stubborn,” I whisper back. “I’m not sure what you can do to break down that wall.”
“I have one last shot for tonight.”
What does he mean? I’m looking at him, but he’s not giving, he just nods to the stage at the other end of the room from the bar.
“Oh, a live band.”
“From Britain.”
Pulania has taken notice now, we watch as the band sets up.
“Who are they?” Pulania asks. “That’s not, no it couldn’t be? Hang on, I know who that is.”
“This one goes out to me mate, Theo,” the lead calls out from the stage. “He wants this song dedicated to the two owners of the Black Rose, so here’s to the lovely owners, Amura and Pulania.”
“Oh my God, it is him. That’s Billy Idol.”
“No, you’re kidding.” Both Pulania and I are on our feet.
“I’m sure of it,” Pulania asserts.
And then Mony Mony starts.
“How did you organise this?” I ask Teddy, but it’s a rhetorical question, Pulania, Gil, Susan and I are up and headed to the front to dance with the crowd. Well done Mr. Master, he may just have succeeded in breaking down that wall. As I look back I can see the smirk on his face, well ficketty feck, you needn’t be so smug about it.
As Pulania is bouncing beside me I’m watching Teddy with a return smirk. “Look down,” I mouth to him and I point downward as well. It was a bit evil of me, but I left the pee and see test strip in front of him before I got up. Humph, we’ll see how he takes being a father.
The daiquiri spray that’s just erupted from his mouth was to die for.
I turn and join the others in dance, another bit of evil doing having been done. Now you needn’t look at me strange like that, evil witch, remember? It’s what I am. Evils gotta do what evils gotta do.
Don’t stop now, now come on Mony! I say yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
About the Author
Scott Butcher is a Canadian/Australian author. Born in Australia to Canadian parents, Scott spent much of his youth between the two countries. He settled in Australia for a while, but in search of new adventure, after over 30 years in Australia, he returned to Canada in 2009 with his wife and three children.
As well as ‘Ficketty Feck’ Scott has also written ‘The Soul of Nemach’ series as an independent author. The styles of all the books he writes are quite different, so don’t be too surprised. He writes by compulsion.
He also has some children’s books: ‘The Fairly Stillwart Chronicles’ and An Eagle’s Heart’. Both published by Morning Rain Publishing (see http://morningrainpublishing.com/ ).
All these books are available through links at Scott’s website at http://www.scottiesbooks.com/ .
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