“I knew you had great legs.” Noah whistled, and I hurriedly dropped my dress, giving him a dirty look.
“You promised!” Anna said sternly, pointing a finger at Noah and I. We grumbled but turned away from each other.
“We were sent in to look for you. Are you ready?” Damien asked, looking at Anna and giving a low whistle himself. She sketched him a curtsy and he returned with a bow. Oh gag.
“Okay, here we go.” Damien opened the door again and Noah followed him out.
Harley and I turned to Anna, who was brushing down her dress, shaking out wrinkles that didn’t exist.
“Ready?” Harley asked her, and she nodded. She passed a hand across her eyes, and when they were revealed again, they were the color they used to be. Glamours came in handy. If she could have cried, she would be blubbering at this point.
Harley and I grabbed our bouquets that were laid out on a table next to the French doors, and we went out ahead of her. I went first, being the second maid of honor.
There was a white runner that ran from the back stone patio to the gazebo, and it was strewn with red and yellow rose petals. Chairs draped with white covers were placed on either side, guests that had no idea that they were watching two vampires be married watched us come down the aisle.
I kept my eyes on Gareth as I came down the aisle, needing to concentrate on something other than the justice of the peace. Gareth had used his own contacts for this, not wanting to arouse suspicion, and the odd brown was disconcerting. I was so used to him with those white-blue eyes that the brown truly struck me as false.
As I made it to the gazebo, I moved to take my place, just as Harley came up behind me. As soon as the two of us were situated, the Wedding March played, and I heard Gareth’s quick intake of breath as his bride came out of the house.
She glowed; that was the only word I could come up with to describe her. They say all brides are beautiful on their wedding day, but she truly was astounding. Her hair rippled over her shoulders and her eyes shown bright. She walked sedately, keeping the speed down, and with a huge, beaming smile came to stand by Gareth. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, nor could most of the people present. The men envied Gareth and the women envied her, her looks and her soon-to-be husband.
I let my mind wander as the words were said. I was here strictly for Gareth and Anna and I drew the line at listening to meaningless words. They were bound together more than any little paper could bind them, so I thought this was just frivolous, but when I heard Anna catch her breath over Gareth’s vows, I smiled, and it made me happy to know that this made my friend happy, no matter how ridiculous it seemed to me.
I came out of my reverie when they were pronounced husband and wife, and to a roar of laughter and cat calls, Gareth dipped her deep and gave her a thorough kiss. I clapped my hands, smiling like a lunatic. I could only be so lucky as to find half their happiness.
Chapter Two
I sat at a table a few hours later, my shoes off and my feet kicked up on the chair in front of me. Almost all the guests had left, and Damien and I were sitting, recovering from a lot of drink and a lot of dancing. The werewolf had some serious moves on the dance floor.
He picked up the champagne flute on the table and drained it. “I am beat. Are you going to be okay to drive?”
“Harley and I are staying here tonight, cleaning up in the morning while they’re off on the honeymoon.”
“Harley is staying too?” he asked, twirling the glass with his long fingers. I eyed him speculatively.
“Yeah, just said that, didn’t I?” I winked at him to take the sting out of my sarcastic remark, but he cocked a black brow in my direction, his green gaze cool.
“So you did,” was his reply.
“Is she annoying you as badly as she annoys me?” Noah strolled up and pulled out the chair from under my feet. “Hey!” I squealed, leaning forward to snatch at the chair, but he held it out of my reach and twirled it so that he sat down on it backward, his arms draped across the back.
“I thought you two had a truce?” Damien inquired, leaning his elbow on the table.
“The newlyweds are gone, left for the airport. Truce is over.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I threw him a disgusted look.
“Then I’m out of here. I can’t watch you two snipe at each other. I don’t know how the others stand it.” He stood, stretching his long frame.
“Going hunting?” I asked as he stooped to place a kiss on my cheek.
“No, not tonight. I’m for home.”
I was glad he was going home. He needed the rest. He had been trying to pick up Padraigan’s trail for the past few months, and although he had some promising leads, nothing had come of it.
He was our black sheep. Unlike Noah, who was tied to us through Gareth, Damien came into our little group a stranger, actually an enemy. He and Gareth had had a long standing feud going back twenty years, but he came to Anna’s rescue when Padraigan had kidnapped her back in February, having shown up at Gareth’s house and alerting us to where Padraigan had taken her.
He was not your ordinary werewolf. He could turn at will, not just at the full moon. The full moon was when he lost control, and the beast took over, so needless to say, we didn’t see him much during that time.
Which was coming up. “I won’t see you all for a bit, considering, but I’ll let you know if I find anything.” He waved at Noah and walked towards the front of the house, nearly running into Harley as she came out the French doors. He moved so fast away from her that I barely caught it, but my interest was piqued again as I saw Harley look after him when he dashed inside, as if the fires of hell were after him.
Noah caught it too. “Interesting. I wonder if there’s anything there.”
I made a derogatory noise, although his words mirrored my thoughts.
“No. I don’t even know if Harley likes him much.”
Which was bullshit. I knew exactly what her feelings were regarding Damien.
She joined us at the table, and I moved in my chair to face her, stretching my legs out on the other chair next to me, which effectively put my back to Noah.
“If you two are going to fight, I really don’t want to sit here with you, so what’s it going to be?” she asked, rubbing a hand on her neck, her eyes narrowed at Noah and I.
“Why do you people deprive me of the little bit of fun that I have in my life?” Noah lamented, raising his eyes to the star-filled sky. I really wanted to kick him, but that meant that I would have to face him, and I just wanted to end the night on a good note.
“I’m going inside. It’s late and I’m tired.” I stood and stretched, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Noah watching me appreciatively. I almost whirled on him, shock keeping me frozen for a moment. I knew that look; it was the look that men gave women that let us know they wanted us in their beds. Not the look that I would expect from him and it upset me enough to scramble my brain.
“Uh, goodnight.” I mumbled and picked up the trailing train on my dress and made my way inside, turning my back on Harley’s puzzled expression.
I didn’t even bother to look around and see what kind of mess would await me in the morning. The caterers took care of the kitchen, but thanks to our big mouths, they hadn’t hired anyone to come in and clean anything else.
My thoughts were a jumbled mess, and I was fighting that image of Noah’s approving gaze when Harley intruded.
What the hell was that?
I grimaced, knowing she would ask.
Nothing, I’m just tired. I lied.
Her skeptical snort echoed in my thoughts.
Sure you are. I saw it too. Coward.
Those were usually fighting words with me, but I let it pass. She was right, and leave it to Harley to know what prompted my flight inside.
I’m going to do some digging.
I gasped in horror, a grimace on my face she couldn’t see.
Don’t you dare!
She laughed her diabolical,
scheming laugh that usually made me laugh with her. I was not laughing now.
Are you scared of what I’ll find out?
I had to admit she hit a nerve. Things with Noah and I were in no way black and white. Other than his extreme arrogance, which in itself was not something bad, considering I had a healthy dose myself, I really couldn’t find anything wrong with him. He was kind to everyone but me, baby sat his sister’s kids, came to the rescue of strangers and was extremely gorgeous to boot. The kind of man any sane woman would want, but every time I looked at him, my blood boiled, my heart raced and that made me so angry I could spit.
Then there was the kiss. When we first met, which was not a good day, we almost got into a shoving match and he ended up kissing me, purely to shut me up, I’m sure, not out of any desire he felt for me. But the feel of his mouth on mine was shocking, and I’m glad he pulled back when he did, because I didn’t know how much longer I could have resisted it.
I tried to tell myself that it was because I hadn’t even been on a date in months, let alone had some quality alone time with a hot guy, but there was a part of me, one that I fought with on a daily basis, that wanted to grab him sometime and shut him up in the same way.
Hello? Earth to Teagan?
I shook my head and grimaced again, hating the path my traitorous thoughts had taken.
I’m here, just contemplating jumping off the landing.
What?
Nothing. Good night. And don’t say anything to him, please.
I went into my room, closing the door softly behind me. This room, like all the rooms in the house, was completely beautiful in a simple, tasteful way. It was painted chocolate brown, with white wainscoting and chair rails, and had huge windows that faced west, which was perfect for me, since I was a late sleeper and hated having the sun shine in on me in the morning. The bed was massive, an oak and wrought iron fantasy that kind of sucked you in with its masses of pillows and down comforter.
I crossed the room to the little sitting area framed by the windows and grabbed my bag that Harley had brought over for me earlier and carried it into the bathroom.
Another room to die over. I could live in the big copper soaking tub if they would let me. The separate stall shower would be my vacation home, with its multiple full-body jets and rain shower spray head. All I needed was a television and a refrigerator and I would be all set.
I grabbed my pajamas and struggled out of the dress and hung it carefully on its hanger, then pulled the plastic bag over it. I pulled my night shirt on, which had the quote “Well behaved women rarely make history” in big block letters on it and dug into my bag and got out my toothbrush, toothpaste, and face wash, threw my hair up and went about getting ready for bed.
As I brushed my teeth, I looked at my reflection in the mirror, checking for blemishes and judging my features too harshly as always. My eyes were a good color, bright blue, but the almond shape was all wrong, or so I thought. My nose was too thin and my lips too full, but I did like my chin, which was slightly pointed and my cheekbones, which were high.
My hair was my favorite thing about myself. It was thick and wavy, and I could do anything with it that I wanted. I had finally achieved color perfection with a blend of browns, blondes and subtle pinks that everyone thought would be punk, but turns out, it wasn’t. My pink wasn’t really visible unless it was up like it was now, and I could see the long strands drifting down my neck. I loved it.
I wiped down the counter and padded across the cold wood floors, wishing that I had packed slippers, and dove into the big bed. I turned off the bedside lamp and plunged the room into darkness, and as was my luck in life, fell immediately to sleep.
I knew I was dreaming, or so I thought. I was still in my nightshirt, but I wasn’t at Gareth and Anna’s. It was a house I had never been to, starkly modern, all glass and metal. I was in a huge living room that was sparsely furnished, and the furniture that was there looked like it came from a Swedish furniture showroom. Everything was streamlined and cold, done in glaring black and white and the coldness of it made me shiver, painfully obvious that I was bare from the mid-thigh down to my feet.
I walked through the room, looking for a way out, my path lit by the light of the almost full moon that shone in through the massive wall of windows.
I got the impression that the house was mostly made of windows because as I left the living room, it led into a glass hallway with stained concrete floors, which was almost excruciatingly cold on my bare feet. I started to panic, my heart beginning to race and I broke into a trot, making it to the end of the hallway quickly. It came to a dead end at the juncture of another hall, this one conventional, but still black and white. There were no colors around me but black, white, and the cold blue light of the moon, and I was lost in this glass house.
I debated whether to turn right or left. Both directions looked the same, so I chose right, still moving at a slow trot, my footsteps silent on the hard, cold floor. That’s when I heard a noise.
It came from the direction I was headed, and it sounded like whimpering. There was a door at the end of the hall, and I slowed down as I approached it, glancing warily over my shoulder as if I expected to see something shambling after me, like a zombie out of Resident Evil. I could see light coming from under the door, a golden glow that was more reminiscent of candle light than electric light. As I reached the door, I put one hand on it and another on the door handle, which was polished chrome in the shape of a tiger. The whimpering came again, and I heard a note of fear along with pain in it.
The realization that this may not be a dream, no matter how dream-like it seemed, finally hit home, and with the realization, my natural bravado came back to me, chasing all of the fear I was feeling out of me. I pushed down on the handle and opened the door.
What I saw as I opened the door made me freeze in shock. I couldn’t move, and if what was in the room came after me, I would have been killed, dream world or not.
I had never seen Padraigan, hadn’t been with Gareth, Anna, and Noah the night they had battled him at his warehouse, but I knew this was him by the half-healed chunk taken out of his side. Damien had inflicted that on him, and my unbelieving eyes could just make out how the skin was knitting itself back together as I watched in horror. The scar on his neck from where Gareth had ripped away half his throat was almost healed completely. I was able to see all this because he had no shirt on, just a pair of black slacks that draped his hips. His pale skin was luminescent in the light of the fire that burned in a huge fireplace, and it cast shadows across his marble-like chest. Then I realized it wasn’t shadows on his skin; it was blood, and there was blood on his face, marring the exquisitely beautiful visage.
He was facing a bed, another creation of metal, and I heard him chuckle as a moan issued from the bed. I tore my eyes from him and looked at the bed, trying to see what was on it. I leaned up on my tip toes to get a better look, then gasped in horror at what was on it. A girl lay there, about seventeen or eighteen, and there was blood all over her. I couldn’t make out where it all was coming from; there had to be multiple wounds all over her body. Her head rolled from side to side, as if she were caught in a delirious fever. I couldn’t tear my eyes from her naked form, even when she fixed me with a dazed glance.
She couldn’t possibly see me, this was my dream, although what would make me dream this was so far beyond me, I might as well have been dreaming about colonizing Mars. Again the thought crossed my mind that this might not be a dream.
“Help me.” She whispered, and I sucked in breath. This wasn’t happening, couldn’t be happening. What kind of fucked up dream was this?
Padraigan turned his head to follow her gaze and smiled at me, his lips curling over bright white teeth, the two long canines tipped in blood.
“Well, hello. Join us, won’t you?” He said casually, as though inviting me for tea. He caught my wide-eyed gaze with his black eyes, and I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Suddenly he was in front of m
e, although I hadn’t seen him move. Before I could take another shallow breath, he was brushing hair back from my neck.
Move Teagan! I screamed at myself, but I was paralyzed as I watched, as if in slow motion, his head descend, tilting slightly to give him better access to my neck.
Not until I felt his cold breath on my skin could I move, and the feel of it galvanized me into action. I made myself bite my tongue, the pain of which broke the thrall and I pushed at him, throwing him off balance, just enough for me to hike enough air in my lungs and let out a blood curdling scream.
I turned and ran out of the room, screaming the entire way. I pounded down the hallway, the sound of his laughter chasing me. I rounded the corner where the hallways intersected and hit what felt like a brick wall.
“Teagan! Damn it, wake up!”
I was being shaken, hard, and my eyes snapped open to find Noah on top of me, straddling my waist. He was peering down at me, concern and consternation clouding his deep blue eyes.
My head was muddled, and I couldn’t seem to focus on anything in particular. My gaze traveled jerkily around the room, looking for Padraigan, although on some level I knew he wasn’t there. The encompassing fear that had flooded through me was slowly draining away and I looked at Noah where he was perched on top of me.
“I saw him.” I whispered, my teeth chattering from a nasty case of the shakes.
His gaze sharpened and he brought his hands up to frame my face, his grasp gentle.
“Who did you see, Teagan?” His voice was a harsh whisper that was at complete odds with the tenderness of his hands.
“Padraigan. He was…was feeding.” I managed to gag out, and Noah reacted to the horror in my voice by pulling me up and wrapping his arms around me, pressing my head to his warm chest. I told myself that it was because I was cold and scared, not for any other reason did I burrow into him, my shaking arms circling his back and holding on tight.
“Were you dreaming or seeing?” His breath stirred the hair on top of my head, and it was blessedly warm, unlike Padraigan’s icy breath.
Magick (Immortals and Magick Book 2) Page 2