Sharing Delilah

I almost had it—the smoke was rising, the embers in my stone bowl flickering, flashes of light as they climbed, growing larger and brighter.

Filling the room with its glow, shadows started to form within. I could almost see it: a figure within the flames.

And it all went out with a sputter.

I growled, throwing the bowl across the room, then sighed sadly, shaking my head and moving to clean up the mess.

No matter how many attempts, this was the outcome every time; it would start to work and then fizzle out.

Either my true love, my soulmate, didn’t exist on this plane—or he was some eternal creature refusing to be found.

It happened sometimes—but sometimes your mate wasn’t someone you wanted to find either.

My distant cousin Tatiana found her true love—a bloodsucking vampire who wanted nothing to do with her—after a million failed attempts.

As of today, I had had about seven hundred and twenty-four.

No matter how extensive the spell, I had had zero luck. Yet somehow, seeing how the Poison princess finally found love after hundreds of years… maybe there was hope for me too.

At least, that’s what I had started telling myself for the last month of silence from her. With the silence came me doing this spell as a ritual every day I woke up.

A spell to try and find true love.

From what we were told, Tatiana didn’t even realize her true love was a vampire until the wedding ceremony.

Betraying your coven to marry a vampire, no matter how ancient you were, was a giant slap in the face to witches, even if they were your destined match.

The damned and the dead were typically where my kind drew the line, understandably.

The last email I had received from her had seemed full of… optimism. So, unlike the previous ones where she pretty much just talked about her plants. So, I liked to think she was just so happy she had forgotten to write back in her honeymoon period.

In my mind, the moment she laid eyes on him, the cosmic force that pulled them together was probably too great to ignore. Despite being my only real friend in this family since the age of seven, it was hard to believe she was so in love she had forgotten about me. It made me feel pretty terrible, as much as I was rooting for her.

She was his beloved, the price was giving up her powers as a witch to feed the poor sap or feed with him, however, that went.

They get eternity together.

Was it so bad to want that too? Even if it was with an undead leech?

You can’t exactly guarantee who you’re with; as a witch, who you’re fated to be with is a mystery until the moment you lay eyes on one another, just as much as any other being we catered to.

Something about that was… romantic. Not knowing until you saw them. Like love at first sight.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of loving a vampire.

But wolves would be worse. Fleas and hair. Not to mention the fact that packs were literally in everyone’s space and life.

There was little to no privacy, from what I understood, which was the opposite of witches.

Witches still got into each other’s business, and the whole dancing naked under the moonlight thing was entirely true.

Dancing on the beaches under a full moon is probably one of the most exhilaratingly wonderful things you can do. However, beyond the times we were getting together for Sabbats, Esbats, and Equinoxes, we mostly kept to ourselves as well as our family secrets. As well as our family trauma.

To say I didn’t get along with my mother or sisters was an understatement. The feelings of abandonment and pain ran deep within me for a lot of reasons.

Leaving me fumbling, still trying to please my mom, our coven leader, with tasks like this.

This was exactly why I wasn’t looking forward to the reason I had been sent here by my coven—and I doubted I’d find my mate anytime soon among them.

Instead, I got to play matchmaker for other people. Not even people—wolves. Muts. Creatures that panted and drooled were going to be wandering the earth happier than I ever could be.

Which also meant dressing up sexy and walking around like bait, even if it meant pulling out even more magic to make them horny.

Werewolves were just my least favorite to work with. Even the Werepanthers had been better. At least those men wore leather, not plaid and jeans.

I sighed, looking at the ash-stained carpet.

I could snap my fingers and fix it, but it was a waste of magic and a fuck ton of energy. In the days to come, I had to reserve my strength.

Not to mention I was doing two spells, not one.

The New Moon pack had paid a pretty penny for me to do a mate finder spell for not one, but two alphas.

Something that was pretty much unheard of. Not so much the spell as the fact that they had two alphas that hadn’t split off or torn each other apart.

Werewolves all around the world had been calling on the organized covens more and more for this sort of thing, though we were reluctant to allow the wolves to grow in the human community. With enough money, and enough sweet talk, though.

Packs like this received services like mine. Real power with a punch.

I had to save all my energy plus my reserves given to me by the coven to pull off two, though. Just doing the one tiny little spell I had done had been unwise.

“Goddess guide me,” I murmured, looking up at the moon. Tomorrow was a new day.

Their beta was supposed to pick me up in the morning. Then I had two days to get familiar with the alphas and find a sacred space on their land to perform the spell.

Then I was free to go home to New Mexico.

The thought was hollow. My heart ached with a need I couldn’t describe other than loneliness.

Perhaps I would travel after this job.

Maybe I could find purpose outside of the coven and my mother. It was the only life I had ever known. Worship the earth. Love your sister. Harm none, do what you will.

Do what you will…

It was time I made my own magic in my life after this job.