It was just the most impractical thing I had ever worn in my life.
There were no pockets, no sheaths, no waistbands for me to slip a dagger into. Wearing it made me feel almost naked, like I was better off wearing nothing at all. But that wasn’t true either, because then I’d be stuck in the same boat with no sheaths and no pockets anyway. Mason had really out-done himself picking a dress for me to wear, but… it was an unnerving feeling, being able to look forward and see yourself dying because the dress you were wearing compromised your combat readiness.
This was the first time I was going to leave the house without a bra on in a very, very long time. In fact, the last time I’d gone out without wearing a bra had been at whilst attaining my second degree at university, and that had only happened because I’d lost it at a party the night before. Okay, it wasn’t so much that I’d lost it, more like I’d gifted it to Mike Echols as a token of my gratitude for a night well spent, mostly with him, in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
Anyway, the dress, that had been delivered to my apartment earlier this afternoon was a surprise, to say the least. Levi had been equally shocked, as he’d also received something to wear; a black tuxedo, complete with bowtie and all. He looked way more pleased with his choice of outfit than me, but then he had pockets. No, I wasn’t jealous at all.
Mason had sent me a message to tell me a car would be picking us up at quarter past seven. By seven, I was ready to go, and examining myself in the bathroom mirror. I had curled my hair, I had put on some makeup, and I was wearing perfume—three things I didn’t often do. I didn’t like any of this, didn’t enjoy the thought of entering a den of vipers wearing this. At the same time, though… I looked kind of awesome. Like, hot-shit awesome.
And so does Levi.
I caught a glimpse of him as he styled his hair in front of the dark, inert TV. To his credit, I had been hogging the bathroom for a long while, and actually hadn’t stepped out in at least half an hour. He was doing the best with what he had, and he wasn’t complaining about it, which was pretty considerate of him. He’d been so quiet, in fact, I’d almost forgotten he was even there, but then I saw him, and my insides started to flutter.
His short, brown hair was styled neatly to one side, sporting a quaff that could defy gravity. He hadn’t shaved down to the skin, but he had trimmed, leaving just the right amount of stubble, and the right amount of dimple showing. In his tuxedo, he looked every bit like the billionaire playboy inside of him, the man he summons up when he talks to women—well, women other than me. This was Levi’s alter-ego given form, and yet, he was having the worst time with his bowtie.
Rolling my eyes, and without making a big fuss about it, I stepped out of the bathroom and walked over to where he was standing. Levi’s eyes found me, and I could have sworn he made a double-take, suddenly losing all interest in the bowtie hanging lopsided from his neck. He’d have gone to the event like that if I’d let him, and I didn’t think he’d have cared. I took the non-verbal compliment for what it was, hoping that was the end of it, but then came the verbal one.
“Holy shit,” he said, “You look… Jesus…”
“What about Jesus?”
“No, I mean, you look incredible.”
“Thank you… now hold still, watching you struggle with this is giving me all kinds of anxiety.”
A smile formed on Levi’s face. “Reminds me of my first day of middle school.”
“Don’t tell me I remind you of your grandmother right now.”
“Grandmother? No, that’d be creepy. I had a hot school-teacher, though. Miss Grant.”
“Aww, was she your first crush?”
“Of middle school, sure. She had your eyes, same color hair, and you both do that thing with your noses when you’re annoyed.”
“What thing?”
“That, right now. You don’t know you do it?”
If I wasn’t aware a minute ago, I was now. I rubbed my nose with one hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now, stop wriggling.”
“I’m not wriggling.” His breath was minty fresh, and I realized then I was close enough to smell it. For a moment I hung there, heartrate starting to speed up, hands not really working on the bowtie at all, my brain entirely focused on just how close we were. He was staring at me, and when I caught him looking, he turned his eyes up and away, thinking I hadn’t noticed.
“Uh, we’re done,” I said, letting go of his bowtie and pulling away. “Let me see you.”
Levi put his hands out to either side and gave me a twirl for good measure. “How do I look?”
A smile crawled along my face, tugging at the corners of my lips. “Good… really good.”
A moment hung in the air, then, where we stared at each other, each smiling to the other. I wasn’t sure if it three seconds passed, or five, or twenty, but we spent them in silence until Levi shook a thought loose. “Well, damn,” he said, “If I look really good, then you…”
“I what?” I asked, eyebrow arching.
“You look incredible… really incredible.”
My cheeks flushed red, though I instead of letting him see it, I turned around and headed to the bathroom. “Good, then you can do me a favor.”
“What is it?” he called out.
When I returned, I had several objects in my hands. “You have pockets, so you’re gonna carry my lipstick, my phone, this compact mirror…”
“And the knife, too?”
I put on my best smile and batted my eyelashes. “Please?”
Levi cocked an eyebrow, but he opened his hand to receive the things I’d asked him to carry. “You know, you look great, I look great, and we’re on our way to a black-tie event where there’s probably gonna be food and drinks. I’m also carrying your stuff, now.”
“Point?”
“Some people might think we’re on… a date.”
“A date… is that what you think is happening?”
He put his hands up. “Hey, I said some people, not necessarily me.”
He was smiling, and clearly happy, but I could sense there was something he wasn’t telling me, could feel a comment sitting on his lips but not quite forming. I narrowed my eyes and tried to listen, but even in the silence of the apartment, there was still too much ambient noise for me to be able to pick his thoughts out of the ether. Maybe if it were later in the evening, maybe if we were standing closer to each other.
“We should… probably wait downstairs.”
Levi nodded, walked over to the front door, and opened it for me. “Madam,” he said, gesturing for me to go first.
I bowed my head as I went past him, then waited for him at the elevator, taking the ride down in silence. Even though it was already dark out, I could tell the skies were grey and thick with the threat—no, the promise—of rain. Typical. I’d just curled my hair and was dressed for the nines, so of course it was going to rain tonight.
“Isn’t that just the way it goes?” I asked Levi, whose arm I had linked mine into, as we stepped outside.
“What is?” Levi asked.
I pointed at the sky. “That.”
“Oh… because you just—your hair, yeah, I get that.”
“Do you? I don’t think you do. A little water on your hair and you’ll look fine, better, even. Me? I’ll look like a drowned cat.”
“If only you had an Elemancer with you who could, I don’t know, protect you from the elements.”
I turned my eyes up to look at him. “You can do that?”
“Sure. I never get wet when it rains, and before you ask, no, it’s not because I carry an umbrella. I’ll show you.”
Levi slowly raised his hand, and looked at me in the eyes as he did so, searching for my permission. He was going to touch me, and he wanted to make sure I was okay with that. I nodded, of course I nodded, maybe a little too eagerly, then he brushed his hand against my bare shoulder, and instantly I felt the warmth of his skin against mine. I shut my eyes against the sensation that followe
d, that tingle, that vibration which signaled the passing of magic between worlds.
Thunder boomed above, and I opened my eyes just in time to catch a flash of lightning split the sky—light that came after the sound, and not before. His hand against my skin felt like it was buzzing, as if he were carrying a static, electric current. I looked at him, and for an instant, for a fleeting, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, I thought I could see light dancing behind his eyes. It looked, for that half a second, as if his eyes were filled with clouds, and those clouds were restless with soundless thunder and muted lightning.
My breath caught. I’d never seen anything like that before. When he pulled his hand away, a rush of cold air moved in to take away the warmth, and the spell I was under, broke. I blinked, and then Levi’s eyes had returned to normal again, sparkling under the harsh, fluorescent light hanging above us.
“What did you… do?” I asked.
“Just gave you a little shield,” Levi said, “Something to keep you dry if it rains, to keep you warm if it gets too cold.”
“That’s very impressive. I haven’t come across many Elemancers who were that creative with their magic.”
“Really? I never gave it much thought. I don’t give much of my magic much thought, to be honest.”
“Well, I find that hard to believe considering I’ve watched your hands turn into flamethrowers. You also fixed the library carpet somehow. I never asked about how you did that, actually.”
“Look at that. It appears you have not.” He smiled at me then, the confident smile of a man who has something a woman wants.
“Are you gonna tell me?”
He tapped the side of his nose. “A magician—”
“—never reveals his secrets. Whatever. That’s a whole lot of bullshit and you know it.”
“Maybe, but I’ll never tell. To be honest, it isn’t that impressive.”
“So, maybe you should tell me before you over-hype it?”
Levi shrugged. “I guess I could…”
A car pulled up on the sidewalk in front of us. No, not a car; a black, stretch limo. “Fuck me,” I said, under my breath, watching my reflection shift and distort on the limo’s impeccably clean windows. At first, I didn’t think it was for us, guess I’d been expecting an Uber, but then the back door opened, and Mason stepped out.
It was like something out of a movie. He left the limo adjusting the platinum Rolex on his wrist, already smirking. Even though they were both wearing tuxedos, Mason’s looked like it had been fitted by Giorgio Armani himself. The suit clung to him, fitting around the contours of his muscles perfectly, accenting the size of his shoulders and arms. The man screamed money, guaranteed orgasms, and danger.
“Holy fucking hell,” I muttered, instantly hoping Levi hadn’t heard.
Mason went around the car and opened the back-seat door. “You guys look fantastic,” he said, gesturing for Levi to step in. He held his hand out, expecting a fist-bump from the English mage, and he got one.
“Thanks for the suit, man,” Levi said, “I really appreciate that. I don’t know what I’d have worn, otherwise.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Mason said, “You look dynamite.”
I walked up after Levi, both eyebrows raised. “How long did you spend practicing that little watch readjustment thing on the ride over here?”
“Not as long as you think,” he said, grinning. “Hailey, you’re… stunning; only…”
Oh God. Only? My heart started to race. Had I forgotten something? Had I made a mistake with my makeup, somewhere? Mason reached for the side of my face with his hand and ran his fingers through my hair. My neck tilted up slightly in response to the remembered sensation, and as his hand moved deeper into my hair, I started to feel the light buzz, the vibration of magic passing through once again.
“Mason?” I asked, “What are you—”
“—schhhh. You ask too many questions.”
“I want to know what you’re doing.”
He retracted his hand, his fingers untangling themselves from my curls. He then looked at me the way a hairdresser might examine his masterpiece, touching my hair in places despite my efforts at trying to bat him away. “Alright, alright, I’m done. Check it out.”
He moved aside and I saw, in the car’s reflection, what he had done. My red hair was gone; I was blond now. Slowly I moved closer to my reflection, taking in what I was seeing. Not only was my hair truly blond, the streetlight’s glow creating a halo around it as it fell over me, it also looked like it had been curled by a professional. Not that I’d done a bad job or anything, but it just looked tidier, fuller, like a lot more TLC had gone into preparing it.
“Holy shit, Mason,” I said, staring at myself, unsure.
“Don’t you like it?” he asked. “I can take it back… I just thought you could do with a disguise.”
“No, it’s good, I just didn’t expect that. Give a girl a little warning, next time.”
“Ah, what’s fun about warnings? I thought you liked spontaneity.”
“Thank you… it’s a good idea. I love my red hair but it’s pretty noticeable.”
“Alright, message received. Now, shall we?” He extended his hand.
I took it, and Mason guided me into the limo, where Levi was waiting. He looked at me, then narrowed his eyes, wondering if what he was seeing was a trick of the light. “What… happened?”
“What do you think?”
“It makes you a lot less recognizable, that’s for sure.”
“Gang’s all here, huh?” Mason said, settling in, “Drinks before we get to this thing?”
“I shouldn’t drink…” Levi said, “Not if I need to use magic tonight. Last thing I want is to accidentally burn the building down.”
“Or maybe it turns out to be exactly what we want,” Mason said, producing a bottle of Jack Daniels from the mini-bar. “So, maybe we should have a drink? It could be our last.”
I shrugged and agreed. I needed to take the edge off. Mason produced a glass from a cabinet, filled it with ice, and poured two fingers of jack directly into the glass. I sipped the cold drink at first, then finished the last few gulps off without any sense of ceremony or ritual. The alcohol burned as it went down my throat, sliding into my stomach where sat there, radiating warmth through me.
“Give me another one,” I said.
Mason obliged, pouring another two fingers of bourbon into the glass. I finished that off quickly, too, setting the glass down when I was done. I hadn’t realized until then how tight my body had felt before I’d accepted the drinks, but now that I’d loosened up a little bit, I felt like I was ready for just about anything tonight was going to throw at me.
Time would tell whether that was true or not.
CHAPTER TWELVE
This is insane; this is totally bat-shit crazy.
My mind kept turning the thought over, and over, like an earworm stuck in your head. I was sitting in a limousine, wearing a dress whose price-tag I could only guess at, being driven across London to a gathering of snakes and scorpions, with two men who couldn’t have looked hotter if they tried. It dawned on me, the closer we drew to Wentworth Manor, that I had never done anything like this before in all my time as one of the most well-known hunters in America, and I guessed that was because this wasn’t something hunters did.
We were predators, stalkers in the mists, in the shadows, watching our prey from a distance before striking hard and fast, going for the throat. Here, I was hiding in plain sight, walking among them, dancing an intricate, complicated dance where one misstep could cost me and my people our lives. This wasn’t the usual game of cat and mouse anymore, it was a tightrope walk, only there was no netting underneath to stop the fall, but if you had to look at the three of us from a distance, you’d think we’d been doing this for years.
Glancing across the limo, I caught Mason staring out of the window at London above him, and Levi looking over at me. This time he didn’t take his gaze away, but held it f
irm, stood his ground, and I stared at him in turn. When the smile formed on his lips, mine mirrored his, and I noticed how my heart had started thumping hard against my chest.
My earbud crackled, and Morpheus’ voice came through, breaking the spell. “Infiltration team, do you copy?”
“I’m here,” I said, speaking quietly.
“How’s the new mic?”
“Invisible. I didn’t know they made microphones like these.”
“They don’t, but I know a guy.”
Ivy jumped into the conversation. “Uh, that guy is a girl, and that girl is me. The magic will keep the mic hidden for a few hours, and even if you get too close to a demon or a seer, they’d have to be looking right at you to spot it.”
“Alright, I know a girl,” Morpheus said, “It counts.”
“Easy there, Morph,” I said, “You’re starting to sound like Mason.”
“Hey, you say that like it’s a bad thing,” Mason said.
I grinned. “Don’t be like Mason,” I said.
“I’m gonna start taking offence in a second.”
“No, you won’t. Morpheus, how are we looking?”
A pause. “Security around the manor has intensified. At least six more guards have been put out on patrol, as well as a dog unit.”
“A dog unit? Fuck. Okay, that’s not something we can deal with. We’ll just have to be careful.”
“If only you’d brought a Primal to the party,” Tank’s voice cut in with a little static behind it.
“The dogs will only be a problem if bullets start flying,” I said, “But it could be worse—there could be Brutes. I’m almost insulted there aren’t.”
“I didn’t say there weren’t any,” Morpheus said, “But if there are, they wouldn’t just be walking around outside, right?”
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