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Melissa didn&039;t sleep that night after Alex, soht, he said And deep down, she knew she needed tiest what had just happened

She&039;d never atteic before But passion, especially the kind of passion between her and Alex, generated incredible power And even while she&039;d lost her focus to the ecstasy, she&039;d felt the power continue building within and around the two of the them

She hadn&039;t felt drained when it was over She&039;d felt energized, and she sensed he had, as well She prayed that sense was true and not just wishful thinking on her part

Deep into the night, she sat in the darkened living roolass doors that looked out over the beach and the sea The ocean was angry tonight Restless and moody It swelled and receded, swirled and spat froth at the waning, lopsided , her instincts whispered in herherself to go outside, to explore the darkness and the mood of the sky and sea Like a child, she hid in the safety of the house, wishing for daylight, and even though she knew she would never sleep, she hugged herself all the way to her bedroom to crawl beneath the covers

As she pulled back the blankets soently to the carpeted floor behind her The sound made her jump at first, but as soon as she spun around and sahat it was, she relaxed The red velvet pouch full of rune-stones The nail froht of the stones had slowly proven tooto tell her soathered the pouch in her palentle click-clack of the stones as they , dipped inside, and closed her hand Two cool stones rested within her fist when she drew it out again She opened her palm and stared down at them

Raido, action and ot thefor the bad thing to co she&039;d done all she could to prepare She had to take action, figure out what she - what they both were up against, and then proceed accordingly

Knowledge; she needed infor, she wrapped herself in a war in her bed - and returned to the living roo to the Internet, she typed the na, into the search box and let the machine do the rest Alex hadn&039;t done the research he should have done Partly, she sensed, because he didn&039;t want to know the truth Maybe deep down he knehat he would find wouldn&039;t be good

If so, he&039;d been right

There were several news articles one o The -persons report had been filed, not by Jennifer Siht expect, but by herwo her chilled are filled in, top to botto clear

Melissa jerked back fro in a breath "My Goddess," she whispered "She looks likein her eyes

A sudden chill raced up Melissa&039;s spine, and she swung her head, searching the roo her, soh, and forced herself to return her attention to the computer screen, to click on the link to the next article about thethat Victor ation that revealed that both thewife had ties to what the police called the occult No details on what they ht have an inkling Alex&039;s mother, she sensed, had been a Witch

The next article said that the body of a young woman had been found in a New York river and that she had later been identified as Jennifer Si The whereabouts of her infant son were still unknown, but authorities feared the worst Her death had been ruled a suicide

Melissa recalled the drea on a suspension bridge In the dreaone over the rail of her oill She&039;d had help - astral help perhaps, since the hands that had seemed to push her hadn&039;t been connected to the man in the dream So maybe it hadn&039;t been a flesh-and-blood human there with her But maybe, just ician

Soht it from the corner of her eye, julass doors and the darkness beyond thes clutched every breath

A fil the beach, near where Alex&039;s pent&039; was buried Whatever it was, it was dark and asped, and her hand flashed upward, inscribing a banishing pentacle in the air with her finger and projecting its ione!" she hissed into the night "Be gone, I say!"

She ran into her temple room and took the tiny bottle of hera lunar eclipse, then ran to the back doors It chilled her to stand so close, with nothing but a thin sheet of glass between her and the blackness of the night beyond, and that shape, that being, whoever or whatever it had been, gone now froht She whispered an invocation to Hecate and her hounds and wet her forefinger with the Moon Water Then she drew the banishing pent&039; on the glass "By theevil co the process, drawing the five-pointed stars at everyand door She turned on every light and double-checked every lock while she was at it When she&039;d covered the roo a streak of astral blue flame from one mark to the next When the blue fla it, deepening it, expanding it beyond the walls and ceiling and floors, until her hoht She stoy

Finally, she looked at the clock and vowed she would wait until dawn before she picked up the telephone and dialed Alex&039;s nu that felt solurked just outside She huddled in her robe in front of her co from one door orto another with every breeze and every sound It was going to be a long night

The housekeeper wore a gray hooded cloak, which had been intended to be seen by the Witch and to scare the hell out of her She hoped the e had been received She peered into her e in his bed, , his face beaded with it He&039;d flung off the covers, and he was naked fro another nightmare to keep Alex off balance, unsure of hi the voice she heard inside her mind, the voice of the man she had loved

"I followed hih no one was in the room "The Witch lives in a beach house, had the pentacle buried in the sand" She held the pentacle, letting it dangle and spin from its chain

Did she see you? the voice in her mind asked

Elizabeth nodded "I made sure of it"

Excellent Go now, put the pentacle on s

Elizabeth did exactly as she was told She always did exactly what he told her She leaned over Alex, fixing the chain around his neck It was a direct link to his father&039;s energy It had to remain with Alex, to prepare him and link his father to hiain and watched Alex struggling in his sleep "Do you want to release him from the dream now that it&039;s done?"

No Let it eat him alive Let it do its work We have to burn her out of his life or she&039;ll ruin everything, just aswife tried to do

The wohtmare must be about the Witch She disliked the woman - disliked her intensely She reminded Elizabeth of Victor&039;s dead wife, Jennifer How she had suffered watching theElizabeth to the role of housekeeper and ht Jennifer had it It would co for Victor an even more powerful form than he&039;d had the last tiaze sliding over Alex&039;s chest "He&039;s got a beautiful body, Victor It&039;s going to look so good on you"

The telephone beside Alex&039;s bed was ringing He rolled to one side, opened his eyes, and felt anger surging in hih he wasn&039;t even sure why He reached out and yanked up the phone

"What?"