Your Magic or Mine? (49 page)

“What will happen to Walcott?” Alaric asked.

“That depends on how or if he wakes up. When an item is destroyed, the person it was controlling usually lapses into unconsciousness and often a coma. What he’ll be like when he wakes up depends on how powerful the item was, how long it controlled him, and how far into evil he had gone. I think Walcott will be in one of our nursing homes for quite a while. Most of those who succumb to an evil item lose some brain and magic functions when it’s destroyed. Some have even lost the ability to cast spells altogether. We take good care of them, but they’re broken people and seldom live long. The evil simply wears them out.”

There was a moment of silence while everyone absorbed the information. Marcus was searching for some new subject to dispel the gloom created by it when his mother asked to see a drawn sword. She’d never seen one up close.

While the parents discussed Fergus’s weapon, Marcus glanced over at Gloriana. She looked ready to drop. “Let’s go to bed,” he said. “It’s after two.”

She yawned and nodded. They made their good-byes, collected the dogs, and went home, straight to bed.

Gloriana woke and opened her eyes to get her bearings, but didn’t move otherwise. She had no idea what the time was, except it was still dark. She wondered if she’d slept more than an hour. Not that it mattered. She was perfectly comfortable where she was. She luxuriated in the feel of Marcus’s arm around her, the rise and fall of his chest under her cheek, the thump-thump of his heartbeat matching hers.

She had to smile at the wonder of having a soul mate, and she turned her head to give him a little kiss.

His arm tightened around her, and his other hand came up to cover hers on his chest. A deep voice rumbled, “You’re supposed to be asleep.”

“So are you. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You didn’t. I woke up several minutes ago and was lying here thinking.”

“About…?”

“You. Me. Us. How astonished I am to be here with you. How grateful I am that you didn’t give up on me, despite my pigheadedness.”

“Funniest thing. I was thinking along the same lines. The astonishment, not the other. In the beginning, we were so far apart.”

“Yes, in about everything except attraction for each other.” He ran his hand up and down her back again, and she wished she could purr.

“It’s a good thing we’re soul mates,” she said. “I don’t think we could have ever resolved our magic differences if mating hadn’t changed us. Leaving magic aside, we’re going to have enough trouble, adjusting to each other.”

“Trouble, what trouble? We love each other, our lovemaking shakes the earth, the dogs get along. Everything else is simple.”

She sighed. “Just like a man. If the sex is good, nothing else matters.”

“Of course.” He patted her on the bottom.

“Smug, that’s what you are,” she retorted. “Well, I guess if you can learn to live with my clutter, I can learn to live with your penchant for austerity.”

“And if you can learn to live with my jazz, I can handle country-western. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“As for the magic, I expect we’ll have lots of fun working out our combinations and permutations, adding what works, subtracting what doesn’t, multiplying and dividing as necessary. You can help me figure out what the asterisks are.”

Math? The man was worried about
math
while they were lying there naked? She lifted her head to frown at him. “Asterisks? What asterisks?”

“Remember the formula? I didn’t use regular multiplication symbols because something else seemed to be happening between the elements of the equation to result in the finished spell.”

“Oh,
those
asterisks. That’s simple. Lulabelle explained the key thing about spell-casting to me long ago. When you get right down to it, nobody really knows how we focus energy and get results. We simply can. That’s the
magic
part.”

He groaned and pulled her around on top of him. As their centers aligned, the hum started. He found her lips in the dark and gave her a little kiss. “I guess there’s only one thing to do.”

“What?” she asked as she made herself comfortable and rubbed herself against him.

“We’ll take some of your magic”—he ran his hands down her back and kneaded her backside—”and some of my magic”—he rubbed his erection along her rapidly dampening folds—”and merge.” He slid into her all the way.

“I have a new equation for you, Dr. Forscher,” she said as desire grew within her. “My magic
asterisk
your magic, equals
our
magic.”

Daria Morgan is a magic practitioner, one of a group of people who uses magic and spells to do their everyday jobs. Her job: A management consultant.

John “Bent” Benthausen is a CEO who, despite every improvement in product and production, can’t get his bottom line out of the Red Sea. He needs a management consultant.

With her special gifts, Daria gets right to the heart of her employer’s problem—crooked employees. Crooked, vicious, employees who are now out to get Daria. Those are just Problems One and Two.

Problem Three: There is an ancient force, an irresistible compulsion, called the soul-mate imperative. It’s known throughout the practitioner ranks for bringing together magic-users and their mates in a lifelong bond. And it won’t be happy until the participants surrender to the inevitable … the Oldest Kind of Magic …

ISBN#9781932815436
US $6.99/CDN $9.99
Paranormal Romance
Available Now
www.annmacela.com

According to lore, an ancient force called the soulmate imperative brings together magic practitioners and their mates. They always nearly fall into each other’s arms at first sight. Always … or so the story goes.

But what happens if they don’t? What happens when one mate rejects the other—in fact won’t have anything to do with him? Who doesn’t even believe in magic to begin with?

Computer wizard Clay Morgan is in just such a position. Francie Stevens has been badly hurt by a charming and good looking man and has decided to avoid any further involvements. Although the hacker plaguing her company’s system forces her into an investigation led by the handsome practitioner, she vows to keep her distance from Clay.

The imperative has other ideas, however, and so does Clay. He must convince Francie that magic exists and he can wield it. It’s a prickly problem. Especially when Francie uses the imperative itself against him in ways neither it, nor Clay, ever anticipated.

ISBN#9781933836164
US $7.95/CDN $9.95
Paranormal Romance
Available Now
www.annmacela.com

Lord Lachlan de Douglas, a noble warrior lord, is heir to a Clan of Ancient Earth. Bold, rebellious, possessing strength and passion, he defends his clan from annihilation against a wretched war of masked vengeance and treacherous shadows. Until one day, a sudden horror alters his being, condemning him to a world of private anguish and torment.

Kimberly Kinsale, a diplomat’s daughter, is a rare beauty motivated by honesty and integrity. Serving as a lieutenant in an elite combat fighter group aboard a war ship, she governs her life by the intrigue and lies of her commanding officer. A moment of lunacy and folly, a secret revealed, and Kimberly stumbles upon an unspeakable deception.

Now she must decide. Maintain her loyalty, or betray her Clan and ship for a Douglas enemy lord who can prove the truth—never knowing the battle for justice will take her through Lachlan’s nightmare, a rage so deep, a suffering grounded in shame and pride, even when peace shines in sight.

For theirs is an unexpected passion, born in the fires of a shared need and desperate struggle. Kimberly must fight the sinister legacy of the matrix robots and trust the handsome enemy lord with her life, her heart, and her very soul. But as time slowly runs out, even an exquisite love may not be enough for salvation.

ISBN# 9781933836485
Mass Market Paperback/Sci-Fi Romance
US $7.95/CDN $8.95
DECEMBER 2008

Veiled by the mists of the highlands are tales of beautiful, magical, and sometimes dangerous worlds. One such realm, Paroseea, dwells hidden within the stone walls of a medieval fortress, Castle MacCoinneach. Yet danger has escaped paradise and stalks the halls of Castle MacCoinneach seeking vengeance, patiently waiting for the return of the fallen laird.

You must return.

Those words, uttered by the ghost of Padruig MacCoinneach’s beloved sister, send him back to the highlands and a life he forswore. To save his remaining sister and aid his clan, Padruig will do anything. He never expected that he would have to marry his ally’s daughter, whom he deems both a reckless child and a potent temptation.

You are the price.

With these callous words, Padruig destroys a fantasy Aimili de Grantham has long nurtured, created from her memories of Padruig himself. A cool, dismissive stranger has replaced the golden man of her dreams, a stranger she must wed. Worse, the fey part of her senses that evil lurks in the shadows of Castle MacCoinneach, and she has nowhere to turn.

One true laird and one of fey blood.

Strangers they may be, but Padruig and Aimili are destined to join together to defeat a force beyond their imaginings. It will take trust, faith, and most of all, love to save themselves, their clan, and discover … A Lost Touch of Magic.

ISBN#9781934755518
US $7.95/CDN $8.95
Paranormal Romance
DECEMBER 2008
www.amytolnitch.com