Thea was so angry she was shaking. So angry that she made a mistake. If she'd kept on arguing the same points, she thought later, Blaise might eventually have started to listen. But she was furious and terrified and she blurted out, "Well, I don't think you can do it. I don't think you could take him from me if you tried."
Blaise stared, as if caught for once at a loss for words. Then she threw back her head and laughed.
"Thea," she said. "I can take any boy from anybody.
Any time, any place, any way I want to. That's what I do."
"Not this time. Eric loves me, and you can't change that. You can't take him."
Blaise was wearing a secret smile. But she said only two words as she turned off the strip and onto darkened streets again.
"Watch me."
Thea didn't sleep well. She kept seeing Randy Marik's face, and when she dreamed, it turned into Eric's face, blood-streaked and vacant-eyed.
She woke up to see sunshine streaming in the room.
It was a bedroom with a split personality. One side was fairly neat and decorated in pale blues and spring greens. The other side was messy and was decorated in the color, the primal color, the one that roused emotions, that meant passion and hatred both. Red.
And usually Blaise was lying on that side underneath her red velvet Ralph Lauren bedspread, but this morning she was gone already. A bad omen. Blaise only got up early for a reason.
Thea got dressed and went downstairs warily.
The shop was empty except for Tobias sitting gloomily in his usual place beside the cash register. He grunted when Thea said hello and went on staring at the wall, one hand clutching his curly brown hair. Wishing, undoubtedly, to be outside on the weekend like other nineteen-year-old guys.
Thea went into the workshop.
Blaise was sitting at the long table, wearing earphones and humming to herself. A project was spread in front of her. Thea stalked up close.
She could see right away that it was beautiful. Blaise was a genius at creating jewelry, most of it based on ancient designs. She made necklaces of bees and butterflies, spiraling flowers, serpents, leaping dolphins. It was all alive, all joyous... all magical. That was where the real genius came in. Blaise put each element of the piece together with a purpose in mind. The gems were chosen to enhance each other: ruby for desire, black opal for obsession, topaz for yearning, garnet for heat. And asteria, the smoke-gray form of sapphire with a six-pointed star. Blaise's stone, just the color of her eyes.
Blaise had them all laid out loose. But her magic wasn't just in the gems. Interwoven into every piece were herb caches, tiny compartments that could be filled with potions or powders. She could literally drench the jewelry in sorcery.
Even the design itself could be a spell. Every line, every curve, every flower stem could have a meaning, could make the eye follow a pattern that was as powerful as any symbol traced on the floor in chalk. Just looking at the piece could be enough to charm you.
Right now Blaise was working on a necklace to knock you dead.
Thea could see it taking shape. Blaise used the lost wax method of jewelry-making, which meant that she carved out her pieces in stiff blue wax before casting them in silver or copper or gold. What she was carving now was breathtaking. Heart-stopping. An intricate masterpiece that was going to have roughly the same effect as Aphrodite's magic girdle- which meant no male was going to be able to look at it without falling under the spell.
And she had some of Eric's blood. The vital ingredient that meant she'd be able to personalize this spell for him.
The one good thing was that it would take Blaise a few days to finish this piece. But once it was done....
Eric didn't have a chance in Hades.
Thea backed up, not knowing-and not caring- whether Blaise had noticed her. She headed blindly for her bedroom.
She and Eric were soulmates. But Blaise was, in some ways, Aphrodite herself. And who could resist that?
What am I going to do?
She had a little of Eric's blood herself on the corner of the tissue. But she could never outmatch Blaise in creating love spells. Blaise had years of experience and a natural talent that left everyone else in the dust.
So I have to think of something else. Something to keep her from getting to him in the first place. To protect him...
Thea straightened up.
I can't. It's too dangerous. The summoning spells aren't for maidens. Even the Inner Circle has to be careful with those.
But Grandma has the materials. I know she does. I've seen the box.
It may kill me even to try.
An odd serenity came over her. If she concentrated on that-on the risk-she felt better than if she thought about what Gran would say if she found out. She wasn't afraid to face danger for Eric. And as long as she kept thinking about that, she could block out the thought that her idea was not only dangerous, but wrong.
This time she went down the stairs almost as if she were sleepwalking. Calm and detached. "Toby, where's Gran?"
He lifted his head a bare inch. "She went to see Thierry Descouedres, something about his land. Told me to come and pick her up tonight."
Thierry was a vampire and a Night Lord. He owned a lot of the land northeast of Las Vegas-but what did Gran have to do with that?
It didn't matter. The important thing was that Gran wouldn't be back all day.
"Well, then, why don't you go out and have some fun? I can watch the shop."
Tobias looked at her with dazed blue eyes-and then his round face lit up. "Seriously? You'd do that? I could kiss you. Let's see, I'll go visit Kishi... no, maybe Zoe... no, maybe Sheena...."
Like all boy witches, he was in tremendous demand with the girl witches in town.
Still muttering, he checked his wallet, grabbed the car keys, and headed for the door as if Thea might change her mind any second. "I'll be back in time to
pick her up, I promise," he said hastily and was out the door.
The instant he was gone, Thea turned the sign on the door to closed, locked up, and tiptoed to the counter.
It was in the locked lower shelf, an iron chest that looked five hundred years old. Thea picked it up with an effort-it was heavy. With her teeth gritted and her eyes on the bead curtain that separated the store from Grandma's workshop, she staggered up the stairs.
She made two other trips downstairs to gather materials. The bead curtain never stirred.
Last, she went to Gran's bedroom. On a nail near the headboard was a heavy ring with dozens of keys. Thea took it. Back in her own bedroom she shut the door and stuffed a towel underneath so Blaise wouldn't smell the smoke.