by Dyan Chick
"Because you won't listen to me," she said. "And Draven's a big 'ol softie. A hopeless romantic. How's that for a twist of fate? I'm a siren and I run screaming from intimacy."
"That's the truth," I said. "Come on, I'll drive you back to your room. You can sleep this off."
"No," she said. "You're going to listen before I lose my nerve."
My shoulders sagged as I let out a sigh. "Listen to what, Angie?"
"The truth. Finally."
She was drunk and probably wouldn't remember any of this in the morning, anyway. And I had a feeling she wasn't going to go easy before she got to say what was on her mind. "Okay, go."
"Thank you," she said. "I love you, you big, dumb wolf. But I can't be with you."
"Why?" I asked, surprising myself with how much of a plead there was in my voice.
"Because I think I'm cursed."
"That doesn't make any sense," I said.
"Every man I've ever had sex with died," she said the words quickly, letting them tumble out. "Every single one. Sex with me. Dead within two weeks. And each time, it got faster. The last guy didn't even wake up the morning after. He literally died in my bed."
I stared at her, dumbfounded. That was not what I was expecting at all. To be honest, I wasn't sure what I thought she'd say, but that was not it.
"Say something," she said.
"I don't know what to say," I said.
"Well, now you know," she said. "I can't be with you because I can't go my whole life being with you and never having sex with you. It just isn't possible. And we can't have sex because you'd die."
"Angie," I took a step closer to her. "You can't really believe that?"
She was crying now, and she sniffed as she wiped away the tears.
I didn't know how to react to her. I'd never seen her cry. Angie was tough as nails. She wasn't fragile. She seemed like she always knew what she wanted.
I knew what I wanted.
I crossed the room so I was standing right in front of her and placed my hands on either side of her, boxing her in with my arms.
I could feel her body temperature rise and sense the change in her breathing. It was faster now and her eyes widened.
Before she could push me away, I pressed my lips to hers, claiming her. She was my mate and I was hers. I wasn't going to let either of us stand in the way of our happiness anymore.
Eighteen
Angie
Jason's lips were hot against mine, taking me by surprise. I wanted to stop him, but I couldn't resist. I felt like any resistance I might grasp melted away before I could form a coherent thought.
All sense of reason slipped away as his tongue pushed into my mouth, meeting mine. Our tongues collided as his toyed with mine. One of his hands grabbed my hip and he pressed against me until our bodies were flush.
I reached around him, tangling my fingers into his soft, dark hair, pulling him deeper into the kiss. He met my enthusiasm with equal fervor, nipping on my lower lip before returning his full mouth on mine. I moaned into his mouth, unable to mask my enjoyment. This was everything I wanted, even if there was a small part of me that knew it was wrong.
Thoughts were hard to form as his lips moved to my jaw and down to my neck. There was a reason I should be pushing him away, but I couldn't form ideas, let alone words.
I let my hands drift to his waist and slid my fingertips under his shirt. The rippling abs under my hands made my thighs quiver. I didn't just want him. I needed him.
Suddenly, Jason pulled away, eyes heavy with arousal, breath coming out shallow.
My hands dropped to my side and I stood staring at him, gasping for air. All at once, everything came back to me. We couldn't do this. It was too dangerous.
I pushed past him and walked to the kitchen where I'd left my purse and keys, swaying a bit as I walked. I'd had too much to drink and I almost did something that cost Jason his life. My throat burned as I fought back tears again. What was it about this man that made me feel like crying? Blaming it on the wine, I grabbed my things and walked back to the front door.
I stopped in front of Jason. "Can you please drive me back to my hotel?"
"Yeah." He opened the door and stepped aside to let me pass.
I walked through and silently walked to his truck. How was this supposed to work? It was clear we both wanted to be together, but it wasn't possible. Why the fuck had fate done this to us? Why bring us together like this?
I pulled my seatbelt on as Jason started the truck. I could feel his gaze on me and turned to catch him staring at me.
"You're telling the truth about this, aren't you?" he asked.
I nodded. "I'm sorry. I should never have let us get so close before."
He chuckled. "That wouldn't have worked. We might not have felt the bond right away, but it's always been there."
"Now what?" I asked.
"You're not going to like this, but I think we should go see Jane."
"How is a mage going to help with this?" I asked.
"She started having visions about a year ago," he said. "Sometimes she can see the future. She might be able to help."
"She hates me," I said. "And honestly, if she weren't one of your best friends, I don't think I would tolerate her at all."
"Does it make you feel better that she asked me not to bring you to her?" he said. "She's going to be pissed if we show up together."
"Why would that make me feel better?" I asked.
"I don't know," he said. "I can't think right now. It was as if kissing you turned off the logical part of my mind."
"I know exactly what you mean," I said, squeezing my aching thighs together. "And it's kind of killing me right now that I can't keep kissing you."
"It's worth a try, isn't it?" he asked.
"Does this mean you forgive me?" A renewed sense of hope rising in my chest made me feel like I was floating.
"Who knew it would take a vampire to get me to stop being so damn stubborn," he said.
"I should have known it would take something drastic," I said.
"You could have told me. You didn't have to leave," he said.
"If I told you, would you have believed me?" I asked.
He was quiet for a moment. "No, I would have torn your clothes off and made love to you right then just to prove it to you."
"And you'd likely be dead now," I said.
"How do you know it really isn't a coincidence?" he asked.
"I don't. But I'm not willing to test it out on you," I said.
"Jane's?" he asked.
"Fine," I said. "But if she starts shit, I'm out."
"You do realize how much the two of you have in common, right?" he asked.
I scoffed. Jane was nuts. She lived alone in a house that was rotting around her. She avoided human contact and made obscure comments about random things without being asked for her input. "I like being around people and I have manners."
"Yeah, when you want to," he said.
"You're so sweet," I said, sarcasm heavy in my tone.
"That's why you love me," he said.
"Right."
I held my breath as we turned onto the dirt road that led to Jane's house. My body was stiff with tension. I didn't want to see her again. The last time we'd interacted, she called me some really terrible names and made some comments that alluded to my past. Now, I wondered how much of it had been her apparent seer powers rather than a lucky guess. It made me uncomfortable before I knew she was a seer. Now that I knew she could potentially see the future, I was on the edge of terrified. Seers made most people wary, but I'd been raised with extra caution around them.
When I was a kid, my mom rarely spoke about my birth father, another siren. Apparently, he'd gone to a seer to have his future read and she advised him to leave his wife and child. My mom was heartbroken and left alone with an infant to care for. It led her to renounce the supernatural community and live like a mortal.
If not for my powers surfacing around my fifth birthd
ay, and her policy about not keeping the truth from me, I might not even know anything about him. While she never lied, that I knew of, she refused to teach me and made me promise to keep my magic a secret. It wasn't asking much since all supes kept their powers secret from humans, well, most of the time. She'd married the most boring human man ever. Todd. The accountant. I didn't even know if she really loved him. But he was smitten by her. Of course he was. She was a siren.
I took a deep breath, shaking the memories from my mind as Jason parked his truck in front of Jane's place. It looked even more dilapidated than it had the last time I saw it. I was pretty sure one side of the house was sinking into the ground.
Jason turned off his car. "You ready?"
The lights were on inside, but they still didn't add much illumination to the surroundings. If not for the fact that we were standing at Jane's house, I might have appreciated the view of the extra stars we could see here.
I pulled my sweater tighter around me as we walked to the front door. Despite the fact that the cold wasn't bothering me, I had a chill. Stupid seers. Why the hell did the one person I wanted to avoid at all costs have to add that to her resume?
Jason knocked on the door.
No answer.
He knocked again.
Still nothing.
"Jane? It's Jason," he called. "I know you told me not to bring her, but I had to."
"She hates me so much, she's going to ignore you?" I asked.
"She wouldn't ignore me," he said.
Jealousy spiked in my gut. Of course she wouldn't ignore him. Jason was, by far, one of the most attractive men I'd ever seen. And I had been surrounded by my fair share of handsome men over the years. He was everyone's type. I was pretty sure even some straight guys might appreciate his outer package.
He knocked again. "Jane? Everything okay?"
Something felt like it was slithering down my spine and I jumped, arching my back to clear the sensation.
"Are you okay?" Jason asked.
"No," I said, as I realized what that feeling was. "There's something here. Something dark."
I couldn't sense exactly what had sent the magic drawing down my back, but it wasn't pleasant and it wasn't typical.
Jason balled his hands into fists. "I feel it. Stand back."
I took a few steps away from him and he stepped back from the door before charging it, slamming against it with his shoulder.
The door gave way as if it had been hit by a cannon. In a way, Jason sort of was like a cannon. He was explosive when he needed to be.
He stepped over the threshold and I stretched my hands out in front of me, prepared to call to magic if needed. There wasn't much I could do here, there wasn't any water nearby, but I wanted to be ready just in case.
Nineteen
Angie
An electric charge hung in the air leaving behind a faint smell like burning wires. All of my senses were on overdrive and adrenaline coursed through me, making me flinch at the slightest sound.
Jane's place was a disaster. Furniture was overturned, papers were scattered all over the floor. In the small kitchen, the water was running in the sink full of dirty dishes, pouring out onto the floor.
I could feel the water connecting with me and it gave me slight comfort. If nothing else, I could pull that water out and at least make an attacker wet. I walked past the kitchen, letting the water continue to flood the laminate floor as I followed Jason down a narrow hallway.
"Jane?" he called.
With each step deeper into her home, the spike of magic increased, making the hair on my arms stand on edge. While I could detect that magic had been used, and I could tell that it wasn't the good kind of magic, I couldn't track what exactly it was. That was a mage skill that sirens didn't have. As far as I knew, shifters didn't have that skill either. We were both walking in blind to whatever had caused this damage.
The odd, outer body white noise of a record player that had run out of record sounded from a room on the right. The door was open a crack and a light was on. My heart raced as we both stopped in front of it.
"Wait here," Jason said.
"Like hell I am," I snapped back. "Whatever did this could still be here. We stick together."
He nodded, then pushed the door open.
Her room was just as much a mess as the rest of the place. Overturned furniture, clothes everywhere. Running water coming from the attached bathroom.
Then, I caught sight of the body on the ground. My heart dropped into my stomach as I watched Jason rush to her side.
He knelt down and pressed his fingers to her throat. "She still has a pulse."
"What happened in here?" I asked. "What could have done this?"
Jason scooped Jane up in his arms as if she were a small child. "Let's not stick around and wait for it to return."
"Right, good point. Let me turn off the water." I ran to the bathroom, but before I got to the sink I stopped dead in my tracks. "Um, Jason."
Scrawled on the mirror in what appeared to be black eyeliner was one word: Magnus.
Ice ran through my veins and my breath came out in short, shallow pants. Whoever had done this was here for the mage I killed. They'd tracked him here. And they'd tracked him to Jane.
"What is a Magnus?" Jason asked, still carrying Jane in his arms.
"It might be the name of the dead mage you helped me dispose of," I said.
"Oh, fuck."
"Yeah," I said. We were truly, and rightfully fucked. The Shadow Club had a reputation for being ruthless and very loyal. If they'd tracked him here, how much longer would it be before they linked Magnus to me? To Jason? I couldn't let that happen.
"We need to wake her up," I said. "We have to know what she told them."
"She wouldn't betray us," he said.
"Not on purpose," I said. "But they sent something after her. We need to find out what it was before it goes after the rest of us."
"Come on," Jason said. "I've got just the place.”
Jane's head flopped onto my shoulder as Jason turned off of the dirt road. I looked at her and wrinkled my nose. I wanted to push her off of me, but that would cause her to flop onto Jason. Deciding it was easier to embrace it, I tugged her down to my chest so I could cradle her head better. The last thing we needed was her falling into Jason's lap while he was trying to drive. I might not like Jane, and I knew she sure as hell didn't like me, but she'd been attacked by something and it was totally my fault. I never in a million years thought I'd feel bad for her.
"Where are we going, anyway?" I asked. I might have gone along with letting Jane's head rest on my breasts, but I was ready for her to be back to her old, bitchy self.
"I know someone who might be able to heal her," he said.
There was only one person I could think of who might be able to help heal an injured mage. She was one of those rare humans who was neck-deep in our world. While she hadn't given me her whole past, I knew she was somehow connected to hunters, the secret organization that was trying to eradicate our kind. "You're talking about Minnie, aren't you?"
"Who else?" he said.
Little sunbursts of joy filled me as I thought of what a comfort it would be to see Minnie's face. After I saw a casino in the space where her soap shop had been, I was worried she'd left town. The happiness didn't last long, though. Almost as soon as it arrived, it came crashing down in a sea of self-doubt with a big helping of self-loathing. I respected Minnie. She was the closest thing to a mom I'd found in Crescent Falls and I wanted her to be happy to see me; proud of me, even. But I'd left her, too, without a warning. And now, I was returning to town with a burden that had already injured someone, disgraced.
"She'll be thrilled to see you," Jason said.
"She's going to be pissed," I said.
"She'll get over it," he said.
"Especially after I tell her how I only returned to get your help to hide a dead body," I said.
"Yeah, she'll love it. You know how she is abou
t gossip. You're going to make her year."
"Right," I said, frowning.
Seeing Minnie should be a happy reunion. Instead, I was going to be waking her up in the middle of the night.
Jason parked in front of Minnie's duplex. She lived on the right side of the building and Miles lived on the left. Minnie once told me that she used to have to drag him in, naked and blabbering after the full moon when he was younger. It never seemed to bother her. In fact, I think she quite enjoyed having someone to mother right next door to her.
Minnie’s windows were dark, but the flicker of a television screen shone through the sheer curtains at Miles's house. "Should I get him?"
Jason looked over at the left side of the building. "Wouldn't hurt to have another set of hands."
I lifted Jane off of my chest and pushed her toward Jason. "You take her, I'll get Miles."
"Doesn't seem like a fair trade," he said.
"You're the one who wanted to go visit her," I said.
"Good thing, too," he said. "She might not have been breathing by the time someone found her a few days from now."
I winced. "Sorry. I know this is all my fault. I know she's your friend. I'm sorry."
"It's alright," he said. "I can't expect you to suddenly start being friendly toward her."
"I'm going to try, though," I said.
He pulled her out of the truck and scooped her up again, then closed the door with his hip.
I got out of the other side of the truck and headed toward Miles's door.
He opened it while my fist was raised, ready to knock. "I thought I heard you out there."
Shifter hearing. Of course he did. "We need help."
Miles nodded. "Whatever you need, just tell me what to do."
I swept my arm to the side where Jason was standing in front of Minnie's door. "Someone traced the body to Jane."
"Oh shit." Miles jogged over to Jason and quickly took Jane from his hold.