that much information about the current state of my love life.
“So tell me,” Ilianna said.
“The first—can you contact the Brindle and ask if they’ve sensed any dark magic at work on or near the intersection? If he did use it, they’d have to know about it. Maybe they can tell us about either the magic or the man behind it.”
She frowned. “Not necessarily. It depends what sort of protection circle he’s using. It could be inclusive— keeping the magic and the spells within the circle and undetectable beyond it.”
“But surely the ley line itself would not be contained so easily?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask. The second task?”
I hesitated. “Tao’s struggling to pull himself together after the accident in the kitchen yesterday. I was wondering if there was some sort of potion or charm that might help him.”
She frowned. “Whatever I give him would be more illusion than reality. I’ve told you before, there’s no magic beyond time that will help him heal.”
If he ever does. She might not have said the words, but they nevertheless hung in the air between us.
“The illusion of help might be all he needs right now.”
She slowly nodded. “I’ll see what I can brew up.”
I hesitated again. “Good.”
Her gaze swept me shrewdly. She’d guessed that neither of my requests was what I’d really wanted. But all she said was, “The minute you sense anything magic related, you ring me. At the very least, I can advise you long distance.”
“That I can agree to.”
“Then go get something to eat before you collapse on your feet.”
“I do wish people would stop ordering me to eat,” I muttered, but nevertheless headed for the kitchen.
“Someone has to,” Ilianna said. “You seem damn determined to run yourself into the ground lately.”
“Which is an echo of what Azriel said not too long ago.”
“You should listen to him more often.”
I glanced back at her. “How much is he paying you to say that?”
She rol S St'>I glanled her eyes at me. “Speaking of our reaper, where is he?”
“Sulking.”
“What have you done to the poor man?”
I snorted softly. “He’s neither a man nor poor, and you should be on my side, not his.”
She shook her head, amusement tugging at her lips as she headed for her bedroom. I opened the fridge to study the contents, then decided on lamb sandwiches.
I glanced up at Jak. “You want a sandwich?”
“Yep.” He propped his butt up on the counter. “What sort of accident did Tao have?”
“That is none of your damn business.” I slapped thick slices of lamb between slices of bread and handed it to him.
“Huh.” He bit into his sandwich, then added, “So what is going on between you and Azriel?”
“Nothing. He’s a reaper.” I squashed my sandwich down with a little more force than necessary. “They don’t do love or life.”
“Which, interestingly enough, does not preclude them doing sex.”
I pointed the knife at him. “Drop it. Now.”
He grinned and held up his hands again. “A little too close to the mark, huh?”
“More wide of the mark, and still none of your business.”
Thankfully, Ilianna chose to call me into her bedroom at that moment. It was a cool green and normally very calming, but it didn’t do a lot to ease the tension suddenly coursing through me. She closed the door, then crossed her arms and said, “Out with it.”
I plopped down on the edge of her enormous bed. “Is it possible that some sort of attraction spell has been placed on me?”
Surprised flitted across her features. Whatever question she’d been expecting, that obviously hadn’t been it. “Why on earth would you think something like that has happened?”
“Because it would explain my unrelenting need to be sexual with Lucian whenever I’m with him.”
The surprise gave way to amusement. “Why does a spell have to be involved? I mean, he’s a hot and sensual man and you’re a werewolf—unrelenting need comes with that sort of combination, doesn’t it?”
I was shaking my head before she’d finished. “This is something else. It’s almost a compulsion. It takes a huge amount of effort to say no to the man, and I’ve never been like that with anyone before now, werewolf heritage or not.”
She frowned and walked across to me. She raised her hands and skimmed either side of my body, not touching me but close enough that I could feel the sudden tingle of energy flowing from her fingertips. Reading my aura.
She stepped back. “I can’t sense any obvious spell, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one on you. It could be a geas of some kind, which tends to be subtler and harder to trace.”
< normally em'>“Damn.” I thrust a hand through my hair. “Have you got anything that might be able to counter such magic?”
She hesitated, then went over to the huge, walk-in floor-to-ceiling cupboard that housed all her magical bits and pieces. She opened one side, revealing shelves stocked with all sorts of bottles, herbs, various tools, and other stuff I had no idea about, and fished around for several minutes. Eventually she returned with what looked like a thin rope bracelet entwined with dead leaves.
“This isn’t strong enough to totally counteract any spell or geas, but it will mute the force of it and allow clearheaded thinking.”
“Which is all I really need.” Sex with Lucian might be extraordinary, but I sure as hell still wanted the option of saying no occasionally.
She slipped the bracelet over my left hand, but as it settled on my wrist, the Dusan came to life, its head whipping around as if to study the intruder. Its tail lifted from my skin, curled around the bracelet, then returned to my flesh. And the bracelet went with it, prickling and itching as it leached into my skin. After a few seconds, it was little more than a leafed tattoo that encircled my wrist, one that was entwined by the Dusan’s serpent-like tail.
My gaze shot to Ilianna. “Was that supposed to happen?”
Ilianna’s eyes were wide. “Hell, no.”
“Azriel?”
He appeared and I shoved my hand at him. “Any ideas about this?”
He studied my newest tattoo with a frown. “Unfortunately, I do not know enough about the magic that created the Dusans, let alone understand what they are fully capable of. I had thought they were unable to be active on this plane, but that is patently untrue when it comes to the one that resides in your flesh.” His gaze met mine. His expression was flat, giving little away, and yet I felt the turmoil in him. He was fiercely glad that this had happened, and just as annoyed by the strength of that reaction. “This is not a bad thing, though.”
No, it wasn’t, though I suspected his reasons for thinking that stemmed more from a hope that I’d now stay totally away from Lucian rather than merely being less compelled in his presence.
Ilianna tentatively touched the tattoo. “The magic is still alive within it. Amazing.”
“Let’s just hope that if there is a compulsion, it works, because it looks like I’m stuck with it.”
But if there was a geas, and this bracelet did work, did that in any way imply that Lucian had meant me harm?
He’d made no secret of his desire for revenge, and definitely no secret of the fact that he would do anything—use anyone—to get it. Having a geas placed on me might be nothing more than his way of ensuring a continuing supply of the information he needed to hunt down the Raziq, especially since the only time he could fully read my mind was when we had sex.
Or was I simply trying to excuse the behavior of someone I liked, geas or not?
There was no easy answer to that one—or at least not one I wanted to confront right now—so I pulled the sleeve over the tattoo and said, “Holy water?”
