she touched Oliver’s face. A magical spark crackled between them, making him inhale sharply. He looked shocked but she wasn’t. A vision began to cloud her mind. This one was going to be one hell of a doozy. Weakness gripped her as she spiraled into a vision that would soon turn into a nightmare.
“Dallas, don’t fall asleep on me.” Oliver’s voice sounded urgent but she couldn’t obey him. The vision was sucking her into its embrace.
“Don’t leave me. I want you here when I wake up. I hate being always being left alone,” she whispered, just before she traveled into her own little world.
Chapter Three
“I’ll be here when you wake up, Dallas. Count on it,” Oliver said. How could he leave now when her touch had made him feel things he’d never imagined possible?
“Dallas?” Finley’s voice carried to them through the expansive house. He slowed to a stop in the doorway to the library. “Please tell me we weren’t too late,” he said hoarsely, emotion flooding his voice. “If I’ve failed her, I won’t be able to stand it. When Marion and Nicholas find out they will be crushed. Not to mention the other members of our coven. She might not know it, but we all care deeply about her.”
Oliver scooped her up into his arms. “She’s not dead. She’s just out for the count, Finley. I’m going to take her to another room and find somewhere comfortable to put her.”
“She looks pretty damn cozy right where she is,” Finley mused, walking up to him. He pressed the back of his hand against her forehead. “She’s burning up. She’s going to need a healer and fast. I’ll go out to be the welcome wagon for the Magical Authority. They know me, and I’ll explain who you are so nothing is misunderstood. I’ll also tell them that Dallas needs help.
“Hopefully they brought a top-notch healer along with them. I would also suggest that you conjure up a cage for those blasted rabbits. When Dallas finally comes to her senses she will not appreciate having rabbit turds all over her house.”
“It’s done,” Oliver said, and light blinked through the room. When it cleared, the rabbits were all gathered together in a cage. Now they could not transform back if they attempted to break through the spell put on them. “As for those blasted bunnies, they are not my handiwork. I suppose she did it before Rex showed up.”
“Dallas?” Finley asked incredulously. “Dallas can barely light a candle with her magic. I’m quite certain she didn’t come up with the complex incantation needed to transform the witch hunters into Peter Cottontails.”
“I can sense great power radiating within her,” Oliver murmured, staring down at Dallas. He tightened his hold on her and strode out of the library with Finley trailing along behind him. “Don’t forget you’ll need a healer for yourself, Finley. You took quite a beating tonight.”
“Yes, lad, but I’m not as important as Dallas. We can’t lose a witch with such an enormous talent and yet, sometimes there are those who wish she didn’t exist.”
Oliver bristled at the unkind remark. He didn’t want to think about those who wished others had never been born, especially when he sometimes wondered if some people thought the same thing about him. “I’d like to meet those who think that about her,” he mused.
He carried her into what had to be the family room, because it was filled with comfy-looking furniture, an old flat-screen television and a large bay window with a window seat and plush pillows, accompanied by several old-fashioned family photos. He loved the stuck-in-the-past qualities that Gerrans had. It was as if the place were locked in time. It looked as if that vintage quality seeped over into the residents’ homes, because he hadn’t seen so many photographs in picture frames in all his life. He gently placed Dallas on the large burgundy leather sofa and covered her with the crocheted cranberry-colored afghan hanging across the back as her body seemed chilled, and yet she was raging with fever.
“I suggest you tell those tardy agents to get their asses in here immediately,” he ordered.
“Yes, sir,” Finley said. “You can get away with that tone with me, Oliver, but I suggest you not use it on any of my former co-workers. They tend to take extreme offense at having warlocks outside the agency ordering them about, even a warlock of your incredible talents.”
“I’ll consider that advice, Finley.” He would take it into account but