No, something else was going on here, something I was missing.
“I don’t get it,” I said, softer this time. “How many times have we worked with Satina? At this very moment, she’s in the guest bedroom. How is that different? And don’t you dare say it’s because you didn’t marry Satina, because you know those circumstances were different.”
Abram got up and moved to the end of the bed. “It’s not about you marrying Charlie.”
“Well then, what is it about then? Because I honestly don’t have a clue anymore.”
“I never loved her, Charisse,” he said. “We may have been connected, and she might even be the reason I am who I am today, but not for a minute did I ever love Satina. That’s why it doesn’t matter if we work with her, because she never mattered to me. Can you say the same for Charlie?”
For a long moment, I just stared at him, because we both knew the answer.
“No,” I finally said. “He was my first love. He’s always going to mean something to me. I’m not ever going to be okay with the idea that something bad might happen to him. But he’s not you, Abram. He couldn’t ever be you. And I really hope that’s enough, because it’s all I have to give.”
“It is,” he answered, looking back at me. “Or it will be. It’s just, something is attacking your ex-boyfriend girlfriends, and…something feels off about it. We’re missing something.”
“Right,” I answered, practically giddy that he hadn’t referred to Charlie as my husband again. “But that’s why we’re here.”
“Come on, you’re smart. Perhaps the smartest woman I’ve ever known. What are the chances that this isn’t about you?”
“Probably not great,” I said. “But that doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” Abram said. “And just as you’ll never be okay with the idea of something happening to him, I’ll never be okay with putting you in danger for someone who didn’t deserve you in the first place.”
“God, I love you,” I muttered. “But I hope you understand why I have to do this.”
“I’m trying,” he whispered.
“Fair enough,” I said. “Now come to bed. We only have a few hours before the beast takes over, and I want to enjoy them before I have to put you in chains.”
He stared at me for a moment too long, and I knew that, even after our chat, things still weren’t exactly right between us.
“Not tonight,” he said. “I don’t want to be preoccupied should something happen. I’ll take care of the beast. You get some sleep.”
He got up and strode toward the window, placing an arm against the pane and staring out into the city.
“Um…okay,” I said, equal parts embarrassed, hurt, and guilty. “See you in the morning.”
But he didn’t respond.
* * *
When I woke the next morning, Abram was still standing there. He looked just the same, as though he hadn’t moved a muscle all night.
No. That couldn’t be. He wouldn’t have been able to control the beast for long past midnight. He’d likely chained himself up in one of the bathrooms, freeing himself when the sun came up and he regained some of his finer motor skills.
Thankfully, beasts didn’t have fingers to unlock things.
“Good morning,” I said, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
He didn’t answer.
“Abram,” I said louder.
“We need to talk,” he said. Turning to me, I saw that his hair was wet. Had he been outside?
I sighed. “Not this again.”
“Something is wrong.” The look on his face—the nearest I had ever seen him to panic—sent my heart plummeting.
I bolted up, not bothering to slip on either my slippers or robe. “What’s going on?”
“I didn’t change last night.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what happened. The beast never came.”
“Okay…” I said, my brow furrowed. “That’s weird, but it’s not devastating. This happened back in Grimoult. Maybe this place has an enchantment on it, too. I mean, anything can happen in the city. Am I right?”
“It’s not like before,” Abram said. “I could feel the beast inside of me before. It raged and beat against my chest, trying to escape. But now…nothing.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said, waving him off. “It has to be something in this place. It’s binding you or something.”
“You’re not listening, Charisse. I’ve lived with this for well over a century. I know what it feels like, and I’m telling you that it’s gone. The strength, the speed, all of it. The beast is gone, Charisse. And someone is dead because of it.”
“Who’s dead?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
“Charlie took a little stroll last night after he thought everyone had gone to bed,” Abram started.
“And you followed him?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“Of course I did. I wanted to know what was going on.”
“And what if the beast would have come out?”
“That clearly wasn’t a problem,” he snapped.
“But you didn’t know that at the time, did you?” I bit my lip. “This place is just as crowded in the middle of the night as it is during the day. Do you have any idea how many people you could have hurt if you’d lost control? And it would have only been because you let petty and unwarranted jealousy color your thinking.”
“Are you even interested to know what he did, Charisse? Because I’ll tell you. He walked to Midtown, broke into a brownstone, and strangled a brunette to death with his bare hands.” Abrams fists began to shake. “And I couldn’t do a thing to stop him. All of my strength was gone. But Charlie—he threw me around like a rag doll. And then he took a knife to my arm.”
My heart raged. Abram would never lie to me. But Charlie…he would never do something like that.
Abram’s expression fell flat. “You don’t even care,” he said, his voice empty. “You don’t believe me.”
I crossed the room, shaking my head. “Of course I believe you. Are you okay?”
“It’s just a flesh wound,” he mumbled, rolling up his sleeve to reveal a nasty gash…one that his beast nature should have healed already. “The girl wasn’t so lucky.”
“But it wasn’t a full moon,” I said, my mind still at war with all I knew. “I don’t understand.”
“What is there to understand, Charisse? He’s been lying to us. Whatever’s happening to him, whatever energy is making him so strong, it’s not brought about by the full moon. In fact, I would wager he’s in full control of it. Charlie Prince is a murderer, and I’m not sure we have the power to stop him.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “That can’t be right. Where is he?”
“He ran away after our fight. He knows I saw him, though, so if he has any kind of brain between those floppy ears of his, he’s far gone by now.” Abram punched the wall, but it didn’t break as it should have. God, what was going on with him? “We have to find him, Charisse. If he’s killing his ex-girlfriends, you’re on that list.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Abram. If he wanted to kill me, why didn’t he do it last night?”
“Because before last night, he thought I could protect you.” His voice dropped to a gravelly tone. “I thought I could protect you.”
“You don’t have to, remember?” I asked, walking up to him and wrapping my arms around his waist.
But his return embrace lacked the confidence it once had.
“It’s never been about whether you can protect yourself,” he whispered. “I still need to know I could, if I had to.”
As I rested my head against his chest, the door swung open.
Charlie stood there with squinted eyes, a serious case of bed head, and a jar in his hand. He sleepily yawned.
“Sorry to barge in, guys, but is this, like, everybody’s peanut butter?”
Chapter 4
Charlie stood there, grinning like an idiot with a jar in his hand.
His eyes flickered back and forth from Abram to me without a care in the world.
Was he really just here to ask about peanut butter?
And that was when it hit me. There was no way he would come back here if he remembered what happened last night. If he had any inclination that he’d gotten the better of Abram in a fistfight, why would he come back here? Unless he wanted to finish him off. But if that was the case, why not do it last night? Why bring the fight back to a house that held two of the world’s most powerful Conduits?
Perhaps Charlie was confident enough in who he was—in what he was—to think he could best us as easily as he did Abram.
If that was the case, I was about to prove him wrong.
Abram, apparently, had just shared my same thought process, as before I could speak, he lunged across the room.
“You,” he screamed as he pushed Charlie against the wall, pinning him with an arm to his throat.
“Okay, bro!” Charlie coughed. “I’ll put it back!”
“Abram, wait,” I said, stepping toward them. “Just wait a minute!”
“You didn’t see it, Charisse,” Abram growled. “You didn’t see what he is capable of. If we don’t end this now, this sonofabitch could take the entire building down!”
“What sonofabitch?” Charlie choked out with eyes as wide as saucers. “This sonofabitch?” He motioned to himself and started shaking his head fast. “No, no. You’re way off base. I just wanted to make a sandwich.”
“Shut up,” Abram yelled, putting pressure on Charlie’s throat and sending him off into another coughing fit.
“Abram, you’re hurting him,” I said, futilely trying to pull his arm away.
“He killed someone last night, Charisse! Don’t you get that? He almost killed me, and he’s going to try to kill you.”
“What?” Charlie’s words were almost inaudible.
“Don’t play stupid.” Abram pushed harder with his forearm. “I’m done with your games.”
“Abram, please. Calm down,” I said, lowering my hand to my side. “What if he really doesn’t know what’s going on? What if something else is at work here? It wouldn’t be the strangest thing we’ve ever seen.” I stepped to Charlie’s side so I could look Abram in the eyes. “Could you live with yourself, Abram? Because I don’t think you could.”
“I like that line of thinking,” Charlie said, trying to wriggle free of Abram’s grasp. Though he didn’t manage to, he got much closer than he should have. The fact prickled at me and reminded me of Abram’s claims of losing his powers.
“We can’t just let him roam free while we decide,” Abram said, teeth ground together.
“Then we won’t.” I shut my eyes. Drawing from the energy that laced my blood, I twisted my hand in the air. Opening my eyes, I winked at Charlie, who fell unconscious against Abram’s hold. “There,” I said. “That ought to keep him down long enough for us to figure out what to do.”
Abram glared at me, backing up from Charlie before grabbing him and lugging him onto the bed. “And when, pray tell, did you learn to do that?”
“Just now,” I said. “Well, kind of. Satina did something similar back in New Haven, albeit on a much bigger scale, but if she can do it, why can’t I?”
Abram just scowled.
“Well, come on. Think about it,” I continued. “If she can do it with a drop of my blood, then certainly I can do it with pints and pints? So I just concentrated on what I wanted to happen, and it happened.”
He opened the door, motioning for me to accompany him into the living room. “I don’t like it, Charisse. I don’t want you to be anything like Satina.”
“I’m not. I—”
“And you just said it matter of fact, as if making your wants a reality isn’t one of the most potent displays of power the world has ever seen? Do you not realize how dangerous that could be?”
“Oh, relax,” I said, waving him off. “I’ve performed bigger magic than this—for example, that time my agent had me squeeze into a size six.”
Abram closed the bedroom door and jammed a chair against the handle, trapping Charlie inside. “A little less magic, please,” he said, his tone too irritated for it to come across as much of a request. “First, let’s figure out what’s going on here, before you go wishing a flat world and whatever else into existence.”
I rolled my eyes, folding my arms across my chest. “Really, now, Abram?”
He turned to the other guest room, the one that held his old flame. “Satina started this whole thing. She’s going to help us finish it.”
Abram marched over to the door and reared back, ready to lay into it with a pounding fist. But the damn thing swung open of its own accord.
I hate magically self-opening doors.
“What took you so long?” Satina asked. She was sitting at the edge of the bed wearing only a robe and painting her toenails a bright green. “I figured that when your powers went kaput, you would come running to me like a scared kid looking for his mommy.”
Abram clenched his fists at his side. “Do I look scared?”
“No,” Satina conceded. “But you don’t look particularly beastly, either. Which couldn’t have come at a worse time.” She looked past Abram to me. “Given the mess that your girlfriend’s husband is getting us all into.”
“What did you do to Abram?” I asked. Power shot through me in droves. Abram might have lost his supernatural edge, but I certainly hadn’t.
“Me? I didn’t do anything,” she said. “That curse was my masterpiece. It took everything I had and more. You don’t think Michelangelo would destroy his David, do you? No sooner would I destroy mine.” She turned to Abram with a sort of sick pride in her eyes. “No, sweetheart. This, you did to yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” Abram asked, stepping into the room with me right at his heels.
“When you ‘shared’ your curse with that awful island Conduit. What was her name? You remember, Charisse, the bull-looking one who almost made you jump off a cliff.”
“I remember,” I ground out, choosing not to speak Ameena’s name out loud. That woman still haunted my nightmares. “But Abram didn’t ‘give his curse away’. He just shared a piece of it to trap her. It was the only way we could stop her.”
“I know,” Satina said. “I was trapped in that ugly bitch’s clutches just like the rest of you. But do you really make the rules for something like that, Charisse? I know I don’t. Abram gave it away, and now it’s gone. That’s the only explanation. To be honest, I’m disappointed my curse could be undone so easily.” She winked at Abram. “Bet you wish you’d thought of that sooner!”
Of course, that was what she was concerned about in this situation—not the fact that Abram was defenseless.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Your theory is wrong, Satina. I was still cursed in Grimoult.” Abram huffed. “I had my abilities back on the island after we took out Ameena and even when we first got here. So what’s really going on?”
Satina sighed, paying more attention to painting her toenails than to either of us. “It was a big curse, a huge endeavor, and it stretched on for over a hundred years. Things like that take time to dissipate. But make no mistake, Abram. I’m looking at you now with eyes that are old and knowledgeable in the art of magic. This is not a mental block. This is not a physical ailment or abnormality. There isn’t an ounce of the magic I gave you left in your system. It’s gone, Abram. The beast is no more.”
Abram snarled. “Then you’ll have to bring him back!”
“Wait,” I said, holding my hands out between them. “Let’s think about this. Is that what you really want, Abram? You want to go back to being cursed, to letting this monster take you over every night?”
“I am that monster, Charisse.” He turned to me. “It’s as much a part of me as the color of my eyes or the soles of my feet.”
“What if it doesn’t have to be that way?” I asked, taking his hand. “That’s not who you were born to be. You
know I love you. Beast and all, I love every part of you. But you told me yourself that you searched for over a hundred years for a way to do exactly what’s been done. You can be human, Abram. We can have a normal life, just like you always wanted.”
He pulled his hand away from mine. “At what cost? You seem to have a martyr complex, Charisse. But I don’t have one for you. You might be satisfied to allow yourself to stand solitary against the incoming hordes of whatever’s building out there, but I’m not. You need me to keep you safe, and I’m not about to put you in more danger just to increase my level of comfort.”
My fingernails dug into my palms as anger boiled in my chest. “Your life isn’t a comfort, Abram! And the only complex I have is the one where I want to see us happy. I want us to have kids and move into some boring house in the country someday.”
“And I want to see you live until your next birthday,” he said. “Neither of us will get what we want if I can’t protect you.”
“I can protect myself.” I leveled my gaze at him, challenging him to say otherwise. It always came to this, despite the multitude of times I had proven my ability to take care of myself. “You said it yourself. I’m one of the most powerful beings in the world.”
“Which makes you a target. Add that to the fact you’re raw and untrained. I just can’t risk it.”
“You’re going to have to, I’m afraid,” Satina said. She blew one last time on her toenails before standing to meet us. Her robe darted open just enough to let everyone in the room know she was naked underneath, and then thankfully reverted back to its previous state. “I can’t help you.”
“Thank God,” I muttered.
Abram shot me a look. “What does that mean, Satina?” he asked. “You did it before. You can do it again.”
“I did it before because I was about to off myself,” she said. “That spell channels magic so powerful that a human vessel can’t hold it without burning out. Even if I hadn’t taken a header off that building, I’d have still died from the toll that spell took on my body. And you know something, Abram? I like this body. It might be a little lacking in the chest area compared to your girlfriend over there, but I don’t think I’m done living just yet. And I’m certainly not willing to go back to that dull-as-dishwater afterlife because you have a nervous imagination.”
Charmed by the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 3) Page 3