Hot Magic (8 page)

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Get out of my head, Harry.
 

He jumped on the bed and walked over it, making the awkward move look graceful. He stepped down beside her, and with a smooth move pulled her into his arms.
 

“We’ll use my power this time.” Without another word, he fastened his mouth against hers.
 

This heat didn’t hurt. It seduced and warmed. For just a moment, she let go of the desperate struggle to make sense of everything that was happening to her. Her fingers spread against the back of his neck and compulsively curled as he deepened the kiss, his tongue boldly stroking into her mouth. A moan caught in her throat, the slight sound bringing back a rush of reality.

She pushed, and he lifted his head. “Do you have to kiss me for this to work?”

His lips curved into a wicked half-grin and sent another wave of sensation through her. “No.”
 

Then his eyes darkened, and his arms tightened their hold. She closed her eyes and let his hand push her head against his chest. He felt right. A solid anchor in this sudden whirling void.

 
She didn’t open her eyes until she heard her name called.

“M
om!” Tasha jumped up from the kitchen table, almost knocking over the cup of tea her grandmother had just placed in front of her. She elbowed Harrison out of the way and buried her head in her mother’s shoulder. Her mom’s arms came around her and the world began rotating again. The air finally held enough oxygen for her to breathe.

Her mother squeezed her tight. “I’m okay, sweetheart.”

“It’s morning,” Tash accused, not lifting her head. “You’ve been gone all night. We didn’t know where you were and weird silver people popped into the kitchen and—”

“Weird silver people?” Harrison interjected.

“The Balance.” Grandma sounded awestruck. Tash swung her head around to stare, startled by her grandmother’s pale face and wide eyes. Grandma stood from the table, her whole body trembling, her head lowered. “The Shadow Walkers are here. They’re at your house.”

Harrison looked cold and frightening. “You’ve caused problems, Jean Dancer.”

Grandma—outspoken, bold Grandma—said nothing, but kept her head bowed. Tasha shivered and moved closer to her mother.

Harrison turned, his gaze skimming over Tasha to rest on her mother. His expression didn’t change, but his face softened somehow. “I have to go. I’ll return before nightfall.”

Mom sucked in her breath. “Harry…?” His name was a question.

“Later.” Harrison blinked out of the kitchen, which was both scary and seriously cool.

An odd, heavy silence filled the room. As usual when the three of them were together, silence didn’t last long. Jean spoke first. “Tell me you didn’t sleep with him.”

“Mom!” Her mother didn’t sound as outraged as Tasha would have expected. “Forget about sex, and tell me what the hell is going on.”

“Do you know who that man is?” Jean persisted.

“Sort of.” Mom shrugged. “He says he’s one of the Penumbrae and that we’re Sun Dancers.” Her mother shot Grandma a look. “I’m expecting you to explain.”

“He’s not just any Penumbra, Julie. He’s
the
Penumbra, the Balance. He’s above the very law that he enforces. He holds power over all in the Triad—Shadow Walkers, Sun Dancers and Penumbrae alike. I don’t want you involved in any of this. You can’t sleep with him.”
 

“Will you please stop talking about sex?”

“Julie, I saw the way he looked at you.”

A knock sounded on the front door.
 

“I’ll get it.” Tasha grabbed the excuse to escape from the kitchen. She didn’t want to hear about her mother and sex. Way more information than a daughter should have to deal with. She trotted through the living room and opened the front door, belatedly wondering who would visit at seven in the morning.

Silver Man stood on the porch.

Tasha froze, unable to slam the door shut. He could probably walk through it anyway.
 

“Little Dancer.” The frown on his face smoothed. “We must speak.” He glanced over her shoulder toward the voices in the kitchen. “Privately.”

“I don’t think so.” He was a Shadow Walker. Whatever that was.
 

He pointed toward the morning sky. The moon glowed feebly in the growing light, a thin crescent. “Sun rise is in about five minutes,” he said, as if that should reassure her.

“‘The nearer the dawn, the darker the night.’” The words popped out of nowhere. Great. First Dickens and now this. Way to show what a major nerd she was. The words she read lived inside her, her lens through which to understand the world when her own experience wasn’t enough. She’d never actually quoted those words out loud, though. Social suicide was not her thing.

“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.” Silver Man stepped inside the house, looking delighted. He started to say something, then shook his head and blinked his incredibly long lashes. “Marguerite is with Le Bilan, then she will rest. We can talk without interruption.”

When Tasha frowned, he smiled an apology. “The Balance, your neighbor, Harrison Chevalier.”
 

Tash was too tired to ask who Marguerite was, why she needed to rest, or why she would want to interrupt them. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

“An ancient prophecy that I believe impacts us both.” His voice lowered and deepened.

Tasha sighed, unmoved. Maybe it was lack of sleep or too many traumas in a twenty-four hour period. “You must be related to the Drama Queen.”

“Pardon?”
 

“Nothing.” Tasha held out her hand, determined to act as normal as possible. “Hello, I’m Natasha Morgen.”

His hand felt cool and firm as it grasped hers. “Die Morgenrote,” he murmured in German, releasing her hand to touch her her fiery hair. “The flush of dawn.”

 
She pulled back, aware that dawn was probably flushing her cheeks as well. “How pretty. Much nicer than being called Red. You’re a poet?”

 
“I’m French,” he said, as if that was the same thing. “My name is Luc Deschamps.” His eyes met hers, his expression both serious and determined. “The Drama Queen, Marguerite, is my sister. We must speak.”

Chapter Five

“W
ho are you and why do you need to talk to my daughter?” Julie hurried into the living room, hearing a voice at the door that she didn’t recognize.
 

Standing way too close to Tash was a ringer for one of Tolkien’s elves, movie version. Slender and long limbed, he stood over six feet tall, with white, almost silver, hair just touching his collar. He had high cheekbones, a high forehead and wide-set eyes, all arranged above a strong chin that saved his features from being delicate. Bright blue eyes watched her with curiosity and a trace of wariness.

Julie grabbed Tash’s arm and dragged her toward the middle of the room. Legolas made her nervous.

 
“You are she.”
 

He had a French accent. For Tash, a French accent beat a British accent, hands down. Of course, accent aside, what he had just said made no sense, something Julie was getting all too used to, so she merely waited.

The man studied her, taking his time before he spoke again. “You are the one the Balance hopes will break Marguerite’s spell.”

“Did Harry take out an ad in the paper or something? Does everyone know he wants to have sex with me?”
 

“Mom!” Tash’s voice was faint.

Julie sent her an apologetic smile and focused on the man. “Who are you?”
 

“He’s Lucien Deschamps, a Shadow Walker,” Jean, suddenly a font of information, announced from behind her. “A very powerful Shadow Walker.”

The man slowly dipped his head in acknowledgement. “And you are Jean Dancer. Many searched for you after the Rift.”

“Many must not have looked in the Chicago phone book,” her mother retorted.
 

The man frowned, as if such a mundane search tool hadn’t occurred to him. Many hadn’t tried Google either, or they’d have found PrewashedJean.com. The full title of her mom’s webpage was
Pre-washed Jean: Tips from a well-worn and comfortable woman.
The site got an amazing number of hits. Apparently a crystal ball, or whatever the voodoo of choice was for Triad members, bypassed modern technology.

“You left the Triad.”
 

His phrase wasn’t accusatory, but her mom reacted as if it were. “And my responsibilities? Is that what you’re implying? Are you telling me Shadow Walker assassins weren’t gunning for me?”

“The war is long over. We need to restructure. We need all of our powerful families working together.” The Walker said the words gently, but they had the effect of a match on gunpowder.

“How dare you!” Jean wasn’t very big, but she could be scary when she lost her temper. She marched up to the Walker and poked a finger in his chest. He took a step backward. “Go. Get out of this house.”

“Grandma!” Tasha looked apologetically at the man. “It’s been a confusing twenty-four hours.”

He nodded. “These are confusing times for us all.” He hesitated. “Now is not a good time to talk.”

Bright boy. Julie frowned at the look that passed between Tasha and Lucien. The Walker turned and walked out the door.

“Good riddance!” Jean slammed the front door shut after him.

“What did he want, Tasha?” Julie asked.

Tasha shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

“I don’t trust him,” Julie said. “Until we can figure out this new world we’ve been thrust into, you need to be very careful.”

“I don’t think he wants to hurt us.” Sensible, careful Tasha had a small smile on her face. Uh oh.

“Get that look off your face, Natasha.” Jean folded her arms across her chest. “He’s the bad guy.”

“Is he?” Tasha lifted her chin. “You and I often see things differently, Grandma.”
 

“Your view is fogged by hormones, young lady,” Jean snapped.

“Well, that wouldn’t be a problem for you, would it?”

A nasty temper went along with Tasha’s red hair. Julie stepped between the two. “Tasha, you’re being disrespectful to your grandmother. Apologize now.”

Her temper might be nasty, but it burned out quickly. Tasha ran to Jean and enfolded her in her arms. “I’m sorry, Gram. My mouth got away from me again.”

“You didn’t say anything that’s not true.” Jean’s hand came up and touched Tash’s hair. “That Walker family is bad business, baby. Stay away from him. His people killed your great-grandmother.”

“What?” Tasha and Julie gasped the word out together.
 

“Your mother was murdered?” Julie had never heard this before.

“Kidnapped by a Shadow Walker and killed in cold blood. That’s what started the civil war that blew the Triad apart.”

“What happened?” Tasha perched on the arm of the couch, leaning forward with interest.

“They stole her right out of her bed, in the middle of the night, while we all slept. My father went after her and found her dead the next morning. Something in him broke and he went a little mad. He gathered Dancers from around the world and waged war on the Walkers. Hundreds of Walkers and Dancers died in one terrible week, including my father. Only the fact that the rest of the world was involved in a war as well saved us from discovery. After it was over, I moved away from New York. I cut all my ties with old friends and family. I wanted nothing to do with the Triad or what was left of it.”

“Wow,” Tasha breathed.

“Why haven’t you told me this before?” Julie spoke through gritted teeth. How could her mother have kept this very important part of their history hidden?

“I don’t want you involved in the Triad. Either of you.”

“I don’t know if we have a choice, Mom. It looks like the Triad has become involved with us.”

“Ignore them. They’ll go away.”

Julie and Tasha exchanged a skeptical look. “Harry isn’t easily ignored,” Julie finally said.

“Drama Queen and Luc aren’t either,” Tasha added.

“And what about these powers I suddenly have? Shouldn’t I use them for good, or something?” With great power comes great responsibility—or whatever it was Spiderman had said.

“No, no, no. Just forget about them.”

Easier said than done, especially when she had no idea what her powers were. A terrible thought occurred to her. “What about Tasha? Is she going to have to worry that every time she kisses a guy, she may blow up?”

“A kiss doesn’t usually trigger a release of powers. Your case is not normal, Julie.” Her mother gave her a look that made her feel guilty.
 

“What is normal?” Tasha asked.

“Triad children come into their full powers at puberty. Before that, they have a very limited ability to transform energy. Most kids can light a candle or give another child a small shock, that sort of thing. During puberty, however, that changes and Triad children are sent to boarding school where they are taught how to control and use the energy they gradually become able to absorb.”