Simply Irresistible Part 20

"If we continually use magic to go in and out," Dex said, "there'll be a trail. Anyone with powers can find it. We bring the Fates in once and they stay until we find whoever has been attacking them."

"You don't need to discuss this as if we're not here," Lachesis said.

"Yes, we do," Van said. "You're being petty. So he didn't follow your rules. Or maybe he did. Who cares? It's not relevant at the moment. And you know, you guys can make mistakes."

"That kind of logic has gotten you into trouble more than once," Atropos said.

The Fates might have gotten rid of their magic, but they hadn't gotten rid of their arrogance. Blackstone's arms were crossed. Ariel's mouth was in a thin line, and Vari looked as angry as Dex felt Vivian was watching the Fates as if she hadn't seen them before.

Then she rubbed her neck again. The gesture seemed involuntary.

Dex sent a small reveal spell her way. A greenish glow tingled against the back of her neck and then vanished. Someone had touched her with magic, but he wasn't certain what kind.

Maybe his sense in the pet store had been right. Maybe Vivian was the evil mage's link to the Fates. But he wasn't sure how that could be. He certainly didn't sense any evil coming from her. She seemed to be the only person who cared.

Of course, she was the one who knew the Fates the least. "Well," Dex said to the Fates, "you get a choice. You go to the cave and you don't complain about it. You stay until we say it's safe to leave and you never, ever punish me, nor do you tell anyone else to punish me, for keeping that cave. Or you walk out that door now and survive on your own."

Vari smirked, crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. Blackstone raised his eyebrows. Nora's gaze caught Vivian's and Vivian looked away. Dex felt her nervousness. She was worried that this would turn out badly for everyone.

Lachesis stood beside Clotho. Then Atropos stood. They stared at Dex, their gazes flat, their faces expressionless. They had looked at him like this the first-time they had called him to them, before he had realized he had done anything wrong.

He had found their expressions terrifying then. They were still unnerving now, even though he knew he had more magic than the three of them combined.

"You dare challenge us?" Clotho said.

"You take advantage of our vulnerability?" Lachesis said, almost at the same time.

"You treat us like mere mortals?" Atropos said.

"Which you're supposed to be right now," Dex snapped. "Didn't you say you wanted to learn what it was like to be powerless? Well, welcome to that world, and make your d.a.m.n choice."

His words echoed in the restaurant. Everyone looked at him in surprise, as if they hadn't expected it from him. He hadn't expected it from himself either, but someone had to take the lead. Someone who would ensure that Vivian wouldn't be hurt any worse than she already had been.

One by one, the Fates sat down. They didn't speak. Blackstone took Nora's hand. Ariel laid her head on Vari's shoulder.

Dex still stood, his arms crossed, his face set. He had taken quite a risk, and the Fates might make him pay for that risk at some point.

"All right," Clotho finally said. "Do what you must."

"But we'll stay there no longer than a month," Lachesis said. "Your time."

"And we'll need some sort of communication system that's impossible to track. We'll need to know what's going on," Atropos said.

Vari tossed Dex a cell phone. Dex caught it with his left hand.

"Take them now," Vari said, "before they change their minds. Then come back here. We'll have it all figured out by then."

That was all the permission Dex needed. He was going to take them to his private cave, and he was going to take them alone. If this went wrong, he didn't want Vivian anywhere near the Fates.

If this went wrong, he would take care of the problem himself.

*Chapter Thirteen*

Dex vanished, taking the Fates with him.

The room, which had seemed full of overwhelming personalities, suddenly seemed empty. And Vivian felt abandoned. She hadn't known Dex when she woke up that morning, so why should she feel empty just because he left?

Although, granted, he didn't just leave. He vanished, along with the three Fates, who had been the cause of her difficult day. And he'd abandoned her to Blackstone, Nora, Ariel, and Andrew Vari, people she still wasn't sure of.

She stood near her plate, staring at the three empty chairs across from her, feeling the emptiness of the chair beside her. She felt more unsettled than she had all day--which was saying something, considering what had been going on. Partly, it was because she had no idea where Dex was or when he'd be back '(if he'd be back,' her insecure subconscious was saying to her), and partly it was because she missed his presence--in her mind.

She hadn't really realized it had been there. Not completely, anyway. She had recognized the psychic connection and had even noticed when Dex blocked his thoughts from her. But she hadn't realized that his being--his personality--had been inside her mind, like background music, something she wasn't aware of until it was gone.

Odd that realizing how close they'd been in the short time they were together didn't bother her. She used to hate being hooked up--as she called it--to anyone, not that it happened often. It happened with Aunt Eugenia, but as Vivian's mother used to say, Aunt Eugenia was a Presence. No one could ignore her. It also happened sometimes with Vivian's sister Megan, but they were as close as siblings could be.

It had never happened with someone outside her family.

"Are you all right, Vivian?" Nora asked. Nora stood alone on her side of the table. A few moments ago, she had seemed surrounded by Fates.

Vivian rubbed the back of her neck. That ache had become almost a headache. "I'm still not used to people popping in and out of my life."

Both Nora and Ariel smiled. "You'll get used to it," Ariel said.

Blackstone stood and put his napkin over his plate, as if the conversation offended him. "I've got to get into the kitchen."

"That can wait," Vari said. "We still have work to do."

Work? What kind of work would they have to do? It looked like Dex was doing all the work. And like Vivian was now out of the equation. "Am I done?" she asked. "Can I go home?" "Good question," Blackstone said. "Maybe I'll have an answer after I've ducked into the kitchen for a moment." He hurried from the group, as if he couldn't get away fast enough. Nora stood too, and started busing the table. Ariel took another slice of bread.

"They'll work this out," she said to Vivian.

She wasn't so sure. That feeling of being watched had returned. "I hope so."

Nora took a pile of soup dishes into the kitchen, then returned with a bus cart. Ariel helped her clear off the table. Andrew Vari grabbed the rope. Vivian almost stopped him, feeling protective of it, as if Dex owned it, instead of some mysterious evil mage.

But she didn't stop Vari. Instead, she watched him examine each strand, as if he were reading information in the jute.

"Guess we don't need the extra protection spells anymore," he said, raising his hand to call it off.

"Keep it for a moment." Blackstone spoke from the kitchen door. "We don't want to clue the enemy into the fact that the Fates are gone."

"The enemy?" Nora set a stack of bread plates in the bus cart. "Isn't that a bit dramatic?"

"I don't think so," Blackstone said. "I think whoever it is wants to kill the Fates."

"And that person is still out there," Vivian said. "I can feel him."

Vari dropped the rope. "Where do you feel him?"

Vivian shrugged. "It's just a sense."

"It's more than that." He sounded certain, even though they were discussing her body, her feelings.

"She is psychic, Sancho." Nora's voice held wry amus.e.m.e.nt. "Maybe it is just a sense."

"Is that true?" Vari asked. "Is it the same as your usual psychic experiences?"

No one had ever used the phrase 'usual psychic experiences' with her before. Vivian would have smiled at it if the situation weren't so strange.

"It's not really the same," she said. "Just before the rope came down, I felt this p.r.i.c.kling in my spine. And then, there's this feeling of being watched--"

"Does your neck bother you?" Vari asked.

"I've had some major psychic experiences today," Vivian said. "I think it might be the beginnings of a migraine."

He frowned. "Maybe. But it might be something else. Mind if I check it out?"

"Check what out?" Vivian asked.

"Your neck."

She looked at Ariel. Ariel raised her eyebrows and shrugged, as if to say that her husband was always odd. "Just go with it," Ariel said. "He'll explain when he feels the need."

"All right." Vivian felt nervous about this. She wondered what Dex would say. Then remembered that Dex wasn't here, and she didn't know when he'd be back. If the pain in her neck was, literally, something evil, she wanted it taken care of sooner rather than later.

Vari walked over to her, started to put his fingers on her skin, then paused. "May I?"

"Sure," Vivian said, not certain what he was about to do.

He pressed his thumbs against her spine, then ran them upward to the base of her skull. The pressure made her shiver. If Dex had touched her like that, the shiver would have been with delight. But she found Vari's touch impersonal, almost cold.

Then the air sizzled, and Vari cursed. A smell, like burned electrical wires, floated around them.

Vivian turned. Vari had both thumbs in his mouth. Vivian touched the back of her neck. The pain was gone, but some of her neck hairs felt coa.r.s.e and dirty.

"Are you okay?" she asked Vari.

He shook his head. "Efslakafaaut."

"What?"

He took the thumbs out of his mouth and shook them. They were both blackened on the tips.

Vivian stared at them. She got no sense of pain from him, but he wasn't that easy to read. Her heart was pounding now. Something had been wrong and she hadn't even known it.

"You want me to get some ointment for that, or can you take care of it?" Ariel asked Vari. She didn't seem concerned at all.

"I got it," he said, and the blackness disappeared. Still, he rubbed them together as if they hurt.

"What did you say a minute ago?" Vivian asked, sensing that it was important.

Vari grinned. "What I said was 'It's like I thought,' only it came out not like anything I thought at all."

"I should hope not," Ariel said dryly, "since what you said was unintelligible."

"What's like you thought?" Vivian asked. She didn't want to partic.i.p.ate in banter. She wanted the scary part of this day to end. And, if she were honest with herself, she wanted the nice part--the part with Dex--to go on for a long, long time.

"Whoever this is has latched onto you. They're not focused on the building. They're focused on you." Vari stared at his thumbs, as if they could tell him who had done the magic. He seemed both bewildered and puzzled.

Vivian wasn't bewildered or puzzled. She was scared. She didn't remember seeing anyone in the past few days who'd seemed remotely evil. She knew that no one had touched the back of her neck.

"What do you mean, focused on me?" she asked.

"I mean that it was a good thing Dexter didn't take you with him," Vari said. "Or whoever it is who's doing this might have a shot at knowing where the Fates are."

"I'm the reason they almost got killed?" Vivian asked, sinking back into her chair.

"No," Vari said. "At least not at first."

"Dar, stop that," Ariel said. "You're scaring her."

"I'm being honest." Vari sat down. "I'm pretty sure you weren't targeted until you did that gla.s.s shield spell. Then it would be pretty easy for anyone to figure out who you are. But most mages would have attacked you. That was a real subtle spell I found, and one not often used."

Vivian touched the skin on her neck. It felt unfamiliar, as if it had been sunburned or dried somehow. "Then how did you find it?"

"I've been around a long time, kiddo," Vari said. "I may be slow, but I get there eventually."

"Meaning what?" Vivian asked.

"Meaning I remembered someone else, a long time ago, doing the same thing to her neck that you were doing. That's why I thought I'd see what I could find."

"Do you think the same person cast the same spell?" Ariel asked.

"Not likely, Ari," Vari said, "since that mage is long dead."

"You're sure?"

Vari nodded. He looked both serious and dangerous. "I'm sure."

"How could they magic me without me knowing it?" Vivian asked.

"It's a very subtle spell," Vari said, "but one that a person who can use puppets would be capable."