by ML Guida
Ignoring Pandora’s exaggerated sighs and muttered comments, he took his time tagging, taking pictures, making notes, and picking up bits of evidence. He took samples of the glass both outside and inside the shop. He pulled a long piece of brown hair off the carpet-with his dragon eyesight he could tell it was a different color and thickness than Pandora’s. Surprisingly, he didn’t find any blood, so the thief must not have hurt his or herself.
However, the cash register hadn’t survived. Black tar was smeared on the metal, which was strange since bullet holes didn’t usually leave this much residue. He inhaled sulfur. The draw was ajar, hanging hazardously. He took pictures of every angle and removed tiny fragments that looked like gunpowder.
Strange.
He refused to assume it was a male culprit. Too many investigators assumed it was male and human, which meant females thought they could easily outsmart law enforcement.
Small boot imprints marred the lush carpet and wandered around the store, eventually leading to the cash register. Pandora had on sandals since it was always hot in Magic. Cé continued to wear his leather boots. Old habits die hard.
But there was no way these were his. Cé was a big man.
He dusted for fingerprints and carefully put the slides back in his case.
Pandora peeked through the doorway. Disgust plastered on her face. “Theo, do you want to look at the video or not? I know who the thief is. I just need you to help me find her.”
He gave her a cold stare. “You’re not going to do anything. This is a professional investigation.”
She put her arms up in the air. “Jiminy Crickets!”
“Don’t you curse me, Pandora Jackman.” He had curses up to his eyeballs.
“That’s not a curse or a spell, Theo.”
He never knew with her sometimes. Pandora wasn’t a devious witch like her sister, but sometimes her spells went awry. After double checking the room one more time to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and examining his case, he was satisfied. He removed his gloves. “Show me the tape.”
“So, I come in now, Sherlock?”
Her sarcasm only made him smile sweetly.
“Yes, Ms. Impatient.”
Pandora rolled her eyes but took him to the back where Cé had installed all the electronic equipment. They both took a seat in front of the monitor, and Pandora pushed the play button. On the thin client, the camera revealed it was night and the time was two-forty.
“Don’t you have an alarm system with this?”
Pandora licked her lips and avoided his eyes. “Yes, Theo, I forgot to arm it last night.”
He didn’t want to be Pandora when Cé returned. He’d never hurt his flighty little wife, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t have one hell of an argument.
“See–there she is.”
Theo’s breath caught in his chest, his lungs seized, suddenly immobilized, and a crackling chill went down his spine.
Mine.
It was the pirate woman! He admired her seductive pirate costume, making him hot. He twisted his neck and fiddled with his collar, hoping it wasn’t obvious his whole body was on fire. But that wasn’t what turned him into a panting bull. It was the way she looked brazenly into the camera, as if she didn’t care that she was being videotaped, almost daring him to capture her.
All he could think of was what the queen had said and Hera’s premonition, and had hoped it was just a coincidence. But the woman in the video had the same dark curly hair, the same calf-molding boots and billowing white blouse that made him want to reach through the film and kiss her. No, not just kiss her–claim her. An animal instinct rose up inside him, his heart raced, blood pumped through him faster than he’d ever experienced then his cock immediately grew rock hard. He squirmed in his chair, hoping Pandora hadn’t noticed. He was an officer. The pirate woman was a criminal. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He’d met beautiful criminals before, and not once had he’d been tempted.
Not once.
But then they hadn’t been his supposed soulmate. The queen had said the woman wasn’t whole, but she didn’t look like she was missing a thing from her full breasts to her slender waist to her glorious ass, but she was supposed to have the key to keep him from going postal. Not only did he have this crazy anger to protect, but he was also going to be saddled with an out of control libido.
The woman broke the glass with the butt of a pistol that was shaped like a dog’s head. It looked like a French flintlock that had to have been made during the seventeenth century. In her other hand, she held a sword that glinted in the moonlight, leaving little doubt that it was real. Her trousers were tucked inside long black boots, and by the size of them, they’d would match the imprints he’d taken in the carpet.
She shook her head, parting her long dark hair, but it was those brown eyes that held him. They were full of anger, full of lust, and her full lips turned up into a sneering grin, daring any man to kiss her. She was a captivating pirate, ready to steal her booty.
She sauntered over to the cash register. Smoke and sparks exploded. Metal rattled, blackened, and curled. The woman stuck her long fingers into the register and stuffed cash and coins–even pennies–into her deep pockets. Most women around here had well-manicured nails, but hers were chipped and cracked, as if she was used to hard labor.
God, he wanted her.
Pandora glared. “I can’t believe it. You’re actually rutting for this woman.”
“What? No, I’m not. You’re imagining it. I just was taken off guard by her costume. She probably works in some kind of play.”
She gave him a doubtful look. He turned away from her, fighting to control the raging heat within him.
But on the way back to the station, Martin called him. There’d been five more robberies all over town. Theo went to each store that all video taped his mysterious temptress.
Chapter Five
After a turbulent night of dreaming of his temptress, Theo reached for a cup of coffee. He couldn’t get her out of his thoughts.
The phone rang, and Martin answered. “Theo, we’ve got a robbery in progress at Misty’s.”
“Stay here in case any more calls come in.” Theo slammed his coffee down and glanced at his watch. It was barely seven o’clock in the morning, and he had a feeling it was his mystery woman.
He rushed to his squad car and pulled out of the parking lot, tires screeching. He turned on his flashing lights, but not the siren. Misty’s was only a few blocks away and was the biggest mystical shop in town. Misty was a witch who carried every item a witch, warlock, wizard, or anyone practicing magic would need.
He pulled his car onto the street, where Misty waited for him. Her gray hair was piled on her head, which always reminded him of an ice cream cone. Her spectacles were down on the tip of her nose, but it was the flash of something in her huge blue eyes that caught his attention. It happened when he looked through the driver’s window. It was a ghost of an expression that normally he wouldn’t have caught. Terror. Misty was a strong witch, and not much spooked her. When he saw the look reflected in her eyes, his heart froze.
Misty banged on the window. “Theo, Theo, she’s in there. I have never been so scared.”
He opened the door before she broke it. “Easy, Misty. Why didn’t you use a spell?”
“I don’t…know…” She wrung her hands. “It was the glint in her eyes. I’d be dead before I spoke the words. She pointed a gun at me, then put a sword underneath my chin.” Her voice cracked as she rubbed her throat.
Tears spilled down her wrinkled cheeks, igniting his anger.
The dragon growled deep in his chest. Taking a deep breath, he struggled not to shift, since a dragon wouldn’t help him catch a thief.
His hand shook as he pulled out his X-VTAC pistol. “Stay here, Misty. And whatever you do, don’t cast any spells, because you’re liable to hit me.”
She nodded. “I won’t. I promise.”
She immediately hid behind Theo’s cruiser
, and only the top of her gray hair revealed her hiding place.
He crept toward the store, both hands on his pistol. Just like Misty had said, someone had broken the glass door and left shards of glass inside. He peered inside but didn’t see anyone.
Sounds of shuffling alerted his dragon senses. Whoever had broken in was still here. He inhaled a whiff of salty air that reminded him of the ocean. Very carefully, he opened the shattered door since he was too tall to fit through the opening.
He slowly stepped inside. His boot crunched a shard of glass, and he winced. The shuffling immediately stopped.
The silence was a loud roar in his ears. He glanced around the cold dark store and stared at the dark shadows that grew blacker by the minute. He strained to hear deep breathing but could only detect his own. Statues of dragons, fairies, and animals watched him as he crept deeper into the store, waiting for him to make a mistake, but they weren’t the only ones watching.
Someone else was there.
Watching, waiting.
The temperature fell faster than rain drops. When Theo exhaled, he could see his own breath, which swirled toward the broken window.
He held his arms out straight, as he edged around the dark store, peering into shadows with his dragon vision. Even without being a dragon shifter, he had keen vision, including making out dark storeways. “This is the Sheriff. I know you’re here. It would be better if you showed yourself.”
Click-clop, click-clop, click-clop.
It echoed off the walls like a drumroll. He turned around in a circle, waiting to run into his little thief, but she failed to emerge from the shadows. He could feel her eyes on him, as if she were sizing him up, looking for a weakness. A trickle of sweat ran down one temple. The sound of a loud click stole his heartbeat.
He saw her reflection in a full-length mirror across the room-their gazes locked. Uncontrollable desired rushed through him. His heartbeat quickened and he broke out in a hot sweat. But then his mysterious temptress cocked a slender eyebrow and pressed a pistol into his temple. He had no doubt that she was capable of killing him and the knowledge of it sparked his anger. He could easily overpower her–or at least that was what he told himself–but the glint in her eyes made him decide to err on the side of caution.
As if knowing what he was thinking, she asked, “Do you like what you see, Sheriff?” She drew her red lips up into a smirk.
He realized that she held a bottle of dark rum in her other hand. She took a long draught, drops of the brown liquid smearing on her lips. He wondered what it would taste like to lick it off those tempting lips. “Criminals–even beautiful ones–do not excite me.”
A lie, but she didn’t know it.
She narrowed her glossy eyes. “As if I care. You’re in my way.”
Every lush inch of her from her thick dark hair down to her dusty black boots set his dragon on fire. Her skin was smooth and flawless, and especially those lips. When not turned up into a sneer, they tempted a man who hadn’t been with a woman for a while into less than honorable thoughts.
“I suggest you lower your weapon,” he said, trying to hide the lust in his voice.
“Why do you want to kiss me?” She slowly licked the liquid off her lips.
He couldn’t stop staring at her delectable tongue. Images of her licking his flesh flashed in his mind, and his cock grew hard, making him shift uncomfortably.
Laughing as if she knew she’d won a battle with him, she lowered the bottle of rum onto the floor, and he thought she would follow with the pistol, but he was wrong. In one quick movement, she quickly snatched his gun out of his hands, as if he were a novice, wet behind the ears.
“I think not.” She shoved the gun into her belt and picked up the bottle off the floor. “If you’ll excuse me, Sheriff.” She gestured to her gunnysack. “I have to count my booty and have a date with another bottle of rum.”
He lurched for her, and in an amazing move, she kneed him hard in the groin. Pain slammed between his legs, and gritting his teeth, he doubled over in misery. She raced out of the shop with the bag over her shoulder like an evil Santa Claus.
Chapter Six
Gwen brushed the sand off her clothes then shielded her eyes from the blazing sun. She’d no idea where she was, and according to her brother, the blasted time spider could have sent her anywhere. She shuddered, thinking of its cold glassy eyes. Luckily, she’d not seen any signs of the creature.
But where the devil was she?
She’d been dropped in a land where people drove metal carriages without horses. How could this be? What made the carriages move? They were all different sizes–round, oval, square, and rectangular, and different colors–yellow, red, blue, silver–too many to count.
A loud grumble and squeal made Gwen stop in her tracks and rest her hand on the butt of her pistol. She looked around to see who had drawn their guns, but then a yellow and black striped carriage peeled away, smoke puffing out of the back of a metal pipe like an angry wasp. It buzzed past all the other carriages, as if something was chasing it.
Holding her breath, she whirled around to make sure the time spider wasn’t behind her. She exhaled a sigh of relief. It wasn’t there.
But she still needed answers.
She didn’t know if she was dreaming or not, but a smirky red-headed woman had appeared to her. She actually knew her name, then vanished, abandoning her in the desert. Gwen scanned the crowded street, looking for the woman to ask her the ninety-one questions rushing through her head. But she wasn’t there.
Maybe she’d never existed, and Gwen had a touch of madness.
However, she saw plenty of women dressed more provocatively than the local prostitutes. They wore only undergarments and very short trousers that didn’t just reveal their ankles but also their calves and thighs. Some of them wore long, flimsy skirts, but their scanty tops revealed their arms and the hollow between their breasts. Even for Gwen ’twas shocking. Her twin sister, Gracelyn, would have had some scolding words for these women who looked at Gwen as if she were the one in strange clothes.
Thinking of Gracelyn opened a hole in Gwen’s heavy heart. They were identical twins but acted the opposite. Yet, they were close and rarely apart. She missed her desperately.
Pain throbbed between Gwen’s temples, and she stopped to catch her breath under a bushy tree that offered shade from the wretched heat. Ever since she’d arrived here, a strangeness had settled on her like she wasn’t quite whole, as if something was missing. On top of that odd feeling, her throat was as parched as the dry river beds that meandered through the town. She had no coins and had no way to buy anything. All of it was back on the ship, and as far as she could tell, she wasn’t near an ocean.
She didn’t even know if there were any pirate ships in this time period.
She stumbled onto a park where children played on metal equipment and other young adults bounced a ball, then threw it into a bottomless wire basket. Couples and families sat on the ground or at tables with benches, having a picnic. She inhaled the smell of barbecuing meat, and her empty stomach begged for food.
Weariness crept into her like a cold. All she wanted to do was lie down and sleep and wake up on the ship. She threaded her fingers through her tangled hair but only managed to get sticky strands of the damn spider’s web all over herself. She yanked hard and winced. A bunch of her hair was caught in her sticky fingers. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes.
Two dark-haired young boys were watching her. They looked like they were eleven. One had on a curved white hat and the other a tall black one. They weren’t giving her the strange looks like the other townsfolk. Instead, excitement shimmered in their eyes.
Suddenly, they both raced over to her, mischief shining in their eyes. A green lizard peered from underneath the black hat. Trouble was heading her way.
“Hi,” the boy with the lizard underneath his hat said. “I’m Joseph, and this is my brother, Jonah. You look lost.”
His friendly voice ea
sed some of the tension inside her. “I am. Where is this place?”
“Magic, New Mexico,” Jonah said. “We have a bet going. I bet Joseph a week of having to do my chores that you’re a friend of Cé’s.”
“I’m sorry, Jonah. I don’t know anyone named Cé.”
His face fell as if she’d just stolen his favorite toy soldier. She wished she could have given him the answer he was looking for.
Joseph shoved Jonah. “See, I told you. Girls can’t be pirates. She’s just wearing a costume.”
Sweet Mother of God, even in this century, boys thought women belonged in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning.
“Joseph, is it?” She withdrew her sword, which sparkled in the sunlight. “This happens to be a real sword. And I happen to be a real pirate.”
Both their eyes widened, but not with fear–with excitement. Joseph’s lizard climbed down his arm to look at her sword. It was as if the lizard had a human-like intelligence, then it scampered back underneath his hat.
Joseph stroked him. “Don’t be frightened. Larry’s my pet, and he’s never hurt anyone.”
“Do you always put him underneath there?”
“Yeah, of course. This way, he’s always with me.”
Jonah eyed her weapon with pure lust. “Can I hold your sword?”
Before she could answer, a deep voice answered, “No.”
She turned around to see a rugged-looking man wearing a strange hat, strange boots, and a familiar, annoying male scowl. His dark hair curled at the back of his neck, and he had a shadow of a beard.
“Ah, Theo,” Jonah said. “I just want to hold it.”
“Yeah? What’s the big deal?” Joseph echoed.
“This is law enforcement business.”
“Theo, she claims she’s a pirate,” Joseph said. “I don’t know if that’s true, because she didn’t know Cé.” He stuck his thumb out at Gwen. “Besides, she’s a girl. What kind of trouble could she get into?”
“Plenty,” Theo murmured. “From the look of your clothes and hair, it looks like you finished off that bottle of rum.”
