In the Company of Witches (26 page)

“Never experienced them yourself?”

“I was enslaved to a demon by then,” she commented dryly. “There wasn’t a lot of room for them. When they happened, they manifested as homicidal rage.”

He squeezed her hand. Then swung her behind him as a loud clattering disrupted the normal shopping noises. Locating the problem, he eased his hold. An outdoor display at a shop across the street had collapsed, sending inventory in all directions. Rubber balls with happy faces painted on them bounced into the street, hitting cars, rolling beneath them.

One safely reached their side, coming to a stop against the foundation of the blown glass shop. Raina retrieved it, then returned to his side. “My hero, protecting me from the invasion of misfit toys. Apparently, I’m going to get to introduce you to Ramona.”

Raina gestured toward the store. As he read the sign—Toys, Tea, Herbs and Magic—she grinned. “Come on. You’ll enjoy this.”

He guided her across the street, eyeing the cars that slowed while she gathered up balls. Since other pedestrians were helping as well, Raina expected the vehicles would have stopped regardless. However, whether his appearance was disguised or not, enough of his indomitable nature penetrated that no one dared even a mildly impatient expression, let alone a rudely blown horn.

She and Ruby had thought Ramona’s name for the store was too straightforward, but they’d been wrong. The amalgamation drew visitors and locals alike. Her witch friend was also an agent of chaos, so something fascinating was always happening within or without, like a collapsing display. As they came up on the curb, a dozen little kaleidoscope pinwheels were still spinning on the concrete. Mikhael helped her corral those, amusing her enough that she didn’t use a discreet burst of broom magic to sweep them up into a tidy pile.

“Here, let me take those. Thanks so much.” Ramona had shoved a gargoyle doorstop under the display’s corner to precariously balance it, but she had a placid look on her face as she moved toward them. Since such catastrophes were a daily occurrence for her, she never got flustered by them. Today she was wearing a faded lavender T-shirt that said
Embrace the Magic
amid a spray of glitter Raina was sure would come off in the wash and cover everything she owned. She and Gina got along famously, of course. She also wore a long skirt with bell tassels that chimed pleasantly, and when she’d tapped the doorstop under the display, it had been with the toe of a zebra-striped sneaker. It was a fashion nightmare, but Ramona’s enormous lavender-blue eyes, her wealth of streaming blond hair, and her lithe, pixie figure pulled it off. She was an Amy Brown fairy come to life.

As she reached out to help them with her fugitive inventory, Ramona started.
“Raina.”

She’d forgotten all about the dissembling magic, but it still surprised her that Ramona hadn’t recognized her until they touched. They were linked by blood, coven sisters. It indicated how effective the magic was. Guardians were too damn impressive. If supreme arrogance wasn’t part of the packaging, she might be tempted to compliment him.

Ramona’s eyes had widened to saucers. “You’re in town.”

She’d tried to make light of what Li had told Mikhael about how little she left the property, but hearing the utter shock in Ramona’s voice scuttled that. She really needed to teach her very small group of friends to have better poker faces.

“You make it sound like aliens landed,” she said irritably.

“I would be less surprised by that.” Then Ramona’s gaze shifted to Mikhael. “He’s not what he seems, either. Who is he?”

A warm flutter of energy, and Raina knew Mikhael had modulated the spellwork, allowing Ramona to see him as he was. Not the best idea, because her affable expression instantly turned dark as a stirred hornet’s nest. “We know him. We don’t like him.” Her attention went back to Raina, then to him again, reminding Raina of an owl clock. “Right?”

“Well…he’s different…Here for a different purpose. It’s complicated.” In short, a big
not now
silent communication.

Ramona lifted a brow. “Okay, I’m confused. Normal for me, but really confused.”

“Excuse me.” A tall stranger had approached with an armful of stuffed bears on toy bicycles. When Mikhael’s gaze sharpened on him, the stranger returned the look with a steady one of his own, his eyes the gray of twilight fields. “I believe these are yours, miss?”

Ramona turned around. “Hey, yes, thanks. Yes, those are mine.” When her attention lifted, she seemed to get a little captured in his gaze.

“Miss?”

“Oh, yes. Hi.”

“Hello.” He gave her an odd look.

“Sorry. Something odd…about your aura. You’re new in town,” she said.

The stranger looked like he was reading something from Ramona as well, but more detailed, like an intricate physics text. Raina also detected something different about him, but Mikhael seemed to have a better sense of what. She shifted closer to Ramona’s back.

The gray eyes never left Ramona’s face. After a moment, his expression cleared, though the stranger still looked vaguely amazed. “Yes. Just passing through.”

“Oh, well, then. The café around the corner has the
best
grilled cheese sandwiches. I know, I know. You’re going to say,
Grilled cheese sandwiches, really?
But I’d take them over the fanciest food anywhere. They’re like the double-decker of all cheese sandwiches. I was about to go there for lunch. Why don’t we go together and you can tell me all about yourself?”

Ramona moved back into the store, taking him with her, still chattering. She tossed a glance back at Raina that said,
Gorgeous hot guy on the hook; we’ll talk later about why the hell you’re hanging out with Ruby’s Dark Guardian, since I know you can’t talk right now.

“Should we leave her alone with him?” Raina stared after the male. He could be a librarian, tall, lean, quiet, the neatly cut hair. But then there were those fathomless eyes, the dangerous tip-off.

“Yes, he’s fine. He’s not here for her. And when they’re not here for you, they’re very gentle souls. Even when they’re here for you, they can be gentle about it, depending on what kind of person you’ve been. He’s a Grim Reaper.”

“What?”

“Yeah, Grim Reaper.” Mikhael squatted down in front of the lopsided display rack. Ramona had left the broken leg with its bent screw on the bottom shelf. He fixed it, then moved the gargoyle, using one hand to hold up the display as he reset the screw.

Raina restacked the balls and kaleidoscopes that Ramona had forgotten, but it was distracting, Mikhael doing the handyman thing. All he needed was a tool belt and no shirt. With the jeans riding nice and low in that squat. With effort, she focused on what he was saying.

“If a soul is being held back that needs to go, they call in a death angel. For the normal course of things, Grim Reapers take the lead. Most of the time they’re a taxi service, but you don’t want to cross one. They can pretty much kill you with a thought.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Your friend is in no danger. The one he’s come for hasn’t anything to fear as well. Elderly man, good life. Though dying is cruel, death itself can be kind. He’s here to help with that transition, guide him where he needs to go.”

“Oh. Why did he look at us like that? Doesn’t he know the address of the person he’s here to collect?”

“The moment he looks at you, he knows the how, when, why and where of your death. It makes life odd for him. They’re usually very solitary.”

“Oh…
oh
.”

“What?” Mikhael glanced up at her. She laid her hand on his shoulder, just because it was there and her hands were empty now. It was warm and solid.

“I was wondering why he was looking at Ramona like she was a puzzle. I’ll bet he couldn’t figure it out.”

“That’s impossible.” His brow creased. “The Grim Reaper knows the date of everyone’s death. Even immortals like me or Derek.”

“But Ramona is total chaos. If she does a spell for hair growth, it turns into a grasshopper plague. He couldn’t tell. I’ll lay money on it.”

Mikhael straightened, pushing on the display rack to make sure it was steady now. “If you’re right, that should be intriguing to him.”

“She looked quite intrigued by him.”

“Women.” Mikhael snorted.

She let that pass, something else prodding her curiosity. “Ramona couldn’t see through the spell. Can you see me, as me?”

He shook his head. “I see you as I’ve spelled you to look. I set it that way to detect it immediately if those sexual power surges of yours tampered with it.”

“So in the movie theater, you were making out with an average-looking thirty-something woman?”

“I still gave you large breasts.” Tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow, he continued their stroll. “It doesn’t matter what your outside looks like, Raina. I still see you as you are. That’s how I know…” He stopped, gazing at Ramona’s window display of tarot card decks and Ouija boards. Raina wasn’t fooled.

“That’s how you know what?”

“If I finish the sentence, you’ll be angry, and I prefer you not angry. You’re having a good day. I like seeing you having a good day.”

He faced her with that impassive mask, as if he was prepared for her to insist. She thought about it, spoke
slowly.

“It’s said angels can see the nature of the soul. That they know whether someone is good or evil, or what level of corruption a soul carries. You have enough angel blood you can see that in Isaac, can’t you? That’s what you know.”

He said nothing, and she knew he was sticking by his previous statement. He wasn’t going to go there unless she insisted. She nodded once, to herself. Took his hand again. “You promised me ice cream.”

“So I did.” When they started walking, he pulled her close, brushed his lips against her temple. He really was very different from what she thought he was. No, not different. He
was
scary, deadly. But he was more than that, too. The shape of his soul kept shifting.

“So why did you decide on the kelpie instead of the Ferrari?”

“You made it clear the Ferrari wouldn’t impress you.”

“Oh, and it’s about impressing me now?”

“Isn’t it the male’s job to impress you with virile trappings, including my choice of mount? Meaning my horse.”

“I’m glad you clarified that. And my job?”

“To look disdainful and dismissive. Keep me turning on my head, trying to figure out what will work.”

“I’m very good at disdainful and dismissive.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking when I got your panties wet in the theater.”

“That was Edward and Carlyle’s doing, thank you very much.”

“Together?”

“Just a personal fantasy.” She sniffed, turned her head and bit the hand on her shoulder. “Besides, I can make you believe what I want you to believe, wet panties and all.”

“Really.” He stopped, turned her toward him.

“Don’t.” She put her hand on his wrist. “It was a joke.”

“Jokes like that don’t make me laugh, and you know it. Which is why you throw them in, to taunt me. Want to test me here?” He lifted a brow. “I’m not averse to public displays of fucking. I can lift the spell like a stage curtain.”

“Every girl’s dream,” she said lightly, though she knew he registered her shiver. He was the quintessential bad boy, but he was taunting a bad girl. Together they were going to be thrown in jail.

“While I’m not averse to cage play,” she said, “I have a feeling they won’t put us in the same cell when we’re arrested.”

“I’m capable of making you think I’m in that cage with you, doing things that you’re powerless to stop.” He was closer now, his voice husky, the eyes overpowering her. Hellfire, another moment and she was going to…

“Ice cream,” she managed. “You promised me ice cream.”

His look of dark promise was enough to keep her wet, but his lips quirked. He took her hand. “Come on.”

He crossed the street with a casual glance. Once again, the cars slowed the minute he put his foot in the street. She told herself it was a small town, where people slowed for pedestrians, but with Mikhael, people seemed compelled to do what he wanted. She didn’t know if that was magic or his charisma, or an intoxicating combination of both, but it rankled that it worked on her as well. She dragged her feet a little. “Where are you taking me?”

“There.” He tugged her onto the curb, showing her the local favorite ice cream shop. “Fudge sundae, right? With nuts?”

An ice cream shop was like a bakery, alive with joyful smells that appealed to a sensory-oriented creature like herself. Once inside the door, she brought him up short to inhale. When she opened her eyes, he was considering her in that intent way that warmed her skin. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“The same thing.” At her puzzled look, he ran his thumb over her knuckles. “You inhale the smells, the sounds, because it’s all about pleasure and comfort. The way you immerse yourself in it makes me feel those things. Pleasure, because watching you do anything is pleasurable, and comfort, because it’s a comfort to know that someone still takes time to savor something simple.”

She gave a nervous laugh. She never laughed nervously. “I’ll invite you to watch me floss my teeth and see how pleasurable that is.”

“Raina, you could stand on your head belching the alphabet and make it sexy as hell.”

Laughter bubbled out of her. The sensual roll of it turned heads. He was supposed to be helping her with that, but apparently he hadn’t anticipated her laughter. His eyes glowed warmer, though, and he tugged her up to the counter.

“I can do the fudge sundae,” the store clerk said, “but not the nuts. Kids’ peanut allergies. Owner doesn’t dare risk them anymore.”

Mikhael muttered something under his breath but nodded neutrally enough. “Okay, make the sundaes to go.”

Raina made a face. “Crap. I like the nuts.”

“No worries. You’ll get them.” Mikhael handed her the sundae, then took her back out onto the sidewalk. Nodding a block down, he indicated the drug store. “That looks like a place that has nuts.”

With a firm pressure on her shoulder, he eased her into one of the whimsical ice cream chairs arranged beside round tables. Though the sun was hiding behind the clouds, she was bemused to find the seat and back warm, as if heated by its beams.