Masked Attraction (6 page)

“A triple,” he said firmly. Then, because it
was
difficult, he stroked her ego a bit. “If anyone can do it, you can.”

“Such sweet talk. How can I resist? Does this have to do with the Quatrain? Of course it does,” she said, answering her own question. “Have you seen the parchment? Does it really contain Avignon’s prediction?”

“Invisible except for the anchor words, but it’s his script, colors, and style. I’d say yes. Look, the parchment is locked in a case, but the key is missing. I think it was stolen.”

“That’s not likely,” she said. “Then the parchment would be gone.”

“Except there’s a geis on it.”

“It’s cursed?” Sophia whistled. “Let me guess. An injunction against magical theft?”

“Got it in one. No one can steal the thing with magic, but there’s more. No one with magic can steal it. Wizards, witches, shifters, familiars…they can’t take it without the owner’s permission.”

“But doesn’t that argue against the key thief being a witch?”

“No. The parchment is still there. If a mundane took the key, he’d have walked up to the case, used the key, and with a little slight-of-hand or smokescreen or even just a bit of luck, snatched the thing.”

“While a wizard or witch trying the same thing would be repulsed.”

“Yes. Probably weak, magically, not discovering the geis until after she’d taken the key. A strong witch wouldn’t have needed to steal the key in the first place.”

“Sure, she’d have just tried magicking the parchment out and discovered the geis that way. Okay, are we using the key’s starting point itself?”

“No. A representation. A cloth napkin.” Sweet scent filled his nostrils.
Zoe
. He actually looked for her, before he realized the scent was from the napkin he’d raised to his nose.

“Because it wasn’t hard enough already. I think I hate you.”

“There’s another complication. The starting point for the locater spell is a shifter.”

“Stars and planets, Daniel. You don’t ask for much, do you? I’d love to help you, but I put my advanced spell books on consignment.”

“C’mon, Sophia. You studied magic like a fiend most of your life. You memorized everything you could get your hands on.”

She blew a disgruntled breath. “I used to think it was sweet that you paid attention to me. Now I think it’s a pain in the ass.”

“You love the challenge.”

“Yeah. Maybe. All right, let me think.” Sophia’s silence was punctuated by clomps, her heeled dress pumps hitting the floor as she paced. A snap of fingers. “Got it. Fire, water, and blood.”

“A heart spell?” Daniel couldn’t keep the dismay from his voice. As a wizard prince he was master of several forms of magic. But the one aspect he could never seem to get was heart. Not since high school…he frowned. He was decent at it in high school. What had changed? Besides bulking up and actually getting dates, which should have increased his ability to do heart.

“That’s the spell I remember without a book.” She sounded both irritated and embarrassed. “Do you want my help or not?”

“Yes, fine. What does it call for?”

She told him.

“Okay. Hang on while I get set up.” He followed his nose down the hallway to the food staging area where three people in white chef’s coats flew in and out with dishes.

He asked a young woman wiping out an empty chafing dish for water. She set down the dish, grabbed a carafe, and filled it from the tap, handing it to him with a hurried smile before grabbing a full tray and sailing out with it. Needing a few more supplies, he waited, pretending to get a text message and fumbling with his phone until the other two left as well. Then he snatched a canned heat, the empty chafing dish, his carafe and left.

Daniel sped with his supplies to the privacy of the decorating prep room. Remembering Dorine, he locked the door behind himself, not chancing a human seeing him do magic. Best case scenario, that would fritz the spell, and he’d have to pay a stiff fine. More likely, though, after an investigation, those Enforcers would come and strip him of all his powers—or worse, his head. The Witches’ Council took mundanes witnessing magic very seriously indeed, because if too many knew about it, magic would cease to exist.

Like Schrödinger’s cat, magical uncertainty, directly observed, collapsed into mundane reality. So magic was a secret, rarely done in front of mundanes and never done in a way that they’d think it real. The Council even got crawly if shifters got involved, which was why he was using Zoe’s napkin instead of Zoe. If she’d participated and the Council found out, punishment depended on who heard the case and how paranoid he or she was. Imprisonment, heavy fines, stripped of his powers and, well, the Council did have that headsman on payroll.

With the door securely locked, Daniel did a quick ethereal scan for electrical and metaphysical bugs. The room was clean.

Setting his materials on a table, he ticked them off against his mental list. Cauldron, check. Water, fire, check. Now, blood.

He pushed his mask up on his head to see better then took a sterile lancet packet from his breast pocket. As a wizard, he always had one.

“Okay,” he said into his headset. “I’m ready. What do I do?”

“Put the napkin in the water,” Sophia instructed. “That’s your where. Add a drop of blood for who. Then set the napkin on fire for why. Color will let you know intention, white for pure, yellow for accident, red for greed—”

“I get it. Any specific words?” Witches were able to manipulate the unknown that was magic without changing the essential uncertainty, but no one knew how or why. Words helped that manipulation, but again, no one knew why, not since the metaphysical research branch was shut down centuries ago by the Inquisition.

“Find,” Sophia said in a “duh” sort of voice.

He thanked her, made a mental note to send her a big bouquet of flowers, and started to hang up.

“Daniel, wait.” Her voice was breathy. “I just thought of something.”

“What?”

“A find spell is a two-way street. Even a half-competent witch will feel it.”

“Yes, I know. She’ll try to trace it back to me. I’ll douse the spell the instant I know who it is. Since I’m the stronger mage, I’ll be in and out before she can find me.” Once the spell was doused, Daniel would be essentially invisible, magically. Although power betrayed itself in certain signs, especially in the eyes, magic itself could only be sensed in action or on things, not in people.

“That’s not what I meant. She’ll also know you’re on to her. Whatever plan she has—it’ll step up her schedule.”

It didn’t take him long to work out what Sophia meant, and when he did, he wanted to howl. The enemy witch or wizard had probably plucked the key from Zoe’s lovely bosom and, therefore, knew she was the parchment’s owner. Having discovered the geis, the witch’s next move would be to try to get around it: manipulate Zoe to give up the parchment.

The good news was, the geis wouldn’t work under coercion, so the enemy would try persuasion first. A wizard might even try to romance Zoe, the very thing she wanted.

But the instant Daniel did his spell, the enemy would know another mage was coming and rush Zoe to get the parchment.

Maybe even try to force her.

Daniel shuddered with rage at the thought.

Yet, if he didn’t do this spell, they were blind. The enemy might get frustrated and try to force her anyway.

That decided him. He had to know who the evil bastard was. He had to do the spell, then deal with the consequences fast and decisively.

“Thanks for the heads up, Sophia. I owe you.”

He clicked off, then poured the water into the pan, submerged the napkin in it, and stirred three times. Next, he used the lancet to prick his finger.

His blood gathered in a ruby tear, dangling from the pad.
Heart
. It dripped, fell into the water and dispersed. He tried not to think of Zoe as the second drop gathered.

Then it struck him—
that
was what had changed since high school.

His breath froze. The drop fell in silence. A female, a
wolf shifter
, affecting his magic? The blood hit the water and burst with a dazzle.

He didn’t have time to deal with the implications. More, he didn’t want to. It was a relief when the third drop finally fell, and he could press his thumb against the puncture to stop the bleeding.

Daniel plucked his wand, ebony with gold wire fittings, from his breast pocket. The wand was always at hand when needed and never there to spoil the line of his clothes when he needed that. A wizard thing.

With a flick of his wrist, he drew the blue flame onto the wand. Successive flicks wrapped it around the wand like cotton candy on a stick.

A fling sailed an arc of blue fire into the air and down into the pan.

Napkin, water, and blood all lit with a
foomph
. He mentally touched his power and spoke the catalyst word, “
Find.
”

The flames began to dance and swirl, ghostly waltzers on a ballroom floor.

One spot pulsed red. The
where
—the back of the ballroom.

The swirling blue flame coalesced into that spot, like water spiraling down a drain. It flared orange-red and formed a brutal face in a ripped mask. The
who
—the handsy Zeus. Daniel’s blood surged with triumph. Now for the why…

The fire spat, flares of purple shooting out like bursting rockets—then turned totally black.

Black fire
.

Daniel tore off his tux jacket and smashed it over the pan, smothering the magefire. His chest was pumping like a bellows.

Stars and moon. This was a disaster. Sophia said the color of the flames would tell him intent. The orange-red flare said greed, the purple sparks said magic—Zeus was definitely a wizard and could trace the spell back to Daniel, but that didn’t matter now, not with that fire.

Black. Evil intent.

Daniel snatched up his jacket and, despite the half-charred lining, threw it on as he ran out of the room. Heart pounding, he raced for the ballroom, pulling down his mask on the way. Only one way for a wizard to get that parchment—make the Queen of Hearts give it to him.

An evil wizard now knew he’d been found out, and the clock was ticking.

Zoe was in danger.

Chapter Five

Normally as hostess, Zoe would have led the first waltz. But until her identity was revealed at midnight, the Queen of Hearts had to remain masked, so Zoe had a discreet word with the orchestra director.

As she was finishing her instructions, her wolf growled. She spun.

Headed straight for her, face brutal in his ripped masked, was the handsy Zeus.

Handsy.
By her paws and claws. Had his groping been a cover for light-fingering her key? Her wolf’s growl deepened.
It
certainly thought he had, and it wanted immediate revenge, of the bloodiest kind.

But her human counseled caution. First, she didn’t want to make a scene in front of her elegant guests. But second, if Zeus had already gotten the key, what more could he want from her? She needed to delay, a chance to figure out his game.

Then she’d let her wolf have its confrontation.

As the first strains of the “Blue Danube” began, she trotted for the corner buffet table, full of cheese and chatting couples. Let Zeus try his shenanigans when she was among people, and ready for him.

Sure enough, he followed. But as he swept in on her like a thunderstorm, his dark glower dispersed her cover of couples.

“Lady Mystery,” he rasped. “Kismet brings us together again.”

“Or your clumsy attempts to corner me,” she murmured.

“What?” he asked sharply.

“Nothing.” She smiled coyly and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Her wolf snorted in disgust, but her flirting must have appeased him because he smiled, too, though in his ripped mask it came off as more of a leer.

Flirt,
she reprimanded herself.
Tease out his plans…and maybe even get the key back.
“Cheese?”

“Let’s go somewhere we can get romantic.” He clapped a hand on her shoulder.

She staggered, but kept her smile plastered on her face. “Nonsense.” Fluttering eyelashes like a power fan, she yanked loose. “Nothing is more romantic than cheese.”

“Being alone together is. C’mon, honey.”

Zeus grabbed her wrist and tried to tug her toward the side service door. He was smiling, but the reek of angry testosterone coming off him scared her. She resisted, got dragged a few inches, and had to let her wolf out to add strength.

On the plus side, she broke loose.

Huge minus, he glared suspiciously at her. She didn’t know why, but she did know how to derail male suspicions.

“I just love cheese so much.”

She pointed at herself, finger sinking into her cleavage past the second knuckle. His gaze shot down and his face went slack.

Gotcha.

Zoe backed toward the cheese table, widening the gap between them.

His gaze rose, and he frowned.

“I especially love Camembert, don’t you?” Covering her intent with a flirty smile, she groped on the table behind her for a plastic sword pick, and when she found one, she stabbed a cube of cheese, hard, wishing she could use it on him.

His frown darkened. “I don’t want cheese. I want to be with you—alone.” He took a threatening step closer.

Falling back, she hit the table and covered by swinging the sword pick between them. “But the cheese is so creamy.” She gave the sword a little flourish then brought it to her mouth and licked the cube, slowly. Sensuously.

Zeus’ expression changed, gaze riveted to her caressing tongue, licking his lips as if mimicking her. “All right. Let’s flirt here for a while.”

Her wolf snorted in disgust, but she counted it a win and let her wary muscles ease.

Until Daniel, nostrils flared like a bull, charged into the room.

Daniel rushed into the ballroom, head and stomach churning, his gaze cutting left-right, frantic to catch a glimpse of Zoe.

The ballroom was filled with swirling dancers and chattering groups. He couldn’t see the one lush figure he wanted. His heart thudded painfully. Damn it, a wizard was pursuing Zoe with evil intent, and he had no idea where she was. Couldn’t protect her, as everything inside him screamed to do.

As if she was his to protect.

He thumbed his temples through his mask. She wasn’t his, she never had been. He had to remember that. Friends in high school; her a ten and him a four. Despite what happened tonight on that fainting couch, she still saw him as that dork.

Then Zeus’ brutal face appeared in a momentary gap in the crowd, cruelty pinched in a frown aimed at a graceful woman with a river of dark, glossy hair.

Zeus is with Zoe
. Daniel’s heart stopped.

Then his pulse revved twice as fast. To hell with whose she was or wasn’t, he was going to rip Zeus apart.

Daniel bulled like a linebacker through the dancers. Urgency knifed at him to simply mow them all down, and he barely managed to keep from blasting them away with a spell as he dodged and wedged.

If Zeus hurt her, he was a dead man.

As Daniel neared, he saw Zeus staring at Zoe, lust blazing alongside the cruelty in the brutal man’s eyes.

And Zoe… Daniel slowed as his whole body turned to rubber.

Her tongue curled around an hors d’oeuvre with such erotic heat, Daniel wanted to kill himself to be reincarnated as that cube of cheese. Zeus leaned forward, for all the world like he was going to replace the cheese with his mouth. Daniel’s heart rate goosed, everything in him rising to smash his fist in his rival’s face.

Daniel sprinted for her, his conscience screaming at him to stop, that she deserved better than him, but he could care less; she was
his
, and no dollar’s worth of wizard was getting in his way—

“Whoa there, cowboy.”

A hand seized his shoulder and swung him around. He was confronted by a smirking man in black tails, his lounging stance as graceful as a wild animal.

Daniel twisted and tried to wrenched away. “
Let go.
”

But the man’s fingers were steel. “I will when you calm down.” Brilliant black eyes twinkled with amusement and a touch of sympathy through a satin domino styled to look like purple smoke.

“Right. All right.” Daniel stopped tugging, pretending to cooperate, but he dragged oxygen rapidly through flared nostrils, ready for his opportunity to yank away. Maybe smash the man in the face as he did. No, that would take too much time, and he had to get to Zoe. “Who are you?”

The man’s mouth quirked. “I’ve had many names. Currently, I’m going by the amusing sobriquet of Jayden. I’m not letting you go, you know. What you’re contemplating is a death sentence.”

“How do you know what I’m contemplating?”

“Please.” Black eyes rolled. “Your gaze on her is so hot you’re about to trigger the sprinklers. You want to have hot, meaningless sex with her. But I can tell you, intimacy between you two will be neither mere sex nor meaningless.” He paused as if considering. “It
will
be hot, though.”

Fucking smartass. “My intentions are none of your business.”

“Normally I’d agree. In this case, I need to remind you witch/shifter mating is forbidden. On pain of death.”

“How…?” The man knew Daniel was a wizard? Impossible. But even that paled compared to the thought that this Jayden might be a danger to Zoe. Fear for her spiked Daniel’s gut. “If you’re a Council Enforcer—”

“Heaven forbid. I’m just a friend.”

“Well,
friend
, I don’t take well to threats. Who are you, where have you come from and what the hell do you want?”

“A guest, invited like you, and to give you some advice.” Steel fingers dug in so hard they nearly pierced triceps. “Stop struggling. This is for your benefit, and hers.”

The pain forced Daniel to obey, at least for the moment. “I wasn’t invited. But I needed to be here.”

“Exactly my point. You’re not the only agent of prophecy here, so listen up. A wizard prince and the daughter of an alpha once got away with mating. Lived together, right under the Council’s noses. Want to know how?”

Ice froze Daniel’s rage. Jayden was here because of the prophecy? Then why was he talking about Daniel and Zoe—and
mating?

“What you’re saying is impossible.” Daniel didn’t know if he meant the witch/wolf mating, Jayden being an agent of prophecy, or Daniel’s own feelings for Zoe, feelings which definitely geysered at the words “living together.”

What the fuck, feelings?
He could barely grapple with his strange, overwhelming need to make her his for tonight. Was he, the sworn playboy, thinking of making a life with her? A home?

“Not impossible, simply very difficult.”

Daniel startled then realized Jayden was responding to his words, not his thoughts.

“The wizard pretended the wolf was his live-in housekeeper. Now, I’m not recommending that, because they were always looking over their shoulder and could never be themselves. No spontaneous displays of affection—no displays of affection at all except behind locked doors with all the curtains drawn. Plus, no insurance benefits for her or the pup. How annoying is that? But they were able to live together without the Council knowing. They even had the kid.”

“Lovely. I’ll keep that in mind, if I ever decide to get serious with a shifter…damn.” Daniel was speaking to thin air. The stranger Jayden was gone as if he’d never been.

A projection? But astral projections were tremendous power sucks, especially with a grip like that.

The whole bizarre incident, however, had taken precious moments. Out of the corner of his eye Daniel saw that slime Zeus grab Zoe’s wrists.

He surged through the last of the crowd that separated them, plunged in with a hairpin binding of Zeus’ arms, and broke the man’s grip with a quick twist.

Immediately, Daniel snared Zoe’s hands for himself. “Lady Mystery.” He tossed the cheese onto the table and lingeringly kissed her fingers. “I was looking for you.”

She frowned. Her green eyes, though shadowed by the mask, looked darker somehow.

“I’m
busy
.” She added a mouthed,
Getting the key.

So, somehow she’d figured out Zeus was their thief, too. His mouth wanted to smile at how clever she was, but his brain was less enamored. She had no idea that Zeus was an evil wizard, or how dangerous he was.

Daniel adopted his best suave, seductive smile. “This will only take a minute. Zeus, is it?” He spun the smile into an insolent slap of a grin at the other wizard. “You don’t mind if I steal this lovely lady, do you?”

“Yeah. I do.” Lightning practically jagged in Zeus’ eyes.

No subtlety at all, this one.

Which gave Daniel an idea. Zoe wanted the key, and no need for subtlety? He’d steal it back
with magic.
Right here, right now. He’d cover his actions so bystanders wouldn’t know, but Zeus wouldn’t fail to figure out Daniel was the other wizard and his nemesis, which would take his attention off Zoe.

Bonus, it’d shout loud and clear that if Zeus wanted Zoe, he’d have to go through Daniel.

Both of them were frowning at him. Daniel realized his hands and jaw were clamped so hard his teeth were powder and his fingers were knots.

He deliberately eased into a more casual stance. “I’m not giving you a choice. I’m cutting in.”

Zoe began, “My Hero—”

“The hell you are,” Zeus finished.

“Language.” Daniel touched his wand mentally, calling it into his side pocket. If Zeus had the key, a simple pickpocket spell would lift it. A favorite for playing pranks at University, Daniel learned the spell early and used it often, if only in self-defense.

Zoe crossed her arms and frowned at him. “I’m fine here, with Zeus.”

“You’re really not.” The simplest form of pickpocket used direct touch as a bridge. All Daniel had to do was stay in contact long enough for the key to transfer.

He brushed his wand through the pocket with one finger, priming the spell.

Zoe frowned, following his gesture. “Zeus and I were having a nice chat.”

She knew he was up to something, but she wouldn’t know what, and frankly, Daniel was more worried about Zeus. The other wizard might sense the spell before the transfer was complete—unless Daniel did something to distract him.

“Marvelous. We can all three have a nice chat together.” He smiled broadly and gave the bastard a buddy slap on the back.

On one hand, it worked to perfection. The bridge initiated without his new buddy catching on.

On the other hand, it backfired spectacularly. Daniel’s suppressed rage at the other mage had filled his slap with such a punch that Zeus staggered.

The brutal face lifted with surprise and he fell forward a step before he caught himself. “
Hey
. What the hell are you doing?”

Daniel tried to follow the motion, to keep in contact, but Zoe stuck her face in the gap and snarled at them both.

“That’s enough macho crap.”

His flow of magic was already started, and her anger, practically a physical force, distracted him an instant before he could cut the spell.