A Kind of Magic

by Donna Grant

  With a sigh, he sank onto the bed and thought of the creatures. Harpies. He needed to contact Aimery and Val quickly.

  The sound of the shower running drew his attention. He turned his head and saw the steam rolling from the shower. His body cried out to join Elle, but his mind had a firm control for the moment and kept him from making a fool of himself by joining her.

  It was the tinkling sound from the front of the house that had him up and reaching for his sword. He grasped the pommel and raised the sword toward the ceiling as he stepped from Elle’s bedchamber into the hallway.

  With his eyes closed, his listened as the footsteps slowly and quietly drew near.

  When the person was about to turn the corner, Roderick whirled around and swung his sword. At the last moment, he jerked his downward swing to a stop as he spotted Val.

  “I could have killed you,” he growled.

  Val raised an eyebrow and glanced down.

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  Roderick followed his gaze and saw the dagger near his gut. He lowered his sword and swore. “You could have told me you were in the house.”

  “I didn’t know if you were here,” Val argued. “I saw your bike, but she could have taken it.”

  Roderick raked a hand through his hair. “Have you been by our home?”

  Val’s eyes narrowed as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Nay. What happened?”

  “There is no need for you to roam the city trying to determine what creature is here. They attacked tonight.”

  “They?” Val repeated. “What ‘they’?”

  “Harpies.”

  For a long moment, Val didn’t move. “If the myths were true, we’re going to have a hell of a time killing them.”

  “That’s not all,” Roderick said when Val turned to walk to the kitchen.

  “There’s more?” the Roman asked as he braced his shoulder against the door jam.

  “I know who has the blue stone.”

  Val jerked away from the door jam. “Elle.”

  “She received it yesterday from a friend. There is no way she could have been controlling the Harpies all this time.”

  “Have you destroyed it yet?”

  Roderick shook his head. “I was a little more concerned with getting our butts out of there alive. They wanted her. Badly.”

  At that moment, the shower cut off. Roderick pointed to the kitchen and turned to retrace his steps to Elle’s bed chamber. He walked in just as she wrapped a towel around her glistening wet body.

  He salivated at the glimpse of exposed skin. Her wet hair hung around her shoulders dripping droplets of water down her arms and shoulders.

  Damn, but he wanted her.

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  Chapter Seven

  Elle ignored the water dripping onto her bath mat and floor as she stared at Roderick. She couldn’t take her eyes off his luscious body, and she was quite certain she had never called any man luscious before.

  His muscles bunched and moved as he lowered his sword on the bed.

  Sword!

  “Just who are you?” she asked, her near nakedness forgotten.

  “Get dressed and come into the kitchen. I will explain everything.”

  He turned and walked from her bedroom, and all she could do was think how yummy he looked. She caught a glimpse of her shirt tied around his arm and hurried to dress so she could see to the wound. It would be just her luck that he passed out in the kitchen from loss of blood.

  She yanked open a drawer in her lingerie armoire and grabbed a set of apricot colored bra and panties. Then, she tugged on a pair of yoga-type pants and another tank before she quickly combed through her wet hair and made sure all her mascara was off her face.

  And that’s when she spotted the necklace. She hadn’t even realized she had showered with it on. It wasn’t like her to leave any jewelry on in the shower, but then again, she had never been chased by Harpies before.

  She unclasped the necklace and tucked it away in the jewelry armoire. She had a feeling Roderick wanted that necklace, and she wasn’t about to part from it. It was a gift from Jennifer, and Elle planned to treasure it always. After she put away her jewelry, she walked into the kitchen and came to a dead stop.

  All thoughts of Roderick’s injury fled from her mind as she stared at the man next to him—a man she had already met.

  “I have to admit that I feel as though I have a need for a stun gun.”

  “Stun gun?” Roderick asked as he looked at her.

  “It isn’t a coincidence that …Val, is it … came to our beach house?”

  She had to give Roderick credit. He didn’t look at all happy at the situation. Val, on the other hand, simply stared at her.

  “We were looking for you,” Val finally answered.

  Whatever hope she had that Roderick really might like her vanished like smoke.

  She should have known that men like him didn’t notice women like her, but it still stung, more than she liked to admit.

  “Me? Why?”

  “Elle,” Roderick said as he slid off the bar stool and came to stand beside her.

  “This is all going to sound very strange.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You mean like the Harpies that attacked us at your penthouse?”

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  Roderick sighed. “You might need to sit down for this.”

  By the looks on both of their faces and the sword and flail on her bed, Elle didn’t think she had much of a choice. She’d had such a good vibe about Roderick. Who would have known he was a serial killer.

  “Just kill me now.”

  “What?” the men asked in unison.

  “I saw the weapons, Roderick. You both admitted to looking for me. Obviously, you both have escaped some psycho ward or prison.”

  Val snorted. “If we wanted to kill you, you would have been dead on the beach.”

  Roderick said something to Val in a language that sounded suspiciously like Latin and then turned to her. “Please,” he said and motioned to the sofa in the living room.

  She decided to comply, simply out of curiosity. She doubted there was anything that they could tell her that would be stranger than what she had seen at Roderick’s penthouse. Besides, her legs still vibrated from the awful motorcycle ride.

  Elle sank onto the couch while Val took the chair to her left and Roderick sat on the stool in front of her. She watched Roderick as he seemed to search for a way to start.

  After several minutes, it was apparent he was having a hard time.

  Val mumbled under his breath. “Elle, we’re looking for a woman with a mark on her.”

  “Mark? What kind of mark?” she asked.

  “An unusual mark that looks similar to the Celtic symbols that you know.”

  Elle felt the breath rush from her body. “Why?”

  “Do you have the mark?” Roderick asked, his eyes on the floor.

  “Why?” she asked again.

  He raised his dark blue eyes. “Please, Elle. Do you have the mark?”

  She slowly nodded her head.

  “We need to see it,” Val said.

  Elle bent over and lifted the hem of her pants, thankful that they were cotton and lycra and stretched. She pulled up the pants until she reached the mark that looked similar to a Celtic eternity knot circled by a thick, solid line on the inside of her right thigh.

  “We found her,” Val said, relief shining in his green eyes.

  Elle released her pants and looked at Roderick. “What is that mark?”

  “Twas placed on you before you were sent here.”

  “From where? And there is the “’twas” again. Who speaks like that?”

  “From where we come from ‘tis normal,” Val said.

  A chill ran down Elle’s back at his words. “And where do you come from?”

&nbs
p; “I am from Rome.”

  From the expectant look on their faces, she realized they anticipated for that to bother her. “So.”

  “79

  BC.”

  It was a good thing Elle was sitting for her entire body began to shake. She moved her eyes to Roderick. “And you?”

  He took a deep breath. “I am not from this realm.”

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  Elle looked from one to the other and began to laugh. It was either that or cry.

  Surely these two men were delusional. There was no way they could be telling her the truth.

  “I am not lying,” Roderick said softly.

  She stopped laughing and wiped her eyes. “How can I believe you?”

  He licked his lips, then untied her shirt from around his arm. Where there should have been a huge gnash, there was nothing.

  Elle gasped and vaulted from the couch to kneel beside him. She reached out to touch him but stopped at the last moment. Her eyes lifted to his face. “How did that happen?”

  “I’m

  immortal.”

  She sat back on her heels and tried to take it all in. “I thought that only happened in movies.”

  Roderick shook his head. “I can only be killed one way.”

  “By chopping off your head?” she asked, thinking of the movie Highlander.

  “A special weapon that isn’t in this realm.”

  “So far,” Val added.

  Roderick threw him a look before he turned back to Elle. “You don’t feel as though you belong here, do you?” Roderick asked.

  “What has that got to do with anything?”

  “You aren’t from this realm either.”

  That actually made a lot of sense to her, but she wasn’t about to tell them that.

  She was beginning to think she was as nuts as they were. “And what realm am I from?”

  “Ronnoc. It was destroyed by the same evil that has descended on Earth.”

  Elle rose to her feet and began to pace her tiny living room. “This is like something off of the Sci-Fi channel.”

  “It’s the truth,” Roderick said as he stood.

  Elle nearly ran into his rock solid bare chest. She raised her face to look him in the eye. “It’s too bizarre to be real.”

  “There’s more,” Val interjected.

  She glanced at him, not sure she could take more. “More?”

  Val nodded his head.

  “What else?” she asked Roderick.

  “How do you think we came from ancient Rome and another realm?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think I want to know.”

  “The Fae,” he finally said.

  “The Fae? As in Faeries?”

  “Is that so hard to believe?” a deep voice asked from behind her.

  Elle whirled around to see the most striking creature she had ever laid eyes upon.

  He had long, straight white blonde hair that reached halfway down his back. He was incredibly tall and lithe, but power radiated from him letting all know just how much strength he had.

  His face was so perfect even Adonis would cry. But it was his eyes that drew her attention. They were blue, but a mystical blue. They shimmered and swirled as if they A KIND OF MAGIC

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  had a life of their own.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Aimery,” he said, a soft smile pulling at his perfect lips. “I am commander of the Fae army and messenger to the Shields from the king and queen of the Fae.”

  “Shields?” This was just getting weirder and weirder.

  “A group of hand picked men from all times and realms that battle the creatures that have been called up to destroy the Earth.”

  “Why don’t you fight them?”

  He lowered his eyes. “We cannot, dear Elle. ‘Tis my greatest desire to do just that, but we are bound to stay in our realm.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we once roamed Earth and are still attached to it. If the realm of Earth ever ceases to exist, so do we, which is why the Shields were created. We found the most skilled warriors throughout time and realms and brought them together. Roderick and Val are two of the Shields. They were sent here to find you and kill the creature.”

  She laughed then. “The Harpies? Are you kidding?”

  Aimery jerked his gaze to the men, his smile gone, replaced by pinched lips.

  “Harpies?”

  Roderick nodded. “They attacked me and Elle at my home.”

  “I must tell Queen Rufina and King Theron.”

  “Wait,” Val yelled. “We also found the stone.”

  Aimery’s eyes narrowed. “So we know who is controlling the Harpies?”

  Val looked away, causing Aimery to turn to Roderick. “Elle has the stone,”

  Roderick answered.

  Aimery closed his eyes. “Destroy the stone,” he said.

  Elle blinked, and he was gone. “Where did he go?” she asked as she looked around her living room.

  “Back to the realm of the Fae,” Val answered. “We don’t have a lot of time before the Harpies find her again, Roderick. Destroy the stone, and we can return home.”

  Elle waited until Val walked from the room before she turned to Roderick. “Why do you want to destroy my necklace?”

  She let him pull her down onto the couch. “The stones are what called the creatures from their ancient hell. If the stones are destroyed, then so are the creatures.”

  “It’s just a stone. Are you sure it’s the same one?”

  “Positive. There is no mistaking the stone.”

  “I can’t let you obliterate my necklace. It was a gift from Jennifer.”

  He raked a hand through his hair. “You would let the people of your city die?”

  “Have you been here long?” she asked. “People are murdered right and left.

  Children are abused, abandoned, kidnapped, and sold daily. This isn’t exactly a place I would want to save.”

  “And the innocents? Like the children? You would condemn them to death?”

  She closed her eyes as tears threatened. “No.”

  “Then

  help

  me.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked as she opened her eyes.

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  “To kill the Harpies we must destroy your necklace.”

  Elle had no idea how she was going to explain this to Jennifer, and she had no idea why she believed every word that came out of Roderick’s mouth.

  “How do I know you aren’t lying?” she asked.

  “You

  don’t.”

  “If the stone was given to me as a present, then who called the Harpies?”

  Roderick sighed. “I don’t know. My mission was to find you, find and kill the creatures, and destroy the stone. I can do all of that now and return to the other Shields.”

  “Why did you need to find me?”

  “Your people sent twelve babes to Earth just before your realm was destroyed.

  There are only five of you left. You are the second one we have found.”

  Elle sat back and let his words soak in. “And we all bear this mark?”

  “Aye, in different places. Mina’s is on the back of her neck.”

  “Mina?”

  “She is in England, in the time of 1123.”

  Elle’s mouth dropped open. “So we are scattered through time?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “You don’t know a whole lot, do you?” she said and rose to her feet.

  “I know you can save this city.”

  She looked down at him. “Whoever has the stone controls the Harpies, right?”

  He slowly nodded.

  “Since you’re here with me, you know I’m not controlling them. Right?”

  Again he nodded.

  “I need t
ime to think about this.”