Capitol Magic Read Free Page A

“I don’t think that’s necessary.”
    â€œI do.” His answer was so curt I knew there was no reason to argue.
    I turned to Jane. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I was wrong to bring you here without asking permission first. I got carried away when I heard that you had the exact experience we need.”
    I slanted a glance toward James, to see if my argument was persuasive. It wasn’t. Not in the least.
    I sighed and took the flask from James’s commanding fingers. “I promise this won’t hurt you. In fact, I’ll drink some myself, if that would make you feel better.”
    Her hazel eyes were steady on my face. After her initial panic at being confronted with an enraged vampire, she had recovered with astonishing speed. I could almost believe that, under other circumstances, we might have become friends. She licked her lips and said, “I trust you.”
    That reply almost made me wince.
    Oh, I had told her the truth. The cinnamon-scented drink would do her no harm. But I still regretted that my actions had brought us to this point, that I had made this entire exchange necessary.
    I passed the flask to Jane. She sniffed it cautiously, then brushed a sweep of auburn curls off her forehead. She cleared her throat, fluttering her fingers above her larynx, as if she was preparing to swallow something noxious. She settled her hand over her heart for one moment, and I thought she might be anxious, might be having palpitations.
    She muttered something I didn’t quite catch, and then she raised the flask to her lips. One swallow. Two. Three. She lowered the drink and looked directly at James. “Enough?”
    For answer, he set his right index finger in the center of her forehead. Before she could flinch, he said, “Be mine.”
    I knew what was supposed to happen. She was supposed to stagger forward. She was supposed to yield completely, to require James’s assistance in something as simple as standing. And when she was helpless in his arms, he would tell her to forget everything she had seen, everything she had heard, everything that had happened since he had entered the Old Library.
    But Jane apparently had something else in mind.
    As James glided forward to ease her to the ground, I was blinded by a flash of crimson light. It rolled out from the librarian, sparking from the chunky necklace around her throat. The air crackled, leaving behind the smell of ozone.
    James hissed and dropped his hand, shaking his fingers as if he’d received an electric shock. I started to move toward him, my sphinx instinct to protect drawing me as much as the attraction I’d felt for the man since the first night we’d met.
    Before I could reach him, though, there was a shout behind me, a guttural exclamation in a baritone voice. I whirled toward the sound, automatically calculating the distance to the armoire on the far side of the Library, to the weapons it held.
    A man stood in the middle of the Old Library. His dark hair was windblown, an effect that accented the brush of silver at his temples. He was every bit as tall as James and looked to be as fit. His grey eyes blazed as he took in the three of us, and the sense of power in him was not diminished by his faded blue jeans or his rumpled flannel shirt.
    â€œJane?” he asked. He directed his question to the librarian, but he kept his attention focused on James.
    â€œI’m fine,” she said.
    â€œFire agate?” His words might have been meaningless, if I had not seen that wave of scarlet fire spark off her necklace.
    She nodded. “And a warding spell. It wasn’t as strong as I wanted, though. Not without Neko here.”
    â€œIt was strong enough.”
    If that silvery gaze had been directed at me, I would have quailed. As it was, James drew himself to his full height. He narrowed his eyes as he slipped his flask back inside his breast pocket. When he spoke, his words were