by Alexia Black
My hand was on his back, where his t-shirt had accidentally ridden up. Scarred tissue met my calloused palm. Mortified, I jerked my hand away.
What do I do? Do I wake him up? Do I pretend to be asleep? Do I pretend to die and resurface with a new identity in Hawaii? I was heavily leaning towards the last one.
I was imitating a wriggling worm when the door flew open and Callum strode in rubbing his temple, his shirt haphazardly buttoned, more unbuttoned than not.
“Advil?” he growled.
“I don’t know,” I said harshly.
He looked up hearing my voice. Then he looked at Aiden sleeping peacefully on top of me. Then he looked at me again.
“So, you two are…,” he smirked, then immediately grimaced and pressed his palm against his eyes. My glare completely lost on him.
He leaned down to search in the drawers, his chest accidentally on my eye level. I was about to avert my eyes when something caught my eyes.
His veins had bulged around his heart somehow, all an eerie shade of neon blue. I wasn’t very familiar with incubus physiology but I knew it was pretty normal for them to have blue veins standing out like that. But something about that color nagged me.
“Aha!” he brandished the Advil like a sword in the air and left, dry-swallowing a few on the way. I ignored the nagging feeling regarding what I had seen. Callum was not my problem. I had more pressing matters to take care off. Like my bladder.
Unfortunately, after twenty minutes of struggling and having the wind knocked out of me, I had to give up.
I slapped Aiden’s arm, “Wake up! I need to pee. WAKE UP.” He didn’t even stir. I poked him a few times for good measure but no response. If not for the soft breaths tickling my neck, I would’ve thought he was actually dead. He sure slept like one. Looks like my bladder would have to wait.
I grabbed my phone to check on the demon case updates. There was none. Bored, I shot Sam a bunch of texts, explaining the absolute circus my life had become lately. Sam was a romantic through and through though, she would nudge me into giving the whole soul mate thing a try. I was about to close the chat when I noticed that my previous text had been read. Was my ominous hunch coming true?
I smacked my head. Shut up, brain. Stop thinking stupid things.
It was the sound of me smacking my brain out of my skull that finally woke the sleeping beauty. I stared mortified. Aiden blinked slowly, his face mere inches from mine. His sleepy gaze regarded me with confusion for a second before the ludicrousness of our position hit him. If I wasn’t standing on the peak of embarrassment myself, I would’ve laughed at his expression.
“Sorry,” he quickly moved away.
His magic touched me for a split second and retreated before I felt pain. His embarrassment firmly reigned in under that aloof mask of his.
“It’s fine. I’ll use the bathroom first,” I scrammed off the bed. My bladder was fast running out of patience.
* * *
It was still pretty early in the morning and I doubted Travis or Daryl would be joining us for breakfast.
“Aiden,” I started after changing out of my pajamas. “Let’s check how far the bond extends.” We had been wrapped around each other for hours. The bond must be more settled by now.
“Must be a few more feet in the least,” he said.
“Stay here,” I said and walked towards the kitchen one step at a time.
“40 feet!” I whooped. Aiden just shook his head, a not quite smile on his face.
“Stop shouting,” Callum said, watching TV from the couch. He had changed into a t-shirt, the veins hidden from view.
“I wasn’t shouting. You can barely hear me over how loud that movie is!”
Callum just gave a tired shrug and went back to ignoring everyone.
We made pancakes again and I watched in fascination as Aiden elegantly devoured the stack of pancakes with whipped cream, chocolate and almost an entire bottle of honey. Was ‘elegantly devouring’ even a thing? Doesn’t matter; it is now. There was no other way to describe the way he ate.
I looked up from my food when I heard Callum’s footsteps. He snatched a pancake out of Aiden’s plate and turned to walk out of the house without a word.
“Where are you going?” Aiden asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Callum said, still walking away. I had a feeling he was booking it straight to a bar. And if the way Aiden had tensed was any indication, he knew it too.
Callum flinched in pain.
“Sorry. I lost control,” Aiden took in a deep breath, and reigned in his power.
“Whatever. Just don’t kill me next time,” Callum was gone without another word.
Aiden was subdued through the rest of the meal, picking on the remaining the pancakes. I finished my food before he did and walked away as far as I could to give him space. To see him look so vulnerable, that wasn’t meant for my eyes.
* * *
I waited outside the gym for him. “Let’s run outside today?” I suggested when he came into view. The property in which the townhouse was situated was massive. There was enough space to run and he wouldn’t have to worry about being mobbed by the paparazzi. He gave a terse nod. Running had always helped during my bad days. I hoped it did the same for him too, like his music had done for me.
We mostly ran in silence, cold wind whipping my hair back. I ran hard the last few miles around the house, gulping in the fresh air. After escaping from my home and starting my internship, I had never been cooped up inside for so long. But despite my speed, he was able to keep up with me, which was surprising. Not many supernaturals could, in their human form.
The quietness still clung to him when we came back in. He was usually quiet but this was a very different kind of quiet. It was a tiredness that came from repressing everything under one’s mask.
“You okay? Do you want to watch a movie?”
He shook his head avoiding the first question, “I’m on a deadline. I need to finish that song.”
“Ah okay.”
* * *
After a quick shower, I started reading through the ancient tomes. There was a permanent indentation of my butt on the couch at this point but I was still nowhere near finding a way to break the bond. I wished the books had an index or even chapters, but most of them were just handwritten accounts of the writer’s ramblings. I skimmed through the pages as much as I could, till my head started hurting from the hours of strain. After trying to read the same paragraph for the third time, my eyes lost focus and I closed the book.
I checked my phone. There were no replies to my messages from mom or dad much less Sam. Busy, I guess.
I sighed. There were too many things taking up space in my brain. Sam, Aiden’s stalker, the demons. One of them, as weird as it sounded, was Callum’s veins. It kept bugging me, but I couldn’t figure out why.
Maybe Bart would know? I didn’t know if he had work today so I texted him. He didn’t text me back but a while later he emailed me a case file. I recognized the file. It was the last one I had filed, the day dad had me transferred to the reception.
The case file was pretty big. I skipped first to the images. I sat up straight. Damn it, there was no doubt. Normal incubi had muted blue veins standing out over their chest, not neon blue ones. How had no one noticed that?
I read through the case details. Everything made sense now. I had only just met Callum so the changes wouldn’t have been noticeable to me but this explained why the others had gotten so shocked by the sudden change in his personality.
The case was about a 35 year old incubus who was given a variety of hallucinogen, mainly used by humans, to make him a brainless puppet. Human hallucinogens had been banned by the lord of the high council despite protests from the human representatives in the council. Our king, another member of the high council had also voted in support of the ban. Incubi could handle alcohol and cigarettes easily but not hallucinogens. In controlled doses, they were like a potent form of hypnotism.
In the case of the dead incubus, instead of being subservient, he had gone raving mad, and jumped out the window, almost crushing half his body then ran out into the oncoming traffic with broken bones sticking out of his body. The incubus had worked for our company and Bart had joined forces with the police to figure out the culprit since he had worked with him a few years back, and had been part of the PI branch before switching to being a bodyguard. But, the case had remained unsolved.
Was someone trying to make him their personal puppet? Was his girlfriend behind this?
I crushed the phone to my chest. There wasn’t much time left, I needed to get Callum to a hospital. But, even if we are able to save his life, the change in his personality might end up being permanent.
I got up and waved my hand frantically in front of Aiden’s face. To his credit, he didn’t get startled, just calmly removed his headphones and looked up at me.
I didn’t know how to tell him. Living with them the past few days, I experienced firsthand the family-like bond all of them shared and saw how worried they were for Callum.
There was no way to sugar coat what was happening to him.
Silence stretched between us. Aiden was the first one to break it.
“Yes?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Um, I wanted to tell you something about Callum.”
Aiden turned in his chair, giving me his full attention.
I took a deep breath and told him about everything. I couldn’t show him the file or photos due to the confidentiality agreement, but I tried to paint the picture with my words alone. At the end of everything, he didn’t raise his eyebrows, didn’t scoff at my theories even though I couldn’t show him any proof. He simply trusted me.
“I’ll talk to Daryl and Travis. We need to take him to the hospital right now.”
I nodded, “The faster we get him help, the higher chance we have of saving him.”
We took off running to find the others when the object of our conversation walked right into our path, almost colliding with us. He smelled worse than yesterday, but there was an innocent smile painted on his face.
I had a feeling everything was about to go to hell.
Chapter 17
He grinned, slowly encroaching into my personal space, a big shopping bag in his hand, “Kiara, you are a sight for sore eyes”
“That, I am,” I said.
“I got you a gift. Something you will love this time,” he pushed the bag against my chest and let go. I caught it reflexively.
It was a dress and if the logo was any indication, even more expensive than the jewelry he had bought for me earlier.
“Thank you,” I said sweetly. I didn’t want to start a fight now, not when we needed him to cooperate. “I will open it with Daryl and Travis. I want to show off what you got for me.”
“They are not here,” Callum smiled. He sure was smiling a lot today but his eyes looked dead and it was creeping the hell out of me. “Why don’t you put it on and show me now. Your ass will look fantastic in it. My girlfriend selected it,” he sighed dreamily. “I don’t know why she bothers having a stylist. Her own choices are perfect, just like her.”
Aiden took in deep breaths, if I hadn’t told him exactly why Callum was being an asshole, I had no doubt he would’ve punched him for me. Instead, his part of the bond tugged on mine, wrapping around me protectively.
I ignored Callum’s comment about my ass. There were bigger fish to fry. So, this girlfriend was rich enough to have her own stylist. Considering the circles they ran in, she must be a celebrity too.
“How nice of her. She sounds like a great person.”
“She is,” Callum nodded like a happy puppy. If he had a tail that would be wagging too. “What’s her name? I would like to send her a thank you gift.”
“Her name…,” Callum frowned. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. As if her name was lost in the fog of his memory.
Was it because of the hallucinogens? How advanced was the control over him?
“I’ll call them,” Aiden dialed Travis’s and Daryl’s numbers. “Fuck. Both their phones are switched off.”
My gut churned. Maybe their absence was a coincidence, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to go wrong. Very, very wrong.
“Cal, we need to go to the hospital,” Aiden said, moving forward as if he was going to manhandle Callum into a car if he said no.
“Why?” Callum’s eyes turned menacing, the smile vanishing as if we had walked too close to the mirage. “Why should I go to the hospital? I feel fine,” he said inflectionless, like somebody had taught him to say that.
“Because…,” Aiden started and I knew the next words he was going to say was going to just piss Callum off. We couldn’t say anything that would make his guard go up. We need to trick him into going to the hospital.
“I might be pregnant,” I blurted out.
“What?” Aiden stared at me. Really, had no one taught him to go with the flow? Wasn’t it obvious that Callum wasn’t going to go to the hospital just because we asked?
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier,” I turned to Aiden. “But, I might be pregnant that’s why I asked you go to hospital with me.”
Then I turned back to Callum, putting on my best ‘woe is me’ face. “We were just about to go to the hospital when you came in. I was planning to ask Travis to come with me too. I am scared to go alone. Will you come with me instead?” I turn on my best puppy face, “Please?”
“Pregnant? So fast?”
“Oh you know how fast these curses work. It’s not like they make sense to anyone.”
“I will get a test kit for you. You shouldn’t leave this house. Stay here,” Callum said.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have gone with the pregnancy story. But, it was what my panicked brain came up with. At least, Aiden looked ready to go with my dumbass excuse.
“They aren’t that accurate. And since this is not a normal pregnancy situation, it’s better to be more accurate,” I said.
“Yes,” Aiden wrapped one arm over my shoulder and placed the other on my stomach. “It’s better to be completely sure. We don’t have much time to waste. I’ll drive. Let’s go.”
Callum looked confused, wary. He looked like he was being pulled in two directions. Like one part of his brain was asking him to be a good friend and accompany us while the other wanted to keep me here.
I placed my palm on top Aiden’s, “Please Callum.” It was hard to start the waterworks but I managed to squeeze a few tears out.
Callum frowned, “I need to ask her permission.”
Oh no.
I reached for his phone but before I could snatch it away he had called her. A familiar voice sing-songed his name from the other end. Was it someone from my dad’s company?
Wonderful.
Callum cut the call after a few minutes. “She is sending over her personal doctor. You don’t have to leave the house.”
She has a personal doctor…that she is sending over…This girl really needed me to stay inside, didn’t she?
Aiden’s arm tightened around me, accidentally pulling me closer to him.
“That’s very generous of her. Umm, but I would be more comfortable going to the hospital.”
“This is faster. She said the doctor is just arriving. He will be here any second. Isn’t she an angel?” Callum said, like a broken record.
“What do you mean by he will be here any second?”
Apparently, it was exactly as he said, because the next second I heard footsteps marching in. A familiar face greeted me.
“Dave?” When had he gotten out of the hospital after the demon attack? More importantly what was Selene’s right hand man doing here?
“Had somebody called for a doctor?” He smirked.
What the fuck?
Aiden took a protective step in front of me. I pulled him back but he didn’t budge. They were after him and here he was trying to protect me.<
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“Dave? What is the meaning of all this?”
Why had he brainwashed Callum? Was he the one after Aiden too? That would explain why the demon didn’t drain his powers. Throughout this entire exchange, Callum just stared at me with blank eyes. Like he didn’t know what his purpose was now that Dave was here.
“Weren’t you one of the guards?”
Dave stared at Aiden, “Should I be honored that you remember me?”
“Dave, please. What’s going on? Are you behind all this?” I gripped Aiden’s hand, subtly pushing him behind me. What was happening? How could Dave of all people be behind this?
“I can’t take credit for everything. It was her and the lord’s plan.” Dave took out magic- nullifying handcuffs from his pocket. “Turn around, hands behind your back.”
What in the fates?
I pressed the emergency switch on my watch and reached for my dagger. I had no choice but to fight him. No way in hell was I going to be kidnapped by that asshole. I had to avoid close combat with him and make an opening to run from him. But, before I could hurl my dagger, Aiden reacted. He let loose that sinister magic of his. The soul mate bond enveloped me in protective warmth while his powers unleashed hell in front of me.
Dave collapsed on the ground, spitting blood. His eyes shifting between the yellow of the wolf inside and green of the human outside as Aiden kept pulling on more and more of his power. His powers were laser focused on Dave and didn’t affect me, or Callum who was watching everything like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
“You fucker,” Dave yanked out a scroll from inside his jacket.
Aiden growled, “Fix Callum or I will tear you apart piece by piece.”
Dave grinned through the pain, his teeth bloody, “I will make you regret this.” He pressed his thumb against the red wax seal holding the scroll closed.
“Va,” he commanded. Black smoke emerged, circling the scroll like a drunkard. The scroll was still closed but the miasma-like smoke flew around it, getting faster with each second, building momentum.