Charisma

by Wendy Stone

  “I-I do?” she asked, confused. “Then why doesn’t this feel right,” she asked, staring from Robbie to Hood.

  Hood pushed her thighs apart further. “I don’t know, but I do know you love it when the men touch you and you touch yourself in front of them. Let her go, Robbie,” he said, nodding to where her hands were tied behind her back. “Let her go so she can perform for us.”

  Hood’s breathing grew faster as his man reached behind the girl, pulling the ropes loose. Robbie took her hand, placing her fingers on her thigh, his eyes bright as he looked down at her. “Come on, baby. Play with yourself for the boss. You like to make him happy.”

  “I-I do?” she whispered, her face red with humiliation. “Why does it feel like I’ve never done this before?” she cried, even as she tried to do what they asked. Her fingers were warm on her thigh and she let them slide upward, feeling the eyes of the two men on her like crawling bugs. It made her sick. She gagged and put her other hand over her mouth. “I’m going to be sick,” she managed to gasp before Robbie threw open the car door and shoved her out. She scuttled across the floor, finding the trash can in the corner just in time to heave up everything in her stomach.

  The heaving sent her head into shattering pain and that made her even sicker, a terrible circle that left her feeling hollowed out and half-dead. She huddled on the floor next to the can, one hand still around it, the other hanging on to her head. Closing her eyes, she saw a flash of a face, handsome, with concern in his pretty green eyes. She moaned, wishing she could recall who he was.

  “Call in the girls. Have them take her and get her cleaned up,” Hood said, heaving his bulk out of the car and staring in disgust at the huddled figure. “Put some ice on her head and get some medication into her,” he said, smiling at Robbie. He slapped the smaller man on the back, almost sending him flying. “Get some for yourself if you like, and tell Tina she’s yours for the night.”

  Robbie smiled, shrugging off the pain of the big man’s slap on the back. “Thanks, boss,” he said, showing proper deference before going over and lifting the small redhead in his arms. He’d been present when proper deference wasn’t shown and he wasn’t going to make that mistake. It was deadly.

  Hood went to his desk and picked up his phone, calling Daniels’s office. He wanted to know that the dragon was dead. He wanted to know where the body was. He frowned as the call went to voice mail. Slamming down the receiver, he kicked back in his chair. That asshole had better not double cross him. Hood had made Daniels into what he was today, head of ASP and one of the biggest friend’s of nonhuman crime lords there was.

  * * * *

  “Get out,” Sam shouted at Dimitri, stomping her foot and pointing at the door.

  “Sam, honey,” Nashe began, only to take a step back when the small chef spun around and stared at him.

  “Don’t you ‘Sam, honey’ me. If you hadn’t had this asshole at your mating I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “Hey, he’s Lukah’s relative, not mine,” Nashe said holding his hand up in surrender. “I could tell you how to stop this whole thing.”

  “How?!” Sam asked, wondering why they hadn’t told her there was a way out in the beginning.

  “If Dimitri dies before the ceremony is cemented by an elder, then you’ll revert back to what you were before the mating.”

  “Nashe!” Dimitri shouted from where he’d taken up residence, on the end of her bed.

  “Hush,” Nashe said angrily. “She’s not going to kill you, but I might.”

  Sam turned and went to her closet, dragging out a long trench coat and her purse. She threw the trench coat on over her bathrobe and was heading toward the door when Nashe stopped her.

  “Where are you going?” he growled.

  “To buy a gun,” she said, glaring at both men in her apartment. “If you don’t want to taste lead, I suggest you be gone when I get back.”

  “Samantha,” Nashe grabbed her arm, slowly removing his hand when she turned hard blue eyes upon it. “You can’t kill him. The cops will throw you in jail for life. You don’t want to have your baby in jail, do you?”

  “No, but I don’t want to have kittens either, Nashe,” she said, almost seeming to deflate. She dropped on the closest piece of furniture, the couch in her living room. She could still see Dimitri if she looked up. He was right in her line of vision. She kept her gaze on her hands.

  “Honey,” Nashe began, sinking down in front of her and dropping his hand on hers. “There is so much wonder in the life of the Were. It’s not terrible. Dimitri, for all his impetuous, isn’t completely to blame in this. I should have told you when you came to work for me. It’s just been difficult for me, very difficult until I met Terry. I wasn’t comfortable with what I am myself, until she came into my life.” His face seemed to glow with happiness when he mentioned his mate’s name.

  Sam stared into his face. “I don’t know what to do,” she said softly.

  Nashe chuckled.

  “What?” she said defensively.

  “You should feel bad for Dimitri. He was quite the ladies man until you snared him. Now, well, this isn’t something that male Weres like known. He can’t touch another woman, Sam. He’ll be completely impotent with anyone but you.”

  “Are you saying that I’ll be incapable of…of… you know, with another man?”

  “No, you’re capable, and if he’s not your one true love, you can find it and live happily with him. But you won’t be able to have children with anyone but your mate. Dimitri on the other hand, is unable to… you know… with anyone but you.”

  A slow smile crossed her lips and Sam looked up, finding Dimitri staring at her. “Really?” she said slowly.

  “Nashe?” Dimitri called nervously. He didn’t like the look on his Samantha’s face. “What are you telling her?”

  “Just the facts of life,” Samantha said slowly. She stood and took off the coat. Suddenly Dimitri wasn’t sure he didn’t want her to go out and buy a gun. She seemed too satisfied with something.

  “Sam,” Nashe said, standing as well. “I’m going to leave but there’s one other thing you need to know before you go in there and chop off parts of his body. If he truly is your mate, then you’re going to crave his touch. It’ll be like a never ending itch that can’t be scratched except by him.”

  “So you’re saying if he is my mate, then I’ll want him over any other man,” she said slowly.

  “Yeah,” Nashe answered, reaching out and giving her a quick hug. “If you want the day off to get used to this, I can call Lee in and have him take today.”

  “Thanks, Nashe,” Sam said, quickly deciding that being a Were was going to take a bit of getting used to. “I’ll take his day tomorrow.”

  Nashe was on the phone as he left her apartment, breathing a sigh of relief that he’d made it through that unscathed. He’d expected to lose Sam as a chef. That would have been a loss he’d have taken out of Dimitri’s hide himself.

  Dimitri stood, glancing at her with a wariness that she found funny. He held his hands out cautiously, wearing only the pants he’d worn to the mating yesterday. Standing just inside the bedroom, she stared at him, watching him fidget.

  “I have to know something,” she said softly.

  “Anything, love,” he said quickly.

  “What made you so certain that I was your mate that you forced it upon me?”

  “I didn’t think I was forcing it,” he said, stopping when she arched her brow at him and gave him a look. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll tell you, but can you come over here so we don’t have to yell?” He held his hand out to her. “I promise, I just want to hold your hand so that you can feel the truth of my words.”

  “Is that another Were thing?” she asked, though she moved forward slowly and finally reached out and took his hand.

  “No,” he said. “But I can’t hide what you can read in my eyes and in my heart, love.”

  “You don’t love me,” she scoffed. “Love takes
a lot longer to grow than just a first meeting. It takes work and commitment and time.”

  “You really are a skeptic,” he sighed, sinking down on the bed and watching with a smile as she did too.

  “I’m not a skeptic, I’m a realist.”

  “You say potato,” he said with a grin. “When I saw you for the very first time, you seemed to almost glow. No woman has ever appeared to me like this, Samantha. Yes, you are beautiful, but inside you are absolutely breathtaking. You are a good person, one who is loved by her friends and family. That glow I saw, that was when I knew.”

  “Knew what? That the sun had just come out from behind a cloud?”

  He scoffed at her tone. “No, love. That is when I knew you and I were destined. It was fate. I just gave fate a little bit of a head start.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Shadow worried the entire trip back to the house. He’d gotten a sleepy Angel out of the crypt and told her to wait in Daniels office for Carmella and Marcus. Since then, he’d heard nothing. The teams should already be there. Dammit! What was going on?

  “It’ll be okay,” Callie said, her hand falling to his thigh. Her face was pale and he knew her head was hurting more than she was letting on.

  “I know, I just wish someone would let me know what’s happened,” he said, the frustration creeping into his voice.

  He spun the wheel as he came to the parking garage, pulling in the drive a bit fast. The ASP member that was stationed at the small gatehouse gave him a strange look, though his hand was already on the button for the gate. Soon, they were driving inside the dark garage, circling round and round until they reached the right level.

  Callie had braced herself against the door, used to Shadow’s way of driving. She preferred Marcus’s more laid back attitude or her own driving to Shadow’s, but she hadn’t dared to offer to drive. He’d already designated the passenger’s seat.

  “Door,” she said, as Shadow headed toward the back of that level.

  “What?” Shadow asked, his eyes not really seeing where he was going.

  Callie grabbed the opener off the driver’s side of the car, hitting the button so the door opened well before Shadow got to it. “Geez, Shadow, if you’re not planning on paying attention to your driving, mind if I do it next time?”

  “I would have,” he argued, but he knew it was futile. She was right. His mind was on what was happening inside. He wasn’t paying much mind to what he was doing. “Come on,” he said, dropping the SUV off with the garage Were-rabbits. They were wonders with anything mechanical. He could only hope none of them were with Hood. They were almost irreplaceable.

  He kissed her quickly, placing her on the elevator down to the med unit. “I’ll call down and see how you’re doing,” he told her when she scowled.

  Then he was hurrying to Daniels’s office.

  It was empty. No Marcus or Angel, no Carmella and no Kadian James. He could have thrown something. Instead, he went to the phone and made some calls. Then he ran out of the office and down the hall to the elevator.

  * * * *

  “We make our own fate,” Sam said, eyes narrowed at the handsome cad who’d seduced her into joining a new species.

  “Yes, we did do that, didn’t we,” he said with a grin, purposefully mistaking what Sam had said. “You are such a beautiful woman, Samantha. Do you blame me for wanting to make you all mine?”

  “From what Nashe explained to me, it seems that you’re all mine,” she said with an evil little grin. “I still have options.”

  “You have what?” he asked, frowning as he caught on to her meaning. “He told you that?”

  “Yes, he did.” She crossed her legs, resting her arm across them. “He told me that and much more.”

  “Did he also tell you how you’ll crave my touch,” Dimitri asked, “Did he tell you how much you’ll want me?”

  “He said I will if we are meant to be. But I’ve got to admit, Dimitri, I don’t feel a thing. I am a bit hungry, though.” She grinned at the look on his face, enjoying the fact that for once, she held all the cards. “I guess we aren’t meant to be.”

  “Would you like to change?” he asked, sitting forward and moving a bit closer.

  “Change? Oh, you mean change into a panther, like you did?”

  “Yes. I can show you how,” Dimitri offered, wanting to see what she would do with the freedom and the power of the beast.

  “It didn’t seem so hard. I mean, I grew my tail with no trouble.” She sounded assured, but didn’t look quite as confident as she sounded.

  “Changing all the way is a bit different. Would you like me to talk you through it?”

  Now that he’d mentioned it, she was a bit curious. “Will I still be me?”

  “Who else would you be?” he asked, confused.

  “No, I mean, will I still have my memories and thoughts? Or will I be just some kind of slathering beast?”

  “Did I look like a slathering beast?” he asked, slightly offended by her words.

  “No, but I don’t really remember much.” She jerked a bit when he stood up and slipped the pants he wore down his lean hips, exposing every delectable inch of himself to her, up close and personal. “Whoa,” she said, holding her hand out to cover her eyes.

  “We are mated,” he said, standing unashamedly in front of her. “You will grow used to my nudity, as you will your own. Besides, how will you know what to do if you cover your eyes?”

  “You could just tell me,” she said quickly, though she peeked through her fingers at the beauty of his form.

  “You will enjoy this perk. Being what we are, the beast in us keeps us at top form.”

  “You mean, you don’t go work out two hours a day?” she asked, impressed but not wanting him to know it.

  “No, I run as the cat and climb trees. The freedom to be your true self is exhilarating,” he said. “You’ll love it.”

  Sam sighed. “Okay, how do I do this?”

  * * * *

  Charisma lay upon the bed in the room she’d been led to, her thoughts whirling. She kept seeing a face in her mind. He was beautiful, much more than just handsome. A light shone in his eyes as he stared down at her, as if he loved her. She could feel the warmth of him, feel the joy he created well up inside. It wasn’t until the bedsprings hit the ground under her that she realized she done much more than just rest. A quick look in the mirror on the far wall made her gasp and accidentally set the mattress on fire.

  She was a dragon!

  Why hadn’t they told her this? A strange voice sounded in her mind. Because they didn’t know, my love.

  “W-who are you?” she asked aloud. But in her mind and her heart, she knew. Kadian?

  Yes, it’s me.

  Are you all right? She asked mentally. His voice seemed weak, sounding sick and as if he was far, far away.

  I’m fine, he said, brushing aside her concern and making her realize that he really wasn’t. Even if he was close to death, he would probably say he was fine. We need to know where you are. I have to know so I can come and get you, baby.

  A-a warehouse? She said, glancing around even as she quickly extinguished the mattress she’d accidentally set on fire. I didn’t see when we drove in. I was sick.

  Oh baby, she could hear the tenderness, the concern in his tone. Can you look outside? Maybe see if you can see something you know?

  There are no windows, she wanted to cry. He seemed so close but so far away at the same time. She just had to get to him and then everything would be all right. She would be all right.

  Do you remember what I taught you? Kadian asked, sitting up in the bed Marcus had put him in and shrugging off the hands trying to hold him still.

  “If you change, you’ll die right now,” Angel said, grabbing hold of his arm once more. “Then you’ll never be able to help her. Is that what you want?”

  Kadian wanted to throw the brassy blonde into the next room, but he knew she was right. Instead, he concentrated on keeping open
the channel of communication he had with his mate. He had to talk her out of there and get her to come to him.

  I can’t fly, Char cried.

  Yes, you can, Kadian said. First of all, baby, wipe your eyes. Then, I want you to practice blowing flames. When you can get a good burst of flame, burn the ceiling. If you use enough heat, you’ll be able to burst right through.

  B-but there are helpless women here, she glanced around the room, remembering the bruised and scared woman that had shown her here and told her to sleep.

  Can you sing?

  Sing. Of course, that was it.

  I love you, Kadian, she thought at him, forcing her beast back under control. She went back to what remained of the bed and lay down.

  * * * *

  “She’s not answering me,” Kadian said, his green eyes almost black with worry.

  Shadow dropped his hand on Kadian’s shoulder as he sat up in the med unit bed. “I’ve got one of my best teams out there, going through warehouses with the help of the cops. We’ll find something,” he said, trying to comfort the man. He knew what it was like to have the one you love taken from you. He remembered how he’d felt when Callie had become engaged to Aidan, the liar.

  “You stay here and let that antidote get rid of the rest of the poison. Diana and her men are keeping their eyes open. If you’re Charisma is a siren, she should be able to take care of herself.” As long as she’s not gagged, he thought but avoided saying. Kadian was worried enough. He nodded at Angel and Marcus, who were hovering close by. “Keep an eye on him.”

  “With pleasure,” Angel said, letting one side of her mouth turn up into a humorless smile. “I owe him.”

  “You’d have done the same for him,” Kadian growled at the beautiful vampire.

  “That doesn’t mean a thing to me, man,” she said. “You owe me big.”

  “How about tickets to my next concert?” Kadian asked, rolling his eyes.

  “You got a deal,” Angel grinned. “Front row center, right?”

  “Where else?” Kadian said, wearily leaning back against his pillow. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He’d followed her before, he’d do it again, poison or no poison. He could feel the sickness. It ran through his veins like acid. The antidote was there as well, fixing the damage done by the poison. There’d just been so much of it. Then there’d been Carmella and the fight between Marcus and the young woman he’d thought of as a friend for so long. Now she inhabited her own cell deep in the tombs, her body bound with magical chains that wouldn’t allow her to change.