by KT Strange
“Willa, I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I am.”
I bit my lip and looked at Charlie. He gave me a rueful, half-smile and shrugged his shoulders.
“I know I fucked up.”
“Uh huh. Go on.”
Oh boy. She really wanted me to grovel. Well… if I’d been in her shoes, I’d probably want me to grovel too.
“You didn’t deserve that. The guys didn’t deserve that. And I don’t deserve my internship so, I mean—well—” I faltered and Charlie moved. I had to stop from gasping when he leaned over and wrapped his arms around me, tugging me into his lap. His warmth surrounded me, and I stared up at him, wide-eyed, for a second.
“Darcy?”
“Oh yeah, I mean I wanted to say,” Charlie was so warm. I leaned into him, the solid bulk of his body comforting and soothing. I let my eyes close. What did I want? I wanted her to forgive me, but I’d earn that by doing my job. “I don’t want you to fire me. I want you to keep me on as an intern. Even though I don’t deserve it and I screwed up. I made some stupid choices, and I’m done doing that. I swear it.”
I froze when Charlie’s lips brushed along the top of my head, and he hugged me tighter. Waiting for Willa to reply was excruciating. Finally, Charlie spoke up.
“We’re keeping her whether you like it or not, Wills,” he said. “And I’m gonna make her do all of our laundry this weekend as punishment.”
I made a face and he grinned down at me.
On the other end of the line, Willa laughed.
“Well I think that’s a little harsh. But… okay. Just no more fuck ups, okay, Darcy? Seriously, you’re making me look bad to Troy.”
I screwed my eyes up tight.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. I’d never meant to make her look bad in front of her boss. She was just an innocent bystander in the car-crash that was my life. I leaned back against Charlie, settling there with a sigh.
“It’s not fine, but it will be. I’m gonna email you the new itinerary. There’s some changes cause of Chelsea sending the guys viral. We’re doing some radio stops for them. Their tracker wants to start on that shit like, yesterday, so I’ll need you to get them to record drops and some other stuff. Alright?”
Shit.
My phone. It needed to come out. Now or never, so to speak.
“I kinda lost my phone on my little adventure,” I said, “and most of my bank cards, and IDs and… pretty much everything.”
Charlie went still against me, his hand pausing where it was stroking over my denim-clad leg. Willa was quiet too.
“Well it’s a good thing you guys have a day off tomorrow,” she said after a beat. “Anyway, when you bailed Chrissy logged you out from all the social media. So maybe tomorrow get yourself a new phone, and whatever else you need, and I’ll get all the login stuff sent to Charlie so you can set it up.”
Charlie was still unmoving, his fingers tense on me.
“Thanks Willa,” I said.
“Alright, well… I’ll catch up with you later. Have a good show, Charlie.” The phone went quiet.
“So,” Charlie said. I moved to get up, but he caught me, holding me there. I didn’t bother fighting him but I didn’t meet his eyes either, instead, I just stayed still while his breath warmed my ear. “You wanna tell me what happened while you were gone?”
“Not really.”
“Darcy.”
“Please,” I said, and when I tugged this time, he let me go. I stood and looked down at him. “Seriously, not now. I just—give me a few days, to process. I’m back, that’s what matters.”
His eyes were thoughtful as he surveyed me.
“Alright. But one of us is going to talk to you. At some point. Do you need help cancelling your IDs and cards?”
I shook my head.
“I’ll do it when we’re done for the night, and some tomorrow. It’s… yeah, I’m not too worried about it.” Only that now my family knew for sure where I went to school, because that was on my student ID, and where I banked and everything about me. The careful life I’d built for myself was threatened.
But did that even matter? The guys lives were being threatened. What was a little risk of identity-theft or my parents showing up for Family Day on campus? I was playing it down, but whatever. I gave Charlie a brief smile.
“Thanks for being so supportive. I needed that maybe more than I realized.”
Charlie got to his feet and both of his hands wrapped around my shoulders as he gazed down at me.
“We need you more than you know.”
My mouth opened.
“Not to make a heartstone. Just… we need you. Darcy, our manager, our friend, our…” He swallowed, and his eyes flicked down to the hollow of my throat, or thereabouts. I wondered what he was looking at, because he didn’t have that sorta glazed expression guys got when they looked at my breasts. He looked hollow, almost haunted. He leaned down, slowly.
“So, is this a thing?” My voice was barely above a whisper. “Now that I’m deflowered or whatever, it’s open season on my ass with you guys?”
“What?” He pulled back, startled.
“You were going to kiss me.”
“I was not.”
“Uh, I definitely think you just were.” I crossed my arms. He looked so offended that it was almost funny. “And earlier, with Finn and Ace—"
“Yeah what about with Finn and Ace?” He tilted his head and smirked. “Fill me in. What was that about?” I coughed. His smirk grew wider. “You tell me your secrets, Darce, I’ll tell you mine.” Now he sounded absolutely filthy and my cheeks were turning pink. He’d planned this, I realized, to ferret information out of me.
“We need to get back out to the band, the set, the acoustic set… let’s do some merch giveaways or something,” I said, stepping backward.
“Sounds good to me,” he replied, a chuckle tucked away in his voice as I stepped out of the van, attempting to control my breathing. Stupid man. Playing kiss-chicken with me to get me to confess the sordid details of what he’d interrupted. I’d get him back later, I decided. When he wasn’t expecting it.
The set was almost over by the time we got back, and my heart fluttered with excitement to see how much the audience loved the guys, a hundred phones, at least, being shoved up in their faces while they played the last song. The social media on this was going to be crazy, and I hoped that would help me get back into Chrissy’s good graces when I finally talked to her. Willa may have been my supervisor, but Chrissy needed to have an apology given to her as well. And I needed to talk to Max. It felt like the apologies were never going to end. We stuck around to watch Glory Rev play with Chelsea, and then she invited Finn and the guys up to perform Dirty Secret with her.
I could barely breathe as Finn and Chelsea did a hastily cobbled together duet that seemed to just work. Her grin was infectious, and she sang a soft harmony along with Finn’s rasping melody. There was something magical about watching them work, and her voice almost had the same power, same call in it, that Finn’s did. Amazing for a human, really. The acoustic show ended, and the guys spent a good hour thanking fans, taking selfies, and doling out hugs to waiting audience members.
Chelsea ended up at my side after a while, hanging back from the crowd. We were joined by a member of security that I didn’t recognize. He was tall, wore a pair of wrap-around sunglasses that completely hid his eyes, and seemed to have perpetual frown line etched into his forehead. He was dressed in a plain black t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of boots I was certain had to be steel toes.
He didn’t look like normal venue security.
“That’s Kernan,” Chelsea said when I looked at her for an explanation. He gave a brief nod of his head to me, and then shifted in front of us, arms crossed. He had to be taller than six-foot-six, and his shoulder to waist ratio was imposing and impressive. “He’s my personal bodyguard. I didn’t need him before because I was never off the bus, and no one knew I was hanging out with Glory R
ev.” She sighed. “But now the horse is out of the barn, so to speak, and he’s with us for the rest of the tour.” Chelsea shot me a mischievous grin. “At least he’s not hard to look at,” she whispered.
“He’s alright,” I whispered back. He was handsome, with smooth, dark skin, and a head of closely-cropped curls. He also had cheekbones you could probably carve glass with. But he wasn’t my guys. Chelsea seemed to read my mind.
“We never want eye-candy when we’ve got our own to enjoy,” she said, and her eyes skipped from her bodyguard to where Finn and Ace were being mobbed by some enthusiastic girls who I was pretty sure were under eighteen. Oh well, all hands were above the waist. The guys kept it PG every time. Chelsea cleared her throat and I blushed.
“Um…”
“It’s okay, y’know,” her voice dipped even softer. “So, all of them, huh?”
“Chelsea,” I hissed, shocked. She giggled.
“Don’t look so scandalized. You’re not the only one.”
“What?”
She pointed to Glory Rev, who were signing autographs.
“Each one of those guys?” She tapped her heart with her fingers. I got her meaning immediately.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Oh.” I swallowed and a feeling similar to being with Max came over me. “It’s—it’d be good to maybe, talk sometime.” Chelsea grabbed my hand up in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Anytime,” she promised. “Girls gotta stick together, especially when they’re surrounded by as much testosterone as we are.”
Sixteen
Ace
We pulled into a campground in a small town on our way to the next venue. It was one of those weird places that was right off the town’s main drag, but it meant we could get a hot breakfast in the morning after walking a few blocks.
Watching Darcy bed down with Finn for the night in the back of the van made it hard for me to control my jealousy. It wasn’t that I was mad at Finn or anything, but I desperately wished it was my arms she was curling up in. Our girl was back, and it almost hurt as much to have her return than when she’d left in the first place, because I wanted her. I felt like I couldn’t, uh, seal the deal so to speak.
Do the do.
Give her the hot beef injection, as Cash would have joked, the classless jerk.
Finn was a tough act to follow, that’s really what it came down to, and here was me, inexperienced and a total idiot when it came to women. I needed to take her out, treat her like a real girl, for a date or something. I had a feeling that Darcy hadn’t had a lot of ‘real girl’ time, and maybe being taken out like a lady deserved was just what she needed. There was a sadness in her that hadn’t been there before she’d left us and I wanted to make it better.
I slept fitfully, starting every time there was a noise outside the van, or one of the pack rolled over or growled in their sleep. Below all of that, was the soft, slow noises of Darcy breathing in the safety of Finn’s embrace. At least she was with us again. That was something I needed to be grateful for. None of us had said anything to her but we knew she smelt different from before. There was no mistaking it, the smell of magic clung to her skin stronger than it ever had. The other guys hadn’t remarked on it, but I knew they had to notice.
Sun leaked in around the black-out curtains, and the first sounds of stirring filled the van. I’d been itching to get up since dawn, even if we’d stayed up later after the show to hang out with new fans.
The adrenaline from the night before, and the boost Chelsea had given us on our social media, plus how mixed up I felt about Darcy was making me a twitchy. I tumbled out of the bunk I was sleeping in, smacking Charlie on the shoulder on my way down. He growled at me and yanked his pillow over his head with one bare arm. He really needed to stop sleeping naked. One day Darcy was going to see and he was going to embarrass her.
Light spilled over Darcy as she slept, her brown curls tumbling over Finn’s arm. He looked like he was sleeping, but I could tell he was awake from the careful way he had her pulled against him. I bit down a small rumble of my own as I watched his thumb caress the smooth skin of her forearm.
He’d had her lots, he’d bonded her, but he had to share her. It wasn’t going to be much of a fight once he got used to the idea.
“Stop staring, Wesley,” Finn rasped, his arm coming closer around Darcy. She sighed and turned over, snuggling against his chest. My cheeks went red. He knew I hated my birth-name.
“Ass,” I muttered. He chuckled, low, and Darcy whined in protest, squirming down until she all but disappeared under the blankets. Finn’s eyes cracked open and he tilted his head to watch her go.
“You hiding, sweetheart?” he asked. Her hand shot out from the blankets, middle finger flipped at us. He looked at me and grinned. “Well, all right then.” I sighed and grabbed my pack down from my bunk, pulling out a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt. If Darcy needed to sleep longer that was fine. I’d go exploring.
“Where d’you think you’re going?” Eli did a backward flip down from the pop-up bed, where Cash was probably still passed out, and landed with a light thump. He was already dressed and eyed me warily.
“Just was gonna go check out that bakery around the corner I found on Yelp last night,” I said. “I thought we had a few hours here before we left.” I cast a glance around the van. It’s not like anyone else was up, and given their sleepy status, they wouldn’t be for at least another half-hour or so.
Eli sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea if we split up,” he said with a shrug. He cast a glance at the top of Darcy’s head, which was peeking out from the top of the blanket. He was worried too, about the magic that clung to her skin. Apparently, she’d even charged his phone yesterday which was new. Did that mean she was getting stronger at magic? I didn’t know that much about witches, and the guys never seemed to want to talk about them. Darcy wasn’t all that open about her past, either, so I didn’t think she’d be up to answering Ace’s Twenty Questions About Witches and Witchcraft.
Darcy was changing and we weren’t sure if she knew. Or if she knew that we knew. It was pretty complicated, and my head hurt thinking about it. At some point someone was going to have to talk to her about it, and my vote was on Finn.
And he could tell her at the same time about bonding bites, and how he’d bonded her, because I knew that if she’d been aware of their bond she wouldn’t have taken off in the first place.
“Welp,” I popped the ‘p’ of the word, making Eli’s brow furrow, “maybe you’ll come with me then. I gotta get out of this van. Werewolf fever, y’know?” Eli rolled his eyes. Finn chuckled.
“Go take the kid out for a run, tire him out,” Finn rumbled. “Then he won’t be so annoying later.” He winked at me playfully, and I did my best not to take offense to his words. One day they’d stop calling me ‘kid’. One day they’d stop seeing me as a pup. I wasn’t one anymore. Hunters had put an end to my childhood pretty quickly.
I reached for the handle on the door and was out the van before Eli could say no. If he thought I needed a babysitter, then he damn well was going to go with me. I wanted to get Darcy something sweet, like those chocolate filled croissants, or some fancy donut or whatever.
She needed something to chase the shadows from her eyes.
I stumbled into Eli on my way back to the van. There was Darcy, in a pair of swimming trunks that were too big for her, and a sugary-pink tank top that had to belong to Chelsea, her arms held above her head by Cash.
His eyes were dark, narrowed, as she struggled and fought his grip. I nearly dropped the bag of donuts I held in my hand when Cash let her go with a sigh.
“No, no that’s not how you break my grip,” he said as she put her hands on her hips.
“Well, how am I supposed to do it when you hold me like that?” she shot back. I glanced up at Eli.
“Self-defense classes?” He looked amu
sed. The three oldest of our pack had served over in Europe during WW2, but they didn’t talk about it much. The only one who even bore scars from their tour in the military was Cash, and that’s because he had been away from the heartstone for a good three years before returning home. Finn and Eli had healed up fine although, personally, I thought they still had some mental scars from the war. They pretended like it was so long ago they barely remembered it, but we all knew it was a bad idea to sneak up on Eli while he slept, and that Finn got a bit hoarder-y about food. And Cash… well, we never talked about the scars on his back.
“Try again,” Cash said, lunging for Darcy. She yelped and stumbled backward as he snagged her around the waist. Her hand slammed toward his cheek, and he dodged the blow. He hauled her over his shoulder and she kicked her legs. When it was clear she wasn’t escaping, he set her down with a sigh.
Eli grabbed my arm to stop me from marching up to Cash to tell him off. He was being too tough on her. Nothing was ever going to hurt her. She was always going to have us to protect her. So what did she need self-defense for? Jake had been taken care of, and we were staying on the move so much that I didn’t think that hunters were going to be much of a problem… as long as we stayed moving.
“Again,” Darcy demanded, and this time when Cash went for her, she brought her hands up. Thunder crackled and there was a burst of light so bright I had to clap my hands over my eyes. When I blinked the spots away from my vision, Cash was on the ground, laying on his back. Darcy stood over him, hands out stretched, her eyes wide.
“Oh shit, oh shit!” She fell to her knees and shook him by the shoulders. Eli dropped his grip on me and we raced over. Cash’s eyes were shut tight and he grunted.
“Fuck,” he groaned, lifting a hand to push Darcy away. “Ow, fuck, stop, I’m fine.” I stared down at him as his eyes cracked open. Darcy sat back on her haunches, her fingers going to brush over her lips, as if she was horrified.
“I thought you didn’t like using your magic. First the battery, now this? So, how long have you been comfortable tossing lightning around?” Eli asked casually, like she hadn’t almost electrocuted our pack-mate.