Flashback Friday

Book Two in the Spellbound series continues the love story of Logan and Serena.  Having previously dispatched Christophe, the dark demon trying to capture and kidnap Serena for her special witch DNA in Book One, the two lovers believe they are now free to plan and live their lives together.  Or are they?

When an innocent mistake made by their newlywed friends frees the way for Christophe to return, their idyllic attempt at happiness is marred by the nightmare they must outsmart, finally, to achieve the happily ever after they deserve.

They know they can rely on their coven to be there for them, and some new friends and additions to the family, as they once again embark on an epic battle that will secure their life, their love, and their future together.  Once, they were Spellbound, now their story continues, for love, forever, for Everspell.

Chapter One

LOGAN

I shoved my end of the sofa up the porch steps as hard as I
could.

“Hey!” protested Sully. “I’m not at the top yet, Logan.” I
peeked out from behind my end of the sofa and started laughing.
Now I knew why the sofa had seemed so lopsided. Sully sat on one
of the steps, mopping his brow with the end of his T-­‐‑shirt. My dog
Charlie sat nearby.

“What’s going on up there? You guys are clogging up the
stairs!” I heard Skylar complain. He’d come up fast behind me,
juggling another load of books and dishes my girlfriend Serena,
and my sister, Jade, had spent days packing meticulously with
tissue and newspaper. My mom and Serena’s Aunt Elizabeth had
bought out half the thrift stores in town helping us outfit our first
place. A lot had happened since we had all been together last at
Dave and Tamera’s wedding.

First, Sully, Skylar and I all decided to move out on our own.
My mom cried when I told her about it, but in the end she agreed
that it was time. I might be barely eighteen, but fighting Christophe
and his demon followers from the Council had helped me grow up
in a hurry. And Sully and I had always wanted to get a place of our
own after we graduated.

Inviting Skylar to move in with us was almost a no-­‐‑brainer.
It seemed only natural that I would grow to love Serena’s twin
brother. After all we had been through to rescue him from the
demons, we had become very close. Plus, we had to save him from
woman-­‐‑town. If he stayed with Serena, Elizabeth and Tabitha, he
would be stuck in a house filled with women. Witchy women, at
that. Not that living there was a bad thing, per se, but when we
asked him, he didn’t think twice about it. He had lived a pretty
sheltered life with the Council and he was anxious to come live
with us and learn all he could about our world.

Besides, Serena had lately been haunted, there was really no
other word for it, by visions of Christophe, the demon we had
successfully defeated last spring. When I tried to get her to talk to
me about it, she would play it off, as though it were no big deal.
But I could see her mood darken in solemn moments and the
telling glances she exchanged with her Aunt Elizabeth. I felt so
much concern for what she might be foreseeing, I began revisiting
that terrible night.

Not a day went by that I didn’t remember what my beautiful
witch-­‐‑girlfriend looked like hanging limp in that demon’s arms as
he headed toward that flesh wound in the air, trying to take her to
some underworld realm where I would never see her again. I had
never been able to communicate to her or anyone how empty I’d
felt in that moment. She was, simply, the love of my life and
everything I did came back to her. I remained crazy-­‐‑mad in love
with her. She existed as my sun and my moon.

“Can’t we take a break, or something?” Sully broke into my
thoughts, begging for a rest.

“Sully, seriously, you can’t rest on the porch with a couch
crushing my larynx. I am on the losing end of that proposition,
dude!”

“Okay, okay.” I couldn’t see him, but all of a sudden the
huge weight of the sofa lifted and began sliding forward and I
could hear him grunting above me.

“All right! Here we go now!” Skylar called out
encouragement as the sofa miraculously made it the last few feet
and slid onto the level surface of the huge front entryway. I
followed it up the steps and helped Sully shove it into the open
door of our new place.

Serena had helped us when I told her of our plans and of
course, she had found the perfect place. She discovered a great little
three-­‐‑bedroom house on a hill with a couple of bathrooms, a good-­‐‑
sized living room, and a tiny kitchen; not that any of us would cook
that much. Sully and I could afford the rent on our own and we
figured Skylar could start pitching in when he found some
permanent employment. In the meantime, we were letting him
work part-­‐‑time in the store with us. He became freakishly good
with computers, and we were considering hiring him to build us a
website, which the store had never had.

“Wow, you guys finally made it! What took you so long?”
Jade called out from the kitchen where she and Serena were busy
unwrapping a million cooking utensils, which I had told my mom
we wouldn’t need, but she bought anyway. I poked my head
around the corner and winked at Serena.

“Hey, Serena. You keeping busy?”

She looked up at me from where she sat on the floor,
surrounded by balled-­‐‑up pieces of newspapers and stacks of
dishes, bowls and coffee mugs. Of course, Zena, her guardian dog
given to her by one of her coven sisters, lay next to her.

“Logan. Did your mother buy every piece of mis-­‐‑matched
day china the Stop-­‐‑and-­‐‑Shop had?” She waved her hand at the
array surrounding her, eyes shrouding her true mood. She was as
closed-­‐‑off and pensive as she had been for the past few weeks,
since the visions had begun. For the millionth time, I tried to think
of the right thing to say to break through her wall, and for the
millionth time I failed. I let my sister Jade chatter on and slunk into
the background, defeated.

“Logan,” Jade was saying, “I tried to warn her about Mom.
She hasn’t shopped with The Hurricane yet. I have to tell you;
shopping with Lily Daniels is not for the weak.” She made a serious
face and I laughed, a little too sharply. It sounded hollow, and I
attempted to cover it up.

“All right, that’s enough. Mom’s not even here to defend
herself.” I leaned over and kissed my witchy girlfriend on the top
of her head. “I’m going back for more loot. Skylar, too. We’ll be
back in a while and bring some pizza.” Serena barely looked up.

****

Skylar and I took Charlie and drove back to my house for
some more of the secondhand furniture that my mom and
Elizabeth had found for us. I wasn’t kidding about them buying out
all the thrift stores. Besides the sofa, they found a couple of easy
chairs, some end tables, a kitchen table with four chairs, and even
some lamps. All great because the only furniture Sully and I had
before we moved were our childhood beds. Both were only full-­‐‑
sized. Small for me, tiny as all-­‐‑get-­‐‑out for Sully, but still beds. And I
remembered thinking at the time, full-­‐‑size was still room for two.

I’d hoped Serena didn’t mindjump me in the middle of thinking
that little gem. She’d think I was some kind of fiend. I wasn’t. Just
an all-­‐‑American red-­‐‑blooded male. Okay, maybe not all-­‐‑American,
maybe half warlock, I had recently learned, thanks to Serena. But
still male, anyway. Enough to be thinking that a full-­‐‑sized bed still
left room enough for two. If the two wanted, that is. Oh man, I
needed to think of something else or I might drive off this road.
Thank the stars for Skylar.

“How much more furniture do we have, Logan?” He
sounded amused. Did he overhear my thoughts? I answered him,
keeping my voice even. He didn’t need to know what I had just
been thinking about. Plus, I didn’t want him to know about
Serena’s visions.

“Knowing my mom? No telling. But I think we got the bulk
of it already.”

“You and Sully sure about this?”

“What? Moving out?” I turned the car down the streets,
headed back to my Mom’s house.

Next to me in the car, Skylar fidgeted with the window. “Me
moving in with you guys. Serena says you’ve been talking about it
since you were kids. Feels maybe like I’m intruding on a childhood
thing.”

“Not even, Skylar. We’d have never asked you if you were.”
“So, it’s not just because of Serena?” I could hear the
apprehension in his voice. I tried to reassure him.

“Nope. She’d be a good reason, but she’s not it. You are.” I
glanced over at Skylar and gave him a brief chin nod.

Skylar looked down as though not sure how to respond.

I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I tried to explain further.

“I could do it because you’re her brother. That’d be an easy reason.
But Sully and I, we think you’re okay. We like you. And seriously,
we can’t just leave you in a house full of women. Trust me. I did it
with only two women, my mom and Jade, and I couldn’t wait to
get out.” I laughed, remembering fighting for bathroom time.

“Three? Or more? With all those coven sisters dropping by or
‘flying in’? You’d go crazy, man.” I reached over and clapped
Skylar on the shoulder. “You’re in, man. Don’t sweat it.”

Now he seemed to be smirking. All of a sudden I knew why.

“Oh, great. You can mindjump too, right?” I asked, referring
to the witch trick we all had of listening in to people’s thoughts. I
was suddenly sure he had picked up all my inner ramblings about
full-­‐‑sized beds and the uses of them. He nodded, still leering.

“And you know exactly what I was thinking? About…” I
could hardly repeat it. “…about the beds?” More nodding. I
couldn’t look. “Please. Do. Not. Tell. Serena.” I enunciated every
word carefully so as to fully emphasize the magnitude of their
importance. Only then did I look at Skylar. He could barely keep in
the laughter.

“Seriously, dude. I will kill you. I think I could do it, too.”
Skylar let loose. Even Charlie barked happily. I just shook
my head. There is seriously no privacy in being a supernatural.