Laced With Magic by Barbara Bretton Page B

was ready for the truth: all humans ended up in the spirit world, in one way or another. The afterlife had more options than any mortal could imagine and they weren’t all wonderful.

    The cop mask hardened. A smarter woman might have heeded the warning. “It’s bullshit.”

    “What if it isn’t?”

    “I’m not going there.”

    “You’re going to have to go there, Luke. Your daughter’s mother is asleep in my guest room and I don’t think she plans to leave anytime soon.”

    “I told you she’s leaving tomorrow.”

    “Don’t tell me. Tell her.”

    He started down the hallway toward the guest room with me close behind him. Would I never learn to keep my big mouth shut? Talk about the wrong thing to say. She wasn’t going to be up for conversation until morning.

    When she was conscious.

    “I didn’t mean tell her now. She’s asleep. That’s a good thing. Let her—”

    “Why wait?” he shot back over his shoulder. “I’ll drive her back tonight. She can sleep in the truck.”

    “Luke, stop! The woman’s exhausted. Tomorrow morning’s good enough.” What was wrong with me? Wasn’t this exactly what I wanted?

    “She’s going tonight.”

    “What about the rental car? How will you—”

    “I’ll work it out with the agency when I get back.”

    “This is crazy. It’s almost three in the morning. When do you figure on getting some sleep?”

    He wasn’t listening to me. My words bounced off his back like it was a trampoline. I’d seen this behavior before: the human male quit listening when he didn’t want to hear any more. He just shut down, and the more words the female threw at him, the fewer he heard.

    If this was part of the human experience, they could keep it.

    “Luke!” I snapped as we approached the closed door to the guest room. “I didn’t want to tell you, but I gave her a potion. She’ll sleep straight through until seven and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

    “I’ll wake her up.”

    “You’re not listening to me, Luke. You won’t be able to wake her up. An earthquake won’t wake her up until seven tomorrow morning. Not a second before.”

    Nothing. No response at all. Not even a grunt.

    What did I have to do to make him hear me?

    For the record, I didn’t mean for it to happen, but when it comes to controlling my powers, high emotion gets me in trouble every time. Before I even realized what was happening, Luke glowed bright crimson, then shrank down into a human Ken Doll, then back again to normal size in the blink of an eye.

    “What the hell!?”

    This was so not the way to build a relationship.

    “I didn’t mean to do it,” I said, torn between embarrassment and highly inappropriate laughter.

    He didn’t take his eyes off me, and who could blame him? I wouldn’t trust me either. “You mean like the time you flipped the bed when we were—”

    “Exactly.”

    “Except this time you were pissed.”

    Which was an understatement but this didn’t seem like the right time to quibble. “Yes.”

    His expression shifted. “Did you say you gave her a potion or something?”

    “To help her sleep.”

    “You mean, like Sominex.” He sounded so hopeful. I hated to burst his bubble.

    “Well, not exactly like that.”

    “You put a spell on her?” His hopefulness was fading fast.

    “I added something to her tea.”

    “Something you can’t buy at Rite-Aid.”

    “Not without a very odd prescription.”

    Any other man would have been out the door the first time his toothbrush talked back to him but not Luke. He laughed. He didn’t want to but he laughed anyway.

    We stood there looking at each other for what seemed like forever, and then we fell into each other’s arms. Sparks, pale ivory and yellow, arced over our heads, and I smiled against his shoulder as we held on tight. I needed his warmth the way I needed light and air and water. The stronger my sorceress side became, the more I craved his very human