Lady Bess

Something was wrong!

She could feel a power sweeping into the house, something dark and determined. Something dangerous. She closed her eyes. Her father had arrived, and he had Vance with him.

Her mother must have felt her approach and shouted to her in her head. No other would hear, not even her father. “Don’t come here … get in your car and just go!’”

Exerilla sighed heavily. She wasn’t afraid of her father. He would never hurt her, and why her mother had fixated on the belief that he would was beyond her understanding. Even though her parents were separated, she knew her mom still loved her dad and that he adored her mom.

She ignored her mother’s command and skipped up the double set of plank stairs to their large deck, slid the glass doors open, and stepped inside.

“Mom?” she said out loud because she could see from her mother’s stance and the scowl over her pretty face that she was extremely annoyed.

Vance, with that ever-present and arrogant smirk on his too pretty face, stood next to her father, who had stepped towards her, smiling warmly.

She tried to lighten the mood with a bright tone. “Hi, Dad, what’s up?” However, she saw what humans couldn’t see: a black aura surrounding not only Vance Debbin but one around her father as well. He had been immersing himself in black magic for years, and although she didn’t want to admit it, she could see that her mother was correct—there was very little white light left in his aura.

When it came to her father, Exerilla was conflicted. She knew what he was, a Dark Warlock. She knew the rumors surrounding his father’s coven. She knew that this was what kept her parents apart.

&nb

sp; His ethics were not her own, yet she had always loved him. And although he had always been interested in her and what she did, he had never before interfered with her life.

He stepped forward, his white blond hair incongruous with the fact that he was a Dark Sorcerer. His face was youthful because, like her mother, he was an immortal. His eyes, however, had lost their sparkle. They were black as coal, and though they seemed to soften when he looked at her, she felt something about him had drastically changed.

He said to her softly, “X, my dear,” and stepped forward, taking her in his arms for a hug. She didn’t object, but she looked past him at her mother, who stood nervously chewing her bottom lip.

“Papa,” she said, and then because she didn’t want her mother subjected to any trouble, she politely looked towards her father’s companion. “And, Vance, hello. What brings you two here today?”

Her father moved towards her mother then, and X watched warily as he took her mother’s hand and kissed it. He brought his black eyes up and looked into her mother’s deep sea green eyes, so much like her own, and answered her without taking his eyes away from her mother. “You, daughter, you.”

Suddenly he snapped himself to attention all at once and turned to gently indicate with a slight wave of his hand. “Shall I get to the point? Yes, I think so. Vance, as you know, is interested in courting you. I wish this to go forward, have wished for it from the first moment he let me know how he felt.” He inclined his head. “I waited for you to finish your education, but that time is over.” This time he opened his arms wide and gave her a considering gaze. “My interest is simple. I wish the Debbin House joined with Radley House. It will not only increase our combined power, it will make us invincible. The children from such a match will have formidable magic.”

Vance stepped towards her. She had known him a good part of her adult life, and he had always displayed a partiality for her. She, however, didn’t, couldn’t, even like him, let alone fall in love with him. She knew women found him irresistible, with his dark auburn hair and the peak it formed in the middle of his forehead. His dark eyes, however, were cold. This was what her mother had warned her about. She had laughed it off. No, she could never consider Vance Debbin as a husband.

She started to speak, but her mother put up a hand to say, “We are honored, Arlan, my love. However, I don’t think our daughter was thinking of courtship or marriage at this stage of her life. She has, as you know, plans to go to New York in the fall and start working towards her masters…”

“I will never allow anything to interfere with her plans,” her father said softly. “I see no reason why marriage should interfere with her education.”

“I am not interested in marriage,” X stuck in, thinking this was archaic. Where did this come from?

Again, he shrugged. “No? Perhaps I speak of it too soon. However, there is no reason why you can not go on a date or two and get to know one another, for in the end, my darling Rachel, they don’t have a choice. In the end, they will marry, but, though that is my right to will as her father, I do not mind her taking a little time.”

Her mother shot her daughter a look and said with the link that was theirs alone, Don’t speak.

“Of course,” her mother responded to him, “but if for any reason our daughter objects to the union?”

“For now, I only ask that she allow Vance to court her,” her father said, sounding reasonable, but Exerilla knew, because she knew him, that he would not give her a choice. He was allowing a brief courtship because he wanted her comfortable, but in the end, she could see, he meant this to go forward.

“Of course, but today Exerilla and I have plans. Vance is welcome to come with you of course for cocktails tomorrow evening, and then perhaps he can take her to dinner.” She eyed her husband flirtatiously and Exerilla wondered just what her mother was doing.

Two things were off here.

Her mother despised Vance Debbin. She wouldn’t let her go to dinner or anything else alone with him. He was not only a dark warlock, but rumors abounded about him, rumors that called him a vicious killer who killed for the thrill of it.

Right then, so why had her mother so readily accepted?

The second thing that caught her attention was the fact that though separated, her parents were still in love. And even so, she knew in that moment, her mother meant to take her father on.

Was her mother playing a game—why? To buy time? To do what? She hadn’t a clue. She looked from mother to father and kept quiet. Yes, she would keep still now because there was no way in hell she was going to go to dinner or anything else with Vance Debbin, let alone marry him.