Shift of Fate

by Elisa Adams

  “Nothing. Nothing. She ran away before I could hurt her, but I scared her. A lot.”

  “It sounds like we’re both in the same boat.”

  “Not even close.” Wil let out a strained laugh. “Michelle is human. She doesn’t understand. She’s also a reporter. This is going to turn out bad. Very bad.”

  “Want me to go talk to her?”

  Wil shook his head. “That would just make it worse. I’ll handle it, okay? I have to get ready for work. I have to be there in an hour.”

  “Do you really think it’s wise to go in tonight after what happened?”

  “I don’t see that I have much choice.” Wil’s shoulder lifted into a casual shrug, but the dark expression in his eyes had Royce worried. Wil had more than a few skeletons in his closet, ones Royce thought he’d buried long ago. Now, he wasn’t so sure. And he didn’t like the idea of letting Wil leave in this state.

  “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Royce told him, only half-joking. He knew about Wil’s temper, as much as the guy tried to hide it, and he knew what he was capable of when he got angry. It was definitely something Michelle didn’t want to experience firsthand.

  After Wil left, Royce went upstairs and ducked his head into Merida’s bedroom. How she could sleep after what they’d done—what he’d done to her—he had no idea. But sleep she did, soundly and peacefully. She looked like an angel, bathed in the soft moonlight, her auburn curls fanned across the white pillows in a cascade of fiery locks. His fingers itched to tangle in those incredible strands, to pull her close and kiss her senseless, but he held himself back. She needed her rest, and he needed to work some things out in his head. Everything had changed. He didn’t know when it had happened, only that it had. Nothing would ever be the same again. He’d meant what he said to her earlier. When she left him, she’d leave him raw. It would be too much to bear.

  He went back downstairs and slipped out the front door, sitting on the porch in the rain. It had started to cool off, leaving the air damp and chilly. He barely noticed the cold. His mind wouldn’t let go of Merida, and how incredibly right it felt to be around her. She was inside his skin, inside his soul—if he even had one left—and he wanted more.

  Did he want to chance everything and go for something lasting? He didn’t know. When Sarah had left him, she’d torn his heart out. She’d been his life, his reason for living. But she’d fallen for his brother, a man Royce had thought dead. Marco, his own flesh and blood, had turned Sarah into something he’d thought inconceivable—a vampire. She’d been the cause of Royce’s death, of sorts, when he’d turned vampire to win her back. He’d been too late. Sarah had killed herself and left him alone in agony.

  But he’d gotten over it. He’d buried it deep, eventually forgetting the pain. He’d been vampire for four hundred years, living life on his terms, not letting another woman close enough to hurt him. One had been enough.

  Until Merida.

  He kicked his legs up and crossed his ankles on the porch railing, letting the rain hit his bare feet. He was in way too deep with her and he didn’t see any possible way to dig himself out.

  A small voice in his head—one he chose to ignore—asked him why he even bothered to fight it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Calusius stood in the corner of the room where the demon woman slept, blissfully unaware in her dream state of the presence of an Aparasei. He smiled as he looked at her, so fair for one of her kind. Beautiful. Deceptively peaceful, given her attitude while awake. But she was also too full of herself. She thought she could defeat him? She wouldn’t even know where to begin. She had no knowledge of his kind and how it related to hers. He, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was to her.

  Her worst nightmare.

  He could kill her with ease as she lay there sleeping, but where would the amusement be in that? He wanted a battle. He wanted excitement. He had come to Caswell for the woman promised to him twenty-six years ago, but now he wondered if he might like to take something else back to his dimension as well. A little cat would fit nicely with his…collection, especially one who wasn’t afraid to show her claws.

  He walked to her bed, his gaze never leaving her face as he made his decision. He would not pass up such an opportunity. When he left Caswell—which would be very soon—he would take two back with him. The little cat wouldn’t be left behind.

  He stretched his arm out and brushed his fingertips across her cheek. She shuddered in sleep, but did not wake.

  “Sleep well, little cat,” he told her. “While you still can.”

  * * * * *

  Merida walked across the empty room, the smell of blood strong in the damp, dank air around her. A red glow washed over the walls and the sheet-draped furniture.

  A screeching voice greeted her as she approached a darkened doorway on the far side of the room. “Come here, little one.”

  As if entranced, she walked into the room and found herself face to face with the shadowed figure. The Aparasei. “What’s your name?”

  “Calusius.”

  “You murdered two people.”

  He nodded. “I will murder more, those you are close to, if you stand in my way.”

  “I told you before. I can’t let you get away with what you did.”

  His eyes glowed as he smiled at her. “Ah, the inherent goodness of a Balance Keeper.”

  “I’m not a Balance Keeper.”

  “You are correct. Your destiny has shifted.” His smile widened and Merida felt sick to her stomach. “I have marked you. That alone changed your life path.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “You will soon find out.” He walked around her slowly, his gaze burning into her, making her skin crawl. “When I leave, you will come with me.”

  “Bullshit.” She turned to him, her hands on her hips. “When I’m through with you, there won’t be enough left of you to fill an urn.”

  “You cannot stop me. You will die trying.” He lifted his hand to her cheek and stroked his fingertips across her cheekbone. She felt the icy burn where his bony fingers touched her flesh. She tried to scream, but no sound came out.

  Merida woke with a start, her body shaking. She bolted upright in bed, gasping for breath and rubbing her hands up and down her arms to warm her chilled body. The room was empty, but she didn’t feel it. The Aparasei’s—Calusius’s presence filled the room. It shook her, and she didn’t want to be alone.

  “Royce?” she called, her voice sounding thin and high. “Royce, are you around?”

  A few minutes later, he barged into the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “I had a bad dream.” She blinked as she heard what she said. A bad dream? She felt like she was five. She shook her head, needing to be adult about this. “Do you have a minute? Maybe I can run it by you, and you can tell me what you think.”

  He shut the door and scooted onto the bed, laying on his side on the mattress and pulling her into his arms. He kissed the top of her head and brushed her hair off her face. “Sure. Tell me what happened.”

  Being coddled like a baby made her feel foolish. She was almost six hundred years older than him. Why did she like it so much when he treated her this way? She tried to wriggle away, but he held her tight. “Talk to me, Merida. I promise I’ll try to help.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Three a.m. Still the middle of the night. I’m wide awake. Tell me about your dream.”

  He clutched her in the circle of his arms, not in a sexual way, but one that made her feel safe and warm and protected. Already the anxiety from the dream had started to subside. “It wasn’t that bad, really. Not scary, just disturbing.”

  “How so?” Royce asked softly, sounding like he genuinely wanted to hear what she had to say. It was quite a switch from hours earlier, when he accused her of trying to break him down emotionally.

  “I dreamed that I saw the Aparasei again. Calusius. In the same house.”

  “Calusius? How do you know th
at’s his name?”

  “Because he told me.”

  “It was just a dream, honey.” He brushed another kiss over the top of her head and she settled back more fully into his warmth.

  “It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt real.” She sighed, realizing how ridiculous she must sound to Royce. “He told me he was going to take the woman promised to him, and that he was going to take me back with him, too.”

  “Too much stress,” Royce told her, pulling her more tightly against him. “Go back to sleep. I’ve heard that you never dream the same thing twice.”

  “Not unless it’s a prophecy,” she mumbled.

  He brushed his hand over her cheek and she flinched.

  “What’s wrong with your face? It’s hot. Are you sick?” He turned her head and glanced down at her in the moonlight. His eyes widened. “You have a mark on your face. Did I hurt you earlier?”

  “What kind of a mark?” A chill ran down her spine and she tried to brush it off as nothing, even though she knew deep down inside that she was wrong.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it looks like fingers.” Royce brushed his fingertips over her cheekbone. She winced at the burning sensation his touch caused. “Right here. There are two distinct marks, bright red, like someone burned you with their fingers.”

  Aparasei. She’d heard that their touch burned flesh, but she’d always passed it off as legend. Now she knew the truth. She pulled out of Royce’s arms and jumped out of bed. She picked her small suitcase up from the floor and dropped it onto the bed, digging through it for something to wear. She grabbed a pair of khaki pants and a white tank top, pulling the clothes on over her underwear before searching for her shoes.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Royce asked as he climbed out of her bed.

  “I have to get out to that house. I can’t sit around and wait for him to come to me again.” She slipped into her mules, grabbed her gray hooded sweatshirt, and pulled it over her head. “I have to stop him before he hurts someone.”

  “What makes you think he’s going to hurt someone?”

  “The dream. Also, I sensed a lot of anger in him when I met him. It overpowered every other emotion. He told me he wanted what belonged to him. I assumed he meant a thing, but he didn’t. He meant a person, Royce. An innocent person. I’ve got to stop him before he does something.” She pulled open the door and stepped out in the hall. “You’d better call Wil.”

  “You think the Aparasei wants to hurt Wil?” He sounded incredulous.

  She snorted. “I said an innocent person, Royce. I have a funny feeling Wil is even less innocent than you, if that’s possible. I’m talking about the people around here who haven’t done anything but mind their own business. I have to stop the Aparasei before someone else gets killed.”

  “You can’t go alone.”

  She stopped and turned to him, her hands on her hips. “Why the hell not?”

  “Because it isn’t safe. Look at what happened the last time you went over their alone.”

  “I think I can handle myself.”

  “I don’t care. You’re not going alone. Not this time.” He stepped past her and into his room.

  She shot him a dirty look as she watched him pull on his sweatshirt and slip into his boots. “Who do you think you are? What makes you think you can tell me what to do? How can you possibly think you have the right to tell me how to act and where to go?”

  He stomped over to her and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her lightly. “Because I love you, that’s why.” Without giving her a chance to answer, he kissed her hard on the lips before he pushed past her out his bedroom door. “Go use the bathroom or whatever you women have to do when you wake up. I’m going to call Wil and I’ll meet you downstairs in five minutes.”

  “Royce—”

  “Downstairs. Five minutes.” He started down the back stairs before she could think of a good reply.

  She stood there, her fingers to her lips, thinking about what he’d said. He loved her? How could that be possible? He couldn’t love her. He couldn’t stand her. That thought shook her more than it had a right to. He was a vampire, damn it, he didn’t deserve a second thought. They had a fling! Nothing else. But she’d seen the truth in his eyes as he’d made his confession. He might not have meant to tell her, but he meant the sentiment behind the words. He loved her.

  She tried to shake off the giddy feeling, knowing it would only lead to heartache. So he loved her. So what? Who really cared?

  She did.

  Because she loved him, too.

  This was so bad. Terrible. How had she let this happen? She shook her head. Of course, she’d have to put a stop to this foolishness as soon as they’d taken care of the Aparasei. They were no good for each other. They couldn’t have a civilized conversation without being at each other’s throats. One of them would end up dead within a year. So she’d do the only thing she could do when this ended and it was time to go back home. She’d go, and she wouldn’t look back. He’d never have to know how much it would break her heart to do so, but they’d both be happier in the end.

  Pushing the mushy thoughts out of her mind, she used the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and went downstairs to meet Royce. “I’m all set,” she told him as she walked into the kitchen.

  He didn’t even meet her eyes. “Great. Let’s go.”

  “I called Wil,” he told her once they were in his car, his gaze still avoiding hers. “He’s going to meet us over there.”

  “Thank you.” She took a deep breath to steady herself before she continued. “About what you said earlier…”

  “We aren’t going to talk about that right now.” He turned the corner onto Magnolia Street and pulled the car up in front of the house. “We’ll talk about it later, when everything is over and we’re back home. Then we’re going to sit down and have a really long, meaningful talk.”

  She frowned at him. “I didn’t think you did long and meaningful.”

  “I didn’t. I’m considering changing my mind. Either that, or I’m losing it. That’s probably it. I’ve finally gone insane.” He got out of the car and slammed the door as Wil pulled up behind them. She followed him out of the car.

  Wil walked over to them. “Let me see your face.”

  She pushed the hair away from her cheekbone and he sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not a good thing.”

  “It looked worse before,” Royce told him, glancing first at Merida’s cheek and then at the house. “Do you think there’s any truth to her dream?”

  “Probably, judging from the burn on her face.” Wil’s expression darkened as he looked at Merida’s face.

  “Is there something you’re not telling me?” she asked him, suspicious at his behavior.

  He shook his head. “Nothing of importance. Let’s go inside.”

  The dank, vile-smelling darkness overwhelmed her when they walked through the door. She drew a shaky breath as images from her dream came back to her, and it was all she could do not to run back out the door. She hadn’t realized how much the Aparasei had frightened her until faced with his scent again.

  “It’s cold in here,” she said softly, closing her eyes against the flood of fear and emotions—none of them good. As she got control of herself, she noticed another scent in the air. She shook her head, thinking her imagination must have kicked into overdrive from the stress. “That’s not blood I smell, is it?”

  “Yes,” Royce whispered. “And it’s fresh.”

  “Shit,” Wil said.

  She could feel the two of them tense behind her. She reached for the wall switch and flipped on the lights. There, on the white kitchen wall next to them, a message had been written in blood.

  “‘Let fate take its course, or all three will die,’” she read softly.

  “Three?” Wil asked. “What the hell is this all about?”

  “It’s about us,” she whispered, her body chilled to the bone. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. “I know w
hat he’s saying. If you guys don’t let him take me back to the demonic plane with him, he’ll kill both of you.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Royce said, glancing around the room. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “I don’t know that you have much choice.” She ran a hand through her tangle of curls, slowly losing the battle with stress and nerves. She’d never dealt with a case this personal before. “I’ve got to figure out a way to defeat him before he hurts anyone else.”

  “You won’t be able to do anything about it,” Wil said, shaking his head.

  She balled her hands into fists at her sides and glared at him. “I’ve told you before that I can take care of myself.”

  “I know. But you’re missing a pretty big fact here.” He gently touched her cheek. “He marked you. Do you know what that means?”

  She blinked. “No. Should I?”

  “It means you can’t do anything to defeat him now. He’s bound you to him.”

  “What?” she and Royce asked at the same time.

  “It’s the truth. Once you’ve been marked by an Aparasei, you aren’t able to destroy one.”

  Merida narrowed her eyes at him. “How would you know that?”

  Wil shrugged. “I’ve learned a few things in my time.” He turned his back before she could ask any more questions, focusing his gaze toward the bloody wall. “What am I going to do about this? I can’t very well show this to my chief. Could you imagine his reaction to someone vandalizing the crime scene with blood?”

  “I’ll take care of it,” she told him.

  “What are you planning to do? Dig through the cabinets for a bottle of cleaner?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I have a much better way than manual labor.” She lifted her hand in the air and made a streaking motion. The blood melted off the wall and dissolved into the air, leaving no trace behind.

  Wil blinked. “What the hell was that?”

  “That’s nothing. Really. It didn’t even tax my energy a little.”