by KT Strange
Jake's face twisted from a smirking grin to a smile that was more cruel than anything else.
"I guess—”
"Darcy." With her delicate accent, and a bright smile on her face, Milen was a welcome interruption. She stepped into the small cubicle, and Jake stared at her. He almost stumbled over himself to step out of her way, a weird look on his face. "There you are. I'm so glad you're here today. I've got loads of promo packs that I must put together for this radio tour the label is organizing, and they've said they don't have the extra hands to spare." She glanced at Jake. "I'm sorry, were you two..." her voice could not have been more icy, her smile barely there beyond the thin press of her lips.
"I'm good," Jake muttered, and turned on his heel, stalking off without another word for me.
"Asshole," she breathed with a shake of her head. "I met him at a cocktail party, and he couldn't resist asking me if the airplane charged me for an extra seat." My jaw dropped.
"Are you serious?" I hissed, glancing in the direction Jake had oozed off in. Milen rolled her eyes.
"Every swotty little man like that thinks he's the first to have made a fat joke. In the end they're just a parade of unoriginal piss monkeys." She threw a withering look over her shoulder and then smiled. "I really do have promotional packets though, if you don't mind?"
"No, not all. Give me ten to finish my email. Are you doing them up in the conference room?" I asked as I took a closer look at the pincushion plant that Jake had left me. It was just as evil looking as the last one that had stabbed my hand. I wondered if it would be okay to just throw it in the trash, but I felt bad. It wasn't the cacti's fault that Jake was an ass.
"Mhmmm, I'll get on with it and you can join me when you're ready," she said, pausing before she left to grab the cacti. "Let me see if I can find this a new home, shall I?" She didn't wait for a response. With a sigh of relief, I settled down and cleared out my inbox.
An hour later, Milen and I sat back, looking at our handiwork. A hundred-odd personalized note cards had been signed from her to the station managers of the radio stations. I never wanted to lick another stamp again.
"Why doesn't Troy get one of those postage machines? That was crazy," I commented, taking a long gulp of water. My tongue tasted like mint and glue.
"Because Troy thinks it's the personal touches that matter, and hand-licked stamps says personal in the way DNA only can," Troy said from behind us, making us both jump. My cheeks flushed hard. He'd caught me complaining about how he ran things, which was never a good sign, but when he walked around the table to survey the pile of envelopes stuffed with notes, a CD, and swag, he winked at me. "Good work, girls." He smiled at Milen. "You're settling in just fine, I hear. I got off the phone with the immigration lawyer, and the rest of your application is buttoned up. We'll send it in after you do your radio tour, and it won't be much longer than that, I think, that you'll be approved." Milen let out what sounded like a sigh of relief and gave him a brilliant smile.
"This whole process has been so much easier because of the XOhX team," she said. "I can't thank you enough." Troy shook his head.
"Write me a Grammy-worthy song, and we're even," he said, rapping his knuckles on the conference-room table. "Darcy, would you come see me in my office after you take these down to the mailbox?" He gave me a quick glance, before squeezing Milen's shoulder, and walking out. She waited a moment before glancing at me.
"I hope that's a good thing he wants to see me about," I murmured. She nodded her head before smiling.
"Well even if it isn't, shall we go and get an ice cream after this? Perhaps?"
I thought of my mountain of work I needed to do in order to catch up on Milen's career, and the social media plan that had been put into place for it. Troy was really going all out, and had decided to throw in 50k into marketing for her, which was a huge budget. It meant he believed in her, even if her old label in England hadn't. And... I wanted to get home as soon as I was done. Charlie was planning on picking me up right after I was finished.
"I'd love to, normally, but I've got plans, I'm so sorry," I said, hoping that she wouldn't take offense. Milen watched me, a smile playing on her lips.
"This lead singer chap of that band?" she asked, her smile turning knowing. My cheeks pinked up and she snickered, not unkindly. "I'd heard about it. Why do you look so mortified? It won't be the first time some artist has begun shagging a member of his team, now is it? I heard Celine Dion married her manager, didn't she?" Milen said it so casually, like it wasn't that big a deal. Well... maybe it wasn't? It hadn't been in my handbook or anything.
"He's pretty great," I said with a small pang of sadness. They were all great. I wondered if it would ever get out that I was with more than one of them? Pushing that thought away, I gathered up an armful of envelopes.
"Oh." I paused at the door. "What did you do with the cactus, if Jake asks me?" Milen gave me the wickedest grin.
"You came back to your desk and it was gone. You were very heartbroken about it," she said. I rolled my eyes and left the room with a laugh. Halfway back to the label, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out.
"Hey Max—”
"Seriously you need to get this asshole out of here," Max's voice hissed through the phone, cutting me off. "I'm going to kill him. All he does is sit and glare at me while I'm studying or prepping for my internship or whatever. He won't let me go anywhere without shadowing me, not anywhere, not even downstairs to the laundry." Her voice sounded more tinny and echo-y than normal.
"Are you whispering?"
"I'm in the damn bathroom. It's the only time I get a break from Large and Looming," she grumbled. A knock sounded through the phone. "Fuck."
"Max?" Eli's voice was distant.
"I'm taking care of lady business, alright? Go away," she was muffled as she spoke and she sighed, her voice coming through clearer. "I can see why he's the one you haven't fucked yet."
"Max!" I was mortified but also near laughing. "Are you okay? Is he really getting on your nerves? I can get Finn to talk to him."
"No, it's fine, he's just worse than my dad was when he was convinced Craig was going to crawl through the window and take my virginity at the tender age of nineteen."
"I thought you guys had already done it by then."
"Well, of course we had. As soon as my eighteenth birthday rolled around I got my v-card punched, and honestly, we didn't have to wait that long either but Craig was absolutely convinced that my dad would find some way of accusing him of something if we didn't wait."
Our conversation brought me right up to the entrance to XOhX. I still needed to meet with Troy.
"Hey, Max, I'll call Finn and get Eli to go on a little walk, give you some space for a bit, but I gotta get back to work, okay?"
She sighed, irritation at the edge of noise.
"Okay," she said, her voice clipped. "I'll talk to you later." The call disconnected without her saying anything else, and I couldn't help the lingering feeling of unfinished business. I'd call her later. When I was done at XOhX. Maybe I could even go visit her and we could hang for a bit, just us girls.
Nine
Darcy
“Again.”
Wofle scowled at me. My whole body ached. I wished I was back at the label, listening to Troy drone on and on about his plan to make Milen the next big star, and shove it in the face of that ‘uppity Brit’ back in London - at least Troy’s ego was working in Milen’s favor.
As much as I wanted to be elsewhere, I wasn’t, and Wolfe was glaring at me. The music equipment in the jam space had been shoved up against the far wall so they wouldn’t get hit by a flying lightning strike, even though Wolfe had assured the guys that there was no way he would let my powers escape me. She ‘aint bloody Thor, for godssake. I can handle one little weather witch and her tempest tantrums, he’d said. That hadn't reassured the guys, who hovered at the edge of the room, watching me get my ass handed to me again and again.
"I don't think I
can do this," I said, as I settled and tried to still my mind like Wolfe kept telling me to do.
"Then you won't do it," he retorted. "But you must. Unless you desire to fling around lightning bolts every time you get distressed, then you must resist me. Do not let me pull the power out of you. Resist me!" The pulling feeling came again, and with a painful snap like I'd been slapped in the face with a foot-long elastic band, the lightning shot out of my finger-tips, arcing through the air toward Wolfe. He snorted and held up one hand, and with a deafening thud, the lightning disappeared. The air felt charged and smelt of ozone, thick and curling around me.
He glared at me.
"Do you want to murder someone?" he demanded and I bristled.
"Of course I fucking don't," I snapped. At the edge of my awareness, the guys stiffened, Cash letting out a low growl that echoed in the room.
“Oh toss off,” Wolfe waved an irreverent hand at him. “She’s angry, not injured.”
“Talk to me. I’m the one you’re teaching.” I took a deep breath. “Do it again.” Wolfe surveyed me for a moment, closing his eyes.
There. Deep down, a few inches below where my ribs parted in the center of my chest, I felt it. That pull. He was demanding my power unlock, release it self. Had this really happened when I’d been shocked, staring at my friend being hurt, or someone I loved being attacked? I’d always thought the power had only ever come from inside me, but Wolfe was quickly teaching me that the energy in a situation could and would yank the lightning right out of my body. It was my panic, my reaction, that was letting it out. For obvious reasons, like not murdering someone by accident, I needed to quit that and fast.
A smile cracked across Wolfe’s face and his chin lifted. The pulling turned into a rough yank and I stumbled forward, my arms locked at my sides as I hung on with everything I could to not let the power escape me.
“That’s it,” his soft murmur raked over my senses and I gasped for breath when he stopped, relief flooding my limbs when the sharp yanking sensation, like my rib cage being kicked at from the inside, ceased. I toppled backward, my muscles straining hard to not move forward and giving out under the effort. Ace raced to me, catching me around the waist before I could hit the ground. His thick arms pulled me into his chest and I rested there, breathing hard.
“You okay?” he said, bowing his head so he could peer into my face.
“I’m good, just hurts, a bit,” I replied, telling him the half-truth. It hurt a lot, like my bones had been knocked out of alignment and every breath was reminding me my ribs would really prefer to be snapped back into place.
“C’mon now, Balto, get off the girl so she can get back to work,” Wolfe’s voice rang out across the space and Ace huffed with irritation.
“She’s tired.”
“Aye, and she’ll be even more done in before the night’s over, so if you were thinking that you’d get a little slash of that, you’re not. She’ll sleep like the dickens and be ready for me when I come back tomorrow.” Wolfe cleared his throat as Ace’s head whipped up. I patted his shoulder to soothe him. I was discovering that was just who Wolfe was: more than a little crass, even if it all sounded elegant with his accent.
“I got this,” I assured Ace.
“Ace,” Finn called from the couch, taking over Eli’s normal role of wrangling the other guys in his twin’s absence. “C’mon.” Ace let me go with a quick kiss and a passing of his hands over my body to make sure I really was okay, before he glared at Wolfe all the way back to join the rest of the pack. Wolfe ignored him, looking instead at the ceiling.
“Must get hot in here during the summer months,” he commented. “All that cement, the metal roof, soaking in the heat.”
“Uh, okay?” I glanced over at Cash who spun his finger beside his ear with a slight shake of his head. Charlie snickered.
“I saw that,” Wolfe sounded amused. “And yes, quite mad, I assure you that your estimations are entirely correct. Now, tiny witchling, let’s do this again, from the beginning.”
“My body is ready,” I lied, shifting into my oh god this is going to hurt stance, feet slightly apart, shoulders down, head up, stomach tensed. I had to do this. For the pack. For myself, a little bit too. For Max, because if she was going to learn to control herself after a lifetime of not even knowing what she was, so could I.
Wolfe’s lips parted. This time it was like a slice of a blade, up through my belly, under my ribs and I screamed, before gritting my teeth hard, letting the sound die in the back of my throat. A shudder rolled up through my core, into my shoulders, the pain so sharp that I could barely hang on. If I looked down, I was sure I’d see blood staining the front of my shirt, and dripping onto the floor. The invisible knife twisted and I broke, dropping to my knees like my muscles had been cut.
Still, I hung on. I could feel it fighting to get out, the power looking for any crack in me, any shred of weakness. A grunt escaped me and my arm came around my gut, holding the muscles in. Waves of pain throbbed through my whole body until I shrieked. A roar echoed in the room. I barely registered the blur of Charlie’s movement as he streaked across the empty space, slamming into Wolfe from the side, toppling the vampire to the ground.
The pain cut out and I gasped, falling onto my side, my breaths sobbing out of me as tears leaked out my eyes.
“Darcy.” Cash was right there, snarling and snapping noises hazy in the distance. “Darcy.” His fingers were warm on my skin, and he wiped away my tears, pulling me so I’d be cradled in his arms. Everything hurt, right down to my teeth, into the spaces between my ribs, all of it. I rolled my rolled my head.
Charlie was inches from Wolfe, Finn’s arms wrapped around him to keep him from ripping the vampire’s face off. Wolfe looked impassive, as if he couldn’t give a single shit that a werewolf was about to take him apart. I mean, hey, if I were already dead, sure, I wouldn’t be all that worried about dying again. I’d already have been through it once. A helpless giggle bubbled up my throat and Cash held me tighter.
“You laughing, sweetheart? What’s so funny? Shit,” Cash muttered. I snorted and shook my head.
“It’s just ridiculous. I’m never going to be able to do this with you guys trying to kill him every time it gets hard.”
“To be fair,” Ace was sitting on the couch, although his muscles were tense. “It looked like he’d killed you, so...” He glanced at Charlie, who was breathing hard and fighting Finn’s grip.
“Don’t make me bite you,” Finn growled at the younger wolf. “Treat you like your mama should’ve done, then you wouldn’t be such a little shit-head.” Charlie growled right back in response then stopped fighting, thudding back against Finn’s chest hard on purpose. Wolfe watched them for a moment before stalking over to me. He held out a hand. Cash let me go, helping me up as Wolfe’s hand closed around mine.
“That hurt?” Wolfe studied my face.
“Like fuck,” I answered and his lips twitched at my bluntness.
“At least you resisted. That is some progress. A better witch could have dragged it out of you, perhaps, or would not have been as merciful—”
“You call that merciful?” Cash stood next to me, shifting his weight from foot to foot like he was ready to rearrange Wolfe’s face. I put a quelling hand on his arm. My guys needed to let me do my thing, and I’d need to talk to them about it. Later. Much later.
“It doesn’t hurt now,” I said, although I could still feel the ghost of that invisible knife, cutting me open, slipping inside me. I swallowed back my revulsion at the memory.
“Excellent. Then tomorrow, again, the same time. I shall bring you to your knees, and you will enjoy the fawning of your pups all over you afterward,” Wolfe smirked as he spoke, giving Cash a long look and a wink. Cash grumbled but let the vampire turn on his heel and walk toward the door. Ace rose to snuggle me into a hug when he reached me. I let him, enjoying his warmth. Finn and Charlie were finally done with their display of whatever the hell that had been, and wa
ndered over to us. Charlie’s face was stormy, and he cupped the side of my face with his palm.
“I’m good,” I promised him, and looked at Finn standing just behind him, Finn’s arms crossed over his broad chest. I took a single moment to appreciate the way Finn’s muscles threatened the tight fabric of that shirt that had to be a schmedium (seriously the guy needed to size up on all his tops, because it was unfair to those of us with eyes), before smiling at my boys. “I’m really okay. It hurt like a bitch, but I’m okay, and did you see that? I stopped him! I didn’t let it out.”
“Proud of you, doll,” Cash said, stealing a kiss from me. “You did so good.”
Charlie grunted and turned away, storming off behind the partition the wall. We all heard the door slam. Finn sighed, his shoulders stiff with frustration.
“I’ll go talk him out of it,” he said.
“No, I’ll do it. I need to wash my face anyway.” The itch of tear-marks on my cheeks were bothering me. Ace let me go.
“I don’t know how Eli manages everything,” Finn said to Cash and Ace as I left them. I lifted my hand to knock on the door to the bathroom.
“Fuck off-oh,” Charlie cracked the door open as he spoke. “Darcy... sorry.” His brown eyes were soft and contrite. I gave him a brief smile and pushed my way into the bathroom.
“You really need to—” my words were cut off when he pressed me up against the tiled wall in the next moment, his mouth finding mine.
“The only thing I gotta do is make you feel good, kid,” Charlie said, his pupils blown wide as he looked down at me. Oh. Oh. He dropped to his knees, and I braced myself against the wall.
“The guys—”
“Can fucking wait.” His hands were sliding up my shirt, fingers tracing over the skin that had felt, just minutes ago, like it was being ripped open. He pressed an open-mouthed, wet kiss to the spot above my belly-button. My muscles clenched down. “I’m gonna make you feel so good, Darcy, that you’re gonna forget any bit of hurt you suffered today.”