Chapter 10

As she showered and then dressed in her own faded jeans, a threadbare purple sweater and her favorite purple and pink anklet boots that Jared had brought to the castle, Harper kept thinking of the odd request and thinly veiled threat he made.

Fall in love with him? Was that why he'd brought her here? How could she love him, when he was a stranger, a dangerous one at that? Certainly, he was sexy, with a certain charm edged with sarcasm.

She felt out of her element, like a limestone rock dropped into a snowy field. Everything she'd known, all her knowledge and smarts, proved useless in this situation.

All I wanted to do was satisfy my desire to see blue fire from the volcano. Now look at me. I have magick powers I still don't know really exist and there's a devastatingly sexy guy who wants me in his bed. Maybe that's his idea of love.

The thought of being naked with Jared, having his powerful body thrust slow and deep into hers, making them one flesh, made the space between her legs throb. As if her body wanted this man, needed this man, needed pleasure he would deliver.

Harper scowled at her taut nipples as she studied the tips of her suede boots, boots she'd found in a thrift store. "Stop that. Sex is out of the question."

"Why is sex out of the question?"

She turned away from the bed at the high-pitched, young voice. Stunned, Harper rubbed her eyes. A girl, no older than perhaps five or six, sat on the white fur rug by the enormous fireplace.

No, she wasn't actually sitting on the rug, the little girl floated a few inches above it.

"Excuse me, did you ever hear of knocking?"

The blonde girl nodded. "That's when you warn people before …what did daddy call it? Barging into their privacy."

Harper tugged at the comfortable sweater, feeling the armor of her own clothing. Something well-worn to anchor her to a crazy world where men claimed to be sex demons and little girls levitated.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? Do you live here?"

"I'm Sonia. I come here when I can. When mommy and daddy aren't looking." She giggled. "They know I like to visit Jared. He's fun to play with."

Fun? She couldn't imagine the castle's owner, who claimed he was a sex demon, playing mundane games.

"Who exactly are your parents?"

"Ciara and Xavier. They're wizards. My daddy is the great Crystal Wizard of the Brehon, the wizards who rule over Others like you. I heard him talking to mommy that he met you."

The wheels inside her head finally began to turn. "Xavier…is your daddy tall, with dark hair and a beard and wears strange clothing?"

"That's him." Sonia beamed.

Harper pressed two fingers against her temples. "Xavier, the guide who took me to the volcano…and his wife, Ciara who joined us for the hike. Would you stop floating in the air? I find it dizzying."

Sonia floated back to the ground and ran over to her. Dressed in a purple shirt with alligators on it and bright green pants and sneakers with blinking lights, she looked adorable, despite the awful clothing. Small wonder she was Xavier's daughter, with his sense of "style."

Sonia leaned against the bed. "I overheard daddy telling mommy that this was the demon's last chance. Daddy took you to the volcano so you could find your powers. And meet Jared. But before Daddy could say what powers you had, Mommy caught me … what do you call it?"

"Eavesdropping."

Sonia nodded. "I disguised myself as a spider, but Mommy knows all my disguises. Wanna see?"

Before Harper could shake her head, the little girl vanished. In her place was a Huntsman's spider with a five-inch leg span, larger than her hand. Heteropoda venatoria was known to terrify the hardiest soul.

Swallowing hard, Harper forced herself not to back off.

The spider vanished, replaced by the child. Sonia frowned. "I tried to make myself into a tiny spider to hide better, but I can't do that. My thoughts go all over. Does that ever happen and you can't control your magick?"

"All the time," Harper said dryly.

"What kind of magick do you have? I can do all sorts of things."

Harper stared at her hands. "I think I can make blue flames come out of my hands. I'm still uncertain if this is some kind of weird dream and I'll find myself back at home, waking up in my bed."

"Let me see. Please! Before you wake up. I wanna see your powers. Drust can make blue flames come out of his fingers, but he's a dragon. Are you a dragon?"

Good question. Harper went over to the fireplace. "Stand back," she warned the girl.

She imagined fire coming out of her fingertips. Nothing. Harper licked her lips and tried again.

"Sometimes it helps to think you're in trouble. My magick works best if I do," Sonia encouraged.

"I'm in real trouble," she muttered as she turned around. "I mean…"

Streams of blue fire hissed out of her fingertips, hitting the little girl. Harper screamed and ran over to her.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry, I warned you to stay back, I have to get Jared, you're hurt…"

But Sonia stood before her, not even a burn mark upon her horrible clothing. She shrugged. "It must be coldfire. Coldfire doesn't hurt me because I'm immortal like mommy and daddy."

Coldfire? Harper examined her hands. "How can fire be cold?"

"It's not really cold, it's a magick fire that burns everything in its path, especially mortals. Only Drust can produce it and he's an immortal wizard. You must be a being of great magick! Try it on the furniture."

As the child sat near the bed, Harper glanced at a high back chair near the fireplace, thought about Jared's sensual suggestion of tying her up, and flung out her hands. Blue flames shot out of her fingers, enveloping the chair. It burned for a moment and then nothing was left but ash.

Sonia clapped her hands. "Wicked! Do it again!"

"I don't think so. Or there won't be any place left for me to sit." Harper stared at her hands, still in disbelief. How had she come to possess such amazing power, when only immortals had that claim?

Immortals? Now she was beginning to believe in this dream/nightmare.

The letter from her birth parents surely had not been her imagination, nor the large, imposing man who delivered it.

"You say only this Drust can do something like this?" she asked Sonia.

"I think so. Though Caderyn might, ‘cause he's the eldest and the scariest of the wizards." Sonia grinned. "But he doesn't scare me ‘cause he likes to put me on his shoulders and give me rides through his castle. It's more fun than learning."

Curious, she leaned against the fireplace. "What do you know of Jared? And this castle?"

Sonia suddenly looked impish. "Things I shouldn't say. Anyway, I'm not even supposed to be here. I have lessons with Tristan on conjuring poisonous insects." She tilted her head. "Or was it how not to conjure them? Daddy says I need to learn to control my powers better so I don't accidentally hurt anyone. But I do love playing with spiders."

"Spiders are not insects." At least here she felt on familiar territory. "They eat insects. Spiders are arachnids."

Sonia's blue eyes grew round. "You know about them?"

"I'm a scientist, well, I was studying to be one, before I landed here."

"Really?" Sonia propped her pointed chin upon two small fists. "If I conjure myself into a spider, can you tell me what kind of spider I am?"

"My specialty is rocks," Harper quickly added, before the little girl turned into a black widow.

"What kind of rocks?"

"Volcanic. I'm studying pyroclastic flows and past eruptions to help predict when volcanoes will erupt in the future to give people time to escape the danger."

"Ohhhh." Sonia nodded. "Like when Daddy did when I turned his favorite trench coat into a nest for my spiders."

What an odd child, and yet her honest and winsome manner won Harper over. "I suppose so, only your father doesn't strike me as being as dangerous as a volcano."

"You've never seen him erupt," Sonia said solemnly.

Harper laughed. "I suppose not."

The little girl tilted her head. "Uh oh. I'd better get back. They're looking for me. It was nice to meet you, Harper. I like you. I hope you and Jared will get along and you stay for a long, long time."

"Nice to meet you as well."

I hope I will get out of here.

"I'll come back later, when Jared's not in human form. That's late at night when I'm supposed to be asleep, but I pop out and visit him here. Sometimes when he's in Skin he is too serious. Not as much fun as his other form. Bye!"

With a wave, the child vanished.

A cold chill rushed down Harper's spine. Not in human form? What did that mean?

And what kind of form did Jared take on at night?