Kiss The Witch Part 33

I could see Carlos fighting back tears now.

"Trust. Respect. Compa.s.sion. These are the cornerstones of a lasting relationship." Lilith placed her hand upon Dominic and Ursula's. "Art thou ready now to pledge these to one another?"

"I am," said Dominic.

Ursula's reply came much softer, her voice seemingly trapped in her constricting throat. "Aye. 'Tis all I have, my word, for thou hath taken my heart already."

"Wonderful."

Lilith took the thin piece of rope from the altar and wrapped it around the couple's hands, leaving a loosely tied knot dangling below.

"Handfasting is a tradition as old as witchcraft itself," she said. "It symbolizes commitment to one another, a union divided only in death. It is not a commitment born of duty but of love. What others find burdensome, may you find effortless. Respect your spouse's feelings and ye shall never sleep a restless night. Remember always to be patient and understanding with each other. So seldom do we do annoying things with the knowledge of their consequences. Be free with your affection. Share the warmth of your bodies often and all the seasons of the year. Take delight in the beauty you see now as always. Do this and ye shall remain happy always.

"Tony?" Lilith handed me the athame. "Would you draw a line in the sand please?"

I did as she asked, striking a line left to right behind the couple. When I finished, Lilith instructed them to cross the line together, planting their feet on the ground at exactly the same time.

"This symbolizes the effort it takes to make a committed relationship work," she said. "As you cross this threshold together, so shall you cross other thresholds in life. Remember to do so as a team. Do not fight the changing tides of nature. Instead, work with them together. This is my advice to you."

With that, Lilith untied the rope and freed the couple's hands. "Have you words for each other now?"

"I do," said Dominic. He turned to Ursula and brushed away a tear trailing down her cheek.

"Ursula, I have loved you since the moment I first saw you." He kissed her hand. "Your rebirth that day in the gra.s.sy field was my rebirth, too. Before you, my heart knew no love, no pa.s.sion, no desire or direction. I have wandered this earth blind to life's promises. My days void of meaning. My nights lonely, cold and endless. Finding you has freed the boy within me, allowed me to become a man. You have given me a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging. More importantly, you have shown me what love is. Your humble ways inspire me. Your beauty astounds me and your innocence captivates my imagination. I see virtue in everything you do. And that you see none of that yourself touches me profoundly. I am a better man inside for simply knowing you, and for that, I am forever in your debt. If you will have me, Ursula, I promise I will love you with all my heart for all the days of my life, so help me."

I stood in silence, enthralled, unaware that Dominic had such intensity of emotion within him. For the first time ever, I realized that I wanted to see Dominic and Ursula together. That what I felt for Ursula, or thought I felt, was nothing akin to his feelings for her. And to say I felt ashamed for harboring feelings for her of any kind, spell-born or not, would hardly be a lie.

I looked at Lilith. Her eyes grew hauntingly bright. Her stare distant. Her pupils, undiminished in the glow of firelight. I sensed her thoughts were far away, perhaps in the past, recalling a love she had known long before. I could only wonder.

Carlos cleared his throat and gained her attention. She blinked and returned to the folds of the moment. We were all looking at her now. She smiled softly, and though I suspect a whisk of embarra.s.sment brushed her, it did not sweep the look of serenity off her face.

"That was nice, Dominic," she said. "Very nice." To Ursula she said, "Sister?"

Ursula thinned her lips and nodded. She turned to Dominic, and though she spoke in a hush, her words were clear and audible.

"My love. Thou hast bestowed upon me more than thy heart. 'Tis for thy love that I live. Lilith, my sister of blood and of the coven, did cause my being. By skill and majick she hath spun life into these bones once more. Yet life is but a fragment of true existence, a perception shared in the blink of ageless energy. We are here only as perceived. We live only if life presents a reason to live. Sadly, but for love we have no other reason. Aye, 'twas my sister who brought me back from a time long ago. Thanks be to her I say and mean it. Still she cannot claim sole affinity for my being, for 'tis thy love what giveith me breath and reason to live. I have faults, yet you see them not. I act in selfish ways and ye sing me praise. I fear I am worthy not of thy love, still thy love rings true. 'Tis for this and more I shall work to honor thee. To earn thy breath of love. I pledge to thee my devotion. If love be lost, be it thine not mine, that I might cease to live."

Carlos choked back a tear and said, "Wow. Now I know I'm not in Kansas anymore."

Lilith smiled at that. "Do you have the rings?"

I answered, "I do." I reached into my pocket and handed one to Dominic. He took Ursula's hand in his. No longer were they shaking. He seemed perfectly in his element now.

"Ursula." Her name flowed off his tongue like a song. "Will you take this ring as a symbol of my love?" He slipped it on her finger. "Will you wear it always and know that it represents my undying devotion to you for this and for all the days of my life?"

"Aye," she said. "I will."

I handed a second ring to Ursula. She took his hand in hers. Their eyes met. She wet her lips softly. Swallowed. "My love." She slipped the ring on his finger.

It was then I felt Lilith's hand at my side. She took mine in hers and squeezed it gently. I reciprocated by squeezing back. We looked at each other. Smiled. She mouthed, "I love you." My heart sank. I leaned in, kissed her cheek and whispered the same to her.

Ursula said, "Take this ring, for it is my soul. I give to thee with no regrets. Place it with my heart, which I have surrendered and thou hath taken. Join these with thine and make it one. Feel joy where I might feel joy and share it with thee. In pain feel not, that I might feel thy pain instead. That I may bear what burdens fall upon thee in times of sadness. In times of plenty, rejoice in thy fortunes. Spill none but what thou wants not on me, and I shall gather it happily for futures less bright. I am yours my love. My heart beats for thee and none other. Feel it pulse."

She led Dominic's hand to her breast and pressed it there lightly. "May thee find warmth here when thou art cold, comfort when thou art malaised. Seek pleasure and I shall please thee. Take what thee will and I shall ask naught in return. This I promise forever and a day."

"Splendid," said Lilith. "One last thing."

She took the small bottle from the altar, uncorked it and handed it to me. Using the athame, she sliced a thin lock of Ursula's hair and another from Spinelli. She then mixed the black and brown hairs together, braiding them like wires before dropping them into the narrow bottleneck and corking it.

Ursula seized the gardener's spade from the altar. She handed it to Dominic and pointed to the ground. He understood that and proceeded to dig a hole on the line I had drawn earlier in the dirt. When it was deep enough to contain the bottle, Lilith dropped it in. Dominic covered it and both he and Ursula stomped on it, packing it tightly into the earth. The symbolism needing no explanation.

We all turned to Lilith then, awaiting the words we antic.i.p.ated all year. She smiled at the couple, placing her left hand on Ursula's right shoulder, her right on Dominic's left.

"By the power invested in me, through the spirits of the coven, I now p.r.o.nounce you man and wife. Dominic. You may kiss the witch."

With that one kiss, my fears and apprehensions faded completely. As if a spell had lifted from my soul, I suddenly felt no longer worried that I might continue harboring feelings for Ursula. Or that I might resent Dominic for laying claim to something I had no right to in the first place. And when I looked to Lilith, I sensed she knew somehow that my struggle was over. That she even knew I was struggling made no difference anymore. She came to me, laced her fingers behind my neck and kissed me. I locked my arms around her waist, pulled her in tighter and returned the kiss deep and heavy. She moaned, pressed her body to mine. I bit her lip teasingly. She broke off, smiled and came back for more.

I suppose we would have continued longer had we been alone. h.e.l.l, even with Dominic and Ursula there, we would have kept at it. What with them entwined in their own lover's grip. But Carlos was feeling left out. He tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention.

"Umm, excuse me. I think there is some cold champagne in the fridge back at the house. Eh?"

"Yeah," I said, returning less attention than he deserved. "Get a handle on it. We'll get there."

He punched my arm. "How 'bout you get a handle on it and get your girlfriend to let me out of this ring of fire?"

"Oh, sorry," said Lilith, and as she peeled herself off me, she grabbed a handful below my beltline and squeezed. "I got your handle right here," she cooed, thankfully only loud enough for me to hear. "What do you say we put it to good use tonight?"

I jerked back with a yelp, only then realizing how much handle I had made available for her to hold. She walked away but turned and looked back over her shoulder at me, her leveled eyes tied to her serpent's grin. I knew that look. She saves it only for me. It is one of the things I love most about her. One of the many things.

She took the athame and directed it at the wall of flames along the eastern side. "Thanks be to the spirits of the coven," she said, drawing the athame downward and taking the flames with it. "May this circle be closed but not broken. Let those who pa.s.s now pa.s.s in peace. This be the word of the guiding spirits, so say we all."

"So say we all," came the chorus from the black mirror just before the faces faded.

"So say we all," Ursula repeated.

Carlos, Dominic and I followed. "So say we all."

With that, the ring of fire went out. There were no pops, no spectacular flare and no sputter from dancing nymphs with firefly flashlights unwilling to leave. Simmering were the stones from the circle, hissing like snakes, as the moisture in the ground around them vented in whisks of steam into the night.

We spent a minute, all of us, hugging and congratulating one another. I told Dominic I was proud of him and warned him that he better take good care of Ursula. He said he would. Really, I had no doubts. When it came my turn to congratulate and hug Ursula, I did so, and without thinking, kissed her on the lips. The look on her face was of complete shock. I pushed her back gently, looked around and saw that no one else had seen us.

"Ursula, I'm sorry," I said, keeping my voice low. "I didn't mean that. I don't know what came over me. For a moment I thought"

She stepped toward me again and pressed her finger to my lips. "Speak not a word of it."

I started to thank her, when her eyes found that level squint and her lips that serpent's grin that Lilith gave me moments earlier. My heart sank to my stomach. My throat tightened and my palms grew sweaty. She returned to Dominic. He was talking to Carlos and Lilith. They were laughing, the three of them, engaged in their bubble of ignorance while Ursula and I kept an eye lock on each other. She was reading me. Feeling me. Exploring my mind while I tried and failed to read hers. I watched her eyes fall away. I followed them to the ground, and there between us, in the dirt, was an electric blue vein of energy tethering us, tying the two of us together. I could feel it tingling in my toes. My jaw dropped. I looked up at her again. She smiled and then turned her head dismissively.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion then. Carlos laughed in slow motion. Lilith clasped her hands together in slow motion and then pulled them apart, perhaps describing the zip ball explosion the other morning in the living room. Dominic put his hands up defensively, as if startled by Lilith's demonstration. Again in slow motion. The only one not moving slow besides me was Ursula. Yet the others did not see it. I walked the static blue line to her. She turned to me, her smile thinning by degrees.

"Ursula, what is going on?"

"You do not know?" she said.

"Know what?"

"We are linking."

"Linking? What's that?"

She trained her eyes on the blue line. "You kissed me. The light doth bind our souls now and forever."

I pointed to the others. "What's wrong with them? Why are they moving in slow motion?"

She looked and laughed. "But they are not. No more than we are having this conversation."

"You saying we're not?"

"Not in words of spoken sound."

That freaked me out some. "Ursula." I wagged my finger at her. "I am on to your gag. It's a cute trick to be sure. One of your better spells."

She shook her head. "What say thee thy words of doubt? 'Tis witchcraft, aye, but not a spell. Thou doth see with thine own eyes thy witches light."

I looked at the ground between Lilith and me. No such vein of energy existed between us. "Lilith and I don't have it," I said, sure to deflate her ruse. She shied away from the question. I asked again, more forcefully. "Ursula. Why is there no light between Lilith and me? We've kissed thousands of times."

She pointed at the circle. "'Tis the energy of the coven, this light, meant for me and mine."

"You and Dominic."

"Aye."

"So, why didn't it work? Why aren't the two of you linked?"

"It is as I have told you, the light of witches."

I nodded. "I see. Dominic's not a witch."

"Alas, he is not."

"Why didn't you warn me then? I would not have kissed you if I knew."

"What was to warn? Thou kissed me so fast my head did spin and doth spin still."

"I got caught up in the moment."

"The moment, aye, and what a moment thou hath caught." She shook her head and looked away. "'Tis a strange event what turns indeed. Wilt thou not pinch me now and wake me from this dream?"

"I wish I could," I said. "And I wish I could tell you that none of this is happening. Yet here we are, talking in this surreal, detached envelope of reality while these three go about their business without the slightest notion that we are having this conversationor not having it, as you say. Ursula, you have to tell me what to do, because I really don't understand it."

"Nay. Nor do I for its entirety."

"Tony." I looked at her from across the circle. It was Lilith. No longer was I standing next to Ursula. The four of them were outside the circle, looking back at me. "You coming or not?"

I looked about, feeling spent, as if awakening from a dream. "Yes," I said. "I'm coming."

I fled the circle and caught up with them in a sprint. I might have thought it was all in my head, had Ursula not looked at me and gestured with her finger across her lips. She directed my attention to the ground with a glance. The electric blue vein was still there, tethering our witchy blue souls.

SEVENTEEN.

Back at the house, Dominic and Ursula acted like the consummate newlyweds; touching, kissing and sometimes displaying their affections in an openly lascivious manner. It seemed a bit out of character for both, but perfectly normal for a couple so much in love. Carlos popped the champagne bottle and offered a toast to the occasion. What he lacked in linguistic eloquence, he made up for with heartfelt sincerity.

"If I may," he started, his gla.s.s in hand, his arm outstretched as if holding a lantern to the entrance of a darkened cave. In some ways, I imagined he was. To toast a future unknown, one can only surmise its outcome by the brilliance of the light that shines before him. "To Dominic. My best friend." He looked at me with a side-glance and whispered, "Sorry, Tony. No offence."

I gestured back, raising my gla.s.s. "None taken."

He continued. "And to his beautiful new wife, Ursula. May the road before you be paved with gold." I know. He should have stopped there. "May the potholes you encounter be small, far and few. May life's detours always bring you back to a pavement straight and narrow. May the intersections never cross you up and may the lights at those intersections always be green. I mean for you, of course. Not for the cross traffic. That would be dangerous. Unless no one is coming the other way. In that case"

"Carlos." I cranked my hand in a cameraman's roll. "Can you hurry it up some? The champagne is going flat."

"Of course," he said, souring his expression. But having successfully distracted him, I knew his train of thought was permanently derailed. He hoisted his gla.s.s higher. "To Dominic and Ursula."

"Hear, hear," I said. "To Dominic and Ursula."

We all drank. And after drinking to that, we drank some more, toasting everything from Lilith's magick to the magic kingdom at Disney World. To be honest, by the end of the evening we would have toasted the magic of microwave popcorn. The champagne was going down that easily. Seven bottles of champagne and countless shooters later, we were all either tipsy, c.o.c.keyed or stone cold drunk. Still, no matter how much I drank, I never lost sight of the electric blue vein, that d.a.m.n witch's light tethering Ursula and me together. The truly strange thing was that, although I spotted Ursula looking at it every now and then too, no one else, not even Lilith, ever seemed to notice it.

Later that evening, I pulled Dominic aside and asked him what Ursula whispered in his ear that changed his mind about accepting the house Carlos gave them. He told me she whispered that with a house like that, they could start working on having babies right away.

"You know how small my apartment is," he said, and then he smiled. "I can't wait to get started."

I looked across the room at Ursula. I would have started already, I thought. But my answer to him sounded less impetuous. "You have time. Enjoy each other's company while you can. Kids change everything."

Yeah, I suppose you're right," he said, but I knew he was only being polite. My money was on Ursula getting pregnant by morning.

It was sometime after midnight when we called for a taxi to take Dominic and Ursula home. Lilith set the couch up for Carlos to sleep on. Shortly after, she and I went to bed. As promised, she made good use of my handle. Even tried a few new things that I would not have thought possible. But then, Lilith is a shape-shifter. Couple that with some liquor and she can really surprise you. That is to say, she does not drink much, but when she does, she is one righteous ball of fire.

By two in the morning, she had worn me down and worn herself out. I was sitting up in bed looking at her, watching her sleep, when I noticed that annoying blue light again. It appeared to radiate off my body like a glow stick, gathering in a concentrated pool on the floor by the bed and stretching like taffy out the bedroom door. I got up and followed it down the hall. A string of static sparks popped in nervous missteps just beyond my stride, as if antic.i.p.ating my footfalls. It led me to the bathroom, past the sink and toilet and terminated at the tub. But for what little light I could see by, I was sure there was no one there. I hit the switch, illuminating the room, and there she was, Ursula, sitting on the edge of the tub in a nightgown so sheer I could see through it clearly. At her bare feet, the electric blue tether linking us.

"Ursula? What are you doing here?"

She looked at me. Not at my face, but lower. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my mid-section. I snapped up a second towel and handed it to her. She waved it off, instead, pa.s.sing her hands over her body and blurring her features to my eyes.

"Wow, some trick," I said. "How did you do that?"