Kiss The Witch Part 26

"I think it leaves us with the a.s.sumption that we're looking for two people. Howard and Mrs. Snow."

"His dead wife?"

I smiled. "Dead...maybe."

Carlos said, "Tony, you cannot honestly believe Snow used the compound to reanimate the wife."

"Not saying he did. But if he does have her, then he almost certainly still has to be in town somewhere. Traveling with a corpse is not easy these days."

Carlos laughed. "Was it ever?"

"We should check the motels," Spinelli said.

"Good idea."

"How?" Carlos asked.

"The old fashioned way." I motioned as though I were knocking on a door. "We go house-to-house, or in this case, motel-to-motel. Start with the hole-in-the-wall joints first. Try along Route-1 and the dives on the lower end of Edgewater. You're looking for a single man checking in Tuesday, sometime after the car bombing at Dwyer's."

"Don't you mean two people checking in?" Spinelli and I looked at him until he got it. "Oh, right," he said, embarra.s.sed. "Yeah, one person checking in. That makes sense."

"Okay." I glanced at my watch. "It's almost eight-thirty. I want you both to get on it right after breakfast."

"What about you?" Spinelli asked.

"I have to go home."

"Why?"

"I ahm.... I forgot to do something. If you come across anyone fitting Snows description, let me know."

"Roger that."

I took a bite of toast and finished my coffee before getting out of the booth. As I tossed my napkin on the table, I said to Carlos, "You can get this one. I got it last time."

"Sure," he said, and as I walked away I heard him say, "Wait a minute. I got it last time."

I gave a wave over the top of my head. "Call me if you find anything."

I arrived back at the house at a quarter to nine. Lilith was standing at the sink, washing dishes. At first glance, I thought it was Ursula because she was wearing a dress. Lilith almost never wears a dress. For her it is usually blue jeans, cotton shorts or leather. Sometimes leather shorts, but that's just for special occasions.

"What are you doing home?" she said. "Run out of bad guys to bust?"

"No, I needed to take care of something." I looked down the hall and around the corner into the dining room. "Where's Ursula? She home?"

Lilith glanced over her shoulder at me. "Why do want her?"

I came up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist. "No reason. I just wanted to ask her something." I nestled my nose in the nape of her neck and kissed her softly. She rocked her head back and moaned approvingly.

"Hmm, that's nice," she cooed. "Do it again."

I brushed her hair back and nibbled on her earlobe. "I see you're wearing a dress."

She shut the water off, dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned around, still encompa.s.sed in my embrace. "Yes. You like?"

I kissed her lips. "I do."

She put her arms around my neck, clasped her fingers together, rolled up on tiptoes and kissed me back. I noticed it seemed different somehow. She seemed different. Her kiss felt tenuous and unfamiliar like a stranger's kiss. I a.s.sumed she wanted to role-play, especially when she asked, "You have time?"

I smiled. "For what?"

She shifted her weight onto one hip, pressing her pelvis against me. "You know," she said, and she slid her tongue across my upper lip and bit it teasingly.

I buried my face in the thick of her hair, savoring its fragrance in a stuttered breath. I could feel myself getting hard. I knew she felt it, too, as she kept pressing herself against me, rocking, surging in rhythmic tides.

"I don't know if we should," I told her. "I only came home to talk to Ursula."

She unclasped her hands and began unb.u.t.toning my shirt. "What do you want with her?"

"Well, I suppose I should tell you."

"Yes?"

"I don't know this for sure but I thinkauh...."

My mind went blank after she pulled my shirt open and pinched my nipple between her teeth. I gasped, and I can tell you it hurt when reflexes caused me to pull away sharply. She dragged her nails slowly down my chest and over my belly. She stopped at my belt and began to unbuckle it. Her hair spilled down her face, tickling my ribs and washing my mind of everything I wanted to say. I cupped my hands over hers and made her stop.

"Lilith, wait."

She looked up at me, her expression unlike anything I had ever seen on her face before. I saw innocence, surprise and a hint of confusion. She gathered her lips in a pout and uttered softly, "Why?"

I held my finger up to indicate we needed only pause a minute. "I have to tell you this. I think Ursula has been casting spells on me."

"Spells?"

"Yes, s.e.x spells, I think. I shouldn't tell you this, but I have had these dreams about her."

"Oh?"

"Erotic dreams."

I turned my head to avoid eye contact with her, but she pressed her finger to my chin and steered my gaze back. "Kiss me."

I kissed her.

She unb.u.t.toned my pants. I felt her hand slip down the front of my waistband. I surged forward in involuntary reflex. She pulled her hand back. I locked my arms around her, drew her in tightly and kissed her hard. "To h.e.l.l with it," I said. "Let's do it."

I ran my hands up the back of her legs and over her b.u.t.t, taking the bottom of her dress up pa.s.sed her hips. In the mirror across the room, I could see her. Her arms around me. Her long black hair flowing down her back. Her legs, sculpted firm. And her a.s.s, her beautiful a.s.s with her thong disappearing between her....

"Ursula?" I pushed her away. "What the h.e.l.l?"

"Tony." She tried giving me that look, the one Lilith gives me when my accusations are baseless and absurd.

I was not buying it.

"Don't Tony me." I jabbed my finger at her. "You're Ursula."

She abandoned her pitiful, surprised look, softened her stance and crossed her arms at her chest.

"Aye, 'tis me," she said, giving up the charade. "Pray tell, what hath thou on me to give it away?"

I gestured across the room. "I could see your a.s.s in the mirror there."

"My a.s.s?"

I conjured up my best smug look. "Yes. You have no tattoo."

She reached around her backside and rubbed her left cheek. "Aye, 'tis a small detail. But for that I would have thee."

"Have me? Ursula, pardon my French. But whathef.u.c.k? Why are you trying to seduce me?"

"I want only to be ready is all, for my Dominic."

"What?"

She crossed the kitchen and took a seat at the table. "He is surely a man of the world. I fear he may want me not but for the pleasure a better girl can promise him."

I walked to the table, buckling my belt and b.u.t.toning my shirt. "Ursula." I pulled a chair up next to her and sat down. "This makes no sense. Have you been casting spells over me?"

"Aye," she said, sounding disappointed.

"Spells to make me think of you?"

She nodded. "'Tis affection spells I cast." She crinkled her nose and shrugged some. "To make thee want me is all."

"Want you?"

"Aye."

"To make me want to have s.e.x with you?"

"Aye."

"Huh. Well, it's been working. I can tell you that. You were all I could think about these past four days. I dreamed about you. I thought I was falling for you."

She shook her head. "No. 'Twas the spell."

"This morning at the Percolator, I could sense your presence. You were in my head. It felt like you were there."

She smiled. "I felt you here."

"But how? Lilith and I have never had that kind of connection before."

"'Tis the coven. It binds us ever-stronger now."

"When did you decide to do this to me?"

"Hmm...methinks four nights past when I saw what pleasure my touch brought thee."

"During the ceremony?"

"Aye."

"When I got, ahm...."

"Aroused?"

"Yes. Aroused." I regarded her suspiciously. "That didn't surprise you. Did it? You knew what you were doing to me."

She came back slightly insulted. "Aye. 'Tis another time from which I hail, not another world. Men are but animals with instincts and desires. Be it now or then. Yee are naught but the same."

"You wanted me to get aroused."

"Aye."

"In front of Lilith?"

"Only to seed the spell. To put thee in what frame of mind thee had."

"I don't understand?"

"To get thee thinking."

"Of you."

"Aye."

"That helps the spell work?"

"Aye."

"Did it?"

"Perhaps thou wilt tell me."

"Touche. Then yes. It worked. So, you really wanted to make love to me."

She pulled her hands free and clasped them to her heart. "Nay. Fair blessings. The love I make will be not with thee, but with he whom I love."