Chapter Nine
Ophir rolled off Tanika’s body, and the loss of her warmth was sharp. Immediate. He tugged her against his chest, reclaiming the comfort he’d found in her arms. She murmured and snuggled her luscious backside against him. He wanted to stay here forever. But they had one last thing to do.
He whispered in her ear. “Wake up, my love. We have a portal to destroy.”
She curled herself tighter into a ball. “Now?”
He reached down and pinched her ass, hard enough to elicit a yelp of surprise, but not enough to truly punish. “Yes, now. Your wish is complete. He’ll take the first chance he can to hand the portal to a new master.”
She bolted upright, the curve of her breasts illuminated in the faint glow of dawn outside her bedroom window. “But the bank is closed.”
“No better time to break in, then, is there?”
With a gleam in his eye, he rose and conjured his clothes back into place. She scrambled for her own, and he smirked, watching her slide her feet into her leggings.
“You could help, you know,” she grumped.
“And miss out on your divine curves? I think not.”
She flushed as rosy as the sunrise outside.
Once they were both clothed, he led them to the convertible, settling her into her seat before asking for directions.
“We have to go to Redmond.”
He squeezed her knee and drove them to a nearby doughnut shop.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked.
“I’m going to use a lot of energy to create a crucible hot enough to melt the portal. Carbs loading’ll help.” While the tired young man behind the counter filled two coffees, Ophir picked out a dozen doughnuts. “What’s your favorite?” he asked Tanika.
“Oh, none for me, thanks.”
Tipping the young man a hundred, he handed the pastry box to Tanika so he could douse his coffee with sugar. She took a deep breath of the box top and moaned. “Just holding this is going to make me gain twenty pounds, you know.”
At the passenger side door he held out the keys and relieved her of the box. “Will you drive so I can eat?”
Her eyes lit up. “Drive? Me? This is nothing like my Ford Escort.”
“You’ll do fine.” He bit into a Bavarian cream, tangy sweet cream flooding his tongue, and pastry melting in his mouth. He held it close to her mouth. “Try this. Just a taste.”
Licking her lips, she hesitated, then leaned in and took a demure bite. “Oh, God.” She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the head rest. “That’s delicious.”
He shoved the rest into his mouth and reached for another, feeling the slowly building energy settle into his bones.
“Are you really going to eat all of them?”
He waggled his eyebrows and nodded, amused by her censuring tone.
“Lucky.” She put the car into drive, eased out of the parking spot, put on her blinker and looked both ways before pulling onto the nearly empty street.
He laughed around a mouthful of jelly doughnut. “You don’t have to be so cautious.”
“About the car? Or the doughnuts?”
“Either.” He held the doughnut toward her, and this time she took a big bite. Raspberry filling dotted the corner of her perfect mouth. He leaned over to lick it off, thrilled at the way she turned into him to transform the move into a kiss. After a long moment, she pulled back and took a breath, waggling a finger at him.
“Don’t distract the driver.” A smile adorned her face as she stepped on the gas, lurching them forward.
They reached Redmond in record time, where the bank’s two-story brick building cast a long shadow across the pavement. Tanika pulled into the parking lot, stopping in a far corner under a huge oak tree. Cutting the engine, she looked around. “Someone is going to notice this car.”
Ophir gave her the last bite of a maple bar, then kissed the stickiness from her lips, savoring her flavor as much as the doughnut. “Don’t worry about it.” He opened the door and got out. “You can even leave the keys. Only the people I want to see my car see it. Come on.”
Taking her hand, he strode to the front door, flicked his fingers, and the locks released. He’d disabled the security cameras and alarms the moment he’d seen the First National sign. Luckily all these were small spells. He was going to need every reserve once they reached the portal.
“What about the guard?” she asked.
“Sleeping.” Holding open the heavy glass door, he allowed her to lead the way. Putting the guard to sleep had been a bit of a heavy lift, but a necessary one.
She crept forward, darting looks left and right, making him smile. Not bothering to hide the echo of his footfalls on the marble floor, he lagged just far enough behind to admire her sexy ass twitching as she took one cautious step after another. Past the teller stations with their antique wrought-iron cage fronts, down a short hall decorated with crown molding, and around a corner to the steel vault door.
Pausing, he asked, “I need to know how big the portal item is and what it’s made of.”
She looked at him, deep worry in her eyes.
He reached out, smoothed a hand over her cheek, and pulled her into a kiss. “It’ll be fine. I’m going to create a crucible. All you have to do is drop the portal in.”
“That’s all?”
He nodded. “It’ll melt the metal and ruin the crystalline structure that gives it power.”
She took a shaky breath. “A gold pendant. About the size of a walnut.” With a small voice, she added, “Please tell me this will work.”
Her words touched him. He bent and kissed her again, gently, reverently. “I will never let you down.”
Letting her go, he placed both hands on the wheel lock and twisted until there was a clunk. The door swung open silently. Inside, rows and rows of lockers lined the walls.
Tanika walked straight to the left wall and pulled out her key. “It also requires a bank manager key.”
“Never mind. Just point me to the correct box.”
She did, and he breathed a release spell at the lock. His heart was thundering in his ears. Everything hinged on getting this done before Elim realized what was happening. “You don’t need your key. Be ready to open it. I’m going to conjure a crucible now.”
Closing his eyes, he summoned the whirling pool of energy from the pit of his stomach and focused it at waist level in front of him. Heat filled the room, radiating outward from the glowing pinpoint floating there. Opening his eyes, he stared at the growing circle of light, willing it to become a tiny, blinding sun. He flicked a glance at Tanika and nodded, every ounce of his attention on the brewing heat.
Tanika yanked the box outward and fumbled with the flip-top lid. She pulled out a black velvet pouch and let the heavy box crash to the floor. He could feel the portal’s energy, smell the anise-sweet scent of its magic. But that magic no longer had any power over him. Ophir breathed through his nose, pouring all his strength into the crucible. Sustaining this much energy output could cause him to collapse. Tanika had to hurry. She struggled with the pouch’s drawstring, and he shouted, “The whole thing.”
Understanding lit her features, and she tossed the entire pouch into the whirling heat. The velvet went up in a puff of dark smoke. In the center of the crucible, the pendant darkened for an eye blink, glowed red, then golden white.
When he was sure the structure was melted through, Ophir cut the energy flow. The melted gold continued to hover a moment longer, still caught in the force of residual energy. Then it fell like a giant teardrop to the floor, landing with a splat.
Tanika jumped backward to avoid the volcano-hot spatter. Ophir stepped forward, worried she’d been burned. He might be immune to the heat, but he should have warned her. He’d taken no more than one step when his legs gave out and he fell face first onto the hard tile, the world going dark around him.