I inhaled deeply on self-preservation.
And downed half my glass to fill any other voids.
He stopped in front of me, placing his hands on either side of my arms on the bar, locking me into position. His green hair dangled on each side of his dazzling face, and his beautiful green gaze stared into mine for a long while, holding me captive as no other could.
Eventually, he stated calmly, “I won’t be sleeping in our room tonight.”
I withheld the snort, but I took another large drink. “The fire or the air?”
Cool words. “Both. They’re sisters.”
“Ah.” I chugged the rest of my wine, pulling on my white solace of protection with iron gloves. I managed a smile—for his sake. “Enjoy yourself.”
Green, quiet eyes stared into mine for an extended amount of time. “Okay.”
Not okay. “Okay.”
With a hard jerk, he pushed off the bar and wiped a rough hand over his mouth.
Sin turned from me.
No matter my self-protection, my heart broke a little more as I watched him walk away—again. What was a fleeting moment of pleasure for him was another slivered fracture to my soul. I knew one day my heart would shatter completely, right along with his.
Swallowing hard, I grabbed the bottle of wine I had already purchased, knowing full well what was going to happen tonight. I strode calmly from the establishment without glancing at anyone from our group, wherever the fuck they were standing throughout the place, and exited with my bottle of alcohol.
I headed straight to my room to drown my—usually—ignored agony.
It was going to be a long damn night.
Chapter Three
“Caro?” King Collins asked loudly. “Did you hear me?”
I snapped my gaze in his direction. He sat to my right at the large breakfast table. I was pretty sure he had caught me scooting my food around my plate. “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
Blue eyebrows furrowed, but he detailed with calmness, “I was telling you and Aria that we’ll be going into town today. To shop.” His lips curled in amusement. “Since everyone’s idea of a vacation isn’t skiing.”
I made my lips curve believably—I’d had plenty of practice at this—and nodded graciously. “I thank you. And my body thanks you.” I took a sip of my water. I didn’t have a hangover today due to the use of my powers a few days ago. “That sounds much more enjoyable.”
Done playing courteous, I turned my attention back to my plate, returning to scooting my food about. My thoughts grudgingly reverted to the fact I should probably eat since my body had taken a beating yesterday, with more to come I was sure, since there was only so much shopping a group like ours could handle. Sighing silently, I lifted a forkful of eggs that were now cool and that would undoubtedly taste like rubber. But I almost dropped it as King Collins again interrupted my musing, saying loudly, “Caro? Are you listening?”
My lips started to pinch, but I quickly schooled my features and peered up. “Yes?”
There was a long beat of silence around the table, awkward enough I wanted to squirm on my chair, as King Collins’s eyebrows furrowed even further. But he once more spoke steadily, “I asked you where you would prefer to shop today.”
“Oh.” I tilted my head slightly as if in thought, pretending to care. “I prefer second-hand stores or even antique shops. However, I think I’ll let,” I flicked my eyes to the quiet Prodigy Vampire, “Aria decide, since I’m sure her tastes will better suit everyone here.”
“Thank you,” she replied instantly, her eyes running over my features. When her attention finally altered to King Collins and King Zeller, her eyes sparkled with genuine happiness. “I’d love to visit one of those glassblowing stores we saw on our way here. Or even the fudge maker’s shop. The smell coming from there was marvelous.”
A flash of blazing green hair in my far peripheral vision caught my eye.
I instantly cleared my throat and pulled the white peace around me, my composure that had been absent most of the morning, while I took a few hurried bites of my food. I was satisfied my breakfast looked well-eaten since half of it was squashed under a waffle. I rested back on my chair, taking a large drink of my water just as Sin walked up to our table.
He ran a hand through his still wet hair, murmuring unobtrusively to the table’s occupants, “Sorry I’m late.” He rested his hands gently on my relaxed shoulders, bending to kiss my cheek before taking the seat next to me—the one I had saved for him. The light conversation started again after the polite pause for his arrival.
I tilted my head at the plate in front of him. “I ordered your normal.” Placing my glass on the table, I wagged my eyebrows at him and stated in made-up humor, “We’re going shopping, so you won’t be able to make fun of me today for face-planting.” I popped a grape into my mouth from my plate, which almost made me choke as I swallowed it, feeling like the size of an orange. I asked behind a fist, “What’s my tally up to now?”
Sin’s lips quirked as he placed his napkin on his lap. “I didn’t see you most of yesterday but from what I did, you definitely hit the four-digit mark.” To anyone who didn’t know him, his smile would look real.
My eyes widened. “Wonderful. My goal in life is accomplished.” I flicked a finger at him. “That is impressive since I haven’t broken a bone in all this time.”
“Certainly impressive.” His gaze darted to my plate before he turned his attention to his own cooling food. He spoke with the gentlest whisper. “Eat the rest of your breakfast, love.”
Inhaling shallowly so it wasn’t obvious, I lifted from my stress-free position. I began eating, every wretched bite going down in a grotesque chunk. I didn’t show it. My actions were aloof and natural as they should be.
Just another morning after.
Elder Zeller stepped beside me where I stared—without seeing—at the vast varieties of fudge on one of the shelves. The charming shop smelled of melted chocolate, and the hominess of it all unsettled my stomach. I really wasn’t in the mood for this. He gazed at the choices and asked casually, “Which do you prefer?”
I blinked, and I lifted a finger to the white raspberry fudge. “That one looks interesting.”
He grunted, his dark eyes scanning the selection. “Many look interesting, Ms Jules. But there’s usually one you prefer over the rest.”
I snorted and lowered my hand. In life you never really got what you preferred, whom you wanted. “Never choose just one, Elder Zeller.” It was a devastating truth. “Or you’ll be sadly disappointed one day to find it’s been taken by someone else.”
“Ah,” he murmured slowly. “Now that I completely understand.” He raised his right hand, resting it casually on one of the shelves, and his index finger pointed as he ran it over a few choices. “May I offer some advice?”
I crossed my arms, trying to actually study the selection this time. “I thought I was the one giving advice?”
The Elder chuckled softly, lifting a bar of peanut butter fudge from the shelf while continuing his perusal. He murmured offhandedly, “Perhaps, though it was flawed advice, a practice of fear that I already know well. Now, I would like to offer you the expertise of the experienced.” His finger paused on one choice, but he shook his head and continued. “Will you allow me to do so?”
My eyebrows creased as I re-ran our conversation through my mind, seeing a whole other direction of meaning behind it. I turned my eyes to him, watching carefully. “If you must.”
“It’s simple.” His head cocked as he read a label. “Life is filled with much heartache and many pleasures. But when you try to ignore the unavoidable—true love—well, the unavoidable means you can’t, nothing stops it. Not even fear. True love is too passionate. It always comes back in the end, deeper than lifelong loves, deeper than life’s involvements, and even deeper than mates. If your love is from the soul, it’s timeless.” He chose another bar of fudge, but I didn’t pay attention to which as he lowered it. “E
ven more tragic are individuals who think they’ve found it by harboring affection for another…while their true soulmate may be right in front of them.” Wicked, dark eyes landed on my guarded gaze; I was hiding every damn thing I could from this too intuitive Elder Vampire. “Life is short and fear is no obstacle for the soul.”
His words haunted me as he silently moved away.
I stood frozen in place, barely able to breathe. I fought for well-honed control of my emotions, staring blindly at nothing. Until I realized it wasn’t nothing I was staring at. I blinked slowly as Leric came into focus at the end of a dark row of treats on wooden shelves.
He was speaking with a water Elemental, one of the clerks of the store, who stared at him wide-eyed even as she—somewhat adorably—tried to hide it. More than likely, this was her first time meeting a spirit Elemental. My brows puckered and I wasn’t entirely sure what I felt as he touched her arm lightly, his tan fingers lingering a few moments too long and making the attractive woman blush and stumble over her words, before she led him to another aisle.
I jerked my attention back to the choices of fudge.
But my action ended with me grunting and eyeing a woman directly next to me.
I hadn’t even heard her sneak up.
She leaned with a shoulder against the shelf.
Merely staring at me.
She wore a black hooded robe, her gorgeous red curls spilling from underneath it.
She was a Com.
With no shoes on her bare feet.
I ogled the cracked woman—who appeared my age. “May I help you?”
“No.” She just…stared. “I’m Julia.”
I raised a white brow. I could tell she knew who I was. “Are you looking for an autograph, Julia? Or a selfie to plaster over social media?”
Her lips twitched. “No.”
All right. This was weird. “First spirit you’ve met?”
“No.”
Weirder yet. “Then why are you gawking?”
“I don’t gawk. I merely like to keep an eye on my property from time to time.”
I glanced behind me, evaluating the fudge. “I’m not going to steal any, if that’s what—”
“Who are you talking to?” Sin asked, interrupting me.
I jerked my attention around. Sin now stood where the Com had been. I glanced left then right, but the woman was nowhere in sight. “That was creepy.”
“What’s more frightening than you talking to yourself?”
I sighed deeply and trained my attention back to the fudge I had been staring at for fifteen minutes now. “Never mind. It was just a freaky-ass employee. Or the owner.”
“Are you going to get anything?” Sin asked, rolling with my explanation. He shifted his stance on the wood flooring that was scarred with age but still gleamed from loving care. He now stood so close his heat radiated to my left arm. Warmth that I knew and cherished.
With my emotions still a tumbling mess of shit—if I was honest with myself—I flicked a finger at the selection. “What do you want?” I was proud my voice was steady.
He hummed gently, his eyes darting over the variety. “Our normal?”
My breath left in a shaky exhale. “What if we tried something different?”
That fucking advice.
“Dark chocolate with nuts? Or really go all out and attempt black cherry?”
Air choked in my throat, years of fear hammering my heart.
I stalled.
And I couldn’t push past it, the thought of my heart shattering even more than it already would in the future. When he found his mate. “I’m not hungry.” I pushed away from him, quickly storming down the aisle, unable to pretend right now. “Get whatever you want.”
My chest heaved and my jaw clenched as I blinked back the old tears that wanted to escape. On my way to the exit, I muttered to King Collins, “I’m leaving.” The cute shop’s door banged open with a crash as I charged onto the sunlit sidewalk, getting the fuck out of there.
Chapter Four
Hearing footsteps halt, I barely lifted my head from the pillow. The movement was just enough so my voice wasn’t muffled when I stated quietly, “I didn’t knock.”
Leric’s deep voice rumbled, “I can see that.”
Oops. I had broken into his room.
After I had skipped lunch then dinner.
“I’m fully clothed under the blanket, so don’t freak out. I remember you kicking me to the curb. I’m not here with sexual intent.” I lowered my head to the pillow, my right arm snug over Tristan’s side, his body and fur comforting and warm. “I just wanted to rest.”
To get away from Sin’s hanging silence. I needed to think—not that I was exactly having any lightbulb moments. My thoughts were just as muddled as before. “I can leave if you want me to.” I wasn’t sure where I would go, but this was his room.
There was a silent pause, then I heard his footsteps again behind me as he moved to the bathroom, flicking on the light. “No, you’re fine. As long as you don’t mind me turning on the bedside light while I review documents.” I heard a rustling sound, then a body-warmed, white silk shirt landed directly on top of my head. “But you’ll change into that if you’re lying in my bed.” His tone turned to a quiet mutter. “I hate that black shit you wear.”
Lifting my hand from Tristan, I grabbed the shirt and whispered, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he groused, closing the bathroom door behind him.
I quickly sat up, stretching, and did as ordered, stripping to put on his shirt. It wasn’t a strict rule for being allowed to hide out here. The long-sleeved shirt was enormous and thin on my frame, but Tristan heated me before Leric even came out of the bathroom.
I heard Leric rummaging around in the dresser, then more rustling as he changed his clothing behind me. A minute later, he flicked off the light to the bathroom before clicking on the bedside lamp. There was a slight breeze against my backside as he lifted the comforter. The feather-soft bed dipped as he got in it.
All done without a comment made.
This was what I needed.
Leric was sitting in bed comfortably with his back against the headboard. He twisted a moment before settling back, his side rubbing against mine. Every so often I heard the crinkling of a piece of paper being flipped as he, apparently, reviewed whatever documents he needed to—the ones I had noticed, but not snooped through, earlier on the table.
Leric did silence very well.
So much so, I went back to my own troubled ponderings, warmed between him and Tristan. I absently stroked under Tristan’s furry chin as I had been doing all evening, earning his adorable huffing purr, which tended to calm me.
After an undeterminable time, in a soft voice, almost hating to interrupt the peaceful quiet, I murmured, “Elder Zeller said something to me today.”
His hum was patient. “What was that?”
“He said, fear can’t stop the soul.” I ran my fingers through Tristan’s fur, feeling the strength in his jaws. “Do you believe that?”
Simple, quiet words as a page flipped. “I do.”
I huffed softly. “Not even fear that could shatter you?”
“Where the soul of the living is concerned, it’s too strong a force to be contained.”
“Huh.” I stared where my fingers now ran over Tristan’s diamond collar. “That’s what Elder Zeller believes.”
More minutes of quiet passed.
More troubled musings inside my mind thrummed.
More flipping of pages from Leric followed.
I finally interrupted him again, asking distractedly, “Did the water Elemental from the fudge shop give you her phone number?”
There was a broken silence.
“Do you mean the clerk?”
My hand stalled on the collar. “Was there another?”
“The cashier was also a water Elemental.”
And…he didn’t really answer the question. “So?”
“So what
?”
“Phone numbers?”
“Ah.” A slow turn of his page. “Yes, they both slipped me their numbers, along with one fire and one air Elemental at the glass shop. It also occurred with a fire Elemental at lunch, and one water and one air Elemental at dinner.” He paused and made a thumping sound on his papers. “Oh yes, and another air Elemental when I was coming up to my room.”
I stared sightlessly at Tristan’s collar. “Oh.” I wasn’t sure what the point to my question was, but I now knew I wasn’t real receptive to the answer. My tone wasn’t as censored as it should have been. I snapped, “They should keep you busy for a while.”
A quiet hum was his reply.
I squirmed in irritation, burrowing closer to Tristan’s warmth.
A warm palm slapped my hip, gripping it tightly. Leric ordered, “Be still. You’re disrupting my order.”
“Fine,” I muttered. It was a chore to lie still.
He removed his hand from my side, and another flip of a sheet resonated.
I tapped lightly on Tristan’s collar and griped, “I may fall asleep in here.”
“Was that a question? Because it didn’t especially sound like one.”
More crabby words. “It was a question.”
Another flipping of a page. “Then, yes, you may stay.”
My words were grudgingly muttered. “Thanks.”
“Sprite, your gratitude is overwhelming.”
Reaching blindly with a groan, I smacked where I heard a phone ringing. The room was pitch-black so I fumbled with the receiver until I had it to my ear. “What?”
My ear was attacked with pronounced breathing over the line.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
“Look, you perverted heavy-breathing-mother-fucker, it’s not even light out. Save your goddamn pranks for the waking hours.”
Chosen Fool (Forever Evermore Book 5) Page 2
