by C. M. Owens
“Thank you,” I finally manage to say just before my eyes flutter closed.
***
ZEE
When I walk into the house, I expect chaos and madness, but I find everyone sitting in the floor, staring at old books instead.
“What the hell?” I ask, kicking the door shut behind me, while Leah sleeps in my arms.
“We’re trying to find a way to kill Slade, while also trying to figure out if Morgana is the actual ringleader.”
That freezes me to my spot. “Morgana? Seriously? I thought she wasn’t strong enough.”
My eyes hit Gage who looks like every shade of death and regret there is. “She wasn’t, but I keep forgetting no one is the same as they were centuries ago. Gavin was a hell of a lot stronger when we found him. Only Morgana could have ever talked him into giving a blood oath. It makes sense now. Blood oaths have to be given voluntarily. It was a piece of the puzzle that didn’t make sense.”
“What about Ella? Has anyone—”
“She’s here,” Chaz says, looking up from is book again. “Somehow, that bastard walked her right through our spelled home and put her into bed like nothing ever happened. She has even been healed.”
I relax while cradling Leah a little closer. At least the scent of her blood isn’t distracting right now.
I collapse to a chair with her still firmly wrapped in my arms, and I brush a kiss across her forehead as they resume what they were doing.
“I need Dray here to heal her,” I tell Chaz.
“He should be here any—” Dray appears as though he’s right on cue, cutting off the rest of the unnecessary sentence.
He tightens his lips as he steps forward. “So we’re healing anointed ones instead of hunting them?” he muses.
The growl in my throat is unbidden and certainly unexpected. Dray cocks an eyebrow, and I clear my throat.
“Heal her, Dray. Before he accidentally kills you,” Kane warns.
Dray smirks before touching Leah’s head, and I have to fight every instinct in me not to rip his arm out of its socket. Fucking eh.
The wounds on her body slowly begin to heal, and Dray staggers as black smoke swirls around Leah. As he gets weaker, the wounds on her slowly disappear until she looks almost perfect.
Dray lets go and drops to the ground, grabbing his head like he’s dizzy. A few bruises remain, and I look over at him quizzically.
“They really took a lot out of her. It’ll take her a few days to get back to full strength,” he says, taking a deep breath. “That took a lot out of me too.”
“That means Slade might also be weak right now,” Chaz says while standing and looking over at Thad and Roslyn. “We should track him now. If he healed Ella—”
“If he healed Ella,” Thad interjects, emphasizing that one key word. “If. He could have gotten someone else to do it. Kane and Alyssa can’t even work the healing powers very well. It’s possible that he’s still just as strong, and he’ll be waiting for us. He wants my girl dead, so fuck that shit. It’s too risky.”
Roslyn starts to speak, but Thad kisses her hard instead. After a second, he pulls back. “I said no,” he murmurs softly, kissing her again. “We’ll wait until we’re ready.”
Chaz sits back down, his lips thinning as he thinks. There’s no way in hell Thad will risk Roslyn, and I don’t blame him. My eyes fall over Leah once again, and I blow out a breath. What the hell am I going to do with her?
Chapter 15
ELLA
(Yes, that is supposed to say Ella.)
Zee’s hands are shoved in his hoodie pockets, and his hood is pulled low, as he stares through a familiar window. Leah is pacing back and forth, her eyes glued to the blade in her hand, and Zee’s glowing blue eyes shift with every step she takes as he watches from the shadows.
“It’s creepy to just watch people,” I tell him, noticing how his shoulders stiffen.
He blows out a breath before glancing over his shoulder at me, then his eyes go back to her again.
“I needed some air.”
“You mean you needed away from her, but you can’t stay too far away.”
“It’s just nature. It’s nothing deeper,” he says dismissively, playing down the way he feels… The draw he can’t deny.
“It is something deeper, Zee. You’re not an animal.”
He continues watching her, and she continues talking to herself, though neither of us can hear what she’s saying past the soundproof spell. The walls were once soundproof, but after so many beatings, they lost their effect.
“Have you talked to her?” I ask him when he grows quiet.
“It’s hard to talk to her about anything other than life or death right now. A lot of people want her dead. Including Morgana. Fucking nightmare.”
“People always want us dead, but we can’t stop living.”
I turn to walk away, but he grabs my hand. “Where are you going?”
“I need pie,” I lie, shrugging out of his hold and flashing him a convincing smile. He’s so distracted with his own problem that he buys the lie.
“Hurry back. Kane has to go back to your mother, and he’ll want to make sure you’re okay before he does.”
“I’ve been just fine for a week. Mom needs him a lot more than I do. She can’t come back until after she’s back at full strength. Not even for a little bit. It’s too risky.”
He nods in agreement, and all of his attention goes back toward his little ticking bomb of issues. I don’t envy him for that.
But I have my own issues to deal with right now.
As soon as I hit the woods, I dematerialize. My feet hit the ground hard when I drop, landing in another section of woods far away from our cabin. That’s the most distance I’ve ever covered while dematerialized.
The locator spell should work. I know he gave me his blood, and I know it’s still in my system. I could taste it the second I woke up a week ago, and it’s been lingering ever since, buzzing through my system like a drug. So has his scent and his touch…
No. That’s just sick. He’s truly a monster, and not just because of the scars. The scars actually don’t bother me at all. Perfection is all around us, so him being imperfect makes him….
Fuck! No. Not him. Anyone but him.
With absolute stealth, I head toward the barely-there sounds in the distance. Before I reach the sounds, I see soft, touchable, inky-black hair as a guy with his back turned stays propped up against a tree. He’s wearing a leather jacket that only adds to his appeal, and his hands are tucked into the pockets of his jeans.
The long lines of ink run up his neck, stretching across it. He usually keeps most of his body covered up. At least the few times I’ve seen him and remembered it.
He’s watching Kya as she fights with someone else, and I swallow down an unbidden knot of jealousy. This is twisted and wrong. I’m not here for anything but answers.
The others are far enough away and too distracted to notice me, but Slade suddenly tenses, as though he senses me when I get too close.
“Come to fight, Princess?” he drawls, keeping his body facing away from me.
“Just want answers. I’m not strong enough to fight you yet.”
He snorts derisively before turning around, and I take a step closer to him. He cocks an eyebrow, giving me an all-too-condescending look as he stares down his nose at me.
“You came alone?” He makes a tsking sound while crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against a tree. “That’s reckless, little girl. Care to tell me what you’re here for?”
“You saved me. I want to know why. Leah told me—”
“The Aquarius?” he interrupts, his cool composure faltering.
Shit. He didn’t know she was still alive. Damn it.
“I’m here to talk about you. Not her.”
His eyes lazily travel across my body, and he finally meets my gaze again. “I’m not interested in conversation.”
He winks before turning back aroun
d, and I try desperately hard to ignore all the heat in all the wrong places.
Before I can stop myself, I grab his elbow, and he stiffens against my touch. He doesn’t push me away though. Stepping in front of him, I put us almost touching fronts, still holding onto his elbow, feeling the leather of his jacket at my fingertips.
“What do you want?” he sighs, looking exhausted and exasperated.
“Why did you save me?”
He rolls his eyes, still looking over the top of my head.
“You can watch your girlfriend after I leave. I just came for answers. Please. It’s driving me crazy.”
His eyes drop to my face, and his lips twitch. “My girlfriend?”
I just glare at the asshole.
“Jealous, Princess?”
“Of course not. Don’t be fucking ridiculous.”
A cold, hardened look comes over his features, and he tugs his arm free from my grip.
“That’s right. The spoiled Daddy’s girl couldn’t possibly be jealous of someone that looks like me. Right?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Go. Before one of them sees you. I don’t have time to deal with their questions.” He dematerializes, or starts to, but I grab him again, pulling him out of the dissolved state.
He snarls when he’s forced to solidify again. In a smooth, rapid motion, he shoves me against the tree and pushes his arm against my throat.
His breath washes over me, tasting good enough to mess with my head. His silver eyes pin me with a threatening glare that does not scare me in the least. His scars are so much easier to see this close. I have to fight the urge to trace them with my fingertips.
“You don’t seem to understand that I don’t fucking want you here. You don’t get special treatment. You don’t get to walk into my fucking camp, and—”
His words cut off when my hands reach his sides, slowly lifting the hem of his shirt so that I can feel his warm skin. It’s an involuntary reaction, and his eyes go hooded, watching me as his breaths get shallower.
“Why did you kill Liam?” I whisper, feeling his grip slowly loosen on my neck. “He bound me once. Tricked me. Used me. Hurt me.”
His eyes grow a darker silver, and he pushes against me more. “Don’t do this, Princess. Don’t romanticize this thing between us. I just didn’t like the son of a bitch. That’s all there was to it. In case you haven’t noticed, I have a lot of pent-up anger I like to get rid of on occasion.”
“Leah said you didn’t even know him. She said you even admitted it. And you tortured him. That’s a lot of hatred toward someone you don’t know.”
He curses while glancing toward his camp. A lot of eyes have taken notice of us, but they all look away when he catches their curious stares. He cuts his eyes back to mine, and he takes a step back.
“That fucking Aquarius has a big mouth. I plan to shut it permanently. Get out of here. Now.”
He turns and disappears this time before I can stop him, and I decide it’d be stupid to push my luck. Slade is a freaking enigma, but I don’t want him dead. Everyone else thinks he’s a danger to me… To us…
I think he’s just a really shitty hero with a thirst for blood and vengeance. Unfortunately, we’ll eventually have to fight, because I can’t let him kill Zee’s girl.
Chapter 16
LEAH
“She doesn’t need to know how to fight!” Aunt Masie barks.
“She does need to know!” Victor growls. “She can’t even defend herself against idiots in college.”
I shouldn’t have come home. I should have stayed away. After answering a thousand questions from the police, I was sick of sitting in that tainted apartment where… where something came too close to happening.
“Fighting isn’t her natural response. It didn’t take, Victor. Stop trying to force it. I will NOT allow you to do what you did to her.”
Who is her?
Doesn’t matter. They never answer me when I ask questions. They brush it off and sweep it under the proverbial rug.
I drink down another sip of my soda, tasting the hint of whiskey in it. This place never felt safe, but it feels safer than my new home right now. I need to find somewhere else to move. It’s like I’m a magnet for all the bad shit in the world.
The freak.
The freak people want to hurt.
Maybe Victor is right. I should learn to fight. Then I could stop being a victim.
My eyes fall over Kimber as she and her boyfriend do some hand-to-hand combat training. It’s actually pretty intense. And sexy.
Gage smirks at her when she misses a punch, but she spins and kicks him hard in the side, catching him off guard. He stumbles and falls forward, but he dodges her next kick, grabbing her leg and spinning her into his arms just before his lips crash down on hers.
I look away when I start feeling like a pervert spying on them instead of watching a fight. For the past two weeks, Zee has been quiet and careful. He only stays in a room with me when other people are around. I’m still trying to process everything that has happened.
I’ve learned a lot about him. He eats a lot of pie, for one. And he loves my blood, but he won’t ask for it. I have to offer it after pouring it into a glass.
I heal quickly, which is something else I’ve learned just from making the cuts for my blood to pour.
He’s actually pretty serious most of the time. Sometimes he seems shy and quiet, as though it’s his nature. He’s different from the rest, because they’re all loud and outspoken.
Zee is the kind who just sits back and soaks everything in. When he speaks, it’s because he has something important to say. For some reason, it makes him even sexier, because his words are special instead of freely given.
Something else I’ve noticed, he doesn’t screw around. Or at least he hasn’t since I’ve been here. From what I can tell, he’s never been in any relationship with someone other than his sire, and that was against his will.
He still wants me to be his—completely. He’s struggling. I’ve learned enough about his kind to know he has a lot of freaking control to deny himself. He doesn’t want me to be like him.
And I still don’t want to be a vampire.
I also don’t want to be a damsel in distress again, so I need to learn how to be badass.
Heading down the stairs, I pass Chaz, but I stagger and sway on my feet when I see his eyes. Red and black eyes. Just like the red jinn. My entire body pales, and he cocks a confused eyebrow.
“What?” he asks, glancing in the mirror. It’s like he doesn’t even see it.
“Dusters… Dusters…”
“What about my kind?” he asks with a shrug.
“They have flaky gold in their eyes…”
He tilts his head, looking back at his eyes in the mirror again, then back at me. “Yeah. That’s the way mine are right now. What about it?”
I stumble back on the steps, and his gaze narrows.
“Fuck,” he hisses, acting like he’s going to reach for me, but a saving voice reaches us.
“What’s going on here?” Zee asks.
I practically launch myself past Chaz and into Zee’s arms. Zee grabs me, pulling me against his body as I quake in his embrace. He looks between me and Chaz, and his grip tightens.
“What the fuck are you doing to her?” he asks calmly, but there’s an edge to his tone. He lets me pretty much spiral around him, because the last encounter I had with a red jinn isn’t something I want to repeat.
“Nothing. Fucking nothing, Zee. We need to talk. Now. Away from here. Bring her. Kane’s house. Now.”
Zee starts to speak, but Chaz disappears, leaving behind a phony gold trail of dust.
Zee looks down at me with curious eyes, but I don’t speak when I hear Kimber laughing as she comes in. Zee’s thumb runs across my bottom lip, and I lean into his touch, absorbing it.
“What happened?” he asks softly, even though his eyes are hungrily following his thumb.
I fe
el him against me, and heat floods my body before a dull ache forms. Ah, hell. Did I just whimper?
Zee groans before sliding his hand down my ass, and he holds me to him a little harder, letting me feel every inch of him that I can.
“Thought you didn’t want to be left alone with her,” Ella muses from behind him.
Zee ignores her before tilting my head back, and I just remain limp and let him be in control as his tongue traces the skin of my neck. When I tremble against him, he growls.
“Okie dokie, I think I’ll go away now,” Ella adds, snickering softly.
His phone buzzes in his pocket, and he blows out a harsh breath before pulling back. When he reads it, he sighs.
“I need to go talk to Chaz.”
“I’m coming with you,” I whisper.
He shakes his head, but I thread our fingers together. Chaz is their friend. Has been for a while, from what I’ve gathered. I freaked out, but there has to be an explanation, right? A good one?
Zee’s eyes move down to the way our fingers are entwined, and he turns to lead me down the stairs, apparently deciding it’s not worth arguing about.
Dice and Karma suddenly appear, and she smirks as everyone stumbles over themselves in surprise.
“Hashtag, we’re back, motherfuckers! Hashtag, epic killing spree is complete. Hashtag, my girl is fucking epic. Hashtag, couple goals.”
He takes a dramatic bow, and Zee rolls his eyes while continuing to drag me outside. Dice starts singing as we reach the door.
“Reunited and it feels sooo good…”
The words are silenced the second we’re outside the soundproof spell, and I’m relieved of his horrible singing skills. Good thing he’s pretty, because he sure as hell can’t sing.
Zee keeps my fingers entwined with his as we walk into the other house that is just next door, and I cling to him, feeling safe in his presence. For two weeks, we’ve barely touched, and I’ve craved this more than I care to admit.
When we walk in, Chaz is sitting in the living room, watching me.