Apple of My Eye: Tiger's Eye Mysteries Read online

  It was driving me nuts.

  I was wearing the green dress and my best pair of black patent heels that weren't too high but were still totally gorgeous, and I suddenly realized I didn’t have a current passport. I'd applied for one when I was sixteen and had dreamed dreams of Europe, but they expired in ten years, didn't they? Would I even need one to enter Atlantis? Was this really happening to me?

  Would my 'gift' work on Atlanteans?

  I didn't know the answer to any of the questions buzzing around my mind like bees on a caffeine overload.

  This is why, when Jack knocked and opened my door, I was kneeling on the floor in front of the open wooden chest that usually served as my coffee table, bent over, head and shoulders deep in piles of paper, photographs, and all sorts of scrapbook-worthy keepsakes that I kept meaning to go through and sort out and never did.

  Unfortunately, this meant that my butt was up in the air and pointing toward the door.

  This was not how I'd wanted to start off our long-awaited first date.

  "I feel like anything I say right now is going to be wrong," Jack said, his voice full of suppressed laughter.

  I pushed myself up, brushed my hair out of my face, and stood, clutching my passport in triumph.

  "I found it!"

  But Jack didn't seem to care what I'd found. His mouth fell open a little, and his eyes heated up until they almost glowed.

  "Tess. Every time I think you can't possibly be as beautiful as I remember, you turn out to be even more so." His voice was low and husky, and I could feel my face heating up.

  My ridiculous Irish skin blushed way too easily.

  "Thanks. Right back at you." It was true.

  The man was absolutely gorgeous.

  He wore black pants, a white, button-down shirt, and even a sleek gray tie with a thin red pinstripe. But, Jack being Jack, the jacket he carried over one arm was leather, not a suit jacket.

  "Jack. Quit kidding around. We're not really going to Atlantis, are we?" I felt silly even asking, standing there holding my expired, never-used passport in my hand, which I would not need, because we were not going to Atlantis.

  Maybe he didn't even know any Atlanteans. Maybe the stories he'd told us had been made up.

  But… no. Jack wasn't a liar. He might conceal things he felt were other people's tales to tell, but he wasn't a liar. But…

  "Atlantis?" I prompted, because he seemed to be frozen, just staring at me in such obvious appreciation that I wanted to capture this moment to remember forever.

  "Right. Sorry. You are very distracting." He took the passport out of my hand, dropped it back in the chest, and grinned. "You won't need this. Are you ready?"

  "I have to be back tonight. I have to work in the morning," I warned him, still not sure what exactly was happening. "And I won't ride in a helicopter. Uncle Mike says they're death traps."

  He laughed and caught Lou in midair when she launched herself at him, then put her back on the couch and scratched behind her ears. "No helicopters. And I'll have you back tonight. I just wanted our first date—that we finally get to go on after all these months—to be special. Also, I wanted it to be somewhere out of cell phone range. Dead End and all of its residents will have to get by on their own for the evening."

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him. "This is going to be the best first date ever, I promise. After all, I have a lot to live up to, I hear."

  I narrowed my eyes. "What does that mean?"

  "Mike told me that Owen took you to the Orlando Museum of Dental History on your first date." His grin lit up the room. "That's a lot to compete with."

  "I'm going to strangle you both."

  "Later. Right now, we have to get moving," he said, glancing at his watch. "Our transport awaits."

  But when we opened the door, I realized that he'd driven to my house on his motorcycle.

  "I am not getting on that bike in this dress."

  "Oh, Tess. Do you still doubt me?"

  "Well, you did just disappear for weeks with very little word," I pointed out. "And there was the time you and your friends caused me to zip line upside down into an alligator pen, and—"

  "Never mind," he said quickly. "Here we go."

  I glanced up. Nope, no private Atlantean jet flying up. "Here we go what?"

  He donned his jacket and took my hand. "Here we go this."

  I blew out a sigh and glanced at my front yard again and saw… a shimmer.

  A sparkly shimmer, not unlike the magic that surrounded Jack when he shifted shapes. It elongated and grew longer until, seconds later, a large, glowing, magic—because what else could it be?—oval floated over my lawn, just steps away from my flower bed.

  Jack tightened his hand around mine. "Okay. Let's go!"

  I planted my feet and glared at him. "If you think for one minute that I'm going anywhere near that, you are seriously mistaken."

  The sound of male laughter had me whipping my head to stare at the magic oval again, and a tall, dark-haired, extraordinarily handsome man stepped out of the oval and onto my lawn.

  "So desperate you have to kidnap beautiful women, Kitty Cat?"

  I blinked.

  Kitty Cat?

  Jack, instead of growling or attacking or any other thing I might have expected when one alpha male started trash-talking another, just grinned.

  "Erin leave you yet, Fish Boy?"

  "That's Fish Man to you," the newcomer said, and then he looked at me and bowed.

  He bowed?

  "I'm Ven. Will you please introduce me to this lovely lady, Jack, so we can get on with this dinner date you hoodwinked my beautiful wife into arranging?"

  "I'm Tess. Hello, Ven," I said, finally snapping out of my speechlessness. "I take it you two know each other?"

  "We've met," Jack said, gently nudging me to follow him down the steps.

  Ven laughed. "There's an understatement. Met, had a few beers, battled a few hundred rogue vampires, saved Atlantis from a demon incursion. Yeah. We've met."

  They shook hands, and then that turned into one of those inexplicable man-hugs, with lots of back pounding, and then Jack turned to me, his face split into a huge smile.

  "Tess, let me introduce you to Lord Vengeance, the king's brother, Prince of Atlantis. Ven, meet Tess Callahan, family friend, owner of Dead End Pawn. She's the one I told you about."

  My ears perked up at that last bit, but I was too busy digesting the first part of the introduction to pay much attention.

  "Did you… did you just say Prince of Atlantis?" I didn't know whether to bow, curtsy, or run back into my house, change into shorts and a T-shirt, and spends the rest of the night eating ice cream.

  Ven's dark eyes twinkled. "Yeah, yeah, but my brother has a son now, so that heir to the throne crap is over. And if you call me Your Majesty, I'll have to kick Jack's ass."

  "Why Jack's?

  He held out a hand to me, but I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I can't—"

  A flash of understanding crossed his face. "Right. Jack told me. I just forgot. And I'll kick Jack's ass, because you, Tess Callahan of Dead End, are far too lovely to threaten. Shall we go have dinner before my wife designs an unpleasant punishment for me for the delay?"

  From the expression on his face when he mentioned his wife, I knew this was a man head over heels in love. I sighed a little with wistfulness.

  "Is she an Atlantean princess too? I'm sorry, but I don't know how your royal family works. I don't have much time for celebrity watching, I'm afraid."

  They'd been on the cover of People magazine almost nonstop since Atlantis had appeared, but I only read stuff like that in the salon when I got my hair cut, and it had been a while.

  Ven laughed. "Great. Now we're celebrities. Erin will hate that."

  Jack put an arm around my waist and aimed a narrow-eyed look at the prince. "Quit flirting with my date, or I'll tell your wife on you."

  Ven pretended to shudder. "Oh, I'm in trouble now."


  "I find it hard to believe a princess could be all that scary," I said, amused in spite of myself at his charming silliness. I felt like Alice going down the rabbit hole—a lowly pawnshop owner meeting the Prince of Atlantis.

  "Oh, Erin? She's not a princess. She's a witch." He gestured to the magic oval with a flourish, like a hostess on The Price is Right pointing out the new car. "Step into the portal, please. Next stop, Atlantis."

  "I'm not sure about this. I'm not a witch or a princess or a shifter or an Atlantean. I'm just a small-town girl who owns a pawnshop. Magic portals are a little bit out of my wheelhouse."

  Jack raised one eyebrow. "Really? Tess, it's okay if you're scared—"

  "I'm not scared!" I took a deep breath and turned to the prince. "Your High, um, Prince Ven, lead the way."

  The prince grinned at me. "He pulls that reverse psychology crap on me too. We all knew you weren't scared." He held out a hand. "Let's go together."

  I flashed Jack a Look. "I'm ready."

  And then we stepped into the magic portal and reality turned upside down.

  8

  Traveling through a magic portal was exactly as exciting as you might expect. A tingling sensation swept over my body when we entered, and I impulsively reached back for Jack's hand and held on tight. He stepped closer and put his arms around my waist, and I leaned back against his chest, holding my breath while a kaleidoscope of colors and a faint, musical humming sound surrounded us. It was over in seconds, and I found myself stepping out of the magic and into a garden.

  I blew out a long breath, dazed, and turned to face the portal.

  "Thank you," I told it, because somehow I felt that such breathtaking magic must be acknowledged.

  I caught Jack and Ven exchanging amused glances, but I didn't care. As I started to turn back to them, a male voice sounded from inside the magical oval.

  "You're welcome, Tess Callahan."

  And then the portal vanished.

  "I—did the magical doorway just talk to me?" I whirled around and glanced at Jack and the prince. "Is that normal?"

  Jack sighed and shoved his hair back with one hand. "Not again," he muttered.

  Ven raised his eyebrows. "We need to talk about what happened to the last portal spirit one day."

  "The last portal spirit?" I felt like I'd fallen down an Atlantean rabbit hole.

  "Remember the hidden cave on Mt. Fuji?" Jack sighed. "It's part of that story. I'll tell you the whole thing later."

  I started to protest, but then I just smiled and shrugged, because I'd started to look around and realized I had no time for old stories right now. The gleaming spires of the palace told me the truth I'd been afraid to believe: I was actually standing in Atlantis.

  "This is… this is amazing," I whispered, trying to see everything at once. "I can't believe I'm really here. The lost continent."

  Ven winked at me. "We were never lost. Just hiding from you land walkers. Come on, Erin's waiting, and I'm starving."

  We'd exited the portal at the outskirts of what must be the palace gardens. As the prince led the way, I caught myself glancing down at the path to check and see if it were made of yellow bricks. This had to be the most astonishing and wonderful thing that had ever happened to me.

  I twined my fingers in Jack's again and smiled up at him, but the sudden gleam in his eyes made them glow a fierce, hot green with hints of amber at their centers, and I forgot what I'd been about to say.

  "I… you… these are beautiful gardens," I finally managed, breathlessly.

  "Nothing is as beautiful as you," he murmured, tightening his hand around mine. He reached out with his other hand and gently pushed a strand of my hair out of my face. "You should always wear your hair down, Tess. It makes me want—"

  "Hey! Are you two going to stand there all night, or are we going to eat dinner?"

  I shook my head a little, trying to snap out of the spell Jack's words had woven around me, and turned to the prince. "I'm sorry. We were, I mean, I was—"

  "I was about to kiss my date, if you hadn't so rudely interrupted," Jack said, a hint of a growl beneath the words.

  Ven's face split open in an enormous grin and he shoved his hands in his pockets and started to whistle. "I don't blame you, but you can do that later. Get your furry little kitten butt in gear."

  I could feel my face heating up and expected my face was the exact color of the scarlet blooms on the bush next to us.

  "Let's go, Jack." I tugged on his hand and started after the prince. "We don't want to insult Atlantean royalty in my first minutes in Atlantis."

  Jack rolled his eyes but allowed me to drag him along. "Ha! If you want to hear about insults, let me tell you about the time prince 'I can't be in love' over there met Erin."

  "Shut up, Shepherd," Ven said, but his eyes flashed with amusement. "Don't make me—"

  But whatever he'd been about to say was cut off when he caught sight of a curvy, blond woman running toward us. She jumped the last couple of feet through the air, and the prince caught her in his arms and kissed her.

  "It's about time," she said, after the kiss. "Now put me down, so I can meet the woman who finally broke through Jack's defenses."

  Ven kissed her again and let her down, and she immediately turned to me with a huge smile. She was shorter than me and beautiful. She wore a sleeveless pink silk dress that was gorgeous with her coloring. She studied me with eyes that were a darker blue than mine, and she looked really happy to see me, which went a long way toward putting me at ease, even though I'd begun to worry that my manners lessons had never covered anything about eating dinner with royalty.

  How many forks did Atlanteans use at dinner? And were they even forks, or miniature Tridents? And…

  I realized Erin had said something, and I cleared my throat.

  "I'm sorry. I missed that. I'm a little bit overwhelmed," I confessed, and she laughed and reached out as if to hug me.

  I took a quick step back, out of her reach, mortification washing through me.

  "I'm sorry. Again. I can't touch people," I said, wishing for the thousandth time that I was not inflicted with this horrible 'gift.'

  Jack moved closer and put an arm around my waist. "Ven should have told her. You have nothing to be sorry for."

  A tinkling chime sounded, and it seemed to be coming from one of the rings Erin wore. She glanced down at it and smiled a little, shaking her head.

  "No, I'm the one who's sorry. He did tell me, I just got caught up in the moment. I have a little magic myself, and if you'd like to talk about it at dinner, I'd be fascinated to hear about yours."

  I automatically started to refuse, but something in her expression told me that this wasn't idle or voyeuristic curiosity, the kind I usually got from strangers. She seemed to be interested in me as a person, not just as an oddity.

  "Maybe," I said, overcome by a feeling of shyness. "Um, Your Highness."

  She laughed. "No, definitely not that. I married into this family on the strict condition that I was never, ever to be called Your Highness."

  She walked over and gave Jack a kiss on the cheek, taking care to stand on the opposite side from where I was. "And how are you, my friend?"

  He released me and gave her a quick hug. "Much better than the last time you saw me, that's for sure."

  "More stories for later?" I glanced between the two of them and saw Erin bite her lip.

  "What's for dinner?" Ven smiled at me. "How about a quick tour of the gardens on our way to the terrace? We're eating outdoors."

  "I'd love that."

  It was the most beautiful place I'd ever seen. The flowers, trees, and bushes were a fantasy of vibrant colors and incredible scents. I couldn't recognize anything. Not that I was a garden expert, by any means, but I'd helped Aunt Ruby with hers and grown flowers of my own, so I wasn’t a complete novice. But this—this was like stepping into a magical land of make-believe.

  Which, come to think of it, I actually had.

  "Wha
t kind of berries are these?" I stopped to inhale the fragrance of a bush with richly red berries and glossy, dark green leaves. "Are they edible?"

  "Those are blushberries," Ven said, a hint of laughter in his voice. "They're edible but dangerous."

  Erin gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow. "Ignore him, Tess. They're delicious. It's just that they're said to have aphrodisiac qualities."

  I snatched my hand back. "Um. Okay. Maybe later!"

  Jack's low chuckle sent shivers through me, and I suddenly wondered how far out of my comfort zone dating Jack was going to put me.

  Thankfully, Erin changed the subject and started to tell me about her magic, which had to do with an affinity for gemstones. It was fascinating, and I peppered her with questions while we walked.

  When we reached the palace, I stared up and up at crystal and marble, completely speechless.

  "It still catches me off guard sometimes," Erin confided. "I'm just a girl from Seattle who somehow got married to an Atlantean prince."

  "Which makes me the luckiest man in the world, mi amara," Ven murmured, caressing her cheek. The heat in the glance they shared made my cheeks warm up again, and I turned away from what suddenly felt like a very private moment.

  Jack's eyes were full of a similar fire, though, and I got lost in his gaze for a moment before the tinkling of a bell brought me back to my senses.

  "Dinner is served."

  About a dozen feet to my right, a stone-floored terrace rose up from the garden, facing a beautiful marble fountain. The man smiling down at us from the terrace was dressed in casual clothes, and he made a beckoning gesture. "Don't want it to get cold."

  It was the best dinner of my life.

  From the salad, made with fresh Atlantean greens in shapes I'd never seen before, to the main course of seafood, to the delicate dessert of blushberries and cream, I almost felt like I could eat as much as Jack. It was so incredibly delicious that it was like a party in my mouth.

  I hesitated at the dessert, though, after what they'd said about Atlantean blushberries, until Erin noticed.