Ritual Magic (37 page)

"Thank you, Leo." I smiled up at him as I
reached up and fondled the jewel with my fingers.

It felt warmer than I expected, but it
figured since Leo was a burning furnace of pent-up sexual energy
all of the time. Why would I think that today would be any
different? The ruby felt perfect, and I looked down to see that it
was sparkling with the light reflected from the fireplace.

"It's breathtaking."

Leo's eyes became alive with red flames as
he smiled down at me with his seductive glare. "Yes, well, it pales
in comparison to you, my lovely Celeste." My right eyebrow
automatically raised in response. Leo chuckled under his breath as
he bowed formally and backed away from the bed as if he knew that
others were going to be approaching me.

"Okay, well, I guess I had better present
you with my gift as well." Gabriel came over to the bed and placed
a tan bundle on the bed near my hand. "This is for you, Raven
Celeste of the Woods." He smiled down at me. "That is deer skin, by
the way. The skin can be used to house your gift when you are not
in need of it. It is the most natural way to retain moisture and
prime condition."

I looked up at him as I reached out for the
package.

The skin on the package felt like butter,
and I rubbed my hand over it again and again just for the sensation
of it. I could feel my stress magically slipping away, as well as
any apprehension that I had about accepting this gift. It was going
to be a comfort to have it with me, so basically, he wasn't getting
it back even if he wanted it.

Smiling up at him, I began to unfold the
flaps of the package to reveal something I hadn't expected. It
wasn't jewelry, a book or anything else that would have been
typical of a gift from a man to a woman. It was a smudge fan, a
grouping of three eagle feathers.

A memory came back to me that only Native
Americans were allowed to keep and use eagle feathers. The fan's
handle was constructed of a piece of wood that had multiple rings.
Each ring was dyed red, blue, green or purple. A stick of bound and
dried sage was lying next to the feathers in the bundle. Used
together, the sage stick would burn cleansing smoke, and the
feathers would be used to direct the smoke over and around my
person, or any area that I needed to have spiritually cleansed. It
was a powerful tool to have in the arsenal of a shaman.

"You will need to cleanse yourself after
such a difficult and stressful delivery. There seem to be so many
negatives that have attached to it. Although, the positives
do
outweigh the others." He frowned to himself. Goodness,
this man was about as sexy as Von was when he was reading his
gloriously boring books.

I raised a single eyebrow at Gabriel. "Are
you saying that I'm...dirty and I need a
bath
? Is that your
professional
opinion?" My voice hitched up in volume just
before Jack burst out in laughter on the other side of the room. A
smile spread across my lips as I watched stark fear shroud
Gabriel's startled expression. A sensation of wicked joy flooded my
mind as I drank in his discomfort. It was much more fun to play
with Gabriel than I had expected.
Going to keep that option open
for later.
Smiling up at Gabriel's frozen expression, I patted
the smudge fan appreciatively. "Thank you, I know how to perform
the cleansing ritual. I think it's a sound idea. Thank you for the
tools."

Gabriel blinked several times before he
snapped his mouth shut and began to walk away hesitantly. I
suddenly felt bad for Gabriel because he had no idea how to react
to me, and he was truly getting an idea of just how much fun I
could have at his expense. Maybe it was a good lesson to learn,
just so that he knew never to push me too far.
Poking the dragon
is never a good idea.

Von cleared his throat on the other side of
the bed, the side closest to Cora, as he took a step closer and
held out a hardbound book wrapped in a large pink bow. It was
smaller than an average-sized book, bound in dark green fabric. As
I held it in my hand, the scent of aged paper wafted towards me.
So, basically, when I flipped open to the copyright page and the
date that stared at me was 1944, I wasn't surprised. Von loved old
books and this was special for him to share one with me. I stroked
the book as I turned it over to look at the spine;
Comedies
by William Shakespeare. Well, that made
sense. Von's reading of the comedies of Shakespeare was probably
one of the only times that I had stayed
awake
during his
torturously long reading sessions. I loved the rhythm of the way he
would read and enjoyed the random and creative storylines that
Shakespeare had shared. A smile spread across my lips and heart as
I looked up at Von.

"I love it. Thank you." I offered him my
most sincere and genuine smile. He smiled back at me also, but his
was a sad, almost regretful expression as he turned and walked
slowly back to the side of Cora's bassinet.

Taking a moment with my new gift, I looked
down at the book and began to flip through the aged pages until I
came across an illustration of
The Merchant of
Venice
.
It was the scene where Portia was settling
payment with Bassanio, the man that she loved and saved from death.
All she demanded from him was the ring that she had put on his
finger when they had been married. But he wouldn't give it up
because he loved her so very much and couldn't bear the thought of
releasing the token of her love and their affection, which he had
sworn to never remove from his finger.

My eyes searched the room for Solomon as the
story began to strike a chord in my heart and mind. It finally hit
me with such finality that I was willing to accept the truth. I was
in love with Solomon, and come hell or high water, no pun intended,
I was going to make things work for us.
Enough with the
wallowing and worrying about Dylan and his negative attitude.
He was only the
Ocean
, and an overprotective dad to boot. He
was going to have to learn to
deal
.

That was when Solomon sat on the bed on the
side closest to the window. It figured that he would sit in the one
spot that would require that I turned away from the rest of the
people in the room. Although I knew that they were there, it
sounded like little conversations were being held off to the side
to allow us the moment together.

"So." Solomon smiled at me with a twinkle in
his amazing blue-green eyes.

"So." I echoed for him so that he could know
that I was with him, and that I was ready for whatever he was
prepared to do or say.

I looked deeply into his eyes this time,
unafraid of what the future was going to hold, and I knew that
there was so much worth fighting for.
And I am definitely going
to fight.

I smiled over at him as he stared at me with
his swirling orbs of emotions. Immediately I began to hear the
ocean in my ears, crashing, rolling and swelling. I knew that the
call of the ocean was what kept me so close to the Pacific
coastline. I knew that I couldn't live without it, but it now felt
that, strangely enough, if I was near Solomon I
had
the
ocean with me in some unique and surreal way. Had he become that
important to me? As important as the ocean had always been to me in
the past? I cocked my head to the side as I looked at his amazing
eyes, firm facial features, scruffy five o'clock shadow, and his
spiky dirty-blond hair.

Yes, he's
that
important.

I smiled up at him and wanted to wink, but
judging from his expression, we were well past the winking point of
the conversation.

Solomon stared down at his hands as he
struggled for words. "I wanted to give you a gift as well. I guess
I didn't plan it very well, because I had intended to give it to
you much earlier than Cora's birth. Actually, that was what I had
wanted to talk to you about right before we found out that you were
in labor."

Turning his head off to the side with a
small growl, he threw a disgusted look out towards the window as if
what had interrupted his predestined moment was standing just
outside. He frowned down at his hands and my eyes followed his to
find that he was holding a small black leather box edged in gold.
His fingers fidgeted with the box for a minute before finally
turning his eyes back up to mine, his tongue flicking out to lick
his lips impatiently.

"I'm not quite sure how to give this to
you." His voice drifted away from me like it was running away.

The room seemed to have fallen silent. There
couldn't have been a soul in the room, judging from the sounds, but
I knew that we had a room full of men consumed with judging each
other and protecting Cora. No one was going to leave when there was
so much at stake.

Solomon silently clasped the box in his
hands as he closed his eyes and took a ragged breath. "This is just
a small token of how I feel about you, Celeste. I hope that you
understand that nothing I could ever give you could ever compare to
what you have given to me by simply
existing
." Still,
everyone could have heard a pin drop from the quiet that was
reverberating from the walls, the floor, the ceiling...every
surface echoed the dead silence of the room.

Solomon released a gusty breath from between
his tense lips before leaning over and opening the box to reveal
the treasure that he felt expressed his affection and love for
me.

It was the most breathtaking art deco ring I
had ever seen. And, since my heart was in near hysterics that the
ring was going to be an engagement ring, I was excessively relieved
by the sight of the stunning sapphire and diamond ring. Blinded by
the stunning piece of jewelry, I reached up with my shaking hand as
Solomon held the box out for me to touch.

"The ring is symbolic of how I love you."
Solomon's voice rang through my mind, branding this moment into my
memory for all time. "The three oval blue sapphires stand for the
past, present and future—the times in which I have been devoted to
and in love with you. The diamonds are representative of the hopes
and dreams that we will fulfill together. We have so much to look
forward to." He smiled at me, now secure about his heart-pounding
speech. "The style is art deco because I know that you love it so
very much. The ring is set in white gold, because I know that you
would prefer these stones to be set in white. It is your preference
for blue sapphires and diamonds together to be set in white
gold."

He sounded so sure of himself, and it made
me smile to hear him talk about what I preferred and enjoyed so
definitely. He was right, of course, but the fact that
any
man had paid such strict attention to my preferences and desires
was very...attractive. I eyed him as his muscles rippled even
though he wasn't moving. He was tense and trying to hold himself
still.

I smiled my widest smile for Solomon as he
peered up at me through his eyelashes from his spot on the edge of
the bed. When he finally caught the genuine happiness that I felt,
the love that I was allowing to pour forth and into him, he smiled
back at me and began to laugh. I laughed in return because his
laughter was like oxygen to my weary heart. There was no denying
this man anything. I couldn't imagine going another day without
him, much less living my life minus his loving attention. Dylan was
just going to have to learn to like Solomon...or else
.

I held my left hand out to him as I dangled
my fingers in front of his face. He took the ring out of the box
slowly and then reached for my right hand instead of the left. That
actually caught me off-guard, because I always wore my rings on my
left hand.

"This, my love, is a sweetheart's ring." His
eyes gleamed as his eyebrows waggled up and down. "And I am
declaring that you are my sweetheart."

With a slow, ceremonious motion, he placed
the ring on the middle finger of my right hand.

"How very old fashioned of you," I giggled
as he placed the gorgeous ring on my finger. "And, so, what does
that entail? Being sweethearts, I mean." I turned my head and eyed
him coyly as he smiled at me wolfishly.

"Oh, things that you are going to have
problems admitting to your father in the future. Let's see..." My
heart began to pound underneath my pajamas like I was running a
relay. "Sitting on porches, holding hands, sneaking kisses when no
one is looking, taking long walks together, talking for hours and
hours on end. You know," he smiled wickedly, "all of those things
that you wouldn't admit to in the morning."

He then reached down and kissed the ring,
turning over my hand and lingering on the inside of my wrist. My
heart rate spiked as he let his lips walk their way slowly up my
arm with burning, but gentle kisses, giving me a sharp helping of
goose bumps. Pulling away expertly, he winked deeply as he leaned
forward again, invading my personal space as if he owned it.

"Oh yeah?" My voice shook as his lips came
dangerously close to touching mine.

"Yeah." He whispered, and I could feel his
cool breath brush my lips. My eyes fluttered closed as I prepared
for the touch of his delicious lips...but they didn't come.

"Solomon?" I whispered as I fought to keep
my eyes closed and my lips puckered, fighting desperately not to
feel idiotic. I finally allowed my lips to return to normal as I
opened my eyes to see what was going on.

Gasping, I realized the room was lined with
hideously grotesque shadow demons. We were no longer safe in the
castle, in my own quarters. The feeling of insecurity immediately
flooded through my veins as I fought to keep my thoughts level.

Every man in the room was now standing,
eyeing the lot lining the walls. They were all doing the mental
math to figure out just how long they had been standing there and
what the hell we were going to do about them.