The Cupcake Coven (25 page)

“And what if I’m not ready to expand to all of Texas when you want me to?”

“We wouldn’t push you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Fayleen said.

“I’ll be able to teleport, right?”

“Of course.” Hanna winked. “You don’t think I
really
spend all of my time at the hotel, do you?”

Rebecca rose. “If I accept, when will we get started?”

“Is now good for you?”

“Well, not really. I have to tell Dru.” She whirled toward Hanna and covered her mouth. “I can tell Dru, can’t I?”

Fayleen tipped her head. “Who is this Dru?”

“My boyfriend.”

“Ah. The one from Austin. That’s why you chose that particular city. Isn’t it?”

“Well, yes. I can teleport to see him and do my work for the new coven, but keep my bakery. Is that a bad thing?”

Fayleen shrugged. “That depends. How do you think he’ll handle it?”

“He’ll be thrilled that we can both keep our jobs and yet spend our evenings together. I won’t need to hold ritual circles every single night—right?”

“Correct. Full moons and Sabbats only. ” Hanna smiled. “I’m glad you and he worked things out. You’re a wonderful couple.”

Fayleen addressed Hanna. “You know him?”

“Yes. I can say he’s the kind of man we’d welcome into our coven. Open minded, yet aware of his limitations and respectful of others who have expertise. He was interested in learning Wicca at one time. Is he still, Rebecca?”

“I’m not sure. He’s seen a lot in a short time. I’m not sure if he’s changed his mind about it or not.”

“He won’t be threatened by your new power, will he?” Fayleen asked.

“As long as I don’t show off and do something stupid.”

“You wouldn’t be here talking with us if you were likely to do that.” Hanna rose. She seemed to have made a decision. Fayleen stood next to her. Rebecca faced the two powerful witches.

“Don’t say anything to Dru yet. We still need to vote, but I think I can safely say, welcome to the supernatural family.” Hanna kissed her on both cheeks.

Fayleen did the same. Turning to Rebecca, she asked, “So? Are you ready?”

“Just one more question…”

Fayleen scrunched her eyes shut and looked as if she were counting to ten. Eventually, she asked, “Yes?”

“When I teleport…Can I take other people with me?”

“Why would you want to? No one is supposed to know what you are.”

Rebecca hung her head. “I was hoping to solve my long-distance relationship with the teleporting trick. There might be times when I’d like to bring Dru with me.”

“It’s not a trick. It’s a perk of the job.”

“And I love that perk. That’s the whole reason I’m even considering a job like this.”

“Not because you want to make the world a better place?”

“Well, of course I do. The task seems overwhelming though, and I’m just one person.”

“Well, you don’t get somthin’ for nothin’, cupcake,” Fayleen said.

“You never answered her question,” Hanna said to Fayleen.

“What question?”

“Can I take another person with me? And only if I need to.” Rebecca repeated.

“Hmmm…” Fayleen tapped her chin. “Is Dru completely trustworthy? As in, you’d stake your life on his discretion?”

“Yes.”

“I can agree with that,” Hanna said.

Fayleen wrinkled her nose. “Okay. To answer your question…Yes. You can do that with a little practice. Now will you take the job?”

“How about on a trial basis?”

Fayleen jammed her hands on her hips and stared at her for a few moments. Rebecca remained silent, refusing to be cowed.

Hanna hesitated for only a moment. “If she wants to do it, I think she’d be a fine choice.”

Finally Fayleen threw her hands in the air. “Fine. How long a trial do you need?”

“Until the next supernatural coven meeting? I should imagine they’d want final approval.”

“You’ve already been approved.”

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. “Really? When did that happen?”

“Before I arrived. I visited each coven member and told them about you. Hanna is someone they all trust, and her recommendation is all it took.”

Rebecca turned to her and thanked her. Hanna simply nodded.

“So, shall we get this show on the road?”

As nervous as Fayleen made her, Rebecca had to ask one more question. “If after two weeks this isn’t working out, can the supernatural part be undone?”

“Yes, but mainly because it’s not permanent until the next full moon anyway. As soon as you take a sip from the Unholy Grail, you’ll have your powers. Undoing the supernatural part after the full moon is difficult but it can be done. We don’t usually attempt it unless the witch abuses her power—as the Haitian witch did.”

“The
un
holy grail?”

Fayleen chuckled. “That’s just what we call it. You can call it the magic chalice or something else if you want to, but we don’t like to take ourselves too seriously. Here. Let me show you.” She disappeared and reappeared in seconds, holding the butt-ugliest chalice Rebecca had ever seen. It looked like something a child made out of clay with some gaudy colored stones about the size of gumballs sticking to it.

“I think I know why you call it
un
holy. It’s not what I expected at all.”

Fayleen snorted. “There you go being tactful. It’s ugly so no one will steal it. There are plenty of witches who want this thing, but so far they’ve only heard about it. You must swear you’ll never tell
anyone
what it looks like or where you’ve seen it.”

“I won’t. I promise.”

Hanna rose and retrieved a glass of water Rebecca hadn’t noticed before on the sideboard. She poured a small amount into the goblet and handed it to her.

“Down the hatch,” Fayleen said.

Rebecca hesitated a moment, then thought of Dru and drank the contents in one gulp.

“So, let me get this straight. You can teleport us to the ranch?” Dru set his fork down on the dining room table.

“Yes. We can go anywhere. Hanna and I went to Florence, just to get the hang of it.”

“Show me,” Dru said.

“In a few…” Rebecca set her fork down too and grasped his hands. “First, I have to swear you to secrecy.”

“Who would I tell?”

“Your sister, for one.”

“I can’t even tell my sister where I’ll be all day?”

“It won’t take all day. I can manipulate time too.”

Dru dropped back against the dining chair. “Well, if that don’t beat all…”

“So, is it okay? We can leave April a note, but we’ll probably get back before her date with Mike is over.”

Dru frowned. “You’re callin’ her April now?”

Rebecca rubbed his shoulder. “It’s what she wants.”

He was quiet for a moment. Ordinarily he’d make some crack about his sister always getting was she wanted, but he was sure she didn’t want to be raped. “Fine. She has a key, right?”

“I gave her one yesterday.”

Dru rose, slowly. “I suppose there’s no time like the present. How do we do this?”

“First, you think of a place on the ranch where no one will see us when we materialize.”

“Okay. That’s easy. My cabin.”

Since I’ve never been there, you’ll have to picture it in your mind and I’ll have to…um, tap in.”

“Tap into my brain?”

“Just for a second.”

“Sheesh. I don’t know if I want anyone in there. It gets dark and scary sometimes.”

Rebecca laid her hands on his chest and rubbed. “It can also be romantic and sexy.”

He smirked. “You can spin the story to good whatever the situation. You’d have made a great politician.”

“Don’t taunt me. So, are you ready?”

He wrapped his arms around her back and held on. “I trust you, darlin’. Do your thing.”

“Okay. Close your eyes and picture the inside of your cabin in acute detail. Then ‘see’ us in that space.”

He closed his eyes and did as she directed. “Warn me when is this gonna happen, okay?”

“Open your eyes.”

They stood face to face, just as they had been, but in his cabin. “Shoot!”

She chuckled. “Cool, huh?”

“I’ll say.”

Rebecca stepped away from him and looked distressed.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s far from cool. It’s hot as balls in here.”

“Well, yeah. It’s Texas.” He reached into a cabinet and found his fan. The windows let in just enough sun to see without the light on and provide ventilation if he opened them, but it had been shut up for months. Someone was bound to notice if he opened them. The air was pretty stale. She might be more comfortable outdoors.

She grabbed a magazine off the coffee table and began fanning herself.

“We should go outside. There might be a breeze.”

“First you need a cover story if anyone sees you. Can you say we took a cab here in the middle of the night?”

“I guess so. What time is it?” he asked.

“Same time as when we left. Just after six.”

He chuckled. “You mean just after five. We’re in the central time zone here, darlin’.”

“Oh. Right.”

“What am I supposed to say we’ve been doin’ all day?” He chuckled. “Never mind. One look at you and the guys will know exactly why we stayed in bed all day.”

She blushed. “Are you apt to run into a lot of people out there?”

“I imagine most are getting washed up for supper. There might be a few stragglers if there’s still work to be done.”

“I’d like to see the place, but maybe we should wait until they’re all sitting down to dinner and try to avoid being seen altogether. Is there any specific time they’re expected?”

“Yeah. When the dinner bell rings.”

She grinned. “That makes it easy. So we’ll just wait until a few minutes after it rings before we go out, if I haven’t melted into a puddle on the floor by that time.”

She lowered herself onto his sofa, and he wondered if he should open it into its bed form and mess up the sheets. Make it look like they’d slept there. Then he realized the guys might resent the fact that he’d spent the day making love to a beautiful woman when there was work to be done.
Damned if I do. Damned if I don’t.
“You know…this might be a mistake. Maybe we should go back to Portsmouth until we’re ready to stay.”

She startled. “Stay? You’re just expecting me to live here? No discussion…no
nothing
?”

Uh oh. He knew he’d stepped in it, but he wasn’t sure why. Did she hate the heat that much or that he hadn’t asked her opinion? Or…
oh, crap
. He hadn’t offered a commitment.
Shoot.
He would have liked to have the ring, candlelight, and the whole nine yards, but it was safe to say he didn’t have time for any of that.

He got down on one knee, took the magazine from her hand and placed it on the table, then took both her hands in his. Her eyes rounded.

“Rebecca Colby. I love you more than life itself. I can’t picture us not bein’ together forever. I know relationships require compromise, and I’m sure we can figure things out. I had hoped to do this at some fancy restaurant with a ring, but I guess we can do that sometime later—if you want. In the meantime, I’d love to introduce you as my future wife. Will you make me the happiest man on earth and agree to marry me?”

To say Rebecca looked taken by surprise was an understatement. Her jaw dropped open, and it seemed like she couldn’t make it work to form words.

“I can see I shocked you. I just hoped we could, you know…make the commitment. We can work out the details later—together. I promise.”

She took a deep breath and seemed to recover her decorum. “I’d love nothing more than to spend my life with you, Dru. But I don’t think it’s practical to say ‘yes’ and just hope we can figure out the details later.”

He paused, replaying her words in his mind. “So, is that a maybe?”

She smiled. “Yes. It’s a maybe. I can say it’s even a probably, but the final answer has to wait until
after
we figure out the logistics.”

The dinner bell rang, as if to punctuate her words.

He nodded. “That’s good enough for me.”

“What did you find out about the witches, Sal?”

“A lot. I followed the baker to some kind of group ritual in Greenland last night. There were thirteen of ‘em.” Sal waved the book he’d managed to snag off a rock when everyone was preoccupied. “One of ‘em had this. Looks like some kind of textbook.”