Magic Awakened: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by K.N. Lee

  In his gargoyle form and in the statue that he became during the daylight hours, Vale's eyes were a bright topaz. In the right lighting they could look like dragon fire. As a man, his gaze was darker, nearly coffee-like. But the appeal in his gaze wasn't in its color but in the experience and knowledge that lurked within their depths. Vale was an ancient being and had seen and done more than I ever would. He was self-possessed and self-assured. It was a turn-on, to say the least.

  "You made a mistake tonight," he murmured, his lips grazing mine, setting off sensual sparks. "But don't think that I'm angry or disappointed, Moody. You're a powerful being. These things come with the territory."

  I groaned as he kissed me, deep, hot, wet.

  "Do you think I'm sexy?" I whispered once our lips parted.

  "Why do you think I put up with the damage and destruction?" he murmured. I felt his smile against the corner of my mouth. Then I felt the tip of his tongue, teasing me. "You're worth putting up with a hell of a lot, Moody."

  Somewhere beneath all the lust-inducing compliments lurked an insult, or at least some criticism. I believed Vale when he said he didn't hold my volatile dragon nature against me. That didn't, however, excuse it. I'd done a lot of damage to the city at various times, and what had happened tonight proved I was too quick to pull the dragon trigger when I shouldn't.

  I'd keep this promise, I told myself as Vale carefully backed me into the attached studio where I lived and where, more importantly, sat my bed. As he followed me down to the mattress, his weight pressing me down, I smiled at my newfound resolve.

  I could be a badass without using my sorcery, and I couldn't wait to prove it.

  Chapter 2

  I decided to keep Moonlight closed for the next day and night because Vale had been right: the place felt like Antarctica with a hole punched through its roof. With my thin, desert blood, it was pure torture. I shivered continuously.

  Since I couldn't use Lucky to patch the thing up, I had to resort to calling up a handyman who spent the afternoon hammering and cursing and flashing butt crack at me while I dozed on my stool.

  Behind me on a shelf sat Vale in his statue form. He only appeared like this during the daylight hours. As cool as it was to have a boyfriend who possessed three completely different forms, it wasn't so cool when I wanted a lunch companion, someone to warm me up or, in this case, someone to help patch up the dent in the wall.

  But I was in badass mode, so after my nap I tackled the patch repair myself with supplies I'd purchased at the Home Depot. While I didn't have the paint on hand to completely cover up the fix, at least the wall was now smooth. The handyman finished the roof just before sundown, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect. The sun went down, triggering Vale's transformation into his human form. I beamed as he took a look around at what had been accomplished while he "slept."

  "You did say you wanted me to be impressed," he commented after taking a stroll through the shop and returning to the counter. "I am."

  I laughed. "Not about this. But I do want you to know," I added, "that none of this was achieved through magick. It was all elbow grease and a guy named Freddie."

  Vale smirked. "Freddie must be a magician, then. The place looks good." His next perusal was of me, and it made me shiver in a way that had nothing to do with the cold weather. "May I take you to dinner? After all your hard work you must be starving."

  "Famished," I agreed. "I need a dozen tacos, stat."

  "So the food trucks or the Container Park?"

  "The Park. At least we can sit indoors."

  Bundled up, we called a ride-sharing service even though Moonlight wasn't all that far from the park. But it was cold and I didn't want to be sniffling throughout dinner, so a car it was. We arrived at the Downtown Container Park, which was located near Fremont, just as the praying mantis art installation out front began spewing fire. It was one of my favorite aspects of a park that was already pretty unique since the thing was built around the concept of shops and eateries placed inside industrial shipping containers.

  Vale was patient as we stood and watched fire spurt from the antennae of the praying mantis. The forty-foot long purple and teal sculpture was cool and not just because it had once featured at a Burning Man festival. Its immense size reminded me of Lucky in a way, so I was fond of it. Maybe one day my dragon would be allowed to fly free where everyone could see him.

  And maybe one day I'd be voted Favorite Magickal Being of the Year by my peers.

  We found seating inside at the taco place and soon were noshing on some goodness. Vale wasn't a chatty person, but when he did speak he had something to say. It was a consequence of him being centuries old. Stupid, inconsequential stuff simply didn't interest him and man, it was refreshing. So I always gave him my full attention.

  This time he wasn't so serious. He told me about the first time he'd tried Mexican food after spending the majority of his life living in Paris and eating rich but non-spicy French food. I was grinning and nodding as I listened, imagining his reactions at the time, but I couldn't help noticing that I wasn't the only one who was held rapt by his story.

  Seated at the table behind him was a trio of women around my age, so mid-twenties. They were sharing a plate of nachos and each had a margarita in front of them. None of them appeared to be drunk, so that wasn't an excuse for one of the women, a redhead, to shamelessly ogle Vale and eavesdrop on what he was saying.

  Is this girl for real? I thought to myself as she giggled as Vale dryly recounted his reaction to his first bite into a jalapeno pepper. It was like she thought she was sitting at the table with us.

  "My particular constitution isn't designed for peppers," Vale said with a self-deprecating grin.

  "Ugh, don't tell me," I said, trying to maintain my smile and not be distracted by this creepy woman. "I've endured the curse of spicy food plenty of times. Strangely, it never deters me from eating more."

  "That's not what happened. Well, not in the way you're thinking. My body dealt with the pepper like it would a hostile invader: by attempting to incinerate it. I ended up having to send word back to my brother that I was dying and in need of help."

  I snorted inelegantly. "Are you serious? You called Xaran, who was in France, to come all the way to the States because you had heartburn?"

  He sighed, a bit sheepish. "It was my first experience with heartburn. I didn't know what was happening." He ran a hand through his hair. "It was humiliating, to say the least, when he dropped a bottle of Tums in my lap and informed me that he'd cured me."

  The woman behind him clapped a hand over her mouth to cover her laughter. I stared at her, waiting for her to reach over and pat Vale on the head and tell him that he was cute. Vale noticed my distraction. Thankfully he didn't turn around to see what I was looking at. He leaned toward me instead, which I chose to take as a metaphor for our relationship.

  "What is it, Moody?"

  I grinned like a maniac down at my guacamole. "Nothing. It's nothing."

  "Please don't lie to me."

  Argh. "There's a girl behind you who is ready to propose marriage to you. She's been eavesdropping the entire time you've been talking and going all moony-eyed over you."

  "So?"

  I had to look up at him. For him, it was that simple. He wasn't interested in anyone else so he didn't understand why I'd be bothered by another woman's attention. If only I could share his confidence. I mean, I didn't think I was ugly and I was pretty awesome in a lot of ways, but when you had a hot, mysterious boyfriend like Vale as I did, well, let's just say I didn't always feel like my foot deserved the glass slipper. Maybe I was supposed to be stuck wearing Ugg boots.

  "I think it's kinda rude," I said, pretending that jealousy didn't play any role in this whatsoever. Nope.

  "Ignore her. Or am I not enough to hold your attention?" he teased.

  He was right, though. Who cared about her when he was mine? And he was mine in ways that woman would never know, the bond between Vale and
me forged during battles with demons and dark spirits and sealed with blood and tears.

  Feeling better, I finished my meal and happily—proudly—slid my hand into his. He squeezed my hand as we walked out of the restaurant together. It was such a tiny thing, but little touches like that assured me that he loved me.

  About an hour later, as we sat on a bench near a heater, listening to live music on the stage, Vale received a text message from his best friend Christian, Melanie's boyfriend.

  "He's coming here," Vale told me after putting away his phone. "He wants to speak to me."

  "Is Melanie coming, too?"

  Vale shook his head and gave me a meaningful look. "It's guy-talk. He needs advice. Do you mind?"

  I magnanimously waved him away. "Go. Belch with your buddy and complain about the frustrating, contradictory nature of women. I'll be here."

  "You know me so well," he said, amused. In truth, Vale was very much an atypical male, somewhat of a feminist, though I didn't like using labels and I'm sure he didn't either. He would never talk badly of women in order to make himself feel stronger or manlier. He was amazing. All the more reason to hoard him for my own.

  "Don't leave without me," he said with a glint in his eye. He dropped a kiss on my forehead before slipping away to meet Christian on the sidewalk outside the park.

  The guitarist on stage was fairly decent, playing some bluesy tunes, so I didn't mind hanging out on my own. A permanent sun tarp overhead prevented me from seeing the stars, but I imagined them up there and it relaxed me. I was feeling pretty good about everything, in other words, when the bench I was sitting on shook with motion. I'd expected Vale to take longer, so I was surprised when he slid onto the bench beside me.

  I turned, saying, "That was—"

  Except it wasn't Vale. It was her, the eavesdropping redhead.

  "Hello," she said pleasantly. The smile she gave me, though, wasn't pleasant. It was nasty, like she'd heard something awful about me that she just couldn’t wait to say to my face.

  Slow your roll, Anne. Remember what happened with Edward and his resting serial killer face. Don't. Jump. To. Conclusions.

  "My boyfriend's sitting there," I said with a plastic smile.

  "I know." She gave me an intense, vaguely alarming look. "He's very interesting."

  Translation: I want to bang him.

  I had this woman's number. Oh, did I have it. And she looked the part of a conniving home wrecker, too: lots of makeup and cherry red hair that fell sleekly from a center part. Her hair was so smooth she must have spent three hours flat-ironing it. In my estimation, the only women who cared that much about their hair also cared a whole hell of a lot about attracting guys. And since Vale was the sexiest guy in Vegas (also in my estimation), her attraction toward him was natural and unavoidable.

  "Look," I said, smiling as much as I was able and adopting a tone of one girl to another, "I get where you're coming from because come on, I'm sleeping with the guy. He's great. But that's my point: I'm sleeping with him. He's mine. So you should back off and sink your fans into another guy. You're wasting your time here. He and I are practically married."

  "'Practically' means you're not," she pointed out with gleaming, maroon-colored eyes.

  Those were also bad, eyes like those. They told me she might be more than what she seemed. As in, she might be a magickal being.

  I decided to throw the dice.

  "You ever pick up a copy of The Magickal Meddler?"

  "I don't read," she told me smugly. "Especially not that garbage."

  I blinked a couple of times at that. Who was proud of not reading? But I swiftly shook off my bewilderment because I'd gotten the answer I needed: she was aware of the paper.

  I leaned closer to whisper, "You should make an exception. Maybe then next time you won't accidently challenge the sorceress who was voted Most Likely to Bring About the Apocalypse." I sat back. It was my turn to be smug. "That would be me, in case that went over your head."

  But my hope that she would be frightened off died a swift death when she only grinned, showing off perfectly formed, white teeth.

  "I don't think you're all that," she told me. She didn't quite give me the once-over, but it was a virtual one, making me aware that I hadn't dressed up to come down here and my makeup was minimal, which was par for the course for me. Even though I knew how to contour myself into a skinny supermodel, I didn't bother. Vale loved me as I was. "He's only with you because he hasn't met me yet," she said. "Now that I've seen you up close, I'm positive of it."

  I rolled my eyes. "That's not cheesy at all."

  "You'll see," she said, and then she stood up.

  When she did, the belt around around her waist caught the light, but she turned away too quickly for me to get a good look at it. I swiveled in my seat to watch her go, mostly to make sure she didn't head in the same direction that Vale had taken.

  Unfortunately, she was heading straight for him.

  "Dammit," I muttered. I took a last regretful look at the musician on stage and then jumped up to follow Miss Full of Herself.

  I thought about pulling out my phone, but then figured I wouldn't get a hold of Vale in time. Besides, what would I tell him? Run away and hide because a woman was heading his way to flirt with him? He'd give me that look, the one that said I should know better.

  So I simply trailed the other woman since I couldn't do anything else, though I kept an eye out for accomplices. After all, I had some enemies in the community. A lot of them didn't trust me and believed that I was actually a hit woman for the Oddsmakers. No amount of protesting on my part that I would never, ever align myself with the city's magickal bosses seemed to work. So I resigned myself to being the Enemy, and facing possible set-ups.

  This, though, didn't give me that vibe. In fact, I began to feel pretty dumb about the whole thing. This girl was acting stupidly, her idea of relationships on par with a high schooler's. Vale would probably just be annoyed by her. I should leave him to handle her.

  Before I reached the outside sidewalk, the praying mantis began spewing fire again. People on the sidewalk and within the park oohed and ahhed, but my attention was elsewhere.

  Vale and Christian stood on the sidewalk near the street, Christian's red hair turning gold beneath the light cast by the praying mantis' fire. The two guys had been facing each other, probably talking, but now both were turned toward Miss Full of Herself, who had run up and stopped fifteen feet from them. I watched her lips moving, saying something I couldn't hear, before she lifted her finger to her lips and blew across the tip of it as if shushing them.

  The air ahead of her rippled with the faintest of shimmers. I didn't know what she'd just blown at them or if it had anything to do with her at all. It was doubtful that she was the only magickal being present at the time, however, we all did our best not to use magick in front of ordinary people.

  Still, even if this park had been holding a vampire dance-off, my money was on the shimmer being a result of something that this crazy girl had done. I held my breath, waiting in dread for something to happen.

  Yet nothing did.

  After a moment more of waiting for the redhead to say something else, Vale and Christian shared a look and then returned to their conversation with each other. As for her…her expression looked put-out. She turned her head and she somehow picked me out in the small crowd. Her brows drew down. Then she spun and stalked down the sidewalk, heading in the direction of Fremont Street.

  I released my breath cautiously. Was that it? She'd blown a kiss at Vale and then pouted when he didn't react to it? It seemed silly, but then again, she had seemed silly, almost juvenile. All it had taken, apparently, was a quick rejection and she was over it.

  I smiled then, and head back to the stage to wait for Vale. I hadn't used my sorcery to stop that other girl and I was proud of myself. This promise won't be so hard to keep. Piece of cake.

  Chapter 3

  "Something tells me you had a nice night l
ast night," Melanie said with a leer which looked pretty ridiculous on her cute, chubby face. She waved one of her family's homemade pan dulce at me. "You know what I'm talking about! You're glowing like neon."

  "No, Melly, why don't you spell it out and do it in even louder voice so all of my customers can hear you."

  She laughed, spraying sweet bread, which made me snort and nearly choke on the mango donut I was working my way through.

  Today, business had picked up. Weekends in Vegas were good for that. A half dozen people roamed through Moonlight, curious about the items that other gamblers and tourists had sold in moments of desperation or greed. There were also plenty of magickal items for sale, too, though many of them wouldn't be apparent to the uninitiated.

  Fortunately, none of the customers appeared to have overheard Melanie's description of my love life.

  "If you're suggesting that I enjoyed my evening with my boyfriend then you are correct," I said primly.

  Melanie did a little tap dance, spilling more crumbs. "Cool. Glad you got your groove on. Ha-ha, that's my new saying. Is it funny or what?"

  "Sounds like something a grandmother would say."

  "Oh, boo, Anne."

  I polished off the donut. I resolutely did not look behind me where a pink bakery box stamped with her family's food truck logo, Todas Tortas, bulged with more sweet pastries.

  "So why did Christian need to talk to Vale last night?" I asked.

  "I dunno," Melanie said with a casual shrug. Melanie didn't do casual very well. She was hyperactive, supersonic monkey all the time. It was simply in her blood. So I knew she was fibbing.

  "Come on, monkey," I play-growled. "Out with it."

  "Okay, so maybe he called Vale for sex tips." She clapped her hands to her cheeks, which were blazing red. "I can't believe I told you that!"

  "Of course you told me. I'm your best friend. And what's so bad about Christian asking for tips? Means he's trying, right?"

  Her eyes rounded. "Ooh, that's a good way of thinking about it, isn't it?" A dirty look abruptly crossed her face. "Whatever Vale told him was very good. We had a lot of fun. We grooved all night long, ha-ha. So tell Vale thanks."