The Beast Within (19 page)

A point appeared in the steam on the mirror, then fanned out and Rhys materialized. “Why am I in a mirror? Do you know how hard it is to project my form in a mirror? I work best in cyberspace! And I hate this suit!”

He was wearing the black suit with the blue tie he had been buried in. “I’ll release you from the mirror as soon as we’re done.” As long as he kept his hand on the triskellion, he held Rhys’s spirit in the mirror. “What have you found?”

Rhys’s blue eyes grew brighter and the mirror shook with a rumble. “It’s Sinclair St. James.”

“Sin?” He was as old as Gage and damn near as powerful. They’d been friends for a century until Gage fried and cut off all contact. “Why the hell would Sin kidnap an old woman?” He tried to reason it out.

“Calia’s phone was destroyed and it took every skill I have to get an old voice mail from Sin offering to hire her at any price.” Rhys paced the mirror. “It can’t be a coincidence that Sin had contacted her, then she’s kidnapped by a wizard. It has to be him.”

“Troll balls,” Gage snarled, keeping his voice lower than the sound of the water running. “Does he know I’m fried?”

Rhys shrugged. “He probably suspects.”

Not good. Sin was an old master wizard and, even at his best, it would be a battle for Gage to defeat him. He had to be smart, had to find out as much as he could. “Where is he?”

The fog surrounding Rhys turned red. “I don’t know. I can’t find a cyber-link to him. No cell phone, no computer, not even GPS in a car. The wizard has unplugged. He does not want to be found.”

Real worry snaked up Gage’s spine and clenched his jaw. “What the hell is he doing?” Then quickly, Gage summed up his experience with flash-jumping and finding the two gemstones.

Rhys’s face was grim. “Then we know he’s not fried if he’s flash-jumping. At least not yet, but he could be close.” He blew out a breath that melted away more steam. “You have to ground your power, Gage. Now. If Sin is on edge, he’s extremely dangerous.”

He had to find and then stop or kill Sin. Ignoring the pang in his gut at the loss of yet another person in his life, he dealt in the facts. “The potion is working. I’m flash-jumping…but I’m behind Sin. He has a cloaking spell around the two of them.”

Rhys dropped his gaze over Gage’s chest. “If you’re flash-jumping, then your powers are healing. What’s grounding them?”

“Mira. I think.” Without revealing too much, he told about his markings on her.

Rhys looked as surprised as Gage, then turned his head to the right, looking at something Gage couldn’t see. “Your magic fried when you pulled the power Jillian stole back to you before killing her. It was too much, like too much electricity and it had nowhere to go. You short-circuited.”

“My mantling on Mira, you think she might be able to absorb the excess power?” She was magic-blind, completely frigid. Was that possible?

Still staring off at something only he could see, Rhys said, “Sexual energy could be a conductor. And Mira the vessel that grounds you.”

“Vessel?” He glared at his mentor. “Do not ever refer to her that way. Ever.” She was not an object.

Rhys snapped his head around. “Bad choice of words. If this woman can ground your powers, she’s damned amazing. She’s unique. Special.”

He nodded once.

“But you have to find out. I am surmising you have not had full sexual intercourse. Don’t growl, boy. I am not asking for details. Your town is in serious danger. You have a possible rogue wizard on the loose and you still need to seal that portal on your grounds.” Rhys bored his stare into Gage and added, “If Mira can ground your power with sexual intercourse, and she is willing, then do it. Or people are going to die.”

There was a reason Rhys had been his mentor. He had been an excellent master wizard, and he’d never abused his power. He’d also treated Gage more like a son than his father had. His old man had wanted sexual details. Wanted Gage to provide him with women for sex. It had disgusted him. Rhys, on the other hand, never said much about his sexual encounters. Gage had seen numerous women in and out of Rhys’s life. And he’d seen them call Rhys later when they needed help.

Rhys had been there without question.

Rhys had taught Gage more about being a man and a wizard than his parents had.

“All right,” Gage said. “I’ll do it.”

“Are you going to tell her about your fried power?”

“Can’t.” Part of him wanted to. Like he’d told her about his parents, about what it was like to live so long and lose so many. But Mira had blackmailed him to get his help. He couldn’t trust her with the knowledge of his fried power. If she revealed it, and the town fired him, who would protect the town from the troll-demons or any number of other threats?

M
ira spent hours organizing. This was what she was good at—making things happen. She arranged for food, clothes and cell phones. She did what work she could from the hotel room. Gage seemed to be running his own empire too. She was spread out on the bed while he used the table. She hung up from another round of coaching her cousins through everyday tasks, and then having to call three customers to fix problems. Now she picked up her coffee cup and watched Gage.

He had his phone cradled against his shoulder and was working on one of the two laptops she’d managed to procure for them. “Fifteen hundred is the total of the Remington Day gifts?”

He sounded unsatisfied. A flash of disappointment chased by a wave of anger went through her. The town honored him! Gave him what they could on top of his monthly stipend and he had the nerve to complain?

“Okay…” He paused scrolling through something on his computer. “Add another twenty thousand and give it all to Dr. Margaret Lewis at the children’s hospital. She’s doing amazing work with the cancer patients.” He ended the call and put the phone down, rolled his neck, then caught her staring. “What?”

Mira closed her mouth, turned to set her coffee cup on the nightstand, then asked, “You don’t keep the gifts?”

He dropped his hand from rubbing his neck. “What difference does it make?”

A hell of a lot. He used the money from the gifts to help other people. It made a difference. “The twenty thousand you added, where does it come from?”

He lowered his eyebrows. “Private donors.”

His answer was too flat, too pat. He was lying. She felt it in her gut. “It’s your money.” How many times had he done stuff like this? It wasn’t public knowledge.

He picked up his bottle of water and stretched out his long legs in front of him as if the whole subject bored him.

Curiosity burned in her chest. Who was this wizard? He was huge, warrior-like with his massive size, muscles and markings. She’d thought him hard, cold, selfish and dangerous, but was it possible he had a heart? “How many people work for you?”

He drank a long swallow, then said, “Full-time, I have a staff of twelve, and another half dozen part-time. Then there’s my personal staff of three.”

She lowered her mug of coffee to rest on her jean-covered leg. She’d had the store deliver a pair of jeans and another of those soft cotton shirts for him in a blue that brought out Gage’s eyes. The short sleeves gave her a nice view of his masculine arms covered in mantling. “Fifteen full-time and six part-time? What do they do?”

“My personal staff is my housekeeper, business manager and secretary. Then there’s the dozen or so who run my website and man the phones, the liaisons with the police, mayor’s office and city council, still others cover the town looking for trouble or people who have needs. I also have people connecting with the hospitals, shelters, etcetera.” He shrugged, stood up and walked to the dresser across from the end of the bed. “They do what I tell them to. With my being gone right now, they are all working harder.” Gage picked up the bottle of pinot grigio chilling in the ice bucket, opened it and filled two glasses. He picked them up and walked to her.

She lifted her gaze to the man towering over the side of the bed. He smelled of soap, rich amber and that ever-present tang of electricity. The mantling lines snaked down his arm. Did she hear a hum? A whispered plea for her to touch his magic?

Or was she just horny for the wizard? Like so many other women before her? If they hadn’t flash-jumped this morning…

She reached out and took the glass of wine. “Thanks.”

“Move.”

She drew her eyebrows together at his gruff order. Since nearly ripping his clothes off and having her way with him on that rock, she’d kept her distance, unable to trust her rising desire. “Why?”

“Because it’s been hours since we last jumped. I want to make sure I have you.”

“Oh.” How could she argue with that? She shifted her work and scooted over. The bed dipped under his weight as he sat down and stretched his legs alongside hers. He dwarfed her, making her almost feel delicate. Besides the jeans, she was wearing a black T-shirt and tennis shoes. She wasn’t going to be caught barefoot this time. She had the two gemstones tucked into the cup of her bra. The heat of Gage touched her thighs and brushed along her arm. She took a long drink of her wine.

She was still hot. Still…empty. A tiny voice in her brain said she should climb up on Gage’s lap. You know…in case they jumped.

That voice was a big, fat, horny slut. She took a deep drink of her wine to shut it up. Nope, still there, still whispering…

Annoyed and embarrassed at her reaction, she frantically tried to think of something to say to quiet the voice. She blurted out, “You’re practically an empire with all the people you employ.” Oh real smooth, she thought dryly. But still, being the town wizard was harder than she’d imagined. She wanted to know more about him. Like why he was a recluse, why his house was like something out of a bad horror flick on the outside, and perfectly normal on the inside. She started with, “Why do you refuse to come to Remington Day? It’s rude. All those people are there to honor you.”

He looked down at her, his gaze threaded with something dark and dangerous. “You saw why, Mira.”

More cool wine slid down her throat, then she lowered her glass. “The troll-demon things. So you do have a portal on your land.”

“Obviously.”

Thinking about the demon who had murdered her parents, her stomach tightened. She could still remember her father throwing her up in the air and his massive hands catching her. She could still recall the scent of apples from her mom’s shampoo when she’d snuggle in bed and read to her every night. “What about now that you’re not there? Will the troll-demons get out?”

“No.”

“How can you be sure?”

He studied his wineglass. “It only happens once a year for about ninety minutes. The rest of the year, the portal is completely sealed. Nothing can get out.”

She didn’t understand. “But…only once a year? On Remington Day?” That was the anniversary of her parents’ deaths and when he’d banished the demon that—“Oh gods above, that’s the portal your apprentice opened!”

He nodded. “I sealed it, but every year on the anniversary of the demon’s banishment, a weakness in the seal appears. Only troll-demons can get through. There’s not enough of a break in the seal for more dangerous demons to get through.”

Fear kicked up her pulse at the realization that if Gage hadn’t been protecting them all these years, those hideous trolls would be crawling all over the town. It was like her nightmares when she’d awaken in hot terror, then cold shakes, terrified the demon was coming to get her, to tear her apart limb by limb. “I didn’t know….” she said softly. Feeling the warmth of Gage next to her drove the old terror back.

He set his glass down beside her coffee cup and said, “No one knows. Not until you showed up and saw them.”

“That’s why you scare people away. You don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Mira was facing a truth she didn’t want to face. One she had resisted, no matter how much the town bragged about their wizard. She’d misjudged him and she owed him an apology. “I’m sorry. I guess…it’s just always been easier for me to believe you didn’t care. That you’re selfish and self-involved. That…”
Shit.
She drained the wine in her glass.

Gage caught hold of her face, turning her head to face him. “That what?”

Just kiss him, then you won’t have to tell him!
She was tempted, but after what he’d just told her, after all that she’d learned about him, she couldn’t avoid the truth. “That if you’re not at fault for my parents’ death, then I am.”

His hand tightened on her face. “You? But you were only a kid. What are you now? Twenty-three?”

“Twenty-four.” He had her trapped in his gaze.

“So you’d have been seven years old. How the hell can you blame yourself?”

It was an effort, but she turned her gaze away to look out into the darkness outside the window. When had it gotten so late? She hadn’t noticed.

“Mira? Tell me,” he encouraged softly.

She twirled the stem of the wineglass in her fingers, feeling the weight and heat of him next to her. “I know why they went to see you that day. Because of me. Because I’m frigid and they were…ashamed.
A curse
is what my grandfather, my mother’s father, called me at the funeral. But I blamed you.”

Holding her face with his hand, Gage felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach. She blamed herself? Dark guilt crawled through him. She’d been a child! And yeah, her parents had been there to ask him to infuse her with magic so she’d be sensitive, a risky thing he would have refused.

But he hadn’t been there.

“You were right to blame me. It was my fault.” Gage heard the words coming from his mouth, seventeen years of guilt, of regret, spilling out of him.

Mira went still. He felt her jaw flex beneath his hand. Then she pushed his hand off her face, put her wineglass down on the nightstand and leaned back against the headboard. Crossing her arms over her stomach, she stared at the blank TV screen mounted over the dresser. “What happened that day?”

“Your parents had an appointment with me. I knew it. But I left anyway. I went to the Realm.”

She turned to look at him. “What’s that?”

“It’s a plane of existence that only wizards can reach. We hold our sacred ceremonies there. It’s where I was branded a master. More rarely, a mating ceremony is held there. But most wizards never mate.”

She frowned at that. “Why?”

He shrugged. “Our training is rigorous and intense, all about the mind and body connection, about studying and more studying. We cannot control what we do not understand. We are trained to think with logic, never emotion. It makes us stronger, better decision-makers and better protectors. But we don’t really connect and form mating bonds.”

Soft gold color spread in her eyes. “That sounds…cold.”

He shrugged. “It’s what it takes to achieve a master wizard level of power. We train out emotions that can cloud judgment. With so much power, we must be solid and grounded or we are too dangerous.”

“So how did this happen? How did you allow your apprentice to summon a demon?”

His gut burned at the memory. “I let emotion, lust, cloud my judgment. Jillian applied to be my apprentice. I was very attracted to her and knew I should turn her away. But after a couple centuries of women vying for sex with me, sex with a wizard, it was getting tiresome. Normally, sexual energy fuels our power. But it was just getting…flat.”

“There are stories how women gathered around you and you’d just pick like from a buffet.”

The disgust in her voice made him feel old. “I am what I am, Mira. I’m magic-born, and I worked for decades to achieve my master wizard status. It has its perks, and it’s also why you blackmailed me into helping you.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, yeah, you’re top of the food chain. We all bow down as you walk by. Go on. Tell me how your apprentice, a woman, of course, brought you down.”

Amusement tugged at his mouth. She clearly wasn’t impressed with his status. Mira treated him like an equal who had to work for her approval…and it didn’t suck. It made him want to be better, to get a smile or admiring word from her. He had an even stronger urge to take hold of her, roll her beneath him and kiss her into silence. Or moans.

She snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Hello?”

He caught her wrist. “Don’t make me bite you,” he teased. Holding her hand on his thigh, he told her the story. “I began to train Jillian. She had the raw talent and power, but her self-discipline was lacking. I went to her room one night to tell her she had a choice. Work harder or get out.” He felt himself sliding back into the memory.

She squeezed his hand, pulling him back. “And?”

He kept it simple. “She was naked.”

Mira took her hand away. “Can’t pass that up.”

Gage fought his need to grab her hand back. “She did work harder, for a while. She also came to my bed. A lot. It seemed mutually beneficial until I caught on to the pattern. She was stronger after we had sex. Every single time. I had to be sure.” He turned and faced Mira. “So even though I had scheduled an appointment with your parents, I left and went to the Realm.”

Her face was tight, her eyes uneasy. “Why?”

“I needed clarity and the Realm can provide that by allowing me to open my third eye to see what she was really doing. I saw it all, how she was using sexual energy to steal power from me.” He’d been furious, but what he saw next had been a betrayal of everything Gage believed in, of all the things he’d vowed as a master wizard. “It gets worse,” he warned. “I saw that Jillian was raising a demon, hoping it would help her kill me and steal more power.”

Mira’s face drained of color. “But the demon killed my parents.”

His muscles tensed at the memory. “I flashed back to earth and my house as quickly as I could. But it was too late. Jillian couldn’t control the demon, so she ran and hid. It found your parents.”

Her shoulders dropped and her hands curled into fists in her lap. “And killed them.”

He nodded. “I found the demon and banished it. Then I found Jillian. She’d been hiding from the monster she summoned. When I dragged her out, dragged her to that—” He remembered how she had barely looked at the two people whose lives had been brutally torn from them. Instead, she’d tried to seduce him, and begged him to not kill her. “I did what had to be done and killed her.”

He had to clamp his mouth shut to keep from telling her the rest. How he’d pulled his power back from her, making sure she couldn’t take it with her into hell where the demon she’d bargained with would get ahold of it. Gage had already lived a couple of hundred years and was covered in mantling. There was nowhere for all that power to go. The power hit his triskellion and mantling. His power had overloaded, then short-circuited. In short, he had fried.

And Mira might be the answer. She could be the one woman who could ground his power and free up his magic. He needed her to trust him, believe in him. Help him heal. And in return he’d rescue her grandmother. But he couldn’t reveal any more weaknesses to her, couldn’t let her know he was fried.