Wicked Souls (11 page)

Gripping tight to both angels, my body
sagged from the sudden loss of energy and my knees hit the floor.
Cephiel and Gabriel stood steady and unyielding, and yet their
bodies trembled under my hands.
Whatever had happened had affected
them.
Maybe God, or whatever higher power had just answered my
plea, did love humans more than angels.

Lucifer pried my frozen fingertips from the
clench I had around Gabriel and Cephiel’s wrists.
I lifted my head
and searched his eyes.
“Did it work?”

“You tell me.”

His magic rose around me, pulsing and
pervasive, tingling over and through my body in that old, familiar
way.
My magic purred in response.
It did not, however, break
through the bars containing it.
I closed my eyes and told it to
stop purring and it did.
Reluctantly, but I’d take it.

I left it to pout and opened my eyes.
“Hot
damn.”

Cephiel rolled his eyes.
Gabriel rippled his
wings.
Luc looked pale but patted me on the arm and helped me
stand.

Keisha straightened up and brushed glass off
the card table.
“Great.
Now that that’s over, cake, anyone?”

Chapter Twelve:

Let Them Eat Cake

I found the red chip under a pew in the
second row and brushed shards of glass off of it before holding it
up to examine it.
It really was similar to a Vegas-style poker chip
and had a simple six printed in the center.
Nothing but a piece of
cheap plastic, but it meant the world to me.

Behind me, Emilia and Liddy talk softly and
Keisha poured punch.
Gabriel, still unable to return to Heaven,
attempted to speak to Keisha, blushed crimson red, and ran out the
back door of the consistory, which led to the cemetery behind the
church.
Cephiel had disappeared again, probably afraid of what I
was going to do to him if I ever caught him again.

Lucifer came up beside me and examined the
chip.
“All that work, that entire struggle, for a mere piece of
plastic?”

He would never understand how important it
had been to me, but I had to admit, he had a point.
“How am I going
to explain Father Leonard’s disappearance?”
I motioned at the
destruction in the nave.
“The broken windows and everything?”

“If anyone asks, you can either tell them
the truth, which they will not believe, or you can tell them you
have no idea.”

The nave seemed unnaturally empty.
The whole
church, too.
Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I cared
for Father Leonard.
He’d taught me much and given me hours and
hours of his time; it didn’t seem logical that our fantastic
friendship had all been part of his alter ego’s plan.

The roadblocks in my brain were definitely
gone, though, and the space in my chest was full again.
Almost too
full.
My heart, my soul and my magic were all vying for space.
Seemed like a good problem to have.

For once, Lucifer kept his magic to himself.
I sensed he wanted to test me again, to tempt me and see what would
happen, but thought better of it.
Which my magic didn’t like, and
so it continued to pout.
Ignoring it, I decided there was only one
thing left to do.
Eat cake.

I grabbed two pieces from the table and
walked outside, thinking the cemetery wasn’t a half bad idea.
I
could collect my thoughts there.
Gabriel hadn’t made it that far
and was sitting on the back steps, shoulders sagging, elbows on his
knees and head bowed.
Even though the sun was going down, the
temperature was rising.
Green buds sprouted from the ancient oaks
and maple trees lining the cemetery’s borders.
Yellow forsythia
bushes bloomed along the sidewalk and birds chirped their end of
the day conversations with each other.

I handed Gabriel one of the plates.
“There
are no pity parties around here.
When things get tough, we eat.
Ice
cream or dark chocolate are top choices, but we’ll do cake in an
emergency, and I hear this cake has the best kind of dark chocolate
known to man in it.”

He looked up at me, then dropped his gaze to
the cake.
Seeing the dark fudge center covered with mocha frosting
seemed to distract him from his doom and gloom thoughts.
He took
the plate, lifted the fork and ate a bite “Being nice to me will
not make me like you,” he said around a mouthful.

I positioned myself on the step next to him
and used my own fork to carve out a bite of cake.
“I’m being nice
to you because the two of us are going to be seeing a lot of each
other.”

He shoveled another bite into his mouth.
“Why do you say that?”

I took my time, sliding the cake off the
fork and into my mouth.
The delicious combination of mocha frosting
and chocolate fudge unfurled on my tongue.
Chewing slowly, I
allowed myself to forget about my problems for a few seconds and
enjoy it.
“Keisha likes you, and since I assume you’re homeless, I
thought maybe you could use a place to stay.
There’s an extra room
at the ice cream shop in the back.
We store a few odds and ends in
there, but there’s room for a bed.
Once you’re settled, we’ll work
on lifting God’s punishment off your wings.”

Gabriel finished his cake and crumpled the
paper plate in one of his massive hands.
“I don’t sleep.”

The sun was sinking faster, growing shadows
in the cemetery.
“Humans use beds for more than sleeping.”

He looked at me with a mixture of curiosity
and confusion.
How to explain the birds and the bees to an
archangel?
“When two people like each other, like you and Keisha,
there are things they do in bed beside sleep.”
I gave him a smile
and a wink.

He blushed a fiery red and went back to
staring at the cemetery.
He started to speak, cleared his throat
and rippled his feathers.
“What else might I need in that
room?”

Keisha chose that moment to come out the
back door.
“There you are.”
She walked down several steps until she
stood slightly below us and faced back toward the church,
skillfully avoiding locking eyes with Gabriel.
When her gaze
finally landed, it was on me, but evidently from the strain on her
face, it was all she could do not to glance at the archangel next
to me.
“Emilia and Liddy are getting ready to go.
Do you want to
send the rest of the cake home with them?”

“No,” Gabriel said, a look of alarm on his
face.
“I want to take the cake with me.”

Keisha finally looked at him, as if she
wanted to give him more than the cake.
He stared back, like a
voodoo doll frozen in her hands.

Setting up my best friend with Gabriel
wasn’t logical, but once in a while you had to throw logic out the
window and go with your heart.

I patted Gabriel’s arm and said to Keisha,
“Divide up the cake and let Emilia and Liddy each take a piece
home.
Then you and Gabriel can have the rest.”

They were still staring at each other.
He
opened his mouth to speak, made a squeaky noise, and closed his
mouth again.
Keisha could be patient, but if Gabriel never got any
words out, his odds of hooking up with her were slim to none.

“Gabriel’s coming to work for us.”
I peeled
open his hand and took the paper plate out of it.
“And he’s going
to live temporarily at the shop in the supply room.”

Keisha’s jaw dropped open as she glanced at
me with a big fat imaginary question mark hovering over her
head.

“Keisha is going to take you back to the
shop, Gabe.”
Grabbing his hand, I held it out to Keisha and gave
her a nod that said,
you have my blessing
.
“She’ll take care
of setting up the room and making sure you’re comfortable.”

As Gabriel rose from the step, his wings
folded in at the bottom, tips touching.
He looked like he had a
giant feathered heart attached to his back.

Keisha took his hand and the two started up
the stairs together in a mutual daze.
At the church door, she
looked back at me.
“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’ll catch up later.”

Gabriel strode into the church, and before
Keisha could follow him, I caught her arm and lowered my voice.
“He
likes cake and doesn’t sleep.
Think you can handle that?”

She chuckled under her breath.
“Wait till I
introduce him to ice cream and voodoo.”

When they had gone, I sat back down on the
step and finished my cake.
My soul was mine again.
My willpower,
too.
What was the first thing I was going to do with it all?

The cemetery grew dark and the birds stopped
their conversations.
I pulled the chip out of my jacket pocket and
rubbed it.

A voice behind me spoke, and a rush of heat
hit my back.
“The past two days were all worth it for a piece of
that cake.
What was in that anyway?”

“Dove chocolates.”
I stood and started down
the stairs.
If I’d ever had a true guardian angel, he was standing
behind me.
It was time to find out how much he knew about Eve,
starting with her weaknesses.
“Walk me home?”

Lucifer lifted one eyebrow in question
before smiling with evil intent.
“Are you tempting me, witch?”

Me?
Tempt the Devil?
Sometimes there’s no
changing your spots.

I smiled back and started walking.

WITCHES ANONYMOUS STEP 4

Would you like to name a character in my
next Witches Anonymous book?
You can even give her YOUR name (or
your pet’s or your best friend’s).

In Witches Anonymous Step 4, there’s a new
witch in town – one who’s just coming into her witchy powers.
Lilith (Lucifer’s ex) is also in town, looking for revenge on Amy,
and devises a plan to use the new witch as bait.
Can Amy protect
the innocent witch from falling into Lilith’s hands or will they
both end up in Hell?

The winner will get:

To name the innocent witch in Witches
Anonymous Step 4 (title to be announced)

To read Witches Anonymous Step 4 before it’s
released to the public

Added to the Acknowledgments page of the
book

A gift package from me, including free
books, The Devil Made Me Do It post it notes, a bag of Dove
chocolates and whatever else I find that I want to throw in!

To enter, email me at
[email protected] with WITCH CONTEST in the subject
line.

AND earn extra points by:

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The contest runs from now until May
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^st
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Happy reading,

Misty

Can a bad witch go good in thirteen steps?
Not if Lucifer has his way with her!

©2009 Misty Evans

In a room full of witches, you’d think I
wouldn’t stand out.
You’d be wrong.

My name is Amy Atwood and I’m a witch.
Not
one of those goodie-two-shoes Wiccans.
No, I’m a Satan-worshipping,
Devil-made-me-do-it witch.

However, after catching Lucifer performing a
particularly wicked hex act with Emilia, my sister—a tried and true
Wiccan—I turned my back on the Devil.
I didn’t exactly expect him
to be faithful, but bewitching it with my sister?
High ick factor.
So, no more casting spells to entertain him.
No more curses to
carry out his desires.
No more witchery of any kind.

That’s why I was attending my first Witches
Anonymous meeting.
Glancing around at the faces staring back at me,
with their raised eyebrows and thinned lips, I suddenly realized
the last part of my introduction, about the Wiccans, I said out
loud.
In a room full of the goodie-two-shoes sisters.

Way to go,
Amy.
Stepping on broomsticks in less
than thirty seconds.
A new record, even for me.

Too bad I couldn’t cast a spell and enchant
them all, but I’d sworn an oath to stay clean.
Because magic is a
slippery slope.
Even one small curse or spell could put me on the
downhill slide back to Lucifer.
So far, I was sticking to my oath.
I was good now.
Normal.

Human.

Yeesh.
The thought made me shudder.

Anxiously caressing the square of Dove
chocolate stowed in the pocket of my jacket, I gave the witches in
the room my most charming smile, full of ear-to-ear goodness.
I’d
promised myself if I got through the meeting, I could have the
chocolate.

And there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for a
Dove.

The door behind me opened, saving me from
making a false apology.
A tall, good-looking guy with a determined
look on his face pulled up short as he took in the circle of women.
His T-shirt was a bit too tight and his jeans a bit too loose, but
his boots were high-quality leather with snappy silver toes peeking
out from beneath the frayed hems of his pant legs.

That’s what I call
good
ness
.

His intense brown eyes looked intelligent
when his gaze locked with mine.
“Uh, hi,” he stammered, his focus
dropping to my mouth.
It stayed there a second too long before
returning to meet my eyes.
Thank the devil I’d worn my plum lip
gloss.
“Is this room 12A?
I was looking for the Harley Brothers
meeting.”

Men and Harleys?
Now that was my kind of
group.
“I’m Amy.”
I stepped forward to extend my hand.
“I was
looking for that meeting, too.
It must be down the hall.”

The grin that passed over his face showed me
one perfect dimple.
He took my hand with confidence, his warm skin
kissing mine like a lover as he pulled me toward him.
I noticed an
apple with an arrow piercing the core tattooed on his right
arm.

“Let’s get out of here, then,” he said, “and
let these fine women get back to their…whatever meeting.”

Out in the hall, I put my hand over my mouth
and giggled.
“Your timing is perfect.
You just saved me from being
burned at the stake.”

Up close, his brown eyes looked like the
color of the Dove in my pocket.
The dimple reappeared.
“Rescuing
damsels in distress is one of my specialties.”

I’d never considered myself a damsel in
distress.
However, the dimple won me over, saving him from a sharp
rebuke.
I found myself wondering if his eyes got darker, like
melted chocolate, when he got mad.

Or horny.

He took my hand again.
Soft warmth enveloped
it.
“I’m Adam Foster.”

Instantly, I thought of Bananas Foster.
Yummy.
My mind was already casting a circle of lust around us when
I caught myself.

No spells.
No charms.

No fun.

“Nice to meet you, Adam Foster.”
I took my
hand back, wishing I could curse Lucifer and Emilia for forcing me
to embrace goodness and normalcy.
“I better let you get to your
meeting.”

“You’re not coming?”

“No.”
I glanced at the door to Room 13C and
shuffled my feet.
“I swore an oath to be good.
I have to go back to
this one.”

“Back to the stake, huh?”

“You could say that.”

He gave me a nod.
“Maybe after our meetings,
we could grab an ice cream?”

A Harley-riding, tattooed man who wanted to
go for ice cream?
Normalcy wasn’t all that bad.

And revenge on Lucifer, whether by stake or
by mortal torment, was extremely satisfying.
“I’d love to.”

“Meet you outside later?”

“I’ll be there.”

As he walked away, I watched the back of his
dark brown hair brush his neck and thought about touching that same
spot with my fingers.
When Lucifer discovered I’d taken a new
boyfriend—a human one, no less—he’d be mad as hell.

Who says being a good witch isn’t fun?