Love Charms (50 page)

8: Fire
in the Hole

My mind felt erased. Caleb's lips were
soft and warm, and the kiss was unlike any kiss I'd ever known. Not sloppy, not
wet, nothing irritating or alarming. Like home. Like Sunday morning breakfast.
Like birthday presents. Like love.

I yanked myself back, tugging the way you
might separate a lid from a stubborn jar. Fear rose up in me. I hadn't felt
anything like that with the guys I had kissed, not to mention, well, the rest
of the things we'd done. Pleasant, sure. Sexy, sometimes. But this blew me
away.

I backed up. I didn't have time for a
holiday fling either. I needed to make a potion.

The iPhone buzzed in my jeans. Yes, a
reminder from the real world. Show him the spell. Record a pronunciation. Get
the hell out of there.

A solid plan.

I reached for the phone, but Caleb was
shaking his head.

"What?" I asked.

He touched his lips. "I can't go
back to Mariah now."

Good God. "Yes, you can. She's perfect
for you. I'm a mess. And a nix. You know, forbidden." The buzz was a text
from Dad. It would have to wait.

I flipped through screens, searching for
the image of the spell book. "I need you to read something for me."

Caleb sank onto his bed. "I thought
I liked kissing Mariah. I thought we had a spark." He looked at me, all
puppy-dog eyes.

I wanted to slap him. "Snap out of
it!" Finally, I found the photograph of the spell. "Read this to me,
then say ten hail Mariahs, go forth and kiss no more."

He peered at the image on the phone.
"It's all basic enchantment."

"Good. Tell me how to say it."
I flipped to the voice recorder. "Enunciate."

Caleb shoved the phone back at me.
"I won't let you blow yourself up."

"I don't have a choice. I have to do
this."

The door rapped again. "Caleb, I'm
about to perform a truth rite if you don't come out."

"Shit," Caleb whispered.
"You have to go."

I looked at the window. "You're
sending me out in the cold?"

"Coming, Mom! I was sending an email
to Mariah!"

I stifled my laugh. "Oh, you suck at
lying."

Caleb lifted a silk cloth, revealing a
silver bowl much like my mother's. "Go this way. You can come back for
your car later."

"The portal links our houses?"

"Caleb! I mean it!" Genevieve
rapped on the door again.

I felt a prickle in my scalp. "She's
doing something!"

"Go!"

"I don't know how!"

"Right. Nix. Okay, hold your breath
and try not to throw up."

"Why would I —" Caleb
started singing a — what — nursery rhyme? Then he pushed me and the
world inverted, the colors splitting into a kaleidoscope that spun in a
tilt-a-whirl. I did indeed feel like throwing up, and I gulped air, my lungs
constricting like all the oxygen had been sucked from the universe.

The dissonant clang of something ringing
focused my attention, and I could see a circle of silver ahead. I sensed I
should aim for it, so I did, and with a horrid freight-train sound, I dove
headfirst and landed on the floor of Mom's lair.

Hallow popped his head up from his bed.
"I see you've figured out the portal."

I stood up, shaky, disoriented, and sick
as hell.

The ferret covered his eyes. "Aim
for the trash can."

I stumbled to the sink on the back wall
and waited through several stomach heaves, but I didn't actually throw up. I
knelt on the floor, grateful for solid ground.

"You didn't hold your breath."
Hallow peered over the edge of the desk. "Rookie mistake."

My stomach began to calm down. "Shut
up, please."

Colors still danced in my vision. What
was that place between portals? I stood up, legs still shaky, and peered into
the bowl. It showed nothing but my own reflection. Caleb had told me I could
come back through it. I put my hands above my head in a diver's pose and leaped
for the dish.

My hand crashed into the desk, knocking
the bowl to one side.

Hallow wheezed. "This is the most
amusing thing I've seen all year."

I sat in Mom's chair. "I need
help."

"I'll say."

I pushed at his furry side. "You are
the worst sidekick ever."

Hallow nodded. "Probably. Did you
get him to read you the spell?"

I shook my head. "He said it was too
dangerous. But he's convinced I'm his match. Whatever that means." I
remembered the kiss and touched my lips. "There is definitely something
there."

Hallow closed his eyes. "You people
and your monogamy. It's a lot easier to just raise your tail to the strongest
scent."

I dropped my head to the desk. "I've
lost a day. And Caleb is certain I'll blow up the potion."

The ferret sighed. "My bet is on
impotence, not pyrotechnics."

"Thanks for the vote of
confidence." I pushed away from the desk and nudged the bowl, bringing up
the fog. Maybe you could only dive in when it was activated or something. I
raised my arms again.

Hallow opened one eye. "Don't
bother. You have to say the spell to make it open. You don't even know how to
aim. You could end up in Siberia. Or worse, New Jersey."

I lowered my arms. The bratty little
furball had a point. "So how do I get back to Caleb?"

"The old-fashioned way." He
settled deeper into his bed. "In the snow. Uphill both ways."

But in the next instant, none of that
mattered. The bowl shifted from side to side, and Caleb emerged, landing neatly
on the floor right next to me. And within seconds, his lips were on mine again.

I could hear the ferret making a retching
sound, but I shut it out. Caleb pulled me close this time, and I could feel his
body fully against mine. His chest was lean but muscled. I wrapped my arms
around his back, and he reached to hold my neck and push me deeper against his
mouth.

I parted my lips, and his tongue found
mine. He tasted like party food, toasted bread and spice. He couldn't get
enough of me, twisting his fingers in my hair, and I relaxed into him, not
fighting the swirl in my head, a spiral of stars like Disney magic. Suddenly, I
got it. The tweeting birds and sparkling lights over cartoon kisses. They were
talking about this.

His mouth slowed down. My chest was so
tight that breathing wasn't an option. He turned gentle, teasing my lips with
soft quick kisses, moving across my jaw, down my neck. I gulped in air while I
could. I'd just met this guy fifteen minutes ago, but the pull inside was like
we were already a couple, and flashing through my vision was a future, sitting
in grass, laughing, walking along streets, talking, lying in bed —

I jerked backward. "Why can I see
our whole future together?" I took several steps away. "Is this a
spell? Are you doing something to me?"

"No!" His hair was all mussed,
his turquoise eyes a deeper hue than even a few minutes ago. "I wouldn't
do that!" He ran his fingers through the black curls. "This is so
screwed up. I'm feeling everything they told me I would feel. But it's you! A
nix!" He sat in Mom's chair. The Book of Shadows rested at his elbow.

He flipped the page. "Have you
figured out what she did wrong?"

I exhaled. He was going to help me.
"Won't your mother miss you?"

"I sent a doppelgänger. She's so
busy she won't notice."

"You can DO that?"

"It's a first-year spell, actually.
Gives us more time to study if we send a copy of ourselves out to do ordinary
chores." He looked up at me, his eyes returning to a normal shade, if our
vibrant turquoise could be called normal. "Nothing I've learned as an
enchanter prepared me for meeting you."

I leaned against the desk. "I just
found out about all this yesterday."

He laid a hand on my knee and traced the
seam of my jeans. The contact was electric, and I had to stuff down the need to
touch him back.

"If I'm a nix, why do I feel the
same as you?"

"Could be ordinary chemistry, I
guess. Like any human pair."

I shook my head. "I've been in a lot
of pairs." When he pinched his lips together, I amended, "Well, a
few." I didn't dare say how many. I had always been, well, hopeful that a
new one would be The One. I was known for rushing into things. "And it's
never been like this."

The pressure of his hand on my leg
increased until he was gripping my knee. "Enchanters don't really pair off
until it's time for a match, although we're allowed a dalliance if we start
sticking out as unusual among the humans."

I snorted a most unladylike laugh.
"Dalliance? Like in the Victorian age?"

He let go of me and stood up. "We
have a lot of traditions. You have yours. Marriages. Ceremonies. Vows.
Right?"

"But you're a person, just like
me."

"No, I'm not. I'm an enchanter. I am
raised among humans, go to college where I'm told, and during the course of
those four years, I am to meet my seven matches and choose one."

"Just like that. You fall in love
with one of them."

"Madly. It just works. I'm sure it's
something in the bloodline that makes us so chemically attracted."

"Chemically attracted. Oh, you're
killing me with romance." I wandered over to a case and peered at my
wavery reflection in the glass. I could only make out my headband, which seemed
like it was humming, a gentle vibration like a refrigerator makes.

I pulled it off. It might be doing
something to me, and right now I needed a clear head. "Look, Caleb, all
that was nice. But I have a bigger problem. Some dude called Dei Lucrii
—"

"What? Who invoked Dei Lucrii?"

"Why? Is that bad?"

Caleb's hands were in fists at his sides.
"Yes, that's bad. He's a Dark Enchanter. The worst kind. He's been through
hundreds of matches, bred a half-dozen little bastards."

I held up a hand. "Then why does he
need a love potion?"

"Wait? Your mother was making the
potion for him?"

"Yeah. That's kind of weird. Why
doesn't he make his own?"

Caleb looked positively distraught, his
face red and mottled. "Not even a Dark Enchanter breaks the rule of
three." He looks away. "He must have forced your mother
somehow."

"Why would she bow to that?"

"She was trying to keep to herself.
No one knows why. Well, maybe he did." He paced in a circle. "I have
to get back to the party. My copy won't behave well for long, and there's a
match in the house. I can't have her thinking the spell is me."

"Can you at least read me the words
so I will know how to pronounce them?"

"I can't have you doing that. You
don't know anything about what you're attempting."

I slumped into Mom's chair. "I have
to try."

He exhaled in a long rush. "I tell
you what. You go over the ingredients. If you can figure out what might have
set up the blast, we'll work on the spell."

I jumped up to hug him. "Yes! I can
do that."

He wrapped his arms around me. The warmth
seeped back in, like cement sealing us together. "I can't let go of
you," he said and lowered his face to mine again.

No headband, no trickery, and yet, the
connection was even stronger. This time the softness of his lips created a fire
that licked through my body, touching all the important parts, and I pressed
myself into him. I wanted to know him, every inch of him, and my hands explored
his back, his neck, the curls at his nape. Down his shoulders, those sinewy
lean arms. His sides started wide at his chest and tapered down to his waist.
The sweater was cashmere, soft and silky. I tucked my thumbs into his
waistband, and he jerked against me, a rumble in his throat.

The effect I had on him became apparent
against my belly, and now my breath was ragged. He kept the kiss light and
gentle, but his hands started to move, sliding down my back to the waist of my
jeans, then up, beneath the cotton shirt. "Just one small contact at the
core," he whispered, and his hand connected with my spine.

The touch was like lightning, firing
through me with a thunderbolt. I clutched at him, my entire body aware of each
part of him, and his kiss became a frenzy, claiming my mouth like we were two
parts of the same whole. I wanted skin, more skin, and as his hand flattened
against my bare back, I felt dizzy with it, sick with it.

He broke the kiss and pulled me in, tucking
my head against his shoulder. "I'm not sure what it's like for normal
humans, but this doesn't happen to us. Not that anyone has told me."

I closed my eyes and buried my face into
his neck. "Not for us either. Not for me."

We stood like that a long moment, the
energy moving between us. Hallow's little claws tapped along the desk.
"Ahem."