P.C. Cast - Mysteria Nights

Gather the light, Harmony thought. Gather the light and throw it outward . In her imagination, she visualized pooling her strength with Damon’s, and together they chased away the shadows, letting the light seep into every crevice, letting it pool and overflow, until there was no darkness left.

The table started vibrating. Harmony’s eyes shot open. The orange juice in everyone’s glasses shook, and the silverware rattled.

“He’s angry,” Damon murmured.

The shaking continued and Mama made a gasp. “What is it, Jake? An earthquake?”

“A small aftershock to one we had some time back,” Damon explained with utter calm.

The little kitchen chandelier swung crazily, and juice splashed on the tablecloth. But Harmony wasn’t afraid anymore. She had control now. “Bring it on,” she told Lucifer and gripped Damon’s hand with all her might. “I’m ready to kick some devil’s ass.”

“Harmony!”

Harmony smiled a bit sheepishly at her mother’s incredulous glare. “Sorry, Mama. It just slipped out. Great-grandma’s got me all fired up about good versus evil.”

Her brothers laughed.

A tearing noise dragged all their gazes upward. The tremors had knocked the chandelier loose. Plaster sprinkled down. It dropped a couple of inches, swinging on its wire. Then it plunged to the table with a mighty crash.

The tremors stopped. Bracing herself, Harmony glanced around the table with the fallen chandelier looking like a gaudy centerpiece. The strawberries were behaving like strawberries were supposed to behave. Same with the cups. And no little green men cavorted over the tablecloth.

“Yes,” Harmony whispered. “Yes. Thank you, Great-grandma.”

Cackling softly, Eudora patted Harmony on the thigh and resumed eating her breakfast. Jake Jr. moved the chandelier to the floor, and Mama plucked a piece of plaster out of her coffee. After a few nervous comments about the rarity of earthquakes in the Rocky Mountains, the conversation returned to its normal volume and enthusiasm.

“A toast,” her father called out and raised his glass of orange juice. “To getting to know our daughter’s new friend. Damon.”

“Do you think you can join us for Christmas, honey?” Mama asked him. Then her apologetic gaze swerved to Harmony. “Or will that be too soon?”

Harmony smiled. “No, not too soon at all. I’m kind of hoping he’ll be staying around for a while.”

The look in Damon’s gold-brown eyes was one she’d never forget. “Aye, lass. I’ll be around for a while. As close to forever as heaven allows.”

Harmony was terrified no one would ever return to church after the flying monkeys, but as the week went on the casseroles started arriving, brought by sympathetic townspeople, and even cookies, baked, incredibly, by the terror triplets Withering, Scornful, and Derisive. Jeanie stopped by, of course, and the Tawdrys, Mrs. O’Cleary, and her great-granddaughter Annabelle, all impressing the Faithfulls with their good words about Harmony and Mysteria Community Church, while Damon devoted his energy to acting the part of the perfect suitor, an ex-demon trying to win the hand of the preacher’s daughter. It drove home the uniqueness of Mysteria. Everyone was welcome here, no one was ostracized, no matter who—or what—you were.

When the crowds returned that next Sunday, Harmony smiled from the pulpit at her father, looking so proud as the guest of honor in the front pew. Next to him were her brothers, Mama, and Great-grandmother Eudora, whose hand rested affectionately, and rather appreciatively, on Damon’s rock-hard thigh.

Later that night, after the Sunday dinner dishes were cleaned and put away, and her family was gathered around the television in the living room, Harmony and Damon sneaked outside.

Taking her hand, Damon led her to the garden and under the apple tree where he’d landed naked only a few months before. Fireflies floated all around them. Frogs and crickets provided a ceaseless chorus. Damon slung his arms low around her waist and pulled her close. They stood there simply holding each other. With soft, warm lips, he nuzzled her neck. “Good, good, good,” he murmured.

She giggled. “They’ll be gone tomorrow and we’ll finally have some private time to . . . well, you know.”

“Aye, I do know. How could I forget? I’ve thought of it day and night, lass. Day and night.” He slid his hands over her butt and pulled her closer. Yes, he was thinking about their lovemaking, no doubt about it. His body made that fact obvious.

She tipped her head to gaze up at him. “At one time, you weren’t too happy about being mortal in Mysteria. Does this mean now you are?”

Damon chuckled. “Aye. ’Tis all I ever want to be.”

“When I used to look at this church, all I could see was its emptiness, but it was my emptiness that was the problem,” she confessed. “And then you came and everything changed.”

His handsome face was luminescent with love. “This is only the beginning. ’Twill get better and better with us.” Swallowing nervously, he crouched down on one knee. “Forgive me if I dinna do this properly.” Then he clasped her hands in his. “Harmony, will you do me the pleasure of one day taking me as your husband?”

She whooped then slapped a hand over her mouth. “Yes,” she mumbled joyfully through her fingers. “Yes.”

He lifted her up and swung her around, kissing her hard. Then, with devilish intent and one hell of a bad-boy grin, he carried her swiftly away from the house to where the lights didn’t reach.

And so, the fair maiden married her dark knight the following spring, and all was right between them . . . or as right as life could be in the strange little hamlet of Mysteria.

That was, until they began to wonder if demon genes could be passed on to their children, the first of which arrived within the year. But that is a story for another day. . . .

Thanks to “the girls”: Susan, Gena, and P. C. for their support; they made this such a fun project, I was bummed when it was time to turn it in.

Thanks also to our editors at Berkley for their enthusiasm for Mysteria and its, ah, interesting inhabitants. Without their thumbs-up, this book wouldn’t be here.

Thanks also to all those who wrote me asking about the goings-on in Mysteria; the girls and I got kind of curious about that, too. So here you go.

The events of this novella take place three months after the events in Bewitched, Bothered, and Bevampyred , available at www.triskelion.com, and a year after the events in Derik’s Bane (Berkley Sensation).

Also, triplets aren’t necessarily evil. And most horses don’t behave like the night mare. But there are, of course, exceptions.

The house sat in the center of two gently rising hills, looking like a jewel on a beautiful woman’s bosom. It was, in fact, the color of crushed rubies; the shutters were black. It was a two-bedroom in the Cape Cod style, two stories, one and a half bath, with an assumable mortgage at a fixed rate; the heater and central air were both up to code.

Inside, the walls were the bland color of good cream; the floors were oak. There was a dishwasher, but no garbage disposal. The house was built in 1870, and so was sorely lacking in closet space. Still, at sixteen hundred square feet, it was of a respectable size; the perfect starter home.

Of course, it was haunted. In 1914, one of the roofers (hired to fix the holes brought by the Big-Ass Hailstorm of the Spring of ’14) fell off and, after dying, had the bad manners to linger. But she was helpful, really; a squeaky door would magically fix itself, the heater, though thirty years old, ran without a hiccup. If her views on the doings of the Mysteria City Council were noisily and frequently expressed, it was a small price to pay for never having to call a handyman.