Nan looked hyper-excited.
“The hoover’s in the basement. It’s red. Near the boiler.” Delphi listened for Jet’s footsteps descending the stairs. “Nan, no.”
“I knew Harry was the one, instantly.” Nan smiled, happily. “And this one looks at you like that. You’re not convenient or a babysitter. You’re necessary, like breathing.”
Delphi was too panicked to think of whipping up a privacy bubble. She simply knew that Jet, with his bear-were hearing could hear every word her chatty grandmother said.
“I have an instinct for such things,” Nan reminded her. “There is not one match in this family that I did not predict. Well, except for Ricky’s, and you saw how that turned out! Jet mightn’t need his house next door, but it’s as well to get it fixed up.”
“Nan!” Now the lovable, meddlesome woman was imagining Jet, Tony and Grace moving in permanently. It wasn’t that Delphi was necessarily averse, it was just that decisions to last a lifetime took longer than that to make. Didn’t they?
Jet returned carrying the hoover and with a smile and something more in his hazel eyes when he looked at her. There was a hint of gold to the hazel, a suggestion of intense emotion. He paused just in front of her. Then he kissed her. This was no friendly greeting nor was it a seduction. It was a claiming and a giving, a kiss of promise.
He stole her heart and gave her his, and the kids came running down the stairs to claim the central rug in the living room and spill their toys over it. Jet hadn’t even put down the hoover. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he said and was gone.
Delphi stared after him, at the back door swinging shut, then at her nan.
“Told you so,” Nan said triumphantly.
Chapter 6
There was no point Delphi even attempting to research the transmutation of humans via death magic with her family traipsing in and out of her house. They visited with Nan, gently teased Tony and Grace as the kids built a castle in the middle of the living room, and generally watched bright-eyed and curious for how she interacted with Jet. Nan being Nan, Delphi was sure they’d heard the details of her and Jet’s kiss while she was upstairs changing out of her office clothes and into a long purple sweater and black leggings.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Jet seemed amused at being the focus of so much attention. Perhaps if he’d been shyer, the warmth in his eyes when he looked at her would have been less obvious.
Then, again, did she really want to lose any of the passion in how he looked at her?
She stole a quick kiss as he walked past her to return the hoover to the basement.
“Hold that thought,” he murmured.
Her family were finally packing up and leaving. Nan had already gone, leaving the fish stew on the stove on a low simmer to keep warm. The rest of the family departed with shouted good-byes, door slams, and car engines revving.
Tony and Grace stood on the front doorstep of Delphi’s house and waved bye-bye. Those two had grown in confidence in leaps and bounds.
“Dinner,” Delphi announced.
“Wash our hands,” Grace said. They dashed off to do so. The castle they’d been building—with help from Delphi’s family whenever they’d wandered in—stood in the middle of the living room.
Delphi smiled. She liked the lived-in look.
“I like that smile.” Jet had returned from the basement and for a few seconds they had privacy.
Their kiss ended with the kids’ return. Dinner was a happy, slightly noisy business before Tony and Grace were granted half an hour in front of the television before a bath and bedtime. Delphi and Jet cleaned the kitchen and chatted quietly. With the kids within eavesdropping distance, they couldn’t talk of anything important. Jet outlined progress on his house. Delphi wondered if her nan was right and he’d never live there. It felt right to have him, and the kids, with her.
“I have to go out, tonight,” he said under his breath.
“Not alone,” she said instinctively.
“I’ll be fine.”
There was no time for anything more. The children’s television program finished. Delphi found herself reading Grace a bedtime story, while Tony had his bath. It had been a busy day. Grace fell asleep before the story ended and didn’t stir when Tony climbed into the bunk above hers. “Goodnight.” Delphi kissed the boy’s cheek before Jet said a final goodnight, switched on the nightlight, switched off the main light and departed leaving the door open so they could hear if there were any problems.
He and Delphi walked downstairs.
“I think you should tell my mom what is happening,” she said.
“If this is about me investigating alone, Martin will be with me, tonight.”
“It’s partly that.” They reached the living room, but didn’t sit. Delphi walked around the children’s castle. “But it’s also that Mom’s responsible for the officers out there investigating the murder of a child, when we know the murderer is likely a rogue mage who trades in death magic.”
Jet frowned deeply. His shoulder muscles bunched before he sighed. “Officers like your brother. Does he have magic?”
“No.”
Jet’s eyebrows shot up. “Not at all?”
“Magic works that way, sometimes. Mom has a magic-assisted talent for hitting targets. Hand-eye coordination. My brother and sister are mundanes.”
“Okay, call your mom. Since she already knows about magic and the Collegium we won’t be telling secrets.”
“Mom’s worked with Collegium guardians a couple of times in the past.” Delphi picked up her phone. “They were bad cases, like this one.” They’d been violent and terrifying, and part of the reason Delphi had chosen to be a researcher, an alchemist, and not a guardian.
“Does she know about weres?” Jet’s question came as Delphi’s mom answered the phone.
Delphi’s eyes went wide, staring at Jet, as she suddenly identified the source of his reluctance to confide in her mom. It wasn’t her mom’s role as a mundane police captain that bothered him. “Uh, Mom? Could you come over? We would, but the kids…Great. Yes, about Jet’s case.” She hung up, and added, for him. “Five minutes.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “She’ll want to know why I’m working with the Collegium, what magic I have.”
“And you don’t have any. You’re a were. Mom won’t mind that you’re a were. None of my family will.”
“They mightn’t mind that I am one. They might mind you dating one. Having cubs.”
She blushed. “Jet.”
“I heard what your grandmother said. She’s right. For me, you’re the one. I’m committed. But you, if you’re family disapprove…you’re close to them.”
“Oh damn.” She moved incautiously, starting toward him, and the children’s castle tumbled over. The building blocks crashed.
He reached out and lifted her over the mess into his arms.
The front door opened.
Okay, so her parents—and yes, her dad was with her mom—were probably being careful not to wake Tony and Grace, so they’d used their key to open the door. However, it meant they caught Jet and her together.
Her dad, Mike, scowled.
CeeCee elbowed him in the ribs.
“Mom won’t mind that you’re a bear-were,” Delphi said to Jet, dealing directly with the biggest personal issue. “And Dad wouldn’t approve of any guy for me.”
Which made her dad laugh reluctantly even as he grumbled, “That’s right.”
“A bear-were?” CeeCee asked interestedly. She stepped over and around the fallen building blocks while studying Jet. “And the kids?”
Jet’s voice was low and growly. “Yes, they’re bear-weres, but they won’t shift till puberty and their mom couldn’t shift form, so they don’t know they’re weres.”
“They don’t?” Delphi’s fingers tightened in the soft fabric of his shirt.
He looked down at her. “Emma, their mom, was troubled. Her inability to shift form ate at her. I don’t know if
Tony or Grace will be able to. It’s a problem for a few years from now. But I can’t tell them who they are, who I am, till they trust me some more.”
“They trust you completely.” Delphi smiled at him. “But I can understand you waiting.” Unwillingly, she let go of him and moved out of his embrace. Her skin felt cool despite her clothes without his hands resting warm and gentle on her back and hip. “Mom, Jet wants to bring you up to date on his investigation of his cousin’s killer. It’s more than personal.”
As Jet explained his role as were liaison to the Collegium and the investigation the joint taskforce—apparently granted extra resources that afternoon after the commander of the guardians learned they might be tangling with the transmutation of criminals—Delphi sat and watched him and her parents, and thought of what he’d said.
Could you know so quickly that someone was “the one”? She’d grown up on her Nan and Pops’ story that you could, so this wasn’t some strange were thing. Or was it?
Did it freak her to think that she might have children one day who shifted form into bears?
Wait! Hold it. Was she thinking of kids with Jet?
He stopped talking, clasped her hand, and resumed his discussion with her parents.
Evidently her momentary panic had been obvious, at least to Jet.
And no, she wouldn’t mind if her kids shifted into bears, or if they had a weird magical ability, or none at all. Just as the thought of Tony and Grace shifting form didn’t bother her, although it maybe explained why Jet was preparing for the future by buying a big house.
She’d bought a big house because she loved it, she’d wanted to stay in the neighborhood, and because thanks to her own investment savvy and her other grandfather’s real estate business, she’d been able to afford the house in its original rundown state.
And now she was thinking of punching a door or three between the two houses and making one gigantic one.
She was also thinking how great Jet’s hand felt enveloping hers. She shuffled across a fraction of an inch and leaned into him. In response, he let go her hand and put an arm around her. And that felt right.
Her dad heaved a huge sigh.
Jet broke off his sentence. “Problem? You don’t think Delphi will be safe if the kids and I stay with her?”
Oh, is that what they’re talking about? Delphi realized she should have been paying attention. The conversation had moved on from Jet bringing her parents up to date on his investigation to discussing future plans. “I can look after myself and the kids and you. Arlee checked. My response to death magic is instinctive and effective. Mom and Dad, you know how well-warded this place is.”
“Actually, I wasn’t sighing about Jet staying with you,” Mike said. “I was sighing because it seems inevitable. Nan said so.” He sounded resigned. Not happy, but accepting. In other families people would be freaking out at such a fast commitment and warning her not to rush into things. But her family did things differently. “Hurt her and you’ll be a bearskin rug on the floor.”
“Dad!”
Jet laughed.
“We’ll be going.” CeeCee stood. “Jet, work with Perez.” Perez was Jet’s police contact. “He’ll report to me. Be aware that the media is all over this.” She hugged Delphi. “Nan will organize a family dinner for Sunday.”
Delphi froze. Her voice squeaked. “Already?” Her dad looked maliciously amused; Jet mildly curious. Delphi cleared her throat. “We can have it here. Jet’s house and mine.” She glanced at him apologetically. “It’ll be a welcome to the family.”
“And if that doesn’t scare you…”
CeeCee pushed her husband out of the house. “Let it go. Delphi’s chosen.”
Jet waited till the door closed behind Delphi’s parents. “Have you chosen me?”
“It’s illogical, isn’t it? So fast.” She inhaled, her breasts pushing against her purple sweater. “But, yes.”
He pounced, pushing her back against the door, kissing her as he bent his knees and fitted his body to hers. A growl rumbled in his chest at how good she felt. How perfect. His. He rubbed against her, reveling in the scent of her arousal. He wanted her scent all over him. His mate. She was wildfire in his veins.
She had her hands under his shirt, pushing up, stroking his chest and his back, dragging her nails down his spine.
He shuddered and staggered backwards, bringing her with him as he fell back onto the sofa, vaguely thankful that it was sturdy and survived the impact of his fall. Delphi crawled up, over his body, sliding and gliding, to reach his mouth again. He cupped her breasts, pushing aside her bra to toy with the hard points of her nipples. He wanted to suck on her breasts, but watching her face was good, too, and they didn’t have time to make love. Not now. “I have to meet Martin.”
“Now?”
“Five minutes ago.” He kept rubbing her breasts, wondering if Delphi knew she was moving against him or if that friction was an unconscious seeking for satisfaction. Damn but he wanted to give her that. Give her everything. Take everything.
She levered herself up, one hand on his chest. Her face was flushed, her lips parted. She rocked over his hips and he growled. “Sorry.” She slipped off him and sat on the coffee table, all gorgeous and rumpled.
“I’m going to die of frustration,” he said.
“Me, too.” She slid her hands under her sweater to readjust her bra.
He leaned forward, lifting her hair off her neck and kissing her there, kissing her behind her ear, kissing the hollow of her throat. Her head tipped back in invitation and trust. He nuzzled her, imprinting his scent on her skin. Mine.
She tangled her fingers in his hair, pulling his head up, and kissed him.
He was going to be late, so late. He slipped his tongue into her mouth. Honey and woman, and then, she sucked on his tongue and he nearly lost control. His claws grooved the underside of the coffee table as he fought not to grab her. If he did, Martin waiting outside would wait all night. But Jet had a killer to take off the streets.
It physically hurt to pull away from Delphi. He straightened, aching and hard, and stared at her. “Don’t wait up for me. On the sofa, I mean.”
She licked the taste of him on her lips. “Promise you’ll come to my bed. Whatever the hour.”
“I promise.” Nothing on earth would keep him away.
“Be safe,” she said.
He tilted his head to the side, trying to identify a new sensation, one that drifted out of his reach but tantalizingly wove around him. “Did you…?”
“You can sense it? My spell?”
“I’ve never sensed magic before, but this is like spring sunshine. Cool and clean.”
Her brown eyes that had been sultry with loving narrowed in thought. She was obviously mulling over the strangeness that he, as a were, sensed magic. However, she answered his question. “It’s a ward against death magic. Nothing obvious. Nothing the rogue mage might notice. But it nudges aside death magic. As a were, you can’t be affected by magic directed at you. This ensures that death magic can’t strike your immediate environment, either. But still, be careful!”
Delphi watched the front door close behind Jet. She extended her magic and sensed Martin waiting in a car three houses down, just beyond the range of her most powerful home ward. But all of this and the nearby streets were inside her protection since her family lived close. She could track Jet for a short distance, but then, she let go of that awareness. He was actively investigating. She had her own methods, ones she didn’t share with anyone, to track evil.
While she was all aroused, her energy pulsing, she might as well put it to some use.
She ran quietly up the stairs to her sitting room, grabbed a terracotta bowl from a low warded cupboard, and ran back downstairs to the kitchen. She took off her shoes and socks, and padded outside barefoot. Her tiny backyard contained a small garden with herbs dying into winter, but what she needed was not them, but the earth they grew on. Near the thyme, she’d carefully left a sha
llow dip in the ground. The rain had filled it with a muddy, shallow puddle. She dipped the terracotta bowl into that puddle and a trickle of water ran in. It would be enough.
She returned inside, drying her feet—freezing!—with paper towels before putting on her socks again. She carried her shoes and the terracotta bowl up to her sitting room and, from the same low cupboard, extracted a glass bottle filled with rainwater that she’d collected in a summer storm. She mixed that with today’s mud puddle and set the terracotta bowl on the floor.
A single word and the arcane symbols she’d drawn then hidden on the sitting room floor glowed blue. She sat cross-legged in front of the bowl.
Water from the earth, in an earthen vessel.
This was ancient magic.
“Ow, ow, ow.” Delphi was a big baby about blood, but she pricked her finger with a sterile needle and dripped a single drop of blood into the water. Then she sucked her finger while staring into the bowl. For someone with her magic, she didn’t need to do anything more. This was the deep ancestral magic that ran in her veins and which she hid from everyone, her family included. This was Oracle magic and not to be used lightly. As close as her family were, everyone had secrets, and this was hers.
The pulse started low in her pelvis, taking her desire for Jet that had dimmed with his departure and been frozen by her barefoot adventures outside, and re-igniting the smoldering embers. They blazed, stimulating her g-spots and heating her blood.
She had a spell in place, a strong one, that gave her privacy. Tony and Grace, or anyone but Jet, couldn’t see, hear or otherwise sense her. But she was aware of everything. Aware, but focused on the desire building inside her. It intoxicated her, spinning arousal into something mind-blowing, and that was the inspiration, the time at which she had to stare into the rainwater.
Delphi gazed at the images shimmering inside the bowl as unsatisfied desire burned fire in her veins.
Alchemy Shift Page 9
