Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Book 2: The Demon Kiss - Ch. 1

Chapter 1

I had tasted a love stronger than any emotion I'd ever felt in my life.

It was a bold statement for a sixteen-year-old girl to make, but it was the truth.

I thought back to the first day I realized our school's resident bad boy, Vance Mangum, had an interest in me. My connection with him was instantaneous. There had never been any question he was the one for me, even after I found out he was a powerful warlock running from his past.

My mind began to run over everything that happened in the last few months of my life with him.

I found out on my sixteenth birthday I was a witch, the thirteenth descendant from a long line of witches and warlocks. I learned my grandmother and father were leaders of a magical coven. And I discovered the coven was protecting the person I loved most in this world from a horrible danger—his own father.

I'd fallen in love with Vance Mangum. My own life was almost sacrificed to save him from what should have been certain death. But when I awoke from all the trauma, it was to find him gone from my life, set on a collision course with the very evil that had nearly destroyed him once before.

I sighed and looked back into the eyes of the guy man who faced me now in my living room—disbelief and confusion etched upon his face.

"This is a lot to comprehend." Brad let out a deep breath as he leaned back into the chair, clearly finding it difficult to believe anything I'd been saying for the past hour.

"Show him something, Portia," Shelly suggested, sitting down next to me, urging me to be a little more forceful in my demonstration.

She was probably right, and knowing I needed to get things moving along, I did as she suggested. I sighed as I lifted my hand into the air and motioned for the magazine on the table next to Brad to come toward me. Lifting easily, it floated, and was soon settled in my outstretched palm.

"Whoa!" Brad jumped to his feet. He shook his head in disbelief. "That's intense!" After a short pause, he grinned at me and added, "Do something else."

"Brad," I complained, walking over to drop the magazine back onto the table. "I really don't have time to do a magic show. Every second is of the essence right now. I need to know if you're in or out. What's the verdict?"

He pondered this carefully for a few moments before he answered.

"I'm in," he said with a bigger grin, nodding between Shelly and me. "But we're going to need to come up with something to tell my parents."

"That's all taken care of," Shelly replied. "We had to tell my parents everything. They're going to cook something up about sending us on a vacation to recover from our traumatic event, which will be somewhat true."

The traumatic event she was referring to was an explosion at Sedona High School a couple of weeks prior. Several of our classmates were killed in the disaster. In fact, thanks to a magical shield, I was the only survivor in the classroom where the incident occurred.

It turned out the explosion had been orchestrated by an evil coven in order to capture my boyfriend. Vance's mother, Krista, had taken him, but it was his father, Damien Cummings, who'd been behind the scenes planning everything.

While Vance had nearly been changed into a demon, he had actually been the one to destroy his mother in a last-ditch attempt to save my life. I, in turn, healed him but woke to discover he'd left me to find his father.