Kiss The Witch Part 13

"That was nice," I said.

She nuzzled closer, laid her arm upon my chest and cooed something softly in my ear. I closed my eyes for just a moment and awoke to a sunlit room. The smell of fresh coffee percolated in through the open door. Lilith was gone. But for a single black hair across my pillow, I might have thought I dreamt her.

I rolled out of bed, put my jeans on and headed for the kitchen. Lilith and Ursula were there, both still in sleepwear. That is to say, Ursula was in sleepwear. Lilith sleeps in the buff and typically slips into short sweats and a T when she gets up.

I found them talking in whispers and pouring over details in a notepad that Lilith started for Ursula to help her with her witchcraft. They stopped when they saw me enter the room.

"Oh, hey," said Lilith. "You want some coffee?"

I sat down opposite the girls and folded my hands upon the table. "I'd love some."

She gestured toward the coffee pot. "Help yourself. It's over there."

"Huh?"

Ursula said, "Think not of it, Master Tony. I will get thee thy coffee."

"Okay," I said, and I smiled at her through still sleepy eyes. "Thank you Ursula."

I watched her cross the room and reach up into the cabinet on tiptoes for a cup. At that angle, I could see the sunlight spilling through the window, tracing her silhouette through the sheer veil of her nightgown. For a moment, every curve, every subtle nuance in form shown through like sculpted art. I imagined her skin below the flow of silk absorbing the warmth of the sun, awakening from her stretch and returning like a supple breeze. She poured the coffee into the cup and a conspiracy of decadent images frolicked in my mind. I thought of the night before, of her body glistening in oil as I held her tight. Did she fall, or did I pull her down just to feel the weight of her body on mine? I remembered how she smiled at me, even laughed with child-like purity at the innocence of it all. Or was that how she wanted me to see it? Perhaps her innocence dissolved in the growing fascination she found in her hands. Had she not spent more time exploring there than she should have? Had I not allowed it?

"Do you hear me?" said Lilith.

I blinked and found myself under Lilith's scrutiny; her piercing glare leveled at me through narrowed eyes.

"What?"

"I said do you hear me? Are you having trouble concentrating?"

"It's hard," I said. "I mean...it's not hard. It is difficult. What did you say?"

"I asked if you slept okay."

"Oh, sure. Like a baby."

"Hmm, I see."

"You see?"

She cast her glance toward Ursula, and my eyes followed. Ursula had stepped from the sunlight into a shadow. Still, that could not block the images of the night before that remained in my brain. She turned around and saw us looking at her. Perhaps she felt us watching. I smiled awkwardly, feeling a conspicuous sense of guilt I could not explain.

She returned with the coffee and placed it on the table before me. I thanked her without looking up. She touched my hand and told me she was pleased to do it.

"Pleased to.... Wait a minute," I said, and my heart skipped a beat. I looked at her, certain those were the very words Lilith cooed in my ear before she fell asleep with her head on my pillow and her arm across my chest.

"Come, Ursula," Lilith called, and the two went back to the notepad and resumed without mention of anything more to me.

Minutes pa.s.sed and my thoughts began to wander again. I could hear them talking about spells and charms and the differences between the two, but I could not follow it. My mind was somewhere else. I suppose it was the detective in me. As I sat there sipping my coffee, peering indiscriminately over the rim of the cup at the two, it struck me how casual both were about the events of the previous night. Lilith, I suppose, did not surprise me so much. She has no inhibitions. When calling up nerves and bravado, she checks her modesty at the door.

Still, something did not seem right. At the risk of overstating the phenomena that took place during the coven ceremony, I will tell you that we almost certainly travelled to a parallel dimension and perhaps to another time, as well. That such an event would not dominate the morning's conversations made me suspicious beyond simple curiosity.

To top it off, although Ursula appeared as indifferent as Lilith did toward the ceremony, I know I caught her looking at me surrept.i.tiously. Her repeated glances even caught Lilith's attention. She closed the notepad and regarded us both skeptically.

"Do you two have something you want to get of your chests?" she asked.

I hooked my brows in honest surprise. "Me? No. I don't have anything. Ursula?"

Ursula shook her head, her brows st.i.tched in similar surprise. "Nay. I have no words for thee, but to beg your pardon if I caused concern for naught."

Lilith drew a bead upon me. "You know, it would not hurt you to pay more attention to this s.h.i.t."

"What s.h.i.t?"

She picked up the notepad and shook it at me. "This. I made these notes for you, too, you know. You are in the coven now. You should.... No. You NEED to practice witchcraft more often now. The strength of the coven depends on it."

"I will. I told you I will. I promise." I checked the clock on the wall. "It's getting late. Carlos will be here soon to pick me up. We can talk about this tonight."

Twenty minutes later, I was dressed and out the door. Carlos rolled up to the curb in one of his Corvettes. I was barely in it when he asked me about the ceremony. I did not want to talk about it, and I told him so, but Carlos has a way of latching on to something like a pit bull and not letting go. After making him promise not to mention anything about it to Spinelli, I told him how it all started.

"My G.o.d," he said, with a foolhardy grin. "So you really saw Ursula naked, huh?"

"Carlos, it's no big deal. You know she looks just like Lilith, and I have seen Lilith naked thousands of times."

"Yes, but Ursula.... Wait. Thousands of times?"

"Well, sure. I mean we've been together a few years now."

"Wow, you have returned to prime. Haven't you?"

"Carlos, I"

"All right. Forget it. Tell me about it."

"'Bout what?"

"Ursula."

"What's there to tell?"

"I don't know. Give me something juicy, something Dominic doesn't know."

"Like what?"

"Like, does she have any identifiable marks on her body that we normally can't see?"

"You mean a birthmark?"

"Yes."

"No."

"No birthmarks?"

"None that I could see."

"What does that mean? You didn't see all of her?"

I thought about it, and I don't know why, but I laughed.

"You are laughing. Why? What is it? You did see all of her, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes. I saw all of her, but really, it's not right to talk about it behind Spinelli's back."

"What's? You want we should talk about it in front of him?"

"Oh, no. I'm not telling him I oiled up his fiancee and touched her in places he has only dreamed of."

Carlos suddenly got very quiet.

"s.h.i.t," I said. "Did I just say that out loud?"

He laughed. "Oh, h.e.l.l yes you did."

"Forget I said that."

"Forget it? Tony, I'm going to include it in the next publication of the precinct's newsletter if you don't spill the details."

"You will not."

"Tony, this"

"Carlos, you cannot spread a word of this to anyone, especially Spinelli. If he finds out Ursula touched me down there, he will"

"Wait. Ursula touched you down there?"

"s.h.i.t."

"She touched your p.e.c.k.e.r?"

"Carlos, if you"

"Tony. You have to tell me now. Listen, I will not tell a soul. I promise. Come on. We have been together over thirty years. We tell each other everything. You can trust me."

I don't know why I told him. I should have known better. The truth is, I think guys inherently need to tell other guys when something like that happens to him, especially his best friend. I turned to him and shook a stern finger, warning him of the consequences he faced if he told anyone else.

"I won't," he said. "I promise. Not a soul. Now hurry up and tell me. We'll be at the station in a couple of minutes."

"All right, but I mean it."

"All right. I got it. Not a soul. Now tell me why she touched you."

"It was perfectly innocent, really. See, we started out by oiling each other up and"

"Wait. You oiled each other up?"

"Yes. Didn't I say that already?"

"Why did you oil each other up?"

"I don't know. It was part of the whole cleansing ritual. She oiled Lilith. I oiled her and then she oiled me."

"Sounds kinky."

"Leave it alone."

"I'm just saying."

"I know it. Anyway, she starts oiling me up, you know, starting with my face, neck, shoulders and so on. Next thing I know, she gets to my....um-hmm."

"Your p.e.n.i.s."

"Yes, and the rest of it."

"That's so bizarre. So, what happened?"

"What happened? What do you think happened?"

"You had some movement?"

"Some? Please."

"No, Tony. You didn't."

"I didn't, but it did."

"You got a, um...."

"Lilith called it a spear."

"That's wild."

"No, what's wild is that Ursula had never seen a...spear before. She thought it was magic. And the more she worked it, the harder...you know."

"Get out. You're making this up."

"I wish."

"So what happened then?"