For the Love of Magic Read online

  Nathalia finished the brushing and picked up the hot flat iron off the table next to her. With great skill, she sectioned off the hair and smoothed each piece.

  “Third,” said Maeve, “I think it’s sexy and it adds to my allure. It makes it easier to get everyone’s attention in a smoky loud club.”

  “As if you ever needed any help!” Elle countered. “Ya’ll see tonight. All eyes are on her the second we step out of the car. Jolie, you better find your mate quick before he becomes infatuated with her like everyone else.”

  Jolie glanced down at her delicate blouse and small breasts and looked worried.

  Nathalia jumped in, “Jolie, she’s just teasing Maeve about being such an attention hog. You’ve got nothing to worry about. You’ll be a dream come true to your mate, fantasy come to life. A true mate called by a Vinculum will recognize you for the rare jewel you are and all the supermodels in the world couldn’t garner their affection. You’ll see. Maeve’s magic is an incredible sight to behold.”

  Maeve felt an edge of confidence. Nathalia must be broadcasting it to Jolie.

  Jolie’s tattooed shoulders rose slightly and her spine straightened. She held up her head, gently shaking away the seed of self-doubt. “Thanks.”

  Nathalia finished up with her best friend’s hair and tapped on her shoulder. Maeve stood up and crossed over to the mirror to check out the finished product. Sara looked entranced by it. She stroked the warm hair. “It looks amazing, so shiny,” said Sara. “I think I can see myself in it!”

  Nathalia spoke, breaking Sara’s enthrallment. “I love each of you and am very proud to be Abbess to such a group of caring and independent women.”

  The door opened. Camilla, possibly the tiniest woman ever to graduate to the rank of Primo, definitely the smallest living Daughter, brought in a tray with some stone necklaces on it and set it next to Nathalia. Starting with Maeve, Camilla placed her hands on each girls’ head and, using her magical healing ability, checked their health. Nathalia had to remain seated for Camilla to reach. She was four foot ten and a half inches, technically not a midget. Whenever people asked how tall she was, she always added the “half.” Inspections complete, Camilla exited quickly and silently, her ever-present blonde ponytail swishing.

  Nathalia explained as she handed one to each sister, “All of these stones have spent time in the afterglow and in the full moonlight. They carry a small charge and can help you with your spells tonight.”

  Nathalia took on a very serious face and laid down the law before issuing her blessing for the night. “As always, the Vinculum Primo is in charge while off grounds. She is the voice of the sisterhood tonight and all decisions go through her. No one makes any move to use their gifts without Maeve’s permission.” With that out of the way, Nathalia smiled and lifted her stone to the sky. “May you have a wonderful and successful night of Love, Sex, and Magic!”

  The solid concrete building did little to contain the hard house music. The baseline could be heard and felt for blocks. Tribal house was Maeve’s favorite and she knew the deejay would switch it up as soon as she entered the club. A cloud-shaped neon sign, the only indication of the lavish setting inside, declared the nightspot’s name to be Heaven. It belonged to the Daughters, one of their many businesses, and they had spared no expense. The line wrapped around the building and its occupants were as varied as Austin’s population. Not many were properly dressed for the cold weather and rubbed their exposed arms, hopping in place to stay warm.

  “Maeve!”

  The doorman’s deep voice called out before Maeve was out of the parking lot. He put up the velvet rope, stopping all other traffic from the sidewalk into the club. Maeve led Elle, Sara, and Jolie right up to the front entrance of Heaven. Jolie brought up the rear, taking time to inspect every person in line. Hoping, Maeve imagined, to find the man matching the image from her dream.

  The doorman threw his tree-sized arms around Maeve and lifted her off the ground as if she weighed no more than a child. Her entourage giggled as she tried to squirm her way down. She gave up her hopeless fight and hugged him back.

  “Tank, it’s good to see you too,” Maeve said, her lack of air giving her voice a hoarse quality. She playfully hit his massive shoulder. “Now put me down; I’m losing the feeling in my arms, you’re squeezing so hard.”

  Tank complied but laid a wet one on her cheek on the way down.

  “How was the honeymoon?” Maeve asked him. Her longing for someone all her own had grown into a sharp pain in recent months. That was something she would never have. Her vows didn’t permit it. She pushed the jealousy down, way down.

  He flashed a big toothy grin at Maeve and then winked at the spiky-haired pixie just inside the door tearing tickets and stamping hands. “Great,” he answered. “I don’t know why I waited so long. I should’ve married Marcie years ago.”

  “I wouldn’t a’ had you years ago, you big meathead,” Marcie commented from her post. Maeve reached the threshold and kissed Marcie’s neck. “You needed to grow up a little and realize what a catch I am,” Marcie shouted back at her new husband. “I have you to thank for that, Maeve,” she said a little more quietly while clasping Maeve’s hand.

  “Come on man, I’m freezing my nuts off out here!”

  Tank pointed his giant sausage finger down the line in the general direction of the shout. “You show some respect. This is Maeve Lovejoy. You wait your turn.” His shout hushed all the complaining, but he did go back to inspecting I.D.s and patting down suspicious characters.

  Maeve handed Marcie her bulging oversized purse. Marcie stashed it behind the counter. “Big turnout tonight?” Maeve asked.

  Marcie responded with a shrug. “O’course, it’s Thursday—they’re all here to see you. Enjoy, girls! See you later.” She waved them in and went back to work.

  They pushed their way through the crowd to the clear spot. Sara questioned Maeve. “So, which one did you sleep with?”

  Maeve lovingly slapped her trainee on the rear before responding, “That’s none of your business, Sara. Now, take Elle and go tell Israel we’re here and that I’ll be out on the floor in a few minutes.”

  She could hear Sara tell Elle as they left, “I only asked because he was so big. He tossed Maeve around like a rag doll. Imagine what he could do in the sack!”

  Maeve leaned over to say in Jolie’s ear, “She’s right, you know. Marcie’s a lucky girl.” Tank had been fun. Having a lover three times her weight allowed for positions she’d never thought physically possible.

  Maeve smiled at the memory and turned to see Jolie’s reaction. Jolie hadn’t moved. She stared straight forward and said, “There he is.”

  Maeve followed Jolie’s gaze across the room to the side bar. There were so many people there. “Which one?”

  Just as she asked, a young man with a fauxhawk turned with his drink and locked eyes with Jolie. Jolie gasped and exhaled, “Him.”

  Disappointment weighed heavily on Maeve but she forced it from her face. “JD’s your mate?” Maeve had planned on making JD her mark tonight. He was of the Family, the one Margaux had told her about. Her evening was suddenly wide open and she didn’t like that.

  Jolie repeated his name as if it contained magic, “JD…JD…”

  “Come on,” Maeve interrupted her, “Let’s go introduce you.”

  Jolie and JD made a beeline through the crowd to get to each other, as if they were magnets, unable to fight the natural pull. Maeve followed behind. She kissed JD’s cheek before introducing them, “JD, this is my good friend, Jolie. She lives at the house with me.” Maeve looked to Jolie and smiled. “Jolie this is JD. He’s a deejay here on a regular basis.”

  JD stuck his hand out for Jolie and said, “John David…JD stands for John David,” never taking his eyes off his new beloved’s face.

  “Do you use JD as your stage name? Deejay JD does have a nice ring to it.” When neither reacted to her, Maeve said, “Okay…” She caught the musical signal mi
xed in by Israel. It was time to get to work. “They’re playing my song. I’m going to dance. Care to join me?” Again she was ignored.

  Giving up, she left them standing there staring at each other. Used to being discarded when a true mate was found, she headed for the dance floor. She might not have a mark for her greater magic but she could work a lesser version and match up the people partying at Heaven. Maeve was a Vinculum of the Primo level, a matchmaker of the highest degree. Vinculum was a rare and valuable talent, providing power for all Daughters. Maeve lied to herself, thinking the value put on her by her whole organization was worth more than one person’s could ever be.

  AS SOON as he saw her enter the dance floor, Aaron shot up from the black leather VIP couches. He dragged Lucas to the lounge’s second floor railing and demanded, “Who’s that?”

  Before Lucas could answer, the deejay’s voice rang out over the speakers. “All you out there looking for love, get to the dance floor.”

  Heaven erupted with excitement. Lucas declared, “That’s her, the one we were telling you about.”

  His voice was joined by a hundred others, the crowd shouting, “Come on...she’s here...let’s go!” A flood of people flowed down the stairs and onto the floor, taking Lucas with it.

  Aaron stood transfixed. He couldn’t take his eyes from the short and rounded beauty dancing in the void at the center of a sea of partiers. She was hourglass-shaped, and the tightly laced black corset helped accentuate that. Her long brown hair hung down past her waist, reflecting all the colors shining down from the catwalk above. Her low-cut jeans were strung with chains that jingled as she undulated her hips in a detailed and mesmerizing pattern. She seemed a strange marriage of modern woman and old world beauty, and he knew right then he would need to see her again and again.

  Aaron watched the woman draw a design with her hips and arms as she danced, reflecting the modern yet ancient sounds of the music. There was a pattern there in the air but he couldn’t get a lock on it.

  Her arms whipped out, grabbing a girl here, a boy there and coupling them up. She paired some girls with other girls, some boys with other boys, a couple from one side with a girl from the other. Mostly she made boy/girl twosomes as the music began to build. Each pair or group began to dance with the people they were matched with. Two massive doormen approached her. She grabbed up a guy and matched him with a beastly employee, who quickly danced him off the floor. Then in a second, it happened again. Lucas was close to the center now. She whipped her arms out, leaving him standing with two very attractive young ladies.

  Everyone was matched; the music started to build. As the music rose so did the sexual tension. People on the dance floor started to kiss. As if signaled by the music, couples around Aaron kissed as well. Then scaffolding lowered from the ceiling, loaded down with canisters pointed in all directions. The gas blasted and then, with a whoosh, the entire club was covered by a blanket of frigid fog.

  In the fog, Aaron lost sight of the rounded beauty and when it cleared, she was gone. Disappointed, he perched on the arm of the nearest couch as the dancing crowd thinned. He turned his head to find the corseted goddess herself skipping up the stairs. She plopped down on the couch right next to him. His higher seat gave him a perfect view of her cleavage. Aaron stiffened, afraid of getting caught gazing at that beautiful valley, but unable to keep from looking.

  A waitress served her an unopened gray and red can of Diet Coke. “Can I get you anything?” the server asked him.

  Aaron tore his attention from the vision beside him. “No, thank you. I’m fine.” The waitress walked away. Aaron could feel the mesmerizing dancer studying him and tried to look nonchalant.

  “Why didn’t you join us down there?” she asked him. “You’re not in a relationship.”

  Aaron hoped he didn’t look like a deer in the headlights. He was too stunned to wonder how she knew that he didn’t have a significant other. “Maybe I was afraid you’d couple me with Dozer,” he said gesturing over her shoulder at the bouncer at the entrance of the VIP section.

  She laughed. It was loud and hearty and everyone within earshot smiled. “It’s not like I thought they made good couples with the bouncers.” She took a drink of her soda and then held the can against her cheek. “That’s my way of quietly kicking them out of Heaven. They’re married and their wives wouldn’t appreciate them hooking up out at a club. I had them sent home to their waiting families.”

  “So, you don’t let married people join in on your fun and games?”

  “Oh, yea I do. All the time. If their spouses are here and also willing to be grouped up. I don’t look down on the swinger lifestyle, just the lying cheating lifestyle. I don’t care for people who don’t honor their vows; I don’t take my vows lightly, nor should anyone.”

  “Vows?” Of course she was married. A woman this magnificent didn’t stay single for long. “Your husband isn’t into the lifestyle?” Aaron hoped his interest was veiled in their casual conversation.

  “No, I’m not married. I don’t need romance; I came here to dance.”

  His hope renewed, he complimented her, “You’re certainly good at it. I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

  “That’s kind of the point—that particular dance is designed to captivate everyone in the club who’s ready and available.” She smiled and took another swig of her diet drink.

  “Sounds like it could come in handy to a single guy. Teach me?”

  “I can’t; not that dance. It’s kind of a secret, but I’ve another one I think’s just right for you. It melts away stress like snow on a hot summer day.” She stood up, leaving her soda can on the coffee table. “I can’t sit around too long anyway. I need to get back to the floor. Dancing’s kind of my job here.” She reached out and took Aaron’s hand. “Will you come with me?” she asked seductively.

  The thought of seeing her dance up close was too tempting to resist. Aaron stood up bringing their bodies and faces very close together. “Sure.”

  She smiled and spun around, never dropping Aaron’s hand, leading him toward the staircase. As they made their way to the dance floor, the crowd in front of them stopped moving. Maeve stopped short and Aaron pressed into her back. She brought his left hand up and crossed it in front of her, placing it on her bare right shoulder. His forearm rested on her mounded breasts peaking over the top of her corset, but he pretended not to notice. She fingered the simple black tattoo that covered most of his outer forearm. She leaned back further, pressing into him, and laying her head back to rest on his shoulder. She turned toward his neck and said over the music, “Name’s Maeve by the way.”

  Her breath brushed his neck and ear and he leaned down to answer her. “I’m Aaron. Nice to meet you.” He planted a kiss where the creamy white skin of her shoulder met her neck. He was never this forward. What was wrong with him tonight? He hadn’t even had anything to drink.

  There must be something in the air that made everyone act that way. Lucas was still there dancing with those two young blondes he’d been put with. JD was with a tattooed girl Aaron had never seen before, but it looked very serious.

  He nudged Maeve and gestured at his friends. “Is there a vaporized aphrodisiac in that ice cold blast that went off a while back?”

  “No, just liquid ice jets. Aren’t they great? I had ‘em installed as soon as I saw them. They drop the temperature of the club twenty degrees!” She shouted as they started to dance. “Just because we live in Texas doesn’t mean we have to suffer.”

  She pointed down toward her feet. Assuming she wanted him to, Aaron immediately began to match her movements. He knew how to dance. Adding some new footsteps was not difficult. Her smile spoke volumes. She was pleasantly surprised at his talent.

  Once they had danced in unison for a few minutes, Aaron felt all his tension dissipate. She had said it was a stress-relieving dance. Was it magic or the power of suggestion? When she changed her movements, again he matched her turn for turn, spin for spin. Then she moved
with her hips in a way physically impossible for a man to do. He was not foolish enough to fall for her tricks. He knew better than to embarrass himself by trying those moves. Not to be out-danced, he did his own version of everything she did. She threw her head back and really let loose. He could match any dance she threw at him.

  Her body sparkled with perspiration. The ends of her long hair tickled the back of his hands. She smelled like warm birthday cake and vanilla ice cream.

  The alarm sounded, signaling the impending blast. Not wanting to lose her again in the fog, afraid she might be a dream, he grabbed her hips, pulling her to him. Their torsos pressed tightly together by the time the liquid ice reached them. She undulated in the haze, rubbing against him.

  He blinked and the fog had dissipated. If only the haze in his mind would clear as quickly. No wonder the guys liked this place. It was intoxicating. He looked around for his friends and wondered where JD and his pink-haired dance partner got off to.

  MAEVE SMILED at her friend as Jolie led JD up the stairs into the VIP section where she and Aaron rested. She gestured to the bartender and he nodded. He carried over the very expensive bottle of champagne in the sterling ice-filled seau, along with two crystal flutes, to the new couple. Maeve raised her glass of Diet Coke to them as the bartender said the words she had given him. “Maeve sends this to the new couple on their first night.’May your days be good and long together on this earth’. Enjoy.” She drank to them.

  Maeve hooked her leg over Aaron’s and turned her attention back to him. He was trim and taller than her, but then again, who wasn’t. He had dark eyes and short-cropped dark hair. His thick sideburns, rectangular black glasses and old fashioned gas station attendant jacket didn’t really fit in with the club kids. In fact, he looked more like the type of guy she would go after if she were free to date. A nerd with a sexy secret; a wolf in sheep’s wool. When she got her fantasy back under control, he was thanking her for the dance.