Chapter Twelve

 

             

            He could hear the snow beating against the window. Opening his eyes, Jonathan noticed the bedroom was a dank, gray color, even though it was morning.

            Tamberly was still asleep in his arms. Her breath was warm on his shoulder, but the rest of his arm had gone numb where her head was lying. Good. It would give him a few moments to assimilate all that had happened last night. To relive it. To appreciate it.

            To all intents, he had passed her sex hex test, and passed with top scores. But, all witchcraft aside, he felt no trepidation. Despite the gloomy weather trying to dampen his spirits, Tamberly had been the perfect Christmas gift, and one that would last a lifetime.

            I’m in love with a witch. A real honest-to-God witch.

            The irony was inescapable.

            He must have chuckled. Tamberly moved in his embrace.

            “What time is it?”

            “I have no idea.” Placing a kiss in her hair, he added, “Merry Christmas, my love.”

            She rolled over to smile up at him. “Merry Christmas. We need to get over to the house. Everyone will be waiting for us.”

            “Oh?”

            “Yeah. To formally meet you and welcome you to the family.”

            “Can it wait another hour?” He’d found her breast and was gently squeezing it as his thumb played with her nipple.

            She sighed loudly. “I wish. Seriously, Jonathan, they were expecting us last night.”

            He paused. “Last night?”

            “To congratulate us.”

            “They know I passed the test? I mean, how could… Never mind.” He grinned and reluctantly released her breast.

            They rolled out of bed and quickly dressed. On their way out of the trailer, Tamberly pointed to their cold dinner still sitting on the table. “Such a shame. You went to all that trouble, and we didn’t get to enjoy it.”

            “Don’t worry.” He snaked an arm around her waist and gave it a squeeze. “There will be plenty of other opportunities when you can enjoy my cooking.”

            “Won’t Lyle be pissed to see this mess when he gets back?”

            “We already have a standing arrangement. Whoever does the cooking does the cleaning. He knows I’ll take care of it when I get back.” He caught her frown as she turned for the door. “What?”

            “I was looking forward to having a tart.”

            “Well, I had one, and she was unbelievable!”

            Tamberly paused in the open doorway and glanced up at him in surprise. When she finally got the meaning behind his jest, she squealed with laughter.

            The ride to the farmhouse was quiet. Tamberly perched on the console so she could lean against his arm. It was snowing hard, but fortunately the wind wasn’t blowing. Before they reached the drive, they could see the multi-colored lights circling the fence line like a rainbow-colored crown.

            Pulling onto the gravel, Jonathan drove up to the side gate the same time the front door opened and people began running out to greet them. The welcoming committee turned out to be Tamberly’s sisters, who half-dragged her back to the porch. Jonathan hurried to join them, and together they entered the farmhouse where Manderly Blakeney was waiting in the den.

            He held out his arms to his oldest daughter, and Tamberly ran into them to receive his hug. Jonathan remained standing in the doorway leading from the foyer. They were all there, including the guy he’d seen at the market. The brother-in-law. On his arm was a gorgeous woman with long black hair.

            “Welcome to the family,” the Blakeney patriarch said, eyeing Jonathan.

            Jonathan smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

            There was a moment of awkward silence, until a blonde woman dryly commented, “Well, to hell with standing around here. I want to know the facts! Come on, Tam!” She snagged Tamberly’s arm and headed for the back bedrooms. The rest of the Blakeney clan followed excerpt for the brother-in-law. Once the girls had disappeared, he cleared his throat.

            “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get me another cup of coffee.” With that said, he also left the room, leaving Jonathan and the father alone.

            He waited stoically for the older man to say something. It didn’t take magic to realize something was bothering Blakeney, but Jonathan chalked it up to the fact that he might be having a hard time accepting the loss of another daughter.

            “Have you thought any further about where you would like to settle down?” the man finally asked.

            “Well, I’d like to take her back to Massachusetts to meet my family, but I haven’t made any definite plans about where to settle down.”

            “Tammy needs her family. If it’s at all possible, I would ask that you two make your home here in Toppers Cove.”

            Jonathan nodded. “I had thought about it, but you have to understand that I’m sincere about wanting to start my own restaurant.”

            “The town could use a home-style restaurant. Something home grown, not one of those chains. The town council would approve your license with no difficulty.”

            “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Mr. Blakeney, but I still need to think on it. Plus I want to discuss it with Tammy first.”

            “Then I strongly suggest you make your decision quickly,” Manderly said with dark overtones. “I don’t want my firstborn roaming from town to town while you’re thinking about it. She deserves a home. A place where she can set down roots. More importantly, she needs to be within reach of her own family.”

            “I agree with you. Let me first introduce her to my family, and then we’ll focus on what we need to do to next.”

            “Introduce her to your family,” Manderly muttered. “Speaking of your family, while it‘s true you are my Tammy’s true heart call, there are things about you I must object to. Normally, I would be very excited, knowing she has finally found you, but unfortunately I cannot be so positive in the light of the fact that you have withheld very vital information from us.”

            Jonathan frowned. “I’ve held nothing back, sir.”

            “You’ve held your family history back from us, and you damn well know it,” Manderly almost growled. “It took me several hours to uncover the truth, but in the end I prevailed. At first I believed my uneasiness was caused by something from your past, but your past is clean. It wasn’t until I searched your ancestry that I found the answer, Mister Jonathan Corwin Mauk.”

            Jonathan grimaced. He had wondered how long it would take before that part of his heritage came back to haunt him. Again, the irony was inescapable. He nodded slightly.

            “It doesn’t stop the fact that I love your daughter, and she loves me,” he pointed out.

            “True. You did pass the sex hex test.”

            Jonathan didn’t ask how the old man knew, much less the other daughters.  At this point, there was very little left to surprise him about this family.

            “As much as I regret the fact that your ancestors tried to destroy my kind, I cannot go against the magic that binds the two of you together,” Manderly continued.

            “What my ancestors did is ancient history,” Jonathan argued. “They were ignorant and prejudiced, yes, but they were also blinded by fear. This is the twenty-first century, Mr. Blakeney. You cannot hold their transgressions against me.”

            “’The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son.’ You were named after the man responsible for the persecution and deaths of my kind. A man who gave no quarter. A man who profited from sentencing innocent people to torture. To be slaughtered.”

            “Daddy, what’s going on?”

            Manderly glanced over where Tamberly stood in the doorway leading to the hallway. She was alone and twirling a candy cane in her fingers.

            “You need to be aware of the truth, Tammy. Jonathan is the direct descendant of a witch hunter.”

            “And I’m the direct descendant of witches. What’s your point?”

            A dark scowl crossed Blakeney’s face. “He carries that taint.”

            “Jonathan is also my heart’s call. He passed the sex hex test.” She waved the candy cane at him. “You can’t deny my destiny or his.”

            “No, I can’t. But I can prevent him from ever breaking your heart.” He strode over to her and snatched the candy from her hand.

            Tamberly immediately grabbed his arm. “What are you going to do to him, Daddy?” she angrily asked. “I may not be able to stop you, but I can damn sure work around whatever spell you’re planning on casting, and you know it!”

            “Not this one, Tammy.” He patted her hand, then gently disengaged it from his arm. Turning around, he advanced toward Jonathan, who refused to retreat.

            To Jonathan’s utter shock, the man stopped directly in front of him and pressed the candy cane directly against his cock. Instantly, Jonathan felt the cooling tingle from the peppermint seeping through his pants and into his flesh. Manderly locked eyes with him as he began to chant.

            “Test you passed with candy cane. Now be tested with the same. Should you ever lust for another, your cock shall curl and thou shalt suffer.”

            “Daddy!”

            Jonathan barely heard Tamberly’s shout of anguish. Fiery pain was lancing through his dick, forcing him to fumble for his zipper to pull his rapidly swelling penis from his pants before it ripped through the fabric. Holding it in his hands, he groaned in anguish as his pecker elongated and became ramrod straight. Already red and white stripes were swirling around it like a barber’s pole gone berserk. It grew the point where Jonathan worried the blood vessels might rupture, or that the skin would crack.

            And then the head began to bend downward, turning back on itself.

            He screamed from the pain that seared him from the top of his spine, down to his toes. He was unaware of Tamberly calling out to him, or that Manderly was holding her back.

            He fell to his knees as indescribable agony tore through him. The spell was decimating him. Castrating him. Neutering him through witchcraft.  Nothing would stop his cock from turning into a cane-shaped replica, and the sheer torture of it was going to destroy him.

            As suddenly as it had begun, the pain vanished. Gasping, Jonathan stared down the front of his pants that remained zipped and closed, including his belt. He looked up at the father who grinned at him, then placed the candy cane in his mouth and broke off a piece.

            “Merry Christmas, Jonathan,” the man said, crunching the candy as he turned to walk away. “And, again, welcome to the family.”