A Kind Of Magic (7 page)

A quick dusting of bronzing powder, eye liner, and mascara was all she chanced before tackling her hair. She ran a brush through the long length, grasped her hair in one hand, and twisted. Once she had it where she wanted, she reached for her large clippie and secured it.

Her fingers ran through her bangs that fell over her right eye as she surveyed her image. She would never be a model, but she was passing fair. At least men didn’t turn away in disgust. They didn’t look twice at her, if they looked at all, but that was much better than them turning away.

She grabbed her red sequined flip-flops to match her shirt and wiggled her feet in as she opened her jewelry armoire. No matter how hard she searched, she couldn’t find the necklace. Panic began to set in as she searched one drawer after another.

“I forgot to tell you that your friend came by this morning,” Roderick said from the doorway.

“Jennifer?” she asked, still digging in the armoire.

“Aye. She said she was borrowing a shirt.” Elle stopped and closed her eyes. She knew which shirt Jennifer wanted to wear.

Her blue silk shirt she had gotten from the Ralph Lauren store and that also explained the missing necklace.

“Oh my goodness,” she murmured as she closed the drawer.

“What is it?” Roderick asked.

Elle slowly stood up and faced the man before her. “She took it.”

“Your shirt? I know.”

She shook her head. “No, Roderick. She also took the necklace. It matched perfect, and it’s just like her.”

For the first time since she had met him, she saw the anger lighting his dark blue eyes. “Without asking?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Where is she? We must get it back.”

Elle ran to the phone and dialed Jennifer’s home number. “No answer,” she said as she hung up and dialed the store. “Jennifer, please,” she told the girl on the other line.

As soon as she asked for Jennifer, she realized it was her day off. “Never mind,” she told the girl and hung up.

Next, she dialed Jennifer’s cell phone. “Jennifer always answers her cell phone,” she told Roderick, praying that she was right.

But she wasn’t. Jennifer didn’t answer.

“Where is Jennifer?” Roderick asked.

“I don’t know.” Elle felt sick to her stomach at knowing the necklace was out of her hands. “I think she and Alex were doing something.”

“Where?”

“I can’t remember if she told me.”

A sound from the doorway got her attention, and she turned to find Val leaning against the door with his arms crossed.

“’Tis

gone?”

She tried to swallow, gave up, and nodded instead.

“Let’s go,” Val said.

“Go?” Elle asked as Roderick took her arm and raised her to her feet. “Where are we going?”

“We must get ready for battle,” Roderick replied.

Battle, Elle mouthed as they left her house.

She locked her door and turned to find both Val and Roderick on their motorcycles. The last thing she wanted was to get back on the movable death trap, but it was obvious she didn’t have a choice since her car was still at the Huntington.

The only good news was that Roderick was still shirtless, and, as ridiculous as it was, it was all she had to hold onto at the moment.

After a quick prayer for her safety, she walked to Roderick’s bike and climbed on.

He handed her the helmet, and, once she had it on, she reached around and clasped her hands together on his deliciously rippled abs of steel.

Yummy.

Even though he didn’t want her, she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to touch a body like she had only seen in ads or the TV.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Val pull beside them as they turned off Michigan Street on to Dunlavy. She spotted Roderick’s sword and flail attached to one side of the bike, and as Val sped ahead of them she saw his sword.

She had never been so thankful to live next to the wealthiest part of the city.

River Oaks was nestled next to her Montrose area, and the Huntington was the only high rise apartments in River Oaks.

They pulled onto Kirby, and as usual, there was constant construction, but somehow Val and Roderick bypassed the traffic and arrived at their apartment within minutes. No high speeds this time, but then again the Harpies weren’t after them.

Still, by the time Roderick had pulled into his parking space and shut off the bike, Elle’s legs where trembling. Gingerly, she got off the bike and returned his helmet to him.

“I think next time we’ll take my car.”

He looked over at her dark green Civic and then back at her. “Not if you need to outrun the Harpies.”

She hated that he was right. Houston traffic could be a bitch. With her knees still knocking together, she followed the two hunks onto the elevator. She didn’t know if it was on accident or by design, but they stood on either side of her.

And for the few minutes on the ride up to the penthouse, Elle let herself daydream. It was delicious, too. In her daydream, she was a woman that Roderick wanted for his own, a woman he had gone to great lengths to procure. She would give herself fully to him and find a man that knew how to treat her like a lady and give her excitement and love like no one ever had before. And since it was her daydream, the sex would be the most explosive she had ever experienced. The passion would consume them both, and the need for each other would grow each time they shared their bodies.

She had to admit it was even better than a romance novel if she did say so herself.

The elevator chimed their arrival, jerking Elle out of her daydream. She took a deep breath as the doors opened. Just as she was about to step out, Val put a hand out to stop her.

She watched as he went ahead, and Roderick kept the elevator doors open. When Val had made sure no one lurked in the hallway, Roderick took her arm and led her out of the elevator. There was tension about them that let her know absolute quiet was necessary for survival.

“Stay behind me,” Roderick whispered as he raised his flail.

Elle glanced at the two wicked looking spiked balls about cantaloupe sized hanging from chains attached to a thick wooden bar with grooves for his fingers. On the handle were the most beautiful Celtic knotwork she had ever seen. There was something different about it, magical almost. Her eyes went to the spikes and noticed they were varied sizes, some as long as three inches.

She would hate to encounter that weapon if it came at her, and by the way Roderick handled it, he was a master at it. Her feet took her a step back to put more distance between her and the ferocious weapon.

Val walked into the apartment first, his boots soundless on the marble. Elle peeked around Roderick’s wide shoulders and saw Val motion for them to enter.

Elle wasn’t one of those people that liked danger. When she visited the Six Flags theme park, she didn’t even ride anything. She liked her adrenaline to stay just the way it was. And yet, here she was walking behind two warriors from another time and realm to see if any evil lurked in wait for them.

A shiver raced down her spine, as though to warn her that her life was about to change.

Glass littered the floor, and furniture was overturned. Elle couldn’t believe the damage to everything as she glanced around the apartment.

“What a mess,” she mumbled as she picked up one of the glasses she and Roderick had drank from just the evening before.

Val disappeared into the hallway while she and Roderick stayed in the front rooms. Roderick went onto the south balcony and looked around. The wonderful part of having the penthouse was the four balconies on each of the four corners of the building.

Elle, not knowing what else to do, stood in the center of the living room and watched Roderick walk from the south balcony to the east balcony.

Her eyes followed the flow of his muscles as they bunched, stretched, and flexed.

It should be against the law for a man to look that good, she thought to herself.

“Nothing and no one is here,” Val said as he returned from the hallway. “They found the hidden doorway.”

Roderick closed the balcony door behind him and nodded. “I assumed they would. They followed the stone.”

And suddenly it hit Elle. “If they came after me because of the stone, wouldn’t they go after Jennifer?”

Roderick’s

eyes

stared

hard at her. “Aye.”

Elle sank onto the sofa, her head in her hands. Jennifer wouldn’t survive. Alex might be good sized, but he was no Roderick.

Her best friend and the only family she had was going to die.

“This can’t be happening. Jennifer won’t know that the necklace controls them.”

“The Harpies will tell her,” Val said as he came to stand at the end of the sofa.

She looked up into his pale green eyes, his long, light brown hair pulled away from his face in a ponytail. He didn’t try to hide the condemnation in his gaze.

“What are you saying?” she asked him as she rose to her feet.

Roderick walked until he stood beside Val. “Have you ever thought that she might have something to do with them?”

Elle laughed and shook her head. “Why would she? Jennifer only thinks about her career and Alex. Trust me, I’ve known her for nearly fifteen years.”

“The stone does odd things to people,” Val said. “It can turn a good person bad.”

“You’ve got it wrong,” she told the warriors. “Alex, her boyfriend, found that necklace and picked it out as a birthday present for me. They bought it in Galveston.” Roderick took a step toward her. “Where?”

“I have no idea. You don’t ask someone that when you receive a gift.”

“Val,” Roderick said.

“I’m going,” Val replied and dashed for the door.

Elle was becoming more confused by the minute. “Where is he going?”

“To see if that necklace was indeed purchased in Galveston.”

“He’ll be searching for days.”

“Nay. He’ll return in a few hours with an answer.”

“And until then?” she asked. “Do we wait around here?” He turned his dark blue eyes on her. “There is no place I would rather be. Our weapons are here, which means this is our best defense.”

“All right,” she agreed. “But I can’t just sit around. I need something to do.” For the first time that morning, she saw a hint of a smile on his wide lips. “How good are you at research?”

“The best. It’s what I do at the museum.”

“Great,” he said and took her hand as he led her into another room.

Elle tried to ignore the ripple of pleasure he caused by holding her hand. She kept telling herself it meant nothing, but she couldn’t help but wish that it did as her eyes soaked up his naked torso.

“We will be able to find information in here on the Harpies,” Roderick said as they entered the library.

Elle stared in shock at the fourteen foot ceilings that were lined from floor to ceiling with rows upon rows of books. “Good grief,” she mumbled and ran her hand along the spines of the books.

“It’s impressive,” he admitted. “Aimery thought it best we have this library to help us locate anything we might need.”

“There are a lot of books here, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be the right ones.”

“It’s a start though.”

Elle turned to him and smiled. “Aye, ‘tis.” She thought he might have chuckled, but she was too far away to tell. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said as he headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?”

“To gather our weapons and change. I’ll just be down the hall.” After he closed the door behind him, Elle let out a loud sigh. Light shown from two windows on the wall where the books only went up halfway, the other half was all windows. She could get used to living like this.

As she scanned the books, she noticed most of them pertained to ancient monsters or creatures that were told of in myths and legends. She decided her first place to start was looking up Harpies in a text dedicated to the monsters in Greek myths.

By the time Roderick returned two hours later, Elle had discovered quite a lot about the Harpies.

“I see you have found some information.”

She nodded as she glanced up and saw him in black leather pants, but not the shiny leather she was used to. These were soft, almost like suede, and what looked like a dark padded jerkin for a shirt. A quick look down showed her boots that she had only seen from Medieval times.

“I took a Greek/Roman mythology class in college, but there is stuff in here they never covered.”

“Such as?” he asked as he sat opposite her in the large leather chairs in the middle of the room.

“Mythology calls them daughters of Electra and Thaumas. They were most often sent by the gods to punish people.”

“I don’t suppose you found anything on how to kill them?” She shook her head. “Not so far. From what I’ve read their wings are made of metal, but I don’t recall hearing that sound when they attacked.”

“It was hard to hear anything over their screams.” She shifted books around until she found what she was looking for. “This book says their screams are semi-human and gives warning to their victims only at the last moment,” she read and then handed the book to him.

Once he had read the passage and the notes she had made, he sat back and locked his fingers behind his head. “The Harpies are near impossible to kill when all three are together. If we can separate them, we might have a chance.” “There are three of us.”

He shook his head. “You couldn’t hold them longer than a heartbeat. What we need are more Shields.”

“Can’t your Fae friend bring more?”

“I wish it were that easy, but there are only a handful of us left, and we are needed elsewhere. Only Val and I could be spared to come here.”

“Then I’ll have to do the best I can.”

Roderick had the almost uncontrollable urge to reach over and pull Elle into his lap to ravage her lips. She had no idea what she was talking about facing, but she was willing to face it to kill the Harpies.

“Thank you for being so brave,” he said as he scooted to the end of the chair, “but you will be needed once all of you are found.”

“For what purpose?”

“’Tis been said that you hold a key to the entity distributing the stones. You and the others are the means to ending the evil.”