Cursed by Fate

by Renee Shearer

  Sighing, Grayson muttered, “I guess shifting is out of the question, eh?” When everyone nodded, he sighed again. “Give me a minute.”

  While Gray thought on the problem, Jayden let his mind wander back to the stunning redhead. She seemed pretty friendly with the bouncer. So, she probably worked here. Flashing a wicked grin, he wondered if he would have the chance to talk with her. Seeing her smile for real instead of that fake as shit one she put on before strolling back inside would make his night.

  Wonder if I can talk her into going home with me before we nail this bastard selling the drugs. She’s bound to get wet when she finds out I’m a cop and not just any cop but a Special Forces cop. We’re way hotter. Snickering, he tuned back into the conversation as Gray started to lay out the plan.

  “Playboy and I will head to the bar and grab us all some drinks while chatting up the bartender. They usually know everything.” Grayson raised his hand before Aiden could object. “We need to blend in Capt, get the lay of the land. We need to act like we are just regular party people to start. We don’t want to spook the guy and have him rabbit before we even find him.” When Aiden nodded he continued, “Capt and Professor, snag us a booth, or better yet a table if you can, on the upper deck close to the railing. Rogue and Sin take the long way to the table and scope out the people. See if you can get a feel for any of them.

  All of them nodded their agreements on the plan just as they reached the bouncer. Cover charge paid after showing their ID’s, the team split up as soon as they got through the door. Jayden immediately spotted the redhead. Even from across the crowded room, it was hard to miss her under the bar lights. She flipped tumblers and mixed alcohol like a pro. He nudged Gray and tilted his head toward the lady in question. Looks like I get my wish. He watched as Gray’s eyes widened and then a slow smile worked across both of their faces.

  Walking like they owned the place, the two brothers sidled up to the bar and waved away the rainbow-haired bartender, nodding towards the redhead. The rainbow-haired chick laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She had to of practiced that move. “You don’t want her honey, she will chew you up and spit you out. And not in a nice, fun way either. Trust me.” The girl winked at them, smacking her lips together.

  Narrowing his eyes, Jayden said in a cold voice, “We want her.”

  Straightening her spine and glaring, she snarled, “No one gets to her without going through me. So, you better tell me what the fuck you want with my girl before I have Danny drag your sorry, cute butts outta here! You got five seconds, start talking.”

  Putting a restraining hand on Jayden’s arm and looking at him like he’d grown two damn heads, Gray smiled and apologized, “Sorry about my friend Miss…,”

  “Jasmine and you got three seconds.”

  “Ok, Jasmine.” Discreetly showing her his badge, Gray added, “Actually, we need to talk to both of you about a possible suspect dealing Fae drugs out of the club.” Guess we are moving on to Plan B.

  Her eyes widened, looking like two blue saucers, and she replied with less heat, “There is no way someone is doing that here!” Leaning in, she whispered in their ears, “I’m Seelie Fae, and I think I would know if someone was doing that.” She straightened and spoke slightly louder. “Besides, Ari doesn’t even know about the supernatural world. Even though she has magic of her own, we have never talked about it. As far as I can tell she shies away from anything that might even smell remotely of magic. I think she’s afraid of something or someone.” Jasmine glanced over her shoulder with a worried frown.

  Jayden studied the girl in question while her name ran through his head and saw her look over with a frown. Waving her over, he watched as she excused herself from a very drunk brunette and hesitated in joining them on Jasmine’s side of the bar.

  “Everything alright Jazzy?” she asked her friend, hovering her hand over her shoulder for a minute before letting it drop without touching her.

  Hmm...that’s interesting, Jayden glanced at Gray.

  “Yeah, but these guys have a couple questions to ask us about someone dealing drugs out of the club.” Shooting them a loaded look that clearly said keep the other shit out of it, Jasmine inclined her head towards them.

  Confusion settled over her beautiful features as she thought, then she shook her head.

  “I haven’t seen anything shady between anyone here…”

  Cutting her off, Gray said in a low voice, “According to our intel, he only comes here every second Friday of the…” He trailed off as her beautiful eyes of liquid silver widened and she gasped.

  Looking at Jasmine in shock, she said, “It has to be Don…he’s the only regular that I know of Jazz…but that makes no sense…” Biting her thumbnail, she continued to think out loud, talking around the appendage in her mouth and making Jayden shift as his cock started to get hard. Damn she has no idea how utterly and completely sexy that looks. Thank fuck there’s a bar here. “He always sits at the bar and doesn’t move…a few people come up to him and talk to him, but he just nods and sends them on their way. I would’ve seen if his hands left the bar…”

  “Even if you were really busy with other customers? When you turned around to get a bottle?” Jayden asked gently.

  “Well…I…I don’t know. I guess he could have. I’m usually so observant though…it’s part of my job.” She looked so lost for a moment.

  He reached out to pat her arm, surprised when she flinched back and almost ran into the bar.

  Breathing heavily, with a mask of rage on her hauntingly beautiful face, she snapped, “Don’t touch me!” She turned on her heel, hurrying back to her end of the bar.

  Appearing just as shocked, Jasmine watched her friend scurry away. Shaking her head, Jasmine glanced at them out of the corner of her eye. She gave a small shrug that clearly said don’t ask me and turned back to her thirsty patrons.

  Only vaguely hearing his comms go off as Gray relayed the information they just got, Jayden continued to watch Ari. He knew an abuse victim when he saw one. But who the hell would hurt such a beauty? He knew there were a lot of sick fucks out in the world, but damn if it didn’t immediately make his tiger scratch to get out at the thought of anyone hurting one hair on her head. Why the hell am I reacting this strongly towards her? I don’t even have confirmation, just a hunch. So, why was his tiger roaring to be let out and kill someone? Struggling to regain the control he usually had in an iron grip, he grabbed the bar top with white knuckles and bent his head down to breathe slowly.

  “Jay man, you ok?” Gray asked, placing his hand on Jayden’s back.

  Getting his other half under control, Jayden nodded. He looked up just in time to see the redhead glance at him and tilt her head towards a slightly built man in is thirties. With close cropped brown hair and a large nose perched above thin lips, and a suit that was at least a size to big, he was forgettable and unassuming. As Jayden studied him, he saw two girls who were clearly drunk come up to him and whisper in his ear. Smiling, the man… what did she say his name was? Dom…no Don…nodded and raised his glass with his pinkie finger in the air.

  Now that’s odd. There’s no way a man like that would raise his…wait a minute… Snapping his head in the direction the guy’s pinkie was pointing, he saw a door. Bingo! Grabbing Gray by the arm and dragging him along behind him through the crush of people, he activated his comms. “Black door to the left of the bar, suspect just pointed with his pinkie finger to the door. Two girls are heading that way now. Pretty sure he’s just a middle man, guys.”

  “You think?” came the snarky reply from Roman.

  “Heading your way now,” Aiden replied at the same time.

  Making their way to the door, Jayden stiffened and let go of Gray’s arm to move faster as he saw Ari go through the same door. Shit! He cursed silently in his head… this was not good.

  Two

  Ariana

  As Ariana slipped through the door that lead to the bathrooms and employee room, she sigh
ed a breath of relief. Seeing two girls wobble their way down the hallway, she watched as one waved to the other to go ahead.

  “Go on Candi, I need to use the bathroom. I’ll find you after.”

  Pushing through the door marked employee’s only, Ariana grabbed her smokes from her locker. She turned right and headed down the hallway to the side alley to grab her first smoke of the night. She tried to only smoke at work as she didn’t really want it around her girls, but sometimes when she got really stressed she snuck one after they went to bed.

  Stepping out into the cool night air, she lit up and took her first long drag. She almost moaned at the cool menthol that slid down her throat and clogged her lungs. Those guys at the bar had made her nervous to begin with. Then they started asking questions. Well, come to think of it…they only asked two. She never even got their names.

  Propping her foot against the brick wall at her back and tilting her head up, she inhaled again and shivered. She thought she was going to lose it back there when the guy with the short, spiky blonde hair almost touched her shoulder. Grinding her teeth together she tried to fight off the memory…

  It was mid-summer in South Carolina which meant sticky wet heat. The kind that made it feel like you were slogging your way through a murky swamp. She was fourteen and walking the five blocks to the local library where she could grab a good book, sit in a secluded chair, and escape from her hellish father for a while.

  Even with a flowing skirt that came to just past her knees and a light blouse, she still felt the sweat trickle down her back. I should’ve ridden my bike, she thought, angrily kicking a stone. Ariana turned down a side street, deciding to travel the shortcut that would take her past the church and would save her ten minutes of walking. She trudged on and kept her head down, holding her latest book close to her chest.

  Just as she passed through the church parking lot, she felt a hand roughly land on her shoulder and slam her against the brick wall of the church, knocking her out cold.

  Groggily coming to, unsure as to how much later. It felt like an angry woodpecker hammered its beak into her brain. She kept her eyes shut for a moment and tried to raise her hand up to her aching head only to find she couldn’t. She realized she didn’t feel the brush of fabric against her skin!

  Panicking, Ariana’s eyes flew open and she tried to sit up, barely managing to lift her head and peer down at her naked body. She was chained spread eagle on a dirty mattress that sat upon a dirt floor. Her chains attached to small metal poles with loops on the end that were stuck in the ground. Wildly looking around with ice flowing through her veins, she didn’t see the masked man until he gave a low, evil sounding chuckle.

  “Don’t worry Little Sparrow, I’m gonna take real good care of ya.” He snickered as he stepped closer with a pipe in his hand. He was tall with a willowy build, but then again, he would look tall since she was lying down. He was either a really skinny man or a teenager. She just couldn’t tell. Her panic grew claws and started to hollow out her insides. She wanted to ask why he was doing this. Why her? What did she ever do to him? But she couldn’t get more than a whimper past her fear-clogged throat. As he crept even closer, she could see his eyes through the ski mask he wore. One was blue the other was a light green. She would never forget those eye’s for as long as she lived. If I lived. Tears started rolling down her cheeks with abandon at that thought.

  Real terror crashed through Ariana for the first time in her short life. Her bladder threatened to release. She was already shaking like a leaf in a hurricane from the ice flowing inside her veins. As he raised the pipe, she snapped her head back into the mattress with such force she saw stars. An anguished primal scream ripped from her throat, as the pipe slammed down on her leg…

  A shout snapped Ariana out of her waking nightmare. Just in time, no way I want to relive that shit! Then she listened closer, hearing a grunt and a soft feminine cry. Knowing that some liked to come out here and do the nasty in the alley, she flicked her cigarette and started to head back inside. She stopped dead in her tracks when the sound of ripping and a whimper reached her ears. No. Fucking. Way. Not in my alley! She spun around and headed towards the sounds ready to scare whoever it was away.

  Rounding the dumpster, she saw a petite girl with her face smashed against the wall and a big burly guy behind her trying to get his pants undone.

  “Hey, douchebag! Let her go. Now!” Ariana yelled at the guy, already inching her hand towards the small of her back where she usually kept her knife. Realizing at the last second that Ricky had banned her from bringing it into the club again after she had cut a guy on the arm with it when he grabbed her. Oh well, she didn’t need it. She slowly called on her magic, attempting to get into his mind. Instead of the easy access she thought she would have, she ran up against a strong mental wall.

  Ok, Plan B. Bringing her right foot back, she turned slightly sideways as the guy growled and turned to face her.

  “Oh yeah, and what the fuck you gonna do bitch? Why don’t you wait your turn like a good little girl and let me finish with this pretty little filly here. I got plenty to go around,” he cackled in a southern drawl as he grabbed his crotch.

  Okay that’s just gross. Why does every man think he’s God’s gift to women?

  Disgusted, she once again shot off her mouth hoping to piss him off enough to come at her. She was so focused on him that she didn’t hear the door to the alley open or the footsteps headed her way.

  “Yeah…fuck that. How about you come over here so I can kick your ass. I’ll be more than happy to show you how it feels to be under someone else’s control you pathetic piece of shit,” she said in a sweet as molasses voice, getting the trembling in her limbs under control.

  The ass hat just laughed at her and turned back around to the young woman still pinned against the wall. Ok that pisses me off… Bringing back her arm, Ariana called on her magic once again. This time, she wasn’t going for her telepathic ability but for her shifting one. She may have never shifted fully, but this she could do. Shifting only her arm into her preferred alternate form, a dragon, she swung with all her might. Her arm hit him sideways in the head in an awe-inspiring left hook, knocking him off the girl and onto his ass.

  “Run!” she yelled at the girl, who wasted no time hauling her skinny butt out of there. Ariana never took her eyes off the guy who was now struggling to his feet and shaking his head. She smirked at him and readied herself for the fight to come. What she heard him say next made her blood run cold.

  “You shouldn’t have done that sweetheart. Forget screwing you, I’m going to rip you to fucking shreds!” The guy growled, actually growled at her like a damn dog. Then his form started to shift. Suddenly, a massive brown wolf stood in front of her where the guy used to be.

  Stumbling back a step, the only thing she could think or say was, “What the actual fuck?”

  Grayson

  “Awe hell! East, shield the girl! Capt and Playboy do your thing. Rogue backup, Sin help the Professor. I got our backs!” Grayson shouted after seeing the shift.

  As they all sprang into action, Gray tried to get his head on straight. What the fuck just happened? How did she shift only her arm? And what the hell form was it? Looked like scales? How was that even possible? What and who is she? He tried to get some order to his scattered thoughts.

  He glanced back as Ari screamed at someone to let her go. She was losing her mind! Screaming and thrashing around in East’s arms, she tried to get him off her, not realizing he was trying to help. In a flash, the scene of her flinching back from Jay’s touch shot through his mind. She had slowed her thrashing, but he didn’t think that was a good thing.

  “East let her go, you can shield her without touching her man. She doesn’t like to be touched!” Gray snapped at him.

  But it was too late. She twisted and grabbed his arm in a vise grip, throwing her weight forward as she bent down and tossed him over her back and onto the asphalt. Ariana stepped back and looked towards t
he animals fighting. There were two massive wolves—one a shit brown, and the other a pitch black with only a small patch of white on his chest in the shape of a heart—and the biggest white tiger she had ever seen.

  Her head started to whip back and forth between Gray, Mateo, East and then back at the animals. Coming to a slow stop, she looked back at Gray just as he stepped forward.

  “Yeah this is so not happening!” she said aloud right before she vanished.

  His heart in his throat, Gray spun around as Mateo shouted, “What the hell? No way did she use a Fae ability and a shifting one in as little as five minutes!”

  Even East was spinning around in a slow circle having just gotten up. He waved his hands over the spot Ari once stood as if he could figure out where she went by moving the air around. Hell, maybe he could, who the fuck really knew what the Light Mage could do? Even after two years together, Gray still didn’t know all the shit East could do.

  “Okay… fun time is over boys, our girl just vanished into thin fucking air.” Roman walked forward, rolling up his sleeves and revealing his many tattoos. All of which served a purpose for the guy, Gray knew first hand. Touching the smoky cloud on his right forearm, it started to glow faintly purple. Roman whipped his hand out and tendrils of inky black smoke tinged with purple flung out with them. They wrapped around the wolf shifter, causing him to stumble and fall as the tendrils wrapped tightly around him. He was now trussed up like a damn sheep at the rodeo and wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Okay Capt, grab the cuffs. I don’t feel like holding this all night,” Roman drawled in his Scottish brogue all the girls loved. Turning his head toward East he asked, “Pick anything up yet? Where the hell did she go?”

  “Yeah, yeah, give me a damn minute, mate,” Easton muttered back with his usual British charm. Gray watched as he flung his hands up towards the wall. Suddenly there was Ari, hauling ass through the club with her jacket and purse in hand. They all watched as she ground to a halt just outside the club and closed her eyes; the picture went blank the next minute.