Page 28 of Stolen Magic
Teeth rasping over her lower lip, my friend peered between us. “I can make a potion that will erase his memories of Alaska.” The breath I sucked in was as loud as a bullet being fired inside the spacious office.
“You could do that?” As subtly as I could, I sent a pointed side-eye toward Dimitri. Char frowned at me, so I did it again. Why was she so heedless? I needed the Alpha to forget all about me as much as I wanted his father to do the same. She should’ve said something long before about the existence of such a potion.
“If you make it, I’ll make sure my father consumes it.” Fast to agree, Dimitri straightened his shoulders.
“Making it is not a problem. Finding all the ingredients is a different story.” After a moment, she pulled her tote open and rummaged through it. “I’ll also need Allie’s blood for it.”
My whole body turned numb.
Even Dimitri jerked like she’d slapped him.
“Char, no.” I snatched her arm and shook her to bring some sense to her. “You are not doing blood magic. Just no.”
No one sane dabbled in that. Blood magic always took its toll, and I would never ask that from my worst enemy. The price paid was not worth the outcome.
“I appreciate the offer, Miss Mariatti, but I agree with your friend.” Dimitri had some decency to back me up. “Protection is not a hardship on my part. We will sort this out without any harmful magic.”
“Will you knock it off with the formalities, for goodness sake? We saw your bare ass in the middle of our store, along with half of Santa Monica. I’m sure it’s okay to call us by our first names.” There was no reason to go off like that, but I needed to take all the fear clawing at me out on someone, and Dimitri was the perfect target.
“Duly noted … Allie.” For a moment, I simply stared at that genuine curl on his full lips when he used my nickname in his accent. It did things to me that he had no right doing.
“It’s Alaska to you. We are not that close.” The shifter brought out the petulant child in me, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Yet.” Char coughed in her fist.
“What?”
“Nothing, I just need one thing to make this work. And stop trying to convince me not to make the potion. If there was a way to deal with this without spilling blood or getting into more trouble, we would’ve found it by now.” Hitching the tote higher on her shoulder, she tapped her foot. I hated when she did that. “Let me remind you that I’m an adult woman. I can make my own decisions.”
“Is there a way we can predict what the price will be for such potion?” It showed how inept I was when it came to magic that Dimitri knew all the right questions to ask when I didn’t. The excuse of being self-taught lingered in my mind, but it still irritated me.
“No. But it’s fine. Erasing memory potions are among the less harmful ones to the person who brews them. If I leave now, I’d have one ready for you in a few hours, as long as I find the last ingredient.”
“Can I help?” Ever the helpful, the shifter tensed as if already preparing to be Char’s errand boy.
“I know who to ask.” The way she said it told me the druid picked the short end of the stick on that one. “I need to make a call. I’ll be right back.”
“We can’t let her do this.” I rounded on him as soon as my friend was gone and the door closed behind her. “I don’t care if I have to kill your father, Char is not doing blood magic.”
“I understand your concern, but I have to agree with her. And before you start waving your daggers at me, let me say one thing.” He waited until I removed my hand from the hilt. “I’m confident that between us, we can figure out how to soften the impact on her.”
“Look at you all all-knowing. If you understand blood magic so much, why don’t you do it, huh?” Dimitri’s flat stare was telling. Neither of us could brew a potion. Our powers didn’t work that way, unfortunately.
“It’ll be okay, Alaska.” My power surged up when he took hold of my hand between both of his. The temperature dropped, and our breaths misted the air, but he acted like he didn’t notice. “We will deal with one problem at a time. There must be a way to soften the impact.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if any harm comes to her.”
“I won’t allow it. You have my word.”
Like an idiot, I believed him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
There was a track on the floor inside the shop, indicating where I’d paced for the few hours it took Char to brew the potion. Dimitri drove us in his fancy car to Burbank, where we picked up whatever Char needed from Damian. After that, she locked herself in the workshop. Leaning on the counter in front of the register, I stared at the small cut on my thumb where I sliced my skin with one of the daggers to give my friend a few drops of my blood.
That was when the waiting started.
Shards of glass and porcelain littered the floor, pieces we hadn’t collected when we swept the mess what felt like a lifetime ago. I was still tempted to repeat throwing candles at Dimitri when he showed his face. The Alpha waited for our call so he could drag his father to Crystal Palace with a bogus story of picking up a gift for Angela. Apparently, they had a family dinner scheduled for later that evening. How very domesticated for the wolf.
