She curled her lip. “You didn’t have them working together. Jacob’s girl got stuck in a mess, that’s all.”
Will shrugged. There were more than a few pairs he’d teamed up together who weren’t involved, but nobody ever paid any attention to them. Their stories just weren’t interesting enough to tell around a campfire, to email or whatever sufficed for the gossip grapevine these days. “Only some of you are being paired up. And it’s not my intention that’s doing it. I just do what I’m told,” he said.
“Fine. Who were you told to put him with?”
Will debated. Finally, he sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “Sina.”
Perci blanched.
The look on her face both amused and aggravated him.
“Are you nuts? She’d practically eat her own young!”
Now that pissed him off. “She wouldn’t.” Striding to the young Grimm, he fisted a hand in her shirt and jerked her close. “You know little of her, so be silent. And be advised…she’s adored him for almost as long as she’s known him. He deserves to be loved, Perci. Just as you did. Let him be happy.”
“Will she make him happy?” Perci demanded, shoving her face into his.
“She can.”
“Will she let herself?” The woman shook her head. “I knew she had feelings for him, but will she let herself? He’s not going to wait around, and I know that for a fact. He’ll ask her once, but if she pushes him away, he’s giving up his wings.”
Will scowled. “Don’t be fool…”
He felt the call. And when he recognized who it was, he found himself staring at Perci, dazed.
He barked an order to Mandy, sending it along a mental path and then he turned, casting his portal. “Stay here,” he ordered Perci.
“No.”
“You can’t make this decision for him,” Will said. As much as he wished otherwise, this call was Luc’s.
And Luc’s alone.
“I know that. But you can take me to Sina. She’s the reason he’s done. She should damn well know what she’s doing.”
The woman striding toward me was the last woman I wanted to see.
Red-gold hair, heart-shaped face, milky-pale skin. The perfect contrast to her handsome prince. Although he wasn’t hers, anymore. He’s mine…
Was he, though?
Or was he just tired of being alone?
I understood loneliness. Better than most people could understand.
But I wouldn’t be his teddy bear in the night, only there because he longed for a warm body.
“All the stories I’ve heard about you.”
Those were the first words out of her mouth. Perci threw them out like a challenge and then she just stood there, shaking her head.
“Perci, dear…go fuck yourself.” I caught my hair in my hand and started to braid it. Luc had a lovely place here. Trying to brace myself, steel myself, I looked over at her. “Did you help him pick the place out?”
She curled her lip at me. “He bought it a few months ago. I’ve never even seen it.”
“Hmm.” I stood at the cliff, although I wanted to be at the lake a mile away. That was where he was. I could feel it in my heart. “Why ever did Will send you here?”
“I made him bring me. Luc summoned him and he had to come for Luc, but I made him bring me…so I could tell you what you are getting ready to lose.”
Frowning, I turned to her. “Summoned Will…”
Odd words.
Will wasn’t summoned. He gave orders, not the other way around. There were very, very few instances when he could actually be summoned by one of us. The pendant at my neck heated.
“He won’t live through another five centuries, another thousand years with a broken heart,” Perci said quietly. “I don’t know why he fell in love with you. I don’t know how it happened so fucking fast. Hell, for all I know, it started when you took him on to train him. But he’s in love with you. He already told you, I know that. Do you love him?”
As the pendant around my neck pulsed, heated, I stared at her. “That’s none of your concern.”
“No. But it is yours. Fine…if you love him, you need to go to him. And tell him. Now. Before you lose him, forever. I broke him, Sina. He was a good man, and I broke him, and I have to live with that. Now you’re getting ready to do the same thing…at least I know that the two of us were grieving, torn apart inside—both of us were a mess. What’s your excuse? Because I know how you feel.” She watched me, her eyes glowing. “I feel it. And you won’t tell him.”
Then she turned away. “Will’s with him. And he’s trying to talk him out of giving up his wings. You don’t have more than a few minutes.”
“You’re certain.”
Luc held his pendant in his hand.
Krell leaned against his leg, a solid, reassuring presence. The one constant in his life.
“I’ve already answered that, Will,” he said quietly.
“You know what you lose.” He paused a moment and then, his boots whispering over the grass, he knelt beside Krell. Luc sensed him, saw him with that second sight. “You lose more than most, Luc. Nobody truly understands the other gifts you have. The second sight…it will be gone. And although I don’t think it will affect Krell immediately, in a few years, he’ll start to age normally. And then he’ll die. You’ll have to adjust to the human world as one who is truly blind, and the next companion you take…you’ll lose him in a few short years.”
Luc shook his head. “I’ve lost so much in my life, I should scarcely think it would matter anymore.” Then he passed a hand over his eyes. “Besides, I’ve had more than my fair share of luck. If I have to deal with being truly blind, then that’s what I have to deal with. I’ll adjust. But I’m done, Will. I’m tired. It’s just…”
A knot lodged in his throat and he thought of the few hours he’d had over the past few days. A few scant hours. Out of centuries. The only time he’d finally felt whole.
It just wasn’t enough.
“It’s too hard anymore, Will. I’m tired of it all.”
He reached out a hand and waited until Will offered his own. Putting the pendant in Will’s palm, he curled the other man’s fingers around it. “You’ve got others who are just as capable than I am. More than. You don’t need me.”
I heard him.
As I flew across the grass, time slowed to a crawl, even though I knew it had only been mere seconds since I’d left Perci on the cliffside.
“It’s too hard anymore, Will. I’m tired of it all.”
He hadn’t seemed that terribly tired the past week. I could see the silver of his pendant. Watched as he placed it in Will’s palm.
“Don’t,” I shouted into Will’s mind.
He stiffened, slowly lifting his head.
“I cannot deny him what is his choice,” Will said quietly. Sadly.
“You can give me five fucking minutes to speak with him.”
“You’ve got others who are just as capable than I am. More than. You don’t need me.”
Stumbling to a halt thirty yards away, I called out, “And what about me, damn it?”
Will rose.
Luc stiffened.
The pendant still swung from Will’s hand. I glared at him, all but ready to beg. “Five minutes.”
He closed his eyes. “You cannot make this choice for him.”
I nodded. No. I couldn’t. And if he decided he was done, then damn it, so was I.
But if he was doing this just because of me, I had to fix it.
“Before I do something that can’t be undone, you should speak with her,” Will said quietly.
Luc said nothing.
Will disappeared in a burst of light and I watched Luc, closing the rest of the distance between us. He sat there rigidly, his spine unyielding. When I knelt beside him, he didn’t so much as cast a glance my way.
“Hasty choice there, Luc,” I said quietly.
“It wasn’t hasty.” He came to his feet, a loose, easy mot
ion that belied the fact that he’d been grievously injured only days earlier. “I’ve been thinking about it off and on for months. Longer. For a few days, I thought maybe it was the wrong decision, but…”
He shrugged. “That’s neither here nor there. I’m tired, Sina. I’m just tired of it all. I’m tired of being alone, and I’m tired of feeling empty and I’m not going to spend century after century like this.”
“So you’re sulking…because you told me you loved me and I wouldn’t answer back,” I said. The wind kicked up, tugging at the long skirt I wore, at my hair, tangling with it.
A snarl darkened his face. “Sulking. Fine. If that’s what you want to call it, fuck, call it that.”
“So it is about that?” I stared at him, trying to figure out what to do, what to say. I was losing him, losing our chance…how could I have so much history behind me, so many years…even the ability to weave a thousand tales, but not have the words to make this better? Or even the ability to understand what was wrong? “You’re having a tantrum and going to give up a life, a calling, because you’re sulking?”
He moved so fast…so very fast. His hand snaked out, fisted in the front of my shirt and I landed against him with a startled, Oomph. His fingers tangled in my hair, jerked my head back. “Yes, darling…I’m sulking. I’m sulking because I finally found a woman who made me feel whole. Centuries of emptiness. Of nothing. Then you come along, and I feel whole. I thought perhaps, finally, I’d have a chance at being happy. But the woman I love doesn’t want to be rushed.” He slanted a harsh, brutal kiss against my lips, one that stole my breath away. “That’s all well and good. I won’t rush you. But I’m tired, Sina. You won’t be rushed…but I can’t live like this anymore. I’m done. Now would you leave me be?”
He let me go so abruptly, I was left floundering.
And empty.
Incomplete.
I knew how he felt.
The woman I love…
Covering my eyes with my hands, I said, “How do you know that you love me?”
There was no answer.
He was striding back down the beach.
Like hell.
“Damn it, you’ll answer me.”
Luc spun around to meet her as she came charging for him.
“What do you want, you insane woman?” he demanded.
“An answer. How do you know that you love me?”
“The same way I know I’m tired,” he snarled. “The same way I know Will pisses me off, and the same way I know it’s raining outside. I feel it, damn it. I love you, and I know it, because I feel it. Sometimes I think it started a long time ago, but it doesn’t matter—all that matters is that I love you. And you don’t feel the same. Now would you leave me al—” Her mouth was on his in the next breath.
“No,” she whispered into his mind. “I won’t leave you alone. And don’t tell me I don’t feel the same…”
Then she dropped her shields.
The shock of it sent him to his knees.
Sina went with him, her hands cupping his face. Her lips brushed over his cheeks, his eyes. “I’ve loved you for years,” she whispered, trailing a line over to murmur against his ear. “Years. I waited. I wished. But I never truly hoped. And then there you were. This wonderful, wonderful chance that I didn’t think I deserved, that I knew couldn’t ever really be mine. Then there’s this chance that maybe you could be…and I didn’t trust it. Didn’t trust you.”
She eased back and Luc gripped her head between his hands. “Enough, Sina,” he growled. “You’re spinning me around like a child’s toy and I’m dizzy. What is going on?”
“I was afraid to hope,” she murmured, touching a hand to his chest. “I wanted time, to make sure you weren’t going to change your mind. Time to trust all of this, so afraid that I think I cost us our chance. Did I do that, Luc? Are you truly going to walk away from me?”
Shuddering, he leaned in, pressed his brow to hers.
“Say you love me again,” he whispered against her lips.
“I love you. With everything I am.”
Taking her mouth in a desperate, hungry kiss, he clutched her close. Only once she was breathless did he let her go. “No walking,” he rasped, burying his face in her hair. “I’m where I need to be.”
“Both of us are.”
As the rain poured down around them, he buried his face in her hair and whispered, “Finally.”
Epilogue
“You really can’t hope to keep up with that one.”
Will sighed as Crow emerged from the night.
The wraith was going to prove troublesome.
Natasha still hadn’t spoken.
Mandy could usually get through to anybody, but not this time.
“And what should I do, wraith?” He turned to face the reaper of souls, arms crossed negligently over his chest. “Send her on with you so you can take her into the void between the plains where you dwell? She’ll die there and then she’ll be trapped. That’s not exactly an ideal fate.”
Crow just stared at him. Then his brow wrinkled. “What are you wearing?”
Will scowled and turned away. “Jeans.”
Originally they’d been blue. He’d put them on after Mandy’s ceaseless prattling about how he never wore anything but white. White trousers, white shirt, white jacket. He’d put on the blue jeans, after much, much searching. Within two hours, they’d been bleached white. It was a good thing she’d been out running at the time.
Still, they were oddly comfortable and he’d picked up several more pairs. Just keeping them in his room with his other garments was enough to leech away the color. White, apparently, was his only color option. Odd, considering how everything inside him was nothing but black.
The door opened and Crow spun around, wings flaring wide.
Mandy froze at the sight of him. Will went to her side, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t let him frighten you. He won’t hurt you, but fear feeds him.”
She swallowed. The fear in her mental voice was so thick, she couldn’t even reply without stammering. “Demon?”
“No. Different being altogether. Just don’t speak to him.”
“Crow, you should leave,” Will said flatly.
But Crow was studying Mandy like she was something altogether new and entertaining. “This one is new,” he murmured. A dark, demented smile curled his lips. “New…but she’s not human anymore.” Something flashed in his eyes. “She can survive in the void.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Will warned.
Crow’s smiled widened. “And how will you stop me? You are not as old as I. Not as strong.”
He took a step toward them.
Will ripped opened the fabric that separated their world and shoved Crow through without blinking an eye. “I said, don’t.”
He snapped it shut before Crow managed to snap his wings closed.
A spray of black feathers, blood and bone drifted down.
Mandy gulped and stumbled away. “What…what was that?”
Will blew out a sigh and knelt down, lifted one of the feathers.
“Somebody who hates me.”
About the Author
Shiloh Walker has been writing since she was a kid. She fell in love with vampires with the book Bunnicula and has worked her way up to the more…ah…serious works of fiction. She loves reading and writing just about every kind of romance. Once upon a time, she worked as a nurse, but now she writes full time and lives with her family in the Midwest. She writes romantic suspense and paranormal romance, and urban fantasy under the name J.C. Daniels. You can contact her via her website at www.shilohwalker.com/website or find her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/shilohwalker.
Look for these titles by Shiloh Walker
Now Available:
The Huntress
Grimm’s Circle
Candy Houses
No Prince Charming
Crazed Hearts
Tarnished Knight
Locked
in Silence
Grimm Tidings
Coming Soon:
Beautiful Scars
The Unwanted
Never fear the pain. Fear what lies behind it…
Grimm Tidings
© 2012 Shiloh Walker
Grimm’s Circle, Book 6
In his mortal life, the only thing Jacob liked better than money was a good brawl—until he stuck his fist into the wrong fight, and a demon sent him spinning into a new life as a Grimm.
Now, a hundred years later, he’s been called to protect someone too much like himself. A woman who could let the chains of her past drag her down unless she learns to let go. A woman who fights like there’s no tomorrow, because she clearly doesn’t want a tomorrow.
Celeste thought her second chance at life would be an opportunity to fix some of her worst mistakes, to set things straight. She couldn’t have been more wrong. She’s trapped by the past and her regrets, and nothing—not even her darkly sexy new trainer, Jacob—has a blade sharp enough to cut her loose.
Chains are Jacob's specialty, but his help comes with a price. To her, the cost is her heart. To Jacob…something much more.
Warning: Contains a heroine with enough fight in her to put the 300 to shame. And a hero who knows how to take a punch.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Grimm Tidings:
Then his mouth was on hers.
An iceberg.
She thought he was an iceberg.
Little fool.
Her mouth was still under his, for the briefest moment. He knew it wouldn’t last long, and he intended to make the most of it. She wanted to wither away and die, did she?
Perhaps she needed to see just how much life she still had inside her.
Oh, but she was sweet…he’d known she would be. Her mouth was soft, even though she was still frozen with shock. Soft, and she tasted like soft, warm woman, cherries and Coke… She lived on Cherry Coke, it seemed. He could live on the taste of it on her, he supposed.
Blind Destiny: Grimm's Circle, Book 7 [retail mobi] Page 14