BEING JESSA’S FRIEND, my view of the world had two drastically different view points. Outside of the fairy princess gig, which taught me never to judge a book by its cover, she just had a way of making everything simply more fabulous.
In Violet’s ordinary world, I would have to go sit in a chair that had hopefully been wiped down this millennia just have my toes painted. In Jessa’s world, the salon simply came to us. Five people wheeled in five trunks of stuff into her living room and within hours of me waking up from a concussion and finding out my boyfriend was cheating on me, we had the Cleaners over with a team of manicurists, pedicurist, and hair stylists, complete with chairs and feet soakers.
Kurt stood behind me and flipped my hair. “What are we thinking?”
“Just a trim, an inch and if we could get a trim on my bangs,” I sighed. It was hard to even speak, especially about trivial matters like the style of a hair cut, when you’ve found that that your boyfriend had a witch in every port, or two, or seventeen.
Jessa laughed once. “She’ll take full layers and take three inches off the bottom, to allow for curl, and then I’m thinking some highlights.”
“In winter?” Kurt said.
“Why not?” Jessa arched an eyebrow.
I would have fought them. I hadn’t called the boys that day to get my daily debriefing. I needed to cement plans with Myers for the full moon, but the only man in my life that my thoughts seem to circle on was Chaz.
Well, if heavy is the head that wears the crown, then, at least, it can be a well coiffed one.
IT WAS THREE in the morning when the Cleaners and the Coiffeurs left. I had a fabulous hair cut, French tips that wouldn’t last two days, and cubic zirconas embedded on the violets painted on my toe nails.
Jessa had loaned me a pair of satin pajamas that hit me midcalf and we lay together staring up at the mirror above her bed. Of course there was a mirror above her bed.
“You really do have the perfect nails for French manicures. My hands are so tiny,” she made conversation as she checked her manicure.
I stopped her from the small talk. “What am I going to do, Jessa?”
The tears were dry. I’d run through at least every ounce of water in my body with two more outbursts during my hair session.
“I don’t know, Violet. I saw you and Chaz going the distance.”
“What?”
“You know, putting up a white picket fence around the town house.”
I sighed. “Don’t think that I could talk you into moving back East could I?”
“Not this time, honey. You’ve got some tethers now. And he’s the one who’s going to have to move. That’s got to be a bonus of the new Violet.”
“What?”
“When you take over Dallas, you can kick him out.”
I laughed. “That’s the best thought I’ve had all night.”
Jessa rolled over on her side. I mirrored her position to face her.
“You are going to be fine, Violet Jordan. We’ve done this before, and you came out better.”
Her rose scented power soothed all around me as it had all night, keeping me calm and doing anything stupid like calling him. “How can you be so sure? It didn’t seem like I was going to survive last time.”
“So dramatic,” she smiled. “You’re going to be fine because you’ve got me. You’ve got the mutts. And you’ve got Myers, who might prove to be a very good distraction.”
I grimaced.
“You’ve got people that love you and no power in the universe can change that.”
“Oh god, please. Don’t make it sound like a challenge. The universe will try to take you up on that.”
“They can bring it.”
Chapter Fourteen
I HAD TO ROLL up the windows of my car to hear Tucker’s phone call. Reminded me that I really needed to upgrade to power windows.
“Where are you?” he repeated.
“Driving to Waxahachie for Myers’s first full moon.”
“Oh.”
There was something else there and as I listened to his voice. “Did you want to come?”
“Well, it is our first full moon together.”
It was my turn for the quippy response of “Oh. Right.”
Tucker stumbled over his answer. “I mean . . . I understand that Myers needs to learn but . . .”
“What do you guys usually do for the full moon?”
“Me and Tyler can withstand the change and Nash is a hound dog, so, the worst that could happen is that he eats a shoe.”
In the background, I could hear Nash’s protest. “It was one time.”
Though I appreciated the humor, I couldn’t smile. I still couldn’t stop the shift under a full moon. The night before maybe. I might have a chance tonight, but in the past five months I could never resist the night of the full moon. Would that shake their faith in their Prima if they knew that? Was I the kind of Prima that would keep things like that from them?
The answer was a resounding no. It shuttered through me. Never. They needed to know the truth of their choice, see the struggles that they would, in time, help me overcome.
“Why don’t I text you guys the address and you can come if you want, but I should really have Myers alone for just one night.”
“I think we’d like that.”
“And you can meet Iris.”
“Are you sure?”
“What do you—” I stopped. I knew what he meant. He meant that because they were part of Haverty’s pack, if she would want to even look at them.
“She’ll have to make up her own mind about that, Tucker.”
He was silent. I could hear his steady breath on the other end of the line.
“I think we’d still like to be with you on the full moon.”
“Okay. If you’d like to garner some brownie points, she’s got a barn that needs working on.”
“Thank you, Violet.”
I hung up and tossed my cell phone in the passenger seat. I thought I needed the silent drive to Waxahachie to clear my head. To try to figure out what the plan was.
That wasn’t a good idea.
The only thing that I could think about was Chaz.
The only thing that I could see in my head was that blonde smothering him.
I had to stop myself from ripping off my steering wheel.
MYERS GOT IN later than I’d expected. I wanted to run through accessing his animal and maybe a little brushing that I hadn’t practiced in a while, but he showed up only thirty minutes before nightfall.
It didn’t help that I had arrived to a note from Iris saying that she would be at Bingo until nine that night.
“I am so sorry,” he said as he walked through the front door.
“What happened?”
“I didn’t know what to pack,” he said honestly.
I snorted. “Just put your bag upstairs.”
As I walked back into the kitchen, I took his chai scent with me. It was strong tonight, probably because the full moon was tomorrow night. Even I could feel it. Felt like I was trapped within the comforting four walls of Iris’s farm house. Of course this month, I had a few more reasons to need to get out of my skin for a while.
I fixed dinner. Well if you call warming up a meat lover’s pizza in Iris’s oven cooking.
I sat at the kitchen table and picked at the hole in her vinyl table cloth. This entire place reminded me of Chaz. Of sitting across the table from him. Chasing him around the barn. Our first game of Hide-and-Seek, when it was still just hide-and-seek.
I ran my fingers through my hair and my head hit the table. This weekend was going to suck.
WE SAT ON the porch waiting until the moon was just in the right spot. I’ve missed this part of Waxahachie. Just sitting and listening to the night, something that you can’t do in the inner cities. You can’t hear things running in the underbrush and smell scents from the trees and feel the crisp air run along your skin.
I looked over at Myers whose
leg was bouncing a mile a minute on the patio chair next to me.
“Nervous?”
He nodded quickly.
“But you’ve shifted before.”
“That’s not the only thing I’m nervous about.”
“Then what’s causing you to bounce at warp speed?”
He looked away from me, at the wooden slats in the porch. “I can’t shift with my clothes yet.”
I tried my best not to laugh. But I couldn’t help a smile. “Out of all the things that you could be nervous about, that’s what you’re thinking?”
He nodded.
“You could possibly leave a bunny on the doorstep and you’re worried about waking up naked?”
He opened his mouth but then closed it. He thought for a moment. “Bunnies?”
“It’s my burden.”
Myers finally cracked a little bit of a smile. If I had to hash the entire spectacle of the steak, then I would just to make him smile.
“Before my first shift, when I was still in denial of the whole thing, Jessa and I sat down for a steak three days before my first full moon. So I’m sitting there with this huge steak, prime stuff, and I took this huge bite because I was starving and I start chewing and I get this vision of a rabbit and the cat just jumped in started giving me flashes of meat and flesh and the smell of raw goodness. And I jumped up from the table and proceeded to completely throw up everything that I had eaten in three days.
“I don’t like bunnies anymore.”
Myers was smiling at me after the narration. He looked a little more relaxed, his shoulders lowered and his leg stopped bouncing.
“Did you write any of this into your movies?” he asked.
I wanted to say that I’d forgotten that he was a fan, but I hadn’t. I blushed. I’d never had fans before. Been pretty invisible through the whole process. It’s the nice thing about being a writer. Just out of the spot light. And frankly, lately, there had been a little too much spotlight.
“I think my favorite bad guy is the Juggernaut. Juxtaposed against the heroine. It was incredible. And then the . . .” he stopped.
I felt it too. His animal lurched forward and he put his hands on his knees. Myers took in a deep breath and licked his lips. I watched him and the way his Adam’s apple gulped when he realized what was pending.
Myers looked over at me now with more worry on his face then all the times combined. “I’m not so sure about this now.”
“What changed?”
“Now I’m going to wake up naked in front of famous writer.”
I just smiled. “You will not wake up naked because Iris told me about a little magic trick.”
“What? How?”
“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a magic trick would it?”
He smiled shyly and shook his head.
I rested my head on my hand and watched him. This was either going to be a spectacular success or an unmediated disaster.
Thank the stars that Iris would be here any minute to help me out.
I’D FORGOTTEN HOW tall he was until we stood shoulder to shoulder, barefoot on the front lawn. He was a good four inches taller than me.
“So how is this going to work?” he asked, almost a whisper that was carried to me on the soft breeze.
I kept my eye on the road from town. I had the distinct feeling that Iris was waiting until it was too late to come home. It was rounding out to ten p.m. and she still wasn’t here. I could just see her at some truck stop, sipping coffee just biding her time. “We are going to work on pulling out the animal, like when we ran, and I’m going to watch over you.”
“All night?”
I nodded. “All night. I’ll be by your side.”
He nodded.
“And if you really want to just shred the pants, that’s fine. We can buy you more tomorrow.”
Tension rippled across his pale bare shoulders. That had been another surprise when he left his T-shirt on the porch railing. The boy rippled in places a person who knows the entire canon of Star Wars shouldn’t ripple.
He looked down at me. “Have you ever found any reasoning why the clothes get ruined? If it is a magical shift, then why don’t the clothes shift with us?”
“They do, when you are very good. Iris can shift in anything and there won’t be a stitch out of place when she shifts back.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not that good yet. I’m convinced that the Warthog thing was just a fluke. Hence the workout wear,” I pulled at the tank top I usually kept for cleaning days only.
He gave me half a smile and then looked up at the very full moon.
“Ready?” I asked.
“No,” he answered honestly.
“Too bad.”
And I let down my shields, no sign of the Legacy anywhere. Exposed like this, I could feel him next to me, feel his animal ready, pacing. It made my skin tingle with anticipation and maybe something a little darker.
“You smell like cinnamon.” I inhaled the mystical scent of his animal. “Did you know that?”
“Is that like your magnolia?”
“Yeah. Just something unique to each person, like a finger print.”
He took in one more deep breath and closed his eyes. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” I walked through the steps slowly, watching his hands and shoulders relax, watching him lick his lips, being mindful of his cat. “Listened to your heart. Now, Listened to your other heart. Feel the potential waiting to be molded. Now, feel the panther within. Fur and muscle.”
His panther pounced forward and toward me. I was awash in spicy energy that poured over my skin like hot oil. One moment, Myers was stumbling toward me and the next, his long slinky panther was wrapping around my legs.
Hand to my chest, I was breathless but watched his long figure stretch in the moonlight. This was the first friendly panther that I’d seen in real life.
He looked regal as he sat down in the field surveying the property. As his yellow eyes locked on me, I knew that Myers wasn’t home. It was all instinct running there, and I probably looked like food.
He snarled and started toward me.
With a flick of my wrist, I snapped him on the nose with a tendril of energy, and he jerked away. I’d felt his nose on my fingers. It had worked just like it had worked at the zoo. I really could do this Shala thing.
I reached out with my power, like an extension of my hand and ran it down his back, his silky fur beneath my fingers. “This is cool.”
His wide head snapped toward mine as he moved deeper into the fields.
“If you insist.”
Three seconds later we were racing for the tree line.
Chapter Fifteen
I SAT IN THE kitchen staring at my cup of coffee. What had I done?
Last night had been fine, except for the black out. Black outs meant the cat took over and it had been a while since that happened.
Was it the stress? Was I just blowing off steam? I did feel better. I rolled my shoulders. My skin hummed, my hair looked amazing, and I’d had the best sleep I’d had in three months, no little blonde pricks making unwanted appearances.
Was it him? Myers? Had the unrestrained strength of his panther overcome me? Seduced my cat into recklessness.
I’d felt something similar with Haverty. The thought of him made my skin chill, but it was true, something about the familiarity of his cat just made me want to slink around him.
Maybe I was just making up excuses because I just like being with Myers. He was fun and young and looked at me differently than anyone had ever looked at me before. And god knew I needed a distraction right now.
Last night, he’d looked amazing. Long and lean, just like he was in his human form. A little skinnier than I liked. His eyes were luminous and he had stalked around me, rubbing up against my legs before I too succumb to the moon.
A shuffle in the door drew my attention from my dark brew.
Myers was standing in the doorframe with a sheet
wrapped around his waist held tightly there by a white knuckled fist. A strange silver medallion that I’d not seen before hung against his perfect chest.
“What happened?” he asked hurriedly.
I had to force my eyes from his abs, and their perfect six-pack-ness. When I opened my mouth to speak, I found my mouth a little dry. “Nothing. Everything was fine.”
“How’d I get in bed?”
“My secret, remember?”
He smiled and ran his hand through his hair that was going in all directions. It made every muscle down his side ripple in the morning light.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
“What? No coffee?”
“Coffee is not a good way to start the day.”
He smiled once more and then walked out of the kitchen, leaving me with two thoughts: (1) Where did the six-pack come from? and (2) Where was Iris and the pancakes that I usually awoke to?
Just about that time, I heard Iris rumble down the stairs like Chaz’s old Bronco.
“Finally.”
I watched as she hobbled across the kitchen and grabbed a coffee cup from the cabinet. I’d never been up before her. She’d always been up and at ’em way before I was.
“Do I need to scold you for getting in past curfew?” I asked as I watched her pour coffee. “Give you a good frowning?”
“Didn’t say where I went to Bingo,” she snapped back as she poured milk into her cup and joined me at the table.
“So why did you leave me with Myers last night?”
“You needed to do it by yourself. I’m not going to be around to clean up your messes forever.”
“This wasn’t my mess, Iris. And since when aren’t you always going to be a thorn in my side?”
Iris looked down into her coffee. Something was wrong. She was usually calling me hair ball by now.
“I’m not as powerful as I used to be. Had a heck of a time teaching that boy.”
“Nonsense. You used to knock me off my chair.”
Iris looked up at me and dropped her borders. The only way I could tell was the fragrance of dust and cashmere that floated around the room. It blew my hair over my shoulder but was nothing more than a warm breeze.
Claws and Effect Page 18
