by C. M. Owens
Sighing, I turn back to Reese. “Fine. Give me what she wrote down. I’ll start sifting through it.”
Kimber turns and walks away as Reese hands me a notebook. I sigh while taking it, and no more words are spoken as we leave. Thad takes the passenger seat beside me, Kimber sits in the back, and the silence hangs in the air all the way back to the safe house.
***
GAGE
“Find anything yet?” Thad asks while joining me in my isolated spot.
“I thought I was hidden out here,” I mumble, flipping another page of the notebook.
She was very detailed. Between her and Karma, we’ll find six of these rings now. It’s time to start planning an attack. Just as soon as we talk to our one last lead.
“Just because you walk into the woods, that doesn’t mean you’re hidden.”
I nod absently, barely acknowledging the changer. I know why he’s looking for me.
“We need to talk,” he says, blowing out a breath while dropping to the ground beside me.
“I’m not going to ambush Kimber with another kiss. It was stupid, so get your panties out of a wad. She’s the reason I’m way the hell out here instead of at the house right now. I just need a few minutes of distance.”
“The time for staying away has come and gone.”
That has my head popping up. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He tosses me a leather-bound book, and I stare at the ancient symbol on the top. It’s one I’ve never seen before.
“How much do you know about visionaries?” he asks me.
“Not much. Their secrets have been well-kept for centuries. I know that Kimber is one of two that I’ve ever met. Being hunted made them paranoid, and they locked away their secrets. Why?”
He nods. “Read that. You’ll learn a lot. But there’s something in particular you need to know. Visionaries suffer from a curse if they ever lose their ability to view the past, present, and future.”
That takes me by surprise. “Kimber is cursed?”
With a frown, he says, “Yes. And now she has fixated.”
What the—
“On you,” he adds.
“What the hell does that mean?”
He stands and comes closer to me, opening the book to a page that has been marked. “Kimber isn’t the first to lose her visions. Their powers are the easiest to strip. In fact, they’re the only ones ever known to be stripped of power. But as a result, they go a little… crazy.”
I cock an eyebrow at that comment, but he continues on.
“Kimber is the only one to ever live beyond the first two years after the loss of visions, and that’s only because she also has gatekeeping powers. But that doesn’t mean she gets to bypass the curse. Visionaries never encounter a mystery because they can see everything around them at all times—past, present, and future.
“But if they lose their visions, they encounter mystery. Unlike us, they’re not equipped to handle it. Calypso and Drackus helped Kimber learn to channel her gatekeeping abilities. That was the first mystery she encountered that she fixated on. Unlike the other visionaries, she can handle some mystery, as long as she doesn’t become intrigued. By channeling her energy into one fixation at a time, she keeps her sanity.”
I’m more confused than ever right now, even though he thinks he’s explaining things.
“So…”
“So, as I said, now she has fixated on you. You’re a big giant mystery, and we both know you never talk about your past. I’ve never asked you for anything, but I’m asking you for this. Tell her something—anything. She can’t have two fixations at once. She’s already reckless. She hates feeling weak. It makes her feel like a victim all over again. If she fixates on you and this mission to take down slave rings, she’ll end up getting herself killed.”
Leaning back, I scrub my hands over my face. “I’ll go talk to her,” I groan, knowing damn well this can only end badly. She better be okay with the fucking highlights.
“I suppose this fixation has something to do with the… chemistry between us.”
Thad laughs as though something is funny.
“The fixation doesn’t have a damn thing to do with that. Or the fact you kissed her outside a werewolf bar. That’s all between the two of you. Good luck with that.”
A lot of damn help he is. Now I have to spend time alone in a room with Kimber—the only girl I’ve not been able to shrug off in decades. Maybe I can talk to her without thinking about getting her naked and under me.
“Try to answer questions without letting her know that I’ve cued you in on everything. She doesn’t like being viewed as weak, and you’re already giving her a damn complex about it. Stop doing that. She’ll only work harder to prove herself.”
Complicated. My life is always complicated.
“I happen to have a bit of charisma. No worries, Thad. I’ll handle it.”
Chapter 11
KIMBER
“Anything at all would help, Ella,” I say over the phone.
“I wish I knew anything. I asked Alyssa, and she knows less than you do about him. Shit. I can’t believe you’re fix—”
“Can we talk?” Gage asks, walking into my room and looking like sex on legs.
My mouth goes dry as I take him in. His long body is lean, but defined with layers of muscle. I really wish he wasn’t something I found fascinating.
“Um… yeah… um…”
“Is that him?” Ella asks, clearly interested. “Because his voice sounds… wow. You’re in deep shit¸ you know?”
“He can hear you, you know?” I grumble, ignoring the smirk Gage has on his face as he drops down to the chair next to my bed.
I sit up, trying to keep this as platonic and… not sexually charged as possible, but sometimes I swear the air crackles around us.
Ella laughs before hanging up, and I toss my phone aside.
“I assume that was Ella,” he says, leaning back and studying me.
“Um. Yeah.”
I know I look guilty, because I feel guilty. I really wasn’t expecting him to walk in and overhear our conversation, and he knows I was asking about him.
“Can I ask you something?” he asks while steepling his hands in front of his face.
“Sure,” I say unsurely.
“You told Dice and Karma that you would never sleep with someone Ella slept with. Care if I ask why?”
Oh damn. That means he heard all of what I said. I really hate Dice right now.
“Why do you want to know?”
He shrugs, keeping his hands steepled.
“Just curious. I’ll answer a question you have if you answer that one. I’m not sure why, but it’s bugging me.”
Considering this is a golden opportunity to help out with my issue, I decide to go with it.
“Because Ella has only been with one guy one time. He used her to get closer to Alyssa and Kane, but she didn’t figure it out until after she was bonded to him—she was still mortal he was immortal. It was messy.”
“Define messy,” he says, his eyes still on mine. When I don’t answer right away, he smiles and adds, “You’ll get two questions if you explain.”
I want to ask why he’s asking questions about Ella, because it’s sort of pissing me off, but I don’t want to waste my questions.
“She had two options to break the bond, as you’re well aware,” I say, remembering the story about when Gage had to free Alyssa from the bond with Kane. Now that was messy.
“I’m aware,” he says tightly, looking uncomfortable for the first time since he came in here.
“Either you have sex with another immortal, or you kill the source of the problem. We couldn’t do either. Ella guarded him. She was lost under his spell and tied unforgivingly to the bond. We couldn’t go after him without hurting her. Fortunately, a third option presented itself.”
His eyes shift to realization. “She turned immortal and the bond broke on its own,” he says, drawing the conclusion for
himself.
“And she almost killed him herself once the effects of the bond wore off. He went from being part of the council to being a nobody for trying to rise high in the ranks by using the queen’s daughter. Stupid idiot. I wish they had just killed him and been done with it.”
His lips twitch as he nods. “Alyssa doesn’t like to kill unless absolutely necessary.”
“Now will you tell me why you don’t have a last name?” I ask mildly, trying not to let him see that the mystery there is driving me absolutely crazy.
He sighs while standing up. I slump in defeat when I think he’s about to walk out, but he reaches behind his neck and grabs his shirt, pulling it over his head. What the…
My thoughts trail off as I stare at the golden, tight skin that is rippled with muscle and painted with various forms of ink. He moves closer, and my breath catches in my throat as my eyes come up to meet his.
“Here,” he says, pointing to a tattoo just above his pants. “Do you know what that is?”
I shake my head as I try to study the intricate details of the odd symbol. But the fact he’s shirtless and alone in the house with me is distracting.
“I was born into mortal slavery,” he says at last, and my eyes widen before snapping up to meet his. He gives me a grim smile. “Centuries ago, my mother made a deal with a mortal witch coven. Though mortal magic has been reduced to nothing more than a few flashy parlor tricks these days, at one time it rivaled immortal magic.”
He takes my hand in his, and my breaths become labored when he draws my index finger to the symbol. He traces one of the lines, but it’s all so distracting.
“At one time, that line of ink had words. While I was mortal, I was bound to them—to serve them. They used a stone to live off my energy—keeping them young. This symbol tied my magic to the stone. Along with several others like me. My mother sold me to gain more strength. They granted her more power by offering her an old stone, one they couldn’t use anymore, but it still held trapped power.”
He takes a deep breath, releasing my hand, but I continue to study the symbol, tracing the lines of it with my finger.
“That’s why I don’t have a last name. Slaves at that time weren’t allowed to have more than one name as an identity.”
My heart clenches, and I fight the tears in my eyes.
“What did they make you do?” I ask weakly, worried about the answer.
He laughs bitterly while moving to sit down on the bed beside me, and my fingers tingle upon the loss of physical touch.
“That list would take too long to share, and I’m not sure you want to have those images in your mind. Is there something else you’d rather know instead?”
I don’t have to know those details to piece together the mystery. And I shouldn’t have asked.
“Sure. Um… How did you get free?”
There’s no laughter this time, but his smile is just as bitter. “When my immortality was approaching, I had no choice but to break free or die. If they allowed me to live until I changed, then the stone lost its power. My survival instincts kicked in.
“My powers were growing daily despite the fact they were draining my magic. I was stronger than the rest, and I knew it. That meant it was my responsibility to save us all. And I did. I managed to blow through our cells. The crests used were no longer strong enough to hold me back. The stone wasn’t easy to get to, and I had to be ruthless to get it, but I did. I got it, and I destroyed it. But before I found the correct stone, I first grabbed the wrong one. It was a dead stone with lost lives attached to it. I touched it… Everyone who had died, all the powers tied to the stone by them, ran through me and took root. That was unexpected, and that made me much more powerful than I already was. I suppose it might have just replenished the powers that had been stolen from me.”
He looks so crestfallen and guilty. As though it’s his fault everyone was trapped there.
“When the stone was destroyed and the powers were returned, a mutiny ensued, and all the enslaved ones rose against the coven. It might sound cowardly to you, but Hannah—the coven leader—was asleep when I killed her. I couldn’t risk facing her while she was awake. She was so damn strong, and her heart was black as coal, rotten to the core.
“I took a knife to her bed chambers, and while she dreamt, I slammed the blade into her heart, buried it to the hilt, and twisted it for good measure. It was the first time I spilled blood. When her eyes popped open to meet mine, I stared into them until they fell lifeless, just so that I could be sure she was dead.”
Talk about a messed up start to life.
“Why in the hell did you ever speak to your mother again after that?” I ask before I can stop myself.
His grim smile comes before his long sigh. He drops to lie down on his back, putting his arms behind his head as he stares at the ceiling.
“I have asked myself that a hundred times. Or maybe a thousand. I lost count. But after I broke free, I kept trusting the wrong people. I had more power than I knew what to do with, and I was initially afraid of who I would hurt. I chose dark magic as opposed to light because I wasn’t sure who would accept me, and I didn’t realize what light magic meant. I assumed it was all good, and I had killed to escape. After being used and betrayed numerous times, I finally tracked down the first person to ever betray me. I had to be taught to use magic by someone.”
I lean back, tilting my body and resting my weight on my elbow as I look down at him.
“But you never trusted her.” It’s not a question.
“Hell no. Besides, it was her sister who really taught me. My aunt was all I really had, and eventually, making my mother’s life hell became a fun pastime for me. My aunt helped with that as well,” he says fondly, and I grin.
“It took me a while to find either one of them,” he says on a long sigh. “I had to make a lot of hard decisions and wrong choices to finally find myself again. And I suffered my fair share as well.”
He looks so in control of all his emotions, and I envy him for that restraint. He suffered worse than I did. Much worse. And I never would have known if he hadn’t told me.
Vulnerable is a really good look on him.
“You almost define the term tortured soul.”
He smiles up at me, and I look down at the few inches of space that divide our bodies.
“I suppose I do. It could have always been worse. I’ve heard worse, actually.”
“Do you talk about this often?” I ask, trying and failing not to look over his chest and abs.
“Never. This is the first I’ve spoken of it since my aunt started training me.”
That has my head snapping up, and I cock it in confusion.
“So why did you…”
My words trail off, and a groan leaves my lips when I stupidly catch on much too late.
“Thad told you,” I sigh.
I drop back to lie down and join him in staring at the ceiling.
“He sort of had to. I never would have given you anything, Kimber. I’ve had friends and relationships for a very long time without divulging any information at all. But these are special circumstances.”
And now I feel absolutely pathetic. His view on me is already so low.
“Well, you officially know my biggest weakness.”
He chuckles lightly, then he nudges my side. “You’re welcome to ask me mine if you think it’ll level the playing field.”
“You sure you want to tell me out loud?” I mumble, silently cursing Thad.
“I cast a spell to keep all the sounds inside this room before I even walked in.”
I look over to see his cheeky grin, and I find myself smiling instead of burrowing to China the way I want to. But my smile fades quickly when I realize what all this really means.
“So now you really won’t ever think I can handle this mission now. Will you?”
He leans over and brushes the hair away from my face, and for a fleeting moment, I forget what we’re even speaking about. He shouldn
’t hold this much power over me.
“On the contrary, now that I understand things about you, I realize that it’s my place to make sure you get the answers you need. That’s the only way you can kill the fixation.”
I sound like damaged goods. This really can’t get any worse.
“So what is your biggest weakness?” I ask, but only to shift the subject. The mystery of it isn’t enough to draw me in.
“The same thing that is my biggest strength. My powers.”
Okay, so that is definitely enough to draw me in.
I spin over to face him again, resting my head on my hand.
“Elaborate, dark boy.”
He laughs while shaking his head. “Dark boy? Way to be original.”
His golden skin piques my interest once more, and I don’t stop myself from reaching over and touching one of the other tattoos, tracing the black ink. He sucks in a breath that almost has me smiling.
He doesn’t move my hand or stop me, but he doesn’t react in any other way.
“Well?” I prompt, moving up to another tattoo and tracing the new lines.
“Well what?” he asks hoarsely, clearing his throat immediately after, and I smile a little bigger.
“Elaborate,” I repeat.
He focuses his attention on the ceiling once again, and I continue moving my finger all over his lines of ink, then I play with the clean lines of skin.
“You of all people understand what happens when someone has more power than what is natural.”
My finger stops, and I look up just as his eyes come down to meet mine.
“You lose it? Like Drackus?”
He laughs lightly before shrugging one shoulder.
“I can use more power than Drackus because I’m stronger—another secret. I also have more control. I haven’t ‘lost it’ in a few centuries.”
My finger strolls down his stomach, stopping where his blue jeans start.
“Is it as bad as when Drackus loses it?” I ask while looking back into his piercing blue eyes.