Fire & Ice

Chapter Seventeen

She snorted. "You lied when you said it was two hours, and then again when you said it was a couple of steps. We've clearly gone much farther than that."

"Well, baby. Aren't you just the smart, angelic one?" Grinning, I guided her around a fallen log.

"Angel-that's me. It's my costume tonight." She giggled.

"Hmmm. I don't know quite how I feel about this. I really like my sweet witch."

"So I've heard." She patted my arm.

"Okay, stop right here." I quickly unfolded a canvas chair for her to sit in and guided her into it. "Keep the blindfold on. I need to set up a few things and then you can join me."

Pausing for a moment, I surveyed the old, abandoned cabin in front of me. It did seem a bit on the creepy side under the circumstances, but that was exactly what I was going for. I hurried inside and quickly began pulling the tops off of the dozens carved jack-o-lanterns stacked all about the room, leaving only a small patch of the dirt floor in the center. I'd been working on carving this, giving them all kinds of expressions, for two days now, with some help from Marsha too. As soon as the lids were off, I closed my eyes and used my magic to light the candles inside them all and soon the room was aglow with crazy pumpkin faces.

Grabbing the canvas bag, I pulled out a small collapsible table and assembled it, covering it with an orange and black tablecloth. Setting the extra chair beside it, I quickly grabbed the cauldron I'd left here an hour ago and put it on the table.

"Vance?" Portia's voice called to me as I carefully check the ingredients in the cauldron finding them at the perfect blend.

"Almost ready!" I shouted back, hurrying to slip into my ritual robe and pulling the cowl over my head. "Okay! You can take the blindfold off now. Don't forget to bring your chair in with you."

I heard her giggle. "Where are we? And why does it smell like pumpkin?"

"You'll have to come inside and find out."

"This isn't a bad setup, like Hansel and Gretel, is it? You aren't going to eat me or anything are you?"

I groaned. Damn that girl! She had a bad way of making me get turned on instantly. "Absolutely. I plan to devour every tiny piece of you."

She appeared in the doorway, glancing wide-eyed at all the flaming jack-o-lanterns, her jaw dropping, until she noticed me in my cowl stirring my pot of brew as foggy smoke billowed out. Covering her mouth, she burst out laughing.

"What is all this?" She gestured around.

"Isn't it obvious? It's Halloween. This is how witches celebrate. Now bring your chair to the table and come drink some of my special poison." I added a cackle for good measure.

Laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes, Portia made her way to the table, sitting across from me.

"I can't believe you carved all these pumpkins. There must be sixty of them!" She leaned in closer, and giggled again. "This one looks sick. He's throwing up his insides."

"Yeah, I told him not to eat all the seeds, but he wouldn't listen."

"So, what is in the pot?" she asked, eyeing it carefully.

Shaking my head, I slipped my cowl off my head so I could look at her better. "Portia, Portia, Portia. What kind of witch will you ever be if you call this a pot? It's a cauldron, baby."

She rolled her eyes heavily. "Whatever," she replied, obviously not caring for my lecture. "What's in it?"

"Something dangerous and serious; you'll need to drink it with great care so it won't harm you." Removing the chalices from the bag, I poured some of the smoking liquid into both cups. "Hamana, gamano, levito moriana," I chanted, waving my hands mysteriously over them before handing one to her. "Remember, drink slowly."