by Nicole Hall
“Modern Magic.”
“Doesn’t look very modern. What were you trying to do?”
Charlotte blushed and cursed her fair complexion. “Nothing important now, but I messed it up and something crazy happened.”
“Tell the truth…were you trying to summon a Pokémon?”
Charlotte stammered some random syllables then took a deep breath and tried again. “No. I haven’t been into Pokémon for years.” Though in hindsight, it didn’t seem like a terrible idea.
Brandon looked pointedly at her collection of watercolor Pokémon art on the wall across the room.
She rolled her eyes. “They were a gift.” He raised his brows. “From your sister.” He shook his head, and embarrassment burned across her cheeks. “I forgot what a jerk you were.”
He straightened from sorting through the soggy pile on her rug. “Well, I guess that’s my cue to go. Nice seeing you again.”
“No, wait.” She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him to a stop. He took two more full steps, dragging her behind him. Charlotte was a small person, but usually her full weight was enough to slow someone down.
Brandon looked over his shoulder at her, and the lights flickered. They both glanced up at the fixture for a second, then back at each other. She was acutely aware of the corded muscle of his arm under her fingers. Heat flashed in his eyes for a moment, then he blinked and it was gone.
She’d probably imagined it.
Charlotte released him and stepped back. “I’m sorry. I’m still freaked out, but that’s no excuse to be rude to you.”
“Apology accepted. Now explain why Keely insisted I had to come over here right away.”
She opened her mouth, but closed it again without saying anything. Charlotte wasn’t good with words on the best of days, and she had no idea how to start an explanation that ended in I summoned an imp.
Better to show him.
She gestured for him to follow her and pushed the bedroom door open all the way. The room was dark, but the wicker basket was clearly visible. Mostly because it was faintly glowing purple.
Part of her had hoped that it really had been a hallucination. “Check out the basket, but don’t get too close or lift it up.”
“What is it? Some kind of nightlight?” He leaned closer to get a better look. The glow went away, and a second later, the imp reached through the wicker and slashed at him with her claws.
“Holy shit, it’s alive.” Brandon took two stumbling steps back and caught himself on her dresser.
“Yeah. It’s an imp. A girl imp, I’m pretty sure.”
His stared at her for a second, then the basket. “This is impossible.”
Charlotte ran her hand through her short hair. “I know. I trapped it and called Keely. She was entirely unhelpful.”
He straightened. “Hey. Accurate, but still hurtful.” The glow started up again, and Brandon crouched to look through the holes a safe distance away. “The light’s coming from her hands.” He glanced up at her. “How sure are you that she’s contained?”
Charlotte stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, and flipped on the overhead light. “Not sure at all. I’m not even sure it’s an imp.”
“She looks like an imp.”
“I know. As soon as I read it, I was like: of course, it’s an imp.” She squatted next to him so she could see into the basket.
“Why do you keep referring to her as it?”
“Can we please focus on the problem at hand?”
Brandon turned his head to look at her. “Which problem would that be?”
She met his gaze and realized how close they were to each other. Her first reaction was to shift away, but her inner hussy said he wasn’t moving, so why should she? “What?”
His eyes drifted down to her mouth, and Charlotte had the distinct feeling he was going to kiss her. The air around them was charged with tension, and she was warm everywhere. She stopped herself from leaning toward him, but it was a near thing.
A smile tipped up the corner of his lips. “What’s the problem at hand?”
It took a second for Charlotte to catch up. The main problem. Right. “Sending her home.”
Brandon stared at her for a moment, then stood up abruptly. “Okay. I’m in. Let’s send her home.”
“Were you not always in?”
He chuckled. “Remind me to thank Keely for this later.”
Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “Why? …what?”
The imp started ranting and gesturing at Charlotte. She scowled at Brandon at one point, then made a few more hand motions and pointed at the window. Charlotte shook her head.
“I don’t understand you.”
The imp sighed and sat down cross-legged with her tail swiping back and forth.
Brandon offered her a hand. “C’mon. Talking to her isn’t going to help unless you suddenly develop a skill with languages.”
“Not likely,” she muttered. He was close, and though he moved away when she stood, his hand lingered on hers.
“What do we do first?” he asked.
“We should name her.” Charlotte hadn’t meant to suggest that, but the slow slide of his hand against hers as he let go was super distracting.
“You can’t name her. She’s not a pet.”
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” Charlotte crouched down so she was at eye-level with the imp. “What do you think of Rav? Can I call you that?”
The imp stared at her for a second, then reached out a tiny hand to touch Charlotte’s finger where she’d grabbed the basket. A tingle of electricity went through her, and she blinked. The imp smiled and tilted her head.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Brandon cleared his throat. “I’m not sure what just happened, but your hair is glowing.”
Charlotte backed away from the basket and the imp’s—Rav’s—hand fell to her side. She reached up and ran her hand through her hair, but it didn’t feel any different. It was too short to pull in front of her face, so she rushed to the bathroom. The top part was the same red as usual, but the tips were distinctly purple. She flipped the switch off, and her hair bathed everything in a purple sheen. As she watched, the glow faded until only the color remained.
A clap of thunder shook the building, and all the lights flickered and went out. Brandon cursed from the bedroom, and Charlotte blinked in the sudden darkness. She heard him bang into something and rolled her eyes.
“Don’t wander around. You might break my stuff. I have a flashlight in my beside table.” She felt for the walls as she went back into the other room, but she could already hear Brandon rummaging in her drawer. The flashlight clicked on at the same time that Rav started glowing again.
He searched the room until he found her on the other side of the bed and pointed the light at her waist. “What now?”
She checked her watch. 10:37 pm. “We should start with the spell book, I guess. I got it from one of the little antique shops in Mulligan, but they’re definitely closed now.”
“You think they’ll know anything about it?”
“I don’t know, but the ladies behind the counter were adamant that the spells worked. I guess they were right about that. It sounded like they had some experience with it.”
Brandon was barely a shadow in the room, but she could tell he was skeptical. “You think they have an imp too? It seems like they should have given you some kind of warning.”
Charlotte winced. “They sort of did. They pointed me to the spell I used and said it was the one I wanted, but they also said I should wait until the storm was overhead.” She could feel his disbelieving gaze and threw her hands up. “It wasn’t supposed to rain today.”
He shook his head. “Okay, which store was it?”
“I don’t remember the name, but I remember where it was.”
He sighed. “Fine. How about we both get some sleep, and I’ll come back tomorrow to pick you up. I assume you still don’t have a car?”
Charlot
te shook her head. “It’s not a good investment.”
“Right. I’ll have Danny cover for me at the shop. Think you’ll be ready by ten?”
Charlotte chewed her lower lip. “Are you going to bring your motorcycle? What if it rains again?”
“We’ll be fine.” He tossed the flashlight onto her bed where she could pick it up. “Get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Charlotte left the flashlight where it was and nodded. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to walk him out or let him get to the front door on his own in the dark. It wasn’t like she got a lot of visitors, and none had ever been there during a blackout.
The problem quickly became irrelevant when Brandon tried the knob and it didn’t turn. He tugged harder then looked over at her. “Toss me the flashlight.”
Charlotte picked up the flashlight and moved around the bed with it. “What’d you do to my door?”
“Nothing, but the knob is stuck. Does it have a lock?”
“No.” She shoved him aside and tried it herself. The knob didn’t move, and when she tried to shake the door, it didn’t rattle at all in the frame. The door had always rattled before when it closed.
Charlotte stepped back and let Brandon at it again. “Pull as hard as you can. We can always fix it later.”
She could see the play of muscles in his biceps as he put his whole weight into pulling the door open. Charlotte fanned herself with her free hand. It was getting warm in the room, and watching Brandon manhandle the door was making it worse. After a couple of tries, he stepped back too, breathing hard. “That door isn’t going anywhere, and neither am I.”
Charlotte’s eyes got wide. “You can’t stay here.”
He gestured to the window where rain was falling in a steady stream. “You live on the second floor. I’m not about to kill myself because you’re a prude.”
Her alarm turned to indignation. “I’m not a prude. I don’t like sleeping in the same room with someone I barely know.”
“Someone you barely know? You and Keely have been friends since seventh grade. You practically lived at my house when we were in high school.”
She remembered. He’d been less broody then, more apt to make jokes and tease her. When she’d come back from her disastrous semester at college, he’d been different. Keely had already left for New York, and Charlotte had missed her fiercely. Then her parents had died, and she’d retreated into herself and her art.
Noise from the floor penetrated her painful memories. Rav was talking and gesturing at the window, shaking her head violently. Charlotte had forgotten she was there.
“You want us to stay away from the window?”
Rav nodded, and Charlotte got her first confirmation that she did, indeed, understand English. She looked up Brandon, who was entirely too smug for someone in his situation.
“You heard the imp. You’re stuck with me for now.”
Rav curled up on her side with her tail wrapped around her and closed her eyes. Charlotte sighed. She guessed imps needed sleep too. It slowly dawned on her that Rav had probably done something to the door. Maybe it was payback for trapping her in the laundry basket, but Charlotte didn’t have enough mental energy to deal with a trouble-making imp and her high school crush at the same time.
“Whatever. You can sleep on the floor.”
“The hell I can. You have a king size bed, and you’re tiny. We can share the bed like reasonable adults.” He raised both his brows. “Unless you can’t keep your hands to yourself.”
Her face flamed and she cursed herself for calling Keely in the first place. The imp was way less scary than a night sleeping in the same bed with Brandon. She chose to flee rather than answer him, escaping to the bathroom to change into her pajamas.
When Charlotte came out, Brandon had lit the candles on her dresser and gotten comfortable on the bed. He’d taken his shirt off and unbuttoned his shorts, but thankfully he was still wearing them. She was pretty sure she’d had this dream at least once. She clutched her pile of clothes in front of her as she passed him, then remembered that her laundry basket was a defacto prison for the foreseeable future.
Her head dropped, and she tossed the clothes in the corner with the rest of her dirties. She couldn’t look at Brandon, though she could feel his eyes following her. Her pajama shorts and tank top covered her fine, but she felt exposed anyway.
“Why Rav?”
His quiet question surprised her and she looked up. He had his arms crossed over an impressive chest, but he looked relaxed.
Charlotte fidgeted with her watch and shrugged. “She kind of looks like Mystique.”
Brandon shook his head. “Mystique?”
“You know, from the X-Men?” She wiggled her fingers at her torso. “Blue body paint?”
“I do remember the blue chick, but how’d you get from her to Rav?”
“Mystique’s real name is Raven, but birds are freaky, so Rav.”
“You know you have a pigeon trapped in your living room.”
Charlotte shuddered. “I know.”
He waited a beat. “Not going to explain that one, huh?”
“Nope.” She tossed a pillow and one of her blankets onto his side of the bed. “We’ll share the bed, but you sleep on top of the covers.”
He chuckled. “This is not convincing me you’re not a prude.”
“Shut up.” She blew the candles out and made her way back to the bed in the dark. The flashlight was on the bedside table, but she didn’t need it. Rav was silent, and she could hear the brush of fabric as Brandon moved around.
Charlotte slid under the covers and lay on her side facing the door. The sheets were cool against her overheated skin. Her pulse was racing, and she was having trouble taking even breaths. Could he hear how ragged her breathing was? She tried to inhale deep, but the bed smelled like candles and warm male.
After a few pitiful attempts, she gave up and closed her eyes. Her body would calm down when it felt like it, and Brandon could think whatever he wanted.
Every time he shifted, the bed dipped toward him and she slid a little closer. He finally settled onto his side facing away from her, but he was so close she could feel the heat of him all along her back. Would he notice if she closed the distance? Her body urged her on, but Charlotte wasn’t ready to face the consequences.
The only other person she’d shared a bed with was Keely, and it was an entirely different experience. She wasn’t a prude, no matter what Brandon thought. She’d been with guys before, but she’d never slept next to one.
“Are you asleep?” she asked.
“No.” His voice was quiet in the dark. Charlotte hesitated, but she needed to do something to distract her if she wanted to fall asleep.
“What happened to you?” She winced as soon as the words left her mouth, but Brandon understood what she meant.
“After you went away to that fancy college?” She nodded. He must have felt it, but he didn’t continue for a little bit. “You ever get the feeling you don’t have a lot of control over the direction your life takes?”
She snorted. “My parents are dead, I have exactly one friend, and I pretty much never leave my apartment. You think this is the life I would pick if I had a choice?”
“Is that what you were doing with the spell book? Trying to choose something different?”
“If I was, I guess it worked. This is new.”
Laughter rumbled in his chest, and contentment spread through her. “It’s not so bad. At least your bed is comfortable.”
They settled into an easy silence, and Charlotte listened to the sounds of the storm getting further away. She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen, but the intention of her spell had been to inspire courage. Under other circumstances, she would never have crawled into bed with Brandon, no matter how good he looked shirtless. Yet here she was. Maybe bravery wasn’t a lack of fear so much as doing something even though she was scared.
She was pretty sure she’d seen that quote on Pintere
st somewhere.
Brandon adjusted his pillow and the resulting bed shimmy slid Charlotte into contact with him. She stiffened, but when he didn’t immediately pull away, she started to relax. He was warm, even through the sheets and blanket, and his solid presence was comforting in a way she couldn’t describe.
“I was engaged once.”
Charlotte’s eyes popped open. She didn’t remember closing them, but Brandon’s soft words had gotten her attention in a big way.
“Keely never said anything about an engagement.”
“She never knew. It was after she left.”
“You’re not married now.” She was sure of that one. He didn’t wear a ring, and the town wasn’t that big.
“No. I was working with Danny, saving money living with my parents. I had this stupid idea that I’d buy my own garage. Wrote up a business plan and everything. But then I met Michelle.”
Charlotte searched her memory for anyone she knew named Michelle, but drew a blank. He’d been a year ahead of her in school, but she’d known most of the people he hung out with from being at his house all the time.
“Her car broke down, and it got towed into the shop. She was all fire and ice. Super pissed that she was going to miss a meeting, but savvy enough to convince Danny to let her use his office to remote in. On her way out, she gave me her card and told me to call her for dinner.”
A wave of jealousy washed through her at his admiring tone.
“We dated for a while, but she never wanted to come into town. Always somewhere fancier. After a couple of months, we started talking about moving in together, but she wanted a commitment first. So, I took out my savings, and I bought her a ring.”
“How did Keely not know about this?”
He shrugged, and Charlotte felt the movement all the way to her toes. “She was in her first year of college. Every time we talked, she was so excited for all the new stuff she was doing, so it never seemed like the right time to tell her.”
She thought maybe he had doubts about this Michelle that he didn’t want to admit to himself.
“Anyway, she was excited to get the ring and start planning a wedding. A couple of days later, I stopped by her place to surprise her. She didn’t usually like surprises, but I’d found a place I thought she’d like and it was a limited time deal.”