“You get a seeking potion instead.” Susan finished her sisters sentence with a gasp, holding her hand over her mouth. She was obviously shaken by this new realization.
“Not only that, but you get a pure seeking potion that takes you directly to your one true love.” Emma giggled again, obviously happy that her realization had been confirmed by her sister. “No wonder you put a “Do not disturb” sign on the cash register, Sue. That potion is infamous for some pretty intense fireworks between the couple when they do finally meet.”
Emma laughed again and continued on in her dialogue. “And if your true love just happened to be right in front of you when you drank that potion, well, I’m not surprised at all that you two were… well, busy last night.” Emma turned back to look at Charles again. “Well, Charles, it sure is nice to finally meet you, my new brother in law to be!”
“Emma! I can’t believe that you just said that.” Susan chastised, but Emma was too giddy to control herself.
“I will take care of the shop today, Sue. Don’t worry about it at all. And when things do calm down a bit up here, maybe you can take the time to brew me up some of that potion too, huh? Plus, I need to go and correctly label the bottles of that batch you’ve already created before they get mixed up somehow. We don’t need any more magical drama anytime soon I think!”
Still laughing, Emma turned and went back down the stairs, giggling the whole way, leaving the bemused couple standing together in the doorway of Susan’s small apartment. Needless to say, Charles looked more than just a little bit confused as he stood there with her. Not only was his mind still racing with the desire to be with her right now and thinking about the events of their night before, but her sister had just declared him a soon to be brother in law. What did she mean by that?
“Um, mm, Susan,” he said softly, his arms still loosely held around her body. “Would you like to explain exactly what you guys were just talking about to me? I’d like the layman’s version, please.”
Susan sighed and turned to face him as she rested her head against his firm chest. She kissed his skin softly, unable to resist doing so when she was so close to it. It was hard to keep a single thought in her head in his presence. She was beginning to feel warm again…
“It’s simple really,” she murmured to him and let her lips travel a path along his chest until she reached his neck. He offered a soft moan at the way she was teasing him. “I just put the wrong ingredient in the love spell by mistake,” she said quietly.
“Okay, so, let me get this straight then so I’ll completely understand what’s going on,” Charles attempted to meet her eyes as he thought out loud to himself. “So first, when I came in and ordered one thing, you gave me the wrong potion. And now you’re telling me, that you put the wrong ingredient in that wrong potion you gave me by mistake to start. Is that correct?” he asked, arching a brow as her lips neared his.
“Yes, uh huh,” she said and kissed him firmly on the lips. He returned her kiss, and for a long moment he forgot that he even had any questions at all. The room began to feel warm to him again and he started to tremble, if ever so slightly. He began pulling her back toward the bedroom again.
Once they got back inside her apartment they locked the door, even if it took a few extra tries, and worked their way to the back once more. The trip seemed to take forever although it was only a few seconds. It wasn’t until the backs of his legs hit the bed, that he remembered enough to surface from his desire and ask her for more information and to fill in the blanks for him.
“Wait, wait, so tell me, Susan, what exactly was the potion I really drank then? What kind of potion was it really?”
“We drank,” she corrected him, and blushed. She knew that all of this was probably very hard for him to understand. “Keep in mind, it’s important for you to remember that we both drank the same potion. That’s a big detail you do not want to forget”.
Susan continued, “The potion We both drank is still a kind of love potion, not a regular love potion, but a more specific kind of love potion. But it is not designed to augment love. It is designed specifically to seek it out love. To seek out your own true love, that is. So when you drink it, then you will be led to your one true love.”
He frowned as he studied her gaze, obviously confused by her explanation. “So, are you saying, that we’ve found each other? That we’re meant to be together? Is that what you mean? Or am I missing something here?”
Susan quietly smiled and nodded her head as she returned his steady, yet confused, gaze. “I might have mixed up the ingredients a little bit, but you must know that the potions always work. Always. And since we had already found each other, because we were standing right in front of each other here in my store, the potion had an even bigger affect on the two of us when it kicked in.”
“I really liked the affect,” he said quietly, and lowered his lips back to hers.
“Are you sure? Really Charles, tell me the truth. I don’t want you to feel trapped or confused in any way by the potions effects.” she whispered and nuzzled his cheek. “You seemed to have a lot of questions and I want to answer them all.”
“The main thing I wanted to know,” he said breathlessly. “Was whether this would wear off or not.”
“No,” Susan replied, her face shining, filled with a smile from ear to ear. “The effects are truly long lasting. It will last a lifetime.” Susan answered, a light blush spreading across her lovely face at the realization of her reply.
Charles chuckled to himself, as he gently guided her down on to the bed next to him. He did not want to miss another moment of being with her, even if they did have a lifetime. “Well, it looks like you were right after all then, Susan.”
Immediately Susan looked over at him with surprise in her eyes as he again began to leave soft kisses all along her collar bone. “What do you mean, Charles?” she asked him, at once confused by his reply. After all, she had been wrong about the potion she gave him, and wrong about the flowers she had dropped into the spell to begin with. Exactly what could she have been right about?
Chuckling, Charles sweetly answered her. “It turns out I did need a love potion after all.” And with that he kissed her once again feeling the warmth of the room rise to match the warmth inside him. She kissed him back with equal parts of agreement, astonishment and acknowledgement.
She would have never realized in a million years that such a series of minor mistakes could so easily have changed her life. And for the better. But she would never want to go back and redo any of the mistakes she had made in the past couple of days. Everything happened exactly as it had for a reason. Now she had Charles in her life. And she knew that it was more than magic that had brought them together – it was love!
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 1)
(Twenty Years Ago)
“4… 3… 2… 1… Ready or not, here I come,” Elizabeth shouted in rhythm, uncovering her eyes to inspect the wooded field ahead. It was a wondrous day to escape the valley where she lived with her aunt and uncle, into the forest for a game of Hide-and-Seek. And this was the last game of the day. The sun was fading in the sky and soon it would be time to retreat indoors for supper and all those last minute bedtime rituals. This was a game they’d always played, just the two of them. Two years apart with only a combined age of 18, Elizabeth and Richard were best friends.
She ran as fast as she could through the twilight forest in the hopes of catching him before her uncle called them in. Her uncle would usually signal the day had come to an end by a shrill whistle made with his lips over his teeth, pressing down on two brawny pinky fingers pushed over top of a curled up tongue, and blowing. It was a shrill sound that seemed to travel for miles and one that she would never mistake. Still, Elizabeth hoped they would be able to finish this game before it was brought to an abrupt stop for the night.
It would not be long before she caught her friend, Rick. His name was really Richard but everybody around here called him Rick. She was already on to
his tracks, even though he would try to cover them up, or create some type of diversion but terribly fail and get tagged. The wooden heels of his leather boots left a perfect trail for about fifty yards, leading directly into an unexplored part of the forest. Well, not unexplored, it was just an uncharted part of the forest to her.
She stopped at their invisible boundary line and observed her surroundings for the first time. There wasn’t anywhere she was not permitted to go as long as she stayed on the trail their house was on, and this area was not of the right course. In fact, she had never ventured past more than an eye full of the land. After twisting her head in every direction, she glanced to the trees and watched as leaves slowly descended, spinning or swaying all around her, the sun hardly visible through all the many tall trees around her, the sounds of the wilderness compelling her to tighten up her hearing senses to focus on finding that one person in particular.
“Where is he”, she thought to herself with a smile, hoping to hear the slightest footfall, stick crack or leaf rustle somewhere nearby. Was he that foolish to disobey their caretakers orders and travel farther than what was permitted? Elizabeth immediately knew the answer to that particular question before it had fully formed in her mind. “Boys!” she murmured under her breath, with just a hint of aggravation in her voice.
His tracks led into the unknown wild just beyond the path she now stood upon. But wait! Hang on. Okay, now she could see where the tracks really stopped. His tracks had completely vanished after about five steps inside the uncharted new land ahead of her. She thought it was possible that he stepped back over them in reverse and that maybe he was just getting smarter and learned how to cover his tracks now. But she couldn’t just stand there, the sun was fading fast and she was determined to catch him before it was too late.
She turned back to where she had entered the area and couldn’t see the stables, let alone their house. Her uncle would be furious if he knew where she was right now. She could not see anything but woods, with the all too familiar trees closing in on her – she wondered to herself what she might have to do next if she didn’t fine Rick fast. Curiosity killed the cat but what’s wrong with a little adventure? Something about the other side of that imaginary line enthralled her enough to finally raise a foot to make that first step into the unfamiliar woods.
As her foot hit the softness of the Earth’s green mossy hair, the sounds of a snicker was captured by her right ear, jerking her attention to the treetops in that direction. As she was looking upward, a squirrel bounced from one limb to another, disappearing into the nature above her before the sound of a light stomp came from up ahead her, near ground level, and she dropped her sights to see him. He was crouched on one knee and had a flat palm in the grass, with a grin on his face and a childish, boyish glare in his eyes.
Rick’s hair was brown with golden highlights, freshly trimmed and prickly at the ends. He wore a brown leather vest over a white long sleeve button up shirt. His dirty denim jeans were tucked inside his favorite brown buckskin boots. His face was beaded with the first hint of perspiration and his hands were covered in his best work gloves, stained with the soil of many past chores and loads of many long forgotten games played out in the barn and all over their little farm.
Rick must have descended from the trees somehow, but the lowest limbs were more than ten feet above, and he would have definitely hurt himself landing from a drop of that height. But he did it some how, he must have, and in all the Hide-n-Seek games they’ve played before he’s never pulled such a daring stunt with technique of this magnitude. Of course he would sometimes hide in the bushes and skip from tree to tree, cover himself with leaves or throw rocks in opposite directions. But this was an original move for sure. How could any ten year-old complete a ten foot leap without at least one bone being cracked on impact?
Her eyes bugged as she was caught in awe of his incredible accomplishment just now. He didn’t say a word as all these thoughts raced through her mind, but she knew in her heart that this was, indeed, an unusual moment. Just then the shriek of her uncle’s whistle sounded through the last minutes of sundown, and without time to wonder, she rushed toward his echoing whistle with determination still set in her thoughts. She would have to explore this area more later, she thought to herself as she ran toward the house, following the sound of her uncle’s whistle. He had already whistled once – he would have a fit if he had to do it more than twice.
Even so, she still passed the boy, slapping the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re it!” she laughed and picked up the pace before he had the chance to tag her back. Rick turned and chased her toward the house, lowered his brows and flipped her a competitive hand signal to further antagonize her on the course back home. It was more like a race, actually, considering the next game of Hide-and-Seek would be held on pause until the following morning, after the chores were completed and the daily luncheon was held.
Anyone in the area could hear the joyous laughter of them both as they ran, the innocence they exuded and the youth of a boy and girl’s seemingly everlasting friendship and explorations. They laughed and yelled and called out to each other to further egg each other on as they rushed back toward the cabin. He finally caught up to her twenty yards before the clearing. “You didn’t think I would let you cross did you?” he asked in between breaths as they still ran to the house.
She smiled at him in reply. At that very instant a short-lived scream, more like a loud whine or a bird’s final call of the day, arose from somewhere behind her, scaring her into a self-tripping fall. She instinctively grabbed a hold of the boy’s sleeve to help prevent the plunge, taking him down with her as well. After landing atop of her and sharing a brief twinkling of eye contact that could have been their first hint of something more than a friendship developing, he sprung to his feet, swung around to the sound, and reached underneath his shirt to produce a shining dagger.
She had seen the dagger from her place on the ground, jumped to her feet and grabbed his shoulders playfully from behind. She was not frightened any longer. She wanted to see who or what it was that had made the sound, twisting and turning her head in all of the growing nightfall, suddenly feeling protected by the presence of her ally. But he then told her to run, and she did, she ran like the wind while he lagged behind a few steps.
Her uncle’s whistle once more filled the air. This second whistle was the last he would make before he got really angry with the children. And they both knew it. So they sped up their race doing their best to at least get within an eyes view of their home before whistle number three was made. They definitely did not want a third whistle spoiling an otherwise great day. Upon returning home, he told her, “That sound you heard back there – it was nothing… only a hawk’s calling through the night.”
But could it have been more, she wondered to herself? What did Rick mean by all that back there? And how did he know she had heard something? The more she thought about it, the more curious she became about their most recent adventure. But for now, it was time to wash up, eat supper and do a few more last minute things before bedtime. Soon enough she would soon let her curiosity take her on a fantastic adventure as she slept safely in her bed.
Book 3: The Master of the Hunt (Chapter 2)
(Present Day)
Elizabeth Fox had always been a horse lover. In fact, even long before her family bought their first horses, many years ago, she would spend hours and hours looking at pictures of them in every book, newspaper or magazine she could find. Everyone in her family knew that one day she would make a fine horsewoman, and she certainly lived up to that and well surpassed all their expectations.
She worked hard learning all she could about horses and eventually bought her own boarding stable. Needless to say, her uncle was so proud of her and her accomplishments. To top it all off, today was a wonderful winter’s day – and an incredible day to take a ride. She sighed happily as her mare’s hoofs crunched through the dry snow as they headed out once again. It was a perfect winter
morning for a trail ride through the snowy forest that lay directly behind her boarding stable.
As usual, she had been the first to arrive at the barn that morning. She and her mare, Braveheart, had managed to tack up and slip out onto the trails long before any of the stable workers arrived to start their morning chores. Elizabeth had ridden these trails easily several hundred times just by herself, but she still enjoyed wandering through each of these meandering paths. She and Braveheart could probably navigate them all blindfolded with one leg tied behind their backs if put to test.
As it were, the winter sun began to rise a bit higher in the cold morning sky, warming the snow. And at that same time an early morning fog began to roll through the woodlands. Absolutely breath taking! Elizabeth loved days like this out on the trails. If only she had thought to have brought her camera along.
Soon the entire forest looked like something out of a dreamy fairytale she remembered from her childhood, or maybe a story in a fairy tale told time and time again. Misty clouds crept through the trees like a stranger in the night and the air hung wet with mist. This was the sort of weather that made you think you could turn around and see a unicorn peeking out from behind a pine at any time. Elizabeth chuckled at her fanciful thinking. Braveheart was the closest thing she would ever see to a unicorn – her beautiful white coat made her an excellent stand in for the mythical creature.
Eventually Elizabeth directed her horse down to the lower path, which would soon lead out of the woods to an open corn field that all the animals seemed to flock to. Perhaps, she thought to herself, visibility would be better in the open there. Elizabeth soon realized her mistake though, as the fog became even heavier about them and made seeing anything around them almost impossible. The clouds of vapor were settling onto the lower ground, making visibility even worse, instead of better. “Bad choice, Elizabeth,” she thought to herself a little bit aggravated.
Vampires, Love Potions and Other Immortals: A Collection of Paranormal Short Stories Page 7