The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes

‘You goin’ out tonight? Like to a party?’

‘A gala at the Kennedy Center with a small party of friends afterward.’ With Vincent for the last time. Knowing Elric was near was speeding up the inevitable. Every man paled beside Elric, but Vincent became invisible. And after tonight, all his power taken, he’d be dispensable, too. Used up. Discarded.

Xan began to feel almost cheerful.

Maxine sneezed again.

‘Maxine, can’t you take something for that?’

‘Allergies,’ Maxine said. ‘I’ve always had ‘em, not the regular kind, the doc can’t figure out what I’m allergic to, but it’s worse in here.’

Magic, Xan realized. I picked the only person in Salem’s Fork who’s allergic to magic. She sighed. ‘Did you have something to tell me, Maxine?’

‘Yes. Did you know that Danny knew Dee in college?’

‘No, he did not.’

‘Well, he said he did,’ Maxine said, as if it were irrefutable.

‘He lied to you, Maxine.’

‘Really?’

‘Men do that. Was there anything else?’

‘Well, he’s not in love with her. I asked, and he said to give him time.’

Xan sat back. ‘You asked. He just got into town this morning, and you asked if he loved her.’ Maxine nodded. ‘I thought-’

‘Don’t think, Maxine. It’s not good for you.’ Xan took a deep breath. ‘Now that you’re here, I have a job for you.’

‘Okay,’ Maxine said. ‘You want me to slip him a love potion? I bet you make a great love po-’

‘Maxine, he’s her True Love. He doesn’t need a love potion. He’s destined to love her. They all are. I cast the spell to find their real loves. It’s fate. It’ll happen. Leave them alone.’

‘Right.’ Maxine nodded. ‘Got it. Still, a love potion. Couldn’t hurt.’

‘Maxine.’

‘Don’t mess with fate. Right.’

‘Someone else is messing with fate,’ Xan said grimly, looking down at the Fortune house. After I expressly told him not to.’ You were supposed to take her powers, not teach her to use them, Elric, you double-crosser.

‘Whoa,’ Maxine said.

‘The bastard never does anything I want him to,’ Xan said, thinking of all the things she’d have liked Elric to do. ‘Oh,’ Maxine said knowingly. ‘A woman scorned.’

‘I beg your pardon,’ Xan said.

‘What a dummy,’ Maxine said, shaking her head. ‘You’d have thought he’d have gone for it. I mean, you’re no spring chicken, but you’ve definitely got it going on.’

‘Maxine, do you want to die a slow, agonizing death?’

‘No.’

Xan waited for a moment, but Maxine seemed to have gotten the point. ‘Lizzie is at home wearing an amethyst pendant. Get it from her and bring it to me.’

‘Amethyst…?’

‘Purple stone pendant. Get it.’

‘Okay.’ Maxine saluted. ‘Uh, Xantippe?’

‘No, you cannot give Danny and Dee a love potion.’

‘What about Mare?’

‘Jude already loves Mare. Go.’

‘What about Crash?’

Xan stared into the see glass, trying to find Elric. ‘Who?’

‘Mare’s old boyfriend. He’s a mechanic who’s living in Italy and he came back to town and proposed to her at the Greasy Fork at lunchtime.’

Xan turned her head slowly to look at Maxine, standing there in her diner uniform with maxine embroidered over her left pocket. She looked a little more full-breasted than usual and a lot more uneasy. ‘At lunchtime?’

‘In front of God and everybody. Mare stood up and announced it.’

And you waited until now to tell me because…?’

‘It was lunchtime,’ Maxine said, outraged. ‘We were busy. And then I forgot. But then Dee and Danny came in for drinks and dinner and I remembered and…’ She faltered. ‘You want me to do anything about Mare?’

‘No,’ Xan said. ‘Stay away from Mare. Stay away from Dee and Danny. Your job is to get the amethyst pendant away from Lizzie and stop by the video store and tell Jude-’

‘The one who looks like Jude Law?’

‘Yes, tell Jude to get to work on Mare, that he’s got competition. I’ll take care of Crunch.’

‘Crash.’

‘Whatever. Get that pendant and warn Jude.’ Maxine turned to go and Xan got a look at her chest in profile. ‘Maxine, what the hell are you wearing?’

‘Push-up bra,’ Maxine said, adjusting her breasts. ‘I’m making all the night waitresses wear them. We’ll get more customers.’

‘It’s a diner, Maxine, not the Salem’s Fork Hooters.’

‘I bet the tips go up.’ Maxine checked her watch. ‘My break’s over. Gotta go.’

She disappeared into the portal without so much as a

‘See ya,’ let alone a genuflect, and Xan thought about smiting her through the see glass and decided that being Maxine was probably punishment enough.

She looked back at the glass, worried now. Dee and Danny were still in the diner; she could see their heads bent close together over the table. They’d be fine, they were half in love now and would fall completely by Sunday.

The glow from the workroom window told her that Lizzie and Elric were there. She ignored a stab of jealousy to focus on the problem: Elric had no business teaching Lizzie to use her magic, but if Maxine got the amethyst it would slow down her learning curve so badly he might get frustrated and just take Lizzie’s power from her. And then take Lizzie, keeping her safe and powerless in Toledo. Xan felt a real twinge at that; being kept in Toledo by Elric would be dark and erotic and mesmerizing, and her hand slipped on the glass just thinking about it; maybe when she was young again – she closed her eyes at the thought, young again – maybe when she had the girls’ powers, Elric would look at her differently, but no, he was meant to be with Lizzie and there were other men, although none like Elric. But then, accidents could happen. And Lizzie might not make it through.

Of course she was going to do her best to see that the girls survived the loss of their powers. She was their aunt, after all – she only wanted the best for them. But Lizzie was already more frail than the other two…

No. Youth is enough. Youth and power. Who needs Elric?

And then there was Mare. Xan could see her through the hideous neon that filled the plate-glass windows of Value Video!!, Jude gazing at her adoringly. He really was attractive, Mare surely would prefer him over some mechanic named Crash. Loud, oblivious Mare, who never stopping clumping around shouting long enough to notice what was going on around her. She was going to be the easiest, if she’d just ignore the mechanic and take the vice president, who had to be far superior…

She looked down at the diner. Maxine was heading for Dee and Danny again.

It was damn difficult getting good help for a supernatural power snatch these days. The awe just wasn’t there. She glanced at the time and realized that Vincent would be there soon. It was damn difficult getting good supernatural lovers, too. It might almost be easier being human.

Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself, and double-locked the portal.

Dee picked at her mandarin chicken salad and wondered what the hell she’d been thinking. Dinner with Danny James, the most-sensual man she’d ever met? The very man who was threatening her with her past?

Who was she kidding? She’d been thinking that it was yet another Friday night in an endless series of Friday nights she’d sat home alone while Mare and Lizzie were off having normal social lives. But this one time, she had a chance to throw over the traces just a little. Just enough.

And she’d enjoyed this last hour. They’d talked about inconsequentials: Danny’s travels, small-town life in Salem’s Fork, popular culture, sports. And Danny had stayed so far away from his true purpose here that Dee had almost been able to think he’d asked her to dinner just because he wanted to spend time with her.

He finished wiping his hands with the red and white checked napkin and set it down. ‘Well, that was good,’ he said, leaning back in his seat. ‘I can’t remember when I had such a good dinner. Tough to find good burgers in France.’

Dee looked up from the scattered lettuce on her plate. ‘I’d love to find out someday.’

He shook his head. ‘I’m still surprised that you haven’t traveled. I mean, you have to admit there was some high living with your parents.’

Dee just shook her head. She really should have left while she had the chance. ‘We didn’t travel.’

‘Can I ask you why?’

Dinner, it seemed, was officially over. The chicken salad threatened a surprise return.

‘You mean you don’t want to talk about travel?’

His grin was bright. ‘Sure. When we see each other again for fun instead of business.’

Those images were back, and this time there was no question. He was starring in them. His bare back, his smile, the wash of golden light on his skin, and her at her easel. She sucked in a breath, trying her best to ease her heart rate a little. ‘Again with the lame comeons. Don’t you have anything better?’

The gleam in his eyes was as amused as it was delighted. ‘You’ll just have to hang around and find out, won’t you?’

Picking up his second longneck, he took a deep swig, never looking away. And that bead of perspiration just had to slide right down his Adam’s apple. He made her want to laugh. He made her restless and unsure and hungry.

‘Do you think your sisters would mind talking to me?’

‘Yes.’ The answer was instinctive. She’d mind. How could he possibly appreciate her sisters on such short association? It had taken the people of Salem’s Fork a solid year to look past Mare’s outfits and Lizzie’s shyness to discover the real beauty beneath. And this was the first town where they’d actually felt as if they belonged. Dee didn’t want them hurt again.

But, oh, hell, it wasn’t her call to make. It hadn’t been for a long while. She shifted her shoulders a bit, trying to work out the stiffness. She shook her head. ‘They were pretty young when my parents died. I’m not sure they’d have much to say. But it’s their decision.’

Come to think of it, it might be worth the price of admission to see what Mare could do to this guy. He might work for a world-famous author, but she’d bet he’d never dealt with the Queen of the Universe.

Just that thought soothed her enough to relax again and finish her drink.

‘What do you think they’d say about your parents’ deaths?’ he asked. ‘I know you’re aware of the suggestion that their deaths were suspicious, coming on the eve of their incarceration.’

She should have expected this. It was definitely the wrong time to run out of martini. ‘The coroner ruled that they died of hypothermia. They’d been participating in a spiritual cleansing in the ocean, and stayed in the water too long.’

‘You don’t think it was suspicious?’

Yes. Yes.

‘Of course not. My parents were rather notorious for their lack of common sense. They went swimming alone in a cold ocean and lost track of time. I’m just surprised they made it all the way home before they collapsed.’

In the middle of the foyer. She’d found them there, lying on the floor with Xan bent over them, smiling. Smiling.

‘And you disappeared after they died because?’

Because my aunt had just murdered my parents and was turning her sights on us. It had all been there in that smile. Only no one else had seen it.

‘It was decided that it would be healthier for us to be out of that environment.’

He considered her a moment, which ratcheted up her nerves. And you don’t think they might have stayed in the water accidentally on purpose?’

Dee was having trouble breathing again. But then, she always did when she thought of her bright, frivolous, unworldly parents. ‘No. They might not have been the most mature adults on earth, but they wouldn’t have left us on purpose. My mother was upset enough that they had to leave us to go to prison.’

She’d made Dee promise to take care of her sisters. And she’d given her the jewelry box.

‘And have you been here all this time?’ he asked.

‘Places like it.’

‘Your family took you in?’

‘Yes.’

It didn’t seem to occur to him that she might be lying through her teeth. Before he could continue, Maxine returned.

‘Here you are, honey,’ she announced, handing the bill to Danny. Sometime during dinner she’d applied a fresh coat of black eyeliner and, evidently, her Wonder-bra. She was bending way over now, as if she couldn’t quite see over her breasts, which was a distinct possibility. ‘I hope everything was to your liking.’

Danny reached around to pull out his wallet. ‘I haven’t had a hamburger this good since BillyBurgers closed back home.’

‘Then I’m glad Dee brought you here.’ Maxine gave him a little smack on the arm. Maxine smacked everybody. ‘So, you in love with her yet?’

His smile damn near sent Maxine toppling over. ‘I even offered to have her babies. She was sensible enough to say no.’

Maxine laughed and gave him another open-handed smack and then turned to Dee. ‘Dee, you tell Mare that Italy is no place for a good American girl like her.’

Dee found herself blinking a bit stupidly. ‘I’m sorry. What?’

Maxine perked up, ‘You didn’t know? Crash is back, honey. He asked Mare to marry him and go off to Italy, if you please. She said she’d think about it, but you know that’s no good…’

Dee tuned her out. Crash? Crash? Dee had to get herself over to the Value Video!! and find out what the hell was going on.

‘Oh,’ she said, interrupting some diatribe Maxine was giving on some wonderful guy named Jude. ‘Yeah. That.’

‘The betting’s at two to five she’ll say yes,’ Pauline informed her on the way by.

Dee shook her head. Crash. ‘Well, put me in for a tenner’

‘For or against?’

Italy. Dee grabbed her briefcase. ‘Either way. You should never think you can predict what Mare’s going to do.’ Pauline laughed and Dee slid across the seat. ‘Uh, I have to…’

Danny James was already on his feet, sliding his wallet into his back pocket. ‘Come walking with me,’ he said, taking her by the hand. ‘You know you want to.’

Dee damn near pulled him over on his head. Of all the things to whisper to her.

You know you want to, Deirdre, Xan had whispered. You want to be like me. But you can’t without my help. Without me, you’ll create disaster.

Dee’s stomach dropped. Hell, she was nauseous. ‘No, thank you. I need to talk to my sister.’

But he was already dragging her to her feet. She barely hung on to her briefcase as she was summarily yanked from the booth, with not one patron of the Fork coming to her aid. No, they were smiling, as if they were extras in Love Story, or something. Before she could so much as protest, she was out the door onto the sidewalk.

‘Now,’ Danny said, making it a point to fill his lungs with air. ‘Isn’t this better?’

‘No,’ she said, even though it was a lie. ‘It’s just windier.’

He tapped her on the nose. ‘Live a little.’

Dee struggled to keep her skirt pulled low and her dudgeon high. How did he do it? She wanted to go with him. She wanted to run down the sidewalk hand in hand like a kid and whoop at the moon. And if anybody knew better, it was Deirdre Dolores Fortune.

‘Mr James…’

‘Danny.’ He took her hand and turned her toward the river. ‘If you want, we’ll walk over to ask your sister why she’d ever want to get married and move to Italy with somebody who sounds like he can’t drive. But on the way, there are still some questions I have.’

‘Lucky me.’

‘It’s painless, I promise,’ he said with that sly grin of his. ‘What’s up there?’ he suddenly asked, pointing toward the orange-tinted trees that crowned the bluffs across the river.

Dee followed his gaze. ‘Salem’s Mountain.’

‘Can you see the sunset from up there?’

‘What’s left of it.’ The clocks had just turned the week before, and it was still a surprise to see the sun up at seven.

‘Let’s go see.’

Dee just blinked at him. ‘Now?’

He laughed and Dee wanted to smile right back. ‘It would be pointless to do it later. C’mon.’

Her heart was stuttering again. Temptation whispered in her ear. Mare could wait. The rest of the world would continue to spin on its axis if she took just a little time and watched the sunset with a handsome man. Before she had a chance to really think about it, she let him pull on her hand, and she followed him down the street.

They only made it as far as the corner when Dee dragged Danny to a stop. She’d just spotted his mode of transportation.

‘That’s a motorcycle,’ she accused.

He straightened, insulted. ‘This is not just a motorcycle. This is a 1956 500 cc Triumph TR6.’

It sat sleek and low and menacing against the curb. And, damn it, bloodred. Xan red.

‘I’m sure it must be very proud. But I’m not going anywhere on it. My sister was almost killed on one of those things.’

‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Now I know where that guy’s name came from. And why you aren’t interested in letting your sister travel to Italy with him. But no one has ever called me “crash.”‘ He leaned close again. ‘Come on. You know you want to.’

This time the words almost made her groan. He was light. She did want to. He was rubbing his thumb over the palm of her hand and setting up showers of heat all through her. ‘It’s… oh, I can’t do this in a dress.’

And no underwear.

‘Of course you can,’ he said. ‘You probably don’t want to do it with your hair held hostage, though.’

And before she could so much as protest, he managed to pluck out the one bobby pin that anchored every other bobby pin in her hair so that it all came tumbling down, pins flying everywhere.

‘How dare you?’ she demanded, grabbing her hair in an effort to corral it.

It was too late, of course. Her hair exploded into curls.

‘Perfect,’ Danny crowed, ‘This would happen sooner or later on a motorcycle anyway. Come on.’

She wanted to. She wanted to climb aboard that bloodred disaster machine and wrap her arms around his chest as he kicked the thing into action. She wanted to feel the engine in her chest. She wanted to feel the vibration of the bike in places that were dangerous, places she spent most of her time keeping under strict control. Places that would be pressed snug against his jeans. She wanted to just take off and find out where she went when she got there. And that scared her more than anything.

‘Why are you doing this?’ she demanded.

Danny’s smile grew even larger. ‘Pure impulse.’

She shook her head. ‘Pure impulse is what gets people into trouble.’

‘Pure impulse is what gets inventions invented and great thoughts thought.’

‘And young girls pregnant.’

Danny stepped closer, crowding her against the bike, and laid his hands on her shoulders. ‘Haven’t you ever given in to impulse, Deirdre Dolores?’

Dee found herself grinning against her will. ‘As seldom as possible, Danny James.’

‘Well, that’s where we differ. I do nothing that’s not spawned by a walloping dose of whimsy. And my whimsy right now is telling me I need to get up that mountain. With you.’

He was so beautiful, so alive, a shock to her senses. He was magic and freedom, and she was suddenly drunk with him. And she didn’t even know what his secret was. Because he had at least one. She could smell it on him, just like that power he refused to believe he had.

He lifted a finger to trace her lower lip. ‘You really are beautiful,’ he said, his eyes hooded and compelling. ‘I wasn’t lying about that. But especially with your hair down. You should wear it down more often.’

She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Couldn’t so much as get a breath past the sudden fire in her chest.

‘Now,’ he said, fingering one of her curls like a silk ribbon, ‘I say we find out what my girl can do.’

Dee took a breath of him and lost what sense she had. ‘Which one?’

He dropped a kiss on her nose. ‘The one I named after another special lady.’ He still had hold of her hair, and was using it to draw her closer. ‘But not, I think, as special as you…’

Dee wanted to ask. She thought she did, anyway. But when she looked up into his eyes she lost herself. Blue was the hottest fire, wasn’t it? She simply couldn’t look away from him, from his hot blue eyes. The gathering dusk settled in his hair and sharpened the lines of his face. The scent of power drifted off him, setting up a resonance in her, like a tuning fork. And he was stroking her face, his work roughened fingers trailing sparks. What did a researcher do to get hands like this? What could those hands do to her?

‘Xantippe said you looked like her,’ he murmured, bending closer. ‘She was wrong. You’re so much more beautiful.’

Dee lurched back. ‘Who said I looked like her?’ He blinked, bemused. ‘What?’

But Dee’s eyes were already closed in despair. ‘You named your motorcycle after my aunt, didn’t you?’

By nine o’clock that night, Mare was depressed as all hell. Algy had not shown up for the six-thirty showing, thereby shaking Dreama’s faith in her as Queen of the Universe; William was reaching new depths in moroseness, looking so depressed that she had to keep an eye on him at all times; and Jude repeatedly told her that the New York job was hers for the taking as long as she shaped up and gave up anything that wasn’t ‘normal,’ looking at her as if he expected her to do something in return, like fall into his arms or something. On the positive side, she’d made a noon appointment at Mother’s Tattoos the next day to get the tattoo she’d lied about to Crash so she’d have a new one to show him if he talked her into taking off her clothes before he went back to Italy. But the only really cheerful thing that happened all night was that Pauline from the Greasy Fork stopped in to rent My Dinner with Andre and told her that Lizzie’s incredibly dull boyfriend, Charles Conway, had left for Alaska that afternoon. ‘Why?’ Mare said. ‘Who cares?’ Pauline answered. Since Mare was pretty sure the answer would be ‘Not Lizzie,’ she said, ‘Good point,’ and went back to work.

‘So that man who was here earlier,’ Jude said from behind her. ‘You’re not supposed to entertain friends during working hours. Was he your boyfriend?’

‘Yes… he vas… my boyfriendt!’ Mare said.

Jude looked confused.

‘Young Frankenstein,’ Mare said. ‘Cloris Leachman. It’s a classic.’

Jude still looked confused.

‘He’s not my boyfriend,’ Mare said.

Jude looked relieved.

‘Mare!’ somebody whispered loudly, and Mare jerked to her feet and saw Dee over by the door, motioning for her.

‘Customer needs me,’ Mare said to Jude. ‘Back in a minute.’

She went over to Dee and pulled her behind the game shelf. ‘Make it quick, that blond guy in the bad green tie is a VP from the head office, and he’s stalking me. Hey, what would you think about moving to Tuscany? Lizzie would like Tuscany and so would I-’

‘Can we talk about it later?’ Dee said, looking upset.

‘Sure,’ Mare said. ‘Or I just got offered a promotion if we move to New York…’ Her voice faded as she saw that Dee’s hair was loose, a riot of coppery curls, not like Dee at all. ‘What the hell have you been doing?’

‘Nothing,’ Dee pushed her hair back and then stopped, as if she’d just realized what she must look like. ‘Do you have a rubber band?’

‘Nope, but I can fix it, although it’s a shame, it looks great like this.’ Mare tilted her head to concentrate as she began to pull the strands together at the top of Dee’s head, little blue sparks among the copper. It was like the sugar grains; the key was to think of the hairs individually and then to align them so that-

‘Stop it,’ Dee said, trying to shove her hair back into place, ‘it’s Xan.’

Mare stopped and Dee’s curls dropped back to her shoulders. ‘You saw Xan?’

‘No. Danny did. Xan sent him.’ Dee’s voice was miserable. ‘He hasn’t said so, but it’s a fact.’

‘Oh, hell,’ Mare said, feeling lousy for her. ‘Damn, I’m sorry, Dee.’

‘I think she’s close by,’ Dee said. ‘I can feel it.’

Close by, Mare thought, and her pulse kicked up a beat. Xan who really was Queen of the Universe and who could teach them how to control their powers and then… ‘Listen, she could set us free.’ And I could go to Italy. ‘She-’

‘No.’ Dee grabbed Mare’s arm. ‘She’s dangerous, Mare. She has real power, and she wants us. She’s unstoppable, so we can’t let her start.’

‘But she’s-’

‘And now I can’t find Lizzie.’ Dee sounded truly upset. ‘I left Danny as soon as I learned the truth and ran home to find her, but she wasn’t there. I’m going back out to find him and ask him where Xan is. If I can’t find out, we’ll have to run again. We’ll vote on it, but I just don’t think we have a choice. We’ll have to go.’

Oh, hell. Forget ever seeing Italy or even New York, Dee was going to bury them in another nothing little town again.

Unless something stopped her.

What would make Dee stop running?

Danny James.

Mare surveyed her sister. ‘We can’t vote until we know more about what’s going on. So I’m thinking, with your hair down like that, if you unbuttoned a couple of buttons on your blouse, Danny would probably tell you anything you wanted to know.’ She tried to unbutton Dee’s top button with her mind, but the material just puckered as the button pulled on it.

Dee slapped her hand over the button, her green eyes clouded with worry. ‘Stop it, this is serious. Xan’s tried to find us before, but this time feels different. I can feel it like that storm coming in. Can’t you?’

‘Yes,’ Mare said. ‘You wouldn’t believe what’s already come in for me. Crash is back in town.’

‘I heard. You don’t think he-’ Dee’s face changed and she said, ‘Shhhh.’

Mare turned and saw that Jude had come closer and was watching them, not even pretending to be doing something else. ‘That’s the vice president.’ She stopped, struck by a thought ‘You know, the VP turned up about the same time Danny did. You don’t suppose Xan sent him, too, do you?’

Jude cleared his throat.

Mare turned back to Dee. ‘Never mind. Xan’s a lot of things, but she’s not lame. Listen, I gotta go. The bottom line is, you have to seduce Danny to find out what’s going on. If he’s from Xan, he’s used to magic, so the whole mom-in-bed thing won’t faze him. And if it turns out that he’s just a pawn, he’ll leave and recover. Eventually.’

‘It’s not that easy,’ Dee said, her voice bleak. ‘Just keep your eyes open for Lizzie and stay away from Xan. You want an education, go to college, not to Xan.’

She headed for the exit, as sure as ever that she was right, so just as she opened the door, Mare messed up her hair, ruffling her curls in all directions, and Dee snapped around, looked enraged and really, really beautiful.

Go look like that at Danny, Mare thought, but she called, ‘Must have been the wind. Big storm brewing out there.’ Then she turned to see Jude right behind her, watching everything. ‘Yes, Jude?’

‘Was that your sister?’ he said as Mare heard the door slam behind her.

‘Yes, it was.’ Mare started to head for the counter and then stopped. ‘What makes you think that was my sister?’

‘You’re a lot alike,’ he said, meeting her eyes.

No we’re not, Mare thought. We look nothing alike. So how did you know?

Maybe Xan was that lame.

Up on the big flat screen, Victor Quartermain fired at a little gray bunny that went hurtling backward toward a white light. I know how you feel, Mare thought, and then the bunny ended up in the Bun Vac 6000 floating in rabbity ecstasy, not dead after all.

‘I love the Bun Vac,’ she said. ‘What?’ Jude said.

‘The Bun Vac 6000,’ she said, nodding at the screen. ‘You’ re vice president of a video company and you don’t know the Bun Vac?’

‘Oh, that.’ Jude polished his silver tie tack with his finger, almost a nervous twitch by now. ‘I don’t watch children’s movies.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Mare said, and turned back to the screen to watch Victor put a bunny on his head.

‘Have you thought about my New York offer, Mare?’ Jude said. ‘It would give you tremendous power. With your abilities you could go right to the top. Vice president in no time. President even.’

‘Queen,’ Mare said, her eyes on the bunny.

‘The sky’s the limit. No, not even that, no limit. Limitless power. You’d like that. Of course, you’d have to stop doing strange things…’

‘I’m thinking about all my offers, Jude,’ Mare said.

The problem was, the offer she needed most, the one that might set her free, that one she hadn’t gotten yet.

Maybe I need to talk to Xan, she thought, and turned speculative eyes on Jude.

Dee was still futzing with her hair and waving off blue sparks as she stalked out of the video store. Every strand of her hair still shivered in outrage from Mare’s trick.

Seduce him. Easy for Mare to say. She had the courage to try something like that. Dee had spent so much effort trying not to have sex, she swore she’d forgotten how. She-

‘Need this yet?’

Dee jumped a foot. There, leaning against a lightpost, was Danny himself. Smiling, rumpled, and holding out her briefcase like a Christmas present.

Dee wondered if he knew how good he looked in that Marlon Brando pose or whether he just couldn’t stand up straight for long. It didn’t matter. Her brief dalliance with the illusion of mutual attraction was over. Fantasies survived only in the dust.

‘Are you stalking me?’ she demanded, snatching the briefcase and hugging it to herself.

Danny looked around at the fairly deserted streets. ‘I must be. Here you are. Here am I. Waiting for an explanation for why you disappeared like The Runaway Bride.’

Giving her hair one last agitated yank, Dee sighed. ‘Please. If you like me, don’t quote movies.’

He didn’t like her. He was using her, just like the other men Xan had sent to smoke her out. Xan dealt in men the way a Crip sold crack.

‘You ran off so fast, I wasn’t sure what happened,’ he said, looking concerned. ‘Is there anything I can do?’

He stepped closer. Dee stepped back. The street by the store had emptied, and the wind had kicked up, catching a flyer for the Elks’ chicken dinner and plastering it against the Civic Pride trash container on the corner. At the horizon, a gathering of clouds showed purple. Portents of the storm to come.

‘You can explain about my Aunt Xan.’

He offered a chagrined grin. ‘She said you’d be upset.’

‘And she’d be right.’ Dee shoved her hair off her forehead. ‘I’m not fond of liars. I’m even less fond of people who play games.’

He held up his hands, the image of innocence. ‘No more games. No lies. I shouldn’t have done it in the first place, but this was important to Mr Delaney. And…’ He shrugged, looking faintly ashamed. ‘I didn’t know you then.’

‘Well, you know me now,’ she said. ‘So you can begin to make amends. And that begins with how you really found us.’

‘Will you tell me more about your parents?’

Dee couldn’t help staring at him, presumptuous prick.

‘You’re just going to have to stick around and find out, aren’t you?’

She really hated this. How could she know what to do? Her instincts were to run. Well, first to beat the crap out of him with her briefcase and then run. But if she ran, she’d never know just what his relationship was to Xan. What Xan really wanted.

If only she hadn’t seen him in the dust. If only Mare hadn’t put that suggestion in her head.

‘Would you like to go back to the Fork?’ he asked. ‘I think they like me there.’

Dee snorted. ‘They’d have your babies there. But no, I’d rather have some privacy.’

‘My room?’

‘Privacy, Mr James.’ She looked around the uninspiring streets for inspiration. ‘I walk up the stairs at the Lighthorse with you, and by morning every woman in town is going to be camped in my front garden wanting details.’

‘Your place.’

She didn’t even bother to answer. Danny James was not coming anywhere near her house.

‘It’s a nice night,’ Danny said, looking back toward the river. ‘You want to try the mountain?’

Dee looked that way herself. The late light bathed the cliffs in gold, and the moon hung half seen amid the trees. Maybe that wasn’t a bad idea. She did feel as if she had power up atop those cliffs.

Danny waited patiently for her, his hands still stuffed in his pockets, his hair rippling in the gusting breezes, that silver chain glinting just once against his neck. Dee still didn’t have on any underwear. She’d still be forced to snuggle up to him all the way up the mountain…

Slapping the briefcase against Danny’s chest, she stalked over to the bike. ‘Fine. But it had better be everything I’ve ever dreamed of.’

She caught Danny’s delighted smile out of the corner of her eye and decided to ignore it. Within five minutes, she was glad she did. And not because she wanted to see the cliffs. Danny had taken the route along the old Cobblestone Road, something Dee had never done on a bike. Maybe it was the no-underwear business. Maybe it was because Dee was already about as on edge as she could be. Suddenly the bike was acting like a big, bloodred vibrator. Good God. Did Mare know about this? Considering all the time Mare had spent on a bike with Crash, Dee’d bet it was a certainty. Maybe if things worked out, Dee’d spring for a bike herself. And find another town with lots of cobblestones.

They left the cobbles somewhere between delight and disaster, and made it the rest of the way up Salem’s Mountain without incident. If Dee hadn’t known any better, she would have sworn Danny had been up here before. He didn’t just instinctively ride right to her favorite spot. When he climbed off the bike, he walked straight into the stone circle by the edge of the cliff.

Dee loved to stand dead center in the circle by the standing stone, where she swore she could gather power through her fingertips. Danny James stopped in the same exact place. Dead center.

Digging his hands back into his jeans pockets, he looked around him. ‘This place should be reserved for pagan rituals, ya know?’

Dee should have known. ‘Really? Why do you say that?’

He shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. ‘Oh, I don’t know. I can see witches dancing here, I guess. Right at the edge of the world, with the full moon rising over this big rock.’

She found she could actually smile. ‘Did you know you’re standing in a stone circle?’

He literally jumped back. ‘Here?’

She walked in through the southernmost portal and lifted her face to the sky, just like always. ‘Legend has it that about three hundred years ago witches used to dance here during the full moon.’

He stared at her. ‘You’re lying.’

‘Nope. Lots of magic here. You must have felt it.’

That made him look spooked. ‘Not at all. I’m a researcher. I imagined it. I’m always doing things like that.’

Or he heard the old voices, just as she did. When she wasn’t crouched in the grass nibbling clover, that is. She spent a lot of time on this mountain in fur.

‘It’s time to talk,’ she said.

He refused to face her. If she’d tried to pull the scam he had, she wouldn’t have faced her, either. Still, she couldn’t believe how sad she was. Just more proof that she had no business fantasizing, she guessed.

Danny deliberately walked outside the circle and eased down against the big oak that shaded it. ‘Come into my office,’ he said, arms on bent knees.

Dee was sure she should say no. She needed to protect herself from this man, after all.

No she didn’t. Xan was coming for them. By tomorrow night, she’d be gone from Salem’s Fork. How much could Danny James hurt her in twenty-four hours? More than he had, anyway. So she eased herself down to the ground, close enough to him to feel the heat from his body in the cool evening air.

‘I’m glad you left your hair down,’ Danny said, as Dee stretched out her legs and tugged her skirt over her knees. ‘With your hair down, I can imagine you dancing up here with the old girls. Come to think of it, that might be fun. Full moon’s coming in a day or two. Why don’t we come back up and dance?’

Beltane, ancient holiday of fertility. Just the idea sent a waterfall of shivers through her. If there was anybody she wished she could have danced for on the night of Beltane, it would have been Danny James. Especially considering what traditionally came next. Literally.

‘My Aunt Xan,’ she said out to the deepening cobalt of dusk. ‘How did you find her?’

But Danny just shook his head, slipping his arm around her shoulder. ‘Not yet,’ he demurred, resting his head atop hers. ‘Let’s just enjoy the night for a bit first, huh?’

Damn him. He fit so comfortably. He sounded so reasonable. She had no business trusting him, especially considering the fact that just his touch was setting off more electricity than Mare in the throes of her power. But it was so beautiful up here. So spiritual in a way no modern church leader would comprehend. There was power and grace and bone-deep joy here, where the witches had danced. It had always been her spot. Now, she’d never think of it again without feeling Danny James’s cheek resting against her hair.

‘Actually,’ he said after a few minutes of companionable silence, ‘Xantippe found me.’

Dee closed her eyes, stricken. Then Xan had sent him. Could there be any way on earth to separate them in her mind now?

He lifted his head. His arm stayed where it was. ‘I had… um, just gotten the assignment,’ he said, ‘and had spent time doing the primary research. I contacted your parents’ organization, and a few of their old employees. Who wouldn’t talk, thank you very much. Whatever else your parents did, they inspired loyalty.’

‘I know. And Xan?’

‘Said that she’d heard about me from one of them. Wanted me to get the story right, and thought the best place to start would be with you three.’

‘You never met her?’

‘I’d planned on going to Santa Fe from here. That’s where she is.’

It still sounded plausible. And she told you how to find us.’

He shrugged. ‘She said you’d probably go by Murphy,

O’Brien, or Ortiz, and that it should be easy to find a Deirdre, Elizabeth, and Moira in the same place.’ She thought he smiled. ‘It wasn’t, but I managed.’

‘Have you talked to her since you found us?’

‘Just to tell her I had. She asked me to call her after I talk to you.’

‘Where?’

‘Her cell phone. In Santa Fe.’

But Xan wasn’t in Santa Fe. Dee didn’t know how she knew that, but she did. Xan had used Danny as a stalking horse. And just like twice before, she was now coming for them.

‘And exactly why would you name your bike after her, Danny? Bikes are very personal. They’re… they’re…’

‘Sexual substitutes?’ He fingered the loose curls by her temple. ‘I guess it was the sound of her voice. Throaty and sexy, like a bike engine. Just a whisper, so you had to really listen closely, ya know?’

Dee pulled away from his fingers, but she didn’t get up. ‘Yeah. I know.’

She wondered just what it was Xan had whispered. There was no way she wouldn’t have known how sexy Danny James was.

‘Xantippe said that there’s a breach between you she’s been trying to heal,’ Danny said. ‘She sounded upset.’

Dee’s laugh was hoarse. ‘She doesn’t want to heal anything. And she’s not upset.’

‘Then what is she?’

No, this she couldn’t deal with sitting down. Climbing to her feet, she walked to the edge of the circle, where violets clotted the grass and the sky seemed endless. Beyond the cliff, the river reflected a sporadic moon, and the town faded into geometric shadows. It was what she was painting right now.

Dee pulled in a deep breath. How to explain Xan to this seemingly normal, wholesome man? She’s Maleficent and

Marilyn Monroe. She’s a carnivore masquerading as a flower. She’s every man’s fantasy and every woman’s nightmare. Corrupt, clever, and concupiscent. Xan feeds off people like a vampire, and gets them to smile as she does it.

But if Danny James was telling the truth, he’d never understand.

‘Xan is the person who orchestrated my parents’ downfall,’ Dee finally said, shoving her hands in her pockets. ‘My father wasn’t the one who created that donation program they all skimmed off of. It was Xan. My father wasn’t that clever. Xan made a fortune nobody ever traced and conveniently disappeared about a month before the feds arrived with the warrants.’ Then reappeared just in time to murder her own sister.

‘You’re sure?’

She smiled out into the night. ‘Oh, yes. I’m sure.’

She heard Danny climb to his feet and approach. She didn’t turn away from the view. The evening star had just winked on and she made her instinctive wish. Let us be safe. Danny came to stand right behind her and laid his hands on her shoulders.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know.’

Dee found herself fighting tears. ‘Yeah. I’m sorry, too.’

She’d grown to love this nondescript little valley, this camouflaged altar. She didn’t want to leave. Danny James had left her no choice.

‘I’d like to hear your side of the story,’ he said. ‘I’m sure I’ll get your aunt’s.’

Dee turned to face him and realized he was too close. So she stepped away from his touch, where she could have enough space to better appraise him. He looked so open. So true. Was he that clever, or was he so honorable he hadn’t been able to see what Xan was? Those were the men she specialized in, after all.

‘What’s in it for you?’ she asked.

He watched her for a minute. ‘It’s my job.’

‘No it’s not. At least not only that. I can hear it in your voice. Why are you and Mr Delaney making such a bizarre left-handed turn into non-fiction?’

‘Because too many people have suffered from a belief in what isn’t true.’

Dee didn’t bother facing him. ‘Many people say the same about religion.’

‘There are truths in religion. Not in this.’

Dee shook her head. ‘This is personal, isn’t it?’

He spent a moment looking out over the valley. The wind ruffled his hair, and the tree whispered above them. ‘I’ve seen the damage quacks can do,’ he finally said.

It was as if a light had flicked off in him. Dee saw the shadows settle and wondered.

‘Can you tell me?’

He looked up, his eyes glowing oddly in the dusk. ‘Oh, I knew someone once. Lost her husband and son in a plane crash.’

Dee sighed. ‘Fell prey to people telling her they could contact her loved ones?’

He didn’t even nod. ‘It wasn’t even the money she lost that was the worst. It was the waste of her life.’

‘Yeah,’ Dee said. ‘There are con artists out there. No question about it.’

‘But were your parents?’

For a long moment, Dee just looked at him. Weighed the ramifications of her words. Of the book that Mark Delaney was going to do, with or without her help. Did she reinforce Danny James’s prejudice or discount it? It shouldn’t matter. She’d be gone soon.

‘Is there really a book?’

He looked affronted. ‘Of course there’s a book.’ She nodded. ‘They truly believed that they helped people.’

‘Did they? Help?’

‘A lot of people said so.’ People who sent in money for readings. Money that had gone into houses and cars, and all that gaudy jewelry that had kept the Fortune sisters afloat for these twelve years.

Until those terrible final days when everything had fallen apart. Dee could still see her parents standing there like stunned cattle waiting for the worst, the television cameras that had loved them for so long turning on them, Xan already safely away. She saw them again on that awful morning when she’d stumbled over them, empty husks sprawled on the floor.

‘And you?’ he asked. ‘Did they ever help you?’

She almost laughed. It was a question no one else had ever thought to ask. ‘You can’t think I’d discuss that with you, knowing you’re going to be talking to my aunt.’

‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘That was out of line. I’m sorry.’

She could hear him approaching. She didn’t move. She had a feeling she knew what he intended. Hell, she hoped she knew. Her heart had picked up speed again. She ached, knowing this man was the last person from whom she should seek comfort. Why not? she thought, bracing herself for his first touch. Why not enjoy him, just for this little while? God knew he felt good enough. That curious lightning was sparking between them again, skittering all the way down to Dee’s toes and causing them to curl. There were parts of her body that should have glowed in the dark. Surely she could accept this one gift before leaving?

Turning her in his arms, he smiled down at her. ‘I’m glad I met you, though.’

Dee thought his hand might have been shaking a bit as he brushed a loose curl from her forehead. His body radiated warmth, strength. Security. Dee couldn’t think of a thing she craved more.

She rested her hands on his chest. ‘Me, too.’

She could do this. She could enjoy this man. She wanted to. She wanted to seduce him. She wanted him to seduce her.

But always Xan lived in her head. You don’t have the control, Deirdre. You never will. Without me, you’re a failure. Without my guidance, there will be disaster.

Danny bent his head to her. Dee fought down the instinctive panic and lifted her face to meet him. She could control herself. She did it every morning when she shifted for her painting. She kept from doing it at the bank when she became so frustrated she could chew glass. She could do it now.

He held her face in his calloused hands. Her knees had grown wobbly, until he was all but holding her up, and he hadn’t even kissed her yet.

He did. Oh, he did. For a blissful eternity, Dee basked in the unfettered delight of it. He nibbled, he courted, he seduced. He unleashed the kind of fire that shattered cells. He urged her mouth open and slipped inside.

There went her knees again. She was glowing, her breasts pebbled and aching. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted him to lay her down in her stone circle and not let her up until someone else was crowned Oldest Virgin in North America.

She was doing so well. Open-eyed and participating, pulling his shirt free so she could search out those taut muscles with her fingers. So she could explore the delicious terrain she’d seen from the top of a chifforobe. The feel of him was mesmerizing, the smell of him delectable. She could almost hear the racing thoughts in his head as he fumbled with the buttons Mare had tried to loosen no more than an hour earlier.

Yes, Dee thought, arching toward him, never breaking the kiss. Please. Just this once.

Her body felt incandescent. Chills chased down her spine and sapped her strength. Her heart battered at her rib cage, and she was pressing against him as if she could climb inside. She felt explosions of light in her very cells.

There will be disaster.

Danny slid his hand inside her blouse and cupped her breast. Dee gasped, lurching against him, struck by a bolt of pure lust from just the brush of his fingers. Dear God, what would happen when the rest of him was involved?

She might have made it. Might truly have thrown caution to the wind and consecrated her hill with a bout of lovemaking that would have gone down in the annals of lost virginity. But just as Danny bent to lay a kiss on her throat, suddenly in her mind Dee saw the face of a woman. Gray-haired and sad, with Danny James’s eyes.

Dee shoved so hard Danny almost fell down the cliff.

‘What the hell…’

‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped, desperately fumbling with her buttons before her body could betray her. I… oh, I’m just sorry.’

Xan had been right. She was about to fail all over again. And she found that no matter what she’d thought, she just couldn’t bear what she would see on Danny’s face when it happened. So she ran. She ran all the way down the mountain and into the house where men weren’t allowed, and she hid beneath the black duvet in her room.

‘The cat has to go,’ Elric said, and Lizzie opened the door to shoo Py out, only to come face-to-face with Mare, home from work. She could feel the color drain from her face, but Mare didn’t even blink.

‘Hello,’ Mare said to Elric. ‘I was looking for Py.’

‘That’s Elric,’ Lizzie said and stood her ground, daring Mare to say anything about the taboo about men in the house.

Mare looked from Lizzie to Elric to Lizzie and back to Elric again. ‘How you doin’, Elric?’

‘Very well, thank you,’ he said. ‘And you?’

‘I’ve been better, thank you for caring,’ she said. ‘Come on, Py.’

She took the cat and retreated upstairs, and Lizzie closed the door.

‘Will that be a problem?’ Elric said.

‘If that had been a problem, there would have been blue sparks,’ Lizzie said. ‘So now what?’

‘Now we start…’ The loud thumping on the front door stopped him, and he said, ‘Sweet Jesus, is this Grand Central Station? Get rid of her.’

‘Her? It’s probably Charles,’ she said, resigned.

‘I don’t think so.’ He had an oddly smug expression on his face. ‘Hurry up. I’m getting bored.’

‘You can always leave,’ she pointed out, heading for the door.

It was Maxine from the diner, odd enough in itself, odder still because Maxine seemed to be twitching with nerves. ‘Hi, Lizzie,’ she said. And then she sneezed. ‘You’ll never guess what I’m here for.’

‘I can’t imagine,’ Lizzie said faintly. She glanced behind her. She could just manage to see Elric’s shimmering outline. A definite advance from earlier in the day, she thought.

I’m collecting for the Salem’s Fork Wetlands Project. We’re… er… planning an auction, and we’re looking for donations.’ She stumbled over the words, as if she’d memorized them.

Lizzie just looked at her. ‘I didn’t know Salem’s Fork had any wetlands.’

‘That’s an amethyst, isn’t it?’ Maxine said, her beady eyes focusing in on the pendant. ‘It’s new, right? You could donate that – I bet it would bring in a lot of money. And think of the poor frogs and salamanders.’

Instinctively, Lizzie wrapped her hand over the amethyst, shielding it from Maxine’s eyes, and it pulsed in her hand. ‘I don’t think so. I’m sorry, Maxine. Maybe Dee could write you a check-’

‘Don’t tell Dee!’ Maxine said, clearly worried. ‘I’ve never seen you wear jewelry before, wouldn’t you rather donate it-’

The door slammed in her face, and there was an audible click. Lizzie reached for the doorknob, but it was hot to the touch, and Elric was standing behind her shoulder, looking bored.

‘Sorry, Maxine,’ she shouted through the door. ‘The wind must have blown it shut. Come back tomorrow and we’ll give you a check.’

‘But I can’t…’ There was sudden silence on the other side of the door.

She whirled around to face Elric. ‘What did you do to her?’

‘Sent her back to work. Which is what we need to do. Come along. I’m not in the mood for any more interruptions.’

He motioned her into the workshop. ‘This is a fairly simple array.’ He began to draw a circular design on the rough wooden floor there. ‘Just enough to help focus the energy. When you get better at this you’ll probably tweak it a bit, find one that works better for you. There are thousands of variations, carried down through history – you’re bound to find one that’s just right for you.’

She looked at him, doubtful. It was late, and the wind outside was growing stronger. She could hear the creak of the branches overhead, the occasional rattle of the windows as a gust swept through. She’d spent the entire day listening to him, and she should have been tired and bored and restless. And in fact she was restless, though she couldn’t figure out why. Even Mare had been an intrusion, somebody to be gotten out of the way. Something was building inside her, in concert with the coming storm, and she kept thinking her life was about to change.

Of course it was. Elric was showing her the secrets of the gift she’d struggled with so long, hated for so long, and she soaked up every word with rapt attention, mesmerized by the sound of his deep voice and his magical words.

They’d been at it for hours, with only a couple of breaks for food and tea. She’d offered him wine, but he’d taken one look at the ordinary chardonnay Dee kept and shook his head. ‘Working with a gift like ours is tricky enough without throwing alcohol or drugs into the mix. If I were you I wouldn’t touch anything for at least five years, until you’re a master at transmutation.’

‘Five years without a drink?’ she’d replied. ‘You’re kidding!’

‘Is that a problem?’

In fact it wasn’t. Beer gave her a headache, wine upset her stomach, and the harder stuff made her shudder. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. ‘Next you’ll be telling me I have to be celibate, as well,’ she shot back. Then strongly regretted it. Mentioning sex in his presence had the most unsettling effect. She glanced around to see whether any untoward shoes had popped up, but for once she was spared.

He pushed his long, dark blond hair away from his beautiful face, and the silver stud glittered. ‘It all depends. Sleeping with someone like your fiancé will dull your gifts. Eventually they’d disappear altogether.’

Her instincts had been right about that. Every time she was around Charles, the shards of magic faded, leaving her safe and quiet and dull. ‘Isn’t that what you’d like?’ she said. ‘Since you say I’m so dangerous?’

He looked at her, considering. ‘It would be a loss,’ he said finally. ‘You have more talent than I’ve seen in decades, and it would be a shame to waste it. Particularly on an oaf like your fiancé.’

‘Decades?’ she echoed, amused. ‘I doubt you were that aware when you were a kid.’

‘In fact I was very aware as a child, but I’m older than you think.’

‘How old are you?’ He couldn’t be much over thirty-five, though she would have guessed closer to thirty.

‘Older,’ he said in a voice that allowed no further discussion. ‘Are we going to do this or are you going to throw everything away on true love?’

He sounded annoyed by the notion. Was it simply that she’d be wasting her talents, or something else? That had to be some bizarre streak of wishful thinking on her part.

‘Don’t you think true love is worth risking everything for?’

‘It depends on how you define it,’ he said. He’d taken off his jacket and tie, rolled up his sleeves, and his long hair was rumpled. He should have looked more approachable. In fact, the more human he appeared, the more nervous it made her, and she wasn’t sure why.

‘I bet you don’t even believe in true love.’

‘To quote the Queen of Hearts, I try to believe in six impossible things before breakfast every day. Are we going to do this or are you going to keep talking?’

‘We’re going to do this,’ she said, eyeing the chalk circle doubtfully.

‘You’ll need to take off those shoes.’ At some point her espadrilles had been replaced by black patent Mary Janes, an odd look beneath her jeans, but then, she was used to having strange things on her feet. She kicked them off and under the workbench.

‘Socks, too,’ he said. ‘Your body needs to be in contact with the circle.’

She peeled off the white socks with the lace trim, grumbling under her breath, and then stepped into the middle of the circle. Immediately the pendant went into hyperdrive, thrumming against her heart.

She met his dark eyes for a moment, startled, and he nodded. ‘Very good. You’re even more receptive than I thought. This would work better if you were naked, but I’m assuming I can’t talk you into that. At least, not yet.’

‘Not in this lifetime,’ she said, half expecting him to mock her on that blanket statement. His silence was even more challenging.

He picked up one of her shoes and set it on the wooden workbench, in the center of the smaller circle he’d drawn there. ‘This should be easy enough to start with – it’s already been transmuted once, and I can still feel the energy. What do you want to turn it into?’

‘Gold,’ she said promptly.

‘Don’t be so single-minded,’ he chided her. ‘The first time you ski you don’t go down a double black diamond run, the first time you sail you don’t head across the ocean. Try something small.’

‘A diamond?’ she suggested, ever hopeful.

‘Go for something you’d wear,’ he said patiently. ‘Just a small transmutation, nothing drastic. You’ll learn by small steps.’

‘I’m going to have to learn fast if you’re only going to be here three days.’

‘You’ll learn. Close your eyes.’

That was the last thing she wanted to do. Standing barefoot in a circle with her eyes closed made her feel too vulnerable. But the longer she hesitated, the longer it would take, so she dutifully closed her eyes.

‘Relax. You’re tight as a spring. I’m not going to tickle you.’

Her eyes shot open again. ‘You’re not going to touch me,’ she said, and she wasn’t sure whether it was a warning or a question.

He didn’t respond. ‘Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and relax all your muscles.’

Easier said than done. She exhaled, letting the pent-up breath out, and tried to release the tension that was knotting her muscles. She rolled her shoulders, shook her hands, and tried to concentrate on the single black patent shoe.

Of course nothing happened. ‘Maybe you need some wine after all,’ Elric muttered. ‘Are you always this tense?’

In fact, she wasn’t. She liked life to be peaceful, easy, and she went out of her way to make sure things went smoothly. He jangled her, unnerved her, made her jittery and upset in ways she didn’t even begin to understand. Or didn’t want to.

I’m trying,’ she said. ‘I just…’

‘What was that?’ Elric froze.

‘I didn’t hear anything.’

‘You haven’t learned to listen properly. Someone’s in your bedroom.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Why would someone…’ Elric had already moved past her, not touching her, shoving the door open.

A blond man in a charcoal suit and a hideous green tie stood there, rummaging through her underwear.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ she said.

His eyes narrowed as he stared at her neck, and then he dove at her.

Instinctively her hands came up, knocking him away, and then he was gone, vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

‘Jesus, Lizzie,’ Elric muttered, picking up a small, noisy frog from the floor. ‘You really read too many fairy tales.’ He opened the window and dropped the frog outside, and in the distance they could hear an anguished screech.

‘At least this time I didn’t cross elemental boundaries.’ She peered out into the darkness. ‘Is he going to be all right?’

‘I expect so. He should regain his natural form in a few hours. Unless your sister turns into an owl again and offs him. The question is, what was he after and who put him up to it?’

‘He was looking at the amethyst. Like Maxine.’

‘Very interesting,’ Elric murmured. ‘I may have to make a few calls. But in the meantime we have to concentrate on you. Back to the workshop.’

She followed him, her hand still cradling the stone. ‘You’ve been trying too hard,’ he said, closing and locking the workshop door behind them. ‘Hold on a second.’ He pulled off his shoes and socks, and even though she knew what was coming, her body froze into a block of ice as he stepped inside the very small circle with her.

He circled his arms around her, pulling her back against his body, and ice met fire, melting, against her will. He, however, seemed supremely unaware of the effect he was having on her. Odd, because he’d seemed so intuitive before.

‘This is another way of making an array,’ he said, his voice calm in her ear. ‘When you get really good you won’t need one at all, you can simply visualize it. In the meantime, if you simply put your arms in a circle it can do the trick.’ He pulled her arms up, wrapping them around his as they formed a circle in front of them. ‘Now relax, and think about nothing.’

‘I… I can’t.’ He was so hot, vibrating with energy just as her pendant was vibrating. She felt trapped in his arms, assaulted, warmed, aroused, blood coursing through her in response, and she knew, with awful certainty, just where her dreams had been coming from. That same powerful, erotic intensity was flowing through her, from the man who surrounded her.

‘Of course you can,’ he whispered, and his breath smelled like the peach and raspberry tea she’d given him. She loved peach and raspberry tea, she loved…

‘There you go,’ he said, and her eyes flew open. A plume of lavender mist hung over the workbench, and a pile of shimmering gold silk lay on the rough surface in place of the shoe. ‘You do have a thing for gold, don’t you? It’s the wrong color for you.’

He’d released her, stepping back, and she put out her hand to touch the fabric, watching in fascination as the color deepened, shifted, moved like a living thing until it settled into a deep rich purple.

She looked back at him. ‘Did I do that?’

He shook his head. ‘You made it. I fixed the color.’

She picked it up, letting the silken fabric slide through her fingers. It still seemed to hold a trace of energy, and she could feel it dancing through her veins, settling in her breasts, between her legs, and she dropped it, horrified. ‘What is it?’

He reached past her and picked it up. ‘It’s a night-gown, Lizzie. Just an ordinary piece of clothing.’

Now that was where he was dead wrong. There was nothing ordinary about the nightgown at all – it was alive with sex and sensuality and magic, and it made her extremely nervous, and if…

‘Goddammit, Lizzie,’ he grumbled, picking up the purple rabbit that had taken the place of the nightgown. Another puff of purple mist. ‘Stop getting rattled.’ The silk streamed from his hands again, a rich swathe of fabric in his long, elegant fingers.

A squirming purple bunny in his long, elegant fingers. He looked up at her, astonished. ‘How did you do that?’ he demanded.

The room was slowly filling with purple mist, and she wondered whether it could escape through the cracks in the ill-fitting windows. Even if it could she didn’t need to worry. It was late – no one would be around to notice puffs of purple mist drifting from their unremarkable little house.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, nervous. ‘I don’t think I could do it again if I tried.’

‘Good,’ he said, setting the bunny down on the counter as it flowed back into the nightgown. ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you have hang-ups about sex?’

She could feel the color flood her face, feel the tingling grow stronger in her body. ‘Charles has no complaints,’ she said, defiant.

‘Charles wouldn’t notice.’ Elric dismissed him. ‘I think you need…’ He stopped talking, abruptly, almost as if he’d said too much.

‘What do I need?’ It came out as not much more than a whisper, but it was one of the bravest things she’d ever said.

He stared down at her for a long, thoughtful moment, and she could get lost in his eyes, she thought. He could kiss her again, and wrap her in purple silk, and those long elegant fingers could touch her, soothe her, teach her…

‘You need to sleep,’ he said.

And everything went black.

About the same time that Elric was drawing circles on Lizzie’s floor, Crash was climbing the trellis outside Lizzie’s workroom. The ancient lattice on the closed-in sun porch at the back of the O’Briens’ beat-up little Carpenter Gothic house was as rickety as ever, possibly more rickety than it had been five years earlier, but Mare would be stretched out on the porch roof outside her bedroom window, Crash was sure of it, so he put two Dairy Queen hot fudge sundaes on the low edge of the roof and climbed up the wooden frame, just like old times, holding his breath as he got to the top and the lattice shook harder.

She was there, stretched out on the shingles with her hands behind her head, the cords from her iPod lanyard tangled in her silky hair as her head bobbed to whatever she was listening to, the shadows from the tossing branches making the moonlight dance across her white overalls. Py, her tiger cat, raised his head and fixed him in his yellow gaze as Crash climbed onto the roof. Then Py put his head down on her thigh and watched Crash pick up the sundaes and walk across the roof and sit down beside her. Crash wasn’t sure of his welcome since Mare had said, ‘Tomorrow,’ but there was only so much a man could do when the woman he loved was this close and susceptible to DQ hot fudge.

She rolled her head on her hands as he eased himself down beside her, her eyes pale in the moonlight, almost as pale as her smooth skin, white against her blue-black hair. She pulled the iPod buds from her ears and he heard Kim Richey faintly singing ‘Here I Go Again before she clicked it off and said, ‘Took you long enough,’ and he relaxed and held one of the sundae cups out to her. She sat up and he watched the curves of her body, the plumpness of her breasts and the arch of her back, strong and graceful in everything she did. She was Queen of the Universe, and he wanted her so much he ached with it.

Slow, he thought, and Py raised his head and watched him as if he knew what Crash was thinking.

Well, he was a male cat, he probably did.

She cracked the plastic lid off and said, ‘Spoon?’ and he pulled one out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her and then took the lid off his own cup.

‘So,’ he said. ‘How’s things with the universe?’

‘It’s screwing me over.’ Mare scooped up some ice cream and fudge, and then closed her eyes as if savoring it for a moment before she swallowed.

Crash looked down the front of her overalls while her eyes were closed, all that blue lace and round flesh, the shadow of her cleavage, probably damp with sweat and-

Mare opened her eyes. ‘I asked it for a choice in my life, and it sent me two I can’t take and didn’t offer me the one I need. It’s just cruel.’

‘One of them’s me, right?’ Crash started on his ice cream.

‘Yes.’

‘Why can’t you take me?’

‘I can’t leave Dee and Lizzie.’

Crash almost said, Bring them along, until he remembered Dee hated him. ‘You’re going to have to leave them sometime. You’re not going to live together forever until you rot and die, right?’ What a waste of all that heat and flesh and-

‘It’s complicated,’ Mare said. ‘But basically, I can’t come to Italy with you. I’d have liked it a lot, but I can’t. Sorry.’

Crash nodded, and thought, Maybe. If family was the only thing keeping her back-

It couldn’t be just that. Nobody refused to get married because she couldn’t leave her sisters. It must be something else, the damn secret she could never tell him, the reason he could never stay the night, never climb inside her bedroom. Whatever it was, he didn’t care. He still wasn’t sure how he’d ended up back in Salem’s Fork, but he was growing more and more positive that he wasn’t leaving without Mare.

‘What kind of cat is Py?’ he said, spooning up more ice cream.

‘Tiger cat,’ Mare said.

‘Where’d you get him?’

‘Lizzie found him at the zoo.’

‘You had that cat the whole time I knew you, and I never asked you anything about him,’ Crash said, carefully building his argument, which wasn’t easy with so little blood in his brain.

Mare blinked up at him, beautiful and hot in the moonlight. ‘Well, you know. He’s a cat. You weren’t a cat person.’

‘I’m not a cat person now, but now I want to know because he’s yours. I’ll pay attention this time. Whatever you get from your sisters, whatever you need, I’ll give it to you, I swear. I’ll give you more. You can trust me. You can leave them. I’ll give you what you need.’ I’ll give it to you right now, swear to God.

‘You can’t.’ Mare leaned against his shoulder as she worked on her ice cream, and he closed his eyes because she was finally touching him. ‘You’re a good guy, Crash, the best, but you can’t make this work.’

Oh, yeah, I can. ‘I can make anything work. Wait’ll you see this little town I’m living in. You’d love it there. The whole town comes through the shop sooner or later, all of them, grandmas and little kids, too, everybody, because they all love the bikes because the bikes are so beautiful. Ducatis and Moto Guzzis and-’

Below, someone kicked a motorcycle into gear, and he stopped to listen, and she said, ‘What?’

‘Triumph TR6.’ He listened as the sound faded into the distance. ‘Who do you know has a classic Triumph TR6?’

‘It must have been Danny James,’ she said. ‘Dee’s guy’

‘Dee’s dating? Good for her.’ Maybe Dee would get married. That’d be one down. ‘My mom heard that Lizzie’s engaged to Charles Conway.’

‘That’s off,’ Mare said around her ice cream. ‘He went to Alaska. She has a new guy, though, and I think he’s a keeper’

‘Well, if they’re getting married, you can,’ Crash said, the Voice of Reason.

‘They’re not getting married.’ Mare sighed. ‘So tell me more about the bike business.’

They sat in the moonlight and finished off their ice cream while he told her about the business and the bikes and his partner Leo and Leo’s wife Amelie and their baby and the little house he owned there – ‘Does it have a red tile roof?’ she asked, and when he said, ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘Oh,’ and he couldn’t tell if that was good or bad – and the sun and the heat and the thousand things he loved about it, and when he was done, they put their cups down for Py to lick and then sat silent in the moonlight. Beneath them, the roof throbbed as if music were playing below, something with a strong bass, but it was quiet down there, just a silent pulsing with a drift of purple smoke around the windows every now and then that Mare said came up from the river, which didn’t make sense. Crash didn’t care, although the throb under him made it hard to concentrate on Italy and almost impossible not to touch Mare.

‘So what are your other choices?’ Crash said when she’d been silent for a while.

‘Hmmm? Oh. New York. Jude offered me a job in New York City.’

‘Oh.’ He shifted on the roof. ‘Jude’s the guy in the suit at the video store.’

‘Yep.’

‘You might like New York,’ he said, trying to be fair. ‘I’d love New York,’ Mare said. ‘But I can’t go there, either’

You’re twenty-three, he wanted to say, you can go anywhere you want, but he wanted her in Tuscany, not New York, so he didn’t say it. ‘And the third one nobody’s offered you?’

‘My Aunt Xan,’ Mare said. ‘My mother’s sister. I’d kind of like to learn some stuff from her. The only problem is I don’t know where she is, and Dee hates her so I can’t go looking for her.’

‘Maybe your aunt would like Italy.’

Mare turned to him in the dark. ‘Are you telling me that you’re going to support me and my aunt?’

Crash sighed. ‘No. I’m just trying to find a way to make this work.’

Mare shook her head. ‘Crash, you don’t know me. At all. You think you do because you knew a little bit about me five years ago but-’

‘I know, there are secrets. I got real damn tired of those secrets, of getting shut out, of feeling like the guy you called around when you wanted a good time and then sent home.’ He stopped because he was getting mad again, and getting mad was what had kept him out of Salem’s Fork for five years, that ‘If I’m not good enough to come in the house, the hell with you’ feeling that he was old enough now to know was a lot more about pain than it was about anger, not that that made it any damn better. ‘What I’m trying to tell you is that you don’t need to keep secrets anymore because what I know about you is that it felt right to be with you then, and it’s felt wrong to be without you for the past five years, and now that I’m back, it feels right again, and I’m ready to make this permanent, so I don’t care what your secrets are, I’m for you.’

‘Oh,’ Mare said, a little breathless. ‘Oh. Well. Well, you don’t know my aunt at all. She’s a real piece of work.’

‘I’m good with little old ladies.’

Mare snorted. ‘Xan is not a little old lady. Xan is Vampira and Elvira, Queen of the Night and the Dragon Lady and Morticia Addams with a little bit of Jackie Kennedy thrown in to make things interesting.’

‘That’s everybody you ever dressed up as for Halloween,’ Crash said, his mind flipping through images of the past, each of them hotter than the last, each of them cooling his anger considerably, along with Mare pressed up against him again.

‘She’s kind of a role model,’ Mare said. ‘But the important thing is, Xan would have you for lunch. She’s ruthless and dangerous and Dee’s probably right that I should stay away from her, but she knows things that I need to know. And she’s always been very good to me.’

‘Her favorite little niece?’ Crash grinned at her in the darkness. ‘I bet you were a cute kid.’

‘Not really,’ Mare said thoughtfully. ‘Dee was the beauty and Lizzie was the fairy child. I kind of clumped. I was the Amazon kid. I don’t know why she paid the most attention to me. Maybe because I’m the youngest. The dumbest.’

‘You’re not dumb,’ Crash said, surprised.

‘I’m dumb compared to Dee and Liz,’ Mare said, sitting up straighter. ‘I wonder if that’s it. She’s the one who told me I was the Queen of the Universe. Maybe she has me marked as the weakest link.’

‘Weakest link in what?’ The roof beneath them began to throb harder, and Crash put his hand on it, distracted. ‘What is that?’

‘Lizzie’s working.’ Mare began to gather up the cups.

‘Well, I’ve got another long day tomorrow…’

She was leaving. Without thinking, he blurted, ‘How about if I moved back here?’

Mare jerked back. ‘Here? To Salem’s Fork? You just got finished telling me how much you love Italy. And your business there, everything about it. You’re happy there.’

He was a little stunned himself. ‘Yeah, but you’re not there.’ Now that he’d said it, it began to seem like a possibility. ‘Maybe we could open an American branch. Be international.’

Mare stared at him, looking hopeless. ‘You can’t give up your life for me. Youdon’t know me.’

‘Well, come to Italy and we’ll get to know each other again,’ he said, exasperated. ‘I’ll get you a round-trip ticket. You don’t like it, you can come home. What’s the worst that can happen? You get a vacation in Italy.’ He leaned closer. And what’s the best that can happen? Us, that’s what. Have you missed me at all?’

She looked at him with her heart in her eyes, and he knew that she had missed him, knew she still cared, and the last of his anger evaporated, and then the roof trembled under them, and she looked away and Crash said, ‘What the hell?’

‘You know Lizzie,’ Mare said. ‘Something probably exploded.’

She was too far away, but he’d seen the look in her eyes, so he put his arm around her, and when she sighed and put her forehead on his arm, he said, ‘Listen, but if it’s New York, you’ll be amazing there, too. You can do anything, Mare. You don’t need your sisters or your aunt Xan or anybody else. You really are Queen of the Universe.’

She turned her face up to him and said, ‘I love you,’ and he kissed her, dizzy with wanting her, loving her, and tasted heat and hot fudge and Mare. He fell into her, felt her yield under him, needing to taste all of her, drink her in, and then she broke the kiss and pulled back, breathing fast, hot and real under his hands, inches away from him, too far away from him. He held on to her, jerking his head toward her bedroom window. ‘We’re going to fall off this roof,’ he said, breathless, ‘how about you finally show me your room?’ and Mare stiffened.

He tightened his grip on her. ‘Sorry, too fast-’

‘The mountain,’ Mare said.

He stopped as thunder rolled in the distance.

‘Let’s go to the mountain. Like we used to.’ Mare stood up, pulling his hands with her, and Py stretched to his feet beside her.

The mountain again. ‘Mare, it was always great on the mountain, but it’s going to storm-’

‘Not until Sunday,’ she said. ‘Not until Beltane. And even if it does, I want to make love with you on the mountain again.’ She held on to him in the dark, tugging gently on his hand. ‘Just like we used to. I want you so much.’

The wind blew her silky black hair across her face, and the moon silhouetted her, tall and round and strong in the darkness, and he wanted her anywhere, any way, always, just because she was Mare and he loved her.

‘Let’s go to the mountain,’ Crash said.

Crash’s bike was beautiful, even in the dim glow of the streetlights, but then, everything about Crash was beautiful, and Mare was drunk on him.

‘It’s a Moto Guzzi Le Mans I,’ he told Mare and handed her a helmet. A guy in Annapolis bought it from us. Put this on. And roll down your sleeves.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Mare put the helmet on and looked at the bike, trying to get her balance back. ‘This thing is gorgeous. Should we be riding it up the mountain?’

‘Sure,’ Crash said, swinging his leg over it. ‘Test drive. I’ll take it to Maryland before I leave the States.’ He patted the seat behind him. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Okay’ Mare settled in behind him, scooting so that she was pressed against him, her breasts against his back, her thighs gripping his, and the memories rushed back, the old heat bubbling in her veins, and she sighed. ‘No hurry. Let’s take good care of this classic’ She rocked her hips closer so she was pressed tight against him where she fit just right, feeling the good stuff start low.

‘You want to make it all the way up the mountain, stop that,’ Crash said, and she laughed into the back of his jacket and tightened herself around him again, loving the way he felt against her again. Okay, she didn’t have choices, but tonight she had Crash. That was a hell of a lot.

He kicked the bike into motion, and she drew a deep breath as they rode down the street, closing her eyes and smiling as the vibration made her breathe harder still. ‘Take Cobblestone Street,’ she said, and he laughed and said, ‘Why?’ and she thought, Cobblestones, of course, knowing he knew why, rubbing her cheek against his back because of everything he did know about her, concentrating on the hum inside her as they rode and he turned down the streets, taking the long way, feeling it build until they hit bumpy Cobblestone Street, and she felt the heat rise and twist and thought, yesyesyes and began to shudder and bounce. Don’t stop, she thought, clenching against him, God, yes, drawing in her breath, yes, sucking in energy from everywhere, drawing everything to her, and then Crash cursed and swerved and she cried out as a trash can went hurtling by them.

He slowed the bike. ‘Damn it,’ he said, and Mare straightened away from him, shaken, watching the trash can roll away now that she’d let go, cold with knowledge she didn’t want. ‘You okay?’

‘No,’ she said faintly.

‘I’m going to personally go around nailing down every damn trash can in this town,’ he said as they turned down the road that led up to the mountain.

That’s the street we were on after the prom, Mare thought, trying to catch her breath. I told him to take the cobblestones then, too. I wanted the ride.

I pulled that trash can to us when I came. I sucked in my breath, I sucked in everything, and I pulled it to us, and we wrecked because of me and he left because of me.

Everything was my fault, it was all my fault.

She held herself away from him, trembling, all the way up the mountain, trying to tell herself that she hadn’t known, that she’d always been careful when she’d had sex, always had it outside, up on the mountain under the big oak, where there was nothing but rocks too big to move so that nobody got hurt, that she’d thought the little bubbles she got on the back of the bike hadn’t counted, the real thing was Crash inside her, not just her hugging him, giggling and popping on the back of the bike, she hadn’t known-

My fault.

Crash turned the bike into the violet-filled meadow at the top of the hill and cut the motor, then took off his helmet and turned to her. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes,’ she said, and took off her helmet and got off the bike, hating not touching him, hating herself for touching him. My fault. ‘No.’

‘I know, it was just like prom night,’ Crash said, getting off the bike. ‘Listen, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to-’

‘It was my fault,’ Mare said miserably. ‘The accident prom night. It was my fault.’

‘It was an accident,’ Crash said, sounding confused. He put his hand on her arm. ‘If it was anybody’s fault, it was mine. If I’d slowed better, you wouldn’t have fallen off-’

‘My fault.’ Mare put her arms around his neck, keeping her mind in check so that nothing moved anywhere. ‘It’s my fault you left town. It’s my fault-’

‘Hey.’ Crash put both arms around her and she drew in her breath as he pulled her close, the bulk of his body a comfort. ‘It wasn’t-’

‘I’m magic,’ Mare said, holding on to him. ‘I make magic. That’s my secret, I’m psychokinetic, I can move things with my mind, that’s why I always brought you up here, because everything up here’s too heavy too move. I came on the back of the bike and when I came, I threw that trash can, and that’s why we wrecked. It was my fault.’

‘Uh, Mare…’

‘No, I really can move things.’ Mare looked around the clearing. There was the Great Big Rock and the circle of the other Big Rocks, but they were all too big, that was the whole point of being up here, that she couldn’t throw things while she was thrashing around. The wind had picked up, and the tree branches were waving, and there wasn’t anything light enough for her to move that the wind wasn’t already moving, everything was beyond her power. Maybe one of the helmets…

Crash was looking at her with sympathy in his eyes. ‘Look, Mare, if this is that Queen of the Universe stuffy it’s okay, I believe you.’

‘No you don’t.’ Mare stared at his helmet, trying to get the weight of it in her mind. She lifted it up off the seat of his bike, but then the wind scooped in under it and it toppled to the ground where Crash caught it and tied it to the seat.

‘I really can,’ she said desperately, looking for something light enough, anything, maybe she could put a violet in his buttonhole or something, and then he put his arms around her and drew her close again.

‘Look, I don’t care,’ he said. ‘Because you know what? Even if you could do that stuff, even if the wreck was your fault, it would be good that it happened. I grew up. I got out of town, I learned things, I made a great life, a life I want you to be part of, I’m ready to settle down now, so it turned out all right, didn’t it?’

Mare bit her lip and leaned against him. ‘No. No, I missed you too much.’

‘I know,’ he said, holding her tighter. ‘I missed you, too. But now it’s our time, Mare. We’ve earned each other.’

‘You don’t understand,’ she said, but his arms were warm around her, safe, and she sighed into him, grateful to have him at least for tonight, even though she couldn’t keep him, even though there’d be no tomorrow for them and she’d be lost without him again. ‘You’ve definitely earned me tonight,’ she whispered, and then she reached up and kissed him, hard, desperate for him, felt his arms tighten around her, remembered the way he’d felt rolling hot against her, and didn’t care about anything but now. If all she had was now, that would be something. ‘Come on,’ she whispered, and pulled him with her under the massive oak.

She popped the snaps on her overalls and let them fall to her feet and Crash said, ‘You shouldn’t do that all at once, I get dizzy,’ and she laughed, taking off the rest of her clothes, watching him strip, too, trying to keep the tears from starting, and then she pulled him down to the ground with her, shivering because the air was cool with the approaching storm. He was hot against her, his hands gentle on her again, and she closed her eyes, remembering him, trying to remember him forever, the taste of him and the scent, the way his skin scraped on hers, the way his mouth covered hers, the way his hips fit into her. They were made for each other, both strong and tall, and she said, ‘Do it hard,’ the way she had the first time she’d brought him up to the mountain, and he laughed the way he had then, and he said, ‘We’ll do it every way we can,’ just like he had then, and she closed her eyes tight and thought, Don’t cry, he’ll think it’s because he’s doing something wrong, and he was doing everything so right.

‘I love you,’ she whispered into his skin, and he whispered, ‘I love you, too, and God, I’ve missed you, Mare,’ and he moved his hands over her, remembering her, touching her everywhere. She shifted against him, thinking, Yes, you fit there, and Yes, that was right there, and Yes, I loved feeling you there, rolling against him and shuddering as he discovered her all over again. Then she bit his earlobe and he bent to her breast, and she sucked in her breath as he worked his way down her body, and she arched under him, her eyes wide open as the oak tree moved above her, the leaves pulsing as he gently bit her stomach and moved lower, then lower still, licking into her, and she breathed with his rhythm and the oak leaves did, too, and the branches heaved as her blood pounded harder and she twisted her fingers into his thick hair. Oh, God, she thought, and began to rock, and the earth did, too, and so did the branches as he held her hips trapped and she felt the pressure everywhere, in her fingertips and behind her eyes and most of all there, until she writhed and reached up and saw the branches above her writhing, wildly, almost snapping, and she stopped herself just in time before they broke. ‘No,’ she said, and pulled on his hair, and he looked up at her, confused.

‘Make love to me,’ she said, breathless, and he said, ‘I was,’ and she said, ‘No, condom, inside me,’ and he reached for his pants, and she thought, I hate having power, and let her head fall back and looked up at the tree that at least had all its branches still in place. Heavy suckers, too. You never did that before, she told the tree, and realized that to keep all those branches up there and not plummeting down on them, she was going to have to fake an orgasm. With the man she loved. Who was perfectly capable of blowing her mind. Literally. And who was going to leave her on Monday.

Life sucks and so do you, she told the tree, and then he was beside her again.

‘Something you want to tell me about?’ he said.

‘I tried,’ Mare said and kissed him, pulling him down to her as she licked inside his mouth. ‘You taste good.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘That’s you.’

‘I know. I just taste better on you.’ She rolled against him, and said, ‘Let’s try the old-fashioned stuff. You know, you inside me, moving in and out.’

‘Old-fashioned is good,’ he said, and tried to roll so she was on top.

‘No, real old-fashioned,’ she said, pulling at him so she’d be on the bottom. Missionary position. Harder to come that way. Plus, she could keep an eye on that damn oak tree.

He let her pull him over her, balancing above her on his hands, and she wriggled underneath him, wrapping her legs around him, feeling him hard between her thighs.

‘You sure you’re okay?’ he said, and she moved her hand down his stomach and let her palm slide against him, taking him gently while he sucked in his breath.

I’m thinking yes,’ she whispered, tilting her hips and guiding him to her, and then he eased himself inside, and she drew in her breath and thought, Oh, God, I forgot how much I love him on top of me.

He moved into her slowly, the way that always made her shudder, with his mouth on her neck, on that nerve that always made her shiver, and she looked up at the oak, checking on those branches as her eyes unfocused and thought, Oh, Christ, there was a reason I cried for him for a year, and lost herself in him, stroking her hands over his back as he moved inside her, tracing the lines of his muscles the way he loved as his fingers traced hers, biting the place on his shoulder that made him crazy as he whispered in her ear, tilting her hips at the angle that made him moan as he moved deeper inside her and made her gasp, loving the scent and the taste and the sight of him, drowning in the rhythm they made together, and five years fell away as if they’d been nothing, as if he’d never been away at all, except this time the throb and the heat and lust he built in her, the incredible grinding need she had for him had an ache behind it – he’s going to leave me - and even while the flutter in her blood began to itch and then to sear, even while she clenched herself around him, arched up into him and rocked hard against him – yesyesyesyes - even as the oak tree waved above them like a storm, all that time she was hanging on -dontcrydon’tcrydon’tcry - because it was too much to bear, he was going to leave again, he’s going to leave, all that glory, she was never going to have it again, never again, never again, never again, she rocked with rhythm of it, and so did the ground and the tree and her blood, and her breath came quicker, little gasps as he moved in her, hard in her, never again, neveragain, neveragain, again, again, again - tighter and tighter and then it all broke and she cried out in his arms, and held him to her, felt him shudder against her, too, and something soft as tears rained down on her, covered her as she sobbed but didn’t cry, great gulping breaths as she fought back real tears and rocked in his arms, breathing, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you,’ over and over again, trying to get her breath back, holding on to him for dear life, afraid to let him go.

‘I love you, too,’ he said finally, when his breathing had slowed again, and then he picked something off her shoulder. ‘What is this?’ he said and held it up.

Mare focused on it. Something blue. ‘A flower?’ She looked up at the oak. It had bloomed, little blue flowers everywhere. Violets. She looked over to the meadow and saw a bare patch in the wildflowers there. That’s where my tears went. I didn’t cry, I pulled the violets into the oak.

Crash started to sit up, and she held him tighter. ‘Don’t leave me.’

He pulled her closer, their damp bodies sliding together, and brushed the blue petals from her hair. ‘I thought that was an oak tree.’

‘Oh, yeah, now you’re a botanist,’ she said. ‘Kiss me.’

He did, and she kissed him back and thought, My heart is breaking, and for once, drama queen of the universe though she was, it was true.

Xan stood in the middle of the room, silent in liquid silver silk, gripping the see glass that hung around her neck like a pendant as she tried to slow her breathing. Deep slow breaths, from the diaphragm, cleansing breaths, because if she didn’t, she was going to turn Vincent into something unfortunate, and that would be too good for him.

‘You’ve really completely lost your sense of humor, darling,’ Vincent said, flicking an invisible speck of dust from his satin lapel. ‘Jennifer meant nothing by that remark.’

‘I’m sure she didn’t.’ Jennifer was such an airhead, she didn’t have the concentration to mean anything by any remark. Xan opened the cupboard hidden in the silver paneling and took out a plain glass decanter of deep red wine, burgundy, like blood. I’m in the mood for blood.

‘When she said her grandmother had known you, she didn’t mean you were the same age as her grandmother,’ Vincent went on, his smile sly.

‘Of course I’m near her grandmother’s age,’ Xan said, taking down two goblets. ‘But Vincent, you’re older than her grandmother. Her grandmother slapped you for taking liberties when she was a teenager’

Vincent’s smile vanished, and Xan filled the goblets.

‘Jennifer is a silly girl, but she’ll get older and wiser’ Xan handed him a glass. ‘Everybody does.’ She looked at Vincent’s stupid, smiling face. ‘Well, they get older anyway.’

‘I don’t think you quite understand,’ Vincent said, taking his wine.

‘I understand.’ Xan picked up hers and leaned back against the paneling, knowing the silver background was kind to her, along with the goddamn candlelight. ‘You’re turning into an old goat chasing much too young women who probably laugh behind your back.’

Vincent sipped his wine and then checked his reflection in the silver mirror on the wall. ‘No, you really don’t understand.’ He smoothed back his already smooth white hair.

‘Jennifer has agreed to become my wife.’

Xan’s hand tightened on her glass. ‘You proposed to that bubblehead?’

‘Two days ago. I think you and I had about run our course anyway, don’t you?’

There was a rushing in her ears and the room shimmered a little. That would be the blood rush, Xan thought. And, of course, the rage. I’m being discarded by a moronic bastard before I could dump him. I really have to stop letting my work get in the way of my social obligations.

‘I know this comes as a shock.’

‘Only because I didn’t get there first,’ Xan said and drank more wine.

‘Oh, please.’ Vincent drained his glass and put it down on the table in front of her. ‘Everyone knows you’re mad for me. That’s why I waited until after tonight to tell you. I knew tonight was important-’

‘Wait a minute.’ Xan straightened. ‘Are you telling me that everyone at the gala knew about this except me?’

‘Well, Jennifer wanted to show people her ring’

Xan looked at his slack, arrogant face and thought, You were this close to getting out of here alive.

He shook his head at her, smugly with faux sympathy. ‘I’m afraid there’s nothing else I can do for you. My future awaits.’

‘Sit.’

‘Really, Xan,’ he began, straightening his white tie, and then he sat down, surprised.

‘I’ve been seeing you for exactly three weeks, Vincent,’ Xan said, not bothering to hide her contempt anymore, which was not only a great relief, but also a great pleasure. ‘During that time you were arrogant, boring, stupid, and only mildly interesting in bed.’

‘Well, I guess we’re not taking rejection very well, are we?’ Vincent said, still trying to get up.

‘Vincent, nobody takes rejection well except the bottoms in S and M pacts, and even they want it their way. Even so, I would be delighted to let you go on disappointing dim-witted, barely legal Jennifer in every way it is possible for a man to disappoint a woman except for one thing: you have just humiliated me in public.’ She leaned forward. ‘That was dumb, Vincent.’

‘Oh, and now you’re going to punish me.’ Vincent waggled his fingers at her. ‘Big scary witch. Well, I have powers, too. So take this!’

He flung out his arms and nothing happened.

‘You had powers, Vincent,’ Xan said. ‘Now I have them. It was the only reason I was seeing you at all. You didn’t think I was sleeping with you for your wit and charm, did you?’ He gaped at her and she went on. ‘I took your powers, Vincent. I earned them. Three weeks with you was like three years with anybody else.’

‘My powers?’ Vincent looked around. ‘What did you do with them?’

‘I put them under my pillow,’ Xan said, exasperated.

‘You can’t do this!’ Vincent said, not smug for the first time in his life. ‘Do you know who I am?’

There was a rattling behind the paneling, and Xan said, ‘Oh, hell,’ and looked at Vincent. ‘You’re a cockroach,’ she said to him.

‘Name-calling is so middle-class,’ Vincent said.

‘No, Vincent,’ Xan said. ‘You are a cockroach.’ She waved her hand and he turned into a cockroach on the table in front of her, and while he sat there stunned, she leisurely upended his empty wineglass over him. He scrabbled at the sides of it then, trapped there, the only thing human about him, his weak, pale gray eyes.

Xan sat back with her own wine as Maxine stumbled through the paneled doorway holding a frog.

‘It’s Jude,’ she screamed. ‘Turn him back.’

‘Jude,’ Xan said, looking at the frog. ‘Why am I not surprised.’

‘We were stealing the purple necklace just like you told us-’

‘A moment, please,’ Xan said. ‘That was not “us” I told to steal the necklace, that was you.’

‘I couldn’t get them to give it to me, so I went and got Jude,’ Maxine said, almost sobbing. And he was wonderful. But then that blond guy-’

‘Elric,’ Xan said, thinking, Elric wouldn’t have looked twice at that bubblehead Jennifer.

‘-threw him out into the yard and he was a frog-’

‘Well, it happens,’ Xan said, and waved her hand.

‘-and I caught him and brought him-’

Jude rose up from the silver rug, as naked and beautiful as the sunrise, and Maxine stopped talking and gaped.

‘Ciao,’ Jude said, looking panic-stricken.

‘What happened?’ Xan said, unmoved.

‘The middle sister,’ Jude said. ‘She hit me and I turned.’ He cast a nervous glance at Maxine.

‘She can do that,’ Xan said, trying to be kind. ‘She doesn’t have control of her powers.’ She waved her hand and he was dressed again. As long as you’re here, aside from failing completely at taking the necklace, what’s happening?’

‘Dee and Danny were very cozy at dinner,’ Maxine said, talking fast, still not taking her eyes off Jude. ‘Dee had two Martinis, so she was very receptive.’

‘Martinis?’

I did it for you, Xantippe,’ Maxine said, talking faster. ‘I knew Martinis would loosen Dee up so I served them for you. They were going up the mountain the last I saw of them. And Lizzie and Eric-

‘Elric’

‘-Elric were in her bedroom, so that’s good, right?’

Wonderful, Xan thought bitterly, ignoring the scrabbling inside the wineglass.

‘But I don’t know what happened to Mare after work.’ Maxine looked at Jude who shrugged.

‘She went home,’ he said. ‘I tried to get her to come out for a drink, but she said no.’

‘She must be nuts,’ Maxine said explosively.

Xan picked up the see glass and polished it with her sleeve.

‘Dee,’ she said, and saw Dee weeping in her bedroom, and sighed. Dee was always going to be the most difficult.

‘Lizzie,’ she said, and saw Lizzie sleeping with Elric beside her. Lizzie didn’t deserve what she was getting. It wasn’t fair. Just a slight miscalculation and it would no longer be a problem.

‘Mare,’ she said, and saw Mare rise up under a dark-haired man on the mountain, flushed with passion while blue flowers rained down on her-

‘Bloody hell!’ Xan said, and rose up to glare at Jude. ‘What the hell have you been doing?’

‘I don’t think she likes me,’ he said, licking his lips.

Maxine licked hers, too.

‘You listen to me,’ Xan said, grabbing Jude’s tie and pulling him close. ‘You’re her true love and you’re letting her get seduced and confused by some blast from her past. You get down there and you give her everything she’s ever wanted so she realizes that you’re what fate intended for her, do you understand? Everything she’s ever wanted. Whatever she wants, she gets.’

Xan gripped the tie tighter, trying not to panic. Everything was very finely balanced – if Mare went off with the wrong man, one Xan couldn’t influence, then everything might collapse, all her careful plans, the youth and energy she so desperately needed might be denied her. She couldn’t let that happen. It could not happen-

‘I think Mare wants him,’ Maxine said, craning her neck to see into the glass where Mare was thrashing in the arms of the dark-haired lout.

‘You do realize that if I have to come down there, I won’t need the two of you,’ Xan said quietly as she let go of Jude’s tie.

‘We’ll make it happen,’ Jude said, taking Maxine’s arm.

‘You bet,’ Maxine said, turning for the door and knocking over the wineglass on the table as she did.

Vincent made a break for it and hit the floor; Maxine saw him and screamed, ‘Cockroach!’ and stepped on him; and silence filled the room.

‘Ew,’ Maxine said, looking at the bottom of her shoe.

‘Scrape that off on the Dumpster, will you?’ Xan said.

‘You bet, Xantippe,’ Maxine said.

‘I’ll get right on Mare,’ Jude promised.

‘Lovely thought,’ Xan said and waved her hand.

A moment later she watched Maxine scrape Vincent off onto the Dumpster in Salem’s Fork.

‘Jennifer owes me,’ she told the see glass and went to bed.

Lizzie moaned. She was asleep, but she could hear the sound she made – a soft sound of pleasure and protest. She didn’t want to wake up – the dreams were too delicious. Sexual dreams, so powerful that she felt her body spasm in her sleep, this time so real she could have sworn she was actually being touched. And this time the phantom lover had a face, a body, the mouth of a fallen angel and the eyes of a sinner. It wasn’t real, but it was wonderful, and she didn’t want her sister dragging her away from such a deliciously sinful fantasy. Some distant part of her brain could hear Dee in the front room, and the noise filtering into her subconscious.

But she pushed the noise away, snuggling deeper into the bed, into the silky sheets, into the arms of the man who touched her…

Her eyes flew open. He was asleep beside her, and her head had been resting on his shoulder, his arm draped loosely around her. The covers were pulled up to his waist, but from what she could see he was naked.

They weren’t her sheets. Instead of the percale with the tiny flowers, her bed was now covered with sheets that were either silk or a cotton of such an astronomical thread count that it might as well be, and the color was deep, rich purple. The color she never wore, the color that she secretly loved. She moved slowly away from him, so as not to awaken him, and sat up in the bed, looking down at him in shock and awe.

Asleep, he couldn’t cloud her perceptions, and she could see him quite clearly. He was beautiful – there was no other word for it, a beauty so classic that it shocked her. He looked younger than she’d thought – her age or even younger still, and yet curiously ageless, and his body was strong, lean, with smooth, golden skin. His dark blond hair lay rumpled against the deep purple sheets, and she reached out a hand to touch him, then pulled it back.

She looked down at her own body, and just barely managed to stifle a gasp. She was wearing the purple silk nightgown she’d conjured up the night before. It made her pale skin glow, and it draped her body, clinging to her slight curves, and she must have made a sound after all, a tiny squeak of distress.

He opened his eyes, and she could see a rim of purple around his irises, something she hadn’t noticed before. He didn’t move, but his voice was low and just slightly amused. ‘Don’t panic,’ he said. ‘I didn’t touch you.’

Then why did her body still vibrate with remembered pleasure? Why did her skin feel hot and shivery at the same time?

The tapping on her door made her jump, and for once Dee didn’t wait for a reply. She opened the door, and said, ‘Lizzie, did you-’ and then stopped, her mouth open, and Lizzie waited for the shit to hit the fan.

‘Good Lord, Lizzie, where did you get that nightgown?’ Dee said, a fairly minor question considering there was a naked man in her bed.

Lizzie glanced down at Elric, who’d rolled on his side to look at her, a faint smile on his mouth as he tugged at the hem of the silk nightgown. ‘I know this is upsetting for you but…’ she said lamely.

‘Why would your choice of nightgown upset me?’ Dee said.

Lizzie gave Elric another confused look, but he simply smiled and shrugged, saying nothing, although his hand was touching her foot beneath the silk, and she could feel the tremor of response dance across her skin. And then she felt a flash of relief. Dee couldn’t see Elric lying in her sister’s bed. As far as she could tell, Lizzie was simply sitting alone in an inappropriate nightgown.

‘It’s time to talk about Xan,’ Dee said.

‘Xan?’ Lizzie echoed absently. Why was he touching her when he knew there was nothing she could do about it? She couldn’t respond as some dark, secret part of her wanted to, she couldn’t slap him away without Dee noticing. All she could do was sit there and shiver in delicious anticipation.

‘Did you see her? You shivered. You saw her.’

‘No, no,’ Lizzie said.

‘Well, come out for breakfast,’ Dee said. ‘It’s time for the vote.’

‘We voted yesterday’ she protested.

‘Somebody told Xan we’re here, and we need to get the heck out of Dodge.’

Instinctively Lizzie glanced down at the man in her bed. His hand froze, his beautiful face an unreadable mask, and she knew who had betrayed them.

She scrambled out of bed, jerking the quilt with her to wrap around her. Elric lay back under the sheet.

‘It’s okay, Lizzie,’ Dee said. ‘Just get dressed, and we can decide what we’re going to do. Not that there’s much to decide, apart from which piece of jewelry…’ Dee’s eyes widened. ‘What are you wearing? What’s that around your neck?’

Lizzie had forgotten all about the Borgia pendant that Elric had placed around her neck just before he’d kissed her. It lay between her breasts, a comforting weight against her heart, and she knew it belonged there.

Just as a beautiful, treacherous creature like Elric belonged in her bed. She was going out of her mind -she must be. She started to pull off the pendant, but he sat up, reaching out and covering her hand, stopping her. ‘Liz, what’s going on?’ Dee said.

Lizzie shook her head. ‘I’ll be out in a minute – we can talk about it then.’

Dee looked surprised and not pleased, but she shut the door, and Lizzie flinched automatically before realizing that she wasn’t feeling her usual emotions of dread and disaster. She was going to leave the room, and Dee and Mare were going to fight, and then there’d be shoes and bunnies and wildlife everywhere.

But right now the only wildlife in the room was in her bed, watching her warily.

‘Xan sent you,’ she said.

He seemed totally unmoved by her accusation. ‘I was planning on coming here anyway – she just pointed me in the right direction. Someone needed to stop you from making such a mess of things.’

She had no words for him, none that she was comfortable using. Mare could have told him off – Lizzie just wanted to cry.

She wasn’t going to let that happen, not in front of him. Nor was she going to strip off her clothes so he could watch. She grabbed her discarded clothes without another word and disappeared into the workroom, tripping over a new pair of shoes. High-heeled sandals with gold coins dripping off the ankle band – both tacky and charming. She didn’t bother to look too closely – if the coins were real gold and she’d somehow managed to transmute something into the precious stuff, she didn’t want to know. She was too overwhelmed.

When she came back through the bedroom he was nowhere in sight. It was only a small relief – he wasn’t gone forever. The bed was made, the deep purple sheets smooth and inviting. He should have changed them back, but then, Dee had probably seen them, even if she hadn’t seen the naked man lying beneath them. She could feel the pendant against her skin, even through the layers of clothing, and its slow pulse calmed her. Calmed her enough to face the calamity her life had become overnight.

When Lizzie walked into the dining room, Mare was sitting at the end of the table with Pywackt in her lap and a cup of coffee cradled in her hands, looking like her last friend had just died. She looked up when Lizzie sat down. ‘So who’s this Elric? I’m all for him, I’m just curious. The roof over your workroom was practically bouncing last night.’

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Lizzie said. There was just the hint of defiance in her voice, and she hoped neither of her sisters would notice that the sweet little peacekeeper was developing a backbone.

It was a vain hope. ‘You sure you’re okay, Lizzie?’ Dee said, coming in from the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. ‘It’s not like you to sleep late. And why did you take the Borgia pendant from the jewelry case?’

Lizzie took a deep breath to steady herself, answering the easy part. ‘The jewelry belongs to the three of us, and this particular piece belongs to me.’

Dee looked as if one of Lizzie’s bunnies had turned around and bitten her. I’m pretty sure that needs to be the next piece to go-’

‘It’s not going anywhere,’ Lizzie said. ‘It’s mine.’

‘Lizzie, do you know how much that piece is worth?’ Dee said.

‘I don’t care. You can do what you want with the rest of the stuff – I don’t need any of it. I can take care of myself. I should have had this years ago – it was supposed to be mine.’ There was something about Dee’s distracted behavior that alerted her. ‘It was, wasn’t it?’

Dee sighed. ‘Honey, it was in mother’s jewelry box-’

‘But it was supposed to go to me.’

Dee rubbed her forehead. ‘Xan said you should have it, but as far as I knew, it was a trick, maybe some way to track us.’

‘That’s fair,’ Mare said, watching both of them with melancholy interest. ‘But you should have told us what Xan said.’

Lizzie nodded. ‘Or if it’s dangerous, you should have gotten rid of it years ago.’

Dee sat back, clearly upset. ‘I tried. I even threw it in the Pacific Ocean one year. It just kept ending up back in the jewelry box.’

‘Well, if that’s where it’s supposed to be, then it will be there.’ Lizzie sat at the opposite end of the table. ‘Somebody tried to steal it yesterday, too, and that didn’t work, either. Maxine even tried to take it for some fund, but it’s still with me. It belongs with me.’

‘Maxine was collecting for charity?’ Mare said. ‘What is the world coming to? But the signs are clear. The amethyst belongs to Liz.’

Lizzie looked at Dee. Are you going to call the meeting to order?’

Dee looked uncertain. It wasn’t an expression Lizzie was used to seeing on her practical older sister’s face, as if Dee’s entire universe had shifted unexpectedly. Just as Lizzie’s had.

‘Let me just get the jewelry box…’ Dee said.

‘Dee, don’t bother,’ Mare said tiredly. ‘It’s a waste of time. Just call the vote and get it over with.’

Dee sat down. ‘Well, Xan has found us. I’m afraid it’s time to leave. I’m sorry but I vote yes, we go.’

Mare nodded, all fight gone. ‘As long as I’m in Salem’s Fork, I’ll never get over Crash. I vote yes, we go.’

Dee looked over at her. ‘No Italy?’ she asked gently.

‘Nope.’

Dee patted her hand. ‘Lizzie?’

They both turned to look at her, only a formality, since sweet, spacey Lizzie avoided conflict like the plague.

But sweet, spacey Lizzie had changed. She felt the amethyst throb against her heart, and she lifted her head to look at them squarely.

‘I vote no.’

Lizzie could feel her sisters’ amazement, but she wasn’t about to back down. ‘I’m tired of running,’ she said. ‘I’m not a frightened child anymore. I like it here, and I’m not going to let anyone drive me away.’

Mare blinked at her. ‘Lizzie?’

Lizzie stared back at her, implacable.

Mare looked at Dee. ‘We’re not leaving Lizzie.’

‘Listen to me,’ Dee said to Lizzie. ‘We cannot stay here. We don’t even have a plan!’

‘Then we’ll come up with one,’ Lizzie said, and her voice didn’t waver.

Mare tilted her head at Lizzie. ‘Something’s new.’

Dee put her hands on the table. ‘You’re damn right something’s new. We’re in danger. There’s something about this time that’s different. Worse.’

Lizzie folded her arms, unmoving.

Dee took a deep breath. ‘Okay, we’re not leaving. Let’s think this through. Xan sent Danny James, and we know she deals in men and sex so he’s probably not the only one. Who else is new in town besides Danny?’

Mare put her chin in her hand. ‘Jude the VP from Value Video!! I already have my suspicions about him, but he’s dumb as pond scum, so I don’t see him as a major threat. And Crash, but I can’t see Crash and Xan plotting together. She’d hate the motorcycle.’

Lizzie felt Dee’s bright green eyes turn in her direction. ‘Lizzie?’

She couldn’t lie about Elric. Not now, not to her sisters. But she had no intention of sitting there and having them pepper her with a thousand questions about him, particularly when she had no answers, particularly after she’d just called the shots in her family for the first time in twenty-six years, something that would have made her giddy with power if the responsibility hadn’t been so terrifying.

‘What about Charles?’ Dee said.

‘It can’t be Charles,’ Mare said. ‘He’s gone.’

‘Gone?’ Lizzie echoed, astonished.

‘Pauline said he decided to move to Alaska. Quit his job yesterday afternoon and took off. And nobody has missed him.’

‘Well, hallelujah,’ Dee muttered into her coffee cup.

Lizzie knew who she could thank for Charles’s unexpected disappearance. One more thing her mysterious visitor would have to answer for. Who the hell did he think he was, sending the man she loved… no, she didn’t really love him, but the man she was going to marry… no, she wasn’t going to marry him, either. And this way she didn’t have to tell Charles anything, which was a blessing. He’d dumped her for a magic spell and Alaska.

‘Maybe we need to talk about Elric,’ Mare said, with her usual tact.

‘Who the heck is Elric?’ Dee said.

Lizzie stood up. ‘Someone I need to have a little talk with. And that’s all I’m saying. You two should probably talk to your… whatever they are. And don’t overlook Crash -there’s more to him than you might expect. We could come back, pool our information, and see what we can come up with. Find a way to fight back.’

‘Fight back?’ Mare said, interested. ‘You’re going to fight back? Go, Lizzie!’

‘But-’ Dee said, for the first time outmaneuvered by her younger sisters.

‘It’s a plan, Dee,’ Lizzie said firmly. ‘We’ll meet for lunch and compare notes.’

‘I’ll ask Crash why he picked now to come to Salem’s Fork,’ Mare said as she stood up. ‘And I will beat some answers out of that little toad Jude, but then I’m taking an early lunch break at Mother’s Tattoos. I’ll meet you there.’

She headed for the stairs and Dee called after her, ‘You get any more tattoos, you’re gonna look like a biker!’

‘What’s wrong with bikers?’ Lizzie said.

Dee didn’t look happy. ‘I guess I’m going to find out. Where are you going?’

‘I’m staying put.’

‘But you haven’t told me about this Elric person…’

‘He’ll come to me,’ Lizzie said in a dangerous voice. ‘And he’s going to wish he hadn’t.’

No shoes. No bunnies, ferrets, or wisps of purple fog, she thought, heading back to her supposedly deserted bedroom. Just one extremely pissed-off Miss Fortune, about to find out what the hell was going on. And maybe see whether she’d gotten good enough to turn a wizard into a frog.

They were staying. Dee should have been terrified. She should have been grabbing her sisters by whatever body part she could reach and dragging their asses out the front door so fast they left a dust cloud. And oh, yeah. She was terrified. She knew better than anyone just what they were up against. The truth? Xan could crunch them like cockroaches. And she didn’t even have to show up to do it.

But, God. Dee’d been wanting to face off with that pernicious bitch as long as she could remember. She’d had the girls to think of, though. She’d had her mother looking at her with those big Lizzie eyes of hers, begging Dee to protect them.

Seemed she didn’t have to anymore. At least not alone. So no matter what, it was time to put on her big-girl panties and get on with it. For a second, Dee actually managed a smile. She damn near giggled. Until she remembered just what she had to do to get to that face-off.

She’d thought she’d never have to see him again. That as bad as last night had been, she could be safely away long before he came to demand explanations. She should have known better. Ever since Danny James had knocked on their door, nothing had gone the way it should.

Yanking on her gray cardigan and grabbing her purse off the table, she turned for the door. ‘All right, then,’ she said with forced bravado, let’s get this over with.’

She should have known. She threw the door open, ready to march out like Carrie Nation in search of a saloon, only to be stopped dead in her tracks.

‘Oh, good,’ he said, standing on her porch in his white T-shirt and bomber jacket and jeans. ‘I hoped you’d be home.’

Dee knew she was probably goggling at him. But what did you say to the most handsome man in the world, whom you’d run from the night before? Sorry. I wasn’t sure how well you liked your mother? No. Too much to explain. It was better this way? Not that, either. Dee decided she wasn’t the Casablanca type.

‘Yes,’ was all she could come up with. ‘Here I am.’

She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Those wonderful, water-clear eyes, that chiseled chin and the glint of silver above his T-shirt. The easy, comfortable-with-myself, happy-to-see-you stance that made people smile and set her palms to sweating. She couldn’t breathe again. She could never seem to breathe around him.

She’d run from him last night. She’d have to do it again soon or lose her mind altogether. But not right now. Now she had a mission. Yeah. That’s all it was. A mission for her sisters.

He was smiling. Of course he was. ‘May I come in?’ Dee blanked. ‘Uh, no.’

He looked over her shoulder, as if expecting a parent with a shotgun. ‘Well, can you come out?’

She fortified herself with a breath. ‘Why, yes,’ she said, closing the door behind her. ‘I can. I need to talk to you.’

‘Funny. I was just about to say that very thing.’

Dee tried to smile, but she knew it looked stupid. She swore her heart could be heard down the block, it was beating so hard. And it was fragile enough right now that she feared serious injury. ‘Um, there’s a garden bench in the back.’

‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘I love sitting in a jungle on a nice day.’

They did have to wade through a veritable sea of rhododendrons, wisteria, and lilac to get to a bench, and Dee caught sight of Pywackt prowling in the shadows like the predator he was. But the garden was out of sight of the street. On the other hand, she’d be isolated with Danny James where every sharp memory from the night before would hover between them. What a choice.

Dee was about to sit down on the cedar bench when Danny held her back. Dee jumped at his touch. Hot, sharp, sweet. God, she was going to have to get what she needed from him and run like a coward. She looked over at him, but he just held up a hand. Then, pulling a handkerchief, of all things, from his back pocket, he bent to wipe the fallen petals and pollen from the bench. Dee’s breath simply left her body.

He turned, held out his hand, guided her to her seat. Dee couldn’t take her eyes from him. It was such a simple thing, a gift of courtesy. But it made her want to cry. Nobody ever thought to do for Dee O’Brien. Dee knew it was because of the face she put on, that she was in charge, in control. But Danny had done this little thing anyway, and that perilously fragile heart that had been in such danger simply failed.

Oh, she thought, gazing up at him like a besotted girl as he settled in next to her. She could so fall in love with him.

Then he sat down himself. ‘I have a message from your aunt.’

Well, so much for fantasies. ‘Pardon?’

He pulled out his keys and started playing with them, a sure sign of discomfort. Oh, no. Oh, no, no. Her poor, sore heart.

‘I talked to her.’

Dee pulled herself up, as if posture were protection. ‘I gathered that.’

He nodded, still not facing her. ‘I know you think she’s-’

‘The spawn of Satan? The inspiration for every succubus in history?’

That got a grin out of him. ‘I really wish you had an opinion on anything, Dee.’

Oh, don’t be charming. That makes it worse. ‘What did she say?’

He was at the keys again, so that they jangled. He kept that up, he’d end up with Pywackt in his face.

‘Your aunt wants to meet with you.’

Worse and worse. ‘I bet she does. And when does she get in from Santa Fe?’

‘Uh…’ Danny James couldn’t seem to keep a secret to save his life.

Dee lurched to her feet. ‘Oh, my God. You’ve seen her’

‘Well, yeah. She’s at the Lighthorse.’

Dee didn’t say another word. Shoving wisteria aside like an advancing defensive line, she turned and stalked off. She didn’t even get past the front gate before Danny caught up with her.

‘I really wish you’d stop doing that,’ he said, trying to hold her back.

She batted his hand away. ‘I have to see my aunt.’

Danny took her arm. ‘Well, that was the point of the visit. But she wants to see all three of you.’

Dee tried to pull away, and found that she couldn’t fight hard enough. Suddenly the smell of lilac was cloying, and she hated it. ‘No,’ she said. ‘She sees me or she sees no one.’

And if she did, Dee could save them all a lot of time and grief and just rip her eyes out and feed them to her on a plate.

‘Let me give you a ride down there,’ Danny suggested. ‘It’ll be faster’

That took the starch out of her. He was trying to protect her, to help her, and it hurt. Because for the first time in her life, that was what she wanted.

So he could take her to Xan, whom he’d seen.

‘Dee? Honey, you okay?’

Dee just nodded, her eyes closed. God, how could she smell him over the overwhelming scent of wisteria and lilac? She did, though, a bracing hint of wind and the sea in this claustrophobic little garden. That awful temptation of freedom and flight. He still had her by the arm, but his hold was gentle. It made Dee want to cry all over again.

‘Before we go,’ he was saying, ‘I really need to know something.’ Dee didn’t move. Danny hesitated. ‘Last night…’

Oh, no. Not last night. Not when she had to fortify herself for Xan.

‘Did I hurt you?’

Dee’s eyes snapped open. ‘What?’

His eyes were soft and uncertain. Vulnerable. As if he’d thought what had happened had been somehow his fault.

‘You’re the bravest woman I know,’ he said. ‘Good God, Dee, you’ve raised your sisters alone since you were sixteen. I just couldn’t imagine you running unless I’d done something terrible. I wanted to follow you, but… I stood outside your house for hours. I saw your sister’s friend show up and almost knocked then…’

Well, this certainly was the end. Dee was as lost as a romance heroine. How could she not love Danny James?

‘Oh, Danny,’ she said, unable to resist the urge to cup that strong face in her hand. ‘How could you think you could ever hurt anybody?’

‘Then you…’

The wind caught the flowers and sent some of them spinning, a shower of purple and magenta that rained around them like fireworks. ‘The problem is mine,’ she said. ‘I’m so sorry. I would never want to make you feel responsible.’

‘You promise.’

Tears she allowed for no one pooled in her eyes. ‘On my honor. And the girls can tell you I’m tough on that kind of stuff.’

He took her hand in both of his and raised it for a kiss. ‘I’ve never met anybody like you, Deirdre Dolores O’Brien.’

He’d met Xan. Dee came so close to asking him if she was more. More beautiful, more compelling, more everything a good man wanted.

‘You sure you want to go see her?’ he asked, again echoing her thoughts.

‘Yeah. But I have a question for you first.’ She found herself holding tight to those work-roughened hands, really afraid now. ‘Who was she?’

‘Pardon?’

Had the wind died? It sounded so suddenly still, as if breath were being held.

‘How would you describe her? Sophia Loren? Susan Sarandon?’

He considered, her hand still captive. ‘Delilah.’ And Dee had thought she’d lost the capacity for surprise. ‘Delilah?’

He grinned. ‘I see what you mean about how she gets people to do what she wants. But there’s something… sad about her. Empty, I guess.’

Dee couldn’t move. She couldn’t look away from him. How do you answer a statement like that? He was wrong, of course. Xan wasn’t sad. She was evil. But she was empty. Just a shell fabricated from manipulation and cupidity.

‘Do you trust me?’ she asked.

It was his turn to reach out, running his fingers down her cheek. ‘Yeah, oddly enough. I seem to have a taste for sharp-tongued shrews.’

Dee stiffened, until she saw that sly gleam in his eyes. ‘Nobody’s called me that and lived to tell the tale, mister’

‘But I like sharp-tongued shrews. Or weren’t you listening?’

She wasn’t breathing. The wind must have risen, because she swore she had dust in her eyes. And the dust carried that brief, bright sight of Danny James smiling at her. At her. She ached to live that moment, even knowing that by facing off with Xan she was probably tossing out her last chance for it.

There will be disaster.

She hadn’t hurt this hard since she’d shoved her sisters onto a bus at three a.m. and made off with them and her mother’s jewels.

‘Well,’ she said, as if it were all a game, ‘this sharp-tongued shrew needs to see her aunt. You wanna come?’

‘I wouldn’t be anywhere else.’

Dee climbed on the bike, much easier in jeans and sweater, and wrapped her arms around Danny. Beyond the trees, the sky had gone sulky again, and the burgeoning foliage hung limp. The air was thick as molasses, with that faint promise of lightning and rain. A storm, huh? She’d sure give Xan a storm.

‘I don’t understand,’ Danny said five minutes later as they stood with Verna on the porch of the Light-horse. ‘She was in room 2A this morning. I know.’

‘No, dear,’ the little woman protested. ‘We’ve had that room closed for redecoration. You’re sure it wasn’t a dream?’

‘No. She was wearing a white dress, and…’

White. Ah, Xan, such delusions. Dee grabbed Danny by the arm and steered him for the steps. ‘Jet lag,’ she said brightly. ‘Thanks, Verna.’

Danny turned on her. ‘But I saw her.’

‘I know you did. Now, we’re going to find out where she’s gone to ground and take her out before she wreaks havoc.’

Two feet from his bike, he stopped and turned on her. ‘Dee, she’s only a woman. Just let her go. I mean, what can she really do to you?’

Dee looked up at that dear, honest face and struggled again with the truth. She had no choice, now. She had to at least try to make him understand, no matter that it would send him screaming for the hills by sundown. Oh, well, he would have run screaming eventually anyway. Why not get it over with?

‘No, Danny,’ she said, holding on to his hand. ‘She’s not only a woman. She’s far more powerful than that.’

‘Now, Dee…’ He was already trying to turn away. She couldn’t let him. Not anymore.

‘She killed my parents, Danny’

He froze. ‘You said they died of hypothermia.’

‘I lied.’ She shook her head, so frustrated with what she knew, what she realized he wouldn’t want to hear. Hell, Mare didn’t want to hear it. ‘The official report was hypothermia. It matched the findings. Cold. They were so cold…’ Like wax dolls tossed aside by an impatient child. She thought she’d never get warm again after holding her mother. ‘I found Xan bent over them and I screamed and everybody came running, but there was nothing they could do. She convinced the authorities that she’d been trying to save them, but I know better. I don’t know how she did it, but she…’ Dee laughed, knowing perfectly well how outrageous her words sounded. Even so, she straightened and faced Danny. ‘Somehow I think she sucked the life out of them.’

‘You can’t believe that.’

‘And now she’s come after us.’

Danny stiffened like an outraged minister. ‘Now, Dee…’

There was nothing for it. She had to show him. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We’re going someplace to really talk.’

She directed him to a nondescript field at the north edge of town, where Old Church Street crossed a vague path that had once been an Indian track. Weeds littered the vacant lot nobody liked to use, and a straggly cottonwood struggled to leaf. The sky seemed darker of a sudden, the clouds full-bellied and the breeze fetid. Dee hated this place. She walked Danny straight up to it and stood him in the center, right where the paths crossed.

‘What?’ he asked, looking around. ‘Is she here?’

‘What do you hear?’ she asked, standing carefully away.

Danny shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. He opened his mouth. He shook his head as if to clear it.

‘Screams.’

He tried to walk away, but Dee grabbed him. ‘What else?’

‘This is-’

‘What else, Danny?’

‘Jeering. Shouts. And those… screams.’ He’d lost some of his color, and his eyes looked stark. Dee knew.

‘You know those witches who danced on the mountain?’ she asked, her voice gentle, her hand holding him still.

‘Of course.’

‘This is where they were burned.’

Danny gaped like a landed fish. He threw off her hand as if it scalded him and stalked over to his bike. ‘That’s ridiculous.’

Dee didn’t move. ‘There is power out there, Danny. My mother had a great amount of it. My father didn’t have so much, but Xan made him believe he did. Xan can make you believe anything. She impressed you so much with her whispers you named your damn bike after her without ever even meeting her. She whispers, and what she whispers is believed. My sisters and I have power, and I think she wants it.’

‘Don’t be-’

‘Ridiculous? Xan wasn’t there this morning, Danny. Not in the room. But she made you see her. And believe her.’ Dee smiled, shaking her head. Although it seems she couldn’t do a complete job of it. She’ll use you to get to us. And then she’ll try and sap our power to strengthen hers. She’s a predator. A carnivore. A psychic vampire.’

‘There are no-’

‘Psychics? Yes there are. And you’d better start believing it, because you are one.’

For the first time she saw Danny James truly angry. ‘Oh, yeah, that’s what they told my mother. Every goddamn one of them. “Just believe. There is great power, and I have it. I’m a psychic. I can tell you… I can-”‘

Dee thought her heart would break. ‘“Communicate with your husband.” It was your mother who fell prey to the con artists.’

‘And they took every dime she had. It’s bullshit, Dee, and the sooner you get that through your head the sooner you might join the real world again and stop jumping at phantasms. That woman you’re so afraid of is nothing more than a standard-issue drama queen.’

She kept her voice so gentle. ‘And the voices you just heard in your head?’

‘My imagination! I told you. It’s very good.’

‘Danny, if you’d just listen…’

And then Danny James did the first rude thing Dee had seen. He simply turned away from her and climbed on his bike. ‘No,’ he said, kicking it into gear. ‘I won’t.’

And then, as she stood alone in a bare field that rustled with an incoming storm, he left.

‘Are you just going to let him go?’ Dee heard from behind her.

She didn’t even bother to turn. She knew that voice. It had haunted her nightmares for years.

‘Hello, Xan,’ she said, hoping her voice didn’t betray her. She suddenly felt like she was twelve again. ‘I was wondering when you’d show up.’

Right there in the middle of the Burning Field. How appropriate.

‘Darling, aren’t you even going to look at me?’

Dee couldn’t see Danny anymore. The sound of his bike had faded into traffic noise. All that was left was Xan. ‘I don’t look at snakes.’

For a moment there was silence, then a sigh. ‘Oh, Dee.’

Dee had to turn around. She had to face her worst nightmare, or she was never going to get past it: She just hoped Xan couldn’t see how shaken she was.

Ready or not…

Xan didn’t look a day different. Elegant and sleek, her thick raven hair caught in an effortless chignon, her maroon suit a Chanel, her ears hung with chunky gold earrings that gleamed in the sullen light. She looked as if she’d just stepped out of a salon on Madison Avenue – or from backstage at the Fortune Hour of Psychic Power. Dee wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted, God help her, for her aunt to approve of her.

‘A little overdressed for the occasion, aren’t you?’ she said instead.

Xan held out her perfectly manicured hands with their bloodred nails, and all Dee could think of was talons. ‘Style is never out of place.’ She smiled. ‘You look lovely as ever. Always appropriate.’

Tilting her head, Dee motioned to the severe lines of her aunt’s attire. ‘Is that how you think I see myself? Appropriate? Like you?’ She shook her head. ‘I need to toss out some gray suits.’

Oddly enough, Xan looked as if she were amused. ‘I should have looked harder for you. I’m going to enjoy getting to know you again.’

‘Don’t put yourself out,’ Dee said. ‘And now, if you don’t mind, I have things to do.’ People to warn, pitch-forks and torches to collect…

Pretending she felt nothing but disinterest no matter how hard her heart was beating, Dee turned and walked away.

‘You’re not going to make this easy, are you?’ Xan asked.

‘Any reason I should?’ Xan didn’t need to know that her palms were sweating.

‘You really have nothing to say to me, Deirdre?’

Dee stopped, her focus firmly on the steeple of the Third Baptist Church that thrust through the trees down the block. ‘Besides “you two-faced, venomous murdering bitch,” no. I really don’t.’

‘You don’t want to know why I’m here?’

‘Nope.’

God, she could hear Xan smiling behind her. ‘Believe it or not, I’ve come to tell you that you won.’

Okay, that got Dee to turn around, if only to gauge the look on Xan’s face. ‘It wasn’t a game,’ she said.

Xan took a step toward her. The grass didn’t even seem to bend beneath her. ‘No,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t. It was a sincere difference of opinion. You never understood that I would never have hurt you, and I couldn’t believe you would shatter your family the way you did. But I can’t discount the fact that you did keep your sisters safe all these years. You did a good job, Dee. They’re exceptional women.’

Dee couldn’t even find the breath to answer. How did she do it? How, after all these years, did she know just where Dee’s weakness was? She was saying everything Dee had yearned to hear all these years, in those moments when she felt small and selfish and put-upon. Just to have one person appreciate what she’d done.

And it had to be Xan. Damn, damn, damn.

‘They are,’ Dee said. And without you.’

‘And whether you believe it or not, I want to say thank you. I love them, too.’ Xan considered her a minute, obviously gauging back. I’m not going to insult your intelligence by trying to convince you there was never any animosity between the two of us, Dee. You do have a legitimate case against my behavior all those years ago.’

Dee couldn’t move, mesmerized. ‘You mean the part about your murdering my parents?’

Xan waved an elegant hand, as if discounting bad grammar. ‘No, dear. I didn’t murder anyone. They simply didn’t have the stamina for what they asked. They wanted their powers gone. They had misused them and thought it would be an appropriate penance. I… obliged them.’

And they died.’

‘Well…’ Xan sighed, actually frowning. ‘Yes. I’m afraid I wasn’t as proficient then. I couldn’t pull away in time. They surprised me. I learned a terrible lesson that day.’

‘Yes. How to cover up a crime.’

‘The verdict was death by accident, Deirdre.’ Her voice was so gentle, so understanding. Dee wanted to break something. And it was just that. I’m sorry. And I hope you’ll be able to accept my gift in the spirit it was intended, as a gesture of reconciliation.’

‘Gift?’ Dee demanded. ‘Like a fruit basket?’

She got Xan to smile again. ‘If you’re getting fruit baskets that are nearly as delicious as Danny James, I need to stop in for the holidays more often.’ She looked down the street in the direction Danny James had just disappeared. ‘I looked all over the world for him. I wanted to find someone who would help you free yourself from all your responsibilities, and every search led to Danny James. He’s your true love, Dee.’

Again, a thrust straight through the heart. ‘He can’t be. He doesn’t even believe in what we are.’

Xan actually looked a bit regretful. ‘I know. I didn’t realize that until I saw him here with you. I talked to him this morning, but I just don’t think that’s going to change. He’s been too hurt.’

‘Then how can he be…?’

‘Your true love?’ Xan shrugged, looking disconcerted. ‘Truly? I don’t know. I just know that this chance comes along once in a lifetime, and that you can’t throw him away.’

Dee wanted to close her eyes, to stick her fingers in her ears. God, Xan was good. Satan in Chanel.

She shoved her hands in her pockets. ‘Why should I listen to a word you say?’

‘Because you know I’m telling the truth.’

‘A lovely thought. But what if I feel I can’t accept such a generous gift?’

Xan walked right up to her. ‘Do you really want to find yourself my age and all alone?’

‘Like you?’

Xan’s eyes sparked red, betraying her frustration. She looked away a second, and then faced Dee head-on. ‘Yes. Like me. I chose power, Dee. It’s too late for me to change that. It’s not too late for you.’ Dee could smell the cinnamon and sulfur that was Xan’s power signature. It made Dee want to sneeze. Even so, she couldn’t look away from those mesmerizing black eyes.

‘Why am I seeing a Trojan horse in my head?’ she asked.

Xan laughed and shook her head. ‘You don’t have to trust me. Go to him and you’ll know. I’m just hoping you don’t throw away the best thing that ever happened to you because I brought him to you. I hope you know just what he’s worth.’

‘Because he’s my true love.’

‘Yes.’ Xan took Dee’s hand before she could stop her, twining their fingers together until Dee could feel the warmth of Xan’s skin. ‘Get out of this town, Dee. Go travel the world and find out who Danny James is. Love him. Have babies with him. And if you have to compromise to get him, you should. I promise you, there isn’t anything too great to sacrifice for this chance.’

Dee was shaken to her toes. Shed never heard Xan sound so sincere. So passionate about anything. She’d never seen ghosts of any kind in her aunt’s eyes. She saw them now. She felt such warmth spread through her, as if Xan had poured it from her fingers.

Xan straightened, retrieved her hand. Dee stumbled, suddenly off balance and shivery.

‘It would be nice to reestablish a relationship with my nieces,’ Xan said. ‘After you think about this, after you decide what you want to do about Danny, let me know. I’ll help any way I can. I’ve spent the last long years making sure I learned how. Correctly, so I can’t hurt anyone else.’

And just like that, Dee was alone once again with nothing but a sense of sudden cold and the growing suspicion that for once in her life, Xan had told the truth.

Elric really was gone. Lizzie couldn’t believe it – when she went through her deserted bedroom back into the workshop, there was no sign of him. She’d assumed he’d just been masking his presence, and she closed her eyes and tried to sense him, tried to conjure up the flowing colors he seemed to emanate, but the air was flat and still. She looked down, and she was barefoot. How odd – even when she didn’t deliberately put shoes on, she always ended up with something interesting on her feet. But ever since she took her shoes off last night, she’d stayed barefoot.

Never in her life had she gone against her sisters’ will -she was the peacemaker, the problem solver, the one to figure out something that would make everyone happy, or at least marginally satisfied. She’d automatically stepped into the middle of the array he’d drawn on the floor the night before, and she could practically feel him around her, hear his voice in her ear. The rat bastard. He’d told Xan where they were. For all his ‘oh, I’ll help you,’ he’d turned around and given them up. He’d lied and betrayed them. Not only that, but he’d sent her fiance off to the ends of the earth, and probably given him amnesia, as well, at least as far as she was concerned.

Bastard. All that shimmering charm was nothing but a charade, just like her father’s facile charisma, and beneath it-

‘Stop thinking so hard.’

She whirled around. He was standing in the entrance to her workshop, as if he thought he’d be welcome. He’d changed his clothes – whether he’d literally changed what he’d been wearing into something new or had somehow found a new set of clothes, she didn’t know and she didn’t care.

‘You son of a bitch,’ she said.

He seemed undisturbed by her greeting. ‘Don’t overreact. I’m not the only one who’s arrived in this godforsaken little town. If I hadn’t told her, somebody else would have.’

‘Who else has she sent?’

‘Didn’t you listen to your sisters? Xantippe understands people far too well – she sent exactly the sort of men who’d most distract your sisters. Their soul mates.’

‘Is that what you’re supposed to be? My soul mate?’

For some reason his laugh sounded slightly hollow. ‘I think Xantippe thought you wouldn’t be interested in sex. I was simply going to distract you until she arrived.’

‘Why you?’

‘I offered. I came to her in the first place – Xantippe always knows things, and I thought if anyone knew what was upsetting the flow, then she would. She told me it was you.’

‘And sent you to stop me.’

‘I told you, I offered. I have no idea what she wants with you, and I don’t really care. I just wanted to stop you from wreaking havoc’

‘And how did getting rid of my fiance serve that purpose?’

He didn’t look the slightest bit guilty. ‘He was the wrong man for you, and you knew it. I just saved you the trouble of dumping him.’

‘Why, how thoughtful,’ she said, acidly polite. ‘So if you were so determined to stop me, why did you teach me things? And don’t pretend that you didn’t – I already feel different. I’m more focused. More powerful.’

‘I was afraid of that,’ he said, not sounding particularly pleased. ‘You’re a fast learner. And you’re going to need to know these things sooner or later, I thought I might as well start your education.’

‘Why bother? Why didn’t you just seduce me to shut me up?’

He looked startled. The violet ring around his pupils seemed to have widened, a dark, smoky look that made her think of long nights and purple silk. ‘Would it have been that easy?’

‘Would it have been that hard? You assured me you were very good in bed. Wouldn’t it have been simpler to distract me with sex? Unless, of course, you don’t want-’

‘Don’t even go there.’ His voice was low, dangerous.

‘Go where?’

‘You know what I’m talking about.’

The last twenty-four hours had been a mass of simmering emotions and frustrations, feelings she couldn’t even begin to understand, and suddenly she cracked, the last of her nervousness vanishing. She turned on him, coming right up to him as he filled her doorway. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know why you stayed once you found us, I don’t know why you decided to teach me things, why you sent Charles away, I don’t know why you have such a crazy effect on me.’

‘Sure you do,’ he said, sliding his hand behind her neck, pulling her face up to his. ‘You know too damned well.’

This time she was prepared. He was going to kiss her, and she steeled herself, determined not to respond. Why should she respond? she thought. She didn’t like him, she’d just been engaged to another man, and besides, she didn’t really like kissing…

‘Maybe you just haven’t been kissed by the right man,’ he murmured.

She jerked away. ‘You can’t read minds!’ If he’d been reading her mind for the last twenty-four hours she was in deep shit.

‘Can’t I?’ He seemed no more perturbed than if one of her magicked bunnies had hopped out of his reach. ‘Normally I can’t. But every now and then I get a glimpse of what’s going on in your tortured little brain, and it terrifies me.’

‘Nothing terrifies you,’ she said. ‘What is it you want from me? You’ve done your job, Xan’s coming. Why are you still here?’

He shoved his dark blond hair away from his face, the silver earring gleaming against his skin, and his smoky eyes were troubled. Odd, he didn’t seem to be the kind of man who troubled easily. ‘I’m not sure I know.’

‘Then go away and don’t come back.’

He stared at her. ‘That’s what you really want?’

‘That’s what I really want,’ she said. Because if he stayed he’d kiss her again, and she couldn’t afford to let that happen.

It was that simple. One moment he was lounging in her doorway, all golden beauty and shimmering colors, and the next moment he was gone. She put out her hand, knowing she would feel him if he’d simply altered her perceptions, but nothing was there. He’d really, truly gone. Forever, as she’d asked him to.

And she burst into tears.

Lizzie worked on transformations, deliberately messing with the fabric of the universe, until finally she had to admit that he wasn’t coming back. When the full realization hit, she ran. She shoved her bare feet into the first shoes she could find, a pair of feathered mules that Mare had drooled over, grabbed her purse and dashed out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The day was dark and overcast, unseasonably warm, and she could feel the storm brewing, the one that had been dancing over their heads since yesterday. The wind had died down, replaced by a sullen torpor that did nothing for Lizzie’s state of mind. She needed cool, crisp spring air to clear her mind, and instead she was assaulted with the onset of a storm that was almost tropical in intensity.

She hadn’t even planned where she was heading, and the shoes had been a bad choice. High-heeled mules weren’t exactly boots made for walking, and she stopped to look down at them in frustration. If she tried to change them they might turn into ferrets, and she couldn’t very well walk into town with livestock attached to her feet. But high-heeled, feather-bedecked slides weren’t doing her much good, either.

She could feel his arms around her, encircling her, bringing her own arms into a circle as his low voice breathed in her ear, filled her head and her body with shivery hot feelings. She needed an array, he’d said, but she couldn’t very well stop and draw one on the sidewalk. It wasn’t going to work, but she had to try. She wrapped her arms around her body, envisioning a circle, trying not to think about Elric’s body pressed up against hers, his heat melting into her bones. She closed her eyes and thought about sneakers.

They were purple, but at least they were easier to move in. She stared down at them in both triumph and bewilderment. Had it become that easy?

‘That’s wonderful, Lizzie,’ a soft voice said, and when Lizzie looked up, Xan was there in all her fanged glory.

Not that she was really fanged, of course. She looked far younger than her years, which had to be somewhere in her fifties, her raven hair tied up with bejeweled chopsticks stuck in it, her beautiful, pale skin glowing, and she wore a bright red kimono jacket and black silk pants that Lizzie immediately craved. She looked as exotic and out of place as Lizzie had always secretly felt.

‘Darling Lizzie,’ Xan said, holding out her arms.

Lizzie looked at her doubtfully. If Dee had been there, she would have told her to run the other way. If Mare had been there, she would have flung herself into Xan’s arms. As it was, Lizzie was stuck in the middle, unsure which way to go, only knowing instinctively that she didn’t want to piss this woman off. She could feel the amethyst humming against her heart. It was tucked inside her shirt, out of sight, and yet she had the odd sense that Xan could see it quite clearly through the layers of cloth.

She gave Xan a dutiful hug and a polite peck on her perfect cheek. She smelled of cinnamon and sulfur – an odd combination. ‘I didn’t realize you were in town,’ Lizzie said in a neutral voice.

‘It’s not really my kind of place, is it?’ Xan said, looking around. ‘But then, it’s not really your kind of place, cither.’ She smiled at Lizzie. ‘You’d do so much better in Toledo.’

Lizzie said nothing.

‘And what do you think of Elric?’ She ducked her head a little to peer at Lizzie. ‘I sent him, you know.’

‘I know.’

‘He’s quite extraordinary, isn’t he? And I sent him to you. I’m feeling quite pleased with myself for that.’ She made a little comic flourish with her hands. ‘The perfect aunt.’

‘Why?’ Lizzie said, suspicious.

‘Because he’s your destiny, darling. He’s the most powerful sorcerer I’ve ever known, but he’s always been beyond my reach. I thought it was just because he doesn’t like powerful women – he doesn’t, you know, positively loathes them, and I was so besotted with him I was even willing to give up my powers for him – but when I cast a spell to see if I was his true love, I found out… you are.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Lizzie said, ignoring the sudden surge inside her. Xan wasn’t telling her something she didn’t already know. She’d taken one look at Elric and known they were mated, bonded, forever.

She just didn’t have to like it.

‘I’d give anything to be you,’ Xan said, and the ring of truth in her voice was undeniable. ‘Give up my powers, anything. He’s worth any sacrifice. It’s hopeless for me, he’ll never love me, but if I were you…’ She leaned close to Lizzie, cinnamon and sulfur again. ‘Let passion take you, Lizzie. To be Elric’s one true love is a destiny worth any gift.’

And all I ever wanted was to get rid of my gift, Lizzie thought, looking at Xan’s beautiful, ageless face.

So why was she suddenly feeling manipulated when her long-lost aunt was telling her to reach for everything she ever wanted, true love and no inconvenient powers?

But Dee’s decade of warnings still stuck in her brain, and while she might have been spacey, she was never stupid. ‘What’s in it for you?’

‘For me, darling?’ Xan echoed, pulling back. ‘What could be in it for me? Except your happiness. Happiness and true love.’

Yeah, right, she thought, but this time she didn’t say it out loud.

‘Go to him, Lizzie. He’s everything you ever wanted.’ There was the faint glint of a tear in Xan’s eyes, a real tear, and her voice was true. She took Lizzie’s hand in hers, her fingers twining, and the amethyst went wild. Hot and sparking against her skin, a fiery warning that Xan didn’t seem to notice. ‘Don’t let your sisters tell you power is more important than love. Nothing is more important than love.’

She held on for a moment, and then released Lizzie’s hand, turning and walking away, graceful in those beautiful silk pants, the red kimono lifting gently in the wind. Lizzie stared after her, dizzy and confused. That was sincere; she really meant that. But that was also Xan.

The day had grown suddenly cold, and the amethyst against her skin seemed lifeless, as if, after giving off that major electrical charge, it had burned out. Lizzie pushed her hair out of her face and realized her hand was shaking. On top of everything else, she must be coming down with some kind of flu. It only needed that to make her life complete.

She needed to get to her sisters, to see if she could reclaim some kind of sanity. Mare had said Mother’s Tattoo Parlor for lunch, and that was as a good a place as any to figure out exactly what was going on, and whether Aunt Xan really was the she-devil of the western world. The cold began to seep into Lizzie’s bones and she hugged herself and turned toward Mother’s, feeling sicker with each step. With luck she wouldn’t have to think about Elric for a very long time.

Mare got to Value Video!! at ten wearing her work clothes which, since Saturday was Corpse Bride, consisted of a wedding dress and veil she’d found at Goodwill, ripped up, and dyed blue. Dreama met her at the front counter. ‘That’s a great dress,’ Dreama said.

Mare got a box of Junior Mints out of the case and gave it to her.

‘Thank you.’ Dreama opened the box. ‘The leak in the beanbag chair got worse last night. I think we really gotta just move it outta here.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Mare said. ‘Where’s Jude?’

‘In the office discussing sales with William.’ Dreama shook her head. ‘Jude is cute, but he doesn’t have much sensitivity.’

‘You are a keen judge of character,’ Mare said.

Dreama nodded, serious. ‘When William took his dinner break last night, I got all the sharp objects out of there.’

Mare looked at her, surprised. ‘Very good, Dreama.’

Jude came out of the office and smiled when he saw Mare, his green eyes glassy with delight, his tie still vile.

‘Ciao, Mare! I’m so glad you’re here.’ Then he looked at her dress. ‘Oh. That’s interesting.’

‘Well, we all become the remains of the day,’ Mare said.

‘Huh?’ Jude said.

‘Emily,’ Dreama said helpfully. ‘Corpse Bride. It’s in her song. Mare’s wearing her dress.’

‘Right, right,’ Jude said. ‘Great marketing. But in New York, you’re going to have to give up anything that’s out of the normal.’

I’m not going to New York,’ Mare said, and ignored Dreama’s fallen face. That was life. One crushing disappointment after another.

‘But it’s a tremendous opportunity,’ Jude said, and then turned when Crash knocked on the plate-glass door.

‘We don’t open until ten-thirty,’ Jude said through the glass, but Mare reached around him and unlocked the latch. ‘No personal conversations on Value Video!! time!’ he told her, his voice rising, and she opened the door.

‘I got your message,’ Crash said as he came in. ‘Nice dress. Corpse Bride, right?’

Mare picked up the broken beanbag chair and jerked her head toward the storeroom.

‘Both of you, in there,’ she said to them. ‘Take care of the store, Dreama. The boys and I are going to have a little talk.’

When they were inside the storeroom, Mare dropped the beanbag chair on the floor, folded her arms, and said, ‘Okay, which one of you bitches is my mother?’

Jude said, ‘Huh?’ but Crash said, ‘Phoebe Cates. It’s from this bad movie she made me watch once.’

‘Lace,’ Mare said.

Jude still looked perplexed. ‘Who’s Phoebe Cates?’

Crash frowned at him. ‘You never saw Fast Times at Ridgemont High? The pool scene? Every guy knows that scene.’

‘Exactly,’ Mare said. ‘He also never saw Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Corpse Bride, Young Frankenstein, the third Indiana Jones, or Ghostbusters.’

‘Son,’ Crash said. ‘You’re in the wrong business.’

Mare leveled her eyes at Jude, who was breathing heavily now, his Adam’s apple practically palpitating, his fingers rubbing his tie tack so hard, she almost expected a genie to appear. ‘You don’t happen to know a tall, dark-haired woman in a red dress, do you? Very beautiful? Dark eyes with a red ring around the iris? Looks like she could cut you in half with them?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Jude croaked.

‘The hell you don’t,’ Mare said. ‘My aunt Xan sent you, you little bastard.’

Jude shook his head, his chest heaving.

‘Back to Aunt Xan, are we?’ Crash said.

‘I have a few questions for you, too,’ Mare said to him, suddenly angrier with him than with a lying VP she didn’t care about anyway. ‘Five years you’ve been gone but all of a sudden you want to marry me. How’d that happen?’

‘It was time,’ Crash said. ‘You’re mad about that?’

‘You’ve been gone for five years,’ Mare said. ‘Why now?’

Crash shook his head. ‘I don’t know. The business is on its feet. I bought a house. We’re making money. I was tired of chasing girls.’

‘Oh, thank you,’ Mare said.

Crash looked confused and more than a little annoyed. ‘This guy in Annapolis ordered a bike and it was ready to ship, and I thought, I could deliver it and see Mare again. The bike I’ve been restoring for you is finished. I looked out the door one day and thought about you standing in the sun, and I missed you so much I couldn’t breathe. It was just time.’

‘Just like that,’ Mare said, trying to ignore the ‘couldn’t breathe’ part. ‘I find your timing suspicious.’

Crash shrugged. ‘You’re the Queen of the Universe. Maybe you made it happen.’

I’m not the queen of anything,’ Mare said grimly. ‘So what did my aunt Xan tell you?’

‘Nothing,’ Crash said, definitely annoyed now. ‘I don’t know your aunt. What’s this about?’

‘I think you’re both Xan’s evil minions.’ Mare swallowed hard, appalled to realize that she was upset, almost crying upset. ‘She was always trying to get control of us, and I think she sent men after us this time, and I got a doubleheader. At least I only fell for one of you.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Jude said, trying for the high ground and just sounding slimy. ‘I’m offering you a promotion and the chance for great earthly power. All you have to do is stop doing anything’ – he gestured to her dress – ‘strange. It’s corporate America. We don’t do strange.’

‘And I told you, I don’t know your aunt.’ Crash straightened, his face dark now. ‘But you know me. You knew me for three years before I left Salem’s Fork, so if I was going to be an evil minion – and who the fuck talks like that anyway? – you’d have known back then. You really think I’d hurt you, do anything that would hurt you? Jesus, Mare, if you can really think that, you don’t deserve me.’

Mare’s mouth dropped open. ‘What? You’re mad at me?’

‘Hell, yes, I’m mad at you. You drag me up on that damn mountain last night, you give me some kind of dumb story about magic, we have great sex, but then you tell me there’s no spending the night because you live in a damn nunnery with your sisters, and now you’re accusing me of being a minion? Yeah, I’m mad. What did I do to-’

‘Listen, you,’ Mare said, stabbing him in the chest with her finger. ‘You left me. I loved you and you left me, for five years you left me, bleeding and alone and then you came waltzing back in, all charm and marriage proposals like I’m just gonna fall right back into you, and of course I DID-’ She blinked back tears. ‘Because I missed you so damn much, you bastard, and you did not just show up here by chance out of the blue by a wild coincidence at the exact same time that Xan sent men to Dee and Lizzie, so yes, I think you’re a minion, you rat bastard, and how dare you come back here and make fantastic love to me and minion me when I love you and trust you and love you, and-’ She smacked him on the chest, gulping back tears, and he caught her fist and shoved her away.

‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘When you get your head out of your butt, you give me a call.’ He headed for the door and she moved to block him, sticking her chin out as he loomed over her. ‘Out of my way, O’Brien.’

‘Give me one good reason to trust you!’

‘Because it’s me,’ he said, and moved her roughly aside, kicking the beanbag chair out of his path and spraying pellets everywhere as he walked out the door.

‘Well, he’s obviously not a gentleman,’ Jude said when the door had closed behind him. ‘Now about New York, I think you can go right to the top if you don’t do anything that’s not normal and give up-’

‘Shut up, Jude,’ Mare said, fury and pain making her savage. ‘You are so evil minion, it’s written all over you. You probably even have the goddamn T-shirt. Go back to the lair and push the button, Igor, or do whatever the hell it is that evil minions do when the jig is up. Just get out of my face.’

‘Huh?’ Jude said.

‘Jesus,’ Mare said, I’ve lost all respect for Xan.’ Then she went back out to the counter.

‘What happened in there?’ Dreama said. ‘Crash looked really mad.’

‘He was,’ Mare said miserably. ‘So am I.’

‘Heads are gonna roll, huh?’ Dreama said, grinning. ‘The Queen of the Universe is gonna kick some ass.’

‘I’m not the Queen of the Universe,’ Mare said, close to tears. I’m not even Queen of Value Video!! and that’s about as low as you can go.’

Dreama’s face went slack. ‘Mare!’

Mare picked up a stack of DVDs. ‘I’m going to restock these. And then I’m taking my lunch break. That okay with you?’

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Dreama said, with a catch in her voice.

‘Everything,’ Mare said, and went off to shelve movies. Starting with Girls Gone Wild Cleveland.

Mare went to the Greasy Fork to pick up lunch on her way to Mother’s, threading her way through the crowd of locals and tourists. It was easy to tell them apart; the locals didn’t bat an eye when she walked in wearing her ripped blue tulle wedding dress, but the tourists all gaped. ‘Are you in a play?’ one of them asked.

‘No,’ Mare said over the tops of her heart-shaped glasses. ‘Why would you think that?’ and then moved on without waiting for an answer, heading for the register.

Pauline went past her, carrying her tray shoulder high like the pro she was. ‘There’s a lady over there in the booth, said you could sit with her.’

‘A lady?’ Mare said, turning to look at the booths. ‘I don’t know any

In the last booth, a brunette beauty with a fine-boned face and flawless skin sat looking at the menu with barely concealed distaste. Her ruby earrings and cashmere blue hoodie were drawing more glances than Mare’s blue tulle, but she didn’t seem to notice. Then she looked up and saw Mare and smiled, her red lips curving an invitation, and Mare began to walk toward her without realizing she was moving.

‘It can’t be you,’ she said, taking off her sunglasses as she reached the booth. ‘You haven’t changed. It’s been thirteen years and you haven’t changed.’

‘Diet,’ Xan said. ‘Exercise. Plastic surgery.’ She waved a languid hand. ‘Magic. Have a seat, Mare. You look beautiful.’

‘Well, blue is my color,’ Mare said, trying to get her snark back as she slid into the booth, the scent of cinnamon and sulfur taking her back to childhood. ‘I should have known you were here. They’re serving martinis here now. That had to be a sign of the apocalypse.’

Xan closed her eyes for a moment.

‘So you sent guys after us and now you’re here in person,’ Mare said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Guys?’ Xan said innocently, but the red flash in her heavy-lidded eyes was just like old times, and the red ring around the black iris said Xan was cooking, magic at work.

‘Danny,’ Mare said. ‘Jude. Eldred.’

‘Elric’

‘Exactly,’ Mare said. ‘You sent them.’

Xan laughed, the lovely, liquid musical laugh that Mare had tried to emulate as a child, only to have Dee yell at her for sucking the helium out of her balloons. ‘Just trying to get back in touch, darling. Bring the family together again.’

‘How sweet,’ Mare said. ‘But you know how the holidays are with families who eat their young. So that would be no.’ She looked closer at what Xan was wearing. ‘Is that cashmere?’

‘Yes,’ Xan said, and peeled it off, shaking out her hair so that it fell over the white silk tank top she wore underneath.

The man in the next booth almost fell into his chili.

Xan held out the hoodie to Mare.

‘Really?’ Mare said, looking at it like it was a snake.

‘You can’t think I’d really wear a hoodie,’ Xan said.

‘Okay, what’ll it be?’ Pauline said, appearing beside them and pulling her pencil out from behind her ear.

‘I’ve never seen a waitress actually do that,’ Xan told her.

‘Pauline has studied waitressing on all the major TV shows.’ Mare held out the hoodie to see it better. ‘Wait’ll she cracks her gum and calls you honey.’

‘Funny,’ Pauline said. ‘So that’ll be crackers and water for you.’

‘With a side order of medium rare hamburger and chocolate shake,’ Mare said. ‘Hold the crackers. And make the water a Diet Coke. And add some fries. To go.’ With a great deal of self-control, she put the hoodie on the table and pushed it across to Xan. ‘I’m not staying.’

‘I’ll have the chicken Caesar salad,’ Xan said, closing the menu. ‘Dressing on the side. And Perrier with lemon.’

Pauline raised her eyebrows at Mare.

‘She’s my aunt. She’s not from around here,’ Mare said. ‘She’s not staying, either’

‘Looks more like one of your sisters,’ Pauline said, surveying Xan with a critical eye.

‘That would be the plastic surgery,’ Mare said. ‘And the magic. I’m starving, Pauline, and I have to be somewhere in, like, five minutes.’

‘Coming right up,’ Pauline said. ‘Plastic surgery, huh?’ She picked up the menus. ‘Did it hurt?’

‘They give you drugs,’ Xan said.

‘Huh,’ Pauline said and left.

‘Don’t be so quick to reject me, Mare,’ Xan said. ‘I have things to give you. Besides the hoodie.’

‘Well,’ Mare said. ‘Jewelry is good. And money is always in fashion.’

‘Or your One True Love?’ Xan sat back. ‘That took some heavy-duty magic, finding three soul mates for you all. And then convincing them to come to this backwater’ She looked around the diner. ‘I did manage to find them, though. Yours took the longest. Jude. He was in Italy and I-’

‘Oh, please.’ Mare put her chin on her hand. ‘If Jude is my soul mate, I’m putting in for a new soul.’

Xan leaned forward, her beautiful face smooth but her dark eyes intent. ‘I sent the men as a goodwill gesture. I don’t want you to be lonely, Mare, I want to help you. Jude can give you love, but more than that, he can give you real power, earthly power, not the parlor trick your magic gives you. He can take you straight to the top of the business you’ve chosen.’

‘Renting videos?’ Mare said, incredulous. ‘You think that’s my future? God, I’m going to kill myself, I really am. I think William has some rope left-’

‘Not renting videos,’ Xan said. ‘Have you even listened to Jude? He thinks you’re brilliant. He wants to take you to New York. Mare, you could run the entire company. You could…’ She stopped as Mare squinted at her. ‘What?’

Mare titled her head. ‘You know what’s freaking me out? There’s no expression on your face. It’s in your eyes, but your face is like this mask. Is that the surgery?’

‘Botox,’ Xan said. ‘Grace Kelly didn’t have expressions, either.’

‘Grace Kelly was serene, not embalmed.’

‘If you’re trying to drive me off with insults, it’s not going to work.’ Xan reached out and put her hand over Mare’s, twining their fingers together. ‘I’m here to help you, but you have to grow up. Life isn’t a game, Mare. It isn’t about who’s got the best comeback or’ – she gestured to Mare’s wedding dress – ‘who gets the strangest looks in the local diner’

‘Says the woman who’s nine parts snake venom,’ Mare said, taking her hand back. ‘Or whatever the hell Botox is.’

Pauline appeared and slid their drinks in front of them. ‘Anything else?’

‘Got any antitoxin?’ Mare said. ‘My aunt may want to show fury shortly.’

‘Fresh out,’ Pauline said. ‘We got steak sauce.’

‘That will be all,’ Xan said, and Pauline evaporated, probably in fear for her tip. ‘Look, darling, you can be as flip as you like, but I know you. I know you’ve been living with

Dee for too long, I know how she treats you, like a child, patting you on the head, trying to run your life-’

‘That’s not going to work,’ Mare said. ‘You know I’m fed up with Dee, but I know I can’t trust you. Yes, Dee’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but she’s smart, and she’s strong, and she’s right most of the time, and more than that, she’s part of me, she’s a third of who I am, and that means that while I fight her tooth and nail when it’s just us, when somebody comes at us from the outside – that would be you – I am her girl. So if you think you’re going to do an end run around her by hitting at the soft underbelly of the group-’

‘That would be Lizzie,’ Xan said, and sipped her ice water.

‘You haven’t seen Lizzie lately,’ Mare said. ‘What I’m saying is, this isn’t going to work. You can’t divide and conquer. We don’t divide.’

Xan shrugged. ‘Well, at least you have Jude.’

‘Oh, Jesus, kick a girl when she’s down.’ Mare looked at her watch. ‘Damn it. Pauli-’

‘Gotcha,’ Pauline said, appearing with a Styrofoam container with her burger and fries and a lid for her Coke. ‘You got time to make it yet.’

‘What’s wrong with Jude?’ Xan said.

Mare capped her Coke cup. ‘Jude is not my type, and that’s being charitable.’

‘Who’s not your type?’ Pauline said.

‘The Value Video!! VP who’s in town,’ Mare said.

‘The one who looks like Jude Law.’ Pauline nodded.

‘How could he not be your type?’ Xan said. ‘Your entire generation is mad for Jude Law.’

‘Well, some of us felt he lost some luster over the nanny thing,’ Mare said.

‘And besides, there’s Crash,’ Pauline said as Mare put her sunglasses on and slid out of the booth.

‘Crash,’ Xan said dangerously.

‘Christopher Duncan, Mare’s old flame, he’s back in town,’ Pauline said, in her best news-at-eleven voice. ‘He proposed. She’s thinking about it. He wants her to go to Italy but she doesn’t know if she’s going. We’re still waiting for the update.’ She looked at Mare over the tops of her glasses. ‘The pool stands at even money.’

‘There is no update.’ Mare looked at Xan. ‘I’m going to get a tattoo now. You should go back to wherever you came from. We’re not interested.’

‘You lie,’ Xan said without rancor. ‘And you can’t speak for the others. Lizzie might be interested. Even Dee might be tempted by the chance to have a normal life.’

‘Maybe, but not if it means dealing with you,’ Mare said. ‘Enjoy your salad. Tip Pauline good. She’s the sole support of twelve orphan children.’

‘And a dog,’ Pauline said solemnly.

‘And a dog,’ Mare said. ‘Thanks for the speed with the Styrofoam, Pauline. Have a safe trip home, Xan.’

‘Wait,’ Xan said, and Mare paused. ‘This Crash. You think he’s the one you really love?’

‘I don’t know,’ Mare said.

‘Yes you do,’ Xan said and took a deep breath. ‘It’s in your voice. I don’t know how I missed him, but he’s the one. Isn’t he?’

‘Probably,’ Mare said. ‘It’s definitely not Jude.’

‘And you say he lives in Italy?’ Xan said, and she sounded sincerely interested. Sincerely puzzled but sincerely interested.

‘Tuscany.’ Mare settled into the booth again. ‘He came back because he was ready to settle down, not because of your spell, he didn’t have anything to do with you-’

‘That’s where the spell found Jude,’ Xan said, half to herself. ‘I thought it was odd.’

‘Jude’s not my type at all,’ Mare said. ‘Maybe the spell was slow and Crash had just ridden by. He rides those bikes at suicide speeds.’

Xan nodded. ‘That could be. Long distances like that are tricky for finding things. I must have cast that spell a dozen times because the result was so strange.’

‘Well, Jude’s a good-looking guy,’ Mare said charitably. ‘You couldn’t have known he was that much of a loser.’

Xan shook her head. ‘You know, magic. After a while, you start to think it can’t go wrong.’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ Mare said, taking her sunglasses off. ‘Mine goes wrong fairly often.’

‘You did get the short end of the stick, didn’t you, darling?’ Xan said sympathetically, reaching out again and twining her fingers with Mare’s. ‘But from the sound of things, you’re making up for it with your Crash. And if you’re sure he’s the one…’

She let her voice trail off, as if asking, and Mare nodded, feeling warm in the moment, connected to Xan somehow.

Xan nodded back. ‘Well, then, don’t screw it up. Follow your passion, Mare. Sacrifice anything for it. Your sisters, your power… real love is worth anything.’

Mare blinked. ‘Boy, for a minute there, you sounded like a real aunt.’

Xan smiled at her, holding on tightly, the warmth from her fingers spreading. ‘So you’re going to Italy. Tuscany?’

Mare nodded. ‘That’s where he lives. But I can’t go. I-’

‘Of course you can go.’ Xan sounded indignant. ‘My God, Mare, the man you love lives in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and you have nothing holding you here. Why can’t you go?’

‘Well, Dee and Lizzie…’ Mare stopped. She couldn’t go because they had to stay together because they were running from Xan who had just given her a cashmere hoodie and hadn’t taken her soul in return, who instead had taken her hand and made her feel warm and safe. ‘We need to stick together’

‘Why?’ Xan said. ‘Dee has Danny and Lizzie has Elric. It’s not really normal for sisters to stay together forever.’

‘Well…’ Mare looked around the diner and then leaned forward. ‘In case you’ve forgotten, we’re not normal sisters.’

‘You could be.’ Xan smiled. ‘You have choices, Mare. You’re not trapped.’

Mare blinked at her.

‘I know your powers haven’t made it easy for you, and it’s especially irritating since they’re not particularly good for anything, but you don’t have to keep them, you know. Any time you don’t want them, you can get rid of them. I’ll help you get rid of them. You can be as normal as the next person, all of you, go off with your true loves completely safe, have normal lives, normal children, truly live happily ever after. It’s possible, Mare.’

Mare sucked in her breath. Give up my power?

But there was Crash and the sunlight in Tuscany and even that laughing baby, if she gave up her power…

Xan patted their clasped hands and then let her go, and Mare felt a chill. ‘Just think about it, darling. Take your time. And take this, too. You look cold.’

She tossed the hoodie across the table, and Mare caught it, and said, ‘Thanks,’ fairly sure she shouldn’t keep it, but it was a cashmere hoodie and she was cold.

She got up and headed for the door, her thoughts racing, dizzy with them, and a woman at a table she passed said, ‘That looks like my old wedding dress. Did you get it at Goodwill?’ Mare said, ‘No, this was my sainted mother’s, God rest her soul,’ and slammed out the door, not looking back, shivering with cold now, wondering what Xan had up her sleeve, wondering if Xan was being tricky and pretending that she hadn’t sent Crash or if he really had come back just because he loved her, wondering what it would be like to be free of her power…

She was shuddering with cold now, feeling dizzy and sick in the heat of the day, chilled in the sun, not sure what had just happened.

Something’s wrong, she thought and put the hoodie on and headed for the tattoo parlor.

‘A butterfly,’ Mare said to Mother ten minutes later as she handed her the drawing, still shivering, and now really annoyed about everything. ‘And I don’t want to hear any crap about how it’s the most common tat for a girl. My name’s Mariposa and I want another butterfly.’ She felt like pouting, life was so unfair. Pouting and shivering and throwing up. ‘It’s cold in here.’

‘Feeling testy, are we?’ Mother said, straightening her white lab coat. She looked at Mare strangely, her cool gray eyes level under her neatly razor-cut gray hair, and Mare took a deep breath and relaxed a little. ‘That’s better’

‘Well, it was either a butterfly or the Statue of Liberty.’ Mare dropped her bag in the middle of the floor and stepped over it. ‘I think of her as a kindred spirit.’

‘She stands in one place holding a light for everybody else,’ Mother said, picking up Mare’s bag and moving it to one side. ‘How is she like you?’

‘She’s tall, everybody knows who she is, she’s a classy dresser, and nobody kicks her around.’ Mare hiked up her skirt and sat down with her back to Mother. And in moments of stress, I could beat somebody senseless with that big torch.’

‘Of course,’ Mother said, looking at Mare’s Corpse Bride dress. ‘Where do you want this tattoo?’

‘Right there at the base of my spine. Only tilt it. Like the world’s tilting.’ The world felt like it was tilting. She really was going to throw up if Mother didn’t get a move on.

‘Trailer trash license plate.’ Mother tucked the skirt of Mare’s dress into the neck of the hoodie and then held the drawing up. ‘Very buff butterfly.’ She put it on the copier and punched the button.

‘Yeah,’ Mare said, trying to sound chipper as the copier hummed and her stomach churned. ‘I’m surrounded by jerks. I need a butterfly that can kick a little ass on my ass.

Jesus, it’s cold in here.’ Her skin felt damp, clammy, and she shivered again.

‘Color?’ Mother said.

‘Just black,’ Mare said. ‘If I wanted color, I’d have said color, okay?’

Mother put her hands on her hips and looked at her, as if something was wrong or something.

‘I’m broke, okay?’ Mare said, looking away. ‘Plus, I like tribal. More butch.’

‘Yes, the world needs more butch butterflies.’ Mother snapped on latex gloves and picked up a razor. Anything happen today I should know about?’

‘There’d be a hell of a lot fewer victims if butterflies went armed,’ Mare said, and then Lizzie came into the back of the shop hugging herself and shivering and said, ‘Mare?’ in this tiny little voice, and Mother looked up from shaving Mare’s tailbone.

‘Mother, this is my sister Lizzie,’ Mare said. ‘Lizzie, this is Mother. What’s wrong with you?’

‘Hello, Lizzie,’ Mother said. ‘Lovely to meet you.’

‘You, too,’ Lizzie said, shivering hard, her voice breaking, and Mare realized she was close to tears.

What a wimp, Mare thought and sighed. ‘What happened now?’

‘He’s gone.’

‘Charles?’ Mare said. ‘Well, yeah, I told you, he’s in Alaska. And good riddance-’

‘Elric,’ Lizzie said, and sat down on the floor in a heap, her arms crossed over her chest. ‘My heart hurts.’

‘Oh, okay,’ Mare said. Drama queen. We’re gonna be ass deep in rabbits here in a minute. ‘Deep breaths.’ She shivered as Mother spread cream on her lower back and then smoothed the drawing over it. She was really cold, dammit. And her stomach hurt, probably got ptomaine at the Fork. ‘So what did Elric say when you asked him if he knew Xan?’

‘He said yes.’ Lizzie made a little aching sound in her throat. ‘He said yes.’

‘Well,’ Mare said. ‘Points for honesty. Did he say what he was supposed to do? Like wrap us up and deliver us or something? Because I just met her-’

‘No. He came because I was screwing up… things.’ Lizzie began to rock back and forth. ‘My heart really hurts.’

‘Yeah, I know, I got a stomachache.’ Mare looked over her shoulder to see Mother studying the transfer on her tailbone. ‘How we doing?’

I’m doing fine,’ Mother said and handed her a mirror. ‘Your sister is sick. Doesn’t that bother you?’

‘She gets like this.’ Mare gave the mirror a perfunctory glance. ‘Great.’ She handed the mirror back to Mother. ‘He said you’re screwing up things,’ she prompted Lizzie.

‘I was doing things against the rules.’

‘The rules.’

Lizzie leaned forward. ‘Of the universe,’ she whispered, her face pale and damp.

‘Oh.’ Mare thought about telling her that rules were for the little people, but given the scope of Lizzie’s powers, that could lead to mushroom clouds and planet-sized charcoal briquettes, so she said, ‘So did he help you?’

‘Yes,’ Lizzie said, almost sobbing, ‘but then I told him to go and he did.’ She curled up and lay down on Mother’s floor in the fetal position, still rocking.

‘Quitter’ Mare sucked in her breath as she heard the hum and felt the bite of Mother’s needle. She shivered and her stomach turned over again. ‘Oh, sit up, Lizzie, he’ll be back. He’s your true love. Xan sent him.’

‘I know,’ Lizzie, still in the fetal position, said, her voice breaking. ‘She told me.’

‘She talked to you, too?’ Mare felt disappointed. That was no good, Xan wasn’t supposed to talk to anybody else, only to her, because she was special. ‘She told me we could be normal if we wanted to. Ouch.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘Hey.’

‘You want painless tattoos, get a rub-on,’ Mother said serenely.

‘She told me to sacrifice anything for true love,’ Lizzie said, tears leaking from her eyes, the big baby. ‘She said Elric’s love was worth anything, even my power. I thought I didn’t want my power, but ever since Elric’s been here I’ve been changing my mind, and now I can’t even think straight…’

Mare frowned at her and jerked her head toward Mother, who appeared to be oblivious. ‘Shhhh,’ she said to Lizzie, but Lizzie just kept rocking and shivering.

Well, Mother was keeping it damn near freezing in there, so no wonder.

‘Is there a reason you have the air-conditioning on “frigid”?’ she snapped at Mother.

Mother turned the needle off. ‘I think I’ll make some tea.’

‘Or you could just turn the goddamned air-conditioning down,’ Mare said and went over to do it herself.

It was off.

‘What the fuck?’ Mare said, and then her stomach roiled again and she pressed her arms against it. The door opened.

‘Xan’s here,’ Dee said, sounding like Eeyore as she closed the door behind her. I’m really confused. But I think we have to go. No, I know we have to go. God, my head hurts.’

‘I don’t want to go.’ Mare crossed her arms over her stomach tighter, both for warmth and to block Dee.

Dee started pacing. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said, rubbing her forehead. ‘She killed Mom and Dad. It was an accident, she said, she was just trying to take their powers to help them, but she killed them. She says she knows how to do it right this time, but I’m afraid.’

‘I don’t care, I’m not going, don’t care what you say, not going,’ Mare singsonged, shivering.

All right, that’s it,’ Dee said, walking faster, her voice rising to a thin whine. ‘I have a headache, I’m freezing, and I’m tired of saving your ungrateful ass. Do I always have to make the decisions in this family? A little help would be nice for a change. But that’s fine. I’ll save you – again - and damn well drag you along.’

Mare leaned forward. ‘Make me. I dare you. Make me.’

Lizzie started to cry.

‘You know, it’s not enough that I have given up my life for you,’ Dee said, ‘and now I’ve lost Danny-’

‘How could you lose Danny?’ Mare pulled back, determined not to feel sorry for her. ‘You just found Danny’

Dee ignored Mother, who was bringing in a tray of tea things, and dropped into the chair next to where Lizzie was curled up on the floor. ‘Danny’s going to hate me when he finds out. He hates people with powers and he’s going to hate me.’ She scrubbed at her face with both hands. ‘Maybe I should just give Xan my powers. So what if she kills me.’

‘Well, that’s the first thing we’ve agreed on,’ Mare said. ‘Not the killing part, but the powers part. I talked to her and thought the same thing. Sure would make life easier.’