Simply Irresistible (18 page)

Vari tossed Dex a cell phone. Dex caught it with his left hand.

“Take them now,” Vari said, “before they change their minds. Then come back here. We’ll have it all figured out by then.”

That was all the permission Dex needed. He was going to take them to his private cave, and he was going to take them alone. If this went wrong, he didn’t want Vivian anywhere near the Fates.

If this went wrong, he would take care of the problem himself.

Chapter Thirteen

Dex vanished, taking the Fates with him.

The room, which had seemed full of overwhelming personalities, suddenly seemed empty. And Vivian felt abandoned. She hadn’t known Dex when she woke up that morning, so why should she feel empty just because he left?

Although, granted, he didn’t just leave. He vanished, along with the three Fates, who had been the cause of her difficult day. And he’d abandoned her to Blackstone, Nora, Ariel, and Andrew Vari, people she still wasn’t sure of.

She stood near her plate, staring at the three empty chairs across from her, feeling the emptiness of the chair beside her. She felt more unsettled than she had all day—which was saying something, considering what had been going on. Partly, it was because she had no idea where Dex was or when he’d be back
(if he’d be back,
her insecure subconscious was saying to her), and partly it was because she missed his presence—in her mind.

She hadn’t really realized it had been there. Not completely, anyway. She had recognized the psychic connection and had even noticed when Dex blocked his thoughts from her. But she hadn’t realized that his being—his personality—had been inside her mind, like background music, something she wasn’t aware of until it was gone.

Odd that realizing how close they’d been in the short time they were together didn’t bother her. She used to hate being hooked up—as she called it—to anyone, not that it happened often. It happened with Aunt Eugenia, but as Vivian’s mother used to say, Aunt Eugenia was a Presence. No one could ignore her. It also happened sometimes with Vivian’s sister Megan, but they were as close as siblings could be.

It had never happened with someone outside her family.

“Are you all right, Vivian?” Nora asked. Nora stood alone on her side of the table. A few moments ago, she had seemed surrounded by Fates.

Vivian rubbed the back of her neck. That ache had become almost a headache. “I’m still not used to people popping in and out of my life.”

Both Nora and Ariel smiled. “You’ll get used to it,” Ariel said.

Blackstone stood and put his napkin over his plate, as if the conversation offended him. “I’ve got to get into the kitchen.”

“That can wait,” Vari said. “We still have work to do.”

Work? What kind of work would they have to do? It looked like Dex was doing all the work. And like Vivian was now out of the equation. “Am I done?” she asked. “Can I go home?” “Good question,” Blackstone said. “Maybe I’ll have an answer after I’ve ducked into the kitchen for a moment.” He hurried from the group, as if he couldn’t get away fast enough. Nora stood too, and started busing the table. Ariel took another slice of bread.

“They’ll work this out,” she said to Vivian.

She wasn’t so sure. That feeling of being watched had returned. “I hope so.”

Nora took a pile of soup dishes into the kitchen, then returned with a bus cart. Ariel helped her clear off the table. Andrew Vari grabbed the rope. Vivian almost stopped him, feeling protective of it, as if Dex owned it, instead of some mysterious evil mage.

But she didn’t stop Vari. Instead, she watched him examine each strand, as if he were reading information in the jute.

“Guess we don’t need the extra protection spells anymore,” he said, raising his hand to call it off.

“Keep it for a moment.” Blackstone spoke from the kitchen door. “We don’t want to clue the enemy into the fact that the Fates are gone.”

“The enemy?” Nora set a stack of bread plates in the bus cart. “Isn’t that a bit dramatic?”

“I don’t think so,” Blackstone said. “I think whoever it is wants to kill the Fates.”

“And that person is still out there,” Vivian said. “I can feel him.”

Vari dropped the rope. “Where do you feel him?”

Vivian shrugged. “It’s just a sense.”

“It’s more than that.” He sounded certain, even though they were discussing her body, her feelings.

“She is psychic, Sancho.” Nora’s voice held wry amusement. “Maybe it is just a sense.”

“Is that true?” Vari asked. “Is it the same as your usual psychic experiences?”

No one had ever used the phrase
usual psychic experiences
with her before. Vivian would have smiled at it if the situation weren’t so strange.

“It’s not really the same,” she said. “Just before the rope came down, I felt this prickling in my spine. And then, there’s this feeling of being watched—”

“Does your neck bother you?” Vari asked.

“I’ve had some major psychic experiences today,” Vivian said. “I think it might be the beginnings of a migraine.”

He frowned. “Maybe. But it might be something else. Mind if I check it out?”

“Check what out?” Vivian asked.

“Your neck.”

She looked at Ariel. Ariel raised her eyebrows and shrugged, as if to say that her husband was always odd. “Just go with it,” Ariel said. “He’ll explain when he feels the need.”

“All right.” Vivian felt nervous about this. She wondered what Dex would say. Then remembered that Dex wasn’t here, and she didn’t know when he’d be back. If the pain in her neck was, literally, something evil, she wanted it taken care of sooner rather than later.

Vari walked over to her, started to put his fingers on her skin, then paused. “May I?”

“Sure,” Vivian said, not certain what he was about to do.

He pressed his thumbs against her spine, then ran them upward to the base of her skull. The pressure made her shiver. If Dex had touched her like that, the shiver would have been with delight. But she found Vari’s touch impersonal, almost cold.

Then the air sizzled, and Vari cursed. A smell, like burned electrical wires, floated around them.

Vivian turned. Vari had both thumbs in his mouth. Vivian touched the back of her neck. The pain was gone, but some of her neck hairs felt coarse and dirty.

“Are you okay?” she asked Vari.

He shook his head. “Efslakafaaut.”

“What?”

He took the thumbs out of his mouth and shook them. They were both blackened on the tips.

Vivian stared at them. She got no sense of pain from him, but he wasn’t that easy to read. Her heart was pounding now. Something had been wrong and she hadn’t even known it.

“You want me to get some ointment for that, or can you take care of it?” Ariel asked Vari. She didn’t seem concerned at all.

“I got it,” he said, and the blackness disappeared. Still, he rubbed them together as if they hurt.

“What did you say a minute ago?” Vivian asked, sensing that it was important.

Vari grinned. “What I said was ‘It’s like I thought,’ only it came out not like anything I thought at all.”

“I should hope not,” Ariel said dryly, “since what you said was unintelligible.”

“What’s like you thought?” Vivian asked. She didn’t want to participate in banter. She wanted the scary part of this day to end. And, if she were honest with herself, she wanted the nice part—the part with Dex—to go on for a long, long time.

“Whoever this is has latched onto you. They’re not focused on the building. They’re focused on you.” Vari stared at his thumbs, as if they could tell him who had done the magic. He seemed both bewildered and puzzled.

Vivian wasn’t bewildered or puzzled. She was scared. She didn’t remember seeing anyone in the past few days who’d seemed remotely evil. She knew that no one had touched the back of her neck.

“What do you mean, focused on me?” she asked.

“I mean that it was a good thing Dexter didn’t take you with him,” Vari said. “Or whoever it is who’s doing this might have a shot at knowing where the Fates are.”

“I’m the reason they almost got killed?” Vivian asked, sinking back into her chair.

“No,” Vari said. “At least not at first.”

“Dar, stop that,” Ariel said. “You’re scaring her.”

“I’m being honest.” Vari sat down. “I’m pretty sure you weren’t targeted until you did that glass shield spell. Then it would be pretty easy for anyone to figure out who you are. But most mages would have attacked you. That was a real subtle spell I found, and one not often used.”

Vivian touched the skin on her neck. It felt unfamiliar, as if it had been sunburned or dried somehow. “Then how did you find it?”

“I’ve been around a long time, kiddo,” Vari said. “I may be slow, but I get there eventually.”

“Meaning what?” Vivian asked.

“Meaning I remembered someone else, a long time ago, doing the same thing to her neck that you were doing. That’s why I thought I’d see what I could find.”

“Do you think the same person cast the same spell?” Ariel asked.

“Not likely, Ari,” Vari said, “since that mage is long dead.”

“You’re sure?”

Vari nodded. He looked both serious and dangerous. “I’m sure.”

“How could they magic me without me knowing it?” Vivian asked.

“It’s a very subtle spell,” Vari said, “but one that a person who can use puppets would be capable.”

“What is?” Blackstone came out of the kitchen. He was wiping his hands on a towel. “Vivian’s been targeted. That’s why she knew when the attack was going to come. I touched the back of her neck and shorted out something.” Vari sniffed. “See? You can still smell the singed hair.”

“Okay.” Vivian took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “Tell me how I could have gotten targeted.”

“Someone used the signature of the imaginary glass you put over your apartment building to figure out who you are. Since you haven’t come into your powers yet, and if the Interim Fates are as incompetent as Dexter says they are, then whoever did this has some powerful magic of his own.” Blackstone moved the bus cart away from Nora and pushed it toward the kitchen. He was clearly thinking about what he had just said.” ‘An incompetent mage couldn’t have done this, nor could someone who has just come into his powers.”

“Didn’t I just say that?” Vari asked.

Blackstone shrugged. “I wasn’t here.”

“It’s not even as simple as Alex makes it sound,” Vari said. “I’m not sure I could do it.”

He grabbed one of the tables and pulled it away from the other table. Ariel got a cloth and wiped both tables down.

Vivian understood that they wanted to open the restaurant, but their focus on business bothered her more than she was willing to admit. She still felt like there was a crisis going on, and these people were cleaning tables as if it were a regular day.

“Yes,” Blackstone said to Vari with obvious affection, “but that’s more a reflection of your level of practice than your abilities.”

“That’s my point.” Vari grabbed a runner from a stack on a nearby shelf and put it on one of the clean tables. “I spent most of my life doing parlor tricks for reluctant lovers. It takes someone with a serious dedication to magic to target a woman who hasn’t come into her powers yet.”

This entire discussion was making Vivian nervous. “So what do I do now? How do I get untargeted?”

“We have to catch this person first,” Blackstone said.

“But I have a life. I have some stuff I need to deal with, and my apartment, and my family—”

“Your family’s not here, are they?” Blackstone asked.

“No,” Vivian said. “They left yesterday.”

“And the Fates arrived this morning?”

Vivian nodded, wondering how she was going to explain this to Travers on the phone. Kyle might get it, but Travers seemed very reluctant to believe in something that he couldn’t see.

“Then I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Do you agree, Sancho?”

Vari shook his head. He was watching Ariel set the tables. She was moving with the swiftness of someone who did that job often.

“I think Vivian’s going to need a guardian just like the Fates do,” Vari said.

At that, Nora gave him a suspicious look. “You’re not reverting to form, are you, Sancho?”

“Of course not,” he said, but his eyes twinkled.

“What form?” Vivian asked.

“Early garden gnome,” Nora said, and got a growl from Vari. Then the twinkle left his eyes.

Vivian didn’t understand the reference—or at least all of the reference. She remembered that someone had said the Fates had made Vari change his appearance for a few thousand years. Had they turned him into a garden gnome? A real gnome, or one of the ceramic kinds? And if he had been ceramic, he couldn’t have been a garden gnome for several thousand years. She knew that they didn’t have garden gnomes long ago, and she wasn’t even sure when ceramic was invented.

“I’m serious, though,” Vari was saying. “I think Vivian is the one who needs protection, as much or more than the Fates.”

“You don’t think I can protect myself?” Vivian asked, not sure she wanted to do it and yet also not sure she wanted to remain with these people.

Blackstone sighed. “I don’t mean to offend you, but asking if you can protect yourself is like a toddler asking if she’ll survive a boxing match with Evander Holyfield. This mage might go easy on you because you’re without training, skills, or strength, but he might also decide to use you to teach the Fates a lesson.”

Vivian sank into her chair. “I can’t believe this happened to me because I opened my door this morning and let some strangers into my apartment.”

Vari gave her a sad smile. “It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is,” Vivian said. “If I hadn’t let them in, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Vari said. “Remember who those women are. Fate. Destiny. An uncontrollable force with total control over your life. You’re here now because they meant you to be here now.”

“But they have no power,” Vivian said.

“I’m still not sure of that.” Vari’s gaze met Blackstone’s. “I’m not sure of that at all.”

Chapter Fourteen