Scented Dreams ((A Dogon-Hunters Series Novel))

by Turner Banks, Jacqueline

  “I’ve already tasted heaven.”

  “Boom, boom, boom.”

  “What was that?” he asked, still unable to wipe the grin from his face.

  “It's the rim shot beat in my lap every time you say something like that. In porn they would call it the beat of my pouting pussy.” She glanced at him again before returning to her food. She laughed when she saw the additional coloring in his cheeks.

  “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “I have to. You can’t even use the excuse men use, ‘I’m only human.’”

  “I’m human, Nesta.”

  “There’s a woman at our church everybody says is as old as dirt. You, my dear, could have babysat her great-grandmother. That’s not human. It might be enhanced, 2.0 human, but not human.”

  He nodded. She was probably right. “You’re the spawn of a human and an enhanced human; what does that make you?” he teased.

  “I can’t think about my father like that yet. Maybe I never will.”

  He knew he could never remind her of Kingsley’s former Hunter status again. He couldn’t be the cause of that facial expression.

  “Watching you eat with the smell of cinnamon in the air, which happens to be my favorite spice, makes me want to go find a room for us right now.”

  She smiled again. “I see what you’re doing here.”

  “What am I doing?”

  “Trying to make me laugh. Nobody has a favorite spice.”

  “I do enjoy your happy face, but I have a favorite spice too. You might as well know, I keep lists, and cinnamon is number one of the favorite spices list.”

  She snickered.

  With the smile back on her face, he didn’t try to persuade her that he wasn’t kidding.

  They went to the museum after eating. She convinced him to walk the seven miles from the restaurant. He knew they could both handle the walk there, but he didn’t believe her shoes would allow for the return trip. “We’ll get a taxi on the return trip,” she told him.

  It was a beautiful walk along the scenic Lake Shore Drive. They held hands and giggled like teenagers. Nesta saw the double takes they attracted, but it didn’t surprise her. She’d first noticed people giving her second glances years earlier when walking with her father; she suspected it had something to do with their height.

  Ian knew it had more to do with the fact that they made a striking couple.

  At some point in their walk and her running monologue about the city, Ian realized she was under the false assumption that it was his first visit to the city. It was his first time approaching it as a tourist, but he’d visited Chicago too many times to count.

  He remembered his first extended stay. It was in 1934. Chicago was hosting the World’s Fair, and there was a serial killer in the city. Fox had assembled Hunters from all over North America. He knew the Sangsue would use the crowds and law enforcement’s concern with the serial killer to take advantage of the situation.

  By the time Ian was ready to return to South America, they had dispatched seventeen

  Sangsue, and he’d met Hunters he still considered friends.

  The museum wasn’t especially crowded. It was too early in the school year for class trips and too late in the summer for a lot of tourists.

  Ian loved it, especially the permanent exhibit about Africa. At each stop he filled her in on additional information about whatever they viewed. Before too long, she became aware of people following them to hear his comments.

  He ranted that Americans were too interested in ancient Egypt.

  “They’re not even the second or third most interesting Africans,” he said.

  “The first being?”

  “Dogons, of course.”

  As they waited for the taxi to return them to her car, he made a confession.

  “I know you’re excited about taking me up in the Sears Tower. Would you be very disappointed if I pass on that particular sight?”

  “Of course not.” She waited, resisting the urge to ask why.

  “When I visited the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, I got terrible vertigo. I think skyscrapers are too much after my time. I don’t know what I would do if I had to work in one of those eye sores.”

  They were sitting on a bench. She leaned in against his shoulder. “I think they’re cool, but I wouldn’t want to work in one either. It’s okay, what do you want to see next.”

  “What would you suggest?”

  “Johnson Publications, the home of Ebony and . . .”

  “Jet magazines,” he finished. He started to say something else when he stopped and stared at a man who was walking toward them. Nesta felt his body stiffen.

  He stood and stepped slightly in front of her, blocking a side of her body from the sun and the approaching man.

  “What is it?” she whispered. “Is he a Blood Sucker?”

  “No.”

  At that moment the man seemed to catch Ian’s scent. They locked eyes.

  He was a lightly tanned man with thick, dark auburn hair. He appeared to be in his late thirties. Even in his lightweight business suit, she could tell he was well built.

  “Nice, day isn’t it?” he said when they were side by side.

  “Indeed,” Ian said. “Enjoy your walk.”

  “And you your day, sir.” He nodded at Nesta. “Ma’am.”

  The man seemed reluctant to take his eyes off of Ian, which made his walk away from them appear awkward. It wasn’t until Ian sat down again that the man turned his head to fully face the direction he was walking.

  “What was that all about?” Nesta asked when she felt Ian’s body relax again.

  “That, my dear, was a lycanthrope.”

  “Wait a minute, I know that one.” She strained her brain, trying to recall the definition. Finally she said, “A human who can change into an animal?”

  “Right. In his case a wolf. Normally, I wouldn’t pay any attention to him, but wolves are pack animals and he was alone. Too many of the lone wolves you see walking around are paid assassins.”

  “You think somebody has a contract out on you?”

  He rubbed her hand. “No, don’t worry about anything like that. Sangsue don’t operate that way, and they are my only enemies. I would rather err on the side of caution, that’s all.”

  He looked her in the eye and tried to convey confidence. He wanted nothing to change the atmosphere of fun they had been enjoying.

  “There’s so much out here that I didn’t know about.”

  “That’s true, Nesta, but they. . .we’ve always been here, and it hasn’t hurt your life.”

  “But why is it necessary for humans to be kept in the dark?”

  “In the words of Aaron Sorkin, ‘You can’t handle the truth.’”

  “Why do you say that?”

  She dropped his hand, but he took it back. He refused to let a philosophical conversation effect their affection for each other. He open her hand and kissed her palm.

  In a soft voice he said, “It’s really not an easy concept for Americans. I’ve given this a lot of thought. I think it’s a good thing that Americans don’t believe in the other-worldlies. Almost every other place on Earth, it’s understood that there are people who are born with a much greater likelihood to succeed. Here the general consensus is if you work hard enough, you too can make it. It goes against the American Dream that there are beings with a born advantage over humans.”

  “But a lot of us believe angels walk among us. How it is so different to accept a lycanthrope?”

  “It’s not, for a well-educated, intelligent woman like you. But many of those people who believe in angels also believe that angels are sent here by God to work in your best interest. Who does the lycanthrope work for—or for that matter, demons or gods from any number of pantheons and their often evil sentient creations?”

  “Oh my God.”

  “Right, but don’t think I’m saying there’s something fundamentally evil about the other races. I’m not.”

 
She bit her bottom lip. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her do that. He realized it was her tell when she was in her deeply troubled thinking mode. He wondered if she knew about it. Finding the physical tells in his opponents was one of his battle strengths.

  He wanted to assure Nesta that he wouldn’t let anything hurt her, and even if something could get past him and her father, no harm could outrun the obviously certifiably insane Pale Fox. But a big part of him, a part that had always been alone and independent, wondered if he was really ready to make such a claim.

  “That’s hard to think about. I always thought of demons as evil.”

  His mind had wandered, and he had to remember the topic and mentally replay her question. “There are demons who are evil, that’s certainly true, but it’s true of humans too.”

  She leaned in on his shoulder again. “You make life sound so simple.”

  He kissed her forehead. “It is simple, except when it gets hard.”

  “When is that?”

  “When your enemies appear.”

  Chapter Twenty

  By the time they had dinner in the city, both were exhausted.

  “Have you ever had Ogo transport you somewhere?” Nesta asked.

  The question had nothing to do with anything that had been said during dinner. At the moment she asked, they had been talking about how the food at the Wishbone restaurant was especially good. While she ate her crab cakes he’d found himself becoming erect. He realized he was beginning to overly associate food, sex, and Nesta, and it had to stop. He decided if he didn’t end the association and they ended up together, he could make her as big as a house feeding her just to see her eat.

  Her question frightened him. Did she know about the nothing room?

  “Why do you ask?”

  “He transported me back to the motel in Valpo and left the car in the parking lot. It was so weird.”

  “What made you think about it?”

  “I was just thinking I wish he was here now so he could transport us back to Winnetka.”

  Ian relaxed. It was just her way of telling me she’s tired. “Two things. First, let’s stay here in the city tonight.”

  She laughed. “Of course, that’s the logical answer. What’s number two?”

  “Unless you want to see Fox, I would advise against thinking about his crazy ass.” As he said the words, Ian felt a sharp tug on his right ear. He jumped.

  “What happened?”

  “I must have been bitten by a pest.”

  She laughed. “That was an odd way to describe a mosquito bite.”

  “Take us to the Swissôtel,” Ian told the taxi driver.

  “Wow. Are you sure?”

  “Would you prefer somewhere else?”

  “No, I mean, Ian, the Swissôtel is probably one of the most expensive hotels in the city.”

  He smiled. “Who deserves the best more than you?”

  She took a breath before she answered. “Damn, man, how rich are you?”

  He didn’t know how to answer that question. Clearly Dot and Kingsley had somehow managed to hide their wealth from her.

  “I do all right.”

  “That’s what my father always says when I ask him about money.”

  “What does Dot say?”

  “Her favorite expression about money is that it doesn’t grow on trees.”

  Ian smiled. “There’s no denying that.”

  “After years of making me think we were one paycheck away from the bread line, they both tried to talk me out of taking a waitress job in high school.”

  “You waited tables?”

  “Why does that surprise you? Lots of kids have after-school jobs. That’s how I bought my car.”

  “What did Fox say?”

  “He’s the one who convinced them that it was a good idea.”

  “Really?” Ian wondered if he would ever understand the Pale Fox.

  She laughed. “Funny thing, though, just about every time I had to be part of the lock up crew, he was there to give me a ride home.”

  They had reached the hotel.

  While Ian paid the driver, a doorman opened her door. “Welcome to the Swissôtel Chicago.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Our luggage will arrive later,” he told the young man.

  “Yes, Mr. Carama.”

  Nesta did a double take, and Ian smiled sheepishly.

  When they got to the reservations desk, the clerk looked up and said, “Mr. Carama, good to see you.”

  “Thank you, Randall. I’d like a suite today.”

  “Yes, sir.” The clerk looked on his computer screen. “Nothing too far up, if I recall right?”

  “You recall right, thank you.”

  Ian was avoiding looking at Nesta. He didn’t sense any anger coming from her, but he knew she would have questions. Standing behind him, she placed her hand on his neck in what appeared to be a gentle caress. Just when he was beginning to think she didn’t care that it wasn’t his first visit to Chicago, she pinched him.

  “Oww, why did you do that?”

  “Oh, I think you know,” she whispered.

  They were in their ninth floor suite before she spoke again. “It’s beautiful, but then again, you knew it would be—didn’t you?”

  “No, but I assumed. Nesta, I never said I hadn’t visited Chicago before.”

  “No, you didn’t, but you knew that’s what I was thinking.”

  “Are you angry?” He wrapped his arms around her.

  “No, of course not, but I feel foolish.”

  “Don’t. We didn’t do anything today that I’ve ever done before. Every other time I’ve been here, it’s been to work, and as soon as it was over, I went back to wherever I was living. It was a wonderful day that I will remember for the rest of my life. ” He ran one hand through her curls. “Thank you, Nesta.”

  “Mmmm.”

  “I assure you if you were to take me on a tour of my home, your presence would make every inch of it new, fresh and exciting.”

  “Okay, that was a bump, bump, bump.”

  “Should I be concerned that your, as you call it, lady parts are doing all this communicating?” he asked while pulling her toward the bed.

  “Aware, but not concerned. It’s all to your advantage.”

  He tried again to pull her to the bed, but she resisted.

  “Tell me about this advantage of which you speak,” he said.

  She dropped her purse and the bag of souvenirs. He thought it adorable that she would buy keepsakes of a museum that she could visit anytime. When he attempted to tease her, she said, “This is my reminder of the day I visited it with you.”

  Her words had pierced his heart with a bolt of love that couldn’t have impacted greater had Cupid himself fired it. Not that he would let a lunatic like Cupid anywhere near his body.

  Ian fantasized that had he powers like Fox’s at that moment, he would have whisked her away to a place where they could live and her feelings for him and the way she looked at the world could remain pure. He knew he wasn’t the person she saw, and if they remained together, one day his inner asshole would shine through.

  He knew Dogon-Hunters who were as close to saintly as “humanly” possible and yet, sooner or later, they all exhibited an indisputable arrogance. Many didn’t care and let it show early and often, but most of them tried to live an exemplary life—it just wasn’t possible to live three or four times longer than the people around you and not eventually feel superior. All of this was before taking the stronger bodies into consideration, before the considerable education and accumulation of wealth.

  It was for this reason that Ian gave Fox a pass. Even if he wasn’t a god and hadn’t lived forever, he’d lived longer than any of his Hunters. The oldest active Hunter Ian knew was over six hundred years old. He lived in a quiet area, but he was unmated and considered active.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Nesta thought she’s seen every kind of lustful expression a man
could make, but Ian’s expression scared her. He looked sad, happy and horny at once. How is that possible? she asked herself.

  “Your parents should write a book,” he said.

  “Did you say write or read?” She wrapped her arms around him. “Let’s take a bath together.”