“If you want to see Zoe Marino alive, I suggest you reveal yourself.” A nasally voice breached the night from the other side of the wall where Ronan had disappeared.
I slipped along the adobe fence closer to the wrought iron gate. “Where is she?” I hid in the shadowy cover of the twelve-foot high wall.
“On her way to Seattle,” he said, his stupidity vaccine working overtime.
Another presence drew nearer inside the garden. My alien body of perpetual mystery couldn’t absorb blocked energy from anyone at that moment.
I hugged the wall and tried to think, but my head thundered from its collision with the ladder. “What’d you do to Ronan?”
“He can’t help you. He’s taking a siesta.”
“Please.” I snickered. “Like I need help from any tool.” I received a hyena bark in response.
Security lights illuminated the other approaching man. A glow reflected off a thin silver rectangular gadget looped around his bull-neck. Although I’d never attempted to manipulate a spell against a deadener, there was a first time for everything, especially with my new meld of doppelgänger power. Mentally, I pitched a net of energy. It scuttled back onto me, showering me in stinging ice. Oh, hell, squared.
The man behind the wall strolled under the archway. Both cavemen leveled high-tech guns on me. I was pretty positive the goons had orders to take me alive, so I didn’t fret about dying. But I bet the guns held illegal bio-deadeners. Enough to conk me out and stuff me in an airplane cargo hold. Fingers of ice twisted around my heart. I sure wanted to know what church picnic Adam had crashed. “Richard Riley Dominion Research trackers, I presume?”
“Good guess,” Neanderthal number two grunted out, his voice deep and raspy.
Did DR get these goons from the Caveman Zoo? He strolled within three feet of me, one man at each shoulder. Both had a deadener strung around his neck.
Baldy grinned at me. “You’re cuter than your friend. I’ve always been partial to blondes. How ’bout you, Frankie?”
“Nah, I love ’em red.” A hunk of hacked auburn hair hung from his fist.
I ground my teeth at the sight of Zoe’s tangled hair and tossed another wave of bad luck at them. It bounced back and spit static at me. “If you hurt her, I’ll pluck out every hair from your bodies one-by-one, then torch you alive.”
“Big words from a little gal.” Baldy advanced on me. “You willing to come with us, or do we have to haul you out of here?”
Frankie moved a smidge and light glinted off both deadeners. Then a light-bulb moment whacked me. If I aimed a destructive wave of energy at one deadener, would the other counteract it and fry them both? It was worth a shot. Not like I had many options.
A mockingbird call from the dwarf palms by the bell tower split the thick air of evil. My aura swirled and I recognized Adam’s crackling aura. Neither of my would-be captors appeared fazed by the noise.
The dark-haired man took another step closer. “Grab her, Milo, and let’s get on the road.”
“Wait!” I held up my hand, backing into a spikey rose bush. “I have a deal for you.” I mushroomed that weak white flame in my brain and heat expanded as I imposed my will on it. I loosed an extra controlled barrage of energy, pushing against the dampeners, and flung it toward the two deadeners. Rose thorns pricked my butt but I needed the distance. I couldn’t risk releasing too much energy in such close proximity if I jammed up the deadeners. No way was I killing anyone else, even if he was a walking argument for birth control.
The air screamed with the surge of energy. A bolt of electricity flickered between them, blinding me for a few seconds. The men roared and scrambled to thrust the sizzling deadeners off their chests. I ducked and skirted around them. Milo lunged and grabbed my legs, knocking us both to the ground. Air whooshed out of my lungs from the impact of my side slamming the damp grass. A mass of screeching nerves burned across my hips, down my legs. My body was so going to betray me and sign that ownership deal with Satan if I lived to see tomorrow.
Milo pinned me on my back, his hulk spread on top of me. “We gave you a choice,” he spat in my face. I scrunched my nose, the reek of roadkill on his breath murdering my sense of smell. “Give me the syringe, Frankie.”
Milo’s crushing weight numbed my torso, and I rotated my head to face Frankie. He rolled and writhed on the ground near the gate, moaning and sputtering. A landscape light illuminated a patch of singed cloth on his chest.
“Hell, we’ll do it my way.” Milo’s fingers dug into my upper arms. Laser pain stabbed my head.
I screamed. No. No. No. Not another Scrambler. I’d destroyed the deadeners that held back his ESP and he took full advantage. Stars exploded in my vision and I once again flirted with oblivion. Flickers of lightning zigzagged in my skull, snipping my energy receptors. I vaguely heard Milo chuckling, yet the rumble of his laughter jiggled along the length of me. Confusion muddled my mind and I was unable to draw upon my telekinesis. I gripped my focusizer, but it was cold and silent. I couldn’t even lift my knee to knock Milo’s family jewels into his throat.
Suddenly, the sound of a blunt object hitting flesh stilled the behemoth on top of me. The magic infiltrating my head cut off, and as quickly as the explosive pain invaded my skull, it vanished. The slumbering weight rolled off me and Adam pulled me to my feet.
“I’m gonna kill that bastard,” I managed to say through gritted teeth, balanced against his side.
Strength coursed into my muscles and I wheeled around. Baldy had toppled on top of the other in a mound of twitching cavemen, out like nightlights at sunrise. Or dead. I wasn’t about to stick around to ascertain which. I’d had enough of that night.
Between my tortured body and dragging a semi-conscious Ronan, Adam and I lumbered to the SUV without another clash from the Neanderthal Asylum. We decided to follow Zoe to Seattle ASAP. The crapfest had dinged Level Ten.
Adam called in an anonymous report of gunfire at the mission church and a plea to send an ambulance, and then we sped toward the airport, barely staying legal. I shoved my rescued stun gun in my pocket and splayed my fingers against my thumping head, needing a diversion to talk me off the ledge. Ronan flopped in the back seat, Fin sliming his face while he groaned and twitched. He assured us they’d only shot him with a bio-energy stun dart, but I still worried. However, from the grumbling overflowing his mouth, his He-Man pride hurt more than his body.
I leaned between the front seats and studied the half-comatose barbarian, his cloudy eyes open, blinking rapidly. Lines pulled at his mouth, etched the skin around his eyes. The pooch nuzzled me, wagging her tail in his face.
Cursing, he swatted at Fin’s rear. “Something you need to know.” He rolled onto his side. “They shot me with an ESP energy depressant my father’s team developed for the government to throw them off his real shit. Normal doses don’t work on me so they doubled up. It kills my magical bandwidth for hours. Not that I have any magic to kill right now. Thanks to the Rift. And you.”
Another evil eye had Ronan scowling at me. I laughed. “Have you been diagnosed? Your scowls don’t work on me.”
“Your rabid eye doesn’t work on me either.” He prodded his head, groaned. “Damn it. DR knows how strong you are now.”
I straightened the fringe on my jacket. “Your father also knows for sure that we’re together.”
“Get me something to eat. It’ll absorb the drug burning in my gut. Chocolate peanuts in the glove box.”
Chocolate! Why didn’t he give it up earlier? I rooted out a full bag of double-dipped, chocolate peanuts. One at a time, I fed them to him, sharing with Adam, tossing several into my mouth. Even the beggar Fin got a peanut after I bit off the chocolate. I was hungry enough to scarf down a fat, juicy burger and a bushel of fries, but the peanuts calmed the tempest brewing in my stomach. My thoughts wandered down Foodville, and I didn’t notice Ronan nibbling on my fingers until he sucked the tip of my forefinger into his mouth.
The most intense flare
of desire boiled the chocolate in my belly and left me craving…Ronan. I wrenched my hand away as if scorched.
“Feed me.”
I stuck two peanuts between his lips, threw him the half-empty bag, and shrank into my seat in acute misery. The lines between no-man’s land and reality city had blurred, and I needed to stop my southern federation from shipping out invitations. Holy cow. Ronan?
Silence bombarded us until we approached the airport. The SUV lurched to a stop at the light, and Ronan pushed his fists on the center console to steady his dead weight.
Adam swung the vehicle into the San Jose Jet Center and parked in the loading zone. Tongue-tied, I stared. The only kind of jet that flew in and out of the Jet Center was a private one. I’d never been on a private jet! That was more exciting than dwelling on a wrecked Rift, a psycho kidnapper and all-around evildoer. I sorely needed a break from my new hell in a nice private jet with my two doppel-hunks.
“Adam will fill you in some more on the plane.” Ronan opened the back door. Fin leapfrogged over his lap to the ground.
“Why can’t you?” I slid off the seat and held his arm while he steadied his legs.
“I’m flying commercial. I can’t spend two hours on a plane with you.”
A normal woman could be offended by that remark. “You can’t go by yourself. You’re not well. Your shoulder needs attention.” I twisted my fingers on his jacket. An iron mass crushed my shoulders. Fear that I’d never see him again worked to destroy my confidence. “I’ll be okay.”
“Aria.” He exhaled my name. Flares erupted in my awakening southern region. “I can’t risk hurting you.” He fisted his hand around mine. “I’ll sleep it off on the plane. You’ll be safe with Adam. The jet’s secure, not traceable to us.” He handed his gun to Adam for safe keeping. “I’ll use Adam’s identity.”
“What about you? Your power’s shot even without the depressant.”
“I’m not exactly useless without it.” The corners of his mouth twitched.
Overhead lights altered his unfathomable eyes into molten silver pools. “Can you take another private jet?” The heat of his gaze seared me.
“We don’t have time to kill.” Caressing my chin, he slid his hand around my neck, teasing the hair at my nape.
I shivered from his touch and pressed into his hand. “Be careful,” I implored. “Please?”
He leaned forward, brushed his mouth across my forehead, and gently pried my fingers off his jacket. “Count on it.”
I watched him drive away, taking a part of me with him. It was more than just our entwined aura. Turning to Adam, I realized another part of me was eyeing me critically.
Chapter 11
Super-soft leather seats wrapped plushy comfort around my battered body. Fin rolled onto a doggy bed in a strapped-down pet carrier. Adam returned from the cockpit and took my crusty hand in his. I peered at the first aid kit on his lap. “Dr. Freshfields?”
A smile lit his sickly face, his dimple an abyss of heaven. He oh-so-tenderly cleaned my cut. The attention gave me a chance to memorize his face. I loved his boyishly charming smile that twinkled in his ever-changing eyes. Despite his pasty coloring, the shifting washed-out hair, and his one pointy ear, he’d retained his smooth skin and model bone structure. His beauty extended far deeper than skin level. With our aural bond, it was easy for me to envision his true self beyond the cadaver coloring. Of course, I only had to look at Ronan to recognize the darker side missing from Adam. If only the fairies would sprinkle light and happy dust on Mr. Grumpy.
“What do you do for a living? Is this your bird?” The antibacterial solution stung, and I forced my bellyaching body to suck it up.
“I’m a VP in my family’s import, export business, Freshfields International. The plane belongs to the corp.”
My brows hiked into my hairline. “That Freshfields?” It hadn’t registered earlier that I was tag-teaming with a member of one of the richest families in California. He sure didn’t appear the corporate VP rolling in a gazillion dollars. Not that I’d ever dated any white-collar corporate types at my age. I usually attracted tall, cheap, and dumb. “And so young?”
“Surprised?” His humble laugh feathered across my skin.
My hand flinched from the prickly aural energy—guess I should break down and just start calling it magic—his touch triggered. “Should I curtsy when I address you?”
“A simple kiss will suffice.” Adam laid my doctored hand on the pillowy armrest. He tossed his baseball cap on the seat in front of us, his opalescent hair flowing free. It had grown several inches since yesterday despite the locks that continued to fall out. The electrified tresses swayed in a nonexistent breeze, reaching for me and fluttering in the energy my aura kicked up.
The plane taxied down the runway, but my gaze remained unwavering on Adam. The bird ascended, thrusting us against the seats. He leaned into me and his mouth claimed mine in a brief, heart-skipping kiss. Soft and firm, his lips tasted faintly of spearmint. His aura pooled warmly around mine. Fingers on my mouth, I quickly drew apart. My pulse skittered and his touch melted me into the seat. His violet eyes glistened with an unknown promise, leaving my mouth blazing. This was so wrong when I had feelings for both Adam and Ronan and my heart was working overtime trying to figure it out. I eased away as much as the seatbelt allowed.
“Did…did you feel that?” he rasped out.
“Definitely weird.” Several degrees of guilt sprinkled cold water on our mingled auras. Ronan’s frowny face sprang to mind, not that he truly ever left it.
Two men, one Aria. What was a girl to do? I twisted my clasped hand, rubbed my temples, spurring my last two brain cells to work in harmony for a change.
He straightened in his seat, shaking from my frosty aural blast. “I’ve never felt…I think the Rift—” He hesitated. “Our auras are intertwined,” he blurted out. “At the house I felt your aura around me, not inside me. Ronan and I are connected that way. I never knew it until he told me what I was sensing.”
Dazed, I nodded, feeling the hollowness inside my core, a missing piece. It might be Adam’s tainted magic causing the emptiness, or not. Even though I sensed a smidge of Ronan within Adam’s aura, part of him was absent from the equation. Can I freak out now? Doppelgänger magic? Two halves of a whole? What kind of magic did the Rift spit out? Fairy dust love potions?
“Aria?” Anxiety stamped his face. “I’m sorry.” He squeezed my knee.
What if we didn’t make it to the Rift in time and I lost both of them to the tainted magic? Whoa, what? I didn’t even have both of them to lose. I’d met them less than forty-eight freaking hours ago. Who was playing such a sick joke on me? I needed an instant lobotomy to stop the chaos in my brain.
Even though I so desperately wanted both doppelgängers in my life, a tiny part of me didn’t. I didn’t want them only to lose them. I had serious abandonment issues. Every morning I called Zoe to make sure she was kicking and hadn’t toppled me off her BFF pedestal. At least with the doppel-twins, I needn’t worry about my wacky telekinesis chasing them away. Scared spitless, I didn’t know who I was, let alone who wanted me. Or who I wanted.
I picked at a spot of caked blood on my jeans. “We need to focus on the Rift, healing you and Ronan.”
Adam hunched over, probing his pointy ear as if he felt it growing. “Tell me one thing.”
“Sure.” I leaned into him, tilted my face toward the need in his eyes. My heart spooled.
“How do you feel about Ronan?” His jaw tensed. He lowered his hand and a lock of hair stuck to his fingers. Flicking his wrist, he scowled as the lock of hair fluttered to the floor.
Heat rushed up my neck. “I feel the same…I feel…Ronan in your aura. It’s confusing.” No illusions would mar my relationships—whatever they evolved into—with Ronan and Adam. Note to self: find a doppel-magic cluestick, and fast.
The plane leveled to cruising altitude and Adam unbuckled our seatbelts. His warm hand lingered on my thigh,
gently drawing thirteens on my pant leg. “Ronan and I speculated about this over a bottle of Irish whiskey when we discovered we were doppelgängers and began sensing each other’s energy and aura. We wondered what would happen if one of us found a woman whose magic merged with one of ours, what she’d feel. We knew it was a possibility since ancient sorcerers and their doppelgängers were connected the same way. We wondered what it would do to the other. And we laughed it off.” He snorted, his derision all but palpable in the air. “I’m not laughing now.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to the vast, bleak clouds I felt from the occasional bump of turbulence in our dark haven in the sky. After a moment of tense silence, I asked, “How did you really determine you two were doppelgängers?”
“Like we said earlier, it’s a big guess based on Forbidden Thirteen history.” Adam touched my shoulder, but the blinking beacon of hope on the wing captured my bleary gaze. “We’ll work it out.” He yawned with loud exaggeration. “Hungry?”
“Starving!” A shaky sigh of relief chased my reply. One more thing to add to that mental journal of items to dwell on later. Soon I wouldn’t have capacity left, and I’d have to start checking things off that list, reformat my brain’s hard drive, or proceed with that lobotomy.
We ate a gourmet dinner of fresh garden salad, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and sourdough bread slathered in butter. By the time I pushed away the empty dessert plate, I felt ready to pop out extinct fairies.
The creamy taste of cheesecake lingered on my tongue. Ibuprofen appetizers lessened the brunt of my aches and pains, and I wilted into my pillowy seat, the faint roar of the engines lulling me toward Snoozeville. My mind relived the heady heat of Adam’s kiss even as I found his nearness both puzzling and exciting. Yet, the memory of Ronan’s tan face and his full, firm lips pressed against my forehead refused to grant me quarter.
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