The woman usually came in to the store about every other day or so. That week she hadn't shown up for three days. On the fourth morning, as Cory stood at the checkout counter taking inventory of the tobacco products, she entered the store earlier than usual. Upon seeing her, Cory paused, pen poised over the clipboard, his heart jumping several gears. The young woman stood contemplating a small personal travel kit and a jar of peanut butter. Returning the jar to its shelf, she deftly slid the box of toiletries under her jacket and froze, eyeing the small, inconspicuous two-way mirror with undisguised suspicion.

At first, Cory thought she would bolt from the store, but slowly, she withdrew the kit and returned it to its rightful spot. She crossed the market and pushed outside, turning right onto the sidewalk and hurrying away as if a police cruiser would appear at any moment.

Stunned, Cory dropped the inventory sheets, sprinted down the aisle as if his shoes were on fire, and snatched up the travel kit. If anyone else had been in the store they would've thought he'd lost his mind. He raced outside after the homeless woman.

Standing at a blue mailbox, she kissed an envelope and dropped it through the slot. She turned as Cory approached her.

"Here," he blurted before she could run. He shoved the toiletries at her. "Take it."

She wore a suspicious expression and shook her head.

"Take it." He continued to hold the travel pack out and took one more step toward her. "I'll pay for it."

"Why?" she asked. Slowly she took the kit from him; her long, fine-boned fingers gripped it tightly. With her other hand, she brushed aside blonde bangs.

"You chose this instead of food. It must be really important to you." He stared into her wide gray-blue eyes.

She studied him, uncertainty in her gaze.

"Got a name?"

"Jill Davies." A hesitant smile graced her full-lipped mouth.

"I'm Cory Evershine." Something swept over him, and before he could think it through properly, he blurted, "Would you like something to eat? We can go across the street to the cafe ... my treat," he offered. Giddiness washed through his heart. He'd actually charmed a smile out of her.

"Okay," she said, her voice so soft he almost didn't hear her.

He turned and said over his shoulder, "I'll be right back. I'm just going to have one of my employees watch the store while I'm gone, okay?"

She nodded once, twice.

He hurried back to the market. The world brightened, sounds intensified. The honk of a horn and the aroma of exhaust all seemed wonderful.

Living as a witch wasn’t easy.

Her gifts, her familiars, and various other aids in black or white magic never came free. There were prices to be paid. Oh, yes. Many prices for those services and their gifts.

On each All Hallow’s Eve, Anvahn was required to pay for everything she’d requested beyond her natural powers during that twelve-month cycle. Last year she had been required to fuck an incubus. That hadn’t set well with Anvahn. In fact, after six hours of constant fucking, whether in her anus or her pussy, she’d managed to hold her revulsion back ... or down ... until the thing had had its fill and had left her as the first bloody trace of dawn marred the sky. Anvahn had vomited for an hour after the demon had left her, then laid on this very boulder for the better part of the day in exhaustion.

So she sat on the boulder overlooking the valley and waited for her next price she had to pay. They were always male and needed fucked. Last year the incubus, the year before that an old wizard, who yelled at his member so it would stay hard long enough to put it inside her. And before that there had been the warlock’s apprentice who had to couple with a witch in order to make his first serious spell work. Oh, and there had been the m�nage. One vampire had pummeled her ass as the other vampire had pumped into her cunt.

The sun set. Scarlet, pink, orange-gold, and sapphire bled into the heavens as if cloth dyers had spilled their color pots on the horizon. The sun lowered its round bottom into the earth. The moon rose higher...higher still. It hung pregnant in the periwinkle sky. The twilight deepened, and the heavenly sphere transformed from white to silver to robin’s-egg blue.

Anvahn drew her cloak closer about her body and tugged the cowl of it up over her head. This autumn had brought cooler-than-usual temperatures. She’d read the season’s signs, so she knew that this All Hallow’s Eve would bring a full moon, but she hadn’t counted on it being a blue moon.

That meant a strong power was afoot.

Margie retrieved her sports bra where she’d hung it on the doorknob. "Be back in an hour or so," she called and shut the basement door behind her.

About ten minutes later, the door swung open again, startling me. "What’s wrong, babe?" I asked.

She laughed. "I forgot my water bottle." She laid the key to the mini gym on the isle counter, yanked open the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of Evian. With a seductive smile on her luscious mouth, she disappeared into the basement again.

However, the key still lay on the countertop.

No way.

I looked again. Yes, it was really there.

I waited. If I took the key and headed downstairs I knew I’d bump into Margie on her way back up to retrieve it.

I had lost interest in the article, so I picked up the daily paper and read through the comics. Five minutes passed, then ten. Maybe Margie hadn’t realized she’d even left it on the counter. She did have several errands to do today, so she was probably preoccupied.

Did I dare... ?

Hell, why not? What was she going to do? Yell at me? Forbid me from entering her secret gym?

Anticipation raced through me. I tossed the paper on the floor and marched into the kitchen where I snatched up the key. Opening the basement door, I slowly crept down the stairs, avoiding the squeaky ones just in case Margie could detect such sounds from the confines of her gym.

In bare feet, I padded across the carpeted floor and stopped halfway to Margie’s secret room. The door was ajar about an inch. I glanced at the key in my hand, then pocketed it for safe keeping. It wasn’t like my wife to be so careless, especially where her workout room was concerned.

Quietly, I approached the door and listened. Soft music wafted through the crack: it sounded like Pitbull’s Go Girl, one of Margie’s favorites. She passed through my line of vision and paused. Her sports bra lay on the floor by the free weights. Tugging the thong she wore down along her long, coltish legs, she pulled one foot free and used the other to kick the panties over to join the titty holder. Perplexed, I wondered why she even bothered to take a sports bra down there with her if she wasn’t going to wear one. Margie then picked up something I couldn’t quite see. At first, it looked like a medicine ball, but when she turned around with it, my mouth fell open.

That afternoon, Rhianne suggested we buy a few pints so she could make a strawberry pie and pack it in our picnic basket to take with us to the lake.

The old woman led us around the house to a flat stretch of land, covered with garden plots.

"Those are the Ever Bearers," she told us, pointing at a plot full of dark green plants dotted with bright red. She walked away, calling over her shoulder, "When you’ve picked what you want, bring your containers to the side door to settle up."

"Let’s pick the really big ones," Rhianne said. She started picking, her attention on the chore at hand.

"Okay," I replied.

She bent over, and my mouth watered at the cleavage that surged out of her shirt. I couldn’t resist stepping behind her to admire her butt. The printed words "sweet thing" stretched across her terrycloth shorts, snuggly hugging her cute ass. The elastic of her pink bikini bottoms peeked out, and I saw the soft swell of her pussy.

My dick stirred, so I stepped behind her, placing my hands on her butt cheeks. I wanted her so badly I could have drilled a hole straight through her shorts and bikini bottoms.

She laughed and asked, "Is fucking all you think about?"

My cock pressed painfully against my zipper.

"Between those huge tits of yours and that fine, round ass," I said, "how can I think of anything else? You drive me crazy, babe."