Ritual Magic (3 page)

"Yes, Babbo, it's me, Cora."

Leo stood rigid, his body adding to the
sharp lines of his suit as he glared at Cora and immediately
hissed.

Uh, oh! We were going to have a come to
Jesus meeting, and soon!

Cora smiled sweetly at Leo as she slowly
inched over to the shadowed end of the living room couch, clearly
preparing herself for what was to come. Her actions looked as if
she was simply making room for him as she scooted more and more to
the far end, but I figured that she intended something else. The
reassuring smile she offered Leo never left her face, but a bright
twinkle began to dance in her eyes as she eyed him thoughtfully.
Her smile twitched and I could see Leo's eyes narrow even more
slightly.

"Why, would
you
be calling
me
Babbo, little girl?" Leo's voice was menacing, dripping with
hostility. "NO one calls me that!" He flicked his hands at his
sides, releasing the claws that were hidden underneath the surface
to accentuate the fact that he was going to lay down the law. Leo's
eyes flicked as he noticed the shadow that Cora was now sitting
within and his mouth drew up in a wicked grin.

For some reason I wanted to roll my eyes in
their sockets just so that he could see that he was being
ridiculous. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have helped even if he
had
registered it, because he was a man. Men just had to
figure things out on their own.

Cora grinned right back at him as she
watched him take one footstep cautiously into the shadows closest
to him, hugging the wall. "Oh! Hide-and-seek! We haven't played
this in forever!"

In the blink of an eye both Leo and Cora
were gone from the room, or at least they weren't physically
present. I could hear the gushes of wind in the corners of the room
and I could feel the push and pull of the energy that surrounded
everything around me. My mind was swimming with fierce concern as
the gravity of this experience struck me.
What if Leo killed
Cora? What if Cora killed Leo? What if one of them killed me?
It would suck either way because the future would be
devastated.

Slowly and cautiously, I sat back down on
the loveseat as I listened to the shadows whine in the constant
movement. In the darkness there was a sudden giggle and Cora's
laughter rang through the air, possibly giving away her location to
Leo, but it seemed she didn't care. Cora was clearly enjoying the
game of hide-and-seek with her Babbo. It was kind of sweet. A sigh
escaped my lips before I realized that the air in front of me had
shifted again.

Immediately Leo was in front of me, glaring
down with anger and confusion. "Where in the world is the little
minx?" His voice sounded just a tad impressed and I could tell that
he was fighting the desire to like Cora.

"Here, Babbo!" Cora answered him as she slid
her blade directly underneath his chin, "Tag! You're it!" She
giggled.

Leo's eyes shone bright and he took a moment
to stand quietly, clearly assessing the situation. I looked up at
him innocently as he retracted his claws and placed his hands
slowly up in the air in front of his chest, conceding the loss of
whatever challenge he considered this to be.

"I give, I surrender." His voice was
cautious but rich.

Don't trust the devil, Cora. He will say
and do anything to take down the weak.
Where had that
thought come from?

"Ahhh, tsk, tsk, tsk. Babbo, you raised me
better than that!" Cora pulled her blade even closer to his throat,
placing pressure against his back and flexing her arm enough for
him to see the strength that lay there. She leaned into him and
allowed her cheek to rub his as she stood directly behind him,
clearly comfortable with the contact of his skin. They were the
same height, I noticed. "Say what you know you have to say." She
leaned over and kissed his cheek sweetly, causing him to shudder
angrily underneath the touch of her lips as he glanced down at me
with an eerie red glow pulsing from his eyes.

"This is
your
fault, woman. You
will
explain...everything."

Cora pushed on his back lightly and he shook
his head slowly.

"I would rather
die
than concede to
you, you demon woman." He looked me up and down since he clearly
couldn't do it to her. Cora laughed at his irate response.

"Yes, I guess you can say that I am...a
demon woman." She smiled broadly at me, a twinkle in her eye again.
That mischievous little sparkle was clearly mine. "Say it to
Celeste then." She winked at me knowingly before shoving her
shoulder into his.

Sighing deeply, Leo placed his fist across
his chest, lowering his chin slightly, still avoiding the blade
pointed at his throat. "I, Leo Emilio Castillion..."

"Your FULL name." Cora chuckled and shook
her head at me, rolling her eyes and tilting her head towards his
as if to say,
Can you believe this guy?

Sighing deeply, Leo nodded and began again,
"I, Leonzio Emilio Castillion, pledge my eternal protection and
loyalty to you, Celeste Ravenwood. I pledge my honor and my power
to your protection and your will shall be done for all eternity.
May I die a million deaths if I ever break this oath." He shuddered
as Cora released him and pushed him gently away.

Leo immediately turned on Cora and growled
in the depths of his chest, the sound growing slowly to finally
resonate deeply inside my own chest. His anger was evident as he
narrowed his eyes and stared at her as his claws began to slowly
descend from his fingertips again.

Cora shook her pointer finger sharply at him
as she said, "Ah, ah, ah, ah, Babbo. Don't underestimate your
opponent."

She smiled wickedly as she lowered to a
defensive stance, bending her legs slightly, spreading her hands
out at her sides and flicked her wrists just as Leo had done
earlier. Her own set of deadly claws popped into place as she
lowered her forehead slightly, allowing her to throw a deep and
burning glance at Leo from under her eyebrows. She growled lightly
in her chest as a tiger would in the depths of the jungle, and she
glowered at him. "Tu sottovaluti il tuo avversario e si muore. You
underestimate your opponent and you die. You taught me that." She
smiled at him smugly as Leo narrowed his eyes on her.

"What
is
this confusion? Who
is
this crazy demon witch?" Leo turned on me and held his
hand out, pointing to Cora's now straight and smiling face. She was
positively glowing, and it was clear that she had won a victory in
the name of all daughters on the face of the globe. This woman had
some guts, that was for sure.
So much for being more my daughter
than her fathers'.

For a moment I just sat there watching as
Leo's head flicked from Cora's to mine and then back again. It was
disarming to see him appear to be so befuddled, but here he was,
looking like a fool that couldn't quite make sense of everything
going on around him. This was a moment in time that would
definitely stay with me for years to come. Or would it?

"Her name is Cora, and you can speak
directly to her if you would like." I smiled back at him with a
wicked twinkle in my eye. He was getting a little taste of his own
medicine and it was going to be fun! "But I would prefer to talk to
you about the demons that attacked us on the beach. Why did you
send them to kill us?" My voice spiked on the word 'demon.'

"What?!" Leo shook his head at me, "That is
impossible!
All
of my demons are accounted for in the
castle. We were having a team building exercise." He looked at me
suspiciously and it hit me that he had just said something
profound.

Team building? Demons do team building
exercises?
We were in some serious trouble if the demons
learned to work as an even stronger team than they already did.

"Mom, why didn't you tell me what you were
calling Babbo about? I could have told you that they were shadow
demons—not under Babbo's control at all. They are a whole other
faction...more like mercenaries." She walked over to the couch
again, sitting on the side that was lighted again. "Filthy
jackals."

Leo's eyes flicked to Cora and then back to
me, his eyes flaring with a subtle ruby glow that assured me he was
keeping track of the conversation. "Shadow demons? Here? Attacking
you and the little demon witch?" He looked at each of us again and
again, separately, appraisingly. "Wait! Did she just call you
Mom
?!" He shook his head as he looked at Cora and then back
to me yet again.
Was he broken or something?

Okay, this was going to be weird.

"Yes, she
did
in fact call me Mom.
She also called you Babbo." I nodded, "Now, back to the shadow
demons..."

Leo didn't answer my question. Instead, he
was staring intently at Cora from every angle that he could see
from his perspective. Kneeling down on one knee, he reached out
slowly to take her hands into his own, turning them over and
looking carefully at her nails, her skin and her palms. There was
no telling what was running through their minds, but she sat like a
statue under his scrutiny. He continued to touch her and take full
stock of her every feature, moving slowly over each detail that I
could imagine he would scrutinize. He peered into her eyes as if
they were beautiful gems and my heart stuttered. He then slid the
back of his hand against her cheek as if it was the most fragile
porcelain and reached across to grasp a tendril of her hair gently
to bring it up toward his nose. He paused for a moment before
taking one slow breath, his eyes closing as he processed what must
have been thousands of bits of information. We all simply sat there
quietly as he concentrated on what he was doing and I considered
what his behavior meant. None of his actions were sensual or were
meant to appear as such—he was simply gathering information. For a
second, I felt like I could trust him.

Finally, after what seemed to be a lifetime
of tension, Leo nodded and pulled back to see the entire picture.
"Cora." He said the name sweetly.

"Yes," she nodded, "Cora Elena Ravenwood."
She smiled broadly at him, as a child smiling on her loving aging
father.

"Cora Elena." He whispered, "My mother's
name was Elena."

"Yes." She said softly, nearly whispering
the single word.

"Cora, you know of course means 'maiden',
but Elena...well, that is the name of a goddess—'shining light' or
even translated as 'bright one.'"
Leo was rambling on about her
name? Really?

Cora smiled at him again, drawing attention
to her sparkling hazel eyes as she glowed at him. "I love it when
you talk about history. You always sound so loving when you talk
about my grandmother."

Instantly Leo was on his feet, pacing the
room, demanding that every eye follow him as if he were an actor on
a stage.

"What have you done, my dear? Why are you
here?" His eyes flicked to me and I shrugged. "What are you doing
in the past when your mother and I have never consummated any kind
of a relationship, much less had a child?" His eyes settled back on
Cora.

"There's a problem. I had to come to ensure
that the future actually
does
come to be, Babbo." She looked
at him with passion in her eyes. "If I hadn't have come back, I
would never have been born. It
has
been foretold." She
smiled widely at him, making me worry about the next words that
would come from her perfect lips. "And I absolutely LOVE 90's
music! I was hoping to see some of my favorite groups while they
were still together." She beamed at me and I realized she was
actually making a joke meant for only me to understand. Thankfully
I did and we sat there smiling at each other.
Well, she was
definitely my daughter alright.

"This is not a game, my child." Leo shook
his head, walking to the far wall to lean up against it as he
turned around to face us. He obviously believed the story. "You are
definitely of my blood, but...I must know...do you have the power?"
His voice lingered in the air.

"Power?" I looked over at Cora as her wicked
smile returned to her lips.

"Yes, Mother. I can command the demons.
Well, the ones under Babbo's rule, yes." She nodded to Leo as he
turned his head slightly, never allowing his eyes to leave hers.
The two of them seemed to glow with anticipation and excitement as
their eyes and body language communicated better than any words
ever could.

"Prove it." Leo leaned back and crossed his
arms across his bulging chest. Armani was great for standing, but
bulging caused the fabric to creak.

Cora continued to smile as she closed her
eyes gently as if she was getting ready to meditate right there on
the couch in the middle of the living room. Opening them again, her
eyes were a brilliant glowing red—powerful and frightening. A
shiver shot down my spine as she smiled to reveal small spiky
fangs. "I also control the vampires under Dad's control as well."
Her fangs elongated to menacing points, making me more than aware
that everything she had been saying was the absolute, swear on a
stack of Bibles, truth.
Damn
.

"Geesh, Cora. That's pretty creepy with your
eyes and fangs all at the same time." I cringed away from her,
suddenly very uncomfortable with this futuristic vampire-demon
child of mine.

"I know, right?!" Cora laughed as she
retracted her fangs and sustained her glowing eyes as she gazed up
at Leo.

"So, do you believe?" She asked boldly,
drawing my eyes to her genuine and sincere face and filling me with
the distinctive pride in her convictions. She was definitely a
child of mine—forward and brave. Or maybe it's stupid and bold. Who
knew what the difference really looked like?