Ritual Magic (19 page)

"It gets me away from
you
." I snapped
at the couch cushion that was inches from my face.

I listened to the sound of Solomon sighing
deeply behind me as he began to pace the room. The sound of his
footfalls distracted me for what seemed like ten minutes before I
turned over and caught him eyeing me suspiciously from near the
kitchen counter.

"What?" I growled at him.

He paused to eye me with a concerned
expression on his face before opening his mouth cautiously. "Are
you angry with me?"

The question surprised me because he
honestly looked like he was frightened of my response.
Am I
really angry at HIM?
Sighing deeply, shifting my head and
turning back towards the cushions again.

"No." I replied honestly, but I didn't give
him any more than that. There was no energy left in me to carry on
any kind of deep conversation about this topic anymore. I was
done.

The sound of movement on the loveseat next
to the couch caught my attention as he sighed, shifting loudly in
the seat as if it couldn't offer him enough support. The
overwhelming desire to scream swept over me before I knew what to
do.

"
Solomon
." I growled between my
clenched teeth. "I would
really
like to have some space to
myself. You know, time alone." I spoke to the cushion again.

Solomon said nothing and did nothing.

Blowing out an exasperated sigh, I closed my
eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.

When I opened my eyes, I was laying on my
back on the living room couch, my left arm draped across my stomach
and my right arm up and over my head.
Great job, Celeste.
Stubborn as always
.

Rubbing my eyes to remove the sleep that had
become encrusted in the corners, I struggled to clear my head
instead. Scanning the room, my eyes finally stopped on the loveseat
directly next to the couch. Staring down at me was Solomon, pensive
and twitchy in his physical demeanor.

"What are you doing here?" I growled at
him.

"Watching you sleep." He said as a small
smile twitched at the corners of his mouth.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed the show," I
snapped as I pushed up on the couch and grabbed the quilt in a
sharp movement.

Dragging the quilt behind me, I stormed
towards the master bedroom, tossing the quilt onto the bed. I
stomped over to my bag on the desk and grabbed a pair of jeans, a
black blouse and a set of particularly enticing underwear. Oh yes,
I could feel his eyes burrowing into my back as I set the lace
weapons
out on the top of my bundle.

"You're still angry with me." Solomon's
voice drifted from the door. "
Very
angry, I see."
Was
that a hint of a smile in his voice?

"I already told you I wasn't angry with
you."
Jerk.
I turned with my bundle of clothing and walked
over to the bathroom, determined to make it through without a
fight. "I'm going to take a shower." I walked into the bathroom and
closed the door quietly behind me. Hopefully he took the hint and
realized that I really wasn't mad...just disappointed.
Guess
Dylan would be happy with this new development. He didn't want us
intermingling anyway.

I turned the water on in the huge tiled
shower before I began stripping down to nothing. Walking over to
the mirror, I leaned into the cold counter and took a long look at
myself.
I look tired, very tired
.

My dark brown eyes almost appeared
miserable, the shadows under my eyes making me appear so much older
than I felt. Closing my eyes, I turned to lean against the
countertop breathing in and out slowly.
Get it together,
Celeste. You can do this. Men are pigs, after all.

Opening my eyes, I concentrated on walking
the distance to the shower. That was what I needed at the moment—to
wash every last bit of stress and frustration down the drain. I was
going to do it right, even it was the only thing that I achieved
that day.

The shower was a home remodeler's dream.
Small rock tiles were sprinkled throughout, eight heads poured and
shot water out at you from every direction you could ever dream of,
and the glass walls offered a perfect view of the rest of the
outstanding bathroom. I scanned around to really
look
at the
bathroom. White bead board trimmed the room, beachy blues were
painted on the walls, recycled glass counter tops were speckled
with greens and blues throughout and the mirrors were huge
wood-framed pieces of elegant glass work. This was the bathroom I
had always
wanted
.
Huh, it's weird that I really didn't
notice it at all yesterday
.

Releasing a slow breath through pursed lips,
I opened the door and stepped into the streams of perfectly heated
water. I turned around slowly as I felt the water stream down my
body. Grabbing the bar of soap on the ledge, I lathered up and
began to run it across my body. First I washed my feet, then my
calves, thighs, torso, arms, and then my chest. I was enjoying the
smooth glide of the soap on my body as I closed my eyes and paid
special attention to the warmth of the water washing over me,
allowing it to remove my stress and frustration, sending it
swirling down the drain.

Opening my eyes slowly, my breath hitched
loudly as I caught sight of Solomon standing by the open bathroom
doorway, watching me in shock with his mouth slightly open and his
eyes unblinking in their blue-green daze.

I turned my back towards the shower door,
wanting to hiss as I did so.
Kiss my tush, Solomon.
I
thought haughtily as I continued to lather my body.

"What do
you
want?" I asked, none too
nicely.

There was no reply, which I figured
signified that he had given up and gone back into the bedroom. I
went back to lathering, but the next thing I heard was the shower
door opening and then closing again. It was suddenly obvious that
there was a lot less space available in the stone shower, and it
was also obvious that the shower had originally been intended for
two and not just one body.
Holy maracas!

I felt my heart begin to pound as Solomon's
cool hands reached up and caressed me around my waist, sliding
across the soapy layer that swam across my skin, his hand splayed
out as he touched my body slowly and gently.

I could barely breathe in the steamy shower
when I felt him pull me against his naked body, parts of his skin
rubbing against mine in delicious riots of sensation.

"What?" I swallowed loudly before gasping to
continue. "What are you
doing
, Solomon?" I nearly whispered,
husky and emotional.

"What I should have done last night." His
emotion was clear in his rich voice and he spun me around to look
up at his loving eyes.

I couldn't help it when I melted into his
strong arms—it was as if I were drugged by his beauty and I felt
myself going under happily.

The water poured over our naked bodies as we
gave in to our desires and emotional needs. We needed each other so
very much. There was nothing on our minds but each other.

———

"Well, it looks like
you
survived the
night." Tisha looked at me sideways from the antique buffet lining
the far end of the extravagant dining room. It was the dining room
of the demon castle, and I had been there before.

My eyes scanned the seemingly invisible
ceiling as the sun peeked through the clouds. It was definitely a
different setting as the sun filled the room and gave us perfect
lighting for an enjoyable breakfast.

"Mmmhmmm," I hummed as I smiled at her
words. I practically wanted to skip around the room singing 'This
isn't surviving, this is
living!
' I smiled broadly at my
giddiness and scooped up a plate, loading it with so much food that
Tisha raised an eyebrow.

"Hungry much?" She laughed at me, eyeing me
warily.

"Just a little." I smiled broadly as I threw
a bunch of grapes on top of my hungry man breakfast. I waggled my
eyebrows at her and turned towards the table as her eyes popped
open slightly.
That's right, mama's pretty happy with
herself.

Tisha followed me to the table, still eyeing
me and making me shift in my seat. How she could make me feel so
uncomfortable about
everything
when I was an adult, was
beyond me.

Rolling my eyes, I scooped some fluffy
scrambled eggs into my mouth.
Hmm, demons must really be
learning more skills than team building
.

"Where's Solomon?" Tisha scanned the room
for any accomplices I may have had to whatever it was I was guilty
of, I could tell.

"He's with the men upstairs in the
conference room." Cora sat down next to me and scooped some eggs
into her mouth as well. "Oh, my goodness! This is fantastic! Who
knew eggs could taste so good? Right?" She smiled at me
enthusiastically as I eyed her suspiciously. She seemed to be just
too
happy with the eggs.
Weren't you just as delighted
with the eggs earlier? Yeah, and that's my POINT!

Eyeing Cora, it didn't escape me when Jack
strutted into the room with a huge smile on his lips as well.

"Hey, everyone! Whassup?!" He grinned his
toothy grin as he walked straight for the buffet and began to serve
up a plate of food that could have put a healthy horse into a coma.
He spun around in a full circle, just like James Brown, and
strutted over to an empty chair on the side of the table opposite
Cora.

My eyes shifted from Cora to Jack and then
back, watching for any body language that would confirm my now
uneasy suspicions, although both of them seemed oblivious to my
scrutiny. Jack was busy shoveling food into his mouth as Cora
turned to me and happily asked me questions about my time at the
beach house with Solomon. It bothered me how easy it was for both
of them to act like there was nothing between them.

Maybe you're just imagining things.
Maybe, just maybe, they are simply both in ridiculously good moods
without having anything remotely in common.
Yeah, right, and I
didn't stay in the shower for more than an hour this morning.

I was half listening when I realized that
Cora was talking about a meeting that we were going to have.

"So the meeting begins at 9:00 because
Babbo, Dad, Daddy and Father are making preparations for our trip
to Colorado."

"Colorado? What's in Colorado?" My eyebrows
furrowed.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Cora leaned towards me
inquisitively as she looked deeply into my eyes. I'm sure that she
would have shined a penlight in my eyes to check for dilation if
she'd had one at hand. "It's the location of the ritual—we have to
get to the highest safe point near Durango, Colorado. Seriously,
Mom. I'm a bit worried about you." She eyed me with a frustrated
expression as she scooped another forkful of eggs into her
mouth.

"The highest safe point? Are you talking
about Purgatory?" My tone was piercing. "Who names a ski slope
after a part of hell anyway?" I shook my head at the irony because
I'm a terrible skier. "Who decided that we needed to do the ritual
at Purgatory, anyway?! I mean, why can't it be someplace I would
enjoy going, like Maui?"

Cora giggled as she tilted her head at me,
"I don't believe they call it Purgatory anymore. I think they
renamed it to be more PC. Hm, I think it's called the Durango
Mountain Resort or something benign like that." She popped a grape
into her mouth and nodded. "I prefer Purgatory, though. It makes
the slopes sound more menacing—more of a challenge." She got a
faraway look in her eyes as she thought about it.

"I don't like skiing." I looked down at my
food. It wasn't like I was going to have to ski at that time of
year—it was late spring and the snow wasn't really going to start
falling heavily for quite a while.

"That's sort of a moot point right now,
isn't it?" Tisha sounded like a teacher from her spot at the table.
"There isn't enough snow right now, and we will not be there for
the scenery. It's a location just like any other. It's the specific
location that we are looking for."

"Right!" Cora chirped in as she leaned back
in her chair, flipping her hair over her shoulder. My eye caught a
slight movement from Jack as he seemed to pay attention to Cora's
hair flipping. It didn't look like Cora noticed at all because she
was looking straight at me. "So, we will have our meeting and talk
about what to do next."

My mind was racing to keep up with the
details. "So, we need to get to Durango. The fastest way is by prop
plane. Do we have access to an airport anywhere close?" I really
hated prop planes because of the close quarters and the way that
the winds would knock the planes around like little cat toys. I had
only taken a few rides on prop planes and, strangely enough, two of
my flights had actually been to Durango itself. My mind was trying
to catch up to the coincidence of that having been the case.
Guess I was actually scoping out the area for future reference.
HA! Whatever—I was on vacation both times.

"Oh, don't worry about that! Babbo has a
plane and he's an excellent pilot. He trained me as well." Cora
beamed at me from over her plate of diminishing food. "You will be
perfectly safe with both of us at the controls." She smiled at me
encouragingly, nodding emphatically.
She can't be serious, can
she? She expects me to go up in the air with that sizzling demon at
the controls?

"Right." I tried not to sound uncertain, but
it came out that way anyway. "Leo is a pilot and so are you." More
information to file away for the future.
That crazy demon took
my little girl up in a death trap!

The doors to the dining room opened swiftly
and a short, stocky demon stood in the doorway. Bowing deeply to
Cora, he straightened and announced in a deep tone, "The king is
ready for you now in the conference room."