“Here we go.” Emery pushed Penny in front of him and shoved his way into the group of guys, lifting his hand and pumping his fist. “Take. It. Off,” he chanted. “Take. It. Off.”
Penny lifted her fist and joined in.
The guys weren’t long in jumping on board, and the combined chant drew more onlookers. One of the girls lifted her shirt and the guys jumped and threw up their hands, splashing beer down and dousing the sleeve of Emery’s hoodie. He jumped with them, his hands on Penny’s shoulders to keep her close.
She threaded between the bodies, dragging him with her, until they were at the edge of the group. After taking a quick look around, she led him away from the others. A moment later and they were in a group of ladies staggering down the sidewalk.
“Did you see that guy flash his dick?” Penny asked the girl next to them.
“Oh my gawd.” The girl swerved at Penny, ducking her head into Penny’s face with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. She was clearly drunk off her ass and having a hard time navigating her high heels. “No! Where? Was he packing?”
“Up there. He was really hot.” Penny nudged the girl next to her. “So was his friend. Shirtless.”
“Who?” the other woman said, blinking at Penny.
“No, you guys.” Penny pointed across the street before grabbing the girls to either side of her and pulling them with her. “Over here. Free beer and super-hot guys.”
“I’m…getting married,” one of the leaders of the dozen said with serious attitude. She didn’t follow.
“No, they’re gay,” Penny insisted, stalling on the street so they didn’t spread too far out. “They’re just good to look at. Hello? Free beer.” Her attitude rivaled the bride’s.
“Wait, who are you?” The girl next to Emery looked at him in confusion, and then a smile slid across her face and her eyes half drifted shut. “Hi.”
“He’s one of the dancers! You guys, come on.” Penny motioned everyone forward.
“I’ll buy the first round.” Emery held out his arms for them to grab as they cheered. A girl on either side took hold, and one grabbed his shoulders from behind.
“I want in,” someone said as the others chatted and laughed, following in a tight pack.
Penny worked her new friends to the back, making Emery’s part of the group take the lead. As he neared the next corner, he spotted a man tucked into an alcove on the other side of the street, scanning those who passed. From his vantage point, the man had a view of their street and the one beyond it, not nearly as busy as Bourbon Street, but still going strong as the evening rushed on.
The man’s gaze followed a couple entwined in each other’s arms. Emery ducked down enough to let the heeled height of the women provide him with cover. A moment later, the man was scanning the large group, lingering on exposed skin more than checking out faces. After finishing his halfhearted perusal, he shifted his gaze to another couple heading his way on his side of the street.
“Just up here, ladies,” Emery said, getting them to cross kitty-corner. He met Penny’s eye, and she jerked her head to the right; he nodded. “Okay, have a good night.”
“Wait, what?” One of the girls scowled at him as he disentangled himself.
“No, wait,” another said.
Still another didn’t bother protesting. She just lunged for the goods. “Yes, puh-lease,” she purred with a dopey smile.
He un-cupped a hand from an area it didn’t belong. “Not cool, ladies,” he muttered, slapping another hand away.
“Run,” Penny said urgently, looking back the way they’d come.
He took off at her side, running straight for a space between two houses. Murky brown light filled the gap, only about five feet long before a fence halted their progress.
“Okay,” she said, panting. Her halo dissolved, and his with it. “Do you think there’s any chance we’ll run across a natural?”
He thought it over, guessing what she was thinking—they needed a spell to conceal them, now—and starting the weave. “Doubtful. They won’t have her running around the streets like a footman.”
A few people glanced at Emery and Penny as they passed, stalling and looking at Emery’s hands. They probably thought he was rolling a joint or something.
“Hurry, help,” he said, trying to work as fast as he could.
She closed her eyes, and the electricity he’d grown to expect from working with her sparked across his body. Ducking her head, she began weaving a concealment spell completely different to the one she’d created on the fly in the Guild compound in Seattle.
“Stop,” she said, her fingers stilling and her weave dissipating as she did so. “Start again.”
He followed her direction, immediately seeing what she was doing.
Filling in the holes.
His weave was tight, organized, and uniform, but she worked more magic in between the fibers, creating a beautiful tapestry humming with power. She started messing with his weave as it was rolling out of his fingers, no longer filling in the holes, but working with him to make it stronger.
“A Lego house,” she muttered. “It’s easier to start from the ground up than it is to put a Lego in the hole after the house is built. You’d have to smash it first, and that would make the whole thing less structured.”
The spell draped in front of them, creating a stationary wall and magically sheltering them from the curious eyes on the street. Giving them time to catch their breath.
“And now for one that’ll move with us.” She closed her eyes, magic drifting to her fingertips.
“This isn’t how Guild members create a spell,” he whispered, seeing her patterns and tweaking his to meld better.
The usual hum of their energy bubble intensified, and their joint spell fluxed and pulsed, morphing into something almost alive. The colors wound around and within each other in a breathtaking way, the patterns and textures not something even the finest artist could duplicate. Power vibrated along the weave and around them.
That wasn’t what made him suck in a breath and blink his eyes open to stare at her in surprise.
The still air hung heavy around them, kissing his skin. The rough walls rose on either side of them, sending out a strange sort of pulse that didn’t feel alive, but felt…there. Like he’d sense them even with his eyes closed. The blackened sky looked down on them, nearly ready to reveal the twinkling stars within. Over all of this, a sweet, intoxicating song drifted between and around them, pulling them together and connecting them in a way he’d never experienced before. It felt deep and complex and solid.
His heart swelled, and the ever-waging war within him, fueled by the pain, solitude, and death he’d experienced…calmed.
The corners of her mouth lifted. “This,” she said, riding a sigh. “This feels exactly right. This is what I need. It feels so much better than when I worked with the witches in the cemetery.” Her eyes drifted open, revealing her beautiful blue irises. “I’ve found my other half. My polar opposite.” Her smile drifted higher. “My true balance.”
“It feels…” He couldn’t find the words. Didn’t know if there even were any to describe the completeness he felt in that moment. The oneness.
Her gaze delved into him. In the past, he might’ve flinched away from that searching gaze. Closed himself off. Run. Instead, he wanted to reciprocate…wanted to look down all the way to her soul.
“This is what I feel like when I’m with you,” she said softly, full of feeling. “This is why, no matter how long you stay away, I’ll never forget how good it feels when you’re around.”
37
The spell drifted around us, hugging us in its perfectly balanced hold, in time for his lips to crash down onto mine. For his arms to wrap around me tightly, squeezing me into his hard, warm body.
It wasn’t the time. Not even remotely. And no matter how much I wanted to keep at this until our bodies were as intertwined as our magic, we needed to get out of this part of the city before the enemy finally surrounded us.
I loosened my grip on his waist, wondering if I’d have to zap him to get him to back up—if I’d have to zap myself first to make sure I followed through.
But before I could muster the resolve, he backed off, his palms sliding down my back.
“Sorry. Impulse control,” he said, our breath mingling, heating the air between our lips.
“We need to go,” I said softly, focused on those soft lips.
“I know.”
“We need to get home safely.” My gaze shifted back, taking in the whole of his handsome face.
“I know.” The weight of his hands felt too good on my hips.
My eyes met his. “So we can get to a bed and do this right.”
His fingers dug in and his whole body stiffened. “That isn’t helping, Turdswallop,” he said through clenched teeth.
I chuckled. I couldn’t help it.
I slapped a palm to his pec before roughly pushing him away. His eyes burned down into mine and he sucked air through his teeth. “That is also not helping,” he said with a rough voice.
“Sorry. Impulse control.” I forced myself to turn away, my body painfully wound up, and looked out at the street before us. The air shimmered with a soft violet, and I knew that was the spell working. “Okay, here’s the plan. We can’t hail a cab when invisible, and we can’t step out of invisibility lest they see us. So basically, we need to get to a place they don’t expect us to go, then call a cab to come to us.”