Granted by the Beast: A Steamy Paranormal Romance Spin on Beauty and the Beast (Conduit Series Book 4)

by Rebecca Hamilton

  It was infuriating.

  I mean, we were standing in the middle of nowhere in freaking New Haven of all places. There was nothing in this craphole suburb that was worth coming back here for. Except for maybe Lulu.

  “No,” Stacey said, glaring over at me with a raised eyebrow and the hand that wasn’t holding the chip bag on her hip in mock outrage.

  “No, what?” I asked, batting my eyelashes at her and trying not to vocalize how pissed I really was.

  “No. I couldn’t have just told you we were coming here,” she answered. “I get pieces. I saw you telling me the code, but not where we would need it, or when. I have a lot of the pieces, but I don’t have the complete picture. And things can change. Things can happen that render some of my previous visions irrelevant.”

  “I didn’t ask,” I said, almost stupidly at this point.

  It was fruitless. She knew what I was thinking, or would think, or whatever I’d apparently told her in the future, which she already knew. God, why was it such a headache to have her in my life.

  “Not aloud,” she replied. “But you would have if I didn’t stop you, and the important thing for you to know right now is that I’m not always going to make sense. I don’t know everything, and if I shared everything I knew, most of it would be wrong because there’s so many versions of how this plays out.”

  “I’d be thrilled if I could make heads or tails of you even once when you say something. You’re like if a fortune cookie’s reason for being was to make sure I was late for all my appointments, and I always had a migraine, and on top of all of the rest of it, I was wearing suspenders with a dress.”

  I was rambling. I knew it. We all knew it. I was procrastinating, and she was letting me.

  “Very funny,” Stacey said. “But there are decisions you need to come to and wheels that need to begin turning based on those decisions. What comes next is completely dependent on everything happening the way it was supposed to, and even if I knew what was supposed to happen, if I told you, it might ruin it. Then the things that are meant to happen might not.”

  “You’re making my head hurt,” I admitted, rubbing soothing circles into my temples to try and get rid of the impending migraine.

  “That’s not me. That’s the pollen,” Stacey said. “And it’ll go away as soon as she gives you some of your old allergy meds.”

  “What?” I asked. “Who are you talking about? Who is she?”

  “You’ll see,” Stacey said with a grin. “For now, I think we really need to get going. Otherwise, we’re going to be late.”

  I quirked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you not supposed to tell me that?”

  “In every version of events I’ve seen, me saying that didn’t change what happens next.”

  “Is it just me,” Ramsey said quietly into my ear, “or are you tired of following her orders blindly? It’s almost worse knowing that we’re doing something we’ve already done before, and we’re just retracing our steps.”

  “I know,” I groaned.

  That didn’t stop us from following Stacey’s lead to start the trek out of nowhere and into civilization. Well, as much as New Haven could be considered civilization. It was going to take us a little while to get into town because we had to keep a low profile. Let’s face it, Abram coming back into town wasn’t a good idea. I didn’t say anything, though, because there’s no way in hell I was letting his body get away.

  “All right,” Huntsman said. “I think it would be best if we were not in the middle of the road all day. Maybe we should find an alternate way to get to the shelter that she”—he pointed at the woman at his side—“told us about.”

  I didn’t understand what we were doing fully, but then again, I rarely did.

  “So,” I said. “Our plan is to get into New Haven, find the genie, and get her to undo the spell. Then we can handle whatever is next on the apocalypse train that Stacey is riding.”

  Ramsey nodded, and we started walking, leaving Huntsman to deal with the Teller.

  I didn’t need her to tell me where the shelter was. Growing up, we all knew about the old building that our grandparents had equipped for the end of the world. There were rumors, ghost stories, and triple-dog dares that were passed along through the younger generation to try and break into it. I rolled my eyes and led the way for Ramsey, coming up short when I heard an unintelligible screech from behind me.

  “Charisse?” a familiar voice shrieked at me from a distance, completely throwing me for a loop.

  After looking around until I spotted a person standing a few hundred feet away, I saw my best friend in the entire world rushing toward me with a smile on her face.

  While I stood exactly where I was and let her come to me, I took in the changes that had overcome her. Lulu’s hair was longer and her body was a little more thinned out than usual, but she had the same smile and her eyes held the same light they’d always had.

  I’d have been thrilled to see her if Ramsey hadn’t just finished telling me about how we needed to keep a low profile. Doing that was going to be hard to accomplish with Lulu knowing I was home. She wasn’t exactly the wilting flower type. Most likely, by the time she got to me, half the town would know I was back.

  “Oh my God!” Lulu screeched again before scooping me up into an excited hug, surprising me with her strength. I wasn’t exactly light. “I didn’t know you were coming back! We have to have a party! No! We have to have two parties!” She was talking so fast it was hard to keep up with her. “What the hell? Let’s just throw a parade.”

  I shrugged when Ramsey looked at me pointedly.

  Lulu’s excitement was contagious, and I had to roll my eyes to keep from laughing out loud.

  “It’s good to see you, too, Lulu,” I said, smiling and pulling away from her. “But we can’t have a parade. In fact, I’m not going to be here for very long. That’s why I didn’t tell you I was coming. It was really a last minute, completely unplanned thing. A co-worker of mine is kind of stranded in town, and I need to find her. After that, I’ll be right on my way back out. You know I don’t want to overstay my welcome here.”

  I glanced over her shoulder and saw the people I’d come with looking at us with various degrees of curiosity.

  Abram looked over at me with eyes so severe I knew he was completely disapproving of how I was handling Lulu, as though the lie wasn’t completely necessary. I almost laughed. The look on his face was exactly the same look that the real Abram would have given me. He was a stickler for the truth unless a lie was absolutely necessary.

  In truth, lying to Lulu was something I didn’t have a choice about. We were looking for a genie who could do anything, who could look like anyone. I wasn’t going to exactly say that to Lulu. Plus, a Shadow Elf had already taken over Lulu’s appearance before. Who knew if a genie, or djinni, or whatever, could do the same?

  Besides, it’s not like Lulu could help me anyway. In order to find the genie here in New Haven, we needed to look for markers and indications of a supernatural presence; things that were out of place or impossible, events that didn’t quite make sense in the context of our little town. If anyone in New Haven made sense, it was Lulu. Though I was thrilled to see her, she wasn’t going to be able to help with this.

  I was distracted, lost in my thoughts of what could possibly indicate where the genie was, when Lulu started talking again, and I almost missed what she was saying.

  “Maybe I can help with that,” Lulu was saying with an infectious grin. “Or, not me,” she amended with a shrug. “I’m useless. But you should ask Ryland, for sure. She knows everything. I’m more than sure she can help you find your friend, and it wouldn’t take her any time.”

  “Who’s Ryland?” I asked, remembering that I knew basically everyone in this small town, and I’d never heard that name.

  “Oh, she’s the best!” Lulu said emphatically, her eyes wide and holding an excitement I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen in them before. It was almost manic. “You’re gonna ab
solutely love her!” she added, squeezing my hands and practically jumping up and down. “She’s our new queen.”

  “What?” I asked, my heart dropping. “The new queen? Of New Haven? New Haven has a q-queen now?” I stuttered, not quite understanding what Lulu was getting at. There hadn’t been any beauty queens when I lived there.

  “We do!” Lulu said, chirping in delight. “Isn’t it exciting? You live your whole life never knowing you needed something, and then you get it and you know that all the pieces finally fit together perfectly. I never thought we needed a queen, but since Ryland showed up, I just know that life is better with her in control. Isn’t it great when fate comes in and just points a finger in the right direction?”

  “It sure is, Lulu,” I said, looking over at Ramsey and silently communicating what we both knew to be true, without letting on that Lulu had gone absolutely crazy.

  We were looking for an odd occurrence to point the way to the genie. Something that was completely out of place.

  A suburb in small-town America with its own queen and adoring followers certainly fit that bill. Especially since Lulu was the absolute last person on the planet who would ever be okay with anyone controlling her. Hell, I could remember a dozen times growing up that we’d ended up in physical fights because she wanted to be the one in control of what we did.

  “Let me ask you something, Lulu.” I plastered a fake smile on my face and hoped that the genie’s magic was strong enough that she wouldn’t know something was wrong. I tilted my head to the side and put on a mask of complete innocence and curiosity. “Is there any way my friends and I could meet the queen of New Haven?”

  Chapter 20

  “Since when did you start traveling with so many people?” Lulu mock whispered to me as we walked through the nearly abandoned streets of New Haven that led to the center of town.

  She eyed the men who were no doubt here to protect me, especially from the way they kept sizing her up like she was a threat, and I had to admit…it was nice to be home. Even though we were walking, which I used to hate, I was here with the most important people in the world to me. It was nice to have a moment away from the chaos that I knew we were most likely walking into.

  “I mean,” she went on, “I know if I were surrounded by sexy men like that, I would be taking advantage of it.”

  I couldn't help but laugh softly to cover how uncomfortable her statement made me. It seemed like she didn’t remember Abram or all of the things that happened before I left, and I wasn’t about to poke that beehive.

  “Well,” I said, “you know me. I’m always looking for more people to help make me look good.”

  At the look of incredulousness on Ramsey’s face, I shrugged and turned back to Lulu.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked. “I haven’t seen anyone but you since we got here.” I looked around, still surprised that the entirety New Haven had been pretty much deserted.

  “Oh.” Lulu snickered. “Most people like to stay close to Ryland. You know, in case she has need of one of us.”

  I shot a concerned look at Ramsey, who was watching our interaction like a hawk. I knew him, and he would no doubt be compiling every piece of information I was able to get out of my friend. It sucked to be using her like this, but I knew something was wrong. Lulu would never just blindly accept something so outlandish like this. It was part of the reason I kept her in the dark about Abram and everything that had happened.

  “Did you guys know that Char and I have been friends since we were tiny?” Lulu turned her blinding smile on Huntsman and Ramsey, seeming to ignore Abram’s presence entirely. “It’s true,” she went on like someone had answered her. “She was even there for the birth of my daughter, saw the whole thing.”

  “No, I didn’t,” I said. “You went into labor, and I had to take you to the hospital.”

  Lulu snickered as we turned onto the street that her house was on. “You did more than that!” She snorted, then turned to the men again. “She was panicking and freaking out the whole time. Like I hadn’t already given birth before.”

  She stopped talking as we came upon Lulu’s large house. I stared at it, remembering an easier time. A less-complicated time, when all I needed to care about was getting my life back on track after my life as a model was over.

  Ramsey stepped to my side. “Did that really happen?” He pushed up his glasses, looking a bit too comfortable with getting more dirt on me. “I mean, I can totally see that happening, but I wanted to ask for the sake of posterity.”

  I slapped him on the back, a bit harder than I needed to. “You know,” I said quietly, “I don’t think I’ll tell you. But remember, when girls are best friends, they see a lot of things they don’t tell men about.”

  With that, I left him to his own devices and took a few steps back to where Lulu was staring blankly at her house. There was something strange about it. Then I realized what.

  There was nothing in her yard. No car in the driveway, no telltale sign of children, like the actual children themselves.

  I mean, I didn’t necessarily like children, but that didn’t mean that I disliked them, either. Although, there was that one time that Lulu’s son had run away when I was watching him and he was supposed to be taking a nap. I’d had to crawl through a hole in the fence to get him back while Lulu was losing her everloving mind.

  “Hey,” I said, gently touching Lulu’s arm as I hesitated at the eeriness of the situation. “Where are all the toys?”

  “Oh.” Lulu waved me off. “There was no need to have toys in the yard. No need at all. Ryland doesn't like there to be a mess.”

  Abram interjected with a loud snort. “Children are supposed to make messes. That’s the only thing they’re good for. What’s the use in having them if they’re not making a mess of everything?”

  Hearing him say that had me turning to face him, and I was surprised by the wistful look on his face. The moment was ruined, however, when Stacey stepped up next to him.

  “Maybe,” she said, “Lulu had the good sense to put the toys in the house or something. Now”—she clapped her hands and started walking away—“we’ve got places to go and a queen to see.”

  “I’m sure we’ll see them later,” I said. “After all, I need to give those sweet kids some Auntie Char love before we go.”

  Lulu grabbed my arm tightly. She was different, not the same woman who had been standing at my side only a moment ago. Her eyes were haunted, heavy with the shadows of something that I couldn't quite place. “Char.”

  “What’s wrong, Lu?” I glanced around.

  Stacey was leading the way, about thirty feet ahead of us. Abram and Huntsman were close behind her. Ramsey, on the other hand, was close enough to see us but not close enough to hear what Lulu was saying.

  “They’re gone,” she whispered. “My husband took them away to keep them safe. To keep them away from Ryland.”

  In a flash, the moment with the real Lulu was over. Now, she was gone once again. In her place was the happy-go-lucky clone that had taken her place. I wiped the shocked look off my face, because there was no doubt in my mind now. The genie was here.

  Ryland had a lot to answer for.

  Before Lulu could ask me what I was up to, I walked away from her and got back to Ramsey’s side in record time, barely winded from my rush.

  “Something’s wrong,” I whispered, so low that I was sure nobody else but him could hear. “Lulu’s kids are gone, and I think she’s under the genie’s spell. There was a flash,” I said quickly. “Just a flash, where it was the real Lulu under there, the momma bear that she really is.”

  “Be prepared for anything,” Ramsey answered with a small nod.

  Stacey stopped up ahead. She was looking at something, but I couldn’t quite make it out over Abram and Huntsman’s bodies. When I got closer, I saw a sight I’d never have expected.

  “Honestly,” Abram said with wide eyes. “I’m not even surprised anymore. My life has been nothing but crazy sinc
e you appeared.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I even bother anymore.”

  He stepped aside, and I was left with all of the grotesque beauty of New Haven. Okay, grotesque was the wrong word. But seriously, the entire center of town looked like it’d been pushed through a freaking wormhole and had been stuck in the Middle Ages.

  The streets were cobblestone and dirt, and there were no signs of anything modern. No light poles, streetlights, signs, or electrical wires anywhere. All of the buildings looked like they’d just been built, poorly at that, and looking at the town made me want to run back to New York and take a hot shower just because I could.

  Ramsey’s hands balled into fists. “What am I looking at?”

  “Oh God.” I wheezed. “This has got to be killing you.”

  My laugh shocked even me.

  All of our companions turned to face me, and I knew I looked like a lunatic.

  “Shut up, Char,” Ramsey bit out. “This isn’t funny.”

  “You hate this shit.” I clutched my stomach from laughing so hard. “After Briar, and everything she went through. Didn’t you tell me that you wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near a castle again?”

  “I mean it, Charisse.” He took a threatening step forward, but we both knew that he wouldn’t hurt me. Not only because he didn’t want to, but because he was physically unable to hurt me.

  Ramsey absolutely hated anything to do with castles. He hated Grimault, and he was determined not to deal with anything that even remotely reminded him of that place. Now, we walked straight into it without warning. It had to be driving him absolutely batty.

  I got more laughs in, even if it was highly inappropriate. There was so much crazy going on that I needed just a moment. One moment of levity while we were surrounded by magical chaos. That’s the only way I’d get through this. Finding the little things that made me laugh and exploiting them. That’s how I’d always gotten through difficult situations, and I might be a completely different person than I was last time I was in New Haven, but I was still me.