by Mary Hughes
Maybe even try to force her.
Daniel shuddered with rage at the thought.
Yet, if he didn’t do this spell, they were blind. The enemy might get frustrated and try to force her anyway.
That decided him. He had to know who the evil bastard was. He had to do the spell, then deal with the consequences fast and decisively.
“Thanks for the heads up, Sophia. I owe you.”
He clicked off, then poured the water into the pan, submerged the napkin in it, and stirred three times. Next, he used the lancet to prick his finger.
His blood gathered in a ruby tear, dangling from the pad. Heart. It dripped, fell into the water and dispersed. He tried not to think of Zoe as the second drop gathered.
Then it struck him—that was what had changed since high school.
His breath froze. The drop fell in silence. A female, a wolf shifter, affecting his magic? The blood hit the water and burst with a dazzle.
He didn’t have time to deal with the implications. More, he didn’t want to. It was a relief when the third drop finally fell, and he could press his thumb against the puncture to stop the bleeding.
Daniel plucked his wand, ebony with gold wire fittings, from his breast pocket. The wand was always at hand when needed and never there to spoil the line of his clothes when he needed that. A wizard thing.
With a flick of his wrist, he drew the blue flame onto the wand. Successive flicks wrapped it around the wand like cotton candy on a stick.
A fling sailed an arc of blue fire into the air and down into the pan.
Napkin, water, and blood all lit with a foomph. He mentally touched his power and spoke the catalyst word, “Find.”
The flames began to dance and swirl, ghostly waltzers on a ballroom floor.
One spot pulsed red. The where—the back of the ballroom.
The swirling blue flame coalesced into that spot, like water spiraling down a drain. It flared orange-red and formed a brutal face in a ripped mask. The who—the handsy Zeus. Daniel’s blood surged with triumph. Now for the why…
The fire spat, flares of purple shooting out like bursting rockets—then turned totally black.
Black fire.
Daniel tore off his tux jacket and smashed it over the pan, smothering the magefire. His chest was pumping like a bellows.
Stars and moon. This was a disaster. Sophia said the color of the flames would tell him intent. The orange-red flare said greed, the purple sparks said magic—Zeus was definitely a wizard and could trace the spell back to Daniel, but that didn’t matter now, not with that fire.
Black. Evil intent.
Daniel snatched up his jacket and, despite the half-charred lining, threw it on as he ran out of the room. Heart pounding, he raced for the ballroom, pulling down his mask on the way. Only one way for a wizard to get that parchment—make the Queen of Hearts give it to him.
An evil wizard now knew he’d been found out, and the clock was ticking.
Zoe was in danger.
Chapter Five
Normally as hostess, Zoe would have led the first waltz. But until her identity was revealed at midnight, the Queen of Hearts had to remain masked, so Zoe had a discreet word with the orchestra director.
As she was finishing her instructions, her wolf growled. She spun.
Headed straight for her, face brutal in his ripped masked, was the handsy Zeus.
Handsy. By her paws and claws. Had his groping been a cover for light-fingering her key? Her wolf’s growl deepened. It certainly thought he had, and it wanted immediate revenge, of the bloodiest kind.
But her human counseled caution. First, she didn’t want to make a scene in front of her elegant guests. But second, if Zeus had already gotten the key, what more could he want from her? She needed to delay, a chance to figure out his game.
Then she’d let her wolf have its confrontation.
As the first strains of the “Blue Danube” began, she trotted for the corner buffet table, full of cheese and chatting couples. Let Zeus try his shenanigans when she was among people, and ready for him.
Sure enough, he followed. But as he swept in on her like a thunderstorm, his dark glower dispersed her cover of couples.
“Lady Mystery,” he rasped. “Kismet brings us together again.”
“Or your clumsy attempts to corner me,” she murmured.
“What?” he asked sharply.
“Nothing.” She smiled coyly and fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Her wolf snorted in disgust, but her flirting must have appeased him because he smiled, too, though in his ripped mask it came off as more of a leer.
Flirt, she reprimanded herself. Tease out his plans…and maybe even get the key back. “Cheese?”
“Let’s go somewhere we can get romantic.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder.
She staggered, but kept her smile plastered on her face. “Nonsense.” Fluttering eyelashes like a power fan, she yanked loose. “Nothing is more romantic than cheese.”
“Being alone together is. C’mon, honey.”
Zeus grabbed her wrist and tried to tug her toward the side service door. He was smiling, but the reek of angry testosterone coming off him scared her. She resisted, got dragged a few inches, and had to let her wolf out to add strength.
On the plus side, she broke loose.
Huge minus, he glared suspiciously at her. She didn’t know why, but she did know how to derail male suspicions.
“I just love cheese so much.”
She pointed at herself, finger sinking into her cleavage past the second knuckle. His gaze shot down and his face went slack.
Gotcha.
Zoe backed toward the cheese table, widening the gap between them.
His gaze rose, and he frowned.
“I especially love Camembert, don’t you?” Covering her intent with a flirty smile, she groped on the table behind her for a plastic sword pick, and when she found one, she stabbed a cube of cheese, hard, wishing she could use it on him.
His frown darkened. “I don’t want cheese. I want to be with you—alone.” He took a threatening step closer.
Falling back, she hit the table and covered by swinging the sword pick between them. “But the cheese is so creamy.” She gave the sword a little flourish then brought it to her mouth and licked the cube, slowly. Sensuously.
Zeus’ expression changed, gaze riveted to her caressing tongue, licking his lips as if mimicking her. “All right. Let’s flirt here for a while.”
Her wolf snorted in disgust, but she counted it a win and let her wary muscles ease.
Until Daniel, nostrils flared like a bull, charged into the room.
Daniel rushed into the ballroom, head and stomach churning, his gaze cutting left-right, frantic to catch a glimpse of Zoe.
The ballroom was filled with swirling dancers and chattering groups. He couldn’t see the one lush figure he wanted. His heart thudded painfully. Damn it, a wizard was pursuing Zoe with evil intent, and he had no idea where she was. Couldn’t protect her, as everything inside him screamed to do.
As if she was his to protect.
He thumbed his temples through his mask. She wasn’t his, she never had been. He had to remember that. Friends in high school; her a ten and him a four. Despite what happened tonight on that fainting couch, she still saw him as that dork.
Then Zeus’ brutal face appeared in a momentary gap in the crowd, cruelty pinched in a frown aimed at a graceful woman with a river of dark, glossy hair.
Zeus is with Zoe. Daniel’s heart stopped.
Then his pulse revved twice as fast. To hell with whose she was or wasn’t, he was going to rip Zeus apart.
Daniel bulled like a linebacker through the dancers. Urgency knifed at him to simply mow them all down, and he barely managed to keep from blasting them away with a spell as he dodged and wedged.
If Zeus hurt her, he was a dead man.
As Daniel neared, he saw Zeus staring at Zoe, lust blazing alongside the cruelty i
n the brutal man’s eyes.
And Zoe… Daniel slowed as his whole body turned to rubber.
Her tongue curled around an hors d’oeuvre with such erotic heat, Daniel wanted to kill himself to be reincarnated as that cube of cheese. Zeus leaned forward, for all the world like he was going to replace the cheese with his mouth. Daniel’s heart rate goosed, everything in him rising to smash his fist in his rival’s face.
Daniel sprinted for her, his conscience screaming at him to stop, that she deserved better than him, but he could care less; she was his, and no dollar’s worth of wizard was getting in his way—
“Whoa there, cowboy.”
A hand seized his shoulder and swung him around. He was confronted by a smirking man in black tails, his lounging stance as graceful as a wild animal.
Daniel twisted and tried to wrenched away. “Let go.”
But the man’s fingers were steel. “I will when you calm down.” Brilliant black eyes twinkled with amusement and a touch of sympathy through a satin domino styled to look like purple smoke.
“Right. All right.” Daniel stopped tugging, pretending to cooperate, but he dragged oxygen rapidly through flared nostrils, ready for his opportunity to yank away. Maybe smash the man in the face as he did. No, that would take too much time, and he had to get to Zoe. “Who are you?”
The man’s mouth quirked. “I’ve had many names. Currently, I’m going by the amusing sobriquet of Jayden. I’m not letting you go, you know. What you’re contemplating is a death sentence.”
“How do you know what I’m contemplating?”
“Please.” Black eyes rolled. “Your gaze on her is so hot you’re about to trigger the sprinklers. You want to have hot, meaningless sex with her. But I can tell you, intimacy between you two will be neither mere sex nor meaningless.” He paused as if considering. “It will be hot, though.”
Fucking smartass. “My intentions are none of your business.”
“Normally I’d agree. In this case, I need to remind you witch/shifter mating is forbidden. On pain of death.”
“How…?” The man knew Daniel was a wizard? Impossible. But even that paled compared to the thought that this Jayden might be a danger to Zoe. Fear for her spiked Daniel’s gut. “If you’re a Council Enforcer—”
“Heaven forbid. I’m just a friend.”
“Well, friend, I don’t take well to threats. Who are you, where have you come from and what the hell do you want?”
“A guest, invited like you, and to give you some advice.” Steel fingers dug in so hard they nearly pierced triceps. “Stop struggling. This is for your benefit, and hers.”
The pain forced Daniel to obey, at least for the moment. “I wasn’t invited. But I needed to be here.”
“Exactly my point. You’re not the only agent of prophecy here, so listen up. A wizard prince and the daughter of an alpha once got away with mating. Lived together, right under the Council’s noses. Want to know how?”
Ice froze Daniel’s rage. Jayden was here because of the prophecy? Then why was he talking about Daniel and Zoe—and mating?
“What you’re saying is impossible.” Daniel didn’t know if he meant the witch/wolf mating, Jayden being an agent of prophecy, or Daniel’s own feelings for Zoe, feelings which definitely geysered at the words “living together.”
What the fuck, feelings? He could barely grapple with his strange, overwhelming need to make her his for tonight. Was he, the sworn playboy, thinking of making a life with her? A home?
“Not impossible, simply very difficult.”
Daniel startled then realized Jayden was responding to his words, not his thoughts.
“The wizard pretended the wolf was his live-in housekeeper. Now, I’m not recommending that, because they were always looking over their shoulder and could never be themselves. No spontaneous displays of affection—no displays of affection at all except behind locked doors with all the curtains drawn. Plus, no insurance benefits for her or the pup. How annoying is that? But they were able to live together without the Council knowing. They even had the kid.”
“Lovely. I’ll keep that in mind, if I ever decide to get serious with a shifter…damn.” Daniel was speaking to thin air. The stranger Jayden was gone as if he’d never been.
A projection? But astral projections were tremendous power sucks, especially with a grip like that.
The whole bizarre incident, however, had taken precious moments. Out of the corner of his eye Daniel saw that slime Zeus grab Zoe’s wrists.
He surged through the last of the crowd that separated them, plunged in with a hairpin binding of Zeus’ arms, and broke the man’s grip with a quick twist.
Immediately, Daniel snared Zoe’s hands for himself. “Lady Mystery.” He tossed the cheese onto the table and lingeringly kissed her fingers. “I was looking for you.”
She frowned. Her green eyes, though shadowed by the mask, looked darker somehow.
“I’m busy.” She added a mouthed, Getting the key.
So, somehow she’d figured out Zeus was their thief, too. His mouth wanted to smile at how clever she was, but his brain was less enamored. She had no idea that Zeus was an evil wizard, or how dangerous he was.
Daniel adopted his best suave, seductive smile. “This will only take a minute. Zeus, is it?” He spun the smile into an insolent slap of a grin at the other wizard. “You don’t mind if I steal this lovely lady, do you?”
“Yeah. I do.” Lightning practically jagged in Zeus’ eyes.
No subtlety at all, this one.
Which gave Daniel an idea. Zoe wanted the key, and no need for subtlety? He’d steal it back with magic. Right here, right now. He’d cover his actions so bystanders wouldn’t know, but Zeus wouldn’t fail to figure out Daniel was the other wizard and his nemesis, which would take his attention off Zoe.
Bonus, it’d shout loud and clear that if Zeus wanted Zoe, he’d have to go through Daniel.
Both of them were frowning at him. Daniel realized his hands and jaw were clamped so hard his teeth were powder and his fingers were knots.
He deliberately eased into a more casual stance. “I’m not giving you a choice. I’m cutting in.”
Zoe began, “My Hero—”
“The hell you are,” Zeus finished.
“Language.” Daniel touched his wand mentally, calling it into his side pocket. If Zeus had the key, a simple pickpocket spell would lift it. A favorite for playing pranks at University, Daniel learned the spell early and used it often, if only in self-defense.
Zoe crossed her arms and frowned at him. “I’m fine here, with Zeus.”
“You’re really not.” The simplest form of pickpocket used direct touch as a bridge. All Daniel had to do was stay in contact long enough for the key to transfer.
He brushed his wand through the pocket with one finger, priming the spell.
Zoe frowned, following his gesture. “Zeus and I were having a nice chat.”
She knew he was up to something, but she wouldn’t know what, and frankly, Daniel was more worried about Zeus. The other wizard might sense the spell before the transfer was complete—unless Daniel did something to distract him.
“Marvelous. We can all three have a nice chat together.” He smiled broadly and gave the bastard a buddy slap on the back.
On one hand, it worked to perfection. The bridge initiated without his new buddy catching on.
On the other hand, it backfired spectacularly. Daniel’s suppressed rage at the other mage had filled his slap with such a punch that Zeus staggered.
The brutal face lifted with surprise and he fell forward a step before he caught himself. “Hey. What the hell are you doing?”
Daniel tried to follow the motion, to keep in contact, but Zoe stuck her face in the gap and snarled at them both.
“That’s enough macho crap.”
His flow of magic was already started, and her anger, practically a physical force, distracted him an instant before he could cut the spell.
&n
bsp; Like electricity forced to jump, magic flared, surging over the gap from Zeus’ back to Daniel’s hand with an almost audible whoosh of superheated air.
Zeus yelped as if he’d been singed.
“I said enough.” Zoe wedged herself between them, her masked gaze cutting from one to the other. “You may think this alpha male shit is romantic, but I’m a person, not a piece of meat to be fought over.”
“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Daniel groaned mentally. Without the key, she would be determined to stick with Zeus, and a determined Zoe was as stubborn as a cliff.
He’d have confronted the guy, but she might be caught between them and magic between two wizards could get messy. But he didn’t want her anywhere near the jackass.
He needed to get His Lady Stubborn away from Zeus. But how?
The orchestra began another waltz, and it gave him an idea. She’d planned this evening around the idea of romance, and he’d spent the years since high school honing his seductive skills.
He took her fingers and kissed them. “Lovely Lady Mystery…”
He meant to follow up with, Would you care to dance? But his nose delighted in her unique scent, his lips tingled at the feel of her smooth skin, and all he wanted to do was kiss up her delicate hand, trace the veins along the back with his tongue, press hot lips to the inside of her wrist and kiss all the way up her tender inner arm to her sweet, hot mouth…
Need seared him, a fierce desire that raged almost immediately into direct action. Using his hold on her hand, he spun her into his arms and bent to seize her mouth.
Zeus barked a protest.
The sharp sound called Daniel back from the brink of insanity. Zoe deserved romance—or at least a sweet seduction, not pawing. He barely managed to turn the kiss into a press of lips to her cheek, just below her mask.
She gasped in surprise. Followed by a soft sigh of delight.
His whole body fired at the sound. Forget the key, forget the damned Quatrain. He wanted to sweep her into his arms for a thorough kissing. Return to the prep room for a helluva lot more.
“Lovely Lady Mystery. This chump is as romantic as a two-by-four. Come away with me.”
