Lea was terrific, even when she was driving him crazy. His only conscious thought when he looked at her was—she’s mine. Her strength impressed him. She’d never give up; she didn’t know how to quit.
That was part of what he loved about her.
Caleb’s world stopped.
Love?
He couldn’t love Lea.
Or be in love with her.
Could he?
He craved her with a bone-crushing desire. His every attempt to sate himself with her only resulted in him wanting more.
But the claim wasn’t about desire. It was about love.
Even now, when he was mad as hell at her for doing this performance, he wanted to be with her.
But love?
The claim was love. Somehow, from the first time he’d met her, a part of her soul had touched his. It wasn’t just fucking; it was loving. That was why the bond couldn’t be dissolved.
Meanwhile, up on stage, Lea was exquisite.
Every movement rolled off her. The crowd had just seen a line of showgirls with their tits bouncing, but most leaned forward in anticipation as though a performer had never held their attention before.
Not surprisingly, Lea was a master tease. She moved her fans just enough to allow the briefest glimpse of knee or thigh. As her fans became progressively smaller, Caleb was glued to her act. He knew her body intimately but wanted to drink in her performance. And now he stared, just like everyone else, waiting for a glimpse of her ass.
Lea was down to her smallest set of fans. Her glitter G-string and pasties twinkled in the spotlight. The way her body moved, the grace and flexibility—Caleb wanted her not just for tonight or next week. He’d claimed her forever.
There was no way she would be coming near him after the way he’d behaved. He’d have to apologize, and even that wouldn’t do it. He’d need something else to convince her she was his as much as he was hers. Location didn’t matter. Lea mattered. They’d work it out somehow as long as they were together.
Lea’s act ended. After all that teasing, she lowered her fans to shimmy her flawless tits. The audience roared.
She started spinning, and the music struck up again, apparently trying to keep up with her encore. Lea increased her speed until she blurred.
The music stopped.
Lea shifted into a dove.
A lone spotlight shone on her as she glided by. Her mostly dark gray feathers and bright orangey red feet drew more catcalls from the trolls. Lea flew a victory lap over the audience before landing at center stage.
Her head bobbed to the scattered birdseed someone threw to the stage.
Caleb blinked. Unable to believe his eyes. It wasn’t lack of sleep or a dream.
It was, however, a game changer.
He’d claimed a pigeon.
11
Caleb
Generally, Caleb didn’t get nervous before he performed. Vera had warned him against getting lazy. The truth was, he’d done the act so many times over the years that the motions were second nature to him. Wanda had always been his assistant. Before this evening’s falling out, he’d secretly planned Lea as the replacement. It was the perfect surprise, them finally working together onstage and her being a dove shifter.
Her being a pigeon definitely put a wrinkle in the plan.
She should’ve told him. Why would she hide that?
You mean the way you hid that the claim was irreversible?
Caleb growled.
Back in Paddy’s office, Caleb retrieved his doves. He’d paid a student to dye them with a food coloring added to their bath. The result was twenty-four doves dyed shades of yellow, orange, green, blue, and red.
A faux Chinese lacquer box housed the doves during the show. He wheeled them into the stage wings, waiting for the comedians to finish. Caleb hoped he would run into Lea. Paddy was supposed to be directing her to meet him in the wings.
Yes, he owed her an apology for so many things—being jealous of Derek and trying to influence her act. And that was just for starters.
Not great timing for a guy about to pull off some major illusions.
Despite being distracted by thoughts of his act, he sensed Lea sliding by him in the darkened hall. Immediately he reached for her. God, her skin under his fingers felt so good. “You didn’t think to mention that you were a pigeon shifter?”
Lea sniffed. “Doves and pigeons belong to the same family. Besides, I’m a Brooklyn dove.” She tried to pull away from him.
She was wearing the pasties and G-string with heels. She should be wearing a thick terry cloth robe that started at her chin and ended at her ankles. Caleb swallowed. As it was, he couldn’t take his eyes off anything below her neck.
She set her hand on her hip.
She’d have to go onstage dressed as she was.
There was no time to argue. No time to change. On the plus side, in the unlikely event that he made an error, probably no one would notice. Everyone would be watching Lea’s assets.
This did not make him feel better.
“Stop scowling. Paddy said this is what Wanda usually wore. Did you think I’d be wearing a suit? For the record, considering that you work in a nightclub, not to mention that you’re a doctor, you’re a real prude regarding the human body,” Lea snipped.
Clearly he’d not thought through what she’d be wearing. All that mattered when he made the request was that they’d be together.
“Only with yours.” Caleb stalked to his dove cart, trailing her behind him by the hand. He didn’t want to let her go. “The birds know what to do, so just follow my lead,” he explained.
“Sounds like every girl’s dream,” Lea said sarcastically. “Let’s do it.”
12
Lea
Lea was royally pissed and, in a perverse way, glad about it. So she shifted into a pigeon. So what? It wasn’t like she could change what she shifted into any more than he could stop being an ice bear.
This was for the best. She needed Caleb to remain an asshole until she left town. Just ten more minutes and she would be done with him, but she couldn’t leave until Wanda was better. In the meantime, she’d stay at Wanda’s place. Her next minutes with Caleb would fly by, and then she’d be free of him forever.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Paddy said, beaming into the microphone. He used this term loosely. The audience was mostly troll but contained vampires, shifters, demons, and a cluster of elves. “We have a real treat for you to end tonight’s show. Our own Caleb Kerzak is back for a special one-night-only performance. Enjoy.”
Caleb swept onstage. He wore no top hat, cape, or gloves. He didn’t need to. He looked so hot that Lea’s mouth went dry.
“Let me present my lovely assistant, Lea!”
She pushed the dove cart out onto the stage, swinging her hips for all she was worth.
Inside the box, the doves knocked around in the enclosed space.
“As you can see, I’ve performed my first illusion: I’ve made my lovely lady’s feathers disappear. Would anyone like to see them again?”
Catcalls and hoots filled the air.
“They are right here.” Caleb opened the top of the box and reached inside to pull out a dove dyed a rose color. The bird flew from his hand over to Lea, who posed with arms held straight out, palms up. The dove settled on her shoulder. Lea took a slow half turn, presenting her back to the audience. She looked over her shoulder and tossed the audience a kiss without disturbing the dove.
The packed audience whistled and clapped. Caleb pulled out two more doves, one a lemon yellow and the other indigo blue. He released them toward Lea. In a matter of minutes, Lea was a living statue of brightly hued cooing doves. They perched on her outstretched arms and wrists. One landed on each palm. She could feel their little claws in her hair, struggling for purchase. The drummer ramped up the drama with his accompaniment.
Even though Lea was a shifter, she had no idea what to expect from the doves, performance-wise. She didn’t have a high
opinion of their intelligence. Sleeves would have been a good addition to her costume; their feet scratched her skin. The body glitter on her arms made them slick, and sweat from the heat of the lights didn’t help.
The doves slipped around, struggling to hold onto her while Caleb called them to him for various tricks. He made them appear and reappear, of course. The real crowd-pleaser involved taking two doves and making them disappear into a scarf, with an egg appearing in their place.
Ah, that’s where one of the missing eggs from the refrigerator went. Elvis would be disappointed.
For the audience’s benefit and because she was a consummate professional, Lea smiled at Caleb as though he was the most wonderful man in the world. In reality, she wanted to beat him up with one of the god-awful shoes killing her back. It was all she could do not to limp offstage.
Out of the corner of her eye, a flash caught her gaze. Except for the spotlight on her and Caleb, there wasn’t much illuminating the stage. Something had been in the wings. Then it was gone.
Meanwhile, Caleb produced a scarf from a flower bouquet. Neither the audience nor Lea was too impressed until two doves carried it over to Lea and draped it across her shoulders. The silky fabric slid down to cover her pasties.
“Awww,” several audience members whispered.
“Make ’em take it back!”
Clearly the audience was enjoying Caleb’s little games. Lea smiled at him but avoided making eye contact.
She was pissed, and she was not going to be charmed by his talent and humor.
She was not.
Even if she loved him.
Oh God. She loved him. Was that what the claim was—an expression of love? She couldn’t really imagine her world without Caleb, even if her head told her she must.
“My next illusion will be turning my lovely assistant into a dove. Now we already know she’s a pigeon, so this should be entertaining for us all.”
The audience was well lubricated by now with their liquors of choice. A stray Christmas-carol chorus bubbled up here and there before dwindling down into laughter or catcalls.
Caleb swiveled the dove case around so the back faced the audience. Two doors spanned the case. “In a moment, I’m going to have my lovely assistant open the doors and climb inside. I’ll lock her inside then she’ll emerge a dove, not a pigeon.”
This should be interesting, Lea thought. He’d not told her what to do ahead of time. Maybe there were instructions on the inside?
“Lea, are you ready?”
Lea shimmed her pasties at the audience in reply, just to aggravate Caleb. The high color in his pale cheeks rewarded her.
She opened the first door. The green felt slipper she spied inside gave her pause.
“Go ahead, don’t be afraid,” Caleb coaxed.
She glanced over her shoulder at him. He raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
Lea opened the other door, and a dead elf rolled out of the cabinet. Instinctively Lea went to catch the poor creature, but he was so heavy he dropped to her feet.
There wasn’t much of a stunned silence. The audience assumed this was part of the act. Caleb pulled Lea into his arms. “You OK?” he whispered in her hair.
She nodded. Tears mixed with the anger surging through her. How dare someone do this to Paddy? She’d worked so hard to make the Spectacle successful, and now it would end with a dead elf.
Caleb bent to the elf, checking to see if it was alive. He was not.
Over Caleb’s shoulder, Lea noticed that the elf didn’t have any props, unlike the other one. Unease rose up from her gut.
For the second time in two days, Paddy hit the house lights and the music trickled to a stop. He and Caleb exchanged a glance.
“Folks, unfortunately we’ve got a friend who can’t quite hold his eggnog. We’ll end the Spectacle here. But let’s give a big hand for all the S&S performers.”
“Cheat!”
“Boo!”
A security guy stepped onstage to help Caleb move the elf. The two men shuffled off to the wings. Meanwhile, the doves roosted on and around their cabinet, unaware of the corpse.
Lea could not wait for this night to end. It was a total disaster.
Something cold and hard poked her in the back.
“Ow!” She half turned.
“Don’t move,” Wanda whispered in her ear.
“Wanda?”
“Back up very slowly, without a fuss. I’d hate to ruin everyone’s evening by adding another dead body to the stage.” Wanda grabbed Lea’s upper arm, but the tip of the pistol in her back never moved.
Her friend was clearly suffering some strange side effect from the medications.
“What are you doing? You’re supposed to be in the hospital!”
“That was your plan all along? Have me in the hospital to keep me out of the way?”
“Wanda, you’re my best friend.”
Wanda snickered. “Then you won’t mind coming with me.”
Caleb, show me this claim is as powerful as you say. Get your ass over here and help me. There is something seriously wrong with Wanda.
Lea could feel Caleb but he wasn’t close by. Had Wanda hurt him somehow before making her grand entrance?
With the house lights on and the audience drifting off, no one seemed to be paying attention to two women, one wearing only a hospital gown and a crazed grin.
“Why couldn’t you just stay in New York? You ruined everything. I got rid of the artistic director. That was supposed to be my job. Then Paddy goes and hires you. I’ve been here all these years waiting for my chance. And you just swoop in and take it. A few dead elves isn’t enough for this place.”
Lea was stunned. She had no idea her (now former) best friend felt this way, let alone would kill for it. Wanda backed her through the wings until they reached the far stage door. Whatever she had planned couldn’t be good. The weapon pressing into her back was not a joke.
13
Caleb
Caleb had seen it all from the wings on the opposite side of the stage. Wanda planned to kill Lea. The determination on Wanda’s face foretold no other outcome.
His ice bear rose, but Caleb beat down the urge to shift. Even if he was in ice bear form, Wanda would shoot Lea when he charged them.
“This way.” Derek tugged on his sleeve.
Caleb remembered seeing his friend standing in the back and being none too happy about him getting an eyeful of Lea.
All the business with the dead elf was taking place by the stage door at the rear parking lot. Wanda was using another exit door onto the alley, closer to the prop shed.
Caleb followed Derek outside, scooting around the security and Derek’s own staff arriving to deal with the elf corpse.
“She’s got a gun on Lea,” Caleb said.
“I know.” The two men stood in the lee of the S&S. “Wanda can’t fight two ice bears at once if we attack from opposing directions.”
Caleb shook his head. “I can’t ask you to do this. We have no idea what kind of ammo is in that gun.” Caleb knew he’d have a good chance of surviving a regular bullet, provided she didn’t shoot him in the head, but there were no guarantees if she was armed with magic.
Ironic that Lea’s death would weaken or completely break their bond. What had started out feeling inconvenient was now vital to him. He wished he’d told Lea how he loved her when he had the chance.
“You’re not going to lose her.” Derek clapped his hand on Caleb’s shoulder.
Caleb knew his friend was sincere. Here Derek was, risking his life for him. Plus, ice bear shifters didn’t run around touching each other.
Caleb couldn’t think of another way to quickly neutralize Wanda. By the time they called for reinforcements, Wanda would have Lea in the car. She must have a getaway all lined up. That Wanda could be on her feet, let alone carrying out a kidnapping, was beyond belief. He’d seen how many medications she was on this morning at the hospital.
“Hold on.” Caleb j
ogged up to the main parking lot out front. Nothing unusual stuck out. The usual worn SUVs and other vehicles capable of surviving Alaskan winters. The S&S shuttle pulled out from a parking spot, but instead of circling around front, it headed to the right—toward the alley.
Lyle from Dallas. That bastard. He was working with Wanda.
Caleb returned to Derek. “We’ve got company. There’s a driver on the way. You sure about this?” He couldn’t bring himself to say “You OK with dying for my mate?” but that was what it amounted to.
Derek nodded briefly. “I’ve known a great love. That is more than many beings get in several lifetimes. If it happens, I’m ready to join my wife and son.”
Caleb swallowed. He didn’t want to think about losing his friend and mentor. But losing Lea meant losing everything that made his world true.
14
Lea
Fucking Lyle from Dallas.
First her best friend turned out to be a psycho, and now the S&S shuttle driver was going to kidnap her. Maybe it was the lack of sunlight up here in the winter, but Icy Cap seriously sucked.
She could still feel Caleb nearby. She wanted his help and at the same time she dreaded him doing something stupid. He was an ice bear shifter. His humanoid brain might be a genius, but his ice bear brain was probably not great on strategizing.
Lea knew self defense but Wanda’s weapon in such close proximity made striking out too risky. Her kidnappers had some plan involving transporting her away from the casino, which was not good news either.
Lyle smirked when he cuffed her hands together with a plastic zip tie. The damn thing cut into her wrists. She was literally freezing her tits off while Wanda retrieved something from the shuttle.
A Christmas Spectacle to Bear Page 9