Scott was already screwed seven ways from Sunday, so he didn’t even bother to hide his chuckles. He held up a hand. “Guilty as charged. Though, I would seriously rethink how I phrased that question Nox.”
She glared at him. “Dirty minded bastards. It’s like being stuck in a room with preteens looking at porn for the first time. You guys couldn’t keep your minds out of the gutter if your lives depended on it, which at this point they just might. Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “Who decided it was a good idea to throw this little party inside my head?”
“Aww, she rhymed. That’s cute.” Oh, if only looks could kill. Scott would be dead and buried already. “It was still my idea. Your powers seem to be on friendly terms with everyone else’s. We figured it was safe in here.” He paused. “Well, as safe as it can be inside a woman’s mind.”
“Amen to that!” Kelly exclaimed.
“True that.” That little pearl of wisdom came from Max.
“Women don’t scare me.” That came from Corbin. “Though, one reason I love men so much is that they are slightly saner. They are just as dramatic, if not more at times, but not all bat shit crazy like female species.”
“We love you man, you know that, but we are really going to have to take you at your word on that one.” Julian threw a pillow at Corbin, a huge smile on his face.
“You’re all nuttier than a bowl of mixed nuts,” Megan muttered. “Okay, first of all, females are a part of the human race, which means that we are the exact same species as you. Second of all, just because you are all immature asshats who don’t know what to do with a woman when you have one, that doesn’t make us an entirely different species.”
Corbin caught the pillow before it hit his head and tossed it at Megan. “That’s why you love us so much. And that’s up for debate. I’ve seen your mood swings.”
“Love isn’t the word I would use to describe what I’m feeling towards you right now.” She caught the pillow.
“Hey, now. Just because you’re pissy doesn’t mean it’s cool to toss us all into the same category as Scott,” Kelly protested, kicking a leg up.
“Yeah, since I’ve never slept with you or even seriously hit on you, looping me into the same category is actually a huge insult.” Corbin twisted around, sticking his tongue out at Scott. “No offense.” He turned back around with a shit eating grin on his face.
“None taken.”
“Has anyone else in this room slept with Megs?” Julian asked curiously.
“Depends on your definition of slept,” Kelly replied.
“I’ve slept in the same bed as her, but all we did was sleep. No sex or sexual contact involved.”
“I’ve never had sex with her or slept in the same room as her. I’ve always been too afraid that she’d murder me in my sleep,” Max confessed.
“Good call. She probably would have,” Julian said. “I’ve slept in the same room as her, but not by choice.” He shuddered. “Yeah, I’d like to forget that night for reasons that have nothing to do with Megs.”
“We all know someone else she’s slept with,” Corbin hinted. “And I’m not talking about Derrick.”
“Annddd, on that note, if you all don’t shut up about my sex life or lack thereof, things are going to get bloody really fast!” Megan exploded. “You are all obsessed with sex. Which none of you seem to be getting. And you guys are overly obsessed with me. Which is kind of disturbing. Now, back to the reason for this late night sleepover.”
Scott sighed in relief. He knew that she could really care a less if they discussed her sex life until the end of time. It didn’t bother or embarrass her. She was used to it after all the years she’d known them.
She had stopped the conversation in its tracks because she knew it was entering into dangerous waters and, as pissed as she was at him, even she wasn’t cruel enough to throw that in his face.
“Damn. Just because you’re not getting any doesn’t mean you have to rain on our harmless parade,” Scott cut in.
Megan rolled her eyes. “Oh, for the love of Christ. What do we need to talk about that can’t wait and obviously needs to be done in private? I would like to go back to sleep. Alone in my own head. I will do anything to speed this meeting of the Breakfast Club up.”
She looked around the room, her eyes meeting each of theirs to get her point across.
Scott’s lips twitched. “Anything?”
Julian’s eyes twinkled with laughter. “You sure you want to put that out there, in that particular way, Megs?”
“Too late. It’s already out there,” Kelly chortled.
“Hello door. Nice to meet you. Oh, you’re going to open for me? How nice of you. I think I’ll walk right in,” Corbin managed to get out between fits of laughter.
Megan rolled her eyes towards the ceiling with a groan. “Crap. I walked right into that one.”
“That you did sweetheart. That you did. It can be explored later,” Scott replied. “Now about the re—”
“We need to discuss this new drug and what’s going on out there. We can’t hide our heads in the sand anymore,” Corbin cut in, his face taking on a seriousness rarely seen.
“You look like you crawled into a bottle of Jack last night.”
Megan rolled over with a very unladylike groan and pushed herself into a sitting position. Pushing her curly hair out of her face, she blinked up at Scott a few times. “I feel like I drank a fifth by myself,” she mumbled, taking in her surroundings
Her eyes narrowed. She patted the nightstand beside the bed until her fingers got purchase on the cell phone laying on it. She grabbed the phone, squinting at it as she checked the time. “Though, now that you mention it, I don’t remember drinking last night. I do, however, remember a certain party in my head that kept me from actually getting any sleep. Two hours of sleep explains why I feel like I’ve got the hangover from hell.”
Scott propped himself up on an elbow, careful not to brush up against her. Since she had yet to discover that wasn’t her biggest problem at the moment, he wasn’t about to incite the beast any more than necessary. Things were about to get very interesting.
“The party, as you call it, actually didn’t last that long. After it ended, you, uh—”
How could he put this without sounding like a complete asshole? Saying this without sounding like an egomaniac was going to be hard… “Well, let’s just say you kept yourself up with some very interesting thoughts and dreams.”
“That’s not the point.” She paused. “Wait. How do you know that?”
“Seriously, Megan? You are seriously asking me that right now?”
She looked down, realization slowly dawning on her face. “Why am I in your bed?”
Ah, there’s my girl.
“As I said, you had some very interesting thoughts and dreams.” The edges of his mouth twitched. He couldn’t help it. He fought the grin, but ended up losing the battle like the good boy he wasn’t.
And there’s the light bulb, shining all bright like.
“No freaking way.” She shook her head. “There is just no freaking way.”
Scott sat up, facing her on the bed. “Well, you are in my bed.”
“But, I…” she let the sentence trail off. “I was in bed with Derrick when I fell asleep. I woke up in your bed.” She looked at him in awe as the final pieces fell into place. “I haven’t teleported in…”
Scott smiled. “Obviously, it’s like riding a bike.”
“No wonder you look so damn smug,” she muttered as she pushed the blankets off. “If I teleported here in my sleep, that means I had to be thinking about you at the very least. And if, this is a big if here, I was dreaming about you, I had to have, on a subconscious level, wanted to be here with you.”
Scott shrugged. “You dreaming about me really isn’t breaking news. You wanting me is a given.”
“Bite me, Scott.”
“Okay, Megan. With pleasure. All you have to do is tell me, when, where, and how hard.”
She scrambled up, backing away from the bed, a look of slight horror on her face. “Don’t even think about it.”
“Too late.”
“Shit,” she swore as her back hit the wall.
Scott rolled off the bed, landing fluidly on his feet. Advancing slowly towards her, he pointed out, “You’re the one that offered. You know better than that. So, suck it up buttercup and take the consequences like a big girl.”
“You’re not playing fair!”
“You love it when I don’t play fair.”
“Scott, this so isn’t the time!”
He cocked his head to the side. “You offered, Megs. You know the rules.”
“It’s a figure of speech.”
Scott stopped directly in front of her. He stared open mouthed at her, scratching his head. How the hell had he missed that?
She must have noticed the look on his face, because she pulled on the hem of the long sleep shirt—which was actually one of his old T-shirts—trying to make it longer.
He was a good five to six inches taller than her, so it came almost down to her knees. That didn’t change the fact that she was trapped against the wall in nothing but his old T-shirt or the fact that he was standing in front of her in just a pair of boxers.
He could see where this might look bad.
Damn. He had forgotten how sexy she looked sleep mussed and pissed off first thing in the morning.
“Nice boxers,” she said softly.
“Like the little red hearts, do you?” He reached out, tracing the side of her face with a finger. “You’re just lucky I don’t sleep naked anymore.”
“Now, that’s just a damn shame.”
Scott raised an eyebrow, cupping the side of her face. “Really now? You shock me, Megan Nox!”
She reached up, placing her hands on his chest. The shock of her touch on his skin sent his pulse racing. “You’re sexy as hell and you know it. Physical attraction has never been our issue.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
Someone chose that moment to pound on the bedroom door. “Scott? Have you seen Megan?”
They jumped apart. “Shit!” they exclaimed softly in unison.
“It’s Derrick! What the hell are we going to do?” she demanded in a whisper.
Scott flicked his wrist. A pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms floated out of his bag in the corner and into his hand. He knew they would fit her. They had played this game more than once. He tossed them at her.
“Throw those on,” he ordered.
While she fumbled into the pants, he flicked his wrist again. This time, the sleeping bag attached to his backpack unrolled itself onto the floor, on the other side of the room, furthest from the bed.
His pillow placed itself neatly on top of it. He flicked his wrist a third time, a pair of red flannel pajama bottoms and a plain white shirt floating over to him.
He quickly donned them as he mentally yelled for Julian.
Julian suddenly appeared in the corner of the room, his strawberry-blonde hair sticking up in major bedhead, blankets in hand. He was, thankfully, dressed in a pair of gray sweatpants, though his chest was bare.
Scott shot him a slightly panicked look.
Julian nodded to a rumpled shirt on top of the blankets. Scott breathed a small sigh of relief, some of the panic residing.
“Where do you want me to set up?” he whispered.
“Anywhere, just please do it quickly.”
There was another impatient knock on the door as Megan scrambled back into the bed as Julian set up his makeshift bed on the floor next to the closet.
“Do I even want to know how you two found yourselves in this very interesting predicament?” Julian asked quietly, crawling into his bundle of blankets.
“Well, Megan kind of remembered how to teleport, half naked, by the way, while she was dreaming about me.” Scott crawled into his sleeping bag.
“No shit?”
“Shut up, both of you and pretend to be asleep. You may claim all the jokes and sexual innuendos your little heart desires later,” she hissed.
Julian chuckled softly as they obliged the woman in obvious denial.
CHAPTER 32
October 2000
Akron, OH
Shanna wanted to scream.
In all the years she had known Patrick Lanthani, she had never seen him as much as she had in the last couple of months. Thanks to his new found friendship with D and her traitorous brothers, he was everywhere all the time.
She didn’t even see him this much when she was living with Zeke. And he was the brother Patrick was originally friends with and happened to be his next door neighbor.
She saw him consistently at school now, then on their nightly workout sessions. On weekends he all but lived at the house.
Anyone else seeing the problem here?
She had no idea how much longer she could keep this up without spilling the beans. Or finding a way to kill him.
Something had to give soon.
They had their reasons for playing the game the way that they did, but he kept changing the rules on her. No one needed to know who he really was, and by protecting his secret, they were also protecting hers.
The complications sucked, but they were a necessary evil.
She knew that. She understood it.
She just didn’t have to like it.
Shanna was sitting cross legged on her bed, attempting to follow along with some Lifetime movie. The boys had gone out to celebrate some stupid thing or another.
She had opted out and let them make it guys’ night out. Let them have their fun. She didn’t need to be out with D all the time, though his opinion was radically different as of late. And she sure as heck needed a break from Patrick.
It was a Saturday night and she had no other plans but to vegetate in her room. She didn’t even have a workout session with Patrick scheduled. It was just her, a bag of pretzels, and the television.
Flipping a stand of hair over her shoulder, she bit into a pretzel. She really wished Del could be here to enjoy this restful evening with her, but, alas, Del was a normal high school sophomore who was old enough to hold a job.
Shanna groaned as the phone beside her bed rang. So much for peace and quiet.
Which one of my handler’s is checking up on their charge? Honestly, she wasn’t going to break with them gone for one freaking night.
She reluctantly picked up the receiver. “Yeah?”
“Nice way to answer the phone.”
Bite me. She stuffed another pretzel into her mouth, calmly chewing it. She swallowed. “I had a feeling it was you.”
“Am I really that predictable?”
Nah. If you had your way, you’d just superglue yourself to my hip and call it good. Or find a way to plant hidden cameras wherever I am so you can watch my every move like a hawk. I can seriously play this game all night.
“Not at all, Tiern. What do you want?”
“Wow. Love you, too, Corelsand.”
Okay, so her inner bitch was off its leash tonight and out in full force. She really wasn’t trying to be a, well—for a lack of a better term—witch. D wasn’t the only guilty party here. He just happened to be the one that chose to call. He was the proverbial scapegoat at the moment.
“I do love you. You’ve only been gone for three hours,” she pointed out. Which isn’t nearly long enough.
D’s warm, deep laugh carried through the line. “Okay, okay! Point taken. I just called to say I’m not coming home tonight.”
Wahoo! I think I just won the lottery!
Okay, that was mean. At least she didn’t say it out loud.
“Rhyder and Danick are also staying out tonight.”
Wow. I must have been a better witch this year than I though and this is my early Christmas present.
“We’re staying at Patrick’s aunt’s house. You know, next door to Lisa.”
As long as you’re not here, I don’t—aw, hell. This can’t
be good. She stuffed another pretzel into her mouth. “That could be interesting…” she said around chewing.
“Why do you say that?”
I will not kill the demon spawn from hell… Killing him would be counterproductive…if he says anything he’s not supposed to, all bets are off…
“Well, for one, you guys have never spent time with his aunt.”
Lucky.
“Well, there’s a first time for everything, you know. He rarely goes to the house his parents left him.”
Well, he does…at least with me…
Wow, that sounded so wrong.
“His aunt probably wants to keep an eye on your guys. You know, be the responsible adult and all that.”
“And you would know this how?”
You don’t want to know. “D, I have serious questions as of late to whether you and I are dating or you and Patrick are dating. That’s how much the two of you are together. Oh, yeah, let’s not forget to mention he and Zeke have been together about as long as you and Danick have.”
“Sarcasm isn’t your most becoming trait.”
“Noted. Goodnight, D.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Too soon! Too soon! “Yep.”
As Shanna hung up the phone, stuffing a handful of pretzels into her mouth, she felt the noose around her neck getting tighter and tighter.
“Enjoy your night last night?”
Since it was so cold outside, Shanna and Patrick were stretching in the small cabin at the back of the property he owned out in Bath. Instead of running, they were going to practice some defensive moves. Thank goodness the gym below the cabin had charms cast around it that disabled all powers. After their practice session, he was going to drive her back to Akron so she could sneak back in and catch some sleep before school.
Patrick raised an eyebrow, reaching down to his toes. He held the pose, looking up at her. “Aren’t we Miss Curious?”
God grant me the patience not to kill this boy…
Shanna held onto the footboard of the guest bed, balancing on her left leg, pulling her right one behind her. “Let’s see here. My boyfriend was present at this little party of yours. You’re the Prince of Chaos. Your bad habit of choice is to incite chaos wherever you go. Damn right I’m curious.”
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