Who was I kidding? I’d been playing a dangerous game, and I’d known the potential outcome. I had let my ego get the better of me. Seeing Luke today had brought reality crashing down around me.
Lost in a moment of self-pity, I jumped when Jax sat down in the opposite chair.
He watched me with his calm, knowing eyes.
I took another breath and stared at my hands. “What shadows are you talking about?”
Jax leaned forward and stared at me intently. “You really don’t know what shadowing is.” It was a statement, and he was waiting for my reaction.
Some of my hair had escaped the ponytail I’d pulled it into earlier. I wearily tucked it behind my ear. “Since you showed up tonight, nothing has made sense. I don’t understand what you’re asking me, and I don’t understand how we got off that ledge. If Luke had caught me tonight, neither you nor any shadows would have been much help.” My voice had risen with each word, and Jax sat back at the volume of my last word, “help.”
Fear had overridden my good sense once again. Jax didn’t know a thing about my father or Luke or our history, and I didn’t want him to know. The fewer people on this planet who knew how screwed up I really was, the better. “Never mind. Scratch that. I don’t know what shadowing is.” And I didn’t really care at this point. I had enough on my plate that I couldn’t handle. The police worried me a hell of a lot more than Jax’s shadows.
His voice was soft when he replied, “You’re coming into your powers, and one of them is obviously shadowing. How else would they not have seen us?”
I dropped my head to my hands once more. Powers? Shadowing? Maybe he’d had a good idea with that drink suggestion. I also needed to get out of this catsuit.
One crisis at a time.
I decided to tackle the simplest one first. With effort, I pushed myself to my feet. “I need to change. I have no idea what’s going on, but I sure hope it was a really, really bad dream. I’ll see you in the morning.” I turned to walk away. Hopefully he’d let himself out, because I just didn’t have it in me to play hostess. My terror had gone as quickly as it had come, and it had burned through my energy reserves. I was wiped out and wanted to be alone.
Jax gently stopped me with his hand on my arm after I’d gotten only two steps out of the kitchen.
A banging at my door made me jump. Heart racing again, I stared at Jax.
How had they found me so quickly? Luke must have called the police. I could hardly believe he’d decided to let the authorities handle this, but if Luke was at the door himself, he wouldn’t be bothering to knock. I had to hide the stones. Crap, I had to answer the door. I had to—
“Elle, open up! It’s colder than shit out here.”
I let out a strangled laugh when I recognized the voice. Teryl had the worst timing.
He’s been my best friend since we were ten years old. He’s my partner in crime and the worst fashion advisor a girl could have. I leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen while Jax went to the front door.
He’d barely turned the lock when Teryl pushed his way in. “What in the hell happened? I tried to…” He stopped short when he saw Jax standing halfway behind the door. “Hey, Jax. I…um…this must be a bad time.”
Pivoting quickly, he turned to leave.
Jax grabbed his arm. “In the kitchen. Now.” Gone was the soft, steady voice. Hard steel, coated with menace, Jax all but growled at Teryl.
Eyes wide, Teryl pivoted again and brushed past me into the kitchen. He looked like he’d stepped out of a clothing ad. Dark wash jeans fit his slim, lanky figure great. A black jacket hung unzipped over a wildly-striped polo. He looked as comfortable as I wanted to be. He sat at one of the four chairs and watched Jax nervously. I took the seat to his right, too tired to argue about shadows or leaping off buildings, and too confused to care.
Jax said nothing. He stared at Teryl, while Teryl did his best to look anywhere and everywhere but in Jax’s direction. He jumped when Jax said his name.
“Teryl.”
Even in my weary state, I recognized the command in Jax’s tone. I slapped a hand on the table with irritation. “Can someone please explain what is going on?”
Neither man answered right away. They were too busy staring at each other, communicating silently.
My hands slapped on the table as I stood up. “Have your silent manversation outside, but right now, I want words!”
“Manversation?” Teryl’s smile was brief. “Is that even a word?”
“I suggest you start kissing the ground I walk on because you will pay for the rest of your miserable life for tonight. And for your information, a manversation is a conversation men have where only grunts, growls, and manly looks are exchanged.”
“Is that so? I had no idea we did that.” Teryl’s cheeky grin pissed me off even more than his sarcasm. Normally, I found his sense of humor a little twisted, but a lot funny. I found nothing funny about what had happened tonight.
His smile faded as he realized I was serious. “Hey, I think you look freakin’ amazing in that leather.”
I dropped into the chair, slumping back. “Start explaining what you’re trying to avoid telling me. Now.”
Teryl began to fidget, which was never a good sign. He fidgeted, but he didn’t say a word. I looked at Jax, who was equally silent.
It didn’t matter who spilled the beans, but they’d better start talking. Now.
Jax sighed and leaned back so his chair tipped against the wall, facing us. He folded his arms across his chest, causing the muscles in his shoulders to bunch. Not that I’d notice such a thing at a time like this. Not that I should notice such a thing.
Jax’s sigh strummed across my last nerve.
“You know what? To hell with you.” I let my glare slide over Teryl’s guilty face. “You, too. Luke almost caught me tonight, Teryl.”
His face blanched and he reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “Luke? He’s in town? Are you okay?” He squeezed gently.
Teryl was one of the only people alive who knew my history with Luke. Because I wanted to keep it that way, I tilted my head slightly to remind Teryl that we had an audience.
He cleared his throat and let go of my hand. “Right. Uh, what happened?”
I rubbed my temples. A headache was beginning to develop behind my right eye. I pulled the ponytail holder out of my hair and let it fall loose around my shoulders in an effort to ease the tightness along my scalp. “I don’t know what happened. We weren’t caught, and we didn’t die after stepping off the ledge, and if one of you doesn’t explain, I’m going to start crying. Big, fat, hysterical woman tears.”
“Elle shadowed,” Jax said to Teryl.
There was that word again. Shadowed. It sounded like something a superhero—or supervillian—would do. I caught another meaningful stare between the two of them.
“Explain. Now.”
The chair squeaked against the floor as Teryl scooted back and stood up. “How about a drink?”
“I don’t want a damned drink.” Well, I did, but that could wait.
“I meant for me,” he grumbled, as he began rummaging around in my cupboards. He found a bottle of whiskey in my small liquor stash and poured a shot. I watched him grimace as it went down. Teryl rarely drank.
Unease slithered through my irritation as I watched him drink a second shot. He coughed when the alcohol hit his throat, and then turned back to us. “She doesn’t know about it.”
The word Jax muttered under his breath startled me. I’d never heard the man curse before, not in that deep, sincere voice of his.
“Doesn’t know what?” I asked, eyeing the bottle of whiskey Teryl carried to the table. He sat down and poured two more shots, handing one to me.
Jax spoke for him. “Your father is a shadow elf king, and you’re his heir.”
Chapter Two
I polished off the shot of whiskey in between bouts of laughter.
The guys sat silently, waiting. Teryl was t
urning his shot glass around and around, watching the liquid swirl. Jax didn’t move a muscle.
“Okay, okay.” I laughed and waved a hand at them. “A shadow elf king, right. My dad had his ears surgically altered in order to conform and walk among humans.” I rolled my eyes and continued. “And wait, let me guess. He met my mom, they fell in love, but because elves and humans can’t be together, we were cast out, and he had to stay and lead his people.”
I sobered and stared hard at them. “Next, I suppose you’ll tell me he really did love me, but the elf rules require him to treat me like a monster.”
“No,” Teryl replied softly, still fidgeting with his glass. “He’s the monster, even in elven terms. His mistake was that he wrote you off as human, and therefore, powerless. Now we know he was wrong.”
The sadness in Teryl’s voice was unsettling. But not nearly as unsettling as the line of crap he was trying to feed me.
“Honestly, I don’t know what sick joke you’re trying to play, but I’ve had it.” I wiped a hand over my face and stood up. “You can both show yourselves out. I’m going to take a hot shower, then sleep this nightmare off.”
“Sit.” The command in Jax’s voice was unmistakable, but I ignored it.
Before I got out of the kitchen, he grabbed my arm. Again. “We have much more to tell you, and you need to sit.”
I glared over my shoulder at him.
“Please,” he added.
“No more lies, no more stories.” I tried to shake his hand off. “I just want the tru—”
The word stuck in my throat.
Because the hand holding my arm had turned to stone.
Cold, heavy, unyielding stone. And the fingers, one by one, wiggled at me before slowly releasing. My eyes followed the movement as Jax let his hand drop to his side, and it slowly returned to normal.
What the hell? I downed the shot Teryl handed me.
“Jax,” I tried to whisper, but it came out as a squeak, from the whiskey or surprise, I couldn’t tell.
“I’m a gargoyle,” he said, as casually as one might comment on the weather.
I couldn’t seem to look away from that normal-looking hand. Jax sighed, and I watched his entire arm turn gray as flesh turned to stone once more.
“How is that possible?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the marbled muscle. My brain was having trouble processing what my eyes were seeing. Even so, I made a mental note that cast in stone, Jax would be so sexy. He was a living, breathing statue. At least partially. Move over, Michelangelo’s David.
No man should look that good without trying. It was a crime. One I was happy to admire, as I noted how the muscles of his arm were etched perfectly into stone. Besides, focusing on the sexy part was easier to cope with.
“I was born this way, just as you were born part shadow elf.”
Shadow elf. Right. My desire disappeared at the unwelcome reminder. The bizarre explanation was not what I wanted to hear. I slid my gaze to Teryl, almost afraid to ask. What sort of freaky body-changing tricks was my best friend hiding?
Teryl rolled his shoulders, obviously uncomfortable. “I’m an oracle.”
“An oracle,” I repeated. “Of course, because that makes so much sense. And I’m Dorothy. I want to get back to Kansas, and you can both stay in Oz.” My voice began to rise along with my temper. I thought I’d been lost when my mom was murdered, but now I was being told I wasn’t even human?
“How could I, all of the sudden, be a completely different species and not know it? I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me my father was the devil himself, but wouldn’t I know what I am?” I crossed my arms over my chest, and I pinned Jax with a hard stare. “Prove it.”
“We don’t know what your powers are,” Teryl answered for him. “If you’d just let us explain.”
I’d reached my breaking point. “You’re telling me I’m some sort of freaky, half-human thing. Jax can turn to stone, and I don’t know what the hell an oracle can do, but I’m sure it’s weird, too.”
Jax placed a hand on my arm. I’m sure he meant it to be comforting. At the moment, I found it condescending. I shrugged him off. “Don’t touch me.”
He lifted a brow at me. “I was going to show you, just as you’d asked.”
“Do it without touching me,” I said, with my teeth clenched.
He smiled—he probably knew his touch distracted me—and walked past me into the living room. He stood in the center and faced me, then pulled off his shirt in what could easily have been the sexiest strip-tease I’d ever witnessed. Wings appeared behind him, folded against his bare torso. It happened so fast, it seemed as if they appeared out of nowhere.
“I’d show you the whole wingspan, but your room is too small.”
I swallowed the startled expletive in my throat and frowned at him. “Why is it always a size thing with guys?”
That wiped the smile off his face. “You wanted to know how we got off the ledge. I’m offering you an answer.”
“You flew us down?” I could see the wings, but my brain was having a harder time processing how good he looked with them. Hot. Beyond hot.
I took a moment to look at him. Really look at him.
His stance was casual. Legs shoulder-width apart, arms hanging at his sides. My mouth went suddenly dry, so I swallowed a few times. My imagination had not done his body justice. He was Gorgeous with a capital G. Every muscle on his upper body was well defined, even as he stood relaxed. A shadow of dark hair lightly covered his chest and made the sexiest trail down his abdominals. I greedily followed the path that stopped—much to my disappointment—at the waistband of his jeans.
I bit my bottom lip. I’d never be able to look at him without drooling again.
Focus! I tried to shut up my inner hussy and deal with the problem at hand. But oh, what a problem. Those two shots of whiskey were settling my nerves and firing up my libido.
Jax frowned at me. “Is something funny?”
I wiped the inappropriate but appreciative smile off my face and shook my head. “No, sorry. I got distracted.”
His slow, sexy smile came back. He didn’t speak, but he didn’t have to. Jax had the amazing ability to say so much without uttering a single word. And I needed to get back on track.
His aura of danger had increased exponentially with the addition of dark, leathery wings and I found myself wanting to touch them. Walking into the living room, I examined the wings.
Irritation forgotten for the moment, I moved closer and circled around. His wings flared out from his shoulder blades. They were the same dark gray color his arm had become when he turned to stone. A shade somewhere between his black hair and silver eyes, including threads of dark, shimmery gray. Even folded, they were huge. They skimmed the ground next to his feet and extended almost to the crown of his head. No feathers, I noted.
On him, they looked…right. The wings looked like a natural and necessary part of his body.
Jax shrugged his shoulders and the wings moved with him.
“What are they made from?” I asked softly.
“Bone, skin, muscle,” he replied. He shifted and the wings extended out slightly, enough for me to see the skeletal structure and the muscles. They were incredible.
“You can touch them.” His voice rumbled through me, striking the right chord.
Have I mentioned his voice? It’s deep and low and when he speaks, it echoes in all the right places. And when he told me to touch him, my hormones perked up. Everything did. Which is why I hesitated. For some reason, I knew touching him in that moment would be a bad idea.
“What else can a gargoyle do?” I stepped away and put my hands behind my back.
He turned his head so he could see my face. “We’re immortal. We fly and turn to stone. Our role is usually bodyguard.”
“And they’re damn near indestructible.”
Teryl’s voice brought me back to the present. I’d forgotten he was here. In fact, I’d forgotten almost everything, I’d been
so fascinated by my gargoyle employee.
Teryl stepped into the living room, too, shot glass in hand. “He’s being modest. What Jax isn’t saying is that when they turn to stone, they can crush just about anything. I once saw a gargoyle smash a man’s face right in.” He downed the drink in one swallow, then shuddered. “Let’s just say, you don’t want to piss one off.”
I wondered what else Jax could do? Teryl’s words had brought up a gruesome image, so maybe I really didn’t want to know.
Just then, I noticed his wings ended in sharpened points of the silvery threads. They could be used as weapons, not only for flight. Or whatever we’d done tonight.
I felt the anger and frustration building and tamped them down. Those emotions weren’t helpful. I’d learned that long ago. And if I were honest, I could admit this situation wasn’t their fault. It was a mess, but not their fault. But maybe, just maybe, they could shed a little light on it all.
I turned to Teryl. “What can an oracle do?”
The expression that settled on his face was not a happy one. “It depends on the oracle’s lineage. Some oracles are used to locate people or things. Others can predict the future, but that line isn’t as strong as it used to be. Some can read minds.” He leaned against the wall, close to the small side table at one end of my couch. His hands idly spun the small, decorative globe I had on display, because he couldn’t contain his nervous energy. “And a few read fate.”
He’d always had trouble staying still, but tonight I heard weariness in his voice, which was something I’d never noticed before. I studied Teryl’s face and saw lines of worry. The corners of his mouth were turned down in a slight frown.
On most people, the look wouldn’t be a big deal. We have days that are up and days that are down. But Teryl is a perpetual optimist. My brown-haired, brown-eyed friend is always smiling and joking. He’s engaged to a perfectly nice woman named Clio. I swear, they were made for each other. She works for my father, and since she transferred to the London office months ago, Teryl has become increasingly unhappy.
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