by Anya Bast
Earth magick made Thomas tuned into everyone and everything around him, every little nuance. Thomas was present and grounded in a way that made him seem psychic. Jack really wasn't surprised Thomas had picked up on it.
"Mira is your cousin," Jack replied, "but she's also a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions.”
"Don't give me that bullshit, Jack." He turned to face him. "You see a beautiful woman and you seduce her, that's your way. That's why I didn't want you on this job to begin with. But I trusted that you wouldn't mess with her head because of your past, and you went ahead and did exactly that.”
"I never meant for it to happen. Damn it, Thomas. I tried to stop it once we felt the strength of the magickal affinity between fire and air and the sexual attraction that came with it. But I can't say, won't say that I'm sorry it happened.”
"The attractions are strong at first, but then you should have found a balance and they should've faded.”
Jack gritted his teeth for a moment and stared past Thomas, narrowing his eyes. "The magickical affinity did find a balance, but the sexual attraction didn't fade. Not for either of us. If anything, it was stronger by then.”
Thomas's face grew stormier. "Let's lay all the cards on the table. You never told her who you are, did you? You never told her the truth.”
Sickening dread and guilt rose up from the depths of him. Jack hesitated before answering. "No.”
"Then you should be sorry," Thomas answered in a low, dangerous voice.
"I thought you wanted me to keep that a secret," Jack growled, trying very hard not to completely lose his temper. "You told me you didn't want me to tell her anything about that until she was out of danger.”
"I did.. I do want you to keep that from her for now. You're the best we have to protect her, and I don't want her hating her bodyguard." Thomas cursed and turned away from him. "I just never thought you'd sleep with her. I never thought we'd have this problem.”
Hating her bodyguard. The words rang through his head. "I am aware of the complication." He paused. "I'm aware of what I did. Hurting Mira is last thing I want—”
Thomas whirled to face him. "I thought I could trust you with her because of your past and the way it ties into Mira's future. I thought by having you take this job it would provide you some measure of healing. Instead you just used her.”
Sudden anger stiffened his body. He felt his magick flare hot and fast in the center of his chest in response. He flexed his hands against the tickle of fire in his fingers. "I didn't use her," he snarled.
Thomas gave a short, sharp laugh of derision. "I'm counting all your women in my head right now, Jack, all your affairs.”
Jack wanted to bellow at him, tell him that it was different with Mira, that he cared about her and wanted more than he'd ever be able to have from her. He wanted to yell out his frustration at the situation at the top of his lungs, but that wouldn't make anything better.
The raw truth was that he could never have Mira. She'd find out soon enough who he was, and then she'd hate him. Thomas was right. That would be the end.
"I know I have to let her go," Jack replied.
"Yeah, you gotta let her go. You shouldn't have touched her in the first place. What were you thinking?" Thomas laughed. "Oh, that's right, you weren't.”
"Thomas, have you ever been with a woman you simply couldn't resist? Have you ever met a woman that, no matter how hard you tried, you simply couldn't stop yourself from touching?”
Thomas sobered, the cold smile dying on his lips. A muscle in his jaw tightened. He didn't answer.
"I'll take that response as a no." His eyes narrowed. "I hope you meet a woman like that one day. Then you'll understand how it was between Mira and me." Jack turned on his heel and walked out of the room.
"Jack," Thomas called after him. "Damn it, don't walk away from me.”
But Jack just kept going.
FIFTEEN
Crane listened to the news of their defeat with rage building inside him. His fire answered the call of his emotion, flaring inside his chest until the need to set it free nearly overwhelmed him. Sparks moved from finger to finger on his right hand. Flame tickled his palm. He could spark it into a killing blast of fire with a mere thought. He could kill the messenger standing in front of him, burn him to ash in his calfskin loafers.
He slammed his fist down on the table in front of him instead, sending tiny lightning bolts of power in all directions. A deep ache shot through his arm at his movement. Everyone in the room took a step back.
Crane gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and drew a careful breath. He hadn't come this far in life by losing control. Killing out of passion or for unnecessary reasons was a waste and a pain in the ass to clean up. No matter how much it might satisfy him to hear someone screaming in agony right now, smell the gratifying crisp of burning flesh, he needed to keep his anger in check.
He removed his hand from the desktop and opened and closed it, feeling the ever-present soreness in his body flare brilliantly to pain for a moment.
This damn cancer. He hated feeling so vulnerable, hated feeling like his body was some foreign thing that had turned on him.
He'd healed himself as much as he could, enough that he could still function, but he was nearly at the limits of his ability. In time, he'd be forced to turn himself over to weasely non-magickal doctors to poke and prod him until he took his final gasp of air, just like any ordinary human bag of bones.
More than anything, that rankled him the most.
He stared at the fine grain of the table. "Must I do everything myself?" he asked the room in a deceptively quiet voice. Fear filled the air, cloyingly sweet and luscious. He raised his gaze and everyone looked away from him. "Well?”
David cleared his throat. "We don't know what happened. All we know is that six of our men went in ready to fight and came back out on stretchers. We suspect the woman, since we sent in two highly skilled water witches to neutralize Jack. Perhaps she's even more powerful than we'd imagined.”
Crane stared at him. "Powerful or no," he ground out, "she hasn't had time to learn to control her abilities.”
David shrugged. "Beginner's luck?”
Crane's anger flared again, and he closed his hands, fighting to contain it. His body ached from the effort, making him shudder.
From the end of the table, Stefan spoke. “Time grows short. I suggest we substitute Marcus and hope he has enough power in him to open the portal." He shrugged an elegant shoulder. "If we cannot open the portal with Marcus, we are simply out four witches. Three we can find easily again, no? The fourth has always been a problem anyway, and good riddance. We will find a replacement.”
Stefan still retained a heavy French accent, and his appearance was gentile and sophisticated. It masked the inherent dark viciousness that Crane so respected. Stefan was his son more than Jack had ever been. Still, Crane had to be careful with Stefan. He'd raised him too well and knew how much he coveted his father's position as head of the Duskoff... and the money and power that came with the leadership.
He considered Stefan for a moment, wondering if he was being manipulated. Yet he couldn't find a flaw in the plan. Indeed, it seemed his only option at this point.
He made his decision. "Then Marcus must be secured." Crane stood, feeling agony—real or imagined, he wasn't sure—lance through every fiber of his body. He hesitated, wincing, then moved quickly through his mansion to the room where he kept Marcus.
Their footfalls echoed down the corridor of the basement. The warlock guarding the door discarded his magazine and bolted to his feet when he glimpsed Crane, Stefan, and David turn the corner and come toward him.
"Open," commanded Crane in a curt voice.
The guard extracted his key and unlocked the door. It swung inward, and Crane fought the cry of rage and frustration that rose in his throat. All he could do was make a strangled sound at the sight before him.
Marcus hung in the center of the room with a shee
t around his neck. Crane stopped in the doorway and watched the heavy witch swing gently back and form.
Stefan came to stop behind him and clucked his tongue. "What a shame.”
Crane's fingers gripped the doorknob so tightly they turned white. He fought the intense desire to raise fire and char Marcus's body where it hung. Better, he could burn the ineffective guard who currently shook in fear to his left.
He turned and fixed his gaze on the guard, his palm heating. It would make a mess, sure, but he could have someone else clean it up. The guard backed up a few paces, fell over the chair, and sprawled on his ass.
Stefan put a hand on Crane's shoulder. "Ne t'inquietes pas. No worries, father. I have another plan. It will even be fun." His voice carried the viciously playful tone that Crane had come to know well—and to be wary of—over the years.
Fine. It was time to take off the gloves.
MIRA REACHED AGAIN FOR HER MAGICK AND missed the edge of it. Frustrated, she blew a strand of hair away from her face. "Sorry, Serena," she apologized for the hundredth time. "I know I have it in here somewhere.”
Serena put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't force it. I know you probably feel like you're playing beat the clock, but stressing yourself will just make it worse.”
Mira closed her eyes for a moment and drew a deep breath. Serena, her cousin and an earth witch, had been tasked with training Mira to her magick. The problem was that her magick seemed to have all but disappeared in the last week and a half, pretty much as soon as she'd arrived at the Coven.
Thomas had given them blocks of time in the conservatory to train. The space was breathtaking, completely encased in glass and filled with nearly every plant, flower, and herb known to man. A koi-filled stream burbled through the place, with small wooden bridges to connect the cobblestone pathways constructed here and there. It was an excellent place for Mira to experiment with her magick.
Outside it was full-on winter, though winter here in Chicago was a little milder compared to winter in Minneapolis. Inside it was warm and restful, filled with soul-soothing amounts of earth, water, and air.
No fire, however.
Jack had disappeared about the same time as her magick.
She hadn't seen him anywhere in the house. The one time she'd asked Thomas about him, all she'd received in response was stony silence and a change of subject.
Mira missed Jack. She wished she didn't, but she couldn't help herself. She missed his banter, his slow sinful smile, missed the scent of him, missed his touch.
She was pathetic.
Mira focused on Serena's blue eyes. She was an attractive woman in her early thirties. Thick medium blonde hair fell to her waist, and she had an easy smile. She'd befriended Mira right away, and Mira appreciated the steadiness that Serena's earth magick seemed to lend her personality.
"I'm half inclined to get a fire witch in here and see if the affinity can raise your magick again," said Serena, frowning.
"You mean like Jack, maybe?”
Serena shook her head. "You and Jack should have found a balance by now. You need a different fire witch to trigger it, one you haven't spent any time with.”
"What do you mean? Are you saying that after awhile an air and a fire witch will lose the stimulation of their magicks?”
"Exactly.”
"And what about the, uh, sexual part of it? The attraction?”
Serena grinned. "That fades, too. Eventually, they find a level, a balance of magicks, and the juiced-up physical attraction eases up right along with the intensification of power.”
So that meant by the time her magick had stopped reacting to Jack's ... Realization hit her. That meant what she'd felt for Jack at the end had had nothing to do with their magickal affinity. That's why she'd sensed their magicks brush and then recede the night they'd spent in bed. The magicks had balanced, but the intense attraction had remained.
When they'd made love, that had been all them, not the magick.
Pure Jack. Pure Mira.
"Want to try again, or do you need a break?" Serena asked. "You seem kind of distracted. Thinking about a man?”
Wow, was she that transparent? "Why would you say that?”
Her cousin laughed. "Well, you did just ask about sexual attraction, Mira.”
"Well, yeah." She smiled. "I guess I did.”
Serena looked like her brother only in the respect that they were both attractive. Thomas's sister was light where he was dark, though they shared some of the same facial features, like the high cheekbones and the full, sensual mouth. Her eyes were a pretty shade of blue, rather than her brother's disconcerting near black.
They both had inherited earth elemental abilities, which encompassed many things, including an ability to use herbal concoctions better than any pharmacist could mix a drug. They magickally "tweaked" the potency and abilities of the potion to suit their need.
Earth magick, Mira was coming to discover, was the stereotypical sort of magick. Earth witches dealt with potions and spell casting based on plants. They were what the non-magickal population had come to view as true witches over the years.
When Mira had her period the week before, it had come with bad cramps that had kept her away from training. Mira brewed her favorite lemon balm tea to ease the pain, but not even that had taken care of it all. So Serena had offered her a store of stronger herbals to use for the cramps and told her they also acted as effective birth control without any side effects. Mira had accepted them thankfully, though she didn't know if she had need of the birth control since Jack seemed to be avoiding her quite well.
And why was Jack avoiding her anyway?
"Mira?”
She jerked back from wherever she'd drifted in the big sea of Jack and found Serena frowning at her. "Sorry. I guess your big brother will be upset that I can't access my magick.”
"He's your cousin," she corrected gently, "not only my big brother." Mira still couldn't get used to the idea. "He just wants you to be able to defend yourself if it comes down to that. And anyway, he's more bark man he is bite. Well... most of the time.”
"Gee, thanks. That's reassuring, Serena. What's his story anyway? Why did he take over the Coven instead of you?”
“The position isn't usually hereditary. The council chose him as the best replacement for our father based on the strength of his magick and his character. Anyway, I've wanted to be a veterinarian since I was five and that's what I became. I'm happy as a vet, and he's happy running the Coven ... I think." She frowned. "It's kind of hard to tell with Thomas.”
"There seems to be a lot of tension between him and Jack.”
"You tend to get tension when two dominant witches are together. Trust me, it's even worse when they're both fire witches. Jack and Thomas are like brothers and they fight like brothers sometimes." She shrugged again. "Thomas thinks Jack is too uncontrolled, and Jack thinks Thomas needs to loosen up." She smiled. "They're both right.”
"That's the nature of Jack's element. Fire can be unpredictable and uncontrolled," answered Mira right away. Funny how she felt the desire to defend him.
She nodded. "And earth is steady and solid.”
"Unless there's an earthquake.”
Serena grinned. "True. Thomas acts like he's got it all together, but I know that's partially a veneer meant to reassure all us underling witches. I don't really even know Thomas all that well, and I'm his sister.”
"Then there's Jack. That's a man with a few secrets.”
Serena pursed her lips and didn't say anything for a few moments. "Jack has tragedy in his past, and it affects his present," she answered simply. "He's a good guy and all the women love him." She paused. "Be careful with that one, Mira.”
"Or I might get burned?”
"He has a tendency to do that, yes.”
"You sound like you speak from experience.”
Serena laughed. "Oh, no. I've never been involved with Jack. I've had a few fantasies, maybe, but... no. He's too volatile for my tastes.�
��
Mira liked volatile, apparently.
"So, want to try again?" asked Serena. "Or are you ready for a break?”
"I'd like to take a break for a moment. Let me be alone with my magick for a little while?”
Serena smiled. "Of course. Just come find me when you want to practice again.”
Mira watched Serena exit the conservatory, letting the wide glass doors separating the space from the main part of the house close behind her.
She found a quiet spot at the base of a tree and sat down. The sweatpants and loose white sweater she'd put on that morning were perfect for a little meditation session. A hummingbird buzzed near her, taking nectar from a trumpet-throated flower. Songbirds twittered gently from tree branches around her. They were part of the conservatory's carefully managed ecosystem. The peace of the environment washed over and through her and Mira gave herself into it. She found a comfortable position and closed her eyes.
Her magick sat in the center of her chest, just as it had since the first time Jack had triggered it with his kiss. It felt warm and comforting, a tiny ball of light residing in the heart of her.
It was there, so why couldn't she access it?
She reached into herself, parsing out a thread of it—just a thread—to pull out and form... and it slipped right through her mental fingers.
She tried again and again. Every time something dark and indefinable made her balk at the last moment and cause the tendril to slip from her grasp.
Mira sensed a presence nearby at the same time her magick flared a little stronger in the center of her chest. Maybe this time she could take it. Again she tried to pull a thread, again she failed. The flutter of stronger magick within her receded.
"Damn," she muttered, opening her eyes.
Jack stood near her, foliage brushing the leg of his black trousers. He wore a gray cable-knit sweater that complimented his ice blue eyes. Her heart skipped a beat.
"Hey, Mira," he said in his low, whiskey-rasp of a voice. It sent a shiver through her.
