Free Abandon by Viola Grace Page B

works with any reflective surface. Even your microwave.” She smiled again and left him to his perusal. Every few seconds she checked her watch; it was less than five minutes now until the dropping of the glamour.
    She tried to let him have his time to focus on the product as all good salespersons should. She gracefully rose from the couch and wandered over to the same window that he had been staring out earlier.
    The yard was well maintained and extended to the forest half a mile beyond. Being a dragon, Rikard had purchased the hills and mountains behind his property to keep his horde. There was no way that he would have not made sure that they were accessible to him at the time of purchase.
    The garden sprawled in orderly bands of ten meter stretches of blooming flowers. They formed a sort of sunbeam pattern originating at the house. Oddly symbolic, and very optimistic. It was a pattern usually found in males who were trying to impress a female. From her research, he was single, and aside from an occasional excursion for sex, he wasn’t stalking any one woman in particular.
    She felt her nipples come to attention within the confines of her bra. It would only be a few minutes and the hunt would begin. She almost jumped out of her skin when he spoke.
    “Where do you find these fantastic spells? I have never seen anything like this that could be applied not only to modern man but modern equipment.” He shook his head and his hair flipped and gleamed invitingly in the light streaming through the window. “If I didn’t know better, I would think that you had just made these up.”
    She laughed; it was practiced. “That is impossible. No new spells have been written for centuries. I simply have access to some grimoires that are not public knowledge.” Her voice stayed light; it had taken a dozen or more experiences with this same question to get her response believable.
    “In all my centuries of life, I have never seen this type of spell. Nor have I heard of any books of the type you describe.”
    She smiled at him in a condescending manner, “Not all of the Archives were taken by the councils immediately. Some lived well into their twenties before becoming slaves to the Magus or Warlock councils. Who knows how many original spells are still to be discovered?”
    He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was an odd gesture as dragons did not grow facial hair unless they had humans in their bloodline. “I suppose you are right. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.”
    George turned rapidly back to the window to stifle her laughter. The reason that no one thought of it, was that it was the first spell that the first abducted Archive had written. She had duped a warlock into reading it, and thereafter hidden her personal writings and those of all Archives who would come after.
    The Archives knew their history. It became the first thing that they wrote when their talent came, and Jinx had shared this information as well as the personal journals that she had Hex find for her. It was a fascinating history and one well worth remembering.
    A tingling sensation started in her skin and George knew it was time. She kept her back to Rikard as he came to the sudden awareness that she was a dragon. She held perfectly still, but her senses were on overdrive.
    She could feel his power skating along her skin. He was much older than he had let on. In truth, even her mother hadn’t known how old he was. That fact alone frightened her. It meant that the time that Arabel had met him, he had hidden his power from her. It was a strange thing for a dragon to do, and a difficult one.
    Now he was hiding nothing, and that was the most chilling thing of all.
    His footsteps sounded behind her. She deliberately did not look over her shoulder. Without touching her, he leaned in and exhaled along the line of her neck.
    From left to right, he scented her, breathing her in as if to memorize her.
    A shiver ran through her as his own aura enveloped