“It’s nothing big.”
“Then why won’t you tell me about it? We are family, kid.”
I shrugged. “It’s something to do with Mia, yes, but its not a big deal, and I have it under control.”
“Mia has been hanging out with some weird people since she opened that store in the Harbor.”
I shrugged, and he spun me. “Stay away from her buddy, Vance. I don’t know what is up with him, but he gives me the creeps.”
He spun me out again and when I faced him, I pulled on his ear, to get him down where I could speak into it. “He’s fine.”
He shook his head and gave me a look. It was the same look that, as kids, came right before he told my mother I was climbing a tree I shouldn’t or that I was sneaking out. “Seriously, I came here with him tonight and—”
He put a finger to my lips and pointed over my shoulder. “But are you going home with him tonight? What is it with you and the slutty men?”
He spun me out again, and pulled me to face away from him. We continued to dance, but I was suddenly ice cold. Not that I was jealous. That was so not it. I was just disappointed in the weak nature of man. Just clinically abhorred. Yeah, that was it.
That jerk vampire was surrounded by at least seven women, most of them young enough to need to have their ID’s checked before giving them a drink. All of them skinny little— That dick.
First, he takes me to a strip club to hang out with Marilyn Monroe’s clone…
The song changed. Now it was Brittany Spears, Toxic, sung by two young, blond, Brittany wannabes, a fitting song for my mood. I turned back to Santino and continued mentally tabulating the wrongs of the vampire. After the Marilyn Monroe incident, he’d kissed me in the car. Of course, that was after I essentially jumped him, but he responded nonetheless. Then he kissed me again at Mia’s house and yet again today.
Now, here he was picking up younger women. What a stereotypical jerk. Well, he was a vampire, but still, he was mostly stereotypical.
I’m addicted to you but you know that you’re toxic. The lyrics were made to fit a vampire. I wondered briefly if Brittany knew any vampires. Maybe Hollywood was full of them. It would explain the anorexic state of most of the actresses. I mean, they didn’t have to eat if they were all vampires, right?
“I can’t dance to this.” I brushed at a stray lock of hair, a tell that I was lying, but I didn’t care. “Let’s go get another shot.”
Santino nodded, his gaze on Stacy anyway. They did another shot with me, and I got another beer to go with the buzz forming in my head. Probably it would have been wiser to lay off the alcohol, but I was annoyed and had already gotten a good start from the first shot with Stacy. I am a cheap drunk, I admit it. Handing my coat to someone who seemed willing to take it, I headed out to dance again.
Santino and Stacy invited me to follow them across town to another bar when I left and I waved them off with faked smiles. It wasn’t hard to find a dance partner or two in the leather halter top. I closed my eyes and let the music, and the tall dumb brute I’d found, lead me.
I knew the instant Vance made his way across the room and stopped behind me. A change in the air made the hair on my arms raise and caused a shiver down my spine I might have otherwise mistaken for sweat. I opened my eyes and peered over my shoulder at him.
“May I cut in?” Vance faced my dancing partner.
“How can you even be in public with old fashioned manners like that?” I demanded sourly when the big guy moved away agreeably and Vance took his place.
“Hmm?” He pulled me into his arms.
“No one asks to cut in. They just ease in and start dancing.”
“Duly noted.” One of his hands made its way over my spine.
I shifted away and turned back to my brute.
Vance pulled my back into the front of his body with one firm hand on my stomach, the other on my thigh. A wave of heat swirled up from my nether regions to make me tremble. Damned betraying body.
I turned in his arms as the song changed. He had the face and figure of a Roman warrior. Strong, wide shoulders tapering into a thin waist. A chiseled face, fit for the front of any magazine. The man could give any action hero a run for his money if he ever took up acting. “Where are your teeny-boppers?” I attempted to release hardly any venom in my tone.
He dragged my hips forward until his cradled them. I bit back a sigh and he murmered, “Showing your age, darling? I believe that turn of phrase went out sometime in the eighties.”
I shrugged. His face dipped down until our breath mixed. I inhaled the steak scent of it, finding it odd that I was suddenly such a meat lover.
“Jealous?” His voice carressed me like chocolate sliding over a strawberry.
I caught my lip between my teeth. The buzz from the alcohol consumption made my thinking slow and my body even more sensitive than before. His eyes focused on my mouth, and I had the small satisfaction of feeling his breath catch. “No,” I replied. “It isn’t like I’m interested personally. I just—”
“Let’s not pretend either of us has much choice in that department. Something is here, and the fastest way to figure out what it is to admit it and find out where it takes us.”
“I am not big on doing things the fastest way.” I smirked as the possible double meaning crossed my mind.
He bent to nuzzle at my neck. “If you could stop thinking about sex, I might have a shot at going a lot slower. As it is…” He trailed a line of kisses and nibbles across my jaw and down my neck.
It was dangerous, I guessed, having a vampire nibbling at your neck. Since I knew we were in public, which ensured I wasn’t going to get bit, I felt more daring. Or maybe the bravado came from the alcohol.
Regardless of the reasoning, I shifted into him, rubbing blatantly against him. Digging my fingers into the front of his shirt, I then dragged them down to his waist while looking up at him through half-lidded eyes. He let out a sigh that made my hair move and I felt my lips curl into a seductive smile. I began to slide my fingers under the shirt to trace back up his chest, but he pulled me closer, trapping my hands between our bodies. His lips hovered over mine. I moved to meet them, and he backed away.
Quirking an eyebrow at me, he traced small circles on my back where the leather top didn’t quite meet my jeans, leaving skin exposed. “Now who is rushing things?”
I gave a noncommittal tilt of the head and dug my nails into his chest.
He responded by catching my lips in a kiss that stole my breath and all ability to think. I’d never noticed how close to sex dancing was. I even like the taste of my will caving in, some woman sang over the karaoke speakers. Yes, if this was that, I could say I liked the taste of it.
I blinked up at him as he released my lips and had the pleasure of watching him try to gather his control. There was a certain power in watching a guy with of years of self control lose it in your arms.
“Self satisfied, aren’t you?” I knew from his comment, he’d picked up on my last thought.
I smiled up at him, feeling content as a well fed cat. “Hey, when you’re good…”
He chuckled and the low rumble of it moved both our chests.
I glanced over his shoulder—something I would have had to strain to do without the four inch ass-kickin’ boots, thank you Mr. Boot-maker. “Why is Mia here?”
He turned us, making me lose my viewpoint and leaving me a bit dizzy from the combination of booze and motion. He looked past my head. “Shit, she’s with Chance.”
“I thought Chance was with Max, and Max is the bad guy.”
“She is a woman,” he began.
“Euphemistically, the bad guy. I get the whole Max is a girl thing,” I gritted out.
He nodded. “In that case, yes, Max is the bad guy.”
“What do we do?”
“You go say hello to your best friend, and I look for Max.”
That sounded like a plan, so we parted. Or began to part. He pulled me back for one last kiss. “See, you haven
’t threatened to stab me once today.”
“Yet.” But I grinned.
I crossed the bar and passed the stage—where a man warbled a terrible, drunken version of Strokin’—and made my way to the table. Mia’s head was bent in conversation close to Chance’s. He saw me first. Glass green eyes settled on my face, then roved downwards to settle on my cleavage.
Men, I thought, with not a little disgust. “Hey, Mia!” I waved with false cheer. She looked up and her brow furrowed. I wanted to remind her that at our age it wasn’t wise and would cause wrinkles, but instead I bent to hug her.
“I told you not to come here after dark.” Her voice was muffled in my hair and I shrugged her off.
“I’m not alone. It’s okay.” I grinned.
“Are you with Vance?”
I shrugged again. “Yeah.”
“And I mentioned that you should try to stay away from him…”
“Yeah, well, I am shit for following orders.” I turned to Chance. “Hi, again. I am sorry for my earlier error. Let’s try the introductions again.” I wanted to say my eyes are up here, asshole, but it seemed harsh since I willingly wore a shirt that generated boobshelf.
“Of course. Chancellor Fiori.” He stuck a hand out for me to shake.
I sat, crossed my legs and ignored it. “As I said earlier, Janie Smith.”
“You still aren’t going to tell me your name?” He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me and into the room.
“That is my name.” At least on all legal documentation. My birth name was so ridiculous that I never, ever used it. My mother threw fits when I got it changed, and she still slipped and called me by the name she had tried to stick me with when she was annoyed. I still occasionally slipped and called her by her first name in return. All’s fair, right?
“Her name is Janie.” Mia waived a hand restlessly. “We were just discussing the little problem I had a few days ago.”
“About that,” I turned on Chance again. “Why did you try to have her staked?”
“Look.” Chance glanced around. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. As I was telling Mia, Vance needs to—”
“What do I need to do?” Vance rested a hand on my shoulder.
“You two need to go away.” Mia shooed at him with her hand.
Chance glared at Vance. “Maybe you need to fuck off.”
“Now, now Chancellor, lets not be crass in front of the ladies.”
“No, let’s.” I brushed a hand down my jeans and tried to keep my fists from clenching. “You tried to have my best friend and a few others staked and you’re the one who is surly?”
“Don’t look at me, honey—” Chance began, but I interrupted.
“If one more person calls me honey—”
“Would everyone just shut up!” yelped Mia.
We all turned to her. Mia was hard to frazzle, but when she did get upset, it was impressive. Her hair glowed and sparkles danced from her fingertips.
“What are all of you doing here? What a pleasant surprise.” We all turned to look at Max. I could see Mia’s sparkles die out from the corner of my eye.
Chance stood and took her arm. “They just stopped by to have a little chat, but they were just going.”
“Why ever for? The night is young.”
Mia also stood. “Yes, but we have an early morning.”
“He doesn’t.” Max nodded toward Vance while stroking Chance’s arm as if he were a lap dog.
For some reason, one I couldn’t begin to fathom, her petting him irritated the living shit out of me. It was irrational, but it did. Chance’s eyes flashed from green to gold while I stared at him.
Vance tried to take my arm, possesivly. “Yes, but as I came with the ladies, I will be escorting them home.”
“Will you?” Max’s lips might be smiling, but her eyes spoke of predators and danger.
“Look, why is everyone sucking up to her? I mean, come on here. We have Mr. Badass vampire and a witch, and we are sucking up to a magician?”
“Shut up, Janie.” Vance and Mia chorused.
I glared at them then turned on Max. “Well, I am not afraid of you, Ms. Magician. This needs to stop, here and now.”
Max’s eyes glittered at me with all the cold, cruel beauty of blood diamonds. “Sounds fantastic.”
“Janie!” Mia grabbed my arm and tugged, but I was ten feet tall and bulletproof.
I stepped up to look down at Max, thanks again, Mr. Boot-maker. “I want it all to end, here and now.”
“Fine.” Max agreeably smiled then flicked her delicate wrist. I flew back to land in the chair I had vacated. Ouch.
A glowing circle surrounded Max and Chance. Chance’s mouth opened and his brow furrowed in an expression of dismay. Mia glared at me, and Vance did not look altogether happy with me either. Max was the only one smiling. More a baring of teeth, though, than a true smile.
I stood back up, only stumbling a little because of the stupid boots. Max was saying something in what sounded like Latin. Houdini never spoke in Latin.
And then everyone in the bar turned to look at us. This was getting to be par for the course. Vance grabbed one of my arms. “How much did you have to drink?”
“She was drinking?” Mia’s mouth gaped open.
“Some, why? What can some magician do, anyway?”
“Master Magician,” corrected Mia. “Master, as in really fucking good.”
“So, she can pull a lot of bunnies out of a hat?” I bit the words out with a wave of my hand.
Mia shook her head at me. “No. She could pull the skin off our bodies with one spell though.”
Oh. Well that would suck.
Then a chair flew through the air.
Max was smiling as someone took a broken chunk of the chair and tried to come at Vance with it. I found myself faced with Chance, no longer in Max’s glowing bubble of power. “You have pretty eyes,” I told him honestly.
“Thank you. You, too.” He slid a hand out to touch my cheek briefly. “Duck.”
I ducked and a beer bottle smashed into the wall above my head.
“Thanks.” I again faced him as I stood.
“No problem.” And then he and Max disappeared. Literally. I blinked.
“Is it the alcohol, or did they just—poof—disappear?” I rubbed my eyes. Yup. Still gone.
“Yeah, and I wish I could do that. We are on the wrong side of the bar, Vance.” Mia and he exchanged a glance and he nodded. The entire bar had gone to chaos. “It’s a spell.” Mia snapped. “They are trying to kill us.”
I frowned at her. “That is so rude.”
“Yeah. Duck.” Vance pulled my head low.
We all ducked under the bar and looked at the bartender, the same one from earlier, now crouched under the bar. “Hey.” I waved at him.
“Hey,” he answered and half waved back.
“How are we going to get out of here?” Vance scanned the room for a way out. A globe of sparkling light suddenly surrounded us. Turning to Mia, I saw she had her eyes closed while whispering something and waving around rocks.
She finished whatever she was doing and glared at me.
“What?” I pulled my knees to my chest.
“Actually a good question, for once.” Vance smirked at Mia and waited.
“Max cast a spell on the bar to make everyone go nuts and try to kill Vance. I am pretty sure, if I understood the Latin, no one can get in or out of this bar until Vance’s blood is spilled.”
“So we give him a paper cut,” I offered, helpfully. They both glared at me. “Or you wave your arm around and undo it. Whatever...”
“Okay, here’s the deal. I am a witch. I do white magic. This is not white magic. I have no ability to do much of anything beyond putting us in this circle and hoping it doesn’t break.”
“Okay, so we stay in the circle until help comes.”
“If I can hold the circle until morning, which is somewhat unlikely in the first place, then we get to s
it here and watch the sun come in those bay windows. Then we’ll get to watch a vampire fry.”
Hmm, not good.
“So what do we do?” Vance reached out as if to touch the sparkly globe.
“Don’t touch it!” Mia shrank back. “Unless you want them to come in here.” Chairs busted over the circle as if it were made of rock. Someone tried to hit it with a wine bottle, which shattered and then the liquid dripped down the outside of the circle.
Vance moved his hand back to his lap. “No, I’ll pass.”
“So what do we do?” I waved my arms.
Mia stared at me. I knew that look. “No way.”
“Janie, they are going after Vance.”
“So, we hide.”
“Janie, this is a spell. No one can get in or out of here until his blood is spilled. Someone is going to find a way in before help has a shot of getting in here.”
“How the hell do you know?”
She gave me a look.
“Mia Cunningham, if I do that, he will try to kill me.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“This is a terrible idea. Are you sure you can’t do some spell—”
She rolled her eyes at me. “If I did, do you think I would suggest that you do your thing?”
“What are you two talking about?” Vance looked back and forth between us.
I sighed. “If I do that, you and Vance are as screwed as everyone else in this bar. And, well, it’s different now, and—”
“Oh, that I can fix.” She rummaged in her purse.
“Fix what?” Vance seemed confused.
“Look, I made these up when I heard you were coming back to town. They are full of earth magic, which counters water magic.” Her eyebrows were raised expectantly, and she smiled proudly. She pulled out little velvet bags that plunked against each other. Shaking them made them rattle dully.
I took one and looked in it. It smelled nice, like pine trees and lavender. Not what I would expect to be a pleasant scent combination, but nice. There were rocks in there, too. Pulling the drawstring to close it again, I handed it back. “Regardless, even if your bags work, which you don’t know because you haven’t tested them, then Vance will try to kill me.”
“Why would I try to kill you? What are we talking about?” Vance’s forehead creased in a baffled expression, and I saw the bartender from earlier taking a lighter to the side of the circle. Some alcohol caught fire and burned off.
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