“Long Island iced tea!” Sammie hollered. “Takes the edge off whatever you got!” She winked and went back to her business.
An hour later, after finishing some boneless buffalo wings and mozzarella fries Stephan had brought me from the kitchen, I had made best friends with the colorful wall beside me.
Occasionally, I moved aside for people ordering drinks or reaching for napkins.
The Long Island iced tea didn’t do me any favors. If anything, it just added to my ailments.
Upon the request of the crowd, Stephan took the stage with his guitar looking awfully handsome in his faded jeans, white shirt, and gray beanie.
He decided to do a John Legend cover “All of Me.”
I melted to the words and the intense look in his eyes as he locked them with mine.
“If you get any closer to that wall, you’ll put a dent in it,” a male voice said too close for comfort. I looked up from my drink.
A man with shoulder-length dark hair, brown eyes, and a wide smile was leaning close to me.
I managed a courtesy smile.
“I’m not drunk enough to be interested, thanks.”
The man actually smiled wider. “Who said I am?”
I shrugged. “Guys don’t look for casual conversation with a sober woman in a bar.”
“No, they don’t. I was looking for a lighter.” He pulled a cigarette pack from the back pocket of his black pants and put a cigarette in his mouth.
“And I look like a smoker?” I asked.
“No, but there are matches behind you.” He pointed.
I turned around and saw a small cart behind me stacked with glasses, straws, ashtrays, and matches. I took a pack and gave it to him.
He took it and lit his cigarette, taking in a deep pull of smoke and letting it out expertly. “Thanks.” He put out the match. “I’m Chris.”
“Jade,” I said and I was happy that he didn’t offer his hand. I wouldn’t have taken it, and he would have interpreted the gesture as an insult. Most people did.
“Well, Jade. You are stunning, but you look exhausted.”
I almost laughed. “That’s one way to compliment a woman.”
He laughed. “If I was hitting on you, I’d lie. But I am not hitting on you in any way, shape or form. So what’s the point of lying?”
“Guess just to spare someone’s feelings doesn’t count.”
A woman in a very short black and silver dress and ridiculously big heels approached us. There was a sour look on her face, which was smeared with black liner around her pale eyes.
“Chris!” The woman slapped him on the back and then scowled at me. Chris turned to look at her and then his face tensed like he was in trouble.
“Don’t ever do that to me again!” the woman yelled and then turned to me. “Who the hell is this?” she asked him.
“Relax, Kylie. I just needed a light.” Chris assured her and then gave me an apologetic face.
“Yea, my ass.” Kylie pushed his face away from her and then leaned closer to me. “Find your own man, bitch!”
Okay, I had just about enough fun for one night. “If I was looking for one, I wouldn’t start with yours,” I said as I got off the barstool.
Kylie grabbed my arm, and I immediately turned, fisted a hand in her hair, slammed her head into the bar, and pinned her left arm behind her back.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I growled.
It felt like the entire scene had moved in slow motion after that. Drinks spilled and glass shattered around my feet. I was soaked but didn’t care.
Chris and Kylie’s two accomplices moved back with a gasp. I felt something inside me stretch and a low rumbling growl escaped from my throat in a long breath.
Chris tried to move in, but I stopped him with a high kick to his chest. He stumbled backward and fell into a group of guys.
“What the fuck!” someone yelled. “Call the cops! Call the cops!”
I felt large hands around my waist.
“Let’s go, Jade,” Stephan was saying over and over again, but I couldn’t register his voice.
I caught a glimpse of my eyes in the mirror behind him. They were icy blue. He gasped at the noted changed. “Jade, please. I don’t want to hurt you.”
In a moment of lucidity, I dropped my hold on Kylie, but the woman was fucking relentless. She shrieked and lunged at me with her manicured nails.
What could I do?
I smiled invitingly.
Chapter Fifteen
In handcuffs…literally
She flung herself at me with small determined fists that I easily avoided. Maybe she could fight, maybe she couldn’t. But her anger got the best of her while mine only fueled my instincts and aroused my beast. One of her friends tried her luck, she swung in my direction while I fended off Kylie. I backhanded her across the mouth like she was an annoying insect. She staggered a few feet before succumbing to the blow and her alcohol.
Kylie gritted her teeth and scratched at my face. I moved from within her range, grabbed her bony wrists and kneed her in the gut. Her breath left her thin body in a gush as she bowed and fell to her knees.
A hand touched my shoulder from behind, and I spun around with a backhand. With wide blue eyes, Stephan put his hands up in surrender. “Jade, you have to calm down.” He urged. “Cops are coming. Just go.”
There was a hint of disappointment in his voice, and it bled into his eyes. He was disappointed with me.
Shit.
“Stephan.” My rationality was starting to come back, but I didn’t have time to completely apologize.
I felt a hand in my hair and rage surged through me.
I don’t know when or how we ended up outside on the sidewalk. I remembered my hand around her throat and my delight at the rise of her fear and the sight of her blood. Apparently, Kylie had some ambition tonight.
I squeezed her throat until she paled and her blue eyes emptied of almost everything but their color.
It was Stephan again that tore her from my grasp and put himself between us. He pinned my arms to my sides, lifted me from the ground and carried me away over his shoulder, but when he put me down, I broke free and darted back toward the group of defeated females.
Arms of steel caught me around the waist, pulling me into his body so my back was against his chest and lifting me off my feet.
I was trapped. Not even Houdini could have escaped the iron grip that bound me.
“Be still, Jade.” His voice a velvet whisper near my face. “Be still.”
That voice was like music to my ears. A heat swirled in my chest, through my veins, and into my core. All my coiled muscles released the tension they’d been holding.
I was calm. Relaxed.
Adrian put me down and turned me to see his face.
His green eyes entranced me. “I have to arrest you now,” he said delicately.
In almost a robotic manner, I nodded.
I felt bewitched.
“Turn around, please, Jade.” He urged.
I did.
He handcuffed me and led me to his cruiser, which was parked crookedly on the sidewalk. He must have pulled up in a hurry.
He opened the back door and gently eased me into the backseat. “You’ll feel like yourself again in a minute.” He advised.
Again, I nodded slowly. He shut the door and then was lost in a sea of eager witnesses and abused bargoers.
What had he done to me?
I leaned my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes.
“Thirty-four to dispatch…”
“Go ahead.”
“Send another unit and an ambulance.” I heard Adrian say over the radio.
“10-4,” a male voice said in response.
I opened my eyes again and gazed outside.
People scowled at him.
“Why the fuck did they send the goon squad?” someone asked.
“Can we get real police?” Someone else agreed.
Shifters were still not welcomed
with open arms even though they proved to be helpful to the community when the real monsters got out of control.
The crowd seemed to agree that they didn’t want Adrian on the scene.
He whistled incredibly loud. People cringed at the sound.
“Like it or not I am the law tonight. And I only want to talk to the ones directly involved right now.” Adrian spoke with authority. “Everyone else just hang out until I can get your statements.” He demanded.
The crowd backed off and hung around the cars.
My mind finally cleared and I could think again. I looked out the window and took in the scene.
Two women were on the ground. Kylie and one of her friends. Kylie was bleeding from her mouth and nose. The other was cradling her left arm and seemed to have multiple cuts on the right side of her face. Another friend was crying on the phone to someone and Chris was leaning against the building holding his stomach and chest.
Kylie winced when she stood up to talk to Adrian. Actually screamed at him was more like it. She was hysterical.
“Crazy bitch!” she yelled at me through the open window of the cruiser.
“Get used to it, we run the world!” I shot back.
Adrian turned and gave me disapproving eyes.
“I need you to be calm right now and give me all your information,” Adrian said to Kylie.
“She attacked us!” the injured friend yelled. “Like some kind of fucking freak!”
Adrian just nodded and wrote down everything. Although I’m certain he kept it PG on paper.
By the time he took everyone’s statements, the other unit had arrived.
Stephan was leaning against the back of the cruiser with both hands on his hips when Adrian approached him.
“I need your statement too.” Adrian stated.
“They already told you everything,” Stephan said through his teeth. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I was sure they weren’t friendly. “I couldn’t control her without hurting her.” Stephan admitted in a low voice. So low that if I hadn’t been straining to hear, I would have missed it.
“What do you mean?” Adrian inquired.
“Never mind.” Stephan pushed away from the car. I had a clearer view of him now. He had a white towel wrapped around his left hand. The towel was stained with blood here and there. Did I do that to him?
“They got into a fight over that guy.” Stephan pointed to Chris, whose face was contorted in pain as a medic examined his ribs. “Apparently the brunette didn’t like him around Jade, and Jade doesn’t like to be touched. She’s feisty – always has been. Is that good enough for you?”
Adrian wrote down Stephan’s account of what happened and then gave him a quick nod. “I have to take her to the station to get her processed, and then I will bring her home,” Adrian said putting the little notebook away.
I was surprised by his statement.
Stephan frowned at him and I heard him say,” I will come and pick her up when she’s done, how ‘bout that?”
Adrian didn’t respond.
They both walked toward my window.
I just glared at Stephan as he got closer. I was angry with him too. He should have let me be. He shouldn’t have tried to control me.
“I will come pick you up at the station when you’re done with Officer Helpful,” Stephan said, sourly.
“Fuck you, Stephan!”
He gave me a wry smile and then tapped the roof of the cruiser twice before turning away. “I love you too, Duchess,” he said and walked back toward the bar.
The car was dark other than the occasional street light that would shine light into it as Adrian drove toward the station. I wished for music, for something to distract me from my thoughts from the aggression I felt.
If Stephan hadn’t come when he did to pull me away from the two women, I feared I would have done more than just break a few of their bones and bloody their mouths. I caught sight of Adrian’s eyes in the mirror. He was looking at me so intently that I instantly blushed and then became angry.
“Shouldn’t you be keeping your eyes on the road, officer?” I spat.
Adrian cleared his throat and adjusted his gaze. “Yes, I should, but I seem to be doing a lot of things that I shouldn’t be doing these days.”
“Good to know you’re such a rebel,” I said, sarcastically, and leaned my head back on the seat.
I thought I saw him smile.
“You know…it’s not wise to display what you are in public like that, Miss Sinclair,” Adrian said still keeping his eyes on the road. “We are still not well liked by many. You could draw negative attention to yourself.”
“Hmm, well thanks to you, I will have to be extra careful now, won’t I?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t believe that you’re sorry, and even if you were, it’s not something you can apologize for and actually expect forgiveness. You ruined my life. I hope you know that.”
I let myself look in the mirror again and saw the hurt in his eyes.
Great.
“Hasn’t it left you?” I asked sitting up straighter now.
“Hasn’t what left me?”
“The curse – the love. Seth’s…feelings? Whatever you want to call it.” Saying his name caused a flutter of anxiety in my stomach.
“I’m not sure,” Adrian responded sincerely. “I thought it did, but then…”
“But then?”
“When I’m around you, I feel it. It’s like a fire that I can’t extinguish. A fire even worse than the hunger of the beast.”
“You realize I will not try to rid you of it again, right?” I asked. “I mean, I can’t—”
“I understand, Miss Sinclair.” Adrian cut me off and I noticed he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“I think it’s safe for you to call me Jade now, you know. Kissing someone kind of puts you on a first name basis.”
“I suppose it does.”
“Did you acquire his memories too?” I had to ask.
Adrian gave me narrowed eyes in the mirror. “What?”
“You know, memories of me and him – together?” I quizzed.
He shook his head. “No. That was not something I came across.”
I looked out the window and sighed.
“I’m sorry, Jade. Really sorry that you miss him so much and that I have…encountered him the way I did.”
“It’s not something you need to apologize for.”
“Maybe not, but I’m sorry all the same.”
I sat up straighter when I noticed he missed the turn for the police station. “Are you taking me to your basement?” I asked.
He chortled. “No. I will take you home.”
“But…”
“Do you want to spend the night in the cell at the station?” he asked. “Because I can turn around.”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “I didn’t think so. Now, which way to your house?”
When I got the call about a bar fight, Jade was the last person I expected to see. I mean, I knew she was feisty but damn.
I parked my car as fast as I could and got out just before she attacked the already defeated females on the sidewalk. I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her from the ground. She smelled so delicious and felt so good in my arms that the lower muscles in my body twitched. I took a deep breath and calmed her. I have abilities too, and moments like this, I am grateful for them. I can manipulate feelings, but I’ve only ever used them to subdue criminals. Honest. Maybe I didn’t think this through. I didn’t have enough time to process what biting her would really do. I was being selfish. But I can’t turn back time. The only thing I can do is help her now.
Adrian
Chapter Sixteen
Heart to heart
He didn’t say much else as we drove down the dark, country road to my apartment.
“You must be having a very private conversation with yourself,” I said.
Adri
an looked at me briefly, his eyes revealing nothing.
“Either that or I just have a silencing effect on you.” I almost smiled but didn’t.
“You have a lot of effect on me,” he said in a low voice.
I felt my cheeks burn.
I turned my head to look out the window. The silver splash of the moon spilled over the shadowed trees.
“How did you learn to control yourself?” I asked in a whisper. “How did you become like this?”
Adrian sighed, but he had to have known the questions would come sooner or later.
“I was bitten ten years ago, after my eighteenth birthday, when I volunteered to help look for a missing hiker.” He kept his face neutral as he spoke, but I felt his energy level shift. “I spent a lot of full moons chained in a cell in my basement. It was long ago, yet I could still feel myself struggling with the chains, howling until my throat bled. Howling for freedom and something to settle the rising hunger.”
I shivered. “Will I be like that? How come I didn’t shift with this last full moon?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe because you were bitten so close to the full moon your body didn’t yet register the change. I’m sure you will shift with the next, and I won’t lie to you. The first one is brutal and violent, and you won’t remember much of what you’ve done. The beast rules you. Controls you.”
“Is that why you chained yourself in a cell?” I asked.
“Yes, because when the change first happens, you have no control at all. Everything in your path is destroyed. Property, neighborhoods…lives”
“You must be really conflicted,” I said. “I mean beyond the obvious.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, you’re a cop, meant to serve and protect life and you are a werewolf, meant to slaughter and kill…”
“I don’t kill, Jade,” he said quickly. “I satisfy my hunger with wildlife, but I don’t have to kill people. Besides, that’s an automatic death sentence right now.”
“And what you did to me back at the club…that’s normal?”
He looked at me then. “What did I do to you?”
“Don’t play games. You did something. I felt calm. Warm.”
I am Jade Page 7