The Charmer

Chapter 25

Grinning mischievously, Rihlia asked, “How is Michael, anyway?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Why was Wiley baiting her? Jasmine scowled at her untouched dessert, muttering, “At least now I won’t have to worry about avoiding him, either.”

Urseya raised a brow at Keilor. You see? Now the truth comes out. He frowned at her. “Was it a very bad ending?” she inquired with cheerful interest.

Rihlia laughed and shook her head. “Only if you count telling the poor guy (on the phone, mind you) never to call her again and then hanging up before he could say anything about it.”

“There was no point in dragging it out,” Jasmine said with stiff dignity. Wiley was painting a rather ugly picture of her romantic life, and she didn’t care for it one bit. Besides, what was she doing, dragging all the skeletons out of her closet in public like this? She didn’t notice that the others at the table were beginning to look at Rihlia, wondering the same thing.

Rihlia did notice, but ignored it with determination. Jasmine would thank her later for dampening the interest of the males present. She didn’t need their kind of attention. Jasmine deserved better, and she was determined to see her get it. “I guess it’s like that poem you dedicated to poor Josh, huh? “’If they’re gutless when you meet them, they’ll be gutless ‘til they die; the man was a mama’s boy, so I left him there to cry.’”

Dead silence greeted her recital. Finally Jasmine said slowly, “You know, B.B., if you’d like to rehash old flames, I’m sure I could come up with a tale or two to amuse your family. Like that time I found you getting it on hot and heavy with...”

“Uh, that’s ok, Jas,” Rihlia hastily interrupted. Jasmine’s threat was clear. Not only was she threatening to spill all of her secrets (not that they were excessive, just potentially embarrassing) but she would start calling her Blue Balls as well, the name given to her by frustrated boyfriends, and seal the humiliation. “We don’t want to bore them with that.” She glanced at the glowering Jayems and gulped. “Why don’t you try the custard? It’s really very good.”

Jasmine gave her a look, but slowly lifted her spoon and tasted the treat.

Rihlia asked Jayems to refill her wineglass.

Noting her friend’s distress and eager to lift the tension that had settled over the table, Jasmine snatched the glass before it could make it to Rihlia’s trembling lips. She gave her a roguish smile. “Royalty really ought to have a taste tester, don’t you think?” Grinning, she took a large swallow of the golden wine.

Rihlia laughed in grateful relief and looked down, shaking her head. “Are you sure it’s not the job of court jester you’re after?” When there was no answer, she looked up and saw Jasmine frozen with an odd look on her face. “Jasmine?”

Jasmine blinked, but didn’t move.

Rihlia touched her arm. It was rigid with strain. “Jasmine? Are you okay?”

Colors swam before Jasmine’s frozen eyes. Her muscles went weak and then spasmed without warning, shattering the glass in her hand. Someone screamed. Male voices cursed as strong arms wrapped around her, giving her support. She felt the blood and wine flow over her hand, but could neither unclench her fist from the shards nor see, for the room began to blacken. Past the roaring in her ears she dimly heard Rihlia shouting...something…

And then the screaming began.

***

Keilor swore and leapt over the table the moment the glass shattered, but in spite of his best efforts and Fallon holding Jasmine steady, he could not unclench her hand, short of breaking it. Her body shuddered and the cords of her neck stood out with the strain as her muscles contracted, driving the shards deeper into her hand. Fresh blood flowed.

Rihlia screamed and fought against Jayems’ hold as she struggled to reach her friend. In the background Keilor heard him telling her, “They are helping her! We have to stay out of their way.”

“She’s hurting!” she shrieked, nearly wild, and he dragged her back even farther.

“Love, sweet love…” he soothed, and his words faded into a murmur as Keilor pressed the tendons in Jasmine’s hand to force it open. He worked quickly to pick out the largest fragments.

Jasmine moaned, a low, tortured sound. She rolled into a tight ball.

The first shriek caught him off guard. He saw Fallon pale and press his lips tightly together. Vengeance took up a war drum in his blood. He saw the same need mirrored in Fallon’s hard eyes. Someone would pay for harming this woman, and pay dearly.

***

“She’ll live,” The medic announced as he entered the clinic waiting room. He nodded respectfully to the party of four who’d been waiting more than two hours for his verdict.

Keilor had just sat down from his last circuit of the room. He closed his eyes as some of the tension drained from him.

Rihlia lifted her head from her hands, exposing tear-swollen eyes. Her voice hoarse, she asked, “Will she be all right?”

The medic sighed and crossed his arms, rocking back on his heels. “There is unlikely to be brain damage, and I believe that most of her organs will make a full recovery, but it’s bound to be slow. The chemical we found in her blood is most deadly to humans. Frankly, I’m surprised she survived it.”

Keilor sucked in a breath. Fallon swore softly and Jayems put a supporting arm around his wife. She allowed him to hold her as he kissed her hair and murmured soothing words, slowly shaking her head.

“What was it?” Keilor demanded.

The medic’s lips tightened as he stared at the polished stone floor. “Its scientific name is Libran, but you might know it better as Sweet Surrender.” He smiled without humor. “It would seem someone tried to slip your charmer an aphrodisiac, and ended up with a nasty surprise instead.”

Keilor turned lethal eyes on Fallon, who was watching him with an equally savage expression. Each assessed and dismissed the other as suspects. Fallon was far too proud to resort to such an underhanded scheme, and as for Keilor...he held no love for Libran.

“But...it happened after she drank from my glass,” Rihlia ventured uncertainly.

“The dessert,” Jayems said with grim conviction. “She took a bite of the dessert just before she drank from your cup, Rihlia. If you hadn’t been distracting her…” He glanced at Keilor. “But who and why? No one was going to get past the guards at her door without my permission, so even if she was drugged, they would have had a hard time seducing her. And if it wasn’t one of us…”