by Reina Torres
No, her cousin turned on the spigot and grabbed a bar of soap in her hand. Before True could grasp what was about to happen, her cousin put her other hand on the back of her head and pushed it down.
True would learn later that what she’d meant to do was wash her mouth out with soap as if True had told a fib, but with the strength of her hands, likely aided by the anger that True had felt rolling off her cousin in waves, what happened at the sink was less of a wash and more of a force feeding. True’s front teeth, large for her mouth at that age had scraped soap into her mouth. Even that night, when the rest of her cousins returned upstairs to get ready for bed after a dinner that True hadn’t been allowed to go along, when True rubbed her tongue against the back of her teeth, she could still feel the soap residue caked against them.
The horrible stomachache she’d had for days had been another excuse for her cousin to harp at her. “See what happens when you speak such nonsense?”
The only nonsense that True could see was her cousin’s reaction.
But it had also been the last time she’d told anyone in her family about her dreams.
When True woke up the morning after meeting Wren she had a completely different experience. She sat up, drew in a breath that filled her lungs and then blew it all out with the biggest grin on her face.
There was no terror, no fear.
In her dreams she had been a guest at a huge party held at the Mystic Mountain Resort, but everyone was dressed for a costume party set during the ‘Roaring Twenties.’
Even awake, she could feel the weight of her dress, decorated from shoulder to hem with the most amazing, glittering, beads. The music had been sublime, and the people moved about the main room talking and laughing with each other, some dancing on the hardwood floor in the center of the space.
It was a gorgeous, glittering explosion of color, and the walls rang with sounds of celebration, but in her dream, she spoke to a few people as she took a turn around the room and then stepped into the bar.
The bar in her dream looked just like the bar did when she’d visited it, but it was completed and shone as she moved through the room.
It wasn’t until she stepped into the hall where the wait staff would pass through on their way to the kitchens that she realized there was something different about the space.
The hall wasn’t wider, but it extended past the swinging door to the kitchen, and that’s where she went as if that had been her intended destination all along.
Another door led off from the hall on the other side, a couple of feet away so the doors weren’t lined up exactly.
The brass plaque on the sign said NOWHERE in big block letters.
She’d smiled in the dream, but she’d felt it on her own lips as if she had really been there. Lifting her hand, she’d rapped at the door and heard a deep, gravelly voice answer her from the other side.
“Where are you going?”
True felt her tongue slide over her lips, wetting them before she answered. “Nowhere.”
The door opened a moment later, and she’d been pulled inside a heartbeat later.
And when the door closed behind her, it hadn’t taken more than a breath for her eyes to become acclimated to the light in the room. The chandelier that hung overhead didn’t have electric lights, only candles. And the lights around the sides of the room were oil lamps mounted to the walls. All of that golden light made the brass fixtures glow like magic.
“It’s beautiful.”
Her voice was full of wonder at the sight before her, but when she felt his hands settle on her shoulders her heart was full.
He turned her around and wrapped an arm around her waist while his other hand hooked a finger under her chin and tilted her head back.
Xavier.
But when she spoke, she heard another name. “Landon,” she heard her own voice echoing in her ears, “be careful.”
The arm around her shifted so that his hand smoothed over her lower back until it cupped her backside, and the heavy, beaded fabric of her dress swept across the bare skin at the back of her legs.
“We’re alone.” He pressed a kiss to her lips and withdrew only far enough to speak again. “And I have you all to myself.”
Another kiss and her arms wound around him to pull him indecently close. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Her voice sounded like a whisper. “A speakeasy might attract the wrong kind of attention.”
“The only attention I want is yours, my love.”
True couldn’t help the hold she had on her blanket with both hands. It had all seemed so real. She could still feel the beaded fabric of her dress against her palms-
No, not ‘her’ dress. A dress.
It hadn’t really been her in his arms.
It hadn’t been anything more than a dream.
Then why, she wondered, was she thinking she really needed to take a look at the plans for the resort?
Xavier was an early riser. There was always work that needed to be done. Always something that needed his attention. And after he’d cleaned out the still in the distillery building, he’d showered and changed and headed down the mountain.
There were a few light fixtures he needed to hang. Then he was all but done with his work at the resort and that meant he could stay as far away from True as he wanted.
Locke had already picked up on his unease and was going to be an absolute jerk about it. He was a good friend, most of the time, but when he wanted to, he could be a real boar.
They’d only ever come to blows a handful of times over the years, but when they let things get that far they ended up bloody and exhausted. Whatever had him on edge around True wasn’t going to be solved with a fight. She was human, and with his preternatural strength she was no match for him.
As he pushed through the doors to enter the main hall his panther stretched inside of him and dug claws into their link.
Don’t fight her.
Xavier didn’t have to ask the alternative. He already knew what his panther would say because the damn cat had been making his wishes known, and even though he didn’t voice the idea at that moment, he did leave a rather… telling image in Xavier’s head.
True’s body beneath his, her limbs wrapped around him, holding him close.
Traitor.
He ignored the panther’s self-satisfied snarl.
The image that the cat had used against him, had been his own.
A rather explicit dream that he both hated and looked forward to having again. Xavier knew he couldn’t… wouldn’t have her in that way, but thoughts of her sent blood rushing through his veins. He felt alive, vibrantly alive when she was in his thoughts, and he liked that feeling, wanted it again.
You want her. His panther sounded so damn proud of himself for announcing the ‘revelation.’ Then, before Xavier could tell the meddling creature where he could stick his observations, his panther twitched his tail in anticipation.
We have company.
Xavier didn’t have to look to know who it was.
He could feel her.
She walked in at Aaron’s side, clutching a long roll of architectural drawings. His instinct to step back and away from her kind of danger was squelched by the sparkling look in her eyes.
That kind of excitement was pure. He could smell the rush of joy as if it was a part of her blood. All of the sensations he experienced because of her felt like he had been still way too long, and every movement sent prickling pain through his nerve endings.
She was going to be the end of his sanity. She had already worn a hole in his armor, and he could feel it widening every time she invaded his thoughts. When she was physically near him, it was everything he could do to keep his hands to himself.
“Hi!”
She was beautiful to begin with, but when she smiled like she was at that moment, she made him ache all over with a need to touch her.
Xavier managed the tiniest of nods before he turned to look at the man standing beside her. “Aaron.�
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“Xavier.”
Aaron’s voice was even when he returned the greeting, but his eyes spoke volumes. He wasn’t happy about the slight to True, but it wasn’t the time to explain that having True anywhere near him made his skin tighten as if it was about to split open from the tension building inside of him.
True didn’t seem to notice what was happening. She was busy trying to flatten the blue and white architectural plans on a nearby table. She dropped her shoulder bag on one of the ‘short’ sides and then tried to dig around in her bag. Xavier knew she was looking for something heavy to hold down the other side.
He didn’t intend to move at all, let alone in her direction, but the next thing he knew he was standing beside her, flattening the opposite end of the plans with his own hand.
True looked up at him with that bright light in her eyes and his breath caught in his chest.
“Now I just want you to listen first, don’t judge until I’ve said the whole thing, okay?”
He didn’t reply back to her, and he could see her hesitate, but a moment later she carried on.
“I think there’s a hidden room just off of the bar.”
Well, that got his attention. Turning toward the table, he came within a hairsbreadth of touching her shoulder with his. “What are you talking about?”
True’s finger traced a path from the door of the main resort building, in through the sitting area and into the bar. “So, I had this dream last night, and in the dream, I was here for some fancy ‘Roaring Twenties’ party. Well, not me, but someone.”
Xavier thought he saw her start to turn to him, but she changed her mind and kept her gaze focused on the plans.
“And once in the bar,” she traced her finger through the middle of the room and toward the kitchen door, “it looked like I was heading toward the kitchen, but…” Her finger continued to travel and moved right through a wall. “There was a hallway here. I couldn’t tell how far down it continued, but there was a door about… here.” She planted the tip of her pointer figure on the plans in the middle of nothing.
Aaron had moved to her other side and he looked down at the plans as her eyes were focused on the plans.
“There was a sign on the door. Brass or copper? And the sign said NOWHERE.”
“Nowhere.” Aaron’s deep, rolling voice made it sound almost tangible. “Are you saying you think that it might be behind the wall?”
She shook her head and laughed, the sound making Xavier wonder if she might be joking about this whole thing.
“I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve never had a dream like this. Plenty of bad ones, but this one wasn’t bad.” She turned her eyes toward him and before he could react, she turned away. “This one was almost magical like it wasn’t even me, but someone else. Someone who was here back then, and she most certainly knew the man inside the room. They,” he heard the way she drew in a breath to steady her nerves, “they were well acquainted with each other.”
“Oh?” Aaron’s tone was soft, but it was also warm and earned him a smile.
Xavier had no idea how to draw that kind of reaction from her. The idea was ridiculous even as it came to him. Regardless of the attraction he felt for her, and the nagging from his panther, he knew that nothing was going to happen between them, because he just wasn’t going to let it.
The shifters in his family had shit luck when it came to their mates. His mother had died having him, the strain on her body had been too much.
He had been too much.
His father didn’t survive the loss of his mate. How he died had never been explained, but Xavier hadn’t expected his uncle, his father’s brother to even try to understand the questions he’d had as a child.
His uncle had lost his mate as well. The woman had taken her own life rather than live with a shifter. Leaping off the cliff and into the base of the waterfall situated on the backside of the mountain.
It was almost as if his uncle had lived to recount the tale over and over again. As a child Xavier had done his best to tune out the horrifying story again and again, but after a while, he’d accepted the tale by rote.
Human women died around his kind. Some by their own choice and others had been taken, but Xavier knew, even as a young boy that a mate was out of the question. A shifter possibly, if he had been lucky enough to find one that stirred the kind of feelings that he believed were necessary for the bond, but he still wasn’t going to take the chance.
Knowing he’d be lonely for his whole life was bad enough, but to be responsible for the death of someone else? Someone that he might love? That was a torture that he couldn’t suffer.
Guilt of that nature would kill his spirit.
“Xavier?”
He heard his name, but he was still submerged in his thoughts until he felt a touch on his arm.
“Xavier? Are you-”
Rather than pull away, his hand clamped down on hers, holding it tight to his arm. “Don’t.”
It took him a few breaths to be able to control his thoughts enough to release her hand and focus on her question. “I was thinking.”
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Scare?” He scoffed at the idea. And leaned a little closer to her. “You didn’t scare me.” Xavier had expected the sudden movement to make her step back and away from him, but she remained where she was, her gaze moving over his face as if she was searching for something.
And he didn’t want her to look at him so carefully. The last thing he wanted was for her to know how torn he was just by having her that close. The scent of her skin made his panther sit up within him and strain forward, needing any kind of connection to her.
“I’m fine.”
Ignoring the animals demands, Xavier looked past her to Aaron. “What would you like me to do?”
Xavier felt the waves of nervous energy rolling off of True in his direction. He already knew what she’d want to have done. The instant he’d heard her suggestion that there was an unknown room in the resort, he was curious.
You know what they say about what curiosity did to the cat.
Shut up.
“I can open the wall,” he explained to them both.” Based on the placement of the wall beside the door to the kitchen, it almost makes sense. The design seems off.”
True’s bright eyes lifted to meet his and then turned back to Aaron. “But what if we open the wall and there’s nothing there. Is that going to set us back for the opening?”
Aaron shook his head. “We can put the wall back together easily. We have the materials, everything we’d need. I think if it’s real, it’s going to be great. Celeste would love to use the news of a speakeasy found on the property.”
“Right under everyone’s noses.”
She turned again in his direction and grinned. “That’s something considering I’m one of three human women here in town. No super skills for any of us.”
Aaron set a hand on True’s shoulder, and Xavier’s panther snarled in the darkness, pacing just behind their link. It was hard to see a man touch her in his presence. Even though it was Aaron, who would never try to touch True in that kind of way. And even though Xavier had already decided he’d never allow himself to reach for her.
That didn’t matter to his panther, or to his own instinct.
What he knew and what he felt were at war.
And his instincts were winning.
Turning away, he went to the tool chest that he had just packed up and lifted the top. He took his sledgehammer in his hands and felt a modicum of control settle over him. Holding the heavy handle in his hands, he took a deep breath. Even with his hands full, the urge to take hold of True and pull her closer was still there, but he needed some kind of outlet to keep him apart from her.
“If you want me to, Aaron, I’ll put a hole through that wall right now. We’ll find out in a few minutes what’s back there.”
Aaron’s expression lightened, and he gave True a wink. “What do you think?”
>
She gasped and stared back at him for a moment. “Seriously? You don’t want to consult with anyone? What if we break something? Something expensive?”
“Then, I’ll fix it.” Xavier was as surprised as the others when the words came from his mouth, but he meant the words. If she wanted to see what was behind that wall, he would do that for her. He could do that.
For her.
“Oh God, really? Thank you!”
She placed her hand over her heart and looked at him with such an expression of joy that he had to plant himself on that hardwood floor, because the instinct to leave rode him hard.
That innocent, wholehearted pleasure that he saw in her face… in her eyes, created a bone deep need to see it again.
To be the source of that joy again.
He knew, beyond a doubt, that the more time he spent with her, the closer he came to her, his resolve to remain alone thinned and threatened to disappear altogether.
He couldn’t wait any longer. He couldn’t give his mind a chance to reveal what other dangers were in his thoughts. Turning on the heel of his boot, he marched over to the wall in question, and instead of stopping to test the wall or second guess the idea, Xavier swung the sledgehammer and tore open a long section, from about a foot above his head, stopping at his waist.
The sledgehammer’s head made a wider hole at the bottom when he ripped it free. Before he could think better of the damage, he stepped back and swung again, making a long tear parallel to the first.
Xavier set aside the sledgehammer and then reached out toward the wall. Grabbing hold of the remaining wall between the two torn gashes, he yanked, and the wood, wallpaper and paint snapped apart with a loud, echoing crack.
The torn piece of wall dropped down beside the sledgehammer as he leaned through the gap.
Shit.
As he turned to look over his shoulder, he felt his skin tighten and a shiver rode his spine. How had she known?
“It’s here,” he told them, “the hall and a door. It’s in here.”
