Irresistible Magic (10 page)

I got to my feet, not comfortable with the vulnerability of sitting while he stood over me. It wasn’t that he scared me, it was just that I needed to not show weakness right then. I’d had enough of being taken care of. “That seems fairly obvious.”

“You know that stone-based elixir I’ve been working on?”

I stood stock-still. “You mean the one that boosts strength and numbs the senses?”

“Yeah, that one.”

Unease morphed into dread. “No, Tal. Tell me this isn’t about that. Please.” My voice cracked on the word
please
. Tal’s magical drink was very dangerous in the wrong hands, and Allcot’s were most definitely the wrong hands. It could essentially create superhumans. Ones who were extremely strong and immune to pain if enough was ingested.

He jammed his hands in his jeans pockets. “I wish I could.”

“Dammit!” I’d already lived through two years of political manipulation due to the Influence drug I made. When ingested, it forced people to do whatever the administrator of the drug told them to. It was the worst kind of invasion. Cold terror washed over me. What if someone mixed the two together? Superhuman machines is what they’d be. “Whatever you agreed to, you have to back out. Allcot cannot have access to this.”

“I can’t.” His tortured eyes met mine.

“Why?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “A batch went missing at the lab.”

Panic started to wind through me. “When?”

“Last week.”

“Talisen!” My head started to spin. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Every important person in my life had been keeping information from me. The last person I’d expected that from was Tal. I’d thought he was the one I could count on to be honest.

He stepped back, clearly surprised by the intensity of my outburst. He reached out and cupped my balled fists, gently uncurling my fingers. Then he wrapped both of his hands around mine. “I’m telling you now. I never meant to keep this a secret from you.” He searched my eyes. “Something else is wrong. What’s going on inside that head of yours?”

I cast my eyes down and tried not to cry at the tenderness in his voice. I wanted to fight, not break down. I yanked my hands back just for some sense of control over my emotions. “Mom knew about Beau’s ability. She knew a vamp killed him. She’s known all along about the daywalking power and never told us.”

The color drained from Tal’s face. “What do you mean? Why?”

I shrugged. “To save us more pain, I guess? I don’t know.”

Tal’s face hardened. “And in the process she put you in danger.”

“Yeah, she did.” If I’d known about Beau’s ability sooner, I would’ve recognized what my vamp-sensing ability meant and maybe could’ve avoided being locked up in the Arcane basement where I almost spent the rest of my life under the control of a power-hungry director.

Talisen held his hand out and waited for me to take it. He was offering his support, but not forcing it on me. Something about the combination of the determination in his set jaw and the raw concern in his eyes touched me deep in my soul. Tal would be my partner in this if I let him. I took his hand.

He pulled me to him in a fierce hug. “I promise I won’t keep anything important from you again. I should’ve told you sooner about the missing drug.”

I clung to him, grateful he understood. “Damn right.” I snuggled into him, soaking up his strength. But we weren’t quite done. I stepped back and held him at arm’s length. “Now, what agreement did you make with Allcot?”

He winced. “You’re going to be pissed.”

I pressed my lips into a tight line. “That was a foregone conclusion.”

It was so quiet in his apartment I could hear both of our hearts beating. The tension started to get to me and my wings flexed.

Tal’s gaze flickered over them. He stepped back as if to prepare for the impending storm. “In order for Allcot to keep his security assigned to you and your shop, I had to agree to supply him with my new creation.”

My mouth went dry and I forced out the words. “The stone-based one? The one that just went missing? The one we both agreed was entirely too dangerous in vampire hands?” My voice rose an octave with each sentence. “The one that’s just as dangerous as Influence, if not more?”

Tal stood his ground, stoically taking my wrath as I seethed in front of him.

“Well?” I ground out. “Are you actually telling me you promised your new invention to the most corrupt vampire in the city?”

He nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Chapter 7

“Why?” I shouted. “Dammit, Tal, why would you do that?” A sob formed at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it and took a deep, staggering breath. “You’ll be tied to him now. You know how this works. Once you’re in, you’re in. There’s no going back.” Allcot would use him in every possible way until Tal was entrenched in Allcot’s illegal dealings. Then the master vampire would own him. And Tal would cease to be the good and honest man I loved so much. This couldn’t happen. It was too awful.

He studied me and just as he opened his mouth to answer, a knock sounded on the door. He raised his index finger and retreated to the kitchen.

I swallowed a frustrated scream. Our dinner had shown up and I wasn’t even remotely hungry. I glanced down at my gorgeous plum dress and wished for my yoga pants and a T-shirt. Any thoughts of romance had left the building.

Tal paid the delivery guy and spent a few minutes arranging our dinner on plates before he set them on his table and waved me over. “What would you like to drink?”

I ignored him and stalked to the refrigerator. Inside I found a stick of butter, ketchup, a six-pack of beer, a half-empty bottle of wine, and pomegranate juice. There was no question Tal had bought the juice for me. It was my favorite. Or had been up until someone had laced some with Cherry Bomb and Phoebe had almost died. I hadn’t been able to take a drink of any since then. Angry at Tal and the fact I couldn’t stomach the drink, I grabbed a beer and flopped down in my chair across from him.

He raised an eyebrow at the bottle in my hand.

I mimicked his expression in challenge. “What?”

“Nothing.” He got up, grabbed a beer for himself, and rummaged around in another drawer until he came up with a bottle opener. He walked back to the table and popped the tops of both of our bottles.

I mumbled thanks, took a swig of the pale ale, and then shoveled a few bites of fish into my mouth. The food curdled in my stomach and instead of eating, I spent the next ten minutes moving the accompanying green beans around my plate.

Tal had no such problem. He finished every last bite of food on his plate and started eyeing mine.

I pushed my plate toward him and stood. “Take it. I’m not hungry.” Turning on my heel, I stalked to his bedroom and slammed the door behind me. Link lifted his head and growled from his place on the bed. “You, too?” I snapped.

Link jumped down and followed me to an armchair in the corner of the room. I folded myself into it and hauled Link onto my lap. He looked up at me, his eyes flashing gold as he started to vibrate.

Shoot! I was far too upset still and Link was seconds from shifting right in my lap. I took a deep breath and stroked his fur, trying to calm us both. My rage dialed down to a simmer, replaced by fear for Talisen. Fear for what was to come.

Tal knocked on the door. When I didn’t respond, he cracked it open and poked his head in. He glanced around and when he spotted me, he opened the door wider and walked in. “Can we talk now?”

“I was ready to talk earlier.” I scratched under Link’s ear and he started to relax by stretching out in my lap, giving me easier access.

“No, I don’t think you were. I’m pretty sure you were ready to kick my ass.”

I wanted to laugh but held my amusement in. I still wanted to kick his ass, but at least I didn’t want to scream at him anymore. Though it wasn’t off the table. “True. I was.”

Kicking off his shoes, he sat on the end of the bed and faced me. “The last thing I wanted to do was team up with Allcot.”

“Then why did you?”

He shook his head, not in denial, but in restrained frustration. “Because you already have.”

My fingers tightened in Link’s fur as anger started a slow burn in the pit of my stomach. Was he really turning this back on me? “I have
not
teamed up with him.”

“Maybe not intentionally, but you’re part of his circle now. Between what happened with David and the fact that he protects Beau Junior, did you really think he’d leave you alone?”

No. I’d known I was tied to Allcot. How could I not be? I’d turned his son into a daywalker and I was Beau Junior’s aunt. I’d always been on his radar. But that didn’t mean I’d teamed up with him. I wasn’t on his payroll. “Nobody thinks he’s going to ignore me. That doesn’t mean I have to cooperate with him.”

“Wil,” Tal said with no small amount of skepticism.

“Well, I don’t!”

“You already have. You’ve accepted a security detail. You’ve agreed to pretend one of them is your new boyfriend. And we’re hiding out here on Allcot’s orders. You’re doing everything he wants you to do.”

Link jumped off my lap and started to pace, a reaction to the tension in the room. “It’s not like I had a choice, now is it?” I demanded. “What did you expect me to do?”

He held his hands up. “I didn’t expect anything. I’m not saying you did anything wrong. I’m only saying sometimes circumstance dictates a course of action you’d rather not follow.”

I slumped in the chair, suddenly feeling very exposed. I wanted to grab a blanket and wrap it around my scantily clad body. Tal was seeing straight through me, past the front I was holding tightly in place. I wasn’t in control of the situation. Not even close. And Allcot did have me under his thumb. But only because I needed to protect Carrie and Beau…and Tal. I couldn’t do that on my own. Not with Asher coming for us all. “You’re right,” I said, my voice small. “I’m compromising my morals for protection. I don’t know what else to do.”

His feet hit the floor and he started to pace. Then he stopped in front of me. “Don’t you think I’m in the same position?”

I didn’t know how to answer that. Talisen wasn’t the target. Not yet, anyway. Why did he need Allcot’s protection?

“The new drug was stolen from the lab. There were only three people who even knew about it. Me. My boss. And you.” He paused. “All the tests were blind, and Dawson and I ran them ourselves. That means either Dawson leaked the drug or your house was already bugged when I told you about it.”

Crap, crap, crap! The hits just kept on coming. Fear and frustration fought for dominance as the two emotions weighed on my chest. Talisen had told me about his new invention about a week ago. If his boss wasn’t involved, then the leak had to have come from my house. “Any idea who stole it?”

His face hardened with resolve, and I knew what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth.

“Asher’s people,” I said.

He nodded and sat back down on the foot of the bed. “And that’s why I agreed to let Allcot’s men use it. If Asher has souped-up humans coming for you, I’m going to make damned sure your security has a fighting chance.”

A chill crawled over my skin, and I wrapped my arms around myself. I stared at my feet, unable to look him in the eye. “We could’ve found another way.”

He let out an angry sigh. “Yeah. You’re probably right. What do you think is better? You moving into Allcot’s place with all his vamps? Or maybe David could move back into your house?” He stopped pacing and ran a frustrated hand through his sun-lightened, chestnut hair. “Witness protection maybe? You could give up everyone and everything you love: Phoebe, your shop, Carrie and Beau Junior, your mom. Of course, your wings might be a problem. It’s not like there are tons of fae with ice-blue wing color.”

He turned and stalked out of the room, leaving Link and me staring after him. Link lifted his head, eyeing me with confusion.

I stood, chilled to the bone by his words. None of those options were appealing and he knew it. Way to use my worst fears to scare the crap out of me. Tal knew my friends and family were everything to me, even more so after we’d lost Beau.

Shivering, I crossed the room to his small walk-in closet and rummaged around until I found a pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt. There just wasn’t enough material in my dress to keep me warm. In the adjoining bathroom I found a pair of scissors and, without asking, cut slits in his shirt for my wings. If it was that big of a deal, I’d buy him a new one. But I doubted it. Tal wasn’t one to get worked up over his things.