“Your attitude will get you in trouble one day,” he yelled to my back.
“Whatever you say,” I snapped.
Levi and Owen waited for me at the bar.
“Your dad sucks almost as much as mine.” Levi pushed over a glass of what I assumed was whiskey to me.
It was midafternoon, yet we were drinking again. I’d never noticed how much we did that. The alcohol didn’t affect us much, so it was more to give us something to do to pass the time while we waited for our pre-scripted and forced futures to arrive.
“Mine’s far worse.” Robert had his flaws, but he was loyal to The Society. That was more than I could say about my father.
“They both suck.” Levi brought his glass to his lips.
“Is that the girl you were talking about?” Owen nodded to the far side of the lobby.
My chest clenched. “No.” I studied the brown haired girl he was watching. It was Vera. It had to be, but there was no way she’d been there. It made no sense.
“I’ll be right back.” I left my mostly untouched drink and walked the long way over to where Vera was standing. I hoped Levi and Owen wouldn’t notice. I took her arm and led her back behind a column. “Vera?”
“Uh, why are we at this hotel again?” Her eyes were wide and full of both fear and confusion.
“Did you fall asleep in the truck too?” I wondered how much she remembered.
“Yes, but I woke up. Then I kissed you and ended up here.”
“You kissed me?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. Gemma said something was wrong with you, and I was trying to wake you up.”
“Wake me up like I was Sleeping Beauty or something?”
“Shut up.” She scowled. “We didn’t have any other ideas.”
“Did I pull you here? This makes absolutely no sense.”
“Gemma said she thinks it’s the crystals. They shouldn’t have influenced your mind, but you are part witch—or warlock.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Levi and Owen were heading our way. I should have known they’d join us. They noticed everything. “Look, I have no clue what’s going on, but you have to play along with everything I say. Right now we are somehow in the past. Levi isn’t king yet. He’s never met Casey, and he sure as hell hasn’t met you. I know it sounds insane, but this whole thing is.”
Before she could reply, Levi strolled over with Owen beside him.
“Hello.” He held out his hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met.
“She’s with me.” I jumped in before Vera could say anything.
“Oh?” Levi looked between us. “She doesn’t look like your type.”
“I am.” She smiled sweetly. “I promise you that.”
“You’re also my type.” He grinned. I knew that grin well, and I also knew that meant we were in trouble. He should have been using that grin on Allie, not Vera.
“I don’t think you could handle me.”
What the hell was she playing at?
Levi smiled. “I’d have to disagree.”
“Vera and I are going to get going.” I took her hand. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Vera? She’s one of the girls you were with last night?”
“One of the girls?” Vera put a hand on her hip. “Who else were you with?”
“An Allie or something. Maybe a Casey too.” Levi smirked.
“If he was with either of those girls, you wouldn’t be so calm.” Vera winked. “Nice meeting you.” She turned away.
“Wait.” Levi smiled brighter. “Don’t you want to know my name?”
“Why would I?”
Fuck. Vera was playing right into his hand. Levi loved the chase. It’s why he ran after Allie so hard in the beginning. Now he was going to be so focused on getting Vera he wouldn’t get Allie.
“You can’t have her.” I moved in front of her.
“And why’s that?”
“She’s mine.”
Owen laughed.
“Is there a reason that statement is funny?” I stared at Owen.
“You’ve never been with the same girl more than once.”
“I’m changing my tune.” I took Vera’s hand and towed her off. “Ok, what about following my lead?”
“Come on.” She let out a slow and deep breath. “It was too easy.”
“You made things worse.”
“I didn’t do anything. You’re the one who somehow brought me here in the first place.”
“I wish I knew why we were back here anyway.”
“It’s got to be some sort of dream.” She pushed my arm. “Wake up.”
“It’s not a dream.”
“How do you know?”
“I usually can’t transform in my dreams, and I transformed.”
“So? Maybe the crystals gave you super dreams? You never know.”
“All I know is that if we are in the past we have to get Allie and Levi to meet. Otherwise everything is screwed.” So many things would change. I couldn’t even fathom it.
“This isn’t the past. It’s impossible.”
“Not with magic.” I admitted it out loud.
“But who would do it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was the crystals.” Maybe the crystals somehow awoke the magical ability in me.
“We have to wake up, or get back, or whatever the heck we need to do to get out of here.”
“Agreed, but we have to fix things first. Otherwise we might not be going back to the same place.”
“We’re not in the past.” Her face was stoic.
“You just agreed it might—” Was she really changing her tune so quickly?
“To placate you.”
“Then wake me up. If this is a dream, wake me up.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. There has to be a way.”
“Did you know anyone at whatever time you think this is that could help?”
“Georgina.” The name came to me instantly.
“Levi’s grandma?”
“Yes. She knows everything.”
“Then should we go see her?” Vera moved her arm, and the motion caused her tank top to ride up slightly. Despite the situation my eyes went to her bare skin.
I shook myself. “I need to make sure Levi meets Allie.”
“When do they see each other again… in real life?”
“Tonight. At the Cat’s Meow.”
“Give me a second.” She walked back to where Levi and Owen stood watching us.
I followed, hoping she wasn’t about to screw things up more.
“You’re back?” Levi smiled.
“I changed my mind. I’ll be at The Cat’s Meow tonight. You can prove it then.” She smiled and walked off.
Levi laughed. “That okay with you, Jared? Wouldn’t want to mess with what is yours.”
Bullshit. He’d take whatever he wanted. Levi had many good traits, but he always got what he desired.
“I was only kidding before. Enjoy.” I walked off in the opposite direction from Vera knowing I’d meet up with her outside.
She was waiting right around the corner. “Like my idea?”
“He’ll be there.”
“Most guys will follow their dick.”
“You are so crude.”
“It’s the truth, and you know it.” She crossed her arms.
“Well, stop thinking about that. We’ve got to find a car and head out to see Georgina.”
“Find a car? Don’t you have one?”
“I do.” I had a Mustang convertible I’d been missing.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?”
4
Vera
I had absolutely no clue what was happening. One minute I was kissing Jared in the backseat of the truck in Connecticut, and the next minute I was wandering around the Crescent City Hotel in New Orleans. It was completely unreal.
I wasn’t sure what Georgina was going to do to help, but we couldn’t just sit there. If I was sleepin
g too, it meant Slade and Gemma were probably freaking out, and we were no closer to the haven or securing the safety of everyone and everything we cared about.
I leaned back in the leather seat of Jared’s black Mustang convertible. “How far away is she?”
“An hour or so. It gives us time to talk this all out.”
“What is there to talk about? The crystals screwed with you. I’m not sure how.” I smiled about his choice of car. It fit him far too perfectly.
“I’m not the one who suggested we use them.”
“They came in handy. You were a beast.” A hot, all muscle beast.
“But now I’m stuck in the past.”
“Or your dreams.”
“Neither is particularly good.”
“At least we’re not stuck in my past.” Now that would be a nightmare.
“Was yours so bad?”
“Depends on when.” My childhood was fine, but then things turned much darker. “How far back do you think we are?”
“A little over a year ago.”
“I was with Murphy.” I cringed remembering my vivid dream. Did that have to do with Jared too? We’d been holding hands.
“That would be bad.” His hands tightened on the wheel.
“If this really is the past, then am I missing?”
“Hmm, I don’t know.”
“Murphy is probably screaming and—” I went cold.
“What is it?”
“Murphy said that if I left or didn’t do what he wanted, he’d take Casey.” And I couldn’t let that happen. I’d give up my life to protect her.
“What do you mean do what he wanted?” Jared took his eyes off the road to look at me.
“I’m not going into details. It doesn’t matter.” I looked away.
“Of course it matters.”
“The important thing is making sure this isn’t really the past, and if it is that we don’t let Murphy get Casey.”
“He eventually does get her…” Jared’s eyes darkened.
“But not now. That was later. He only had her in his possession a few days. Besides it wasn’t for sex, it was for power.”
“What?” Jared stiffened. “You think he wants her for sex?”
“At least that’s what his threats were.” I hoped he wouldn’t ask any more questions. I didn’t want to give answers.
“See, that’s why the ‘what’ matters.” He sighed. “This whole thing is screwed up.”
“Just get us out of here.” The wind blew my hair all around my face. “Fast.”
“I’m trying.”
“Was Levi really that much of a tool?”
“I don’t think I’d describe him as a tool. Into chasing women, yes.”
“But he stopped when he met Allie?”
“Completely. She’s his soulmate. It’s insane.”
“So if he doesn’t meet her, he’ll never grow up.”
“Pretty much. She changed him.” He focused on the road ahead.
“And that changed you.” I watched him carefully.
“Yes.” He turned onto Interstate 10.
“Why?”
“Because I realized there was more to life.”
“More to life than multiple girls in your bed?” I pursed my lips.
“You know why he said that.”
“Why did you bring us all up?”
“I was confused. I had no idea what was going on, and I woke up naked… I’d assumed that was your doing.”
“Wait, what?”
“Who else would have taken off my boxers?”
“You actually thought I’d stripped you naked and left you in your bed?” I raised an eyebrow. “You should know me better than that, Jared.”
“That you wouldn’t play a trick on me?”
“That I wouldn’t leave you naked… I’d have my fun.” I rested my hand on his leg.
He groaned. “You kill me.”
“I’m being honest.”
“How do you do this to me?”
“Do what?” I smiled coyly.
“If you moved your hand a few inches you’d know exactly what I meant.”
I laughed. “You get me worked up too. That’s what you get for talking about you being naked.”
“I wish this was a dream.”
“Why?”
“Because then it would be perfectly reasonable to pull over to the side of the road and have my way with you.”
“Have your way with me?”
“If it was my dream, you’d be all about it.”
“But it’s not your dream, since I’m stuck in it too.”
“So no roadside sex?”
“Nope. Sex has to wait until we do everything else.”
“But that would be one sure fire way to know if this was a dream.” Jared smiled.
“Sex would be?” I narrowed my eyes.
“Yes. Because if it was a dream I’d wake up before the good part.”
“You wake up during your sex dreams?”
“Unfortunately.”
“I don’t. I get the full deal.”
“Do you have those sorts of dreams often?”
“No.” I had the recurring nightmares instead.
“Have you had one about me?”
“What do you think?”
“Yes.”
“Why would I need to dream about you when I already have you?”
“I’ve still had some about you.” He smiled.
“Of the unsatisfying, ending too soon variety?”
“Exactly.”
“Have you given any thought to what you’re going to say when we get there?”
“Are you really jumping our conversation straight from sex to Georgina?”
“We need to talk about it. If this isn’t a dream, she might haul us off to a mental institution.” I was questioning my sanity, and I was the one living the experience.
“I’m not going to outright tell her I think we’re in the past. I’m going to make it more general.”
“And she’s going to help you?”
“Likely no, but we might as well try.”
“And what’s our plan B?” I rested my hands in my lap.
“Try really hard to get back to reality after fixing things with Levi and Allie.”
“What if we don’t get back to the city in time?”
“We will. I’ll fly us back if worse comes to worse.”
“Now that sounds good.” I grinned.
“You are a flying junkie.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not as long as you only fly with me.” His eyes twinkled.
“I love how you manage to make flying sound dirty.” Jared was too sexy for his own good—and mine.
“You started it.”
“Let’s just get there.”
“I’m driving us.” He stepped on the gas, speeding us up as if to make a point.
“Wait. Why didn’t we just fly? You said it would be faster.”
“It’s light out, and I don’t want to attract attention.”
“With everything else going on that’s what you’re really worried about?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll save my energy to fly us back.”
“Do you feel out of energy?” I asked.
“No, but I overdid it before.”
“Do you think that you really carried that exhaustion here with you into sleep?” I wasn’t sure of the answer, but he looked normal to me.
“I don’t know. I still don’t know what ‘here’ is.”
“Ok. I’ll stop with the questions.” I looked out the window.
“Your questions don’t bother me.”
“Are you glad I’m here?” Somehow that answer mattered.
“Yes. I probably shouldn’t be though.”
“Why not?” I crossed my arms.
“Because I should want you safe. This isn’t safe.”
“I’m not the kind of girl that needs to be kept safe.” I crossed my arms. “I’m
a bear.”
“And I love that you’re incredibly strong, but I’m still protective.”
“I’m protective of you too.” Very. And territorial, but I kept that part to myself.
“Which is why you kissed me to wake me up?”
“Pterons aren’t supposed to sleep that much.” I’d been scared and desperate.
“No we’re not.”
I looked back out the window at the passing landscape. Louisiana had always seemed like such a foreign place, but on the interstate it didn’t look very different. I guess no place does when you’re on the paved roads. It’s not until you’re off in the wilderness that it becomes clear you’re truly somewhere different.
Jared took the next exit, and we turned onto a small highway. He opened the convertible top, and I enjoyed the sudden rush of the wind. It reminded me of flying, but it wasn’t quite as good.
“What if she flips out that you brought me?” I spoke loudly to be heard over the wind.
“Why would she care?”
“I’m a bear.”
“And she’s a human.”
“A human who’s part of the Pteron royal family.”
“She doesn’t have to know you’re a bear.”
“You want me to pretend to be a human?” I touched my throat.
“You thought you were human for most of your life.”
“Technically yes, although I always knew I was different.”
He glanced over. “Did you? Did you think you were something more than a human?”
“I thought I was weird.” I’d never quite fit in, and one of the best parts of finding out I was a bear was I finally understood why.
“There’s nothing weird about you.”
“Of course there is. We’re all weird in our own ways.”
He rested his hand on my bare leg. I enjoyed the rush of warmth that came from the contact. “I’m not. I’m messed up, but I’m not weird.”
“You have an aversion to that description?”
“Yes. Not for others, but for me. And you.”
“You put us in the same category?”
“We are more alike than I originally thought.”
“That’s saying something.”
“You’ve changed my views on quite a few things.”
“Do you think you’d be as complimentary if we’d met at the time we’re in now?” I wasn’t going to bother adding if we were really back in time.
“Nope. I would have hated myself for being attracted to you.”
Storm: The Empire Chronicles Page 3
