Smoke and Mirrors (32 page)

Kimberly fisted her hands on her hips, and pointed imperiously back at the car. He frowned, pausing in his tracks but staying where he was.

After a long, tense moment, the centaurs resumed their tour with Kimberly, this time keeping their children close. He stayed where he was, closing his eyes and extending his other senses to keep tabs on the group. He noted the few centaurs in their native form hiding amid the trees, bows trained on him, and dismissed them. He was more concerned whether Viper had recovered enough to hunt and sate his no doubt enormous appetite. He would be searching for prey such as the centaurs as soon as he was able.

Cormac’s senses told him the wyvern was still very much alive, but not close enough to be a threat. There were no other predators in the area significant enough to warrant him following the group with anything more than his Sight, so he leaned his butt against the pickup truck and tilted his face up to the sun, soaking in the warmth as he waited for them to return.

He was very proud to note that Kimberly was pausing every few yards to etch a mix of glyphs similar to the ones he used to guard his apartment above the Wild Hunt in the trees and rocks. The wards she was building were strong, though she appeared to be using more obfuscation and repelling sigils than he did.

It took several hours even though it appeared that the centaurs’ grazing area must have shrunken considerably along with the size of the herd. Her circle was still much larger than those that many skilled magi he knew were capable of drawing and imbuing with power. This was on the order of the magic used to guard monoliths like the academies and larger covens such as The Circle. That she was capable of putting it together with limited materials or time to study the lay of the land meant she had greater power and skill than he or Eleanor Reed or anyone else at Blackhollow may have guessed. He could sense that her strength was flagging by the time they returned, but she looked so pleased and self-satisfied that any worry he might have had faded away at the sight of her radiant smile.

The centaurs all looked quite pleased as well.

“Cormac, will you step back please?”

He did as she asked, returning to his lean against the car, and he watched with interest as she moved to the edge of the parking lot. She crouched down and used a piece of spelling chalk that was down to nothing more than a tiny nub in her fingers, etching a symbol into one of the big stones that bordered the edge of the field. The hair on the back of his neck and on his arms raised as the nearby ley lines chimed with a tremendous shift in power.

“Okay, that’s the last one,” she said. “Damaris, Eddie, a few others—can you try crossing over the line and coming back?”

The centaurs did, the one called Eddie snorting as he stepped back inside the range of her protective circle. He scrubbed at his arms, as did Damaris and the two other centaurs who did as she asked.

“Good. Can some of you shift now? Someone on the other side tell me what you see.”

Cormac tilted his head, watching with narrowed eyes. Some of the centaurs grew hazy in his vision, but when he blinked, they still looked human to him. Curious, he shifted to using his Sight instead—and was surprised to see they were in their native forms.

“They still look the same, my lady,” one of the centaurs said. Others chimed in to say the same.

“Come across the line.”

The centaur’s sound of surprise told Cormac everything he needed to know. The obfuscation sigils she added to the circle were hiding their native forms from prying eyes. It was a particularly thoughtful gesture on her part. Passing humans, Weres, or other hunters of a non-magical nature would never see the herd for what they were as long as they were outside the circle.

“Excellent. One last test. Cormac, will you try to reach me now, please?”

She took a step back deeper beyond the protection of the glyphs and folded her arms, waiting for him to come to her. Tilting his head, he pushed off the truck and stalked closer, eyes glued to hers as he met her challenging gaze.

He expected to meet resistance. He didn’t expect the minor jolt of electricity zapping over his skin, driving him back with a startled hiss.

“Sorry,” she said, the edge of laughter in her voice saying she wasn’t sorry at all. “Come on, we need to know it’ll hold. Can you get through?”

Determined to reach her, he put out a hand, testing the strength of the ward. It crackled over his fingers and gave a fraction, but held under the weight of his will seeking any crack or seam to exploit.

Both hands netted him the same result. The damned thing was near impregnable unless he shifted into his native form and expended a great deal more energy than he was prepared to waste.

The centaurs applauded when he stepped back and sketched a brief bow to concede defeat.

She’d designed it to detect carnivorous Others. The consequence of trying to pass wasn’t as deadly as someone not keyed attempting to cross his wards, but it would be painful enough to send all but the most determined Others seeking less dangerous prey.

He couldn’t have been more proud of her.

Then she forced her shoulders back and sauntered toward him in a way that lit an unexpected spark of desire in his blood. The smug little smile she gave him said without words that she knew very well just how easily he had expected to walk through her wards and that she had planned from the start to show off.

Xander had asked for her help with enchantments for good reason. Illusion wasn’t the only formidable skill in her magical repertoire.

Before she could reach him, the centaurs surrounded her to thank her, shaking her hand and singing her praises. Though they looked like people—people running exceptionally fast—he could feel the thunder of hooves as a small group broke off behind the line to race around in a joyful display in the safety of their circle. The kids were quick to join them, prancing around the adults, all of them radiating relief and delight. She tried to brush it off as nothing, but those who stayed behind wouldn’t let her, insisting she let them give her some money, food, and other gifts.

Then Cormac went very still as she said something that froze the blood in his veins.

“Thank you for everything! I’m afraid I do need to take up the offer for a familiar though. Can one of you meet me at Blackhollow Academy on Monday morning?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

“Kimberly,” he said, gritting the words between his teeth, “can I have a word with you?”

She turned a frown on him. “No.”

Then she did the unthinkable. She ignored him in favor of the centaurs.

It took everything he had not to burst out of his skin in a jealous rage. They picked up on his displeasure, many of them edging back over the line of the circle, their fear only making his desire to shift and tear something apart with claw and fang grow stronger.

He went back to the car and stared up at the distant horizon, concentrating on calming himself down. There had to be a reason she would spurn his offer to give her everything she wanted. That she would turn him down in favor of a centaur for a familiar was beyond belief, and quite possibly one of the most insulting things that had ever happened to him.

He couldn’t grasp her motivations. He couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t accept his offer. He didn’t get why she didn’t want his money, his jewels, his power.

He couldn’t figure out what in the nine hells a centaur had that he didn’t.

It was driving him daft. She was driving him daft.

And he didn’t care. As long as she let him into her life, he would let her do whatever it was that made her happy.

It was a strangely calming realization. If he had to suffer her having a centaur for a shadow, so be it. It was a small price to pay considering how badly he had wounded her pride.

Pride. That stirred something. He wasn’t sure what the connection was to what she was doing yet, but he’d give it some contemplation when he wasn’t so riled or had the distraction of her twisting his every thought to what else he could do to please her and make amends for hurting her.

As she wrapped things up with the centaurs, he took note of the one who promised to be her familiar. Eddie, one of the bucks, he was more than a little displeased to see. The boy looked like he belonged on a farm somewhere, with his tan and sun-streaked hair, and more muscular build than the one Cormac had chosen to use for himself. It raised his hackles to see the way she touched the centaur’s arm and smiled up at him.

Telling himself that it meant nothing didn’t do a thing to quell his desire to shift and snatch her up to fly off with her somewhere nice and private. At some point he would drive home to her that he meant everything he had said. He had never intended to hurt her. He wanted her like he’d never wanted anything. Not all the jewels and gold and precious valuables in his hoard meant a thing if he couldn’t have her.

Some of the tension in his muscles eased when she waved her goodbyes and came back to his side, smiling up at him.

“Thank you for helping with the demonstration. That was very nice of you to keep an eye on things.”

He nodded, his lips twitching despite his efforts to maintain a stony and aloof expression. He just couldn’t do it when she was looking so happy. That happiness was infectious, and ruining his image of being the biggest, baddest monster in town.

Perhaps he should do something about that.

“And thank you for not flipping out about the familiar thing. I know you’re not happy about it.”

His own smile widened at that. “Oh, I wouldn’t thank me yet. Would you say you’re finished here?”

“I guess so—oh!”

He barely waited for the words to finish leaving her mouth before grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder. She gasped at the treatment, smacking his back.

“Put me down!”

“In a minute.” He turned to the centaurs clustered together in a group, gaping at the two of them. “Clan Archer, thank you for your hospitality. If there’s nothing else, we’ll be leaving now.”

Damaris was the first to find her voice, though it still sounded a bit high and strangled. “Kimberly, will you be all right?”

“I’m fine,” she muttered, giving Cormac another thump with her fist. “See you guys on Mon—”

Cormac didn’t wait for her to finish. A shriek was startled out of her and the centaurs were stampeding away in terror as the monster hidden by human skin burst free. Kimberly threw her arms around one of the growing spines on his back, panting in fear as her sneakers fought for purchase against slick scales. His wings spreading impossibly wide to blot out the sun as he shifted into his draconic form, bunching the muscles near where Kimberly was trying to hold on, making it easier for her to find purchase and steady herself.

It only took seconds for him to change, though he took care to ensure he didn’t brush up against the walls of Kimberly’s circle or do anything to damage the cars in the lot. The obfuscation spells he typically used to hide himself from mortal eyes when in his native form snapped into place, sending a tingle of magic and sheet of blue-white sparks racing over them both.

Once he was settled in his own skin, he arched his long, sinuous neck to peer back at her, the deep blue orbs glinting with what she was certain was amusement at her expense. With a grunt of effort, she heaved one leg up to hook behind the iguana-like spine that towered higher than she was tall, seating herself properly on his back as she clung to him for dear life.

“That was very rude,” she told him, voice shaking as much as the rest of her.

Cormac snorted, a little puff of smoke drifting up from his nostrils. “Proper comportment is the least of my concerns at the moment. Hang on tight…”

Her fingers dug deep into the cartilage of the spine she was clinging to as he took to the air in one powerful leap. Muscles and scales heaved under her legs, rising and falling with every flap of his wings.

“Sorry!” she yelled down at the centaurs rushing pell-mell for the trees. She didn’t think they could hear her over their own pounding hooves.

Once they were high above the trees, he steadied into a glide as he rode a thermal taking them back over the Sound. The jarring movements tapered off and Kimberly was able to swallow her heart out of her throat.

As badly as Viper had frightened her on the last flight she was conscious for, this time she had a hard time being scared for long. It was an entirely different experience on dragonback. She had to hold tight with her arms and legs, but it wasn’t anywhere near as uncomfortable as being carried and near crushed by a set of razor talons. Soaring with the birds had her stomach bouncing between her shoes and the back of her tongue, but the wind rushing through her hair, the panoramic spread of the Sound and distant city before her, the fresh seawater scent, and the sun on her face filled her with exhilaration.

Knowing Cormac wouldn’t let her fall made it easier to slip into the moment and enjoy the rush at the occasional dips and dives he took with the shifting air currents.

Kimberly looked all around, trying to take in everything at once as Cormac flew them over the water. She had to shield her eyes and squint against the wind, and it was colder than she was dressed for, but the view took her breath away. When they reached the city, he slowed down and angled his wings to take them in low. He started to bank to one side as if preparing to go sideways between a row of skyscrapers, but he altered his angle to go around them instead when her grip tightened as she went rigid.