Donna Fletcher Short Story Collection (16 page)

Jade waited having sensed there was more to
why he had rescued her and not family.

“The spell on the apple made your return
impossible unless you returned with a husband.”

She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“You and Alex were separated during transport
because you were not husband and wife. When it was discovered you
needed to wed to return home, the natural solution was for me to go
find you, wed you to bring you home and release you once here.”

“Now I remember,” Jade said. “It started at
the party with hearing a voice ask about going home and it’s time,
which had to be my family summoning me.”

He nodded.

She stared at him a moment. “You wed me in
the Old Way, claiming names and declaring we took each other as
husband and wife.”

“And we can dissolve the marriage the same
way,” he said.

Had he sounded reluctant?

Jade stopped abruptly and turned wide eyes on
him. “Once I gave you my name you put a spell on me so that I would
find you appealing and surrender to whatever you asked.” She shook
her head again. “You befuddled poor Margaret thinking her me.”

“I did,” he admitted, “then realized my
mistake. And it was a small, barely significant spell I cast on
you.”

She shook his hand off and with a wave of her
hand around her said, “Cleanse me of the spells that be, no one is
in command of me.”

Once she finished she walked up to him, threw
her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips.

Tor responded wrapping his arms around her
waist and drawing her close.

Their kiss didn’t end quickly, but did end
reluctantly.

“A good-bye kiss for your husband?” he asked.
“Now we need only say the words and we dissolve the marriage.”

I need to think on it,” she said and
sauntered off toward the castle.

He caught up with her grabbing hold of her
arm to stop her. “Why not renounce our vows now?”

She smiled and tapped his chest. “You’re a
fantastic kisser and I want to learn, at my own pace, what else
you’re fantastic at.”

Tor scooped her up in his arms. “You may be
sorry.”

“I don’t think so, Highlander,” she whispered
and brushed her lips across his. “Mortals believe in Halloween
magic and on this Halloween, I believe you and I have found true
magic.”

~ The End ~

You can read about Jade’s parents Ali and
Sebastian in the first book of the Wyrrd Witches series
The Wedding Spell
. The three other books in the series
are
Magical Moments
,
Magical
Memories
and
Remember the Magic
.

Based on characters from books in my Wyrrd Witches
series

“Someone bought the Devil’s Den?”

“McDevin Manor,” Dagon corrected his
wife.

Sarina placed their eight-month-old, sleeping
son Alexander in the cradle not far from the sitting room’s large
fireplace tucking the soft blue, handmade knit baby blanket around
him. Castle Rasmus could be a drafty place and with autumn proving
colder than usual in Scotland this year fireplaces were kept lit in
many of the castle rooms.

She turned to her husband comfortably seated
in an overstuffed, mocha chenille chair. His handsome, aristocratic
features never failed to flutter her heart and stir her passion.
Her feet took flight and she was soon curled in his lap snuggling
against him.

His arms were quick to wrap around her and
his lips even quicker to kiss her. Dagon had discovered soon enough
that his wife’s inquisitive and challenging nature could prove a
handful and even though she was petite he dared not underestimate
her.

“The castle has a reputation for once having
been the den of the devil,” Sarina said. “And isn’t it odd that
having sat empty for so long, it suddenly gets sold only a couple
of weeks before Samhain, a sacred time for witches and warlocks...
a time when the dead can join the living and walk the earth.”

He nuzzled his mouth at the crook of her
neck, nipping lightly. “Need I remind you that we’re both
witches—powerful ones—and we would certainly sense the presence of
a warlock.”

“We would be well aware if the devil’s
dominions were present but what of the devil himself?” she
whispered near his ear. “What if he has decided to walk among
mortals on Samhain?”

Dagon pressed his cheek to hers and whispered
in return, “I daresay he would keep his distance from a nosy,
petite witch who no doubt would annoy him so much that he’d return
in a flash to Hades.”

Sarina gave his chest a jab and winced, her
finger hitting firm muscle and Dagon chuckled. She floundered
trying and failing to get off his lap which made him laugh all the
more, and he grabbed her around the waist and forced her to settle
in his lap.

“Forgive me,” he said with a kiss to her
cheek. “I didn’t mean to upset you, but I meant what I said, though
I said it poorly. You are a formidable opponent for the devil and
he would rue the day he met you.”

Sarina let her body relax against her
husband’s. He had made amends quite nicely and she appreciated it.
“Perhaps I should go introduce myself to our new neighbor.”

“What new neighbor?”

Dagon shook his head and Sarina turned with a
smile to greet Ali and Sebastian Wainwright hovering in the
doorway.

“We didn’t expect you for at least another
week,” Sarina said hopping off her husband’s lap and hurrying over
to Ali. She stopped just before reaching her and shook her head.
“Where’s Jade?”

Ali and Sebastian’s daughter Jade was a few
weeks older than Alexander and Sarina hoped they would grow to be
as close as brother and sister just as Dagon and Ali had.

Sebastian grinned. “Try prying her away from
Aunt Sydney and Uncle Duncan. You would think the child was theirs
they fuss over her so much. They’ll be bringing her along with them
when they arrive from the States next week.”

“What are you doing sitting there when you
should be over here hugging me,” Ali reprimanded Dagon with a
smile.

Dagon got slowly out of the chair. “It’s good
to see that you are the same gorgeous, demanding woman you’ve
always been. I was afraid that motherhood might have changed
you.”

Sebastian snorted and Ali jabbed him in the
ribs with her elbow not that it did much good. He had more muscles
than Dagon so his wife’s poke just made him laugh harder.

“Watch it, husband,” Ali warned with a point
of her finger.

Sebastian drew his finger as if drawing a
six-shooter. “I’ve gotten quicker and more accurate, witch, so be
careful or I just may turn you into a docile mate.”

That brought a round of laughter from
everyone and a grunt form Alexander in the cradle.

Sarina and Ali hurried over to him and Ali
was disappointed that he had only stirred and not woken.

“I can’t wait to cuddle him,” Ali said. “And
while I wait for him to wake I am in dire need of a cup of tea and
I still want to know about your new neighbor.”

Dagon instructed Bernard, his manservant for
years, to bring tea and biscuits. Ali naturally asked Bernard if
his wife Margaret, the cook and housekeeper, had by any chance
baked a fresh batch of biscuits. Bernard had grinned and Ali yelped
with delight.

It wasn’t until the two couples were settled
with hot tea and lemon and rosemary biscuits that talk turned to
the new neighbor.

“Someone bought Devil Manor?” Ali asked
wide-eyed. “Who was foolish enough to do that?”

“The place is actually called Devil Manor?”
Sebastian asked.

“No,” Dagon said and shook his head at Ali,
“though she was instrumental in the place getting the
nickname.”

Ali rolled her eyes at him. “That’s not the
way I recall it—oh wait, I forgot—you’re three hundred plus years
so you must being getting senile.”

Dagon ignored her grin. “Since we’re the same
age it would mean that your memory is not what it used to be.”

“My memory is perfect,” Ali insisted.

“She’s right about that,” Sebastian said.
“She never lets me forget anything.”

Everyone laughed, except Ali.

She laid her hand far up on his thigh and
squeezed ever so lightly. “Think of all the important things I
don’t let you forget, darling.”

Sebastian leaned close and whispered in her
ear after giving it a nip. “You’ll pay for this, dearest.”

“Promise?” she asked with a sweet though
salacious smile.

“Would you like some privacy?” Dagon
grumbled.

Ali turned to him with a teasing grin.
“Jealous?”

Sarina answered. “He has no reason to
be.”

Dagon smiled as he got up and gave his wife a
kiss and he joined her on the settee. “I knew there was a reason I
loved you so much.”

“While my husband and you,”—Ali pointed to
Dagon—“wouldn’t mind whisking us gorgeous women away to the
bedrooms; I would prefer to continue the discussion about Devil’s
Manor.”

“I’m curious myself,” Sebastian said. “Do
tell the tale.”

Dagon gave a gentlemanly nod. “Your tale to
tell... and a tale it is.”

Ali shot him a scathing look.

“Since it acquired the reputation of being
the den of the devil,” Sarina said preventing any further verbal
sparring between the two. “I assumed that somewhere in the past it
was owned by a noble who practiced debauchery.”

“That could very well explain it,” Sebastian
said. “Was the manor occupied at that time?”

Dagon and Ali exchanged glances.

“Well are you going to tell them or shall I?”
Dagon asked.

Sebastian chuckled. “So you did have
something to do with why McDevin Manor got its reputation.”

“The place deserved it,” Ali said with a
shiver and Sebastian’s arm wrapped quickly around his wife.

“What happened?” Sarina asked her hand
slipping into Dagon’s as she cuddled in the crook of his arm.

“My friends and I would explore the woods
after our studies were finished for the day,” Ali said.

“She means they gathered for a gossip fest,”
Dagon corrected.

“Who’s telling this?” Ali snapped and
continued not giving Dagon a chance to argue. “We’d often forage
for plants trying to identify the ones we’d learned about. There
seemed to be an unusual amount of those plants in the surrounding
area of McDevin Manor.”

“Don’t forget to tell them that our teachers
warned us about gathering or practicing the craft near any occupied
residences,” Dagon said. “We were to stay deep in the forest and
for a good reason. It was a time ripe with fear and ignorance.”

“True enough,” Ali agreed with a nod. “But we
made certain to keep a safe distance from the manor.”

“Until one day...” Dagon turned a stern glare
on Ali.

“We heard an atrocious moaning. It sounded
like someone was suffering horribly. Naturally I and Marissa, the
girl with me, worried that someone was in dire need of help. So
Marissa and I approached the castle.”

“And what did you find?” Dagon asked a wide
smile surfacing.

Ali ignored him and continued the tale. “It
was a most disturbing scene... a man and a woman having sex, though
not enjoyable sex from the horrid expression on her face. And his
dark eyes,”—she shuddered—“pure evil.”

“That horrid expression the woman wore
couldn’t have been because you caught her naked having sex? And the
evil-eyed man? What did he do when he caught you both staring
through the window?” Dagon asked.

“I can still see his face and the
audacity,”—she shook her head—“he brazenly crooked his finger for
us to join them.”

“At which point you and Marissa high-tailed
it like the devil was chasing you and ran right into me,” Dagon
said. “Where you both couldn’t tell me what happened fast
enough.”

“And then you went and reported it to the
council of witches,” Ali accused.

“I did not,” Dagon said empathically. “I
assumed you and Marissa told everyone and the council, realizing
the danger to the students if they were caught practicing the
craft, forbid anyone from venturing anywhere near McDevin
Manor.”

“Marissa and I never said a word,” Ali
insisted. “We both did not get a good feeling from the whole
incident and therefore decided it was best not to speak of it and
give it anymore energy.”

“And then there was the matter of punishment
once the teachers discovered you disobeyed the rules,” Dagon
said.

Ali shrugged. “I did give it thought.”

“It wouldn’t matter if the three of you kept
silent about it,” Sarina said. “The council of witches would have
known about it. There is always an extremely skillful seer on it
who would have sensed or seen the whole incident.”

“There were rumors after that about the devil
occupying the place, though I imagine it was as Sarina suggested...
a place of debauchery,” Ali said. “Noblemen loved having their
getaways where they could do all sorts of nasty things.”