Colby’s hug crushed my ribs, and then he planted a fierce kiss on my mouth.

Fire filled my body, stirring up magic, which wanted to embrace him back—Beneath magic and Earth magic intertwining. I knew that was a bad idea and suppressed the urge, but I liked the heat flashing through me all the way to my fingertips.

Colby’s lips were strong, hot, smooth, and he could kiss. Caressing, coaxing, heating, stroking. He didn’t try to shove his tongue inside my mouth, but it didn’t matter—his lips were plenty talented on their own.

I heard Cornelius, in his quiet voice, tell the maître d’ and waiters to leave us. He didn’t say a word to me, but I felt him standing nearby, watching in disapproval.

I eased back from the kiss. Colby cradled me against him, his hold so strong I knew I’d never fall. Sparks swam in his eyes, and I could barely breathe.

Colby set me down, but with reluctance, and with even more reluctance, slid his arms from around me. I wanted to cling to him, something I never do, but since we stood in the middle of a flash restaurant with my new boss right next to us, I suppressed that urge as well.

I didn’t know what to do when Colby let me go. Wipe off my lips? I didn’t want to—the kiss tingled there. Pretend nothing happened? I didn’t want to do that either.

In spite of my wicked talk, I didn’t have much experience with kissing, no matter what I’d once told people I’d done with Drake. Drake had let me run on without contradicting me—either he’d been too embarrassed to speak, or maybe he’d wanted Colby to believe more had gone on than had.

I’d never slept with a man either. In high school, guys were afraid to ask me out—when one had tried to get handy with me, I’d broken all his fingers. After that, I was persona non grata, the girl no one wanted anything to do with. Once I’d grown up and left home, I’d never found any man I trusted enough to want to kiss. Then I’d met Colby.

Colby eyed Cornelius in suspicion. “Who is this guy, Gabrielle? Why are you having lunch with him?”

“He owns the hotel,” I said quickly. “I work for him now. Sorry,” I told Cornelius. “This is Colby. My friends are a little … protective.”

Colby’s scowl deepened, and he spoke to me as though Cornelius didn’t stand two feet from us. “What do you mean, you work for him? Janet is going crazy looking for you. I’m taking you to her before she zaps me with lightning or turns me into a toad or whatever.”

I did want to talk to Janet, but not like this—not me being dragged off to stand before her like the bad sister in trouble again.

I didn’t want Janet taking this away from me. Our own mother had tossed me aside and chosen her over me, because Janet has two kinds of magic running around inside her while I have only one.

Now that my insane magic had actually done something useful for me, I wasn’t about to let go of what I’d found and run back home. Many Farms wasn’t even my home—it was hers.

I calmed my roiling emotions and spoke with haughty dignity. “Tell Janet she can come see me in my office, if she makes an appointment.” I turned to Cornelius. “Do I have an office?”

Cornelius kept a wary eye on Colby, who I had to admit looked a bit like a gangster. “You will. But of course, if you need to speak to your family, do so.”

Panic stirred inside me. “No,” I said, trying to remain calm. “Colby, tell her I’m fine but that she needs to leave me alone for a while. Like I said, she can make an appointment.”

Colby was not happy with this. On the one hand, I knew he sympathized with me and the fact that no one trusted me—he had a similar problem.

On the other hand, he was scared of Janet. He’d never admit it, but he knew Janet could fry the flesh off his body or at least make his life hell. And even if she didn’t—she liked Colby—Mick would.

“Tell her I threatened you,” I said, shooting him a grin. “She’ll believe that. I bet I could turn you into a toad—want to find out?”

Colby backed a step, raising his hands. “I’ll take your word for it. Are you sure you want to work for this guy? What exactly does he expect you to do?”

“Help him with magical problems. It’s fine, really. I can take care of myself, Colby. Tell Janet to back off.” I gave him a melting look. “Please?”

Colby shook his head. “I am so not getting between you two. I don’t want to end up as dragon dust. I’ll tell her, sweetheart, don’t worry.” He at last focused on Cornelius, taking in Cornelius’s charcoal gray suit, elegant shoes, and well-groomed gray hair. “If you do anything to hurt her, you will answer to me, and you will not like that. All the mages in all the world won’t help you then. Got it?”

Cornelius didn’t look offended. “Of course,” he said smoothly. “I want nothing but the best for Gabrielle. She is a very talented young woman.”

Colby nodded. “Yeah, I agree with you.” He gave Cornelius another narrow look. “I’ll tell her, Gabrielle, but I can’t be responsible for how she reacts.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” I said, giving his arm a pat. “Thank you, Colby.”

“Yeah, well.” Colby looked uncertain—he obviously didn’t trust Cornelius and wanted to grab me and run. But here I was, asking him sweetly to do this for me.

He heaved a resigned sigh. “If you need me, you call me, all right? I’ll be here in seconds.” He leaned toward me as though intending to kiss me again but straightened instead, brushed a finger across my cheek, turned around, and walked out. Colby’s fine back view beckoned my gaze, which I gave it until he disappeared around the red wall that separated us from the door.

Cornelius looked pleased I’d sent him away, but my heart banged and ached, uncertainty filling me as I watched Colby disappear. He was someone from my real life—if my life could be said to be real. I wasn’t sure I was ready to let that life go yet.

Cornelius offered his arm. “I’ll take you to your office,” he said. “Then you can make arrangements with your sister. I will have one of the larger suites with a kitchen reserved for you if you want, but I won’t require you to live in the hotel. You are an adult; you make your own decisions, live where you like. It is your choice.”

“Of course, I’d love to stay here,” I said at once. Where else was I going to go in Vegas, with no money? The winnings from the baccarat table had been scattered who knew where while I’d fought the dragon slayer, and it had been pretend money anyway. Not really mine, like the cash Colby had lent me before I left home, which I’d thrown away on blackjack and male strippers. I’d pay every penny back, now that I had a job.

Colby was nowhere in sight by the time we emerged from the restaurant into the quiet hall. Another guard had the elevator waiting for us. Cornelius stepped inside it with me, the doors quietly slid shut, and I rose up, up, and up, toward my new life.

---

“She’s what?”

I stared at Colby, openmouthed, while he returned his stubborn look.

“Staying here and working for the hotel,” he repeated with a growl. “I didn’t get all the deets.” He was angry at her decision, I could tell, but he’d also decided to walk away and leave Gabrielle with the brother of a man who frightened Cassandra, one of the most powerful witches I’d ever met.

Then again, I didn’t know who to worry for more, Gabrielle or this Cornelius Christianson.

We stood in the casino, the card games in full swing at three in the afternoon, the buzz of the roulette tables sounding over conversations and laughter. Everyone was well dressed and well groomed, quietly flaunting their jewels, overpriced watches, and the fact that they were here at all.

“Where is she?” I demanded of Colby

His cheekbones flushed, and he looked uncomfortable. “In her new office, I guess. She says you need to make an appointment.”

My eyes widened, and I let out an exasperated breath. “Of course she did. All right. Where are these offices?”

“How the hell do I know? I didn’t follow her—I came to find you.”

I turned in a circle, seeing nothing but wealthy people gambling in the casino and bright sunshine outside in the gardens. Offices in a place like this would be well hidden.

Colby cleared his throat. “I think maybe you should leave her alone, Janet.”

Colby had been intrigued by Gabrielle from the moment he’d met her, and I hadn’t decided whether he truly liked her or was simply fascinated by her explosive personality and deadly magic.

Dragons don’t love, Mick had once told me.

Was that true of all dragons? Or was Colby another exception—had he learned to care for people, as Mick had?

“Colby, I know you like her,” I said, trying to keep my voice gentle. “I do too, believe it or not. When I first met Gabrielle, she tried to kill me, and kept on trying to kill me until we called a truce. She held Nash hostage, she tried to open the vortexes and let out our hell-goddess mother, among other things … And still I love her, because she’s my sister, and I want to help her. But I know she’s not exactly stable. She’s calmed down a long way in the last year, but even so, you can never tell what she’s going to do.”

Colby listened impatiently. “I know all that. But Emmett the Ununculous did a number on her, and I don’t think she’s completely recovered. Magically yes. Emotionally, no. She needs proof she’s fine, that she’s strong again, if only for herself.” He folded his arms, his tatts dancing on his biceps. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Janet, but I think she needs to come out from your shadow.”

“You mean we’re smothering her, Grandmother and I.”

Colby’s face went redder, but he didn’t back down. “Yeah, a little bit.”

That stung, but he had a point. “If we were normal sisters, I’d agree with you. But Gabrielle is a messed-up, Beneath-goddess magic infused young woman with abandonment issues and an unstable temper. Who the hell knows what could happen if she stays here and plays hotel mage? I know Emmett hurt her—he hurt me in a huge way—and I don’t want anything like that to happen to her again.” I hadn’t entirely recovered from the showdown either, in spite of the wonderful trip I’d taken with Mick. I’d learned things about myself during that fight I hadn’t wanted to know.

“So are you,” Colby said bluntly. “A messed-up Beneath-goddess magic infused young woman with abandonment issues, I mean.” His scowl said it all. “But you have Mick, a family, friends. What does Gabrielle have?”

In spite of his fun-loving ways, Colby wasn’t stupid, and when he made statements like this, they carried stark truth.

I’d grown up with people whispering behind my back, speculating on who or what my mother had been, what kind of freak I might be. I’d lived in a world where whose family you belonged to was everything. A mother who disappeared and left you to your dad and grandmother led to sympathy but also vast disapproval and sometimes downright hostility.

Gabrielle had grown up the same way, but she hadn’t had a loving dad and watchful grandmother in her corner. When I’d left home, determined to make it on my own in the big bad world, I’d met Mick.

My throat was dry. “She has me,” I said. “She might not think she has anyone, but she has me. And I need to find her.”

Colby watched me closely. “I understand, but I don’t think you should stop her doing this.”

My eyes widened. “Seriously? Let her stay here alone while the weird guy who owns this hotel exploits her in who the hell knows what way?”

“I didn’t say alone,” Colby said. “I’m not leaving.”

That made me feel a little better, but I didn’t calm. “I still want to talk to her.”

Without a word Colby turned and walked out of the casino through the front entrance. He waved to Amos, the ever-handy limo driver who hadn’t left the premises.

Amos brightened and strode to us. “I heard you found Gabrielle. My intel was good, then.”

Amos had located a maid who knew which room Gabrielle had been put into, and that maid had heard another say that Gabrielle had joined Cornelius in one of the restaurants. I’d checked out half of the dozen eateries in this hotel while Colby had taken the other half.

“She need me to drive her anywhere?” Amos went on hopefully.

Colby shook his head. “Not right now. Can you find out where Gabrielle’s new office is?”

“Sure thing. Yeah, a bellman told me she’s going to be working for Cornelius Christianson as his PA. Wow, I’d love that salary.”

“Word travels fast,” I said in surprise.

“Around here it does. You want to know anything that goes on up and down the Strip, ask the drivers, the doormen, the bellmen, and the maids. I’ll find her for you.” Amos started to head inside, then turned back. “I still need seventy-five from you for the ride,” he told me apologetically. “I wouldn’t charge you, or Gabrielle, but I have to answer to my boss.”

I smothered a sigh and started to go for my credit card—Mick’s actually—but Colby forestalled me and dug into his pocket for a wad of cash. “Take seventy-five out for the fare and keep the rest.”

Amos rearranged the bills from a crumpled mess to a smooth stack with the ease of an expert. “Thanks, Colby. Appreciate it. Be right back.”

---

Fifteen minutes later, Colby and I exited an elevator on the top floor and went through to an office suite presided over by a receptionist. Guards lingered in the halls—I suppose Cornelius kept money and other important things in the offices, as I did at the Crossroads. I didn’t have three beefy, suited guys to protect my meager earnings though.

“Ms. Massey isn’t taking appointments yet,” the receptionist said, pleasant but immovable. She was in her forties, well groomed, and quite pretty. She touched a small keyboard on her desk. “I can schedule you for tomorrow.”

“I’m her sister,” I said impatiently. “Can you tell her I’m here?”

The receptionist gave me an emotionless look. “Ms. Massey is seeing no one today.”

In other words, the woman didn’t care if we were family, clients, or ax murderers. Gabrielle had said to keep us out, and the receptionist was obeying orders.

I admired her for sticking to her guns, but at the same time …

I called up a small crackle of magic—which was tough, because I was exhausted—to push the guards back if I needed to, and started around the desk.

And stopped as though I’d run into a wall. Nothing was there, only empty air, but I couldn’t budge it.

“Holy shit, she’s warded it,” I said in amazement.

“Against dragons too,” Colby said, sounding hurt. He touched the air, pushing against the pressure that kept him out.

“Against everyone magical,” the receptionist said coolly. “As I say, you must have an appointment, and she isn’t seeing anyone until tomorrow.”

“Kind of sucks to be on the other side, doesn’t it?” Gabrielle’s voice floated to me down the short, chocolate-painted hallway. She leaned against the doorframe of the office at the end. “It’s all right, Shelly. I’ll make an exception, just this once.”

She waved her hand, and the barrier vanished so rapidly that I lost my balance and fell forward. I caught myself and marched down the hall to Gabrielle, who grinned in enjoyment, Colby on my heels.