by LeAnn Mason
He revered the fierceness, but he wanted her to look at him with a different kind of spark.
Wrangling his burgeoning desire, he wrapped his fingers tightly around the steering wheel to keep from reaching for her. “No, this is what you are meant for. It is who you are. We just have to find the right fit.”
“No. I’m out. I’m done. I just want to be normal again. Except, the druid idea is fucked. So now, I’ll have to—”
“Normal? You are not ‘normal’. You are far superior to any human. Why would you want to tie yourself to their limited views? You know what the world truly is now. You are very important to its function, to the fate of those humans, and you want to turn a blind eye?”
“Knowing has done nothing but get me locked up and give me fucked-up nightmares. Forcing me to watch the life bleed out of a person — why would I want that?”
“You help people find peace, rest. You see what no one else can. Not to mention the fact that without our help, you will end up behind bars.” Seke was not holding back with this pep talk. She needed to grasp the repercussions of her decisions. “They have their sights set on you. You are in the system, several times over, and will always be looked at sideways until the day when they get you at the wrong place and the wrong time. Again. And I will not be there to help you if you push me away.” His tone softened by the end, nearly pleading with her to understand, to acknowledge, to accept her role. “You belong with us. With me.”
When had his hand moved to her hair, fingers twisting the soft strands? Gliding along her pale cheek, a finger continued its wayward exploration as if Seke were merely a passenger in some runaway freight train… but this one might be headed for a cliff.
“Seke…”
His name on her full lips was enough invitation. He hadn’t dared hope when she called for him that she might not hate him, might even want to be with him still. He’d tried not to read too much into the kiss they’d shared in the gym. But here, now, his emotions were too much, and she had just given him the final push he needed; craved. She hadn’t forgotten about him, hadn’t moved on.
Grasping the nape of her neck, he pulled her to where they would meet — halfway. Control gone, eclipsed by the fear of losing her for good, he smashed his mouth to hers. The god’s normally calm, gentle demeanor was nowhere to be found as he seduced, ravaged, encouraged. He bit at her lower lip when it failed to open to him, soothing the sting with a lick when she gasped in pleasure.
The floodgates opened.
Aria struggled to crawl across the seat to meet him without separating their searching lips. When she was halfway over the console, he wrapped large hands around her pert ass and lifted her over him. She settled in a straddle across his lap, legs bent beneath her, allowing every inch of their bodies to press together.
Even when her rear pushed against the car horn, they didn’t stop. She let out a soft giggle that nearly made him groan. The noise spurred him on. He felt a thousand years younger, rebellious and spontaneous. He’d fallen into a cadence in life, moving, doing, being, but not really present. Everything about this woman revived the ancient god.
She was so soft and smooth; he couldn’t keep his hands from roving across every available inch as their tongues tangled. When her hands embedded in his hair, fists curling enough to tug at the strands, he could not curb the growl as he moved his lips to her jaw then down her throat. A hint of salt from her previous nerves added fervor to his attentions. He needed to clear the fear from her body, to purge it.
A sharp rap startled the pair from their unbridled haze, and their dazed gazes swung toward the window nearest them.
Seke noted with a hint of humor that the vehicle windows were all heavily fogged and nothing could be seen beyond the glass. They panted, their breaths the only sound within the confines.
Another tap, tap indicated he had not, in fact, imagined the intrusion.
“Time to move on, Mister Seker, unless you want me to charge you two with indecent exposure, lewd misconduct, or even public indecency.” Agent Lowe’s grating voice droned threateningly from beyond the fog.
Seke watched with annoyance as lucidity returned to Aria’s chiseled features and, with it, shame and regret. This time, she did not giggle.
Clambering from his lap as if it were a pit of vipers, and not one charmed python, she flung herself across the car into her former seat. “We should go. I’m tired.” She went about righting her clothes and buckling the seatbelt across her lap. Finger-combing her hair, she looked anywhere but at Seke.
He let out a heavy sigh and put the vehicle in reverse. The blood still hadn’t returned to his head as he drove from the lot and officially ended the most enticing encounter he’d had in a long, long time.
He had Aria safe, but he still didn’t have her, might never have her. Not since he had sent her away.
15
Cold, black eyes stared at me as empty and inviting as a bottomless pit. Just like a dank, dark well, slippery and wet, I couldn’t seem to crawl out of the inhuman depths. They were rimmed in skin as white and bloodless as a corpse, and below that, in my periphery, I watched lips lift and spread into a wide smile. A shiver trickled down my spine. The mouth would have been equally pale and lifeless if not for the thick layer of ruby-red that could have been mistaken for a coat of lipstick, without the droplet actively seeping from one corner and slipping down over his chin.
“I killed your parents,” the vampire’s voice sneered, his tone cold but smug. “We killed all the banshees. And you’re next.”
“No,” I heard myself moan. I couldn’t seem to move, just stare as he raised a knife and plunged it down. Blood spurted across my vision though I felt nothing.
The vampire laughed, and like breaking free from an invisible chain, I was released from my stupor, stumbling back and staring as he plunged the knife into a prone body over and over.
The corpse’s head turned toward me in a jerky movement that went against the normal shift of a spine. The druid’s dead eyes stared up at me, and her mouth opened. Eerie and tinny like the voices of the souls we escorted across the veil, the old woman spoke in a husky whisper. “Don’t get caught.”
Her face transformed as I gawked, shifting into my mother’s then my father’s then Seke’s.
“Why did you let yourself get caught?” His hazel irises glistened, and his baritone voice echoed strangely in my ears. The vampire continued to slash and hack, and droplets of crimson spattered Seke’s glorious face as he spoke calmly. “Why do you disregard the lessons?”
“I didn’t. I don’t,” I gasped, tears springing to my eyes as I trembled.
I launched forward, grappling at the vampire’s arms, trying to pull him off the body.
He vanished from beneath me as if into thin air, and I fell onto the body. Staring into my own ice-blue eyes, vacant and glassy, I let out an ear-piercing scream.
Seke’s face returned, and I let out another scream.
“Aria! Remember your lessons,” he shouted over my wailing. The concern in his face and the gentle hand he swiped across my cheeks, pushing my silver tresses out of the way, brought me back to reality, even if his words were an echo of the accusation his dead self had haunted me with.
It was really Seke, alive and well. And I was alive and well.
As he cast a quick look over his shoulder, I realized that though I’d dragged my mind from the dream world, my mouth hadn’t gotten the memo that the nightmare was over. Recalling what Seke had taught me in those quiet library sessions about getting a handle on my urge to shout, I focused, and the sound gradually abated.
“Good,” he crooned, wiping away sweat-slicked strands from my forehead in a too-tender gesture. “Good. You’re fine. You’re with me.”
Fully registering the present, I realized Seke was perched on the edge of my bed, leaning over me. One arm was braced next to my ear, the other still stroking my bed-head mussed tresses, fingertips skittering against my cheek like shadows. The position put his mout
h right above mine, and I stared at it as he repeated himself.
“You’re with me.”
The events of yesterday — or perhaps it had only been hours ago — surged back: Seke collecting me from the police station where I’d been taken after being found at the scene of yet another murder. The druid... dead, killed by the vampire. The vampire... and my parents’ deaths.
I was still reeling from that mind-fuck. So much so that I had no idea how long I sat in that police car. I didn’t remember walking through the station, being fingerprinted... anything. It was as if I’d blinked, and when I’d opened my eyes, I’d been sitting in an interrogation room while a detective — or, I guess, federal agent — told me he’d found evidence of my presence at several murder scenes across the country, the latest being a man in an alley where I’d been arrested last time. I had more crimes to speak to, he’d told me.
I hadn’t answered, and the next time I’d blinked, Seke had been standing there like my knight in shining armor… or rather, in a pressed suit. The scene had been similar to the moment I’d first met him, and again I’d been drawn to his glowing skin, his defined facial aesthetics, his dark hair, that sultry accent with which he defended me.
And then... the car.
Shit, that had been… well, pretty fucking hot. And a mistake.
Once I’d recovered from the temporary insanity Seke’s godliness had lured me into, thanks to a nudge from the nosey fed, he’d taken me to a motel for the night.
Mostly to avoid any more awkward, lust-filled decisions I’d regret later, I’d crashed quickly, feeling, I had to admit, safe under his watch. I hadn’t gotten real rest in days, constantly vigilant.
And now... now he was here... in my bed. The resurgence of relief mixed with a heady flush. The urge to dive for his mouth rose.
He sent you away, Aria. He rejected you. He’s only here now because you summoned him. He didn’t come on his own.
“Was it a vision?” he asked gently, his stare on my lips.
I realized I was fidgeting with my lip ring, catching it over and releasing it repeatedly with my teeth, and immediately ceased the action. I shook my head and croaked, “No. I don’t think so. It was just a nightmare.”
Right? The end of the dream with Seke’s face flashed in my mind. Was that a warning? My own dead face rose next. Was that also a warning?
“Can a banshee predict her own death?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
There were a number of things he’d helped me work out, but many more about my banshee nature were taken to the grave with my mom and the rest of the banshees who’d apparently been slaughtered by the vamps. It suddenly occurred to me that I was alone. The last banshee. Sure, Seke had said many times that I was rare. Hell, that’s why my parents had tried to hide me, but hearing the vamp discuss our near-extinction really slapped me in the face with it. I pushed down the wild urge to get all clingy with the friendly face above me. I was fine alone, damn it.
Seke cocked his head. “What did you see?”
I shook my head, not certain I wanted to divulge what I’d experienced. I was probably reading too much into it. The vampire had been there and the druid too, so it had to have been a nightmare. It presented warped memories; nothing like my usual visions. “Nothing. That was just something I wondered about during my time with the other HD teams.” Thank the gods my nightmares didn’t drag me back to that nearly fatal first — and last — skydive attempt. I might’ve puked on Seke.
He sat back, pulling away from me at the reminder that he’d sent me away. The distance between us stung. But... he’d come to save me. I’d been the one to ask for him, but the fact that he had, that he hadn’t ignored the request… that must mean something. Right?
Oh, grow a pair, and just ask him, Aria.
“Why did you come for me?”
Seke looked back at me. “You asked for me. The local unit who’d been dispatched for the druid told me about your arrest.”
Point to Aria. Fucking genius idea.
“I’m sorry about that, by the way.”
I sat up, pulling myself against the headboard and tugging the sheet over my breasts. I had my smelly shirt on, but I’d taken my bra off to sleep after much debate and felt a little exposed now that he’d moved back. “You couldn’t have known I was going to get arrested... again.”
“Not that.” His head shook, and a lock of hair slipped over his forehead. Similar to the way he’d been stroking my hair from my face, I wanted to return the gesture. “The druid.”
“Oh.” The woman’s blood-drained body — the real version, not the reanimated one in my dream — sprang to the fore of my mind. “That.”
Point to the vampire. The druid was dead. And so was my dream to become human again. The only lead I’d had for maybe repairing the rune tattoo on my hip was a literal dead end.
“I take it your rotations in the other units didn’t go well if you were seeking to rebind your powers.”
I turned away from Seke’s curiosity. He wasn’t my captain anymore. I didn’t have to explain myself to him. “No,” was all I said.
He sighed and stood. “Well, I need to get you back.”
Panic flooded my veins, and I gripped the blanket. “Back where?”
He turned to consider me. He hadn’t brought anything with him, so he’d been forced to sleep in his underclothes. His shirt, vest, and slacks hung neatly in the closet. But shadows clung to him, concealing his narrow hips and toned legs, thankfully. Or regretfully, depending on whether you asked the little angel or devil perched on my shoulders. “The director will have a new assignment for you.”
My jaw clenched. This was why he’d come. He just wanted to drag his recruit back into the ring. The rare banshee. I was a hot commodity and the Harbingers of Death couldn’t let me go. Seke was just like the cops. Catching me. Trapping me.
“I’m not going back there. I appreciate that you got me released, but I’m not going. There must be other druids I can find.” Though, if I had a vision about any of them, then it wasn’t a great sign that I had all that much time to find them either. This would be a lot easier if they weren’t so secretive.
His arms crossed. “It’s not safe. That agent may not have enough evidence to charge you right now, but based on his reach and your inclinations, it won’t be long until he finds a way to at least hold you as a suspect.”
I shrugged. “I won’t get caught.” I knew how to live on the streets, how to avoid the law. It had been my powers that ruined that, but now I’d had some training. I could keep a lid on it until I found a way to do so permanently. That was a plan. In theory. Now, it seemed, I just needed to also keep from getting caught by the HD. I’d been weak and stupid to invite Seke here, to let him back in. Working solo seemed to be the only way to avoid getting snagged like a mermaid in a net.
Keep moving. Don’t get caught.
You got it, Dad.
Seke wasn’t convinced. “You don’t know that. I’ve met types like that agent before. He’ll chase you no matter where you go.”
Not his problem. I shrugged, rolling out of bed in my underwear with no shame to pull on my jeans. When I looked up, I expected Seke to have turned his back like a gentleman. Instead, he stared at me with a vague sort of passion in his vivid eyes.
“No different than my old life,” I told him. My parents had been fleeing... fleeing what? Had mom attracted any cops during her screaming days? Maybe they were hiding from the HD mom had defected from? Or did they know about the vampires? Whichever the reason, they’d been killed. And I would be stalked. “Even if I come back with you, I won’t be safe.”
He shook his head. “The director will find a program for you far from the legal system.”
I bit my lip at another wave of rejection crashing over me before I turned it into something useful. “How generous,” I snarked. “I’m not talking about the law.”
I was heated in an altogether different kind of way than when I
first saw the god again. I snatched up the rest of the discarded clothes and threw my bag over my shoulder. “I’m talking about the vampires. Thanks for the rescue and the motel. Feel free to stalk me too if you want. But it’s pointless. I’m not coming back. And don’t worry. I won’t request your assistance anymore.”
Never get involved with anyone. You can only trust yourself.
It seemed to be my father’s voice that rang in my ears whenever it came to leaving Seke, almost as if he was with me, projecting fatherly disapprovals. I rolled my eyes at the wishful thought. Only I would hear voices in my head and think it a normal parental relationship.
Lesson learned, Dad.
I flung open the door and stomped out into what appeared to be early morning based on the rising sun.
“Wait,” Seke called over my shoulder.
I didn’t stop. There was nothing he could say to make me stay. I was done with him and with the Harbingers of Death.
“Aria! What do you mean ‘vampires’?”
16
“Aria?”
I jerked at a touch to my shoulder, pulling away while my left fist aimed for the offender… who just so happened to be Seke.
“Shit! Never grab a girl from behind unless you want to get hit,” I scolded.
“Especially one I have trained to do so,” Seke quipped without missing a beat before sobering, his smoldering hazel eyes meeting mine.
“Just let me go.” I wrenched away, resuming my dramatic exit.
“When did you see a vampire? Aria. Please.”
The reminder of the encounter, of the death, of the coldness… I shivered. Maybe it couldn’t hurt to have the HD taking out the vamps. It’d keep the HD busy and reduce the number of vamps on my tail. I stopped walking. “At the house.”
Seke had already caught up. Guess he was taking my ‘Stalk me if you want’ taunt at its face value. “What house? You were assigned to a hospital unit last, were you not?”
I turned to face him. “I was, but that definitely wasn’t a good fit. So, that was when I decided that I didn’t want to be a Harbinger of Death anymore.”
