Witchy Woman - Book 2 - The Necromancer Read online

  THE NECROMANCER - Book 2

  WITCHY WOMAN

  Pamela M. Richter

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  About the Author

  Witchy Woman © 2016 Pamela M. Richter

  All rights reserved

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. The ebook contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, or stored in or introduced into an information storage and retrieval system in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This ebook is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Lucifer kept trying to bat the diamond off the table.

  A kaleidoscope of rainbow colored reflections sparkled and danced around the walls of the room. He hit the glittering, faceted jewel like a champion hockey player, back and forth across the table.

  The diamond was shaped like a long glimmering bullet, so it spun around in circles until it finally reached the end of the table. Then Lucifer gave a final great swat with one small paw, propelling it to the carpet.

  He pounced on his treasure, and then started the hockey dribbling again, running and passing the jewel paw to paw.

  Michelle laughed at the kitten’s antics until she noticed he was headed straight toward the lanai. The sliding glass door was open for the cool Hawaiian trade winds.

  Michelle bounded up, almost falling on her face, as she scooped up the tiny cat with one hand and grabbed the diamond with the other, just before it rolled out the door. It had been on a trajectory to plunge off the balcony and down fifteen floors into the pool below her condominium. If it fell in the pool she’d never find it.

  “Close one,” Michelle said to Lucifer. “Were you just playing or trying to get rid of it?”

  Lucifer never answered, but he was squirming, so she gently lowered him to the floor. She went back to the table, sat down, placed the diamond in front of her, and started working the pliers on a thin silver metal cord she would wrap around the diamond. It would make a beautiful necklace.

  Lucifer leapt back on the table, crystal blue eyes intently focused on the gem.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Michelle said. She picked up the diamond, got a cup from the kitchen, popped it inside and put it on the table. No use tempting Lucifer with a shiny toy to play with.

  Lucifer daintily pranced to the cup, eyed the prize, head sideways, tail swishing back and forth. A front paw dipped inside, scrabbled around, but he couldn’t grab it. He reminded Michelle of a cartoon she’d seen about a cat dunking his paw in a fish bowl, trying to catch the gold fish.

  Lucifer glanced at Michelle, tail whipping back and forth in annoyance. Michelle tried not to smile. The little guy was sensitive, after all.

  She watched the cat as his head went up and he became statue-still for a few seconds. Then he jumped off the table and ran to the door. Someone was coming. Lucifer was almost like a watch dog. Michelle waited for a knock, which came seconds later. It was the tattoo rhythm she knew well and Michelle rushed across the room to let her best friend in.

  “I missed you so much!” Heather said when Michelle opened the door. “Did you see your parents and brother? And did they like Rod? Did you meet his father? Whoa, talk about traumatic; meeting the relatives.”

  Heather was nearly out of breath, laughing and hugging Michelle. She had so much energy she was almost bursting with enthusiasm.

  Michelle smiled and tried to answer everything at once. “It was a wonderful, super vacation; Rod’s excellent but had to go back to work in Japan. My parents loved Rod...my brother liked him, too. And Rod’s father is great. I was nervous about meeting him, you know, but he’s like Rod; tall, a red-head, and easy going.”

  They were moving toward the kitchen to get coffee like they always did, when Heather spotted the silver wire cords, cut in various lengths, pliers and cup. “What are you doing there?”

  “Making a necklace with the diamond Omar gave me.”

  Heather stopped and was staring into the cup. “That can’t be real.”

  “Actually, I think it is,” Michelle said. “It was in the fire when we were all on the beach in Kauai. It didn’t melt.”

  “If it’s real, you can quit your job and go buy an island,” Heather said. “Can I see it?”

  “Sure,” Michelle said. “I’ll get the coffee. Don’t let Luce play with it, though. He’s acting kind of strange.”

  Heather picked up the sparkling jewel with two fingers, held it up, and eyed it through the light coming in through the windows. “Why don’t you get it appraised? It’s actually pretty heavy for the size. The facets look perfect—like they were done by a machine or something—it’s like a big faceted, oblong marble. But it’s probably quartz, or a CZ fake.”

  “I could check the authenticity, but what if it is real? You can’t keep something like that a secret. I’ve checked, and it would be one of the biggest diamonds on record. At least in cut diamonds. They’ve found larger ones, but they’re all uncut. The cut diamonds—well, this is one of the biggest in the world, if it’s real.”

  “And Omar just gave it to you?”

  “He was doing this spell when I came in from the surf on Kauai. It was night, and the sky was black. Then suddenly all these lights appeared in the sky, sparkling around the bonfire he’d made there on the beach. The lights were so mesmerizing, moving around and bouncing up and down, which was probably the point. Omar wanted to hypnotize me or something. Even Professor Vincent Middleton saw the little flying lights sparkling around the fire when he was still in the ocean, coming to shore.

  “Anyway, Omar plucked one of the lights right out of the air and threw it to me. This is it. He said the little gleaming lights were spirits of the dead, and since he’s a Necromancer, he’s supposed to be able to talk to dead spirits. So, hypothetically, there’s a dead spirit inside this diamond.”

  “Creepy. Was Omar wearing clothes at the time?” Heather asked.

  Michelle nodded. “This was before he told me he wanted me to be the mother of his child. When you got there, later that night, I was fighting him, and he had shed most of his clothes. And then Vincent threw all his clothes in the fire. So I know where you’re going with this. Omar could have hidden the diamond in his sleeve or a pocket. He was wearing
this formal dress shirt, with cummerbund, and a black jacket, pants and shoes. He even had a cape.”

  “He’s a magician. So I still think it has to be a fake,” Heather said. “Let’s check it out. Diamonds cut glass.” Heather threw the gem in the air and caught it playfully. “What do you want to cut?”

  “It’s so pretty I don’t want to wreck it, if it’s not real.”

  “Let’s put your initials on the mirror in your bathroom,” Heather said. “Then we can see. Just a little scratch to see if it cuts the glass?”

  Michelle smiled and nodded. They went into the bathroom and Heather handed Michelle the diamond. “You do it.”

  “I don’t want to wreck the big mirror above the sink,” Michelle said. She pulled a hand mirror out of a drawer, the diamond tweezed between her thumb and first finger. She laid the mirror on the counter beside the sink and made a tentative scratch.

  “Whoa, cuts it like butter,” Heather commented.

  “It sure does,” Michelle said. She wrote her whole name, Michelle Montgomery, with a flourish and underlined it. The sound when she cut the mirror was a tiny shrill screech. She looked at the diamond critically, rolling it in her hand. It was intact and unharmed.

  “That’s not really definitive proof,” Heather said, but she looked a little awed. “I can see why you decided to make a necklace, not a ring. It’s way too big.”

  Michelle balanced it on the back of her hand. “Yeah. It covers my ring finger, way up over the knuckle. It would look stupidly grandiose and ostentatious.”

  Lucifer jumped on the sink. Heather nodded at the cat and said softly, “Everything okay with him?”

  “Let’s get some coffee,” Michelle said. As they were going into the kitchen, she whispered. “Luce went everywhere with Rod and me on the trip. He’s not a normal cat, but he acted like one, most of the time.”

  “I was a little worried,” Heather said. “Lucifer was Omar’s ‘familiar’.” Then she whispered back. “Aren’t you a little creeped out, too? What if he converts back again and wants to eat human organs or something?”

  Lucifer had followed them into the kitchen.

  “I think he liked the way I treated him better than the way Omar handled the little guy. Omar was all about Luce doing his bidding and attacking enemies. I just loved him the minute I saw him, and I think Luce knew it. Omar said I had ruined his demonic qualities. I’m really happy to have him for a pet. He’s always fun and entertaining.”

  Heather looked at Lucifer warily. “Was he okay with Rod when you took the trip? Lucifer attacked Rod the first time he came in your apartment. Running up his leg and trying to scratch out his eyes.”

  Michelle picked up Lucifer and petted him. His purr was loud and he patted her cheek with one paw. “Lucifer is the best kitty, aren’t you, you beautiful thing.”

  She turned to Heather. “Since he isn’t a devil cat, or Omar’s familiar anymore, I’m trying to remember to call him Luce. He seems to tolerate Rod. Rod can pet him and pick him up. He attacked Rod that first time because Lucifer was Omar’s cat. Lucifer knew Omar hated Rod. Omar wanted Lucifer to hurt or even kill Rod. He might look small, but he could do it.”

  Heather was pouring coffee in the cups she got out of the cabinet. “Luce can practically read your mind, it seems. Do you think it means he’ll like me, eventually?”

  Michelle laughed, “Only if you do my bidding, obey all my commands, and never harm me, then maybe he’ll approve. Otherwise, watch out.”

  “Oh right,” Heather said sarcastically. “So if I happened to date someone you didn’t like, Lucifer would attack me, or the guy?”

  “You know I’m kidding. He’s not my familiar. He’s just the kitty who prefers to stay with me.”

  “Professor Middleton said you’re a witch,” Heather said. “And he should know, with all his paranormal studies. Even Rod called you Witchy Woman. So Lucifer could be your witchy familiar.”

  “Oh pleeese,” Michelle protested. “You certainly know better than that.”

  “I saw some things there on the island of Kauai, after you and the professor were dropped in the ocean by helicopter, miles from land, which were totally unexplained.”

  Michelle handed Heather a cup and sipped her own coffee. “Let’s go make that necklace.”

  They went into the dining room and sat down at the table. Michelle picked up the pliers. “I read on-line about how to do this, and got a book. Then I got all the equipment.” She started winding one of the thin wires around the stone in swirls.

  “What if the diamond does have a mean, malevolent spirit inside?” Heather asked. “Some diamonds are famous for giving bad luck to the people who own them. And they’re the big ones—like yours.”

  Michelle was inserting the small clasp into the silver linked chain. She had dropped the diamond, coiled with slinky silver wire, back into the cup. Lucifer sat beside the cup. He wasn’t trying to get the diamond, but he seemed intent, keeping his crystal blue eyes on it, concentrating his attention on the gem.

  “I’ve read about that,” Michelle said. “The Greeks thought diamonds were originally the ‘Tears of the Gods’—which is kind of cool. But a few diamonds are considered so deadly and dangerous there are people, even today, who refuse to touch them. The Hope Diamond is probably the most notorious.”

  Michelle held up the chain with the diamond attached. “Pretty, don’t you think?”

  “Totally spectacular.”

  They watched as Lucifer tried to bat the slightly swinging gem on the new necklace chain Michelle was holding up in the air. “Not a toy,” Michelle said, laughing at Lucifer’s antics.

  Heather glanced at her watch. “Uh-oh. I’m going to be late!”

  “Where are you going?” Michelle asked.

  “The Honolulu Queens Hospital is having a benefit. I’m supposed to be ready in half an hour.” She was getting up, shoving the chair back in place at the table. “We’ll have to talk. I need to tell you about what’s going on. Omar’s got this fancy famous lawyer, and it looks like he’s going to be out on bail soon.”

  “Oh, good grief,” Michelle said, really alarmed at the prospect of Omar free and possibly on an angry rampage.

  Almost at the same time, though, she had a sudden image in her mind: Heather was wearing a long silvery strapless gown; diamonds sparkled in her ears, and she was wearing silvery high heels. Heather had on the diamond necklace Michelle just made. With her long blond hair and tiny stature, she looked like a fairy princess.

  “That benefit for the hospital is a big deal,” Michelle said, trying to ignore the perfect image of Heather from her imagination. “I read about it in the Honolulu Star newspaper. Who are you going with?”

  Heather shrugged dismissively, “A guy I met when I was in the hospital.”

  “A doctor?” Michelle asked.

  “No. A weatherman named Mike. He’s much too tall for me, and a total geek.”

  “You like this guy!” Michelle said, smiling. “Every man is too tall for you.”

  “And most guys are too short for you, except Rod, who’s perfect,” Heather said.

  Michelle ignored the comment, “You like intelligent, intellectual geeks. You always say nice things about the guys you date, but not this one.” Michelle laughed. “So he must be special. How’d you two meet, if he isn’t a doctor?”

  “He came to see the woman who’d been hit with a lightning bolt. I think he wanted to know if my brains were scrambled.”

  Heather was moving to the door and Michelle picked up the diamond necklace, following her. “Since you’re going to wear that silver dress, this will go with it perfectly.” She held the necklace out to Heather.

  Heather stood still at the door. She turned around, eyes wide, and looked at Michelle. “I didn’t tell you what I was wearing.”

  Michelle shrugged, “I guess I just knew.”

  “I’d love to wear it,” Heather said. “Don’t be upset. I think you are a witch, but like the professor said.
..you’re the good kind.”

  “Sometimes it scares me a little,” Michelle admitted.

  Heather took the necklace and smiled as she put the chain on over her head. “Thanks. I’d love to christen the necklace...be first to wear it. If anyone asks if it’s real, don’t worry, I’ll just say I wish it was. It’s so totally gorgeous.”

  “Have a good time. I’ll want all the details tomorrow morning,” Michelle called out as she watched Heather skip down the hallway toward her own condo, her long blond hair swirling behind her.

  Heather stopped and turned, “Don’t be upset about being a witch. You just have some really neat, unusual powers. I think it’s great.”

  When Michelle closed the door she wondered if she’d done the right thing. Normally she didn’t believe in superstitious nonsense, but the legends about big diamonds being cursed seemed to go on through the centuries. So if a diamond really had a spiteful type of spirit inside, it sure as hell had a long shelf life; like the stories of a genie in a bottle, waiting centuries for some unsuspecting victim, to release it. She didn’t want her best friend, Heather, to be struck with some kind of weird bad luck, just for wearing the beautiful piece.

  Michelle went outside on the balcony and sat down with her now cold coffee. She had bought the condominium because of the gorgeous tropical view that overlooked the ocean and Waikiki. Lucifer sprang on her lap and hunkered there as she watched a beautiful sunset glowing, dappling golden lights into the wavelets out over the ocean.

  Besides Heather, Michelle’s concern was the fact that Omar was one very angry man; murderously angry at her. If he really got out on bail, he lived right here in this condominium, in the luxurious penthouse at the top of the building, where he parked his helicopter. He would either want revenge, or maybe decide to begin his sinister master plan all over again. If he did, Michelle knew she’d be in terrible danger.

  Omar was an acclaimed magician. His followers believed he had supernatural powers as a Warlock. He had devotees from all over the world. The women who met him all wanted to be witches in his covens, because his charisma was brilliant and mesmerizing, and because he was so handsome.