Impractical Magic Part 18

He raised one hand to cradle the curve of her cheek. Unbidden, she leaned into it, his touch aggravating an already misbehaving body. "Rose." He murmured her name with a groan and kissed her. All her good intentions disappeared beneath the feel of his lips. No matter how rational she tried be, how much she told herself they had no future, she couldn't resist the way he made her feel, the yearning, the fire through her veins. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelled, aching for his touch, but he concentrated solely on her mouth, seducing her with ease, until her legs went wobbly. She clutched at his tuxedo jacket to remain upright and he raised his head. His pupils nearly blacked out the green of his eyes, and the ragged edge to his breathing tugged at her. "Have dinner with me after the show. In my room." She shouldn't. They both knew more than dinner would be involved here. To go was asking for trouble, to jump into a bottomless pool where everything depended on how long she could tread water.

Still she nodded. No logic in the world could overcome the burning inside her, the desire to be with him.

Brand smiled with such warmth, her heart leaped to her throat. "Good." He stole one more lingering kiss, then turned to go. After taking a few steps, he glanced over his shoulder with an impish smile. "I wish you could talk again." Good Lord, she'd forgotten all about that. She struggled to speak, her throat clogged by more man a spell gone awry. "Thank you." She wasn't completely sure if she was thanking him for restoring her voice or that devastating kiss. Carter joined Brand, leading him away, but Rose continued to stare after them, slow realization dropping her heart to her stomach.

She was in serious trouble here. She'd done the one thing she'd sworn she wouldn't ever do.

She'd fallen in love with Brand.

Her seat was closer to the rear of the theater for this performance, which gave her an opportunity to use the lighting to seek out hidden wires. But she rarely used that opportunity, too caught up in watching Brand create magnificent illusions.

Tonight he was at his finest. Even when she knew all too well how the illusion was performed, she believed. Because he made her want to believe. He had a way of winning over an audience, making them laugh, teasing them, tantalizing them.

And wasn't that what being a master magician was all about? He took control of the stage, his charm and good looks accentuated. Or was it just the way she felt about him that made him seem that way?

She couldn't love him. l.u.s.t was okay. She understood that, but love created a vulnerability she couldn't afford. Her magic simply wasn't going to go away. It was just as unlikely that Brand would ever accept that. Where was the future in that?

"What's so great about him?"

The question jarred her out of her meandering, and she glanced at the young man sitting beside her. "What?" She hadn't caught all his words, but his disparaging tone came through clearly.

"I don't see why everyone raves about this guy. He's pretty standard from what I can see."

The man appeared to be a couple years younger than she and obviously much dumber. "Then you must be blind."

He scowled. "Anyone can saw a woman in half and make things disappear. That's the usual magician stuff."

"But not everyone flies or makes the moon disappear." Which was one illusion she still had to solve.

"That's just hype. Trouble is, women like you and Sa-manfha believe it."

Ah, now we're getting somewhere. "Who's Samantha?"

"My girlfriend. She thinks this guy is the greatest thing on Earth. She has posters all over her apartment." Some of the man's anger filtered into his voice.

"Sounds to me like you're just jealous over nothing. She's not likely to ever even meet him." Which suited Rose just fine.

"A lot you know. She came to last night's show and hung around afterward until he appeared. Got his autograph and wouldn't stop talking about how hot he was." The man glared at the stage where Brand was finis.h.i.+ng his fire illusion. "Said he kissed her. Made it sound like he took her to bed."

Rose had to stifle her own surge of jealousy at the thought of any other woman receiving Brand's intoxicating kisses. "I doubt that." Yet she didn't know what he'd done after last night's show. She'd come straight back to the hotel, not waiting for either Sequoia or Brand, and had forced herself to work on the expose that was not coming together.

"h.e.l.l, look at him. He thinks he's G.o.d's gift to women."

Rose focused on Brand introducing his water escape. He was charming, good-looking, intelligent, and gallant, but in all the years she'd known him, he'd never come across with an oversize ego. "He could be," she murmured. Any woman who landed him would be lucky indeed.

And for a brief, irrational moment she wished it could be her.

"G.o.d, women!" The man slumped back in his seat.

"You don't have to stay, you know." When he didn't respond, Rose resumed watching. The water escape was her least favorite of all the illusions Brand performed. He was handcuffed, then locked inside a gla.s.s tank filled with water, the lid allowing for no air s.p.a.ce. A curtain was drawn across the tank and within moments he escaped and reappeared.

She knew the logic behind it-how the cuffs were unlocked, how Brand slipped from the tank-but knowing didn't ease the tension inside her every time she watched it. The locks were real. The cuffs were real. The water was real. The danger each and every time, was all too real.

Brand waved with his cuffed hands, then crouched in the tank and had the lid padlocked. The curtain was drawn quickly across. Already he'd be at work unlocking his cuffs. Rose tried to rea.s.sure herself. He'd done this hundreds of times. Yet her chest ached as if she were holding her breath with him.

"I wish just once he wouldn't be able to get out of there," the man beside her muttered.

It took her a moment to realize what he'd said. The tug on her magic triggered the horror. She stared at the man. "Oh, G.o.d."

On stage, Sequoia stood beside the curtain holding the clock, smiling at the audience, oblivious to any problems. Rose jumped to her feet.

To h.e.l.l with not using her magic.

She ignored the grumbling around her and murmured the few words to activate her own power.

And nothing happened.

Normally she experienced a tingling through her body when she used her magic, but not this time.

She tried again with the same result.

Dear Lord, had she lost her magic completely?

"Sequoia." She shouted to her cousin, but went unheard. Time clicked by with alarming rapidity. Rose pushed through the seats to the aisle and ran toward the front. "Sequoia! Sequoia!!"

At last her cousin looked at her.

"There was a wis.h.!.+" Rose shouted.

Sequoia blanched and pushed away the curtain to reveal Brand floating facedown in the tank.

The crowd gasped. Some women screamed. Rose's heart stopped.

Reaching beneath the tank, Sequoia pulled out a large axe and swung it at the gla.s.s with all her might. She might be pet.i.te, but she was tough.

The gla.s.s shattered and watered exploded onto the stage, Brand tumbling free from his gla.s.s coffin. Confusion reigned in the theater, making it even more difficult for Rose to get to the stage.

By the time she'd bulldozed her way up there, Carter was administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to Brand within a circle of stage crew. Rose ached to help. Brand was pale, his breathing nonexistent.

She stumbled to Sequoia's side. "My magic is gone."

"Gone?" If possible, her cousin went even paler. "How?"

"I don't know. I tried to use it and it failed. Oh, G.o.d, Tree, he has to be all right."

"He will be." But Sequoia sounded as if she was trying to convince herself of that as well as Rose.

Rose clenched her fists, her insides churning, her chest tight. Brand was going to die.

And it would be all her fault.

Fifteen.

Rose was ready to push Carter aside and take over, when Brand finally stirred, coughing and spitting up water. Carter eased him into a sitting position and held him as Brand continued to choke. The coughing stopped and for several long heartbeats, Brand didn't move.

Finally he placed his hand on the floor and propped himself up, his eyes opening. "I couldn't get the cuffs undone," he gasped. "I felt them give, but they wouldn't open."

Rose closed her eyes for a brief moment. Her fault. All her fault.

What good was having magic when she couldn't use it as needed? Was she doomed just to leak magic for the rest of eternity?

"I found a doctor." A stagehand led an older man onto the stage as Rose noted the curtains had been drawn to hide them from the crowd outside. Thank goodness, the audience chatter outside was diminis.h.i.+ng.

The doctor knelt beside Brand and took his pulse. "Good," he declared. "But I still want to check you over. I called an ambulance. You're going to the ER."

Brand shook his head. "I'm fine."

"Doesn't matter. You're going." The doctor exchanged looks with Carter, who nodded. Brand wasn't going to have any say in this.

The ambulance technicians appeared moments later and accompanied Brand outside. He'd insisted on walking, unenc.u.mbered, to prove his survival. The doctor pointed at Sequoia and Carter. "You two come with me. The rest of you will have to remain behind."

Rose took a step forward. "But..."

"Who are you?" the doctor asked.

She hesitated. "A friend." A woman who loves him.

"Sorry. He doesn't need a mob of groupies around him right now." The doctor hurried after the technicians, and Rose caught Sequoia's hand. 'Tell him I'm sorry." Her cousin gave her a quick hug. "He already knows that. I'll meet you at the hotel when we get back." "Okay." But the wait at the hotel was interminably long. Rose paced in her room, wearing a rut in the carpet. Was Brand really all right? He'd still been pale when they'd taken him away. What if there were complications? What if he caught pneumonia? One worry after another popped into her mind. She should have gone to the hospital anyhow. But would they have let her near him? She had no real place in his life. What was she? A journalist trying to write an expose on his magic. Oh, yeah, that would get her far.

Especially where his friends and fans were concerned. They'd be more likely to shove her in a Dumpster.

But what about a woman who cared deeply about him, who would give of her life force to save him?

She paced across the floor once more. "I hate this." She'd never been a patient person in the best of circ.u.mstances.

With magic, she usually didn't have to wait.

Crossing the room, she noticed the light flas.h.i.+ng on her phone. Had Sequoia called before Rose arrived?

Rose jabbed the message b.u.t.ton, then grimaced when she heard her editor's voice.

"It's taking too long, Rose," he said. "You have a week to turn something in or forget it."

Short, sweet, and to the point. Typical.

Rose scowled. Like she gave a d.a.m.n about writing that article right now.

True, she had enough information to reveal how he managed most of his illusions, but she still hadn't figured out how he intended to make the moon disappear. Her expose would be incomplete without that. Or was that the excuse she needed to stay longer with Brand? If she were smart, she'd leave now-before she didn't want to leave at all.

But she couldn't. Especially not until she knew he was okay.

Hearing a rap at her door, she ran to open it. Sequoia spoke before she stepped inside. "He's fine. They figure he only stopped breathing for about a minute." 'That's still too long," Rose said. Any time at all was too long. Sequoia smiled and wrapped Rose in a hug. "He's okay, Rose. Really okay. By the time we left the hospital, he was annoying everyone."

Rose had to smile at that. "Where is he?"

"Upstairs, in his hotel room. They gave him something to help him sleep, so he's pretty out of it."

"Can I get in?" She had to see him, touch him, listen to him breath. "I won't bother him."

"Of course you can see him. Come on. I have his room card."

Rose's stomach knotted as they approached Brand's room, but relaxed when she finally saw him sprawled beneath the blankets in the middle of the king-sized bed. His clothing hung over the back of a nearby chair.

"Carter accepted the challenge of getting him into bed," Sequoia said. "Appears he succeeded."

Rose only nodded and went to brush her fingers against Brand's cheek. Beneath the stubble, his skin was warm ... alive.

"If you need anything, call," Sequoia added before she ducked out the door.

Only dimly aware of her cousin leaving, Rose perched beside Brand on the bed and smoothed his dark hair away from his face. He'd almost died all because of her stupid pride and her stupid leaking magic.

Well, no more. No more.

She was Fae. As much as she tried to make a place for herself in the mortal world, she was Fae with all that entailed.

Including magic. Sliding from the bed, she stood and raised her arms toward the ceiling. Her magic was a part of her. Time to stop playing games. She drew from deep within her, searching for that latent core of power. She'd start with something simple-a vase of flowers. "Obey me. Now." The swell of magic hurt at first, a sudden cramp that flowed along her muscles, then dissolved as a vase of red roses appeared before her. Good.

She didn't hesitate, but created another vase, then another until the scent of intoxicating roses filled the room.

Now for a greater challenge.

She pictured herself across the room and transported there with simply a thought. Then transported herself back.

Her power was back.

Not using it for so long had made it difficult to find, her skill at using it rusty, but that would change. She wasn't giving up her magic again for anybody. She glanced at the bed. Not even Brand. She'd admit to losing the bet, even though he'd already said she didn't have to adhere to it. No bet was worth his life. She settled into the chair beside the bed, unable to resist linking her fingers through his outstretched hand. She wasn't leaving until he woke up. Even if that meant staying all night.

Brand came out of a groggy sleep with a sore throat, the memory of his near-drowning returning along with his consciousness. He hadn't had a close call like that in years, especially since he always made it a point to double-check his props and sets before every show.

But how did one double-check against leaky magic? Turning over, he spotted Rose curled up in the easy chair beside his bed, her cheek pressed against the back of the seat, her legs tucked under her. How could she sleep like that?