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On the other side of the parking lot, Adrian casually opened the door of the diner, the glass flashing
under the yellow lights of the truck stop. Amber's stomach stirred with pangs of hunger, and she couldn't
deny that a short stack sounded great about now.
She put one of the pulsating clear quartz crystals on the dashboard and concentrated on it to raise a
protective shield around the car.
Power shot up and around the car so fast the backlash threw her against the seat, electricity jolting
through her. She gasped, feeling the hair on her arms stand up and her skin crawl with power. Holy
Mother Goddess.
It was the most powerful shield she'd ever raised.
When she sliced through the air with her finger, giving herself a slit through which to exit the car, the
magic crackled and sparked.
She slipped shakily out and to her feet, hoping she'd not screwed up anything when creating the shield,
or she'd have to take it down and do it again. She wasn't sure her body could take two of these power
raisings so close together.
She moved her finger across the bubble again to zip it up behind her. A faint glimmer surrounded the
car that would be invisible to all but another witch and maybe Adrian. A normal protective bubble would
deter would-be car thieves and vandals, but this bubble could probably keep out a charging elephant.
Amber had never touched such raw power in her life.
Adrian waited for her just inside the door, dark eyes calm, as though he had no doubt she could handle
raising the shield. He didn't even ask if she was all right, as though he knew he didn't need to.
A waitress holding coffeepots in both hands told him to take any seat while she bustled behind the
counter to serve the truckers there. Adrian led Amber to a booth well away from the truckers, and when
the cherry-checked waitress approached, he requested four orders of pancakes-one for Amber and
three for himself. When the food arrived, he poured half a pot of maplesyrup over the first stack and
began to eat steadily as if this were a normal meal for him.
"When I asked you about your first time," he said when he started stack number two-with
blueberrysyrup, "I wasn't talking about sex. I was talking about your initiation into the Craft."
"Oh." She stopped chewing, cheeks scalding. "Then why did you let me go on about who I went to
bed with? You could have stopped me."
Adrian poured more blue-black syrup over the half-eaten helping, carefully not looking at her. "I didn't
want to interrupt you. Besides, you told me that intriguing tale about your vampire."
Her cheeks burned redder. "Thanks a lot, Adrian."
"Never be afraid to talk to me about sex." He raised his gaze at last, his dark eyes burning her. "Or
anything else, for that matter. I do want to know all about you."
"Goddess, I swear if we weren't in public I'd throw something at you."
"I'd probably catch it. My reflexes are well honed. But you were going to tell me about your initiation."
"I didn't do it naked, if that's what you want to know," she growled.
"Do not be angry." He made a small gesture, and suddenly she wasn't angry. Silly to be-she'd
misunderstood him and started blathering to him, which wasn't his fault. "Tell me."
She chewed a mouthful of her own pancakes. "My dedication I did alone in the woods north of town
near a cabin my parents owned. My initiation was a year and a day later, at Samhain in the same place.
My parents and my sister were with me, as well as a few other solitary witch friends."
"Which aspect of the Goddess did you dedicate to?"
"Hathor," Amber said. "I always liked her."
"Good choice. I'm sure she was flattered."
"I hope so." Amber had taken a long time to decide to dedicate her studies and devotion to Hathor, a
goddess who was not only wise and powerful but had a good sense of humor.
"I will ask her when I see her," Adrian remarked, starting on his third stack of pancakes.
Amber coughed. "When you see her? You know Hathor?"
Adrian nodded, firm jaw moving as he chewed and swallowed. "She helped train me, she and her
priestesses. When I was small, Hathor let me ride on her back when she was a cow"
Amber hastily gulped her orange juice. "I never know whether to believe all this stuff you tell me or
not."
"You are a witch, and undead and other magical creatures walk the earth. Why should I not know
gods and goddesses?"
"It's different . . ." She trailed off.
Vampires and werewolves and Sidhe and witches were part of everyday existence. Gods and
goddesses watched from afar, even though she'd sensed the presence of the Goddess and Hathor in her
rituals and in the magic workings she'd done with Susan. But she'd never seen Her or imagined Her
training Immortal warriors to fight battles.
"True, the goddesses have removed themselves more in modern times," Adrian went on. "They are
pleased with the resurgence of Goddess cults in the world. They were so long forgotten."
"I suppose you are on speaking terms with the God, too."
"Oh, yes." Adrian nodded and attacked his last stack of pancakes. "We hunt together sometimes."
"You are the strangest man I have ever met."
"Probably," he conceded. He ate steadily, not looking stuffed or uncomfortable with all the food he'd
consumed. "I've met beings far stranger than you, and not nearly as pretty"
The look he gave her was full of sin. Her thoughts flashed back to how he'd suckled her on the bed, at
the same time spreading his legs to give her full access to himself. His cock had been huge and hot, and
her hands had wanted to go on and on stroking it. She'd felt the pulsing behind his balls. He'd been ready
to come, right before the demon had interrupted. Damn demon.
Adrian's eyes darkened. He licked a drop of syrup from his fork, tongue curving to flick the sweet
substance into his mouth.
"I'm sorry we're in a hurry," he said, voice low with seduction.
Warmth pooled in her belly, and she shoved her plate away with more force than necessary. "We'd
better go."
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