by Jory Strong
Her heart pounded a little harder and she turned her wrist over to touch the apple. Her mouth went dry as she remembered the encounter with the old man at the supernatural fair.
He’d once been tall, or at least she imagined he had been, before the pronounced hump in his spine stole inches away. His hair was a shock of white, standing upright as if he’d tugged it outward with his hands. And his face was lined, by hardship she’d thought, after he captured her attention by calling, “Pretty lady, I have something that belongs to you.”
Curious, she’d gone to his booth, leaving Ace to look over a collection of tarot cards.
“What do you have that belongs to me?” she’d asked, despite suspecting the old man of using a clever sales pitch.
None of the charms on display were very expensive. Truthfully, they looked like he’d rummaged through junk left out on the street for the garbage collector, or bought the jewelry cheap at a thrift shop for resale at the supernatural fair.
He reached beneath the table and lifted a gnarled, silver tree that looked like a homemade jewelry holder. Dangling from a limb was the translucent green apple.
For some reason, the charm had made her think of plunging waterfalls and serene lakes set high in the mountains, not that she had personal experience with either waterfalls or mountain lakes.
“The charms on the table, they’re for anyone to buy,” he’d said in a low voice. “This charm is different, special. It picked you to see it home, and so I called you over.”
Skeptical, but also intrigued, she’d asked, “How do you know it picked me?”
His gaze met hers and she’d expected to see a twinkle there, but the eyes looking back at her were somber. “There’s a knowing, a connection my family has possessed for generations.”
He’d tilted the tree-shaped jewelry holder and she’d reached out, hesitating before lifting the charm off the silver branch and placing it on her palm. It’d felt warm, but not magical, though if pressed, she probably couldn’t actually define what magical felt like.
“What does it do?”
He’d returned the jewelry holder to its out-of-sight place beneath the table. “I can’t tell you until you accept the charm, and the responsibility that comes with its possession.”
She’d glanced up, feeling wary, as if his words hinted at danger, but… the charm, though it was pretty, didn’t seem extraordinary.
“Do you accept?” he’d asked, holding her gaze, a certain… Not desperation, but intense resolve in his eyes.
Maybe he’s superstitious, she’d thought, and taken a chance, asking, “How much?”
“Whatever you wish to pay.”
When she would have returned it to him so she could remove her wallet from her purse, he’d halted her with an upraised hand. “Please, allow me to put it on your bracelet.”
He’d done just that and the apple-shaped charm had seemed to disappear among the multitude of charms on her wrist.
She’d opened her purse and then her billfold. She’d had twenty-three dollars, total. And that’s what she’d handed to the old man.
After he’d pocketed the bills, he’d said, “The charm is where it wants to be,” and there was no mistaking the relief in his voice.
“What does the charm do?” Now that she was in official possession, there was no way she was going to let him get away without telling her.
He reached beneath the table and she expected to see the silver, tree-shaped jewelry holder. Instead, he lifted a fisted hand.
“There’s a companion charm,” he said, opening his hand to reveal a gnarled, tree-shaped charm that looked like a miniature version of the hand-crafted silver jewelry holder, except it was made from a deep brown crystal with hints of green the color of dark moss.
He’d pulled a cloth from a worn shirt pocket and wrapped the small tree in it before handing it to her. “Hurry home. Do not carry them both at the same time any longer than necessary. And never wear them at the same time or you’ll attract harm.”
A shiver of uneasiness had passed through her then and it passed through her now, her heart beating harder and harder as she searched the jewelry drawer for the tree-shaped charm.
She lifted each charm individually, her hands moving faster and faster as she worked from the front of the drawer toward the back. Not there. Not there. Not there.
“Both charms must remain in your possession,” the old man had said, urgency in his voice. “Together the charms will open the doors to a journey of discovery. They will lead you to a deeper understanding of the world and the mate meant for you. Care for the charms and you will have the wedding you’ve dreamed of since you were young.”
Had she put the second charm in the drawer?
Yes. Of course she had. She specifically remembered putting it there when she’d come home from the All Things Supernatural Fair.
But had she seen it since then? When was the last time she’d seen it?
She couldn’t actually picture it. But she must have seen it, right?
Closing the drawer, she dropped to her knee to check under the dresser. Light glinted off something a few inches from where her knee touched the carpet.
“Found you,” she said, scooping up the charm.
A relieved laugh escaped, and with that relief came the suspicion that her overactive imagination was responsible for the last several minutes of drama.
It was a good thing she’d said yes to Sabra. If she stayed in her apartment, she’d probably start hearing and seeing things.
She studied the tree-shaped charm. There were tiny symbols carved onto the trunk and limbs, but when she’d researched them online, she hadn’t found any useful information.
Would possession of the two charms really lead to the perfect mate? To a dream wedding?
And how had the old man known she’d been planning her wedding since high school?
Or had that been a lucky guess on his part?
But if it had been, why add the ominous warning about not wearing the charms at the same time or she’d attract harm? Why add a final warning before he’d begun packing up his booth, as if selling the rest of his wares no longer mattered now that she was in possession of the two charms?
Do not let the charms come to the attention of agents from Supernatural Ops. If you do, they will be confiscated. They will disappear into the IRE vaults and your chance at happiness with your true mate will disappear along with the charms.
Shaking her head, Analia stood and placed the charm back in the dresser drawer, making room for it in the front, righthand corner so she knew exactly where it was and could picture it in her mind.
“Now stay put,” she told it, laughing at her flight of fantasy. “I’m going out for the evening. And who knows, maybe tonight’s the night I’ll meet my perfect match.”
* * *
Kellen entered the club, immediately encountering a pair of blonds who stripped him visually. With their gazes, they peeled off his clothes, eyes lingering at the front of his jeans then on his chest, his mouth, his eyes—before dropping once again to his crotch.
Lips painted a slick, glossy red parted at the same time, as if the two women had practiced synchronizing their carnal invitation in front of a mirror before coming to Stones.
He considered taking them up on their offer. A subtle nod and he’d be heading right back out the door with a blond on each arm. They’d do for round one, and he would make good on his promise to his sire by enjoying multiple women tonight. But, what was the hurry?
They wouldn’t be the last to offer themselves to him. In fact, he fully anticipated accidentally running into Deidra at some point in the evening if he stayed out in it long enough.
The blond with the slightly larger boobs licked her lips again with a slow swipe before lifting her eyes and meeting his gaze. His cock twitched, but didn’t demand a response to the woman’s invitation. Not all that surprising. Human women were easy.
He flicked a half smile in the woman’s direction witho
ut promising anything in it, then, as a courtesy, offered an identical smile to her companion. Perhaps later tonight he’d take them up on their offer of a threesome.
Passing them, he headed to the table where Crew and Gaige were already seated, beer bottles accumulating in front of them.
Supernatural metabolism made it hard to get inebriated, but Kellen did appreciate the human creation of alcoholic drinks. He dropped into a chair across from Gaige, who pushed a bottle of micro-brewed beer toward him. “Want to talk about it? Whatever had our fearless leader in a ball-busting mood?”
“My sire.”
“Ah, he showed up at headquarters to deliver the you need to take a mate talk.”
“That’s the one.”
“I get it regularly,” Gaige said.
Crew snorted, the tiniest hint of smoke emerging from his nostrils. “As do I.”
He would, given that he was the scion of one of the most powerful families in the dragon realm.
“I’m surprised you fight it,” Kellen said. “According to Taine, a mate is the greatest treasure of all.”
Another hint of smoke drifted from Crew’s nostrils. “And look where that belief has gotten him, shackled to a human female and vulnerable in this realm because of her mortality.”
“Plus he’s missing all of this,” Gaige said, a sweep of his hand indicating more than one woman sending an invitation their way with the flip of hair and thrust of breasts.
“True,” Crew said, tilting his beer bottle toward the center of the table in the offer of a toast. “To freedom.”
Kellen picked up the micro-brew, clinked bottle to bottle, touching Crew’s raised bottle and then Gaige’s. “To freedom.”
A blond from a nearby table broke away from her friends and approached. “Celebrating something?” she asked when she reached their table, her voice indicating she’d be more than happy to help any one of them celebrate privately.
Their lack of interest in the offer sent her away, though she was followed by another woman, and another, and another.
Kellen considered each of them objectively. Concluded that any one of them would have made an enjoyable companion for a quick sexual encounter, but…
His cock didn’t demand he answer any of the overtures. None of them smelled as alluring as the scent he’d encountered at the All Things Supernatural Fair. Now there, sight unseen, had been a female he wanted to mount.
She’d smelled so lush and inviting. But he’d been in his hound form, and hunting magical items that couldn’t be allowed to fall into human hands had kept him busy, preventing him from tracking the female.
“I’m surprised you passed on the redhead,” Gaige said a multitude of overtures later, his gaze following the sway of her ass as she headed to the dance floor with Crew.
Kellen lifted a fresh bottle of beer and took a long swallow before saying, “Not ready to leave yet.”
Gaige snorted. “Since when do you have to leave? Take one of them outside and do her against the side of the building or better yet, down on the beach, then come back in for another appetizer. Don’t tell me there’s no blanket in the Hummer for just that purpose.”
Kellen shrugged. “Too much trouble at the moment.”
Gaige’s attention shifted from the redhead’s ass, his gaze landing on Kellen and sharpening. “Something’s off with you. It’s tempting to think you’ve stumbled across your mate. Lack of sexual interest in other females is the first warning sign.”
“Ridiculous.”
Gaige tilted his head back and sniffed loudly. “Is that fear I’m smelling?”
“I have not encountered my mate,” Kellen growled.
Gaige cocked his head. “Is that protest perhaps too vigorous?”
Kellen’s impulse was to bolt from his seat and grab one of the numerous females. He could easily prove the ridiculousness of Gaige’s statements with the bump and grind of his cock against some random female on the dance floor.
He resisted the impulse, telling himself that such an action would have Gaige’s laughter chasing him to the dance floor. The very act of proving Gaige wrong would only result in more needling.
“I don’t see you responding to any of these women. Perhaps you’re only expressing your own fear,” Kellen said. “That you’ve met your mate.”
Gaige shuddered. “Truce. Enough talk of mates. What are the odds that we can make it twenty-four hours without being called in to clean up some sorcerer’s mess?”
“Days after the supernatural fair?” Kellen said, “There’s bound to be more trouble, if not by sorcerers then by a visitor to this realm.”
He thought again of the elusive scent at the All Things Supernatural Fair, but this time, as if conjured by his thoughts, wisps of that scent reached and filled his nostrils and his cock went from semi-hard to an exclamation point of demand.
Kellen glanced around the club, but the source of the lush, enticement wasn’t obvious. He stood, only to immediately sit, preferring to draw out the moment before he’d encounter his prey.
It’d been a long time since a human had caught his interest. Why not savor it? It wasn’t as if this one would be any different in the end.
Easy come. Easy go.
His mouth quirked upward. Or more accurately, easy cum, easy go.
Still, his gaze roamed the club, his hound nature at the forefront, alert. Hunting.
* * *
Wow, Analia thought after entering Stones. The beautiful people were out in force.
The place was packed, and she wasn’t sure she was up for the crush of people, not after a day of rushing to visit one client after another, battling traffic in between stops.
She loved her job as a rehabilitation counselor, but some days were more hectic than others. If she hadn’t scared herself silly outside of the Artist’s Loft then again at her apartment, she’d be curled up on the couch with a glass of wine and a good book.
Lately she’d just felt more and more disconnected from the club scene. Like she’d rather get lost in a good book, a romance, or better yet, a romance combined with a fantasy adventure.
Which is why a charm to attract a supernatural mate had held such appeal. Which was why she wanted to believe the unicorns all over the news had been real, and not an elaborate hoax.
No backing out, she chastised. It’d been weeks since she’d had a chance to get together with Sabra, and besides, she needed to give Sabra the tarot deck she hadn’t been able to resist at the All Things Supernatural Fair. And though she’d hung out with Ace at that same fair after Saffron left to rescue an iguana from animal control, she always enjoyed his company. It didn’t hurt that he was drop dead gorgeous. Eye candy of the first order, without the overbearing ego that often came with guys who knew just how delicious they were.
Moving deeper into the club, she spotted Sabra and Ace. They were hard to miss.
They weren’t actually a couple, but they made a striking pair. Ace with his long blond hair and Sabra, with her caramel-toned skin and model’s face and body.
Sabra gave a little wave. Analia returned it.
She’d give this half an hour, then make her excuses. A half an hour from now and both Sabra and Ace would have caught the eye of someone they wanted to spend more time with, and she could go home, or better yet, take a walk along the beach.
Analia reached the table and dropped into a chair to Ace’s left. Ace held out his hand to Sabra, palm up. “Pay up.”
Sabra pulled a wrinkled, balled-up dollar bill from jeans that looked painted on. It was the same bill they’d been trading on and off since the beginning of the year.
Analia gave a put-out sigh. “You didn’t think I’d show.”
Ace slipped the bill into his shirt pocket. “She didn’t think you’d stay long enough to sit. Said you’d take one look at how packed this place is and make your excuses and bolt.”
“Give me thirty minutes,” Analia grumbled, a little chagrined that her friends knew her so well.
A waitress stopped at the table and took Analia’s order for a strawberry daquiri.
“Look over there,” Sabra said, tilting her head to the left. “Recognize the blond with the long hair?”
Analia looked and her heart tripped into a faster beat. She recognized the blond instantly, from the All Things Supernatural Fair.
He’d been standing with two other men—one of those men had been Taine, who’d become Saffron’s significant other. And taken together, the three men had been a glorious, mouth-watering trifecta of masculinity.
If a charm would pull one of those bad boys into my life, she’d told Saffron, I’d hand over my credit card in a heartbeat.
It’d been nothing but the truth. She’d wanted an introduction, but they’d moved out of sight before she’d gotten one.
Only now… The long-haired blond couldn’t capture her attention, much less hold it, not compared to the other man at the table.
His hair was shorter, brown with hints of red, and he sported a close-cropped beard. His looks were rougher than the blond’s, less elegant, but looking at him sent flutters through both her stomach and chest.
Without conscious thought her fingertips glided over the apple-shaped charm, the touch bringing both the old man’s promise that possession of the two charms would lead to the perfect mate, and the warning that if the charms came to the attention of agents from Supernatural Ops, her chance at happy-ever-after would disappear.
No way could she be looking at said mate, she told herself, even as she struggled to wrench her gaze away from him because another minute of staring and he was going to end up starring in an intense sexual fantasy.
Strike that. The damage had already been done. But that didn’t mean she wanted to start drooling in front of Ace and Sabra.
Somehow she managed to force her attention back to her companions. She even managed to sound casual when she said, “I recognize him. He’s a Supernatural Ops agent.”
