Kiss the Witch Read online

  “Methinks I understand.”

  “Tell me why I’m here.”

  “I know how to break the link.”

  “That’s great. How.”

  “Thou must kiss another inside a witch’s circle.”

  “Another witch?”

  “Aye.”

  “Great. Any ideas who?”

  “Thou knows but not?”

  “Guess you mean Lilith.”

  “Of course.”

  “She won’t go for it. She’s going to be pissed as it is. There is no way she will want to link with me after she hears what I did.”

  “Doth thou knowest another witch?”

  “Nooo,” I said, probably a bit snootier than I had a right to. “Thou doesn’t know-est another witch. I thought you were working on your modern speak. What happened to the accent you used in the kitchen the other day? It’s about time you got with the program, isn’t it?”

  Ursula’s face fell into a frown and my heart just melted. “Ursula. I didn’t mean that” I kicked the base of the kitchen cabinet with the tip of my shoe. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have––”

  She disappeared before I could finish. I looked about and found I was back on the platform in the stairwell. I thought of calling her back, but I knew she would not come. I also knew that she was right. I had no choice but to tell Lilith about the witch’s light. After everything that happened, it was time to come clean. If for no other reason than to free Ursula and let her get on with her life without the ball and chain around her ankle that I represented.

  That night, I tried three times to tell Lilith about the light. She stopped me each time, silencing me with her kiss and dragging me off to the bedroom for some intimate one-on-one. She told me she had not realized how much fun it would be having the house all to ourselves. I told her that was all I could think about ever since Ursula and Dominic announced they were marrying. We were on our way back to the bedroom for a fourth time, when the doorbell rang.

  “Who the hell is that?” She asked.

  I knew. I just did not want to say. I stepped into my pants and handed her my shirt. “I don’t know.”

  She put the shirt on and buttoned it up only to her navel. I was glad to see the long shirttail covered her tattoo and then some.

  “Carlos,” she said, opening the door. The warmth in her voice seemed only half-genuine. “Ursula. Dominic. What a nice surprise.” She looked over her shoulder at me and made a face like a gargoyle. “Look, Tony. We have company.”

  I forced a smile. “Yes. You gonna let them in?”

  She gritted her teeth. “No.”

  “Be nice.” I waved them in. “Come on, guys. We were just going to watch a movie…or something.”

  Lilith pulled the door open fully, stepped back and presented a path in with the sweep of her hand. “Sure, why not. Come in. Tony’s not good for four in a row anyway.”

  Carlos entered first. Looking down at Lilith from his vantage point, I imagined he felt more welcomed than the others did. “Nice shirt, Lilith.”

  Dominic entered next, oblivious to Lilith’s dress, or lack of it. Ursula came in behind him. Her smile told me she knew what we were doing. “`Tis a nice blouse,” she said, lifting the tail and exposing Lilith’s tattoo. “Drafty, is it not?”

  I was thankful Carlos and Dominic did not see it.

  “So,” said Lilith. “To what do we owe the honor of this visit?”

  “Actually,” I said. “I knew they were coming over tonight. That is, I knew Dominic and Ursula were coming over. I didn’t know they were bringing Carlos.”

  “Oh, they didn’t bring me,” said Carlos. “I met them out front. I came here to tell you something.”

  “Tell me what?”

  He looked at Dominic with a glance that almost seemed painful. I knew it was bad news. “It’s about Ferguson.”

  “What about Ferguson?”

  Carlos cleared his throat and swallowed. “He’s sort of, umm….dead.”

  “Dead?” I stepped up to him, toe-to-toe, thinking he would back down, laugh and announce he was joking. He did not. “What the hell do you mean he’s dead?”

  “Dead, Tony. How many other meanings for dead are there?”

  “What happened?”

  He gave Dominic another painful look. “Poisoned, near as we can tell. Have an autopsy scheduled for the morning.”

  “What does Dominic have to do with it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You keep looking at him.”

  Lilith said, “I’m going to go get some clothes on.”

  As she walked away, I saw Carlos’ eyes follow her down the hall and into the bedroom. She shut the door and he snapped back to the conversation guiltlessly. “It was his buddy,” he said.

  “What buddy?”

  “That Tom Bradley guy from the F.B.I. He was the last one to see Ferguson alive.”

  Dominic said, “That doesn’t prove anything.”

  “No. It does not. But when I called the Boston bureau looking for Bradley, they said they never heard of him.”

  “That’s impossible. He’s been with the bureau for years.”

  “Sorry, Dominic. I checked. The F.B.I. has four agents named Tom Bradley in the entire organization. The youngest is thirty-seven, and he’s based in London.” He shook his head faintly. “None of them are your guy.”

  Carlos reached into his coat pocket and produced a plastic evidence bag containing a silver ink pen. He held it up for inspection. “We found this in Ferguson’s cell. Bradley gave him this pen to sign the terms of the negotiation. The lab found traces of a deadly neurotoxin on it. Called it a lipophilic alkaloid I think.”

  “Dart frog,” said Dominic.

  I hooked my brow at that. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s a frog. Probably the Phyllobates Terribilis from Colombia, found along the western slopes of the Andes. They secrete enough toxins through their skin to kill a hundred men.”

  “Wow,” I said, thoroughly impressed with his knowledge on the subject. “How do you know so much about exotic toxin-producing frogs?”

  He lowered his head and shook it faintly. “Tom went to Colombia and wrote his college thesis on it. I helped him edit his paper.”

  I said to Carlos. “Where does this leave us now?”

  He shrugged. “Guess we’re––how do you say––Fucked?”

  “Who’s fucked?” Lilith came back from the bedroom wearing blue jeans, leather boots and a knit top pulled off her shoulders.

  “We are. We have no case now.”

  “You mean the F.B.I. has no case,” said Carlos.

  “Ah-huh.” Lilith tossed her hair back with a flip and pointed at the floor. “What’s that?”

  I looked down by my feet and saw that familiar blue vein crackling between Ursula and me. Carlos and Spinelli looked, too, but could not see it. I raised my head and my eyes met Lilith’s. “Oh, that. Yeah, see that’s what I have been trying to tell you.”

  “Is that a witch’s light?”

  “It is.”

  “I see. And you thought you would wait until you fucked me four times before telling me.”

  “No. We only did it three times.”

  She crossed the floor, stopping within arm’s reach of me. I don’t know why, but I honestly expected a hug at that point. Goes to show how you never really know a witch. I started to give her my pitiful me look when she hauled back and slapped my face.

  “You bastard. How could you?”

  “Lilith. I’m sorry. It was an accident.”

  “An accident?” She slapped me again, this time on the right cheek. “Oops. Sorry. That was an accident.”

  “Okay. Maybe I deserved that.”

  “Maybe?” She hauled back for a third time, but I caught her hand in mid-swing, our fingers locking together tightly. Undeterred, she came around with her right, and again I intercepted her swing. Holding both her hands at either side of my face, I said, “Enough, Lilith. I told
you I was sorry. It’s not what you think.”

  “No? You didn’t fuck Ursula?”

  “What? No. Of course not. It was just a stupid kiss in the circle, after the ceremony.”

  “A kiss?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.” I felt her arms go limp, enough so I thought it was okay to let her hands go. “So, you didn’t do her?”

  “No. I didn’t DO her.”

  I unclasped my fingers. Her hands came down. Mine came down. She turned. I thought to walk away. But she was only winding up. Next thing I knew, her palm crossed my face so hard the lamp on the Clapper shut off.

  “Son of a…. Lilith. What the hell was that for?”

  “That’s for stopping me when I tried to slap you.”

  “Alright fine. We’re even now. Right? You’re not angry with me?”

  “I’m not angry with you. I’m angry with her.” She pointed to Ursula.

  “Me? Pray tell why?”

  “Because you should know better. You can’t kiss a witch inside a witch’s wedding circle without risking a permanent link.”

  “Wait just a minute,” Spinelli argued. “She didn’t kiss Tony. He kissed her.”

  “But she had to like it or they would not have sparked the witch’s light and the link would not have taken.”

  As soon as she said that, I could see Lilith wishing she had not. The look on Dominic’s face even made Carlos wince. “Dominic,” I said. “She didn’t mean that. There’s nothing between Ursula and me.”

  “Yeah,” said Lilith. “I didn’t mean that. I was just mad at Tony.”

  “Me? I thought you said you weren’t angry with me.”

  “Shut up. This isn’t about you anymore. Dominic, you need to know something about Ursula. She––”

  “Lilith. No.” Ursula inserted herself between the two. “`Tis mine to explain.” She wrapped her arms around Dominic’s waist and held him. He turned his head. She coaxed it back with the tips of her fingers. Their eyes locked. This time he did not turn away. She pulled him closer, taking a breath and letting it out, allowing not a slither of light between their bodies to escape. I faded back some, giving them room. Carlos did the same. Lilith did not. Ursula began, her voice softly falling into a confession meant only for Dominic. Naturally, we all heard her. We stood so near.

  “Hear me darling,” she said, “for I know not what words to speak but those from my heart. `Tis thee I want and no other do I covert. Thou art all I know and all I love. What joy fills me doth fill me whole and this I know to be true. `Tis not mine but thine whose heart doth make it so. Shouldst thou wonder if I kiss a stone so cold and like it? Thou hath made me that happy. Yet what hath a stone that hath no heart? It hath naught. Shouldst thou make no bones and hold me faultless for this kiss? Methinks. For a stone is cold and empty, as is my love for all but thee. Thou hast not a need to worry. I honor thee and always will. Thy heart holds mine in tender shackles what break not in life, but in death. This, also, I hold true, and I beg naught of thee but forgiveness.” She leaned in and kissed him softly. “Doest thou forgive me?”

  Dominic cupped her face in his hands. Stroked his thumbs along her cheeks. She closed her eyes, as if closing an ugly chapter on her conscience. When she opened them again, he returned the kiss. “Ursula. There is nothing to forgive,” he said. “Tony kissed you. You didn’t ask for it. That you told me before I found out on my own is enough. That’s why we are here together. To make it right.”

  “Make it right?” said Lilith. “How are you going to do that?”

  Ursula said, “`Tis simple. `Twas a kiss what linked us. Another shall break us.”

  “You mean Tony must kiss another.”

  “Aye.”

  “Another witch?”

  “Aye.”

  Lilith surveyed the room with exaggerated impetuous. “Uh-uh. I don’t see another witch here.”

  Carlos said, “I think she means you.”

  She reached out and smacked him. “I know that, Fidel. Of course, she means me. You think I’m stupid.”

  “Don’t answer that,” I said. “Lilith, what is your problem? I know you don’t want me and Ursula linked for the rest of our lives.”

  “Neither do I,” said Dominic.

  Lilith squared her shoulders to me, leveled her eyes and thinned her lips tightly. It is a form of posturing akin to a bull scratching the dirt and snorting before charging a red cape. I fully believed another slap would follow. But again, one can never truly anticipate a witch’s next move.

  “What’s my problem?” I knew better than to answer that one. “My problem, dick wag, is that I don’t necessarily want to spend the rest of my life walking around linked to you. Don’t I see you enough without having to conduct mind huddles with you all hours of the day and night?”

  “Who says I think of you day and night?”

  “Pah––leeese. You know you do.”

  “What makes you think I care to mind-huddle with––”

  “Stop.” This from Ursula, who never raised her voice in my presence before. Barely married a day and already she was becoming more like Lilith. I suddenly felt compassion for Dominic and hoped he had not bitten off more than he could chew.

  Ursula wedged herself between Lilith and me, separating us beyond arm’s length, which made me happy because I still had not ruled out needing to intercept another one of her slaps.

  “What words say thee upon thy lover’s ears?” she said, pointing a scolding finger at me. “Would thou give up a love so true for settled scores of hollow worth? Methinks not. Two souls love ne’er by right, but by chance. Thou shouldst utter lies lest thy heart doth wish them true.”

  “Yeah,” said Lilith. “Listen to her. She knows what she’s talking about.”

  “Listen to her?” I said. “Hell. I don’t even know what she said.”

  “Aye, and thou.” Ursula turned her scolding finger to Lilith. “Thou doest speak a righteous game, yet so quick good times doth come to end when once thy temper flares. `Tis thee and only what thy self concerns. I ask of thee thy help and trust. Oh, but how doth thou respond? Nay, I cannot say. For I know `tis not my sister who would turn her back on me and mine. Am I not wrong to say?”

  I watched the smug look on Lilith’s face dissolve into something resembling regret. I say that because I could not be sure. I had ever seen that look on Lilith’s face before. But then Ursula had never stood up to Lilith that way before. To see her emerge from Lilith’s shadow made me proud, if not a little afraid. Still, what she said was true; that is if I understood her and her post-Shakespearian English. Lilith had to know it was not fair. Here was Ursula, starting a new life with her new husband in their new home. The last thing she needed was me linked to her through the witch’s light forever. And as Lilith thought about it, she realized that was the last thing she needed, too. That is, if she loved me, which I knew she did.

  She offered her arms to Ursula. The two embraced. Carlos, perhaps caught up in the moment, tried joining them, folding his big arms around their shoulders. Lilith broke off and slapped him on the head.

  “Excuse us, Fidel. Does this look like an orgy over here? We didn’t ask you to join us.”

  He backed away, more surprised than hurt. “What? I thought––”

  “You thought. See, that’s what you get for thinking. Stop it.”

  “Lilith,” I stepped between them. “There is no need for incivility.”

  “And you. Don’t you dare start.”

  I splayed my hands in surrender. “I’m not starting anything.” She softened her stance and I knew immediately it was a done deal. “Does this mean you will do it?”

  “If by do it you mean will I link myself to your sorry ass so that Dominic and Ursula can get on with their lives in peace, then yes. I will do it.”

  “Oh, you do love me.” I went to hug her, but she palmed my chest and pushed me back.

  “Maybe, but right now I’m too angry with you to admit it.”

&nbs
p; “Think you just did,” said Carlos.

  She faked a backhand. He didn’t even flinch. I started to laugh at that, when she grabbed my left nipple and damn near twisted it off. “YOU,” she said, and in case she did not have my full attention, she grabbed my right nipple and twisted it the other way. “I am letting you know that I will do this, not for you, but for Ursula. There is just one stipulation.”

  She eased her grip enough to let me catch my breath. I inhaled through clenched teeth and answered in the same manner. “Anything. Name it.”

  I could see Carlos and Dominic wincing and cupping their nipples in solidarity.

  “You will conduct the ceremony. You will open the circle, summon the old coven and close the circle yourself. Think you can do that?”

  I hesitated, thinking she wanted an honest answer. But when she tweaked me harder, I knew what to say. “Yes. Yes. I can do that. Of course. I’m a witch. No problem.”

  She smiled, released my nips and slapped them pink. “Good. Let’s get started.”

  TWENTY

  The five of us headed out to the four corners of the property in single file: me, Lilith, Ursula, Dominic and Carlos. We stopped at the ring of stones. The candles were still there, as were the peach crates, the chalice and the now faded kaleidoscope of dead flowers. Lilith carried in the black mirror, not trusting anyone else with the task. I carried the athame, Carlos and Dominic the flashlights, although those were not allowed once the ceremony began.

  I entered the circle at the eastern edge, and from the moment I stepped over the stones, I could feel it. The sensation of energy entering my body, filling me with a sense of invincibility. I held the athame as if it were an extension of my arm and set the circle ablaze with just a sweep of my hand. Surprised, though I was, Lilith seemed even more so.

  “Greetings and merry meet,” I said, my arms splayed in a gesture of welcome. “Behold the circle of the coven.”

  I pointed the athame to the sky and waved it about in a circular motion. At once, a spiraling vortex of yellow-green vapors formed overhead. It grew in size and intensity as I walked the circle clockwise reciting these words.

  “Spirits of the east, guardians of our souls, protect us from false friend and foe. Watch over us who gather here, that we may live and breathe thy air.”