I turned back to Chance and Mia sputtered in laughter.
I was less amused. “Chance.” The words came through gritted teeth.
“That wasn’t what you were going to say.” She shook her blond head as she chided me. “I’m listening now. Go ahead, you guys.”
I gave her an unhappy stare.
She waved frustrated hands. “Hey, you waited too long to tell me. It’s not my fault. I pick up on stuff. He’s been around for weeks.”
Chance still seemed very quiet, for Chance. I think he picked up on the mother-daughter dynamic. With us, the dynamic was odd. Then again, around there, odd was the catch of the day.
“Is there anything else you know? Or should I ask, what all do you know about him that you want to tell me?”
“If I told you all I know about him, he would ground me. Thanks, but I want a car someday.” She pushed her hair over her shoulder and quirked a brow.
“He can’t ground you. Only I can ground you.”
“Not yet.” She mumbled it but it didn’t take superpowers to hear her.
“What do you know that I don’t?” I popped to my feet.
“Actually, I’m curious, too.” Chance joined the strange conversation, tilting his head at Vickie. “We’ve only just met. How do you know that someday I may have the power to ground you, Victoria?”
“Don’t go using my full name already, buddy.” Vickie huffed out the words, looking as stern as a child could. “That is pushing it.”
“Don’t talk to your elders like that.” The correction automatically popped out of my mouth.
“Yes, Mom.” Her answer was just as routine.
“But answer him.” I schooled my features to a stern look.
“Mo-o-m.” She popped to her feet, a mini-me before siren abilities had changed what I looked like on the outside. She mirrored my posture and expression, and on the inside, where it counted, we remained a lot alike. “Why would you ask me something that no one wants to know yet? Sheesh, we learned about Cassandra, you know. And nothing good happened to her.”
I sat back down and put my head in my hands.
Sven laughed so hard his face lay buried in his arms. Mia sat propped back on her stool, tea in hand, enjoying the show thoroughly. The only ones not having a blast were Chance and me.
“Cassandra?” I sighed heavily. “Who is Cassandra?” I wasn’t altogether sure I wanted the answer.
“Greek mythology. Cassandra knew the future, too. If you can see the future, well, people don’t want to hear it, and that is all I am saying. And besides, you can change the future. Fate is in your hands.”
“Actually—”
Chance put a hand on my knee to shut me up. We were talking, after all, to a ten-year old.
Fate lay in Fate’s hands. I had met her. She seemed nice enough.
Chance squeezed the hand on my knee in manner intended to reassure. “You have to have a little faith that it all will happen the way it is meant to.”
This threw Vickie into a fit of giggles. “Have a little faith. From you two. That is funny.”
“Why is that funny?” I turned to Chance.
He shrugged.
“So.” I decided to regain control of the conversation. “You would rather not tell us what you have seen from your gifts, but you know Chance, and he is okay?”
It was like asking permission to date him. It instantly seemed stupid, but decisions I made affected her. If I made him part of my life, well, he became part of hers. Although, I had waited too late in the game to ask her what she thought about it.
She stopped her laughter to walk over to Chance and place both her small hands on his shoulders. “I like him. He is not as bad as he thinks he is. And he’s going to be around for a while, so I think it’s cute you guys wanted me to meet him. That I will tell you.”
She smiled at him and patted him on the head like he was a dog. “I’m a vegetarian, but I like ice cream. Even if it is junk. My mom eats like a rat. Oh, and if you want to get on my good side, get her home at a decent hour and buy me clothes. Just to get that out there.”
“Victoria.” Her name came out on a sputter from me.
“You should have heard what I told my stepmom when I met her the first time.”
“Worse than that?”
Vickie giggled.
“Hey, did either of you guys see that storm last night? It was freakish. Lightning in the dead of winter during a snow storm, and then it blew over and there was this beautiful sunrise.”
Mia had flipped her laptop back open and looked at us in mild curiosity. After all, it was only a question about the weather.
“There was actual lightning last night?” I bit my lip. “In December?”
“Yeah, I searched online and the weather channel called it a freak storm that blew in off the lake. Something about hardly ever happens or something…a thunderstorm in winter, thunder snow. You mean you guys missed it entirely? Did you hear it Sven?” Mia looked at Sven, curiosity written on her face.
“Yeah.” Sven waved a hand vaguely. “Woke me out of a dead sleep. It looked insane. The weatherman said something about more lightning than the average storm…it was pretty spectacular to watch.”
“Global warming,” Mia answered vaguely while looking back to her work.
Chance and I exchanged a secret smile. I sputtered. “Nuh-uh.”
“Odd stuff indeed.” He laughed the free and easy laugh that I had not even known he had before our night together. His fingers reached from my knee to close around my hand and link our fingers. He stroked the ring, and I smirked back at him.
Had we caused a freak thunderstorm in the dead of winter? How do you have “safe sex” and avoid that?
He chuckled, and Vickie looked back and forth between us as if trying to decide what she missed.
The door on Odd Stuff jingled again and in walked Vance in a wave of the scent of the night and snow. I glanced up from Vickie, who had moved to peer up at me.
Vance stood a moment, framed in the doorway, and took in the image of Chance with Vickie’s hand on his shoulder, her other on my leg. Chance held my hand so we were all linked together.
His face closed down, and his expression became unreadable. But after only the briefest hesitation, a smile quickly replaced that moment of blank face, and he entered the store and closed the door with a jingle behind him.
I realized I held my breath and let it out.
Vance joined us and the conversation stayed general. Vickie trotted off to discuss some internet game site with Sven so that Vance could come over and show me the book he had brought me. I thought that Chance would leave, but he stayed in his chair and waited.
Vance sat next to me and pulled out the book. “Here.”
Relieved, I saw this one was not bound in anything that resembled skin and I took it.
His smile seemed sad. “I have looked and other than this, I have a few other leads I will follow for you. I should hear back from another friend later this week, but this one had a song at the back I thought you would like, so I didn’t want to wait to give it to you. And check on page forty-five.” His eyes crinkled at the edges as he leaned forward, excited.
I opened the book, which seemed to be a history and genealogy of sirens. I flipped through the pages and, although informative, it didn’t seem that it would teach me more about my powers or how to control them. When I got to page forty-five, though, I caught Vance’s hand and looked up at him to see him smiling down at me. His blue eyes glowed.
The center pages had pictures of the royals of the siren lines. That particular page had a full shot of my dad. I stroked it. I had no pictures of my father. Actually, I hadn’t known there were any.
Tears pricked at my eyes and I blinked them back. “Hey, Vic. Mia, everyone, come here.”
They all crowded around and I held up the book. I was watery when I flipped the book around. The old, black and white picture showed my father as handsome and strong. I remembered that face. His h
air and beard glowed as white as mine did since the change, over blue laughing eyes. He had dimples that showed when he shaved.
His hair curled neatly over his strong brow. His arms were huge, and he wore some weird flowing caftan. He held a shield in the picture, probably some siren thing. The image reminded me I would never know anything about the culture, and that I remained the last of my kind.
I turned the book back to me and announced to everyone, “That is my dad.” I turned to Vance and gave him a hug. “Thanks.”
“That’s what friends are for.” And his arms came around me. “I love you.”
But the words meant more, somehow, than friendship. Or maybe I wished they did. So because he was so kind, I smiled up at him, still soggy and stepped away.
My lips were tight and I took the book and headed upstairs. I put Vickie to bed. When I returned to the living room, I wasn’t surprised to see Chance. He tugged me into his arms and I went willingly.
~~~
My name is Janie Smith. I live in a small town on Lake Erie where the things that go bump in the night usually hang out with me. I live in a place called Odd Stuff. My daughter can see the future and who knows what else she can do. I have a soul mate. Witches and vampires have become my best friends, and I’m the last siren. I would be okay with all of this because it was the way things were.
Then again… who knows what next week would bring?
Look for the rest of the Odd Trilogy
Odd Stuff, Odd Series Book 1
Available Now
Janie Smith always pretended to be normal. When her witch bestie gets tangled in a murder investigation, she finds it hard to stick to the mundane and save the day. Janie snarks her way through the paranormal world, fumbling again and again, determined not to give into temptation... But when your closest pal is suspected to have murdered a vampire, how do you prove she didn’t kill someone who has no pulse?
Odd Melody, Odd Series Book 2
Odd Fate, Odd Series Book 3
Coming Soon!
Turn the page for a preview of…
Odd Fate
CHAPTER One
The blood rushed to my face as I ran. It seemed I embarrassed more easily these days. Probably running down the street in negligee would embarrass anyone, but I still hoped that anyone who saw me would think it was strain causing the flush of color.
Chasing after the bad guy cost no real effort on my part, so it wasn’t actually any added blood flow to my face making me blush. Stamina and speed were among the newfound benefits of being whatever monster I had become. I hoped my back-up would show up soon, however. The one thing we had noticed about my powers, since I had them, was that I was similar to a cheetah. I had great, almost fantastic, bursts of speed with, as I said, little to no effort on my part.
After the initial sprint, I started burning energy. When I burned energy it had to be replaced. Replacing energy for me involved more than taking a nap or snacking on a protein bar.
As it was late at night in rural Ohio, no one in the Harbor seemed to take notice of us, for which I was terribly grateful. It was hard enough being a single mother—in a small town—who got dumped for a podiatrist by her lawyer husband. Toss in my life weirdness and the chatter would become a dull roar.
Winter clung to northeast Ohio like a lover long past when the romance had died out for most of its inhabitants and I was freezing in my inappropriate dress. Speaking of inappropriate, the guy I was chasing needed to invest in Nair. He was half hairy and as he glanced over his shoulder at me and growled, the teeth he bared were elongated and yellow as they snapped at me in warning.
My back-up chose just then to pop into place in front of the were-puppy, so as the creature spun his head back around he tried to come to a screeching halt before crashing into Chance.
Chance was not dressed much more suitably than I was, but from my point of view, hey, I wasn’t complaining.
Chance wore boxer briefs almost as bright a red as his hair— which I’d gotten him for Christmas—under a fuzzy pink robe. The robe was Sven’s, grabbed on the fly from the bathroom back at Odd Stuff. Like I said, we hadn’t planned on going out. Still, as he popped into place in front of the half man, his robe flashed open and his hair flared out and I was rewarded with a full frontal view of him that made me stop jogging and grin.
Ah, it was good to be me.
In my head, Chance said, Could you concentrate on business and stop ogling me?
I replied, just as silently, You like to be ogled.
His answering flash of teeth seemed a particularly evil grin, which to our prey probably thought was directed at him as Chance’s eyes had never left the out of control shifter.
While the shifter was paying attention to my lover, I slid up behind him and began to sing softly.
We had the routine down pretty well after months of working together. It was getting pretty monotonous, honestly. I wrapped my arms gently around the shifter, who had gone nearly limp upon hearing my voice, before sliding my arms up his coarsely haired arms. I enjoyed his musk and tasted his power. It wasn’t bad. Shifters had a live sort of energy that was appealing, but I preferred a different sort of energy these days.
I slid my eyes up and met those of the man in the pink and smiled.
He grinned back at me.
Stepping closer to the shifter, Chance caught us both in his arms. In moments we were standing in another room. This one was warm, thankfully, but smelled worse of were musk and blood and other things better not examined too carefully.
Chance stepped back and I released the newly made were to drop to his knees. The leader of the pack was standing a few feet away.
Dara was a bitch. This wasn’t an insult. She was proud to be the bitch of the local werewolves. Usually when one thought werewolves, one thought alpha dog. In our city, it was a bitch. She had made it to the top by being tougher than any of the males. Her hope was that one day someone, in her case someone male, would be bigger and badder than she was. So far, well, she was the biggest bad ass our town had in fur. I liked her.
I had gotten the call from her tonight because someone had Turned this little guy on our side of town and somehow or another he was loose and causing trouble. My affiliation with the FBI had evolved to helping out other situations. Lately, Dara had her hands full. Something was rotten in the shifter community. We were all doing double time to try to stay on top of whatever it was to keep it from notice within the human community.
It was even causing trouble for the fairies… or something was.
But that was another story and just now Dara was looking over the wayward puppy.
“How do you two catch them so fast? I just called you,” she murmured.
I shrugged and figured that this was one of the questions that we didn’t answer. There was sort of a list of questions that Chance and I just did not answer. It seemed to keep me healthy, so we went with that.
I looked at Chance and yawned broadly. It was my idea of a hint. I never did get subtle down. We had been busy before the call had come in. That was why we were dressed so… well, that was why we weren’t dressed.
And lately there had been little to no time for us. It seemed the more responsibility we took on, the less time there was for us.
I can’t say as I liked this change.
Especially since things had seemed to begin to change between us. Dara shrugged it off and Chance, who had been a man of few words for a while now, came to my side and said, “Night, Dara.”
“Hmm,” she said and Chance popped us out of there.
We landed back in my bedroom. I had gotten almost blasé about Chance’s mode of transportation. I still wasn’t sure how he did it. I could feel almost energy crackle down his skin and I had tried to see if I could do it (not when he was around, of course) but it was, like so many things with him— mystery.
I sighed and slid out of his arms and stalked back to the glass of wine I’d abandoned when I got the call from Dara earlier.
<
br /> I looked at my cell, still sitting where I abandoned it.Then I did something I rarely did lately. I hit the button and turned it off.
I turned to him, wine in hand and saw he was dropping the borrowed robe to the floor.
The room was lit by candle light. He stood, in boxer briefs, his body all peaches and cream with a light dusting of the auburn curls trailing down to disappear into the briefs like a line drawn on a map... all he was missing was the x to mark where the treasure was hidden.
His curls, the ones on his head, had grown longer since I had met him, and brushed his shoulders. When he held me, they brushed over my skin and were yet another bit, another layer of texture to be enjoyed about him. My own hair had started to grow out and now hung in fat silver, almost white, curls to my chin. I brushed the curls back, as they crossed my mind and continued my silent study.
Just now his head was bowed and the muscles in his neck and shoulders stood in stark relief in the flickering light and I sighed out a breath. I watched his fist clench. It made a single muscle ripple up his arm.
I wondered at how you could think a man beautiful… even his feet. I understood, too, the fist. He knew we were going to have a talk.
Candles and wine and the whisper of the night were around us. With me in lingerie and him wrapped in shadows, only Chance and I would ruin it when our very minds are close enough that we knew that our only shared wish was to be wrapped in each other’s flesh by instead having a meaningful discussion.
I sighed.
We were warped like that.
I sat down and smoothed my hands down my thighs and looked down at the confection of black and silver satin and lace I was wearing and wondered why we bothered. Chance and I had been together for months. It had been reasonably smooth sailing. I touched the promise ring on my finger. We had been happy. We’d been lovers and friends in a way that I had never thought to share with anyone.
Odd Melody (Odd Series Book 2) Page 25
