Kiss The Witch Part 37

"Who's f.u.c.ked?" Lilith came back from the bedroom wearing blue jeans, leather boots and a knit top pulled off her shoulders.

"We are. We have no case now."

"You mean the F.B.I. has no case," said Carlos.

"Ah-huh." Lilith tossed her hair back with a flip and pointed at the floor. "What's that?"

I looked down by my feet and saw that familiar blue vein crackling between Ursula and me. Carlos and Spinelli looked, too, but could not see it. I raised my head and my eyes met Lilith's. "Oh, that. Yeah, see that's what I have been trying to tell you."

"Is that a witch's light?"

"It is."

"I see. And you thought you would wait until you f.u.c.ked me four times before telling me."

"No. We only did it three times."

She crossed the floor, stopping within arm's reach of me. I don't know why, but I honestly expected a hug at that point. Goes to show how you never really know a witch. I started to give her my pitiful me look when she hauled back and slapped my face.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d. How could you?"

"Lilith. I'm sorry. It was an accident."

"An accident?" She slapped me again, this time on the right cheek. "Oops. Sorry. That was an accident."

"Okay. Maybe I deserved that."

"Maybe?" She hauled back for a third time, but I caught her hand in mid-swing, our fingers locking together tightly. Undeterred, she came around with her right, and again I intercepted her swing. Holding both her hands at either side of my face, I said, "Enough, Lilith. I told you I was sorry. It's not what you think."

"No? You didn't f.u.c.k Ursula?"

"What? No. Of course not. It was just a stupid kiss in the circle, after the ceremony."

"A kiss?"

"Yes."

"Oh." I felt her arms go limp, enough so I thought it was okay to let her hands go. "So, you didn't do her?"

"No. I didn't DO her."

I unclasped my fingers. Her hands came down. Mine came down. She turned. I thought to walk away. But she was only winding up. Next thing I knew, her palm crossed my face so hard the lamp on the Clapper shut off.

"Son of a.... Lilith. What the h.e.l.l was that for?"

"That's for stopping me when I tried to slap you."

"Alright fine. We're even now. Right? You're not angry with me?"

"I'm not angry with you. I'm angry with her." She pointed to Ursula.

"Me? Pray tell why?"

"Because you should know better. You can't kiss a witch inside a witch's wedding circle without risking a permanent link."

"Wait just a minute," Spinelli argued. "She didn't kiss Tony. He kissed her."

"But she had to like it or they would not have sparked the witch's light and the link would not have taken."

As soon as she said that, I could see Lilith wis.h.i.+ng she had not. The look on Dominic's face even made Carlos wince. "Dominic," I said. "She didn't mean that. There's nothing between Ursula and me."

"Yeah," said Lilith. "I didn't mean that. I was just mad at Tony."

"Me? I thought you said you weren't angry with me."

"Shut up. This isn't about you anymore. Dominic, you need to know something about Ursula. She"

"Lilith. No." Ursula inserted herself between the two. "'Tis mine to explain." She wrapped her arms around Dominic's waist and held him. He turned his head. She coaxed it back with the tips of her fingers. Their eyes locked. This time he did not turn away. She pulled him closer, taking a breath and letting it out, allowing not a slither of light between their bodies to escape. I faded back some, giving them room. Carlos did the same. Lilith did not. Ursula began, her voice softly falling into a confession meant only for Dominic. Naturally, we all heard her. We stood so near.

"Hear me darling," she said, "for I know not what words to speak but those from my heart. 'Tis thee I want and no other do I covert. Thou art all I know and all I love. What joy fills me doth fill me whole and this I know to be true. 'Tis not mine but thine whose heart doth make it so. Shouldst thou wonder if I kiss a stone so cold and like it? Thou hath made me that happy. Yet what hath a stone that hath no heart? It hath naught. Shouldst thou make no bones and hold me faultless for this kiss? Methinks. For a stone is cold and empty, as is my love for all but thee. Thou hast not a need to worry. I honor thee and always will. Thy heart holds mine in tender shackles what break not in life, but in death. This, also, I hold true, and I beg naught of thee but forgiveness." She leaned in and kissed him softly. "Doest thou forgive me?"

Dominic cupped her face in his hands. Stroked his thumbs along her cheeks. She closed her eyes, as if closing an ugly chapter on her conscience. When she opened them again, he returned the kiss. "Ursula. There is nothing to forgive," he said. "Tony kissed you. You didn't ask for it. That you told me before I found out on my own is enough. That's why we are here together. To make it right."

"Make it right?" said Lilith. "How are you going to do that?"

Ursula said, "'Tis simple. 'Twas a kiss what linked us. Another shall break us."

"You mean Tony must kiss another."

"Aye."

"Another witch?"

"Aye."

Lilith surveyed the room with exaggerated impetuous. "Uh-uh. I don't see another witch here."

Carlos said, "I think she means you."

She reached out and smacked him. "I know that, Fidel. Of course, she means me. You think I'm stupid."

"Don't answer that," I said. "Lilith, what is your problem? I know you don't want me and Ursula linked for the rest of our lives."

"Neither do I," said Dominic.

Lilith squared her shoulders to me, leveled her eyes and thinned her lips tightly. It is a form of posturing akin to a bull scratching the dirt and snorting before charging a red cape. I fully believed another slap would follow. But again, one can never truly antic.i.p.ate a witch's next move.

"What's my problem?" I knew better than to answer that one. "My problem, d.i.c.k wag, is that I don't necessarily want to spend the rest of my life walking around linked to you. Don't I see you enough without having to conduct mind huddles with you all hours of the day and night?"

"Who says I think of you day and night?"

"Pahleeese. You know you do."

"What makes you think I care to mind-huddle with"

"Stop." This from Ursula, who never raised her voice in my presence before. Barely married a day and already she was becoming more like Lilith. I suddenly felt compa.s.sion for Dominic and hoped he had not bitten off more than he could chew.

Ursula wedged herself between Lilith and me, separating us beyond arm's length, which made me happy because I still had not ruled out needing to intercept another one of her slaps.

"What words say thee upon thy lover's ears?" she said, pointing a scolding finger at me. "Would thou give up a love so true for settled scores of hollow worth? Methinks not. Two souls love ne'er by right, but by chance. Thou shouldst utter lies lest thy heart doth wish them true."

"Yeah," said Lilith. "Listen to her. She knows what she's talking about."

"Listen to her?" I said. "h.e.l.l. I don't even know what she said."

"Aye, and thou." Ursula turned her scolding finger to Lilith. "Thou doest speak a righteous game, yet so quick good times doth come to end when once thy temper flares. 'Tis thee and only what thy self concerns. I ask of thee thy help and trust. Oh, but how doth thou respond? Nay, I cannot say. For I know 'tis not my sister who would turn her back on me and mine. Am I not wrong to say?"

I watched the smug look on Lilith's face dissolve into something resembling regret. I say that because I could not be sure. I had ever seen that look on Lilith's face before. But then Ursula had never stood up to Lilith that way before. To see her emerge from Lilith's shadow made me proud, if not a little afraid. Still, what she said was true; that is if I understood her and her post-Shakespearian English. Lilith had to know it was not fair. Here was Ursula, starting a new life with her new husband in their new home. The last thing she needed was me linked to her through the witch's light forever. And as Lilith thought about it, she realized that was the last thing she needed, too. That is, if she loved me, which I knew she did.

She offered her arms to Ursula. The two embraced. Carlos, perhaps caught up in the moment, tried joining them, folding his big arms around their shoulders. Lilith broke off and slapped him on the head.

"Excuse us, Fidel. Does this look like an orgy over here? We didn't ask you to join us."

He backed away, more surprised than hurt. "What? I thought"

"You thought. See, that's what you get for thinking. Stop it."

"Lilith," I stepped between them. "There is no need for incivility."

"And you. Don't you dare start."

I splayed my hands in surrender. "I'm not starting anything." She softened her stance and I knew immediately it was a done deal. "Does this mean you will do it?"

"If by do it you mean will I link myself to your sorry a.s.s so that Dominic and Ursula can get on with their lives in peace, then yes. I will do it."

"Oh, you do love me." I went to hug her, but she palmed my chest and pushed me back.

"Maybe, but right now I'm too angry with you to admit it."

"Think you just did," said Carlos.

She faked a backhand. He didn't even flinch. I started to laugh at that, when she grabbed my left nipple and d.a.m.n near twisted it off. "YOU," she said, and in case she did not have my full attention, she grabbed my right nipple and twisted it the other way. "I am letting you know that I will do this, not for you, but for Ursula. There is just one stipulation."

She eased her grip enough to let me catch my breath. I inhaled through clenched teeth and answered in the same manner. "Anything. Name it."

I could see Carlos and Dominic wincing and cupping their nipples in solidarity.

"You will conduct the ceremony. You will open the circle, summon the old coven and close the circle yourself. Think you can do that?"

I hesitated, thinking she wanted an honest answer. But when she tweaked me harder, I knew what to say. "Yes. Yes. I can do that. Of course. I'm a witch. No problem."

She smiled, released my nips and slapped them pink. "Good. Let's get started."

TWENTY.

The five of us headed out to the four corners of the property in single file: me, Lilith, Ursula, Dominic and Carlos. We stopped at the ring of stones. The candles were still there, as were the peach crates, the chalice and the now faded kaleidoscope of dead flowers. Lilith carried in the black mirror, not trusting anyone else with the task. I carried the athame, Carlos and Dominic the flashlights, although those were not allowed once the ceremony began.

I entered the circle at the eastern edge, and from the moment I stepped over the stones, I could feel it. The sensation of energy entering my body, filling me with a sense of invincibility. I held the athame as if it were an extension of my arm and set the circle ablaze with just a sweep of my hand. Surprised, though I was, Lilith seemed even more so.

"Greetings and merry meet," I said, my arms splayed in a gesture of welcome. "Behold the circle of the coven."

I pointed the athame to the sky and waved it about in a circular motion. At once, a spiraling vortex of yellow-green vapors formed overhead. It grew in size and intensity as I walked the circle clockwise reciting these words.

"Spirits of the east, guardians of our souls, protect us from false friend and foe. Watch over us who gather here, that we may live and breathe thy air."

I know. Right? Like who'd have thought I would have remembered that?"

The four outside the circle echoed, "That we may live and breathe thy air."

I completed the walk around the stones before dismissing the vortex with a flick of the athame. It danced overhead in a nervous sputter, collapsed into a tiny bright light and then shot off into s.p.a.ce in the eastern sky.

The southern end of the circle is where Lilith burned a willow branch the previous night, beckoning the southern guardians. I, of course, had no willow branch. Instead, I dismantled the peach crate altar and stomped one of the crates into kindling. I then lit a piece of wood off the circle's own flames and began my clockwise trek.

"Spirits of the south, guardians of our souls, protect us from false friend and foe. Feed thy flames and take them higher. Warm us with thy breath of fire."

From the four outside the circle. "Warm us with thy breath of fire."

With their words, the kindling in my hands exploded. Bits of burning wood gave rise to thermal waves. Embers sizzled. Sparks fizzled. White-hot ash drizzled down my back and arms. I clapped my hands over the southern stone and wiped them clean on my pant legs.

I continued to pay homage to the guardians of the west and north, respectively, just as Lilith had done the night before. I begged protection from false friend and foe. Made offerings of pure water and sacred earth, remembering the essential elements of nature. Funny how it all came to me so easily. Lilith later told me it was because I was a natural. It is the reason she took me through the rite of pa.s.sage, the ceremony that endowed me with the powers of witchcraft. Though I seldom exercise those powers, I must admit, I feel stronger when I do.

Following the call to the guardians of the coven, it was time to open the circle to the others. I used the athame like a tent zipper, slicing through the flames and opening a door wide enough for them to enter. As soon as the last of them entered, the door zipped shut behind him.

We a.s.sembled in the center of the circle, forming a huddle with our backs to the fire. Lilith stood to my right. Ursula to my left. Carlos faced me in the huddle, and for that reason, he got to hold the black mirror.

"Is everyone ready?" I asked.

"Like it matters?" This from Lilith, whose acid tongue I recognized could be a real showstopper.

"What does that mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "It means you're going to do things the way you want to anyways. Aren't you?"