Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(113)

Moss, acting the part of butler, greeted us formally, wearing a tux, as stiff as ever. “Miss Bristol, Ms. Bristol, Mr. Westbrook.” Moss offered a slight bow. Very slight. His face could’ve cut granite. Reagan must’ve been harassing him already this evening. “Welcome.”

“Vampires really know how to host,” my mother murmured as we climbed the stairs. “Too bad a body can’t relax in their company.”

Both dining room doors stood open, and as we approached, I felt the first wave of intensely spicy power, vicious and lethal and smooth as silk. It was much more powerful than Moss’s, and it was basically on display, crowding the room and drifting out to catch anyone passing by.

Ja.

“That’s not normal for vampires,” I said, slowing. Magic curled between Emery and me, sparking and fizzing and then collecting above me. I’d largely tried to stop doing that, since it made it easy for me to go off the deep end at a moment’s notice, but amassing elements was my go-to when I sensed even a little danger. It was a hard habit to break. One I wasn’t even sure I wanted to break.

“Just a moment,” Moss said, entering the room.

“Either the vampire doesn’t have control, or she is wondering if you do,” Emery whispered, studying me. He couldn’t feel her magic, but after a week of hardcore training together, not to mention one occasion in which we’d accidentally gotten sucked into (or possibly started, but I really didn’t think it was my fault) a bar fight with a few shifters, he was really good at deciphering my reactions.

He still wasn’t super at heading them off, though. Not when Reagan was enabling me, at any rate. Hence the bar fight.

The magic pulsed once, a shock wave that blasted into my core and crawled up my spine, dragging out my survival magic. I wrapped it around myself like armor, strong and hot and ready to do battle.

“Nope. Don’t do that,” Emery said, using his own survival magic to layer mine, calming me down.

It was another thing we’d been practicing: how to use our survival magic in new ways, often together.

“She has to be baiting you,” Emery said in a low whisper, making sure the vampires, with their excellent hearing, couldn’t catch his words. “Don’t give her a reason to react.”

“Forcing Penny to take the high road, is that it?” My mother asked, not at all worried about vampires overhearing. That, and she lacked volume control at the best of times. “Weak, that. Very weak.”

Moss appeared in the doorway with thinned lips and wary eyes. His bow was furrowed a little deeper, his posture a little stiffer.

Maybe it wasn’t Reagan who would cause problems for us tonight.

“Please.” Moss held out his hand for us to enter.

“I still think this is a terrible idea,” my mother said. “In fact, I ate at a fabulous place in the Garden District the other day. Let’s go there. I made friends with the barman. I’m sure we could get a seat.”

“Come on, Mother,” I said through clenched teeth, this close to taking her up on it.

Emery stepped aside so my mother and I could enter first. The table was set with delicate china and crystal. Candles flickered in gilded candleholders down the center of the table and along the walls, a serious fire hazard that probably didn’t matter, given that Reagan was on scene.

Darius and Reagan stood from their chairs on one side of the table. The three empty chairs next to them had presumably been left for us. The Bankses sat on the other side, with Marie next to them, and the final member of the group—a familiar woman with a beautiful face, slight frame, dark tan skin, and liquid black, wide-spaced, beguiling eyes that held the wisdom of centuries—sat the farthest from the door, directly across from Darius’s seat.

Those dark eyes sparkled as they beheld me, and a tiny pulse of her viciously entrancing magic pushed against my heart, letting me know she was completely in control…and she knew that I was not.

“Hello, everyone,” Reagan said with a serene smile, wearing a striking deep blue dress that plunged down her chest and flowed around her legs. She took Darius’s hand as they made their way to us, playing the part of host perfectly and surprising the heck out of me.

Darius wore a tux, perfectly molded to his muscular body and probably as expensive as the GDP of a small country. When they stopped in front of us, he bowed deeply. “Thank you for joining us.”

“Thank you for having us,” Emery said, sticking out his hand to shake Darius’s.

We took our seats, the chairs held out by vampire servers who showed up at the exact right moment. After they poured our wine, they zipped out again, faster than a human, but not so fast that it looked strange.

“That dress looks lovely,” Marie said to me with a gorgeous smile, her curves showcased in a purple and black lace dress that really got the heart pumping—and I wasn’t even into that sort of thing. “And Ms. Bristol, what a lovely…ensemble.”

My mother nodded and reached for her wine. “Thank you. It was one of the few I packed, just in case.”

Marie’s smile tightened, and I knew she was annoyed my mother hadn’t accepted her help with fashion.

“Hello,” Dizzy said, beaming. Callie nodded in hello as well.

“May I introduce Ja.” Darius motioned to the extreme elder before holding the chair for Reagan to sit. “Ja, please meet Penny, Emery, and Penny’s mother, Karen.”