The Trouble with Vows: The Lynlee Lincoln Series, #6

Chapter 1

Gretchen looked good. Honestly, she was pretty much smokin’ hot. I leaned back in my booth and watched her fiddle with the hem of her skirt. A skirt that just barely reached low enough to cover her lady bits. Shaking my head, I took a sip of my wine.

She glanced over at me and offered me a tenuous smile. I inclined my head to reassure her.

Have you decided what you’ll be having this evening?

I turned up to the waiter. He’d been by about five times already. Rolling my eyes, I glanced at the menu and pointed to a chicken dish. How about that?

Fabulous choice, ma’am. Would you care to add…

Um, no, just that. Thank you. My tone was acerbic as I waved him away dismissively. He took the menu and disappeared. Briefly I wondered if I should worry about him spitting in my food, but about that time I saw a tall and slender man approach Gretchen’s table. A light entered my charge’s eyes, and she beamed radiantly up at him as he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

My eyes immediately narrowed on him, watching like a hawk as he took a seat beside her. Gretchen had been one of my clients for about fifteen years. She was a siren, which meant her power was in her voice. She could bring men to their knees with just a whispered word. And that meant her greatest fear in life was that the man of her dreams would only fall for her because of her magic instead of who she was.

And it really pissed me off that the SOB she’d pinned all her hopes and dreams on was going to do that very thing, in a manner of speaking.

I had just starting seeing clients again after my brush with death when Gretchen had asked to talk to me. I wasn’t at all happy about what she had to tell me. It turned out that during my convalescence, she’d gone to see another witch. Gretchen had met a guy that she was head over heels about, but she’d used a fake story about laryngitis to prevent him from being moved by her magic. So after their first encounter, she was stuck. She couldn’t very well have a throat illness forever. That’s when she’d gone to see this other witch.

What were you thinking? I’d asked in frustration. She isn’t even a Neutralizer. Just a free agent trying to make a quick buck.

The problem was that said witch had given Gretchen a potion to take in order to block her powers when speaking. The potion worked great, but it also caused my client to develop an awful case of hives. By the time she came back to me for help, she was covered in raised, berry-colored patches of skin.

It’s possible that I laughed when I first walked into her house.

So she’d been off the potion for a week, and it was time to meet up with her man again. Only this time, she’d determined that she had to confess to him about her magic.

There was a time when I might have forbidden that sort of confession. But even I had to admit that times were changing. More and more MAUCs were coming out of the closet with humans, so to speak. And the repercussions didn’t seem to be so bad, which meant that Hideaway Land was expanding. Gretchen had hopes that if her man could accept that she was a siren, they’d eventually choose to live there.

But, I was fairly certain those hopes were about to be dashed.

I’d picked this restaurant because it had an upper floor that allowed more privacy. In fact, besides the happy couple, there was only one other table occupied, that one with two women and a man.

I held back, even though I could detect something wasn’t right about Gretchen’s lover, Dalton. To anyone watching them, they looked just as any romantic couple should. Something he said amused her, and she tossed her head back to laugh. He reached out to take her hand in his, rubbing his thumb along the tops of her knuckles. I wrinkled my nose and took another drink.

Dalton leaned in close to Gretchen, and her eyes widened a little as she listened to whatever he was saying. I watched them closely, noticing the spikes in her aura as he kissed her cheek.

Would you like another drink, madam?

The waiter stepped directly in front of me, blocking my view. I twisted at the waist to keep an eye on them. Now Dalton had his hand on Gretchen’s shoulder and neck. What to most people might appear to be an overzealous PDA was alarming to me. My instincts told me something was very wrong.

No, I’m good.

Well, your meal should be right out… oh, and here it is. To my chagrin, the waiter moved into my line of sight again. I tried to turn the other direction, but by that time, another waiter had arrived carrying a tray that presumably had my meal on it.

I slapped a hand on the table and gritted my teeth, waiting for them to finish setting out my dish.

Can I get you anything else?

No, no, I’m fine. Thank you. I just want to eat in peace.

As they moved aside, my eyes searched and immediately found Gretchen’s. She was alone now, an ashen look on her face and both her hands grasping her neck. I leaped from my seat and rushed to her side.

What happened? Did you tell him?

She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. And that was when I saw the panic in her eyes. She pointed at her throat, moving her lips but still unable to utter a word.

Holy crap. He took your voice.

She nodded, tears streaming down her face.

Which way?

I bolted into the direction she’d pointed and found myself in an emergency stairwell. I wondered which way to go, but when I heard a door open above me, I ran up the stairs two at a time. When I emerged a few floors later, I found myself on the roof of the building, a brisk summer breeze whipping my hair into my face.

I slapped the locks out of my eyes and looked for my foe. He was at the far corner of the flat roof, and I could see he was drawing a pentagram by lining up small rocks.

Amateur, I muttered, raising my hand and preparing to use my magic to grab him. I was so focused on Dalton that I missed whoever was helping him. That person was standing somewhere to my left, and magic struck me in the center of my back, throwing me into the air. I collided with the railing, my upper body catapulting over the edge. I managed to grab the rail, but all that did was slow the inevitable.

I went right over the side.

Falling into the air was not a pleasant experience. My body twisted through nothingness, my arms naturally flailing for something, anything to grab. But there was nothing. My stomach didn’t like the sensation at all, and that made it hard to try to concentrate on how to get myself out of the situation.

I had gone up at least three floors to get to the roof. And the dining room we’d been in was on the second floor. That meant that I was probably a good five, maybe even six stories up. My first rational thought was that I couldn’t die, so no problem, right?

But I’d just spent months recuperating from a massive hole in my gut. I might not be able to die, but my body could sure as hell get injured. I wasn’t really looking forward to breaking every bone in my body, thank you very much.

Well, that leaves just one choice. Why not just learn to fly?

Yeah, I could be snarky even to myself. But the strange thing was that the moment I had the thought, a weird buoyancy slowed my fall. I sucked in a breath and tossed my arms out to my sides, palms down.

I remembered as a child when my swimming instructor taught me how to float. She’d said that was the first step to learning how to swim. I used that basic concept now, imagining the air around me was water and relaxing my body. Dropping my head back I raised my chest and found myself rising instead of falling. A silly grin split my face.

Looking down, I could see the lights of the cars going both directions on the street below me. I raised my eyes and glanced at the stars twinkling bright in the moonless sky. I had a thought of moving right and shifted my weight that direction. My body glided on the air that way. I was awkward about it, nervousness ridding me of the relaxation in my body that was apparently necessary to keep me afloat.

"So Granny was right. I can fly."

Chapter 2

Oh, crap.

I was starting to get the hang of the flying thing. If I leaned in any direction, then my body would automatically float that way. If I tilted my nose up and pointed my toes, palms down, I could propel myself at amazing speed. It was exhilarating and a little frightening at the same time. And maybe that was why I forgot what I was supposed to be doing in the first place.

I headed back towards the building that housed the restaurant I’d been at with Gretchen. As I navigated past rows of windows I wondered if anyone might be watching me. This could very well turn into a Neutralizer’s nightmare, but I could only concentrate on a few things at one time. Flying was one. Rescuing Gretchen’s voice was the second.

The roof of the building was vacant, with no one in sight. The pentagram was still there, but Dalton and his accomplice were missing. With a groan of frustration, I reached down and grabbed a few of the stones that had been used for the pentagram, slipping them into my pocket. The amulet around my neck started to buzz, and when I touched it, I immediately recognized that Gretchen was calling me … except there was no sound at the other end of my magical calling device.

Hang on, Gretch. I’ll be right there.

About an hour later, I was pulling up to Gretchen’s apartment. She’d been crying throughout the entire drive, but without her voice the only sound she could make was a very annoying sniffing sound. I side-eyed her and rolled my eyes when I saw how her shoulders were shaking as she silently wailed.

At the restaurant, she’d passed me questions on slips of paper.

Where did he go?

I don’t know, Gretchen. When his friend threw me off the side of the building I sort of lost track of them.

How could he do this to me? I loved him. I was ready to give everything to him.

"And it seems he was ready and willing to take everything