Fiery Gemstones (A Heston Witch Novella)

  FIERY GEMSTONES

  A HESTON WITCH NOVELLA.

  Fiery Gemstones (A Heston Witch Novella)

  By

  Cassandra DeBrown.

  Copyright Cassandra DeBrown 2012

  Kindle Edition

  The right of Cassandra DeBrown to be acknowledged as the author of this work has been established in accordance with the UK copyright laws. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express and written permission of the author and publisher prior to use. All rights reserved.

  License Statement

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your eBook vendor and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters and places depicted here are a figment of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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  A LITTLE BIT OF BLACK MAGIC

  #1

  Just a Normal Day at Red Rock Haven.

  “We are Heston witches,

  We are many, we are one.

  We are descendants of Eve,

  And different webs we weave,

  As long as this life gives us leave,

  Though many hearts we might ….peeve?”

  Elvira Heston paused to consider what the next words should be in the spell she was writing. She had a good feeling about this one. Her bones were telling her that it was going to be epic. She was definitely going down in the annals of the Heston Witches as the Next Big Thing. Unfortunately, her spell writing mojo was being seriously drained by the palpable impatience that she could feel emanating from every single pore in her cousin’s body. Esther’s patience was not one of her strong points. Sometimes it seemed as if having to wait for anything caused her a physical pain.

  Elvira glanced over at her cousin and smothered a wry grin. The two of them were almost inseparable and though Esther could be a little hyperactive, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Right now she was practically hopping on the spot, tugging on and twirling her shoulder length brunette hair as she waited for Elvira to finish writing the spell and the fidgeting was not helping to speed up the process at all.

  Bugs Bunny on a steroid rush!

  She turned back to her spell and just when she felt the perfect word sliding into her mind, Esther started popping her knuckles. Elvira gritted her teeth. Her cousin knew she detested that sound more than any other and most times only did it in an attempt to get on her nerves. If that was Esther’s intention right now, it was definitely working. She took in a lungful of air and let it out slowly but it didn’t quite work. That knuckle popping was doing her head in.

  “Oh, stop that already, would you. You know all this…, this twitching that you do is ridiculous.” She ground out, turning to look Esther in the eye.

  Her cousin stared back, totally unrepentant.

  “If I’ve told you once, I know I’ve told you a million times already! Spells don’t have to be fancy. They do not have to rhyme as you well know. They just need to work.” Esther shook her hands next to her head to emphasize her point. Elvira thought she looked like a Native American shaman.

  “Rhyming helps me focus.”

  “Bull! The only thing it does is help you waste time. Our precious time. As in your time, but more importantly, mine as well.”

  “I have to disagree, Esther. I consider it time well spent, not wasted. The longer I spend thinking about a spell, the more life force I put into it, the more effective it will be.”

  “If you wanted to add life force to your spell, why didn’t you simply slit a wrist and be done with it huh? After all, magic runs in our veins,” she scoffed derisively.

  “Hey, no mocking my verses. My spells work just fine, so mind your own.”

  “Fine. I was just saying…”

  “Saying what dear?”

  Both girls turned towards the speaker. The new voice was that of their silver haired grandmother. Evie had joined them in the alcove that led off from the kitchen area at Red Rock Haven, the Heston’s ancestral home. The three-tiered red brick house stood on twelve acres of flourishing green lawns and gardens. It had been in their family for generations and local lore held it to be a place of great power and harmony. To the Heston witches though, it was simply their home.

  Esther smiled down at her diminutive grandmother, Evie. The Hestons came from a very long line of powerful witches and Evie, the matriarch of their family was the greatest Heston Witch that Silverline City had seen in a very long time. She’d taught her daughters almost everything she knew and they in turn had passed it down to their daughters. Her size was nothing, it was the power she wielded that was simply awesome and her grandmotherly façade was simply a convenient disguise for one very powerful witch.

  Right now that very powerful witch was waiting patiently for an answer from both of them.

  “Oh nothing, Grams,” they chorused.

  “No, it’s not nothing but really my dears you should have just said, ‘mind your bizz, Evie’ and left it at that. We all have our secrets, we are witches after all,” she added serenely.

  Their Nan was so cool.

  Esther aimed a fake punch at her cousin Elvira as she replied with a smile that made her look like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, “You know your bizz is our bizz, Grams.”

  “Yes, Esther darling, and I also know that you clearly didn’t say that your bizz is my bizz. I’ve played the careful wording game more than once myself, you know.”

  Busted!

  The old lady was still as sharp as a finely honed blade. Even though she was pushing seventy, she was still spry and had complete control of her mental faculties. It was hard to get anything past her but that had never stopped them from trying.

  Evie’s pretty grey eyes crinkled with amusement as she observed the two squirming teenagers in front of her. One could almost mistake them for twins though there was about a year’s difference in age between them. Still their lovely pale complexions, the waterfall of brunette hair and their ruby red lips made them look more like siblings than cousins. It was only their eye colour that made it easy to tell apart them apart. Esther’s eyes were a pale blue while Elvira’s were a piercing black. However both girls were known to play around with coloured contacts once in a while. Evie didn’t mind their pranks though. It kept life interesting. She’d bet her last coconut macaroon that they were cooking up some fun right now.

  “So, who’s going to let me in on what’s going on?”

  “Nothing is going on Grams, I swear. We were only debating the finer points of spell writing, honest.”

  “I see. And this nothing that is going on…,” Evie barely managed to keep a straight face as she saw the look of dismay on her granddaughters’ faces as they realised she was not going to let it go that easily.

  “May I ask what spell you were working on that sparked such heated intellectual debate?”

  “Well…” Esther’s eyes darted furtively towards Elvira and back again. Evie’s shrewd gaze followed hers, assessing both her granddaughters and she nodded slightly to herself as she concluded.

  Aha. That means it’s little Elvira who’s been cooking up a spell.

  “Yes?” Evie asked patiently.

  “
It is supposed to be a surprise,” Elvira blurted out. “Something that will make you and mother proud.”

  “Yes, yes,” Esther added eagerly. “Both our mums, and you. And Aunt Edna as well.”

  “Hmm. Alright. I suppose I should let you get on with this great spell of yours.”

  As she walked off with a last pat on the back for Esther, she pretended not to notice that both their shoulders slump in relief.

  “Oh and girls,” she called over her shoulder,

  “Yes, Grams.” They replied immediately.

  “Do try and leave all the walls standing this time. It’s almost winter and the cold night air is dreadfully bad for my old bones.”

  With that, she drifted off down the hall, humming happily under her breath.

  Girls would be girls. It wouldn’t do to stifle their creativity.

  “See, I told you we were wasting precious time with your ridiculous rhyming. We were very lucky it was Grams and not your mum that caught us.”

  Eden Heston was not the most lenient of mothers on a good day and both girls knew it. If they were going to be caught by one of the adults they would both prefer it to be their grandmother or their aunt, Edna. They would still get into trouble but they knew they’d get off lightly all the same.

  “It’s your fault for insisting we did the spell here. How could you expect us to have any privacy in the main house? And near the kitchen as well?”

  “I wanted the old magic of the house to aid our cause and the oldest hearth at Red Rock is in the kitchen. It’s the heart of the house … Arrgh, why do I even bother?” She groused as she saw the look of boredom and inattention that was spreading over Elvira’s face.

  “Yes, old power, magic, I get that but seriously, Esther, there would have been more privacy in a field or a park or even a cave for crying out loud.”

  “Not really. We’d have to get to the field or cave or whatever first wouldn’t we and you know how people stare when we go out together. Word would soon trickle back to Red Rock Haven and then where would we be?”

  “True.” Elvira conceded the point with a slight inclination of her head. “But they only stare because you always give them so much to stare at.”

  “Not as much as you do. Besides, we’d probably have been followed by one of those Townie boys with a crush on you.” Esther mocked as she poked out her tongue.

  She was enjoying their mock debate far better than the torture of waiting for Elvira to get her rhyming done. Her cousin wasn’t very successful at being unassuming or circumspect in her dealings with the town folk in Silverline City.

  The town was called Silverline City because it sat on a strong thread of silver ore that never seemed to run dry. The old legends said that the town had been founded at the eastern gates of the mythical Garden of Eden and the thread of silver came from the base of the trees that marked the path to the garden. People in Silverline City believed that rumour, just as they believed that the Heston Witches were direct descendants of mother Eve herself. Naturally, this meant that the Hestons were the closest thing to a ruling family the town had. With its modest population of just over forty five thousand souls, it was often difficult for the girls to be incognito. Especially when they went out together, which was most of the time.

  “It’s not my fault they are so nosy. Or so rude. Even Aunt Edna says it’s rude to point and stare, and you know how she is. And ever since mum lay down the new rules I can’t make those idiots bark like dogs for a couple of weeks so they are fast losing their manners.”

  Elvira’s face puckered up as she thought about it. Her mum’s book Social Etiquette for Heston Witches was hardly a page turner. And every time she had an episode with the townies that her mum considered included an outright infraction of the rules (because that was what the suggestions in the book were) she had to read the whole bloody thing over again. Twice. Some of the words in that tome were permanently scarred into her retinas.

  “Perhaps I could get around that, Esther. If I could make them think they were barking like dogs, that wouldn’t actually be disobeying mum now would it?” The thought perked her right up.

  “No, Elvira, no. No more barking or making townies think they’re barking. What is it with you and dogs anyway? We’ll be in enough trouble with the family if they get wind of what we are up to.”

  Elvira cocked her head to the side as she considered her cousin’s words.

  “True. Maybe we should leave this till later.”

  “That’s the best idea I’ve heard from you in ages.”

  “Oh yeah? It’s not like you’ve been a regular fount of wisdom either.”

  “Shush, girl. I am agreeing with you. Is midnight ok?”

  Her cousin rolled her eyes.

  “Totally predictable timing, but yeah, that works for me.”

  “Splendid. I’m off to find mum. I’ve got to do damage control in case Grams gave her a hint about what we are up to.”

  #2

  Three heads are better than two.

  Apart from being the prominent magical family in Silverline City, the Hestons owned various tracks of land and most of the local residences as well. Their vineyard made the most exquisite of vintages and they were famous the world over for the culinary delights that their gourmet chefs cooked up at their restaurant, The Happy Place. The Hestons also had a high end boutique that stocked their fashion line and a chain of malls that carried knickknacks and other little mementoes. The lure of the silver mines brought in a lot of tourists and there was a high demand for their stationary and other collectables.

  Edna functioned more as a CEO than either of her sisters or her mother. She had a natural gift for numbers and business and as the middle daughter; it was her duty to be the human or public face of the family. Apart from the spell casting that was part and parcel of who and what she was. She also had a natural flair for telekinesis as well. Her special gifts of prescience and telepathy helped her in her dealings with the populace in and around Silverline City.

  Her elder sister Eden was in charge of all things magical and supernatural. She was their ambassador when they required a speaker for their interactions with other witches, warlocks, demons, vampires, were animals, sprites, elves and other magical beings that the humans dismissed so lightly as the stuff of fairy tales. Silverline city was the magical hub of the world and creatures that were thought to have become extinct long ago were well and thriving there. Eden’s task was a complicated one but she did it well. She was Evie’s heir and was set to take up the mantle of leadership if ever Evie was to pass on from this world. She was a powerful healer in her own right and could shape shift as well as communicate with any warm blooded animal.

  Ethos, the baby of the family, handled their domestic affairs and their public relations activities. She could manipulate energy in all its forms as well as control fire, earth, water, air and heavy metals. She was a little dynamo and fearsome witch, her talents and her temper giving her a reputation that made most people think twice about crossing her as a person and the Hestons Clan as a whole.

  Unfortunately, this new twerp that had shown up in Silverline City didn’t seem to have gotten the memo. Strangers in their little town who didn’t know better seemed to have that in common. On one hand Edna couldn’t really blame them because to be fair, she and her sisters weren’t exactly Amazonian in stature. And Evie always made people want to pick her up and cuddle her. Their matriarch was deceptively harmless looking. Power didn’t always advertise itself, now did it? On the other hand, the fact that her family controlled most of Silverline City and had done so successfully for many, many years should have been enough to tell all but the most stupid of strangers that they were not to be messed with.

  It was only on the rarest of days that Edna felt this… powerless. Maybe powerless was the wrong word. More like she was constrained. With all the happenings in the human world over the last few years, the humans were becoming more perceptive to the idea of alternate realities. Regrettably, the advances
in modern technology also made it harder to keep some things away from the public eye. As her sister Eden had so kindly laid out in her book, there were rules that had to be obeyed if their interactions with the townies were to be kept on an even keel.

  “So what are you going to do, sis?” Eden asked.

  The three of them were seated in Edna’s office sharing an aromatic brew of Irish coffee and a couple of biscuits as was their usual custom at about this time every day. It was a tradition they had started years ago and now it was an integral part of their working day.

  “I don’t know yet but I will definitely think of something. I have to. He just keeps popping up wherever I go. It’s downright annoying.”

  Edna made a face, took a sip of her coffee and then made another face.

  “Eww, that tastes rank. Mine’s gone cold already.”

  She crossed over to the automatic coffeemaker that was one of the more recent additions to her office and topped up her drink with hot water then returned to her seat behind her walnut desk. Her office décor was plain and utilitarian, done up in shades of coffee and cream. It was a neat and peaceful place and Edna considered it her sanctuary. She protected it fiercely from what she called ‘The invasion of the gadget people’. There was no computer in her office, no fax machine and no TV screens either. She’d never owned a mobile phone and she didn’t plan to. Ever. Her only concession to telecommunications was the intercom and old fashioned land line that she had on her desk.

  “You could always take the matter to the townie police force and let them handle it.”

  “Handle it the human way? No, that would only reinforce this guy’s arrogance. Besides imagine the message it would send to the rest of the riff raff out there. ‘The Hestons are now fair game, so feel free to harass them at your leisure?’ I don’t think so.”

  She caught the look on her sister’s face.

  “Don’t worry, Ethos. Whatever I do, I promise I won’t set a bad example for the girls.”