by Cecilia Lane
“Don’t do that!” she admonished and frowned. Gideon must have called him when he stepped outside. She tracked him out of the corner of her eye as he took a seat next to Gideon. He said nothing, but she could feel him watching her every movement.
Was the bear hunting her?
“Keep going. You won’t have perfect conditions on a busy night,” Gideon grumped.
Leah bit her tongue. He was right. She could focus even during the loudest nights. Callum was just an unwelcome distraction. She felt like she’d lost points in an imaginary, petty game by showing how much he bothered her.
She stacked the silver mixers, one into the other. One final flourish, and then she tilted the stack over her pyramid. Green liquid poured into each tumbler without spilling a drop on the shiny bar.
Gideon sighed loudly and shot Callum a shuttered look. “I don’t know about this.”
“They’ll get used to her the more they see her. And you’ll be there to set fire to them if they try anything with this place or with her.” Callum shrugged.
“I really enjoy being talked about like I’m not here,” Leah snapped.
Gideon didn’t move, but his eyes focused on her. “Can you start tomorrow? Not that you have much of a life here yet.”
She nodded before he could finish, all ill wishes for him forgotten. She was going to buy Becca dinner on Callum’s tab as a giant thank you. “What time to start?”
“Get here by seven.”
And that was her dismissal. She grinned broadly to herself when she turned and rinsed the colored water from the tumblers and mixers. She didn’t want to leave the place messier than it’d been entrusted to her. She’d been forced to stay in a town filled with deadly creatures, but she’d found a tiny sliver to call her own.
Stage one of escaping without stooping to Jamin’s level was on track. She’d get the town used to seeing her, ease their tension around her, and then plan to leave them in the dust.
“Let me buy you lunch to celebrate,” Callum said from right behind her.
Leah stiffened and refused to jump. She finished rinsing the glasses and set them on a mat to dry before turning a glare on the man. He stood at the bar and rested on his elbows in a far too relaxed pose. “No. I don’t want to accept your charity.”
“But you’ll give it away to everyone else? Don’t think for a moment Tommy didn’t call me about the round of breakfast I bought this morning. That offer was meant for you, not every person in the diner.”
“I was just trying to win over my new neighbors.” Leah widened her eyes and gave him a large smile. “I think it helped.”
“Fine.” He slapped down a ten dollar bill. “Shot of Jameson’s.”
Gideon reached into his pocket and waved a bill in the air. “Make it two.”
Callum pulled the bill from Gideon’s fingers and laid it down on his. “Now you can have lunch with me,” he smirked.
“Only because I’m paying for myself this time. Can’t have you getting any ideas in your head.” Leah frowned at them both and stuffed the money in her back pocket. She slammed two shot glasses on the bar and reached for the bottle in the rail. No tricks for them, just a straight pour and flick to move the little glasses closer to their side.
“To our not-date.” Callum winked and tipped his shot glass toward her before downing the liquid inside.
Irritation still clung to her like a burr when she followed Callum out of the dim bar and into the bright outside, but something about the strange man slowly sanded it away. He made her chest feel big and her head light. She itched to reach out and slice through the space separating them.
It made no sense. He’d done nothing to earn her trust or her admiration, though he physically hit all her buttons at once. Lust wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, but Callum triggered more than that. She took the entire puzzling drive to Tommy’s to pinpoint the stomach-churning confusion.
Callum made her feel safe.
He’d done it when he pulled her from the wreck, and he’d kept doing it while the doctor checked out her bruises. He kept her feeling secure when he dropped her off at Muriel’s. Even when a massive bear ripped out of his skin, that safety overrode what should have been deeply programmed flight instincts.
Following the realization came suspicion. Safety was a fleeting thing. She never had luck with it. Callum wouldn’t be any different, no matter how much her body cried out to sink her nails in and never let go.
Leah wondered again if the doctor had been wrong. Maybe she suffered a massive head injury and never woke up. Dreaming of shifters and safety made a whole lot more sense than actually experiencing either.
Callum pulled to a stop in the parking lot of the town hall. “What are we doing here?” she asked.
“Want to show you something first. Then we can get lunch if you’re still interested.”
She barely had time to furrow her brows before he was around the hood of the truck and helping her out of her seat. She pushed his hands away, not because she disliked the feel of his rough palms on her skin but because she liked it too much.
He held open the door to the building, then led her down a set of stairs into the bowels below before anyone on the upper level flagged him down. Lights flickered on as they walked through the corridor, triggered by sensors she couldn’t see.
“What’s down here?” she asked, just to break the silence.
“Mostly storage. Some cells for unruly shifters, though the police can contain most of them at the station. Truthfully, a visit to the drunk tank is the most common crime we have around here.”
“So you do have a murder shack,” she snarked, mostly to herself.
Callum glanced at her. “More of a room.” His words were entirely deadpan, but his eyes laughed at her.
One of the last doors was sealed with more than a simple lock. A keypad needed a code to enter, and Callum made sure he angled his body to keep her from seeing. That wasn’t a hindrance to her. A lock like that could be broken with a simple disconnect to an alarm system, a gentle coating of dust to figure out the used keys, and a little time running through the code permutations. But she let him have his privacy. There was no need to out herself.
All trace of amusement vanished from his face when he looked down his nose and shoved the door open with his back. He stepped backward with it, never taking his eyes from her face. No words left his mouth, but the dare was written all over his expression.
Follow for answers, or run and hide.
Leah turned her face toward him as she passed. The chocolate brown of his eyes brightened with a golden sheen of approval.
Not that she cared. Really.
The room wasn’t small or filled with tools of torture like she expected. Dim lights in the ceiling illuminated a stark, clean room. A few benches lined the wall, but nothing else was present to take away from the main focus.
In the center were three figures laid out on tables like spokes on a wheel. They lay on their sides, one arm tucked around their chests or, in the case of the woman, tucked under her cheek. Their other arms stretched toward the center and all hands rested on a dull, silver orb.
“These are the Broken,” Callum said from behind her. “They live, as far as we can tell, but they’re in a magical stasis of sorts. They don’t move, they don’t breathe, they don’t eat. They could be statues, except they’re warm to the touch.”
“Who are they?” She circled them. They looked like they’d simply fallen asleep in mid-conversation with one another. The air around them felt heavy and thick, just the way it did around Callum. Only, with him, it felt like sinking into a warm blanket. The sleeping figures set her heart racing in awe. The fine hairs on the back of her neck rose with an unseen current. The still bodies felt important.
“Our ancestors,” Callum answered, following only steps behind her and bracketing her with his own pulse of importance. “The veil between our world and yours opened more than a thousand years ago. When humans decided we were threats, and we�
��d seen enough death and destruction, ancient shifters worked with some of the strongest fae alive to power the enclaves. They sacrificed themselves to save future generations from slaughter. I wanted you to see them up close. I want you to understand what they did for us.”
“And why I can’t leave.” Her head swam with the information. Other worlds now mixed in with the magic of shifters and vampires. She wanted to believe some elaborate joke was being played on her, but nothing had given her that impression.
She spent enough time looking away from the things right in front of her and it’d only caused her pain. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Rips between worlds and supernatural creatures weren’t easy to swallow, but she couldn’t deny what she’d seen since Jamin tried to murder her.
“Supernatural blood is needed to see through the barriers,” Callum explained. “Without it, you need someone to lead you through. But anyone you tell, anyone that might find our borders, could have a drop of blood and bring others here.”
“That’s how I got here? You led me through?” She’d been out of it when he talked her into calming down and leaving her car. She’d rejected then what she saw and convinced herself it was a trick of her mind. Callum, Bruce, the men that came to help, they were all part of Bearden’s secret population. All of them helped pull her into their world.
He nodded. “Bruce shouldn’t have changed in front of you. It was still a possibility to let you go. But you saw, and now you need to stay. It’s not to punish you. It’s to save the rest of us.”
“That’s why you’re showing me this? To appeal to my sense of greater good? I have to tell you, I’ve never been much good at looking out for others over myself.”
Callum cocked his head and his nostrils flared. “Lie.” He went on before she could challenge him. “Could be worse. We used to kill trespassers.”
“So you’ve said.”
“You won’t escape. We have the benefit of our inner animals. Sight, scent, hearing. You will be tracked easier than any human could and you will be found. If you make it outside of the enclave, one of ours will find you and guarantee you tell no one where we are.”
Leah worked to keep the shocked expression off her face. He couldn’t have known her plan, could he? She knew nothing of their powers. Besides turning into a bear, he could read her mind.
To test him, she screamed in her mind. Dick! Giant, man-eating vaginas! I’ll skin your bear alive and make sweet, sweet love on the pelt!
He didn’t flinch. Either he was used to ridiculous thoughts, or he couldn’t read her mind. She was just too transparent. “If I stay?”
“You’ll be welcomed into the fold. You already have a job. Muriel will let you stay until you can find somewhere else to live, as long as you pay the rent. This will be your home, like I said.”
Leah shuffled to one of the benches along the wall and took a seat. “And this is for you to decide?”
“For now. And when it isn’t, I’ll make sure you’re protected. Some won’t be pleased with a human in our enclave. Some will be more than happy for new blood.” Callum made a face and sat next to her.
“Why do I feel like it’ll be just as dangerous to stay as to leave?”
“Because it might be. Outsiders aren’t welcome, after all. You aren’t the first human offered a place here, you know.”
“Oh yeah? And what happened to the last one?”
He looked away from her, but she didn’t miss the muscle tic in his jaw. “My mother abandoned us after she had my brother Cole. Just, up and left without an explanation. My father won’t discuss it, other to say that she was found and he’s sure she won’t tell anyone about this place. You’ll be watched so that doesn’t happen again. We learn from our mistakes.”
Chapter 9
Leah kept replaying Callum’s words in her head for the rest of the day and well into her first shift at The Roost the following night. He refused to elaborate or give her any other details when they left town hall and ate lunch at the diner. He refused to discuss the topic at all when he crossed the street and convinced her to let him buy her a dessert at Mug Shot. And he’d avoided her all the next day. Despite catching a glimpse of him as she went about town, he hadn’t stopped to talk to her. She had the feeling he shared more than he meant and wanted to lock himself down before he let anything else slip.
Part of her wanted to shake loose every single tidbit she could. Part of her wanted to sit back and let him keep his silence. That part housed ugliness in her own life she wasn’t willing to share. If she kept her secrets, he should have his.
His mother was like her. Human, if she guessed correctly, though she didn’t know how far the ‘outsider’ label pressed. Would other shifters from different parts of the world count? What about vampires and the mysterious magical fae that kept being mentioned without further explanation?
No, she bet the woman had been human. And she bet that was one reason why Callum brought her through the borders.
“Three stouts,” a man said gruffly and slapped a handful of bills on the bar. Leah jerked herself out of her head and popped the caps before sliding over the trio of bottles.
The door swung open and another group of rowdy, muscled men tumbled indoors. They bunched up around the bar. Standing nearly shoulder to shoulder, they blocked her view to the tables behind them. She recognized them immediately as the fire and rescue crew.
Becca had been right. The town’s men were all entirely too good-looking.
“So the rumors are true. Gideon hired himself a pretty face,” said the one she was certain was Callum’s brother. Cole, she thought was his name.
They had the same black hair and general facial features, but that was where the similarities ended. His cheeks and jaw were a little sharper, more angular, than Callum’s blunt ruggedness. And where she hadn’t seen a single tattoo on Callum, Cole sported designs all down his arms and even on his hands.
She stuck out her lower lip. “Poor baby upset he wasn’t pretty enough to make the team?”
The others behind him snorted with laughter and Cole even cracked a smile.
“Proper introductions. Cole, the attractive brother. Unfortunately not adopted.” Cole pointed to himself, then tapped each man on the head as he went. “Sawyer, our token quiet and mysterious lady killer. Hudson, resident psycho. Graham tries to be funny, so don’t feel bad if you have to toss him a pity laugh to make him leave you alone.”
“Gray, please,” Gray said with a smile. He dragged forward one man lingering at the back. “And this is Nolan, currently broody as a hen with no eggs.”
Nolan punched Gray in the arm and growled. Leah washed all trace of joking off her face. “Oh, I’ve heard about Nolan.”
The rest of them howled with laughter and cheering. Nolan only quirked an eyebrow at her. Broody, indeed. But with Becca sitting at the other end of the bar and studiously ignoring the commotion, Leah couldn’t help but see an opportunity for scheming. Perhaps a new human godmother would send one of them a drink to get the other talking.
She took their orders and started pulling drafts. “So who’s keeping the town from burning to the ground?”
Gray angled two fingers down his face like fangs. “Night shift.”
“Callum,” Cole said loudly with a knowing grin, “will be along shortly. Until then, you have to deal with us.”
She placed her knuckles against her forehead. “Oh, what horror. You better tip well, or I’ll tell your brother.”
“I was told you’re the one to talk to if you want free food and libations at Callum’s expense.”
“Sorry, guys.” Leah spread her hands wide and sadly shook her head. “That meal ticket has been punched. Good for one breakfast prank only.”
“Good thing, too. Repeating that little trick will mean bunking with you again,” Callum announced as he entered the bar and took the few steps to join the group. He grabbed his brother by the shoulders and ruffled his hair.
“Hell, no. You’ll cramp my s
tyle,” Cole scowled.
“With who? Your hand?” Sawyer shouter over the rest.
“Orders up, boys,” she called out to them and waved a hand over the pints. In the midst of their joking, she gave Callum a small smile. “You here to check up on me?”
He sidled up to the bar and took a seat. “Woman, I’m here for the booze and to make sure those hooligans with my brother don’t end up in the drunk tank before their morning shift.”
“Jameson’s, right? Or do you want something to nurse while you play babysitter?”
“Just an IPA. None of that draft shit. I know Gideon waters it down.”
Leah nodded and turned to pull a bottle from the case behind her. She winced with the movement and Callum immediately zeroed in on her waist. Her skin was a motley of green and purple across her lap and chest, but she still felt surprisingly good for a horrible wreck only days earlier.
“You’re pushing yourself too hard. I’ll talk to Gideon. You should be resting.” Concern laced his voice.
She waved him off. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I just need to take some painkillers and I’ll back be to good in no time.”
She popped the cap and set the bottle in front of him, expecting him to move off with the others. Instead, he took a swig and pretended to focus on the television playing a football game. She tried to busy herself with wiping down the counters but every few seconds his eyes darted her way and sent a fresh wave of butterflies flying in her stomach.
“Who the fuck let a human inside?”
The vitriol in the new voice shocker her into turning. She’d never once been addressed with such hatred, not even when her father was in a full temper or Jamin battered at her motel door. The man’s face twisted with rage as he eyed her up and down.
Gideon glared from the other end of the bar. “Take it up with the mayor’s office. She works hard, and she looks prettier than the hairs on your ass, so I don’t have a problem with her.”
The reassurance did little to calm the man down. He shot a quick look toward Gideon, then focused right back on Leah.