“Who said I’m taking over?” I frowned.
“I did. And the mutts are going to be the first step.”
I let her have this win, though I didn’t believe her. “Okay. I’ll keep it all business.”
Jessa nodded.
“So what was your news?”
“Oh,” Jessa’s stern face faded into a soft smile as she came back to sit on the bed next to me. “I’m getting an office.”
“Wow, what? Why now?”
“I found the perfect spot. It’s light and airy and has mirrors all over the place.”
“How much is it going to cost?”
“Don’t know yet.”
That’s why I loved Jessa; all about the looks and less about the details. “Are you just going to run your party planning out of it?”
“Maybe be. Or maybe interior design.”
I laughed. “Those are pretty diverse options there, kid.”
“I’ll figure it out. The lawyers are drafting up the purchase already.”
But there was something else under the light-hearted nature of her news, and this one I did feel through the mystical connection. “Why are you really buying it?”
Jessa’s jaw clenched for a moment. “I had to. There’s a thin spot in the Veil in the back I can’t patch up.”
Uh-oh. Back to the superhero stuff. “Why not?”
“I don’t know. Happened about a week ago.”
“Something trying to get out?”
“I don’t know.” For a Key Holder and a pretty powerful fairy princess, she sounded scared.
I reached out to put a hand on her forearm. I open the door to my power and let it float around the room, surrounding her in warmth and magnolias. I was equally met with the scent of her stormy roses. And briefly in between, I could feel the silvery bonds that we had formed last December.
“Then we protect it. It’s as simple as that. We do what we were born to do.”
She gave me a soft smile and nodded. “Okay. Go meet with the mutts. But I don’t trust them.”
“Concern noted. I’ll see you tomorrow about your new business venture.”
She rose and my hand slid from her arm. She headed back downstairs, still preferring to use the mirror in the foyer as her entrance into my house. “But talk to Chaz about breaking the mark. Maybe he’s got some notes from his dad somewhere.”
I nodded.
“And take a shower already. You smell like ash.”
With a flick of my hand and laugh, I shooed her out of my bedroom.
ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON, the Galleria was only mildly buzzing with shoppers. I grabbed a coffee down by the ice-skating rink and watched the budding Yamaguchis on the ice. Carefully, I took my borders down to minimum and waited patiently, knowing they could find me.
The coffee in my hand calmed my jumping nerves. And, of course, I was nervous. Even though I had sent them to watch over Jessa. Even though I had sent them to clean up the antiques shop we’d destroyed last December. Even though I knew in my bones that these men needed a leader, Jessa had a point. Even Sensei, the man who I let kick my butt on a weekly basis, admitted that he would never be fully back. That his connection to the demon had made him weak and a liability when I needed his help.
I felt them approaching from across the across the ice rink. Briggs in the lead, always in the lead, the other men fell in behind him like a line of baby ducks. His gaze was scanning the ground before him, and he stopped a good seven feet away from me.
Staying right where I was, I studied the others. Everything was so different about them. Two months ago, I swore to myself that I would memorize their faces in order to turn them into dog-shaped rugs for my living room, but all that anger flooded away when I felt them.
Evil feels like cold aloe gel sliding down your spine. It’s like someone dumped a slushie over your head as it slips down every inch of bare skin it can. That’s what they felt like just months ago. This now, this wasn’t evil. It was a brush of soft puppy fur up the inside of your arms and around your legs. Even though they smelled like chewed pig hooves, they felt like puppies, young, innocent, and defenseless.
It was weird, but, frankly, I was redefining that word every day.
Brigg’s eyes stayed somewhere around my middle, not daring to meet my eyes. “Thank you for meeting with us, Miss Jordan.”
“Mr. Briggs. If you would please introduce us.”
He pointed with a quick efficient finger. “Nash, Shadow, and Tyler.”
Nash was scrawny and tall. His shoulder length hair would be gold if it wasn’t plastered down to his head with oil. Shadow was his polar opposite. He was dark with curly hair and skin that would turn golden if it ever saw the sun. Tyler was the one that I had fought first in the alley. Fought first and then used his face to mop up the cement. He looked just like his brother with the brown hair and puppy dog eyes, and I could have kicked myself for not recognizing the broad Briggs shoulders sooner.
“Gentlemen.”
Over the coaching on the ice and the coaching from the mothers off the ice, I heard the rumble of a stomach and for once, was sure it wasn’t mine.
“How about some burgers?”
AT THE FOUR-TOP next to us, the three men devoured two half-pound burgers each, as well as four huge orders of fries and the complimentary peanuts. Briggs sat across from me at another table and glowered over his untouched combo meal.
“We brought you something.”
When he reached for his coat pocket, I jumped back and my chair skittered to its side behind me. My heart beat hard against my ribs as I readied for what was surely another attack. Fear made my blood run cold, but like a whirlwind of fire, the Legacy flared around me. The Haverty power swirled around me like a blanket of searing power to protect me and surrounded me with the smell of burning cigars.
Briggs froze, his hand just outside his pocket. For a moment, I looked deeply into his brown eyes to see how the betrayal would come this time. Every neuron wanted to burn the man away, destroy all opposition. I knew the thoughts in my head were not my own, but they were there all the same.
It was the all-too-familiar smell of wet dog and the reflection of fear in his eyes that made me calm. He wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t strong enough yet to be a threat.
I took a deep breath and with the speed of a glacier the power dissipated. I built up the walls around my magical center and relaxed. This had never happened in public before; I’d been able to hide my little spaz attacks when the Legacy leaped out. When I was scared or angry and maybe once when Chaz left the toilet seat up.
Slightly embarrassed, I turned around to find Tyler behind me with my chair. His wide brown eyes paused as he held the chair between us, his bulking frame cowering.
“Thank you. Please sit back down,” I instructed.
The man did as he was told and my heart was glad for it. I took in another deep breath and tried to calm my pulse. I put my chair back at the table and sat, putting a fresh napkin on my lap.
Slowly, Briggs slipped his hand into his coat pocket and put the handkerchief wrapped item on the table with a shaky hand. My first thought was how were they able to keep the white handkerchief so clean.
I reached out and when my fingertips brushed the hard object underneath, I knew exactly what it was. “The knife?”
“Your knife,” he corrected. “I found it when we were cleaning up. I would have brought the Haverty Cane, but it was stolen.”
“By whom?”
“Who.”
The correction came so subtly from the other table that I nearly missed it. I wouldn’t have known who said it if Shadow hadn’t kicked Nash under the table and made Nash wince.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
Nash pulled his hair behind his ears and licked his thin lips. “The proper form of would be stolen by who.”
Tucker grunted. “Nash used to be a college student.”
“Nash should go back. Only about zero percent of the people I know understand that.”
I turned back to our table and looked down at the object wrapped up between us. Slowly, I reached across the table and took it, taking care to not unwrap it and scare the other mall goers. I slipped the surprisingly heavy silver dagger into my bag and kept my hand on it for the rest of my meal. When the only knife in the world that can kill me resurfaced, I wanted to make a better effort of keeping track of it.
“I knew you needed to have it.”
“If you’re handing me this, I’m guessing you’re really trying to do the straight-and-narrow thing.”
“You don’t understand, Miss Jordan.”
“So make me understand, Tucker Briggs.” I felt it again, a heaviness in my stare as I focused on him, the hidden power as it crept up my spine. “As friendly as this seems, you will always be the ones who destroyed my house and kidnapped my best friend. Make me understand why you are now the men before me. And please don’t repeat yourself.”
Tucker licked his lips and took a drink of the soda that had been sitting there for twenty minutes.
I scared him. Good. Of course, I’d also managed to scare myself, which might actually have been a first.
“Spencer protected us within the pack. The four of us were new to Dallas and Tyler, well,” Briggs looked over at his brother. “Tyler doesn’t play well with others.”
“When did you realize he was creating a thug task force like his father’s?”
His gaze dropped to the table. “It wasn’t like that at first.”
“Then how did it get to that point?”
Briggs scratched behind his ear. “Spencer made us powerful, shared his power with us and with that, came what I can only describe as darkness. I don’t remember everything we did, the others even less. He is strong and determined. The determined part is what makes him dangerous.”
“So you blindly attack a girl in an alley?”
“No,” he snapped. “That was just a test. He was testing you to see if you had been changed.”
I just raised an eyebrow. “And the house?”
“He wanted to get to know you.”
“So you take a girl to dinner. You don’t just break in.”
“He did technically buy you flowers.”
Anger sizzled up my arms and out my mouth. “You don’t get to defend him.”
My voice was louder than I intended and all the men around me stopped eating and stared. I looked down at the men to our right and they all looked like they’d just been yelled at for piddling on the floor.
I clenched my fist in my lap and took in a long deep breath. I was going to keep this together. I licked my lips and forced my hands out wide on the small table. Resetting the door on my borders, I slowly collected myself back together again. Why was it so hard today?
“Get to the part where he started talking to a demon in the mirror.”
Briggs nodded. “After his father kicked him out of the pack. It started then. That’s when he wasn’t Spencer any more. He was a shell of Spencer. That demon took his mind way before he told us to take the girl.”
“The girl? Her name is Jessa Feychild, and she’s the closest thing I have to family.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He looked down at his younger brother. I knew that like I had laid my life on the line for Jessa, he’d done the same for his brother. The story was all there in the worried lines around his eyes. Now that was a story I wanted to hear. That was a story that might make me trust these men.
His voice was low. “We cannot atone for what we did. We will have to carry that with us.”
“Do you guys have the mark?”
His hand went to his shirt. “It’s not as strong, but I can still feel it. Like a fishing line into the darkness.”
“Can I see it?”
He paused, but when my eyes didn’t move from his, he carefully unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt. He pulled the collar aside to expose his left breast. The scar looked just like Sensei’s but the color was still there. It was still alive, an inky blackness just swirling underneath the skin.
“What would you say if I told you there is a way to break the mark?”
His fingers slid from the collar of his shirt and his lips parted.
“It’s painful, and I’m not sure . . .”
“I’d do it.” He said quickly. “Tyler would too.”
I let out a long breath and looked down at my untouched French fries. Now I had to track down what ever Chaz’s dad had done. We’ll just put that on the checklist of things Violet needs to do to help out other people while she keeps herself in one piece. Joy.
I couldn’t eat anymore. Evil ties and enemies don’t exactly give me the munchies. I pulled my business card out of the pocket of my bag, my fingers brushing the heavy blade in my purse. I slid the card across the small table.
“I want to see you again for another chat. Keep on the straight, and I’ll worry about the fishing line.”
“Thank you, Miss Jordan.”
WHEN I SLID the glass door of my town house open, I saw a spread of wild flowers on the table. I searched through the mess of flowers for a note. Chaz didn’t do flowers in a vase. The last time it was a bucket of lavender for the terra cotta pot at the front door. This time it was a field of wild flowers, which must have been a task to find in the middle of February. With a smile, my fingers brushed a note.
“Dear Vi. Got a call, sacred destiny not underwear. Just in Houston. Will call you around 10. Chaz.”
It was a beautiful gesture, but not one that I planned on cleaning up any time soon.
I sighed. Right when I actually needed Chaz for a Cause thing, he was M.I.A. Great. Another thing I got to do alone. I lowered my head as I dropped my bag on the floor. Could have really used back up on this one.
As I was walking into the kitchen, my cell phone rang.
“Hello,” I sighed.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Sera chirped in my ear.
I smiled. It was almost a nice distraction from my very busy life to be reminded that I was still a very busy writer for a very busy production company. “Having a rough day. What’s up?”
I could hear the smile in Sera’s voice. “I’m going to need you in L.A. around the end of April.”
Frowning, I went back to my bag and dug around to find my planner. I flipped open to April to check the full moon. It was smack dab in the middle of April. I was good. “Drew got another secret meeting planned?”
“This is more personal. The Boy asked me to marry him, and I’d like you to be in the wedding.”
Shock, awe, and wonder filled me, and I had to push out a “Congratulations.”
“Thank you. It’s a little fast but when you know, you know. Say yes, Vi.”
“Yes, of course. Just don’t put me in some boring cocktail dress.” As soon as I said it, I could just see the dark fuchsia shade Sera would put her bridesmaids in. It was the same color that she kept her lips most days.
Sera laughed, her high-pitched giggle. I pulled out a chair at my dining room table where I would be eating dinner alone and looked out at the romantic gesture. Just looking at it made me sad.
“I can get you the list of other girls ASAP and send you the pics of where it’s going to be.”
“Geez, you do move fast.”
“Hon, with this computer and phone, I could rule the world.”
If it was only that simple, I thought. “I’m so happy for you, Sera.”
“Thanks,” she squealed. “Now I have to go. Got one more girl to call.” ’
“Bye, Sera.”
The line cut off and I closed the phone and set it on the table before me, smashing a daisy. Sera had just met the boy in October and now they’re getting married? I would have been jealous, but I knew Sera. Where my love life had sucked like a tar pit, her’s had been more like death valley, barren and void of any intelligent life. Until the Boy. I was happy for her because the good guys deserved to win once in a while in the game of love.
So a b
ridesmaid? That was a title I hadn’t tried on yet.
Chapter Three
MYERS HAD FRIDAY mornings off from the last video rental store in Dallas. We’d agreed to meet at a Reverchon Park. It was tucked away in a downtown business park where there wouldn’t be too many prying eyes. I’d found a bench in the sunlight, trying to warm myself in the still cool weather.
As I waited, I couldn’t help but think why wasn’t Iris doing this. She was the local Shala, the one who was supposed to teach the new shifters, not me. I had just been the last in a long line of other shifters she taught about the change.
“What do you mean you want me to do this?” I was pacing along the front of my office, hands on hips, not believing that Iris was leaving me in a time of need.
“I think it will help your control if you have to teach someone else.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. I hadn’t told Iris that my control was shoddy on the best of days now, and more often than not, I was knocking things off shelves when I got a bit of bad news. “But I can’t do the things that you can. I can’t control another in animal form.”
“It’s easier than you think,” Iris said. “Myers can come out here on the weekends, but you should train him in the city during the week. They sent him to you for a reason,” Iris said.
“Chaz said the same thing.”
“And if he’s Haverty’s , then you have the experience to deal with that.”
“Chaz said that too,” I repeated.
“Remember, not all of them are as lucky as you were, having a guardian over your shoulder.”
“Don’t think I’m not going to call you every day until you give in.”
I hung up the phone and bit my lower lip as I sunk down in to my office chair.
I couldn’t have done any of it by myself. At least Myers had the guts to ask for help. If it wasn’t for Chaz, I don’t what my stubbornness would have turned me into. Probably another Haverty.
My skin chilled. There was no way I was letting that happen.
I would have to be his co-Shala and teach him everything that I knew. The little that was. And now in the middle of a calm park, here in broad daylight, was the perfect spot to talk about monsters.
Claws and Effect Page 3