She sat up, heading toward the shower. She needed a moment alone before she faced the lion. She knew Tucker would try and put his foot down, try to stop them from going to Triune. But it was too late. Callie was just as stubborn as he was, whether he knew it or not. She was going. And Tyghe was going with her.
He wasn’t backing out on her now.
Callie heard their voices halfway to the kitchen. With her damp hair in a ponytail, her comfortable jeans and sweatshirt covering all evidence of her earlier behavior, she was ready to take Tucker on.
Harrison sounded weary. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Tuck. It wasn’t my doing.”
“So then it’s—the only other way would be— Shit. This doesn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
There was silence for a moment, then Callie heard the smile in Jenner’s voice as she spoke to Tucker. “Except that, in a strange and perfect way…it kind of does. Don’t you think?” She raised her voice. “Callie, I’ve made you some cucumber sandwiches, love. You must be famished.”
Callie walked around the corner, her gaze instantly clashing with Tucker’s. The frustration in his expression quickly morphed into laughter and shared memories. Leave it to Jenner.
When she’d first started coming to the Abbott house, she’d thought it so grand, she’d mentioned being surprised they didn’t have high tea like the British ladies she’d read about in her books. Moira and Jenner had decided then and there to throw the two young girls a tea party, complete with fancy hats and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Callie had made such a fuss over them, mostly because of the novelty that the sweet, endearing Jenner began to make them every time she came to the house. She didn’t have the heart to tell the older woman she’d rather have a cheeseburger.
She accepted the plate Jenner handed her with a grateful smile, wrinkling her nose at Tucker playfully. “Have they filled you in on the plan?”
His expression hardened. “The plan has changed. Magian law will take care of the criminal, Harrison will wait a few more months to go to Triune, and you…well, you can go back to your life. To school.”
Where you belong. Callie couldn’t help the twinge of hurt she felt at his unspoken meaning. “I’m on a break. Besides, Magian law hasn’t done much to stop the previous four attacks, what makes you think it can handle the next one?”
“Five,” Harrison mumbled pushing her own sandwich, steak of course, around on her plate.
Callie’s stomach growled in envy at her friend’s more substantial lunch, then clenched when she caught her meaning. She turned back to Tucker. “There’s been another? Is the girl all right?”
Tucker’s jaw tightened, the anger in his eyes answer enough. “He killed her didn’t he? And there’s still no evidence? Nothing to find him but the knowledge that he likes Magian girls with compelling magic, and that he’ll be at the next Triune gathering.” She set her plate down and planted her hands on her hips. “Are you gonna tell me you have a Magian female lined up? An enforcer like you, who’s already made friends at the salon? Admit it. I’m the best bet you have to catch this guy before he can kill more people.”
She’d always been able to read his expression. She was right, and he hated it. He spoke stiffly. “At this time we have no trained female who has that particular magic, no.”
Callie pounced. “Let me do it, Tucker. I can do this.”
“Maybe Tucker is right, Callie.” Harrison looked somber. “They killed Marion. I knew her. She didn’t deserve to die. I can’t imagine what I’d do if anything happened to you.”
“When have I ever given you the impression I couldn’t take care of myself? When I had to go home on my own to my loving, protective foster parents every night? When I got my black belt in karate? My medal in track? Or how about when I signed up for the Police Academy?” She shook her head at their stubborn expressions. “I am not a wilting flower. Not a debutante who relies on the kindness of strangers. If I was truly Magian, I’d probably be an enforcer like Tucker by now and you know it. If there’s anything I can’t handle on my own, Tyghe will be with me.”
“She’s right. Callie can handle herself. And I’ll be her backup.”
Callie felt her shoulders relax. She wasn’t sure he’d ever talk to her again. She turned to see him in a white T-shirt and jeans, his hair wind tousled, telling her he’d come over on his bike. Her rebel. “Thank you, Tyghe.”
She tried to tell him with her eyes that she was sorry. She was confused, but she didn’t regret what had happened between them. How could she? He winked at her, but she knew he was still holding back, waiting to see what she did. How she acted now that Tucker was back.
Tucker was angry. “I know exactly what Callie can do.” He caught her eye and lowered his voice. “I always have.”
Jenner walked up to Callie and wrapped a supportive arm around her waist. “We all have faith in you, Callie dear. As long as you know we’ll all be there in case you need us.” She looked at the Abbott brothers sternly. “All of us. Including Harrison and I. We have a few days left—we should use that time to make sure we leave no room for error.”
Callie smiled down at the diminutive woman. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
Jenner blushed and made a dismissive motion with her hand. “Of course you do. I always knew you were brilliant.”
Chapter Five
“I look ridiculous. And lacy. A lacy, ridiculous girly-girl.”
Callie snorted as she stood behind Harrison in the mirror, shaking her head. “You look amazing, Harry. Like a fairytale princess.”
She truly did. The floor length gown was ivory and grey, bringing out her beautiful eyes. It had capped sleeves and a square neckline that made her look like someone out of a regency novel. But Harrison pulled it off. With her hair upswept and shimmering with diamond pins, she was stunning.
Miserable, but stunning.
“I can’t do it. If this is what Magian men want, then they can find someone else to give it to them.” She grabbed a small perfume bottle from the vanity in her room and squirted the liquid all over her bodice. Before Callie could squeak in denial at the wet spot on Harrison’s chest, the spot changed. Spread. Callie knew her jaw dropped as, within moments, the dress had changed from ivory to black, the length of the dress shortening until it stopped above Harrison’s knees, showing off her long, toned legs.
“Harrison? Didn’t you say your mother and grandmother wore this dress?”
Harrison smiled, shaking out her hair until it fell down her back in wild, ebony curls. “Yes. I’m keeping my promise to her. Technically, this is the same dress. She never said anything about a few alterations here and there.”
Callie shook her head. Harrison would never change. She had to do things her way. It was one of the things Callie had always admired about her. Something she’d hoped would rub off.
Maybe it had. She’d been different this week. Stronger. After standing firm against Tucker’s disapproval, and experiencing the passion she had with Tyghe, she thought she could handle anything. I am woman, watch me strut. She chuckled under her breath.
Now she just had to keep that confidence tonight, when she was surrounded by strange Magians, including one that would no doubt try to kill her.
“I hope you change that back before Mom gets home, she may lock you in a chastity belt until your fiftieth birthday for going to the Triune like that.”
Harrison smirked. “I doubt that, Tuck. Mom’s no Puritan. Besides, that would mean she’d be stuck with me for the next few decades.”
“True.” Tucker turned his attention to Callie, who’d been having a hard time breathing since he’d opened the bedroom door. “Harrison, Jenner wants you downstairs. She says she has something to give you, something else that our mother wants you to wear.”
Harrison grumbled as she pushed past her brother in her newly transformed little black dress. “What now? A frilly bonnet?”
Tucker leaned his shoulder against the doorframe,
his smile wry. “Looks like you’re not the only one my brother and I will need to keep an eye on. Harrison is in a mood tonight. You look beautiful, by the way.”
She smoothed her hands nervously over the silky fabric of her unusual dress. A cocktail-length beige sheath that had, at first, looked incredibly plain for all the fuss Harrison and Madame Aubrey had made over it. Until she’d put it on.
As it warmed against her skin, it had become a halter dress, lifting and cupping her breasts to show them to their perfect advantage, the skirt loose for easy movement, reaching her knees. Even stranger, the dress’s color kept changing.
She chuckled as she looked down, noticing it deepen from cool blue to passionate purple as Tucker continued to stare. “I’m wearing a full-body mood ring. It’s a bit over the top, even for magical fashion.”
“It’s sexy.” Tucker jerked, standing straighter in the doorway, his expression telling her he hadn’t meant to say that. But he had.
Callie ran her fingers through her loose blonde waves, loving the new shoulder length cut, the shimmering look of it after Charity’s special rinse. She felt sexy.
“We should probably get going. Any last minute tips? One cop to another?” She turned for one last look in the mirror, and then he was there, behind her.
God, he was beautiful. He always had been. She was surprised some lucky Magian female hadn’t already swept him away and started raising perfect, dimpled, baby witches.
He stood close behind her, so close she could feel the heat coming off him in waves. She met his gaze and shivered as he licked his lips. “Callie,” he started, his voice rough. “You aren’t a cop yet. And you aren’t…you don’t understand the Magian mind. Our criminals think differently than humans, have different motives.”
“Bullshit.” She ignored his shocked expression and rolled her eyes. “I’ve known your family most of my life. You have the same motives as anyone else. Anger, boredom, greed…lust. Just because a Magian uses their powers instead of knives or guns, doesn’t mean their motives are any more or less complex than a human’s.” She turned around to face him. “You’re quieter than Tyghe, but you feel the same way he does, don’t you? Humans are inferior. Including me. Between the two of you, I’m surprised you ever let me in your house. Knowing such an insignificant species was under your roof must have driven you cr—”
His thumb pressed gently against her lips, silencing her instantly with the powerful spark that ignited at his touch. His eyes narrowed on her mouth, his thumb sliding across her lower lip, opening her mouth with the lightest of pressure.
“You have driven me crazy, from the moment Harrison brought you home. I cannot deny that. I also can’t lie and say that for a long time your humanity wasn’t an issue. But not for the reasons you think.” He leaned closer, studying her features so intently she could physically feel his gaze on her skin.
She wanted him to kiss her. Even as this man whom she’d always believed was different told her that her being human disturbed him. Even though she’d been with Tyghe a few days before, though he seemed to be avoiding his family home quite a bit since Tucker had returned.
“You want a tip?” His voice was raw, heated. “For tonight, you, Tyghe and I will play the part of a passionate trio. We’ll be at your side, touching you, caressing you, as if we couldn’t get enough of the feel of your skin, your smell.” His thumb left her lips, and he stepped away. “It shouldn’t be any problem for you with my brother. But for this to work you’ll have to be mine as well. For the Proxenos to allow us the kind of access we’ll need, you’ll kiss me as easily, as passionately as you do him.”
Callie tried to slow her racing heart. Did he think it would be hard for her? It would be harder to pretend she wasn’t craving him just as desperately as she’d begun to crave Tyghe. But she would give it her best shot. The last thing she wanted was for Tucker to feel sorry for her. “I can handle anything for a night.”
She could pick up the broken pieces of her heart when the magic was over.
“Where’s Jenner?”
“She’ll be around. She left a note for us to wear these. Mom obviously made me some of her special jewelry for the occasion. Knowing her, it’s no doubt rigged to notify her if I don’t wear it to Triune. Think of it as a lucky, nosy, maternal charm bracelet.” Harrison slipped a golden, snake-shaped bracelet on Callie’s wrist, a piece to match the necklace around her own. “Now do you understand how this works?”
Callie sighed, shivering beneath the thick coat Tucker had forced her into. They were standing in a freezing parking garage in Boston after dark, not exactly what she’d imagined when she’d gotten dressed up. But she played along. “Triune? I think so. Magian’s come from far and wide to seek out the perfect threesome so they can live kinkily ever after. Sounds fairly straightforward to me.”
Tyghe chuckled beside her. “Smartass.”
Their eyes met and Callie shivered at the knowledge and desire in his glance. He’d come to her three more times since his altercation with Tucker, sneaking in through her window and driving her insane deep into the night with his insatiable appetites.
She felt guilty, but not enough to turn him away. Not enough not to revel in his lessons, his masterful lovemaking. He’d taken her in the shower, in her guest bedroom… The last time he’d caught up with her in the upstairs hallway, a few, nerve wracking doors away from Tucker’s room.
He’d been angry. “I tried to get you out of my mind. Tried to prove to myself that I could stay away from you. I had a woman, ready and willing, dying for me to fuck her, and all I could think about was you.”
He pressed her against the wall, lifted one of her thighs over his arm and took her. There were no preliminaries, but then, she hadn’t needed any. The moment she’d seen him she’d been ready. Looking at him now, she knew, even with Tucker and Harrison beside them, she needed him again.
His eyes darkened, a turbulent storm, and she knew he was feeling the same intense longing she was.
“If you want me to be sick all over my mother’s dress, keep ogling each other.” Callie jumped and turned, red-faced, toward her friend. Harrison shook her head. “Thank you. Some things are too disturbing for me to witness. As to what we were talking about before you were…distracted…there’s a little more to Triune than sex. Three elder Magians called Proxenos, sort of a marriage counselor and judge rolled in one, must give their approval of the match. They usually do, from what I hear, since once a Magian finds their compliments, it’s nearly impossible to separate them.” She sent a telling look to the two men on either side of Callie. “But you still have to stand before them at some point for judgment, just to be sure. The Proxenos are found when they’re very young, trained to ensure the matches are not coerced or illusory. So, they would no doubt be able to sniff out our ruse. So, if we could just find the killer before the first round of drinks are poured, we can get the hell out of there before someone turns into a pumpkin.”
Callie studied her tense friend. “What if you don’t find your matches at one of these things? Or you only find one?”
Tucker’s voice echoed in the silent parking garage. “There are four gatherings a year. Magian’s are drawn to find their missing compliments, their matches. It’s part of who we are, and we know our magic will never see its true potential if we do not.”
Callie didn’t want to dwell on why his words made her sad. “I suppose you’ve been to tons of these things by now.”
“None.” Tyghe sounded resigned. “Tucker hasn’t been to a single one. He must be the exception to the rule.”
His voice sounded like there was more to it than that, and she felt that knowing tickle up her spine, her Spidey sense, as Harrison called it, but there was no time. A flash of light drew her gaze toward a shiny silver Porsche parked, illegally, in a handicapped parking spot.
The sound of crunching metal made her jaw drop, she watched as the hood of the Porsche peeled away like a sardine can, pulling some of the concrete away with it
to reveal a smoky glass door…complete with a large, bald bouncer.
“Well, that’s not something you see everyday.”
“Hey there, Jake. Long time no see.” Tyghe walked up to shake the behemoth’s hand, the two chatting like old friends.
Callie looked at Harrison. “I think we can guess how many of these he’s been to.”
“That reminds me,” Harrison bit her lip as she walked beside Callie. “Magians are a bit…freer with their bodies than the average human. Even those who aren’t necessarily compatible have a tendency to go a little wild at Triune I’m told. Hell, some young trios who are already matched still show up to enjoy the party. Think of every bachelorette party you’ve been to and multiply it times four.”
Tyghe, hearing the last of his sister’s comment, smiled wickedly. “We’re a sensual species. Anyway, how can we know if we compliment each other without sampling?”
Callie was suddenly glad the Abbott brothers would be sticking close tonight. She didn’t want to find out how a lusty Magian reacted to rejection.
Tucker cupped her shoulders and leaned to speak into her ear. “No one touches you but us, Callie. I promise you.”
How could one sentence be reassuring, erotic and frightening at the same time? But she was grateful he’d said it. She didn’t want either of them touched or sampled either. The mere idea made her blood boil. What was wrong with her? “Thanks.”
Jake the magical bouncer smiled at Callie and Harrison shyly, an odd expression on an otherwise intimidating face. “Three eligible Abbotts in one Triune? And this must be the distant cousin Charity’s been gossiping about to everyone within earshot. They’ll be talking about this night for years to come. It’s an honor.” He bowed gallantly, opening a door that had appeared out of nowhere.
Tyghe moved to his sister’s side in front of her, and Tucker followed close behind Callie, sandwiching her between them as they went inside. Callie knew they were already protecting her, and she had to admit, though she could take care of herself, she liked the feeling. She could get used to it. That was a dangerous thought. The closer they got to the point of no return, the more Callie wondered about her future with the Abbott family. Would she still be welcome once this was over? Now that everything had changed?
Wicked Sexy: Wicked ³, Book 1 Page 5