Chapter 2 #2
She huffed at the thought of how horrible people could be, but continued considering the book, turning it over in her hands while keeping her place with one finger.
E wondered what, if anything, it could do for her.
Or, maybe more aptly, what, if anything, she had to lose in trying something that had literally smacked her in the face.
Ewasn’t a witch. Had no witch blood in her family tree—that she knew of anyway.
Every human knew only witches could use magic.
It was the fundamental difference between witches and humans.
Same with werewolves being able to change shape during the full moon phases.
Same with vampires feeding only on blood.
However, she was drunk enough to give the spell a whirl, despite knowing she was a basic human.
She felt stupid, but she continued anyway.
The couch and coffee table were pushed back to give her a small open space on the hardwood floor.
She’d grabbed the box of chalk she still had from her stint as a TA and made the circle described in the Latin bits of the spell.
There were no visuals, so she could only hope she drew it right.
If money popped up in the middle of the circle, smack where all the intricate lines intersected, she’d maybe have to keep the book for herself. If it didn’t, she’d simply wash the floor and go to bed a little more sober than she’d been when she’d crawled in there earlier.
Regardless, she was doing this thing, so she crossed her legs, pushed her shoulders back, rolled her neck for a second, and then scrunched back down into her reading posture.
The book was full of spells. She’d gathered as much with a cursory look at the rest of the pages.
Spells to get things or summon things. Whatever the caster desired, she supposed.
Hence the name. She desired money, something to make her life easier, so that’s the spell she’d use.
Blowing out a deep breath and taking in the smell of the book as she breathed deep once again, she started the process.
First, she lit a candle. There weren’t any cool, magic candles around.
Not even the regular white tapered kind.
So she lit the fat three-wick candle that smelled like clean laundry Lisa kept in the living room and called it good.
Next, she closed the circle with the chalk, saying the incantation as she did, pulling on all her haphazard Latin and winging it with the Middle English as she went.
E stared at the center of the circle hard, so hard her eyes watered.
Or maybe she simply cried. Nothing happened.
As nothing ever happened. A minute passed, and she slammed the book closed a little too aggressively for something so old.
She scooted back to get up to get a sponge and clean up the chalk mess, when a rumble sounded.
E turned her head this way and that, looking for the source.
They didn’t live close enough to the subway to get that rumble on the regular, so it had to be something else.
Then, a small green light appeared, hovering mere inches above the center of the chalk outline.
The light pulsed, growing wider and wider as she watched in awe.
It pushed down to the floor, spreading out like tendrils when it hit the hardwood, growing to fill the circle but not spill out of its confines.
A flash of bright green blinded E, and she shielded her eyes.
Blinking them to clear the flashing circles lingering there, she first noticed the feet.
Like primate feet but deadlier, the tips like metallic blades at least an inch long.
Gold-dusted skin stretched over taut muscles and veins.
Feet made to grip like hands, each toe tipped with a hard gold claw. Wicked sharp and gleaming.
There was no money. No gold. But something else she’d summoned. Still cross-legged on the ground, only half a foot from the circle, she brought her eyes up, up, up, taking in the creature looming over her with rising fear.
The feet were bare, but the creature wore a gleaming white toga made from the shiniest silk she’d ever seen.
Its clawed feet went up into strongly muscled calves and thighs before the silk covering him from mid-thigh up, laid across one shoulder on his chest where a large gold and ruby broach, oddly in the shape of a baby, clamped it all together.
His forearms and biceps were a match for the impressive leg muscles, and from what she saw of it, the rest of his body: toned and fit.
His skin was a light tan color, but with a golden sheen overlaying it.
When her eyes finally met his face, she gasped.
Partly because he was all masculine beauty: Greek nose with high cheek bones, full lips, and startlingly green eyes.
Partly because golden horns curved up from his head, rising above thick, close-cropped hair the color and shine of fresh-cut onyx.
And his mouth, pulled back in a snarl, was filled with bright white teeth – including massive fangs, at least an inch long and sharpened to a glistening point, protruding from his mouth.
He unfisted his hands at his sides and she noticed them for the first time, as beautiful and dangerous and clawed as his feet.
E scrambled back from the circle, unable to get her feet under her, scrambling so she inadvertently smudged a few inches of the chalk circle away.
A pop sounded in the space, like a deep atmospheric switch, and the beast moved forward, quick as lightning, muscles bunching and shifting like a big cat about to pounce.
E’s feet slipped on the polished hardwood as she tried to get up, causing her to drop fast and hard right on her butt.
She let out a yelp right as the clawed monster lunged for her.