Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5)

by Dannika Dark

  “I’m afraid not.” Page brushed her bangs away from her face. She kept her hair short to the nape of her neck, but her long bangs touched the tip of her nose. “It’s not as simple as that. The only way to prove she’s part Chitah is if we performed a DNA test on her and compared it to her Chitah mother. I can guarantee you they would discredit her surrogate human mother, but the Chitah egg that was used to inseminate her—that is who you would need to find.”

  The likelihood of that Chitah still being alive was slim to none. They’d have to locate another lab with file copies or a scientist who was part of the experiments on Silver’s mother. They’d shut one down a month ago, but none of those men had any knowledge of the original test subjects. Grady, the Mage who’d led Silver’s mother to the labs in the first place, knew nothing of what was used in the insemination and where it derived from. His only part was infusing his energy within the fetus to strengthen it so she could carry to term.

  Page rose from her chair and went to the bathroom down the hall. When she returned, she was holding a stack of folded clothes.

  “I want you to take these. They’re the clothes you sent me.”

  Gifts he had specially selected that would suit her frame, complexion, and eyes. “Keep them,” he insisted.

  Her expression soured. “Keep them? Aside from the fact they’re too expensive, just look at me—I’m a house! I can’t wear these,” she said, holding one of the slender button-up shirts over her swollen belly. Her lip pouted and Justus crossed the room and lifted her chin.

  “You’ll need suitable clothes for work after the baby comes. Keep them.”

  “I’m never going to have my old figure back. I ate a gallon of ice cream in two days.”

  Her eyes welled with tears and Justus began to laugh. In fact, he couldn’t stop. He rocked with laughter and folded his arms, shaking his head at her belly.

  Page glanced down and wrapped her arms around the lovely curve. She smiled and began to giggle. “Be careful what you wish for, Justus. You said you wanted a woman with curves and I think this is about as curvy as it gets.”

  His laughter cut off.

  He analyzed every word she had just said. Did she mean she wanted him back? Or was it a flippant comment? It was time to clear the air.

  “Page, allow me to stay the night.”

  Her face paled as she looked up at him. “What for?”

  “To resolve what has not been resolved. You have drawn the conclusion that I have no interest in pursuing you because you are mortal and with child. I’m a man of honor, Page. What happened to you was against your will.”

  He could no longer continue when he felt his chest tightening. Justus had her undivided attention and was about to say things he’d never said to a woman. His palms began to sweat and his pulse sped up.

  Justus was about to open his heart.

  He stepped closer and his fingers grazed the slope of her cheek. Her skin flushed scarlet, warming his fingertips.

  “I won’t forsake you, Page. Now I know why we quarreled on night you left my home. The Relic discovered you were pregnant, didn’t she? I couldn’t have known—I thought you were sick again from the injections or a human virus. I apologize if I said anything harsh before you left. I’m a fool for having let you walk out so easily.”

  He took her hand and placed it over his heart. “I am an immortal. This heart will continue to beat for longer than I deserve. Can you feel it beating?”

  She nodded and he swallowed his fear.

  “I have never allowed a woman to touch my heart, until you. I’m not a man of many words, and I have no knowledge of how to love a woman. This is something I’ve stumbled at doing and… I’ve no doubt made a fool of myself.”

  “Justus, it’s not your money I want. You’ve gone over the top trying to win me back with things I don’t care about: expensive clothes, jewelry, and flowers. That isn’t who I am.” She placed her other hand on his chest and soaked him in with her eyes. “You know money has always made me uncomfortable. Do you want to know what I’d love? For you to warm a handful of peanuts for me using your gift. Or to make me a cup of cocoa when I’m too tired to get up. I’d like to take a quiet walk down the street and talk about anything but work. I need a man who can make me smile and remember that life shouldn’t be so serious. I’d like to show you how to blow a bubble, because I’m willing to bet you don’t know how.”

  His brow quirked. “That is hardly a challenge.”

  Page reached down and picked up a package of gum, then peeled away the wrapper. “Oh, really? I’m not asking you to march into battle and win me a crown, Justus.” She held the pink gum to his lips and smiled. “Maybe you can win my heart with a bubble.”

  With a stern face, he bit into the gum and began chewing. She smirked and tilted her head, biting her lower lip as she watched him. “I just want to see the real you, Justus. Not the person you allowed someone else to shape you into.”

  The gum became soft and pliable, like his heart. Her words rang true. The man he was as a human was not the man Marco had made him into. Marco was an artist himself and had sculpted Justus into a Mage who defined the quality of life by surrounding himself with extravagant things.

  “I need to sit down,” she decided, moving toward the sofa and settling in the middle.

  Justus walked around and sat on her right.

  “Well, let’s see it,” she said.

  “And what do I get for accomplishing this foolish challenge?”

  “You get to stay the night.”

  Energy shot through his body like a reflex and he reeled it in, concentrating on the task at hand. He had no idea how this was done.

  “I’ll give you a brief lesson.” Page turned as much as she could to face him and pointed at her mouth. “Flatten the gum inside your mouth just a little with your tongue and push it against your teeth.” She started chewing and looked up at the ceiling as if trying to remember how it was done. “Then part your teeth with your lips still closed and begin to push your tongue through.”

  Justus began to realize this sounded a hell of lot more complicated than he’d first thought, but he said absolutely nothing because it would have meant Page putting her tongue back in her mouth. He very much enjoyed watching her move it around in slow motions.

  In fact, he was getting aroused by it.

  “After you push it past your lips just a little bit, retract your tongue and blow. The air has to get through. It’s harder to explain than I thought.” Page tapped the side of her nose, looking upward. When she swung her eyes back down, Justus began pressing the sweet strawberry gum against the front of his mouth.

  He did as instructed and the when he blew, a hole punched through and it made an embarrassing sound. A flurry of laughter burst from her mouth and his cheeks heated.

  “This is foolish,” he murmured.

  “No, no. Don’t give up. Just because you aren’t good at something doesn’t mean you can’t master it with a little practice. Your lips are too stiff, Justus.” She lightly held his jaw with her delicate fingers. No woman had ever had this effect on him—it’s as if he could feel her sincerity every time she touched him. “Loosen up a little. That’s it. Now slowly push your tongue out.”

  Her breath hitched when he locked eyes with her. Something was developing between them—a memory of the intimacy they had shared. Her pupils became engorged and she lowered her hands. Justus placed his gum on a piece of paper on the end table and looked upon her with reverence.

  “I want to kiss you, Page.” He cupped her cheek and scarcely breathed. He needed his mouth on her, and he knew she felt the same. It was the way she parted her lips and how she couldn’t take her eyes off his mouth.

  “You can’t mean that. Just look at me.”

  “I’ve never seen you more beautiful,” he said truthfully, moving his mouth closer to hers. “Your full breasts, the way you wet your lips when you look at my mouth, the life that grows within you, the radiant glow of your skin—w
e hold Creators in high regard because they have the ability to make another Mage. You, Page, are a creator of life. We may have the ability to extend life, but you are making one.” He allowed his hand to slide over her belly.

  “And that turns you on?”

  “You turn me on, Page. What you can do with your body fills me with admiration.”

  His lips brushed against hers and the nearness of her set him ablaze. He reeled his energy back in and placed his hands on the sofa behind her.

  “Yes or no, Page.” He swept his tongue across her lower lip and stared at her with hooded eyes.

  “Yes.”

  His body tensed when he kissed her ravenously. He felt the slide of her tongue against his and she gripped the back of his neck, a strangled moan escaping. God, how he missed her taste. She sweetened on his tongue like ambrosia.

  “Ahh.” Page made a sound of discomfort and he broke the kiss.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She blew out a breath and touched her stomach. “The baby’s karate lesson just started. Do you want to feel?”

  Justus pushed back the sexual energy that coursed through his fingertips, nervous about the idea of touching her.

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he admitted.

  “Is your energy in check?”

  “Yes, but—”

  She took his wrist and splayed his hand across her belly. Justus tried to pull away the moment he felt a kick, but she held his hand firmly against her. His eyes widened when he felt the baby move. He marveled at the sensation of a living human inside her, kicking and alive.

  “Isn’t he strong? I’ve been looking at baby books for a name, but I just haven’t figured it out. I’m not good with that kind of thing; I’ve never even had a pet. It seems strange to name someone without meeting them first, you know? I feel like we at least need to introduce ourselves beforehand.”

  Justus watched her long lashes fan down and she smiled elfishly. He planted a soft kiss on her mouth and eased back on the sofa, tucking Page against him so her head rested on his shoulder and he could feel her baby.

  “I’ve been working day and night for months and no case has been serious enough get you off my mind. What kind of man do you want me to be?”

  “That’s not what I’m asking for, Justus. Be yourself. You’ve been De Gradi for so long that you forgot about Justus. Be the man that you were born to be, not the one that life made you. I’m not perfect either, and I’ll try not to be curt with you, but I can’t promise that through the end of my pregnancy. My hormones are having a Mardi Gras and I have no control over what I feel and say from one minute to the next. Stay with me tonight and we’ll talk. I just don’t want to get my hopes up when you’re going to eventually realize the truth.”

  “What truth is that?”

  “The one you’re denying. The truth that I’ll die someday. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an immortal in a relationship with a human or Relic. In the blink of an eye, I’m going to be sixty, and you’re not going to want to share your bed with someone who looks like your mother. Be fair to yourself, Justus. I have a child on the way and you could accidentally hurt it with your energy.”

  “Never. On my word, I will never harm your child, or you. I have spent centuries learning to control my energy. That’s something you need not worry about,” he said, brushing her hair away from her forehead.

  “Let’s not plan our lives together tonight. I’m willing to give us a chance, and maybe now that you’ve seen me pregnant, it’s pretty obvious it’s not just a sexual infatuation anymore,” she said with a quiet laugh. “Why don’t we just do one day at a time and see what happens?”

  He didn’t like the skepticism in her voice. “I will agree to that.”

  Internally, his mind did not agree. Justus wanted more. All the fear and anxiety of what he’d carried over the last few months melted away. Now Justus had something he didn’t have before: hope. He wasn’t blind to the realities they faced, but he couldn’t ignore what he felt for this mortal.

  She shifted in her seat and grimaced. “My back hurts.”

  He lifted her chin, stroking her soft skin with the pad of his thumb. “I’ll take you to bed and see that you have all the comforts you require.”

  “Will you read me Shakespeare?”

  Did she know he owned the entire collection? “I will read whatever you desire, Mon Ange.”

  “Do you need clothes to change into?” she suddenly asked, staring at his tank top and trousers.

  His lips brushed across her mouth. “I will not require sleeping attire. The greatest honor you can give me is to allow me to guard you with my life.”

  “My life is not in danger,” she reminded him.

  “Perhaps, but I will not sleep this evening. I will read to you and give you food and water as you need. Once you are asleep, I will pull up a chair beside your bed and watch over you. That is the best way I know how to honor you, Page. Allow me to do that.”

  Maybe she thought it a strange request, but Justus felt an inexplicable need to protect her. He came from a different time when women were vulnerable to the cruel nature of men. It’s why he’d driven to her apartment on many nights and slept in the car, just to make sure no harm came to her. Maybe it had to do with the century he grew up in, or maybe it was the fear that she could be taken from him like a woman he’d once admired from afar.

  “I’ll agree to that,” she said. “But only on the condition that when I wake up at four in the morning—because that’s when the baby wakes up—that you’ll go to sleep and let me cook you breakfast.”

  He turned his mouth to the side and she quirked her brow, waiting for him to argue with her.

  “Agreed. On the condition that you will not open your door for anyone. If I am asleep and someone is at the door or calls, you will wake me up.”

  She smiled with closed lips and patted her stomach. “This is the strangest arrangement I’ve ever made, but I can tell that nothing with you will ever be predictable. You have a deal. Can you search the pile over there for one of his books?”

  “Which do you want me to read?”

  “The Tempest.”

  Justus didn’t think he was up for reading a play. Knowing Page, she would want him to put more exaggeration in the dialogue, and that was more up Simon’s alley. “Do you have a collection of poetry?”

  Page moved to stand up and he gave her support. “Yes. I think it’s in that stack,” she said, pointing her finger.

  He rose to his feet and held the sides of her belly, looking gently into her eyes. “Then I will begin with a sonnet.”

  Chapter 22

  I had a nebulous recollection of entering the jail. Levi had kissed my forehead and spoken words of comfort while Christian flayed me with a look of disdain. Two Regulators then escorted me inside by order of the Overlord.

  The lady at the front desk had barely looked up when she handed me a few papers to sign. “We’ll need to search you for illegal contraband.”

  That had been a blur as well.

  A guard had walked me into a room and performed the search. He’d confiscated my shoes but allowed me to keep my socks and mood ring. The clothes Quaid had given me were deemed acceptable. Afterward, he stalked over to the woman’s desk and they engaged in a heated argument. I must have been the talk around there; none of them looked pleased to see me.

  “Come with me,” he said, gripping my arm and ushering me down a hall. The jail was a sterile-looking environment with polished white floors and blank walls. “We’re in the middle of construction. They’re going to erect a second building and connect the two with a skywalk, but they haven’t begun. I don’t see the need—some years the floors are almost empty. Unless they’re about to crack down with adding more laws.”

  “Does Logan know I’m coming?”

  “No. We try to avoid engaging in conversation with the prisoners. Is he your… mate?” His eyes judged me with a single scrape, concluding I wasn’t a Chitah.
>
  “Yes,” I said firmly. “Logan Cross is my mate.”

  We stepped into an elevator with steel walls. “Inmates are usually separated by Breed, but there’s an overflow on the Chitah ward this year. Cross was housed with other high-profile cases. Your visitation threw a wrench in things and we had to move him upstairs with the Sensors.”

  “Why?”

  “We don’t get women in here, so we had to put him in a cell where he wouldn’t have neighbors across the hall. You’ll have most of the floor to yourselves. Sensors aren’t known for committing serious crimes and half the time they end up busted by the human police.”

  “Why not put all the prisoners together? You separate them even in jail?”

  He chuckled and pushed the elevator button. “We used to mix everyone up when the jail first opened, but it became a riotous atmosphere. They’re more placated with one of their own. Less agitation, less bickering.”

  The elevator rocked and the doors opened on a floor that looked identical to the last. The hallway spanned from left to right and several steel doors lined the walls in front—presumably each being a room of cells. An older man sitting at a desk to the right buzzed us through one of the doors.

  This room was not as bright and cheery. I began shaking as the grey slate floor and walls suffocated me with the reality of where I was. I took a deep breath of stale air and followed behind the guard.

  “What is this trickery!” Logan roared from up ahead.

  I froze where I stood, noticing the cells we passed were empty.

  “I can scent my female,” he said, disheartened. “You are cruel to torture me with the scent from her clothes.” His voice drifted to silence and the Chitah gripped my elbow, leading me farther down the hall. We stopped at a cell to the left and the guard unlocked the door.

  Butterflies formed in my stomach. What if he didn’t want to see me?

  “I suppose he’ll fill you in on the deets,” the Chitah said, nodding his head toward Logan. “The next meal is in nine hours.” The door slid open and he stretched out his arm. “I have no time to wait.”