The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Taliesin Govannon (best free ereader .txt) 📖

trying to continue, “Half of my dreams are hot and sweaty these days. Combine that with the increased libido that seems to go along with being a new Sorceress, and… Vincent’s a very busy boy.”

                “You know," Jack said, casting a side-eye my way, "A Sorceress is classified by Martello's as a kind of Witch. So is Katsu." He lit another joint. "You women Witches are hornier than a football team!"

                It was my turn to laugh.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                A couple of weeks later, and I still hadn’t mentioned dealing with the lake to anybody other than Jack. To tell the truth, I had the distinct feeling that solving the mystery of the lake was just going to kick things into a higher gear, and I was doing just fine with the gear I was in, thank you very much!

                I also had a feeling that the spring thaw would bring new dramas and issues, so I was hoping for a cold February as January drew to a close.

                I was standing on the back patio, my feet amazingly warm for the fact that they were bare. I had been able to deal with more and more temperature extremes since becoming Sorceress, and had stepped out of the house spontaneously. The snow had actually melted where I stood, and the sandstone was dry beneath my feet.

                I spied a familiar-looking black and white cat walking up towards me from the woods. Starr! I thought excitedly.

                He morphed from cat to human, and strolled naked up to the patio.

                “Hey ho, how’s business?” he asked, a sashay in his step.

                “Starr!” I hugged him. “Where have you been?”

                “Ugh, where haven’t I been?” he said, waving me away. “I’ll fill you in when we get the Scooby Gang together. Now, can we raid Miss Raina’s closet again? Baby’s getting cooooooold...”

                I laughed and walked in with him.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                A little while later, and we were assembled in the parlor once again. It had taken a little while to introduce Starr around… he really felt the need to comment on everyone’s clothes… but soon we were all ready to hear his report.

                Starr looked absolutely glittering as he stood there in purple tights and a purple sequined stretch top. Raina had stopped cold when she’d seen him.

                “That’s my dance top from seventh grade.” she had said, jaw dropped.

                “And it only dances on my behind, dearie!” Starr had said, attitude hilariously oozing off of him.

                “Oh my, look at all of the fresh faces!” Starr said, attitude still in place, as he looked over the crew gathered in the parlor. “Lots of queers, not too many men… it’s like people are trying to keep me single!”

                “Okay, uh, son.” Trevor said. “Your report?”

                “Oh, I have not forgotten about you, you dreamboat!” Starr said to him. “As for my report, I hope you all appreciate just what I had to go through to get this. Some of those changelings are insatiable in their sexual appetites!”

                “So I’ll bet you fit right in.” Raina said, grinning.

                “Meow, bitch.” Starr deadpanned. “But it’s true, it wasn’t all work. After working Fae connections all over the planet, I ran across two phrases: ‘Llamhigyn Y Dwr’ and ‘Oracle’.

                “The first is Welsh.” Tiffany said. “The second… I’m not sure.”

                “Gee, we have one who’s awake.” Starr said breezily. “The first translates roughly to ‘Water Leaper’, and it’s an old Welsh legend about a water monster. It’s not exactly what’s supposed to live in your lake, but it’s close. The second is someone who’s supposed to tell us about how to win, or whatever, but I’m not sure who it’s talking about.”

                “We’ll get to work on searching down our Welsh legend.” Katsu said, Jack nodding by her side.

                “Now that we have something to narrow it down, that should help.” Jack added.

                “Let me know what you find.” Tiffany said to them. “We’ll need to work up some scenarios  for security based on the new information.”

                “I’ll warn Dru, Cordy and Darla.” Gaia said.

                “And we’ll try to track down this ‘Oracle’.” Trevor added, nodding to Evelyn.

                “As will I.” said Angelique. It was the first time I had heard her speak all day.

                “Let’s do it, then.” Vincent said, and the meeting broke up.

                I was getting ready to leave when Vincent slid up next to me.

                “I think we should start training together again.” he said.

                “Okay.” I said, trying to sound cool. “When should we start?”

                “How about now?” he said, and walked out of the room.

                I walked after him. This was unusual.

                “Any particular reason you’re wanting to do this now?” I asked as he reached the hallway door.

                “There are a lot of prophecies about you.” Vincent said. “One of them just came true. I’ll explain which one in a bit, but suffice it to say that there are some things I want to make sure you have down before things develop too much more.”

                “Okay.” I said. I was getting used to that.

                “Don’t worry, it isn’t about why you’re avoiding Angelique.” he continued, turning away. “You’ll deal with that in your own time.

                I watched him walk away for a moment before joining him.

                                                                                                *                *                *

                I sat in the open window later, cold night air blowing in around me.

                Vincent had gone… he had assumed me asleep after our post-training lovemaking session, and had gone off to tend to some other matter. I had gotten up after he left and lit a joint. I opened the window and looked out into the night.

                Everything’s changing I thought. And the things that changed once are changing again.

                I took a deep hit. How did Petronia do it? How did any of them?

                I shrugged, and my internal dialog took over.

                I don’t know, why don’t you ask them?