Memories of Magic (The High Priestess Trilogy) (6 page)

She nodded her head, although she felt anything but.

“You were in Santa Monica to attend a conference, the International Code of Conduct for Witches to be exact.” He studied her closely, watching her eyes. “We met there.”

Emily furrowed her brow but said nothing, so he continued. “I got called away on business. You stayed at the convention, but that’s when you were in the accident.” Jake pushed himself away from the desk and started pacing again. “Does any of this sound familiar?”

Emily shook her head slowly, although a few pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place; but it was slow, like a kaleidoscope of fuzzy pictures. Unfortunately her thoughts remained scattered and confused. “Keep going.” She urged, imploring Jake to continue.

“When we initially met, there were two young men who seemed to be giving you a bit of a hard time. Do you remember anything about them?”

Emily sat back in the chair, closed her eyes and tried to recall any details of the convention. The sage that Jake had left burning in a small caldron filled the office. She made an attempt to temper the wild range of emotions shooting through her and concentrate only on Santa Monica.

“Just relax and slowly go back to the conference room in the hotel.” Jake’s words were soft and hypnotic. Emily felt the tension slip away from her shoulders.

“You are in the room,” Jake said quietly. “You just walked by two men, but they are following you. Can you see their name tags?”

Emily was trying to get her mind to drift back in time, but she saw nothing but blackness.

“Just relax and take a deep breath,” Jake urged. “Take your time, there is no rush.” Jake’s soothing words washed over and through her.

She followed his direction, took a deep breath and melted further into the chair. She saw a speck of color, like a shooting star floating across the blank screen in her mind. It was like watching a movie; suddenly out of the blackness there was a picture and she
could
see the room.

Then she saw him, she saw Jake. Emily also saw her very own hands planted against his chest! She flushed immediately as a fire erupted in the pit of her stomach and stretched down the length of her. Emily’s heart fluttered in anticipation. He was asking her a question; there in the conference room of her mind, Jake was talking to her.

Emily could hear his words,
“Friends of yours?”
Intuitively she knew he was referring to the two young men.

She tried to go back a little further in her mind. She was walking by a table, and overheard the two men talking about...mowarts? She didn’t know what that meant. She tried to pay closer attention as her darted to their nametags.

“George Belson,” she whispered as she read his nametag, “and Brian March.” Emily’s eyes flew open and locked on Jake. “Oh my God, I remember!”

Lochlan jumped up from his chair and ran out of the office leaving Emily staring at Jake as an onslaught of memories ambushed her. “I remember.” She could barely believe her own words.

In the midst of the chaos screaming through her mind, Emily smiled. “I remember Santa Monica,” she whispered as the memories continued to explode their way to the surface.

Jake moved closer and hunched down in front of her. He put his hand in hers and smiled back. “Do you remember the pier?” His eyes stabbed through any fog that remained and flooded her with warmth.

“I do.” She squeezed Jake’s hand. “I remember it all.” Emily closed her eyes as the missing pieces of her life began to fall back into place.

Lochlan barged into the office, “We need to head back to your place.”

Emily shot Lochlan a quizzical look. “Um, really? I don’t know.” The fear had made a swift, unwelcomed return to her chest.

Jake squeezed her hand. As much as he didn’t like the idea any more than Emily did, he trusted Lochlan and knew he’d never steer him into danger.

Lochlan nodded and tried to be compassionate. He still needed work in that area. “I have a buddy I work with occasionally and from what we’ve gathered, those two are planning to return to your place. I think they intend to wait you out.” Lochlan’s hard eyes darted over to Jake. “Let’s be ready for them, shall we?”

Jake reluctantly agreed with his friend. “Let’s go,” he said, still clutching Emily’s hand.

“Follow me in your car,” Lochlan yelled to Jake as they left the building. “Just stay right behind me.” He repeated as he disappeared into his vehicle.

Emily sat calmly in the front seat of Jake’s car, her hands folded in her lap while she desperately tried to slow down the flow of adrenaline that surged through her.

He reached for her hand. “When we get there I want you to go in and just try and act like everything is normal. I’m going to be right behind you. I’m going to scope out the back when you go in, but I’ll be right there.” He did his best to try and make her feel safe.

Emily just nodded. A calming energy had started to wind its way through her body. She had done this before, she was sure of it. As one by one, her memories returned, she knew she had been through something like this before. She simply needed to locate that set of skills.  Emily glanced over at Jake and hoped she’d be ready. Fast.

They followed close behind while Lochlan made a few strange turns in an effort to ensure no one was following. 

Jake gently touched Emily’s hand, “Are you alright?”

“I’m good.” And she meant it. With memories settling back into place and Jake helping her to rediscover her magical abilities, she was actually beginning to feel powerful once again. She was ready. Well, almost ready.

“Okay,” he gave her hand a final squeeze. “Just leave your door unlocked. I’ll be less than a minute behind you.”

She gave a quick nod then walked the familiar path to her building. Every cell in her body was on alert and ready to act. Her skin actually tingled. She would have celebrated having these sensations back if it weren’t for the fact that someone seemed very interested in hunting her down.

Her senses still heightened, she reached into her purse, grabbed the keys and willed herself to remain calm as she unlocked her door. She turned on the light and scanned the living room. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. There were no daggers in the wall. She closed the door behind her but left it unlocked for Jake.

Emily took a deep breath then dropped her purse on a small side table in the living room. When the door opened she smiled and turned to face Jake. But it wasn’t Jake who was blocking her doorway.

“Nice to see you home.” His dark eyes were unblinking; his words dipped in venom. Thanks to Jake, Emily was able to recognize him from the conference. It was Brian, the taller more evil looking of the two.

“We were beginning to wonder if you were ever going to return.” Brian closed the door and offered Emily a disgusting smile before lunging towards her.

Somehow she had anticipated his move and quickly darted out of his reach. Immeasurably grateful at being able to tune into her intuition, Emily’s confidence started to build.

“You think you are going to just waltz into
my
home and threaten
me
?” Emily asked incredulously. She felt her anger building as it devoured her fear.

“You are not welcome in my home!” The words bellowed from somewhere deep inside as she gathered an angry ball of energy and hurled it towards him.

“So you want to play a little first do you?” Brian’s voice was taunting as he leered at her. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

In two steps he was at her side, but Emily spun around and threw another ball of energy, this one just missing his head. “You little . . .”

His words were cut short as Jake stormed through the door. In one swift movement he was across the room and had Brian pinned against the wall.

Brian was no match for Jake’s fury. “If only I didn’t have to keep you nicely preserved for the High Priestess,” Jake spat the words through gritted teeth as he pushed his arm against Brian’s throat.

“Did you think Isisa wouldn’t find out about you?” Jake didn’t wait for a response; instead he turned around to make sure Emily was alright. She couldn’t speak just yet, so she nodded in response to his questioning look.

“Lochlan, nice to see you,” Jake said as his friend casually walked in. “Where have you been?”

“Oh, I just had a little run in with this guy’s partner around the corner.” Lochlan slipped his thumbs through his belt loops as he assessed the situation.

“At first he wasn’t very cooperative in answering my questions,” the bounty hunter shrugged, “but he finally came around.” He scanned the room and smiled. “I see you have this one under control.”

“And where is the partner now?” Jake asked quickly knowing the High Priestess wanted these two alive. Jake had given her his word.

“He’s in the trunk.” Lochlan answered with a straight face.

“Would you mind taking this one too?” Jake asked as Brian squeezed his eyes shut in protest. “You can deliver them both to the High Priestess,” he suggested. “I’m sure you’ll be compensated well.”

“I may just take you up on that.” In two strides Lochlan crossed the room and grabbed Brian from Jake’s grip. “These are for
your
safety,” Lochlan muttered as he threw a couple of zap straps around Brian’s wrists before ushering him to the door. “Trust me on that.”

“By the way,” Lochlan stopped at the open door and turned back to Jake. “The guy in the trunk finally did admit that their experiments had failed.”

Lochlan gave Brian a little shove as he passed along the information he’d finally been able to gather. “Apparently they were close to developing the mowart, but not complete.”

He watched as relief washed over Jake’s face. “Isisa will be happy to hear that. Thanks, buddy.”

Lochlan nodded towards his friend, “It was nice working with you again, Jake.” He turned to Emily and said good night as he walked outside, his words trailing off.

Emily leaned against the wall then melted down to the floor. “That was just another night for him, wasn’t it?” She, on the other hand, was still trying to absorb what had just happened.

“It was.” Jake answered her quietly then joined her on the floor. “He’s a good guy to have on your team.”

She agreed. She’d have to remember that, if ever the need arose again.

“Will you be okay for a few minutes?” He rested his hand on her thigh. “I just need to make a couple of phone calls.”

“Of course,” Emily knew her aunt would need to be informed of these latest developments. “She’ll be very pleased with how things have turned out.”

“It’s nice knowing we can all rest a bit easier.” Jake got up from the floor and started to make his necessary calls.

After relaying the information to the rest of the team and a jubilant High Priestess, he focused his attention back on Emily. With an extraordinary day almost behind them, he was now eager to move forward.

He stood in front of her and offered Emily his hand. “How you would like an evening at the Santa Monica pier?” His eyes burned with need now that the immediate danger had passed.

Emily thought about the dunes of sand and beautiful palm trees that awaited them at Jake’s office and could think of nothing she would enjoy more.

“I’d love that.” She silently took his hand as Jake helped her to her feet.

He wrapped a protective arm around her as they left her townhouse and walked to his car. The drive to his office might have been quiet, but the inside of the car was filled with electricity. When they finally parked; Emily didn’t bother waiting for Jake to open her door, instead she scrambled out herself.

“Take me to Santa Monica,” she whispered when Jake opened the door to his office building.

He clutched Emily’s hand and led her down the hallway, back into the room at the end filled with sand, palm trees and magic. He stopped quickly to grab a large towel from the closet.

As soon as the door opened, the room was alive with the lights of the pier once again. “It’s so beautiful,” Emily whispered as she stared at the Ferris wheel on the wall then took in the handmade beach one more time.

Her memories now firmly restored, she could truly appreciate the beauty of the room Jake had replicated for her.
Just f
or her
, she thought to herself. Knowing he had created the entire scene to help her to remember made her heart hammer wildly in her chest. Emily’s body, flooded with desire, tingled in anticipation of his touch.

Jake eyed Emily as he arranged the large towel on a dune of sand. He easily and swiftly lifted her in to his arms then gently placed her down under the palm tree.

“It’s crazy, but it feels like I’ve waited forever for you to return to me.” Jake shook his head at the intensity of his feelings for Emily.

“No more waiting.” She pulled him closer and arched herself into his hard body. The dizzying connection they shared was electric. The hot current of need that coursed through her was almost more than she could stand.

Jake let out a muffled moan as he held her close, her body molding to his. He lifted the bottom of her shirt and caressed her skin as he slowly, eagerly began to devour her. His teeth scraped her bottom lip as his tongue probed the depths of her mouth while his fingers deftly undid her blouse.