by A. C. Arthur
She touched a hand to his cheek, rubbed the smoothness there, then let her fingers travel down to the neatly trimmed goatee as she turned his face toward hers.
“Priya is Bas’s companheiro, darling. There’s nothing you or I can do about that. Their companheiro calor was strong enough to fill this entire room. And I suspect that if the shadows are going to continue to live amongst the humans in so-called harmony, there are going to be more of these unions. As the leader of this tribe you need to be prepared for that. We’re evolving just as every other species on this earth has at one time or another.”
Rome stared at her for what seemed like endless moments before admitting, “This isn’t the first time it’s happened. It’s not the first time a shadow has fallen for a human. But the shifters were much younger than Bas, much less experienced. I didn’t like having to make the decisions I did where they were concerned.”
Kalina held back her surprise because it was just as she’d stated, they were evolving and short of taking them all back to the forest and staying there forever, there was no way this forward movement was going to stop, no matter what complications it imposed.
* * *
“What the hell was that?” Bas asked the moment he and Priya were alone in his suite.
After switching on the lights, Priya moved to the couch and took a seat, feeling almost at home. It hadn’t been long since she’d first been escorted into this space and introduced to this man, and yet, she felt like she’d been here forever, almost as if this was where she belonged. Deciding against this line of thought she reached over to the table beside the couch and retrieved Bas’s cell phone.
“You got a text,” she said, extending her arm and the phone in his direction. “They found Malik.”
Priya had almost forgotten that she had Bas’s cell phone until she was lying across his bed—crying like a four-year-old in Jewel’s lap—when it suddenly vibrated. When Bas had yelled for her to pick it up while they were on the road she’d stuffed it into her bra about three seconds before that madman had grabbed her from behind. It had stayed there until she pulled it out in Jewel’s company.
His text message light was flashing and the next time it vibrated—which was about a minute later—the screen lit up with the name of the person sending the message and the first few words.
Malik Drake is in stable condition.
Priya had pressed every button she could imagine so she could see every message. Luckily, Bas had disengaged the lock feature on his phone the first time he’d given it to her in the truck. Excitement and relief had soared through her as she read. Her brother was alive and safe because Bas had contacted someone he knew. She’d presumed another shifter from some of the terms used, like rogue and scents. She’d heard Bas and Jacques say these things out on the road tonight.
“Thank you so much for all your help,” she said with another relieved sigh. “I didn’t believe you’d be able to do anything to help. Actually, I thought you were just saying that to get me into bed. But you came through, you kept your word, and you saved Malik.” Her smile was giddy and she clasped her hands together to hold in her excitement.
It had taken all the control she could muster to shower and get down to that meeting room as fast as she could, thanks to Jewel for telling her where to go. Once inside, the mood was tense and unsteady. She’d seen Roman Reynolds immediately and knew that running and jumping into Bas’s arms was completely out of the question. Even at this point, she still felt the need to reserve her excitement and any expression of gratitude. Basically because Bas was looking at her as if she’d just killed his puppy.
He’d taken the phone from her hands but he hadn’t sat down. No, he stood just a couple feet away from her, rubbing his thumb over the phone, not checking any of the messages, but looking at her. “So because I saved your brother you think you have to repay me by conducting a press conference on our behalf?”
He didn’t look or sound happy, but that was usually the case with Bas. Priya didn’t know if she’d ever seen a genuine smile on his face, or felt like he had any sense of enjoyment in his life. That thought made her sad because he had everything a person in her position could want—money, power, and respect. He’d never gone to bed hungry, never worn hand-me-down clothes, never had to stay up half the night after working the late shift at the restaurant to study for final exams because she needed that college degree like she’d needed her next breath. He was living the dream and he didn’t seem to appreciate it; that made her about 90 percent sad and 10 percent angry as hell.
“It’s the least I can do,” she told him with a shrug. “That Nivea person said they’d found Malik being held by rogues. That doesn’t make sense to me for so many reasons.”
He nodded as if he’d been thinking the same thing. “You’re wondering, if shifters were the ones behind this all along, then why make you expose us? Why not do it themselves?”
“Right, that’s what I was trying to figure out,” she told him.
“Wrong,” Bas said, shaking his head. “None of this is for you to try to figure out. It’s done. Your brother is safe and the threat is lifted and that’s all. You can go back to your life now. You can move on.”
He’d hesitated at the last words but Priya was already primed with a comeback. “How do you know? I still didn’t do what they said and that seemed pretty damned important to them. Besides, I’d like to know why they chose me. How do we know they won’t just try again? We have to find out who they are and stop them.”
He sat down beside her then. “You reported on the night you saw those eyes in the alley behind Athena’s. That’s probably what made you a prime candidate for them.”
“You’re right,” she agreed. “The first e-mail came the day after that story ran in the paper.”
Bas shook his head then, looking as tired as Priya actually felt. The spurt of energy after finding out Malik was alive was beginning to ebb.
“Look, Priya, you do not have to do anything. Including this press release. I don’t need your thanks. I’m happy enough knowing that you are out of danger.”
And yet he still neither sounded nor looked happy. Her 10 percent angry elevated.
“Because Sebastian Perry doesn’t need anyone or anything, right?” she asked, her voice dangerously quiet. “You have everything you want and yet you would prefer to stay locked up in this desert haven you’ve built, away from anyone or anything that might demand more from you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told her. “You don’t know me.”
Priya shook her head. “You’re right, I don’t. And it was never your intention for me to know you.”
He looked down at the floor then. “We already discussed that this thing between us was never supposed to happen.”
But it had happened and Priya, for one foolish moment, had believed that maybe the dream of meeting a good man and falling madly in love was possible. How wrong she’d been. Bas refused to be a good man, or rather he refused to let anyone believe that he was one.
“We did discuss it,” she conceded. “And I want to thank you for your honesty. But I like to repay my debts. So I’ll do the one press release and then I’ll be out of your way. You can go back to living your solitary life since it seems to be what you want most of all.”
There was more she wanted to say, a pitch for why she felt they belonged together came to mind. But the words would never fall from her lips. Tenacious, a tad bit hyper, and maybe just a little reckless were words Priya felt accurately described her. Desperate and pleading were not.
She stood up then, refusing to say more, knowing it would fall on deaf ears. Bas liked to be in control. He’d told her that before. Sure, she shook him up on a physical level, but that was nothing compared to the way he’d lived his life for so long. Her words wouldn’t change him. She, the poor little human female from D.C. with the drug addict brother and food stamp sisters and mother one sneeze away from a nervous breakdown, was not going to chan
ge the enigmatic Sebastian Perry. He’d saved Malik, that had been the one miracle of her lifetime. She was smart enough not to wish for any more.
“I know this is your place but this is my last night here,” she started, her voice much stronger than she was feeling at the moment. “I’d like for you to take the couch, if that’s not too much to ask.”
He sat there with his elbows resting on his knees, his head down for five seconds before it snapped up and his intense gray gaze held hers. He didn’t answer her, simply stared and Priya felt like she was stripped completely bare. Not just naked, but revealed, to this man who didn’t give a damn what was inside of her. She wanted to weep with the magnitude of the mistake she’d made, the error in judgment she always had where men were concerned. It should be a crime to roll craps so many times in one life. But here she was and here he was and no matter what either of them said or did, there was no going back.
“No.”
The sound of his voice startled her slightly and she blinked away the dismal thoughts that had tears pooling in her eyes once again. She breathed heavily, hating the thought of crying over this man, over this situation, after all she’d been through.
“It’s not too much to ask,” he continued. “You go on in the bedroom and get some rest.”
She nodded, didn’t speak, because what was she going to tell him next? That he was breaking her heart? That his absolute control, serious-as-a-heart-attack demeanor was causing her much more pain than that asshole half-cat had when he held that gun to her head?
Priya wouldn’t tell him that. Instead, she walked away, slamming her palm on the control panel once she was in the bedroom. When it didn’t work she slapped her hand on it again and again, until finally there was a click and the door slid closed. Then the tears fell and she gulped heavy sobs to keep Bas from hearing her, from knowing how big of an impact he’d had on her in such a short period of time.
Chapter 28
She opened the door, Bas thought as he watched his bedroom door close. He’d gotten up from the couch, going over to help her when she couldn’t get it to activate. For endless seconds after she was blocked off from him, Bas simply stood there, staring at the smooth panels. To anyone but him there were no visible breaks, no indication that there was a door here. It was his design, assuring his safety and privacy in his own space.
And Priya Drake had opened it.
Finally, he turned away, walking the few steps until he stood in the middle of the living room and looked around. Every control pad in this room was operated on Bas’s command only—his fingerprints, his body temperature, his knowledge, with technology designed by X, per Bas’s specific instructions. When they’d first returned to the suite tonight she’d immediately switched on the lights in the living room. There were no light switches in the room and no control panel to power them, just a sensor located on the sides of each sconce. They were only illuminated by his body temperature, the movement of his hand on either side.
And yet, Priya had moved her hands along each side, turning them on.
Her bags still remained packed but had moved from near the door where they’d been earlier in the day, to closer to the windows where the blinds had been opened. After their return, before leaving her and Jewel in the room, he’d specifically closed them because he hadn’t wanted any cops or other intruders to see inside.
Priya had been the one to open them, Bas knew without a doubt. Because she was connected to him, they had been intimate, had been in near-death situations together and now, dammit, all of that was more serious than even he’d considered. Shifter companheiros had a connection that grew emotionally and physically, similar to human relationships. The continued intimacy between the couple also triggered some type of biological connection that over time combined things like their shared scent, known as the companheiro calor. But Priya was a human, she should not have the same reactions. Bas hated to admit that she obviously did, and was experiencing them on a much more accelerated rate than two shifters together.
“How long are you going to deny that she’s your companheiro?”
Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Bas turned slowly to find Jacques standing just inside the front doorway. He didn’t startle, didn’t even berate himself for not being alert enough to hear the other Shifter’s approach. This night had been too long and too eventful and seemed as if it would never end.
“There’s nothing to deny. She’s going back to D.C. tomorrow after the press conference,” he replied to Jacques.
For security purposes, Jacques was the only one, other than Bas, who had a key to get into his room. Even though the sensors and control panels were innovative and good ideas for inside his suite, Bas had readily agreed with X that a specially made key was the safer option to enter the area and that only one other person should have access to that key. Jacques had been the obvious and only choice.
“The press conference is scheduled for nine thirty in the morning. I thought it would signify our commitment to the town and to the guests of Perryville that we’re devoted to their safety and well-being by setting up in the side atrium. The sun won’t be at its hottest that early in the morning and the scenery is calming, relaxing, hopefully enough to keep their minds off the danger that may still loom,” Jacques reported.
“Palermo was here because of me,” Bas said simply.
“He was here because he’s working for someone that wants to take us down. Don’t make what happened tonight personal.”
“It was personal!” Bas yelled. “That motherfucker taunted me with killing Mariah. He looked me in the eye and wanted me to know he would kill Priya the same way if I didn’t give him those crates back.”
“She was not planned,” Jacques said with a shake of his head. “Nobody, none of us, not even you would have ever thought a woman like her would enter your life and change things the way she did, especially not that asshole Palermo.”
“But she did. She came into my life, into my home, my…” He hesitated. “She was not supposed to be here and now she’s at the center of everything.”
Bas moved to the window then, looking out at the darkness. The rogue had been out there, all of them had been out there, lurking, waiting for the moment they needed to strike. They’d stalked his resort and the innocent people who’d stayed here. And Bas hadn’t been able to catch them in time. His fists clenched. He hadn’t been able to stop them from causing some sort of exposure, just as he hadn’t been able to stop himself from telling and showing Priya all that he was.
“I didn’t at first,” Jacques continued. “But now, I think we can trust her.”
Bas waited a beat, sighed with the admission from his best friend. “Lucky for us Rome thinks the same. Or at least Kalina does. Her word goes a long way with the Stateside Leader.”
“That’s because she’s his mate. His partner, the other half of his whole.” Jacques’s comment sounded strangely reminiscent of one of the Elders.
Bas gave a wry chuckle, without turning to look at his friend. “What are you, reading from some ancient scroll?”
“I’m telling you what I know. Once a shadow finds his companheiro, they are completed. We were specifically designed to be half of one cohesive unit, one strength that cannot be broken once it is joined. I believe that wholeheartedly.”
Bas’s lips drew into a thin line. “Then I’ll dance at your joining when you find your other half.” He turned to face him. “In the meantime, I need a shower and then I have work to do.”
Jacques didn’t move at all. He stood with his arms behind his back, legs spread slightly. His dreads were pulled back away from his face, and the gold chain around his neck glistened.
“No other female will take her place. From this point on whoever you attempt to be with intimately will pale dismally in comparison. She, that human reporter in that other room, is the one. It wasn’t Mariah; although you felt guilty for her death, she wasn’t the one for you.”
To be quite honest Jacques didn’t look any happi
er about that little announcement than Bas felt. He was simply stating what he believed to be true. So what Bas was about to say could only be construed in the same manner.
“She’s a reporter with a job in D.C. that she’s going to return to in the morning. I am the Mountain Zone Faction Leader. My life is here in Sedona. Case closed.”
Bas decided he would make the exit since Jacques apparently wanted to appear glued to the spot where he stood. He was just about through the threshold that would lead him to the guest bedroom and bathroom on the other side of his suite, when Jacques spoke again.
“She doesn’t have a job anymore. The editor from the Post fired her because she never replied to his e-mails about her expected return date. Almost as if she had no intention of returning to D.C., or she had no intention of ever writing the story about the shifters.”
In the next seconds Bas heard the faint whishing sound of the door opening and closing. With a deep sigh, he entered the guest bedroom, refusing to think about Priya Drake anymore, knowing that effort would be futile.
* * *
At nine twenty the next morning the sky above Perryville resorts looked like it had been snatched from a picture book. The perfect shade of blue, the biggest, puffiest white clouds, and the sun, a golden beacon of a force much stronger than the twenty-two armed shadow guards that lined the walkway of the east side atrium. This small area consisted of three red clay buildings, one at the center, two at the sides. One of the buildings was used as a holistic center, the scent of herbs and incense drifting through the open windows to permeate the air. Another was an antiques shop where an elderly Native American woman and her daughter sold artifacts of their culture. The center building was available as rental space and was usually booked for small weddings or receptions. Between the buildings was the atrium, an open space with a cement sidewalk and huge clay pots stuffed with green shrubbery.
Bas walked the length of the area one more time. He checked and rechecked the podium that had been set up, the chairs sitting behind it where the mayor, police chief, and Rome and Kalina would sit. He went to each building, speaking quietly with the staff, letting them know what was going on and that it would all be over soon. Good relations with his staff had always been his strong point and a signature of Perryville Resorts, so they knew and accepted his presence and his guarantees. He headed back to the main building and checked each of its closets, side doors, exits, entrances.