She conjured the spell as she sprinted toward the service area, knowing Endora had originally headed in that direction. And based on faith that the familiar had indeed put the word kitchen in Cassie’s head. A thousand terrible scenarios flashed in her mind when she entered the corridor behind the banquet halls and honed in on Endora’s aura. It was very weak.
Cassie burst through the kitchen doors, sliding to a halt where the cat’s crumpled form lay at the junction of wall and floor. She was immediately kneeling beside her friend to gently lift her into her arms.
“Hang in there, pal,” she murmured, brushing away the blood trickling from the cat’s left ear. “Let’s get you up to the room.”
“He got the jump on me,” Endora moaned.
“Shhh. Take it easy. You can tell me all about it after I’ve seen how badly he hurt you.”
Cassie had started sending out waves of healing energy as soon as she’d seen Endora, and her friend’s pain was already lessening.
“Do I get combat pay for this, Boss?” the cat wheezed.
“I’ll have to think about it.” Cassie gave her a quick, gentle scratching between the ears. “We’ve got to get you patched up first.”
Endora suddenly stiffened. “Help the mortals, Cass,” she urged. “That thing’s still out there!”
Belatedly, Cassie remembered the spell she’d thrown over the hotel. “I’ve got everything frozen,” she explained as she carried Endora on to the elevator and up to their suite. “I think. I’ll put you to bed, then go back to the lobby and set things right.”
“Be careful.”
Cassie gently laid Endora on one of the beds and pulled the coverlet up over her. “I will. Now, you get some rest. I’ll be back before you can twitch that tail you’re so vain about.”
Endora closed her eyes. “We’ve got to talk about this and what we need to do, you know.”
“Believe me, I know.”
Even though she felt the man had hurt her familiar simply because in her cat form she was vulnerable, Cassie put a protection spell on the suite as she flashed back to the lobby. Evil that powerful was never to be taken lightly. She didn’t want to think about the fact that her confidence in her spell-casting abilities had never been very high before this.
What have you gotten us into, Mick? And could she get them out?
MICK SHOOK HIS head to clear a slight buzzing in his ears. What the hell had just happened? He could have sworn Cassie and Endora were standing a few steps behind him as the group waited for elevators. Now, Cassie was definitely to his direct left, and his temporary manager was nowhere to be seen.
He glanced over at a glassy-eyed Jamison. The man was an FBI agent, how could he look that stupefied? Something very strange was going on.
“Hey, Robert, snap out of it.” Jamison was slow to respond, so Mick nudged him with an elbow to the ribs. “Robert? Hello! Anybody home?”
Jamison blinked, then his gaze again took on the intense focus Mick had become accustomed to seeing.
“That was weird. I just lost my edge and zoned out.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Mick casually quipped. But his mind reeled. The exact same thing happening to both of us? That’s too bizarre to be coincidence. He was about to comment when he saw Jamison glance at his watch. The agent’s eyes narrowed.
“Funny, I thought it was eleven-thirty. My watch reads almost eleven forty-five.”
The hair on the back of Mick’s neck rose, but he tried to pass it off as the lingering effects of last night’s binge and the menacing reason for the book tour.
“What’s taking this elevator so long?” Cassie broke in from behind him. “I swear, they’ve got three-legged squirrels on treadmills powering those things.”
The sound of her husky contralto gave Mick shivers of a totally different sort. It conjured visions of rumpled satin sheets and morning-after breakfasts, and he found himself starting to become aroused. Shit, Sandor, get a grip, he ordered himself. Remember Lake Superior. That did it. Memories of August swims in water with a temperature hovering around sixty-five degrees effectively shrank his libido.
With a laugh he hoped sounded sincerely casual, he turned toward her to add, “More likely one-legged baboons on bicycles.”
The impact of her caramel-colored gaze at a range of less than three feet nearly knocked him to his knees. The first time they met he’d seen her eyes were beautiful, but he had no idea how powerful. They nearly glowed. Funny, he hadn’t noticed before. Of course, most of the time he’d seen her in subdued lighting. Not today, though. His original lack of perception that morning he blamed on a hangover and self-pity. At lunch, she’d been wearing sunglasses when he’d approached her.
Neither of those two barriers stood between them now, however. Had he fallen into a vat of caramel and been pulled under? Then he smelled that incredible perfume, so uniquely hers. It was a struggle to resist touching her cheek, he was so drawn by her physical presence. Drowning in sensations, he found himself loving his imminent demise.
It took him a moment to realize Jamison was speaking to him.
“Mick, you getting on or not?” The FBI agent stood holding the elevator door open.
“Uh, sorry.” Mick rolled his overnighter onto the car and, programmed in this situation to follow the rest of the herd, turned to face the car’s doors. Then he spotted Cassie struggling with two sets of luggage. “Need some help?” He stepped back into the lobby to take a suitcase and garment bag from her.
“Thanks.”
Her heartfelt smile warmed him completely through, and his chest tightened. God, this woman is hot. He cleared his throat. “Where’s Endora?” He thought Cassie gave a start at his question, but wrote it off as imagination.
“She, uh, had to go talk to some of the service people,” Cassie stammered. “Something about the menu, I think.”
Mick hadn’t survived growing up with three sisters without becoming a body language expert. And the language Cassandra Hathorne’s body was speaking said she definitely wasn’t telling the truth. He noticed a tightness around her mouth that hadn’t been there any time before on this trip.
“Everything all right?”
That caramel gaze snapped in his direction, and a shade seemed to drop down over her eyes, shielding her innermost thoughts and effectively dampening the intense glow of just moments before.
“Fine,” she stated. Not emphatically enough to be brusque, but there was no breeziness to her tone, either.
Mick chose to take her statement at face value, and when the elevator stopped at their floor, he casually said, “I could take this luggage to your room for you.”
Cassie’s response came after a slight pause. “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
Mick laughed. “It’s not like I’ll be lugging this stuff for miles, then hiking Mt. Rainier to get to my room. I think I’ve got enough physical endurance to pull this off.”
They were standing in the elevator lobby with all the other members of the tour streaming past them dragging carryons and various other bags and baggage, but Mick was really only aware of Cassie. God, he just wanted to take her in his arms and soothe away whatever was bothering her, but all the luggage in his hands quashed that impulse.
“So what do you say,” he asked softly. “Can I come to your room?”
Cassie jumped as if she’d been scalded. “Bat rumps, I’m sorry!”
Mick cocked a brow. “Bat rumps?”
“It’s just an expression I use,” she said hastily, completely nonplused. “The ‘Kitchen Witch’ thing and all that, you know.”
It stunned him to realize he’d completely flustered her. She was really on edge all of a sudden. Lifting the garment bag he held in his left hand, he said, “Your room?”
“Oh! Sorry! I guess my mind just went
south there for a minute.”
That seems to be happening to a majority of us lately. He turned to the directional guides on the corridor wall. “What’s your suite number?”
“Twelve-thirteen.”
Before she could say another word, he was following the arrow pointing the way to her suite. He could hear her right behind him, and in a weird way that felt somehow comforting.
When he stopped at her door, she stepped past him to open it. He found himself fascinated with the back of her head as she bent to insert the key card. Her dark, silky hair, cut at chin level, parted almost perfectly down the middle to fall on either side of her face and expose the nape of her neck. What would she do if he kissed her there?
Whoa! Mick brought himself up short. What the hell’s my problem? I’m acting like a kid with his first Playboy.
The purpose of this tour was to catch a serial killer, not start a relationship. Yet, almost from the moment he’d met her, and especially since their private lunch in Chicago, he’d felt an almost overwhelming attraction to her. And it wasn’t just physical. When Cassie sat beside him at the first signing in Toledo he’d felt it. And it just kept getting stronger.
But the attraction could not take priority. This serial killer horror had him completely out of emotional control, and he had to regain it and return to his original objective. Taking a mental step back, he managed to throttle his hormones. A slow, deep breath helped, too.
At that exact moment, Cassie straightened and opened the door. She waved him inside. “Just set them in the closet if you would.” She turned to indicate where. When he did so, she added, “Thanks, Mick. I’d ask you in for a drink, but Endora wasn’t feeling well and planned to come back here and lie down after she talked to the serving staff. I’m hoping she’s asleep by now.”
Her polite dismissal gave him an opportunity to escape without embarrassing himself by carrying on like a lust-struck adolescent. “No problem. Hope to see you at dinner. Tell Endora to get better.”
He was halfway down the hall before he realized his palms were sweaty and that a certain part of his anatomy had hardly been throttled back at all. In fact, it showed a definite interest in Ms. Cassandra Hathorne. He’d have to go to the gym and see if he could work off his sudden bout of hormones before he saw her again.
“I’m a pig,” he muttered, turning by the elevator lobby into the corridor that led to his rooms. “All hell’s breaking loose, and I can’t get my mind off a woman.”
Where was a priest when he needed one?
CASSIE LEANED HER head against the door, mentally tracing Mick’s retreat. She didn’t need infrared sensors to detect his body temperature. Heat poured from him in waves. Longing hit her in the chest, and she found herself wanting to run after him and take him directly to bed. To see if the heat he radiated was anywhere near her own body temperature when she thought of him.
Goddess, she had a major problem. What had started out as simple lust was getting far too complicated. Come to think of it, it really hadn’t started out as simple lust. That was dangerous, to say the least. And she had other real concerns to confront. Pining after a human being was one thing. Actually contemplating a serious relationship with one was a completely different cauldron of ingredients.
Not exactly a great time to start a courtship, Cass, she admonished herself. Arguably, there was never a great time to start a courtship with a non-witch, but she had it bad for Mick, and there was no sense denying it.
Now, what was she going to do about it?
Seven
SOMETHING HAD nearly gone wrong. For a few moments, he had been slowed to a near standstill, unable to escape from the hotel after having again seen the object of his adoration. Despite his most concentrated efforts, he could not move quickly, and panic had begun to set in. How could he avoid being seen by the Master? It wasn’t time yet. He was not yet worthy.
Unexpectedly encountering a cat in the hotel kitchen had startled him, but he’d disposed of it. Then he’d just reached the hallway when he’d suddenly found himself moving in slow motion. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not increase his speed. It had taken close to fifteen minutes to travel only three hundred yards to the hotel’s west exit. By the time his sluggishness abruptly ended, he was five feet from the door, soaked in sweat and terrified of discovery. His sudden release from this overwhelming lethargy caused him to stumble forward and nearly fall. He’d quickly regained his balance, fled the hotel miraculously unseen, and run into the street toward his temporary lair.
This time, he had drawn closer. Far closer than he had approached in Toledo. Of course, after the very proper sacrifice he’d made near the Seaway Center, his worthiness to come near the Master had increased. But he was yet too inferior to make eye contact, could only dare to see M. S. Kazimer from across the banks of elevators. Much work remained if he was to prove deserving of the one man in the world superior to himself.
Yet unforeseen circumstances had nearly impeded his schedule for accomplishing this triumph. Jennifer Bodin’s revelation in the Chicago bar the previous night had infuriated him, but he had as yet discovered no support for her claim. The tour continued, as would he. But remembered frustration had him hissing through his teeth. Something about his idol’s latest excursion didn’t feel quite right. He’d definitely been held up by some invisible force in the hotel. Whether that had anything to do with the tour, he couldn’t say. But it had disrupted his carefully laid plans, and that was unacceptable.
CASSIE LET OUT a shaky breath and pushed herself away from the door with a dispirited sigh. It took a concentrated effort to make her wobbly knees support her, and she laughed aloud at how ridiculous the situation was. That put some starch back into her spine. Laughing at herself always did.
“Better get unpacked,” she said to the air around her and with a snap of her fingers put away all of Endora’s and her clothes. “Too bad motion-freeze spells aren’t so easy,” she muttered, more than a little tired.
“I heard that,” came Endora’s disembodied voice from the suite’s far bedroom.
Cassie shook her head as she headed for that room. “I should never forget your preternatural hearing, Dora.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you.”
Cassie sat down beside her familiar—bundled beneath the institutionally patterned, earth-tone bedspread—and ran a hand across the cat’s furry brow. “You don’t feel feverish. How’s the rest of you?”
Endora rubbed her head against Cassie’s palm and purred in contentment. “Almost as good as new, Boss, but you don’t have to stop with the ear scratching just because I told you that. I like it when you show concern.”
Cassie barked a laugh and gave the cat a soft pat on the head. “Like I never do! You’re impossible, Dora.”
“I know. It’s just part of my feline charm.” At Cassie’s wince, Endora added, “What?”
Cassie managed through great effort to keep from grinding her teeth. But she couldn’t prevent tears from welling in her eyes.
“I could’ve gotten you killed!”
Endora immediately returned to human form. Sitting up slowly, she took Cassie’s hand between both of hers. “Nonsense.”
“Dora—”
“Cass, listen to me! Your actions had nothing to do with what happened in the kitchen. That freakin’ bastard got the jump on me.”
“You shouldn’t have been in there alone. I should have gone with you.”
Endora rubbed Cassie’s knuckles. “Stop hammering yourself over this. I’m not much the worse for wear.”
“I should have been with you,” Cassie insisted.
“Your responsibility was to Mick and the other humans. End of argument. I’m a cat, remember? And cats can take care of themselves.”
“Most of the time.” Cassie felt a tear spill out of her eye and run down her cheek
, but she didn’t brush it away. “If that man had killed you, I don’t know what I would have done.”
“Well, I’ve got a few lives left,” Endora quipped, smiling wryly. “You could have brought me back to finish them out.”
“Joke all you want, but you know I could never have pulled that off.” Cassie put her head in her hands. “I’m just not good enough.”
“You froze everyone in the hotel lobby—”
“A lot of good that would have done if that maniac had come back,” Cassie cut in, misery in both tone and posture. “And I didn’t stop time. Mick and Jamison noticed their watches had advanced. I tried to distract them from contemplating that phenomenon, but I’m not sure I managed . . .” She covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
Endora drew her friend into her arms and held her tight. Cassie sobbed harder.
“I hated witch training,” she choked out. “All the other students were so mean because I didn’t want to be there. Didn’t want to be like them.”
“You wanted to be human, didn’t you?” Endora rubbed Cassie’s back comfortingly.
Cassie nodded against Endora’s shoulder. “I barely paid attention during spells and hexes training. I was much better at potions and cooking.”
“And that makes you uniquely suitable for your chosen career path,” Endora stated loyally. “While witches like Mort go around looking like Rocky Horror groupies who have no lives, you’re beloved of human beings everywhere because of what you do. You actually help people, Cass.”
“I’m a terrible witch.”
“‘C’mon! You can do lots of spells. Besides, you know as well as I do not every magick practitioner can cast the really complex incantations. Not with a high degree of proficiency. And especially not in a hotel lobby.”
Some Practical Magic Page 10