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Levi and Roman had reached the blonde woman. Roman dropped on one knee and attempted to comfort her, pushing up his glasses nervously. The spectacles were just for show, of course, as his vampire sight was perfect, but Roman felt all academics needed them to look professional. It was also the only difference between him and his twin, so I’d been grateful for the reminder of who was who.
Levi kicked off his shoes and dived into the tank.
I had just reached the top of the ramp. “What happened?” I asked Roman as the woman seemed too upset. I wasn’t going to get any sense out of her.
“My necklace,” she said just to prove me wrong. She pointed toward the tank.
There were grumblings from the floor of the aquarium, and I peered down but I couldn’t see anything happening, but maybe this attack was affecting more than just me and the portals. Had magic been shut down throughout the aquarium? Many of our visitors were witches, so that would be sure to cause some complaint.
I looked over at Levi, who was swimming toward the glinting object. Only, he did the strangest thing—he froze, gulping as if he was trying to breathe, then rushed for the top of the tank.
“What’s going on?” I muttered. “Is it another attack?” We really were going to have to find out who was sabotaging the aquarium.
“My necklace . . .” the woman said. “My magic . . .”
Levi pulled himself over the edge of the tank, gasping for air. He felt his mouth and then looked at me with wide eyes. “I’m human.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” the woman said.
We all turned to her.
“My magic nulls out yours, unless . . .”—she looked forlornly toward the tank—“I have my medallion.”
“That’s not possible,” Roman said, scratching his chin where hairs seemed to have miraculously sprouted. I expected the brothers hadn’t had beards since they were turned, over two thousand years ago.
Levi glowered at the tank. “I assure you. I am completely human . . . again.”
I couldn’t help a smirk at his annoyed tone. Even my adrenaline-rush-loving employee definitely didn’t like this turn of events. “I suppose we should have invested in some human scuba diving gear after all.”
Levi was not amused by my tone. “You’ve never encountered something like this?” I asked the brothers. Surely, in all their years, they must have.
They shook their heads.
I hadn’t either. I frowned at the woman. She bit her lip nervously, and I found myself focusing in on the pale pink of her mouth. I wanted to grab her and kiss her and carry her away from everything. No, that wasn’t right. That magic, whatever it was, was messing with my thinking when I most needed to think clearly.
“What do we do?” I asked, more to myself than to any of them.
“If I get some distance away, you’ll be back to”—she looked us over—“your normal selves.”
“Then we can dive for the necklace,” Levi said, scratching his neck.
Roman stood and offered a hand up to the woman. “I’m Roman,” he said and then, “I’ll take you on a walk, if that’s alright?”
The woman nodded and took his offered hand.
“I’m Tripp and that’s Levi,” I said awkwardly, as if I’d just remembered manners existed, which wasn’t far from the truth. I hadn’t grown up around a lot of people.
“Delphine.” She gave a small smile.
I remembered where I’d seen her before, a party at Vee’s, where they’d been celebrating the end of the portal mess. I should have recognized her. I’d thought she was pretty then, and my libido—despite the current mess—agreed now. But I had a firm no dating rule. I’d done so many bad things when I’d been with my mentor, and there was no making up for that. No woman—magical or otherwise—would want anything to do with me.
I shook myself again. When did I start drifting off like this? There was an emergency to handle. Besides, I still couldn’t be sure that she hadn’t caused this whole mess on purpose.
Delphine headed down the ramp with Roman.
I scanned the crowd as they went, seeing the magical types jump as her circle of influence reached them, and sighed. I hoped this didn’t put people off coming to the aquarium. The other mishaps had been explained away as entertainment, but there was nothing fun about being cut off from one’s magic.
Roman
