For a split second, only Melanie stood before him. The minute they broke their embrace, Elizabeth stood there as well. Melanie smiled. “You know, it’s funny we’d bump into each other again. I’ve been having the absolute craziest dreams with you in them at random times throughout the day, and I had a run-in with your ex.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Melanie, I need for you to listen close to me. Remember how I taught you to help keep me hidden from Ferdian?”
Melanie nodded.
“I need you to do it again, only this time, when you’re somewhere safe, do the opposite.”
Puzzled, Melanie furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand.” She waved her hand in the air. “It doesn’t matter. I was going to try to reach you later anyway. I have to ask you something. You’re looking like you’re about to do the read-my-mind thing again.”
Elizabeth sighed. “Yes, Melanie, I know Green seems familiar to you, but I need you to stay away from him. I need you to promise to never see him again. Do you hear me? Never again.”
Green’s stomach tightened as he heard the words fall from Elizabeth’s lips.
“Why?” Melanie asked.
Elizabeth closed her eyes. “Many reasons. One, I’m not sure he has it in him to see me—er, you—as the person you are now and not a memory he’s clung to for over sixty years. You will never be happy in that situation. Ever. Neither will he. For another thing, Ferdian will kill him because Thad will try to stop him from taking you. Thad can’t win against Ferdian. No one can.”
Melanie gasped. “No! I won’t let Ferdian hurt Green. I’ll stop him.”
“No! Melanie, every time you stand up to Ferdian, every time you tap into the ancient power you carry, you tip him off as to how powerful you are. You give him clues as to what your weaknesses are. He’s evil to the core. I’ve explained that to you already.”
Melanie put her hand on her hip. “You know, I’ve spent my life coming to you for advice when I’m scared or confused, yet here you are acting like the stupidest woman ever created in the face of something, or rather, someone, who scares you.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened. So did Green’s.
“Do you honestly think Ferdian will leave the men on Lukian’s team alone? I saw the way he looked at Green in there. He knows I care about him and he wasn’t happy about it. Do you think he’ll crawl back under the bed and stay there? You sugar-coat things, Elizabeth. You always have, like I’m too delicate compared to you to take the truth.” Melanie bent down and tapped nothing, before throwing her voice to sound like Elizabeth’s. “Sweetie, he’s got a black heart. He’s evil to the core.”
Melanie threw her hands in the air and shook her head. “The man is a Fae deity of death and destruction. Call a spade a spade!”
Elizabeth covered her mouth. “How do you know what type of Fae he is?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I just do. I also know why you hid from him. I’ve always known. But I thought he wasn’t real. Evil doesn’t begin to cover it, Elizabeth. The man is sick in the head. I can see how you’d fall for his charms at first. I know he has them because I felt myself starting to fall for them, but to do that you…”
Elizabeth stopped short of touching Melanie. “When you wake, the others will ask about Ferdian. They’ll want details as to how you know him, who he is, so on and so forth. Don’t tell them. Not even Peren or Missy. Their mates can read them and they’ll tell Green.”
Melanie sighed. “Elizabeth, do you really think I’d tell them that bastard spent decades raping and torturing you? I know how hard it was for you to break the cycle, to get out and keep your family and friends safe. I know what you gave up and I know you wouldn’t change it for the world. Your time as a mortal made up for all the years of living in fear of the man. I also know you learned in death that you always had the power to stand up to Ferdian and he knew it. It’s why he ruled you with an iron fist.”
Anger rose in Green, making him want to shift and rip something to pieces as he heard the things Elizabeth had kept hidden from him. Ferdian would die. Green would see to it.
“Melanie, don’t you dare think of taking him on! He will kill you in an instant. We aren’t merged fully and you aren’t strong enough… Oh gods, I’m not strong enough to face him again. I can’t look at him and look Green in the face. I can’t.”
“Oh, that is bullshit! If Green is the type of man who would look differently at you knowing the truth, then he isn’t someone you need in your life.”
Elizabeth laughed and it sounded so out of place. “It’s moments like this I find myself thinking like Medrawd—that we’re separate when we’re not. I spent all those years as a woman men feared coming after, yet I feared something too, or rather, someone. I spent my life wishing for a nonviolent man. A man who—”
“Wouldn’t raise his hands and strike you but rather use them to play you the most beautiful songs on the piano.” Melanie nodded. “Yeah, I know. I, umm, hell, I even found myself craving that. I got shot down and told to stop reading the guy I asked but, oh well. Though I wasn’t reading him. I swear. I just sort of know things about him.”
Guilt tore through Green as he stared at Melanie. She’d made a simple request and he’d treated her poorly.
She let out a soft laugh as tears filled her eyes. “Now you know why I don’t open up to men. Why it’s easier for me to just take what I want and discard them. They’re good for sex and that’s it. If I need to talk to someone, I call my friends. Hurts less when they treat me like crap.”
Another pang of guilt ripped through him.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Melanie. I didn’t mean to do this to you.”
“Do what?”
“Make you think there is no such thing as love. Make you into someone who has had to spend her entire life hiding the inner you. Someone who goes out of her way to avoid emotional attachments to the opposite sex. I’m so sorry.”
Melanie looked up and reached for Elizabeth. “You need to hide, like now! Ferdian’s power is in the air around me.”
“Swear to me that you won’t try to fight him and that you’ll stay away from Green,” Elizabeth said, sounding panicked. “You aren’t strong enough to fight them both, Melanie. One has the power to destroy you physically and the other can do it emotionally.”
Melanie stood tall. “You’ve always told me that I couldn’t go up against a man like Ferdian. That he’d destroy me.”
“He will. Men feared me. I walked among a league of Fae warrior women who can only be compared to the Amazon or the Valkyries, and even I wasn’t strong enough to defeat him.”
Melanie smiled. “Here lies the biggest difference between us, Elizabeth. My mother comes from a very long line of Fae who can only be associated with nymphs, sirens, and any other kind of seductive temptresses. She told me once that was why she was my father’s mate, his wife, because only someone like her could tame his wild streak. I may need your help understanding how to fire a weapon, but I don’t need your help when the weapon is sex.”
Elizabeth lunged for Melanie but Melanie sidestepped her. “No! Don’t you dare try to get past his defenses by seducing him. He’ll destroy you.”
“I’m dying. I know that. Might as well take the boogieman down with me. Now,” Melanie tipped her head back, “I think it's time you hide.”
“I need to tell you how to wake us up,” Elizabeth said.
“No. I don’t want your help. Not if you’re willing to turn your back on Green. I won’t let Ferdian hurt him. Green may think the worst of me, but I think he’s a great man. I refuse to push him aside and leave him to fend for himself.”
Power surged around Green and he blinked to find himself staring at Melanie. She was lying on the floor next to him. His hand was wrapped in hers. Medrawd was bent over her, touching her cheek.
He looked at Green and sighed. “She’s fighting to come to now. I’m holding her back because she fully intends on erasing everyone’s memory of what tran
spired.”
Green lifted a brow. “She can do that?”
“Oh yes. But, I didn’t realize I’d passed it on to her until Missy’s father called me one day when they were teenagers, demanding to know why Melanie wasn’t grounded for getting caught sneaking out again when the other two girls were up shit creek. He told me that I’d been furious, but for some reason, I kept letting Melanie off.” He chuckled. “It was then I figured out I’d passed the gift to erase short-term memories to her. You’ll be immune to it. It’s not something Elizabeth could do so I didn’t expect Melanie to be able to do it either.”
“You’re responsible for me seeing what went on, aren’t you?” Green asked, keeping his hand around Melanie’s.
“You had a right to know the truth. If what Lukian said is true, that you loved her and she you, then I owed you as much.” He ran a hand through his hair, clearly shaken. “I thought if you understood you might be able to help me figure out a way to save my daughter. You see, she will either kill herself with her own power, merge fully with her other essence, or…”
“Or?” Green was sure he didn’t want to hear what Medrawd had to say, but he didn’t have a choice.
Medrawd swallowed hard. “Or Melanie or Elizabeth’s personality, their essence, will figure out a way to survive independent of the other. Meaning, we could end up having Elizabeth without Melanie’s memories or vice versa. I love my sister, Green. My daughter, however, is my daughter. I don’t want to lose either, but it may come to that. I know you have nothing to gain if Melanie is the one who comes through, and to be honest, I can’t see Elizabeth or Melanie willingly fighting the other to survive. It’s confusing, I know. I won’t blame you if you walk away and wash your hands of this. I think that’s what Elizabeth would prefer you do.”
Green held tight to Melanie. “Yes, but Melanie doesn’t want to push me away and I don’t want to go.”
“I can’t hold her back anymore. I’ve given her what strength I can without overloading her system. She has no clue you were there, Green. And the others won’t remember seeing her do what she did in front of Ferdian. They won’t even remember meeting him. I can feel his power lingering. He’s monitoring what she’s doing. Now that he knows the truth, he will stop at nothing to have her back. I’ll do my best to keep an open line with Melanie. Ferdian is powerful enough to cut me off from her.”
He nodded. “We’ll be fine. Do what you need to. I’ll find a way to destroy him.” He held Melanie’s hand tight.
Medrawd kissed Melanie’s cheek. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
“Wait! Tell me why she keeps her birthday a secret.”
Medrawd sighed. “Because it’s the same day she died, Green. It was this day all those years ago that she died trying to give birth to your son.”
Green flinched. Why hadn’t he remembered such a horrible anniversary? Every other year he did. Why now?
Because Melanie was here this time. She chased away the bad.
Medrawd continued. “We had no choice but to bring her back on the same day of the year. To her, it is not a joyous day. It’s a day she feels sorrow. I didn’t realize she could tap into memories from her past life and the year she was to turn four, she asked for something for the first time.” His eyes glistened. “She asked for a boy baby doll with red hair and green eyes. I couldn’t deny my baby girl the only thing she’d ever asked me for. I couldn’t.” He shook his head. “I should have. From the minute she opened her present, she refused to let it go. By giving her that gift, I didn’t know what I was feeding into on her birthday. She no doubt feels the loss of her child and her husband but doesn’t understand it. It’s always been a day Melanie does her best to hurry through.”
Chapter Nine
Green stared at Medrawd, unable to believe what he’d heard. Power surged around Green. He blinked and found himself staring down at Melanie as she stood before him, cuffing the sleeves of his dress shirt. He couldn’t help but smile. The point she’d taken them back to was a happy moment for all involved.
She put her hands in his and winked. “Let’s dance.”
He stood there, soaking in her beauty, amazed by her strength, her courage.
“I’m not allowed to start until you do. You value your toes too much,” she said, laughing softly.
“Some Enchanted Evening” sounded from the other room. “Something tells me that I don’t have to worry about that particular body part when it comes to you, Melanie.”
Her gaze flickered down him and landed on his groin. His cock hardened instantly. Taking their joined hands, he pulled them to his chest, above his heart. “I was thinking more on this level.”
She looked confused. He wasn’t surprised. He’d seen her inner struggle. Love wasn’t a word that came into play in her current existence. If Green had anything to say about it, it would. The woman in his arms had refused to push him aside, to ignore him. She believed in him, and he couldn’t help but believe in her as well.
Green positioned himself and launched into the foxtrot with Melanie. When she fell in line with him and didn’t immediately step on his foot, he knew that while she carried Elizabeth’s soul, she indeed had grown, evolved into someone even more perfect than he’d ever dreamt possible.
They moved around the lobby, their gazes locked. The smile Melanie wore was infectious. Green found himself returning it and waggling his brows as he began to sing along with Sinatra. The sheer joy of having her safe and in his arms outweighed any inhibitions he had. It’d been over sixty years since he felt the urge to sing. Now, he wanted to shout it off the rooftops that Melanie was his.
Melanie’s face lit and Green’s heart thumped madly in his chest. As he sang about finding his true love and never letting her go, he pulled her closer to him and swayed her slightly.
Laughing, Melanie kissed his cheek. “Aren’t you just full of surprises?”
“You have no idea,” he said, dipping her back. “Don’t worry, you’ve shocked me to the core too, honey.”
Their lips brushed and Green’s entire body tightened. He went to kiss her but she tipped her head to the side, leaving him kissing her upper neck. A purr emanated from deep within him, and Melanie shivered in his arms.
The smell of her arousal filled the air. It took everything in Green not to take her to the floor and sink his cock into her. He pulled her back to a standing position and brought her hand to his lips. Kissing the back of it, he locked gazes with her. “Happy birthday.”
“Huh? I wiped everyone’s mem—uh…uhh, thank you.”
He stilled. He hadn’t given any thought to her wanting to avoid having her friends celebrate her birthday. He waited with bated breath for her to catch on that he’d not been affected by her memory spell.
The band changed songs and Melanie grabbed his hand. She pulled him quickly through the restaurant, past Lukian and the others, directly toward the stage. The house band nodded and winked at her as she led Green to a chair at a table up front. “My turn to, I hope, surprise you.”
She’d already more than done that, but he nodded all the same.
Melanie took the hand of the trumpet player and climbed onto the stage. Peren came rushing up with Missy close behind her. “Holy shit, she’s going to actually do it in front of a crowd?”
Peren laughed. “I better warn Lukian and the rest of the guys that this place is going to turn into horny men central in about two seconds.” She paused and looked down at Green. Her brow furrowed. “I feel like I owe you an apology but I’m not sure why.”
He smiled and winked. “Grab your husband and join me.”
She nodded.
Directing his attention to the stage, Green’s eyes widened as he watched Melanie begin to dance to the sound of “All That Jazz.” She moved like a flapper from the twenties, like a pro. She was not only sexy and breathtaking, but talented as well.
She arched her brows and locked gazes with him as she grabbed a microphone. The second she began to sing, his already hard cock
dug at his pants, wanting to be free, to be in her. Her voice was sultry, just like her.
Jon and Wilson moved up and stood to the side of Green. “Whoa,” Wilson whispered as Melanie slid a hand down her body seductively while hitting the bluesy notes. “Umm, Green, if you decide you don’t want to claim her, can I?”
Chancing a glance at Wilson, he found the man staring dreamily up at the stage. That wasn’t very shocking. What did take him by surprise was the fact that Jon seemed just as riveted. Jon nodded. “Yeah, what he said.”
Green couldn’t help but chuckle. “Gentlemen, stop ogling my wife.”
“Wife?” Roi asked, sliding into the seat next to him. He pulled Missy down onto his lap. “You’re going to claim her then?”
He watched her singing and dancing and nodded. “If she’ll have me, then yes, I’m claiming her.”
Roi snorted. “Like she has a choice. Without you, she dies.” Missy growled. Roi cleared his throat. “You know what I mean.”
“She has a choice and I intend to let her make it,” Green said, knowing the truth but feeling no need to clue everyone else in on it just yet.
Wilson sat down on the other side of him and patted Green’s shoulder. “Green, is it me or does she seem tailor made for you? If they tell me she’s a closet geek, I’m grabbing a shotgun and forcing the marriage.”
He stared up at Melanie with a smile on his face. “Yeah, she does seem tailor made.” Getting to his feet, he glanced down at Wilson. “Save my seat.”
“Why? Where are you going?”
“To spend as much time with my mate as I can. I want to convince her to go to South America with us. If I’m lucky and she accepts me, I fully intend on making her understand that I don’t care who she is, only that she is my mate.”
“Your mate?” Wilson asked. “You don’t really think she’s your…” He stopped short of finishing his sentence and glanced up at Melanie. “Whoa.”
“Yeah, whoa,” Jon said, going to sit down but missing the seat and falling on his ass.
Lukian and Roi laughed. “Whatever you’re going to do,” Lukian said, “you better do it soon or these two morons will be trying to win her hand.”
Radar Deception Page 10
