by Quinn Loftis
“It’s magnificent.”
They walked up to the bank. “Be careful near the edge,” he told her.
“Water. So, that's what water looks like? Unbelievable.”
“This is what I wanted to show you. I don't have a mirror, but I have this. And this way, you don’t just see yourself through my eyes or see a picture of me in your head that I conjured up. You can see us as we’re meant to be—together. Kale put his arm around her shoulder. They leaned out over the water’s edge and he looked down. The bright sun shining from behind him placed their reflections in stark relief on the water’s surface. A ripple or two caused by the wind occasionally distorted the image, but all in all, it was a reasonable facsimile.
Heather gasped. After a few moments, she said. “I can't even… I don’t know what to say.” She grabbed his face and turned it toward her so she could look into his eyes, but then she saw herself again. “Dammit.” She turned him back toward the water so she could continue to take in the picture of them together. She stared for some time, studying every detail. “I never want this moment to end, Kale.”
As she continued to look at the reflection of them through his eyes, she felt his hands on hers as he guided them up and then her fingertips were brushing across his skin. She stared at the reflection of him with her mind while she allowed her fingers to roam over his physical face. His jaw was strong and had a rough hint of stubble on it. His eyes were intense as they looked straight at her. His lips were thin, but his mouth had a sexy smirk on it that made her feel like he knew something that no one else knew and he found it incredibly amusing.
“You’re perfect, Kale,” she admitted. “Well, your face is perfect,” she teased.
“What’s that supposed to mean, mate?” he asked.
“I have it on someone else’s authority that the rest of your physique is quite exceptional but I’ve only seen your face, so I have to qualify my perfect statement.”
“Aye,” he purred. “So in order to get your full approval, you’d need to see a bit more?”
She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal, as if she wasn’t bouncing up and down on the inside while gesturing greedily with her hands and screaming ‘gimme gimme gimme.’ There was something seriously wrong with her.
“Pay attention, my female.” Kale’s voice was against her ear and his breath warm on her neck. “I wouldn’t want you to miss anything.”
Kale’s face was in her mind again, but this time she was seeing the rest of him. He was standing a couple of feet away, without a single stitch of clothing on.
Heather’s hands flew to her mouth as she witnessed her mate through their bond. “You’re picturing yourself fully naked for me?” She asked, her mouth tripping over the words as she stared at the beautiful male specimen. Once again she allowed her hands to rove over his physical body as she stared at the image in her mind. His muscles were firm against her hands, his skin was … it was a color she didn’t know how to describe. Just that it was lovely. She didn’t allow her gaze to wander down because she was sure she would do something stupid like giggle or completely lose her mind and jump on him both mentally and physically.
“We can go over the body parts when we have a little more time,” he said, humor lacing his voice. “This is just the beginning, mot. I want you to see everything you’ve missed, Heather. Every sunrise, every sunset, every cloud in the sky, every tree, every mountain, every city on earth. I’ll take you there, and I want you to see it all through my eyes.”
Their images became distorted as her tears began to fall freely, splashing the surface of the water and sending ripples across the reflection. “I can’t wait,” she breathed. “I can’t wait.”
“Are we too late?” Kara’s panting breath came from behind her and suddenly naked Kale was gone and the bond was closed down tight. Kale swept her close to his body, and he was shaking as he growled at the intrusion.
“Are ye’ too late for what?” he barked.
“Watch it, Kale,” Nick’s voice joined in. “There’s no need to bite my mate’s head off.”
“Why are you all here?” Kale asked. “This time was supposed to be private, not a damn orgy.”
“Orgy?” Stella’s voice was next. “What were you two about to do that you think we wanted to join in?” Her voice rose several pitches as she became more indignant at Kale’s suggestion.
“There was nothing happening,” Heather said, trying to defuse the situation.
“So, that isn’t blood that I smell?” Ciro asked.
“Great,” Heather muttered. “The gangs all here.”
“That’s none of your concern, wolf,” Kale snarled.
“Heather, honey,” Kara spoke again. “Your mate is looking decidedly wolfy and seems a tad edgy and extra protective. Could you explain why this might be?”
She could. The question was, should she? Her friends were going to bitch-slap her when they found out that she and Kale had performed the Blood Rites. She didn’t want to admit that they’d totally failed in their no-biting mission. But she did want to tell them that she could see, well, sort of see. She wanted to scream it from the rooftops. She hadn’t had time to let her heart really absorb the fact that Kale had just given her such an amazing gift. She’d seen her face for the first time, a tree, her mate, her naked mate. Had she known that morning when she’d woken up that she’d get a glimpse of Kale and all his incredible fleshly glory, she’d have been in a much better mood.
“Why does she have the euphoric look on her face?” Stella asked. “It’s creeping me out. I’ve seen that look on the faces of men who’d come into the bar and watch women dance. It’s the naked-dance face.”
“The naked-dance face?” Kara asked at the same time Heather giggled. Yep, she was about to lose it. The composure she’d maintained was about to come crashing down.
“Yes. You know, the face men get when they see a naked chick jiggling about.”
“Nick, do you have a naked-dance face?” Kara asked her mate, sounding much too intrigued.
Heather snorted when Nick sighed. “How about you let me know the first time you dance naked for me. Then you call your girls and let them know, too, since the question has just been tossed out there in front of nature, the Great Luna, and everyone.”
“I’m still trying to figure out why in the bloody hell you all are here.” Kale nearly bellowed.
“Kale, sweetie, I think you need to take a breather. Calm down.”
“They interrupted something private,” he countered. “Something precious between us. We just performed the Blood Rites, Heather. That’s extremely intimate, and we should be spending this time alone. Not explaining ourselves.”
“I hear you, but I don’t think you’re hearing them. They are concerned about something. I could hear it in their voices. They’re our friends, Kale. They aren’t here to rip us apart.”
“Honestly, we were worried we were going to show up and find that we needed to rip you two apart and separate you for a while,” Kara said, interrupting their dialogue through the bond and saying the complete opposite of what Heather needed her friend to say.
“Dammit,” Heather muttered under her breath when Kale roared, sounding more like a lion than a wolf.
“NO ONE IS TAKING MY MATE!”
“Kara, Stella, step back,” Ciro said calmly.
“We’re too late,” Nick said quickly. “I can see his mark on her neck.”
Heather sighed. “Well, it’s out there now.” Then she clapped and squealed like a damn child in a candy store. She managed to surprise Kale and was able to free herself from his grip. Running forward in the direction she thought Kara and Stella’s voices had come from she yelled, “I can see!” One second the ground was beneath her feet and the next she was falling forward to meet it with her face.
“But apparently not that hole in the ground. In front of you. Right. There,” Kara said dryly.
“Shut your trap, Orphan Anni
e,” Heather snapped as Kale’s large hands helped her up. “I seriously can see. In fact, I saw Kale naked.”
“Okay, that’s it. We’re out,” Nick said. “We will be at Peri’s. We will fill you in on what might have helped cause you two to completely disregard Peri’s warnings and do the Blood Rites anyways. Take your time as I’m pretty sure there’s no rush at this point. Damage is done.”
“Wait, she just said she saw her mate naked. That is not the moment when you exit a conversation, Canada,” Kara balked.
“You are not going to listen to another woman talk about seeing her mate naked. I don’t give a damn if it was the first time she’s ever seen anything in her entire life. March, woman. If you’re that desperate to talk about seeing a naked man, you and Stella can get a Ken doll, unclothe him, and then discuss it to your little heart's content.”
“What crawled up your butt and died?” Kara all but snapped back at her mate. Heather had to admit, things were getting interesting despite having been interrupted.
“Nothing. Everything. I’m just frustrated and you aren’t helping!”
“ME? What did I do?”
“Nothing! That’s the bloody problem. You did nothing, I did nothing, and they have done everything! And it pisses me off.”
“Whoa, hold on there, Sons of Anarchy,” Heather said to the biker wolf. “We did not do everything.”
“You’re bonded. I can smell it all over both of you. His blood is pouring through your veins as we speak, while my mate stands next to me without my bite, without my blood, and without having her own stupid grin over seeing her mate naked! Forgive me if I don’t give a damn about the technicalities of what everything extends to.”
“You have a death wish if you continue to speak to my mate that way,” Kale said, his voice so low and deadly that Heather was worried anything living might have simply dropped dead from hearing it.
“Guys, something isn’t right,” Stella said slowly. “Nick’s not acting right and neither is Kale. Ciro, babe, you okay?”
Ciro didn’t answer right away. Heather could feel the tension around them and wanted Kale to open the bond so she could see what was happening, but she knew she’d be too distracted with getting a first look at her friends to worry about whatever danger had wandered into their midst.
“Ciro?” Stella tried again.
Finally, Ciro answered. “We must get back to Perizada’s home. Now.”
From one breath to the next Heather was whipped up into Kale’s arms, wind blowing across her face. Her wolf was running full speed as if the hounds of hell were on his heels, and for all she knew, perhaps they were.
Chapter 12
“Occasionally, I get bored and complacent and entire years pass by without my notice. If the supernatural races do nothing of note, then I’m not required to record and remember their actions. How do I decide what is and is not ‘of note’? That’s a good question. It’s solely up to me to decide. If I feel their actions will affect the course of events in some significant way, then I record it. Rarely do I bother with the affairs of humans. I only record their events if they directly affect the lives of supernatural beings, and that doesn’t happen often, though it’s been happening more and more lately. But most of the time, I try to ignore the actions of humans, especially if what they do is personally embarrassing to me.” ~Thadrick
“Why are we here, Peri?” asked Thad as he stared at the storefront of the Little Shop of Horrors. The discomfort on his face was glaring.
“Do you recognize it?”
“Of course, I recognize it. Have you forgotten it’s my job to record the happenings of the supernatural world? How can I record those happenings if I don’t know the locations of all the supernaturals?”
Peri tilted her head. A thought suddenly popped into it. Shouldn’t Thad know exactly where Volcan is at this very moment? “Are you saying you know the location of all the supernaturals in the world?”
“No,” he replied. “Some go to great lengths to conceal themselves and are successful.”
“Like Volcan?”
“Yes, like Volcan.”
“And what about the owner of this shop?”
“Yes, she, too, tried to conceal herself from me.”
“Why has she concealed herself from you? Is there anything you need to tell me, Thadrick?” Peri tried to keep the grin off her face but failed.
Thad turned his impassive gaze upon the fae. He looked down at her, and Peri saw the exact moment he realized she knew his secret. His gaze turned from impassive to … slightly passive.
“She told you.”
“She did,” said Peri. “I don’t suppose there’s any way that you’re not still angry at her? And we can all just let bygones be bygones?”
“Why would I be angry? It wasn’t a serious relationship. It’s not as if we were mates.”
Peri thought about calling BS. But djinn were hard to read, and Thad’s expression had returned to its normal statuesque state. “Um, yeah, I kind of feel like you’re not being totally honest with me.”
“We have a job to do. Let us get on with it.”
“Okay then,” said Peri. “Professionalism, exactly what I like to see in my djinn. Very good. Let’s go.” She started toward the shop. It took a few steps before Peri realized Thad wasn’t following. “What’s wrong?” she asked, turning back to him.
“All of a sudden, I find myself … hesitant about speaking with the witch.”
Peri narrowed her eyes. If it had been anyone else, she’d have thought he was being insulting. But this was a djinn. She didn’t know if he had the understanding of social norms to insult someone. And Jezebel was a witch, after all.
“Why not?”
“I’m unsure. I feel … apprehensive. As if seeing the witch might reawaken old feelings.”
“And here I was thinking djinn didn’t actually have feelings.”
“Of course, we have feelings. We are flesh and blood, after all.”
“Could have fooled me. Doesn’t matter. You’re going to have to speak to her. We must perform the creation spell you, Jezebel, and I performed long ago. You concealed the missing pages of the spell book and gave them to Jezebel. I will need you both to cast the spell.”
“I wonder … how she looks.”
If Peri had been drinking something, she’d have spit all over the djinn. “Are you kidding me right now? Are you telling me you still have feelings for her? My goodness, man, it’s been over a hundred years. And not to make you feel like I don’t care—I don’t, by the way—but we don’t have time to deal with any revelations you might suddenly have in regard to past relationships. We have something small to do, and it’s called saving the world. Maybe you’ve heard. It’s kind of our thing.”
“The world isn’t going anywhere. What is a hundred years to you and I, Perizada? Her betrayal isn’t so easily forgotten.”
Peri shrugged. “A hundred years for me is like a decade. But I guess for you it’s like an afternoon.”
“Perhaps, Perizada of the fae, rather than speaking with the witch, I shall burn this shop to the ground. Perhaps, I’ll burn this whole city block to the ground. Maybe the entire city itself.”
“You won’t,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of cosmic being or beings control you, but I’ve known you long enough to know you have rules. You’re an observer, not a participant. You’re not allowed to go around burning down cities.”
“The rules for the supernatural world are changing. Wolves, fae, humans, and warlocks, all able to be true mates now. Maybe the rules are changing for me, as well.”
“I doubt they’ve changed that much.”
“Regardless, I’m not going in.” He crossed his arms over his chest. If he had boobs and a monthly cycle, he would have been the epitome of a teenage girl.
Peri put her hands over her eyes. I so don’t need this right now. “Thad, you have to help us. We cannot do this without you.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“If we don’t do it, innocent people will die. Volcan will become too powerful.”
“And how does that affect me?”
She wanted to rage at the djinn’s stupidity, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. Even if Volcan became so powerful he enslaved the entire human race, it would make no difference to the djinn. Volcan would never be powerful enough, nor would he ever even have any desire, to challenge the djinn. Thad was, after all, just an observer. Peri took a deep breath before she spoke.
“Okay, I understand what Jezebel did wasn’t exactly … nice, but let us look at this from a different perspective. You only agreed to help me to begin with because you were bored, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And has helping me been boring?”
“Not at all, Peri. I’ve had more distraction these past few weeks than I’ve had in decades.”
“Okay, perfect! And were you bored when you were with Jezebel?”
The djinn didn’t say anything, so Peri continued. “Look, Thad, you could refuse to help me. You could go back to the djinn realm, rot in your dilapidated mansion or you could continue to help us and experience whatever exciting adventures await you. You’re not going to let a silly little breakup that happened over a hundred years ago keep you from that, are you?”
Seconds stretched into minutes and Thad said nothing. Peri could tell he was weighing his options. She was just about to try a bit more coaxing when he spoke.
“I will not speak to her.”
Peri threw up her hands. “Thad, c’mon, we need you. No one else—”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t help,” he interrupted. “I said I would not speak to her.”
“I don’t understand,” said Peri thickly. “You have to speak with her.”
“No, you will speak to her on my behalf. If I must relay information to the witch, I will tell you. You may relay that information to her if you so choose.”
“What are you in third grade?”
“Those are my terms. If that arrangement is not satisfactory, I will happily return to my own realm.”