“You don’t know what he would do,” Ramsey said, his tone turning gentle as if he already knew he was delivering the sad truth I was trying to deny. “He obviously had no idea who you were, and honestly, he didn’t seem to care.”
He was enough of a gentleman that he didn’t point out that Abram had treated me like I was a gnat.
“Something happened to him,” I said, tears pinching in the back of my throat. “That doesn’t change who he is.”
“Unless it does,” Ramsey said quietly.
“What does that mean?” I asked, arching my eyebrows at the mage. Why did he have to make so much sense? Why did he have to make me question everything that I knew was true about Abram? The worst part was that he did it with three little words. Words that made me want to grab him by the throat and shake him like a ragdoll to get him to explain himself to me.
Ramsey didn’t say anything for a few seconds. I could see the wheels turning in his mind as he tried to figure out the best way to get his point across. He’d had an entire year of dealing with me and my obstinate ways.
“It means I pointed a gun at him, Charisse,” he finally answered, as though that made all the sense in the world.
“I know,” I said. “I saw you.” I struggled to keep my anger and rising outrage in check. I was there, I was part of the exchange. “And you’ve got a lot of nerve. How would you like it if I pointed a gun at Briar?”
“If she was trying to murder you, I’d expect it,” he answered simply. He didn’t bring up the fact that I had actually been at odds with the love of his life not that long ago. “But you’re missing the point.” He shook his head. “I’m a mage, Charisse. You know the rules I live by. The rules that I’m bound to obey by blood and magic. I’m not capable of killing a person. I shouldn’t have even been able to get as far as I did with that gun. Pointing it at him should have been physically impossible.”
My heart skipped a beat as I took in what Ramsey was saying. He was right. He was absolutely right. I’d seen Ramsey completely unable to harm someone who meant to kill others, and it had hurt him when he tried. I’d seen him struggle with his limitations a lot over the past year, and he never got as close to hurting someone like he’d gotten with Abram. So, what did it mean that he was able to aim a gun at Abram with the intent to fire it?
“What are you saying, Ramsey?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him and demanding an explanation. “That there’s no good left in him? That he can’t be saved?”
I held my breath, knowing what Ramsey was going to say next, but not wanting to hear it. Changing everything about who I was didn’t take away the fact that I wanted the man I loved to be there. To be whole.
“I’m saying that whatever Abram has been through in the time since we’ve seen him has changed him, and not for the better,” Ramsey replied, taking a step toward me. “When he left, his powers were evolving and changing because of the darkness inside him. I think that evolution has made him less human, less of who he’s always been. It’s certainly screwed with his essence enough to make it possible for me to hurt him if I wanted to.” Ramsey’s wire-framed glasses slid a fraction down his nose, but he didn’t move to correct them. “Not that I could. I mean, he’s a deadly thing. The way he outmaneuvered the bullets I shot at him was incredible, to say the least.”
“He’s human,” I said, glaring at the mage and refusing to acknowledge the truth in his words. My jaw ached from clenching my teeth, and my heart thudded like a bass drop in a New York night club. “I mean, of course he’s a human. What else would he be? That’s a ridiculous thing to say.”
“Is it ridiculous, Charisse? Or does it make more sense than you want to face? Especially when it comes to Abram.”
Ramsey sighed as he flopped down onto my apartment couch. The sofa was secondhand and beat to hell. Something I never would have owned before meeting Abram. But it’d reminded me of one of the sofas from his club back in New Haven, even though worse for wear, and I couldn’t pass it up.
“And you know what else he’d be, Charisse,” Ramsey continued. “You’ve seen all sorts of monsters since this began. You know the depths to which he might have slid.”
A sick feeling ran through me. It was so sharp, so intense, that I struggled to actually breathe through it. The idea that not only was Abram gone from me, but he was also gone from himself was enough to destroy me completely.
“It’s not true,” I said. If he had devolved into something that much less than human, then he truly was never coming back to me. I couldn’t accept that. “I can get him back.” I slapped my hands together. “I have to get him back. We got Charlie back, so Abram can be saved too.”
“You don't know that,” Ramsey said with a shake of his head. I could tell he was getting frustrated, just as angry as I was.
“And you don’t know that I can’t!” I shot back, pointing a finger at the mage which was enveloped in the sort of offensive magic that—even now—I would have never used against him. The fact that I was ‘on’ like that only served to prove how upset I really was. My magic was never this difficult.
Ramsey seemed unaffected as he took off his glasses, closed his eyes, and tipped his head against the back of the couch. He looked exhausted. That, or defeated.
For a moment, I felt bad that I was the cause of his exhaustion, but he’d been the one to send me into the abandoned building in the first place. He was the one that started this.
“You don’t even know that you’ll be able to find him for a second time,” he declared. After cleaning his glasses on his shirt, he put his glasses back on and looked at me again. “Hell, you didn’t even find him the first time. He found you.”
“I’m a fucking phenomenon, Ramsey. There’s never been anything like me in the whole of this damned magical world. So, how about you stop telling me what I can and can’t do and focus on your job.”
Again, I was ignoring the fact that he was only telling me the truth. I was just too upset to listen. Plus, I was insulting him the only way I knew how.
“My job?” he asked, his eyes widening and his face losing much of its color as he sat up and focused intently on me. “My job took a back seat when you started throwing yourself in front of every bullet that came shooting by.”
I took several bold steps toward him and posted my hands on my hips. “What are you talking about?” I did nothing to hide the fact that I was insulted that he was calling me out on the dangerous things I’d been doing, for the entire city.
“You, Charisse,” he said, indicating me with a wave of his hand. “You think this is the first time I’ve been prepared to rush across town to save your ass? Didn’t you wonder how I got there so quickly? It’s because I was already on the way when you cut out on me.”
“You followed me?” I asked, then swallowed hard.
Where was all of the trust I’d earned in the past year? Why did I feel like he was treating me as though I was the same innocent girl in New Haven?
“I always follow you,” he admitted. “Ever since you lost Abram, you’ve been so damn eager to die that it takes all I can not to lock you in a padded room and throw away the key.”
“You’re insane,” I snapped. “I don’t want to die. Why the hell would you say that?”
“Because you act like you do, Charisse,” he answered, sitting up and moving to the edge of his seat. He clasped his hands together by his knees and leaned back to make eye contact with me. “You act like your life isn’t worth anything, like you don’t care whether you live or die.” His eyes welled up with tears, and his Adam’s apple bobbed before he looked away. “Some of us do care, Charisse. Some of us care very much whether you live or die.”
“I get it,” I said bitterly. “I’m important for saving the world and all that crap.”
“Fuck the world.” This time, when his attention snapped back to me, his expression was full of anger. “That’s secondary, and honestly it’s a bigger conversation than I can have on my own. I care about you because you a
re my friend. End of story.” He shook his head. “If you’d pull your head out of that sea of self-pity you’ve been forcibly drowning in for months now, you might see that a lot of people feel the same way as I do.”
“I didn’t mean to come across like I didn’t care about you, about anyone,” I said. I thought of the funk I’d fallen into as many things over the months. Never once had I thought of it as selfish. “And I don’t want to die, regardless of how much it might look that way.”
“Then why?” he asked. “Why are you acting the way you are, Charisse?”
“Because I have to make it worth something,” I said. “Abram left to save me, to give me a good life.”
“You think fighting monsters is a good life?” He tossed his hands up and shot to his feet. He strolled over to the window, his back turned to me and his arms crossed.
“Good lives are for children and the Amish,” I said to the back of his head. “I’m a grown-up. I owe it to the world, I owe it to myself, and I owe it to Abram to make his sacrifice worth something. I have to make my life worthwhile. Otherwise, all of this has happened for no reason at all.”
“With all due respect, I’m not sure Abram would agree with that,” Ramsey said, his voice softening. He still didn’t turn to face me, though. “I’d wager that, if you asked him, he’d say you with a couple of fat grandchildren and a life full of good memories is all he’d want from this.”
“Well, we can’t ask him, can we?” I said, shaking my head and blinking back tears. “Like you said, he’s gone.” Just like the last time he vanished from my life, I was left crushed by Abram’s absence.
Finally Ramsey turned back to face me.
“Maybe not,” he said, causing my heart to jump. Hadn’t I just said that? Now, he might have a plan.
“What?” I shook my head to make sure I was understanding him correctly. “What do you mean by that? Explain.” I couldn’t stop talking long enough for him to answer, because he wasn’t answering fast enough. “Ramsey?”
When I’d said it, we both knew I was desperate not to lose the man I loved. Ramsey, well, he would only say it if there was a possibility.
“You told me to do my job,” he said. “I might as well oblige. I’m sure there’s been a case like Abram’s at some point in the recorded history of magic. It’ll probably take a lot of digging,” he said, spreading his hands, “but I’m damn good with a shovel.”
He strode over to me until he was standing at my side but facing the opposite direction. “We’ll find something,” he said, placing his hand on my shoulder. “And now that I know what kind of magical signature I’m looking for, I might even be able to find Abram himself.”
I couldn’t stop the tears from running down my face. I’d waited so long to hear those words. I’d pleaded countless times that there had to be a way to help him. Before now, Ramsey hadn’t seen a way. He cared about me enough not to get my hopes up. If he said something could be done now, then he must mean it.
Emotions flooded me so hard and fast, I didn’t know what to do with myself. All I knew was that I wanted to thank him. But when I opened my mouth to talk, another voice stopped me.
“Charisse?” Huntsman called as he stumbled out of the bedroom where we’d moved him while he was unconscious.
I stared at him while he rubbed his head as though he was struggling to understand what was happening.
“Where am I? How did I get here?” He blinked at me. “Oh,” he said while looking around. “Where is my blasted genie?”
Chapter 7
I looked at Huntsman, my mind spinning and my body more tense than it had a right being. Staring at him, I knew that nothing I had been through in the last few hours even penetrated the surface of what he’d been forced to endure.
The huge man, large with broad shoulders and biceps that must have been custom-made for either fighting or showing off, stumbled toward me, using the wall to hold himself up. He looked drunk, beaten and severely abused.
I had seen Huntsman in a fight or two during the time I’d known him, but I had never seen anything mess with him like this. What was more, he was spouting nonsense about a genie.
I needed to steady him. After that, I’d figure out just how he’d gotten to that abandoned building and why the Shadow Elf was so afraid of him.
“You need to sit down, Huntsman,” I said, taking his arm gently and leading him toward the couch. “Can you put on some coffee, Ramsey?” I asked, looking over at the mage. “Something tells me this is going to be a longer night than I thought.”
Once I had Huntsman on the couch and a cup of strong black coffee in his hands, I figured it was time to get down to what was really going on. As it turned out, Huntsman had a similar idea.
Pulling the cup from his lips, he cut me off with his question. “How did I get here?”
While Huntsman waited for an answer, he turned and stared at me with eyes that told me that he’d been through hell and back.
“We brought you here,” I said quickly. “Ramsey and I were tracking a pretty intense magical signature. We traced it to a building on the bad side of town and, when I got there, you were unconscious lying in a corner.”
I left out the part about the Shadow Elf and everything else that had happened.
“What?” he asked, sitting up a bit straighter. “That’s impossible.”
“Judging by the last couple of years, I’m going to go ahead and say that we stop using that word,” I muttered. “I find it doesn’t really mean much when we’re always pitted against the things we have been.” Shaking my head, I continued, “You were being attacked by a Shadow Elf, and then...then by someone else. I just need to know how you got there, and what’s going on. The magical signature that’s coming off of you doesn’t match anything we know about you, Huntsman. The Shadow Elf was afraid. He was freaking terrified that you might wake up and be—”
“Starving,” Huntsman said, standing up quickly, his eyes roaming my living room frantically.
“What? No,” I said, standing myself. “He was afraid—”
“I’m starving, Charisse,” he said. “I can’t explain it, but I’m hungrier than I’ve ever been in my life. I feel like I’m going to drop dead if I don’t get something to eat right now.”
He ran into my kitchen in what had to be one of the strangest displays I’d ever seen in my life. I just watched him go, and then decided I should probably follow him and give him something to eat before he destroyed my kitchen.
“Fine,” I said as he pulled a half rack of ribs from my freezer and slammed it down on the bar.
He ripped the packaging open, pulled off a meaty rib, and raised it toward his mouth.
“Huntsman!” I said, springing across the room to grab the rib. I tried to pull it out of his grasp, but he was too strong. “It’s still raw!”
“I don’t care! I’m starving!” he said, jerking the slab of meat back so quickly that he knocked me backward. He dug his teeth into the meat and ripped a piece of it off the bone like some caveman right out of the Stone Age.
“Stop!” I said. Twisting my wrist, I magically pulled the bone from his hand and forced it to the counter. With another twist, the ribs instantly cooked on the counter. In a second, they were ready. “There. At least you won’t catch anything now.”
Huntsman looked at me, blinking hard as if he was coming back to himself. “I-I’m sorry, Charisse. I have no idea what came over me.”
“Neither do I,” I admitted, leaning against the counter. “Tell me what happened. How did you get to that building?” I motioned toward the meat. “And go ahead. It seems like you need it.”
Huntsman practically groaned as he bit into the cooked ribs. He moaned so loudly and with so much satisfaction that I was sure my neighbors would be talking about it tomorrow.
“Huntsman, focus, please,” I said, pushing a blush down from my cheeks.
“I don’t know,” he said, wiping grease from his face. “The last thing I remember, I was in Alas
ka, fighting off a pack of wolves and trying to keep them from tearing my face off. Lydia was with me, and I told her I needed help. After that, everything was a blur.”
“Lydia?” I asked, chewing at my lip. “Who’s Lydia?”
Ramsey walked into the kitchen and eyed the mountain of bones Huntsman was quickly compiling with each rib he polished off. “I’m going to guess she’s the genie you mentioned when you woke up,” Ramsey said.
“Genie?” I asked, practically scoffing at the idea. “Genies aren’t real, are they?” I looked from one of them to the other hoping they’d tell me I wasn’t crazy. “I mean, there’s no way that’s real. I’d have heard about them by now.”
“They’re real,” Ramsey said with a pitying look in his eyes. “They’re rare, but they’re real, nonetheless.” His gaze turned to Huntsman, and the look on his face was much more dire than I might have expected. “They’re also horribly dangerous. At least, some of them are. Where did you find your genie, Huntsman?”
“On the ocean floor,” he said without missing a beat, as though that was a normal thing to say. “I was looking for an artifact to depower a particularly troublesome coven of witches, and an oracle told me I’d find what I needed there. What I came up with was a brass lamp that housed a brown-haired woman who was as beautiful as she was powerful.”
“I doubt that very seriously,” Ramsey said. “Genies are some of the most powerful creatures in the universe. Legend has it that they’re made from the same energy that formed life on this planet.” He shook his head. “Which is to say, that woman would have to be pretty damn beautiful to match that kind of powerset.”
“In any event,” I said, trying to steer the conversation away from the way the woman looked, because I really didn’t want to slap them right now. “What happened next?”
Granted by the Beast: A Steamy Paranormal Romance Spin on Beauty and the Beast (Conduit Series Book 4) Page 5
