by Hettie Ivers
Flippant bastard. “And?” I kept my tone flat and disinterested as I hunched over and looked through the scope on the lab table before me.
“He was walking her to class. I followed at a safe distance, keeping within the crowd of other students. I don’t think Mike scented me. He was … distracted.”
My head snapped up.
Remy coughed behind his fist. “Talking. They were talking.”
“About?”
“Mike was explaining Taoism to the seer, actually. I’d no idea he knew so much about—”
I groaned my disgust. “Only an idiot attempts to explain Taoism.”
“Funny, that’s more or less what Mike told Lauren. But her mother had sent her this book on the subject, you see—”
“Did you get a read on them?”
“Yes. I did.” He pursed his lips and gave me a measured look, and I felt the edge of the thick metal lab table start to dent beneath the pressure of my grip when rather than expound, he asked, “Kai, why do you care so much—about this potential seer? You know I won’t tell Alex or Mil—”
“I don’t care about her.” I forced my fingers to relinquish their hold on the table’s edge, flattening my palms atop the cold surface to steady them.
Remy’s brow quirked, along with the corners of his mouth. “Clearly.”
“I only want to know if Mike and Raul intend to harm her. She may prove to be a valuable seer eventually.”
“Mm.” He nodded. “Right. Well, I don’t believe Mike intends to harm her. Matter of fact, I sensed his emotions toward her were highly protective.”
I felt myself frowning and quickly blanked my features. “Good.” I jerked my head in a nod. “That’s good.”
“What’s more,” Remy continued, “he’s very attracted to her—as I suspect you may have already noticed. So I don’t think you need to worry about her safety. She seemed flattered by his attention and quite taken with him.”
The metal lab table legs buckled beneath the pressure of my palms. A nearby Erlenmeyer flask exploded.
Remy cough-choked behind his fist. I knew it was to conceal his laughter. I didn’t care. “How taken?” I demanded.
He shrugged. “She was smiling and blushing a lot. But I doubt if many women shriek and recoil from Mike’s face, right? I believe he’s generally seen as attractive—for a weasely Salvatella werelock, that is. And he’s a seasoned supernatural spy: the ultimate charlatan. How could she not be taken with him?”
“I don’t—” Another flask exploded. I couldn’t comprehend his words. I breathed through my nose, imagining the sound of tendons separating from bones. When that did nothing to calm me, I began running through the steps of dissecting a spinal cord in my head. “I’m not following your logic. Why would the seer—or any woman for that matter—be taken with a seasoned liar?”
He squinted his eyes at me. “Really? I do realize you haven’t dated in more than a century, but some things about women don’t change.”
The lab table beneath my palms fully collapsed. “I never ‘dated’ before I was mated to Maribel, so indulge me!”
Remy bit his lip, raised a reassuring palm, and acknowledged, “Okay. Fair point. I’m saying that Mike is a practiced flirt. The guy adopts flawless foreign accents and charming personas like he’s changing shirts. Studying people is his life’s work. He’s an expert at learning a person’s desires and fears and figuring out how to play to them in order to get what he wants.”
Soliciting Remy’s input had been a terrible idea. “And what,” I hissed, “did you sense Mike wants from Lauren when you observed them together?”
“Hmm.” He covered his mouth with his hand and looked to the ceiling, then back down to the wrecked table at my feet—casually studying it as if nothing were amiss. Finally, he removed his fingers and answered simply, “Sex.” When I didn’t react outwardly, he elaborated. “A lot of sex. He was throwing off major lust vibes. You should’ve seen the way he was ogling the seer’s ass, too, not to mention her breasts.”
My lungs constricted. Entire shelves of glass tubing began exploding.
Remy proceeded as if he didn’t notice. “I know you’ve no interest in the opposite sex, given your longstanding vow of celibacy, but if you were at all interested, you might have noticed the seer has quite the rockin’ hot young coed bod. I’d peg her to be the adventurous type, too. I think she may have her nipples pierced for how hard they looked even when beneath a layer of sweater—”
I was seconds from losing my skin and tearing into Remy’s when Jussara burst into the room, slamming the door behind her as she yelled at Remy to shut up.
“He’s into her! You’ve made your point.”
“You told Jussara?” I shouted.
“No,” Remy denied. “I didn’t.”
“Damnit, Remy, I asked you to keep this between us.”
“Oh, like he could ever keep anything from me,” Jussara interjected, rolling her eyes from her mate to me. “When he told me you were teleporting him to a college campus to check on something for him, I badgered and tortured him until he revealed what was going on.”
“Badgered and tortured?” Remy challenged. “Revealed? You snuck inside my head and stole the information from me while my lesser head was buried down your throat, you minx.”
“Ugh.” I held my hand up. “Please don’t.” I had delivered Jussara in this very infirmary building. I had watched her grow up cossetted and spoiled by Alcaeus, her overzealous, self-appointed guardian. It was hard enough accepting her relationship with Remy—an empath well known for his indiscriminately hedonistic tendencies. “I really don’t need to be scarred by unnecessary details.”
“Kai, you know I don’t completely trust him yet,” Jussara said in defense of her snooping. “There was no way I was letting him out of my sight unchaperoned around a bunch of young human coeds.”
“Completely understandable,” I muttered to myself as Jussara’s words sparked indignation in Remy’s eyes.
“Me?” Remy balked. “I’m untrustworthy? You devil woman! I’m the one in this relationship who has to constantly watch his back and sleep with one eye open for fear of you staking me through the heart if, God forbid, you see me hold eye contact with another woman for three seconds longer than you find acceptable.”
“Thank you for the update on the seer, Remy,” I interrupted, raising my voice to compete with the shouting match on the brink of commencing between them. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to catch up on here.”
“Kai, I won’t say a thing to anyone,” Jussara promised, returning her attention to me. She clasped her hands together and pressed them over her heart. “Swear.” Ironically, the delighted, adoring sparkle in her jade eyes as she smiled at me reminded me of the proud mother hen look I’d so often seen her mother, Lupe, bestow upon her as a little girl.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Don’t look at me like that.”
“I can’t help it—it’s just so exciting.” She bit her lower lip as tears welled in her eyes. “I mean after all this time, Kai.”
“Stop making that face at me like I’m about to go to my first school dance. I was mated, Jussara. And I intend to remain loyal to my deceased true mate.”
“Okay, but if you change your mind, I want you to know I’m here for you … you know, if you need help with anything. Anything at all.”
Remy made a face and said with a laugh, “What exactly are you offering to help him with, love?”
She threw her hand up. “And you’re supposed to be the sensitive one. Remy, he hasn’t dated in a hundred years. Pretty sure he’s going to need help with basically everything.”
“You’re off by three hundred plus years,” Remy pointed out. “Turns out he’s never dated at all. And he doesn’t need advice on picking a restaurant or knowing how long to wait to text a woman after sex; what he needs is practice having sex—ideally, with a human female.”
Jussara’s features twisted in horror.
&nbs
p; “What? I can be sensitive and practical, can’t I?”
“Gross! How could you even—you’re as bad as Alex.”
“I didn’t suggest that he find a doppelganger to screw and then throw it in the seer’s face as some kind of asinine flirting tactic. And this is hardly the same thing—Milena was Alex’s true mate.” He tilted his head at me. “Unless, of course, the universe has granted you a second true mate?”
“True mates,” Jussara scoffed. “It doesn’t matter! This seer is obviously special to him.”
“Agreed. And she’s also special to the rest of us—as a seer. I’m considering her safety, Jussara.”
“He’s a doctor,” she snapped at him. “He delivered me from my human mother’s womb. He’s perfectly capable of handling a human woman’s vagina.”
“Yes, but doctoring a human woman and fucking one are hardly the same thing to someone with Kai’s sexual preferences,” Remy asserted.
“Go away.” She shooed Remy with her hand. Stepping closer to me, she asked, “Have you ever been with a human woman before? Sexually?”
“Um … I—yes.” Unfortunately. “Once.” I winced internally at the hopeful look that broke in her green eyes. “But it was a long time ago and I—”
“Kai, that’s great!” She threw a triumphant glare back at Remy. “See? He’s got this. No need to ‘practice’ on anyone like Alex did.” She rolled disgusted eyes away from Remy to grin at me. “So it’ll be like riding a bike. Just remember how you did it the last time you were with a human woman. How careful you were with—”
“Jussara, I … killed her.”
Jussara paled. Her mouth opened, then closed.
“By accident,” I appended. “It was a terrible … accident.”
“Of course.” Remy rushed forward, putting an arm around his mate. “Of course it was an accident.” He released an awkward, dry chuckle. “I’m sure you were young and inexperienced at the time, too.”
Not exactly. But I nodded rather than contradict Remy.
Later, when Jussara had left us, Remy said, “So, you finally told Lessa about Maribel being with other women.”
“She told you?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Give me some credit, Kai. I had a good sense of who Maribel was back when Alex was with her.” He looked around at all the broken glass littering the lab. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I thought of your seer?”
“I was thinking of avoiding that, actually. I’m afraid I might shift and attack you if you mention her nipples again.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, my sense is you’ll find that you’re more compatible sexually than you’d like to admit right now.”
“It’s not happening, Remy. I can’t sleep with her. It’s too dangerous.”
“I’m inclined to agree, given your lifelong preference for sleeping in wolf form. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have sex with her and then sleep in the other room.”
I scrubbed a hand over the short beard that had grown in while I’d been in Greenland. “I thought you of all people would understand.”
“Kai, let me ask you this: How would you feel about it if Lauren wanted to sleep with other women with you? Would you embrace it and allow them into your bed?”
“It’s not the same. Maribel was my fated mate. I would’ve done almost anything she—”
“Just answer the question.”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“Don’t you think that’s significant?”
“Not in the manner you assume. Maribel invited women into our bed hoping to drive me to shame and punish her for it. It was never really about the other women. Which is why I refused to allow her to use Lessa in that manner, knowing how Lessa worshipped her.”
He nodded. “Makes sense. And did you give her what she wanted afterward?”
“Punishment, yes. Shame, no.”
“Even though she wanted it?”
“Correct.”
“You denied her?”
“I did.”
“Because you sensed it wasn’t really what she needed?”
“Yes. Not for being with other women.”
“Did you ever deny her punishment when she wanted it?”
“Yes.”
“To punish her?”
“Yes.”
“Then that’s your answer.” He threw his arms wide.
“To what? What are you talking about?”
“You can restrain yourself when you want to, Kai. If you were in tune with Maribel enough to know what she needed and to even protect her from herself at times, then you’ll be in tune with Lauren as well.”
“Did you not hear what I just told Jussara? Remy, I accidentally killed a human female once during intercourse.”
He waved his hand. “It’s in the past. That human wasn’t your mate. You don’t have to hurt Lauren during sex. You can control it. Which is good news, because Lauren’s not a sexual masochist to the extent and manner Maribel was. And she is human.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “Don’t kill the world’s only seer, okay?”
He turned and walked off, throwing a thumb’s up and a “You got this” over his shoulder on his way out the door.
27
Lauren
It’d been one week since my kiss with Stranger-Danger. One week since he’d left. Which was probably why I’d been consumed by thoughts of him for most of the day. Well, not just thoughts. I’d found myself seeing him everywhere today—spying on me from around every corner and following behind me each time I glanced over my shoulder. In my imagination, that is. He was never actually there each time I’d looked.
It was depressing how much I could miss someone I’d never really gotten to know. Also a solid sign as to how delusional I was becoming.
I’d just left the Screamin’ Beans and was headed for my afternoon class when I heard tires squealing and a familiar female voice hollering for people to get out of the way.
Uh-uh. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be …
An orange Dodge Charger with black racing stripes was driving recklessly through our quaint town center, honking at pedestrians in its path. As it squealed around the corner and skidded to a stop along the curb just ahead of me, I noticed it didn’t have plates, not even temporary ones.
The passenger-side window rolled down as I was walking by, and I froze in my impractical shoes when I heard my mom’s voice project from inside the cab, “Lauren, is that you?”
My mouth was still hanging open as she reached over the center console and threw the passenger-side door open. “Get in the car.”
What the—? “Babs? What the hell are you doing here? Did you just drive from Seattle? Whose car is this?”
“I said get in! There’s no time for stupid questions.”
I got in, and she took off.
“Will you stop driving so fast? We’re in a thirty zone, and you’re driving recklessly in a vehicle with no tags.”
“I know what I’m doing, thank you!”
Great. “And I’m not deaf. You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“All right.” She inhaled slowly, then exhaled. “All right.”
I prayed for patience as she repeated this deep-breathing exercise five more times, double- and triple-checking her rear- and side-view mirrors as she did. Christ, she appeared to be stone-cold sober and she was acting paranoid as hell. Her wiry brown hair was unkempt and her coat had a huge coffee stain on it, but at least her nails were done. That meant she hadn’t gone completely off the deep end.
Finally, she said, “An SGLP showed up at the house last week.”
“I’m sorry—a what?”
“Suspiciously good-looking person.”
“Okay.” Right. “You know what? I have a class that starts in ten minutes. You mind swinging a U-ey and taking me back to campus now?”
She shook her head. “No can do. They’re onto you, Lauren. They know you’re the next big seer. I gotta get you to a safe house.”
; “A safe house?”
“I rented a house in town. Paid the guy in cash and used a false identity.”
Oh. My God. “That’s not the same thing as a safe house, Mom,” I argued rationally—why, I didn’t know. My mother had relocated here? To where I lived? “When did you do this?”
“A few days after the SGLP showed up.”
“Please stop using that acronym.”
“Why? It’s what your grandma and I used to call them. You might as well get used to the lingo now that you’re an important seer. SGLPs are gonna be coming out of the woodwork looking for you.”
One moment I was laughing and rolling my eyes, and the next they were filling with tears. Because this wasn’t funny anymore. I’d passed the point where I could chalk it up to her normal crazy and pretend that I wasn’t scared. “Pull over, Ma.”
“It’s not safe,” she repeated, compulsively checking her rear- and side-view mirrors again. “We have to get farther away from campus first.”
“Pull over, Babs!”
“Okay! Fine. But only for a minute.” Muttering obscenities, she grudgingly pulled over. “Lauren, what is wrong with you? We can’t be stopping here where anyone could—oh, my stars! Are you crying? What’s happened?”
“I can’t do this, Ma. I can’t watch you have another breakdown and know that it’s because of me this time.”
“What? Honey, I … I’m not having a breakdown. That’s not what’s happening here. Why on earth would you think I’m having a breakdown?”
“Because you are. You’re losing it all over again. You’re driving a car with no plates and calling me from burner phones. You’ve moved out of your house because a suspiciously good-looking person rang your doorbell.”
“Well—yes, that’s all true. But, my God, Lauren, what does any of that have to do with the price of potash in Israel?”
“Don’t make me get Dad involved.”
“Mel?” she squawked. “Have you lost your mind? Why would you ever involve your father in this? What could he possibly do to help us?”
“I’m not saying I want to get Dad involved, but I will if I have to,” I threatened.