Guest Blog with LK Rigel

Roxanne, it’s great to be at Fang-Tastic Books for the Give Me, A Fairy Tale blog tour. This is the fifth scene of Piccadilly Woo, a story about more than one Halloween night in the world of Give Me.

Piccadilly Woo – scene 5

All the way to the V&A, the taxi driver had a radio going at full blast. Van Morrison’s Moondance came on. Dan smiled at Beverly, and she realized she was humming along with the tune. “I love music,” she said.

“You missed a big concert in Hyde Park last month. Probably a hundred thousand people turned out. The Choker Club, as you call them, loved it.”

It sounded horrible. Beverly was learning that she hated crowds. “Who played?”

“Queen and some others. Kiki Dee. Elton John was backstage, but she wouldn’t let him come out and sing their duet. She sang to a life-sized cardboard cutout of him.”

“That’s hilarious.”

“He was brassed off.”

“You were there backstage? How did you pull that off?”

“I have my ways.”

“And they’re such nice ways.”

Beverly blushed and turned away. She’d spoken without thinking, but she meant it. She’d had several boyfriends at college, but after coming home to take care of Marion things had dried up in the romance department. There was that awkward and mercifully brief fling with a fellow bartender at the Tragic Fall, but nothing else.

Dan was like no boy she’d ever been attracted to. But he wasn’t a boy. He was a man.

“My ways are nowhere close to nice, Bevs.”

Another Van Morrison son came on, I Want To Roo You, and this time Dan joined in the tune. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “I want to roo you,” he sang, his voice a perfect imitation of Morrison’s. “Woo you tonight.”

He kissed her lightly, teasing her lips with his tongue. “Bevs.” With an anguished groan, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. The heat she’d fought since she met him seared through her as he kissed her hard. She melted into his embrace, and the world wouldn’t stop spinning. She reached under his long hair to the back of his neck, brushing against the choker.

He pulled her hand away and kissed her palm, sending a charge of heat through her body and down between her legs. She ached to have him inside her.

“The Victoria & Albert.” The driver said pointedly. When had the taxi come to a stop?

The museum had drawn a crowd for the special Halloween exhibit which spilled out into the other areas. Dan took her hand and pulled her along behind him until he found the hall he wanted and produced two tickets.

“Cissa didn’t want to come,” he said. “She’ll be glad I found someone to use her ticket.”

They moved with the crowd through the Celebration of Faeries, depictions and theories of the otherworldly creatures. Dan lingered fondly over the Cottingley display but scoffed at everything else. When they came to Bausiney’s Abundance, he let out a huge sigh. “It’s authentic.”

The cup was the only item displayed on a low pedestal, about three-foot square and covered with a glass dome. It was actually a goblet made of hand-blown glass with blue, green, and red enamel inlay. The glass was for the most part clear with green and red beads here and there.

“Bausiney’s Abundance is most likely thirteenth century Syrian,” said the docent, “brought into the country during the Crusades. It’s remarkable that so old a piece of such delicate material should make it to the twenty-first century in perfect condition.”

Dan listened to her with a blank face, but Beverly sensed the emotion churning inside him. She was sure he’d forgotten that she was standing there.

“However,” the docent continued, “the story of how the cup came to be in the possession of Lord Dumnos augurs quite a different origin. This is the reason the V&A are so pleased the earl agreed to lend it out for this exhibit.

“As the story has it, one Halloween more than a hundred years ago, the then-earl’s son, Lord Tintagos, heard noises coming from the roof of Faeview, the earl’s estate in Dumnos County. He surprised a party of faeries dancing and drinking under the clear full moon.

“They scattered away, but one of the fae had left this cup behind. Before he could retrieve it, Lord Tintagos had picked it up. As Lord Tintagos admired it in the moonlight, the fae cried out a warning before flying off to the woods:

“If this cup should fall or crack,

Bausiney’s End will meet its lack.

“Bausiney is Lord Dumnos’s family dame. As you can see, the cup is perfect, and Bausiney’s Abundance is assured.”

Beverly applauded with the rest of the crowd and turned to see what Dan thought of the story. As their eyes met, he twisted the black cut glass bead at the center of his choker and disappeared.

“Good lord, it’s gone!” The docent’s face drained of color. The glass dome was still in place on the pedestal, but Bausiney’s Abundance was not under it.

Give Me: a fairy tale
Copyright 2011 L.K. Rigel
Published by LK Rigel
Edited by Debra L. Martin
Cover by Robin Ludwig Design

A young witch with a good heart. Two lovers in mortal danger. A spell that ends in disaster.

Lilith Evergreen lives in the California desert, an ordinary woman until her fiancé returns from London with a ring he bought from a street vendor. When Lilith puts it on she dreams of a green land that's anything but desert, a tree at cliff's edge, a ruined castle, and a handsome prince.

Then she discovers that it's all real.

When Lilith visits the ruins of Tintagos Castle, she discovers a world of magic and love - and its dark side when she's entangled in the remnants of an ancient spell gone bad. From the moment Lilith sees Cade Bausiney, she's overwhelmed with desire for him. Cade is drawn to Lilith too - but their feelings might only be sparked by dark and dangerous magic.

Lilith and Cade must break the old spell or be forever possessed by spirits who've waited a millennium to consummate their love.

Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, and Smashwords

Author Bio:

LK Rigel lives in California with her television-watching cat, Coleridge. (His favorite show is Castle, but he was enthralled by Game of Thrones.) Rigel wrote songs for the 90's band The Elements, scored the independent science fantasy karate movie Lucid Dreams, and was a reporter for the Sacramento Rock 'N Roll News. Her work has appeared in Literary Mama and Tattoo Highway.

Rigel writes the postapocapunk "Apocalypto" series about the end of the world and the new reality in which the gods return to save humanity from itself - and end up fighting with each other.

Her short story "Slurp" about an author with muse problems on Halloween is included in DEADLY TREATS, Anne Frasier's Halloween anthology published by Nodin Press.

Her latest book, GIVE ME, is an adult fairy tale about possession.

website: http://www.lkrigel.com/
Amazon page http://www.amazon.com/LK-Rigel/e/B0043WEB06/