Chapter Seventeen

In Which Halloween Approaches

A s the days grow slightly cooler, and September flows into October, controlling my magic continues to elude me. I do all the journaling, all the grounding, and even add in meditation, but nothing seems to help.

Esmer is the most patient teacher I’ve ever had. She doesn’t seem upset at all that it takes me weeks to master lighting a candle on fire. She and Freddie K. take to each other right away. They get along so well, I start to feel like I’m more of a third wheel than the focus of our lessons. I’d be lying if I said it bothered me. Controlling my magic seems nearly impossible.

The one bright spot–well second one, if you count not having to drag myself through apprenticeship–is that Zach and Randy give me two more days a week, after some pressure from Darla and Zander. They aren’t good days. I’m now working the two days Zander’s in charge (Monday and Tuesday) while still keeping the days Darla picks up hours (Friday and Saturday.) I’ll take what I can get.

I get all kinds of teasing from Ella and Shania for never being home anymore, but staying at Marcus’s offers way more privacy than bringing him back to my room. Plus we have all the animals. And by we, I mean him… except for Willow.

Even though Freddie K. is my familiar, it’s Willow who becomes my shadow, following me everywhere I go. She’s at my side as I help Marcus scoop up crap, she’s there as I fill up water troths, she’s there waiting anytime I step outside to go to work. The one time Marcus leaves for an overnight trip to get some appointments done at the VA, she, somehow, makes it through the fence and is tapping at the window of my room bright and early. There is no escaping Willow. She’s growing on me, but a little personal space would be amazing. Marcus just laughs and shakes his head.

Meanwhile, Ramona becomes our resident escape artist, disappearing nearly every afternoon as Halloween approaches. I guess she got a taste of freedom and decided she liked it. Randy Lamar becomes a regular visitor around the house, riding her back when she pops up at the Wild Hare. It becomes such a nuisance that Marcus talks about selling her.

Between my magic and work, I have never felt so stuck in my life. I can’t keep doing this, but I am at a loss as to what else to do.

In true employer “we’ll make an exception because we need you fashion,” Zach Lamar asks me to work Halloween night. I’m tempted to say no, especially when he tells me I’d be working the floor as a cocktail waitress and not dancing, but my bank account is looking pretty bleak, even with my newly added days and Marcus feeding me “to keep my strength up” for our nights together.

“You sure you want to help them out like that?” Marcus asks me when I tell him at dinner.

“No,” I sigh. “But my bank account is not looking so great.”

“You know I’d help you any way I can with that. All you have to do is say the word.”

I shake my head. “That’s very sweet of you, but I can’t ask that of you. You’re still getting settled and these animals eat like the world’s running out of hay. Besides, I probably just need to suck it up and start looking for something else.”

He takes a few more bites of his food before he raises an eyebrow in my direction. “So, do you think I could come?”

“To the Wild Hare?”

“I mean, if you don’t want me too…”

“You wouldn’t get to see me dance on stage, but we have some group dances we do throughout the night in costume that you’d get to see. I’d love it if you came. You don’t have to stay the whole night. It would just be fun to have you there.”

“Really? You wouldn’t feel weird?”

I laugh. “Are you kidding? I’d love to show you off to all the girls I work with.”

He laughs. “I don’t think there’s much to show off.”

“Oooo, can we do a couples costume? I have a witch outfit that I was going to wear. You could be my cat, or a broom, though that might be hard to do on short notice and hard to sit in–.”

“What if I just go as a scarecrow?”

“Like the Wizard of Oz?”

He makes a face. “No, just a regular one. I have a brain, thank you.”

I laugh. “Sure. I think that’d be cute. We’ll need to hunt you down some clothes.”

“Actually, I already have some.”

That stops me. “You do?”

“Yeah, hold on.” He disappears into the bedroom and comes back with a cardboard box. He drops it on the chair next to me. “I don’t know why I brought these with me. I should have just donated them.”

Inside the box is stuffed full of colorful fabric. I reach in without thinking and immediately pull away. The clothes are warm. Like fresh from a hot dryer warm. Marcus watches me as I snatch my hand back with a puzzled expression on his face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah…it’s just…they’re hot.”

“Hot?” He begins to pull each item out–there’s a scarecrow costume and doctor’s scrubs and tan safari outfit, complete with cheesy hat. “Are your hands okay?” He takes my hands in his for a moment and then touches the costumes again. “They feel pretty normal to me.”

I reach back out to touch the fabric of the scrubs this time, but the heat that emanates from it is strong–so strong, I can’t even touch it. Something Esmer said the week before clicks and I sigh.

We had been sitting at her kitchen table while she went through the mail and she’d dropped a piece on the floor. I reached to pick it up before Freddie K. decided to destroy it and nearly dropped it on the ground.

It was hot.

Esmer had just laughed at the look of horror on my face when she told me the heat was a sign of an enchantment.

“But why is there an enchantment on a credit card application?”

“To suck you into debt, of course.”

“Seriously?”

“You’d be amazed at what's enchanted. I’ve seen MLM product lines with enchantments attached, game apps with in-app purchases, cryptocurrency.”

“Why?”

“To suck people in, of course!”

I focus back on Marcus. “Was Catrina a witch, by any chance?”

He sits back down in his seat and picks up his fork to eat. “No. Just a normal human. She loved Halloween, though. She’d always make me dress up. Her work had an annual costume contest, and they had prizes.”

I reach out for the third costume–it’s not quite as warm as the other two. Why would Katrina have costumes with enchantments on them? It’s so random…unless…”

“Was Catrina super competitive?”

He laughs. “How did you know? She would always spend hours working on the costumes. The year I was a scarecrow and she was…”

“A cornstalk? A raven?” I guess.

He laughs. “No, just a girl scarecrow.”

Why would two scarecrows win a contest? “Did y’all always win the contests?”

“Yes, except–”

I hold up a hand. “Wait, let me guess.” I point to the third costume–the safari outfit. “That year. Whatever year you wore that one, you lost.”

He chuckles. “Is that a witch thing? How did you know?”

I tell him about sensing abilities and he laughs. “You know I wouldn’t put it past her to use magic to win. She could not stand to lose, and that year we really should have won. She was a fucking giraffe, of all things. But someone showed up dressed as Prince and their husband was Purple Rain.”

“Prince? She must’ve worked with a lot of old people.”

He snorts.

“What I mean is–”

He reaches across the table, takes my hand in his and kisses my knuckles, his eyes meeting mine before releasing my hand. “Let’s talk less about my ex-wife,” he says as he squeezes my hand.

I smile. “Sure. What would you like to talk about?”

“Tell me about the Wild Hare’s Halloween party.” He shoves the costumes back into the box and puts it to the side, returning to his chair to finish his dinner as I do the same.

I laugh. “It gets pretty wild. The dancers will still wear their outfits, but they’re always altered for Halloween. It’s like a contest to see who can come up with the craziest Halloween costume. They’ll still dance their dances, but we get a ton of women in, so we’ll have line dances and a few choreographed numbers that we do to get everyone up and dancing.”

“And thirsty?”

I smile. “Exactly.”

He takes another bite of his dinner and then meets my eyes. “I feel a little bit weird. There’s a part of me that wants to see you dance, but..”

“But what?”

“There’s another part of me that probably will want to pull you off the stage and carry you home.”

I huff a laugh. “That’s very caveman of you.”

“What can I say? You make me feel very possessive.”

I laugh. “I think I’m okay with that.” I get up from my chair and gently sit on his lap. He wraps his arms around me and lets me lean my head against his shoulder. I close my eyes and just sit still for a long moment, enjoying being held.

Despite all the crap going on around me outside this fire station, it’s lovely just to be able to come back here, eat, and then spend the night naked with Marcus. I know it won’t last forever. There will be a day when someone is tired and we just sleep. That will lead to another and before we know it, we’ll have to be on a schedule just to make sure we’re both ready for sex on the same night. But until then I will enjoy the hell out of this little bit of time where he’s trained my body to be ready for him right after dinner.

He brushes the hair out of my eyes and runs a finger down my cheek until he’s at my chin. He lifts my chin to his and kisses me softly at first. I feel his cock stir through his pants and wonder if he owns any sweats. Maybe I should buy him a pair or two to make dinner in. It would give me much easier access than his typical jeans.

“What are you thinking about?” he asks as he pulls away.

“That I need to buy you sweatpants to make dinner in.”

“Sweatpants?” he asks with an amused expression. “Is this that gray sweatpants thing girls are always going crazy for?”

“No, but ooo, that would definitely be an added benefit. I just would like to have easier access after dinner.”

“Easier access?”

I run a hand across the bulge, and he sighs. “I could see how easier access would be good.”

“Are you done with dinner?”

He starts to kiss my neck. “I can be.”

“I don’t want to pull you from the table if you don’t want to go.”

From the depth of his old man’s slumber, Freddie K., his paws straight up in the air as usual, chooses that exact moment to fart loudly and we both start to laugh.

“I think I’m fine with being pulled.”

I stand up, take his hand and pull him to standing.

He scratches the back of his head and looks down at my hand as I pull him toward the bedroom. “Oh, hey, actually, I have something I wanted to run by you before we…”