Waltz into Fire

by L. J. Garland

  “It wouldn’t have mattered,” Fallon said. “This thing just wanted to torture me.”

  “Damn. So that…thing you did with the fire….” He gestured at her hand, his brow furrowing and a hint of fear surfacing in his eyes. “Did you do what you did to Zane to that demon?”

  “Yeah.”

  He pointed at her cheek. “That how you got that cut?”

  She reached up and fingered the two butterfly adhesives holding the edges of the long, thin wound together. “Yes. But it seems he wasn’t ready to kill me yet.” She swallowed and withdrew her hand. “He certainly could have if he’d wanted.”

  “Okay.” Cocking a brow, Erik angled toward Zane. “So if you’re not a demon like you say, why’s my sister throwing fireballs at you?”

  Zane gave him a hard stare, hoping he would know the truth when he heard it. “The bastard lied. Said I was a demon just like him. That I steal souls and bring them to him by making them believe that I love them.” He looked at Fallon, and the distrust that shone in her eyes caused his heart to ache, his soul to wrench. “Your sister was having a bit of a hard time trusting that I was on her side.”

  “Really? That’s odd. ’Cause in the very short time I’ve known her, she’s proven herself to be very loyal. It doesn’t seem like she’d believe a monster over someone she knows without a reason.”

  “You can stop talking like I’m not here.” She held Zane’s gaze, a mix of hope and wariness swirling in her eyes. “So tell your side, Zane. And, for once, tell the truth.”

  He grimaced. He’d deserved that. Taking a breath, he organized the last three months in his mind and prayed she would believe him. Gazing at her, he desperately wanted to touch her, to hold her hand while he recounted the events that had led to this moment—that had led him to her.

  But instead, he only nodded. “No more secrets.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Fallon hadn’t understood just how invested she’d become in Zane until this moment. Because, right now, here in the dining room of her restaurant, the rest of her life hung in the balance. Hung on the words Zane would offer. She closed her eyes and prayed he could find something that would enable her to keep him in her life, some explanation to erase the doubts. Was she being weak? Maybe, but there it was anyway.

  “Three months ago, I was in my second year of residency in trauma medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital.”

  “Wait. You’re a doctor?” Do I know the man at all?

  “I was, but I never finished my residency.” His voice held tones of regret and sadness. “Until that night, I was a damn good one. I was working the graveyard shift, and the paramedics brought in a woman who’d been severely beaten. Some kids walking home from a party found her unconscious in a park, and she was brought to the emergency department.”

  He shifted his gaze, eyes darkening as though he witnessed the scene all over again. A grimace formed on his mouth. “She was a mess but had regained consciousness by the time she’d arrived and was refusing treatment, giving the nurse one heck of a time. When I went in to see her, she relaxed. Stupid me, I thought it was my great bedside manner. Looking back, I should’ve been more suspicious, but I didn’t think a thing of it. She still refused x-rays and most treatment but did allow me to suture the laceration on her arm.

  “She told me an ex-boyfriend had been stalking her. That usually, she never went anywhere alone because this guy scared her so much, but had worked late and found herself having to walk home alone. He attacked her in the park next to her apartment building.”

  “Oh my God, that’s awful,” Fallon said, drawing his attention. His haunted expression sent concern rippling through her.

  He frowned. “Don’t feel sorry for her. I’m not done with my story yet.”

  “Go on,” Erik said.

  “So I stitched her up, listened to her tell me a horror story about trusting the wrong person and having him turn on you.” He paused, giving her a meaningful stare. “I felt awful for her, but there wasn’t much I could do other than offer a sympathetic ear and fix her up. An hour later, I had her all bandaged and sent her on her way. But I could tell she didn’t want to leave. She was scared to death. The police had urged her to press charges, but she wouldn’t even name the guy.”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. Fallon ached to cover his hand with hers to comfort him. Instead, she kept them tucked in her lap. So far, she’d heard nothing that helped his case at all. If anything, learning he’d lied about really being a doctor was one more strike against him.

  Zane opened his eyes but kept his gaze on the table. “Anyway, I had other patients, and she left…or so I thought. When my shift ended, I found her waiting for me at my car.”

  His head snapped up, realization splashed across his face. “You know, I never even questioned how she knew it was my car. She looked so frightened and vulnerable I guess I never got past my first impulse of wanting to protect her. Long story short, I brought her back to my apartment with me. I swear to God, Fallon, I did not set out to seduce that woman. She was hurting, physically and emotionally. Taking advantage of a woman who’d been attacked like that?” He shook his head. “That’s just something I wouldn’t do. I only wanted to give her somewhere safe where she could get some sleep and try to recover.”

  He shoved his chair back and stood. Storming across to the bar, he found a bottle of scotch whisky, poured a shot of the dark amber liquid, and threw it back. Grimacing, he swallowed and turned toward her and Erik. “I gave her my bed, got her settled, and crashed on the couch. I woke up an hour later with her naked and very much in control of the situation.”

  Fallon opened her mouth to say something snide about men and naked women, but Zane held up a hand, cutting her off.

  “I’m not going to stand here and claim I was an unwilling participant. I wasn’t. I was a very healthy, twenty-eight-year-old, unattached man with basic urges just like the next guy. When I woke up to a gorgeous woman helping herself to what she wanted, I went with the flow and let my dick override my common sense.”

  She winced. This was so not going the way she’d expected. Why the hell was he telling her this story? She didn’t want to hear about his prior sex life. She wanted him to convince her that he wasn’t what the demon-beast thing had claimed, and she wanted him to convince her to trust him. So far, what she’d heard broke her heart more. She glanced at Erik, who only shrugged and looked back to Zane

  “I’m sorry, Fallon. I promised I wouldn’t lie to you, and I intend to keep that promise.” He shoved his hand through his hair and stalked back to the table. Grabbing his chair, he turned it backward, straddled it, and met her gaze. “I fell back asleep after. The next time I woke, I was naked, my arms and legs staked to my hardwood living room floor, and I was covered in blood. There were all these black candles around me and scattered throughout the room. Must have been thirty or more.” His brow furrowed. “She hadn’t brought anything with her from the hospital—not even a cell phone far as I could tell—so I have no clue where the candles came from. All I know is that a handful had already burned out, but I really couldn’t tell you how long I’d been lying there. I freaked, tried pulling at the ropes that held me down.” He glanced away and tapped his finger several times on the back of his chair. “That’s when I heard her laughing.”

  “Laughing?” Erik leaned forward.

  “Yeah. She was sitting on my couch, laughing her ass off, not a bruise or mark on her body.” He shifted his gaze back to Fallon, his expression a mix of shame and pleading. “What she did to me…. It’s the same thing that demon told you I’d do. But, trust me, there was no love involved.”

  Oh, Lord. Tears burned Fallon’s eyes and threatened to spill, her heart aching at the pain in Zane’s voice. “I don’t understand. What did she do?”

  “Stole my soul.”

  Erik tensed next to her. “Come again?”

  Zane slewed his gaze toward her brother and drummed his fingers on the chair back again, t
he tips popping out a frenetic beat on the simulated leather. “Mia—that’s her name. She’s a witch. Told me some story about a debt she owed to a demon.” He rolled a shoulder. “Honestly? I thought she was psychotic. I was a doctor. I believed in science, not witchcraft and demons. I wasn’t even listening to what she babbled on about. I just wanted her out of my apartment, out of my life. I’d deal with the mess and the ropes. I just wanted her gone.”

  He folded his arms on the back of the chair and lowered his head. Fallon understood he was hurting, understood this was difficult for him. A week ago, she wouldn’t have believed a word he’d said. But, damn, hadn’t her own life changed dramatically in the last week? And hadn’t she seen things and done things she had no way of explaining? So maybe he wasn’t a demon. Maybe that creepy beast did own him, but for different reasons than it’d said. But still, nothing of Zane’s story explained how he could have said such cruel things to her.

  “So, this Mia,” she said. “She stole your soul to repay a debt to a demon. But you’re still here. How does that work? Does that mean you’re under the demon’s control and gathering souls just like he said?” The horrible words seemed to burn her throat, and she swallowed. But she needed to know the truth.

  He raised his head and met her gaze with determination. “Before she left, Mia told me I had three months until my soul would belong to a powerful demon. She said my body would be an empty shell left to vegetate in a bed somewhere until I was old and my organs could no longer function or some shit like that. Like I said, I thought she was batshit crazy.”

  “So, what changed your mind?” Erik said.

  He rubbed his biceps and gave a derisive snort. “The bitch walked over to me, mumbled some mumbo-jumbo I didn’t understand, and then waved her hands. She leaned over and touched her finger to my forehead. Next thing I know, my arm’s burning like she’d set fire to it. I was yelling at her to get out and trying like hell to break free of the ropes. Then she just vanished.”

  Surprise rattled through Fallon. “She what?”

  “She straightened, rattled off another string of gibberish, and just disappeared into thin fucking air. One second she was there, the next she was gone. She didn’t even use the flashy smoke you see in the movies, just boom. Gone. But at that point, I didn’t give a rat’s ass. My arm felt like it’d been hacked at with a chainsaw and then soaked in lighter fluid.”

  Erik gestured toward the tattoo, and Zane angled his shoulder.

  “Yeah. She left the tat. I heard something that sounded like a whispered ‘Bye, lover,’ and then the ropes holding my arms and legs vanished just like she did. I jumped up and searched the apartment, trying to find her. But when I got to the bathroom, I caught my reflection in the mirror.” He tore his gaze from Fallon’s and swallowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that shade of white, even on my sickest patient. The time I spent with her couldn’t have been more than six hours, but I’d lost about twenty pounds. And there were…. I was….”

  “What?” Fallon whispered, not certain she wanted to know but had to ask all the same.

  “The blood.” A shudder coursed through him. “She’d marked me with it. Symbols. Lines. All over my body. My face. Even my damn eyelids.”

  An image of him filled Fallon’s mind, and she bit her lip in consternation.

  “Right then, I got in the shower. Scrubbed so hard I made my skin raw. When I got out, that’s when I saw the tattoo.”

  Zane slammed his fist on the table and bolted up, his chair tumbling to the side. Anger marred his face, and he stalked away to the bar. Gripping the edge of the thick, oak countertop, he stood hunched over, tension rippling the muscles over his shoulders and back.

  Fallon rose and crossed to him, but he didn’t look up. Oh, how she wanted to touch him, to soothe the horrible memories that tortured him. Instead, she shoved her hands in her pockets. “Zane—”

  “She stole my fucking life,” he growled. “All I did was try to help her. I offered her a safe place to rest and woke up to a fucking nightmare.”

  She sighed. “Are you sure what she told you is true?”

  He straightened, grabbed the whiskey bottle, and poured another shot. “You heard that thing outside. If I wasn’t sure before, I am now.” He downed the drink, slamming the glass on the counter. “Hell, Fallon, I spent the first month searching for Mia in New York. She’d vanished. Nothing. Then I heard someone mention something about New Orleans. I figured, yeah, voodoo capital of the U.S. Met with a couple of Vodou priestesses, but no one had heard of Mia. Wasted another month on nothing more than folklore.”

  “There must be something we can do.” She glanced at Erik,

  Zane poured another round, downed it, and swiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Eleven days, Fallon. That’s all I have left. Eleven days, and for all intents and purposes, I’m dead.”

  “Eleven days,” she said. “That’s not much time.”

  Hope scored his features. “So you believe me?”

  “Yes, I do, and I want to help somehow. But what I still don’t understand is why you threw my ex in my face.” Hurt tore through her anew. “How could you say such ugly things to me? Especially after what Mia did to you. What did I do to deserve that?”

  Zane reached out to grasp her hand, but she moved it before he could touch her. She might believe he wasn’t a demon, but she wasn’t ready to give him back her heart. He only got one chance to break it, and he’d already done so.

  “You did nothing to deserve that. I’ve wished to God I could take those words back.” A disheartened sigh hissed between his lips, and he stared at her, his gaze both regretful and filled with desire. The level of lust swirling in his eyes stole her breath, and she didn’t realize he’d moved closer until he stood inches from her.

  “When I first met you, I was drawn in a way I’ve never been before,” he said in an intimate rumble and tilted his head. “And even knowing my fate, that only a handful of days remained in my life, I had to get to know you better. I knew it was wrong, unforgivably selfish. And after our first kiss, I told myself I would stay away from you. It wasn’t fair to get involved with you when I wouldn’t be around to continue a relationship. A relationship I very much wanted, by the way.”

  So had she. But that was then. “So why did you come back?”

  A rueful smile met his lips. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I kept telling myself one more day wouldn’t hurt. Then you left for Maine, had the car accident. By the time you got back, I was so consumed with the need to see you, I barely made it through my shift.” He lifted his hand to caress her cheek but stopped short, curling his fingers into his palm instead. “What happened in your dining room, I…I can’t regret that. You mean more to me than I can explain in words.”

  Fallon gazed up at him, drawn by the intense passion in his eyes. Heat radiated from him, urging her to step into his embrace, to take his mouth in a soulful kiss. Oh, how she wanted to follow through, to lose herself in him.

  But she couldn’t. She stepped back and let the anguish he’d wrought empower her words. “Please, Zane. Don’t fill me full of shit. Like you said, you’re a twenty-eight-year-old male with basic human needs. I get it. I’m not even angry about that. What hurts is that I shared something so painful that I don’t talk about it to anyone. And you turned around and threw it in my face.”

  He winced, his expression revealing the devastation she’d inflicted. Fallon clenched her teeth. Well, good. What she’d said didn’t begin to approach his betrayal of confidence. He deserved at least a taste.

  Zane held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right. I abused your trust and intentionally hurt you. At the time, it’s what I thought I had to do.”

  She didn’t wait for further explanation. Rearing back, she slapped him across the face for the second time in the past two hours, but it didn’t make her feel any better. The muscles spanning her injured ribs spasmed with the abrupt action, and she bit the inside of her cheek to fight off re
acting. She wasn’t about to let him see her weak or needy. She turned to leave, but he stopped her.

  “After you left for the fire, the demon showed his face at your house and threatened you. I raced to the fire, scared to death the thing would harm you. I thought it was after you because of me and what Mia had done to me. I was torn between leaving and staying to protect you.” He threw his arms out to the sides in a wide gesture. “When you told me of your family’s legacy, I panicked. I still thought the demon was after you because of our relationship, and there you stood, telling me you believed I was in danger because of you.” Slicing his hand through the air, he said, “I couldn’t do that, Fallon. I couldn’t have you believing this was all your fault. I thought if I left, I would draw the demon away from you. That if you were angry with me, maybe you wouldn’t feel guilty.”

  Glaring, she slammed her fists onto her hips. “Really, Zane? Because, we all know I’m such a weak female that if you just told me you couldn’t see me anymore, I would’ve fallen at your feet and begged you not to leave. Or, heaven-fucking-forbid, you actually tried the truth and trusted in me to believe, and—should we even say it?—help you.” She shook her head, having heard enough. “Your explanation sucks, Zane. So do you.”

  She needed to get the hell out of there before she started crying in front of him. She’d prayed he would come up with some kind of answer she could buy, but, in the end, what it really boiled down to was just another scared little man, unwilling to trust her with the truth. Unwilling to put himself out there for something that mattered.

  Well, it seemed the message had successfully been pounded into her brain the second time around. She’d learned her lesson. This time, she would be the one walking away.

  Pivoting on her heel, she stalked toward the kitchen only to be stopped by her brother stepping in front of her.