Part 14 (2/2)
”Alex.” Another blond woman pushed her way past the group at the door. ”You're not thinking of opening today, are you?”
The woman was tiny and had the cute, open face of a high school cheerleader. In fact, if she hadn't spoken first, Vivian would have thought she was a high school student. But the woman's voice had a strength that only came with age and experience.
When Blackstone raised his head and looked at the woman, his expression softened, easing the angles and planes of his face. He suddenly looked approachable.
”I think it would be more suspicious if we remained closed, don't you, Nora?”
Nora, the blonde, shook her head. ”Not with all those cops and news organizations out there.”
”Publicity,” said Andrew Vari. ”It's always good to be open when members of the press are around.”
”Except when you have three Fates in your dining room,” Dex said dryly.
Vari shrugged one shoulder. ”We could spell diem so no one saw them but us.”
Dex let go of Vivian's hand. She felt the absence as if he had left her. ”Before we go any farther, I need to know if this place is protected.”
Blackstone's eyes hooded, and Vivian couldn't see their expression any longer. ”Why?”
”These women have been under a.s.sault all morning,” Dex said. ”I need to know they're safe.”
”They're safe for the moment,” Blackstone said. ”We'll have a problem when we open for business.”
”So you do have a protection spell on this place?”
Vari crossed his arms. ”How we protect this place is none of your business.”
The back of Vivian's neck ached. She wondered if she had twisted it funny when she pa.s.sed out. She rubbed it absently.
”Right now, it is my business,” Dex said. ”I didn't bring everyone here to make matters worse. I suspect the Fates are up against some pretty big powers, and I am a rather young mage compared to you two. I thought I could use some help.”
”This is the part where you say, 'But I was wrong' and then stomp off, right?” Vari's face, however beautiful, was not kind. Vivian had been right to compare him to a sculpture. He had all the warmth of stone. ”You'd like to leave them here with us. You've had enough trouble with your heroic tendencies. Better to let bad boys who've already served their sentences mess with the Fates, just in case this is some kind of trick.”
Dex's expression didn't change, but Vivian could feel his shock. No one had ever spoken to him about his magic like that except the Fates themselves.
”The ladies came to you for help,” Vari said.
”Actually,” Dex snapped, ”they came to you first, but you two were unavailable.”
”Actually,” Vivian said, putting her hand on Dex's arm in an attempt to calm him down, ”they came to me first. They didn't know how to find Dex and they couldn't find you two either. I did what I could. I'm not able to do any more. I don't know if Dex can either. So maybe we should just leave this up to the rest of you.”
No one had sat down around the large table. Everyone was standing near it, like houseguests who weren't sure if the party had started yet.
Blackstone stared at the Fates as if he could see through them.
”I'm not real keen on helping them,” he said as if they weren't there. ”There's a thousand years of my life spent carting a coffin around that I'd like to get back.”
Vari's arms tightened, showing the muscles in his biceps. He didn't look at the Fates at all, but directed his remarks to Dex. ”They're not my favorite people either. They made me look like a garden gnome for nearly three thousand years.”
Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos stood near the swinging doors, arms around each other. As they listened, the hope on their faces slowly faded.
”Your punishments were justified,” Clotho said.
”Particularly yours, Darius,” Lachesis said. ”You nearly destroyed true love for everyone.”
”I never had that power,” Andrew Vari said.
”And as for you, Aethelstan,” Atropos said, ”you misunderstood our prophecy. That is not our fault.”
Blackstone took a step toward the women, his face filled with menace. Vivian felt the repressed anger in him, now boiling very close to the surface.
She took a step back even though she was nowhere near them. Dex put his hand against her spine, holding her in place. He didn't want her to call attention to herself.
Nora grabbed Blackstone's arm. ”It turned out all right, Alex. It turned out the way it was supposed to. You know that.”
Blackstone glared at the three women for a moment, then bent down and kissed Nora on the top of her head. ”Right as always, my beautiful wife.”
Vari rolled his eyes and Nora glared at him. Even though Vivian got no sense of magical power from her, she suddenly had the feeling that Nora was the strongest person of the three.
”Everything turned out all right for you too, Sancho,” Nora said, obviously using yet another nickname for Andrew Vari. ”Better than all right. And you're usually the first to admit it.”
Vari grimaced, then shook his head. At that moment, yet another woman came through the double doors from the kitchen. She glanced at the Fates as if she didn't recognize them, then walked around them, looking with surprise at the large group.
She had a sweatband around her forehead, and her red hair was tied back into a ponytail. She was wearing Lycra running shorts, a Lycra top, and expensive running shoes.
She looked very familiar.
”Is my husband causing trouble?” she asked, using a towel to wipe the sweat off her face.
”I don't cause trouble, Ari,” Vari said. ”I prevent it.”
She grinned. ”In what world?”
He grinned too, but Vivian didn't like the expression. It hid scheming, which she could sense from him. She tilted her head sideways, still trying to ease the ache in her neck.
”Ari,” Andrew Vari said, ”I don't think you've ever met the Fates.”
He swept his arm toward the three women near the one he was calling Ari. She whirled toward them, her green eyes flas.h.i.+ng, her mood completely different.
”You! You're the ones who hurt my husband. Didn't you know what a good, kind man he is? Don't you know what you put him through, how unfair it all was? Do you know what you did to him, making him suffer like that? It's not right and not fair, and I've been meaning to tell you all this for a long time now, but he wouldn't let me. Now I can, and believe me, if I had magic, you women would pay for what you did. You'd--”
”Ariel.” Blackstone's voice was sharp. ”Don't ever threaten the Fates.”
”It's all right,” Dex said, his tone laconic. ”They don't have any power anymore. Or have they forgotten to tell you that part?”
Nora, Blackstone, Vari, and Ariel turned toward him, their shock so overpowering that Vivian would have taken another step backward if Dex hadn't still been holding her in place.
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