“You have magic powerful enough to tell that by just looking at the residue on the statue?” Granny hugged herself and chuckled. “Hoo boy, if you weren’t already married, I’d make a run for you myself.”
“I don’t have magic. I am magic,” Alaric announced.
Ven rolled his eyes. “The same way he is arrogant.”
Alaric lifted a hand in warning, and Ven grinned.
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to blast me again,” the prince said, surrendering. “Just fix the stone man so we can get going. Erin and I are going out to lunch.”
“Lord Vengeance’s wife is also a witch,” Justice told Rose.
She nodded politely, although Alejandro could see that she was itching to get on with transforming Mac. “And what is your wife?”
“She is an archaeologist,” Justice proudly proclaimed.
“I never thought I’d get to meet an Atlantean,” Sue said wonderingly, her hostility apparently gone.
“And Mac?” Alejandro asked, getting a little edgy himself, although he had confidence in the Atlanteans after what he, Justice, and Keely had been through in Las Pinturas.
“Yes. Mac.” Alaric called a dancing wave of shimmering blue water through the air to himself and then twirled one finger and sent it swooping and dancing around the statue of Alejandro’s partner.
Rose watched, fascinated. “Is the precise movement of the water important to your magic?”
Alaric finally allowed himself to smile. “Not at all. It just looks impressive. And here is your human.”
The water vanished and Mac, fully himself again, stood staring at everyone gathered around him.
Alejandro let Rose’s hand go and hurried over to grab his partner’s arm. “Mac! Are you all right?”
Mac blinked. “Mommy?”
Alejandro caught him when he collapsed.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance by Jennifer Ashley, Alyssa Day, Felicity Heaton, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Erin Quinn, Bonnie Vanak and Caris Roane
CHAPTER 13
“He will need to sleep for at least a day, maybe two. I will send him to Sue Cardinal’s couch,” Alaric said. He gestured, and Mac vanished.
“Thank you so much,” Rose said, impulsively hugging the high priest who was also a miracle worker.
Alejandro made a low growling noise in the back of his throat, and Ven, the funny one, started to laugh again.
“You are amazing,” Sue said.
Alaric nodded. “Yes.”
Granny grinned again. “And humble.”
“Mom, let’s go take care of the agent,” Sue said. “You can flirt with Atlantean high priests another time.
Alaric watched them hurry off, and then he shook his head. “I can only hope not,” he said, shuddering just a little.
Rose smiled at the high priest. “Granny is fairly formidable.”
“Yes,” Alaric said again, this time more fervently.
Justice called the portal, and the familiar oval shape started to shimmer into existence. “Until next time, our friend,” he said, nodding to Alejandro.
“Thank you. I am in your debt,” Alejandro said.
“The debt is ours, and can never be repaid,” Justice replied. “Until next time.”
With that, he stepped into the portal and vanished. Ven paused for a moment and glanced out at the garden and then back at Rose.
“My wife might be able to help you with your basilisk problem—in a humane way,” he offered, and Rose sighed with relief.
“That would be amazing. Thank you.”
“I’ll be in touch, Alejandro. Keep your woman close to you; she’s a keeper,” he said, and then he grabbed Rose’s hand and kissed it. “You take care of our boy, Rose Cardinal.”
Rose, blushing, stammered out an incoherent response and then managed to form an actual sentence. “I’m not his woman.”
Ven threw back his head and laughed. “That’s what all of our wives used to say.”
With that little nugget of wisdom, he vanished through the portal, too.
Alaric was the last to go, and he stopped and took Rose’s chin in his hand. “Interesting. Your magic resonates with that of Alejandro. No wonder you are so well mated.”
“We’re not mated,” she protested, but then the first part of his comment pierced the fog in her sleep-deprived brain. “His magic? He has magic?”
Alejandro looked stunned. “I don’t have magic.”
“Of course you do,” Alaric told him. “Have you ever missed a shot, even once?”
Alejandro paused and thought about it for a minute. “Not when I’ve been really aiming,” he said slowly, a look of disbelief dawning on his face. “Not even once, since I was eight years old.”