BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset)

by Parker, Kylee

  Enrique’s grin was only a split of lips showing teeth, it meant nothing, and Joseph felt a chill just looking at it.

  “Know that I will kill you if you don’t deliver on everything promised.”

  Joseph nodded. “It won’t be a problem.”

  Enrique nodded, the maniacal grin still on his face. “Fine. Now, please, introduce me to your Nubian Queen.”

  Joseph didn’t care for the way Enrique looked at Latasha as they approached. She straightened from the car hood, taking in Enrique’s Latin good looks with interest. He was a head turner as Joseph’s grandmother would have said; not too tall with a perfect weight for his build, light brown eyes, and wavy dark hair. What woman wouldn’t look? Joseph definitely didn’t like the way Latasha held her slim hand out as she sucked in one side of her thick bottom lip, her eyes bright with…was that lust? It was of no matter. This could be the final job Latasha was good for. A man over run with sexual tensions was a man that was easily distracted. Joseph tucked that bit of information away for later. Everything in his mind was filed in two broad categories: what was useful to him and what was not.

  “Latasha, this is Enrique Arrays. Enrique this is Latasha.”

  Latasha shot Joseph a dark look. He presumed she expected to be introduced as his girlfriend. When he didn’t correct himself, she tossed her braids and turned on the charm for Enrique.

  Perfect.

  Angela’s opinion at what she was staring at was a motley crew. Sinclair had her hair pulled up in an up do, pieces of curly hair reached for her temples and the back of her head. The scarf she had tied around the hair was an emerald green, which made her eyes brighter than normal. Her makeup was on thick, as usual, and her outfit was something more fitting for a stroll on the beach: white tennis shoes, white t shirt, and khaki capris. Simple. She was like the rose nestled between two thorns. Niall sat glumly staring at the floor and James on her other side was looking at everything in her office was obvious interest and fascination. Then there was Gabriel. He sat quietly on Sinclair’s lap chewing on his fingers.

  Angela sighed and pressed her finger tips together over the desk. “Tell me why you think I lied.”

  James stopped perusing the ceiling and levelled his stare.

  “Because you did, Angela. “You told us when we first came here that you had never seen Joseph before. Then we found out he had been here. Now we find out you actually know him.” Niall countered.

  Angela lifted one finger. “I don’t actually know him. I’ve met him a couple of times, but I don’t know him. He’s not like a friend or acquaintance.”

  “But you’re acquainted with what he’s trying to do, right?”

  Angela sighed. “There have been knock offs of that stone over the years. There have been people who try to do a variety of things with it, but I had no idea until recently that he had the real thing.”

  Sinclair pursed her lips. “When was that? When did you realize it?”

  Angela leaned back in her chair. “About the time you and Niall arrived. Claude told me…”

  James barked a laugh, throwing his head back and bringing it back forward. “Claude Monroe? He’s an idiot!” James lifted his hands and made a dismissive gesture.

  “Idiot!” Gabriel yelled and grinned at James.

  “That’s right, little buddy.”

  “Look,” Niall began. “It’s a change stone. You act like it’s the only one of its kind.”

  “It is the only one of its kind.” Angela blew out an impatient breath. “Change stones are things of myth and rumor, are they not?” She looked to Niall and James. “Niall, you knew what one was, but had you ever actually seen one?” Niall shook his head and she continued. “That’s because there is only one.”

  “I don’t get it.” Niall shook his head.

  Angela looked at all of them in turn. They were beginning to have the look of war weary soldiers on the battlefield, and unfortunately this battle was just beginning. Sinclair at least was returning her stare with a curious kind of scrutiny. Even the child waited in rapt silence. The telling of this story had to be delicate.

  “There was once a very powerful witch…”

  “Sounds like you tell a bed time story, no? That’s cute.”

  “Shut up!” Sinclair hissed, her face turned sharply to James.

  Angela twisted her mouth in wiry humor. She would enjoy dispatching either one of these shifters, but for now they were necessary.

  “May I continue?”

  James tilted his head downward, his eyes full of mischief.

  “As I was saying, there was once a very powerful witch. This witch had a dream of uniting all the beings of the paranormal world. She didn’t want there to be dissention amongst the shifters and the undead, or the witches and the Fae.” Angela smiled sardonically, a light lift to her chin. “She even wanted the Nephilim to be accepted.”

  Sinclair looked around, her eyes large with confusion. “Nephilim? What’s that?”

  “It’s a person who is half human and half fallen angel.”

  Angela watched Sinclair toy with Gabriel’s collar. He lifted his shoulders in irritation, and made a snapping gesture, his tiny mouth biting down on air. She would give Sinclair a moment to absorb what she had said.

  “But…fallen angels are…demons.”

  “Some do call them that.”

  Niall lowered his head and looked at Sinclair from the corner of his eye. Her mouth worked in tiny jerks, but no sound came out. What Angela had told her was one of the hardest things for a person to wrap their minds around; sometimes even for a paranormal. He reached out and took her hand from Gabriel’s collar, squeezing it lightly. Sinclair looked at him and squeezed back.

  Angela resumed her story. “She had an idea that she could place power within a stone to allow a paranormal to take on characteristics of another paranormal. She felt that if a tiny bit of power from each kind could be placed within it, then there would be order and harmony. It would be like every paranormal had a piece of all the others in the paranormal world. She hoped it would create unity.”

  “But that’s impossible!” James said. “There’s too many! How could each one be touched with the stone?”

  “Yes.” Angela agreed. “Her dream was to start in her immediate area, then create more stones that could be used by others all over the world.”

  “Sounds to me like the new world order the humans talk about sometimes.”

  “A new order for the paranormal world. That was her vision.” Angela shrugged lightly. “Her motives were pure to begin with, but motive is often the first thing to be tainted by greed.” She stood and began a short circuit of the small room which ended by a window that over looked the street. She moved the sheer curtains aside and spoke again.

  “Some of the paranormals were anxious to have the transformation. They believed in her vision. It was a hit or miss thing. Sometimes the stone seemed to have worked, but more often than not it didn’t. In reality, at the time, it didn’t work at all. She grew desperate and called on a…darker source. She studied for over six years honing her skills at dark magic.” Angela turned from the window. “She even studied Necromancy just in case.”

  “Necromancy? What’s that?” Sinclair whispered. The sound of the word was familiar and lent a grotesque air from the breath that spoke it.

  “I’ll tell you later.” Niall said and squeezed her hand again.

  “The paranormals decided that she was full of it and really couldn’t do what she proposed.” Angela shook her head and came back to sit at her desk. “The witch became desperate and decided life’s blood was what she needed for the stone.” Angela’s eyes became hard. “She invited the leaders of each paranormal group in her city to demonstrate her break through. The Nephilim didn’t attend. They are too few and far between anyway, and the Fae were too smart for that, but those who did come were a wolf, vampire, and another witch. Once they were all gathered she told them that a prick of skin was all that was needed. They willing
ly gave of their blood. The witch knew immediately that it had worked. She could feel the mingled power in it as she lifted the stone, still wet from their blood. As she looked into the anxious faces of her guests, she foresaw the future and saw the lengths that people would go to, not only to have the stone, but to be changed by it. An instant of paranoia took her and she slaughtered her guests with the very blade that had pricked their fingers.”

  “Whoa!” James called out. “A witch took out a shifter, one of her own, and an undead?”

  “Yes.”

  “That must have been one bad bitch!”

  Angela’s lips turned down in a frown. “Bad bitch indeed.”

  “So, what happened after that?” Sinclair asked. “How did humans get involved with the stone?”

  “Greed. The witch realized that some humans would do anything for that kind of transformation. The fountain of youth type properties alone could bring a steep price. She knew that humans would relinquish money, power, and possessions, whatever it would take. She just needed to show them it could be done. She worked another year or so, investigating the rich and powerful of her city to see who might be interested. When she finally had a handful, she held a dinner party, with the promise of a demonstration. The witch was supported by her family. Her daughter and granddaughter were both in attendance.” She drummed her fingers lightly on the desk. “They agreed that the demonstration should be on a young person. There couldn’t be any risk of the demonstration failing due to an unforeseen infirmity or such.” She laughed bitterly. “No one wanted to be the first real guinea pig anyway. So, the witch’s great granddaughter was brought out. She was already being brought up as a witch, her potential large and promising. She was but thirteen years old.”

  “My God.” Niall breathed.

  “The girl didn’t want the stone to be touched to her. She feared it, and had suspected her great grandmother’s madness because of it for some time. She was held down and stripped to nothing but her under garments. The more the girl struggled the more excited the humans became.” Her mouth twisted angrily. “Especially the men.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “They placed the stone to her lower back. The girl screamed from the burn, as her own family, the women she had trusted and who had raised her, began their litany of chanting. Little did they know that the chanting was just a show of nonsense. The stone really needs nothing of the sort. ” Angela’s eyes became distant. “The girl could feel the changes almost immediately. Her body went to war with itself and the audience applauded.”

  “What happened?” James asked. “Was she able to shift? Was she like the undead?”

  “In the end, after a near month of insanity, her body transformed. She could see and hear like a wolf, but she never shifted. She was tormented by horrible nightmares, and she had no real identity, feeling the presence of the paranormals who had helped create the stones power.” She hesitated, the next part the hardest to tell.

  “She tried to jump from the steeple of a church to kill herself, but it only proved she was unable to be killed like a normal human. But the one redeeming point was her skill as a witch. She became more powerful than all the witches of her family; those alive and those already dead. In the end she plotted her escape. She became nothing more than a freak on a leash, so to speak, for her great grandmother. She was used in demonstrations to persuade other powerful humans to try. Of course all three women had the same ritual performed, as well as every human in attendance at that first evening. In a fortnight the girl’s family had become the wealthiest in the city.”

  “So, what happened to the girl? Did she go completely crazy?”

  “No, but she did vow her vengeance. The main thing she wanted was to see the stone destroyed. She had two brothers who had gone off to war. When they returned home and discovered what had happened to her, they were furious.” Angela looked at each of them steadily. “They told her there was a place they could all go, a place where she would fit right in and could start a business and forget what had happened. A place where an entire community of people of color had already been living free. So, she boarded a boat with her unusual brothers and sailed down the Mississippi to a place called New Orleans.”

  Sinclair sucked in breath. “You! You’re the girl!”

  “You are a sharp one. Marquis and Phillip essentially saved me.” Angela gave her a pleased smile.

  “Bullshit!” James spat out and stood.

  “Bullshit!” Gabriel echoed.

  James ignored him, his eyes still on Angela. “What war? The gulf war? The Korean War? What? And why a boat? Why didn’t you guys fly! What’s this talk of people of color? You talk like this was centuries ago!”

  “My brothers joined the War Between the States to ensure their continued freedom. My great grandmother had been given her freedom papers at the age of sixteen by her father.” Her lips tightened. “Her slave owner father. Because of his…generosity…my grandmother and mother were also free by birth right. Of course, it’s not common for real witches to marry, but it’s essential for more witches to be born.”

  James sat down slowly. “What?”

  Angela leaned back. “Well my great grandmother, who was mulatto in case you missed that part, had my grandmother at the age of eighteen. Her father was an indentured servant but she thought he had beautiful eyes. Her daughter followed in close footsteps, and had my mother after a fling with a runaway slave. It was a hard thing for her to watch him swing from a tree. Anyway, my mother, well, she was a bit looser and careless in her affairs. My brothers were born from a similar circumstance, but their father was a real African. Why he was visiting New England at that time of America’s history no one will ever know, but he stayed long enough to see them born and to give my mother instructions for their proper African upbringing.”

  “You’re not black though.” Sinclair blurted out. Her cheeks reddened.

  “I’m many things, Cherie. My father was a married white man. I had six half brothers and sisters, whom I never had the opportunity to meet. As I’ve already explained, my great grandmother was also half white.”

  James ran a hand over his face. “That makes you…well it makes you…old!”

  Angela laughed delightedly. “Marcus is the oldest vampire in the city and he’s two hundred and forty, yet you question me?”

  “But you’re not…”

  “I was touched by that stone.”

  James’s eyes bulged, his hairy cheeks puffed outward. “Show me!”

  Angela shrugged and stood. She unzipped the back of her dress and allowed it to fall to the floor, pooling around her ankles in a silk puddle.

  “Angela, this isn’t necessary.” Niall said quietly, and lowered his eyes.

  “The hell it isn’t!” James said and crossed his arms.

  Angela lifted her slip, revealing a thin waist line above much broader hips. Sinclair looked at her wistfully. Angela had the perfect hourglass figure. It was the figure she had always dreamed about.

  James licked his lips thinking the same thing. Angela turned her back to him and bent over. There above her panties was what looked like a tattoo of a jewel, set in a black fancy setting. It was faded, but it was a perfect replica.

  “At least we now know what it looks like for sure.” Sinclair said.

  Angela lowered her slip, and bent to bring her dress back up to her shoulders. She reached behind herself to zip the dress, her hands colliding with James’s. She looked at him curiously over one shoulder. He zipped the dress slowly, grazing the skin between her shoulder blades. Angela’s lips parted in surprise at the touch. Swirls of black smoke instantly appeared between Angela’s back and James’s chest, forcing him backwards. He stumbled over his chair before righting himself.

  “What in the hell is that?”

  “My brothers.” Angela replied dryly as one brother shot forward and came nose to nose with James, his mouth open in a silent rage filled scream.

  “Pleased to meet you.” James said, his head pushing ba
ck from his shoulders.

  “Be still!” Angela ordered. “I can have whomever I want to zip up my dress!” The wraiths immediately swirled behind her and took on a more substantial form, allowing Angela’s guests to glimpse them briefly as they were in life.

  Sinclair cocked her head to the side, feeling the consciousness threatening to leave her. She blinked several times and drew in breath in a slow long line.

  They won’t harm you unless I order it, and I won’t do that…to you.

  Sinclair raised her eyes to Angela’s. Alright.

  “How did they die?” James asked bluntly. “Are they twins really?”

  “Yes, they are twins. I wish I could say they died of old age, but that isn’t the case. They enjoyed gambling. Unfortunately they also enjoyed cheating.”

  “So, they returned to you…after?”

  “Not exactly.” Angela smiled. “I learned a lot from my great grandmother, even when she wasn’t aware she was teaching me.”

  James nodded several times in rapid succession. “Necromancy.”

  Angela’s smile thinned.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Niall asked, releasing Sinclair’s hand. Gabriel had fallen asleep in her arms, and he took him from her, cradling him across his lap. He didn’t anymore of this kind of talk in front of Sinclair. He could sense her mind was already stretched to its limit.

  “A hunt. We will hunt Joseph until we find him.”

  Sinclair chewed on her bottom lip, a question in her mind that she felt spoken would insult Angela.

  “It’s fine to ask anything you like, Sinclair.”

  “I don’t understand why you didn’t take the stone when Joseph came here to sell it. You said you once wanted to destroy it.”

  Angela smiled grimly. “Yes, I did. But the problem is that it can’t be destroyed.”

  “Bullshit.”

  Angela regarded James coolly. “Is that your word of the day?” She looked back to Sinclair. “Have you ever read any Tolkien?”

  “I have.”

  “So, in the Lord of the Rings, Galadriel and Gandalf both talk about the power of the ring; what a temptation it is. They are both of the same opinion as the Elf King Elrond that it should be destroyed, but they know someone else should do it.”