by Berinn Rae
“So you’ve forgiven me?” he asked.
“Like I had a choice,” she answered.
He felt the warm brush of her phantom kiss on his lips and stepped forward to go to her but she held up a hand. He stopped.
She turned her attention back to the two women. “And now, Nila, Mrs. Gilmore, if you think it your responsibility to stay, then please stand back. Let me do what I do best.”
Through the link, Daniel felt her absolute, passionate surrender to the love they shared. A love that would weather worse storms than the exposure of one embarrassing, surprising, somewhat disturbing but altogether minor, secret. Then he felt nothing as she severed the link.
The magic in the room suddenly spiked with power. Overhead, the lights brightened momentarily and then went out. A soft luminescence grew inside the room, drifting like a green mist to eddy across the floor. Gran stepped back before it could touch her. Lily laughed and pushed away from the windows to stand, feet slightly spread, head high. Ribbons of color, violent reds, rich purples, and radiant yellows snaked around her arms raised as if in supplication. Her hair glittered gold on her shoulders and her skin burned the pale blue of death. But her eyes blazed the rich blue of strength and resolution as the first apparition stepped close to her.
An irrational rush of jealousy nearly launched Daniel across the room. Lily’s unspoken command echoed in his head … Wait! His shoulders twitched but he stopped, poised and ready. He didn’t trust these … these things. And the triumphant look the Rodney apparition shot him out of eyes suddenly alive and glowing confirmed he had reason to be wary. The ghostly flesh no longer looked gray but gleamed with color, warm yellows, soft oranges, and reds.
And the thing that looked like him towered over Lily as fresh and dramatic and naked as the night it had stepped off the canvas. The hand that reached out to touch her face was textured with brush strokes.
Daniel heard Lily’s quick intake of breath and gave an involuntary jerk. She seemed under an enchantment, oblivious to all but the man-figure stepping close to press its body against her.
• • •
Lily felt the apparition’s weight as solid and real. The ghostly features were so like Daniel’s she started crying. It drew a finger down her cheek to lay against her lips. She shuddered at the icy touch but stood firm.
“Yes,” she said in a voice almost rejoicing, rising on tiptoe until their lips met. “I am yours as you are mine,” she breathed against its mouth. “And I love you as a lonely piece of my heart. Come home, come back to me.”
The spectral being kissed her then, a long press of inhuman lips against hers. Everything in Daniel screamed to tear the thing off her but somehow he stayed still. Lily’s arms gathered the naked man close and held it. Colors began to spin away from their two bodies in ragged strings that whirled and danced. Daniel felt Lily’s magic spike, searing his newly healed senses. Gran fell to her knees, and Nila dropped to wrap a protective arm around her. Neither woman took their eyes off the tableau before them.
Above the pounding of her heart, Lily heard the keening cry of the apparition. She clasped her arms tighter around it until, with an explosive sigh, it melted into her. One moment the apparition stood solid against her, the next it was gone. An ache swelled in her chest. She felt her ribs expand to the point of cracking as she absorbed all of the manifestation’s bitter loneliness and longing. She recognized its emotions as the echo of her own on that terrible night she’d painted the nude and tears fell thicker down her cheeks.
“Lily!” She heard Daniel’s cry as she swayed unsteadily for a moment.
“Not yet,” she told him. After drawing a couple deep breaths, she reached out to Rodney. He stepped close, and she folded him close to her breast, cupping the head in her hand and pressing the face to her shoulder as if he were a frightened child.
“I am yours as you are mine.” Her voice rang out a second time. “I love you as a lonely piece of my heart. Come home, come back to me.” Once more color shredded away from the figure like rags; jade greens, yellow ochres, Prussian blues. Rodney bent to kiss her, then sank as quietly as midnight snow into her.
Lily lifted a trembling hand to wipe her face. She looked at Daniel. “I’m so sorry … ” Her gasp painful, she collapsed unconscious to the floor.
• • •
Daniel was at her side in seconds, heart in his throat. He lifted her, ice cold and loose limbed, onto his lap. Pressing a finger to her throat, he felt her pulse, faint but steady. He buried his face in her hair and pulled her closer to the warmth of his body. He could feel her magic, volatile and stormy, whipping about the room. Cautiously, he began to siphon the hot magic through him and into her. Little by little Lily’s pale skin began to warm.
He’d forgotten Gran and Nila and started in surprise at the sound of Nila helping the older woman to her feet. Quick anger tightened his mouth, but eased when he saw the awe and respect on their strained faces.
“I’ve never seen such courage in the face of so much Rogue magic,” Gran said, clinging to Nila’s arm. Daniel knew that was as much of an apology as Lily would ever get.
Nila bowed her head to him. “I’ll never forgive myself for doubting her. Or you.”
Daniel’s mouth twisted. “Yes you will, you always do. In a few hours, you both will have talked yourself into disbelieving most of what you just saw. As you should.”
Nila felt the brush of a forgetting spell, highly illegal, in her mind and knew he spoke the truth.
Gran opened her mouth to chastise him, then snapped it closed. With a faint gleam of humor in her eyes, she said, “Perhaps Lily and I can learn to be friends.”
“I doubt it.” Daniel barked a laugh. “But the effort will make for interesting fireworks.”
“She’s okay, isn’t she?” Nila nodded at Lily’s head tucked under Daniel’s chin. “Do you need Madame?”
Daniel shot her a heated look too obvious to misinterpret.
She blushed. “Oh! Right, then. I’ll see Gran home.” Nila ushered the other woman from the studio and closed the door behind them without a backward glance.
Daniel cradled Lily against him and waited. His legs cramped, he ignored the pain. Outside, the sky faded to a rose sunset and then into night. Traffic sounds picked up as the day ended and, after awhile, quieted. The ancient radiator ticked on, ticked off and still he held her, pressing murmuring kisses on her temple, her cold cheeks, her closed eyelids. Reading her, he found her consciousness far away as if she were traveling through deep sleep. He left her there, afraid to tug her back too soon.
God knows she looked like death. Exhaustion, fear, pain, the day’s sorrows, all showed in the hollows of her cheeks and purple smudges under her eyes.
He could hardly fathom the kind of power she’d worked in order to unbind, release, and absorb the two apparitions. Hints of residual magic still stirred the air, occasionally flicking his skin. What audacity she had, he marveled. What heart and force of will. She’d accepted her own weaknesses, faced them, embraced them and loved them. He bent to kiss her lips and felt them stir beneath his.
“Lily,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, too. I never meant to keep you out.”
Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. Her mouth barely moved. “Old habits … ”
“Yes.” His voice caught.
• • •
Lily was so tired. Every bone in her body felt like a brittle icicle. At the same time, her heart brimmed full to the point of bursting. The other shoe had dropped and it hadn’t destroyed her. It had hurt, yes. But happiness came with a price, always. Today, at last realizing her own guilt kept the two manifestations manacled to her, she’d found the strength to take responsibility for them. Despite her fear of failure, of pain, of loss, and in spite of her impetuous, flaky temperament. She, and her powers, had swung full circle. Her feral magic no longer frightened her. She would drive it, not let it drive her. Life would still try to buck her off, but she’d just have to take a firmer grip on
the reins … with Daniel’s help, of course.
Forcing her eyes open she found his face close above her, a little worse for wear but achingly dear and home to her wild heart. She wondered, with a dreamy sense of distortion, why she’d been so angry at him. So he created a syndicated comic strip and used life and real people as a template. How could she blame him when she did the same thing, if not quite so literally?
She lifted arms still weak and touched his face, looked deep in his warm, brown eyes. “Thank you for waiting for me to grow up, Daniel.”
He kissed her with a grin. “Think we can survive each other?”
Lily tightened her arms around his neck. “You know what The Bard says: ‘To fear the worst oft cures the worst.’”
He lifted her from the cold floor and carried her to the portrait set, laying her on the thick velveteen throws. She pulled him down with her, pressing her body full against him, kissing his face, his chin, his mouth.
“Lily, don’t you think — ”
“No.” She peeled the jacket from his shoulders with a determined force. A wanton smile set his blood boiling as she lifted her arms for him to strip off her sweater. Her skin heated under his hands and her pulse leaped eagerly against his mouth. Wanting them skin to skin, Lily fumbled with his shirt buttons until, beyond patience, he dragged it over his head. His fingers made short work of her bra and then her breasts were bare and against his chest. She sighed, stretched against the artfully arranged, and soon to be savagely disarranged, velveteen folds.
Daniel’s mouth hot on hers left her gasping and gripping his hair. She tore frantically at the buttons of his jeans, but he wanted her naked first. He dragged off her skirt, her panties. His knees pried her legs wide, and she pressed close as his hands played over her skin. Her magic roared in a frenzied draft around them. The lights blinked on then quickly off.
Brain dissolving beneath the feverish drive of his body, Lily knew she must use the residual magic now before rational thought vanished. But Daniel was already working it. Murmuring words of love against her belly, he warped her power into soft currents of flowing color. Pulling back, he looked at her and caught his breath. Her skin pulsed with color just as the crystals had in her geode, her every curve, every shadow painted in flickering light. He bent to taste a golden breast. The night she’d painted Paradigm, her apartment had filled with unruly passion. He’d walked into it open and rejoicing. Now she lay beneath him, eyes alive with the same radiant invitation. Her fingers traced his lips and he realized she was Reading him.
Lily shrugged, shameless. “I am yours as you are mine, Daniel.”
Grinning, he bit her neck. She laughed and stuck her hand down his pants.
A Sneak Peek from Crimson Romance
The Gettysburg Vampire by Susan Blexrud
Silent as the Grave
Book 1 in the Guild of Truth Series
Mary K. Norris
Avon, Massachusetts
This edition published by
Crimson Romance
an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.
10151 Carver Road, Suite 200
Blue Ash, Ohio 45242
www.crimsonromance.com
Copyright © 2012 by Mary K. Norris
ISBN 10: 1-4405-5154-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-5154-3
eISBN 10: 1-4405-5134-0
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-5134-5
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
Cover art © 123rf.com
To my Opa, I miss you every day.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
More From This Author
Acknowledgments
I’d like to thank all my family and friends who believed in me and supported me. My parents especially, you guys never let me give up on my dream. Thank you. To my brother and sister, you always believed in me and were there for me. I’ll never forget that.
Special thanks goes out to the Merki-Norris Clan for your never-ending support. I’d also like to thank everyone at Crimson Romance for giving me this amazing opportunity, especially Jennifer Lawler, who took a chance on me and believed in my book. Thank you everyone, I wouldn’t be where I am today without you.
Prologue
Felix smiled at the little girl one seat over. She was waiting for her mother to come out from the patient room where she was discussing whatever treatment their dog needed with Sydney. He could tell by the little ways she wrinkled her nose that the smell of dog food was getting to her. He’d long since become accustomed to the smell. A hard concept for him to wrap his mind around considering his nose was used to the aromas of fresh baked goods from working at the bakery.
The sacrifices he made for friendship.
The little girl returned his smile and continued to shift in her seat. A child could only remain in one position for so long.
“Hey.” He leaned toward her conspiratorially. “You want to see a cool magic trick?”
The girl’s honey-brown eyes brightened for a moment before her face saddened. “My brother told me magic isn’t real and only dumb little girls believe in it.” She hugged her arms to her chest in a gesture that told Felix she hadn’t quite broken the habit of carrying a stuffed animal around with her.
He eased back from her and dug into his pocket. “Is that so?” He held up a quarter before letting it rest in the palm of his hand. “Ready?” The little girl scooted to the edge of her seat.
Felix grinned at her hopeful expression.
All too easy.
He waved his other hand and the coin vanished.
“Whoa!” The little girl was practically in his lap. “Where’d it go?” She grabbed his hand and flipped it over.
He held his hands up and shrugged. “It’s gone. I told you.” He waggled his fingers for effect. “Magic.”
She continued to look for it. “Yeah, but that’s what they always say, and then they pull it out from behind my ear.” Her large, honey eyes lit up, snagging on the side of his face. “Or from behind your ear!” She clambered into his lap and grasped his head between her little hands.
Not this time, he thought as she tilted his head this way and that.
If he’d been able to return things after Erasing them, it would have made his life a helluva lot easier when his powers had first manifested.
Before the little girl could give him a headache, he gently pulled her away from his face, keeping her little arms and hands at a safer distance. It still amazed him how open minded children could be. It was a breath of fresh air. There was no judgment, no fear. He could blatantly use his powers, and this little girl didn’t even bat an eye. She simply sat on his lap, eyes glittering.
“You want to know why those other people bring the coin back?” he asked her. “It’s because they didn’t really make it disappear, they only hid it.”
“So you can’t bring it back?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“Not even if you really, really tried?”
His smile slipped. Th
e question was asked in innocence, but that didn’t stop his gut from sinking as he remembered all the times he’d desperately tried.
He shook away the lingering ghosts of his past and pasted that smile back onto his face.
“Not even if I really, really tried,” he told her.
She considered him for a moment, and he half expected her to jump from his lap and tell him how lame he was that he couldn’t make a damn coin reappear.
Well, I could always pull another one from my pocket …
But after a few more seconds the little girl nodded to herself and scooted closer so she could wrap her arms around his neck. “That sounds like real magic to me. Two years ago I had this one pet called Mr. Hobbles … he was a Junebug that I used to practice magic with … ”
• • •
Emily’s mom emerged from the patient room fifteen minutes later, clearly astonished to find her daughter in the lap of a complete stranger and positively glowing with excitement. She collected Emily from Felix, sprouting apologies and thanks for his patience with her daughter.
“Bye, Felix.” Emily waved the entire time as her mother tugged her from the vet like their dog on its leash.
Once the door shut and they disappeared into a large SUV a soft snort drifted over from behind the reception desk.
Felix glanced over to find Niella, not bothering to hide her amusement. “I don’t get it,” she said. “What do they see in you? It’s almost sad how easily they fall for you. That poor girl is going to have a crush on you well into middle school.”
He shot her a grin. “I can’t help it. At least I set the bar really high for her.”
“You sure did,” she said sarcastically. “Now all it’ll take to get her engine going when she grows up is some cheap magic trick. Well done.” Niella gave another snort and turned back to her paperwork.
