“That’s horrible,” Beck said.
“She was miserable. She hated not knowing who genuinely liked her for herself or if it was the abilities driving their need. It was the reason the mayor sent her to Texas, to have that ability suppressed. So she could live a semi-normal life. She didn’t ask for any of this, just like you didn’t, but it’s the cards you were dealt. Lucy is a great woman. She’s beautiful and funny, and she fits with you, with us. She’s actually perfect for you, even if you don’t see it yet.”
“Besides the whole blowing-up thing,” Danny said, snapping his gaze to Grey. He let his head loll back on his shoulders as he stared at the ceiling. This wasn’t supposed to happen this way. This was too much for him to take on. If he failed, the whole town would blame him, what was left of it. “I can’t do this.”
“You have to,” Grey said, leaving the comfort of Beck’s embrace. “It’s a prophecy. There is no way to stop it, no way to fix it. You just meet it head-on and grab that bull by the horns.”
Danny stormed across the room and grabbed the book. Angry hornets buzzed in his stomach. What exactly had been in that shot? He shook his head, and without another word, he walked out the door and back over to the beach house. He walked in and stopped, taking a deep breath. This wasn’t Lucy’s fault. She hadn’t ask for this, just as he hadn’t. How was he even supposed to approach this subject? It’s not something he could ignore. Neither of them could, if what Grey said was true.
Singing came from down the hall. Her voice carried throughout the house, calming him even more. She was innocent in all this, as was he. They’d figure this out. They had to. He headed down the hall and knocked on the bathroom door.
“Come in,” she hollered over the running water.
Danny eased the door open. Steam from the shower smacked him in the face, making his already clammy hands and face even more so as he fought the magic of whatever Grey had done to him.
“I know about the prophecy,” he blurted out, not knowing any other way to ease them into the conversation.
She was silent. The only sound was her turning off the water. Her hand snaked out, and she grabbed a towel. Within seconds, she pulled back the curtain. Her hair was soaked and dripping down her towel-covered body. She was a vision, beautiful and….crap.
Danny grabbed his robe from the back of the door and handed it to her before turning around.
“Who told you?” she asked.
He lifted the book to show her. “There’s some things about me I need to tell you, and I need to do it quickly before Grey’s spell kicks in.”
“You can turn around.”
He did. Her cheeks were pink as she stepped out and grabbed a brush. She was stunning in a girl-next-door kind of way. Droplets of water on her neck started a slow sensual path toward the robe.
“No…no…no,” he said, turning and walking out of the bathroom. “Grey put a love spell on me, and it’s starting to work, so I need to make this quick.”
He didn’t have to hear the pad of her footsteps behind him to know that she followed. The scent of her strawberry shampoo told him that she had.
“She what! I thought you were kidding.”
“Put a spell on me,” he said, spinning to face her. “That stone you say you found when you were younger.” He cleared his throat, trying to hold back his resolve to kiss her. He could feel the tendrils of Grey and her cousins’ spell kicking in. He lifted his pendant from beneath his shirt for her to see. “I have one, too, and like your prophecy, my family has a prophecy about our matching stones.”
She shook her head. A look of disbelief crossed her face. It was the same feeling that sat like a rock in his gut.
Pain radiated in Danny’s side, making him drop the book and crumple to his knees. Heat engulfed his body as he clutched his stomach to stop what felt like a white-hot poker prodding his body. Sweat beaded on his brow. His vision turned hazy, and the room begun to spin.
“Are you…” She didn’t even finish her sentence before she dropped to her knees at his side. “You’re sweating. What do I do? Tell me how to stop it.”
The energy within him slowly started to drain.
“Get my brother and Grey from next door. She needs to undo whatever this is.” His words were a whisper before the darkness dug in its sharp claws and claimed his consciousness.
Chapter 4
Lucy ran out the door, clutching Danny’s robe tight to her body. She flew down the beach steps toward her mother’s old beach house. Grey and her husband, Beck, stood out on the porch staring out into the ocean. She yelled. The sound of the wind and crashing waves drowned her screams. Lucy lifted her hands and expelled a fireball toward the waves. Grey and Beck snapped their gaze to her, and Lucy motioned with her hands and yelled, “Help.”
Beck flew down the stairs with Grey right behind them as they ran toward her. Lucy pointed up the stairs.
“Danny.” She couldn’t form any other words as she led the way to where Danny was laying in the living room.
“What the hell happened?” Beck asked, dropping to his knees next to his brother with Grey on the other side. She rested her hand on his forehead as Beck felt for a pulse.
“He said you spelled him. He was trying to tell me about his pendant when he grabbed his side and collapsed. His face paled, and he was sweating. He asked me to get you both before he passed out.”
Beck cast a worried look at Grey. “What herbs did you girls use?”
Grey started rattling off a list.
“He’s allergic to sasparilla root.” Beck rose to his feet and ran from the room, returning seconds later with an allergy pen in his hand. He stabbed his brother’s thigh muscle and pushed the liquid into Danny’s veins.
Grey closed her eyes and lowered her head while Lucy fell to her knees. “Why did you put a spell him?”
“Your prophecy and pendant. Did he tell you about his pendant?”
“He started to and then passed out.”
Grey lifted her pendant from beneath her shirt. “Beck and Danny’s mother’s family are witches, and they’re the same ones that your mom sent you to Texas to see. They’re the ones who placed the charm on yours. Well, they bewitched the pendants for them to find the rightful owners. Mysteriously, they were destined to be found by the women that Beck and Danny were to be with. I got mine, and no matter how I tried to get rid of it, and believe me I tried, it always found its way back. When I saw yours, I was only trying to help you two along.”
“You almost killed him, Grey,” Beck said, grabbing Danny beneath the arms and hoisting him onto the couch.
“I didn’t know,” Grey said, moving to sit on the coffee table to stare at Danny. “I thought I was helping.”
“By making him feel things against his will?” Lucy asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Grey, I know you meant well, but you were taking away his free will. It would have counteracted my spell on my pendant. I wouldn’t have known if he truly liked me or not. That would have complicated things worse.”
Beck had his hand resting on Danny’s head. “His fever is dropping, and color is starting to return to his face. The allergy medicine has started to work.”
“Will it counteract the spell?” Lucy asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
“If it counteracts that herb, it should counteract the effects that the spell had,” Grey announced as Beck rose and walked into the kitchen, returning with a wet towel. He laid it over Danny’s head before disappearing again and returning with a small blanket.
“Let him sleep it off, but keep an eye on him. If he gets worse or has a reaction, call me or run over and get me. If you need to leave, just let one of us know, and we’ll come sit with him.”
Lucy nodded. “I think I can handle it. How hard could it be?”
That was the last time she’d ask that question. She was up and down with Danny all night, helping him to the bathroom when he thought he might sick, keeping him covered with blankets and trying to feed him
soup during the short spurts when he woke. He had all the hallmarks of having the flu, but without the congestion. The last time he’d gotten up, she helped him to get in his bed. Needing to be nearby in case he needed her, she slept in one of the chairs in his room, the blanket from the couch covering her body and a pillow propped against the dresser. It wasn’t the worst of places she’d slept, but it wasn’t the best either. She closed her eyes and let the worries drift away.
* * * *
Lucy’s eyes shot open. The soft mattress beneath her body made her pause. She glanced around the open, airy room to find that, somehow, she’d managed to end up in her own bed.
“I carried you,” Danny announced from the chair in the corner of the room. He had his feet propped up on the hope chest at the end of the bed, and the Blansett Family book lay open in his lap. “This is interesting reading.”
He slapped the book closed. He rose and stretched his back. “Did you know that you have gypsies in your bloodline?”
Lucy sat up in the bed and wiped the sleep from her eyes. “I guess you’re feeling better.”
“I owe you,” he said, moving across the room. He leaned over her, his words whispered in her ear. “You saved my life.”
“Well, if it wasn’t for me, it wouldn’t have needed saving.”
“You didn’t spike my shot,” he said, kissing her cheek. His hot lips hovered on her skin. “Thank you.”
“You wouldn’t have needed a love spell if time wasn’t an issue.”
Danny stood and held out his hand. “Speaking of which, we have things to do.”
Lucy slid out of the bed. “I have things to do. Don’t you have to work?”
He shook his head. “I’m off the rest of the week.”
“Lucky me,” she said, walking into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.
“I thought we’d head straight to the courthouse so I can put a ring on your finger, and then we can spend the rest of the week on the first of many honeymoons.”
Lucy rested her palm on his forehead. “You’re not feverish, but delusional. I wonder if that’s a symptom of the herbs.”
“Not a big fan of spontaneity?” He smiled and took her palm and kissed it. “I thought we’d kill two birds with one stone. It would save the town from blowing up, and it would give me more time to win you over. Because, let me tell you, honey, I’m good, but I’m not damn good enough to sweep you off your feet in less than a week.”
Lucy laughed as she returned to the coffee prep. “Hate to break it to you…honey.” She glanced over her shoulder and grinned. “But a week is all you have to make me fall madly in love with you. If I recall correctly, that’s only one of the two ways that can stop the prophecy. A ring on my finger wasn’t a necessity.”
He grabbed two coffee cups from the cabinet and set them on the counter. “Maybe not for your prophecy, but it is in mine. Tit for tat. I help you with yours; you help me with mine.”
“You don’t even know me,” she said, grabbing the coffee pot and pouring coffee into both cups.
“Does anyone really know anyone?” he asked, pulling the creamer out of the fridge. He opened it and held it above hers, proving her point. She drank hers black. She shook her head.
He lifted a single brow before he gave her a lopsided grin. “I know you like to keep the place clean. I know you’ve got a good heart to take care of a stranger when they’re sick, even if it means sleeping someplace uncomfortable. I know you're beautiful, you drink your coffee black, and that you have Gypsy DNA. Your mother knows all, and you’d be “Be-All” if it hadn’t been for my mother and grandmother’s coven putting a block on your pendant, which matches mine. I’ll learn the rest as we go. I wonder what that would make our children. See-All? Do-All? Hear-All?” He shrugged.
“Who says I even want children?”
“Do you?” He sipped his coffee.
“Yes, but that’s beside the point.” She paused with the coffee cup to her lips and lowered it. “Grey told me that your mom and grandmother are part of the coven that gave me back my life. I should send them a thank-you card.”
“You should thank your mom for sending you to them. I bet that whole thing was part of her ‘know all.’” He raised his brow.
“You don’t say.” Lucy brows dipped. The need to see her mom was becoming imminent. The strikes against her involvement were mounting.
“Of course she did. Hell, my mom probably did too.” Danny leaned against the counter. “Why do you think your mom recruited me to come work in Blansett? She had to have known you’d come back.”
“Speaking of my mother, have you noticed she’s been surprisingly absent in the midst of your illness?”
“Huh.” He shrugged. “Now that you mention it, I’m surprised she hasn’t made an impromptu visit just to check on us.”
Lucy pressed her lips together tighter. Realization smacked her in the face. “She only avoids me for one reason. When there is something she doesn’t want to tell me.”
Lucy grabbed the family book and her keys. “How about we both pay her a visit?”
“Scared to see her alone?” he asked. “You nursed me back to health. Going with you to talk to your mom about the prophecy and ask for your hand in marriage is the least I can do, but you should probably change out of your wrinkled clothes.”
Chapter 5
Danny stared up at the mansion, and Lucy glanced back at her childhood home to try and see if from his eyes. Its twelve-foot stone Grecian columns didn’t really fit in with the small surfside town. Flowers covered the front porch, along with a few strategic chairs. Was that supposed to make visitors feel welcome? If he didn’t personally know her mother lived inside, he might be hard-pressed to knock on the door.
“I bet she doesn’t get many door-to-door salesmen. I feel like I have a one-way ticket to the principal’s office, and I’m not sure either of us will leave here unscathed.
Lucy grinned. “It’s warded.”
“I bet, and I’m sure this place scared off all of your high school dates. It reeks screw-with-my-daughter-and-you’ll-die-a-slow-painful-death.”
Lucy got out of the car, and Danny followed her up the stairs. There was no turning back. She might just get answers that she never wanted or leave with more questions than she’d started with. Either way, she had to know. They both did.
Lucy reached for the knob, and Danny placed his palm over her hand, stopping her. “For better or worse, we’ll figure this out together, no matter what she says. I’m in this, okay?”
Lucy felt a certain calm rush over her from his touch as she held his gaze. A soft smile formed on her lips. “Thanks.”
“That’s the least I can do for my soon-to-be wife.” A sexy grin spread on his lips, and he winked.
Incorrigible. Lucy rolled her eyes. Being someone’s wife was a foreign concept and a role she had no intention of filling any time soon. The doorknob twisted in Lucy’s hand from the other side before the door was yanked open.
Her mother was saying goodbye to someone Lucy had never seen before.
“Perfect timing.” Her mother grinned. “Lucy, Danny, this is Paige. She’s new here.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Lucy said while rubbing her pendant.
“You too. Sorry, I can’t stay to chat, but I’ve got to run.” Paige jogged down the stairs and headed up the drive on foot.
“Well, are you two coming in, or are you going to stand there all day?” Helena-Marie asked.
“Mom. It’s good to see you.”
Helena-Marie grabbed Lucy and pulled her into her warm embrace. “It’s good to see you too, kiddo.” She leaned out and glanced at Danny. “You two are wasting valuable time. You’ve got work to do.”
Helena-Marie grabbed Lucy’s hand and started pulling her through the foyer like a woman on a mission. Lucy hadn’t seen her mother like this before, not even when they were running late for whatever town functions her mother was in charge of. This energy, her frazzled appearance, somethin
g had her mother….flustered.
Lucy glanced back to make sure Danny was following. Lucy was dragged straight into a room that looked eerily similar to what one might think a war room looked like.
Maps took up most of the wall space on one wall with printed copies of pages from their family books on the others, along with some other documents. Pushpins were in several places along the maps.
“Is this normal?” Danny whispered in her ear.
Lucy shook her head, unable form an answer as she walked farther into the room. Maybe her mother was losing her mind. “Uh, Mom…just wow.”
Helena-Marie spread her arms wide, gesturing to encompass the room. “Welcome to the prophecy.”
Danny clasped his hands behind his back and slowly walked around the room, taking everything in on the walls. His brow furrowed as stopped in front of one the maps and rubbed the stubble on his jaw.
“Mom, are you feeling all right?” Lucy closed the distance between them and took her mom’s hands into hers. “You’re not, by any chance, hearing voices in your head, are you? Do we need to call the doctor?”
Helena-Marie slipped her hands-free and turned her back, moving around the room. “You came here for answers, didn’t you?”
“We came here to figure out a loophole to keep her from blowing up the town in the event I can’t win her over in less than a week,” Danny answered.
“That’s what this is. Your loophole.”
“I don’t understand.” Lucy walked over to one of the maps with the pushpins on it. She recognized the island depicted. It was the uninhabited island just off the coast.
“You need to sit for this,” she said, walking out of the room, leaving Lucy and Danny to follow behind her.
Mystic Luck (Mystic Tides Book 2) Page 26
