Instantly everyone in the room began murmuring. "Show me the scroll, the newer one," Lydia gasped."Sure, no problem." Galen told her. "Jason, hand me one of the copies. Don't want to get the original within kicking distance in case we miscalculate."Lydia and Galen translated together. His Middle English was good but she corrected a couple of his French pronunciations. Jason shook his head. "You two have got to be the biggest geeks ever. This is a match made in heaven." It was almost a direct match to what Anissa had read aloud. "That has to be it, Galen said. He looked down at Lydia. "Who should say the spell? You?""Probably Anissa," Lori said. "Since she's actually magic. The rest of us just have a trace.""Or none at all." Wesley shrugged. "Now that Dave has powers, I'm the only mundane in the group."Tuning them out, Jason picked up the scroll tube and started inspecting the carvings and gems on the ends. Galen watched him. He knew that look. His son was onto something.A

Anissa arranged them all in a circle with Lydia at the twelve o'clock position. Galen was on Lydia's right, Jason on her left. Next to him was Lori, a short, bubbly woman with medium brown hair, and then her husband Eric, who could have been Galen's younger brother. They were about the same height and blond, but the younger man was slimmer and wore glasses. Then Wesley took David's hand, while the shorter, frizzy haired man, held hands with Wes and his Djinni wife. Galen and Jason sat on the mattress on either side of Lydia and each grasped one of her hands, which were still chained to the bed above her head."Ready?" Jason asked."You good, sweeting?" Galen asked Lydia."Hurry." She nodded and tightened her grip on Galen's hand."One last thing." The kiss was long slow and sweet. He tried to infuse it with all the love he had in his heart. "Fight for us.""I will."Jason coughed and kept his eyes focused on the photocopy he held."If this doesn't work, we're not giving up," Gal

"Anything you want." Galen stripped out of his shirt, trousers, and boxers in record time, then kicked his shoes and socks into the hallway. Then he grabbed a condom from a drawer and rolled it on before he finally stepped into the tub and settled across from Lydia, his long muscular legs resting against her own. She wasn't ready yet to tell him it was too late for precautions."You're still too far away." She shifted onto her knees then crawled over him to straddle his lap. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips, long and hard. "Mmm. Much better, don't you think?""Infinitely better." He gripped her waist between his hands and pulled her against his chest. His lips came down and claimed hers for another deep, drugging kiss.She opened for him, eagerly sucking his tongue into the hot recesses of her mouth. His erection prodded her ass and she wiggled against it, teasing them both. Then she moaned into his mouth when he gathered a few shampoo bubbles his hands

Back at her apartment a little later Galen found Anissa in the bedroom while Jason carried a load of boxes out to the truck. She held up her Tarot deck, the Hierophant card on top. "Now do you believe the cards can tell us things?"He tipped his head and grinned. "I don't know. Didn't you say that one is the teacher and it's supposed to represent me?"She nodded. "Why, what's wrong with that?"He took the cards from her hands and set them carefully aside, then pulled her close for a kiss. "Because you're the one who taught me," he murmured. "You've taught me the most important lessons of all. How to laugh. How to love. How to live."She picked up her cards again, avoiding eye contact. "That works both ways. But my love, there's something I need to tell you. I wanted to wait until the scroll was gone. Plucking up my nerve, I guess.""Sweetheart, we cast a spell that vanquished an evil demon. We met a Djinni who is an interior designer. I think my belief threshold has been raised to