“It’s almost dark outside.”
Page set her glasses on the desk, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t realize it was so late already; without windows or clocks down here I lose track of time.”
“Yeah, it’s like a casino around here.” I chuckled and leaned against the doorframe. “A Mage doesn’t need a clock,” I reminded her. “I’d love windows, but Justus has a point. He works for HALO and has good reason for the elaborate security.”
I scooted up a chair and we chatted for a while. Page revealed that as an only child, her parents had placed an immense amount of pressure on her to have children. Relics had children because of genetic obligation and not for the sole reason of loving a child. Her parents had died many years ago, and the inheritance had allowed her to attend medical school for a short time. The cost became overwhelming and she’d eventually dropped out. I admired the dedication she had to her profession and her perseverance through everything. Page didn’t elaborate on the details of her job because it would break the confidentiality of her clients.
It took a little convincing, but she came upstairs and as soon as we stepped into the hall, a strong odor made me wrinkle my nose.
“Oh shit,” I muttered, running toward the dining room. It smelled like a fire had broken out.
My jaw hit the floor.
Food filled the table on the china plates we rarely used. Burnt toast, steamed vegetables, wine, and a large bowl of what looked like rice, but I wasn’t sure.
Justus appeared in the doorway with a plate of chicken slathered in barbecue sauce.
“Leftovers?” I asked, taking a chair.
The plate tapped against the table as he set it down. Justus uncorked a bottle of red wine and filled the crystal glasses. I was astounded when the realization hit me. “You cooked this yourself?”
“Looks good,” Page complimented, standing by the table.
Boy, she had no idea what a rarity this was. In the past year I had lived with Justus, he never once cooked a meal that wasn’t reheated leftovers or cold cuts. This was like Halley’s Comet, or spotting an unconscious leprechaun at the end of a rainbow with a pot of gold.
Page put her knee on the chair and leaned over the table, snatching a piece of toast and scraping off the black crumbs. She had a wildish look to her without her glasses on, almost like how I imagined a pixie’s face might look. She had the impish grin and wide eyes, all she lacked was a set of fluttery wings and fairy dust.
“I usually just eat in the car when I’m between appointments,” she said, almost talking to herself. After filling her plate, she read the label on the expensive bottle of wine and glared at Justus. “Aren’t you going to sit down?”
He cleared his throat and shifted his weight on his right leg.
No. He wasn’t.
Not until she did.
I watched with avid curiosity; Page was the only other woman I’d ever met who was not susceptible to a Charmer. Our gifts had limitations, and a rare few possessed something that negated our energy.
Justus was a sexual lawnmower who ate up the attention of every woman within proximity. What do you expect a man who’s treated as a plaything to become? None of them cared what came out of his mouth, and because of that, he’d developed poor social skills with the opposite sex.
Page irritated him. Even more interesting was that he irritated her. His frustration with her comments, opinions, and actions was written all over his face. She didn’t listen to him, or maybe “obey” was the operative word.
Justus looked like an ancient oak tree as he stood behind his chair with his arms crossed, waiting for Page to seat herself.
He wasn’t being chivalrous or a hospitable host. He liked her.
Page gave in and slid onto her chair, sitting on one leg.
“What in the name of HALO is this?” I scooped a spoonful of a thick mash onto my plate and it made an audible smack.
“Rice,” he said proudly, taking his seat at the head of the table.
“It looks like grits. What did you do to it? Or should I say, not do to it?”
“Those instructions are not accurate,” he argued, flipping his napkin open. “Someone should speak to the company that fabricates them.”
His cheeks flamed and he rubbed his jaw to conceal his blush, so I put a sock in it. Justus made the effort and that’s all that mattered.
The tall candles flickered in the dining room, illuminating the painting on the wall behind him. Despite his inadequate cooking skills, Page went for seconds. Justus had thrown a frozen chicken into the oven, and I’d never tasted anything chewier in my life.
He was a man who enjoyed eating meat with his hands, but when I glanced over, I saw they were clean. Justus held the silverware like he intended to murder something, and a few jerky arm movements sent half his chicken onto the floor. He picked it up, dropped it on his plate, and looked at it contemplatively.
To my relief, he didn’t continue eating it. Instead, he set down his utensils and leaned back as he often did when he couldn’t eat another bite. The chair creaked in the quiet room.
“I never have time to cook,” Page remarked, killing the silence. “I’m always too busy to figure out how to boil an egg. What I really need to do is to marry a chef.” She arched a brow. “Especially if they can prepare a good steak or sushi.”
“You and me both,” I said, trying a sip of overpriced wine. “I’m lucky. The man I’m seeing enjoys cooking for me. Maybe it’s customary with his kind, but I’m not complaining.”
“I’m jealous.” She buttered the crunchy toast and took a bite, spraying crumbs all over her plate. “Does he have any single brothers?”
Max slinked around my leg and I gave him a good scratch on the head. The lift in the bathroom scared him, so he mostly hung out upstairs. He’d officially claimed one of the chairs in the living room, which became the “hair chair.” Justus balked about the litter, meowing, and even the revelation that cats shed whiskers.
Didn’t matter. I caught him a time or two cozied up with Max.
“Do you not have a man to take care of you?” Justus asked.
Oh yeah, he was trying to figure out her situation. I smiled at my plate and listened astutely.
“You can’t depend on anyone to take care of you, Mr. De Gradi. I take care of myself.”
Justus replied in a baritone voice. “You don’t take adequate care of yourself, so it would appear that you need someone to do it for you.”
When she narrowed her eyes, her lashes looked like a Venus flytrap closing. “You don’t need to take care of yourself because your light does that for you. The rest of us mortals have to make do with what we have. What use would I be sleeping away the morning when I could be providing invaluable services to the Breed? A person only requires a certain number of hours of sleep per night. I eat enough to keep me going, and avoid overindulging in the necessities.”
“You spent all day in that room avoiding the necessities,” he said smoothly. Justus placed his forearms on the table. “Consider this a vacation and set aside your duties.”
“If I did that then—”
The alarms suddenly blared and Justus arrowed to his feet. Page looked at me wide-eyed as he hurriedly got up and moved into the hidden control room. I found him leaning over a monitor with a vertical line creasing his brow.
“What is it?”
“Maybe a deer,” he said with uncertainty.
“Who the hell is that?”
In the upper left-hand corner of the monitor, a man was hiking up our driveway through the snow. A hood obscured his face so neither of us could identify him.
“That looks like Slater,” Page said. “What’s he doing here?”
By the time I turned around, Page had left the room.
“Who is Slater, and how does he know where I live?” Justus demanded. Arms folded. Looking pissed.
“Slater is my partner.” She slipped into her coat. “He’s a Relic and because we divide our cases
and rotate shifts, we have to share information on our whereabouts. I called him this morning to let him know I’d return tomorrow, but nooo, he just wouldn’t listen.” She rambled on, almost to herself. “He can be such an asshole sometimes.” The extreme manner in which she yanked her shoelaces told me she didn’t care for him much.
A hard look rolled across his face. “He has no business on my property.”
I grabbed a pair of Justus’s oversized boots and clopped alongside Page as we went up to the garage. It required walking down a dark hallway and taking a short elevator ride. I tucked my hands beneath my arms as the garage door lifted.
Justus had cleared a path so that it was passable, but he hadn’t made it all the way to the main turnoff. The man was a machine.
Slater kicked up snow as he approached the driveway. Fairly tall, sunglasses, and a short, scruffy beard. The closer he got, the more I noticed his smug look. His messy hair was an indistinct color of faded brown, and the stinging wind had reddened his cheeks as if he’d been slapped. Slater looked like one of those guys going on an expedition to the Arctic Circle. He squeezed his gloved hands and it made a gritty sound.
Justus stopped short and held out his arm, forcing us to stand behind him.
“Page, my car’s up the road. Get your bag and we’ll go,” Slater said, blowing out a thick plume of frosty breath.
“I told you everything was under control,” she said loudly. Defiantly.
Slater shook his head and took a few steps before Justus did the same, the snow crunching beneath his boots.
“You’re trespassing, Relic. I want you off my property.”
Slater sized up Justus top to bottom. Without looking away, he shouted, “Do what I say, Page. Go get your bag and we’re leaving.”
“I don’t think you heard me,” Justus growled.
“I heard you, Mage, but I don’t give a fuck who you are. Got it? This is Relic business and I’ll take it from here. We have clients waiting and work to be done, and thanks to you, we’re days behind.”
Page walked around Justus and hugged her arms. “Slater, I can’t leave my car here. I’ve been able to keep up with most of my appointments through conference calls. I’ll be heading home tomorrow.”
“Are we gonna fucking do this here?”
“You don’t own me.” She emphasized every word. “Don’t you dare just show up out of the blue and start ordering me around.”
Page walked closer to make her words private, but we heard everything. I glanced down and saw the snow melting around my Ghuardian’s boots.
“Are you seriously telling me, Page, that you want to be trapped in the middle of absofuckingnowhere? You should appreciate that I came all this way for you.” Slater sighed with resolve. “Leave your bag here; I’ll pick it up later.”
Slater grabbed her elbow and she snapped it out of his grasp.
What happened next was too fast to track. In the blink of an eye, Justus knocked Slater to the ground, pinning him with his forearm.
“Do that again and I’ll cut off your hand and mount it on my wall,” Justus said in a placid voice.
“Let him up, Mr. De Gradi. He’s right; I need to catch up with my appointments before we fall behind and upset our clients.”
Justus twisted his neck around, creating lines in the back where the skin folded and stretched.
Page shivered. “I’ve got obligations. I’ll pick up my car and bag tomorrow. Please, just get off him.”
“Kind of a bite in the ass having a woman order you around, isn’t it, Mage?” Slater provoked.
Justus pressed Slater’s neck hard enough to make him gasp before rising to his feet. Little did Slater know that in that very spot, Justus had cut a man’s throat.
Page left with Slater, and I got the impression that her clients were the least of her problems. She was in an abusive relationship with her partner, even if it was just verbal or manipulative.
Justus spent an hour sitting at the dining table, staring at the half-eaten food before he finally retired downstairs.
Hours later, I passed him in the training room, pounding the sin out of a punching bag.
Chapter 4
Tall men love tiny cars. Levi was no exception. It’s one of those great mysteries in life, like where your missing sock went and why men in uniforms are always so damn sexy.
Girls’ night out had been derailed. Novis called and requested a group meeting at the Red Door; Christian had returned with news. It was our favorite club and they’d recently added on a dance room. Novis made arrangements that would allow Knox entry, given the owner had thrown him out the last time for starting a fight. We all met up at Logan’s condo to share rides, and Justus headed out separately in his Aston Martin.
Levi grinned from the driver’s seat of his little red car as I stood on the curb. Novis claimed the front and I peered into the back where Logan and Christian sat beside each other. I was two seconds from taking the bus when Logan tugged me onto his lap. Novis had to pull his seat all the way up to the front to accommodate for Logan’s long legs. Meanwhile, Christian looked like a panini sandwich with Levi’s seat shoved all the way back.
This kind of outing required club gear—tall boots, a bomber jacket, and a sassy black skirt that fell just above my knees. Levi blasted the heater so high I unzipped my coat, leaned against Logan, and scooted down on his lap.
Big mistake.
Logan never wore aftershave, and yet he always smelled amazing. I drew in a deep breath and suddenly his mouth nipped and sucked on my earlobe. Despite Muse thumping on the speakers, the loud conversation about a badass movie that Levi had watched with Finn, and the sound of Christian’s noisy candy wrapper twisting between his fingers, I could hear Logan purring.
Not only that, I could feel it against my back.
The car made quick turns that had me sliding all over his lap. At one point, his right hand settled on my upper thigh and each hard stop caused his index finger to press between my legs. Accidentally, I’m sure.
My heart pounded eagerly and heat flushed over my body. His mouth moved around my ear until he found the soft spot on my neck that weakened me. I arched my back and he grew uncomfortably hard beneath me. Logan scented my arousal and his entire body responded.
Levi flashed an irritated look over his shoulder. He had Logan’s blond hair, except darker and very short. Sometimes Levi reminded me of a cop.
“Put a cap on that, Lo; you’re burning my nose.”
Logan lifted his left hand and gave Levi the finger.
The car pulled into the parking lot and when we got out and headed toward the club, Christian distanced himself from me.
Logan wrapped his arm around my back and lifted me onto the curb without breaking his stride. Moments like that made my heart flutter.
We walked past the line of humans hoping in vain to get inside. They didn’t have a clue it was a Breed-only bar.
Novis led the way and the crowd parted. His status as a Councilman was clearly known among all—either that or he was a regular who liked to get his boogie on.
Levi suddenly halted and spun on his heel, causing me to crash into him. He gripped my shoulders and stared at Logan. “Fuck, my ex is here.”
“Why is that a problem?” Logan asked quizzically.
“Because dollars to donuts he’s going to confront me and start some shit in here.” Levi’s expression tightened. “I’ll be…” He glanced around. “Shit, I’ll just be somewhere. I’ll come hang when he’s gone.”
“Wait,” I said, gripping his brown jacket. “Which one is he? I want to see the idiot who let go of a good thing.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek, glaring up at Logan. “If this jackass doesn’t mate with you, I will,” he said with a wink.
I laughed softly and watched him disappear into the crowd.
We passed several Shifters, Vampires, and other Breeds who looked at our motley crew with skeptical eyes. Maybe the intimate way that Logan held me close offend
ed them. I didn’t care.
The new dance room was dim and attractive with dark walls and ample seating around the floor. Novis folded his jacket over the back of a chair across from Sunny, who was preoccupied making out with Knox at the round table.
I cleared my throat and dropped my purse on the table. Knox glanced up, wearing a proud grin and half of Sunny’s lipstick. A few empty beer bottles were in front of him while Sunny worked on a bottle of orange soda.
“How’s it hanging?” Knox greeted the men.
Typical Knox.
They exchanged a few words and I settled in the chair beside Sunny while Logan called over a waitress and ordered a round.
“When did you get here?” I yelled over the music.
She leaned in close and I could smell her new perfume. Logan preferred my natural smell, so I rarely wore any. “We got here over an hour ago. What took you so long?”
“Don’t ask. Where’s Page?”
Her strawberry-colored lips curved up into a wicked smile.
“What did you do?” I leaned in with a punishing stare.
“Nothing,” she said in an innocent voice riddled with guilt. “That’s a woman who needs to cut loose once in a while.”
“Why am I having flashbacks of my twenty-third birthday?”
Sunny guffawed and everyone looked at her. “Girl talk,” she said, shooing them with a flick of her wrist.
I scooted closer. “I still have to see her professionally, so I hope that you’ve been nice to her.”
She snorted and plucked a cherry from a small dish, rolling it around on her tongue. “Jack Daniels was real nice to Dr. Page.”
I sighed as she turned around and planted a kiss on Knox, his fingers threading through her wavy blond hair. When they finished, he had the cherry between his teeth.
Logan abruptly got up and stalked to a nearby table. He lifted a short glass from a woman’s hand and dumped it on the floor. My mouth hung open at his impulsive behavior. After whispering something in her ear, he returned to his chair. The blonde stood up, angrily brushed the ends of her black dress, and slapped the man in the face.
Gravity (Mageri Series: Book 4) Page 4