The Spell (7 page)

Ima was cut off as Sasha, a twenty-seven year old wizard, asked, “What does she have going on?”

“None of your business!”

On the other end of the line, Sasha sighed as well. Danny felt sorry for him in a way. Sasha had the disadvantage of having slept with Imani in the past, which was wonderful for him at the time, but which also put him in a position of some subservience with the beauty. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “But this won’t end well. I have a feeling.” With that, he hung up and Imani was quiet.

Danny imagined that the woman was trying to regain her composure. She wouldn’t want Danny to think anything was up. But as soon as Ima walked back into the dining room, Danny bombarded her with questions.

“What did Sasha want?”

Ima stopped mid-step and raised both brows. Then she put her hands on her hips and shook her head slowly. “Now that is just plain unladylike, eavesdropping that way. Especially when you’ll be needin’ all of your strength to put up your shields.”

“Oh well,” Danny shrugged. “Now what’s going on?” If Alberich had given some sort of edict that all of the coven needed to be somewhere tonight, it was the perfect excuse not to see Lucas Caige. Which Danny actually felt ambivalent about…. On the one hand, he was so hot it was sinful. But on the other, it made her insides feel strange just thinking about him. Spending an entire evening with him might just do her in.

“It was nothing.” Ima blew it off and threw her phone back into her purse.

“See, now that’s the thing about magic,” Danny said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. “You can’t lie about a conversation to a witch who just listened in on that same conversation.”

“Yeah, well, if you knew what we had been talking about, you wouldn’t have to ask.”

Danny pursed her lips to keep from smiling. Ima had a point there. “Please just tell me.”

Again, Ima sighed and plopped herself down in the chair opposite Danny. “Fine. Alberich wants everyone in the coven to attend the festival tonight. I told Sasha I’d be there but that you were busy.”

Danny mulled that over. “Did he give you a reason? Is something wrong?”

“He didn’t say. But it doesn’t matter. Like I said,” she finished, tightening her voice a little to show she was serious, “you’re busy.”

Danny cocked her head to one side and pinned Ima with a hard stare. “Speaking of which, what time did the werewolf say he would be huffing and puffing outside of our house?”

“Seven.”

Danny’s eyes widened. “But that’s ten minutes from now!”

Outside, the sound of a Harley’s engine drew closer. It was an unmistakable kind of roar and it stilled Danny in her chair. Across from her, Imani smiled a brilliant, white smile. “The boy is early.”

Danny slowly stood up, at once feeling helpless. She hadn’t even brushed her teeth yet! With that thought, she bared her teeth, waved her finger at them, and at once tasted mint on her tongue. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Clean and smooth.

“I saw that,” smirked Imani.

“It means nothing.”

“It means you
care
,” said Imani, as she began to shield the house once more in order to prevent Caige from scenting their magic.

“I
don’t
care,” Danny insisted.

“Bullshit.”

*****

Lucas eyed the well-kept façade of the two-story house in front of him as he shut down his bike and dismounted. He knew he was early, but it couldn’t be helped. “Danny” was eating a hole in him. He had been capable of thinking of nothing but her since he’d first laid eyes on her when she had pulled over to help him.

It made no sense. The woman had passed out on him, of all things. But there was something about her.

He had never seen eyes like hers, that was certain. They were mesmerizing. But it was more than that. Her body was killer; her voice was husky and sweet; her smell was…. There was a vanilla caramel scent that rode the surface of her being like icing on a cake. But underneath was a scent that was familiar to him, though he couldn’t place it for the life of him. He just knew he liked it. A lot.

Lucas pocketed his key and ran a hand through his hair. Maybe he had been on the road too long and this was all just his imagination. Or, maybe it was the Florence Nightingale effect – but backwards. He chuckled softly and shook his head. He may as well just face facts. He had exchanged all of a handfull of words with her and he was already smitten. In fact, he couldn’t stay away. He’d returned twice already that morning – once to return the car, and a second time to bring “provisions.” He’d wanted to repay her kindness to him.

Or at least that was what he’d told her roommate. Who was fucking hot, too.

But not like Danny. Again, he wondered what her name was short for. Her roommate had refused to tell him, which was admittedly a little odd. But everyone had their little quirks.

Lucas made his way to the front door and knocked on it with his gloved fist. He was sure they’d heard him pull up on the bike, so he was hoping it had given them enough of a warning that they would forgive him for being early. As he waited for them to answer, he also hoped that he was right about Danny.

Given the kind of car she drove and her rather reckless trust of him to bring her home last night, he had deducted that she was as free a spirit as any woman he’d ever met. If he was right, then she’d be okay with taking the bike for a spin.

He’d just purchased the bike that morning and had paid the sales associate to drive it to Danny’s house for him when he’d dropped off her car. In the meantime, he was having his other motorcycle repaired. It was pretty much totaled but it was a classic, and he felt strongly about things like that.

The door handle jiggled a little and Lucas heard no fewer than three locks slide free on the other side. He hid his smile. The locks might have deterred any human not willing to break a window, but they wouldn’t have done squat against a werewolf.

When the door opened, Lucas expected to be facing Imani, the woman he’d been dealing with for the last twenty-four hours. But instead, Danny herself stared back at him with her kaleidoscope eyes.

At once he found himself breathless. It had only been a day, and though he couldn’t get her out of his head, he seemed nonetheless to have forgotten how beautiful she was. That silken black hair, those impossible eyes, those full lips…. As she had been when he’d seen her last night, she was wearing jeans. Once again they seemed painted onto those long, lean legs below that tiny waist. He felt his blood warm as his gaze traveled over her body. Her blouse was filmy and ethereal and framed a décolletage of skin that glowed, it was so smooth. Across her collarbone and against the hollow of her throat hung the same necklace she’d worn the night before. It was a simple, thin gold chain with a tiny gold charm of Thor’s hammer.

His gaze traveled back up to her face, where he lost his breath yet again. She was watching him expectantly, no doubt annoyed with his blatant ogling. But the corners of her perfect mouth were turned upward in amusement.

“Hi,” he finally managed, feeling absurdly stupid. “It looks like you’re feeling better,” he ventured. “I’m glad.” He smiled and hoped the sincerity of his words would make up for the bad behavior of his inner wolf.

Danny bit her lip; stark white against deep pink, and Lucas felt himself go hard.

“Thank you for the flowers,” she said. Her fingertips lightly brushed her neck, as if she was nervous. He caught her scent again – vanilla and cupcakes – and his gums ached. “They’re beautiful. How did you know I would like wild flowers?”

He’d chosen flowers that matched the different colors in her unusual eyes. It had been a fancy. Lucas shrugged. “I didn’t,” he admitted easily. “I took a guess.”
But an educated one,
he thought.
Everything about you seems wild.

She smiled, flashing those white teeth. “Good guess.” She stepped aside and gestured to the hall beyond. “Please, come in.”

Lucas stepped up onto the threshold next to her and felt the air thicken. It was like a static charge beneath a thunderhead just before the lightning strikes. In that moment, he wanted to shove her up against the wall behind her and eat her – all of her. He imagined what she would taste like… like some whip-cream laden dessert. He could be upon her before she blinked.

His fangs were poking through his gums now, a threat he couldn’t ignore. But he forced what he could of his wolf to heel and kept moving down the hall so that she could close the door behind them. When he heard it click shut, he stopped and turned to face her once more.

“I want to thank you for stopping to help me yesterday.”

“It was what anyone would have done,” she shrugged, smiling nervously. She ducked her head, and he could see the outline of her long lashes against her cheek bones.

“No,” he said. “It wasn’t.” He had been a stranger in torn black leather and people were generally frightened of such things. Not that he could blame them. But Danny had stopped, regardless of his rough appearance. “You didn’t have to help, but you did.”

“Well, I can say the same,” she said. “You drove me home safe, so we’re even.” She smiled a winning smile and began to brush past him. But then she stopped – right there beside him, and she reminded him of a child playing with matches. “Actually, I suppose I owe you now since you cleaned my car, brought me flowers, and stocked my fridge with baked goods.” She laughed softly and looked up at him with a slightly guilty expression.

Lucas swallowed hard. His throat had gone dry, even as his mouth had begun to water. “You don’t owe me anything,” he said softly. He watched as she stilled there beside him and the pupils in her eyes expanded. She glanced at his mouth and then her gaze even flicked over his chest, and he felt his wolf rise to all fours. He was getting to her just as she was getting to him. “Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Actually,” she said, “I… I just finished eating.” Her own voice had grown softer and her tone had lowered. “Can I get you some coffee or tea though?”

“I’m good,” he said. He needed air. He needed to get out of that house and away from the beds upstairs, or he was going to lose it. This wasn’t like him. She was just another woman, wasn’t she? Why was she affecting him like this?

Keep it together, Caige.

He tried to speak and found that he needed to clear his throat. He did so, pulling his gaze from hers and running his hand through his hair. It was a nervous habit. “Danny, can I take you out of here for a while?” It was a bold question, admittedly. But he was desperate. Most likely, she would turn him down. After all, for all she knew, he’d just wrecked a bike yesterday and wasn’t safe on a motorcycle. But at least then he would have an excuse to leave.

“Yes,” she said.

Lucas blinked and snapped back around to look at her. But she wasn’t looking at him. She was staring steadfastly at the floor, most likely too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “Okay then,” he said, snapping up the opportunity before it flittered away. He pulled his key out of his pocket and turned back around to stride toward the front door. When he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder to find her watching him. He smiled, turned the knob, and popped the door open. “Come with me.”

*****

Danny followed Caige across the lawn to where he had parked his bike. It wasn’t trashed or even banged up and she realized he must have purchased a new motorcycle that morning.

She watched him walk; she couldn’t keep herself from doing so. He moved like a predator - his stride long and sure and his jeans just the right amount of tight. She thought of the muscles under those jeans and wondered again whether she was doing the right thing.

When he mounted the bike with practiced, graceful ease, she felt her mouth go dry and her heart flutter in her chest. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, feeding a sudden urge to fight or flee.

What the hell am I doing?
she asked herself.
This is a werewolf! And not just any werewolf – it’s Lucas Caige!
He started the bike up and it roared to life. He used his boot to kick the stand away and righted the monster machine as if it weighed nothing. Danny watched all of this through eyes growing wide with trepidation.

“Danny?” Caige spoke her name softly, expectantly. At the edges of his tone skirted something that sounded like a warning. She looked up into his eyes and saw the warning repeated there.
Run,
it said clearly.
Run so I can chase you down.

He held his gloved hand out for her and she glanced down at it.
It’s just a ride,
she told herself.
He’s just going to take you for a ride.

“No shit,” she muttered under her breath as she moved forward and placed her hand in his. His fingers closed over hers with immediate possessiveness.
Strange,
she thought. His behavior thus far had been of a man already smitten. Cleaning the car? Bringing flowers and food? Holding her hand as if he were afraid she would slip through his fingers?

Danny had to stop and check that she actually had her dormant shield up. It seemed to be the only logical explanation for why he would be so interested in her. But it was up. She was safe.

She looked down at her hand in his, allowing him to help her onto the back of the bike. It wasn’t her first time riding a motorcycle, so she knew what to do. But, all the same, he only let go when he had to.

She settled herself onto the leather seat behind him and knew that she was going to have to wrap her arms around his waist. She could smell the leather of his black jacket in front of her and she couldn’t keep from admiring the way his black hair curled against the collar and his broad shoulder begged for her to lay her head against it. She felt safe there behind him; inexplicably so.

Thor help me,
she thought.
This is ridiculous.

With sudden determination, she slipped her arms quickly around his waist and tried to ignore the rush of warmth she got from him.
Gods, he feels good
. His abs were strong and solid beneath her grip; she wanted to run her hands along the ridges and dig her nails in. She could smell the aftershave he’d used and her lips parted. Her stomach grew heavy, the crotch of her panties damp.