Wilder, J. C. - Shadow Dweller 5

by Sins-Flesh(lit)

  "I can give you a few ideas..." Vivian drawled.

  "NO!" The three women shouted in unison, drawing the curious looks of patrons at the tables nearest to them.

  "Really," Vivian sniffed. She jabbed her finger in Jennifer's direction. "That doesn't get you off the hook, young lady. Lying to your friends and telling wild stories." She shook her ebony head. "Is this how you pay us back for years of undying friendship, pounds of Swiss chocolates, and listening to your 3 a.m. phone dramas?"

  "I've never called you at 3 a.m.," Jennifer objected. "That's Melanie, she can never remember what time zone she's in."

  Melanie nodded, "True..."

  Jennifer leaned against the arm of the couch. "I didn't know how to tell you guys about Mac." She squirmed, fixing her gaze on the tips of her sandals. "It was complicated."

  Melanie leaned forward and patted her on the knee. "I think it's terribly romantic."

  "Oh, really," Vivian snorted, rolling her eyes in disgust.

  Shai arrived and energetically dropped onto the low-slung couch between Erihn and Jennifer. "Who are you castigating this time?" she asked Vivian.

  "Jennifer. She lied about her supposed lovers and, all the while, she was pining away for one man." Melanie swooned dramatically, waving her hand in front of her face as if she were flushed.

  "You're never going to win an Oscar with that style of overacting," Jennifer glowered. "Prima Donna..."

  "Shrew," Melanie shot back.

  "I think it's romantic," Erihn interrupted. "And I'm glad you waited for him."

  Vivian rolled her eyes. "What's so romantic about waiting for one man to come and take you away from all this?" She waved her hand vaguely to encompass the interior of the coffeehouse. "I say go out, grab him and do it quick before you dry up and wither away."

  "We know how you feel, Viv." Melanie leaned forward to pick up the champagne bottle from the ice bucket.

  "Well, I did get him...in the end anyway," Jennifer answered, a secret smile playing across her mouth.

  "Boy, did she ever," Shai snickered.

  Erihn turned to look at Shai in disbelief. Whatever had happened to her shy, retiring friend? The Shai who'd dressed in baggy clothing and ducked her head when someone looked at her sideways was now dressed in a body-skimming emerald green silk cat suit and a sheer ebony shirt with her normally unruly red hair caught up in a complicated twist. She looked sleek and sophisticated, confident. She certainly looked nothing like the wallflower she'd been a few years ago.

  "You've changed a great deal, my friend."

  "Really, how is that?" Shai asked, leaning forward to accept the bottle of champagne from Melanie.

  "At your little birthday dinner a few years back..." Erihn began.

  "Almost eleven years ago," Melanie chirped.

  "Has it been that long?" Jennifer shook her dark head. "Time does fly."

  "I'm getting old," Vivian sighed mournfully.

  "You still look 22," Jennifer observed

  "Oh, the marvels of plastic surgery...." Melanie teased.

  "I have not had plastic surgery," Vivian denied loudly.

  Erihn ignored the bickering that was her friends' favorite form of conversation. "You could barely keep from blushing when Vivian mentioned the word sex." Erihn smiled fondly. "Poor shy Shai."

  Shai laughed and filled Erihn's empty glass to the rim. "Boy, was I a little mouse back then." Her green eyes glimmered brightly. "I know better now." She gave Erihn an affectionate poke in the arm. "As if you're any better."

  "That's so true." Vivian snagged the bottle from Shai and filled her own glass. "I think we need to make Erihn our next little project. Look how beautifully Shai turned out. Only a few months after her birthday, she was hanging out with the richest man in the city and having the best sex of her life."

  Erihn shook her head. "Oh no you don't! I don't want to be..."

  "It wasn't hard to have the best sex of my life since I was practically a virgin when I met Val," Shai laughed. "I had nothing to compare him to."

  Vivian offered the bottle to Jennifer. "One only has to glance at Val and know he's a supreme fu-"

  "Perfect!" Melanie leaned forward to intercept the bottle. "Just what we need, a new project. What stupendous timing, I'm not even working right now! I think we need to start with Erihn's clothing."

  Erihn scowled at Melanie. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

  Jennifer accepted the bottle from Melanie and shook her head as if to warn Erihn to be silent and give in gracefully. "If you have to ask what the problem is, then you're in bad shape, my fashion-unconscious friend."

  Erihn waved a hand at Melanie's skin-tight pink leather halter dress and matching high-heeled pumps. "I can't dress like that. I'd look silly."

  "We can do something fun with her hair." Vivian reached over and snagged a lock of Erihn's hair, winding it around her finger. "A bob maybe."

  Erihn glared at Vivian as she pulled her hair away from her friend's manicured claws. "I think not," she snapped.

  "Color it?" Melanie queried.

  Erihn clutched her hair in one hand. She glanced down at the muted brown, dulled by the subdued lighting. "No way."

  "No." Jennifer shook her head.

  "Thank you, Jennifer," Erihn huffed. "Finally, the voice of reason..."

  "Layered, I think," Jennifer mused.

  "What?" Erihn shrieked, drawing more curious looks. She cringed under their gazes, embarrassment heating her skin. She hated drawing attention to herself and she tried to avoid it as much as possible. But, whenever her friends were involved, they invariably caused a scene sooner or later. She suppressed a groan.

  Shai laughed and threw an arm around her. "I think you're perfect just the way you are," she said with a hug. "However, I do think a man is in order."

  "Traitor." Erihn snatched her glass of champagne off the low table in front of her and took a healthy swallow.

  "You have no idea how it could change your life," Melanie offered.

  "I like my life the way it is thankyouverymuch." Erihn shook her head. "The last thing I need is a man mucking it up."

  "If you had a man in your life, you could quit buying all those sexual guides," Vivian pointed out, accepting the champagne bottle from Jennifer.

  "Research," Erihn snapped.

  "Yes, but you could try it out on a willing subject." Jennifer grinned.

  "I don't need..."

  Vivian snorted, leaning over to top off Erihn's glass with the dregs of the bottle. "Yes, you do. Trust me, darling, there's nothing like a good fuck to get your body and mind back into working order."

  Erihn blanched at Vivian's blatant words. "I don't need a....a....that," she stammered.

  "You're afraid because of what that man did to you," Melanie observed.

  Erihn tensed. Of course she was afraid. She had good reason to be terrified of the opposite sex. When she was a teenager, she'd been kidnapped and held for several days by a brutal madman who'd used her in ways these ladies could never imagine. What wasn't there to be afraid of? When had the opposite sex ever shown her anything but pain or brutality, or ignored her completely? She'd learned her lessons well; she wasn't about to repeat a past mistake.

  Her hand trembled as she raised the glass to her lips. She took a large gulp of the icy liquid to give herself time to gather her errant emotions.

  "I'm not afraid," she lied. "I simply like my life..."

  "You're afraid, and that's okay," Jennifer interrupted. "It's okay to be scared. We just need to find you a nice, refined gentleman who'll worship you..."

  "Boring." Vivian sighed and Jennifer shot her a dark glance.

  "And take care of you." Melanie raised her glass in Erihn's direction as if to salute.

  "Buy you flowers." Shai grinned.

  "Buy you jewels," Vivian added.

  "Take you out for long romantic walks," Melanie sighed. "I remember romantic walks..."

  "Hold your hand in the rain," Shai said.

  "Gi
ve you long, soulful kisses that make your toes curl..." Jennifer raised her hand to her lips, her expression dreamy.

  "And fuck your brains out on occasion," Vivian added dryly.

  Erihn couldn't prevent the laugh that escaped her. Vivian had a one-track mind, which was fine with her. She got some of her best fantasy material for her novels from Vivian's conquests and tall tales. Vivian's sexual appetites were legendary among the five friends.

  Shai hugged her again. "Don't worry, darling, we have everything well in hand and it won't hurt a bit."

  "Unless you're lucky," Vivian purred.

  Shai rolled her eyes at Vivian, then turned to Erihn. She pointed to the book in Erihn's lap. "What do you think of your birthday present?"

  Erihn set her glass down and rubbed her hand over the worn leather binding. It was a first edition of Emily Brönte's Wuthering Heights. She'd never imagined touching a copy, let alone owning one. "It's lovely. I don't know what to say other than I'll treasure it always."

  "Val was tickled to death when he found it tucked in the back of a dusty little antique bookshop in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. On a bottom shelf behind a box of tattered Victorian erotica laid this little gem. He was quite dirty by the time he'd retrieved it, and when I walked into the room, he was sitting on the floor, grinning like a loon with this book in his hands."

  Erihn hugged the book to her chest; a tiny thrill of possession ran through her. "I must call and thank him..."

  "No need. He'll be here shortly." Jennifer picked up her glass of champagne. "He and Mac are escorting us to dinner tonight."

  "Only two of them?" Melanie laughed. "Do you think they can keep up?"

  Vivian slanted a wicked grin at the blonde. "I have no doubt they can." She turned her gaze to Erihn. "But the question is..." She leaned forward, her eyes bright with curiosity. "Will you go up there and recite a poem?" She nodded toward the tiny stage at the front of the coffeehouse.

  Erihn looked across the crowded room to the stage at the far end. The Brew House was one of the most popular spots in Boulder. Half of the building was a coffeehouse, while the other half was a micro-brewery. Well-dressed patrons sat at café-style tables or relaxed in cozy clusters of couches and overstuffed chairs. At the far end was a stage used for musical performers or literary readings, and Sunday night was amateur poet night.

  A variety of colored lights transformed the stage into a kaleidoscope of motion. A small woman dressed in a swirling rainbow of a skirt stood in a narrow spotlight of white. The light turned her blonde hair to white, giving her an angelic look that clashed with the vibrant skirt. She undulated her hips as if she were swimming.

  "Not like that." Erihn shook her head, enjoying the floating feeling caused by the champagne. "Never like that..."

  "She is a bit..." Shai hesitated. "Over the top?"

  "Poseidon!" The blonde woman shrieked, her body taut as if she'd been struck with a jolt of electricity. Gracefully, she collapsed to the stage in a rainbow swirl and the crash of silver bracelets.

  Melanie twisted in her chair to look at the stage. Her expression turned confused. "Is that what they call performance art?"

  "Dementia is more like it," Shai commented.

  The waitress appeared with another bottle of champagne in a glass ice bucket. With a flourish, she set it on the low table. "Here you are, ladies, compliments of the gentleman at the bar."

  Erihn looked over Melanie's head into the other half of The Brew House. Shai's lover, Val, was leaning against the bar. As he caught her gaze, he smiled then lifted his hand in a quick salute. Warmth blossomed in her chest at the sight of him as an answering smile curved her lips. Val was a wonderful man, if a bit intimidating to look upon. At just over six feet in height with a muscular build, he easily evoked a woman's darkest fantasies. He was incredibly handsome with his raven hair and dark blue eyes; almost overpowering in his intensity.

  At first, she'd been uncomfortable around his blatant masculinity, but she was soon cured of that. He was such a good friend to her, and he worshipped Shai to distraction. His devotion to her best friend went a long way in making her feel at ease with him.

  "You've just got to love that man," Vivian announced as she waved in Val's direction.

  "No dear, I have to love that man. You're only allowed to drool from afar," Shai teased. "If you get too close, I'll cut off your claws."

  Erihn cast a glance at Shai just in time to see her smile provocatively at her lover. She hoped Shai never realized that she'd modeled her latest hero loosely on Val. She'd be mortified if they ever figured it out, and she'd never be able to look either one of them in the eye again. Erihn smiled. Val was such perfect hero material.

  "So, Erihn," Jennifer startled her from her musing. "Tell us about your latest release. Where did you get this intriguing idea for your hero?" Her eyes glinted with undisguised mirth as she leaned forward to liberate the new bottle of champagne from the ice.

  "Ohhh," Melanie gushed. "I just loved this book. Brand is so dreamy and so hot. My husband and I took turns reading various passages to one another."

  Erihn's cheeks heated. "I wasn't aware I was writing a sex manual, Melanie."

  "Page one seventy-two was positively steamy..." Melanie purred.

  "Did you act those scenes out?" Vivian demanded. "Do give me his name, I'd love to meet your research subject."

  Shai laughed and stretched lazily. "I haven't had time to read Velvet Lover yet. Tell me what it's about."

  "Well, actually, I got the idea from a book in Val's library. All of you know I did some research there early last year, and I was looking for some specific information. I was going to do a historical based in a Turkish harem when I came across a little book on metallurgy tucked behind some dusty tomes." Erihn shook her head. "I wasn't sure if I should use the book, but Val said anything in the library was available, so I read it. It was a fictional diary of sorts and it was just fascinating."

  "A what?" Shai frowned in confusion.

  "A little handwritten tome about a fictional creature, but it was written as if the author were that creature. Sort of like a monologue of daily life and information on the lineage. Most of it read like stereo instructions; out of order and confusing."

  "I don't recall seeing anything like that in the library. Of course, there are thousands of books there and I haven't gone through them all." Shai frowned. "What kind of creature was this book about?"

  "He's a fabulous creature," Melanie broke in.

  Vivian nodded, waving her glass dangerously, "Stunning, truly."

  "Such stamina..." Melanie sighed.

  "Very inventive..." Vivian grinned.

  "A were-cat," Jennifer deadpanned.

  Shai blinked. Though she hid her shock well, Erihn caught a glimpse of her stunned expression before she hastily masked it.

  "A were-cat is..." Erihn began.

  Shai waved her hand. "I know what a were-cat is. Your new hero-the one everyone is raving about-is a... were-cat?"

  "Well, sort of," Erihn began.

  "Sort of nothing," Melanie interrupted. "He's the hero to end all heroes."

  "He's pretty spectacular," Jennifer nodded.

  "A were-cat?" Shai looked appalled.

  "What's the problem?" Erihn laid a hand on her friend's arm. "Val said it was okay to use anything from the library."

  "I'm sure it's fine. I was a bit startled. I never knew this book existed." Shai's expression turned thoughtful. "So, tell me about these were-cats."

  "Well, they normally appear in human form as normal as you and I. As the full moon approaches, they spend more time in their catlike form. They gather energy from this form and it gives them certain... powers." Erihn paused, unsure of how to proceed.

  Jennifer's eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. "That's an inventive way of describing it."

  Vivian slanted a sideways glance at Erihn, her expression encouraging. "Go on."

  Erihn colored furiously then glared at Vivian, unable to speak. It was one t
hing to write about The Act, it was something else to actually speak of it in public, even if she was with her dearest friends.

  "They're... How would you say..." Melanie paused, the tension grew as she waited until everyone was leaning forward to catch her next word. "Well-endowed."

  "And then some," Vivian breathed.

  "Energetic?" Shai queried.

  "Like rabbits," Vivian drew out the "r" as she gave Shai a knowing look.

  Silence.

  Erihn squirmed as Vivian and Melanie broke into peals of laughter. Jennifer shot her a warm look. "It's a good book, little mouse. For a fantasy."

  "You don't think were-cats exist?" Shai gave Jennifer an arch look, a smile curving her full lips.

  "Honey," Vivian broke in. "If were-cats did exist, I'd be the first to know."

  Erihn smiled. "Boy, isn't that the truth."

  Jennifer's gaze was locked with Shai's. An odd energy passed between them as if they were having a silent conversation. "Sure they exist." Jennifer's expression was smug. "I think I see one in the bar right now." She nodded in the direction of Val.

  Erihn frowned, then glanced over to see a man standing with his back to them as he spoke with Val. All she could see was brownish hair pulled into a short ponytail with something silver that gleamed as he moved his head. He was big and broad, dwarfing Val by a few inches. His black clothing made him seem enormous.

  Threatening.

  Untamed.

  Chilled, a shiver rippled over her skin as a faint sense of foreboding hovered on the edge of her consciousness.

  "Are you okay?" Jennifer touched her on the knee to get her attention.

  "I'm fine," Erihn whispered. She cleared her throat. "I think I need more champagne."

  Vivian leaned forward and reached for the bottle. "I'm with you sister."

  She moved like a cat, dainty, her feet barely touching the floor.

  Fayne leaned against the bar, his pint of Scottish ale forgotten beside him. Through the doorway into the coffeehouse portion of The Brew House, he watched her as she wove her way around the tables filled with chatting patrons. She was headed toward the stage at the far end of the room.