Missing Magic (16 page)

He stood still as she tugged his trousers
from him. Unable to resist stroking him, she bit her lip as he
pushed his rigid flesh against her hand. About to lower her mouth
to taste him, she made a sound of disappointment when he stopped
her.

“Now it’s your turn,” he growled, motioning
to her pants.

Keeping her gaze locked with his, she
shimmied out of her jeans. One simple flick of her wrist, and she
sent her panties sailing across the room.

“Come here.” He tugged her to him and they
tumbled on the shredded couch. She gasped as he settled her over
him, her body heat fueling his.

She’d only made love half a dozen times in
her life, most of those times with her fiancé Peter. Never had she
felt like this.

Placing his hands at her waist, he slid her
up his length, to the top of his swollen head. Then, while her damp
folds enveloped him, he took her nipple into his mouth, lightly
biting.

She moaned. He suckled. She lifted herself up
and with one swift motion, took him deep inside her.

He clenched his teeth. “By the Goddess…”

When she began to move, she forgot all her
past. She gave herself over to the sensation helplessly, tightening
herself around him with each upward stroke.

“Ah, Cenrick.” Increasing her pace, she made
love to him with wild abandon. Shuddering, her release came an
instant before his. She clenched in the throes of her ecstasy as he
groaned as he poured his seed into her. Her last thought before she
collapsed on top of him was that she’d finally found the magic that
had been missing from her life.

Later, while Cenrick held her and savored the
scent and feel of her while she slumbered, he tried to understand.
Confusion and elation battled equally inside him. How had this
happened? Completely unexpected and at the worst possible time,
he’d found the one woman whose spirit resonated with his.

In Rune, they called these soul-mates.

How Alrick would laugh. Especially since
Cenrick had teased him without mercy when his brother had felt the
same about his own human woman, Carly.

Finally, Dee snuggled close, Cenrick
slept.

In the morning, feeling strangely happy to be
so domesticated, he woke and moved from the couch without waking
her. Stepping over the shredded pillow, he went out to retrieve the
newspaper from the landing. As he turned to go back inside, he came
face to face with a large, manila envelope taped to the front door.
Dee’s name was written on the front, in black ink.

After thoroughly inspecting the thing, he
carried it inside. If magic had been used around the paper, he
couldn’t detect any.

Still dozing, Dee had snuggled into the
ruined sofa. She groaned when he turned the blinds and flooded the
room with bright sunlight.

“Wake up.” He waved the envelope at her.
“Someone left you a present.”

Blinking, she pushed herself up. “What
the—?”

“It was left on your front door.” He dropped
it in her lap.

She ripped into it carefully, peering inside
before gently shaking the contents into her lap. A square of lined
notebook paper fell out. When she unfolded it, she found a key
taped inside.

“Something’s written on the paper.”

“Mailboxes and All,” she read. “That’s up on
Hemphill Street.” Rubbing her eyes, she climbed off the couch,
wincing when she surveyed the disastrous mess from the day before.
“Give me a minute to wash my face and brush my teeth and we’ll go.
We can grab some coffee on the way out. Five minutes,” she
promised, and dashed into the bathroom, closing the door behind
her.

True to her word, she appeared a few minutes
later, wearing jean shorts and a tank top. “Ready?”

All he could do was stare. “You look…
beautiful,” he managed. Though he would have thought their marathon
lovemaking the night before would have satisfied him, he felt his
body stir.

She laughed, swatting at his arm on the way
past him. “Right. Come on, let’s go.”

He followed his usual precautions when
getting in her car and she waited patiently. Once he had buckled
in, she drove slowly from the parking lot, waving to the unmarked
police car parked across the street.

“Watch. He’ll follow us.”

The white car pulled up behind them.

Dee drove slowly, signaling each turn.
“Giving him time to get complacent before I lose him.”

Once they left her neighborhood, she began to
pick up her speed. While she drove, she was focused, watching both
the road and her rear view mirror.

They entered the freeway at a sedate
forty-five miles per hour, according to the speedometer. Once on,
she moved into the middle lane, gradually increasing her speed. The
unmarked police car stayed with them.

Admiring her competence, Cenrick studied her.
She seemed calm, cool, and in control. Then he noticed her hands
gripped the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles showed
white.

“Hold on,” she said. Immediately, she yanked
the wheel. From the middle lane, she cut left, roaring past four
cars, then swung across two lanes and passed several more.

“Now we’ll lose him.”

He turned to look. He saw white cars, black
cars, and various other vehicles, all moving the same direction. He
couldn’t see their tail. “Where is he?”

“Three cars back, right behind us.” She
gunned the accelerator, slipping into a slot between a tractor
trailer and a mini-van. “Hang on.”

They shot forward.

“There’s my exit.” She pointed to a sign
ahead. “Downtown, half a mile.”

Glancing back, he saw the police cruiser was
trapped behind a delivery truck in the middle lane, boxed in on
both sides, yet still in view.

“He can still see us. How are you going to
lose him?”

With a fierce grin, she stomped the
accelerator. “He’s about to get out of his box. Once he does, he’ll
pull in behind us. That’s good, because I’m going to make it
impossible for him to follow me off the exit. You’d better hang
on.”

True to her prediction, their tail finally
passed the delivery truck and shot into their lane, two cars
back.

“Here we go.”

Horns blared as she shot across two lanes,
narrowly missing a station wagon. Tires screeched, then they were
clear, barreling down the exit. Trapped, the police car continued
on.

“That took care of him.” Sounding satisfied,
she slowed and made a right turn. “Here we are. Hemphill
Street.”

The four-lane street was lined with shops.
Shoppers crowded the sidewalks, and traffic moved slowly between
stoplights.

“There it is.” She pointed. “Mailboxes and
All. In that two-story, mini-mall right next to the Sonic.”

They pulled in a lot and parked.

He couldn’t resist glanced the way they’d
come. “No police car.”

“Good.” Unbuckling, she grinned. “That means
we lost them.”

He smiled back, resisting the urge to kiss
her. “Where’d you learn to drive like that?”

“Special training. I thought I wanted to be
on our SWAT Team once.” With a shrug, she pocketed the car keys.
“Since I don’t work well in groups, I opted out. Come on.”

The inside of the mini-mall was packed with
men in Hawaiian print shirts, women in halter tops and shorts. Kids
wheeled all around them, laughing and running.

“Summer in South Worth,” she said. “Lots of
tourists. I think the Mailbox place is this way.”

Once they reached the storefront, Dee nodded
at the clerk, refusing his offer of help. Eyeing the wall of
mailboxes, Dee pulled out the key. “Let’s see. We need 2467. Ah,
here we are.”

The box was on the bottom, nearly at the end
of the row.

The key fit. The lock turned and she pulled
open the metal door. Inside was a narrow manila envelope. She
looked left and right as she withdrew it, relocking the box and
pocketing the key.

“Got it. Let’s go.” Grabbing Cenrick’s arm,
she leaned into him as though cuddling.

Though he knew she was putting on an act for
her own reasons, his heartbeat sped up. “Aren’t you going to see
what’s inside?”

“Not here.” She whispered in his ear.
“Pretend like were a couple, will you?”

Puzzled, he put his arm around her shoulder
and drew her close. “Why?”

“If anyone’s watching for us, I’d like to be
less obvious, though your size makes that difficult.”

“I see.” Moving through the mall, he kept an
eye out for any suspicious characters. No one appeared to be paying
them the slightest bit of attention.

Outside, the humid air felt like a slap in
the face. The parking lot was full, with two more cars waiting in
line to take the first empty slot. A huge bus rumbled past, the
diesel fumes making Dee sneeze.

“Damn allergies.” She shook her head.

He hid his smile, thinking of Rune and the
flowers.

They crossed the pavement, making their way
to her car.

He heard a muffled sound, then the window of
the pickup next to him exploded.

“What the—?”

“Get down.” Throwing herself on top of him,
Dee knocked them both to the ground. “That was a gunshot. And
they’ve got a silencer.”

Their attacker squeezed off another shot,
this time striking the side of a candy-apple-red BMW parked on
their other side.

“I can’t see where he is,” she muttered. “I
don’t know what direction we should run.”

They were trapped.

Unable to flee, their only option was to
fight back. But how? Cenrick tried to think. He couldn’t use magic
here, surrounded by so much metal machinery. And, against bullets,
his crystal dagger would be useless.

“Stay down.” Dee grunted. “Damn, I wish I had
my gun. I left it in the glove box.”

“If we stay low, maybe we can make it to your
car.”

“Maybe. But first, I’ve got to figure out
where the shooter is hiding. And pray no one else wanders into his
line of fire. There are a ton of tourists – with kids – out here
today. I don’t want any of them hurt.”

He hadn’t thought of that. Shifting his
weight, he cursed an ancient curse. “Haven’t enough innocents been
harmed? They keep destroying Fae lives. Why harm any humans?”

“Most likely this guy is a hired gun. Natasha
probably paid someone to come after us. Either that or,” her voice
was grim. “Somebody in the police department decided they hate me
enough to kill me.”

Startled, he looked at her crouching next to
him, so beautiful, so tiny, so fierce. He couldn’t let them harm
her. “Let’s make a run for it. I’ll shield you with my body.”

She made a strangled noise low in her throat.
“If anything,
I
should shield
you
. Metal bullets will
hurt me, but they’re poison to you.”

“No. They can kill you just as easily.” He
pushed himself up to see if he could spot any sign of the
shooter.

Immediately, their assailant fired again.
This time, the bullet ricocheted off a concrete pillar behind
them.

“Ooomph.” Dee jerked and grabbed her side,
staring down at her abdomen in surprise as blood spread over her
shirt and hand. “I’ve been hit. In the stomach.” She gasped again.
“Gut shots are never good.”

Desperately, he looked around for something,
anything, some kind of weapon he could use. He found nothing.

Dee moaned with pain. He grabbed her, trying
to staunch the flow of blood. As she slipped into unconsciousness,
going limp in his arms, he heard footsteps, moving closer.

The shooter, coming to finish them off.

He did the only thing he could. Despite the
metal all around him, he grabbed Dee’s shoulder. Quickly, urgently,
he spoke the words of the spell to take them to Rune, and prayed it
would somehow work.

WHEN THEY materialized in Rune, Cenrick let
out the breath he’d been holding. “Thank the Goddess.”

As he stepped onto the path that led to the
palace, he saw that Mort waited as though he’d been expecting him.
“She is hurt.”

Mort gasped as he saw the blood.

Carrying Dee in his arms, Cenrick strode past
the Mage, hurrying towards the castle. Above, Tinth screeched as
she circled.

Mort hurried to keep up.

Once they’d gained the steps to the castle,
Cenrick turned to look at the older man. “Can you save her?”

The Mage looked from Dee’s unconscious form
to the hallway which led to his quarters. “Bring her to my room,
and let me try.”

Try
? “Trying is not enough. You must
save her.” Cenrick was already moving forward, making the seemingly
endless journey down twisted, deserted hallways, until he reached
the Mage’s double-paneled door.

Mort threw the doors open. Inside the room, a
hearth fire burned merrily to banish the chill. “Place her on that
pallet near the hearth.”

As Cenrick complied, gently arranging a
still-unconscious Dee on the pallet, he squinted at the older man
suspiciously. “One might almost assume you were expecting us.”

Mort’s expression was grave. “As when your
brother brought Carly here, after that explosion which nearly took
her life, Tinth came before you, warning me to make ready. My hawk
told me of the metal bullet which pierced Dee’s side.”

Moving the bloodstained material away from
the wound, Cenrick nodded absently. All his life, most of Rune had
wondered at the Mage’s communication with his hawk. For now,
Cenrick had to worry about Dee.

She moaned and he froze.

“Moving the cloth pains her. But it must be
done.” Mort placed a basin of warm water near the pallet and handed
Cenrick a cloth. “We must clean the wound so I can remove the
bullet.”

Gently, he washed away the blood, turning the
water red as he wrung the cloth. “The wound still bleeds, but it’s
as clean as I can make it.”

“Then leave us.” Slipping on his gloves, Mort
waved a hand. “I must get the bullet out.”