Stone Passions Trilogy (Stone Passion 1, 2, & 3)

by A C Warneke

  He gave her a half-smile, “I’m only here so they can have fun and not worry about any unwanted attention. Usually Armand is here but he’s back at the castle helping Vaughn get drunk.”

  At the second reminder of the complications between his brother and her sister she let one of his hands go and took a step away from him. Understanding the action, he let her go without protest. Awkwardly, not quite able to meet his splendid eyes, she asked, “So, how is he anyway?”

  “Not so well,” he admitted bleakly. “And Melanie?”

  “The same.” She huffed out a bitter laugh as she studied the sensuous line of his lips and sighed. “I wish…”

  “So do I, sweetheart,” he breathed. “You need to leave before I decide I can’t let you go.”

  She smiled slightly as she nodded, letting her hand slip from his as she walked away. Pausing at the entrance of the hallway, she looked over her shoulder, “Good bye, Rhys.”

  “Good bye, Jenna.”

  Slowly, she made her way back to the table wondering if she would ever be strong enough to take a chance on the possibility of maybe. This thing between her and Rhys was too rare, too precious to simply throw away without considering all of the alternatives.

  It wouldn’t be fair to Melanie but did Jenna have a choice?

  Strong fingers wrapped around her arm, squeezing painfully, and she glared at Blake as he glared down at her. “Are you ready to leave?”

  She nodded, grabbing her jacket and her purse. She tried to twist away from his hold but his grasp was too tight and she glared at him. “I’m just going to head home, Blake, sorry.”

  “I don’t think so,” he growled, his hazel eyes blazing in anger.

  The warmth of Rhys was behind her in an instant and she leaned into his strength. His words washed over her, calming her racing heart, as he asked, “Is everything all right?”

  Blake’s eyes lost focus for a moment and then he shook his head, a befuddled expression crossing his face. He glanced down at Jenna, at his hand on her arm, and jerked it away as if burnt. “Whoa, I have no idea what I was thinking. Pardon me, Jenna.”

  At the lift of Rhys’s eyebrow, Blake stuttered and turned bright red, “I mean, Ms. Jacobs. I trust you’ll be fine if I say good night now?”

  She nodded her head, a little dumbstruck by his abrupt change in attitude. She could only stare as he threw some money down on the table and quickly made his way out the door. Her frown deepened as she glanced at the two twenties on the table since he had paid for his drinks at the bar and they hadn’t ordered anything. With a shrug, she turned to Rhys, “We have to stop meeting like this.”

  He gave her a half-smile, “It’s fate, Jenna.”

  “Don’t,” she murmured with a sad smile, pressing her fingertips to his lips, not wanting to hear any more about fate and destiny, not when it hurt so much. Inhaling deeply, she breathed in the scent of Rhys and had to remind herself to be strong and let him go. Again. “I have to go.”

  “Next time I have you in my arms I’m not going to let you go,” he whispered, the words moving over her skin with the promise of more. “I’m going to make love to you,”

  Reluctantly, she walked away one more time, unable to tear her eyes away from him until the very last possible moment. She knew that the next time she ran into him she wasn’t going to be able to just walk away, if only she could find the courage to stay.

  Chapter 6

  For the next couple of days Jenna was too busy to think about Rhys more than a few times every couple of minutes. At night her hand liked to stray beneath her gown as she fell asleep to thoughts of Rhys and her dreams made it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. She couldn't be perfectly happy because her sister had been so miserable and for a change, she got to be the strong one while Melanie fell apart. Helping Melanie, holding her as she cried, had been almost cathartic, it made her feel needed.

  Oh, she knew that Melanie thought Jenna was strong but Jenna knew the truth: she wasn’t strong. She had been faking it for almost seven years, putting on a brave face when inside she was dying and then putting on a smile when she didn’t feel anything at all. She had grown so used to faking it that her electric response to Rhys had taken her by surprise. Maybe if he hadn’t been so magnetic, if she wasn't so drawn to him, she would have been able to indulge in an affair and not worry about the fall out.

  She was ready to throw caution to the wind and call him until a few days ago when Melanie had woken up wearing a blindingly brilliant smile and bounded into the kitchen, announcing, “I’m going with him.”

  Panic had gripped Jenna’s very soul and she didn’t want her sister to leave, irrationally afraid that if Melanie left she’d never see her again. The sense was so strong, she had to resist the urge to grab her sister and beg her not to go. Trying to be supportive, she had hugged her but the plea accidently slipped out. “Melanie, don’t do this.”

  “I love him,” her sister had said, her blue eyes even more luminous than usual, love shining brightly in their vivid depts. “I have to do this.”

  Then she had said her good-byes and disappeared and an odd silence descended upon the house, as if Melanie had taken all of the light and laughter with her when she left. Even Ferris was restless, refusing to take off the strange necklace Melanie had given her before she flew to Vaughn.

  It somehow felt wrong to think about Rhys when a dark pall hung over the house. So she threw herself back into her old life, finding that it no longer fit but what choice did she have? Ignoring the discomfort, she worked like a madwoman, flying through tax forms and receipts for her clients, and assuring Blake that there were no hard feelings between them.

  She didn’t understand why she was so depressed. Her sister was with the man she loved beyond reason, she herself was no longer sleep walking through life and she was finally finally connecting with Ferris on a much deeper level, as if the fog had been lifted from her eyes and the only thing that had been missing was joy.

  So why was she so damn down?

  “We have a whole day free tomorrow, what should we do?” Jenna asked Ferris that night, forcing cheer into her voice. She was determined to overcome the strange melancholia and she promised herself that she would call Rhys. Maybe she just needed to talk to him. She would explain the strange mood that had been plaguing her for a week and a half and see if he had any answers. But if he didn’t answer than it was his loss; she wasn’t going to go back to sleep.

  She pulled Ferris onto her lap as she sat down on the couch watching the evening news with her family. Her parents had recently started watching the local news every weeknight because Jensen’s latest girlfriend was the weather girl, er, meteorologist. She was just as cute as a button with long, shiny blond hair and big brown eyes and big… other parts. She was so damn sweet, almost as sweet as Melanie, if that was even possible and it was obvious why Jensen was dating her. It was less obvious why she would date Jensen.

  As much as she loved her older brother, Jenna knew that he was kind of a player with a new woman on his arm every couple of weeks. The females of the world seemed to find him wildly attractive with his dark hair and blue eyes and dimpled grin. Jenna just thought he was put on the earth to annoy and torture her and Melanie.

  “I want to go see Aunt Mellie at the castle,” Ferris finally answered, the same thing she had been saying every day for the week and a half since Melanie left.

  The dull heaviness in her stomach hardened for a moment but Jenna ignored it and curled her lips into a smile, dragging her fingers through Ferris’s long dark brown hair. “Sweetie, you know that Aunt Mellie has gone on some grand adventure with Vaughn. She’s not at the castle.”

  Ferris heaved a dramatic sigh, resting her head against Jenna’s cheek, making Jenna’s heart quicken slightly in her chest at the sheer joy of holding her daughter in her arms and breathing in her clean, spring-fresh scent. “I know. I just miss her and I want her to hurry home.”

  “Me, too, sweetie,” Jenna murmure
d, kissing the soft skin of Ferris’s temple. “Me, too.”

  “Well, the gargoyles are probably still there,” Ferris continued undeterred. “We could go and see them.”

  Jenna chuckled, hugging her daughter a little tighter. “Once Aunt Mellie returns we will be sure to visit her and the gargoyles.”

  “Promise?” The hopeful note in Ferris’s voice was loud and clear. The only problem was Melanie had been very vague about the details and if Jenna thought about it, so had Rhys. At the time it hadn’t bothered her because she had been distressed by the fact that Melanie was leaving but now, with the sense of unease that had been looming for nearly a week and a half….

  “Of course,” she murmured.

  “Have you heard from your sister?” her mom asked, joining the conversation.

  Jenna shook her head no, offering a slight smile, “You know how Melanie is, mom. She probably lost track of time and has no idea that it’s been so long since she left.”

  Her dad chuckled at that, “True. If that girl’s head wasn’t attached I’m sure she would leave it behind.”

  “Jenner,” her mom scolded, a smile playing about her lips. “You know Melanie would never misplace her head – it’s too full of fantastical stories to lose. She might misplace a limb or two but never her head.”

  Jenna’s smile wavered as her parents continued to joke about Melanie. Her mom looked at her with sparkling eyes and asked, “Do you think everything’s okay?”

  Jenna nodded and started to answer but the words couldn’t get past the sudden lump in her throat and she was unable to ignore her intuition any longer, not when it came to her whimsical sister. Slowly moving her head back and forth, she admitted, “I don’t know. I think something might be wrong but I just don’t know. As absent-minded as Melanie can be, she’s never gone so long without calling home.”

  “She’s probably on some tropical island with that new boyfriend of hers,” her father offered gruffly, the laughter dimming slightly from his eyes to be replaced with worry. “It’s just that she moved out so suddenly… it’s hard to believe she’s left the nest.”

  “Yeah,” Jenna nodded. “You’re probably right.”

  “Yeah.” But he didn’t sound so convinced.

  They sat in silence for a few minutes, the sound of the television the only noise. Jenna barely paid attention to what the newscasters were saying, her thoughts a hundred miles away, or however far Melanie was. Was her sister in trouble?

  “Watch,” her dad said as both he and her mom leaned forward in their seats, broad smiles on their still attractive faces, “Lizzie’s coming up next.”

  But instead of Lizzie’s smiling face, the camera cut to an image of some poor soul whose face was unrecognizable beneath the lacerations and broken nose. Jenna’s heart stopped and the air whooshed out of her lungs in a painful breath. The timing was eerily coincidental but she still felt like she was going to be ill. Her father’s voice broke through her numbness, “Poor girl. I wonder who she is.”

  Jenna looked at him with incredulity as she grabbed the remote control and turned up the volume as Ferris slid off her lap. “Authorities have been searching for nearly three days for this girl, a Jane Doe, who seems to have simply vanished from the hospital early Thursday morning. It is unclear how she managed to leave without anyone being aware of her activities and there are no leads in what is now being called a missing persons case. And on a lighter note, here’s Liz….”

  But Jenna had turned the television off and was already standing up, ready to break down Rhys’s door to find her sister. A duo of protests pierced her racing thoughts and she stared down at her parents with a vacant expression, not understanding why they weren’t getting ready to go, too. “What?”

  “You turned off the television,” her dad grumbled, turning it back on and catching most of the weather forecast and Lizzie.

  “Of course I did,” Jenna said, frowning down at him. “We’ve got to go.”

  “But…” her parents exchanged a look, the bewilderment apparent on their faces. “Why?”

  “That was Melanie,” she said slowly, wondering how they couldn’t recognize their own daughter and realizing that her intuition hadn’t lied to her. If she had been more like Melanie she would have gone off on a quest to find her sister the first moment her unease hit instead of ignoring it like the practical woman she had become. Granted, she would have had no idea where to look but that wouldn’t have stopped Melanie, who would have consulted an oracle or some such to discover what was missing.

  But that was Melanie and now that a week and a half had passed, Jenna had to go to her.

  The color drained from her parents’ faces as they clutched one another. “Oh, dear lord.”

  Jenna glanced down and saw that Ferris was looking up at her with wide, frightened eyes and she realized that it would be better if she didn’t see Melanie just yet, not if the photo was an indication of the severity of her injuries. Squatting down, she brushed a strand of hair from Ferris’s face, “I’m going to make sure she’s okay and then I’m going to bring her home.”

  Ferris nodded once before wrapping her arms around Jenna’s neck and hugging her. Still holding her daughter, she caught her mom’s eye, “I think it might be best if I go alone.”

  They nodded their heads, understanding their daughter’s need to be by her twin’s side, trusting Jenna to bring Melanie home where they would coddle her until she recovered. Kissing Ferris, she quickly made her way out the door and across town, implications frying her rational thought. If Vaughn had anything to do with Melanie’s busted face she was going to tear him apart with her bare hands. Her heart withered a little at the thought of Rhys knowing something like this was going to happen. He had tried to warn her but she hadn’t listened.

  There was a chance he didn’t know anything about Melanie.

  Then why did she speed over to his apartment if she didn’t think he knew anything?

  “Hold the elevator!” she called out as she stumbled through the outer doors into the atrium and saw the doors sliding shut. A hand shot out, the long and elegant fingers tipped with sharp and deadly looking black nails. The stranger held the elevator and the doors yawned open and she sighed in relief.

  Jenna rushed through the opulent lobby of the apartment building and into the elevator, barely able to breathe as worry and anger gnawed at her gut. It was hard to discount the woman who shared the elevator. She was stunning, her vibrant red hair curling to her slender waist, her breasts spilling over the top of her leather bustier. Large, iridescent fairy wings graced her back and Jenna immediately thought of Melanie and Ferris. Those two would appreciate the woman’s elaborate costume.

  “Thank you,” Jenna wheezed, catching her breath now that she was so close to finding her sister. Her smile faltered when she met the woman’s unusual eyes. There was something not quite right about her eyes but Jenna couldn’t figure out what, exactly, was wrong. “Fourteen please?”

  The woman arched a regal eyebrow as she pushed the button and the elevator lurched upwards. “Are you visiting the Guardians, then?”

  The voice was melodic and ethereally beautiful… and a little eerie. And her words made no sense, “Pardon?”

  “There has been much to-do since the little human returned,” the woman said conversationally, as if Jenna knew what she was talking about. She had a slight accent but Jenna couldn’t place it, something European perhaps. “It is unfortunate that she was late for I would have enjoyed getting to know the girl. Nod is very fond of her. Of course, Nod is very fond of humans in general, though she was the first he ever invited to live here.”

  Jenna inhaled sharply as she realized what was wrong with the woman’s eyes: the color was pale gold and the pupils were slits, like cat eyes. The contacts were amazingly well done! They looked like her natural eyes but humans didn’t have slits for pupils. The woman took make believe to the next level, perhaps even convincing herself that she was a real fairy. Melanie would adore th
e woman and by the end of the elevator ride the two of them would be bosom companions, exchanging phone numbers and making plans to get together and make costumes up for a comic book convention or something. Normally Jenna would be able to be polite but the woman’s words made the dull ache sharpen almost painfully.

  “What was the… human’s name?” But she knew, even if the woman who pretended to be a fairy did not have the answer.

  The woman heaved a melodramatic sigh that would have done Ferris proud. Her wings shimmered as she moved and Jenna had the fleeting thought that the wings were real…. “I have not been introduced. I do not believe the Guardians wish for me to know her name for they do not trust me.”

  Because she was bat-shit crazy, but Jenna kept that revelation to herself as she continued to talk with the crazy person. It took her mind away from what she might find when she reached the top floor. “Why?”

  “This I do not understand,” the woman’s pupil contracted to an almost perfect vertical line, making them appear even more catlike and how the hell did she get her contacts to alter like that? “If she is under the Guardian’s protection I cannot harm her, as they know. I just wanted to… taste her.”

  “Taste her?” Jenna repeated dumbly, her mind taken off the dire situation as she stared at the woman.

  “I’ve tasted humans before, of course,” she continued blithely, a dreamy smile curling her red, red lips. “But none who have been so aware of us before. It would be interesting to see if her essence would be sweeter for her knowledge.”

  Suddenly, the woman stilled and looked at her with narrowed eyes, “You’re human. And while the Guardian has placed his mark upon you he has not claimed you. Perhaps you would be interested in an exchange?”

  Jenna shook her head no, her heart thumping madly in her chest as the woman continued to stare at her as if Jenna was a juicy steak and the lady was a reformed vegetarian. Maybe everyone who lived in the castle was crazy and that was why Melanie fit in so well. They were all supernaturally beautiful and so different from the normal, everyday people who inhabited the world. God knows that Rhys was unlike any man she had ever known.