“What is it?” Graham asked her. “Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
He cringed, wondering what he might have missed during the moments he’d been under Violet’s spell. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I just saw the guy I happen to care a lot about getting screwed over by a chick who’s supposed to be his sister. So, no. I’m not okay. I’m a little bit angry about the whole thing.”
Graham’s tension relaxed the smallest amount, which was just enough to release the tautness in his mouth. He thought he might even be smiling, despite everything.
“And I’m sure as hell not going to leave him alone to explain everything to the police.” She crossed her arms in a gesture that was all wonderfully stubborn Chloe.
Graham thought he might be in love with her. “Are you sure?” he asked. “We don’t know how all this will play out, and if you stay, you’ll be putting yourself at risk.”
“Screw the risk. I’m not leaving you,” she said. “You came through for me with the fashion show. Consider this my way of paying you back.”
He knew he was smiling now.
“Besides,” she added, “you’re a crappy liar, and I already have experience with these types of situations.”
“These types of situations?” Graham asked.
“Smoothing things over with the cops…explaining away all the supernatural glitches. That sort of thing comes easy. Just follow my lead, and we’ll get out of this without anyone suspecting any freakish powers took place.”
Graham raised his eyebrows. “Another of your many talents, I guess.”
She lifted her chin.
He glanced over to see Jade and Logan leaving through the door on the roof. He released a sigh. One glance back at Chloe, and thankfulness sprung up in his chest. She wasn’t leaving him, despite his insistence that she should. Her arms were still crossed, and her jaw was set, but her eyes were soft. The moonlight made them seem to glow a pale turquoise hue. “Zounds, you have no idea how much I love your stubbornness,” he muttered.
Her lip quirked in a grin. “Whoa there, cowboy. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I promised you one date.”
But the feeling grew inside Graham, and tears pooled in his eyes. He thought of Chloe on that ledge, moments from jumping. She’d almost died, and it was all because of him. He shook his head, willing the moisture out of his eyes. “You came here because of me. You shouldn’t have been involved, but you were, and she almost—” He couldn’t finish the thought, and he couldn’t resist the urge any longer. He threw his arms around Chloe and pulled her in close.
Graham buried his face in her hair and smelled the wind there, which only made the ache inside him grow. His fingers clawed her closer. He couldn’t pull away, not even to consider whether he might be crushing her windpipe.
After a moment he felt her arms coil around him too. He breathed a long, shaky breath, wishing he could absorb her body into his own. After several minutes, he finally released her.
When they parted, her face had softened, and her eyes had a moist glow. Her hands reached to cup his face in them, and she seemed to be drinking in his eyes the way he’d done with hers only moments ago.
“Oh, hell. Screw it,” she said. Pulling his face toward her, she put her mouth to his and kissed him.
~
Jade helped Logan into her car. Her head was jumbled with his feelings, and his usual inner composure was shot after all he’d been through. Disorientation reigned, but other emotions cropped up, along with them anger, resentment, and an ache that was almost saccharine. She thought it was relief from being free after so long.
His dark brows were pulled down, his eyes sunken and bloodshot, and dark purple blotches covered the right half of his face. He hadn’t said a word since she’d helped him away from Violet’s condo, and Jade worried that something serious might be wrong. If only she could take away some of his inner torment.
Maybe she could. She thought about what had happened with Graham after Violet went over the edge. He’d been near hysterics, hyperventilating from the shock of seeing his sister that way. Jade had touched his arm and pulled all the calm she could muster in hopes of insulating him from the shock. And it had seemed to work. He’d immediately slowed his breathing and calmed down. Maybe all her practice was starting to pay off.
Jade stared ahead through her windshield but didn’t start the car yet. To pull in the calm, she closed her eyes and went to the same place she had for Graham. She thought about the fact that Logan was safe and that he was free of Violet’s clutches. He was alive, and she could no longer control him. It was enough to bring Jade the feeling she needed. The calm grew inside her chest and spread outward, making Logan’s emotions dissipate.
When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her.
“Are you….” he began.
She nodded. “Tell me if it’s too much. Or if you want me to stop.”
“No.” He blinked, and relief washed his face, pure this time, with no lingering dark feelings to taint it. “It’s potent,” he said.
Though Jade was aching to place a hand on his arm or touch his shoulder or link her fingers through his, she didn’t. “Are you okay? I mean, I know you’re hurt, and I’ll get you to the hospital as fast as I can. But…” Jade swallowed, forcing herself not to imagine all Violet might have done to him. Her calm flickered for a moment. She regained control. “How are you doing?” She searched his face for signs that went deeper than his bruised skin.
He swallowed, and it looked like an effort. “I’ll be okay,” he said.
She hesitated a moment, knowing there were things he wasn’t sharing. There had to be so much more. But she nodded and started the car. It was his business if he didn’t want to tell. She just needed to get his wounds addressed. They were friends at best, and she wouldn’t push him.
“Jade,” he said as she pulled onto the street. “Can we—”
She arched a brow at him as she drove.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital.”
“But you’re hurt.”
“I’m not bleeding. I’m exhausted more than anything. My face can take a few steaks from my freezer. Would you just take me home?”
She thought about arguing, about suggesting he get looked over at least. But the expression on his face made her reconsider. “Okay.”
The drive was silent and felt longer than the twenty minutes it took to get to his small cabin. Exhaustion crept into Jade’s limbs, and only when she pulled up the gravel drive and parked the vehicle did she notice the clock on her dashboard. It was four-thirty in the morning. No wonder she was so tired.
“I’ll help you get inside,” she said, coming around the car. But he’d already exited before she could meet him at the passenger door.
At the front door, he fumbled with his key but managed to unlock it.
Jade bit her lip, trying to think of how to tell him goodbye.
His golden eyes locked onto hers. “Will you come in? I know it’s late, but…I’d like to talk for a bit. If that’s okay.”
“Of course.” An odd feeling stirred inside Jade, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. Her calm had slowly ebbed away on the ride, and she decided to let it slip altogether. The idea of hijacking anyone’s feelings for long never appealed to her.
Inside, Jade expected Logan to ease into his recliner, but instead, he took a seat on the sofa.
“I’ll get you some ice,” she said. “Be right back.”
He gave her a reluctant look but didn’t answer. She hurried into the kitchen where she dumped some ice into a couple of plastic bags. Back in the living room, she handed them to him. “You can save your steaks for another day.”
He attempted a smile, which translated into a pained grimace.
She stood over him, hesitating. “Do you need anything else? Something to drink or…?”
His hand caught her around the wrist. “Come sit with me.”
“Okay.” She sank next to hi
m, and he released her hand. He held an ice pack up to his face.
“Logan, I’m so sorry,” she said.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” he said.
“I just…” she sighed. “If I’d only figured out sooner what she was doing to you. I just thought you…”
His brow furrowed. “You thought I what?”
“That you wanted to be with her.”
“What? How could you think that for even a minute?”
“What you said about her back in your office…the fact that you two had dated before. And how quickly you got over our break up.”
“First of all, Violet and I never dated. I was her professor, and she was my student. I let things slip too far until we fell into an awkward…and somewhat inappropriate…friendship. But that’s all it ever was, and eventually I cut that off, too. Or tried to, when I moved here from Boulder. And secondly, I’m still not over the breakup.”
Jade stared at him, not sure if she’d heard those words right. He’d recovered enough to tamp down his feelings, so she wasn’t getting any internal clues. Then she remembered something. “You kissed her. That’s what she said, and you didn’t deny it.”
“Last summer when I was camping we ran into each other—completely by chance. She came on to me. I got away as fast as I could, and I wasn’t exactly nice about it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to dissuade her. I found out later she was stalking me and leaving notes in my truck.”
Jade’s eyes widened.
“One of the doors doesn’t lock properly,” he explained. “Anyway, as you probably heard when we were on the roof, she hid in my truck. I had to shove her off me when she tried to force herself onto me—again. That time I left her stranded on the side of the road.”
“When was that?”
“It was on my way to Pueblo.”
“When I was going after Kelsey?”
He nodded.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jade asked.
“I didn’t want to complicate things between us,” Logan said. “We’d already had a disagreement about the Kelsey thing, and I just wanted to keep the peace.”
“You should’ve told me.”
“I know.”
“And about the kiss, too.”
“But that happened before you and I were together. I didn’t see how it could be relevant to us at all.”
“I guess I understand that,” Jade said. “But I still wish I’d known.”
“Well, obviously not telling you was a bad decision. I just never expected Violet to come after you or to drag that up as fuel for an argument between us.”
Jade thought about everything that had transpired in the last year. “So you left Violet on the highway, and she got hit by a car?”
“Apparently. I had no idea about any of that until today.”
“That explains her grudge. I wonder if that’s how she got her enchanting ability?”
“Enchanting?”
“That’s what Graham and I call it,” Jade said.
“Sounds accurate enough.” Logan’s lips twisted bitterly.
“What’s it like to be controlled by her?” Jade asked. “You remember it?”
“Wish I didn’t.” He shook his head. “It’s like living a lie. It’s like your whole world revolves around her.” He shuddered.
“That’s what Graham said too.”
“So who is this Graham character?” Logan asked. “I saw him come to Violet’s this afternoon.”
“He’s her brother.”
Logan’s brows shot up. “Seriously? How’d you run into him?”
“He works at the bookstore,” Jade said. “He’s an English major at Colorado College too.”
“Really.”
She nodded. “We’ve been friends for a few weeks now, and I only recently found out he was related to Violet. Together we learned about her power. When I thought she might be influencing you, we started searching everywhere for her.”
“And how in the world did you think to check the roof?”
“Graham’s special, too,” Jade said. “He has these dreams…he can see things.”
“What kind of things?” Logan asked.
“He had some sort of connection to Violet. He could see through her mind’s eye and watch what she was doing. But only sometimes, and he couldn’t influence any of it.”
“Wow, that’s strange,” Logan said, and the irony caught Jade.
“Right? But all of us are totally normal.”
He cracked a small grin at that. “Okay, you got me there. So Graham saw us on the roof in a dream?”
Jade nodded.
“Well, I’m glad he did. I just wish you didn’t have to get involved in all of it.”
Jade wasn’t sure whether to apologize or argue with him.
Logan gave a deep, shaky sigh. He let the ice pack slip to the sofa and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
“It’s been a long night,” Jade said. “I should let you get some rest.”
“It’s been a long month,” Logan said.
Jade started to rise, but Logan put an arm across her legs.
“Wait,” he said.
She cocked her head at him.
“Jade, when I asked to talk, I didn’t mean about all this.”
“Okay. Then what?”
He looked down at his lap, where his hands fiddled with the slowly melting ice packs. Finally, his eyes met hers again. “I know you broke things off and that you got really mad when I tried to bring it up afterward.” He hesitated. “But I wanted to talk about it again. About us.”
Trepidation rose up in Jade, but it swirled with another feeling: hope. That made things so much harder. She bit her lip. “I don’t….”
“Are you really over everything so easily? If you are, just tell me. Don’t spare my feelings.”
“I’m not.” Her voice was as thin as a sheet of ice. “Of course I’m not.”
For a moment his tangible relief flooded her, luring her into its narcotic waters. Then he reeled it in, and her head was clear again. But his hand took hers, and the warmth of his touch radiated through her, calling back all the memories of what it was like to be with him.
“Then can we try again?” he asked.
“But my empathic—”
“Your ability’s still there, and it’s something we’d have to deal with. But I think we can. You’re getting better at controlling it. And I can just keep my hair short for a while—or forever—if that’s what you need. I would never risk hurting you with my strength again.”
Jade considered Logan’s words. “I am starting to tap into my ability more. It’s far from perfected, but I’ve been practicing. Graham’s been helping me.”
“Really.” Logan’s head bobbed. “Interesting. It must be working, then.”
“It’s not easy,” she said. “Or simple. But I’ve figured out one thing about it.”
“What’s that?”
“I have to find a trigger and clamp down tight.”
He frowned. “What exactly does that mean?”
“Well, I guess before I always just pushed away any feelings. I hated those foreign sensations in my head, so I tried to shrink away. But to influence others, I have to find the strongest feelings I can and pull them into me.”
“So it’s the opposite.”
She nodded.
“You seemed to have control tonight. With Violet and with me.”
“If I can summon the right feeling, it’s downhill from there. The hardest part is finding those trigger emotions in the first place.”
“That’s great, Jade. It’s amazing.”
“I’ve come a long way.”
“So don’t stop now.” He squeezed her hand.
The hope inside her began to displace the trepidation. Was she stable enough to try a relationship again? Looking at his deep eyes made her ache inside. She wanted more than anything to be a part of his life again. He was right—practicing with Graham had helped. Befor
e all this, she’d just tried to avoid other people’s emotions whenever possible. That hadn’t given her the opportunity to grow. But through everything—the stalking, the abductions, and especially all her new friends—Jade had changed. She’d evolved to a new version of herself. One that didn’t live life in fear or hiding. Now she saw the world, not through the lens of fear but through glasses that let in all the bright hopefulness. And it was everywhere.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s try it.”
Before she could speak another word, Logan pulled her into his arms and gripped her with the strength of a man who was not super-human, but whose need for her was.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
She swallowed the lump that had lodged in her throat. “I love you.”
He pulled back just enough to allow his lips to drink her in. The kiss erased the last tiny morsel of Jade’s trepidation, and she sank into him.
Two weeks later
When Logan’s truck stopped in front of the entrance to the hospital, Jade hesitated before climbing out. “Thanks for dropping me off.” There was so much she was thankful for these days.
“Sure. Although sometimes trying to be a gentleman comes with a price.” The corner of his mouth crooked up in a wry grin.
“Why’s that?”
“I won’t get to see you all weekend. That’s a pretty big sacrifice on my end. I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t driven you here.”
“Just consider it the downside of me being in control of my ability.”
“I never thought there’d be one,” he said. “But I guess you’re right. Now I have to share you with your mom.”
“I’ve barely seen my parents in the last few months, with everything that happened with Violet. And since then Dad’s been so busy at work trying to make up for lost time….”
“At least you’ve gotten to see your mom more.” Logan shook his head, and his eyes glowed with what Jade thought was pride. “The way you’ve been able to help her is nothing short of amazing.”
She couldn’t help but beam. “I never thought I’d be able to survive long bouts in a hospital, let alone actually control my empathic sense while I’m there. Practicing with Graham really helped.”
Enchanter: The Flawed Series Book Four Page 29
