Love Potions (18 page)

…

Erik grinned as Lydia’s eyes closed and she almost instantly fell asleep. He could tell she was exhausted. Next time he might have to temper her absorption of him, but just a little bit. There was no way he was going to stop her completely, not if she made love to him like that. Magick wasn’t the only thing she’d pulled out of his cock. She’d drained him completely of his seed. Never in his life had he been so sated. In fact, he didn’t think he could manage another erection at the moment if he wanted to.
That
had never happened before.

Erik couldn’t have been happier. He’d waited so long to claim her like this, and it was so much more than he’d hoped.

Chapter Sixteen

“Congratulations!” Margareta announced.

Lydia froze in shock in the dining room doorway. Margareta and Angus were both staring at her with smiles on their faces. She held her breath, and thought,
Please don’t let them be talking about what I did with their son.

Yeah, the orgasm had been, well, room altering, but it wasn’t something she cared to discuss with parental figures. When she awoke Erik was gone and the room had been returned to normal. She had no idea how long she slept, only that she was starving for something to eat.

“Daughter!” Angus beamed at her. “Welcome to the clan.”

Now she was even more confused. They made absolutely no sense. Seeing their coffee cups she thought maybe they were both drinking a little Irish whiskey in their coffee. “I, um, huh?” She pointed behind her. “Are you aware that Malina is petrified on the staircase? She looks like she was trying to run out the front door.” Lydia gestured to her shoulder. “She has a messenger bag stuck mid-motion behind her.”

“Pay no mind to Malina. She tried to disobey me and follow the men out to battle. Clearly, she is not ready if that little unpleasantness with the love potion is any indication.” Margareta waved her hand in dismissal. “She’ll thaw out in a few more hours.”

“Ya have to let the girl grow up sometime,” Angus muttered.

“Erik just told us the happy news.” Margareta ignored her husband’s comment. “Don’t ya worry none about not having a mother. I’ll help ya see to all the plans. Ya will have the finest wedding a girl could hope for. I am here to help ya decide every detail.”

“She should have a grand event,” Angus mumbled more to himself than to his wife, “ya have been planning on throwing a wedding for one of our kids for the last three hundred years.” Then to Lydia, he winked, “I’d run if I were ya, lass, and elope. This one will have your wedding looking like a fairy tale ball complete with singing horses and dancing flowers.”

Good idea,
Lydia thought.
Run away from this conversation.

Lydia slowly backed out of the dining room. She might starve, but her stomach would have to wait. Clearly the MacGregor elders were suffering from some kind of delusion.

“Ya scared her,” Margareta scolded her husband. The words were followed by a loud smack and Angus’s unconcerned laughter. “If ya lose me my grandchildren I’ll do more than brain ya!”

“There ya are.” Erik grinned at her as he came bounding down the steps two at a time. He stepped around his statue of a sister as if such a thing were normal. Perhaps here it was. He paused, nodding at Malina. “Morning, banshee.” He gave a small brotherly laugh and poked his thumb toward her face. “She does kind of look like a banshee with her hair flying around like that and her mouth all open. Yeah, ma froze her good. See how her eyes don’t move?” Erik leaned closer to her and grinned as he looked into her mouth. “Ha, Euann put a mint in there.” He patted Malina’s arm.

“I’m beginning to see why Malina used me to whammy you,” Lydia said.

“Hey, a mint is better than a beetle.” Erik continued down the stairs until he was within kissing distance of Lydia.

“I think you need to check on your parents.” Lydia pointed toward the dining room. “I don’t think all of your brothers ’shrooms made it into the casserole.”

“What do ya mean?” Erik frowned and made a move to go to his parents’ aid.

“They think we’re getting married.”

Erik stopped and then gave a sheepish look to the floor. “Don’t be mad I told them without ya. I was excited.”

“Erik…” Lydia made a weak noise. Marriage? The idea didn’t necessarily repulse her, but it all seemed a little sudden. She did love him, yet… “Isn’t there something you’re forgetting to do?”

“No.” He shook his head in thought. Damn but he was sexy. Even now she wanted to kiss him and forget everything else. “Iain’s condition is unchanged. Euann and Rory are taking turns sitting with Charlotte. Niall is out making sure the cover up worked.”

“I meant a proposal.”

The man actually looked confused. “Proposal for what? As far as I know I wasn’t supposed to be working on a business plan for anything. Are my parents trying to expand your business? If ya don’t want to, just tell them no. They’ll fuss but not every family business needs to be a multi-million dollar corporation. Though, I suppose we could generate a lot of local goodwill by expanding and employing the locals. I can have that realtor man, Frank, look into properties—”

“Traditionally the man gets down on one knee and asks the woman if she’ll marry him instead of just assuming she will.” Lydia nodded her head slowly to prompt his agreement and then shook it in denial when the words didn’t seem to fully register.

“You’re my
fíorghrá
,” Erik said, as if that explained it all. “Of course we’ll get married. I was serious when I said you’ve captured me. Ya love me. I’m utterly and completely taken with—”

“We need to get this lassie to the hospital.” Euann carried Charlotte in his arms. “She started to wake up. I used a little potion on her to force her asleep, but it won’t keep her under for too long.” Charlotte’s foot bumped Malina as he carried her past his sister. Euann grimaced. “Dammit, banshee, aren’t ya thawed yet?” Then to Erik, he gestured his head toward their sister and said, “She does kind of look like a banshee like that, doesn’t she? If I had time, I’d dye her hair white and take pictures.”

“Why a hospital?” Lydia looked at Erik. This family really had no concept of the word emergency. “I thought you said she was safe here, that the magick just needed to wear off.”

“Erik ordered us not to wipe her memory again under any circumstances, and considering the potion she drank and what she did to Iain, I don’t want to be the next warlock she sucks power…well, anyway. So, I figured that leaves one option. We leached enough magick out of her that she won’t accidentally throw nurses all around the room with it. If we can’t erase what happened then we should get her to the hospital with the others. Niall said the townsfolk woke up and the emergency room looks like an epidemic hit. If we slip Charlotte in now they’ll think she tripped balls with the others.”

“Tripped balls?” Erik repeated.

“It means hallucinate, old man,” Euann explained.

“That would be like lying to her again,” Lydia interrupted before the brothers could start bickering. “She’ll think she’s crazy. You don’t know what it was like in that basement, not knowing who had you or what was going to happen. I can’t let her deal with that on her own. It was real. It happened.”

“It’s up to ya, Lyd. She’s your friend. We can try to erase what happened and hope that the potion wore off, or we can get her to the hospital with the others.” Erik touched her arm. “Once everything calms down we can tell her whatever truth ya think is right.”

“Fine,” Lydia motioned to the door. “Let’s take her to the hospital with the others. It would probably be good if they did some blood tests on her anyway.” Maybe it would be for the best if Charlotte thought the basement nightmare was just a bad drug trip. Perhaps then the woman could forget the fear like a bad dream. After Charlotte drank the potion she’d fallen unconscious so it was possible she knew nothing about sucking Iain’s magick from him or the attempted sacrifice.

“Hey, Erik, she’s getting a little heavy. Do ya think—?” Euann adjusted Charlotte in his arms.

“It looks like ya have her. I’ll get the car,” Erik answered.

Lydia gave him a stern look.

“My darling intended will get the car.” Erik went to the table at the bottom of the stairs and produced a set of keys from a small drawer. “It’s around back, love.”

“Engaged?” Euann grinned. “Congratulations. That’s wonderful news. It’s been some time since we had a clan wedding. Ma will be thrilled. She’s been filling up that wedding planning book of hers for centuries.”

Lydia snatched the keys from Erik. “You have really got to quit telling people that.”

…

Erik grinned as his bride walked away from him. He couldn’t help himself. Never in his life had he been this happy.

“I don’t understand. Why can’t I know? I’m family.” Euann carried Charlotte toward Erik and thrust her at him so he was forced to catch her and help carry her weight to the car.

“Och, she’s just upset because I forgot to propose to her first,” Erik answered.

“Ya forgot to ask your future wife to marry ya?” Euann laughed. “Smooth, brother, very smooth.”

“I forgot about that part of the custom. She would have said yes, right? We’re clearly destined to be together. It’s not like I’ve really thought about the whole marriage process over the last…ever. So I forgot a couple details.” He managed a small shrug. “What do ya mean heavy? This lass barely weighs a thing.”

“I know,” Euann thrust Charlotte’s weight completely over onto Erik and let go of her. “I just wanted to make ya carry her.”

Erik adjusted Charlotte in his arms as he watched Euann run for the stairs. “Where are ya going? We need to get up to the hospital.”

“Go ahead. I’ll be right behind ya.” Euann stopped by Malina. “But ya really don’t think I can pass up a picture of this, do ya?”

Erik gave a small laugh. He heard his car coming from around the back of the house. Lydia’s driving grinded a little hard on his gears and he flinched. As he backed toward the front door, he yelled, “I want a copy!” Malina blinked. “And ya better hurry, the banshee is waking up.”

…

“Here.” Erik dumped an armful of vending machine junk food on Lydia’s lap. “I wasn’t sure what ya wanted so I got one of everything.”

Lydia glanced up at him from her place in the hospital lobby and smiled gratefully. She was just happy to get a chance to eat something—finally. Taking a chocolate bar off the top of the pile, she tore it open and bit into it. She barely tasted it before starting on a second bar.

Erik chuckled. “Magick can be rather draining.” By the sparkle in his eye she could well imagine which magickal draining he was thinking of. “Any word on Charlotte?”

Lydia shook her head in denial. “Not really. They wanted to do blood tests before they let us see her. I know one of the nurses from high school. She said she’d come and get me if Charlotte woke up.”

“Niall,” Erik called, standing.

Lydia shoved the rest of the second chocolate bar into her mouth and looked up at Erik’s brother. With her mouth embarrassingly full, she couldn’t speak. Niall glanced at her but didn’t acknowledge her otherwise.

“It’s contained,” Niall said. “Since some prominent members of town were involved it was pretty easy to convince the doctors to report this as a case of accidental food poisoning versus mass hysteria caused by hallucinogenic mushrooms. I don’t know that they’ll even bother to test the casserole.”

“What about Charlotte?” Lydia pushed the pile of vending machine treasure off her lap and stood, forcing Niall to acknowledge her as part of the conversation.

“I put a veil over myself and slipped into her room. She’s alive. The doctors think she had an adverse reaction and slipped into a mini coma. Once the sleeping aid Euann gave her wears off, she’ll wake up fully.” He glanced at Erik.

“I know she’s alive,” Lydia said, slightly irritated with Niall’s dismissive manners. “And I know everything that happened so you can speak freely in front of me about it.”

Erik nodded that Niall should do so.

“There is something off about the woman. I can’t put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with the potion she drank. It is my recommendation that we box her up and ship her to,” he studied Lydia, “the farm to be monitored.”

“What’s the farm?” she asked.

“A prison for clan trouble,” Erik answered.

Niall frowned at his brother and then gestured to Lydia. “Do ya want me to take her out back and erase her?”

Lydia reached for Erik’s arm, ready to use his magick to fight Niall off if he tried. “Don’t you dare touch me.”

“We’re getting married,” Erik inserted calmly.

“Omigod, you have to quit saying that to people!” Lydia exclaimed.

“But we are,” he answered assuredly.

“Oh, then welcome to the clan,” Niall answered, though his congratulations lacked the enthusiasm the others had shown. “Ma will be happy.”

Erik grinned. Lydia shook her head, not sure how to argue the point or if she even wanted to. Instead, she focused on her friend. “We’re not imprisoning Charlotte. We’re not erasing her. We’re not doing anything to her. If there are consequences to be dealt with then so be it. We deal.”

Niall hardly looked impressed by her decree. She had a feeling to him she would always be an outsider, a non-warlock.

“Find another way,” Lydia told Erik.

“We can watch her.” Erik patted the hand on his arm. She felt his magick warming her fingers and drawing up her arm to calm her. “We’ll move her into Lydia’s house. She’ll be safe there.”

“Charlotte loves her apartment. She calls it her sanctuary,” Lydia denied. She snatched her fingers away from Erik, not wanting him to magickally alter her feelings. “I have no problem letting Charlotte live with me, but—”

“We’ll move to the mansion,” Erik said. He paused as two nurses walked past. When they were out of hearing range, he continued, “Charlotte can take the house.”

“I’ll buy her apartment building and evict her. It’ll be easy enough to buy her out of her remaining lease, and we need living space for the clan anyway.” Niall reached for his phone and pressed a few buttons as he walked away. “Da, give me that realtor’s number. I need to buy a building today.”

Lydia felt a slow rage building inside her. Yes, she loved Erik. Yes, if he bothered to ask her properly she might do something crazy like jump into a marriage with a warlock who never aged. Yes, Charlotte would always be welcome in her home. No, she did not want to live in a house—no matter that it was the mansion she used to daydream about as a child—with a bunch of magick wielding warlocks pranking each other all the time. No, she didn’t want to open a factory tomorrow to expand her business. She wanted to expand Love Potions on her own. The house and the business were her legacy from her grandmother. She wanted time to think. And she definitely wanted to make her own decisions when it came to her future.