“Can younotdo that? I hate it when you pop up like that!” she grumbled.
“Raven loves it when I pop up.” He threw me a lascivious grin before grunting when Maverick elbowed him hard. “Hey! Be nice, care bear! We shared a bed last night. That makes us best buddies now.”
Glynda’s eyes widened before she looked at me. “Wait, what? Are you and…him…Oh my goddess!”
“No they’re not!” Maverick shoved the incubus away and dragged me into his arms. He’d not been happy to wake up and see Zane wrapped around me like a koala this morning. Much growling and snarling ensued, which completely ruined my sleep vibe.
“Only a matter of time, care bear.” Zane’s smug grin did nothing to improve the atmosphere in the kitchen, but Maverick huffed out a long-suffering sigh and turned his back on the incubus.
“Damn, we’re getting distracted,” Glynda muttered. “Zane’s right, though. We need an experienced mage or witch.” She threw me a look that promised pain and suffering if I didn’t agree. “I know you’re not going to like this, Raven, but we need Alaric’s help.”
The mage took forever to answer the door. Stars, he looked awful. Still hot, but awful. From Glynda’s wince when she looked up at him, she agreed with my assessment.
“Seriously?” he grumbled, bleary eyed and sleep rumpled. “It’s barely nine a.m.” He scrubbed his jaw and scowled.
“Are we interrupting something?” I asked brightly, peering over his shoulder to check whether he had some poor witch chained to his bed.
He caught me looking and smirked. “Jealous, witch?”
“Why would she be jealous?” Zane remarked from behind me. “She’s more than satisfied with me, mage.”
Glynda rolled her eyes. “I’m buying him a collar with a bell on it,” she muttered.
Alaric’s jaw clenched when Zane slid his arm around my waist. I struggled against his hold, but he refused to let me go.
“Stop wiggling your cute little butt, witch, or I’ll whisk you back to bed.”
I froze as he licked the shell of my ear.
“Get inside,” Alaric snapped. “Before anyone sees you.”
A cute mage with spiky ice-blond hair appeared from a side door when we entered Alaric’s apartment. He looked at us, confused. “Huh?”
“Ignore them,” Alaric said before disappearing for a moment. The guy shrugged and wandered into the kitchen. A coffee machine spluttered to life, and my mouth watered. I’d kill for a decent cup of espresso. I’d been in too much of a panic to enjoy the one Maverick had made for me back in his cabin.
When Alaric returned, he’d pulled on a clean pair of sweats with a zip-up hoody. His blond hair curled over the back of his neck. My fingers itched, like they wanted to tug on his hair as he kissed his way down my neck and…
“Careful, little witch,” Zane whispered in a low voice. “I know exactly what you’re thinking about.” He pressed closer, ignoring Alaric’s glare. Stars above, between him and the bear, I had no privacy.
“Not unless you learn to shield your disgusting thoughts, no,” Kenji piped up in my head. “Gross.”
“Get out of my head!” I yelled. When Zane snorted and Glynda jumped, I realized I’d said the words out loud. My cheeks flooded with color while Alaric’s friend stared in confusion.
“It’s really hard to ignore someone who talks to invisible people,” Alaric’s friend muttered before wandering away with a cup of delicious coffee in his hand. I stared longingly at the coffee machine, but Alaric ignored my subliminal plea.
“Why are you here interrupting my morning? I need to pack.”
“Spellcasting,” Zane said before Glynda and I could get a word in. “The witches need help.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Alaric sighed as if we’d massively inconvenienced him, which I supposed we had.Oh well. I had a vampire’s life to save, and he was the only person qualified to assist.
“Either you help, or Raven blows up the campus. Your choice.”
Alaric scowled but nodded. “Fine. I assume you have the ingredients you need as well as the spell instructions?”
“No, but we can fetch them,” I told him. Glynda or Zane could teleport back to Maverick’s cabin. We’d decided before we left it was safer that way, in case anyone—i.e., a faculty member—caught us with the not-at-all-dangerous or banned ingredients. The merman’s scale was on the Mage Council’s watchlist following incidents in the past where merpeople had been targeted by mages for their scales. Anyone caught with a prohibited item on the watchlist faced a very long sentence in the magical penitentiary.
“We also need somewhere safe to cast the spell.”
