Legend of the Sorcerer

by Donna Kauffman

  With a scowl, he took her elbow and began to move her down the path, but she tugged it away and held her ground.

  Cai frowned. “We really must head back.”

  “You really must not lead me around like a pony,” she replied. “I don’t know where you learned your manners, but it wasn’t from your very gentlemanly grandfather.”

  “I apologize. We still need to hurry,” he said.

  “Listen, if you’re worried about my seeing Alfred again—”

  “Again?”

  So, he hadn’t been eavesdropping. “Yes, again. On Wednesday. He’s going to teach me to grow things and we’re going to discuss my work.” Because he irritated her, she added, “He wants to commission a piece.” She moved closer. “Were you really so worried about my visit with him that you had to cut it short?”

  “It doesn’t have anything to do—”

  “Because I think I understand your concerns about Alfred and I can put your fears to rest. I would never harm him, or embarrass him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I understand, about his … you know, his spells, or whatever you call them. I understand that his mind slips a little now and then. You know, with all the study he’s done on the man’s life, it’s not all that surprising that his senility would—”

  “He’s not senile,” he said a bit too forcefully. “He’s an eccentric in every definition of the word. Always has been.”

  “And he’s a delightful one.” Seeing Cai’s skeptical look she added, “I know what it’s like. I do. My mother passed away when I was in college. She had cancer, which I know is totally different, but it was debilitating. I was in denial far longer than she was. I’m not sure who helped who more.” She placed her hand on his arm, more reassured than alarmed at that sudden connection they seemed to make. “I won’t hurt him, Cai. I enjoy him and I think he enjoys my company as well.”

  He shifted away from her touch.

  She straightened her shoulders. “I won’t let anything slip about the investigation. I can keep him occupied while you deal with everything else.”

  Cai looked down into her too-green eyes and wondered why her perfectly sensible arguments scared the daylights out of him.

  It was obvious that Alfred was charmed by her. But too much was going on … and little was getting done about it. All he had to show for a full afternoon was a blank computer screen and a headache from trying not to think about her. He should have been thrilled with the chance to work uninterrupted. Instead he’d spent the greater portion of the time staring at the copy of her dragon sketch. Her laughter had found its way to his open window again and again during tea. When they’d finally, mercifully, finished and left for the garden, had he gotten to work? No. He’d stared out the window after them like a moonstruck calf.

  And now she wanted to spend another day here? He didn’t think he’d survive it. Hell, this one wasn’t even over yet.

  “We can talk about it on the boat. Come on.”

  “Okay, okay.” She moved past him, tucking her elbow against her side as she passed him. “I know you don’t want me here. I understand.”

  “You don’t understand anything,” he muttered.

  “It’s not like I’m going to be hanging around here all the time, you know,” she went on. “I’m going back home this Sunday.”

  He knew that. There was an undeniable sinking feeling in his chest. Yeah. He knew that. Another good reason to nip this in the bud.

  “I’ll find my own way here and back.”

  “I’ll come and get you.” The offer was made gruffly and totally against his better judgment.

  “Thank you. I think.” At his raised eyebrow, she said, “This sudden rush isn’t just about a storm, or Alfred, is it?”

  Cai had to get away from her. Something as simple as her hand on his arm had made him painfully aroused. He was beginning to wonder if Alfred was right about his sex life, or lack of one. Maybe he should get out more.

  “Jordy, please.” But it was clear she wasn’t budging. “I have to get over to Mangrove. On business. Now.”

  Understanding dawned in her eyes. “This has something to do with the investigation, doesn’t it?”

  He paused a heartbeat too long.

  “Is it another e-mail?”

  “I don’t want to involve you any further.”

  She bristled. “I am involved. I’m going to find out what’s going on anyway. The local police are keeping me filled in. Are they waiting for you to bring it to them? Couldn’t you just forward it?”

  Cai shook his head. “They don’t want anything sent out from here. No electronic trail connecting me with the police.”

  “Do they honestly think she can track that kind of thing? And don’t you think she’ll figure you went to the police anyway, once you got those photos?”

  “We don’t know what she thinks, or what she’s capable of. They aren’t taking any chances.”

  “What does this one say? Does she make any other demands? Have the agents decided how you should respond to her e-mails?”

  “I thought they were keeping in contact with you.”

  Jordy flushed, but held her ground. “It’s not like I’m on their speed dial, okay? Why are you so worried about my involvement anyway?”

  “The bigger this thing gets, the harder it will be to keep Alfred from finding out.”

  “I know you want to protect him, but you might have to tell him at some point. He’s not a child.”

  “You’ve spent all of one afternoon with him and you think you’re qualified to tell me how to take care of him?”

  She sighed. “All I’m saying is that you should be prepared to tell him if it becomes necessary.”

  Cai blew out a long breath and raked his hand through his hair.

  Jordy’s expression softened. “Cai—”

  “I know how much Alfred enjoyed having you here today.”

  “I enjoyed it, too.”

  There was something special in those eyes of hers. He wanted to know her, to know what she was thinking when her eyes went all soft like that. “He doesn’t get much company and under normal circumstances, I’d welcome anyone who could bring him happiness.”

  “But?”

  “But if you’re involved in this other stuff, you’ll want to talk about it, like we are right now, and I can’t be worrying about what Alfred might overhear. He saw the first e-mail and that triggered a ‘spell,’ as you call it, that lasted a great deal longer than your little chat in the garden. They drain him enormously and cause him pain. It would just be easier if—”

  “If I went away?”

  He swore under his breath. “I’m not handling this right.”

  “Perhaps if you dealt with people more often, you’d be better at it.”

  “Your people skills being so highly evolved and all?”

  That hit a mark, but she came right back. “My people skills seemed fine to your grandfather. Could you try and see past your own problems long enough to think that instead of being a burden to you, I might be able to help? I want to spend time with Alfred. It’s not like I’m going to be here forever. We’re talking one week. It means more to me than you can possibly understand. And if there is anything I can do to make your life simpler while I’m here, then I’m all for helping you out. The whole world does not have to rest on your shoulders.”

  He shouldn’t smile. He shouldn’t. But he did.

  She put her hands on her hips. “I’m glad I’m so amusing to you. Do you think you’re the only one with problems? I could give you a rundown of my last twenty-four months that would make you think otherwise. But it is precisely because of those last twenty-four months that I need this so badly.” She stepped closer to him. “I can take care of myself around Alfred for a visit or two. Then you don’t have to deal with me anymore. I know you don’t want me here, okay?”

  Cai’s heart pounded. She was magnificent. “You have no idea what I want.”

  “You’ve mad
e it plain enough. You don’t look at me unless you have to, you go out of your way to keep from touching me.”

  Cai moved right up to her, but kept his hands by his side. “And why do you think that is, Jordy?”

  Her eyes grew large, but she didn’t back away. He watched her throat work and dug his fingertips into his thighs.

  “It’s not only Alfred I worry about, or the investigation. It’s myself I’m protecting here.”

  “From what?”

  “From getting involved in something I have no business even starting.” He touched her cheek with his fingers and traced the soft line of her jaw. They both shuddered. “See what touching you does to me?” He took her hand and placed it on his chest. “Feel what looking at you does to me.”

  She looked at their hands, pressed together over his heart, then up into his eyes. Hers had gone dark with need.

  “So don’t tell me about what I want.” He tugged her against him. “This is what I want, Jordy.” She gasped at the contact. He stopped just shy of touching his lips to hers. “Tell me what you want. Tell me so I can take that mouth of yours the way I’ve been dying to since the first time you spoke to me.” He brushed his lips lightly across hers, then moved his mouth to her ear as she shuddered against him. “Tell me.”

  TWELVE

  Jordy could barely breathe. “You …” She cleared her throat. “You said you didn’t want this to happen. That you shouldn’t do this.”

  “What I should want, and what I do want are so far apart I’m having a hard time reconciling them.”

  “Then maybe it’s up to me to stop this.”

  “Can you?”

  It was the challenge that lent her the strength to move away from him. “Both of us are fighting against this. Isn’t that reason enough to stop?”

  Cai held her gaze for an interminable moment. If he touched her again, she wouldn’t be able to say no. But he didn’t. Jordy’s heart was still pounding and the needy ache was a knot inside her. “Maybe we should get over to Mangrove so you can deliver that note.”

  He said nothing, but led the way down the path that ran alongside the house, toward the dock. She walked behind him.

  The tense silence began to gnaw at her. “I didn’t get the chance to thank Dilys for the wonderful tea. Could you please tell her for me?”

  “Yeah.”

  She frowned at the terse reply, but pushed on. “Your house is beautiful.” It was that and more. An unusual sprawling wood structure, with rooms added on here and there, all connected by closed-in walkways. And the whole thing was on stilts, a nod to the tempestuous weather in the Keys. Fittingly, it was as unique as its residents. “It’s a very impressive structure.”

  “Thanks.”

  Jordy stared at his back as they crossed the yard and headed down to the docks. “It’s sort of like a Robinson Family treehouse kind of thing. I’m surprised at all the windows, though. Don’t you worry about hurricanes?”

  “Some.”

  She stopped. It took him several seconds to realize she wasn’t still behind him. He turned and braced his hands on his hips. “Now what?”

  “So, we either drag each other to the ground and have hot, torrid sex, or we speak in monosyllabic sentences? Are those the only options here?”

  His expression grew dark, formidable. Then he stalked back up the path, his gaze pinning her down like a helpless butterfly. Only she wasn’t helpless. She chose not to move. Because, she realized, she didn’t want to.

  He closed in on her and didn’t stop. His hips bumped against hers as he took her head in his hands, levering her mouth up to his as he pressed her back against the pathway railing. He didn’t ask, he just took.

  His mouth was warm, his tongue hot and she was well acquainted with both inside the first two seconds. He demanded she respond, not willing to let her get away with him doing all the taking. She would take as well, or the kiss would end.

  She took.

  He welcomed her seeking tongue, and held it hostage, torturing her, pleasuring her. His hands slid down to her shoulders, then down to her elbows, where he urged her arms up, urged her to touch him, hold him. It was an invitation she couldn’t resist.

  He felt as glorious as he tasted. She ran her hands up over his back, then slid them to his neck and dug her fingers into all that beautiful hair. He was as decadent as Alfred’s lush gardens and far more drenching to her senses.

  He pulled his mouth from hers, making her whimper, only to trail kisses along her jaw to the soft spot beneath her ear. His hips pressed more intimately against hers and a small moan slipped from her lips.

  “That’s our option, Jordy. Do you understand now?”

  Her fingers were shaky when she uncurled them from the nape of his neck. She smoothed them against her thighs, acutely aware of how closely aligned hers were with his. They would fit so perfectly, too perfectly. She somehow found the will to slip out from the narrow space he’d backed her into. “I … yeah.” She turned to look out over the water. “Understood.”

  She felt his breath, his heat. “What’s it going to be, Jordy? All? Or nothing?”

  “Nothing.” She choked on the word.

  He stepped back. “Fine.”

  “Fine.” Screw fine, she wanted to say, come back here and do that to me again. But she didn’t. She’d done the right thing. For both of them. She waited another moment, until she heard his footsteps retreat down the path, before turning and following him.

  Back at Mangrove, Cai watched her climb into her car and drive off, then headed to his bike. Thankfully Dobs wasn’t about. He wasn’t up for any small talk at the moment. What in the hell had gotten into him back there? Jordy Decker had worked her way under his skin and then some, but when push came to shove—and they’d done a little of both there on the pathway—she’d done the right thing and ended it before it went any further. Damn good thing it had been up to her, he thought darkly. Or they’d be butt naked and going at it even now. Christ, what a mess.

  Almost a mess, he corrected himself. They were both adults and had made their decision. No harm, no foul. And better yet, Alfred knew nothing about their little interlude. Thank God. Now that would have been disastrous. The boat ride over had been painfully strained, but they’d manage it. They’d manage it again. After all, it was one lousy week, how hard could that be?

  He swore under his breath as he slid onto his bike. If he revved it a bit too high and laid down just a little rubber exiting the parking lot, well, so what? Damn, but that woman made even his teeth ache.

  It wasn’t until he pulled into the police parking lot that his mind finally shifted to what it should have been focused on all along. He unfolded the printout of the e-mail as he walked inside the station. Sgt. Winston looked up and immediately signaled Cai to his desk.

  Winston smoothed the paper out on top of the open file in which he’d been writing. He read over it silently, but Cai already knew the words by heart.

  No response, my Heart’s Keeper? Surely you understood my request was not merely a query to be considered, but a demand that must be fulfilled. You are the only one. You cannot escape your destiny.

  Are the stakes not high enough? Have I insulted you with only one life in peril? Please know that you have my humblest apologies. I will take care of this oversight with due haste. So many devoted to you, finding another will not take long. I will send along proof of my next claim.

  I pray you begin your journey quickly. For endless patience is not something I possess. But I will possess the Dark Pearl. And I will possess you.

  “She doesn’t seem to realize that I’ve contacted the police,” Cai said to the sergeant.

  “I’ve seen more than a few whackjobs in my career.” Winston smiled up at Cai. “I worked up in Jersey for twenty years before heading down to the sun and fun of Florida. I thought I’d left this behind.” He shook his head. “She really believes all this stuff.”

  Cai could only nod. “This stuff” of legends and quests was wha
t he did for a living. He knew it was fiction, and that he wasn’t responsible for the mental capacities of his readers, but to think that because of a story he told, someone would suffer …

  “She’ll do it, won’t she?” He didn’t really need to ask. He knew the answer.

  Winston nodded, then sipped his coffee. “They pinpointed the last e-mail as originating in Wales. They haven’t been able to track the other two yet. But it doesn’t look like she’s here. They’ll trace this one, too. Anyhow, as of now, we’re officially out of it. State Department will be handling it. You need to hand this over to them right away.” He fished around on his desk and came up with a card. “This is the number to call.”

  “I have their cards from the other day.”

  “This is a new one. Apparently the suits here earlier just do prelim work. You’ve been officially assigned to a separate task force now. Some sort of adjunct agency or something to the State Department dealing specifically with electronic crimes. This is the guy.” He tapped the card. “You can use my phone.”

  Cai looked at the card again. Special Investigative Agent John Kuhn. Special Taskforce. U.S. Department of State. Cai sighed, and picked up the phone. How were they going to stop her? There was no freaking pearl. But maybe it didn’t matter. An idea hit him as the line rang in his ear. Maybe any pearl would do the job.

  The call was picked up and Cai asked to speak to Mr. Kuhn. He had the plan all worked out by the time the agent finally came on the line.

  Forty minutes later, the moon hidden behind the clouds and rain starting to lash down, Cai stormed out of the police station swearing a blue streak. The last thing he needed was to find Jordy climbing out of her car.

  She started to say hello, but he cut her off. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Checking up on me? I thought we agreed to—”

  She snapped open an umbrella. “We agreed to steer clear of each other, that’s it. I figured you’d be gone by now.” She moved to go around him, but he put his arm out and stopped her.