“Oh, well that’s good for you guys. Vance and I are going to be miserably behind by the time we can get back,” I replied feeling a little downhearted all of a sudden at the thought.
“Why don’t you use our tutor through the summer?” Shelly suggested. “I’m sure you could finish up all of your credits in that amount of time.”
“That does sound like a good idea. Thanks,” I said as Vance and Brad joined us, carrying our food.
They sat down next to us and handed us what we had ordered.
I ate quickly because I felt like I was starving to death. When I was done, I waited patiently for everyone else to finish their food.
When they were all done, we stood to leave, and I picked up our trash so I could throw it away in the receptacle. A sudden wave of nausea washed over me. I covered my mouth with my hand.
“You okay, baby?” Vance asked, eyeing me closely.
I shook my head and ran into the bathroom where I began puking my guts up.
Chapter 15
One long nap, four over-the-counter pregnancy tests, and one magical medical exam later, I finally convinced Vance that I wasn’t pregnant.
He had whisked me out of the juice bar, not even letting me walk on my own two feet before placing me in the car and rushing me back to the hotel.
I kept trying to tell him that I had just gone too long without eating anything and then I had eaten too fast when I did.
He had been almost certain that I was expecting a baby, and I thought I felt a distinct moment of disappointment flash through him once he was sure otherwise. Staying by my side, he had catered to my every need until I had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep.
When I finally woke up a couple of hours later, it was to find him lying next to me, staring at me with concern. I burst out laughing at his expression of worry which had caused him to make a face at me.
“I appreciate your concern, but I really am fine,” I said, and I reached out to stroke the side of his face.
He grabbed my hand, holding it there against him.
“I was really worried,” he said. He searched my eyes intently, several things plainly written in his for me to see. “I couldn’t live with myself if something were to happen to you.”
“You’re very sweet,” I said with a soft smile.
“I mean it, Portia. I know I’m driving you crazy with my constant hovering over you, but you’re everything to me,” he replied apologetically. “I’m sorry if I’m bothering you, but I need you to know how I feel when it comes to you. Nothing is more important than your well-being.”
“I understand,” I said seriously, not wanting to hurt his feelings by making light of his mood. “But I’m not going anywhere.”
I gave him a long lingering kiss so he would know I meant it. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me up tighter against him, and I could feel his panic and unease at the situation.
“I love you,” I said when we broke the kiss, and he continued to stare longingly at me for a moment.
“I love you, too,” he replied. He reluctantly released me and moved to get off the bed. “Do you think you could eat something now?” he asked, and he walked over to the writing desk and picked up a tray with cheese and crackers on it.
“I can try,” I said. I sat up to fluff the pillows behind my back, scooting up against them.
He placed the tray onto my lap, before sitting on the edge of the bed next to me. He would break off pieces of cheese and lay them on the crackers before handing them to me.
I tried to keep the smile from spreading across my face since I knew I could have done this tiny task by myself, but he seemed desperate to help me somehow, so I didn’t say anything.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked, changing the subject away from myself, trying to direct his attention elsewhere.
“They went back to Lankton’s,” he said, and he reached over to the nightstand, picked up a glass of juice, and handed it to me. “They said for you and me to take the evening off tonight and just enjoy resting here together.”
“That was sweet,” I replied, swallowing a small sip of the drink before biting into another cracker. “I know Shelly was getting pretty worn out with all this, though. I feel bad creating more work for everyone else.”
“I know,” he agreed while he watched me. “But we really need to figure out what’s going on with this Awakening thing.”
I agreed with a slight nod of my head while he continued to feed me. I finally had to beg him to stop, telling him I was too full to eat another bite.
He, however, complained that he thought I hadn’t yet eaten enough. He relented, though, when I told him I was going to get sick again if he kept force feeding me.
After that, he insisted upon drawing me a bath to relax in, which I completely enjoyed since he lit a couple candles as well as had soft music playing from a station on the television. I quickly fell asleep once more in the soothing environment.
When I finally managed to make my way out of the bathroom, it was to find the bedroom transformed, lit by the light of scented, glowing candles on almost every surface of the room. The aroma was intoxicating.
My eyes drifted past the new covered food tray on the end of the bed and over to my sleeping husband. He looked a bit like a Greek god who had decided to grace the earth with his very presence.
He had removed his shirt, which was lying casually tossed on the floor next to his shoes and socks, and his long jean-clad legs were stretched out, crossed loosely as the ankles.
His hands rested behind his head, causing his biceps to pop out, perfectly defined in the flickering light. My eyes traveled slowly down his sculpted bronzed skin, and I almost licked my lips in anticipation while I watched him. Had he not been sleeping so soundly, I would have accused him of setting up this scene with the express intent of seducing me.
The funny thing was I knew this wasn’t the case since he had been desperately trying all day to make me rest. Had he not been in the picture, this would have been the very scene of extreme relaxation. Instead his presence had the exact opposite effect on me, causing my pulse to jump to an ever-increasing tempo.
I tightened the knot at the waist of my robe, before quietly tiptoeing around to the foot of the bed to pick up the food tray he had left there for me. I carefully moved it to another surface without even bothering to check what was making the delicious aromas that were coming from the steam hole on the top of the plate cover.
Determined not to wake him, I turned from the tray and made my way around to my side of the bed, sitting down as softly as possible, before gently swinging my legs up onto the bed as I lay back on the pillow.
I held my breath for a few seconds when I felt him stir ever so slightly, but he didn’t wake up. After several moments had passed I finally rolled over onto my side so I could look at him.
I watched in awe while the candlelight danced and flickered over his skin, wanting to reach out and touch him so badly, but refraining from doing so because I knew he had really been pushing himself lately.
His face was relaxed in sleep, and I loved the way it looked, as if he didn’t have a care in the world, all traces of the worry lines, scowls of deep concentration, and tension wiped away from his features. It had been months since I had truly seen him this relaxed. I had often wondered if he had ever really rested while we were being held captive. He had always been so concerned with everything and how he was going to protect me in a hostile environment. It was a joy to my heart to see him like this.
I lay perfectly still in that spot for a very long time, just watching him, letting my eyes travel up and down every inch of his perfect physique, wanting to capture every part of him in my memory forever.
My eyes were starting to get a little heavy themselves after a while, and I slowly turned to go put out the candles before I fell asleep. I was just getting ready to use a little magic to extinguish the tiny flames when I felt his arm snake out and capture me around the waist, pulling me back up
against his chest. I let out a little squeal of surprise.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said in a sleepy voice.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up,” I said, and a broad smile slipped over my face at being held like this by him. “I was getting sleepy and thought I’d better blow the candles out before we burned the place down around us. Thank you for setting the room up so nicely for me, though. It was very sweet.”
“I’m sorry I fell asleep before I could enjoy it with you,” he replied, and he nuzzled his nose against my ear before nibbling slightly there, causing a flash of goose bumps to run over my entire body.
“Don’t feel bad,” I responded to him. “You’ve needed some good rest, probably more than I have. I was happy to see you so relaxed.”
“Did you eat your dinner?” he asked me, brushing my damp hair back from my neck so he could reach it better, kissing his way from my ear to my throat.
“No,” I replied honestly, and the shivers he was causing danced over my skin, to which I was rewarded with an exasperated sigh.
“Portia, you need to eat so you can keep your strength up,” he said, and he paused in his tender assault of me.
“I was devouring something with my eyes instead,” I replied jokingly back at him.
His eyes registered a moment of confusion before the light of understanding flashed into them.
“You were, were you?” he said, and a seductive grin spread over his face. “Did you like what you saw?”
“It was the best visual buffet I could ever imagine,” I replied, and I flashed a grin over my shoulder back up at him. “I was practically salivating.”
“Really?” he said with a quirk of his eyebrow, and he turned his head, his gaze traveling slowly down the length of my body and back up again. I could feel the heat of it as if he were touching me with an actual flame. “Because it couldn’t have been better than the visual display I see laid out before me. Only I think looking isn’t going to be enough. I’m going to need a taste.”
“Only one taste?” I asked, flirting back brazenly with him, and I could feel my skin flush with excitement.
He rolled me onto my back, observing my blushing reaction, and I heard a low chuckle emanate from his throat.
“Girl, you have no idea what you’re doing to me, but, yes, baby, I promise it’ll be more than one taste,” he replied, and his eyes burned a look that was unmistakable into my own.
“Mmm, it sounds … delicious,” I murmured back to him, my breaths becoming more rapid as I fell under his seductive powers.
“Oh, it will be,” he promised before his lips descended to claim mine, and I was not the least bit disappointed.
We ended up going to all the little bookstores Vance had found over the next four days, spending many hours searching, yet finding nothing.
Vance insisted on everyone taking regularly scheduled breaks to stretch and keep our strength up with some sort of refreshment, not taking any chances with anyone’s health or well-being, especially mine.
We had finally come to the fifth store on the list, and we were all sitting in a small, stuffy, windowless attic space covered in dust. It appeared these books hadn’t been touched in a long while.
The shopkeeper at this location hadn’t been too keen on letting us look at his collection but had finally been persuaded to let us have a go at it after Vance promised him we would definitely be purchasing from him.
We had been here for several hours, sifting through the musty smelling items, when Grandma finally spoke up.
“I think I may have found something,” she said passing a very old, large book over to my dad.
Dad looked carefully at the brittle worn pages.
“Yes. This is definitely something about the white witches,” Dad agreed, his eyes intently searching over the yellowed page while he ran his index finger carefully over the writings.
Vance stood up then, brushing himself off slightly, and came to look over his shoulder for a moment.
“I’ll go down and see if we can’t persuade the shop owner to let us borrow or purchase it,” he said after a few seconds of perusing the book in interest.
He made his way out of the narrow doorway to head back down to the lower floor of the store. He had only been gone for a few moments when he hurried back up the stairs in a hushed manner, holding his fingers to his lips.
“Quick! Everyone drop what you’re doing. Go down the stairs and out the back as fast as you can,” he said, waving his arm to hurry everyone along, not offering any other explanation.
To his credit, not one soul questioned him. Dad closed the book, tucking it under his arm, and we hurriedly made our way down the staircase toward the outside. When we were out the door, I turned to Vance who was dragging me down the narrow alleyway, breaking into a run.
“What is it?” I asked breathlessly, the others running along side us, quickly trying to put distance between ourselves and the shop.
“Brian Fitzgerald was in the building,” he huffed as we rounded a corner, out of the line of sight from the building.
“Brian was there?” I asked breathlessly. “What could he have possibly been doing there?”
“He was asking about that book,” Vance said pointing to the one my dad was carrying under his arm still.
“But why would he want that book?” I asked while we made our way around to where we had parked the vehicles.
“I didn’t stick around to find out,” he replied. “He didn’t see me, and I knew I needed to get everyone out of there before we were discovered. The others could have been with him for all I know.”
He held the door to the car open for me, ushered me inside, and climbed in beside me. We were soon on our way down the road.
As our group was in two separate vehicles, we decided to split up and take alternate routes, weaving through town in random directions just in case someone was trying to follow us.
We didn’t see anyone making any obvious attempts to mark our movements, so after about thirty minutes of driving we finally turned back toward the direction of the hotel.
We arrived without any further incident, and we all met together in the safety of our apartment. Dad placed the book on the dining room table while everyone gathered around to read over his shoulders.
“The Society of the White Witch,” Dad began reading aloud to the rest of us. “The first coven of this society was made up entirely of female witches, with no male warlock members admitted.
“These witches were concerned about the rising discord in the public eye where witchcraft was concerned. They set out on a quest to perfect their magic and use it only for the good of themselves and for the benefit of others they might meet. They were hoping to dispel the unrest that was beginning to stir through the masses, showing that witchcraft was not something to be feared but something to help all.
“These witches began purifying their magic and rituals to the point that they began to accomplish many great feats that had never been heard of before. Much of this magic revolved around the healing of others.
“The white witches claimed that their powers had improved so much because of their belief in God as a higher power than themselves. They maintained that all their gifts were from him and gave him all the credit for the work they had done.
“This caused much speculation in the magical community as most witches and warlocks believed only in the worship of Pagan deities, not one almighty God, though most of the Pagan covens were content to peacefully let them worship as they wished.
“However, it is said that several covens which dealt more in the dark art of things came up against these white witches in order to destroy them and prevent them from turning other witches toward their teachings.
“These covens attacked the white witch coven, which refused to fight back against those who assaulted them, feeling like it would be forsaking all the blessings they had received from their God, to injure another being. Each member of the white witch coven w
as slain until only the coven’s high priestess was all that remained.
“Legend has it that she called to her God in the skies, asking for mercy on her behalf. Her God heard her cries and sent an archangel to her who held the wicked covens at bay. The archangel presented her with a box which held a gift called the Awakening, which was likened unto the gift of immortality.
“He told her if she chose to open the box and accept the gift, she would live a very long time so she could continue the work that she had started. She would be protected from illness and even death for a time. When her time on earth was complete, she would be taken to heaven and the Awakening would then be offered to one of her descendants, who could then continue her righteous mission here on Earth, passing the power for good down through the generations of time.
“When the high priestess finally died centuries later, she left detailed instructions on how her descendants could receive the Awakening by performing a certain ritual with the box.
“They were to place the box on the stone alter in the circle of stones and open it during a full moon when there is a full lunar eclipse taking place. The box was not to be opened until the lunar eclipse was starting to pass and light began to shine on the moon’s reflective surface once again, thus symbolizing the Awakening of light.
“The witch in the circle who carried the purest strain of white witch blood would then be the recipient of the enhanced powers and longevity of life.
“It was soon discovered that even though all the descendants of the white witch might be present at the ritual, that did not always mean they carried the purest strain of the blood. The magic of the white witch was selective and often skipped several generations at a time, only to reappear stronger in certain individuals of different generations. The Awakening would subsequently choose one of these individuals to transfer its power to.
“The last known white witch to receive the Awakening was actually a warlock descendant. He left the bonds of this earth over two centuries ago, and it is unknown if he was ever replaced in his calling.