Spiritbound (22 page)

‘A banana. You up for this?’ He held it up.

Grace nodded. ‘Yes, please.’

He peeled it for her and held it out. She bit down, chewed and then swallowed. The food and coffee were having a marked improvement. Her head had stopped spinning.

‘Your mother is here. She has come to take you home by car. When I’m satisfied you are restored enough for the trip I’ll wheel you down.’

‘Don’t you have other patients?’

‘Yes, of course I do. But I’m off-duty now.’

‘Oh.’ Grace ran her fingers through her hair, realising she must look a fright. Lyle had dark green eyes and they were at that moment studying her. ‘Is there something wrong?’ she asked.

He shook his blond head. ‘No, just thinking that Declan is a lucky man, lucky warlock, I should say. You’re a special witch, Grace Riordon.’

Her mouth dropped open. ‘How did you know my full name?’

He leaned his back against the wall and smirked. ‘Your mother told me, and where to find you if I’m so inclined. No more banana?’ He wiggled it back and forth.

‘No, I’m done. Mother didn’t invite you for dinner, did she? Mention a single witch at our house?’

Lyle chuckled. ‘Come to think of it, she did. But I had to tell her I’m married with two kids.’

Grace laughed. ‘I bet that pulled her up short.’

He nodded absently, as if remembering the scene. ‘I believe it did. Now wait there, I’m wheeling you downstairs.’

A few minutes later he returned with a wheelchair. ‘I really don’t need this.’ She paused, feeling better, but her limbs were not very responsive. ‘Okay, maybe I do.’

‘Humour me.’ He assisted her into the wheelchair. ‘No more necromancy for a while. Okay?’

‘So is your wife human?’ she asked as he wheeled her into the corridor.

‘Yes. So was my mother.’

They bumped into the lift doors. Lyle wasn’t a good driver. ‘You don’t push wheelchairs much, do you?’

‘No, but you’ll arrive in one piece, I promise. Now, I want you to go home and rest. You need to eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. Wholesome food to restore your life force. Declan is on the mend and out of danger thanks to you. Let me help him now and I’ll even mind the parents.’

The lift whooshed open. In a short time, Grace could see Elvira with Robertson, one of the other councillors. Her mother didn’t smile, but Grace detected the sweep of her mother’s witch sense checking that she was okay. Grace waved to Robertson. He blushed deeply. He was a rather shy warlock, and probably a bit afraid of her mother. Come to think of it, afraid of her too.

‘Thank you, young man. You know how to get in touch with me now. I expect updates on Declan’s condition.

Lyle agreed, then with a wink at Grace he sauntered off, soon lost in the throng of people heading to lifts or medical appointments.

‘Come on, dear. We’ll take you home. Robertson, here, drove. I was too distracted.’

After a nod from Elvira, Robertson grabbed her wheelchair and began to wend his way through people out to the door. He’d parked in the no standing zone. There was a parking inspector issuing tickets, but none were on his car. Grace grinned. Cheeky warlock.

With a last forlorn look at the hospital and her empty wheelchair on the pavement, Grace said a silent goodbye to Declan. She had no idea if he would ever know the part she’d played in his survival.

After two weeks in bed recuperating and being plied with her mother’s concoctions, listening to Elena’s descriptions of her latest craft project and Fel’s annoying anecdotes, Grace was allowed out of her room. News had reached them of Declan’s progress. After Dr Wentz deemed him well enough, his parents had him transferred to the Blue Mountains and into Beatrice the healer’s care.

Grace continued her life as usual, except for the empty spot where Declan had been. There were no messages from him and no communication from his parents. It was if he’d ridden off that day and hadn’t come back. The trip to the hospital, her joining her essence with his, faded to distant memory.

On the sofa Grace sat alone, stroking Fel’s filmy substance absently as she watched how the light changed outside as the sun went down.

Scratch?
Fel stuck its muzzle into her face.

Automatically, Grace obeyed Fel’s request, using her fingers to ease Fel’s itchy bits. Though how a dead cat could feel it was beyond her understanding.

A glass of red wine appeared in front of her. Startled, she looked up. ‘Elena. I didn’t know you were home.’ She took the glass and shuffled over to make room.

Fel meowed indignantly and sauntered away.

‘My class was cancelled.’ Elena fetched a glass for herself and then snuggled next to Grace. ‘Cheers.’ Elena touched her glass to Grace’s. ‘You’re sad. I don’t like seeing it.’

Grace tossed back some of the wine. ‘Not sad, but low. I’m a little low, energy wise, heart wise, mind wise.’

‘Elvira said it will take time to recover. What you did was remarkable. She told me that if she’d been with you, she wouldn’t have let you expend so much of yourself to save him.’

‘I did what anyone would have done.’

Elena shook her head. ‘Not anyone. Elvira said there hasn’t been a talent like yours for fifty years at least. She said you saved his mother and then him.’

A smile spread across her face. ‘She’s my mother. Of course she’s going to say nice things about me. It’s what mothers do.’

Elena’s arm snaked across her shoulders. ‘You think that, darling Grace, if it makes you feel better.’

With her wine finished, Grace climbed to her feet and refilled their glasses. A slight dizziness hit. A half glass of wine didn’t normal affect her like that. She tipped some more wine into their glasses and then sipped hers slowly. It was a mild evening and the trees were now shadows. Elena played with her hair and talked softly.

While they chatted, Fel begged for a cuddle first from Elena and then Grace, until it ultimately curled up on the arm of the sofa, content to just be, even if it was a ghostly being.

Elvira was out for the evening. ‘New man,’ Elena whispered conspiratorially as if her mother would overhear and think it disrespectful.

‘Go her. I have my hand vibrator to keep me company.’

Elena laughed so hard she fell off the sofa.

‘What? Don’t you use one? Mine’s called Randy Roger.’ Grace looked on while Elena rolled around the floor, laughing so hard she cried.

Grace rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. ‘Obviously, you need to do more work to get in touch with your inner rhythms. Sex is natural and now that I know just the thought of one sends you into a fit of giggles, I’m going to buy you one and lend you a book.’

‘A book?’ The red-faced Elena gasped out.

‘Yes, a book from school.’

Elena crawled into a sitting position on the floor and rested her head on the sofa cushion. ‘You mean like sex education?’

‘That’s the one.’

Fatigue was wearing Grace down so she wished Elena good night and staggered down the hall. She took a hot shower, climbed into her pyjamas and rolled into bed. Fel wasn’t on the bed cover so she assumed the cat had taken up residence with Elena for the night. A light wind ruffled the curtains and weak moonlight bathed the yard. She laid back on the bed, fatigue numbing her limbs and slowly seducing her mind to sleep.

Lips on hers jolted her awake. She sat up in bed and scanned the room. No one was there with her. It had seemed so real. After taking a few deep breaths, she calmed back down again and closed her eyes. Lips were on hers again and her eyes flew open. This time she could taste the magic in the air. Lunging out of the bed, she raced to the window and threw it up. ‘Declan?’

Shrubbery ate the sound of her voice. She stood motionless, listening. It couldn’t be a dream. That was definitely magic. Could he have sent that kiss all the way from the Blue Mountains? Perhaps. Maybe.

There was no point in going back to bed. Not if she was either dreaming of kisses or being kissed magically. She slipped on a thin robe and stepped outside. Stars flickered faintly overhead, drowned out by the light of the city. The wind had scented the air with salt from the harbour. Leaves rustled and then she turned. A tall silhouette stood there. She closed her eyes and reached out. It was Declan, whole and healthy.

He was there in an instant, his warm body enveloping her, his face buried in her hair. ‘Grace.’

Silently she held him, too choked up for words. He released her and she lifted her head to gaze at him, touching his cheek with the back of her finger. It was a sweet face.

‘You saved me. I owe you my life.’

Grace shook her head. ‘No, you don’t.’

‘But…’

‘Shhh…’ She placed her finger on his lips. ‘You have your life, Declan. You owe me nothing. You are free to go, if that’s what you want.’

‘I felt your presence.’

Grace widened her eyes. She’d thought he might have done, but wasn’t sure. ‘What do you remember?’

‘I remember your love for me.’

‘Figures.’

He cupped her face. ‘I love you, Grace. Leaving you was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I realised my mistake and was heading back when…you know. Now after the accident, I realise that life is too short to put off what you want to do, what you must do.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I want to join with you. Settle down.’

Grace stepped back and rubbed at her upper arms. ‘This isn’t you talking.’

‘No, don’t go.’ He drew her back into his arms and rested his forehead against hers. ‘It is me talking. I would have died if it weren’t for you. But it’s not gratitude that brings me here. You knew I loved you before I left, but I was so confused and pig-headed that I didn’t value you the way I should have.’

‘That’s true.’ Grace smiled to herself. ‘Your parents would never agree to you joining with me. There are stacks of other witches dying to be with you.’

‘Not as many as you would think?’

Grace’s mouth dropped open. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Apparently there is a rumour circulating that I’m rather under-endowed where it counts.’

‘Oh?’

He grabbed her to him so that she draped against him. ‘Really, Grace. Under-endowed?’

She had a rather healthy impression of his endowment at that moment. ‘Well, you had to be there.’

‘Danila? Figures. I didn’t sleep with her. She did take off her clothes, which is where my mother got the idea. I told her to put them back on. I was rather ill-tempered, actually. I may have said she disgusted me, which isn’t very gentlemanly but I was provoked.’

‘I knew you hadn’t slept with her. Or if you had, you’d made a poor impression. No one could have been laid by you and been so unaffected.’

‘Grace Riordon, if you don’t stop talking like that I’m going to stretch you out on this bit of lawn and have my way with you.’

Grace kept on talking. She liked the smell of dewy grass. ‘I mean, I could hardly walk after—’

Declan had her under him so fast she didn’t realise until she saw the stars overhead. ‘Is that a battle mage technique? Because it could come in handy to—’

Her words were cut off by Declan’s savage kiss. She rather liked his rough and ready approach and responded in kind, tugging his hair as she thoroughly explored his mouth with her tongue.

Wrestling in the grass had advantages. She wasn’t likely to fall off anything as they squirmed and writhed together. Declan was growling as he aggressively tugged down her pyjama bottoms, gaining access to her more than willing labia.

However, she wasn’t taking that lying down, so she raked her nails across his back where she’d been previously enjoying his smooth skin under her fingers. Declan grabbed a handful of her hair and kissed her soundly. They tumbled together with her in a pyjama top and he in jeans half down his backside. That wasn’t good enough. Grace gripped a butt cheek until he squeaked. ‘Take them off,’ she demanded.

Too busy with his hands to comply, he magicked them off. Tugging at her pyjamas was getting him nowhere. ‘Tear them,’ she said breathily as she bit his shoulder. The sound of the material ripping tipped her excitement over the edge. Her heart thudded in her belly before leaping to her throat. She had to have him inside of her. There was a space where he was meant to be and if he didn’t get to it, she was likely to rip his head off from sheer need.

‘Take me now.’

‘No.’ He paused, cradling her head in his two hands and kissing the tip of her nose.

‘No?’

‘No.’

She scrunched up her brows and started flicking through possible hexes she could hurl at him. ‘What are you doing then?’

He sighed. ‘You don’t get it. I love you, Grace. I want to be with you. Have a life with you. I’m serious. Take a look if you don’t believe me.’

With trembling hands, she traced one eyebrow and then the other. With a soft inhale she slipped inside. He was golden and warm and a thousand times more powerful than when she’d last shared this space with him. His love for her penetrated her deep. Gone were the confusion and the anger. A kernel of love pulsated for her.

Grace revealed herself to him. All the love she had stored away. Their minds were still entwined as he entered her. Their bodies moved together slowly, so caught up in the love they shared, a bridge between their essence and their bodies. When they came together, Grace was tugged deeper into Declan and there she experienced his inner beauty and the power of him. He loved her. He wanted to be with her. His hopes and dreams were there. Silently, she assured him that he could pursue them. She would stand by his side.

Later as the sun rose, they lay together. ‘Declan?’

‘Yes,’ he said as he rolled her toward him and kissed her forehead.

‘Will you want children?’

He kissed her nose. ‘Yes.’

She snuggled into him and he spoke into her ear softly. ‘Do you mind if we hold off for a year or two on having a baby?’

She drew back, watched his mouth has he spoke, not quite believing they were having this discussion when a few hours ago it had seemed impossible. ‘I know there’s pressure and all that from the coven, but you have things you want to do. I have things I want you to do, with setting up a school for teaching battle mages.’