Crossing Hudson
Page 4
And in truth, Shona and Stacey reminded me a little of the dynamics between Eliza and me. She’d been the badass and I’d been the hug-a-bunny kind of gal. My days of sunshine and roses were long gone. I was beyond jaded. And I no longer lived my life waiting for a cowboy to sweep in and save me, like I once had.
I set the tray of bat-shaped cookies on the bar and winked at George, one of the bartenders. I was pretty sure George wasn’t his real name. He was tall and toned, his brown hair long and always pulled back at the nape of his neck with a tie. George had one of those faces that ran the risk of being too feminine, but stayed just on the masculine side of it. A lot of that had to do with his eyes. They were a vibrant turquoise. Benjamin, another employee at the establishment, had similar-colored eyes, but darker hair—also long. I knew Ben was a Fae. That he’d spent most of his life in another realm but now called the human realm home.
I also had a pretty good idea his real name wasn’t Ben either. My guess was George was also Fae, also living a lie, but one everyone I trusted was willing to go along with so I didn’t judge or question it. Besides, he and George were very easy on the eyes. That was always a plus to have around. Not that many ugly men passed through the doors of the club. While humans did sometimes wander in, the place was one that catered to supernaturals.
I preferred that. Unlike some supernaturals, I’d never been raised around many humans—at least not until I went off to university with my sister. To me, using magik and discussing all things paranormal and weird in the open was natural. I’d had to learn that was a no-no. Humans were to remain ignorant of our kind.
George slid me a glass of water with a lemon wedge in it. He went about his business, but stayed close enough to watch me from the corner of his eye, making sure I drank. It was hard to get the liquid down, but I managed to drink a quarter of the glass, apparently satisfying George enough that he gave me his back and allowed me to continue arranging cookies.
It had been strange for me to get over the idea of instructing the girls in what was a giant nightclub, but my worries faded quickly when I realized that until nighttime, the place was giant, empty and perfectly sized for our needs. And since I lived above it, it was also perfectly located. My gaze went to George as he turned and gave me a stern look for not drinking more water. “The girls driving you nuts too?”
George shook his head, washing a glass as he did. “Nah. I enjoy it. You’re right, they’ve worked hard and are due for some fun. Though, the music is a bit much.”
The girls had been playing the same song over and over for the greater part of thirty minutes. It was partially my fault for turning them on to Eighties music to start with. I’d hoped it wasn’t as annoying as I knew it really was. On the other hand, we all now knew that Mickey was fine and blew minds. No room for doubt there.
“I’m thinking of breaking the sound system,” said Shona, making George laugh and raise a glass in honor of the idea.
“Get Ryan to drink more before you do,” he said.
Shona nudged my glass of water in my direction. Sighing, I picked it up and chugged it, trying not to be sick as I did. The volume level went through the roof as the song came over the sound system again. I smiled and nodded to Shona. “Go play nice, and for the love of the gods, get them to stop playing that song over and over again.”
She gave me a droll look. “Can’t I just break the sound system? Seems faster and with less drama. Or can I just beat this Mickey guy to death?”
I patted her shoulder gently. “Shona, you have got to learn to control your rage.”
The girls cranked the song louder and I rethought my stance on the matter.
Shona snorted as I winced. “Can I control my rage after I break the system?”
George stepped away, returning to whatever it was George did all day. I was starting to suspect it had less to do with bartending and more to do with watching over us all. He was Jude’s eyes and ears when Jude wasn’t around. I knew as much. So did everyone else. While George always seemed very jovial and non-threatening, I had a hunch he was a badass, like I knew Ben could be. That was part of why I entrusted the most important person in my life to Ben’s care three hours a day. I knew Ben was able to not only kick ass, but wield powerful, old magiks. And I liked knowing that type of power was protecting those I loved.
Ben was Jude’s right-hand man. As head of the West Coast Slayers, Jude wasn’t to be messed with. Add in he just happened to be a vampire and a dark prince at that, and you had yourself someone most didn’t dare cross. He’d been away longer this time than normal and seemed to be going out of his way to avoid talking to me directly. That was odd. So was Jude when he wanted to be. I’d learned to just roll with it.
Shona glanced around the bar. “My slayer senses are tingling. You getting any weird vibes?”
I wasn’t sensing anything was off and I was normally the leading indicator of the strange and bizarre. Closing my eyes, I let my power up a bit to scan the area for signs of danger. My power eased out and over the building, the block, and then several blocks over, reading everything it touched. There was certainly something supernatural close—something more than my Soul-Guardian who was close but wasn’t making himself known—but it wasn’t a threat. It was powerful. So much so it was blocking me from knowing exactly what or where it was. All I knew was it was within the radius I scanned. Nothing more. “At the moment, no, I’m only picking up on a good guy.”
Shona exhaled, relief evident on her face. “Do you think we could have a nice quiet day just once?”
“Probably not.” Normal days weren’t something we had much of, if ever. No. We were lucky if we battled just one demon a day. All of us understood what we were up against. Evil wanted to rule the world. The lightness was all that stood between the demons and humans. If we didn’t stand in its way, nothing would.
And I’d made a deal with a select few of The Powers That Be that I’d serve with all I had, and their return on the bargain was still up in the air. If I made good on my end, I’d not only be given a protection pass for the most important thing in my life, I’d earn something special for Porter. Something he deserved having looked out for me for so long. He, of course, had no idea I’d bargained with The Powers. He’d have had a fit. While he worked directly for them, he didn’t trust them much. I wasn’t sure I trusted them either, but my choices were limited. I did what I had to do. I fought the good fight even though the good fight was killing me.
The bell to the front entrance chimed, but neither Shona nor I turned to acknowledge the person. We sort of sucked at the hospitable thing I think Jude was hoping for. Tess, a Fae who aided in the training of the girls though she was not technically a slayer, was better at it, but she was with Ben at the moment so that left Shona and me. Between Shona’s slayer senses and my uber odd ones, we’d have felt the evil rolling off the person if they were a threat. Beyond killing bad guys, we didn’t handle day-to-day club business.
“George, someone is here, unable to read the closed sign,” Shona said, picking up a cookie and taking a bite, still facing the bar and not the door. She tried to give me a bite from her already half-eaten cookie and I ducked away.
“Aww, come on. You know you want to eat after me,” she said with a snort.
George set down the glasses he was cleaning and walked around the end of the bar, headed to the entrance behind us. Shona and I paid him little mind. He was welcome to play host. The club’s phone began to ring and George changed directions, going for it instead. Guess the newcomer would have to wait.
“Pfft, I see the men you date, Shona. I can only imagine where your mouth has been.”
She laughed. “Hey, the men I date are gorgeous. And I caught the drawl again. I hate that you try to cover up your inner hick.”
I gave her a hard look. “My ‘inner hick’ and I are close to taking offense. And I’m not denying it. All I will say, on the topic of men you’ve dated, is that you’ve gone out with Dillon. Eww.”
I loved teasing her about Dillon. He was hot and had the gift of magik, so there really was nothing to tease her about except she’d broken her cardinal rule of never banging the male-equivalent of a slayer—a Guardian—with him. And it was too fun not to take jabs at her for it.
Shona’s mouth dropped open. “Dillon is sexy. Admit it.”
He was. That wasn’t the point. I hadn’t met a Guardian yet who wasn’t a hunk. “Yep. But he is a bit too aware of it for my tastes.”
“At least,” Shona ran her finger through the black icing on the top of her cookie, “he isn’t oblivious to how good he looks, like some people I know.” She stared at me with wide eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Rolling her eyes, she snickered. “Never mind. You’re hopeless.”
Someone behind us cleared their throat and I remembered we had company. Where the heck was George? I didn’t want to play hostess.
“I’m looking for Jude Labelle,” a very familiar, very deep, male voice with distinct notes of a Southern drawl said. The voice moved through me, making me want to not only turn and face its owner, but go to the shelter of his arms.
Do not turn around and throw yourself at a stranger.
Do not.
The more I repeated it in my head, the less my body wanted to act on impulse. It also helped that I was a total chicken shit and didn’t turn around at all, knowing my hormones were already in overdrive.
“And your business with Jude would be?” Shona asked, ever protective of Jude. Which was rather ironic considering who and what Jude was. Shona was a twenty-six-year-old slayer who could kick the shit out of just about anything she set her mind to, but not Jude.
I’m not sure much could kick the crap out of Jude.
“My business is personal, sweetheart,” the man said, taking a bit from my thoughts of him being hot. Now he just sounded like a dick.
Turning, Shona eyed him, ready to launch into a confrontation. Her shaggy blonde hair and heart-shaped face made her look innocent. I knew better. She tended to search out arguments. She gave me her famous “men are stupid and I should castrate this one” look. It was a fairly common expression for her.
I grabbed the tray of cookies, intent on feeding the restless masses, and laughed at her. She was welcome to do whatever she wanted and I knew better than to try to stop her. “I need to get their session going.”
Before I could stop her, she swiped her icing-covered fingers across my face and laughed. Dancing in a small circle around me, she whapped me on the butt and did a bad version of an Eighties dance.
Laughing, I turned to head into the room with the girls but came to a grinding halt, hitting an unmovable force. Instantly, I went backwards with the cookie tray in hand, dazed because I’d not sensed anyone move up behind me. A strong arm wrapped around my waist and the other went to the tray, settling it before any cookies fell. Fire shot through my back where the hand touched my bare skin. I gasped and so did the person holding me.
4
Chapter 4
Looking up, I found myself staring into a black abyss of material snuggly fitting a bulging chest. A thick, tanned, corded neck filled the rest of my view, and darn it if my hormones didn’t go into overdrive. It was just the sight they’d been hoping for. I had to take a big step back to see the man’s face, and oh, what a face it was. His chiseled, rugged look suited his build. He wasn’t freakishly bulky, but he was certainly built. A head of tousled dark brown, almost black, hair hung just past his stubble-covered jaw. He stared at me with chocolate-brown eyes that made me want to melt. Had I been asked to make a checklist of what I found attractive in a man, he’d have ticked all the boxes.
Heck, even the bonus section.
His dark gaze went down to my white stretch tank that stopped two inches above my navel. The red crocheted shrug sweater I wore over it had sleeves that went to the center of my palms. The sweater itself stopped just under my breasts.
The man’s dark gaze lowered from my torso to the top of my low-rise boot-cut blue jeans. It lingered over the tiny portion of one of my tattoos that peeked out just above the waistband on my right hip. I tapped my foot, drawing his attention down my leg, enjoying the power I seemed to have over him. Truth was, I was just glad I wasn’t the only one swept up in the moment. A slow, rather sexy smile came over him as he stared at my black cowboy boots. Before I knew it, his gaze was locked on me.
“Well, hello there,” he said, his voice even deeper than before. “I like the boots.”
“Umm,” I said, instantly feeling tongue-tied.
Making no move to let go of me, he stared at me with puzzled eyes. “Do I know you?”
George laughed as he walked past me with a tray of sodas. “I’ve heard better pick-up lines, buddy.”
The man said nothing. He was familiar to me too. I stared up at him, a questioning expression on my face. I’d have remembered a hunk like him, but still, it was hard to shake the feeling that he was right. We knew each other somehow.
“Everything all right?” asked George.
I nodded, still unable to form a clear thought beyond how sexy the new guy was.
“Do you want me to call Ben?” George asked, threatening to bring in some more muscle should need be. Not that Shona and I were helpless by any means, but George was old school. Men protected women.
Not the other way around.
I didn’t answer George. I couldn’t. I could only stare up at the gorgeous man as I tried to figure out where I might know him from. He felt so familiar, so right. His large hand came up and he wiped my cheek, sending a wave of warm, toe-curling energy through me. My power wanted free to join whatever was flaring between us. It took all of me to keep it in check. We did not need me letting hormonal magik loose on the city.
“You’ve got a little bit of,” he bent down, “frosting on you.” Wiping a tad firmer, he leaned in more. His lips were oh so close. Every ounce of me wanted to kiss him. I held back. It was hard. He stood slowly, saving me from having to fight what felt natural.
Yep. I was going to melt. I’d know soon what a pile of hormonal goo looked like.
“I’m positive I know you,” he said, moving even closer to me.
“Shona, something’s wrong with our girl there,” George said, sounding worried.
Shona reappeared and moved up next to me, smiling wide. “Excuse me, hon. The girls are about to riot if they don’t get some treats, stat.” She pried the tray of cookies from our hands, but I didn’t move. It was as if my feet were glued to the floor, or in this case, my body stuck to the hunk. Shona took hold of my chin and turned my face to hers. “What’s a matter?”
“Huh?” I asked, my mind foggy.
Her brows drew together. Slowly, she glanced up at the man I was having trouble separating from. “He’s a looker, for sure, but what is going on?”
“I want to keep him,” I whispered.
“Holy shit, did you really just say that?” Shona didn’t bother with whispering.
My eyes widened when I realized what I’d said. “Oh,” I glanced at the man and found him smiling, “thanks for, uhh, for…”
Shona nudged me hard. “Making your heart skip a beat? Making you see stars? Making you all warm and fuzzy inside? Making you damp in places you didn’t know could even be damp? Making you—”
“Shona, there are children in here.”
“Yeah, they’re way up on the dance floor in the other room, pretty darn far from us, and you made ‘sure’ they get a filtered version of everything that’s said.”
I had indeed assured that the children could only hear age-appropriate comments. I’d done the spell months ago, when I’d begun to take a more active role in their slayer training, and when I realized quickly that Shona didn’t come with a filter of her own around children. It was a simple magik filtering trick I’d learned when I was young. My power was strong enough and natural enough that I really didn’t notice I was using it to keep things in line.
“I could just run right into him and forget what I was thinking, but you took that one. Plus, you have the doe-eyed thing going I can’t pull off.” She grinned.
I tried to back away from the man as my face turned at least four shades of red. He wouldn’t let go. I glanced at the floor and not the man’s face.
A deep, manly chuckle came from him. Shona sighed. I didn’t. I shook my head, knowing that chuckle, knowing that voice. Heat moved through my body again, making him seem even more familiar. My heart beat fast and my breathing grew shallow. It couldn’t be. The odds were astronomically high against it.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Frantic that he might be the one man I didn’t want to run into, I focused on the floor, refusing to make eye contact with him. “Cowboy?”
“What did you just call him?” Shona asked in an undertone so soft humans couldn’t hear. It was a gift we’d perfected over our time together.
I answered in the same whisper, “Cowboy.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought you said. That’s the name you use when you’re referring to—”
“Yeah.”
She pressed hard against me. “Is it him?”
“I don’t know, Shona. He sounds exactly like him. But this man has no scent to pick up on. He’s blocking everything from me. That, or my gifts don’t work on him. It’s happened before.”
“Look again.” Shona was beyond stern. “If it’s him then, I’m holding his fucking gorgeous ass down and making you kick him repeatedly. Then I’m calling the rest of the gang to do it. The man will fix you and then I’m handing him over to Jude to kill.”
“I have told you a thousand times, I can’t remember Cowboy’s face. The Powers That Be blurred it.” I sighed. “And I can’t tell if he has any tattoos. And you are not asking him to strip.”