Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 (13 page)

The man cleared his throat and stood slowly.

“I had nothing to do with whatever she did.  I’m Sally’s
brother in law, James, and I own this cabin.  She called earlier and said she
needed to get away for a few days, that’s all I know.  This is Sally’s sister,
Mary, and my wife.  This is their other sister Katherine.”

Ed frowned, “Sally was guilty of hiring assassins to kill a
feared rival within her coven, which is not activity that will ever be condoned
in Charlotte.  She was sentenced by the two remaining councilors.  She’s caused
many deaths and property damage because of her paranoid ways.”

He paused for a minute and let that sink in.

Silva and Celia were unconcerned at the moment.  The man had
spoken the truth, so he was allowed to keep breathing for now.

Ed frowned, “We don’t believe you to be involved.  However,
you are her family.  I will have your word you will not seek vengeance for the
justice that happened here tonight, and you’d better mean it, or you won’t be
leaving this place alive.”

James replied, “You have mine, I knew what kind of woman she
was.  She was family but… I have no ill will toward you for making her pay for
her crimes.”

Truth.

His wife glared at him though, and said, “And you’ll simply
take their word for it?”

The man coughed, “Come on Mary, you know what your sister
was like, and what she was capable of.  She was too weak to grasp at the power
she craved, so she was ruthless and often overreached.  It was only a matter of
time before she paid for it.”

Mary scowled, but eventually nodded her acceptance of it.

She could hardly blame the woman, it was her sister, no matter
what a bitch Sally had been she was Mary’s family.

Katherine said softly, “I have no intention of pursuing
vengeance, my anger at the actions of the night are toward my sister.”

Silva stood up, the cat was ready to go.

Ed nodded soberly, “I froze much of the line, you’ll want to
get a plumber in here to fix that pipe sooner rather than later, it won’t last
very long in this climate.”

Ed and Silva turned and left the destruction behind, and
trotted back to the car.  She changed back to human and got dressed.  It was
getting late, and they were a couple of hours from home, but they set out.  She
wanted her own bed.

Ed looked thoughtful for a while, and when he spoke his
voice was tentative.

“What aren’t you telling me Celia?”

Celia frowned, “What do you mean?”

Ed chuckled, “What do I mean?  Well, I mean for the woman
that dropped a twister through a house, and sucked up a man and then
electrocuted him to death with lightning, you had an awful hard time taking out
two witches that were mediocre at best.  So what aren’t you telling me?  I can
feel your power Celia, you practically glow with it next to most of us.

“I know I’m fairly strong, but I’m not near your league,
Bria is the closest I know, and Damon is a close second, but no one else comes
close.  I guessed that comes from your fae blood, you told me about that, but
why is the magic you use so weak, and you seem to use it as a last resort.  You
should have been able to blast them in seconds.  So yes, what aren’t you
telling me?”

She sighed and looked down in thought.

“It’s because I was bound.  There is a part of me that fears
magic, and if I channel too much of it… I freak out and lose my concentration. 
I know it doesn’t make sense, but most phobias don’t.  I’m getting better
actually, I was a lot weaker last month.  I’m using a ladder technique that
seems to be working.  Right now I can access about a third of my power, which
wasn’t enough for Sally because she was at least a little over half my power in
strength.  In a sense I owe my success to Gerald, he gave me a potion to keep
me docile, and I had full access to my magic for about half a day, until my
phobia came back.”

When he didn’t respond, she continued.

“Beyond that though, telekinesis is a very powerful gift,
even if Cinna wasn’t that strong with it, the power itself made up for the
differences.  If not for that we would have taken them out fast.”

Ed nodded thoughtfully, and finally asked, “A part of you?”

She frowned, she just couldn’t lie to him, it was beyond
her.  She hadn’t wanted to share her split personality, so she’d added that and
was hoping he’d miss it.  But no such luck.

She shrugged, “Obviously a part of me loves the rush of
magic, and the power.  Even with strong discipline it can be…”

She trailed off, feeling ashamed for continuing to tell the
truth, but in a misleading way.  Besides not wanting it spread around, it was a
part of shifter secrecy.  Some things just needed to be kept a secret.  But she
felt guiltier about this, because there was a part of her that didn’t want him
to know she was broken, she didn’t know if she’d have the courage to tell him
if she could.

It was a bit complicated in her head.

Ed frowned and his voice was full of concern, “Well you need
to work on that, and for god’s sake don’t tell anyone else.”

She nodded, “It’s not that much of a liability.  Perhaps if
I was only a witch it would be, but with strong personal wards and shifter
strength and speed it more than makes up for it.  Except tonight, with the
telekinesis, or you’d have noticed long before now.  But yeah, I’m not exactly
shouting it off the rooftops.  Thanks.”

Ed sounded confused, “For what?”

She smiled and took his hand, “Looking out for me.”

Ed squeezed her hand and said, “Always.”

They had about two more hours on the road.

She asked in a tentative voice, “Ed?”

Ed replied, “What is it?”

She said softly, “I’m… hungry.”

He laughed, “Alright, we’ll stop somewhere on the way.”

It was pretty late, so they opted for fast food.  She ate
four double cheeseburgers and a two large fries with a chocolate shake.  She
noticed Ed giving her looks of both amusement and obvious attraction.  She had
to admit tonight was pretty close, she was feeling a bit amorous herself.  She
wondered if he would want to go home, were they safe?

She tried subtlety, “So I imagine you can’t wait to get home
to your own bed, when do you think it will be safe.”

He gave her a considering look, “I’m not sure when it would
be safe.  I mean, we’re probably fine during the day to go back to our normal
schedules.  Since you’ll have Berny or Mia in the store with you, and me or
Josh when you’re not.  But I don’t think it would be safe for you to be alone
at night for a while.”

She almost gasped and wrinkled her nose at him.  He’d been
telling the absolute truth, up until the last sentence.  He’d been lying his
ass off then.

She smiled at his artfully innocent face and asked
curiously, “When do you think it’d be safe at night?”

He shrugged nonchalantly, “Better safe than sorry right? 
Maybe we can reassess the danger in let’s say… a month or so.”

She smiled widely, she’d never heard a lie that sounded
quite so good before…  It was also a pretty cute approach to the talk they’d needed
to have for a while now, and her eyes danced with amusement.

“Really?” she asked disingenuously, “I suppose it’s for the
best.  Do you mind that I only have the one bed?”

His eyes burned with heat when he replied intensely, “That
won’t be a problem at all Celia.”

Her stomach and lady parts tingled strongly under that
gaze.  She could hardly wait to get home and Silva was in complete agreement,
purring away like a kitten in the back of her mind…

Afterword:
 

I hope you enjoyed this story, if you did please leave a
review.  Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors, and I would
appreciate greatly any constructive feedback or opinions.  This story is
complete as is, but is also part of a series of books about Celia Winters.  I
tried not to leave any cliff hangers, or loose plots, but obviously character
development and world building are a constant work in progress and will
continue through other books.

About the Author
: 
If you have any comments or suggestions you can send me an email at
[email protected]
  If you
like my work, or even if you don’t, please consider leaving a review of this
book.  I can also be found at
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7456808.D_L_Harrison

http://www.amazon.com/author/dlharrison

The Formerly Dark Mage, by D. L. Harrison
– This
stand alone fantasy book follows the life of Silvia and takes place in a world
unique and separate to our own. 

Silvia is a dark mage. Unfortunately she finds herself about
to be sacrificed. Someone must have told her evil master about her plans to
kill him and take over.  After that, things just seem to go downhill. She has
no choice but to escape the kingdom of Zual, something that to her knowledge
has never been done before. She will need to deal with many issues she never
had to face before.

Among those issues, the white mages, and her conscience.

Witch’s Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 1

Celia Winters was raised by her single mother, and her
earliest memories are of the store her mother owns and the nearby coven, who
have always been her family’s close allies and friends.

She grew up believing her magic was weak, but she was
satisfied with her life, and happy.  She was a midwife, healer, and supplier of
surrounding covens. 

Then her mother died, and she’s about to discover she isn’t
who, or what, she believes herself to be, not completely.  She will learn that
her entire life up until now was a lie.  She’ll need to figure out her place,
who she is when she no longer recognizes herself, and try to hold on to her
closest friends as she gathers enemies for the simple crime of her existence.

She’s stronger than she believes, but will it be enough?

Celia Winters had been enjoying a fairly quiet month after
the trials she’d gone through when her power was unbound.  She’s worked hard on
getting a handle on her magic, and it’s coming slowly, but surely.

But unknown to her, a great evil rose at the full moon two
days past.  Surprisingly enough, the demon is the least of her problems, as
someone has targeted her and Ed, her fellow enforcer, with assassins.  She
needs to figure out how to stop both the assassins and the demon fast, and she
better use her wits and strength of will to do it, because her magic on its own
is hardly equal to the task.

If she doesn’t, she’ll fail not only herself, but the ones
in her life that depend on her to keep them safe.