by Nina Bangs
Kayla didn’t roll her eyes. Cinn was sincerely devastated, and if believing her plants could think made her happy, more power to her.
“There’s Thorn.” Cinn waved at him.
Kayla noted that the other woman had avoided answering her question.
Thorn looked their way and then headed over. Kayla was getting used to the breathless sensation whenever she saw him. He was night—darkness, mystery, and danger. And here she’d thought she was so pragmatic. Not after that last thought. “Darkness, mystery, and danger” was romance-novel speak. She didn’t read romance novels.
Kayla put on her lawyer face and then smiled at him. It was tough to maintain when he stood so close, looked so good, and smiled back. His smile had definite orgasmic qualities.
Cinn seemed oblivious to the power of smiles. “I’m so grateful for what you did last night. And so is Vince. He wants to spend some time with you.”
He looked surprised for a moment but then recovered. “Sure. I’d be honored.” Pause. “For how long?”
Kayla almost laughed. She didn’t need any magical power to read his thoughts. They went sort of like, “What the hell am I going to do with this plant?”
For a moment, Cinn looked as though she was listening to something. Finally she nodded. “He says as long as it takes.” She shrugged. “Sometimes Vince can be cryptic.” She held the plant out to him.
Thorn took the plant. He held it gingerly. “If you don’t mind waiting here for a few minutes while I put him in my apartment, I can officially show you around.” His expression said he didn’t want to take them to his apartment.
Kayla understood. If they knew where he lived, it would make him vulnerable. “We’ll be here.”
“Speak for yourself.” Cinn stared at the roller coaster. “I want to look around and sample a few rides.” She threw Kayla a pointed stare. “You stay here. I’ll see you back at the castle.”
Kayla couldn’t read that stare. She hesitated. On the one hand, she should be cheering Cinn on, hoping the plant lady would smother the pier in a tangle of supersized vines. But on the other hand, she wanted to stay close to Cinn to make sure she didn’t go too far, destroy too much. Talk about conflicted loyalties. Dad would say she owed loyalty to the one who paid her. She wasn’t sure how much she believed Dad anymore.
And while she was trying to decide, Cinn walked away. Kayla looked back at Thorn. How to handle the moment? She offered him a weak smile. “Well, guess I’ll just hang around until you get back.” What if he’d only made his offer for Cinn’s sake? What if he really didn’t want to show Kayla anything except the exit gate?
He bit his lip, and even that looked sexy. She gave herself a mental slap. This had to stop. He was the enemy. But it was getting harder and harder to remember that. She waited patiently while he made up his mind about what he wanted to say.
Finally, he smiled. “Walk to my apartment with me.”
Kayla blinked. Not what she’d expected. Unfortunately, when someone caught her by surprise, she tended to blurt out whatever she was thinking. “If I were you, I wouldn’t invite me to my apartment.”
He laughed. A real laugh with no hidden agendas. “Then I guess I’m lucky you aren’t me.” Thorn reached out and clasped her hand. “Let’s go.”
She allowed her hand to stay in his. Bare skin against bare skin did weird things to her heartbeat. It hopped, skipped, stalled, and then sped up to warp speed. Her heart couldn’t make up its mind. But she could. Kayla loved touching him.
He stopped in front of a familiar building. It was the same one she’d visited with Holgarth that morning, the one with the off-limits sign.
“I have a home on the island, but I use this most of the time.” He dropped her hand to unlock the door.
She mourned its loss. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll make an easy target here?”
He stood aside to allow her to go in first. She briefly balanced the possibility that this might be a trap against her overwhelming curiosity. Curiosity won. She stepped into the room.
Not much to see—a bed, a couch, a few chairs, a small kitchenette, and a door she assumed led to a bathroom. No homey touches. No pictures of the grandchildren propped up on his nightstand. No framed Vampire of the Year awards hanging on the wall. “This is . . .”
“Sterile, cold, and empty. I know. It reminds me of my past. I’ll have to warm it up when I have time.” He followed her inside. “Have a seat.”
His comment saddened her, but she wasn’t here to offer decorating pointers. She opted for a chair. Safe. “Looks as though business is booming.” Brilliant, Stanley. The queen of obvious strikes again.
Thorn shrugged as he carefully set Vince on his nightstand. “I give great value.”
Kayla’s mind took that phrase in a totally different direction. Bad mind. “I heard visitors raving about the rides. I’ll have to try a few new ones tonight.” Okay, Mackenzie, your turn to add to the meaningless chatter.
He dropped into a chair opposite her. “This is probably the safest place I could be. I have round-the-clock security, and this apartment was built to stand up to a supernatural attack.” He leaned back in his chair. “Of course, if I invite the enemy inside, then all bets are off. Are you my enemy, Kayla?”
She frowned. Hadn’t she already answered that question yesterday? But things can change a lot in a few hours. Her head assured her he was, but the rest of her wasn’t so sure. “We’re still on opposing sides.” Was that ambiguous enough?
He nodded as though she’d answered his question. “Zane told me about his father. We’re lucky that Bygul managed to distract the wizard or else he would’ve done more damage.” Thorn looked thoughtful. “Why are they sending people with you, Kayla? First Holgarth and now Cinn.”
She opened her mouth to defend Cinn, but he waved her words away.
“Cinn is here to booby-trap my business in her own special way. I can’t wait to find out what that is. But I have people watching her, so hopefully it won’t be catastrophic.” He waited a few beats while he studied her. “Why aren’t you the one doing the heavy lifting? Isn’t that what Sparkle hired you for?”
She wanted to deny what he was saying, shove his words back at him, but she could only look away. Kayla would never work for her father again. She’d tell him that as soon as she got home. “I don’t do ‘heavy lifting.’ I just check to make sure you’re not breaking the law.”
“Right.”
He didn’t believe her. No use trying to convince him. Better to put him on the defensive. “What exactly do you want from Sparkle?” What history do you share?
“Suffering.”
She winced. The one word held a lifetime of rage and need for revenge. It hurt her to think of what could have caused that much hate. “You haven’t tried to kill her. Yet.”
He leaned forward, bringing all that intensity and disturbing emotion closer to her. She barely resisted the urge to lean back.
“I can’t kill her. She’s immortal, and the king of cosmic chaos has her back.”
He smiled, a mere baring of his fangs. “But suffering doesn’t have to end in death to be effective. I speak from personal experience. The suffering doesn’t even have to be physical. She loves that damn park, so I intend to ruin it.”
His emotions battered her. She wanted to leave, to run back to the relative safety of the castle, but pride kept her seated. And something else. She wanted to know. “What did she do to you?”
Thorn leaned back and glanced away from her. “It doesn’t matter.”
It did, to her. But she was smart enough to know it was time to stop pushing. “Sparkle recognized you last night, so I suppose she understands what this is all about.”
“Did she tell Ganymede anything?” He tensed.
“No.”
“Good.” His expression turned calculating. “Work for me, Kayla. I’ll pay more than Sparkle, and my benefits package can’t be beat.”
He lowered his gaze, and his long dark lashes
hid anything his eyes might reveal.
Kayla dropped her own gaze to consider his “benefits package.” Yes, definitely worth thinking about. She wanted to dismiss his offer. She already had a job. But something . . .
Suddenly, everything was so simple. Of course she’d work for Thorn. Why would she stay with Sparkle? She wanted to be here at Nirvana with him forever. Kayla opened her mouth to tell him that.
She never got the words out. As quickly as the thought had come, it was gone. Kayla frowned. Why had she even for a moment considered his offer? It didn’t make sense. She looked up to find him staring at her.
“I’m sorry.” Thorn looked furious, but his anger seemed aimed at himself.
“Why?”
She didn’t get a chance to say anything else, because in a blur of motion he was kneeling beside her. His inhuman speed took her breath away. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t his speed. It seemed that the closer he was, the more breathless she became.
Thorn shook his head. “It’s not important. Just know that you have a job here if you ever get sick of working for Sparkle.” His smile said that could happen very soon.
“Thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind.” No, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t possibly keep anything in her mind when he was so close. Kayla fell into his eyes, so blue, so filled with feelings that hurt—sadness, anger, and something else. She didn’t have time to figure out the “something else” because he leaned even closer.
“You make things hard, lawyer lady.” He reached up to smooth his fingers along the side of her jaw.
“Ditto.” She didn’t like the wispy sound of her voice. This was a moment to be strong, to be hard, to be committed, to be . . . Damn, she couldn’t concentrate.
He smiled and all she wanted to say was, “Ask me to work for you again.” Because his smile destroyed every bit of her resistance.
He was going to kiss her. It was in his eyes—the heated intent—in the wicked slant of his mouth, and the slide of his fingers over her shoulders as he pulled her close. Kayla had never wanted anything as much as she wanted this kiss. Wait, wait—
Something shook his apartment, and it wasn’t their kiss. The shaking was followed almost immediately by the din of hundreds of screams.
“I don’t believe this.” Thorn sprang to his feet and was yanking open the door before Kayla could even catch her breath. He glared back at her.
“Were you supposed to keep me busy while Cinn did her thing? Whatever that was.”
How could he turn his emotions on and off like that? Outraged, Kayla followed him to the door. “Once you put your brain back in motion you’ll realize how stupid that comment was.”
They ran around the edge of the building and were met by a solid wall of screaming humanity. Nirvana was a seething mass of panicked people fighting to get off the pier.
“Up here with me.”
Kayla didn’t have time to process his command before he wrapped his arm around her waist and leaped for the top of the building.
Her scream had barely ended when he set her down on the roof. They both looked to see what everyone was running from.
“Holy hell!”
Kayla couldn’t talk past her horror, so she decided that Thorn spoke for both of them.
11
Kayla wasn’t in the frozen-with-fear camp. Only cowards used that as an excuse for not taking action. She was fight or flight all the way.
But she remembered reading something somewhere. Scientists claimed that not being able to move in the face of overwhelming danger was hardwired into our DNA. Predators pursued prey that fled, so the prey instinctively froze.
She understood now. The being rising from the water at the end of the pier was beyond any danger she could imagine in her worst nightmare. Human form. Male. Long silver hair and beard. Piercing sea-green eyes. Flowing robes created from streaming water. He kept rising, growing bigger and bigger until she swore he was as massive as . . . a small island.
Her mind flashed back to the tanker, the enormous black shape, the ship disappearing. Oh. My. God. She looked up and up while her heart pounded and her breath caught in her throat.
Her mind went into survival mode. Run! But she couldn’t move, couldn’t rip herself away from Thorn’s side. Nausea churned and she hoped she wouldn’t embarrass herself. Dad would be calmly assessing the threat and weighing possible responses. But she wasn’t her father, and this was a freaking giant.
Kayla didn’t hear the screams anymore, no sounds of the crowd rushing toward the exit gates. What was that about? Hello, people, there’s a supersized person standing in the Gulf watching you!
Thorn didn’t release her. “Stay close to me. I’ll protect you.”
Even as terrified as she felt, she sensed his intensity, his need for her to believe him. And she did. Which was dumb, because anyone could see that no amount of vampire power would bring down something that gigantic.
Kayla couldn’t answer him, could barely breathe. No one had told her that frozen with fear also included vocal cords.
He hugged her closer. “Don’t go away.”
No chance of that. But she didn’t feel badly about not being able to tell him, because she sensed he was talking to someone else, someone who had gone away. She didn’t have time to wonder at the weirdness of that thought.
Thorn said nothing more. Instead, he watched the giant—unblinking, focused. She shivered. No human could be that still.
Then the giant began to speak. His voice was as huge as he was, a rumbling roar. Kayla swore the building vibrated with each word. She didn’t understand the language he spoke, but she could see he was staring directly at Thorn. Why?
She calmed down a little, enough to actually turn her head and glance at the rest of the pier. The giant probably wouldn’t grind Nirvana to dust while he was still talking to Thorn.
Kayla couldn’t believe it. The crowd was calm. Some people were glancing back at the giant and laughing as they left the park. No one was running. Then she looked up. Five people stood side by side on the wide flat top of the entrance gate—Eric, Zane, Klepoth, and the two witches. They stared down at the crowd. Kayla could connect dots. She could almost feel the power surge.
Just then the giant stopped talking and Thorn answered him in the same language.
Kayla turned back to Thorn in time to see the giant slowly sink into the Gulf. He was gone. And she was still alive. An event to be celebrated. “Who was that and what did he want?” Her voice shook only a little.
Thorn raked his fingers through his hair. “That was Aegir.”
Well, that was helpful. “Who is—?”
She didn’t get a chance to finish her question because he wrapped his arm more firmly around her and leaped from the building. Kayla barely squeaked this time. See, she was getting used to this kind of stuff.
He held up his hand to stop any other questions. “I’ll explain everything, but not until everyone is together. I need a summit meeting with Sparkle and Ganymede. Now.”
By this time all humans had left the park, happy and evidently unaware. Kayla wanted to know how that had happened. The only one remaining who wasn’t a Nirvana employee was Cinn. She waited for Kayla and Thorn by the entrance along with the ones who had been standing on top of the gate.
Cinn smiled at her and then looked at Thorn. “That hologram was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. What a clever way to warn visitors that it’s almost closing time. It scared the heck out of me at first.”
Kayla caught the amused look that passed between the two witches. “Right. Amazing.”
From the look on Thorn’s face, he was about to charge across the street and search for Ganymede himself. Kayla remembered what the cat had done to the refreshment stand.
She rushed into speech. “Look, how about if I go ahead and ease Ganymede and Sparkle into this meeting?”
Everyone except for Cinn and Thorn seemed to think it was a great idea.
“Why would Thorn have to s
peak to them?” Cinn looked confused for a moment, and then her eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t a hologram?”
Kayla shook her head.
“And why did I think it was a hologram?” Cinn scanned those around her. Her gaze settled on Eric and Klepoth. She nodded. “I see.”
That was great, because Kayla did not see. Sure, she got that all of them had worked together to create some kind of mass illusion, but she didn’t understand how. She probably never would.
“I don’t know why you have to warn Sparkle and the cat. I can handle anything they throw at me.” Thorn started toward the street.
Grim grabbed his arm. “No offense, boss, but you can’t handle the cat. If he attacked you, you’d be dead before you could use your persuasion on him. If it makes you feel better, I think Sparkle is the only one who can deal with him.”
For a moment, Kayla wondered about how Grim had used the word “persuasion” in that sentence. Deciding it was nothing, she concentrated on Thorn. She expected him to throw off Grim’s hand and continue on his way, but he didn’t. He nodded and then looked at Kayla.
“Go. Tell them what you saw, and say we need to have a meeting with the nonhumans from both parks.” Thorn held her gaze, and his expression softened for a moment. “Thanks for trusting me.” Then he turned back to his people. “Fast thinking. You saved some lives tonight. People would’ve trampled each other trying to get out.”
Trust? Yes, she’d trusted him to keep her safe. But she’d never trust him with other things that were much more fragile and easily crushed.
Kayla left them and headed for the castle. Cinn walked beside her. “Did you understand anything that just happened?”
Cinn shrugged. “Not all of it. I know that Thorn’s people did something to calm visitors and convince them they weren’t seeing what they thought they were seeing. Other than that?” She shrugged. “And you?”
“Not a clue.” Kayla thought of something else. “Did you get a chance to—?”
“No. I never intended to do anything. Thorn saved Vince. He’s a hero to me. Vince would agree.”