Stepping into them, I did my best to squeeze the stuffing out of him, my cheek pressed to his shoulder. "Thanks for being patient."
A chuckle rumbled in his chest. "I wouldn't call it patience as much as realizing you have a life to live."
"So do you." I lifted my head and leaned back. He didn't let go, meeting my eyes as his lips curved into a little smile.
"Mine's not as hectic as it used to be, and damn sure not as hectic as yours."
Which reminded me of something we'd talked about a few weeks before. "Did you talk to Terra about working at the office?"
Logan nodded. "I did, and she's okay with it."
"When are you going to talk to Mr. Whitehaven?"
"Probably next week. I have to decide who'll take over the garage if he hires me."
"Oh, yeah, that's an important decision." Was I hanging out in his arms too long? He didn't seem to mind. I damn sure didn't mind, because Logan's arms were a great place to be.
Even better when he bent his head slightly, inviting me to take advantage of his lips being close. I did take advantage, but only for a few seconds before drawing back again. More kissing, and I wouldn't want to send him out the door. "I'll see you tomorrow night."
"Okay." He pressed his cheek against mine, a soft rasp of a purr escaping, and released me. "Sleep well."
"You too."
I spent a few minutes doing a victory dance after closing the door behind him, happy I hadn't ruined things by asking for that rain check. Bone and Diablo joined in, prancing and grinning, infected by my happiness.
After my victory dance, I went to my home office. Funny thing: The more questions I received answers to, the more aware I became of others. Many of them were vague annoyances, not necessarily important. Yet, I had a sudden burning desire to find the answers to as many of them as possible.
Sitting at my desk, I picked up a pen and dragged the waiting legal pad in front of me. "Start simple."
What questions had bugged me for a while? "Ooh, I know."
I wrote "What is Mr. Whitehaven? Why is he so important in the supe community that they call him 'Lord'?"
I tapped the pen a few times before coming up with my next question: "Where/who is the dragon?"
That seemed like a good start, and I congratulated myself while re-reading the questions. "Hey, wait a minute."
White dragon. Whitehaven. No, just because Dr. Allen turned out to be Alleryn... But I'd seen my boss's eyes glow red a few times and he had pure white hair. Dragons breathed fire, right? And fire was partially red.
Couldn't dragons do magic too? I'd read fairytales as a kid, and thought I remembered one or two where the dragon masqueraded as a human. "Holy crap."
No, wait. That really wasn't enough evidence to decide my boss was Santo Trueno's resident dragon. Was it?
Then again, when I was a dog, I'd smelled Whitehaven's scent. It had been smoky and kind of metallic. And he did have all those treasures... "You know what? I'll just ask him privately when I have the chance."
It'd be cool to learn I was working for a dragon. Maybe not so cool if Mr. Whitehaven was the dragon, and blew a draconic gasket when I asked.
Shaking that out of my head, I moved on and wrote "Talk to Moira about the ancestors."
The why of my seeing them didn't really bother me. The dream was the issue: the White Queen jumping inside of and transforming me. That bothered me a lot, because of the empty spot in the circle of spectral tigers on Solstice Night.
However she'd done it, the missing tiger had helped save Logan. I didn't feel different, but what if she were trapped inside me or something? If she were, then getting her out seemed like the right thing to do. After all, the curse could be affecting her in some fashion.
"Okay, what else?" I didn't have to think about it, because only the biggie was left: "Who the hell cursed me this time, and why?"
I doubted there'd be an answer for that one before the end of the year, with only four days left. Overtaken by a yawn, I dropped the pen and decided it was bed time.
After making my rounds to check the front and back doors—it was too cold to have to worry about having opened windows—I called the dogs and picked up the two Chihuahuas for the trip upstairs. Leglin's room had become the whole pack's room, but the hound didn't mind. He slept with me anyway, since I didn't have a boyfriend staying overnight anymore.
Also, duty. Leglin was emphatic that his duty was to protect me. Funny, when it was a dog doing the protecting, I didn't argue much. Not even after Red's death.
Not that arguing with Leglin would work anyway. He'd sleep across my threshold if I didn't let him share the bed. He was that loyal.
I tucked Speck and Squishy into their bed, covering them with a soft throw. Bone and Diablo plopped onto their over-sized, therapeutic doggy beds. The people bed Leglin had asked for was still on my To Do list. "Night, guys. Sleep tight."
Contented sighs followed me out the door, putting a smile on my face. My hound waited by my bedroom door, and I patted his shoulder as I went through the doorway. "Come on."
It was a huge relief to change for bed without Merriven leering at me. Sliding between the sheets after face washing and teeth brushing, I made certain my alarm was on before rolling over to snuggle Leglin. "You didn't say anything about having a gargoyle coming to live with us."
"It will be nice to have a partner."
I hid my smile by kissing the back of his head. "As long as you're cool with it, I guess I am."
His tail thump made the bed shiver. With a final squeeze, I rolled over onto my back and closed my eyes. Jogging time would come too early for my liking.
EIGHT
I woke up feeling like a million bucks, thanks to the lack of nightmares plaguing my sleep. Or maybe because the day would end in my first official date with Logan.
Thinking about that certainly put some pep into my morning jog. I even enjoyed the cold, crisp air while the dogs and I made our way around the property line. Seriously, aside from the "cursed by unknown assailant" thing, my life didn't look awful at the moment.
I had a good job, a fantastic place to call home, and my canine family to share it with. My closest neighbors weren't only friends, but extended family.
And unless we came up with a lead, or the boss assigned us another case, I had a free day ahead of me.
The sprint from drive entrance to house didn't feel like utter torture.
I was pouring a cup of coffee when my phone chimed to let me know a text message had arrived. It was from Logan: Looking forward to tonight.
Me too, I texted back, unable to control the smile spreading across my face. He responded with an emoticon, a red flower. We traded smiley faces then he texted I'd better get to work.
After I ate breakfast, I remembered I needed to make a couple of calls. First, Terra. She answered the phone before the first ring ended. "Hi."
"Hey, how does a sleepover tomorrow night and shopping Sunday sound?"
"It sounds great. Logan told me you'd be calling. Alanna's invited too, right?"
I'd promised Logan to include Alanna anytime I took Terra out, and I liked Alanna anyway. She was Dane's sister. "Yep, she's invited too. I'll have to pick up Tonya, so how about you two come over about five tomorrow? I'll call if something comes up and we need to make it later, okay?"
"Okay." An excited little chirp came through the phone. "This is going to be fun."
"Yes, it will. Talk to you later." Call over, that was one thing off my immediate To Do list. I called Tonya next, and she agreed. We spent ten minutes planning the sleepover. I hadn't had one in years, and even then, we'd mostly giggled over boys, watched scary movies, and given each other makeovers.
After talking to Tonya, it didn't seem much had changed. My Saturday night taken care of, I cleaned away my breakfast mess and wondered what to do with the rest of my day.
Dane called. "Anything new?"
"Not a thing on the case. You?"
"No. We could go look
around where your thread ended. Maybe we'll find something."
There went my free day, but it didn't bother me. "Sure. Come on over and we'll go poke around."
"Okay, it ended here." I held up my forefinger to point to where the thread had run out. "Which is weird, because normally they're at ground level."
"That's eye-level for you." Dane circled to my left. "Does the change in height mean something?"
"I have no idea."
"Hm." He waved his hand above and below my finger. "I don't feel anything."
"Me neither." I kind of hated cases like this one, which looked as though it'd take weeks to solve. My longest-running case had taken almost four months, and had also involved a stolen item.
The problem was, the return of magic and supes had made crime-solving much more difficult. It was hard to determine motive when you didn't know if the culprit was human. Throw in the use of magic or beyond-human abilities, and it could be downright impossible to figure out whodunit.
Unless you had an edge, like us. But our "edges" didn't guarantee anything, as our current situation illustrated.
"Frustrating." Dane glared at the tip of my finger. "I don't know what we do next."
Dropping my hand to my side, I grinned. "Yes, you do. Let's go back to the car."
"Argh, time for 'what do we know'."
"Yep."
Once in my car, he began. "We know a magic mirror was stolen from the museum. We know who owns the mirror. We know the mirror was transported by shadows."
He fell silent while I started my car and pulled out of the parking lot. Once I'd merged with traffic, I prompted him. "And?"
"We know only a being with powerful magic can manipulate shadows. Which means our suspects are elves, demons, or gods."
I nodded. "Give me a motive for each type."
Dane thought about it for a few minutes. "Elves, well, it's a magic mirror. They collect magical artifacts. Could be power greed or collector's jealousy. Maybe even a personal vendetta against Celadine, because of elvish politics or something."
"Okay. Next?"
"Gods. No clue. Gods can do almost anything, so I can't think of a reason one would need to steal a magical artifact. Except to take it out of play or put it into play."
I glanced at him, and could feel my brow wrinkling. "What?"
"If Celadine was using the mirror, or maybe because she allowed humans access to it, a god may have decided to put a stop to it." Dane grinned. "Or, it wasn't being used and a god decided it should be, so took it and gave the mirror to someone who would use it."
"Huh, okay. Why would a god decide to do that?"
"Mischief? A reward to a devotee? I don't know. Gods are weird."
"Yeah." As though I didn't know that, having been used as a vessel by two. Their exit method had left a lot to be desired. "Okay, that leaves demons."
He shrugged. "Again, magic mirror. Demons could have a use for it."
A use we probably wouldn't like, but no need to say that. "You're lead. What's the next step?"
"Try to determine which suspect type is most likely? But I don't know how."
Cruising down the highway toward home, I tried to recall what I knew about the mirror. "In the story, the mirror only spoke truth, but it could tell the Evil Queen where Snow White was."
Dane snorted. "But that's a story, not real life. And the lady at the museum said the mirror talked a lot."
"Thorandryll told me the spirit in the mirror was put there by a god," I said, remembering.
"Well, maybe the same god took it back to release the spirit. Prison sentence over."
My turn to snort. "Possible, but is that plausible?"
"No clue."
"At least we have some angles to think about now. Good job, partner." I tossed him a smile, which Dane returned.
We needed more clues to advance on the case, and none appeared forthcoming. Once home, Dane decided to stick around for a while, so we played with the dogs to enjoy the weak afternoon sun.
Leglin joined Bone and Dane in a rousing game of fetch. Diablo watched, but didn't play. I needed to catch my breath from the laughter and romping, so I joined him and the Chihuahuas on the porch.
Squishy and Speck squabbled over the tug-o-war rope toy I was sliding across the floor for them.
"Mine."
"Mine." Speck growled, slapping at her with his tiny paw. Ears perked to the point that the tips met, she bounced at him, forcing him away from the toy.
Then they were racing back and forth, barking and chasing each other, the toy forgotten. I moved to the steps to get out of their way.
Sitting next to Diablo, I put my arm around him and scratched his chest. He grunted and leaned against me.
"Why aren't you playing?"
"Playing's for pups."
"Bone and Leglin aren't pups."
Diablo grunted again.
"Playing's good for everyone," I said.
The black pit bowed his head and mumbled, "I don't know how."
"You played in the snow at the park." I moved to scratching behind his ear.
"We were knocking each other down. I know how to do that."
Of course he did. He'd been trained to fight, so knocking an opponent off his feet had been part of the training. I hugged him. "I didn't know how to play when I was a dog. But there's an extra tennis ball."
"Can't catch it."
Diablo had a habit of making my heart hurt. I thought he'd settled in well considering his past. He'd been super careful with the little ones. In fact, all the ex-fighters had.
"We can go around back and practice," I suggested, not really expecting him to take me up on the offer.
He watched Bone leap into the air, catching the ball Dane had thrown, and twitched. Licking his chops, he said, "Okay."
I hugged him. "Let me put the little ones inside and get the ball."
Five minutes later, we were in the back yard. I held up the tennis ball. "We'll start easy. I'll just toss it in the air, and you try to catch it."
"Sure." Diablo was tense, his tail tucked.
"No pressure, okay? I bet it's hard to learn to catch like this. I can't even catch popcorn with my mouth." I saw his tail relax a bit. "It'll take practice."
"Right."
He missed the first three tosses, but didn't give up in disgust, to my pleasure. Instead, he relaxed and kept trying. The seventh, he caught, his ears flattening and then perking in surprise.
"Yay!" I scratched his neck. "You did it. Give me the ball."
"No." Diablo backed away, his tail high and beginning to wag.
"Come on, I can't throw it for you if I don't have it."
"You can have it if you catch me." He took off running; laughing, I gave chase.
NINE
By six-forty, I was ready for my date, and wondering why the hell I felt so nervous. It wasn't as though I were going out with a stranger or someone I barely knew. Logan had seen me in all sorts of situations. We'd already had a sort-of date, had even cuddled and slept together. We didn't need to do anything impress each other. He'd seen me with morning hair.
Yet, I had to leave the living room window, where I'd been standing to watch for his arrival, to go wash my hands. My palms were sweating like crazy. I went to the kitchen, washed and dried my hands, and seriously considered a trip upstairs to rub some antiperspirant on my palms. Sweaty hands were gross.
The dogs were lying around the living room, and Bone stuck his head over the back of the couch. "Logan's here."
"Crap."
My white pit cocked his head. "I thought we liked him?"
"We do. Sorry, it's weird people stuff." I hurried to the front door, hearing the rumble of Logan's dark green, classic muscle car as I got there, and opened the door. He was just pulling into the parking area in front of the garage. "Crap. Over-eager, much?"
Since I already had the door opened, I waved at him before grabbing my coat and purse. "See you later, guys. Keep an eye on the littles. Leglin, you're
in charge. Bye."
By the time I stepped out and shut the door, Logan was out of his car. "Hi."
"Hi." I began to put my coat on while heading for the stairs, and had to stop when it tangled around my legs. "Just a minute."
"I thought I was supposed to come to the door?" He walked toward me. I dropped my purse, trying to wrestle my coat on. "You want some help with that?"
Totally flustered, I stopped struggling. "Yes, please."
He climbed the steps, picked up my purse, and took my coat. "There's this trick to it. You put one arm in at a time."
I accepted my purse when he held it out to me, my face warm, and turned while he shook out the coat. "Really? One arm at a time?"
"Yeah, and it helps if the arm’s not the one with the hand holding something at the end."
Slipping my empty hand into a sleeve, I had to laugh. "Sorry. I'm nervous. That's stupid, isn't it?"
"No." He waited while I switched my purse to my other hand. "I'm a little nervous too."
"But we shouldn't be." I found the other sleeve, and he let go once the coat was settled. Turning around, I asked, "Should we?"
"Probably not, but," Logan smiled, lifting his hands and spreading them. "This is our First Official Date."
"Right, but we've slept together." I felt like disappearing as the words left my mouth. "I mean, well, yeah, we did sleep together. There was cuddling. It's dumb to be nervous after that."
He chuckled. "Tell that to the butterflies in my stomach."
"At least I'm not the only one who has them." I hoped I didn't end up saying any more stupid things. Anxiety had a way of running my mouth without checking with my brain first.
"Shall we?" Logan cocked his arm for me to take hold.
I smiled. "Let's."
Some women didn't like men doing things like opening doors for them, but I didn't have a problem with him walking me around, and opening the passenger door. I liked it when men behaved like gentlemen, and did those little things. Logan even bent and tucked my coat inside the car before shutting the door.
Once behind the steering wheel, he glanced at me. "I forgot to tell you that you look great."
Black Magic Shadows (Discord Jones Book 5) Page 6
