Liar,the internal me and Atticus commented in unison. The latter no longer sat on the trunk, but was instead skulking about in the nearby dumpster. I wasn’t sure why and was afraid to ask, in case he was mousing and decided to drop the carcass either in the car or my damn bed.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and pushed away from the car. “Am I allowed to know the mage’s name, or is it all hush-hush?”
René fell into step beside me, a big presence whose magical silence made me want to sigh in pleasure. “She will not reveal herself to you, and this is not her premises. It belongs to a friend of a friend who has been paid for the closure of his shop and his absence for the period of one hour.”
I glanced at him, my eyebrows raised. “A little overcautious, don’t you think?”
His gaze slanted toward mine, silver stars gleaming brightly. “You’re Society, and she’s a dark witch. You’re lucky she agreed to even meet us.”
“Then why did she?”
“As a favor to me.”
“Why?”
A smile tugged his lips. “We are too early in our relationship to start giving out secrets like that.”
“We are not in a relationship.”
“Not yet, I agree, but you did toast to my declaration of pursuit last nightandthe possibility of an ongoing relationship once this case is over.”
“I’ve since discovered you’ve never been seen with the same woman twice, so I’m thinking the whole relationship thing is a nonstarter.”
“While neither statement is true, wouldn’t one night of amazing sex be better than none?”
Onehourof amazing sex would be better than the none I was getting right now, but I wasn’t about to admit to the lack of satisfaction in my life, because that would just make me seem sad. “As I said, I don’t do one-night stands.”
“Well, good, because asIhave said, I will not be satiated by one mere night.”
That makes two of us....A shiver that was half wanting, half fear rolled through me. I might be a thirty-eight-year-old whose marriage had been sexually satisfying, but that was years ago. Right now, I fucking felt like a teenager giddy over her first date.
I really needed to get a grip.
On him, I suspectcame Atticus’s dry comment.
It was all I could do to hold my reaction in check.Atticus!
Snapped you out of your sexual fixation, did it not?
Yes, but?—
Concentrate on your job, wench. Dark mages are dangerous.
René chose that moment to touch my back and guide me up the stairs, his fingers sliding past the top’s hem onto my skin. It felt like I was being branded. Felt like heaven.
I drew in a deeper breath and forced myself to concentrate. Atticus might be annoying, but in this case, he was also right. I could not let attraction foil my focus in any sort of situation, let alone one as dangerous as this might end up being.
The door opened as we approached. Though I couldn’t see any spell threads, I felt their caress as we stepped through. It wasn’t dark, per se, but it didn’t feel “clean” either, though I couldn’t really pinpoint why. Not without deeper inspection anyway, and it was unlikely either René or the unknown woman would give me that chance. Not when the formation of a spell and the magic imbued within it were individual to every practitioner, light or dark, and provided a means of tracking them down if you had the skill.
I didn’t, but I had a good memory for the intricacies of such things and certainly could describe the components to those who did have that skill.
A variety of magical implements and spell stones filled various shelving that lined the building’s four walls. Most were basic rather than upmarket, suggesting whoever owned this place catered more to lower-class witches and half-bloods rather than any of the royal lines. The register sat in the center of the room, surrounded by a square of table-height glass cabinets; these displayed the few more expensive—and in a couple of cases, more dangerous—spell accoutrements.
“René,” a deep, somewhat metallic voice said once the door had closed behind us again. “I would say it is a pleasure to see you again, but that would be a lie given the company you currently keep.”
“I gave you my word that none would harm you here, and I meant it.” He glanced at me. “She is well aware of the protections around this place, and she has not informed her superiors that she is here.”
“Is that the truth, young witch?”
