“Are you all right?” he asks, gently cleaning the blood from my neck.
“Yeah. I got a little dizzy,” I admit, not seeing the point in hiding it from him. “But I’m fine.”
“Sit,” he tells me. “I’ll get you water.”
I nod, knowing there’s no point in arguing. I quickly pull up my underwear, straighten my dress, and sit on a barstool at the counter.
“So I take it your coven isn’t burning you at the stake?” Eliza asks, perching on the edge of the kitchen table.
“No, they want me back.” I smile as I talk, feeling like I regained a part of me I didn’t know I'd lost. “There’s more I didn’t get a chance to tell you,” I say to Lucas. “Tabatha wants me to give the offering at the Feast of the Blood Moon.”
“What is that?” Lucas asks, handing me a glass of water along with a B12 vitamin.
“It’s a witch thing.”
“Obviously,” Eliza retorts, earning a pointed look from Lucas.
“A Blood Moon is a full moon in October. It’s this Saturday. When the Blood Moon falls in the middle of the month like this, it’s kind of like the unofficial kick-off to Samhain.”
“You can go to that now,” Lucas goes on, not needing to actually say the word for me to know what he’s asking.
“I can, but I still want to go to Florida with you.” I rest my hand over my stomach and take a drink of water. “We could really use the suspension from reality and have someone cook and clean for me.”
“Don’t you have that now?” Eliza raises an eyebrow and motions to Lucas.
“I clean,” I counter. “And it’s not the same. I deserve a vacation.”
“Oh, you do,” Eliza agrees. "But weren’t you supposed to leave soon?”
“We don’t have to be in Florida until the twentieth, but we had talked about going down and staying at Lucas’s property in Miami just to be away from here.”
“It won’t be an issue,” Lucas assures me. “We will leave in time for the theme park reservation and you can be here for the Feast.”
“Tell me about this Blood Moon thing,” Eliza says. “Do you get naked and dance in the moonlight?”
“You’ve seen too many cheesy witchcraft movies.” I purse my lips. “We only do that in the spring, and the nudity is optional. I’ve participated a few times.”
“Naked?”
“I kept my undies on but went topless.”
She looks at my cleavage. “You do have nice tits. A ten out of ten, if you ask me.”
I push my breasts together with my arms. “Thanks. They are pretty nice. Haven’t let me down yet. And it’s a feast, so we mostly eat, drink, dance, and celebrate, while still taking part in the old traditions of harnessing the power of the Blood Moon.”
“How do you do that?” Lucas asks.
“You just go outside.” I shrug. “It’s nothing too complicated. It’s a good time to recharge crystals or get moon water. Which reminds me, I need to give my crystals a salt bath and recharge them all on the night of the full moon. I haven’t done it in a while.” I slowly get up and get my phone from the counter near the sink to put a reminder in. Who knows what life will be life in a few more days. I’m crossing all my fingers that I’ll finally get a string of demon-free days, but who am I kidding?
Yawning, I put the phone back on the counter and finish my water. “And since we’ll be here on the day of the Blood Moon, that means I can hand out candy at the store. Thorne Hill does Trick or Treating for the kids two weeks before Halloween. It’s always fun. We could dress up together!” I give Lucas a smile. “I’ve always wanted to do a couple’s costume!”
“What do you have in mind?” Lucas ask, already looking like he’s regretting asking.
“Morticia and Gomez Addams?”
Eliza lets out a snort of laughter and looks me up and down. “Isn’t the point of Halloween to dress up differently than your everyday look?”
“Hah,” I deadpan. “Then Wonder Woman and Superman?”
“I’ll consider that one,” Lucas tells me. “Only if you promise to wear your costume to bed.”
I wiggle my eyebrows. “I’ll lasso you so good.”
Lucas takes me around the waist again. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“I should order our costumes now. I usually get my costume in September.”
Eliza goes to the pantry and gets out a box of dog treats. Scarlet comes running as soon as she hears the rustle of treats. “Your hellhound is bored. As my poor shoes have evidenced.”
“She’s probably used to…I actually have no idea. Helping to torture people? Hunting down anyone who made a deal with the devil?” I look at Scarlet. “She’s so cute.”
Lucas’s phone rings in the office. It’s work-related, and he kisses me then speeds off to answer it.