Magic & Memory (10 page)

          Joey grinned. “I don’t believe it. The great and powerful Bryn Maddock, admitting he’s getting old.”

          Bryn smiled at that. “Cheeky as ever I see, pet. Just see how
you
feel when you hit three hundred and thirty.”

His dark eyes slid over to Lu then, the smile still playing around his lips. She’d taken a seat across from the warlock, and Alastair was perched on the arm of her chair, a protective hand on her shoulder. Bryn addressed Alastair while never taking his eyes from Lu. “A human girl? That’s new.”

“We got chased out of her house by half a dozen werewolves,” Joey explained. “So she kinda had to come along. It was that or wind up as wolf chow.”

          Lu started to introduce herself. “I’m L--”

          “Luna Rae Harper. I know,” Bryn told her.

          “How did you know that?” she gasped.

          He shrugged. “That’s nothing. Strictly Warlock 101.” He did look slightly pleased with himself, however, as he returned his gaze to Alastair. “So what can I do for you, mate? I don’t dare flatter myself by thinking this is a social call.”

          Joey was standing with his back to the fireplace, fingers interlaced before him. He said, “Alastair’s in a bit of trouble, Bryn.”

          “And why is your pet speaking for you, Allie?” Bryn teased lightly, winking at Joey before sliding his gaze back to Alastair. “Cat got your tongue?” He shuddered dramatically then and said, “Ugh, bloody disgusting expression, that. I can’t believe I said it. I literally saw that once, and it’s not something I’ll soon forget.” He refocused then, turning his attention back to Alastair and asking cheerfully, “Anyway, you were saying? Or not saying, as the case may be?”

          Alastair hesitated, glancing at Joey for reassurance. Joey nodded almost imperceptibly, and Bryn immediately picked up on the wordless exchange between the two. Despite his playful outward appearance, a sharp intelligence radiated in the warlock’s dark eyes, and he took in every detail of the people around him.

Finally Alastair said, “Something’s happened to me. My memory has been wiped away. I’m sorry to say I have no recollection of you, or of anything else beyond a couple days ago. But Joey tells me you’re to be trusted, so we’ve come to you for help.”

          Bryn sat bolt upright, uncrossing his legs, staring intently at Alastair. His expression was dead serious, deeply concerned as he murmured, “How unusual.”

          “Can you please take a look, Bryn, and see if you can tell what happened to him? For some reason I keep thinking his memory loss has to be the result of magic,” Joey said. “But then I’d always heard it’s impossible to bespell a vampire.”

“It’s not impossible. It’s just very, very difficult. In my lifetime I’ve never met anyone with enough power to do it,” Bryn said, his eyes never leaving Alastair. “And of course I’ll take a look. But I can’t have any distractions while I’m mucking around in his mind. Joey, take Luna and make yourselves comfortable in one of the guest suites. You know where they are.”

          Alastair glanced at Joey again and the younger boy squeezed his shoulder, saying quietly, “You can trust him, Allie. It’ll be ok, bro.”

          Alastair tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice as he said, “Alright.”

“Come on, Lu,” Joey said as he scooped up his backpack. Lu gave Alastair a quick, tight smile, then followed Joey through a door at the back of the bedroom.

As they stepped out into a long hallway, the door clicked shut and then disappeared entirely. Lu gasped and immediately lunged at the wall that had materialized behind her. Joey caught her easily around the waist and lifted her away from the wall. “No distractions, remember?” he told her before setting her down gingerly.

          She stared at the spot where the door had been. “We shouldn’t have left him alone in there! He’s sealed in now, what if he needs our help?”

          “It’ll be ok,” Joey said gently, taking hold of her upper arms and turning her toward him. “Bryn won’t hurt him.”

          “How do you know that?” Lu demanded, knocking his hands off her arms.

          “Because I trust him,” Joey said simply.

          “Whatever that’s worth! I don’t even know if we can trust
you
.”

          “I think you know you can.”

          She shrugged at that, turning back to the solid wall, running her palm down its smooth, cool surface. It looked like standard drywall but felt like glass.

          “Look,” he said softly, “I get it. You’re scared for Allie. But Bryn’s a good guy, let him try to help.”

          She turned to look Joey in the eye. “Do you swear it’s going to be ok?”

          Joey held her gaze. “I swear.”

Lu sighed and let herself relax a little. As she followed him down the quiet hallway she asked, “So are you going to tell me what the deal was with that party?”

Joey glanced at her with a little smile and said, “Actually, I think this day has been strange enough for you. I’ll tell you some other time, ok?”

“It’s that weird?”

“It’s that weird,” Joey confirmed.

Most of the doors along the winding hallway were shut. They took the first one that was open, stepping into a spacious room lavishly decorated in deep shades of purple.

Lu let the topic of the party drop as she kicked off her borrowed Converse and climbed up onto the huge four poster bed, leaning back against the headboard. Meanwhile, Joey sank onto a chair beside a big mahogany fireplace. The fire instantly sprang to life.

“Is that…” Lu stared at something framed and mounted above the mantel. “Is that a lead pipe above the fireplace?”

Joey grinned. “Yeah. That’s Bryn’s bizarre sense of humor. All his guest rooms are done in the colors of characters from Clue, the board game. We’re in the Professor Plum suite. The Mrs. Peacock room’s a trip.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry. He only went as far as the color scheme and a few murder weapons scattered about. You’re not going to stumble across a dead body.”

“Thank God for that,” Lu muttered.

Joey allowed his eyelids to slide shut, resting his head against the upholstery. His face registered complete exhaustion as Lu watched him. But after just a minute he pushed it away, sitting up and opening his eyes.

Flashing his usual bright smile, he said, “You should get some rest.” He jumped to his feet. “I should go out and patrol, see if there are any baddies creeping around outside Bryn’s perimeter.”

          “Please don’t,” Lu said quickly. Then she felt embarrassed, so she added, “What good are you to Alastair if you go out and get yourself killed?”

          “Plus you don’t want to be left alone here,” he said gently.

          “Yeah, maybe that too.” She hated to admit it, but it was the truth.

          “Ok, I’ll stay,” Joey said. He kicked off his sneakers and playfully took a flying dive onto the mattress, making her bounce. “Ohhhh that was a mistake,” he groaned, doubling over.

          “What’s wrong?” Lu asked.

          He gritted his teeth for a moment, then exhaled slowly through pursed lips before turning to her with a smile and saying, “Nothing. I’m fine.”

          “Liar. What’s wrong?”

          “It’s not a big deal.”

          “If it’s not a big deal then tell me,” Lu persisted.

Joey sighed and said, “Allie broke about five of my ribs when we were fighting, and it hurts like hell. Don’t tell him though, ok? He’d feel bad about it if he knew.”

          “Oh my God! Do you need me to take you to the hospital?”

          He chuckled at that. “Not the best place for someone without a heartbeat. Besides, I heal fast, all vampires do. A couple days and I’ll be good as new. Even sooner if I get a chance to eat, since that speeds up the healing process. It really isn’t a big deal.” He stretched out on his good side across the foot of the bed, a short distance from her, and propped his head up with his hand. Then he grinned at her and said, “Thanks for the concern though, Moonbeam.”

          She frowned at him. “Moonbeam?”

          “Mmhmm.”

          “And you got that where, exactly?”

          He flashed a brilliant smile. “That’s what your name means, Luna Rae. Your parents totally named you Moonbeam.”

          She rolled her eyes and smacked his arm.

          “Ow!” Joey exclaimed as he rubbed his bicep.

          “You’re such a wimp!” she said with a grin.

          “I know, but don’t tell anybody. It totally shatters my image as a big tough vampire hunter,” he said, winking playfully.

          “How has Alastair put up with you for the past six years?” Lu was still grinning as she pulled up the thick down comforter and burrowed beneath it.

          Joey reclined on top of the silky plum-colored duvet and said, “He’s infinitely patient. Plus, it’s easy to tell with him when I need to shut the hell up. I try not to wear on his nerves any more than necessary.”

          She studied Joey for a while before saying, “It’s weird, your whole relationship. The fact that he, well, made you, as you said. And that you obviously have to do whatever he tells you.”

          “It
is
weird, but not in the way you mean. It’s weird because he gives me so much freedom, treats me as an equal. Everything in me tells me that I should be groveling at Alastair’s feet, but never once has he treated me with anything less than respect.”

          “That’s what it feels like? That you’re somehow less than him?”

          “Absolutely,” Joey said. “That’s what it’s like for all vampires, especially in the first few years after they’re made.”

          “But it sounds like Alastair never felt that way about his maker.”

          “Apparently not. But Allie’s atypical in many ways thanks to that whole hybrid thing. Being part angel had some unusual effects on the way his vampire side manifested in him. As I’m sure you noticed.”

          “I thought he was human. Up until he bit me.”

          “Exactly. He
feels
human – he’s warm, he breathes, his heart beats. Go figure,” he shrugged.

          “So can he even be called a vampire, if his heart’s still beating?”

          “Aside from his physiology, he has all the other hallmarks of a vampire. First and foremost, blood is the only thing that sustains him, he can’t live without it. And his response to blood is pure vampire – the craving, the desire, it’s all there. Then of course there are the fangs, the strength and speed, that super fab burning in the sun thing. In my book, that all means he’s first and foremost a vampire.”

          Lu remembered with a wave of embarrassment the intense desire she’d felt as she was bitten, and closed her eyes for a moment as she felt herself blushing.

Joey saw the color rise in Lu’s cheeks and halted his natural response to extend his fangs at the sight of blood under her skin. He watched her closely, more closely than she could possibly realize, taking in her individual long dark eyelashes and the way her pupils contracted when she opened her eyes.

He noticed everything about her -- the dozens of shades of brown and honey and auburn that comprised her hair color. Her clean, warm, totally distinct scent. The faint scattering of freckles across her nose. The fact that the blue of her eyes, which he saw perfectly in the soft light, was the exact color of a cloudless summer sky he remembered from a lifetime ago.
God she’s beautiful
, he thought.

For the first time ever, Joey felt a little pang of jealously toward Alastair. And that feeling was immediately rewarded with an overpowering wave of guilt.

He would do anything for Alastair, he would die for him without a moment’s hesitation. He loved him, the way you love a brother and a father and a best friend. So he hated himself for feeling jealous that Lu was with Alastair.

Joey saw all of this and felt all of this in a mere instant, and then he too pressed his eyes shut, willing away the envy and the guilt and the intense longing to reach out and touch the pretty, fiery girl mere inches from him.

Lu looked closely at Joey. He was incredibly expressive, and for just a moment sadness clouded his features. But then he opened his extraordinary beach glass-green eyes and his ever-present smile returned. Lu wondered how much of his cheerfulness was a mask, how much pain he routinely covered up.

She’s watching me the same way I was watching her,
he thought.
Well, not exactly the same way.

Her brow wrinkled in concern and he knew his face had given something away. He rolled off the bed, saying lightly, “Are you hungry? I could go downstairs and raid Bryn’s fridge for you.”

“Alastair’s going to be ok, Joey,” she said, misinterpreting his expression.

Joey stood facing away from her and said lightly, “I know. Even if Bryn can’t get his memories back, it’s still going to be ok. I can tell Allie everything he’s told me about his life, fill in some of his past for him.” He turned toward her, a cheerful, composed expression on his face. “So, fridge raid?”