‘I’m a vice president,’ he said from the floor, outraged.
‘You’re a minion,’ she snapped. ‘You might as well have a target painted on your forehead. Now what the hell is my aunt doing? And while we’re at it, what the hell is going on out there?’
‘Out where?’ he said, looking legitimately confused as he kept a wary eye on the empty vinyl beanbag still hovering above him.
‘Out there in the store? All the PDA?’
‘PDA?’
‘Public Display of Affection,’ Mare said, exasperated. ‘Don’t tell me that’s not a spell. What’s Xan doing? Or is that your idea of foreplay?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jude said, still watching the vinyl bag overhead.
‘Oh, great,’ Mare said, ‘a clueless evil minion,’ and dropped the bag on him.
She detoured around the popcorn oil slick and locked him in the storeroom and then went back to Dreama. ‘How’s it going?’
Dreama looked perplexed. ‘I never thought Corpse Bride was a very hot movie, did you?’
‘No.’
‘Well, a lot of people are necking to it.’
Mare cast an eye over the escalating PDA in her audience. ‘Wait here.’ She walked around the counter and out the door into the street. People were walking hand in hand, stopping to kiss in the twilight. In darkened doorways, they were doing more. In bouncing parked cars, a lot more. Dogs howled. Cats yowled. The birds in the trees twittered with more enthusiasm than usual.
A passerby said, ‘Hey baby,’ and tried to kiss her, grabbing her butt in the process, and she gave him a bloody nose.
He staggered on down the street and she got out her cell phone and called Dee. ‘Hello?’ Dee said breathlessly.
‘Dee, it’s Mare. I think Xan’s doing something. Jude just attacked me in the Value Video!! storeroom, and now everywhere I look, there’s sex.’
‘It’s a libido spell,’ Dee said.
Mare looked at the phone, stunned. ‘A libido spell?’
‘She’s made the whole town hot to get us into bed with the guys she sent.’
‘Oh.’ Mare thought about it. ‘What’s that going to get her?’
‘I don’t know,’ Dee said. ‘Make us fall in love faster? She really wants us with these guys. Are you okay?’
A guy stopped and opened his mouth to say something, and Mare looked him straight in the eye. He moved on.
‘Yep.’
‘Good. I have to go.’
Mare frowned at the phone. ‘Go where?’
‘Up on the mountain with the guy she wants me with. This is a good libido spell. No point in wasting it.’
‘Danny’s back? That’s gr – No, wait. This is Xan’s plan. You tell that man good-bye and get your butt back home. What are you thinking?’
‘I’m thinking it’s about time I had sex on a mountain.’
Mare started to yell and then reconsidered. ‘Oh. Good point. Be careful.’
‘Not this time,’ Dee said and hung up.
‘I’ll be damned,’ Mare said, and went back inside.
Algy was behind the counter with Dreama.
‘Good to see you, Algy,’ Mare said. ‘Take any liberties with Dreama, and I’ll rip your heart out and feed it to my cat.’
‘Mare,’ Dreama said.
‘I’m Queen of the Universe. I can do that.’ Mare dialed her cell phone again and waited until Crash picked up. ‘I was wrong. I apologize.’
‘I accept,’ Crash said. ‘What took you so long?’
‘I’ve been mostly dead all day.’
‘Princess Bride,’ Crash said. ‘Your roof at eleven?’
‘Yes,’ Mare said. ‘Do not talk to another woman until then.’
‘Why would I?’ Crash said and hung up.
Dreama was smiling at her. ‘Feeling better?’
‘Jude’s locked in the storeroom covered in popcorn oil and beanbag peanuts.’ Mare straightened her veil and put her sunglasses back on. ‘Take Algy with you when you let him out, just in case he has Ideas.’
‘Oh, my,’ Dreama said, impressed.
‘Yep.’ Mare swished her blue tulle skirt which looked fabulous. ‘I’m back. And I owe you, baby. Have another box of Junior Mints. Take two. Knock yourself out on the Jujubes, too. In fact, take anything you want.’
‘Cool,’ Algy said.
‘Respect this woman,’ Mare said to Algy as she headed out to the floor to break up the worst of the PDA. ‘She’s gonna be Queen of the Universe someday.’
‘I’m glorious,’ Dreama said and handed Algy his Junior Mints.
Lizzie lay on the bed, purple smoke floating in the air above her, the purple silk sheets smooth and sensual beneath her body. She could smell roses – she hadn’t realized the ones in the dining room were so strong. And then she realized the scent was coming from the bed. She opened her eyes, to see her body covered with lavender rose petals. Elric lay on his stomach beside her, a few stray petals in his tangled blond hair. He looked exhausted, and she couldn’t blame him. All she wanted to do was curl up next to him and sleep in his arms – the emotions swamping her body were too new, too strange. It was as if a protective covering had been washed away, and the new Lizzie, the one lying naked and exhausted and replete beside her wizard lover, was a stranger.
And yet she wasn’t. This Lizzie had always been inside her, hiding from the arguments, trying to keep her magic from getting noticed, doing her best to fix things. Right now she didn’t have to fix a thing, didn’t have to listen to anybody. All she had to do was slide up against Elric’s strong, beautiful body and try to ignore the sudden resurgence of desire that was sweeping through her. For heaven’s sake, they’d done it three times in a row, and each time had been more powerful. There was no way she could want more.
But she did. She rolled onto the scattered rose petals, and the fragrance drifted up as she snuggled against him, trying to quiet the sudden stirrings. He opened his eyes to look at her, and the deep iris hue was glowing. He plucked a rose petal from her shoulder.
‘I should have known,’ he said, resigned. He picked up a handful of the feather-soft petals and let them drift down over her body. ‘It only needed flowers to seal the deal. There’s no escape now.’ He shook his head, and a loose petal landed on his elegant nose. ‘We may as well accept our fate.’
‘Oh, I’ve accepted it,’ she said. I’m just…’ Words failed her.
‘You ready for more?’ he asked lazily.
She should have been embarrassed. Except that he rolled onto his back and he was clearly as interested as she was. ‘This is crazy,’ she whispered, sliding up beside him.
‘No it’s not. It’s Xantippe.’
‘What?’ Lizzie jumped back from him in horror, almost falling off the bed.
He sat up. ‘Not that I want to keep my hands from you, my love, but normally even I would like a rest at about this point. Your aunt must have cast some kind of libido spell.’
Lizzie grabbed the sheet from the foot of the bed, wrapping it around her as she climbed off the bed, and the flower petals scattered everywhere. ‘You mean the only reason I had sex with you was because Aunt Xan made me do it?’ There was no way she could hide her horror.
His expression was so tender that she wanted to cry. ‘Haven’t you been paying attention? Up until about fifteen minutes ago it was just us. The rose petals prove it – if Xantippe’s spell had been working they never would have appeared, trust me. This spell is brand-new. Your aunt’s been trying to disturb things, and she’d use just about every trick in the book. You don’t need to worry about it – the spell doesn’t work unless the partners are more than willing. God knows she’s tried it on me for decades and I have yet to succumb.’
She stared at him, unmoving. ‘Decades? You and Xan? Ew.’
‘Not me and Xan. I’ve never been interested. She likes men – surely you know that much. She likes men with power even more. The problem is, I see her a lot more clearly than she likes. I wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot pole.’
She glanced down at him. ‘That might be a bit of an exaggeration,’ she murmured, and then clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified, and the satin sheet began to slip.