9781618851307WitchsBrewShayNC by Unknown Page B

the sweet with.”
    Saylym rolled her eyes. Yeppers. Everyone was into the
witch and waken conspiracy. She stepped around Talon as he held the door
open for both her and Eldora. They followed the old lady through the postage
stamp-size living room into an even smaller kitchen.
    An old-fashioned, drop-leaf table hugged the far left-hand
corner, a silver candelabra stood in the center of it. Saylym shook her head,
grinning. Black candles, of course.
    Single white painted cabinets, trimmed in glossy black,
stood like sentinels on either side of the kitchen sink. An ancient
refrigerator rumbled steadily in the right corner and a two burner stove stood
across the room at the opposite wall.
    Talon lit the candle on Eldora’s cake with a taper from
the candelabra. Grinning, he bowed as the old lady blew out the birthday
candle. “Happy birthday, Miss Eldora.”
    Saylym smiled watching Eldora’s mystified expression as
the flame on the trick candle returned. Eldora grunted and blew it out a second
time. She jumped back when the flame leaped to life a third time.
    She slanted a wary gaze toward Saylym. “All right, young
lady, how many times am I going to have to blow out that candle?”
    “Twenty thousand?” Saylym replied innocently, tongue in
cheek.
    “Pissel!
Not in this lifetime.” She yanked the candle from the cake and tossed it into
the kitchen sink.
    Saylym
giggled.
    Talon’s deep laughter rumbled around them.
    Saylym fished napkins from the drawer Eldora indicated
with a nod and listened to the old lady’s amused snickers as she rummaged for a
knife in the cabinet drawer.
    “Ah-ha!” Eldora exclaimed, holding up a wicked looking
knife. “Love the bats on the icing dear,” she said and sliced the cake into
generous portions. “Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me,” Eldora sang at
the top of her lungs, clapping her hands while screeching out the words, “happy
birthday, you beautiful, old witch. Happy birthday to me.”
    Laughter floated about the room. Eldora giggled like a
teenager as she watched Talon lick frosting off his fingers and go back for
seconds. Then the elderly witch brought out an old phonograph from the hall
closet, along with a stack of long-playing records left behind by some previous
tenant in another time.
    “The
Beatles.” Eldora read the label on the album. “What in the world are the
Beatles?”
    Talon
frowned. “Never heard of them.”
    Both Talon and Eldora flinched when the music and the
words to John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s, I
Saw Her Standing There , filled
the room to the loud accompaniment of guitars and drums. Saylym sighed. “Where
have you two been living? In another world?”
    Identical expressions of shock flashed her way just as the
next tune started and the word, ‘Help!’ exploded into the tiny room. Talon and
Eldora both jumped back from the explosive music.
    “Good
grief,” Eldora grunted. “They sound rather constipated.”
    Talon threw back his head and laughed. Saylym joined in
his laughter, enjoying the old woman’s comical expression. But when Paul
McCartney’s melancholy words to the acoustic ballad of   Yesterday began, Saylym saw an odd look flit across Talon’s face.
    He shrugged and took her hands in his. “Love isn’t an easy
game to play, is it?”
    She shook her head . Love? More like an impossible
game to win.
    He drew her into his arms. “Dance with me?”
    So
why did she suddenly feel like a winner when Talon held her close?
    Their
bodies swayed in gentle rhythm to the slow sad words. She sighed and laid her head
against Talon’s shoulder. He nuzzled her ear. Saylym sifted her fingers through
his long hair, caressing his nape. He pulled her closer, his thumb feathering
across her wrist in a slow stroke.
    She
smiled, allowing him this privilege.
    Talon touched the hair at her temples, a feather-light
stroke from fingers that weren’t quite steady. She glided her lips just as
lightly against the skin below his left ear, his