Sadie's hands turned to fists as she watched them walk arm-in-arm to a red car. Looked expensive. Could she be any more textbook? Seriously blonde hair and expensive red car. Sadie scrunched her nose in disgust.
Meredith leaned against her car and pushed her hair off her shoulder. Sadie swore she looked right at her through the window. The female pulled Levi into her, her long fingers running through the back of his hair and she kissed him...deep...aggressive...wanton.
Sadie saw red.
Chapter Eight
Levi froze as Meredith's lips touched his. Her movements were feverish, almost desperate, pulling him to her, trying to encourage his lips to part. His zodiac mark burned so hotly it felt as if it were searing through his entire ribcage. Gently, but with purpose, Levi pushed her back, moving himself away from her. He didn't want to let her down hard, but he couldn't be with her like this. Before now, he hadn't even thought of Meredith as a possible sexual partner. Yes, she had worn revealing clothing around him and flirted a bit, but not enough to make him think she had wanted this so directly from him.
"Hey there, tiger..." Levi looked into her wide blue eyes. He smiled at her, hoping to show he wasn't upset with her. He should be, but he couldn't muster the emotion. She didn't know he was bonded to another, even if they had yet to follow the bonding path. She was merely human.
"Levi, please." Her lips pouted, and she batted her lashes.
"I can't right now. Please understand. This is not the time for such things, and I hope to keep our friendship intact." He lifted her chin. He could have sworn there was a sheen to her eyes as if he'd hurt her feelings, but she glanced away, back toward the house. Damn. Had Sadie watched the interaction? Levi resisted the urge to look over his shoulder. He would have to deal with it when he went back in.
"I'm good. Don't worry. Looks like you have your plate full anyways." Meredith’s voice came out in a pitiful whimper that grated on his nerves.
"Thanks for understanding, sweetheart." Levi would not let this interaction with a customer spoil the relationship. It was a mistake. That was all. Nothing more. He could let it go easily. "Now hop on in the car and come see me again when you’re ready for your next batch." He gave her a bright grin, hoping it showed more enthusiasm then he felt. The burning on his chest moved deeper, and he bit the inside of his cheek to control the pain.
Meredith rubbed against him as she slipped down to get in her car. To his surprise, his body didn't respond. Not even a flicker of interest below the waist.
"See you next time, handsome." Meredith didn't look at him as she opened the Corvette’s door and slid elegantly into the leather seat. He shut the door for her and stepped away as she turned the engine over. A sense of relief flooded him and yet apprehension as well. What kind of state would he find Sadie in? A tiny part of him thought about heading to his horse and riding along his land instead of going inside to face what he was sure would be a tornado. The invoked zodiac was enough to cause an emotional response, he could see her being jealous.
Meredith's tires spun out in his driveway as she took off. Levi let out a slow breath and turned to face his house. A house with an unknown entity about ready to either let loose or never forgive him. It was a kiss—one he did not reciprocate—but from a window what would it look like? He tried to picture it, and his gut twisted. If he’d witnessed Sadie doing what he’d just done with another male, Levi would probably be paying doctor’s bills for the guy—as well as replacing a window and maybe a door too. He'd need to handle this carefully. He wasn't sure about their bond yet; he hoped to get to know her a bit more see if they could make it work well, possibly come to love each other one day. By the gods, he hoped such a simple kiss had not ruined the start of their future.
Sadie wasn't looking out the window. His front door was still intact. Maybe she hadn't seen anything. But even as the thought occurred, he knew it wasn't true. While his Taurus mark no longer tried to sear his bones, the sting was still very present. As with all things, he'd see this one head on. She would have to understand. He ran a business. It wasn't like he could just be rude, but he let her down gently, she didn't seem too much worse for the wear and took the rejection rather well in his opinion. That would have to be enough for his bond mate. What if he found her half shifted on the floor again? Damn. Levi briskly walked to the door and flung it open.
Sadie wasn't there.
He heard a laugh from the back room and headed in that direction. When he silently walked through the hall and turned, Bastien and Sadie sat next to each other on the floor. What the hell was he doing so close to her? His inner bull raged, and he charged into the room seeing red. "What the hell are you doing?" His voice was gruff, deeper than he'd ever heard it, more animal sounding than man.
"Whoa there, buddy." Bastien's hands came up in surrender.
Levi reined in his beast and stood tall and as aggressively as he possibly could with his feet wide apart and muscles strained. She had laughed. That’s all. "I think...you should go, Bastien. My beast is...a bit overwhelming at the moment." Levi clenched his teeth together trying to calm himself enough to be civil.
"Yup. I'll just grab some grub, and we can discuss the animal later. I won't be staying long, so once you have control come find me in the kitchen." Bastien stood and glanced from Levi to Sadie and back. "Looks like you two might need some privacy." He winked at Levi and walked out of the spare bedroom.
When Levi’s gaze met Sadie’s, her look seared him. Anger pinched her lips. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a delicate eyebrow, no doubt ready for a fight.
"All done with blondie?" She sent him a fake smile and leaned back against the foot of the bed.
"Have fun with Bastien?" Levi retorted in the same tone.
"I didn't kiss him."
She had him there. Damn female. "I didn't kiss Meredith. She kissed me."
"I bet you say that to all the girls." Sadie leaned forward. The angry words flew from her mouth and stung. There was real hurt in her eyes
Instead of causing a fight, Levi licked his lips and took a steadying breath. "I'm not going to argue with you on this. We barely know each other, and the bond will take some getting used to. You know, the whole having you in my home and invoked zodiac symbols? It's new for me. I generally live alone and do most things alone." Her eyes softened and he relaxed a little, crisscrossing his legs and sitting in front of her on the floor. "The bond is going to create strong emotions whether we make the full pairing or not, and I'm very aware we both have been avoiding the subject." He smiled, hoping to lighten the mood a bit and distract himself from wanting to kiss her. To claim her as his. Her frown continued but she looked less ticked off than before. He'd take that as a win. "Let's start over, can we agree to that?" Levi put his hand out and said, "I'm Levi and I'm Taurus. I like my alone time, my horse, and working with my hands."
Sadie glanced down at his hand. She hesitated before shyly slipping her warm, fair-skinned palm into his. A spark ignited inside Levi. His body responded, coming to life, his erection pressing against his pants. She seemed timid, not at ease here, and spookable. It should have stopped him from leaning over to her.
But it didn't.
He kept his eyes open as his mouth found hers. He wanted the taste of Meredith out of his mouth. He wanted Sadie to know he hadn't really reacted to the other female.
Sadie tensed at first, but Levi coaxed her lips apart with his tongue, tasting a spicy pepper as if she'd eaten some of the deer already. Then she melted into him, and he knew he would be forgiven. She pulled back too soon. As her mouth left his Levi resisted pulling her back to him, even as his beast urged him to do more.
She cleared her throat. "Sadie. Capricorn. I love my mountain home and I'm good at healing people. I hate it when people stare at my horns." She looked up at him with a determined glint in her eye, as if daring him to say something about them. Levi would not fall into that trap. He didn't look, he held her gaze instead.
Levi rubbed hi
s thumb along the side of her hand and said, "Good to meet you. Now let's get you up, maybe some food, and I'll start working on your potion again after Bastien and I sort out some stuff. It’s taken a couple tries to get the right ingredients."
"He's helping you track something, right?" She pulled her hand free first and stood.
Levi followed. "Dead animals showing up on my land. I'm going to be in and out a lot trying to deal with this situation." Sadie headed toward the hall. The tight sweats showing off her firm backside didn't help his suddenly growing need. His erection pressed harder against his pants, and he adjusted himself while her back was turned. He watched the sway of her hips all the way out to the kitchen.
"Things good?" Bastien asked with a mouth full of food.
Levi nodded. "Bastien, let's head to my lab. Bring your food. Between my brain and your sniffer, I think we can drum us up a chameleon animal killer." Besides a little time away from Sadie would do him good.
Chapter Nine
Levi rubbed his eyes and stretched. Bastien had left hours ago after they debated ways to catch the chameleon. Bastien left his cell number if Levi needed more assistance. Levi glanced over at the rose quartz under the UV light. It would normally take days to infuse herbs into the quartz like this without magic, but Levi was Khimairan, and magic happened to be part of what made him special. He had already breathed a spell over the herbs, entwining his internal magic, pulling it out of his soul and strengthening the bond between the material objects. The quartz would be done in a few moments. Then he could carefully break pieces off and place them around his pastures and outside his house. The first step, UV light mixing with his Khimairan magic, would ensure a true cured state, keeping all the elements intact for a week before he would have to make a new batch. Hopefully, the killer showed themselves so he didn't have to do this again. The herbs for the crystal boiled in a beaker to his right, giving off a sage aroma.
On the desk in front of him was a vial of oil he'd started earlier for Sadie. Instead of a drinking potion like he'd given others, he made an ointment of herb-infused oil, mixing magics with a belladonna tincture and maca to rub on her horns which, in theory, would be absorbed into her system, hopefully balancing her mixed shifting as well. He had already started her shifting potion using the maca since maca adapts to the hormones inside the body. He'd need to get some black cohosh from the garden to start infusing into the potion. Generally, he used it to help humans with menopause and hot flashes. He figured her shifting might be a sort of "hot flash" for shifters. It wouldn't hurt her to try it. Once he learned more about her habits, he'd figure out the rest of the ingredients for her to try as a liquid potion. He could revise the ingredients and proportions as they went along.
Levi put a cork in the top of the glass vial containing the oil, added an instruction label to the container, and carefully tucked it into his shirt pocket. He always used glass. Plastic could affect the actual makeup of potions and oils if they sat for any extended period of time. He'd already written down the ingredients for Sadie's potion in his spell journal.
Levi pushed the chair out and squeaked as he stood. Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced at the clock. Damn. Nearly four in the morning. He'd been so wrapped up in his work, he'd lost track of time. He'd need a pick me up to get through the day. Levi shuffled over to his personal cabinet, the one he kept only his personal potions, and opened the lock. He thumbed through the vials of semi-full potions and activated charcoal until he found what he was looking for. His revitalize vial was better than any energy drink and had zero side effects. He'd tailored it to his specific body chemistry. Levi popped the top and downed the purple liquid. It gained its color from the beetroot he mixed with Ginkgo biloba and schizandra berry, along with his own DNA magic. He closed his eyes and let the energy run through him, like a rush. Once he opened his eyes it was as if he'd slept a full eight hours. Even though the potion itself had no side effects, the actual state of sleeping was needed so he couldn't just take vial after vial and never enter REM sleep. But it worked until he could actually lie down.
A soft whistle came from his desk area. Levi walked over and turned off the fire under the beaker full of herbs. He grabbed the hot pad on the desk, pulled the beaker from its metal hook, and poured the contents over a strainer dish, the infused water slipped into another metal beaker below. He worked quickly as the heat from the liquid had an unstable effect when poured over the crystal if he didn't get just the right temperature. The glass clouded with the heat. Levi gave the liquid a slight puff of air to cool it down and then slowly began pouring it over the crystal.
Snap.
"Damnit!" The crystal broke at the top. He'd have to start all over again. He would have broken the crystal into shards eventually, but he needed it intact until the infused liquid adapted to the crystal and adhered to it with the UV lighting and magic. He’d needed only minutes for the effect to take place and then he could have had the whole damn thing done. Levi carefully set the beaker down, not wanting to break the glass. He would need to go out to the garden to get more sage. Dry it via magic, and then start the process with another crystal. On the plus side, he had more quartz and sage.
Levi headed out of the lab, rubbing his hands along his face. He needed coffee if this was how the day intended to go. As he passed the kitchen, he turned on the coffee pot, then headed down the hall to Sadie's room. He might as well drop the oil off on his way out. The bedroom door had been left open, and Levi’s mark warmed as he entered Sadie’s vicinity. A small lump bulged from the bed. He tiptoed into the room and left the vial on the bedside table, trying not to let his gaze wander to the sleeping female...or crawl into the bed next to her as his inner beast suggested.
Sadie moaned, and the sound went straight to his groin. His body reacted intensely to the soft murmur, and he froze. Her legs slid under the covers, the kind of slinky sound flesh makes against slick sheets, and he pictured her legs spreading for him. He balled his hands into fists and forced himself to turn around. He headed for the coffee pot with a deep exhalation. He would never take advantage of someone...his inner beast snorted at him. The bull ready to take on the little goat.
The gurgling pot was just coming to a dripping halt when Levi entered the kitchen. He pulled the carafe from the machine before it even finished, and the liquid sizzled on the warming plate. He poured the black coffee into the cup he always had sitting beside the pot and took a sip. It burned the tip of his tongue, but he didn't mind. The hot, bitter liquid always hit just the right spot whether he'd slept or not. He adjusted the throbbing member between his legs and tried to think about what he needed to get done instead of the sassy little thing asleep a room and hallway away.
Before today ended, he and Sadie needed to bond or decide not to bond. It wasn't healthy to leave things up in the air like this. His beast was getting restless, his body responding. The more time she spent under his roof, the harder it would be to let go if she didn't want him. Despite the female’s worry over her horns, Levi found them quite endearing. A little cumbersome he supposed, but she seemed to handle herself well. She never managed to run into anything with them. Technically she should have caught them on door jams going in and out of the house and room. She either had a really great sense of her horns and surroundings, or her inside goat took over somehow and kept her from running into things. He'd seen goats on the tiny edges of mountain sides. If horns caught on anything, he suspected the goat wouldn't be hanging out long.
Levi downed what was left in his cup and headed for the front door. He needed to work on the horse’s stall, get him some hay, check the water, visit the garden for herbs, and then the sun should be high enough to wander down his land to see if the chameleon had left him any other dead bodies.
As he swung the front door open, the familiar voided space hung in the air, an absence, and goosebumps slid down his arms. A whiff of copper made him look down. In the light of the house, he caught a red shine. Levi leaned down to take a closer look.
A half-frozen animal heart lay on his front porch.
Chapter Ten
The morning sun kissed Sadie's forehead, and she stretched, yawning as her arms widened and her back arched along the bed. She kicked the blankets off her bare legs, thankful she hadn’t shifted into some half creature again in her sleep. She pushed herself up and spotted something shining on the bedside table. Sadie reached for a glass vial with a pinkish liquid inside, filled about half full. She turned the bottle sideways to read the inscription. Put one to two drops on each horn. This must be from Levi. Sadie's heart sped up. Would it really make her horns disappear? Or seem to disappear...that’s what he'd said...
First, she'd take a shower. She felt a bit grimy, and her hair needed a good wash. Then she'd apply the oil and see what happened. It was as if she was unwrapping a new healing agent to use, only it would be on her instead of someone else. For some, the giddy feeling of fulfillment comes with crafts or working out or even just buying something new, but not Sadie. Science and healing made her heart race with that brand-new feeling.
In the bathroom, Sadie flipped the nozzles to adjust the water temperature and pulled the little lever, making the shower come to life. A hefty bit of steam wafted up from the bathtub. Sadie quickly slipped out of her nightgown and stepped under the warm drops of water. She washed, shaved her pits, and rinsed off, careful her horns didn't scrape along the top of the shower. She was a guest and didn’t want to have to repair any damage to his bathroom. Her horns were long—not so long they touched the ceiling, but they could do damage to cabinets, door jams, shower rods, and the like. She tried to always be mindful of where her horns might be. It was second nature though, most of the time. Sadie turned the nozzles off and slid the shower curtain aside. Steam floated off her as she stepped out and began toweling off. She had two more sets of clothes with her. She’d need to do some laundry soon. She hurried through drying her hair with the towel, slipping on her black lace panties and bra set and wiping the mirror off so she could see.
Unraveled: A Zodiac Shifters Paranormal Romance: Capricorn (Dark Khimairans Book 2) Page 5
