Chapter 1
This shouldn’t be so hard.
Carlos fought the feeling of frustration. He had decades of experience with dark magic. Once, he had been quite powerful, serving as the chief lieutenant of the influential Dallas coven. Others of his coven had treated him with deference, respect, and more than a little fear. But now, he was struggling with the simplest spell.
“You’ve got to stop trying to conquer the magic,” Elijah said patiently.
Tammy nodded. “White magic is about admitting it, letting it flow into you to be shaped, but you ask it to do what you need, not demand or force it. You can’t wrest control and deform it to your will the way you did dark magic.”
Already, he felt closer to these two and all the rest of the coven hidden away in the piney woods of East Texas. But sometimes he could be so angry with them as well. Especially when they were so compassionate and gentle in their attempts to teach him a completely new way of using the gateway to magic that he possessed.
He stopped. Deep breath. Blow it out. Cleanse the dark impulses from his mind that threatened to block off the link he had already made with the others. His negative emotions came from his former life. He had to become something new, something better.
Those dark leanings had poisoned him, corrupted him. Before he had seen and felt firsthand what these witches had and shared so absolutely with their coven mates, he thought he owned his magic. Now he knew that magic had owned him. Decades of his life had been lost in the darkness.
His yearning to become part of this incredible life here had led him to eagerly surrender his magic. Elijah, who despite his youth and only having first gained his magic about two months prior, had incredible power and abilities that were new to Carlos and the coven as well. He had removed all of Carlos' dark power. It had been freeing.
And debilitating. He had relied on his magic to read and manipulate people. Once, he had been able to cast glamours, to make mundane humans mere puppets to his will. To his twisted desires. He shuddered at the memory of how many women he had used and degraded to fulfill his carnal urges. Desires for sex without meaning, without any emotional connection.
Desires fully devoid of any love.
Now all he had was that gateway that made him aware of magic in the world, and a greatly enhanced empathy. He took another breath, using that empathy to feel the care for him these people had.
“Just relax for a moment,” Tammy said, leaning toward him and laying her hand against his cheek.
That simple touch sent a wave of exquisite pleasure through him. It soothed and calmed his mind. And touched off a wave of desire.
The woman was stunningly beautiful. As all the gorgeous women of the coven did, she usually spent her days in the large, southern style mansion that was the gathering place for the witches in highly erotic garb. Today, she had gone with white, frilly lingerie, a simple babydoll top. The material was covered in lacy decorations, but transparent. Her nipples, he saw, tightened as soon as she touched him.
Other than the top, all she had on were white high-heeled pumps. Sitting cross-legged on a cushion directly across from the one he sat on, she made no attempt to cover her vulva. And took no offense at his frequent desirous stares at it. Indeed, she and the other women seemed to feel complimented by being ogled. By being lusted after.
Carlos was still trying to wrap his head around the way sex and love were synonymous in the coven. The members were all truly in love with everyone else, and expressed that through passionate physical love, with everyone else, and no jealously or possessiveness to mar it. It was a level of polyamory he had been told could only exist with the magical emotional bond they all shared, that he was now beginning to experience, though he had not been with any member of the coven yet. Sex was an inextricable part of magic, the two things flowing together and intertwining with life itself. Magic was an element of the life force, and was strongest where there were the most living things. Here, in this dense forest, it was powerful, indeed. Further, there were streams of extra powerful magic that stretched around the globe, commonly called ley lines, and the house that served as a headquarters for the coven was situated right on top of one. Elijah had told him of once seeing the forces of magic, and how ethereally and indescribably beautiful it was.
Carlos felt guilt when he told him, however. The only reason Elijah had perceived the magic around him was that he was desperately searching for two kidnapped members of the coven. Kidnapped under Carlos’ direction.
The Dallas coven of dark sorcerers he had belonged to was waging war on the white witches. The war was quiet now, as what was supposed to be a final assault on this place had ended in defeat for the dark coven, the sorcerers fleeing, five of their force dead, and Carlos captured along with his former Coven Master, Roman. Or Myron, as he had been named at birth. Roman had not only had his power stripped by Elijah, during a strange battle waged in a horrific pocket universe inside Roman’s mind, his ability to ever access the forces of magic had been permanently closed off.
But horribly, two of the white coven had been murdered in the attack.
By all rights, he thought, he and Roman should have been killed, after cruel torture. But he banished that thought. That was the way dark magicians believed. For his captors, taking the life of truly helpless prisoners was nearly unthinkable.
Well, for most. A couple seemed more than willing to violate their principles after two of their beloved had been ripped from them in the attack.
Most amazingly, after all he had done, Carlos had been given a second chance. A chance to start over, live his life anew and in a better way. Elijah, who saw every facet of their personalities during his invasion of their minds during his purging of their dark power, had seen that Roman was irredeemable. But in Carlos, he had found a core, or at least a part of him, that was good.
And Elijah, who had a unique link to the Earth aspect of magic, had stood up for Carlos. Championed him before the rest of what was called the Circle of Elementals, and the leadership of the greater coven. Convinced them to invite Carlos to join the coven to begin a new life.
It had been a close call, the decision made by a single vote. The final, deciding one was cast by Julietta, who had the most reason to hate him. She had lost her partner Chet, the male witch closest to her heart, in the battle. Yet she, along with all the coven, had accepted him. Julietta had told him it was hard, that for her, full acceptance would take time. Then she had hugged him, saying that she was working with all her heart to forgive him. Because she loved him.
Love. Sometimes he thought that love was by far the greatest power these amazing people had. He could only hope he was worthy, could return it fully. That he could achieve what seemed impossible to him, become a true member of the coven.
The first step in that was learning how to use white magic, something that was far more difficult than he could imagine. It was so different from dark magic, he wondered if it was even possible for him to learn.
Tammy said, “Alright, now, try once again. Don’t try to use the power of magic you sense. Just let the magic flow into you, and tell it what you need it to do.”
Carlos closed his eyes, but before he tried to figure out how to do what she said, he focused on the thoughts of how he was already connected to the coven. Of how the love they held for each other was evident even without magical senses. Of how he wanted to join all that, to return the love, to be a strength for the coven.
Something entered him. Full of warmth, of acceptance, a feeling of coming home, a home he had never truly had. Encouraging. Wonderful. Almost afraid to move, he made the gestures he had been taught, tried to formulate just the right spell.
He opened his eyes and looked at the tiny light floating in front of his face.
