Ritual Magic (2 page)

"Babbo?" The brisk laugh popped out before I
could filter it. "That sounds so
corny
."

"Well, that's what Babbo wants to be called,
and what Babbo wants, Babbo gets." She nodded happily.

"Babbo...that's Leo isn't it? I can't
imagine Gabriel going by something as sentimental as Babbo." I
shook my head, "Actually, I figured he would have you call him
Gabriel or Sir all of the time."

Cora nodded morosely as she looked down at
her hands dejectedly. "Well, yes, Father
would
prefer for me
to call him 'Sir' but it sounds so tedious and stiff." She leaned
back in the couch again and fidgeted with her shirt.

"You don't get along with him very well, do
you, Cora?" I smiled at her. I didn't get along with him either and
I definitely could relate.

She looked up at me sheepishly, clearly not
wanting to share too much of the inner workings of her life. "Well,
he's definitely not the most loving or fun father in the group,
that is for sure. Always working on my archery, my languages, my
Pilates. Badger, badger, badger." She paused to roll her lips
between her teeth as she looked towards the window that overlooked
the ocean as if she knew that there was support out there in the
dark of the night. "He's priming me for leadership, but he never
really spends
time
with me. You know, to get to know
me...bond." She hung her head heavily and I instantly wanted to
beat Gabriel up. "He's a bore."

I nodded because I was finally getting a
picture of Cora's life. Having been the princess in training for a
future that neither one of us understood, it stood to reason that
she would be underneath much more pressure than any child would
ever deserve.

"Each father has been teaching you things,
helping you grow."

Cora nodded with a broad smile on her lips,
the thoughts of Gabriel falling away to the excitement of stories
and moments to share. "Yes! Even as a child they were teaching me.
Babbo and I used to play hide and seek in the castle by shadow
jumping. Well, it's truly referred to as
shadowing
but I
like to call it shadow jumping because that is what it literally
is—jumping from shadow to shadow. I would shadow jump to the other
side of the castle and he would have to find me. Of course, he did
it the traditional way although he always found me within five
minutes. It was later that I found out that he was using my scent
to find me even though he had promised not to use his demon powers.
He has always been such a cheater." She grinned broadly. "How I
love that crazy old demon." Her eyes glowed with love and
pride.

Leo? OLD?
She had to be joking,
right? He never appeared to be any older than his early thirties to
me. I figured, because I was closer to his age than she was, that
all of her parents appeared to be old to her.

Shaking my head, I smiled back at her. I
just didn't get it. Leo, a loving and sweet father? Babbo?!
Really?

"Tell me about Von."

"Yes, well, Daddy has always been the most
protective of me out of all of my fathers. He personally selected
all of my tutors, schools and extra-curricular activities. He has
always been the one to push me the hardest, even compared to
Father, but Daddy always believed in me." Cora scooted forward on
the seat towards me as if she was trying to convince me of
something, and I couldn't help but register the sincere desire she
was expressing to change my opinions.

Of Von?
Well, that was still a
slippery slope for me to traverse.

"You see, that was the difference between
Von and Gabriel. Von was always supportive, and I could see the
pride in his eyes when I succeeded in doing something correctly.
Like when I cast my first shielding spell—he simply glowed with
pride for days." She smiled to herself as she spoke of Von. But
that was just so very foreign to me because all Von ever did, at
least from my experience, was push me to the brink with every word
that he said and everything he did.

"Huh. Well, that's nice."

Cora's bright laughter filled the room in
reaction to my annoyed reply. It was immediately clear that she
knew exactly what I was thinking.
Busted.

"You and Daddy have never really clicked,
not from what I've seen." She smiled as she reached over to pat my
hand lovingly and then withdrew it as she looked down, folding her
own hands on her lap. "He still loves you, you know." A small smile
crawled across her lips as she continued to stare down at the backs
of her hands. "He just can't stand to be in the same room with you
and you are exactly the same way with him. There must be a lot of
history there—something edgy."

We sat there for a moment as I thought
deeply about what she had said about Von loving me. Yes, I figured
that he did, but he sure had a terrible way of showing it. And so
did I where he was concerned. He was lucky I hadn't turned him into
a hangnail or something ridiculous.

"Yeah, you could say that, I guess."
Or a
platypus
. Shifting in my seat, I prepared myself for what was
coming. "Okay Cora, now tell me about Solomon. What kind of a
father was he?" I shuddered at the thought that I would hear the
worst about him.

"Dad? Huh. Let's see..." She stood up and
began to pace around the room, a familiar little habit that I found
entertaining to watch. "Well, there was the time that he taught me
to ride a horse. I was four at the time and my balance was poor, so
I fell off. He couldn't be anywhere near the horse or he would have
scared poor Casper away, but he swept in just as I slid off
Casper's side and caught me before I hit the ground." She smiled as
she pivoted to begin walking the other way across the room, the
sound of her boots filling the room with the thudding of leather on
wood. "I cried and cried all day long because I was so shaken up
and disappointed in myself. Dad never put me down the entire
time...not until I stopped crying. I figured he was afraid of your
wrath if something truly had happened to me."

She snickered, pivoting again and walking
towards the back wall. "Oh! And then there was the time that he was
teaching me to hunt and catch animals. Not kill them, just catch
them. The speed of a vampire and the adrenaline gained during the
hunt was a huge high for me. I loved every single second of it. He
was teaching me to use my sense of smell to find the animals so, of
course, that was when I discovered boys. Oooh, they smelled so much
better than all of the animals in the forest and Dad was NOT very
happy about that." Another broad grin spread across her face, but
this time she bit down on her lip as she fought the distinct look
of glee that seeped forward.

"Oh! And then there was the time that he
taught me to drive a stick shift! I had run us into a ditch and he
made me drag the hummer back out on my own, basically proving that
I was strong enough to move a military grade vehicle. Dad actually
had the nerve to seem upset with me about the accident, but when I
looked deeply into his eyes all I truly saw was pride." She smiled
warmly to herself. "That man could never hide his true feelings
from me or you."

"And what has Solomon taught you besides how
to ride horses and drive a stick?"
Don't ask the questions,
Celeste...just breathe in and out. In and out...

"Well, you know that Dad's a weapons expert,
right? So he taught me about every kind of weapon under the sun and
how to fight effectively with them. I'm actually lethal now with
over two hundred different weapons and fifty different fighting
styles." She stopped to place a hand against the countertop,
leaning into it before kicking a booted foot over her other,
looking relaxed and beautiful as her hair cascaded forward towards
the counter.

"He was a very effective teacher." Cora
continued as she reached down with her long fingers to begin
tapping the granite countertop. "Of course, he had to sneak my
lessons in while you were off doing other things. Meetings,
shopping, girl time, alone time...he would sneak it in whenever he
could. Dad never wanted me to admit to you what we were honestly
doing together because he was afraid of what you would say. He was
afraid that you would put your foot down and require us to stop.
But he couldn't—he always promised me that he wouldn't stop until I
was prepared, ready." She stopped with her hand flat across the
counter's slick surface, sweeping her hand across as if she was
wiping away words on a chalkboard. "Hence the riding lessons—it was
our cover."

Cora looked up at me to smile and I couldn't
help smiling back at her, thinking about the time that she had
spent with her fathers...all of them. They were bonding moments,
every single one of them and, even though many children would never
picture their lives the complicated mess that Cora's was, she
considered herself extremely lucky. Her smile dropped suddenly,
though, as if something had just occurred to her.

"Oh. My. GOSH! I just told you what Dad is
going to be doing with me in the future. Our training!" She paused
and stood straight up as if she heard something dangerous
approaching. "MOM! You have to promise to
never
admit that
you know anything about all of this! I LOVE fighting with weapons,
Mom. I'm actually a fifth degree black belt! It's way too cool!"
She stopped to place a hand across her chest and inhaled in a huge
breath, pausing to wait before releasing it in a cleansing whoosh.
"Promise me you won't say a word. Mom, please!"

Shaking my head, I looked at her pleading
eyes, trying to read every emotion that she was experiencing.
There, deep down inside, I could see the fear that she held. It was
the fear that I would keep her away from her fathers, the ones that
had prepared her for what was coming in the future. But what was it
truly? My child, my little girl was now a lethal weapon, honed by
Solomon and the rest of her fathers for what purpose I wasn't sure.
But she had saved my life along with her own using those wicked
blades of hers. My daughter was basically a badass, but she didn't
act like one—she was just a girl.

"I promise."

She sighed deeply with relief before walking
back towards the couch to throw herself back down, happy to be
seated again.

"Where did you get the blades you used
today?" Leaning over, I pinned her with a raised eyebrow. Maybe she
didn't realize that I was absorbing every bit of information as
ammunition against her fathers in the future.

"Oh," she dusted off her hands as if she had
just magicked them away, "Dad actually had them made especially for
me and my size. They are absolute perfection to hold, and their
construction is just as precise. Being forged with silver, they are
deadly to vampires and demons when you strike them through the
heart or decapitate them." She smiled slyly. "Like those jerks
today on the beach."

I paused for a second, thinking about the
disgusting trio that we had met earlier on the beach. My mind
recalled every single detail about the experience, including the
distinctive desire that I had to scream like a little girl and
throw myself into the sea to drown myself. Well, maybe it hadn't
been
that
bad.

"Hmmm, interesting." I honestly appreciated
knowing that my daughter could kick a demon's butt. I liked it very
much. "Demons..." I thought about it for a minute, playing with the
word on my lips before my body took over and I found myself jumping
to my feet, my body rigid with a flash of fierce anger.

"LEO!" My ears rang with the name of the
demon, "Get the HELL in here! I want you here now! I have to
TALK
to you!"

There was a brief moment of silence as my
eyes flicked from left to right to look for Leo as he entered the
room. But there was nothing...only silence.

"Mom, geesh! You know that Babbo is not
allowed to come into the beach house—demon blood, remember?"

I shook with anger for a few seconds and it
slowly dawned on me that I had been acting foolishly. "Oh
yeah."

Taking a cleansing breath, I lowered my
voice and made my tone as welcoming as I could...considering,
"Leonzio Emilio Castillion, I invite you to come to the beach house
tonight only.
" I paused to take a swift breath before
continuing. "You'd better damned well come to speak to me—I have an
URGENT
question!" Okay, I wasn't very nice at the end but
hey, I was angry!

There was a soft rustle of fabric near the
far corner where the shadows were gathered and Leo, gorgeous, dark
and sleek, stepped out in a perfectly fitted Armani suit as if he
were entering a photo shoot for an elite men's magazine.

His eyes sparkled with a bright, rich red as
he strode towards me and didn't break step before sweeping me into
a warm embrace, lifting me slightly off of the ground as he purred.
"I knew that you would miss me before too long, my love. You can't
stay away, no?"

His smell permeated the air around me—rich,
aromatic, sensual and all man, beating me senseless with the sheer
maleness of it all. My hands gathered on the lapels of his jacket
as my hands fisted and began to push his intimidating body away
from me. This was where being a determined female was going to come
in handy.

A sharp, short cough came from the direction
of the couch and we both stopped where we stood. Leo's eyes darted
over to Cora and he slowly began to release me, even though it was
obvious he was only doing so because of her. He was reluctant to
let me go and his body twitched as if he was afraid something was
going to attack. Eyeing Cora up and down, he tilted his head to the
side and narrowed his eyes, looking more dangerous than he ever had
in the past.

"Do I
know
you? You seem oddly
familiar." A deep frown creased his forehead and it occurred to me
that he appeared uneasy.