Jingle Hells (7 page)

She held out her hand and they shook like
normal people. A reflexive hope surged through me. Em was back and
apparently normal. Samson was still here. I glanced behind me and
found Father Leonard escorting Delilah toward us. Samson took one
look and went totally starstruck. He dropped to a knee and bowed at
her feet. “My queen.”

Delilah smiled at me before touching his
head. Even in the shadowed yard, I could tell she was blushing.
“Samson, please rise.”

He did and a second later, he scooped her up
into his giant arms and carried her to the house.

“Glad you made it,” I said to Father Leonard
as we watched them disappear inside.

He nodded. “Me, too. You seem to attract
some interesting entities. About those two women in black robes. I
think I know them.”

Emilia interrupted, rubbing her forehead.
“Man, I have a headache. You got any aspirin, Amy?”

I left Father Leonard with Adam and took
Emilia to the house. Liddy gave Em two aspirin and a glass of
water. It was approaching midnight, and Keisha wanted a quick
explanation from my sister about where she’d been before the
official celebration began. Since people were coming in to warm up
and grab food every couple of minutes, we took her into the formal
dining room and shut the French doors so we wouldn’t be
disturbed.

Cats were everywhere. I scooted one off a
chair so Em could sit down. She was underdressed for the weather in
a gauzy hobo dress and sandals so I threw a holiday quit over
her.

She curled into it. “I feel like I’ve done
something terrible, but I can’t remember what it is. Why can’t I
remember?”

“I’m not sure.” I tucked the quit under her
chin. Seemed like we should start with something less important
than what she’d done. “Where’s your coat and boots?”

Touching her temple, she flinched. “I don’t
know. I woke up a few hours ago in the arboretum and I’ve been
wandering around, trying to figure out what I was doing there. My
head hurt so bad, I couldn’t think straight, so I tried to find
you, but then I got lost and…” She glanced out the window near the
fireplace. “Why is it snowing in September?”

Keisha frowned and leaned her hip against
the table. “It’s December twenty-first. Winter solstice.”

Emilia shifted her gaze to me. “No, it’s
September.”

Her eyes were slightly unfocused and her
confusion was no act. I unbuttoned my coat and pulled a chair
around so I could face her. “What’s the last thing you do
remember?”

She dropped her gaze to the floor, a frown
pulling the sides of her mouth down. “Lunar Lammas. I gathered
wormwort from the forest and covered the back flower bed with
leaves.”

A feather of dread tickled my stomach. The
night of the lunar eclipse in September was when I’d caught Luc
performing a hex act with Emilia.

“Wormwort?” Keisha eyed Em with suspicion.
Wormwort was nasty stuff. Nothing Emilia, as a Wiccan, would
probably need. “Why were you harvesting that?”

Em looked up at her. “For a potion. I needed
the wormwort to give it extra punch.”

“What kind of potion?” I was pretty sure I
didn’t want to know.

Her brows drew together as she struggled to
remember. “Ugh.” Pressing her fingers to both temples seemed to jog
her memory. “Oh, yeah, I had a protection spell for you and I
needed a potent potion to go with it.”

Keisha and I exchanged a look. I leaned
forward and took Em’s hands in mine. “Why would I need a protection
spell?”

“Because of Lucifer.” Her eyes teared up
without warning. “I mean, I know we haven’t been close since we
were kids, Amy, but you are my little sister and he’s been such a
bad influence on you. I had to get you away from him. I had to
protect you.”

My big sister wanted to protect me? Since
when? I shrugged my unkind thought off. Maybe I’d been too hard on
her all these years. My heart pinched at the tears in her eyes.
“What exact words did you use in the protection spell?”

She sighed and sagged a little, lifting her
attention to the ceiling as if the words might be written there.
“Let’s see. I said something like, ‘in this day and in this hour, I
break the bond of Lucifer’s power. I call upon the powers that be,
to save my sister and set her free. This dark night, so shall it
be, bring Satan and his evil ways to me.’”

Keisha straightened, coughed and shuffled
her feet. “And when he came to you, you planned to use the potion
on him.”

Em nodded. “Yes! That’s it. That’s why I
needed the wormwort. The potion was to curse his love for Amy.”
Again she met my gaze. “I wanted to poison him so that every time
he looked at you, he would feel pain instead of pleasure.”

Everything in me went very still. “Do you
remember actually using the spell and potion the night of the
eclipse?”

She was silent for a second as she thought
back and then she smiled brightly. “Yes, I did it. I remember Luc
appearing and…and…”

Her smile vanished. Abject horror replaced
it. “Oh, my God,” she whispered, her hand covering her mouth. “What
did I do?”

Whether it was a prayer like Father
Leonard’s, or a spell like Emilia’s, the intention behind the words
was as important as the words themselves. The implications of
Emilia’s intent and then follow through were phenomenal. Luc had
been under her spell when he’d hooked up with her. Therefore he
couldn’t technically be held accountable for cheating on me.

And while I’d normally find it hard to
believe any witch, even with an extra nasty potion, could put a
spell on Luc, Em had sent an open invitation to Gabriel to use her
in order to set me free from evil. Forget the wormwort. Angel power
rocked worlds.

Because Gabriel had been cooking up plans to
become an equal to God, he’d taken her invitation and turned it
into an opportunity to send Adam back to Earth to face temptation
with me at his side.

Lose the Devil. Gain the father of
humankind. I wondered if the Thrones considered balance to have
been restored in my case.

Now I was the one with the headache. “I
think your spell may have backfired, sis.”

Keisha tapped the face of her watch.
Midnight was almost on us. “Sorry to interrupt this dramatic family
moment, but I’ve got to go praise the dead for ten minutes. Want me
to bring you back some hot chocolate when I’m done?”

Emilia squeezed my hand and searched my eyes
for what I imagined was forgiveness. I squeezed back. I wasn’t sure
she remembered everything she’d done in the past couple of months,
but there was no way I could hold it against her.

We were going to need something stronger
than hot chocolate when I was done bringing her up to date though.
“Just save us some of the taco dip, okay?”

Keisha patted my back as she headed out. She
stopped in the doorway and sent me a mental hug over the top of
Em’s head. I gave her one back as she closed the French doors
behind her, and turned my mental energies back to my sister.

There was no easy way for us to hash out the
mess she’d created trying to protect me, but we did it anyway. I
did most of the talking and Em did a lot of gasping and crying. I
was relating the latest disaster with Samson and Delilah when
Samson threw the French doors open and burst into the dining room,
Dee on his heels.

The black leather outfit was showing way
more skin than it ever had on me, and Samson’s tunic was ripped and
his gladiator skirt hung a bit lopsided.

But the silly grin on his face matched his
skirt. “We want to marry,” he announced.

At least that part of my plan was working
out. “Figured you might. I know just the guy to do it, too.”

I left Em with Liddy’s cats and went in
search of my favorite priest. I found him laughing it up with
Marcia. Wondering what the two of them could have in common, I
pulled him aside. “Think you could do a quick and dirty wedding
ceremony while you’re here?”

“You and Adam?” he said. “I’d be
honored.”

“How about Samson and Delilah?”

“Oh.” He seemed a little disappointed. “Of
course. And you’ll do a favor for me in return?”

He’d done so much for me, it was the least I
could do to say yes. “Of course.”

“After Christmas, I thought you might come
by the church and we could talk theology.”

“Theology? That’s out of my scope of my
knowledge, I’m afraid.”

“On the contrary, I believe you have a lot
you can teach me.”

Maybe so. He certainly had taught me a few
things. “All right, but I’m warning you. I was an evil witch just a
few short months ago and I still have a reputation, both in Heaven
and in Hell, it seems.”

He chuckled. “Yes, well, wait until I tell
you about my life before I took the collar.”

I knew it. No wonder the Siamese twins had
been after him. Maybe it was a good thing I’d be around to keep an
eye on him.

Chapter
Seven: Virgin
Santa

Back in the house, Keisha, Liddy and I went
to work on our leather clad bride-to-be. Liddy found her mother’s
wedding dress in the attic and it took all three of us to stuff
Delilah’s bodacious bod into it. Keisha braided strips of blue
tinsel from Liddy’s Christmas tree into Dee’s hair, and I loaned
her my crystal necklace and matching bracelet. Even Emilia got in
on the act by making a crown of rosemary and pine boughs for
Delilah’s head.

Adam and Father Leonard gathered the party
goers onto the front lawn and Marcia straightened up Samson’s skirt
and tunic. She positioned him on the porch next to the living room
window that framed the lighted Christmas tree. We didn’t have a
copy of the wedding march, so Liddy found the next best
thing…Elvis’s rendition of ‘Santa Clause Is Back In Town’. As Elvis
promised to come down his lover’s chimney, Delilah walked out the
front door and into Samson’s waiting arms.

Father Leonard gave the blessing, instructed
them on their vows and pronounced them husband and wife. As
everyone clapped, Adam pulled me close and kissed me. I wondered if
I should tell him what Emilia had done.

I also wondered if I should tell Luc. With
Emilia back in the picture, I’d have to tell him something. He
would realize right away she was no longer one of his worshipers
and it wouldn’t take him long to figure out what had happened. He’d
be furious and I’d be the one stuck in the middle. But how would I
protect Em when I couldn’t cast a protection spell or use any other
kind of magic?

The celebration continued into the early
hours of the morning, and while I tried to have fun and enjoy it, I
couldn’t help brooding over the coming confrontation.

We finally cashed it in around three,
Keisha, Adam and I leaving Samson and Delilah in Liddy’s care. She
and her sister had invited the newlyweds to stay at their house and
had given them the entire third floor. Adam and I dropped Emilia
off at her place and got her settled before we headed back to mine
and crashed.

My alarm went off at nine, waking me from a
dream about a Christmas tree covered with cats, some white and some
black. I hit the snooze button and rolled over, but Adam was gone
and even with Cain and Abel in their usual spots, the bed felt too
big.

Adam was a fireman this time on Earth. He’d
already been to the station to cancel the rest of his personal
leave and get back to work. The holidays were just as busy for
firemen as they were for Santa and I’d see little of him until
people tossed their dried out trees and returned to normal everyday
living.

Forcing my still-tired body out of bed, I
caught the scent of coffee and made my way to the kitchen. Adam had
set the timer on the coffee pot and a fresh carafe waited for me
with a note. Before I snagged either, I noticed that damned calico
cat of Liddy’s lying on the table of my dinette set. She was
playing with a red apple, batting it with her paws, catching it
before it could roll away and curling her body around it.

Adam had restocked my fridge and cabinets
and put a bowl of fruit on the table. For whatever reason, the
calico had decided to play cat and mouse with an apple from the
bowl. The poor apple was full of claw marks and teeth bites and her
lips were stuck back against her teeth as if she were grinning.

“Weirdo,” I said to her, pouring a cup of
coffee. She meowed indignantly and I turned my back on her to read
Adam’s note.

Glad your sister is back and you two are
getting along. It’s good she’s home to celebrate Christmas with us.
See you after my shift at the firehouse. Love, Adam.

Celebrate Christmas? The thought sent a wave
of apprehension through me. As usual, I hadn’t planned any
celebration. The day was just another day for me. I probably should
have mentioned that to Adam, but since we had differing takes on
our religious beliefs, I’d avoided those types of discussions
during our time together. Now, however, I realized it was his first
Christmas on Earth and he’d just returned from the Holy Land. He
deserved to have it all, which meant gifts under the tree, a
stocking on the mantel and a fancy dinner complete with…whatever
normal people had for Christmas dinner.

I hadn’t bought gifts and didn’t even have a
clue as to what people ate on Christmas outside of junk food. Some
Santa I was.

As I got ready for work, my mind spun with a
thousand ideas to make Adam’s first Christmas special. Never before
had I felt such enthusiasm for the holiday. The only thing
lingering on the edges of my brain was the fact that I had to keep
Luc from knowing Em was back until I could figure out how to smooth
things over with him, or at the very least, keep her safe from his
fury.

* * *

Keisha was an hour late for work, but I
didn’t care. Without my sexy elf out front drawing customers, the
place was dead, which proved fruitful for me in other ways. I used
Luc’s laptop to surf the internet and order Adam a jersey with his
favorite sports team logo on it, three pairs of holiday briefs I
figured were as much a gift for me as for him, and a complete car
kit package for his truck. All of them express delivery, of
course.