by Avery Duncan
Devlin started rambling and mumbling, waving her hands and coming apart. Her bright red hair became dangerously messy as she shoved her hands in her hair and pulled, almost having a full blown panic.He stared at her, not knowing what to think anymore.
Lucian rose to his feet with a lethal grace, grabbing her shoulder. He pulled her to her feet and stared her in the eyes as he disarmed her, throwing each and every weapon on the table. They clanked and clunk, and with each gun that he took out, he dropped the clips and with a heavy chest, Talon watched the discharged bullets roll around the table.
Devlin was quiet, a tear tracking down her face. Was it wrong that he didn’t feel as bad as he should have? His lips pressed as she turned her eyes to his, rage suddenly filling them.
Lucian reached around her leg and took out the final blade, setting it on the table with finality. “You are done here,” he said quietly. They stared at each other before he turned his back on her.
She stormed out of the room, slamming the door closed behind them.
Talon stared at the table, scratching his face.
Lucian sat his hard ass in the chair and let his head fall back. “On the bright side, I still have my money maker.” Talon looked over in time to see him rubbing his junk with a relieved look.
Talon couldn’t agree more.
He pushed the branch out of his way with a weak hand. Living on nothing but scraps of meat and water from a river that came from untrusted sources hadn’t been the best idea he’d ever had, but it was too late to go back and he didn’t think he’d want to even if he could.
The time away had been…solemn. Grieving. A break from stress and life and pain.
Weak legs carried him to the edge of the forest, and right onto smooth black pavement shining with a sheen of ice. His eyes were burning and his chest was caving in -- or at least it seemed like it. The bare skin of his back was burnt and his legs, covered in ragged jeans, were only moving forward because of pure motivation.
A car honked, jarring him out of his entranced state. The broken silence was almost painful for him. He jerked back from the road, grabbing onto the nearest tree to keep from falling over. His fangs lengthened at the smell of prey, but he forced himself to ignore it. He wasn’t a vampire and he wouldn’t act like one.
He expected to feel sorrow, or maybe even anger. He didn’t. The site of the road was enough to make his body pulse, like a new strength had risen inside of him.
Gravel crunched. His head snapped in the direction of the car that pulled onto the shoulder on the road, stopping just before him. Since it was dark, headlights were on and they were shining right in his eyes. Averting his gaze, he brought an arm up to his face and backed away.
A door opened, causing his eyes to train on the car. Like a wounded tiger, he was dangerous when injured. And god, was he weak. Was he even strong enough to fight off a human?
Most likely not.
It didn’t stop the bloodlust that curled in his gut, though. A baby-like wail came from the car and then shushing. He considered running back into the forest, but they had already seen him. Whatever they were going to do, it couldn’t be so bad. There was a young in the car, after all.
A small, delicate figure shown back as they stepped in front of the car lights.
“You won’t kill me, will you?” A high-pitched voice called to him, farther away than he had thought.
She wouldn’t be enough to feed him or give him any strength. And he wouldn’t kill a woman.
Zyn took a breath, and spoke for maybe the second time in almost ten years. “I wouldn’t hurt a female.”
The dark figure got closer, and he had to take his eyes away from the blaring light behind her. He clenched his hands at his sides, wondering why a woman would even be out this late, and stopping for a man that had popped out of the shadows.
Her scent wafted over to him. Baby powder and innocence. Zyn’s stomach growled and the action had her stopping once again. “Is that you?” she asked dubiously.
Zyn nodded, silently.
He heard a weary breath escape her before branches snapped and leaves crumped. It less than a second, a small, redheaded woman was standing on front of her, hands tucked under her armpits and eyes staring up at him.
Was she going to piss herself? He thought mildly, backing away.
“Do you want a ride somewhere? I was on my way to my sister’s, and you stepped out and yeah. I can take you somewhere,” she said thinly, strained.
Zyn stared at her. Why would she offer to help him when she was so scared? He knew what he looked like. Long, dark hair falling down his face, touching his shoulders. Harsh lines and a square jaw. Dead amethyst eyes. Fists the size of a boulder. Chest as big as a car. He wasn’t exactly welcoming, he thought, breathing in deeply.
Without saying anything, Zyn nodded his head and watched as her shoulders slumped. With relief? Or regret?
“Okay, good! I thought you would say no. Did you know, you’re the second man to have fallen out of the forest in front of me? I figured it was fate that it happened again, but the last guy said he was going to kill me when I asked him.”
And then she was grabbing onto his arm, dragging him to the car. She was maybe two times smaller than him, barely reaching his chest, and her eyes were a horrible, happy green color. There wasn’t a spot on her face, and she was as pale as the moon.
Zyn stared at her, letting her drag her to the car in an almost shocked silent.
“My name is Missy, but you can call me….whatever you want. Except ‘dog’, okay? I hate that name,” she snarled. In less than a second, she had him in front of the door with her body against the car. “Now. I know you might be a barbarian or something, but that’s my baby niece in there. If you hurt her, not only will my sister come after you, but she’ll come after me. I don’t think I’m old enough to die yet, okay? So leave her alone.”
And then she was opening the door and shoving him inside. He had to grab onto the seat to stop from faceplanting the car and when he looked up, the woman – Missy – was already in the driver’s seat and putting on her seatbelt.
“If she starts crying, will you find her binky and give it to her? Sometimes it falls and I have to pull over to search for it. That baby has the cry of a banshee,” she laughed, grabbing his hand and forcing him to fall even farther into the car.
Zyn yanked back, face contorting. “Are you insane?”
She blinked. “Possibly. My mother says I have the Jostens genes and I never figured out if that was good or bad.”
He let out a breath, closing his eyes. The fuck was he about to do, he thought as he fit his large body inside of the small, clean car. It was wrong to accept help from humans. A sign of weakness. But he was out of options and tired of hiding. Taking only a second to snap the seat belt around his chest, Zyn crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to warn her off, staring at her with emotionless eyes.
She put the car in drive, giving him a blinding smile and staring off. He stared out of the window, aware of the heavy breathing coming from the back and the insane woman beside him. All he wanted to do was drain her and throw her out of the window, but that wouldn’t do. She knew where they were, and he didn’t.
All of his instincts had turned off, his six sense a numb loss in the back of his mind. Missy chattered the whole entire drive, making his head hurt. When she started to tell him how much he stunk, he growled and turned his eyes on her.
“I’ll bring out the bad word if I have to,” he hissed, pushing himself into the doorway, trying to get as far away from her as possible.
“Do it, and I’ll give you to my brother’s. I’ll cry and then you’ll be dead. Boom,” she said, eyes flaring. Her hands tightened around the wheel as glared at each other.
Finally, a small whimper came from the back. It broke the silence and almost had him unlocking the door of the car. “Let me out. Let. Me. Out.”
“Scared, weakling?” she laughed.
“I’ll take her bink
y away. It will be out of the window in less than two seconds. Don’t call me a weakling,” he snarled.
She gasped. “You wouldn’t!”
“I would.”
“You are a cruel and horrible man. How could you make a poor baby cry like that?”
“Maybe,” he said bleakly, “I was hoping it would make you cry.”
Missy turned in her seat sharply, completely forgetting that she was driving. Her eyes snapped fire at him as she raised a finger, stabbing him on his bare chest. “If you are going to treat your savior like this, you can just shove –“
“Do you always ramble so much?” he asked carelessly. Why was he even bothering? he thought.
“Oh my god. Get out. Get out get out getoutgetoutgetout!” she screamed, lunging for the car door handle. Just before he could shove her off of him, the car jerked and then she was screeching.
Feeling his ears pop, he took control of the steering wheel and righted it, staring at her. “Just. Drive. And try not to kill your niece.”
“Oh!” she gasped. Then she smiled at him. “See, you care.”
His eyes crossed.
“Her name is Maggy, and she’s barely one. My sister went out of town with a friend of hers, and they got back last night. She said I could bring her over tonight. Poor Maggy; she missed her momma so much. Didn’t you, honey?” she asked, reaching a hand back to touch the baby’s hand.
Zyn felt his gut clench when he turned around. Nestled in a pink buddle, strapped securely to the baby seat, was a little ball with bright blue eyes and a dark patch of hair. Her hands were as chubby as her cheeks and with the binky in her mouth, it scrunched up her face and made her look almost like…a pug. She let out a gurgle and reached up with a hand, latching onto strands of his hair.
Extracting himself from her, he turned around in his seat and was silent the rest of the way. He didn’t stop Missy from talking, and the more she did so, the more her soft accent became pronounced. She had the weirdest look on things, and told him the weirdest stories about her family.
When she started telling him about how her brother Joe had once got her to duck-and-roll out of a moving car, he zoned out. In his head, he couldn’t stop from thinking that the baby, Maggy, looked just as his Jamie had when she’d been a baby.
He slipped his hand inside of his jeans and searched for the thing piece of paper, only breathing when his fingers curled around it.
What he wouldn’t do to see her happy…smiling…
…Alive.
Chapter 18
Devlin had gone missing, Lucian was becoming more and more grouchy, and Jamie was in complete heaven. Talon spent much more time with her, making sure to tend to her every whim and need. Lucian would see her in the hall, walking hand in hand with Talon, and give them the worst look ever.
It was amazing.
He came to bed early and made love to her all through the night, kissing every part of her and making her feel like the woman she was becoming. They would stay up after that, cuddling and enjoying each other’s presence. A week after the incident with Chris, it became apparent that what she felt for him was much more than desire.
It was hard for her to keep back the three words that wanted to slip free, to watch him smile down at her with the same look that she knew was mirrored in her own face. Every smile and kiss had her heart fluttering and her body humming, and he seemed to know it.
When she slept, she had the weirdest, most surreal dreams. It was of her and Talon, in many different places. In stables, in a castle, in a pasture, living out their days and making love each time. But in each dream, something happened. Either he would die before her eyes, or she would wake up screaming with the image of his agonized face haunting her.
She assumed it was because she died.
And even though she was so sure that he was dead, or he had left her, she always woke to him kissing the tears from her face, wrapping her in his arms, and telling her that everything will be alright.
Jamie had managed to convince him to take them out, and while he was talking to Vladimir outside in the hall, she was getting dressed in her best outfit. She’d blow-dried her hair and curled it with a curling iron that Jessica had let her. All too happy to help with what she thought was a date, Jessica had even brought in new clothes for her, along with make-up. Everything had been left at the hotel, and she wasn’t missing any of it.
Smiling, she looked at herself in the mirror. It wasn’t hard to gauge whether Talon would like how she looked. Lately, he’s seen her in everything...and nothing. Her cheeks heated.
Because of her dark hair and pale eyes, Jamie had given her a smoke eyeliner color and dark mascara. Besides some eye shadow, she didn’t need much besides that. Her legs were covered in black skinny jeans, gray heels, and a white flowing shirt that reached midway to her butt. It was a decidedly elegant and classy look for her, and with her hair around her shoulders and down her back, Jamie even though she looked good.
As weird as it was, she was nervous. Talon and Lucian had been talking in the hall for a long time, and she had no clue about what. With her heart in her throat, she looked at Jessica who gave a little grin. Despite how much the woman talked, she had become a.... friend of sorts. Much like she had with Jessica, she was warming up to Vladimir.
He gave off a snotty, absorbed attitude and loved to flaunt how gay he was, but she knew that he wasn’t as bad as he seemed. And now that Devlin was gone, he was much more happier.
Vladimir had been explaining important people in the building and who to watch out for, and despite the immense hate he held for her, he had explained who Devlin was. By the time he was done, they had rounded the corner and there she was.
Crying.
And cursing.
Vladimir, instead of feeling pity for her, had straight-up laughed in her face. Jamie had been horrified, but had looked the other way when the redhead stormed past them, jostling her shoulder and calling her a “bitch” under her breath.
Any sympathy that Jamie might have felt for the woman fled in an instant. Talon, coming back to her later that night, had looked tense and it had only taken a couple of soft touches to soothe him. She smiled as she remembered the way he had practically worshipped her body afterwards.
Now, though, as she fixed a wayward strand of hair and stood before the large mirror in the bathroom, her nerves were about to burst.
“Don’t worry! You look so pretty, I’m sure he won’t think of anything except getting you out of those clothes –“
Jamie groaned, reaching up to smudge the eyeliner better. “That’s not what I want, though.”
“Well, either way, you look amazing! And the clothes are on the company, so don’t worry about them getting shredded and torn up,” Jessica said casually, acting like her comment was completely normal. Jamie’s face heated.
“They won’t get torn up,” she said defensively, not completely truthful.
“Yeah, right. My cousin Jamil said the same thing when she met her boyfriend? And you want to know what happened to those clothes?” Even though Jamie was shaking her head, Jessica still talked. “They found them outside of their windows. Torn up. Like an animal had ripped them from her body. But it wasn’t an animal, it was her boyfriend!”
When she started laughing as if she had just told the best joke, Jamie glared at her and moved to the door, opening it and pointing.
Jessica stopped laughing, covering her hand with her mouth. Her brow twisting, she looked behind her and also froze.
There, in a black jacket with dark jeans, was Talon. Looking straight at her as if he were going to shove her against the wall and take her right there. His brows were drawn over his dark eyes, and the hunger in them kindled a fire in between her legs.
She swallowed.
“Jessica, you can go now,” he said roughly, grabbing Jamie’s hand and pulling her to him. She flattened her hands on his chest, staring up at him as invisible tendrils of desire wove them together. Why did this feel so diffe
rent? Her face started to turn pink, while all he did was stare at her with eyes that only got darker.
Her friend left. Talon kept his hold on her, cupping her cheek and bringing his head down. “You look gorgeous,” he said quietly, before lowering his lips to hers and kissing the daylights out of her.
Jamie brought her hands up, digging her nails into his shoulders. They were so strong, so big. And yet he was as gentle with her as he would be with the rarest gem. Her breath left her body, and then he was kissing her deeper, consuming her, opening her mouth with his and taking control of her.
He crushed her body to his, walking them slowly into the wall. Before she knew it, though, he was pulling back.
Jamie reached up for him, licking her lips.
His head shook while he pulled back from her. “If we keep going, your pants are going to be around your ankles and everyone who walks by will get a look at what’s mine. Today we’re going out…and not going to act like teenagers about it. Okay?”
Flushing, Jamie nodded and settled for holding his hand. He gave her a heated look before reaching around her and closing the door. They walked in silence through the hallway before a sudden thought struck her.
“Are we taking that metal death trap?” she asked, not faking the strain in her voice.
Talon’s baritone laugh wrapped around her senses and pulled her in deep. She moved closer to him, praying that they wouldn’t be. He looked down at her with a soft look in his eyes, shaking his head. “No, we aren’t taking ‘the metal death trap’. I have a Benz that I like to drive. Comfy seats, dark interior, just me and you alone.”
She liked the thought of that. A lot. Them being out in public, sharing each other’s time other than at night, and being a normal couple. It was exactly what she wanted, she only prayed it went well. Talon was still a heartless bastard on occasions, but he had never directed it at her. Jessica and her had walked in on him and a thinner man with a receding hairline and a greasy face. Talon had said some harsh things, but he hadn’t apologized to Jamie for it.