Robyn Bachar - Blood, Smoke and Mirrors

“Cat, honey. C’mon, we need to get you inside and cleaned up. I’ll even make pancakes for you.”

Still half asleep, I smiled. “I love you, but we both know you can’t cook.”

He laughed, the first real laugh I’d heard from him in far too long. Sitting up, I stretched in my seat and undid my seat belt. Lex held the door open for me, and my bare feet touched down on the damp grass of the lawn.

“Can you walk?” he asked, and I nodded. “Hmm, better safe than sorry.” Scooping me up in his arms, he hoisted me out of the truck and shouldered the door shut.

Too tired to argue, I let him carry me across the lawn. I hadn’t spent much time at Lex’s place. It’s a long drive from my apartment-not that I had a car-and since it’s a half-hour from the nearest shopping center it qualifies as country in my book. He’s got a pretty good sized chunk of land, lots of trees, and it’s along a river I can never remember the name of. Lex even has a speedboat, which I’d been out on all of one time-too loud and too fast for me. The house is really too large for one person, but he’s got a lot of junk-sorry, important guardian equipment-so it balances out.

The moon, almost full, lit the surrounding yard with a soft glow. The motion sensors triggered the outside lights as Lex walked up the steps of the front porch, and I heard the sound of dogs barking within. He set me down, and the wooden planks of the porch were cold. “You better get behind me, or they’ll knock you down and lick you to death,” he warned as he unlocked the door.

“You got another dog?”

“Yeah, that’s Cesár. He kinda adopted me while I was out on a call. Got more than enough room, so I brought him home.”

Bubba, the German shepherd, bounded out of the door first, followed by a mutt of unknown but vaguely Labradorish descent. Both dogs bypassed Lex and sniffed me, tails wagging. “No, she doesn’t want to play with you boys. Go on, get.”

The dogs hightailed it out into the yard, and I followed Lex inside. He flicked the lights on, and I looked around the room. I couldn’t shake the odd, out-of-place feeling. I’d never felt comfortable here, and I guess I wasn’t about to start now. Turning to me, Lex kissed me hard and deep, reminding me in a rush of heat and passion just how amazing he made me feel. “Missed you,” he said simply when he pulled away.

“Obviously.”

Lex caressed my cheek as he studied the black eye peeking out from behind the makeup that’d been spackled over it. “Did he hit you?”

“Of course not. Laura, on the other hand, beat the ever-lovin’ snot out of me.”

“I missed a chick fight?” He raised an eyebrow, looking disappointed, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his expression.

“It wasn’t a fight, it was a beating.”

“We’re goin’ to work on your self-defense skills, sugar. But first, you need to eat so we can do somethin’ about those wounds.”

“I’ve eaten enough for a small army today, and it didn’t do much.”

“And your blood was full of vamp magic before, now it’s not,” Lex pointed out in reply.

The main room of Lex’s place is a giant combination of living room, dining room and kitchen. He flipped on the TV for noise, and a twenty-four hour news channel droned on in the background. I took a seat at the kitchen table and watched as Lex cooked me an omelet and toast, which was the extent of his cooking skills. It was almost a crime that someone who had a kitchen as nice as Lex-granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances-had zero cooking skills. Then again, it might very well become my kitchen, if Lex was serious about becoming Oberon and working out our issues.

“What made you change your mind?” I asked as he set the plate of food down in front of me.

“About what?”

“You know about what. What made you decide to be Oberon?”

“I never said I wasn’t goin’ to take it, I just wanted some time to get used to the idea.”

“Gee, it would’ve been nice to have some time to get used to the idea of trying out for Titania.” Picking up my fork, I poked at the omelet. In the back of my mind, I heard Zach’s voice assuring me that if it had been him, he would’ve accepted the position without hesitation.

“You thought I was walkin’ away from you again.” It wasn’t a question. Taking the seat next to me, he leaned back in his chair.

“Yeah, I did,” I admitted.

“You didn’t trust me. That why you let Harrison bite you?”

Frowning, I set the fork down. “We’ve been over this already. I didn’t let him do anything to me. I didn’t even know what this weird spell thing he did to me was, or how he pulled it off, but it wasn’t my idea. I didn’t agree to it.”

“I meant it when I said I’d kill him for layin’ a hand on you. Looks like I won’t be able to follow through on that one.”

“Well, it’s even worse than that, because now we’re going to have to work on keeping him alive too. If he goes, I go.”

“That won’t be easy. I’m willin’ to bet he’ll go after Laura’s council seat.”

“Great… Did you know about the government going after magicians?” I asked, changing the subject.

Lex looked surprised. “He told you about that?”

“He took me to a place, kinda like a safe house, where I helped heal this shapeshifter who looked like a prisoner of war. Poor kid must’ve been sixteen years old.”

Lex rubbed his eyes wearily. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Harrison wants me to help him overthrow the government and take over the world. Like a Bond villain, without an accent or a white Persian cat.” I snorted. Pushing around the food on my plate, I paused and forced myself to continue eating.

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“Oh sure, I’m gonna get a leather jumpsuit and change my name to Kitty Galore. What do you think?”

“That you’d look good in that jumpsuit,” he replied, and I rolled my eyes at him. “Seriously, though, you know he’s goin’ about it the wrong way.”

“Yeah. What are we going to do about it, though?”

“I’m not allowed to go after straights, Cat.”

“Lex the Guardian can’t. Oberon, on the other hand… I just feel like if I’m going to do this, I want to make a difference.”

Lex eyed me silently, and I went back to pushing food around on my plate, and then he nodded slowly. “I guess you’re right. C’mon, you’re doin’ more playin’ than eating, so let’s get you cleaned up.”

Unwilling to leave me alone in case I had another seizure-like episode, Lex perched on the bathroom counter as I showered, ready to leap to my rescue if I looked wobbly. It took a ridiculously long time to scrape off the makeup and undo my hairstyle. When Lex got a real look at my bruises he cursed about three minutes straight in French, which was quite impressive.

I didn’t have any clothes at his place so he gave me a T-shirt to wear as a makeshift nightgown. Despite the fact I was battered, bruised and in borrowed clothes, I felt better than I had in a long time. Lex drew me close to him the moment I slid into bed, and he kissed me.

“I love you, Cat,” he murmured.

“I love you too. Go to sleep.”

I didn’t have a single nightmare.

The need for coffee awoke me from my blissful slumber, and Lex mumbled something vaguely coherent at me as I slipped out of his arms. It was early, especially considering how late we’d gotten to sleep after our daring escape from Harrison tower, so I drew the covers up around him and told him to go back to sleep. Lex nodded, mumbling again, but this time I was able to decipher that he wanted me to take the dogs with me if I went anywhere outside.