Slightly Spellbound (27 page)

“C’mon, Merc, don’t be mad! We couldn’t beat him. Even you know we have to retreat sometimes to live to fight another day—or night, as the case may be.”

Mercutio ignored this and took off.

My teeth chattered, and I huffed a sigh. “I don’t care what you think. Bryn’s going to agree that mine was the better strategy. You just wait and see.”

When I got near Bryn’s property, I swam upstream to slow myself down so I didn’t slam into the dock. It’s always tricky to get out of the water near Bryn’s because the current’s really strong with Cider Falls half a mile downstream, trying to suck everything over it.

The current swept me toward the dock, and I managed to get my arms around a strut. With a fair amount of effort, I hauled myself out of the water and onto the dock. It was tough work given how tired and injured I was. I couldn’t wait to get inside and get warm.

I shuffled through the grass to the house and knocked on the back door, hoping the police had released Bryn. If they hadn’t, I would have to put on a party dress and go get him. The police would never get anything useful out of him anyway, and they’d probably be ready to give him up by now.

I knocked again and the back door opened. Bryn stood in the doorway with a blank expression. He didn’t say a thing.

“What?” I demanded. “I wasn’t with Zach. I fought a pissed-off fae and a pissed-off I-don’t-know-what—the skeleton creature.”

Bryn looked around behind me, like he thought I might’ve brought them along. Then he stepped back and closed the door.

My jaw dropped open in surprise. “What the hell?” I snapped. “Has everybody lost their minds?” I lifted my fist and beat on the door.

He jerked it open.

“Are you kidding me? I’m hurt and I’m freezing. Are you really—”

Bryn whispered a spell, and I felt the magic reach out and pass me. A little pulse of light lit the grass, and he looked past me, like he was looking right through me.

“Bryn?”

He didn’t answer. Slowly, he began to close the door again.

“Holy moly!” I squeaked, and Bryn had no reaction to that at all.

The spell didn’t work on Skeleton Guy; it worked on me. For the love of Hershey, I made myself disappear.

I shoved my hands against the door and kept it from closing. Bryn stilled after lifting a hand, ready to blast me with a spell.

I touched his arm and a zap of magical electricity arced between us. His brows shot up.

“Tamara?” he whispered.

I tapped the door with two quick raps.

“You’re invisible.”

“Apparently so,” I said, exasperated, but of course he didn’t hear that. My knuckles made two taps on the door.

He shook his head. “How in the world did you manage that?” he wondered, taking a step back.

“A spell gone wrong. As usual,” I explained with a shrug he couldn’t see. He stopped and I bumped into him, causing a big zap that made us both jerk away from each other.

He stood staring past me, thinking. “I don’t know how to undo what you’ve done. Maybe if I remove my protection spell it will disrupt the invisibility one.” Then he whispered a spell in Gaelic.

His magic melted off me like warm chocolate. I took a deep breath and waited.

“I still don’t see you,” he said. “Try touching me. Let’s see if my spell came off.”

The tip of my finger stretched toward him and with a tentative touch that didn’t zap us, I confirmed that his spell was gone. I stepped forward and kissed him, tasting him and his magic. He shivered, his hands finding my sides and exploring my body as if to confirm that I had the right shape to be Invisible Tammy Jo and not some other random invisible girl who wanted to smooch him.

After the kiss, he rested his forehead against mine. “You’re cold and wet and taste like the river. I guess there’s going to be an explanation for that.”

I gently pinched him twice.

“Rendering yourself invisible should’ve taken an incredibly complex spell. Did it?”

With a thumb and forefinger, I plucked at his skin once. I wondered how I knew one pinch or knock meant no and two meant yes. Maybe I’d seen it in a movie?

“Of course not,” he said with a rueful smile. “Every time I start to forget that you’re not an average witch, that you are in fact closer to a force of nature, you do your best to remind me.”

“This wasn’t my fault,” I protested, and gave him a slightly harder single pinch.

“I didn’t say you do it on purpose,” Bryn said.

I frowned, thinking it wasn’t too fair that he could argue with me when he couldn’t even hear my side.

His hand slid down and clutched mine. “C’mon. Let’s get you a pen and paper, so you can write down what happened.”

“Good idea,” I said, following him down the hall and into his study. He sat me in his desk chair, saying it was really strange not being able to see me, and it would be nice if I could sit in one place so he’d know where to face when he talked to me.

I gave him a quick double pinch. “Boy, too bad I didn’t make myself accidentally invisible when the Conclave was in town and I needed to spy on them. Like this, I could be the best spy ever. Or the best cat burglar.”

He set a pen and blank piece of paper in front of me. And then grabbed a throw blanket from the couch and wrapped it around my shoulders.

“Not that I would rob people. ’Cause, hey, one of the good guys here. But I could be as good as a ghost or a fly on the wall at collecting gossip in this nobody-can-see-me state. Vangie would envy me. She loves eavesdropping.”

I wrote a short version of what had happened and the spell I’d said to try to get rid of Skeleton Guy. I drew an arrow next to Crux’s name and a scary-faced little skull next to the words
Skeleton Guy
like I was one of those guys who works for the Internet and makes the icons for e-mail. The pictures did dress it up a little, and I started to draw Merc, too. I only got the ears and part of his face down before Bryn cleared his throat impatiently.

“Um, yeah, okay. You’re right. This is no time to get Google-logo artistic on things.” I lifted the page to Bryn, and he took it.

Bryn read it over. He pointed at the partial drawing. “What’s this?”

I took the paper and finished Merc’s cat body and put whiskers, spots, and stripes on him.

“Mercutio,” Bryn said. “So you drew as part of the spell? In the grass? Did you use a stick?”

I pinched him once.

“You didn’t draw as part of the spell?”

I pinched him once again.

“So why are you drawing now?” he asked.

I bent over the paper and wrote,
For decoration
, adding another whisker to Mercutio’s cute little drawing face.

“Tamara,” Bryn said in a disapproving tone. When Bryn’s working, he’s very serious. I don’t hold as strictly to seriousness myself.

I glanced up at him, sympathizing with the poor guy. “Invisible Me is just as exasperating as Regular Me, huh?” I patted his hand. “Sorry about that.”

Bryn’s expression softened, and he caught my hand and lifted it to his mouth. He pressed a kiss onto my skin and let it go.

“I love you, too,” I whispered, and then because sometimes he’s got to put up with a lot, I bent over the paper and wrote the words.

He read them and smiled. “All right, let’s see what we can find,” he said, walking to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that take up one wall of the room.

I wrote another note on the paper.

Making me visible again isn’t actually my highest priority. I need to find Vangie and to do that I need to get past Skeleton Guy. Actually, now that I know he can’t see me, I can go back for her while you stay here doing research. By the way, can I borrow a gun?

I hopped up and carried the paper to Bryn, tapping his shoulder to get his attention. He took the sheet and read it.

“The gun’s not a problem, but I should go with you to find Vangie.”

“No, this is a job for the one of us who’s invisible.” I pinched him once.

He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of you going alone. If you got hurt or were captured, I wouldn’t be able to find you or even see you if you were lying ten feet from me. It’s—”

I took the sheet back to the desk and wrote:
No one can get me since no one can see me. I’ll be okay. I’m going!

Bryn came over to see what I’d written. “You’ll be okay, huh? Because you never almost get yourself killed when you’re out of my sight.”

I huffed and picked up the pen. Having an argument with Bryn was even more aggravating than usual when I had to stop and write everything out.

Then it occurred to me that I didn’t actually need to negotiate. I could walk out any time without him even knowing it. Of course that would’ve been bad manners.

I was about to ask again for the gun, but then I realized that like the pen and paper, it wouldn’t be invisible. Skeleton Guy and anyone else who wanted to get in my way, like Crux, would be able to spot a gun and track my movements by it.

Never mind about gun. Can’t risk it being seen. I’ll dry the clothes I have on and then head out. I promise to be careful.

Then I drew a heart and a chocolate kiss next to it.

He sighed, but nodded.

I left him and took a shower while my pajamas and underwear were in the washing machine. Afterward, I tossed them in the dryer. I got a blanket from the guest room and wrapped it around me and used a hair dryer on my hair. It felt wonderful to be warm and dry.

An idea occurred to me. Ever since Bryn and I had mixed magic, he’d been able to use magic to do violence from a distance. But he also knew spells to heal. What if he could do some distance healing on Vangie? Or a protection spell? Also, taking a little of my witch magic away would make me more fae and hence give me better reflexes and even better healing abilities if I came up against Skeleton Guy.

When I went back to the library, the corner of the blanket dragged behind me.

Bryn looked at me. “That’s a strange effect. Almost ghostly. With the fabric trailing behind you as a train, you’re like a phantom princess, or a phantom bride.”

I smiled because that reminded me of the story
The Princess Bride
, and I loved that movie.

I crossed the room to him with a pen and paper in hand. I wrote a line and held up the paper.

Want to fool around for a good cause?

The corners of his mouth quirked up. “The cause doesn’t have to be good. Or even exist.”

I smiled and wrote to him that I wanted him to take some power and use it to do a protection or healing spell on Vangie. I gave him Vangie’s charm bracelet for a physical link to her.

“From a distance,” Bryn said, his expression clouding. “I can try, sweetheart, but I’m not sure it’ll work.”

Take magic from me so you’ll have a lot of juice. I won’t need it. I’ll be better if I’m more fae anyway. Fae Tammy is tougher than regular Tammy.

He frowned. “I wouldn’t take that much. To leave you pure fae? No.”

I took a step back. “You really hate that part of me, don’t you?” I demanded, knowing he couldn’t hear me. “It’s not a small part that you can pretend doesn’t exist. I’m
half
faery. And there’s nothing anyone can do to change that. No matter how much you all want to!”

Tears stung my eyes.

“Tamara?”

I grabbed the paper and scrawled a message in big letters.

I expect you to do whatever it takes to help Vangie. By the time I get back here, I’ll be back to normal and you won’t have to deal with the fact that I’m a half-breed.

He scowled. “Don’t refer to yourself that way.”

Why? It’s the truth
, I wrote.

He closed his eyes, like he had to focus to not lose his temper. “You know why. That term has a negative connotation.”

According to you, Edie, Momma, and Aunt Mel, being fae has a negative connotation.

I shoved the paper against his chest. He opened his eyes and read it.

His covered his mouth with his hand for a moment and then nodded. When he dropped his hand, he said, “I apologize. I never meant to make you feel that way. I was raised to be wary of the fae. All Association witches and wizards are trained to be, and there’s no denying it makes us prejudiced against true fae. That doesn’t mean that those of us who are mixed race, and I include myself in that group, should be forced into a position of shame and denial. I really don’t care that you’re half faery. I swear on the stars and everything I hold sacred. The reason I don’t want to drain away your witchcraft and leave you pure fae is that your humanity is an essential part of who you are. The fae side makes you powerful. I know it’s saved your life, and I’m grateful for that. But when the faery emerges without anything to counter her, the things that make you
you
recede. I lose the witch whose magic matches mine. I lose the woman who loves me. And because I don’t know where she goes during that time, I’m afraid I won’t get her back.”

I pulled the paper away from him gently and wrote to him.

It doesn’t work that way. I’ll always come back to you.

“How do you know?” he whispered.

I just do.

I pushed him toward the couch. He didn’t resist. He sank onto the cushions, looking up. I straddled his thighs, sitting on his lap, and brought the blanket over our heads. Cocooned in the thick cotton with him, I leaned forward, unbuttoning his shirt as I kissed his neck. He exhaled loud enough for me to hear and his lids drifted closed.

When we’d fooled around in the past, his magic had enveloped us and pushed the rest of the world into the distance. This time was different. His magic stayed with him, delicious and just out of my reach. I tried to inhale it but could only taste the spicy tendrils that rode his breath. It made me restless and determined. I’d always been able to share in his power when it combined with mine, but I guessed that now it couldn’t find mine. His magic clung to him like he’d been dipped in caramel. I could taste it but couldn’t drink it in.

I eased his shirt off and bit his collarbone, causing a sharp intake of breath from Bryn. He tightened his grip on my hips and swung us sideways. Tangled in the blanket and a little breathless, we twisted until we were lying lengthwise on the cool leather, mouth to mouth, heartbeat to hammering heartbeat.