The Charmer (36 page)

“And you, Mathin? What do you know about
this?”

“I confirmed that at least one of the missing
women was a charmer. I’d met her before. I’m guessing about the
others, but given Urseya’s interest in Jasmine, the blood tests
that she took, and all that we know about her, it seems a good
guess that she’s after the pheromone.”

Jayems glanced at Keilor. “Any chance she’s
already got it?” He quickly explained about Knightin and the
Nerasia and Rihlia’s mother.

“But I saw Knightin,” Jasmine protested. “His
eyes were perfectly lucid. He didn’t have that stoned look.”

“Stoned?” Keilor inquired.

She colored. “Drugged, half-stupid.” When his
eyes narrowed, she leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Don’t
worry. I was far too busy trying not to drool over you myself to
notice if you looked dazed.”

He lifted a brow, but the scowl left his face
just the same.

“That still doesn’t explain his resistance to
the truth serum,” Jayems pointed out. “Did you notice anything
strange about Rhapsody?”

A gray storm cloud drifted through Jasmine’s
heart, freezing her to the spot. “She bled a lot.” Someone gasped,
and Jasmine opened her eyes to stare at the shaken Rihlia. “I’m
sorry. No, there was nothing.”

Keilor squeezed her hand under the table,
giving her support and comfort.

“Still, it doesn’t rule out outside
influence. We don’t know what knowledge her experiments might have
given her. Regardless, if she’s behind the disappearances,
something needs to be done,” Jayems said, steepling his hands and
touching them to his upper lip. He raised his head and his tented
fingers rested against his chin. “Any ideas?”

“Yesande would not welcome me back, so I
can’t go openly, but I am still familiar with her lair,” Mathin
offered. “I could always seduce some information out of one of the
women there.”

“Rather sure of yourself, aren’t you?” Leo
suggested with a raised brow.

Mathin just smiled.

Jasmine cleared her throat. “Why bother going
to her? She seems to go to great lengths to get her hands on
charmers. Why not make it easy for her? Wave a charmer under her
nose and she’s sure to pounce.”

“No,” Keilor said in tone that brooked no
argument. “You will not play bait.” She opened her mouth to
protest, but he squeezed her hand under the table in warning.

“She wouldn’t have to,” Leo offered, standing
up to move beside Jasmine. Without a word, she reached out and took
Jasmine’s free hand.

“Leo, no!” Jackson shouted, standing up, but
it was too late. Their symbionts flowed together, forming one
interlocked whole, and pulsed. Jasmine jerked in surprise as a warm
buzz flowed through her body, concentrated in her left arm, and
then flowed out through her symbiont and into Leo’s. The symbionts
separated and streamed back to their respective hosts.

“Neat trick,” Mathin growled, his nostrils
flaring as his eyes dilated.

Jackson took one look at Mathin’s hungry
expression and ordered his sister with a killing look, “
Purge it
right now!
”

“That would be foolish,” she returned,
standing firm, if wary. “The plan is a good one.”

Jackson’s hard eyes swept the assembled
Haunt. “Did you not think of what might happen to our women if word
of this gets out?” he demanded of her.

“I wonder if this stuff could be transferred
to a man?” Jasmine murmured, eyeing her husband with
speculation.

“Don’t even think it,” her husband
growled.

“Enough! Jasmine, stop making trouble.
Mathin, behave,” Jayems ordered. “You don’t have to worry about any
of
us
making use of the information, Jackson. Yesande is the
only one who would desire an army of lust crazed fools.”

Mathin glowered at him and slid his gaze back
to Leo.

Unnerved, her eyes flickered away settled
with determination on her brother. “Do you have a better way to end
this, brother? Who will it be next time, your wife, our little
sister?”

“Uh, Leo,” Jasmine interrupted. “Just so you
know, you’re letting yourself in for a pack of trouble with this
charmer thing. I do hope you can turn it off as easily as you
turned it on, otherwise it might be best to consider other
options.”

Jackson tensed, and Leo bit her lip. “I’ll be
all right for a while. The symbiont won’t work the pheromone into
my genetic makeup for at least a month.”

There was a tense moment of silence. “Three
weeks,” Jackson finally bit out. “I give you three weeks, and not
an hour more, understood?” Still very angry, he dropped back into
his seat, and Leo followed suit. “Now what?”

“Is it always like this?”

Jasmine glanced at Leo, noted her unease, and
smiled with sympathy. “Actually, it’s been a great deal better for
me since Keilor and I, uh…” She waved a hand. “Since I got married
and started bleeding off a little of...whatever it is that makes
them do
that
.” She indicated the nearly slavering Haunt
males thronging the marketplace. Eyes lingered on Jasmine, but they
positively glued to Leo, much to the consternation of her Ronin
escort. Jasmine’s Haunt bodyguard handled it with stoic
resignation. They’d been through all this before.

All but Mathin, of course, who’d appointed
himself one of Leo’s protectors, in spite of Jackson’s none too
subtle hints to take himself off. Leo’s persistent suitor wasn’t in
sight at the moment, but Jasmine caught glimpses of him from time
to time, and she knew he was nearby, watching.

Leo knew it, too.

“What does he think he’s doing?” she muttered
in irritation as she caught a glimpse of Mathin through the crowd.
“I hardly need another protector; Jackson is bad enough.”

Jasmine looked at her askance. “What? Don’t
you recognize lust when you see it?” Leo’s face grew fiery with
rage, but Jasmine said anyway, “Mathin’s not such a bad sort.
Granted, he’s a lousy cook, but he’s worth his weight in platinum
when you find yourself in a jam.”

“You can say that, after he broke your
arm?”

“Given the choice between that and remaining
Yesande’s permanent guest, I’ll take Mathin’s way, thank you very
much. It’s crude, and it’s rude, but you’ve got to admit it’s
effective.” The scent of oranges reached out and seized Jasmine’s
nose, so she stopped and bought a couple of them. Handing one to
Leo, she peeled it as they watched the basket weaver under the
striped awning next door make a laundry basket.

Juice spurted as she dug her nails into the
peel, releasing a delightful whiff of citrus. “So, do you have a
sweetheart back home who’d object to all this male attention?”

Pretending great concentration on her task,
Leo shook her head. “No, but that’s not the point. I don’t like
being stared at, and it’s infuriating to know that their interest
is merely a chemical reaction.”

Jasmine nodded. “Hard on the ego, isn’t it?
Not to mention danged annoying. But hey, look on the bright side,
at least
you
can get rid of it.” She popped a juicy orange
segment into her mouth and then umphed!, as though something
important had occurred to her. Rolling her eyes as she chomped
quickly, she finally cleared her mouth to ask, “Speaking of getting
rid of things,” she held up her forearms, “What about these?”

Gaping as though Jasmine had suggested
killing the pope, Leo asked, “Why would you wish to do such a
thing?”

“Relax, Leo, I’m just curious. Now that I’ve
gotten used to the little guy, I kind of like him, but let’s just
say that something came up, and I needed to get him off. Then
what?”

“It’s not done,” Leo answered in
consternation. “The symbionts extend our lives, bring health, and
provide all manner of help. They define who we are as a people. Why
should anyone wish to shed one?”

Jasmine raised an imperious brow, unknowingly
picked up from her new Haunt family. “I define who I am, Leo, and
no one else. I like being one of a kind, knowing there’s no one
else just like me.”

“But don’t you need a connection with
someone? With others similar to yourself?” Leo pressed, sucking the
juice out of the end of an orange wedge and licking an escaping
drop, oblivious to the intensity of her audience with her attention
focused on Jasmine. “Don’t you have a need to belong?”

Jasmine noticed the male Haunt’s fascinated
stares, and smiled. A teenage boy who was watching Leo and not his
feet ran into his mother when she stopped to admire some cloth, and
earned himself a scolding.

Her smile grew. “I do belong.” She placed a
hand on her belly. “I belong to Keilor, and he belongs to me. If I
never had anyone else, he would be enough.”

Leo looked away and shook her head. “I don’t
understand that.” Noticing her admirers, she scowled. “How can you
know it’s you he loves and that he’s not caught in the spell of the
charmer?”

Shrugging, Jasmine answered, “We’re past all
of that. He’s said he loves me and I believe him. It’s there in his
eyes, in the way he treats me. It’s in his kiss, like nothing I’ve
ever experienced, and it has nothing to do with skill. I believe
even if I’d never been a charmer, we still would have come
together. The pheromone isn’t irresistible. It doesn’t command the
heart.” Jasmine grinned as she caught sight of Mathin, who was
headed straight for them, and pitched her voice a tad higher. “It
might have brought him to heel quicker, though.”

Dark eyes caressed Leo with unnerving
intensity. “I’d be pleased to be at your heels anytime, sweet
charmer.” He leaned in closer, bridging her personal space, and
murmured against her ear, or your knees, or even—”

Leo shouldered him out of her way and stalked
on, blond ponytail switching, hips swaying angrily. A low hum of
appreciation vibrated from Mathin.

Jasmine caught his arm. “She doesn’t like
you, Mathin.”

“Hm. The way you didn’t ‘like’ Keilor?”

Flushing, she crossed her arms. “That was
different.”

Mathin smirked, “Did your husband ever tell
you that we can smell a woman’s arousal?” Her eyes widened, and he
flashed her a wicked smile of assurance. “Leo
likes
me very
much, I promise you.” Pulling away from her slack grip, he followed
after Leo.

Jasmine blinked. So that was how it was.
Still, she liked Leo, and she didn’t want to see her get hurt. Not
that her watchful Ronin escort would ever allow Mathin to get Leo
alone...but still. Jasmine knew how such dogged pursuit could
weaken a girl’s heart.

With a fatalistic sigh, she shook off her
concerns, promising herself she wouldn’t interfere. Love was a
messy thing, but those two were both adults, and they’d just have
to fight it out like everyone else.

Chapter 31

The one walk through the marketplace was
Leo’s last. Her presence had been scented and witnessed, and now
all they had to do was wait.

“Seventeen days there, seventeen days back,”
Jasmine said, shaking her head. “Unless Yesande has taken up
residence in the neighborhood, or unless she’s got someone closer
to home keeping an eye on things, you’re going to have to purge the
charmer thing, Leo.”

Jasmine picked up one of the long sticks that
speared the marinated meats and vegetables on the tray nearest her.
She moved from the table to the bonfire Keilor had built in the
fire pit. The fire was the only light in the darkened and
deceptively unprotected garden. Fireflies danced and whizzed
through the rare black night, but did nothing to illuminate the six
people around the fire.

Mathin shook his head, taking the stick from
her and laying it on the grill. The faint, flower scented breeze
ruffled a lock of hair that had escaped his queue. It caught in the
faint stubble at his jaw and he brushed it away with impatience.
“It won’t matter. Now the word’s out, and she’ll come for her. If
she finds Leo is no longer a charmer, she’ll be that much more
piqued, and even more determined to get her hands on her. A power
that comes and goes? It will smack of control, and Yesande could
never resist that.”

Keilor shot a quick look at Jackson, saw his
jaw was clenched, and looked away. “The sooner, the better. We’re
ready for her. Though
you—”
he pulled Jasmine back into his
arms, settling her between his bent knees as he stroked her gently
rounded belly, “

will stay well out of
it.”

“Bossy, aren’t you?” she teased, turning her
face into him and rubbing her head against his chest. It was
covered in a dark green silk shirt and not his uniform vest for
once. “I wouldn’t worry about it.” She affected a lofty tone.
“Yesande wouldn’t dare tangle with me again. After all, I thrashed
her so badly the last time we met, she wouldn’t risk the
humiliation of a rematch.”

Keilor snorted in amusement, and Mathin
raised a brow and looked at her askance. “And which time was this?”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he shook his head, chuckling.
He rotated the shish kebabs, and the fire snapped and sizzled as
their fats and juices dripped into its flames.

“Do you ever miss your world?”

Jasmine looked at Leo, surprised by the
sudden question. “Why?”

Leo shrugged. “You gave up a great deal to
stay here. I was wondering if you have regrets.”

“Hmm...I haven’t really thought about it, so
I guess not.”

Leo frowned and poked a stick at the fire,
raising sparks. “There must be something you regret leaving.”

Smiling, Jasmine snuggled deeper into
Keilor’s arms. “Nothing worth giving up this. Believe me, I’ve got
the better end of the bargain.”

Leo grunted, unconvinced. “I don’t care much
for the swamps, but I wouldn’t leave my family just to be with a
man. Besides, we need every Ronin we can get to take back our
homelands from the beasts.”

“You still have that choice. After all,
you’re not in love. I would have thought the same thing if I’d been
asked before being yanked into the Dark Lands.” Jasmine watched the
fire. “Love isn’t something that’s easy to resist. Sometimes it’s a
pull stronger than the fear of the unknown.”