Magical Love Series
Against her will, the Cailleach puts into play the magic to unite another pair of soul mates.Loneliness drives Cori Sparks to chocolate. The fledging witch's desolation also compels her to attempt using her emerging magic in the quest for love. Unsuccessful, she turns to a dating website and discovers what may be her perfect match.
Rob Vesha is tired of the money hungry women he meets. Given his gene pool he doesn't think the real 'him' would excite them as much, but he can't share enough to find out for sure. On impulse he turns to the internet and discovers Cori.
Can their love survive his family reunion in Transylvania?
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~Excerpt~
Prologue
"Powers that be, I ask of thee,
Show me the good,
Show me the bad,
Show me the ones,
I am to make glad."
The Cailleach gazed into the glass orb, waiting for the swirling fog to lift and show her at least one of the faces for her next union. Nothing. Just like the other times she'd recently attempted, the mist didn't part.
If the Powers want me to devote a good amount of time to this, they best be showing me the couple. Come spring, I'll be busy with bringing the Earth back to life.
She cast an eye out at the snow, so thick one would get lost in it if they attempted to travel. And the cold…it had been a long time since there had been such a deep freeze. There was more to the making of this weather than just her efforts. Other powers had to be involved to generate an arctic blast of this proportion. Her body objected to every bone chilling day of it too. But she'd just have to grin and bear it until the snow stopped. A trip to the healing faerie was out of the question with this storm.
Rubbing her arthritic hands, the hag's mind turned to the wedding of her favorite couple and for a few minutes she basked in memories of the fun shared by all present. The news that Emma expected a babe in the early summer delighted her heart. DooNell had stopped by their castle a few days earlier, and saw Prince Ian. Someone holding a gun to his head couldn't have stopped the grin that split his face when he shared the news.
She'd had her doubts about the Powers choice of her to unite soul mates, but her first efforts had proved successful. In her heart, she believed no matter how many magical spells were cast, true love fell outside the meddling of those who held magic. Still, if the paths of the intended lovers never crossed, there would be no chance for them to love. The magic set the events into play that would put them in the same place at the same time. From there, it was up to the lovers.
Now, if the Powers would only make up their minds and give her the faces of the pair she needed to unite this time, the challenge would help her through the remaining winter months. She'd welcome the distraction from her aches and pains.
Chapter One
A chill ran up DooNell's arms, the sparse hairs on them standing on end as goosebumps marched up her shoulders and played across her back. It appears I have a guest.
The sensations ceased as quickly as they'd commenced. Pushing up from her chair, the old hag grinned. She glanced in the direction of a copper kettle steaming on the cast iron stove as she shuffled over to the door and flung it open.
The Cailleach studied the woman wrapped in a fur lined cloak, with the hood pulled forward to the point of almost hiding her face, standing in her doorway.
"Ye gonna enter or stand there all day? I need to be shutting this door to the chill. My bones don't much care for the damp."
"Delighted to see you're in good humor." Aphrodite swept into the room.
"What brings ye out on a blustery day like this, goddess?" Without asking, DooNell measured tea into a chipped porcelain pot and filled it to the brim with steaming water. "Thought a cuppa might help warm us up a bit." While the tea steeped, she reached for two cups and saucers from one of the shelves of the cabinet beside the stove.
"Thank you." Aphrodite pulled a chair out from under the round table and sat, pushing the cloak off her shoulders and letting it drape over the back. "As for my visit, I need your help."
"Ye don't say." DooNell's eyebrows shot up toward the matching hair that recently had come to resemble the mounds of snow lingering on the north side her cabin. "And in what matter can an old woman like meself assist a goddess so powerful?"
"Your wee faerie friend as you call her-need I say more?"
"Ah." DooNell placed the cups of tea on the table and eased her body into a chair across from Aphrodite. "I thought ye'd fixed her up in her mortal life."
Aphrodite sucked in her cheeks. Her lips twisted in obvious irritation as her fingers drummed against the wooden table. "I would have if she'd not been such snippy little bitch when I tried to help her. That attitude of ‘I'll do it myself' made me decide to let her try life on as a mortal. Being on her own may be good for her. She had identity papers and enough money to survive for a few months if she was careful with her spending."
The goddess tossed a lock of hair behind her shoulder and sipped her tea. Her cup clanked against the saucer when she abruptly sat it down and continued. "I think enough time has passed that her money is getting low and she may be more receptive of my offer to help." Aphrodite's full mouth curved upward and she lowered her eyelids, hooding her blue eyes from direct contact with the Cailleach's.
DooNell sensed the goddess watching her for a reaction, but chose to only nod and wait.
"Anyway, that's why I came to you for help."
"How so?" The Cailleach watched the glowing female struggle for the words and had to admit she enjoyed seeing one used to control in need of her help.
"I want to make sure she really is open for me to approach her again. I don't do well with rejection as you well know." For a brief moment, Aphrodite seemed unsure, then she shrugged. "It annoys me."
DooNell made no attempt to hold back a hoot of laughter. "Aye, that much I know to be true. What do ye need from me?"
"If you could use your crystal ball to scry her current situation I would appreciate it." The blue of the goddess's eyes deepened as her look drifted in the direction where the Cailleach stored her precious crystal. "Knowing her attitude before I reached out to her would let me decide if another effort is worth my time."
"Hmm, I see yer point." DooNell rose and cleared the tea cups. When she made it to the cabinet, she lifted the heavy crystal orb from the shelf. Both hands clasped firm around her precious piece of glass, she carried it over, placed it in the center of the table, and took her seat.
"Let's see what we can see." The Cailleach's gnarled hands waved back and forth above the crystal.
"Show me where
the wee faerie be and
if help is what she needs
to be sent there?
The fog swirled for a moment before it separated and revealed a woman. Leaning forward, the Cailleach and goddess peered at the scene before them.
Morgana sat in a booth upholstered with cheap red plastic, toying with the spoon that lay next to a cracked white mug.
DooNell's mouth dropped open at the vision before her. Gone were the lustrous dark curls, replaced now with thin, lank hair pulled back into a ponytail. A large clump on the left had escaped and hung down one side of her face, appearing to almost drip with oil. DooNell understood why the Faerie tried to tie it back. Didn't she ever wash it?
Worse still was her skin. The clear complexion that once held a rosy glow still had a rosy color all right-spots. But the spots were from bad skin. Pimples dotted most of the woman's face and the few clear areas were blotchy.
No longer the little sprite that tormented so many on several realms, she had now doubled in size. The Faerie-that once couldn't pass a mirror or a pool of water without taking a peek to admire her image-not only had a plump body and splotchy face, but wore out-of-date clothes that fit too tight in some places and hung in others.
It appeared the Powers had not been kind in their banishment of Morgana the Haughty.
"Here you go, Ana." The waitress placed a piece of paper on the table. "You sure you don't want more than coffee? Our meat loaf special is pretty good today."
Morgana, the woman the waitress called Ana, shook her head.
"Then let me get you a refill and I'll bring some extra cream."
The waitress quickly returned with a coffee pot and a dish heaped with small plastic containers of creamer. After she refilled the cracked mug, she studied her customer.
"That's a nasty looking zit. Bet it hurts. You need to pop it."
"Pop it?"
DooNell observed the growing confusion in Ana's eyes.
"Yeah, stick a needle in it and squeeze out the white goop. Make it heal faster if you're lucky."
The misery on Ana's face wasn't hard to read. When another customer yelled for the waitress and she hurried off to attend to their demands, Ana picked up the slip of paper and stared at it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a few coins. Slowly, she counted the change out onto the table.
Done with paying for the coffee, she pulled a napkin from the chrome holder next to the wall. She jotted something on the thin paper with a pen she'd picked up from the floor. Ana blinked several times in a battle to stop the tears that pooled in her eyes as she looked at the numbers.
Aphrodite leaned back in her chair and smirked. "She looks like a reject from a homeless shelter."
The goddess rubbed her hands together in a manner DooNell could almost swear was glee before she continued. "It appears Cailleach, your wee faerie has fallen to the point she may welcome my offer to help."
DooNell nodded. Though a hard-headed mischief maker the Faerie Morgana may have been, the hag's heart ached for the woman Ana. She needed help and soon.
When the Cailleach looked up from her wool-gathering she discovered the room now empty. She smiled, her one long tooth gleaming in the ray of sun that poured through the window. It seems help is on the way.
The old hag turned her attention back to the crystal ball. Perhaps the time had come for the Powers to show her the next pair of soul mates.
She waved her hands and mumbled a chant. Relief flowed through her as the fog lifted. The face of the woman that floated in the glass brought joy to the hag. She liked Emma's sister, Cori, and knew from what Emma had shared the lass was lonely. The young witch deserved to find happiness.
With another wave across the ball, she searched for Cori's soul mate. DooNell waited as the fog continued to swirl. She'd almost given up when the mist lifted and the male's face appeared.
DooNell gasped and fell back in her chair. Had the Powers made a mistake? Were they playing a joke on her? If not, there was no way she could set forth the magic to unite Cori with this one. It would be unnatural!
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