by Carina Cook
She stood up and stepped back from the table. Strangely, she found herself narrating to him as she began to draw on her magic. It made her feel better, knowing he was there.
“So I use void magic to store the most dangerous artifacts. You can think of it as opening a pocket dimension and putting the artifact safely inside. The only way to get to them is through a tether that attaches the dimension to this world. I tether all of my artifacts to myself and to the storage room. My uncle did the same thing, so that when he died, I was still able to access all of the things he hid away via the storage room.”
“That’s smart,” murmured Darius.
Audra closed her eyes, feeling for the tethers. On a normal day, she wasn’t aware of them at all. They had no weight to speak of, nothing to stimulate her magical senses. They were, after all, made of nothingness. That was the essence of void magic. But if she focused her senses, she could feel them as ribbons of nothingness in her thoughts, like balloons tied to her wrists. And Uncle Grey had taught her to mark each one with a trickle of energy to help figure out what artifacts were where. Sometimes she had to look into the pocket dimension to be sure, especially with things she hadn’t stored herself, but usually it was enough.
This time, she could sense the balloons, but it felt like they floated just out of reach. Her head hurt badly, and she couldn’t concentrate. Maybe she’d completed the process and the lamp was safely out there, but she just couldn’t tell.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wilting with exhaustion. “I just can’t tell. Too much magic slinging, and my head is killing me. I need to rest before I can look. But really, it should be fine. If it’s not in the storage room, then of course it’s in the void.”
“Well, then,” he replied briskly. “I guess you’ll have to check in the morning when I get here to fix the door. We’ll board it up now and get you to bed.” She began to open her mouth, but he cut her off. “No excuses. I know you’re capable, but right now you’re injured and I’m not. You need to rest, and I don’t. Let me do this for you. Please.”
After a moment, she nodded. Letting Darius take care of her didn’t break her vow not to get involved with the man. She would still keep him at arm’s length. Besides, it felt good to have him there. She wasn’t willing to examine her feelings on the matter any further. It wasn’t like she was going to act on them, even if she had any. Which she didn’t.
Honest.
CHAPTER 6
When Darius arrived at the Desert Oasis promptly at the agreed upon time of 8:30, Audra was already hard at work. She’d gone in through the still-intact front door to brew some coffee and met him in the parking lot with a steaming Styrofoam cup. He discretely tucked his full Thermos down between the seats before getting out of his truck. He didn’t want to ruin the kind gesture. If she wanted to bring him coffee, he was inclined to let her.
“I didn’t know if you took cream or sugar,” she said. “So I stuffed a bunch of them in my pockets.”
Sure enough, the pockets of her creamy white cardigan sweater were bulging with coffee accoutrements. As he looked, a packet of Sweet & Low fell to the pavement.
“Thanks,” he said. “I doctor my coffee horribly. Rebecca will be here in a minute with the door, and she’ll tell you. According to her, it doesn’t even taste like coffee any more, and my man card should be revoked.”
Audra smiled. “I’m the same way. I’ve actually got some French vanilla creamer in the office, if you’d like some. I didn’t bring it out. My pockets aren’t big enough.”
“If it wouldn’t be a trouble. I love that stuff.”
“Me too. Come on in, and we’ll get you all fixed up.” She turned to lead the way into the building. “I really appreciate your help with the door.”
“Sure thing. How’s your head this morning?”
“Better, but I still thought it would be a good idea to wait until you showed up to try any magic. I hope you don’t mind, but I was thinking you might be willing to play bodyguard while I do it? I’m…a bit nervous, to be honest. I don’t want to fall over and encase myself in an iceberg or something.”
“Who could blame you, after what happened? I’d be happy to watch your back. Today and in the future.”
She glanced back at him, her cheeks a bit flushed. “Thank you. That’s…very nice.”
For the first time, Darius realized that Audra was looking particularly good today. She’d pulled her golden hair back into a sleek, high ponytail that showed off the long length of her neck. Her cheeks shimmered with subtle makeup, and her lips glistened with gloss. A loose pair of black slacks drew attention to the swish of her hips when she walked, and the wide neck of her blouse under the cream cardigan exposed her collarbones. Darius had always had a thing for necks and shoulders, and there was a lot of that on display.
Before, he’d been impressed by her bravery and intelligence. He’d been intrigued by her magic. Those things alone had been enough to attract him, but for the first time, he realized how gorgeous she was. If he hadn’t been thinking about asking her out already, he would have been tempted now.
But it seemed like an awfully dressy outfit for a pawn shop. Maybe she had a date later on. Or maybe, just maybe, she’d dressed up for him. The idea made him pause thoughtfully. It was one thing to idly consider asking her out. He did that kind of thing all the time, but he rarely followed through. It just seemed like a waste of effort. Inevitably, he’d find out that the woman in question was boring as a block of wood. Or snobby. Or she turned out to be the kind of practical person who wouldn’t deal well with the news that her new boyfriend sometimes turned into a giant scorpion. But he knew Audra wasn’t any of those things, and if she was also interested in him, that made this situation very unique. So unique, in fact, that he didn’t know what to do. Someone who was intelligent, capable, and hot, and who already knew he shapeshifted and hadn’t run away screaming? The question became not whether or not he should ask her out, but how he could afford not to.
“Here’s the creamer,” said Audra, not realizing that he was in the middle of an existential dating crisis. “I don’t know how much you want.”
“Oh. Uh…yeah. Thanks,” he stammered, taking the container from her.
“Are you okay?” she looked at him closely.
“Fine. Just fine.” He poured a healthy dollop into his coffee and stirred it, trying to get a hold of himself. “You look nice today. Got a date? I mean. Are you doing something special today?”
She looked down at herself as if she’d forgotten what she wore. “Oh, not really. I just really like these pants. They’re comfortable.”
“Oh. Well, you look nice.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked, looking at him closely. “You seem agitated. Did I say something wrong?”
“No, not at all. I’m just…” He shook his head and gave her a rueful smile. Despite his best effort to restrain himself, the truth came tumbling out of his mouth. “I’m fine at most things. I can face down a ravaging shapeshifter without blinking an eye. I can argue down the most stubborn city council members when it comes to zoning matters. I’m a tough guy. But put me face to face with an intelligent, talented, desirable woman, and suddenly I develop diarrhea of the mouth. See? I’m rambling right now.”
He clamped his lips shut to stem the flow of words. It took every ounce of self control he had not to smack himself upside the head. He’d really stuck his foot in that one. She must be feeling very flattered now that he’d told her she gave him verbal diarrhea. Really, any mention of diarrhea was a bad thing when it came to romance. Darius didn’t know many things about women, but he was pretty sure on that one.
She was staring at him with her mouth slightly open as if unsure of what to say. He didn’t blame her. In fact, he was fairly sure that his cheeks were flaming.
From the front of the store, he heard a bang, and then Rebecca’s voice called, “Anybody home? I’ve got the door.”
It was one of the most welcome things he�
�d ever heard in his life.
“Be right there,” he shouted back. Now he was on familiar footing, and he leaped on the change of subject like it was a life preserver and he was a survivor of the Titanic. “We’ll get your door installed in a jiff.”
“That would be great,” said Audra faintly.
Once Darius got into the minutia of installing the door, he felt much better. He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to him earlier, but he knew he didn’t like it and would much prefer to pretend that the awkward conversation hadn’t happened at all. Audra seemed unwilling to bring it up either. That made him feel better at first, until he realized that she probably thought he was a raving lunatic. She thought this kind of behavior was normal for him.
That bothered him. The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. He thought about it as he removed the boards from the doorway and stashed them neatly in the truck. He thought about it as he reframed the new doorway. He thought about it as he measured and remeasured his work. Nothing but the best would do. He’d always been a perfectionist, but in this case it was particularly important. Partly because it was his fault that the door had been broken in the first place, but partly because it was Audra’s, and he felt like he needed to prove himself to her.
Or maybe to himself. Because he knew his worth. He’d never sold himself short, or made a stammering fool out of himself over a woman. This behavior was very out of character for him. And why? She was intelligent and talented, true. She had lovely collarbones. He would like to get to know her better. But that wasn’t so strange. Certainly not strange enough to turn him into a stammering twelve-year-old.
He glanced at his watch. Two days from full moon. Maybe that was it. He didn’t have the same animal instincts as wolf shifters like his friend Derek, but he still got antsy and out of sorts as the full moon drew near. It was probably just a bad month. Once he figured that out, he felt much better. He wasn’t regressing to junior high mentality; he was just a bit on edge because of his natural shifter instincts. That, he could work with.
Feeling very reassured, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching before he hefted the door out of the back of the truck with his superhuman strength. Behind him, he heard a low whistle of admiration. He whipped around, worried that he’d just shown off in front of some random human, but it was just Audra. She shook her head in awe.
“You shifters sure are strong,” she said. “You made that look easy.”
“I’m not sure I can take credit for that, but I will anyway,” he responded. Now that he knew where he stood, he could relax. Although she might appreciate a little reassurance too, come to think of it. “It’s almost the full moon, you know. I’m a bit stronger now. And sometimes, I get a little edgy this time of the month. I’m not normally a stammering idiot like I was earlier, I swear.”
She surprised him by laughing. From the expression on her face, she seemed to have surprised herself too.
“I was wondering what happened there. It seemed out of character, based on what I know about you.”
“Yeah, well. I did mean what I said, about you being attractive. But I didn’t mean to make it awkward.”
He lugged the door over to the wall and began to skootch it into place.
“Rebecca? Can I get a hand here?” he called.
She didn’t answer. For the first time, he realized that she’d been sitting in the truck for a while. She’d gone in there to answer a few voice mails and hadn’t come out again. It was probably for the best, since she would have given him a terrible time about acting like such an idiot in front of Audra. Still, he wondered what was up. Hopefully not another problem with the M’Bala construction. He was beginning to think that project was cursed, and not just because of the djinn.
He leaned the door against the wall and went to the truck. Rebecca was there, scrolling through Facebook. The action was so out of character that he stood there for a moment staring at her, like maybe the situation would start to make sense if he just thought about it long enough. It didn’t.
Finally he knocked on the window. She looked out at him, her expression flat. Then she sighed and rolled the window down.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
She’d never been the type of person to whine passive-aggressively, and she didn’t do so now. But she rarely replied to anything in monosyllables. He was fairly sure that she was lying. She did that sometimes, when she was out of sorts. Sometimes it was because she was worried he’d overreact—which he couldn’t fault her for. And sometimes she just wasn’t ready to talk about whatever bothered her. Generally speaking, the best thing to do in these situations was to wait it out. She’d tell him eventually.
“Glad to hear it. I was starting to worry that M’Bala’s house caught on fire or something like that,” he said jokingly. She looked stricken. So much so that he felt bad about it without understanding quite why. “I’m just kidding!”
She relaxed visibly. “Oh. Well, not that I know of. Do you want me to call in and check on it?”
“Why don’t you come out here and help me with the door? Then we can go take a look at the site in person.”
He thought it was a smart suggestion. She’d have to get out of the car and quit brooding over whatever had her so upset. And then he’d have a chance to talk to her at the job site. He’d make an excuse to consult with her on some work related thing, and she’d fess up. It would all work out just fine.
But to his surprise, when she got out of the truck, she took one look at Audra, blanched visibly, and looked down at her shoes. Audra seemed to notice this too; she shot a questioning look at Darius but he didn’t know what to say. Why wouldn’t Rebecca like Audra? The most obvious answer was that maybe she was jealous over the fact that Audra was getting all of his attention, but that was ridiculous. Rebecca didn’t like him like that. She’d encouraged him to ask out Audra just the night before.
It’s not like she had a shortage of dates, either. In fact, she was usually the one drooling after random dudes when she was supposed to be hanging out with Darius. It usually didn’t bother him, but sometimes he got annoyed. Like when he’d gone to some event that he really had no interest in, just to help out Rebecca, and then she’d spent the entire night with her tongue down some stranger’s throat. Maybe she was feeling a bit like he did on those nights. Left out. She wasn’t jealous of Audra because she wanted to date Darius, but he wasn’t exactly being a good friend, either.
As explanations went, it made sense. There was still time to make up for it, too. He just had to break the ice and make sure she knew she was an essential part of the situation here. Set her mind at ease. That kind of thing. He mused on how best to do that as he set the door into place and held it while Rebecca got to work attaching it to the frame.
As she moved around him, he said, “So Audra and I were talking about checking on the lamp later. I was going to help keep watch in case she has any trouble again. You want to help before we head over to the job site?”
Rebecca sighed. “Fine. But there’s just one problem with your master plan.”
He froze. “What’s that?”
“You’ve got the door in backwards.”
Audra snickered behind her hand, but Rebecca didn’t even smile as he turned the door around.
CHAPTER 7
Darius seemed to be in a hurry once he got the door installed, and Audra hesitated to ask him to watch her back while she checked on the lamp. But then he offered, with what she was beginning to realize was his usual amount of chivalrous courtesy. It would be the responsible thing to do, so she agreed. She’d thought about it a lot as she tried to go to sleep the night before, and she had to have stashed it away safely in the pocket dimension. She could remember creating the tether and opening the gateway into the void. She’d just placed the lamp inside when everything went blank. The void hadn’t been open when Darius woke her up, so it must have closed itself when she lost consciousness. So she
wasn’t worried about it, but it would be reassuring to see the lamp safe and sound.
All in all, she had to admit that having some help while she tried to reopen the portal was a wise move. Although she wasn’t worried about the lamp, she was worried about her magic. Uncle Grey had told her that head injuries could have strange effects on mages, and she knew that shifters were immune to a lot of magical effects. Darius could do something if her power went wild. She wasn’t sure what that something was, but it still reassured her. Maybe she hadn’t known him for very long, but she felt secure in the knowledge that he wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
She wasn’t so sure about his friend Rebecca, who’d spent most of the day giving her the stink eye. Rebecca clearly had her panties in a snit. Audra couldn’t decide if the girl was secretly in love with Darius and full on jealous that Audra had flirted with him a little, or if she was just protective of her best friend and didn’t think Audra was good enough for him. It was the kind of bullshit drama that Audra was glad not to have to deal with any more, now that she wasn’t dating. But it sure would have been easier if she could have worked that fact into the conversation so Rebecca would quit frowning at her every time Darius turned his back. And she certainly wouldn’t have trusted Rebecca to watch hers. She’d end up unconscious on the floor again.
“This should be nothing,” she said. She didn’t know why she was trying to reassure them when Darius didn’t seem worried and Rebecca didn’t seem to care. But she couldn’t help herself. “But I think you’d like to see that the lamp is safe.”
“No kidding,” said Rebecca in chilly tones. “Your uncle never had anything like this happen, and we trusted him with our magical artifacts for years.”
There it was. Rebecca wasn’t jealous at all. She thought Audra was completely incompetent. Not that Audra could blame her. She felt awfully silly when she thought through everything that had happened last night. If she’d heard about it, she would have thought the mage in question was completely incompetent too.
