by Mary Hughes
The good news was, the geis wouldn’t work under coercion, so the enemy would try persuasion first. A male witch might even try to romance Zoe, the very thing she wanted.
But the instant Daniel did his spell, the enemy would know another mage was coming. He’d rush Zoe to give up the parchment.
Maybe even try to force her.
Daniel shuddered with rage at the thought.
Yet, if he didn’t do this spell, they were blind. The enemy might get frustrated and try to force her anyway.
That decided him. He had to know who the evil bastard was. He had to do the spell, then deal with the consequences fast and decisively.
“Thanks for the heads up, Sophia. I owe you.”
He clicked off, then poured the water into the pan of the chafing dish, submerged the napkin in it, and stirred three times. Next, he used the lancet to prick his finger.
His blood gathered in a ruby tear, dangling from the pad. Heart. It dripped, fell into the water and dispersed. He tried not to think of Zoe as the second drop gathered.
Then it struck him—that was what had changed since high school.
His breath froze. The drop fell in silence. A female, a wolf shifter, affecting his magic? The blood hit the water and burst with a dazzle.
He didn’t have time to deal with the implications. An excuse, but with the advantage of being true. It was a relief when the third drop finally fell, and he could press his thumb against the puncture to stop the bleeding.
Daniel plucked his wand, ebony with gold wire fittings, from his breast pocket. The wand was always at hand when needed and never there to spoil the line of his clothes when he needed that. A wizard thing.
With a flick of his wrist, he drew the blue flame onto the wand. Successive flicks wrapped it around the wand like cotton candy on a stick.
A fling sailed an arc of blue fire into the air and down into the pan.
Napkin, water, and blood all lit with a foomph. He mentally touched his power and spoke the catalyst word, “Find.”
The flames began to dance and swirl, ghostly waltzers on a ballroom floor as the spell mapped a 3D hall onto the dish.
One spot pulsed red in the back of the pan. The where—the back of the ballroom.
The swirling blue flame coalesced into that spot, like water spiraling down a drain. It flared orange-red and formed a brutal face in a ripped mask. The who—the handsy Zeus. Daniel’s blood surged with triumph. Now for the why…
The fire spat flares of purple—then the flames turned totally black.
Black fire.
Daniel tore off his tux jacket and smashed it over the pan, smothering the magefire. His chest was pumping like a bellows.
Stars and moon. This was a disaster. Sophia said the color of the flames would tell him intent. The orange-red flare said greed, the purple sparks said magic—Zeus was definitely a wizard and could trace the spell back to Daniel, but that didn’t matter now.
Black flames. Evil intent.
Daniel snatched up his jacket and, despite the half-charred lining, threw it on as he ran out of the room. Heart pounding, he raced for the ballroom, pulling down his mask on the way. Only one way for a wizard to get that parchment—make the Queen of Hearts give it to him.
An evil wizard now knew he’d been found out, and the clock was ticking.
Zoe was in danger.
Chapter Five
Normally as hostess, Zoe would have led the first waltz. But until her identity was revealed at midnight, the Queen of Hearts had to remain masked, so Zoe had a discreet word with the orchestra director.
As she was finishing her instructions, her wolf growled. She spun.
Headed straight for her, face brutal in his ripped masked, was the handsy Zeus.
Handsy. Like light-fingering her key? By her paws and claws. Had his groping been a cover? Her wolf’s growl deepened. It certainly thought he had, and it wanted immediate revenge, of the bloodiest kind.
But her human counseled caution. She didn’t want to make a scene in front of her elegant guests. Too, if Zeus had already gotten the key, what more could he want from her? She needed to delay, a chance to figure out his game.
Then she’d let her wolf have its confrontation.
As the first strains of the “Blue Danube” began, she trotted for the corner buffet table, full of cheese and chatting couples. Let Zeus try his shenanigans when she was among people, and ready for him.
Sure enough, he followed. But as he swept in on her like a thunderstorm, his dark glower dispersed her cover of couples.
“Lady Mystery,” he rasped. “Kismet brings us together again.”
“Or your clumsy attempts to corner me,” she murmured.
“What?” he asked sharply.
“Nothing.” She smiled coyly and fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Her wolf snorted in disgust, but her flirting must have appeased him because he smiled, too, though in his ripped mask it came off as more of a leer.
Flirt, she reprimanded herself. Tease out his plans…and maybe even get the key back. “Cheese?”
“No. Let’s go somewhere we can get really romantic.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder.
She staggered, but kept her smile plastered on her face. “Nonsense.” Fluttering eyelashes like a power fan, she yanked loose. “Nothing is more romantic than cheese.”
“Being alone together is. C’mon, honey.”
Zeus grabbed her wrist and tried to tug her toward the side service door. He was smiling, but the reek of angry testosterone coming off him dumped ice into her veins.
Swallowing her fear, she resisted—and she still got dragged a few inches. She had to let her wolf out to add strength.
On the plus side, she broke loose.
Huge minus, he glared suspiciously at her.
Damn it. She had to derail those suspicions, fast.
“Me, I love cheese.” She pointed at herself, finger sinking into her cleavage past the second knuckle. “I just love cheese so much.”
His gaze shot down, and he licked his lips.
Zoe backed toward the cheese table, widening the gap between them. And for my next trick…
His gaze rose, and he frowned.
“I especially love Camembert, don’t you?” With a flirty smile, she groped on the table behind her for a plastic sword pick. Her hand landed on one. For a moment, she considered using it on him.
But there was still the barest chance he wasn’t the key thief. Instead, she stabbed a cube of cheese, hard.
His frown darkened. “I don’t want cheese. I want to be with you—alone.” He took a threatening step closer.
Falling back, she hit the table and gave a shocked little jerk. She covered by swinging the sword pick between them. “But the cheese is so creamy.” Bringing the sword to her mouth, she licked the cube, slowly. Sensuously.
Zeus’ expression changed, gaze riveted to her caressing tongue, his own emerging from between his lips as if mimicking her.
“Flirt here?”
“Yeah. All right.”
Her wolf snorted in disgust, but she counted it a win and let her wary muscles ease.
Until Daniel, nostrils flared like a bull, charged into the room.
* * *
Daniel rushed into the ballroom, head and stomach churning, his gaze cutting left-right, frantic to catch a glimpse of Zoe.
Hoping she was all right and nowhere near the black-fire mage.
The ballroom was filled with swirling dancers and chattering groups. He couldn’t see the one lush figure he wanted. His heart thudded painfully. Damn it, a wizard was pursuing Zoe with evil intent, and Daniel had no idea where she was. Couldn’t protect her, as everything inside him screamed to do.
As if she was his to protect.
He ground his teeth. She wasn’t his, she never had been. Despite what happened tonight on that fainting couch, he’d never rise to more than a friend.
Didn’t stop him from wanting to protect her with every f
iber of his being.
A gap opened in the crowd. Zeus. The mage’s brutal face was aimed in a cruelty pinched frown at a woman. A graceful woman with a river of dark, glossy hair.
Zeus is with Zoe. Daniel’s heart stopped.
Then his pulse kick-started to pound twice as fast. To hell with whose she was or wasn’t, he was going to rip Zeus apart.
Daniel bulled like a linebacker through the dancers. Urgency knifed at him to simply mow them all down. He barely stopped himself from blasting them away with his wand.
If Zeus hurt her, he was a dead man.
As Daniel neared, he saw Zeus staring at Zoe, lust blazing alongside the cruelty in the brutal man’s eyes.
And Zoe… Daniel slowed as his whole body turned to rubber.
Her tongue curled around an hors d’oeuvre with such erotic heat, Daniel wanted to kill himself to be reincarnated as that cube of cheese. Zeus leaned forward, for all the world like he was going to replace the cheese with his mouth.
Daniel’s gaze went red.
He sprinted for her, his conscience screaming at him to stop, that she deserved better than him, but he could care less; she was his, and no dollar’s worth of wizard was getting in his way—
“Whoa there, cowboy.”
A hand seized his shoulder and swung him around. He was confronted by a man in black tails and a satin domino styled to look like purple smoke. The man’s lounging stance was graceful as a wild animal, but his smirking all-too human.
Daniel twisted and tried to wrenched away. “Let go.”
The man’s fingers were steel. “I will, when you calm down.” A touch of sympathy lit the amused black eyes twinkling through the domino.
“Right. All right.” Daniel stopped tugging, pretending to cooperate, but he dragged oxygen rapidly through flared nostrils, ready for his opportunity to yank away. Maybe smash the man in the face as he did. No, that would take too much time, and he had to get to Zoe. “Who are you?”
The man’s mouth quirked. “I’ve had many names. Currently, I’m going by the amusing sobriquet of Jayden. I’m not letting you go, you know. What you’re contemplating is a death sentence.”
“How do you know what I’m contemplating?”
“Please.” Black eyes rolled. “Your gaze on her is so hot you’re about to trigger the sprinklers. You want to have steamy, meaningless sex with her. But I can tell you, intimacy between you two will be neither mere sex nor meaningless.” He paused as if considering. “It will be steamy, though.”
Fucking smartass. “My intentions are none of your business.”
“Normally I’d agree. In this case, I need to remind you witch/shifter mating is forbidden. On pain of death.”
“How…?” The man knew Daniel was a wizard? Impossible. But even that paled compared to the thought that this Jayden might be a danger to Zoe. Fear for her spiked Daniel’s gut. “If you’re a Council Enforcer—”
“Heaven forbid.” The man’s black eyes widened, and he briefly raised his free palm. “I’m just a friend.”
“Well, friend, I don’t take well to threats. Who are you, where have you come from, and what the hell do you want?”
“A guest, invited like you, and to give you some advice.” Steel fingers dug in so hard they nearly pierced Daniel’s triceps. “You’re not the only agent of prophecy here, so listen up.”
Pain and surprise forced Daniel to obey, at least for the moment. “I’m listening.”
“A wizard prince and the daughter of an alpha once got away with mating. Lived together, right under the Council’s noses. Want to know how?”
Hell yeah, he wanted to know. But he only said, cagily, “What you’re saying is impossible.”
“Not impossible, simply very difficult. The wizard pretended the wolf was his live-in housekeeper. Now, I’m not recommending that, because they were always looking over their shoulder and could never be themselves. No spontaneous displays of affection—no displays of affection at all, except behind locked doors with all the curtains drawn. Plus, no insurance benefits for her or the pup. How annoying is that? But they were able to live together without the Council knowing. They even had the kid.”
“Lovely. I’ll keep that in mind, if I ever decide to get serious with a shifter…damn.” Daniel was speaking to thin air. The stranger Jayden was gone as if he’d never been.
A projection? But astral projections were tremendous power sucks, especially with a grip like that.
The whole bizarre incident, however, had taken precious moments. Out of the corner of his eye Daniel saw that slime Zeus grab Zoe’s wrists.
He surged through the last of the crowd that separated them, plunged in, used his arms like a hairpin to twist through Zeus’ arms, and broke the man’s grip with a quick twist.
Immediately, Daniel snared Zoe’s hands for himself. “Lady Mystery.” He tossed her cheese onto the table and lingeringly kissed her fingers. “I was looking for you.”
She frowned. Her green eyes, though shadowed by the mask, looked darker somehow.
“I’m busy.” She added a mouthed, Getting the key.
So, somehow she’d figured out Zeus was their thief, too. His mouth wanted to smile at how clever she was, but his brain was less enamored. She had no idea that Zeus was an evil wizard, or how dangerous he was.
Daniel adopted his best suave, seductive smile. “This will only take a minute. Zeus, is it?” He spun the smile into an insolent slap of a grin at the other wizard. “You don’t mind if I steal this lovely lady, do you?”
“Yeah. I do.” Lightning practically jagged in Zeus’ eyes.
No subtlety at all, this one.
Which gave Daniel an idea. Zoe wanted the key, and no need for subtlety? He’d steal it back with magic. Right here, right now. He’d cover his actions so bystanders wouldn’t know, but Zeus wouldn’t fail to figure out Daniel was another wizard and his nemesis.
It would take Zeus’ attention off Zoe, which was of course the intent.
But it’d also shout loud and clear to the fucker that if Zeus wanted Zoe, he’d have to go through Daniel.
Both Zoe and Zeus were frowning at him—maybe because his hands and jaw were clamped so hard his teeth were powder and his fingers were knots.
He deliberately eased into a more casual stance. “I’m not giving you a choice. I’m cutting in.”
Zoe began, “My Hero—”
“The hell you are,” Zeus finished.
“Language.” Daniel touched his wand mentally, calling it into his side pocket. If Zeus had the key, a simple pickpocket spell would lift it. A favorite for playing pranks at University, Daniel learned the spell early and used it often, if only in self-defense.
Zoe crossed her arms and gave Daniel a narrow glare. “I’m fine here, with Zeus.”
“You’re really not.” The simplest form of pickpocket used direct touch as a bridge. All Daniel had to do was stay in contact long enough for the key to transfer.
He brushed his wand through the pocket with one finger, priming the spell.
Zoe frowned, following his gesture. “Zeus and I were having a nice chat.”
She knew he was up to something, but she wouldn’t know what, and frankly, Daniel was more worried about Zeus. The other wizard might sense the spell before the transfer was complete—unless Daniel did something to distract him.
“Marvelous. We can all three have a nice chat together.” He smiled broadly and gave the bastard a buddy slap on the back.
On one hand, it worked to perfection. The bridge initiated, without his new buddy catching on.
On the other hand, it backfired spectacularly. Daniel’s suppressed rage at the other mage filled his slap with such a punch that Zeus staggered.
He fell forward a step.
Daniel tried to follow the motion, to keep in contact, but Zoe stuck her face in the gap and snarled at them both.
“That’s enough macho crap.”
Daniel’s flow of magic was already started, and her
anger, practically a physical force, distracted him an instant before he could cut the spell.
Like electricity forced to jump, magic flared, surging over the gap from Zeus’ back to Daniel’s hand with an almost audible whoosh of superheated air.
Zeus yelped as if he’d been singed. “Hey. What the hell are you doing?”
“I said enough.” Zoe wedged herself between them, her masked gaze cutting from one to the other. “You may think this alpha male shit is romantic, but I’m a person, not a piece of meat to be fought over.”
“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Daniel groaned mentally. Without the key, she would be determined to stick with Zeus, and a determined Zoe was as stubborn as a cliff.
He’d have confronted the guy, but she might be caught in the crossfire. Magical fights between two wizards could get messy.
Okay, frankly, he didn’t want her anywhere near the jackass.
He needed to get His Lady Stubborn away from Zeus. But how?
The orchestra began another waltz, and it gave him an idea. She’d planned this evening around the idea of romance, and he’d spent the years since high school honing his seductive skills.
He took her fingers and kissed them. “Lovely Lady Mystery…”
He meant to follow up with, Would you care to dance? But his nose delighted in her unique scent, his lips tingled at the feel of her smooth skin, and all he wanted to do was kiss up her delicate hand, trace the veins along the back with his tongue, press hot lips to the inside of her wrist and kiss all the way up her tender inner arm to her sweet, hot mouth…
Need seared him, a fierce desire that raged almost immediately into direct action. Using his hold on her hand, he spun her into his arms and bent to seize her mouth.
Zeus barked a protest.
The sharp sound called Daniel back from the brink of insanity. Zoe deserved romance—or at least a sweet seduction, not pawing. He barely managed to turn the kiss into a press of lips to her cheek, just below her mask.