20 Shades of Shifters_A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

“Losing chance, but what’s up? Talk to me, Jonas.”

  He shoved his pants on, slid his cut over his shoulders and tossed her top and pants to her. “My sister. The power from your blood must have reactivated the link between us.”

  “Or maybe we’re just close to your home?”

  “If we’re that close, we have to try.”

  She dressed and hopped into the driver’s seat. Starting the truck, she flipped on the lights. “Visibility is shit, Jonas.”

  He slid into the seat beside her, became all too aware of the fact that snow beat down on the hood of the truck and practically blanketed the windshield. “Is it doable?”

  “I mean…”

  He didn’t have time. His sister’s condition had become even more urgent. “Give me a bike, Tempest.”

  Her eyes widened and she shook her head. “What? No way.”

  “I don’t really have time. I have to try.”

  She leaned over and put her hand to his forehead.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Checking to see if you’ve a fever or had a fall. Because your suggestion is absolutely bonkers.”

  Jonas clenched his fists. “You got a better idea?”

  “One that doesn’t screw me or get you killed? Let me see.” She rubbed her chin, snapped her fingers and her eyes widened. Jaw dropped open, then she frowned. “No. Besides, even if I were stupid enough to let you go, won’t that defeat the purpose, since you still need my blood for her cure?”

  “Maybe, but I’d rather have you get there safe and save my sister at the last minute than lose her or jeopardize you.”

  She didn’t flinch when he’d brazenly admitted caring for her.

  He’d have to deal with that later.

  “Besides, it’d be nuts to ride out in that shit. The roads are hard enough to see as it is and we have lights that go beyond that of your motorcycles. You don’t have a helmet.”

  “Undead, remember?”

  “Steep cliffs and no visibility, remember?”

  She had a point. The wind and snow would blind him. They didn’t have this sort of nonsensical weather in the Shadowlands. What the fuck was with Faery? He shook off the stupid thought, bringing his mind back to the pain he felt at his sister’s weakening signal.

  She gave his hand a squeeze and he practically jumped out of his skin. “Look, I know you’re feeling paranoid. And I know you’re serious about what you just said. I want to help you, Jonas but we have to be smart about this.”

  He turned toward her and glared. “How can you possibly know what I’m feeling?”

  “I drank from you. Twice.”

  “Yeah? So what?”

  “So apparently I can read your mind.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t read yours.”

  “We don’t know that yet.”

  It must have been the combination of her blood with his pure that gave her the ability to read minds. Jonas shook his head. “It doesn’t matter right now. I have to try. Follow behind at the safest pace you can. Besides, you’re still on a deadline too, if memory serves.”

  “Lot of good it’ll do me if I show up one bike missing. And your club will get back to the Shadowlands eventually. Do you want to be on the run from them forever?”

  He opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it. This heist had been a clusterfuck from the beginning.

  Faith in Tempest was his only option.

  The snow fell so hard it practically beat the hood of the truck, as though an ogre slammed a tree branch to it. Luckily, the steel frame had been reinforced with Fae magic to withstand this weather.

  After the first time she made the journey through here?

  Yeah, fuck that shit.

  Reading Jonas’ mind didn’t make her happy, but she understood the pain roiling through him. The lock on why it was so urgent, outside of the obvious, remained solidly in place, but the grief he was feeling didn’t.

  If he stole a bike and she got through to the Shadowlands, how would she find him?

  She knew that part easy. His blood would call to her. But then what about making the trip through the land and avoiding others who would want to drain her? And recovering her bike?

  Shit, she was seriously late on this fucking delivery.

  All she wanted to do was get this shit in on time and retire.

  Fucking hell. “Buckle up.” She flipped on the switch to the windshield wipers and watched it scrape ice and sleet to clear the view. Great. About thirty feet of visibility, maybe.

  If she were that powerful a Fae, she could see further out, or at least have a better sense of the land to keep them steady on the road

  “You’re going to go through it?”

  “If you rob me, I lose a bike, I die. If you get through, you’re in hiding. Your sister may live but then you’re both on the run. I want to do right by you, Jonas. I really do.” She wasn’t lying; those words poured out of her mouth with ease that actually didn’t annoy her.

  It was the first time she’d been honest with anyone, ever.

  He seemed to understand because he actually smiled. “Think you’re reading my mind, now?”

  “Nope. Body language.” He took her hand in his and set it on the gear shifter. “Let’s do this.”

  “Slow and steady.” Shifting the gear, Tempest inched the truck along the road, keeping her eyes peeled to make sure they still had concrete beneath them. Pushing the truck to ten miles per hour kept them moving but they had maybe half an hour more?

  The snow on the roads made shit even more impossible to see, despite her preternatural vision. She knew the road by heart, having traveled through this area on multiple trips. If she overcorrected on another turn, she’d end up in a deep ditch.

  They could get out of that.

  Probably.

  Jonas drummed his fingers on the door handle. Reaching for the hand closest to her, she locked their fingers together and rested the pair on the gear shift. Leaning forward to gain even a few inches of sight, she pushed the truck to fifteen miles per hour.

  When the truck started to skid, she gripped the wheel, backed off the accelerator and corrected, turning the huge vehicle slowly with the curve of the road.

  “How the fuck did they build roads here?”

  She shrugged. “No idea. They were here before I was born. And how is it you’ve never been out this direction?”

  “I have no clue. We thought the portal was north.”

  “Why?”

  “No idea. We were dumped out near where we ended up.”

  “Probably some Fae trick, if I had to guess. You said it was one of us who was your queen’s lover?”

  “Murderer of the Queen’s lover, but we really don’t know. Just know he came through these lands and evaded us.”

  Seeing straight lanes and a little more visibility, Tempest pushed the truck back to fifteen miles per hour, her body tense, every nerve on high alert. Her training would kick in if something did happen, and hopefully she’d be able to stop in time.

  The weight of eight large motorcycles behind them would give them an advantage too.

  If they slid out onto the cliff…well, getting the truck safely off the cliff would be near impossible. Then she might as well let him take the bikes.

  Luck seemed to be on her side. Pushing the truck through the ice on the roads was difficult, with her skidding every few feet or so, but she managed. Then she saw it and rejoiced at them being closer than she thought. A large mass of swirling bright light made the road before her even harder to see thanks to the moonlight, and her lights reflecting off the snow. If she screwed this up, it’d all be for nothing, right?

  “There it is.”

  Not releasing her grip, Jonas leaned forward. “That swirling mass?”

  “You don’t even know what the portals look like?”

  “We followed the enemy blindly. MC club rules. Go after one who wrongs you or yours.”

  “Where are you all from again?”

&nbs
p; “Earth.”

  “Got it.” She concentrated solely on the road ahead, keeping the portal in sight. “Let’s hope nothing’s changed.” Tempest remembered this part of the road. Curves would spin the truck this way and that if she’d taken it at normal speed, but they only had to clear the next mile or so. Keeping a death grip on the steering wheel, she eased off the gas, let the curvature of the road guide the truck. “Family. I get it. And your one-track mind could have gotten you all killed.” She didn’t actually understand the MC culture. Until Jonas, she’d had no one who seemed genuinely interested in her or her wellbeing. Well, far as she could remember, anyway. “But there it is.” She inclined her head forward.

  “More than that.”

  She understood the why, being a loner all her adult life, but the how? “Look.”

  Jonas tracked her gaze to the portal ahead of them.

  “You can’t just go through it, obviously.”

  “Has anyone ever tried?”

  “Far as I know, no. The realms don’t want us all mixing, apparently.”

  Jonas snorted. “Little late for that.”

  “Suppose so.” The sky began to clear just above the portal and the snow let up, almost as if it sensed travelers needed safe passage.

  Nothing in Faery was that easy.

  “Else this entire ordeal wouldn’t have been necessary.”

  “What will you do?”

  He sighed, his brows furrowed. Shoulders tense, even his grip on her hand was a little tight. “Fuck it. Get us into my homeland. I’ll take the ass kicking.”

  Again, he’d left some shit out. She hated that he shut down around her but maybe that would change once he’d been able to erase the worry burning a hole in his conscious.

  She flipped up a panel. “The bikes I’m hauling have a similar panel on the chassis by your controls. You hit a switch.” She pointed at a large metal pin on the Dindu Laphroaig, “and it activates the Fae magic, which gets you through portals.”

  He looked at her.

  For a moment, she stared into his eyes, read not his mind, but the language of shared love. Felt not only his commitment to his sister, but the guilt weighing heavily down on him. She had to hand it to him, he’d hid it well through humor and ‘charm.’

  Tempest flipped the switch, pushed down on the accelerator and felt the truck engine roar to new life as it picked up speed through the snow-covered roads.

  “Let’s go. Hold on, baby.”

  Jonas gripped the dash and straightened up, keeping his eyes forward.

  The truck seemed to leap into the portal, the swirling mass growing larger before their eyes. For what seemed like an eternity, they floated through a colorful tunnel. From the corner of her eye, she watched Jonas, his eyes wide with obvious curiosity, but he remained silent.

  “It’s going to be a little bumpy but she can handle it.” Tempest relaxed in her seat, patted the dash of her rig and exhaled a breath of relief.

  Another moment later, the colorful pinwheel changed into something gray and hazy before becoming so black the only things Tempest could see, even with enhanced vision, were the dash lights.

  Blackness threatened to swallow them. She let out another exhale, picking up on Jonas’ trepidation before the truck shot out of the void and landed on the road, steel and rubber creaking before the tires finally gripped the concrete and they were once again land-bound.

  Slowing the truck to a safer pace, she straightened the truck along the road.

  Apparently, the portal spit them out just on the shoulder of the road.

  “That was…interesting.”

  “You can breathe again if you need to, Jonas.”

  At that moment, he exhaled audibly.

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah. We should stop and check the bikes.”

  “I’ve never lost or damaged cargo going through portals, but we can if you promise to behave and be quick.”

  He held up a hand. “Swear on it.”

  “Mean it Jonas. After all the shit we’ve just shared, the last thing I need is for you to go off half-cocked and rob me. I can hear the panic in your breathing and voice.”

  “Don’t forget,” he cleared his throat, ‘You can read my mind. I still can’t read yours.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Anyway.” A moment later, she’d flipped off the ultra-brights used to get through the Harshlands and returned to using the normal headlights. Then she slowed the truck, pulling it over to the side of the narrow road. “I’m coming with you.”

  He nodded.

  Once they came to a full stop, she checked the GPS. Satisfied with the device’s reporting, she shut the truck off, yanked the key out and waited for him to make the first move.

  He popped open the door, slid out and rounded the side of the truck.

  She grabbed a pistol loaded with enhanced bullets, slid it in her back pocket and followed him to the back of the truck.

  The land around them held a different sort of weight. Humidity was thick. The air pulsed around them, but aside from that, she only heard Jonas’ boots crunching on the gravel. So far, around them they had barren land; but they would approach forests in another thirty miles or so. Then they’d hit a major city with a bustling highway system that closely mimicked earth’s freeways before spitting out back into Faery.

  They met up at the same time at the back of the cargo. Both reached for the chain but Jonas caught it first. Undoing the makeshift lock she’d tied the chain in, he dragged the chain clanking through the grips and held onto it while opening the doors.

  He jumped inside and went to a bike in the middle. Pulling back the cover, he inspected the bike, same as she had earlier, ran his hands over the smooth leather. “Where is that...device? What did you call it?”

  “The Dindu Laphroaig. Part of it is stitched into the leather, woven Fae symbols that hold the Fae magic. The device itself should rest on the dash, just above the fuel cap. See it?”

  “Yeah. It’s just a switch. You flip it and bam? Instant ability to travel through portals?”

  “Well I don’t know about how it works on the motorcycles but I’d assume so. The seats in my truck have the same stitching.”

  He nodded, whistled and patted the seat before replacing the cover.

  “You done now? We need to get moving.”

  He turned toward her and his eyes glowed for a moment before returning to normal. Whatever that was in this world, she couldn’t see.

  “Yeah. Let’s go. Luckily, my sister is in the main city.”

  “Luck would have it.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Or fate.”

  She couldn’t help the smile forming. She would admit he had his charm and it had grown on her. “So be it.”

  After she secured the chain using a knot known only to be undone by Fae, both of them climbed back into the cab. She started the truck and put them back on the highway.

  “Why the gun?”

  “How did you know?”

  “You still don’t trust me.”

  “I trust you, Jonas. It’s this realm. We’re here, and I’m the only Fae in the land, carrying expensive equipment. Have you even been in a capitalist society?”

  “I mean,” he shrugged, “Yeah. Basically.”

  “Then you see the reason for the gun.”

  He shifted against the seat and angled toward her, nodding. “Yeah. I do.”

  “Good.” She did have trust issues, but the amount of time they’d spent together and how he’d risked his life for her had started niggling at the walls around her heart, negating her trust issues with him. Not all vampires, but Jonas had earned her trust.

  “Should be a quick trip then. I can drive faster since your weather isn’t nearly as erratic as Faery’s.”

  “And I can get you on the back of a bike, get my sister the blood we need for her, then get the bike back to the truck for us to continue to the delivery.”

  Her jaw dropped. “What?”

  Chapter 9

>   Her face reddened immediately, eyes widened and her mouth hung open. He expected that. But they couldn’t take the rig through the narrow roads near where his sister was. “Guess I should have told you before we got here. The truck is too big for the narrow village roads and most likely would get stuck in the dirt and gravel due to its size and weight. I figure, we ride in, I get your blood, ride back and continue on.”

  She shook her head.

  “I can hear your thoughts.”

  “You can read my mind now? Know how hard I’m giving you the finger right now?”

  “Only because you’re actually doing it.”

  “Fucker.” She slammed her hand back on the steering wheel. “If anything should happen to the truck while we’re out, or the bike we ride on, what the hell am I going to tell the fucking Queen of Faery?”

  “That’s why I figured I’d go with you.”

  “And another thing—”

  He held up a finger.

  “—who said you were coming back with me?”

  Ouch. That one really stung. “I thought you said because of what we shared—”

  “That what? We were going to ride happily all the way through Faery and make like the cute couple who would normally be killed on sight?”

  “Look.”

  “No, you look Jonas. It’s been fun. It really has. Minus the attempts on my life—”

  “Usual for a truck driver carrying cargo, right?”

  “That’s beside the fucking point!”

  “Is it?”

  “Ugh.” She threw her hands up. “Un fucking believable.”

  “You’re going to have to trust me, Tempest. This is the best plan. No, I didn’t plan for us to be an item once my sister was saved. I didn’t know what would happen. But you like me. I know it. And facts are facts. There is a bounty on your head now, if we are to believe the actions of a Brownie.”

  “One you trusted.”

  “I wouldn’t say that, exactly.”

  She huffed. “Doesn’t matter. Point is…” she threw her hands up again, “I don’t know.”

  “Then let’s just play this out. Besides, if I’m here to get you to the other side of the lands the quickest route—”

  “I know the quickest route.”