Sentinel: A Light Mage Wars Novella (The Light Mage Wars) (17 page)

"
You're listening now, Sunshine. That's what counts."

"
Thanks for that," she said softly. "I miss you."

"
I can be there in two minutes."

"
Really?" She wrinkled her nose. "Where are you?"

"
In my car in front of your building. I parked here before I sent the text. Hoping, you know?"

"
I know. I do know. Come up."

Caro hurried to open her door.
Standing in the doorframe, she caught the ring of familiar footsteps on the metal stairs. A moment more, and the familiar aura of Rick's magic brushed her mage senses.

Her smile widened, and her heart beat faster.
"Hurry," she called.

Then, suddenly, he was there.
"Translocated," he said, and kissed her.

The deep, passionate kiss rolled a haze of pleasure through her brain.
His hands roamed, shaping her hips, her waist, her breast. Caro stroked his shoulders and chest and his firm, sculpted butt.

An indeterminate time later, breathing hard, Rick raised his head.
"Let's take this inside."

"
Absolutely."

Holding
onto her, he backed her into the apartment. Rick shut and locked the door.

He stroked her hair back from her face.
"I missed you more than I thought I could miss anyone."

"
Rick, I'm sorry–"

"
Sshh." He tapped her lips with one finger. "I'm sorry, too, for not coming clean right away and for letting Stan use me. You've been burned, Sunshine, and you had reason to think I was the same as the rest of them."

Caro
touched his cheek and took a deep breath. He deserved to hear this. She would take the first step, not wait to see if it was safe.

"
I love you," she blurted, and elation erupted from him, washing over her magical senses like a summer breeze. "I didn't want to, but I couldn't deny it. I love you, Rick."

The muscles under her fingertips bunched.
He was smiling. "That works out well, then, my Sunshine Caroline, because I love you, too."

Caro flung her arms around his neck and kissed him.
His lips moved on hers, tantalizing, seducing.

Heat bubbled deep within her.
She kissed Rick's jaw, then his neck, and he groaned.

"
You know," he murmured, his breath feathering over the sensitive spot below her ear and generating quivers deep inside her, "there's a traditional way to celebrate when two people have said they love each other."

He nipped her ear, and Caro shuddered, clutching him.

"What?" she asked breathlessly, though she was sure she knew.

Cupping her butt, he lifted.
She automatically locked her legs around his waist. The hard bulge of his erection pressed into her core. Pleasure and need flashed through her, and Caro tightened her hold on him.

Rick turned toward the bedroom.
"I'll show you how."

Caro pressed her face to his neck
and savored his citrus spice scent. "I can't wait."

Epilogue

Caro intercepted Rick before he could reach the door.
"Be nice," she reminded him.

"
Yeah, yeah. I will if Davis will." He still thought the guy was a damned sight too protective of Rick's fiancée.

With a sigh, s
he hooked a hand around his arm and walked beside him to answer the door. Rick opened it. Will Davis stood outside with a colorful bouquet of spring flowers in hand. Davis's light blue eyes shot to Caro, checking.

"
You can cut that out," Rick said. "I only keep her in the straitjacket when I know no one's coming to visit."

Caro groaned.
"Rick..."

"
No, Shrimp, he's right." Davis flashed him a rueful grin. "I'm overdoing it. Sorry."

"
Come in." Rick opened the door more widely to admit their guest.

After a few minutes of fussing with the flowers and fetching beer,
Caro shooed Rick and Davis out of the kitchen. Rick found himself showing their guest into Caroline's living room. He'd moved in here with her because she had more room than he did.

"
I usually help with dinner, so I think she wants us to talk," Rick muttered, dropping onto the loveseat. "Bond or something."

"
Yeah." Davis folded his tall, solid frame into one of the dainty armchairs. Looking oddly out of place in it, he turned his beer bottle between his hands. He seemed to have something to say, so Rick nursed his beer and waited.

At last, the other man looked up.
"Griff and I were close," he said quietly. "You probably know that."

"
Yeah."

"
So for his sake as well as hers, I'm asking, do you understand what a treasure you have there?"

"
I absolutely do," Rick assured him. "Look, Will, I know I don't deserve her. Nobody deserves her, but I'm lucky enough to have her think I do. So I'm not going to blow that, I swear."

Davis studied him briefly, then nodded.
"Good enough." Holding up his beer bottle, he said "To Caroline."

Rick clinked his bottle against his guest
's and drank. Four weeks and three days ago, Caroline had agreed to marry him. Three weeks and a day from now, they would seal the deal. He was the luckiest guy on the planet.

"
So," Davis began, "What's up with y'all's lawsuit?"

"
Stan's out on his ass," Rick said. Even though Stan deserved it, Rick couldn't help mourning the friendship he'd thought they had as well as the loss of all that talent gone astray. "We settled. I'm temporary managing editor until Samantha Powell can clear her desk and take over."

"
No more column?"

"
Not for right now. Stuart has dug up some witnesses and gotten an indictment against J. Hiram Jones, the guy whose misuse of dark magic was blamed on my dad."

"
No statute of limitations on dark magic use," Davis noted with approval.

"
How do you know that?" Rick demanded. "Do you have a law degree, too?"

"
I'm a loremaster." Davis shrugged. "I read. So I know a lot of obscure stuff." He paused to take a hit on his beer. "Once they get the guy in the obsidian seat in their ritual room, the ward around it'll show whether he's telling the truth. If he's guilty, he's toast."

"
Let's hope." Then Dad's name would be clear. At last. "With that going on and managing the website's news side, I don't want to split my focus."

"
Makes sense." Davis pushed his shaggy hair out of his face. "I saw that your new book hit the actual
USA Today
list a couple of weeks back, so I wondered if you'd drop the column."

"
No. I won't write it as often, but it'll be harder edged. I can make a difference with it. Speak up for people like my family, who aren't well connected."

He
'd gotten that opportunity and the indictment of Jones because he knew Stuart Dare. That rankled a bit. The fact that Stuart often took cases for free, might even have taken Rick's dad's if they'd known to ask, eased his discomfort only a little.

Davis nodded slowly, then lifted his bottle in salute.
"You'll be kind of a sentinel, on watch for those among us who would abuse their power."

Rick blinked.
"I hadn't thought about it like that, but yeah, I guess so."

Caro walked back into the room.
Standing behind Rick's chair, she laid a hand on his shoulder. He caught and kissed it, relishing the way her fingers tightened on his.

"
We have a nice addition to our house fund, too," she said.

"
I figured that." Davis grinned. "Your dad wasn't going to let them off the hook for peanuts. So when are you thinking you'll move?"

"
We pooled our savings," Caro replied, her hand still locked in Rick's. "With the settlement money, we can start looking right after the honeymoon."

"
Awesome. You know, I wouldn't do this for just anybody, but if y'all need help moving furniture, give me a call."

"
That's covered," Rick said. "But we'd be glad to have you come to dinner and help us break the place in."

As Caro
's grip tightened in silent approval, Davis said, "Hey, I'm always up for free food."

"
Who said anything about free?" she returned. "You're family, not company. You'll be helping with the dishes."

Davis
gave her a cocky smile. "You want to risk your nice, new wedding dishes on me, I'll pitch in."

"
Right now," she said, "come pitch into dinner. The chicken's ready, and I have everything on the table."

When Rick would
've followed their guest, Caro tugged him back. "Hey," she whispered. "Thank you for making the effort."

"
Like you said," he replied softly, "the guy's family." Rick was even warming to the idea. Sort of.

He pulled Caroline into a quick kiss that spontaneously combusted and blanked his brain.

"Hey," Davis called, a teasing note in his voice, "either join me here or get a room. But I'm starting in five seconds whether you're at the table or not."

"
Coming," Caro called. Lowering her voice, she told Rick, "I love you, Dudley."

"
Back atcha, Sunshine."

#

After dinner, Will walked out to his silver Infiniti. He climbed in, stuck the key in the ignition, and pulled his phone out of his back pocket. He paused to glance up at the lighted windows of Caro's loft, then smiled.

Keying in the number of a
particular burner phone took only a moment. Will thumb-typed a quick text.
You don't have to worry. She's happy, and he knows he's a lucky bastard.

When the
phone confirmed that his message had gone, he magically deleted it from text history. He glanced up at Caro's window once more, then started the car and pulled away from the curb.

The End

Note to Readers

Thank you for reading
Sentinel
. I hope you enjoyed it. If you're inclined to leave a review online, I would appreciate it.

T
here's information on my
Website
about how to obtain signed copies of the covers for
Sentinel
and my other books. I don't keep addresses, so asking for a cover card won't get you on any mailing list. If you're interested, you can click
Here
.

If you'd like me to keep you posted about new releases, you can sign up for my newsletter on the right-hand sidebar of my homepage. Just click
Here
. Newsletters come out only when I have a new release or other important news, so you
'll hear from me just a few times a year.

Thanks again!

More About the Mages

Griffin Dare
's story is told in
Renegade
. Set three years after the events in
Sentinel
, it's Book 1 of The Protectors but is also part of the Light Mage Wars saga.

To read an excerpt, click
Here

To buy
Renegade
, click here.

Amazon Kindle Store

After
Renegade
, the story continues in
Protector
, a novella, and
Guardian.

You can find further information about the mages and their world
Here
, on Nancy
's website.

Acknowledgements

Authors always hope someone will dive into our worlds and read our work. I'm grateful to the readers who discovered my Light Mages under the Protectors banner and doubly so to those who are following them in their new Light Mage Wars incarnation.

One of the pleasures of writing different characters is learning about their lives
. For Caroline, I had invaluable help from Jesse Smith. His insights into the ways people adapt to blindness gave me ideas I would never have had otherwise. I extrapolated some from our discussion, so any errors should be attributed only to me.

Associate Professor of Art Mary Tuma of UNC-Charlotte patiently discussed the ins and outs of building a career as a fabric artist
. While only a little of what we discussed about weaving actually appears in the book, her generosity with her time enabled me to slide more easily into Caro's head. For Rick, I took my questions to Ann Wicker, Cassondra Murray, and Jeri Krentz, who have experience with the ins and outs of journalism. Again, any errors are mine, not theirs.

Kathy Roche and Anna Kate Roche gave me terrific pointers about Macon, Georgia
. Kathy showed my husband and me around so that I had a better idea of Rick and Caro's world.

My agent, Beth Miller, continues to support this series and my goals, and I
'm always grateful to her. Sarah Thwaite, Jennifer Gall, and Rachel Selvin offered valuable insights.

Debbie Yutko, Jeanne Adams, Cassondra Murray, Steve Doyle, Van Garrison, and PJ Ausdenmore provided critical feedback.

Thanks to Lyndsey Lewellen of LLewellen Designs for the fabulous cover, to Ann Wicker of East Oak Media for copyedits, and to Jennifer Jakes of The Killion Group for formatting and interior design.

The Romance Bandits, the women of Avocat Noir, and the DC2K Writers provide ongoing support and suggestions
. The advice of Gerri Russell, Dianna Love and Patricia Rice proved extremely helpful.

My classmates at the annual Davidson Wild Women
's Beach Retreat are always interested and encouraging. Special thanks this time to go Van Garrison for an amazing PowerPoint presentation and to Bonnie Revelle for letting me read from her copy of
Guardian
.

As always, the support of my husband, Mark, and our son, Gavin, has been my rock
. It's easier to believe in your dream when the people around you want you to go for it. Thanks, guys, with all my heart.