Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem 2)

He took the card. “You are cordially invited to…” His voice trailed away, but his lips kept moving as he read the artfully scripted cursive.

His brow furrowed and he flipped the envelope over, showing my name. “Well…he has always done things the civilized way. No denying that.”

“Who?” I asked, taking back the card. “It’s not signed.”

“Darius, of course. That’s his address. One of them, at any rate.”

After last night’s botched practice session, the Bankses had grudgingly agreed with Reagan that their version of training didn’t work with my strange brand of natural—they’d even said strange, as if I didn’t already have a complex. Without any other options, they’d agreed that Darius would find a suitable replacement.

“Oh, look. A drawer. With an old-fashioned key!” Dizzy beamed and bent, pulling out the little drawer tucked under the lip of the table top. He extracted a similar card to the one I held. “‘Dear Mr. Banks’”—Dizzy leaned toward me—“he’s always so polite and formal.” He straightened back up. “‘Please accept this table as a small token of my gratitude. It can’t be easy to hand over a pupil as bright and with as much potential as Miss Bristol. I am honored you think I will manage her aptly. Sincerely, Darius Durant. PS.’” Dizzy chuckled. “How did he know I love PSs in letters? They’re like secret messages pinned to the bottom. It’s such a shame the practice is falling by the wayside. ‘PS This table was made of reclaimed wood from the Satisfaction, the flagship of Henry Morgan, circa 1670.’”

Dizzy blew out a breath and took a step back. “Wow.” He bent to the card again, read it a second time, and leaned back with another sigh. “Henry Morgan! The famous pirate! This is really fantastic, Reagan—I mean, Penny. The stories that must be captured in this wood.”

The pounding of feet signaled Callie was stalking our way. She appeared on the back deck across the lawn, her hands on her hips with a little card sticking out. “What is that vampire up to?” she hollered. She held out the card. “He’s trying to buy us.”

“What did you get?” Dizzy replied, delight on his face. “I got a table made from—”

“Don’t fall into his hands.” Callie stomped down the deck toward the stairs and around the covered patio set to reach us. I had to give it to Dizzy—despite the harm to the flowers, tramping across the yard to the house was much faster. “He knows very well this is a short-term situation.” She came to stand in front of his table. “We’re not handing her over for good. And she’ll still live here. I already lost one to their devious ways, I will not lose another.”

“Now, hon,” Dizzy said, “Darius merely means to train her up. Then he said he’d let her go off on her own.”

“You can never trust a vampire. Everyone knows that.”

Dizzy’s face fell, because he’d said the same thing a few times over. “But Darius isn’t like normal vampires,” he said in a weak voice.

“When it comes to something as rare and important to the magical world as Penny, or her Rogue Natural—”

“He’s not mine,” I mumbled.

“—you better believe he’ll try to get his hooks in any way he can.”

After a beat, Dizzy quietly asked, “What’d you get?” almost as though he couldn’t help it.

“Never mind what I got. It’s going back. As is your God-awful table. If we accept his gifts, we might as well hand over our souls. He’s trying to buy our silence.”

“But… Well, those aren’t even the same things.”

“Don’t split hairs.” She eyed the card in my hand and her eyes narrowed. “What did you get, Penelope Bristol?”

I wasted no time in handing it over. “A dinner invite.”

“Ah ha!” She waved my card at Dizzy. “See? The seduction has already been scheduled.”

“I very much doubt he will try to seduce Penny. Reagan would never go for it.”

She paused, staring at him as if he’d sprouted a second set of legs. “I didn’t mean sexually, you donkey! He’ll charm her and offer her riches and lavish accommodations. He’ll fly her around the world, wine and dine her, all the while hooking her into his billion-dollar enterprise.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I said just as Dizzy said, “I don’t think he has that much money, does he?”

An incredulous expression crossed Callie’s face. “She’ll be another asset for him to exploit! Of course that sounds so bad, and how should I know how much money he has? He has a lot of it. He makes more every day. And do you know why?”

“He’s really old and got into the stock market early?” Dizzy ventured.

“He’s good at business?” I tried.

Callie jabbed her finger at me. “He is good at business. He is good at maneuvering people and products.”

Dizzy deflated and looked longingly at his table. “I love pirates.”

“You wouldn’t love them right after they robbed you and killed all your crewmen.” Callie held out her hand for the card.

“Does this mean I’m not going to the dinner?” I asked hopefully. Because a ride in a private jet was one thing, but dinner with a cultivated elder vampire sounded stressful. He’d probably have a bunch of forks and spoons set up, with a whole bunch of glasses and courses, and I wouldn’t know the right way to go about any of it.

Callie stared at me with determination. “Yes, you’re going to that dinner.”

“She gets to go, but we can’t keep the presents?” Dizzy whined.

“Honestly,” Callie said, “when did you become such a big baby?”

Dizzy flung his hand toward the table, straightening up. “Do you have any idea how rare that is? I don’t even know how he got it. It’s from a newly found pirate ship. A pirate ship!”

I edged away. They were very good at working things out, either with civilized conversations, or full-out yelling at each other. It was best to steer clear and leave them to it.

Callie shifted until her body squared off with his. She lowered her arms to her sides and leaned forward a little.

I edged a little farther away.

“He is managing her training,” she said with deliberate slowness. “He’ll need to speak with her to do that. His version of communicating often revolves around social norms. With humans, that usually means eating or drinking. We know this.”

“Yes, but…” He went back to hunching and looking longingly at the table.

Having won that (very short) battle, Callie turned her attention to me. “This is what you need to understand.” She held up a finger. “You are business partners. He has a lot of power in the vampire hierarchy, in business, in the Brink… You name it, he’s acquired power in it.” Her head tilted to the side and her finger stayed raised. “Except magic and spells.” She took down her hand. “He relies on high-powered mages and Reagan for magical know-how, spell research, and practical application. He has donated a lot of time and effort to acquiring knowledge about magic, yes, but that is because it is something he cannot properly master on his own. Do you see what I’m saying?”

I bit my lip, thinking through all the possible things she could be saying. Dizzy’s blank stare wasn’t helping. “Not…really.”

“In magic,” she went on with a patience I seldom saw in her. It meant this was important. “You are the one with the power. Even now, not knowing how to use your magic, you are still the one with the power. You can accidentally kill a vampire with nothing more than fear and two seconds of your time. If you start to feel bullied, or charmed, or things are going too easily or not easily enough, just remember that at the end of the day, you call the shots. His job is to help you. His purpose is to make you happy. You don’t owe him squat, and you don’t have to bend one bit if you don’t want to. Now do you get what I’m saying?”

Dizzy smiled and nodded at me. He did, at any rate.