Kissed by Smoke (2 page)

“Bastet will be your best friend.”

I rolled my eyes. “Just what I’ve always
dreamed of.”

She smirked. Bloody woman.

Cordelia Nightwing still lived in her
cramped one-bedroom apartment at the edge of the Park Blocks area
downtown. And it was just as jammed with stuff as the last time I’d
been there. Possibly more so. I was pretty sure the Ming-inspired
vase perched precariously on top the bookshelf was a new
addition.

“Morgan! I haven’t seen you in ages!” There
was the usual round of hugs, exclamation marks, swirling silk and
clouds of perfume. Today’s robe was of the sapphire blue variety
which matched her eyes. A golden dragon was embroidered across the
back, and there were tiny gold dragons on the red chopsticks
stabbed through the bun on top her head. Interesting, knowing what
I did about her sister’s connection to the dragon race.

“Love the robe, Cordelia. Where’d you get
it?” She’d never mentioned her sister, the Dragon Child. I wondered
if she’d do it now. If she even realized I knew.

She completely ignored the question and
hurried down the hall to the living room. “Bastet has been talking
about you non-stop for the past week. She’ll be thrilled to see
you.”

“I bet.” Especially once she found the
catnip in my pocket. Yeah, that’s right. Bastet was a cat.
Apparently she talked to Cordelia. I wasn’t sure if Cordy was just
plain nuts, or if the damn cat actually talked. Honestly? I
wouldn’t put it past her. The cat, I mean.

Bastet was on her usual perch: sprawled over
the mountain of decorative pillows on the couch. She gave me a
baleful look through slitted eyes. Also as per usual. I didn’t care
what Cordy claimed, I knew that cat hated me.

Cordelia dropped gracefully into the only
available chair, sending a perilously balanced deck of tarot cards
flying. “Oh, dear.” She leaned over the chair arm and peered down
at them. “Never mind. I’ll get them later. Tea?”

Cordy was always fully armed with tea. I
accepted a cup of the stuff to be polite. Honestly, I preferred a
nice strong coffee any day.

“I’ve got a present for Bastet.”

“Oh, she’ll be so thrilled!” Cordy clapped
her hands together. “What is it?”

I pulled out the plastic baggie.

“Pot?” She frowned.

Glad I wasn’t the only one. “Uh. No.
Catnip.”

She brightened. “How fun. She’ll love
it!”

I glanced at Bastet who was still glaring at
me. I had my doubts about that.

I peeled open the bag and edged it closer to
the cat. She gave it a slight sniff, gave me a dirty look, then
turned her back on me. Ungrateful wretch.

“Yep, she definitely hates me.”

Cordelia laughed. “She does not. She’s very
pleased with your offering.”

Offering. Like the damn cat was the goddess
she was named after.

Now, you might have gotten the idea I
dislike cats. You would be wrong. I like cats fine. Bastet had an
attitude problem.

“So, tell me everything. Eddie said you were
in London?” Cordy leaned back in her chair and sipped her tea. Her
blue eyes twinkled. For all her Mad Hatter persona, Cordelia
Nightwing was one of the most intelligent people I knew.

I gave her a quick rundown of my most recent
adventure in London with the dragons. Up to and including the end
of my romantic relationship with Jack and the beginning of one with
Inigo. And then I casually finished with, “Oh, and I met your
sister, Sandra.”

Cordelia gave me an enigmatic smile. “Ah,
yes. Sandra. How is she?” For all the world like we were speaking
of some vague acquaintance from the Good Old Days.

“She’s fine. Great, in fact. She left London
to go hang out with one of the Dragon clans in the Scottish
Highlands.”

Cordy’s expression didn’t change. “That’s
nice.” She sipped elegantly at her tea.

I just stared at her. I swear, Cordelia had
to be one of the most baffling people I’d ever met.

“Now, Sweetness, tell me why you’ve really
come. You have a question?”

Damn. I swore the woman could read my mind.
“Yes. I got a text from Trevor this morning.” I pulled out my cell
and handed it to her.

She read the text, frowned, then read it
again before handing the phone back. She stared thoughtfully into
her tea for what seemed like ages. Finally she thrust out her
hand.

I knew immediately what she wanted. I gulped
the rest of my tea and then handed her the cup.

She upended my cup onto its saucer, then
turned it right-side-up and peered at the dregs. I’d never
understood how anyone could possibly make any sense of tea leaves.
They just looked like slimy brown gunk to me, but it seemed to work
for her.

“Well, obviously you should meet him,” her
voice was matter-of-fact and held no hint of the airy fairy persona
she often put on. “This truly is a matter of life and death.” She
frowned. “Mostly death, I’m afraid.”

“Shit. What does that mean?” I so did not
like the sound of it.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Morgan. It’s
not very clear to me. I only know that it is crucial you meet with
Trevor tomorrow. The future depends on it.”

Three cheers for the enigmatic.

***

I stared out at the gloom beyond the window.
I am not a fan of winter. I don’t mind rain, but I dislike cold and
I hate the snow. And yet, I was born on a cold, winter morning in
February. Go figure.

My mind was still in a whirl over the text
from Trevor. It had sounded important, and yet the whole thing was
just so weird. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. Part of me
wanted to brush it off as a joke, or an over-exaggeration. But
another part of me was worried it was something much more
serious.

“Happy birthday.” Kabita handed me a neatly
wrapped package, then dropped into the seat opposite me.

The waitress scurried over to pour her a cup
of coffee and then left to get us our blueberry pancakes. Blueberry
pancakes are a necessity of life. Especially on one’s birthday.

“Thanks.” I turned the shoebox-size package
over in my hands. Heavy. “Can I open it now?”

“Not until after the ceremony.”

“C’mon. Just a peek?”

She shook her head. “No way. Try and peek,
and I’ll take it back.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “When’s the ceremony?”

Kabita was a natural born Witch and enjoyed
forcing me to participate in random rituals and rites just because
she knew they drove me nuts. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in
them or had a problem with them, I just thought they were
incredibly boring. This one, though, was all about me.

“Tonight. Your house.”

“Why my house?”

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t do a proper
purification ritual without purifying your personal space,
too.”

“Don’t know why I need a purification
ritual,” I muttered around a mouthful of blueberry pancake.

One eyebrow went up. “Seriously? After what
you’ve been through over the past few months, you don’t think you
need a purification ritual?”

She had a point. Between channelling the
powers of Fire and Darkness, nearly getting killed more than once,
confronting my murderer and ditching a Templar Knight for a Dragon
(or half-Dragon), crazy didn’t even begin to cover my life.

Maybe Kabita had a point. “Ok, fine. I
suppose I should get a couple bottles of wine or something. Maybe
bake some brownies.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m bringing
cupcakes.”

“I like cupcakes.”

“Who doesn’t?”

Good point.

***

I was not thrilled about having to wait to
open my gift. I’d always been sort of an instant gratification kind
of girl. Which had gotten me into trouble on more than one
occasion.

I had to admit, though, that the package
Kabita had given me looked pretty on my kitchen table. Er, birthday
altar.

Kabita had given me a list of items I was
supposed to have on my birthday altar. Since I didn’t have an
altar, I’d used my kitchen table and piled it with candles, photos
and random memorabilia. That included the Dragon scale Kabita’s
father had given me. Well, not so much given me as shown me, and
I’d just kept it.

The doorbell chimed. I frowned. Kabita and
Inigo weren’t supposed to arrive for another hour.

It wasn’t Kabita or Inigo at the door.

“Jack.”

“Happy birthday, Morgan.”

He looked delicious as ever with his broad
shoulders practically making mincemeat out of the seams of his
leather biker jacket. His ocean-blue eyes drank me in.

“Stop it, Jack.”

“Stop what?”

I glared. “You know what you’re doing. You
made your choice.” He’d given me up for duty and honor. Bullshit,
if you ask me. “And I’ve made mine.”

“So I hear.”

“Inigo’s a good man.” He was more than that.
He was an amazing man. Dragon. Whatever. “What do you want?”

“Are you going to let me in?”

Hell no. “What do you want?” I didn’t move
an inch. I wasn’t feeling especially forgiving toward our local
resident Sunwalker. Never mind the fact that I was quite possibly a
Sunwalker, too.

He sighed and ran his fingers through
sun-streaked brown hair. “Fine. I came to give you this.” He handed
me a small black box, like something you get from the jewellery
store. “Open it.”

I flipped up the lid. Inside on a bed of
black velvet an amulet nestled. The same amulet that had started
this whole mess: The Key of Atlantis.

I started to hand it back to him. I didn’t
want it. I didn’t want what it had given me. “No, Jack, I …”

He closed his hand around mine. “It’s yours,
Morgan. I want you to wear it.”

“No freaking way. This thing has fucked up
my life enough already.”

His face grew hard. “And your life will
continue getting fucked up until you wear it.”

I gave him another glare. “What does that
mean?”

He sighed. “It means that it protects its
wearer just as it’s protected me all these centuries. It will keep
you safe, continue to teach you.”

I swallowed hard. “It woke the Darkness in
me, Jack.”

“And it’s the one thing that will help you
control the Darkness. Promise me you’ll wear it.”

I’d wear a frigging dog collar if it would
help me control the Darkness. “Fine. I promise I’ll wear it.”

We stood there on my doorstep with the
awkwardness of people who were once lovers but have now become
strangers.

“Well,” he sounded as awkward as I felt.
“I’ll be going now. I just wanted to wish you a happy
birthday.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

He started to head down the walk then turned
back. “I’ll still be around, you know. I still have a duty as your
Guardian.”

The Guardian of the Royal Bloodline of
Atlantis. How could I forget that? “I know.”

He nodded once then disappeared into the
darkness. I sighed. Gods, I hated awkward.

***

I stood in the middle of the circle feeling
ever so slightly ridiculous. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in
magic rituals. Heck, you can’t kill vampires and demons for a
living and not believe in magic. It’s just that I’d never been much
for religious ritual in any form.

The circle itself was made up of Cordelia
Nightwing, Eddie Mulligan and Inigo Jones, my boyfriend, for lack
of a better word. Not that it was the wrong word. It was just that
calling him my “boyfriend” made me sound sixteen.

Before the mysterious text Trevor had
already told me he wouldn’t be able to make it. Some work thing.
Gods, how weird was that? I actually had a brother to invite to my
birthday parties.

Six months ago I hadn’t even known I had a
brother. I’d thought Trevor Daly, our government liaison, was
nothing more than your run-of-the-mill, pain-in-the-ass, suit. But
after everything that had happened in London, Trevor had finally
told me the truth. Now I had a brother, half-brother actually. Talk
about crazy.

Kabita was inside the circle with me. She
fanned me with a big bundle of burning sage Eddie had brought from
his New Age shop and muttered in whatever language it was she used
to do her spell work. The sage smoke tickled my nose and I let out
an almighty sneeze.

Inigo smirked, his blue eyes shining with
laughter behind his geek chic glasses. I blew him a kiss.

“Would you two stop? Honestly, I’m trying to
purify your aura here,” Kabita snapped.

“You could use some purification, Morgan,”
Cordy gave me an innocent smile.

Eddie piped up, “This is a very simple
ritual to cleanse the old life and start afresh in truth.”

He had a point. My life up to this point had
been shrouded in untruths and half-truths.

“Oh, for goodness sake. Fine, but hurry it
up. I want a cupcake.”

Kabita glared at me. “Spellwork shouldn’t be
rushed,” she said in her best school teacher voice. “Now repeat
after me:

Bless me Goddess, for I am your child.

Bless my mind so that I may be smarter and stronger
in my knowledge.

Bless my eyes that they may see clearly the path you
set before me.

Bless my lips that I may speak truth and
justice.

Bless my heart that I may know love and faith.

Bless my womb that I may know and nurture creativity
within and without.

Bless my knees so that I may pray before you.

Bless my feet that I may walk in a more balanced
connection to all life.”

As I repeated the invocation, I felt a sort
of serenity flood my body. I’m not exactly the type to hang around
feeling One-with-the-Universe, but it was kind of nice. I managed
to stand still through the rest of the ritual which involved more
sage smoke, more invocations, sandalwood oil smeared on my
forehead, and a lot of pointing with a very sharp-looking dagger.
Finally Kabita opened the circle and I released a pent up
breath.