Blood, Smoke and Mirrors

by Robyn Bachar

  When I was tackled to the ground I realized my shields had dropped in my distracted state. I mentally resigned myself to the fact that my dumb ass had gotten myself killed, and I braced for the inevitable.

  “Catherine!”

  “Kitty? Kitty!” Tybalt’s voice assaulted me as I was shaken back and forth and battered by two sets of hands.

  “Fire, on fire!” I squeaked.

  “I know,” my cousin answered. For a few seconds more the battering continued until finally the assault ended.

  “Are you all right?” Lex asked.

  “On fire! Hello!”

  “You’re not on fire anymore, Kitty,” Tybalt assured me.

  “I’m not?”

  “Nope.”

  Slowly, I opened my eyes, peering down at myself. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I had some very nasty burns on my right hand, with a sprinkling of minor ones on my arm and across my torso. Thankfully my clothes seemed to have taken the worst of it.

  “Great idea, Tybalt. ‘Invoke Apollo.’ You lit me on fire, damn it.”

  “Only a little. You lit the vampires on fire a lot more.”

  “We need to get her home. My truck’s this way,” Lex interrupted us. He scooped me up into his arms and began to carry me away like a slender damsel in distress, something I certainly am not.

  “Whoa, whoa, put me down, you’re injured.”

  “You distracted me.”

  “I did not. Put me down.”

  “Not a chance, honey,” he drawled. I briefly considered the childish response of biting him to get my way. The thought of biting reminded me that the area had somehow become vampire and necromancer free.

  “Where’d all the dead people go?”

  “Ran home to their mamas, I imagine, after the toasting you gave ’em. Never seen that trick before. You’ll have to teach me that one,” Lex explained, seeming impressed.

  “Yeah, it was perfect until you lit yourself on fire too, Kitty.”

  Wonderful. From now on I’d just have to light myself on fire every time I got attacked, and all would be right in the world.

  “Hey, Tybalt, that doesn’t count as part of the test, does it?” I asked.

  “No, but I’m sure they’ll give you at least a night to yourself after that last one.”

  “Oh good.”

  The three of us approached an SUV. The lights flickered as it chirped and the doors unlocked. The car was black. I suppose I should have expected that.

  “What happened to your pickup?”

  “Needed a change. This one’s a hybrid.” When we reached the SUV, Lex set me on my feet and opened the passenger side door for me. “After you, Miss Baker.”

  I brushed myself off before climbing into the car, and I noticed I’d picked up even more blood that wasn’t mine. “You’re still bleeding.”

  “It’s only a scratch.”

  Frowning, I got into the car and he shut the door. Tybalt let himself in behind me and climbed into the backseat, and then leaned forward to stare wide-eyed at the million-and-one electronic gadgets scattered across the dashboard.

  “Ooh, what does that do?”

  “Don’t touch anything.”

  “Though I do appreciate the light show, I was doin’ well enough on my own,” Lex drawled as he plopped into the driver’s seat.

  “Uh-huh. So those slashes across your ribs are what? A pre-existing shaving accident?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Resisting the urge to comment on the idiot macho nature of men, I sat silent while Tybalt pestered Lex about what all the buttons did. It was a short drive to my apartment, and the trip was uneventful. Lex paused to grab a gym bag out of the back of the car before we headed into the building. Once we were safe inside my place I escorted Lex into the kitchen to tend his wounds at my breakfast table. Magicians heal injuries faster than the average human, but even we can catch an infection if it’s bad enough. No telling where those vamps’d been. They were probably crawling with all kinds of nasty undead cooties.

  “We ought to take care of your burns first,” he insisted as I plunked down my first-aid kit.

  “I just need a new shirt. This one’s trashed.”

  “No, your hand should be bandaged. Give it here and have a seat.” Before I could protest he gently took hold of my injured hand and turned it over to examine it. I sat in the chair he pulled out for me and surrendered to his demand. “Explain to me how you lit those vamps up.”

  “Is that what I did? I was a li’l distracted by being on fire at the time.”

  “They’re char-grilled. It was great!” Tybalt exclaimed from his perch on the edge of the sink.

  “Which, I might add, I’ve never seen before. You drag a vamp out into the sunlight and it gets sunburned, it doesn’t burst into flames. What you did is something out of fiction.” Grabbing a tube of antibiotic ointment from the kit, he unscrewed the cap and poised himself to squeeze some onto my burns. “This’ll probably hurt.”

  “Yeah, I figured that. Go ahead.” To my credit I didn’t shriek when the gob of ointment hit my skin, and I kept my composure while he spread it over the angry, reddened wounds. “Tybalt, the spell was your idea. You ever hear of that kind of reaction happening?”

  “Sure, that’s why I had you invoke Apollo. Magic sunlight’s got a chance to do it when it’s properly blessed, and the caster’s strong enough.”

  I stared incredulously at the faerie. “Why haven’t you mentioned this before?”

  “Thought you knew about it.”

  “Nobody knows about it.”

  “It’s not my fault you humans forget things so easily. You all used to know about that,” he pointed out, a scolding tone in his voice.

  “Great. Anything else you want to share with the class?”

  The faerie blinked and looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “No, not really.”

  “Those vamps didn’t die, did they?”

  “Nope,” Lex replied. “Just ran off like someone lit their tails on fire.” Finished with the ointment, the guardian wound a thin gauze bandage around my hand.

  “So they’re going to be extra mad later, pretty much?”

  “More than likely.”

  “Wonderful.”

  “They’ll be less mad than if we’d killed any of them though, so it’s not that bad. And no paperwork. There you go, all set,” Lex proclaimed, releasing my hand.

  “Thanks. Your turn,” I said, as I got to my feet.

  “I can take care of it.”

  “It’ll go faster if I do it. Guardians may know a thing or two about first aid, but witches are natural healers. Now let me see.”

  For a second it looked like he wanted to argue with me, but then he shrugged. Slipping his coat off, he placed it on top of the table, and it made a loud clunk as Lex set it down. Next he removed the torn, bloodied black T-shirt, and I blushed from the roots of my hair down to the tips of my toes. Lord and Lady, I’d forgotten just how gorgeous that man was-or rather I’d repressed those memories. But hell, I’d seen him naked, so I was sure I could survive a few minutes of shirtlessness without making an idiot of myself.

  “What did this?” I focused my attention on the marks. Five evenly spaced slashes had gouged through his shirt and into skin. Just deep enough to need stitches, they looked really painful.

  “Vampires can grow claws when they don’t feel like using fangs to draw blood. Short, stubby claws your average shapeshifter would laugh at, but they get the job done.” Lex grimaced, shrugging again.

  I nodded in reply and set about dealing with his injuries. I dabbed at the cuts with a clump of gauze soaked in hydrogen peroxide to clean off the blood. The tough guy didn’t even flinch, good for him.

  “I’m going to need a few more things to close these up a bit, unless of course you’d rather I break out my sewing kit.”

  Lex winced at the thought of me stitching him up, and I couldn’t blame him. It’s not something I’
d be eager to try either. “Go ahead, I’ll wait.”

  Leaving the two males alone in the kitchen, I ducked into my bedroom and rummaged through my ritual supplies. Normally I’d light a green candle for healing energy, but I’d had more than enough fire for one night. Instead, I raided my collection of rings and slipped a moonstone and silver ring on each finger of my right hand. Moonstone’s not normally associated with healing, but it’s my zodiac birthstone, so it gives an extra kick to my magic (something I needed at the moment). The rings and my bandages combined to create a ginormous fashion faux pas, but I didn’t care. Returning to the kitchen, I found Lex and Tybalt chatting about the finer points of decapitating vampires.

  “Hold still.” Squaring my shoulders, I stared at the claw marks, holding my right hand just a hairsbreadth above them. I closed my eyes, concentrating as I visualized the slashes closing from the inside out, the tissue and muscle slowly knitting together. The energy moved in a cool, soothing wave, and I passed my hand across the length of the wound. To my disappointment I realized I couldn’t close it completely. I just didn’t have the strength left in me, but I managed to reduce the gouges to mere scratches.

  “That’s all I can do.” My voice was hushed and breathy as I opened my eyes and sagged into the chair behind me. I was tapped out-between the exertion of the test, the strain of holding up über-shields, and healing the wounds, I was at my magic’s limit.

  “Thanks, Cat. I can handle the rest.”

  “Nah, I started it, may as well finish it.” Grabbing a tube of triple antibiotic ointment from my first-aid kit, I leaned forward and smeared a generous amount on the claw marks. “Hey, if you heard about my death sentence, I don’t suppose you heard why the vampires want my father to be Oberon?”

  “No, that’s goin’ to take more research.”

  “It’s a power play of some sort,” Tybalt stated.

  “Yeah, but what sort? We need to figure out what they’re up to before we do anything else.”

  “That thought had crossed my mind.” Lex smiled dryly. “I’m going to do some askin’ around tomorrow.”

  “You mean we are going to do some askin’ around, right?” Frowning at my collection of bandages and the placement of his injuries, I debated how best to wrap them up. The prospect of putting my arms around him to do something as simple as winding bandages turned my face even redder, and I cursed myself for being a blushing idiot. With an annoyed sigh I stood up again and got to work.

  “No, I meant just me. I wouldn’t advise you leaving here right now. Your apartment still warded?”

  “Of course. I have the whole lot triple warded, for everything but faeries.” With my relationship to Tybalt and Portia’s clan, not many beings from Faerie would try to pick on me, so I don’t worry about keeping them out. Clan Silverleaf is respected, powerful and well connected.

  “I’m impressed,” he said, and his expression echoed the sentiment.

  “Yeah, well, I got real into security after…” I trailed off. Lex nodded in understanding and didn’t comment. After my attack I’d been extra jumpy, but I’d been twitchy about safety even before that. Not many witches have come home to see a loved one ripped to pieces on the carpet. If my mother had taken more precautions, the vampires might not have been able to get in to attack her, though admittedly it was a very big might, considering my father would have just undone whatever wards she put up. He let those monsters in. Very little feels safe again after that.

  “With your wards it’s safer for you to stay here,” he pointed out.

  “I’m not going to lock myself in my room and hide under the covers and hope the monsters go away. I need answers, so I’m going with you. There, all done.” Stepping away, I let him inspect my first-aid handiwork.

  “Thanks, sugar.”

  I flinched at the nickname, the scene a little too familiar for my taste. Lex’d spent a lot of time in my apartment while we were dating, because my place was closer to most of his work than his house was. Walking around him, I crossed to the sink, nudging Tybalt aside so I could wash up. As I dried my hands off, I fought the urge to yawn. I was exhausted. I hadn’t been this tired in years, possibly never. Throwing around so much big magic put a drain on my magical batteries and I hadn’t really given them an opportunity to recharge. If we got into another fight, I’d start to worry about the strength of my shields. Then again, it wasn’t a question of if we’d get into another fight, but of when.

  “You look like you could sleep for a week,” Tybalt said.

  “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

  “You should come home with me, stay with the family.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Lex agreed. “You’d be safe from the vamps in Faerie.”

  “Yeah, but I’m safe from the vamps here as long as they don’t drop a house on my building.” I didn’t want to run and hide behind my faerie cousins-it seemed like cheating somehow.

  “Fair enough. So you’ll be leaving now?” Tybalt asked Lex. The faerie folded his thin arms across his chest and watched the guardian carefully. It made me want to give Tybalt a big hug.

  “I’ve been ordered to look after Cat. It’s best if I stick close. She does have a nice, comfy couch.” He nodded toward my living room.

  “And you’d best make sure you stay on that couch, Duquesne.”

  “Of course.” Amusement danced in those beautiful light blue eyes, but Tybalt and I weren’t laughing.

  “I don’t know what idiot assigned you here, but I don’t like it, and you’d better be on your best behavior.” The faerie glared up at Lex, and then he turned to me and gave a slight bow. “Blessed be, Kitty. Rest well.” With a soft pop the faerie blinked out of the room, leaving only me and the half-naked guardian. Well, me, the half-naked guardian and my two cats who had been staring at him since he entered the apartment, watching Lex as though he were the King of all cat-kind and they were awaiting his orders. It made me want to yell “boo!” just to see if they’d jump.

  “We ought to get you into bed soon,” Lex advised.

  I blinked, certain I’d heard that wrong, and struggled to maintain my composure. Certain death was almost easier to face than the idea of Lex spending the night in my apartment.

  Placing my hands on my hips, I glared up at him. “Why are you here?”

  “Orders, actually.”

  “From who? Obviously they didn’t come from the witches’ council. They’d be more than happy to see me dead.”

  “Now that’s just not true. And you know I can’t tell you.”

  “Great, classified information, got it.” Deciding I wasn’t going to get anywhere, I walked away into the living room. “I’ll get you a pillow, and I have extra sheets in the linen closet.”

  “Cat-”

  Ducking into the bathroom, I yanked open the door to the linen closet and began rummaging through it. I didn’t think he would need a blanket-it was warm up here on the second floor and my bedroom was the only one with an air-conditioning unit. It was a little comforting to know he’d suffer while trying to sleep in the sauna that was my living room.

  “You don’t need to go to any trouble,” he said from behind me. Startled, I jumped and rapped my head hard on the underside of a shelf. It took a great deal of willpower to swallow the string of curses that came to mind, and I rubbed the bump on my head with one hand as I thrust an old set of gray cotton sheets I’d used in college at him.

  “Here. Just…just go.”

  “Thanks, Cat.”

  “Don’t mention it,” I muttered as I retreated hastily to my bedroom. Shutting the door behind me, I crawled directly into bed and hid my head under my pillows. Tomorrow had to be better. I couldn’t see how it could get any worse.

  Chapter Six

  Though I needed to sleep for a week, I woke up at sunrise. I dragged myself out of bed and stood staring at my closed bedroom door. All I could think of was how to best tiptoe around Lex to avoid waking him. Depressing. Pathetic.

  After a reco
rd-fast shower I retreated back into my room and got dressed. Considering I had no idea what my schedule was for the day, other than the fact that I would not be going to work, I settled on jeans and a T-shirt that proudly proclaimed that I was an alumni of Three Oaks University in bright green block letters. I tamed my wet hair into a long French braid, guaranteeing it would stay in place for the foreseeable future, and then next on my to-do list was imbibing copious amounts of coffee. I crept into the kitchen and set about making breakfast. Thanks to last night’s fight I needed pancakes to recharge, and lots of ’em.

  I’d used up half the batter and finished my first cup of coffee when I noticed my uninvited guest watching me from the doorway, a cat standing guard on either side of him. Whatever had gotten into my cats was beginning to creep me out-they were disobeying the feline rules of conduct by showing extreme interest in a human who didn’t appear to be allergic to them. They’d never paid any attention to Lex before. I had no idea what they found so fascinating about him now.

  “Good morning. Hungry?” I asked as casually as I could manage.

  “Starved.”

  “Help yourself.” I nodded in the direction of the empty plate I’d left on the counter. “Extra mugs are in the cabinets up and to the right.”

  “I know.”

  Staring at the skillet, I choked down a sarcastic reply. Of course he knew where they were. This wasn’t the first morning we’d spent in my kitchen. “Gonna need a hearty breakfast if we have a full day fighting evil,” I quipped, steering my thoughts to a new subject.

  “It does help.” He proceeded to stack his plate full of pancakes and pour himself a cup of coffee. There was something absurd about the rugged, long-haired man drinking out of my bright yellow Tigger mug. Really, there was just something absurd about having him in my kitchen in general. It was a sight I thought I’d never see again, but to be honest I’d never understood what he saw in me in the first place. Even with the rumpled, slept-in, bloodstained clothes, a day’s worth of stubble and the wavy, shoulder-length hair, Lex still looked as though he belonged on the cover of one of the many romance novels crammed into the bookshelves in my bedroom. Maybe as a pirate, or a barbarian warlord. And he ought to have a busty wench to accompany him. Not me, a mousy waitress in jeans and a T-shirt. I guess we must’ve been doomed to failure.