“There was some sort of emblem on the van.”
“Yes, I saw it.” She showed me a rough sketch of a crescent moon with a cross through it.
“Does that mean anything to you?”
“It looks familiar but I can’t remember where I’ve seen it.” She tucked it into her purse. “Are you sure they weren’t after you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Because they didn’t look all that surprised when Mekhi pushed them with wind.”
I tightened my grip around the steering wheel. I couldn’t disagree with her. They weren’t unnerved at all by the use of his power which was unusual. Humans didn’t know of our existence. At least they weren’t supposed to be aware of our existence. However, Mekhi had no choice. He was outnumbered and had to use his power to defend himself.
Still, they went straight for her.
Maybe they were supernatural, too, or they worked for one.
But why did they want her?
Chapter Ten
Keri
He pulled into a parking lot of a cheap motel and shut off the engine.
“Can I have my keys back?” I asked.
“I’ll hang onto them for now,” Gavin said, grinning.
“It’s not like I can go anywhere.” I stumbled out of the car after him.
“Exactly. So you don’t need these any time soon.”
An arm hooked around my waist and my breath caught in my throat as Mekhi lifted me off the ground.
I curled my hands around his neck, my tongue darting across my bottom lip. “Um, thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he said, his aqua gaze falling to my lips, making my heart flutter. “You should stay off that foot.”
“Like he said, I wouldn’t get very far anyway.”
He carried me up the steps, into the room, and set me down gently on one of the twin beds. He grabbed the bucket from the desk. “I’ll go get some ice for your ankle.”
“Thank you.” I absently reached for my purse, but it wasn’t with me. I panicked, knowing I didn’t have it with me when I got out of the truck.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked, approaching my bedside.
“Nothing,” I replied, still scanning the room for it.
“It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
“It’s just that I thought I had my purse when we got out of the truck but I can’t find it.”
He reached behind him to show me he had my purse. “You did. Mekhi brought it up for you.
“Oh, good.” I held my hand out, but he kept it out of my reach. “Very funny.”
“You have something that doesn’t belong to you. I need it back.”
“This again.” I snatched my bag away from him.
He sat beside me. “We’ve come a very long way to retrieve that and return it to its owner.”
“Then how did I end up with it?”
“I-I don’t know but you obviously aren’t denying that it’s not yours.”
“Maybe. But how do I know this wasn’t sent to me for a reason?
“I can assure you it was not deliberately sent to you.”
“You don’t sound sure about that.” I stroked the bracelet, feeling obligated to hang onto it until I had more information about how it came to be in my possession. Surely, that meant something. I needed Mitchell. With his psychometric ability, he’d be able to tell me more about it. “There’s something about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t think it was a mistake that it came to me.” I peered down at the bracelet, my instinct telling me that it ended up with me for a reason. “Just let me talk to my friend.”
“No.”
“You can come with me. What’s the harm in letting me—”
He raked a hand through his hair, trying to keep it together. “Sorry. I can’t let you leave with it.”
“Oh, for crying out loud.” I stroked his arm, letting my power soak into his skin. “You are going to give my keys to me and let me leave. You won’t follow me. Got it?”
He smiled. “Do you always fondle men you’ve just met?”
I jerked my hand away. That should have worked. Why didn’t it work?
“I mean it feels good,” he continued, “by all means.”
“I was not fondling you.”
“Human.” He scoffed, tilting his head. “You’re fae.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then, what was that? You were trying to influence me.” He steepled his chin. “Ah, and that’s why you weren’t surprised when Mekhi used his power. You’re fae, too.” When I didn’t seem convinced, he continued, “You’re ability doesn’t work on me. That’s how I know you’re fae.”
“I’m a mesmer.”
“You’ve got some fae in you; otherwise, your magic would have entranced me by now.” His head canted to the side while I stared at him, confounded. “You didn’t know?”
“No.” I didn’t know what else to say to that. I couldn’t say I was surprised, but I was still incensed to learn this from someone else. What else was my family hiding from me? I scooted off the bed. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters. It’s who you are.” He grabbed my purse and rummaged through it.
“Give it back.”
“Absolutely. As soon as I have the bracelet back.” He removed the scarf and yelped when he tried to take the bracelet. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You spelled it somehow.”
“I’m a mesmer, not a witch.” I picked it up, noting how it didn’t zap me. “Maybe it’s protecting itself from you.”
“It’s not protecting itself from me.”
“How do you know?”
The door shut and Mekhi set a bucket of ice on the table.
“You talk to her.” Gavin stalked off to the bathroom. “I’m taking a shower.”
“What about the bracelet?” Mekhi asked.
“Ask her,” Gavin replied before shutting the door.
“Okay, I will.” Mekhi guided me back onto the bed. “You shouldn’t be on that foot.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” He sat beside me, lifting my foot onto his lap.
His hands were gentle, rubbing a soothing ointment on my ankle before wrapping it up in a bandage. “Although, I don’t think it’s sprained. Just a bit swollen.”
“So, I can go then.”
“You could leave. I can’t really stop you, but then you would be screwing us in the process and I don’t think you want that.”
“I know but you don’t know anything about it other than the fact that you were tasked with delivering it.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“But I feel a connection to it and I just want to know why. My friend is a few miles away from here and he can see the history of objects. I just want to—”
“Okay.”
“You’ll let me go?”
“Well, not alone. But, yes, we’ll take you to your friend.”
“Gavin said no.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that, but you do know the bracelet is rejecting Gavin. I may not be able to give it to you when the time comes.”
“What do you mean?”
“It won’t leave my side.”
“That’s not possible.”
I offered it to him to try to take, but it zapped him too.
He retracted his hand. “I can see how this is a problem. Did you spell it?”
“Mesmer, not a witch.”
“A mesmer.” He smiled broadly, massaging my leg. “I knew there was something different about you.”
“Is that right?”
He made his way up my leg, kneading the skin. I drew in my bottom lip. “Mmm. That feels good.”
Feeling emboldened by my reaction, his hand glided further up my thigh and he moved in closer. My eyes drifted to his lips. He leaned in and sucked on my lower lip.
A soft moan escaped my lips when his finger rubbed the apex of her pants. The fabric was thin enough that his hands felt like they were directly on my skin. He strummed his thumb across my clit, capturing my mouth again in a ravenous kiss. Dragging his teeth across my shoulder, he drew his fingers across the neck line of my top showing cleavage. A gentle tug freed my breast and he took it in his mouth, flickering his tongue over my erect nipple.
The bathroom door opened and I bolted upright, pulling my top back over my exposed breast. Mekhi looked more than happy to continue, but I opted for a cold shower instead.
“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked, regarding me with the crooked eye.
“Nothing,” I replied, rushing past him, “just dying for a shower.
Mekhi simply grinned, propping his head up against the bedpost while I begged with my eyes for him to not kiss and tell.
“We were just saying how we think those men were local,” Mekhi said.
“Yes,” I said, my heart beating against my chest. “You can tell him your theory.” I closed the door behind me, relieved that he wasn’t going to say anything.
Chapter Eleven
Gavin
It was dark now with the lights off, but I could still make out the outline of Keri as she crept out of the bathroom. She paused briefly at the twin bed beside me. Mekhi was asleep and sprawled across it. She stood over him, trying to figure out if there was enough room for her to lay with him.
After a moment of consideration, she moved towards my bed and nudged me on the shoulder. She thought I was asleep, but it didn’t stop her from waking me.
She tapped my arm again. “Are you awake?”
“I am now.”
“Oh, sorry.” She glanced around our small room. “Um, where am I supposed to sleep?”
“On the bed.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Mekhi is taking up an entire bed and, well,”—she gestured towards me—“you’re huge.”
“And?”
“And there’s not enough room, so could you…” she tilted her head to the side, indicating the floor.
“You want me to sleep on the floor?”
“Well, yes.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You are quite the gentlemen, you know that?”
“I told you. There’s two beds.” I shifted so that my back was flushed with the wall on the other side of the twin bed. They were small beds, but I was able to make room for her this way.
She gawked at me, but I knew she was tired. “Do you really want to wake him up?” I asked.
She turned to look at him. There was such a look of contentment across his face. “No, he looks exhausted.”
“Good, then, you’re welcome to join me.” I patted the sparse space I’d made for her on the mattress.
She didn’t argue with me this time. She lied on her back, her body rigid as though she were afraid of our flesh touching.
I snaked an arm around her svelte waist and pulled her to me.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re taking up too much room and I can’t sleep with your sharp elbows cutting into me.”
She snorted, but stopped resisting too tired to argue with me. “Your wife must be patient.”
I smiled, looking down at her delicate features in profile. “I’m unwed.”
She gasped. “Shocker.”
“Are you probing for information about my private life?” She relaxed in my arms, my chin resting on the arch of her neck. “All you have to do is ask,” I said against her neck, my lips grazing her pulse.
“You wish,” she said, but the sharp intake of air told me she didn’t mind my proximity.
She snuggled against me, rubbing against my groin, and murmured no doubt feeling the full length of my hardened cock pressing against her soft ass.
“What do you do in the Fae Realm?” she asked, rousing me from my wayward thoughts.
If she was aware of my response to her, she didn’t let me know it. “I serve on the royal guard. Well, it’s not official yet. We’ve only recently completed our training.”
“Wow, the royal guard. That’s impressive. But why did they send you here? Don’t they have messengers for this?”
“No, this was too important to send someone in our place. It was our responsibility and our mistake to fix.”
“So if you return without it. You’ll be—”
“Punished.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,”—she caressed my forearm with her thumb—“I didn’t know.”
“How could you know?”
“No, I know…it’s just that I would give it back if I could.”
“Well, let’s not worry about that right now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m exhausted—you exhaust me. Do you ever sleep?”
“Fine.” She yawned and curled into the nook of my arm. “Goodnight.”
Chapter Twelve
Keri
I woke up feeling quite rested despite the small space to which I was confined. Gavin was still sleeping soundly and I didn’t want to wake him since I kept him up so late. He stirred and curled up the pillow beneath his head.
The deep scowl erased from his expression while in repose, giving me a chance to see how handsome he was when he wasn’t fussing. Smiling at his soft snoring, I brushed black strands away from his face and kissed his cheek for setting me at ease last night and holding me in his arms.
While he didn’t mince his words, I discovered he could be quite sweet when he wanted to be. Behind his blunt demeanor, I knew he had a big heart. And oh my...my eyes fell on the huge mass tenting his pants that pressed into my backside all night. A smile tugged at my lips at the recollection of our flirtation. I stroked the place on my neck where his lips touched to entice me.
There was a moment when I thought he’d make a move, but it didn’t happen and I had to admit that I was a little disappointed. I was starting to like the not-so-gentle giant and if his hands were any indication of his level of skill, then it would have been a good time.
Another time, I mused.
My goodness, this so wasn’t me. It wasn’t like me to lust after two men at the same time. But they were so protective of me and I found that sexy as hell. I felt safe with them. They were good men and I wanted to know more about them.
I moved to the edge of the bed, careful not to jostle it. I set my foot on the carpet, testing it out. It was still sore, but it felt much better and I could put weight on it now. My stomach rumbled, reminding me why I was up. I was starving. I searched through their mini fridge only finding booze in there. There was a coffee pot, but no filters or coffee.
I picked up my purse and glanced at Mekhi and Gavin. They’d saved my ass last night, the least I could do was scrounge up some breakfast for them.
I slipped into my shoes and out of the room. They’d probably still be asleep by the time I returned. They wouldn’t even know I was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Mekhi
I awoke with a start to Gavin pacing the room with angry strides.
I rubbed sleep from my eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Notice anything?” Gavin kept pacing.
“She’s gone.”
“Yes.”
“No, she wouldn’t do that.” I shot off the bed and to the window to check the lot. “See? The truck is still there.”
He forced the curtain back to look for himself, a look of relief settling over his face. “Then, where is she? Her purse is gone, too. We need that bracelet.”
“Gavin, she knows that.”
“And left anyway.”
I took in the state of our room and the evidence of his wrath. He’d tore through it looking for the bracelet, but that wasn’t why he was angry. He was disappointed in her.
I pressed a hand into his shoulder. “I don’t believe that.”
“Why? Because you kissed her?”
“You saw us?”
Gavin snorted. “No, but I heard you and she wa
s so flustered when I returned that I knew something was going on between the two of you.”
“Are you upset?” He certainly seemed bothered about something. Although it wasn’t the first time we’d been interested in the same woman. But we’d also shared women numerous times in the past. It didn’t make sense that he’d be jealous now.
“No. You know that.”
“But you do like her?”
“Don’t you...well, I already know you do.”
“I do and for what it’s worth, I think she likes us, too. She just wanted to see a witch of some sort who could read the history of the bracelet. It’s important to her.”
“You think that’s where she’d go?”
“Yes. Or she could have gone to get something to eat.”
“It wouldn’t take long for her to figure out the motel doesn’t have a restaurant. She should have been back by now.”
“Well, she wouldn’t leave without that car.”
“You think something happened to her?” He pulled on his shirt, fear rucking his brow.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” I put on my shoes and jingled the keys to the truck. “This is a great place to start.”
We left the motel room, ran down the steps, and got into the truck. Gavin leaned over me to open the glove compartment and pulled out some of the documents.
He gave me part of the pile to review. I came upon a document that noted Jasper Black as the owner and showed Gavin.
“How does that help us, if it’s not her car?” Gavin asked.
“It does if she knows him. We have to start somewhere.” I patted the dashboard. “Come on. Drive.”
He fiddled with the device latched onto the windshield in a holster. It calculated the distance and the duration of the drive before displaying directions to Jasper’s house.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Gavin said. “All a part of the spell.”
“I’ll have to thank your witch when we get back to our realm.”
He pulled out of the lot and headed for our destination. Twenty minutes later we alighted from the car and ambled up the walkway to a small sage green house.
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 78