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“Oh, Amelia, I love you so very much.” He scooted over toward her and nearly killed himself when the sheet got tangled up again around the foot of the bed. “Not the most graceful way of getting a good morning kiss, is it?”
After kissing her, he pulled her closer to him. After sitting there for a few minutes, he finally asked her how long she had before her meeting with the witches. Apparently, she’d forgotten about it because she jumped up, knocking his chin with her head, and then he fell back on the floor again. Bumping his head pretty hard.
Getting into the shower with her, he didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact that he was teasing her. She was so angry at him when she was finished washing her hair that she got out of the stall, slammed the door on his toe and made it bleed. It was no less than he deserved, but Christ, he was having the time of his life.
Frazier was just finishing up making the bed when she came into the bedroom with him. As she stood in the doorway, he tried to judge her mood before talking again. When she suddenly burst into tears, he limped to her and held her in his arms, telling her how sorry he was.
“It’s all me. Why am I in such a terrible mood?” Not answering seemed to be the best answer of all, he thought. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel overwhelmed one minute, and the next, I’m feeling sorry for myself. Tell me it’s something that I can fix.”
“I have no idea if you can or not, honey.” She smacked him on the chest. “You’re very violent, aren’t you? I’ve only known you for just a fraction of the time you’ve been around, and I’m trying to figure you out too. I know that I tease you a great deal. You’re so cute when you get all pissy with me. Maybe I’m a sadist or something. I don’t know. But I do love you, and if I can help you with whatever has you upset all the time, you tell me. I’m there for you. Could it be this meeting today? Or the people that you’re supposed to meet there? Since I don’t know a great deal about witchcraft, I can only assume that’s what it is.”
“I might have to kill them.” Asking her if she thought that was what it would come to, he pulled a shirt over his head. “I don’t know. I think I’ve had myself convinced they needed to die from the start of knowing what they’re doing, and I can’t shake that feeling. Maybe they’re nice people who have been judged poorly.”
“Do you believe that?” Amelia told him that she didn’t think she did. “Yeah, I don’t either. Black magic, you said that was what they’re using, right? Well, the words black magic makes me think, even not knowing anything, that it’s not the right kind to be using on others. Also, if I remember correctly, you said that they were building up their store of magic to take over the coven. Which coven are they trying to take?”
“Mine. Which is stupid because I’m the ruler of all covens, no matter the kind of magic that they use in it.” Frazier asked her if there was a protocol book around that he could read. “Yes. There are several, as a matter of fact. Why?”
“I could read up on the rules that govern covens and help you with knowing the laws that you can quote to them. I wanted to be an attorney when I was younger. Grannie said I’d never cut it because I like to have too much fun with people to be too serious. But with this, I think I could help you.” She pulled a book out of the air and handed it to him. “That was awesome. Can I do that too?”
“Think of something that you need and put out your hand. You really don’t have to put out your hand for it to come to you. It’ll just as easily land on the table if you’re near one or just appear somewhere close—what are you doing now?” He told her. Amelia opened and closed her mouth three times before finally shrugging. “I started to tell you that won’t work, but only because I never thought of doing it before. Do you think that if you hold the book over a table and ask it for rules over black magic, it’ll find it? It’s worth a try, I think.”
He put the book on the nightstand and laid his hand over it. After asking himself what he was looking for, he moved his hand, and the book opened up to the front cover. Then as they both watched, pages began to flip quickly until suddenly, it simply stopped. He read the name of the chapter twice before looking at Amelia
“The rules and regulations of Black Magic.” He laid his hand over the chapter again and asked for the bylaws pertaining to taking the coven from the grand witch. Again he moved his hand and watched as the pages flipped. When it stopped this time, he picked up the book. “It says here that they have to not only be stronger than you are, which I don’t see happening, but they cannot all charge you at once. One member of their coven has to pick a leader that will match magic to magic with you.”
“What does it say about black magic and trying to take my coven?” Reading down the pages until he came to the part where it talked about black magic versus white or even gray magic. “What’s gray magic?”
“It’s magic that comes from a Black Magic coven that must be taken by the grand witch and then turned into gray. It will become white over time so long as the witch in charge doesn’t use any other magic than the pure white of their kind.” He looked up at her before reading further down the page. “It says here that you have to warn the coven of any color three times that you’re the grand witch—if that is your title—before you kill them. It also says here that there must be at least one death to a black coven before you turn your back on them. Like cutting the head from an asp that is set on killing you.”
“Well, that certainly clears things up, doesn’t it. I mean, I have to kill at least one of them to follow the rules.” She sat down. “Can you really come with me? And bring that book? I might need you to spout off some more rules if they get out of hand. Which, according to my mom’s notes, they have several times over the centuries.”
“Of course, I’ll go with you. What do I have to do? I mean, you said that I was your familiar. So does that mean I get to be my gnarly bear for you?” Frazier pretended to claw out at her, and she finally smiled. “There’s what I’ve been looking for. That beautiful smile of yours. I love you, Amelia, and it would be my greatest pleasure to go with you and kick some black magic butts.”
~*~
Now that they were here together, she didn’t think it was such a good idea to have brought Frazier. She didn’t know what she’d do with herself if something were to have happened to him. And it might. The women that she was here to disband and more than likely kill were a good deal stronger than she had first thought. She looked at Frazier when he cleared his throat.
“They’ve compiled their magic with hers. They can’t do that. I can, as your second in command, put it back where it belongs, but I’d like to have your permission to be your second in command while we’re here. Everywhere else, you can be fully in charge.” She asked him if she could be in charge in bed. While he pretended to think about it, she gave him permission to be her second. “Putting you in charge in the bedroom might make us miss out on some pretty heady climaxes, but I’ll concede that you’ve been around longer than me and might be better all the way around with sex than I am. How about we put that on the back burner for now.”
Again, he made her laugh. All afternoon, while he read up on the rules of the book, he’d been doing the same thing. Bringing her out of her head so that she wasn’t afraid. Because she didn’t like that her first official duty as the grand witch was to kill a bunch of wannabes.
He snapped his fingers, and she saw the moment that the magic that had been with the woman in front of her be taken away. She staggered for a bit before she glared at her. It was then that Frazier spoke up. She loved this man.
“You can’t do that. As you’re well aware. Putting all your magic into one person is against all rules for the magic. However, if you would like to keep the magic that they shared with you, when the grand witch, this woman here, wins, you all will be killed. Up to you.” They conferred, and Frazier told her that he could tell somehow that their magic, even all of it in one person, wasn’t even half of what she had. Amelia wasn’t sure if he could tell that or not, but it did make her feel better. “Once you have decided, it will be so. There will be no turning back once the grand witch here has spoken.” Frazier winked at her. “That’s twice they’ve been told.”
Bursting out laughing again, she had to clear her throat before she could stop the laughter burbling from her lips. He’d done it without making it sound like such a big deal. It would count too. As she’d taken him on as her second, then his words were as bonding as her own were.
“We’re going to make it, so I have all the magic.” One of the women in the back started to back away. “Deedee, if you leave this room, you’ll never make it home to that husband of yours. I told you when I brought you here that you were going to be helping us tonight.”
“I don’t want to be here at all. I’ve never wanted to be here. I thought this was a book review meeting when you made me come with you. I want no part of any of this.” Amelia reached out to Deedee and found that she truly didn’t want to be there. That Sandra, her mother-in-law, had made her attend the meetings all these years because she’d lent them enough money to put on their home. “Please, Sandra, please let me go. I won’t help you if you—”
“I give you safe passage, Deedee Marks. However, if you turn to black magic again, for any reason, I will kill you without hesitation. Do you understand what I’m telling you, as I am the grand witch of witches?” Amelia winked at Frazier, telling him that it had been three times now. “If you agree, Deedee, then you are to go home to your husband and children.” She was out the door before Amelia was finished speaking. “Is there anyone else here against their will?”
Four other women raised their hands and pledged themselves to her. Amelia made sure that they understood that they were talking to the grand witch, just to be sure, and they said they knew what they were doing. When they left, that left Sandra with only eight more members of her coven.
“You need thirteen to be a coven, Sandra. Surely you knew that.” Sandra laughed and said that she’d not had so many rules given to her since she’d been a little kid. “Be that as it may, you’re short five members. You can disband or carry on to your death. It’s entirely up to you at this point. But I will not hold back because you were stupid enough to start this war.”
“I’ve never been so ready to take you on than I am at this moment.” Magic in the form of a black light was tossed at her. Amelia didn’t move as it petered out long before it reached her across the room. “That was to show you what you’re up against. Your mother knew better than to mess with me and my coven.”
