Page 1 of Bite of Passage
ChapterOne
“I need your worst hex.Or maybe you can curse the jerk for me?”Gemma Leight leaned on the sales counter at the Sage & Flame metaphysical store.Smudge braids, tumbled stones of all colors, crystals, and a few miniature cast iron cauldrons cluttered the surface.
Val lifted a pink crystal keychain off the counter.She dangled it from her index finger and let it swing back and forth.She stopped its back-and-forth swing to pick at a cuticle on one of her long, blue-painted nails.“Was that ER resident an asshole to you again?”
Gemma stirred a bowl of smoothed amethyst stones with a finger.“He has gone out of the way to make my life hell ever since our coffee date.The guy tried to suck my fingers in public.Eww, right?”
Val didn’t jump to agree or disagree.
“It’s been months.He’s got to get over it.”Gemma held up a corked bottle filled with black powder labeled “witches’ salt” and shook it in her fist.“What does this do?”
“It’s for absorbing negative energy but it won’t harm him.Take it.”She held out the bottle.“It’s the real stuff from Nepal.Rare.You might need it someday.”
With the way things were going, she might.“I hate fighting him over patient care and being blamed for everything that goes wrong on his cases.Can’t you cast a spell to make him sick for a year or, even better, make him forget who I am?”
“How about a margarita?”Val pulled a pitcher from beneath the counter and poured the tequila mixture into two ice-filled plastic cups.She lifted her glass in a toast.“Here’s to finding a sex god worthy of your love and strong enough to fight the creeps of the world.”
Gemma fake-glared over the top of her glasses.“Are you casting a love spell on me?”
“Maybe I am.”Val grinned wickedly and batted her ultra-long mascaraed-black eyelashes.“It’s better than wasting any more energy on the jerk.”
“Great.”Her voice dripped with sarcasm.“Now if I fall for a guy I won’t know if it’s real or magic induced.”
“Are you passing up a Friday afternoon margarita?”Val held the plastic cup toward her.
“No.”She took the cup and sipped.“Mmm… so good.I needed this.”
“I know.”Val waggled her eyebrows as if to suggest she’d somehow read into the future.“You’ve got magic too, hon.Someday, we’ll figure out what kind.It’s why you ended up in here.You need me to help you discover yourself.”
“You’re funny,” Gemma replied flatly.“I can’t do real magic.Ask me to burn some herbs?Sure.Pull a rhyme out of my ass to cast a spell and have a chance of it working?Nope.”She and Val were odd friends.Val drank the Kool-Aid of magical mysticism and claimed to be a junior level witch.According to Val, only those over thirty, two years away for Val, could achieve upper-level magic.Gemma’s faith rested in science and fact—two things that didn’t jive with most of the stuff in the shop.Despite their differences, they’d been friends since the day Gemma wandered in after moving into the apartment building across the street.
She downed half the margarita in one swig.
“Whoa.Take it easy.”Val cringed.“I didn’t skimp on the tequila.If you’re not careful?—”
“Brain freeze.”A vigorous forehead rub didn’t help.“Can’t you do a spell or something to make it stop?”
“No.That was straight up stupidity on your part.”Val twisted her thick auburn hair into a disorganized bun.“Report the jerk for sexual harassment.That’ll put an end to it.”
“Then I becomethatperson.I’ve only been on staff for five months.He’ll claim we dated even though one coffee barely counts.”
“Then, avoid him.Maybe transfer to a different floor—I’m sure there are about a thousand departments other than emergency at San Fran Main that could use a nurse who looks like Snow White.”
“What do my looks have to do with how good I am at my job?”
Val shrugged.
“It’s not my fault I don’t tan and stand out like a sore thumb in California.Not all of us can be five-eleven with the body of a swimsuit model, like you.”
“Even Snow White can get a spray tan in California.”She reached behind the counter to slap a coupon for a tanning bed business on the counter.“These guys do real and fake tans.”
“Then I’ll look orange.”
“True.Probably not a good idea.”She slid the coupon to the side.“If you’d let me curl your hair and maybe put in a few red or pink highlights, instead of hiding it all in a bun or braid, it’d be stunning.Being tall isn’t all that.Finding pants that fit is a bitch.”
“Finding decent pants is hard no matter how tall you are.”Relieved her head no longer throbbed, Gemma traced circles with the moisture left by the pitcher of margarita on the counter.“I’ll figure out what to do about him, but I still like the thought of him being so sick he can’t go to work for a year.”
“That’s juvenile magic.Totally ridiculous.”
