by Dana Davis
Noah knelt down and Simon leaned away from him. Her husband looked pissed. “Bridgette, Daisy and I have relatives all over this planet,” he said. “So don’t think we can’t keep track of you. We’ve got a very large family tree.” He stood, keeping a hard gaze on the siren.
Good one, Noah. Out of the corner of her eye, Daisy spotted a lightening streak. “Do we have an understanding, Simon?” Thunder rocked the air, accenting her words, and Simon gave her a wary look. When he didn’t answer, she started to truss him again. Another crack of thunder rattled the windows. The monsoon was moving in fast.
“No. Wait.” His breathing grew shallow and he swallowed hard as he glanced out the patio slider and back to Daisy. “I mean, yes, I understand. I’ll go home.” If he thought a witch could affect the weather, maybe that would keep him obedient for a while.
She hardened her gaze. “And stay there. And no singing along the way.”
“Okay, okay. Can I have some water? Please?”
Daisy left Bridgette and Noah to watch him as she crossed into the kitchen. Her cousin’s recent silence worried her. Despite what Bridgette had said a few months ago about sex with Simon being phenomenal, she hated losing control to anyone. And in Daisy’s opinion, a siren was no better than someone who used a date rape drug. Thankfully, now that they were aware of what he was, Simon couldn’t hurt either of them. A paranormal perk and one that left her grateful as hell, despite the desire than warmed her when she heard him sing.
She delivered four glasses of ice water on Gran’s silver tray and welcomed the cold wetness. Between the sweltering heat and the spells they’d cast today, her throat was parched. And since it was nearly lunchtime, she was hungry too. But she had no intentions of feeding Simon. He could starve for all she cared. Perky whined from his kennel and she received appreciative licks when she let him out. He inspected Simon again before trotting into the kitchen, nails clicking on the tile.
“Nice dog.” Simon eyed the kitchen that opened into the living area. He still sat on the floor, as though someone would hit him if he got up.
Bridgette narrowed eyes on him. “Takes one to know one.”
Simon flinched at her tone. Good. Maybe the bastard will obey us and go straight home. And don’t insult my dog, Bridge. Her cousin smirked, picking up that thought. Daisy glanced back at Simon, who gazed up at the redhead with what now looked like a mix of admiration and fear. And was that lust? Will the idiot never learn?
He opened his mouth and Daisy cut him off with a sharp flick of her hand. “Say anything stupid, Simon, and I swear I’ll truss you until we get to the airport.”
She wasn’t feeling particularly charitable right now, especially with anyone who had threatened her family. A siren was nothing compared to that awful skinwalker but any threat these days made her protective as hell. And looking for Simon had put her behind on her auctions. She hadn’t posted anything online in over two weeks.
Simon snapped his mouth shut and she gave a nod. “Smart boy,” she said. “Now get up.” He struggled to his feet and handed his empty glass to her. His clothes were soaked with sweat, like he’d done one hefty workout. He was also beginning to get a bit ripe. “Go shower. And leave your clothes outside the door.” No sense having him smell up the entire plane.
Simon stared at her like someone who didn’t speak the language.
Bridgette grunted. “Move your ass, Simon. Or do you need more encouragement?”
His hands flew up as Bridgette started another nettle spell. By now, he was very familiar with them. “I’m going.”
“Good.” Bridgette shoved him toward the hall bathroom. The two had a few sharp words before the door slammed shut, and the water started soon after. The redhead reappeared with Simon’s clothes.
Daisy put them in the dryer and set it to steam when Noah appeared behind her. “We’ll take my car to the airport,” he said. “But I need to fill it up. You two be okay with him while I’m gone?”
“We’ll be fine. He’s not going anywhere. And he’s no match for two pissed off witches.”
He smiled, kissed her and gave her butt a friendly smack. “I’m beginning to think no man is a match for you two. Back in a bit.”
Chuckling, Daisy saw him out the door to the garage then stepped back into the kitchen, where she found Bridgette leaning against the island with a pensive look on her face. “You all right? I mean really all right? And don’t lie to me just because I’m not a telepath.”
Her cousin let out a long breath. “I wouldn’t mind hurting him some more.” Honesty. Daisy liked it. Bridgette gave a sudden grin, like she did when she was about to change the subject. “He thinks you can control the weather.”
She smirked. “I know.” He’d eventually find out no witch was that strong.
“And I’ve been seeing your shrink.” Bridgette raised a defensive hand. “Don’t start interrogating me. I’m seeing her and that’s all you need to know.”
“Okay. I won’t pry. But if I think you’re getting out of hand with Simon, I’ll stop you.” She wouldn’t have another death on her conscience.
Chapter 6
She’ll Be Surprised
When Zoey came to, Jason leaned over her on the couch. He had stretched her out and had covered her with a blanket. “You all right?”
“I fainted?” Even in her shorts and tank top, she was warm, so she pushed the blanked aside.
“Oh, yeah, you fainted. You sure you’re okay?”
She sat with his help and studied the box on her coffee table. The thing looked benign. Like a fancy jewelry box. How could this happen? How could her entire life be turned inside-out in a matter of a single birthday? Why hadn’t anyone told her she would have powers? Why hadn’t her mother or Aunt Mena revealed this little family secret?
She wanted to tell Jason about her revelation but wasn’t sure how the box would respond. She was a bit fond of breathing. Slowly, she said, “Did your mom tell you anything about the Dream Catcher box?” How much does Connie know? How much did Aunt Mena tell her? The box didn’t seem to warn her now. She felt no constriction, no loss of breath.
“No. Why?” He shifted his weight on the couch and laid a warm hand on her bare thigh, sending a surge of desire through her. “Zoey, what is it? Did you learn something? Is that why you fainted?”
“Yeah. I learned something all right. And you’re not going to believe it. Hell, I don’t even believe it.”
“What? Tell me.”
Still no warnings from the box. “Okay. Think Greek. Think myth. Think box and mankind’s hopes and dreams.” Again, no constrictions around her chest.
Jason’s eyes grew wide, giving him a very comical look, but neither of them laughed. “You mean that’s—”
“Pandora’s Box.”
“Holy crap!” He studied the box like it might jump right off the table and bite him. “Are you sure?”
“That’s what it said.” The lid was still open and she studied the rainbow vortex that swirled inside. But I have no idea how it works. Or what the hell I’m supposed to do with it. Jason studied her a moment. She expected to see fear from him, but he seemed more interested now than afraid. Well, we are paranormals. Stranger things have happened. Somewhere.
“Then that makes you today’s Pandora. And you’ve opened the box.”
Oh, hell yeah. I did that all right. “But hope didn’t escape.” She couldn’t explain the feeling but she knew wishes and dreams were safe inside that box, somehow feeding it, keeping hope alive, creating the beautiful vortex. “The legends are wrong about that. I think mankind’s hope is really about dreams and wishes that fuel hope.” Now, just how in hell do I know that? “We both know legends get changed over time.” Paranormals had once been called gods and demons.
Jason nodded. “So it really is a dream catcher.”
“Yeah. I guess. Makes sense.” In a crazy ass, sci-fi kinda way.
“Wasn’t Pandora’s Box actually supposed to be a jar?”
�
��That’s what one of my profs said too. Guess she was wrong.”
“No shit.”
But I don’t want to be Pandora. I’m Zoey Vega. College girl. Girlfriend to Jason. Cousin to Daisy and Bridgette. You hear me box? I don’t want to be a damned Pandora. The box didn’t respond, unlike when she began a wish aloud. Part of her wished she’d never seen it, much less opened the damn thing. She wondered what would happen if she spoke that wish. I can’t change the past. How do I know that? She had opened it and now she was stuck with it. “Fuck.”
Jason chuckled. “Is that a wish of yours? ‘Cause I can make it happen. If you’re up to it.”
She drew her eyes to him and grinned as warmth flooded her again, speeding up her heart with desire for this man. “Oddly enough, I am.” Sex seemed to make everything all right, when done with the right man. “If you don’t think I’m too much of a freak.”
He smiled, took her hand and drew her to her feet. “We’re both freaks. And I have another surprise I’ve been dying to show you. One you’re gonna really like.”
At five ten, she was used to towering over many people, even some men, but Jason was well over six feet and she had to look up at him. She wanted him. Longed for his touch, his comfort. He led her down the hall. “What surprise?”
“You’ll see.”
She planted her feet at the doorway of the master suite. “Not here. I can’t.”
“This is your house now, Zoey. All of it.”
“I know. But I can’t. Not yet.”
Jason gave her a sympathetic look and nodded. She led him into her childhood bedroom, where she still slept in the twin bed her guardians had bought her all those years ago. She swiped a few stuffed animals from the bed to make more room.
As they kissed, her desire grew and his hardness pressed against her. They stripped each other down to the skin, quickly, as though their very sanity depended on getting naked. Zoey looked up into Jason’s face as he leaned over her. His eyes had always fascinated her. In certain light, like now, they appeared as dark honey. His tanned skin was smooth, hardly a blemish, but there was a rugged, masculine quality to him, a distinct jaw line, cleft chin. Her thoughts were interrupted when that golden aura surrounded his body and her desire swelled to match it.
Shit! He does have powers. I’m not imagining this.
She started to question him but he placed a finger on her lips and smiled. “Trust me.”
She nodded, giving in to her body’s desperate needs. His light engulfed her, sending warm tingles to all the right places. No, it wasn’t just his light. A similar aura emanated from her body and reached out to mingle with his. His kisses sent chills dancing on her skin and she shivered with longing. Desire flooded her, desperate and painful, like a dam broken. All she wanted was release. Roughly, she pulled him closer.
Jason, lost in his own passion, pushed into her, and her legs and arms wrapped around him, inviting and frantic. Had she been able to think straight, this voracious need might have frightened her. They rocked together, one amazing and erotic bond. Raw feelings flooded her in ecstasy, and she realized they came from him. His love for her, his longing to be with her, to protect and nurture her, to give himself to her and her alone.
The emotional ties swelled into physical ones and she experienced every pleasurable thrust from two points of views. She writhed with gratification so intense she thought for a moment she might black out.
Shit! Oh, shit! They climaxed together and cried out like a choir in perfect unison, enjoyment intertwined. Lovers. True, unbidden, passionate, desperate lovers. If this is what it’s like to be a Dream Catcher, shit! I’ll take the job! She thought she felt a brief touch of a cobweb on her chest but it was gone as quickly as it came.
Once they were sated, their auras dwindled. His weight pressed down on her body, her arms around his back, slick sweat between them, until she grew chilled and reached down to grab at the tangled sheet.
Jason lifted up, delectable with sweat moistening his temple, and kissed her. “Happy Birthday.” He rolled off her and tugged the sheet over them both. “That was more amazing than I ever imagined.”
“You knew about it?”
“My dad hinted.”
Zoey, still high from endorphins, grinned and burrowed into his embrace. “It’s a wonder you don’t have a gazillion siblings.”
He chuckled.
Something urgent tugged at her chest this time, like a fly caught in a spider’s web, and she sat up abruptly, the sheet falling down to expose her naked breasts. The box was calling her.
I really am Pandora. Holy shit!
Chapter 7
You’re a Grand Old Box
Jason walked home about ten minutes ago, promising to come around later and take her out for a birthday dinner. Zoey looked forward to being with him again. Hell, now wouldn’t be soon enough, if what he’d demonstrated today was a preview of their upcoming sexual romps.
She had dressed and wanted food. Now. But the pull from the jeweled box was too intense to ignore. The spider web sensation had grown in her chest and she now felt like a kite at the end of a string, trying to break free.
No longer able to convince herself the box wasn’t real, she sank onto the couch, opened the lid, which set off the glowing turquoise jewels, and peered inside. The vortex rainbow greeted her and distant laughter caught her ears, so brief she almost dismissed it. Almost.
It’s time.
The damn, talking thing was a bit spooky, if she thought about it too much. Well, she wasn’t certain it was actually speaking, since Jason didn’t hear it. Maybe she only heard it in her head. Somehow, that freaked her out even more. Even as a paranormal, certain things could still scare the shit out of her. Like dolls. She hated them, always had, even as a kid. Well, except for her tiny ice skaters. But they were more like little people and not creepy plastic babies.
She stared at the swirling colors and waited. Nothing happened. “What am I supposed to do?” She felt a bit foolish talking to a box now that she knew it wasn’t some parlor game, but the sound of her own voice gave her comfort just now.
Relax.
She smirked at the ages-old advice, tilted her head side to side and shook out her arms, forcing herself to loosen up, much like she did before beginning a kickboxing or running warm-up. She slowed her breathing and stared into the box again. The vortex swirled like a rainbow gone mad and she began to grow dizzy. The movement stopped suddenly and rippled into a cohesive image. A little boy, about five or six, sat by a window, crying.
Zoey sucked in a breath—she hadn’t expected a visual—and kept her eyes on the boy. He was transparent, ghost-like, or how Zoey imagined a ghost would appear to the living. She wasn’t a medium. Thank the universe for that. It was bad enough talking to a box. If she had to deal with the dead tromping around her house at all hours, well, she didn’t want to think what her life would be like then. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she could talk with her aunt and uncle, but death had rules about whom the living could contact. Parents and guardians were off limits. She’d learned that disappointing information at a family reunion.
The boy lifted his head to a star in the night sky, and Zoey recognized the constellation Orion. “Wish I may, wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight,” he said in a small voice. “I wish someone would adopt me. Please, I want parents of my own.”
Zoey swallowed hard. How many times had she made a similar wish at boarding school, wanting her mother to act like a real parent and rescue her? She had an unexplainable urge to help this kid and her body began to show off that golden aura again. This time, no sexual desire accompanied it. Instead, she shivered at the sensation of a spider web wrapping around her body, light and sticky, cocooning her, and fought the urge to slap at it. The box seemed to pull at her aura from those threads, like a vacuum sucking up dust, until she thought she might faint. She grasped the coffee table to keep from falling over with dizziness.
The image faded, leaving the usual swirling
mass of colors, and the box closed, taking the spider web with it. Zoey’s aura faded until her skin looked normal again. She sucked in breaths and the sensation of wanting to pass out diminished.
Shit! I’ve really gotta get a handle on that. She couldn’t go around glowing like a lighthouse beacon every time she felt a need to be with or help someone. And if her glowing skin didn’t attract attention, fainting sure as hell would. This Catcher task left her much weaker than her lovemaking with Jason. And she had moved from hungry to famished.
She gazed at the box again. “Will he get his wish?” No answer.
Instead, the doorbell rang, making her heart do a flip-flop, and she uttered several curses as adrenaline threatened to deafen her. Well, that’s one way to keep from fainting. She pushed to her feet on weakened legs and thought about ignoring the door for the kitchen, but the bell rang again. “I’m coming!”
Connie stood on the porch with a pink bakery box and a huge smile. “Hi, darling.”
“Hi. Come in.” Zoey tried not to stare at the various shades of yellow, gold, green and white that flickered around the woman. Well, now that’s a fucking interesting new development. That’s her aura isn’t it, box?
Yes. And dreams.
Two colorful ribbons waved toward her from Connie and she instinctively nudged them toward the box with her mind. She couldn’t see the content of the dreams—she would need the Catcher box for that—but they were full of hope. That message came through clear as the ribbons caressed her skin and continued on toward their new home.
So that’s how it’s gonna work. Will I see these auras, these dreams, around everyone? No answer. Connie’s dream ribbons caused her skin to crawl. “Damn.” She rubbed at the raised hairs her arms. “It’s a wonder Aunt Mena didn’t lose it doing this every day.”
“What, dear?”
“Oh, nothing, Connie. Just talking to myself.” Her stomach grumbled, bringing her mind to more mundane things, and she couldn’t help wondering what kind of goodies lay inside that pink box with the cellophane window. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you before. About my Catcher lineage.”