Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology)

by Chrissy Peebles

  “I may as well get this out. Don’t go all Taylee on me; promise you’ll deal with this the right way.”

  I stopped walking and jerked from under his arm. “All Taylee on you? What does that mean?”

  Skyler put his hands up in surrender. “I know how you are, and you’re gonna try to pretend like it didn’t happen and bottle yourself up in misery. I don’t want you to do that. I want you to talk to me.”

  “I don’t deal with things the way you do.”

  He laughed lightly, probably his feeble attempt to keep the tension away. “Yeah ’cause you don’t deal with them at all.”

  I pointed an accusing finger at him. “Don’t do this right now.”

  He glanced at the wet blades of grass. When his eyes met mine, concern lightened them. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you, that’s all.”

  Skyler didn’t need to worry about me. Couldn’t he see that? I could take care of myself. “Help me and I’ll forgive you.”

  He sighed and wiped the rain off his face. “Why do I always fall for these conditions?”

  “Because I’m your best friend and you love me.”

  “Maybe it’s a bad thing, you know that?”

  I elbowed him.

  He grunted. “We’re going to get into trouble aren’t we?”

  I grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. “Don’t be lame. I just want you to help me find him. Take me to every Kember who has a hidden motive.”

  Skyler exhaled and spun me around so fast I nearly fell. “What’re you gonna do when you find him? Punch him?” He pointed to my feet. “Throw one of your shoes at him? He killed Delmari. He’s lethal. I-I can’t even begin to understand how much you’re hurting, but you’ve gotta let the Authority handle it. Promise me.”

  Why did I even expect him to understand? I almost shoved him away, but before I did, my gaze shifted past his shoulder. I did a double take and my breath caught. Through a break in the crowd, fifty yards away, a man stood, watching. His black cloak ruffled lightly in the wind and his ocher eyes pierced mine. It was him. The Kember was here. I froze, staring.

  Then it all hit.

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins. I shouldered Skyler and sprinted toward the man. He’d taken Delmari from me. Ruined my life. Sparks of rage ignited into a full-fledged flame. Shoving through the sea of black, I knocked people out of the way as I weaved through. Angry comments didn’t affect my pace. Now he’d pay for what he did.

  I burst through the crowd to where he stood. The man’s lips twitched into a smirk and his eyebrow rose.

  I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t slow. I lunged.

  My body rammed into his, and I knocked him off his feet, slamming him onto the ground. Hot tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision. A scream erupted from my throat. My fists connected with his face, blow after blow. The man struggled beneath me, screaming something I couldn’t understand. Yells from the surrounding crowd demanded I stop. I couldn’t. He had to pay. Blinded by fury and hatred, I swung my fists harder than I ever had.

  A set of hands ripped me away. By their strength, I knew they belonged to a Kember. I thrashed against them, screaming, “He killed Delmari! Let me go!”

  He did, but only after someone else seized me.

  “Taylee! Calm down.” Aiden gripped my forearms and spun me around to face him. After a moment, the angry tears impairing my vision slowly rolled down my cheeks.

  Heart still hammering, I jerked away to get a good look at the man. Red hair, bloody face, blue eyes. A nauseous feeling crept through my stomach. It wasn’t him. I blinked, sure there was some mistake. I tackled the Kember—took him to the ground. He couldn’t have escaped. I looked at Skyler for help, like he could explain what happened. He and Joshua, along with a hundred other bystanders, stared wide-eyed and appalled.

  Son of a bitch.

  They dragged me away after that, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t wanted to be there in the first place. Plus, I attracted a lot more attention to myself than I’d wanted.

  Aiden and I followed Ian through the Authority building and back to his sprawling office. Ian told me to sit, so I did and prepared myself for the ultimate bitch session. After enduring the lecture of the century, I tried to explain what happened. No one believed me. Go figure.

  “Taylee…” Ian peered out the window. “I think you need to see a psychiatrist. You have a lot of built-up anger. Obviously. You can’t take it out on some random Drea.”

  “I’m not going crazy. The man who killed Delmari was here.” I pointed toward the window. “He—he smiled at me right before I tackled him.”

  “We’ve established he wasn’t here. No one else saw him.”

  “I doubt anyone else was even looking for him. I wouldn’t attack some random Drea for the fun of it.” I shook my head rapidly. “I won’t talk to a counselor. I don’t need help—I know what I saw.”

  Ian closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “You’re seeing things and acting irrationally—”

  I gritted my teeth. “I didn’t see anything that wasn’t there.”

  Ian walked over, planted his palms on his desk and leaned forward. “This isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this. Excuses or not, you have the tendency to be violent and…” he paused, letting out a slow breath, “I’ve been lenient, but you can’t hit people when they make you angry. It’s…it’s savage.”

  “If you’re referring to what I did to Joel Anderson, Delmari said—”

  “Delmari is dead!” He slammed his fist on the wood, all signs of his stoicism disappeared. “No one else has the strength and patience he possessed to clean up your messes. It’s time you grow up and start acting responsibly. You’ll see a psychiatrist and I don’t want another word about it.”

  My chest throbbed. Tears stung my eyes. “But—”

  “I mean it.”

  “Give her a few weeks.” Aiden’s low voice sounded from the back of the room. In three long strides he stood by my chair. His calm tone depleted most of the tension. “You’re dealing with a seventeen-year-old girl who hasn’t slept or eaten in two days and is trying to cope with death. Give her some time.”

  Ian eyed him warily. “She could hurt someone—or herself.”

  Aiden stood a little straighter. “No one will get hurt. If I don’t see an improvement, she’ll see a counselor.”

  I scoffed. “No, I won’t.”

  He studied me evenly. “Yes, you will, because you don’t want any more complications in your life.”

  I glared but didn’t dare argue. He was getting me out of spilling my guts to some random doc. A part of me should’ve been grateful and would’ve been, had he actually believed me. I knew what I saw, and I wouldn’t rest until I brought Delmari justice.

  Chapter 6

  I hadn’t launched myself at anyone, so Aiden must’ve taken that as an improvement. He never brought up the shrink nonsense after we left Ian’s office, but he watched me closely. I forced down food and managed about two hours of sleep a night—while I tossed and turned the other six. I couldn’t explain what happened at the funeral, not even to myself. The Kember was there. He stood right in front of me when I jumped at him.

  Back in the office, Ian told me if you want something badly enough, sometimes you make yourself see it. I laughed and told him he was crazy. But now, after three weeks of mulling the incident over in my mind, he didn’t seem so crazy. Maybe the Kember wasn’t there. Like Ian said, no one else saw him. All they saw was the poor man I nearly rendered unconscious. Now, thanks to me, another Drea possibly locked himself in his house determined to never leave again.

  It definitely wasn’t one of my finer moments. My cheeks blazed at the thought, and I shook my head for the thousandth time, determined to drop it. In a few weeks, people would find something else to gossip about. Until that time, I screened every phone call and concentrated on finding the Kember.

  And getting out of tutoring sessions.

  My teacher f
linched. His mouth dropped in a look of pure idiocy as I slammed the book onto the kitchen table. “I’m not gonna read ‘To kill a fu—’”

  “Taylee!” Aiden closed some tattered hardback he was reading, jumped from the couch and walked into the kitchen. One thing I’d learned about him: he wasn’t fond of my vocabulary.

  I slumped back in my chair and redirected my scowl at the balding, old man. How did this help me find that Kember? It didn’t. Therefore, not my problem.

  “Actually,” Mr. Whatever-his-name-was began, oblivious to the insult. His brown eyes brightened. “It’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s an outstanding novel. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

  Where the heck did Aiden dig this guy up from? Some cult for the socially challenged? Unlike him, I couldn’t bury myself in a book after the most important thing in my life had been stripped from me. I folded my arms and scoffed. “Yeah, since you know so much about me. I don’t read. Ever.”

  The grey slab of hair above my tutor’s eyes, which I guessed were once two eyebrows, furrowed as he shuffled through papers in his binder. “Your report cards indicate you passed all your classes with A’s and B’s. I find it hardly plausible you don’t read but passed English with flying colors.”

  Aiden’s eyes flickered toward me and narrowed. He wondered the same thing, although he knew the answer: Mind control.

  “I’m incredibly gifted.” I smiled sweetly. Okay, enough of this. I glanced at Aiden, who stood against the counter, feet crossed, attention back in his book where it belonged. I placed both my palms on the table and snickered inward. Sayonara, Teach.

  I looked squarely at Mr. Unibrow and focused until I felt the weight of his mind. Like pushing through water, I moved forward past his resistance and enveloped his mind in mine.

  Embracing the wonderful, warm buzz, I closed my eyes. I quickly opened them again, knowing I didn’t have time to screw around.

  The tutor’s eyes glazed, and I gave him his first command. Put the book away.

  He did.

  Now, tell me I’ve been doing such a fantastic job the last few weeks that I don’t need to worry about reading this book.

  “You know, Taylee,” he said in his wise, blah voice. “You’ve been doing such a fantastic job the last few weeks. Don’t worry about reading this book.”

  Now leave.

  With a cheery smile, he stood from his chair and began packing his things.

  Aiden snapped his head toward the clock. “You’re leaving? It’s only one.”

  “Yes, yes, well, time is in the essence,” I made him say.

  “Of the essence?” Aiden studied him suspiciously.

  “Uh, yeah—yes,” his voice wavered like my order, “exactly what I said.”

  Pack faster, pack faster!

  He threw his crap in his bag.

  My head pounded from the pressure of trying to keep his mind under control. I bit my lip and casually smoothed my fingers from my jaw to my temple.

  Aiden took a few steps closer, glancing between Mr. Unibrow and me. I shrugged at Aiden, trying to play it cool. The tutor still had that dumb smile plastered across his face.

  “The conversation we had yesterday, Mr. Sorenson,”—ahhh, Mr. Sorenson, that was his name!—“can you tell me about it?” Aiden asked.

  Busted. Asking questions I didn’t know the answer to was a sure way to find out if he was under my control. By now, thanks to the file Aiden received on me, he knew the ins and outs of my ability. Like the very inconvenient fact I can’t invade memories or get information from anyone. Well, not without inflicting torture, but that didn’t have anything to do with mind control.

  “Yeah—or, uh…Yes, of course.” I cringed. Man, I really needing to work on my sophisticated geek talk. “That thing.”

  “Let him go,” Aiden said in a low voice. His hard gaze set on me. “You’re done messing around.”

  I blinked. The room spun slowly, like I just jumped off some puke-inducing ride. The pressure in my head gradually turned into a headache, and my energy poured out in such thick currents, I was surprised no one saw it flowing across the floor.

  “What do you mean?” My words slurred. Funny, I didn’t remember drinking vodka, but I sure could’ve used some. The lightheaded feeling intensified; the verge of passing out crept up on me. I had no choice but to let him go or fall on my face.

  I released him. As the pressure of his mind left mine, I rested my cheek against the cool table and closed my eyes. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. Mr. Sorenson still packed his things, but much slower.

  “Thank you, Mr. Sorenson. I think it’s a good idea that Taylee still read the novel. I’ll make sure she gets it done over the weekend.”

  “Whatever you deem best. I’ll return Monday, Taylee. Have a pleasant weekend.”

  Pleasant? Hah! “Yeah, yeah.” I waved my hand dismissively, hearing two sets of footsteps walk to the front door. I sat up in my chair as Aiden came back. He tossed the book onto the table and settled in the chair across from me. “Read it out loud.”

  “Um…okay. I’ll get right on that.” I rolled my eyes. “After, I find the bastard who stole my life.”

  He set his elbows on the table and leaned forward, lowering his voice. “It’s not your job to find the Kember. Google isn’t going to get you anywhere.” He nudged the book forward with his finger. “Do your homework.”

  I shoved the book as hard as I could off the table. With a loud slap, it hit the stove and landed on the floor. “You read it.”

  “I already have.” Aiden’s gaze lingered on the upside down paperback before he directed it at me.

  “So what? You’re supposed to be some badass bookworm?” Skyler definitely exaggerated about this one.

  He sat back and crossed his arms. “Maybe you’d like to know that Ian requires me to send him an e-mail every day. In case you’ve changed your mind about the therapist.”

  Blackmail in its finest form. I gritted my teeth to keep my “screw you” comment at bay.

  Aiden pushed away from the table and walked across the wood floor. He picked up the book, set it in front of me and held it down with his index finger. “Read the book out loud.”

  Knowing how loyal he was to Ian, he’d no doubt make good on his threat. Spilling my guts to a therapist meant less time looking for the Kember. I couldn’t afford that.

  Opening the book to chapter one, it took every ounce of willpower I possessed to not tear out every boring page. I read, mumbling in a monotone voice.

  He started interrogating me about the chapter. Oh hell. Story time tortured me enough. Now this? I scooted my chair back and stormed toward the front door.

  “Where’re you going?”

  I didn’t break my pace. “Out.”

  Ripping the front door open, I stomped outside and inhaled the fresh air greedily. It whipped around me, blowing dark strands of hair in my face. I placed my hands on the deck railing and peered around the surrounding forest.

  I wanted to go back to three weeks ago when everything was okay. I missed Delmari, and even though I knew he would’ve flipped about the stunt I just pulled, I didn’t care. I’d give anything to hear him yell again. Maybe I’d even listen this time.

  Tall trees used to bring me peace. Normally, standing in the midst of them calmed me. All I had to do was breathe in the clean pine scent, listen to the silence and before too long, I felt my anger recede. Not this time. If anything, the woods made it worse. Now all I saw were flames and despair. I didn’t want to relive that day. I didn’t even want to think about it.

  Seconds later, Aiden stepped out, killing any possibility of peace. “You’re not supposed to be out here without me. It could be dangerous.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, how unfortunate it’d be for someone to take me off your hands.”

  Before he could respond, I walked through the waist-high sunflowers, pulling some out as I went. Ever since I could remember, I’d hated that I had no known relatives. Now I felt the a
ctual impact. I wanted a place to go. Something that felt familiar and safe. Nowhere would I find that. I didn’t know where I belonged anymore. Aside from Skyler, Aiden was all I had. That thought brought a tightening soreness to my throat.

  “How far into these woods are we going?”

  My thoughts raced so angrily, I didn’t care. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

  A blinding scarlet light veiled my eyes. I stopped dead in my tracks, blinking rapidly. “What the—?” I rubbed my lids and opened my eyes again: Nothing but a red haze. I couldn’t see. My heart hammered.

  “Everything okay?”

  A warm sensation rushed over my entire body, like I stood inches from a fire. I stumbled back, wiping at my arms. The heat intensified throughout my body, becoming so hot it started to singe my skin. My breath hitched and I dropped to my knees. I squeezed my eyes closed and threw myself to the ground, thrashing in the dirt.

  “What’s going on?” Aiden’s concerned voice sounded far away. “What’re you doing?”

  The dirt didn’t do jack. “I’m b-burning!”

  Rumbling, cracking sounds flooded my ears. I opened my eyes; the crimson was gone. Now, vicious, orange tendrils danced on the trees and swirled through the grass and shrubs around me. Thick smoke whirled and funneled into the air.

  Oh no.

  My skin blazed. I screamed then coughed as the smoke invaded my lungs. I shifted my gaze around the grove but couldn’t see Aiden anywhere. My heart accelerated. The bastard left me here to burn.

  Raindrops fell like marbles. They splattered on my scorched face and body, gradually washing the burning away. Delmari! He saved me. He was back. I knew no one could kill him! Relief filled me. My rigid body collapsed into the dirt. I closed my eyes, taking a long, deep breath.

  After a few moments, I peered up through the streaking rain. Placing both hands down in the mud, I pushed myself into a seated position. I blinked a few times, trying to make something out of the smoke and remaining flames. Where the heck was Aiden? Some Kember.

  Snapping twigs and labored breathing made me turn my head. A dark-haired chick, about my age, with wide eyes and tear-stained cheeks, sprinted toward me. I pushed my matted hair away from my face and tried to stand. My legs wouldn’t respond. I gasped and gripped them, trying to pry them from the ground. My jaw dropped and my breathing hitched. From the waist down, I was paralyzed.