Orange Swirl (Sugar Bites #3)- Laurel Chase

CHAPTER ONE

CARLYLE

“Try it now,” I suggested, settling my hands on my hips and cocking my head at Dair through the doorway. He was in for a shock, this time - I’d been working hard on this trick.

My mage only raised an eyebrow and focused on the room I was occupying, summoning his siphoning magic and popping out of view.

“Sorry, Cariño. It didn’t work,” he said as he reappeared, standing exactly where he’d been before.

“Didn’t it, though? Check yourself again.” I grinned, holding out my hand to him.

He reached to grasp it, but of course he missed. Because he was still in the hallway, not in my bedroom like the glamor was telling him. Yep. Qilin mind tricks, next level.

“What the fuck?” he muttered, staring down at his empty fingers. “But you’re right here.”

I powered down the glamor a bit. He cursed again as the illusion flickered around him, and he realized he’d siphoned exactly nowhere. He glared at the doorway that still separated us, and my grin got even bigger.

“See, that’s the beauty of the trick. We can’t seem to get the physical barriers to work against mages, so I made a mental block. They’ll think they’ve siphoned in, but really any siphoning magic just triggers the glamor. We can put this around the outside of the castle, and it’ll act like a force field. I’m sure Jai can rig up some sort of warning bell for us, or trap or something, so we can go get the intruders before they figure it out.”

“It’s brilliant, Carlyle,” Dair said, a genuine smile replacing the glower on his handsome face. I felt my cheeks flush with the compliment. We’d been looking for a way to keep random mages - like Dair’s mother - from bypassing our security and siphoning into the castle. For whatever weird reason, none of the usual methods had proved effective.

“But can’t I just walk right in?” he asked, his body swaying forward. His lush lips popped open when he realized he was getting exactly nowhere with that tactic, too.

“Same principle - the glamor tricks your mind and your magic into thinking you’re inside. I know I’m supposed to be unmixing my magic, but it’s just too handy,” I confessed, falling backward onto the bed. A fae might be able to break the glamor, but none of the mages would have the right power. I felt a supreme satisfaction that I was protecting my men and the small assembly of shifters who had gathered under our roof for shelter and employment. It felt awesome to keep them all safe with my magic and my smarts.

Lifting my head, I considered the fact that Dair was still stuck outside the room, twisted in my web of glamor.

A sly thought entered my mind, and I wriggled all the way back onto the bed. Kneeling, I locked my mage in my gaze. I started swiveling my hips and peeling up my shirt, inch by inch.

Dair sort of growled as the grin dropped from his face, giving him a distinctly predatory look. His hands clenched the door frame he couldn’t get through, and I blew him an air kiss.

I dropped the shirt beside me on the bed and ran my hands down my sides, dragging my thumbs over the cups of my lavender-colored lacy bra - an embarrassingly expensive one he’d brought me from Patriam. It matched my eyes exactly, but I doubted Dair was thinking about my eyes as I pinched my nipples.

“Just what do you think you’re doing,” he warned, as I slid my palms lower and hooked my fingers into the waistband of my leggings.

“Just giving you some incentive to really test that barrier,” I teased, shimmying the leggings down past my hips. It wouldn’t work, of course. I’d have to drop the glamor - but only after I’d had my fun.

I thought Dair growled again, but suddenly we both snapped our attention to an actual growl beyond the hallway. A growl which was immediately followed by a furious roar.

“Sol!” I gasped, yanking my clothes back on and dropping the glamor in an instant. Dair and I hurried to trace the sound, which had been matched by shouting now.

Shouting that sounded suspiciously like...

“Jai!” I yelled as we skidded into the library, just in time to see my vampire pin a half-shifted Sol against a heavy wooden shelf. “Get a goddamn grip!”

Jai snarled, but he dropped his hold on my lion and backed away. His eyes were fully black, and his fangs had