Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(55)

He paused, his foot already halfway off the curb.

“What names are we going by? We can’t exactly go in there using our own.” My name was unusual enough as it was, and now it was being printed all over the papers. And I doubted there was a human named after the Chief Mage.

Iannis shrugged. “You can call me Ian for the occasion,” he decided. “And you’ll be Nadia.”

“Nadia?” I grumbled, but then he hooked his arm through mine and I forgot all about complaining about the name, which wouldn’t have been my first choice. A warm current flowed through me as he tucked my body against his and escorted me across the street.

“Umm, what are you doing?” I muttered as we headed for the back of the line.

Iannis didn’t even look down at me. “We’re getting in line. It would be suspicious if I used my rank or my magic to try and bypass all these people to gain entrance.”

I would have rolled my eyes if I hadn’t been so damned uncomfortable. “No, I meant what are you doing here?” I hissed, tugging a little on my arm through his to draw attention to it.

He arched his brow as he looked down at me with pale blue eyes like Comenius’s, and suddenly I wished they were their normal violet hue. I tugged at the collar of my jacket nervously, uncomfortably warm beneath his gaze.

“We’re undercover, aren’t we?” he murmured, knowing that my sensitive ears would catch his words despite the buzz of conversation from the line. “If we’re coming here as a couple we should look the part.”

I gritted my teeth as heat continued to spread throughout my body, and glanced up at the moon as we settled in at the back of the line. It hung bright and round in the inky, star-splattered sky, perilously close to being full, and my hormones surged in response to its magical pull. Shifters were always strongest at the height of the lunar cycle – for some reason it gave us a boost, allowing us to shift more frequently and faster than usual.

“Are you alright?”

I glanced up to see Iannis watching me, once again disconcerted by the fact that I was looking up at a tanned blond rather than a pale redhead. His illusion was so good that even I couldn’t see through it – which boded well for us, as it meant none of the humans in the bar would be able to either.

Unfortunately that thought didn’t do anything to calm my nerves.

“I’m fine,” I told him, giving him a sweet smile I didn’t feel, in case anyone was looking. “Why do you ask?”

He dropped my hand and slipped his arm around my waist, drawing me in against his body. “I sense a lot of tension coming from you,” he murmured into my hair as his big hand rubbed up and down the curve where my hip met my torso. “I’ve seen males do this with their females to offer them comfort in social situations. Is it helping?”

“No,” I hissed, keeping my voice down so the other humans in line wouldn’t hear. I shivered as white-hot sparks skipped up and down my nerve endings. “Probably because you’re not my male and I’m not your female.”

“You are for the purposes of this outing,” he pointed out, but he stopped rubbing his hand up and down my side. “Though perhaps your overly emotional mind can’t make that distinction.”

“That. Is. Not. The. Point.” I sucked in a deep breath through my nostrils to keep from decking him, annoyed by his jab at my race. Shifters were more emotional than the average human as a general rule, but he didn’t have to keep rubbing it in. Unfortunately, taking a breath didn’t help calm my nerves as it only caused me to inhale his musky sandalwood scent. The sparks raced through my body double-time, and I bit my lip.

“You’re right, of course.” He had the grace to look apologetic. “I suppose I’m going off topic.”

Ya think? I turned my attention to the conversations around us and did my best to ignore my unlikely date.

To my annoyance, no one was talking about anything interesting, and we spent the next twenty minutes crawling at a snail’s pace toward the entrance, Iannis’s hard body pressed against mine. My traitorous mind wondered if the muscles moving beneath his t-shirt were his, or if they were just part of the illusion. After all, he’d changed his coloring, outfit and facial features, but his weight-height proportions seemed to be the same…

This is so not helping.

I was saved from my raging hormones by the doorman, who gave us a cursory inspection before allowing us into the bar. The color scheme on the inside was exactly the same as the outside, with burgundy drapes covering the walls and black, glossy countertops and tables everywhere. Light music blended with the buzz of chatter as patrons sat and talked, and the aroma of fried foods made my stomach growl.

Iannis led me to the crowded bar, and we somehow managed to find two burgundy and black barstools near the middle. We ordered drinks from the bartender, who served them up along with two menus for us to look at.

I arched a brow as Iannis raised a beer bottle to his lips, tickled by the incongruity of the sight. “Know what you want?” I asked, noticing that he hadn’t touched the menu.

He nodded. “I’m partial to the pork belly donuts and the beer-battered tilapia.”

My jaw dropped. “You’ve been here before?”

He grinned at me, and my stomach flip-flopped. “You don’t really think I’ve never ventured out into the city, do you?” he asked, leaning in so he could murmur in my ear. I shivered as his warm, beer-scented breath tickled my earlobe. “Perhaps it’s been a while since I’ve been out, but I’m not as stuffy as you might think, Miss Baine.”