“Taking care of business.”
“What business?” My fists curled on the vanity.
“None of yours.” He lowered his hands to his side, his mouth stretched tight.
I whirled around and poked my finger into his good shoulder. “Your business is my business. You dragged me into this mess.”
Ronan walked away. “Damn. You sound like a girlfriend,” he slung over his shoulder. He grabbed my robe off the bed and tossed it at me.
Purple satin puddled on my feet. My anger swirled around me and grappled with Ronan’s weak aura. “It is my business because it affects me. Your life is my life now.” I held up two crossed fingers. “In case you’re too stupid or dead inside to notice, we’re connected…our auras…” I flung out my arms in a dismissive move, bent to retrieve my robe. “I wouldn’t be your girlfriend if you were hung like a stallion and had a zillion dollars.” I straightened to my full height, my fists buried in satin.
Faster than I could blink, Ronan’s hands spanned my waist and his mouth swooped down on mine. The second his lips touched mine, the heat in my body exploded, showering me in an inferno of lust. A groan escaped me as I melted into him, twining my arms around his neck. Our melded auras filled me with an incredible sensation of arousal and power. Tainted magic poured into me, and mine cleansed it, gave it substance. His mouth possessed mine in the most fantastically passionate kiss I’d ever experienced. I floated on a fluffy cloud of silver power, so much untapped energy between us, seething for freedom and exploration. Soft yet firm, his warm lips played over my parted lips, and his tongue tangoed sweetly with mine, the taste of him, chocolate and peanuts, filling my mouth. All my soft curves fit into the hardness of his body.
Then reality hit me, and I pushed away from him, my mouth burning from the hot as hell kiss. Ronan growled low in his throat. An array of emotions swam the liquid depths of his eyes, leaving bewilderment and speculation behind. Ho. Lee. Doppelgängers. Whoever said men were like potato chips and you can’t have just one needed to live my life for a day.
“I’m not stupid. I sure as hell am not dead.” His rough baritone thrummed through my feverish nerves, threatening to unseat me again. He gripped my waist, my satin camisole between us.
My mind froze in its swirling confusion and my mouth went on strike.
He skimmed his lips over mine. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I missed you.”
I blinked up at him, my heart finally catching up with its beat. “You did?” My voice wobbled.
Leaning his forehead against mine, he gazed into my eyes. “I don’t trust easily, Aria.”
I nodded in mutual agreement of my own trust issues and understanding what he’d suffered. That damn shock-o-meter churned out mad fairies in my stomach. Kissing two men? Even if I paid my mind with genius drugs, I couldn’t reconcile the fact that they were two halves of a whole or which half I wanted as more than a friend.
“When you’re not with me, a piece of me is missing.” The baring of his soul made his voice uncertain, fearful. “You drive me through a minefield out of my damn mind.” A slow hesitant grin tipped up the corners of his mouth. I wanted to dip my tongue into those corners. “And I still want you.”
“So you do like me?” I teased, dying to dive into a tub of ice cubes.
Carefree and real, his rich, smooth laughter was a symphony to my ears. “I need sleep. Sit with me and we’ll talk.” Ronan moved toward the closed door, my eyes riveted on his firm rear that filled his jeans to perfection.
My heart revved into turbo mode. “Where you going?”
“It’s bad enough I have to smell Adam on you, but I won’t sleep where you two…” Crumbs of charcoal danger appeared in his eyes. He stalked out of the room.
I seized my robe off the floor and caught up to him. “Nothing happened. He needed relief from pain.” I didn’t need to explain myself. Did I? Criminy, I’m going to hell in a pink Easter basket.
Understanding softened his expression. He led the way into the other bedroom, an exact replica of the first one, except for the deep purple and gold bedding. Without hesitation, he stripped to his black boxer briefs. I knew it! Black to the core. Ronan took in the bed then landed a hopeful look on me.
I was definitely tripping to visit Lucifer when all was said and done. I slipped into my robe, belted it tight. The floor lamp by the door left the room in shadows, and I reached to turn it off.
“Leave it on.”
“You need to sleep, not spend time looking at me.”
“Who said anything about looking at you?” he grumbled half-heartedly. “I like light.”
Despite my heart and head being ripped in two, I gave Ronan the same consideration I gave Adam. I would treat them as equals until one emerged the victor. Or none at all. Damn my life to the Rift! I needed Zoe. I wanted to cry at the weird injustice. Days ago, not a man on my radar. Now, I had to struggle to decipher the intentions of two hunks. How? How do I accomplish that? It’s bad enough I’m trying to figure out my role in the world of adults, the Forbidden, and now the world of men? Aria Elle’s in there somewhere, right?
I crossed the room and lay on top of the comforter, Ronan’s arm a hard but welcome pillow. Our auras tangoed together as longing surged between us, but I hammered mine down before my heart trampled my head. I certainly hadn’t felt that hungry energy spike in Adam’s arms. Not that I hadn’t been equally aroused. Heck, who wouldn’t be in the arms of the doppel-hunks. It was just different. I’d have to develop a whole new language to describe how I felt.
Ronan settled on the pillows. I rested my head on his chest, his heart beating against my ear in sync with mine.
“I went to Melisande’s hotel and snagged her computer. She always travels with a laptop and tablet. I couldn’t let it fall into the wrong hands. We’ll check it out later. Maybe she has more of the Illuminaria. Okay?” His fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck.
A pleased sigh slipped out of me. The sharp tang of antiseptic tickling my nose eclipsed his spicy, woodsy cologne. “Sure, if you want,” I answered with feigned nonchalance. Yeah, baby! That witch is mine. Ronan’s chuckle rumbled in his chest against my ear. “We need to get our instruction guide away from your dad.” Just from the few pages I now possessed, I knew that book was über dangerous in Riley’s hands.
“I know. Dad wasn’t very open with info, even to me. But Melisande worked me against him, and she had access to pretty much everything, except the full Illuminaria.” He blew out a ragged breath. “Hell, I don’t know. We need all of that damn manuscript.”
His stomach earned a pat, and his skin twittered beneath my touch. “Zoe comes first. Speaking of—”
“We talk to my father at one.”
I hugged him tight. We had six hours.
The heater clicked on and a soothing hiss of warmth filled the room. I lifted my face, drawing thirteens on his chest with my index finger and crossing them out before I invoked a rash of bad luck while we slept. Sue me for being paranoid.
“What?” His eyes went all dragon slit on me.
“We have more trouble.”
“I know about Kiera Kendrick. Adam left messages.” He knuckled his eyes. “Later. My head’s killing me from that deadener.”
I scooted up and placed a feathery kiss on his mouth, his nose, his forehead, finally dropping my head on his chest.
“Aria,” he breathed out. “I do like you.”
Twin doppelgänger arrows nicked my heart, spun my head into a flurry of epic confusion. Neither hit the bull’s eye.
Chapter 15
By the sounds of Ronan’s even breathing, slumber claimed him in seconds. I stuffed a pillow in his arms and tiptoed from the room to take a quick bath. I turned on the tub tap, evil-eyeing the six showerheads. Showers made me super nervous, mainly because of that wetting the face thing that stems from the worst day of my life.
The night my mother died, I had gotten locked out of the house. I kept waiting for her to
come home and she never did. Rain sleeted down, and I’d fallen asleep on the narrow covered porch. I’d awoken choking on water and couldn’t catch my breath. Rain had pelted my face and I thought I was drowning. Then I’d lost control of my telekinesis and blasted out the windows on the front door, glass flying everywhere. Another Friday the 13th disaster. That night of death and torment never strayed far from my thoughts. My phobia had gotten so bad, Granny Elle had removed the showerhead in my shower and I removed it from my condo shower. Hence the reason why the multihead shower in the hotel tweaked me out.
Regardless, a half-hour later, clean and glistening, I inhaled a cranberry muffin and two cups of liquid fuel, then painted my face, moussed and dried my hair. I squeezed into a hipster-grazing purple sweater, slim jeans, and donned my black leather jacket. My clunky-heeled boots added two inches to my height. One last glance in the mirror told me I was as hot and ready for the outside world as I’d get with puffy eyes and a pasty face. Total waste of makeup, I might add. Although I twinged with every step I took, at least my outfit covered most of my war wounds.
The mystery pup waited for me by the door to the outside hallway. I hooked the leash on her silver-studded, leather collar. “Let’s hit it, Finny.”
A younger version of Jon dropped his jaw ogling me from his position outside the door. Potent psychic deadeners flattened my powers, and I eyed one hanging off his neck. Indignation surged hot in my veins. I really wanted to start thinking positive, but I knew it would be a wasted effort. Risking lockjaw, I ground my back teeth.
“Jax, I presume?” I held out my right hand. “Aria Walker.”
He pumped my hand, his palm damp and hot.
“How many deadeners are you sporting? Are they for my benefit?” I grinned encouragingly, wiping my hand on my pants. After a few seconds of suppression and absorption of his aural energy, my energy staged a scathing comeback and my telekinetic brain waves surged for release. The night’s rest had restored more than my normal cache of energy. The proximity to the Rift seemed to be working to my advantage. Or it was now spitting out a ton more energy. I buried the thought so deep I’d need a brain surgeon to dig it up later.
“No. They’re…there to protect you. They’re also detectors.” Jax’s mouth snapped shut and he got a grip on his puny brain down yonder.
My leg earned the ire of my slapping leash. I’m so returning Adam to the Jerk Store. Why did he feel the need to quash my powers? I wrapped my head around my reluctant brain waves and thrust outward, concentrating on the devices around his neck, one on each wrist and ankle. Five pops and Jax danced as if sand crabs nibbled on his feet. Using extreme caution, I forced him into semi-paralysis mode, enough to foil his chase for fifteen minutes.
“Gotta run. Nice meeting you.” The poor sap reacted in slow motion to strip the devices off his prickly skin as he slid down the wall to the floor. Excitement kicked my pulse into fourth gear. My new power fuse was becoming easier to control and manipulate. The gloves were off!
I sprinted toward the stairs to catch an elevator on another floor. As soon as I opened the stairwell door, my right pinkie twitched. I looked at my watch, nine-thirteen. Crap on a cracked cracker.
A familiar presence wrenched on my aura. Kiera? Had she ratted us out?
Keeping my sight peeled around me, I unhooked Fin’s leash. She remained near me, but I wanted her free to run in case I needed backup. Screw the hotel rules.
I held my stun gun as primed as my internal magic. Peering through the small window on the stairwell door, I met only empty stairs. Back muscles achingly rigid, I focused on the odd pressure in my heart of power. It felt like someone was sipping my magic out through a cocktail straw, tiny draws from the larger reservoir of my core. The sensation wafted in and out of my receptors. Such magic hadn’t existed in the world before yesterday, and certainly not from Kiera. Was she suddenly gaining powers from her theoretical Thirteen sorcerer the way Adam did from Ronan?
I tiptoed toward the alcove housing the elevator. Fin trotted off to sniff at a chocolate peanut Ronan must’ve sacrificed. I stamped my foot, but she licked it up anyway. I see where your priorities lay, Finny. Hope the chocolate doesn’t kill you. A second of worry sent me faltering until a gurgle worked up from Jax’s throat.
He sprawled on his back down the hall, staring at the ceiling. No help for the wicked from him. My right pinkie twitched again, and a tug on my aura nearly sucked the air out of my lungs. The door swung open. Gasping, I spun around.
A drag on my aura slammed my heart into hyperdrive. A faintly glowing Kiera and her doppelgänger twin surged from the stairwell. Truth stared me down. A Forbidden Thirteen sorcerer and her fairy doppelgänger, Kiera? A viral bug in their webbed energy spun their auras in blurry, fragmented waves, slicing through mine, practically incapacitating me.
Breathing deeply in and out, I flung out a batch of sizzling energy to halt them in their tracks. Their taint hauled my blast every which way and the energy fizzled into the ozone. I tried again, but their caustic magic rendered mine useless. Dread streaked cold strokes up my spine. The supposed sorcerer doppelgänger tossed a brain wave of energy that aped a Scrambler.
“Stop it, Katrina!” Kiera turned on her lookalike. “She can help us.”
“Maybe she did this to us,” Katrina spat out. “She’s pulling on my telekinetic receptors, same as you.” Katrina shoved her fist in Kiera’s shoulder.
“When did you two meet?” My curiosity got the better of the situation.
“Last night.” Kiera scrubbed her hands together, veins visible in her translucent skin. “After I left here, she was at my house waiting for me. Dominion Research was there too. They brought her to me and said they could help us. They snatched her last week from her home in Las Vegas. After your reactions last night and hearing that they’d kidnapped her, we managed to escape before they nabbed me.”
“And you came here to jeopardize me, the one person who can help you?” I pasted on my most fierce scowl and rabid eye. “Did they follow you?”
Kiera shook her head, eyes floating in a sea of apology as parts of her body wavered in and out of visibility as if she too suffered from a poorly executed cloaking spell. Katrina was the Ronan to her Adam, full of life and energy. Their auras tangoed with mine, copycatting the doppel-hunks’ auras.
As if Kiera didn’t just say they weren’t followed, out of the stairwell behind them sprang a trio of cavemen. I recognized Milo from the university altercation. Riley’s men tracked K-Squared straight to the hotel. Holy, honking hell in the hotel hallway.
“You idiots,” I said through gritted teeth. “They stuck a tracking chip in Katrina!”
I raced toward the elevator, Kiera and Katrina hot on my heels. Fin snarled and nipped at the legs of the men. I slapped my palm on the elevator call button, fruitlessly pushing against the rabid paranormal attack the girls emitted. Even gripping my pendant, I couldn’t focus on my power or deflect them. What was I, flypaper for doppelgängers and their pursuers?
“Come on!” I stabbed and stabbed the call button.
The men trapped me between the main corridor and the dead end elevator hallway. Two other men came up behind Double-K and locked their arms around the twits. The girls kicked and screamed until the men knocked them out with a needle in their necks, and they sagged to the floor in a synchronized wave. I crept to the end of the hall, butting against an ornate console table. A golden urn filled with fake flowers rocked on the marble top and toppled to the tile floor, breaking into a million splinters, cracking my barrier of fear. Bird of paradise flowers and tropical grasses thumped to the granite. Good God, who hijacked lucky thirteen today?
“Can I help you?” I shook ceramic dust off my boots one foot at a time.
Fin barked and trotted circles around the men. They kept toeing her away. Leaning more toward cute and cuddly, Fin wasn’t much of a guard dog. I’d have to fix that later if we spent a lot of time together. Only if my cats grant their divine approval, that
is. Yeah, my ass was in a whirl and my mind had revolted into the mundane of cats and dogs. Focus, focus. I nearly thumped the words into my head.
The largest man, a candidate for the newest weight loss craze, stepped toward me, crunching ceramic chunks into dust. His beefy hands flexed and curled. “Give it up, little girl. You won’t get away from us this time. Put the weapon down.” He smirked at Milo who reddened and advanced toward me as if he had something to prove. Like maybe increasing the size of his balls.
The elevator finally dinged its arrival. The doors slid open behind them, closed, and my escape hatch disappeared in a whoosh.
Arm wavering, I aimed my stun gun between Milo and Mr. Beefy. They sported deadeners even more high tech than what Jax wore. “Stay back.” My stunner and my mouth were all I had until I figured out how to work with the deadeners. I was already visualizing the duct tape over my mouth.
I tossed a stab of air and watched it ruffle the fur on Fin’s back. Head cocked sideways, the pup wagged her tail. Tension rolled out of my shoulders down my arms.
In a show of good faith, I held up my stun gun, then tucked it in my waistband. I hoped I shut the safety off. A zap down there could really confuse my already mystified hormones. I needed to stall Riley’s mercenaries. My powers had begun to snip at their deadeners, subtle little attacks of energy primed to short them out. And I think I was drawing something from Kiera and Katrina, even though they were conked out.
“What do you want with me? I’m just a college girl visiting friends on winter break.”
The men chuckled in stereo.
“Sure, and I’m the president of the fucking U.S. of A.” Fat-ass moved toward me. His deadener crinkled through my telekinetic receptors, but my supposed destructive energy didn’t dampen them further. It actually seemed to tickle them awake. “Roger, you and Chan take the other two out of here.”
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