Read Online Midnight Magic by Ann Gimpel - Free Book Online Page A

uncomfortable the bird looked, ruffling her feathers and squawking.
    “Eleanora, what a nice surprise.” Jeremy, who’d managed to slip into the library without making a sound, insinuated his body between her and the parrot. He stretched out his arms and gave her a quick hug, kissing each cheek. “I’ve missed you.” He smiled at her, while placing a hand on either side of her ageless face.
    For a moment she allowed the contact, but then she twisted away.
    Watching closely, Cassie saw Jeremy nod as he drew his brows together. She wanted to ask if he’d been able to sense anything, but was afraid she’d disturb Eleanora, who rarely stayed in one place for very long. She looked at Jeremy, furling her brows into question marks, but he shook his head almost imperceptibly.
    Even that subtle exchange seemed to trouble Eleanora. She turned and strode from the library with Hector right behind.
    “Should I go after her?” Cassie looked at Jeremy.
    “Wouldn’t do any good. Found her in the attic, didn’t you?”
    “How’d you know?”
    “It’s the farthest she can get from the filth Tyler’s spread through here.”
    “You can feel it?” she asked, appalled.
    “ Awk , dirty man. Dirty man,” Murietta chimed in, as if she understood the gist of the conversation and wanted to be a part of things.
    Jeremy smoothed feathers on the bird’s soft, gray head. “These old ones, they know,” he murmured. The bird pecked gently at his wrist. “After I finished my snack, I wandered some. Tyler stays on this floor in the north wing, huh?”
    She nodded, thought about asking how he knew that, but then remembered she’d told him. Off on an internal tangent, she called up an image of her proper British father. Well, perhaps not so proper as all that. After all, he’d been thoroughly besotted with Eleanora.
    Cassie was around seven when she realized both her parents were disappointed their only child was normal as a rain-washed counterpane. When Francis’ Atlantic hops first thinned out, then stopped entirely, she asked her mother if it was her fault.
    Eleanora had gathered her close, enveloping her in the heady scent from the herbs she always carried in a leather pouch tied round her waist. “Ach, no, sweetling. That’s the problem with grand passions. They flare out as easily as they burned in the first place.”
    “Cassie!” A stern note in Jeremy’s voice shocked her out of her musings. “We don’t have all that much time. I need you front and center, not buried in the past.” He grabbed hold of one of her wrists and pulled her toward an over-stuffed floral sofa.
    “It will be tough to mask my presence from Tyler,” Jeremy explained. “He’s used to the feel of the house, and my power is hard to disguise. If I hide in your room, though, I just might be able to pull it off since he doesn’t spend any time in there. That way, when you remind him of his promise—and even he is bound by his word—I’ll be close enough to do some good.”
    “My room’s locked.” She started to get up, but he shook his head.
    “I can defeat any lock.”
    She remembered finding him in Eleanora’s office. “Okay, then. One less thing to worry about.”
    “What was that you called me earlier? A telepathic cat burglar?” He snorted and squeezed her hand.
    Cassie cleared her throat. “What happens after I lure him into my room? Are you going to run him through while he’s on top of me?” She suppressed a fine edge of panic before it dissolved into hysteria. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she struggled to get hold of herself.
    A corner of Jeremy’s mouth crooked upward. “Not exactly. I plan to use something a shade more subtle than a saber.”
    “Are you sure we have to kill him? I mean, how the hell will we be able to explain away a dead body?”
    “Won’t be a problem.”
    She turned to him, laying a hand atop one of his. “You’re not thinking. How could a hundred and eighty pound man not be a problem? I suppose