Back From Hell (11 page)

* * * * *

Stephanie stalked out of the hotel room, her mouth twisted in a snarl.

She’d tried talking to Jenai’s contacts, but they weren’t talking. At least not to her. Even though many of them knew her, she wasn’t Jenai. And they were only going to talk to Jenai.

Jogging down the steps, she dug out the car keys from her hip pocket. Jenai and she had taken to keeping storage units scattered through the states they traveled. A few had cars, most just held clothes. Since they couldn’t travel heavy, and too often had to leave stuff behind, this was the best way they had to avoid being stranded too long without clean clothes, transportation or weapons.

The storage unit in Columbus, Indiana, fortunately had a car. And clothes… Stephanie had been ecstatic to have clean clothes once more.

Striding toward the car, she told herself that she’d find her this time.

But just as she was reaching for the handle to the door, it struck her. A blinding pain, vicious enough to send her to her knees, and she vomited onto the hot pavement, her hands pressed into the gritty ground, the heat searing her palms.

Jenai!
She tried to scream out her name, but it was like a fist had closed around her throat and she choked as she continued to retch up her guts.

Gone…

Like somebody had smashed a light within her.

Not just turned off, but obliterated.

A low, animalistic sound filled her ears.

No…no…
She didn’t even realize the low, horrible noise was coming from her as she fell to the ground.

“…hey, lady…”

“…wrong with her?”

The words echoed around her but made no sense. Nothing made sense. She didn’t know anything, couldn’t see anything.

Couldn’t feel anything. As she spiraled into the blackness opening up beneath her, there was only one thought left inside her mind.

Jenai!

She awoke just as paramedics arrived, and she batted away their hands, snapping irritably at them and fighting her way through the small throng of people that had gathered around her.

The keys, thankfully, she still held clutched in her hand and she dove for the privacy of her car, desperate to get away from the voices that rang incessantly inside her head.

There was some great gaping hole inside her, and she couldn’t feel Jenai.

Couldn’t feel her! Speeding down the highway, she was unaware of the tears streaming down her face as she tried to call out to her.

But it was like she was just screaming into a dark room—nobody was there to hear her call.

“Jenai…” Licking her lips, she tasted the salt of her tears and murmured, “Jenai, where are you?”

There was no answer. Nothing.

Chapter Seven

She’d never had to actually search for Jenai before.

There was a bond between them that let her feel her sister, even though the past few days Jenai had blocked her out. But even blocked out, she had sensed Jenai. Not enough to find her, but enough to know she was okay.

That sense was no longer there.

But that didn’t mean Steph wasn’t going to find her sister.

The sisters had known there was some bad mojo in Louisville. But just how bad, they hadn’t realized, otherwise Stephanie knew they would have come here much sooner.

Places stained like this called out to them. She had no idea what had kept them from coming here, why their paths hadn’t led them here, just like they’d been led to countless other places over the years.

Those towns had stood out to her
autre
eyes like they had been dipped in glow-in-the-dark paint. But this place…it was worse. It all but throbbed and pulsed with the evil that lived here.

Driving down the Watterson Expressway, away from the small, run-down hotel she’d gotten on Dixie, headed for downtown.

Damn it, one of Jenai’s friends was going to talk to her. She didn’t care if she had to take apart heads to make it happen.

Hell, she’d take apart the entire town.

And she was prepared to do just that—she wasn’t prepared for what waited for her though. Or rather…
who
.

One very, very sexy
autre
.

With the heeled boots she wore, he was her height, with blue-green eyes that scorched her skin as she stared at him, standing in the middle of the sidewalk, his head cocked. She usually liked them taller—she was just five foot six, close to two inches taller in her heels. But she was certain that she had never seen a man who exuded sex appeal the way this one did.

“Been waiting for you,” he drawled, his voice heavy with the South. Too heavy for Kentucky. He sounded like Georgia to her.

“You have?” she asked, skeptical.

At first.

Then he smiled. “Your sister, she’s been haunting my thoughts. Rather bad. I tried to warn her, but she wasn’t listening.”

“Warn her about what?” she asked levelly. Jenai met up with some of the damnedest people—although she didn’t recall Jenai ever mentioning this guy.

“That place,” he relied with a wide grin.

“What place?” Steph asked. “How do you know my sister?”

“Hmmm, Jenai isn’t somebody you forget once you meet her. You’ve got her eyes. I’ve seen eyes like yours before. I knew the second I saw you who you were.” He sauntered closer and Steph automatically stepped back, even though they were on a sidewalk in the middle of the day, in the middle of downtown Louisville. Something about him was dangerous.

“And how long ago was that?” Stephanie asked quietly.

He grinned at her. “Just a couple.”

“And how did you know?”

“I just did,” he answered with a shrug that seemed to be an answer within itself.

Coolly, she studied him, one black brow winging up. Damn, the power rolling from him was amazing. Just the force of his personality alone was something to behold, but the sheer power… She had a split second to wonder what he was before she figured it out.

One other she knew had the kind of power that all but simmered around them, a power that wasn’t vampire, wasn’t were, wasn’t witch. He was like her. A shape-shifter, a creature of both werewolf and witch blood. But there was
more
.

“Oh, yeah, there’s more,” he murmured, stopping midstep once he realized she was backing away.

“Shit. A fucking psychic,” she muttered, raising her eyes to heaven. She hated psychics. You couldn’t ever really put your finger on them, unless they gave themselves away, like Sexy here just had.

He laughed, a low, rolling sound that made her belly go hot and tight.
No. I’m not doing this… Not here, not now…
Jenai had taken off because Stephanie had let her hunger take control—she wasn’t going to let it happen again.

She wouldn’t fail her sister. Blanking her face, she stared at him, could have cursed at the sympathy she saw in his eyes.

“You didn’t lose your sister over that, sugar,” he murmured. “She loves you.”

In a low, vicious voice, she whispered, “Stay out of my head.”

He shrugged. “Stop thinking so loud, then, darlin’.”

“Who are you?”

With a slow, whimsical smile, he said, “Name’s Beau. Jacob Beaumont Jefferson, to be exact. But only my mama ever called me that, and since both my dad and me were Jacob, Beau was easier. Glad she didn’t decide to call me Junior—do I look like a junior to you?”

“Do I look like I care?” she replied flatly. “My sister. What do you know?”

* * * * *

Damn, but she was a looker—stacked, those silvery eyes shining like gems in her café au lait, creamy face, well-proportioned curves, subtle muscles. She was the most exotic thing he had ever seen, and so full of pain that it made Beau’s head spin just to stand next to her. So he purposely acted as aggravating as he could, just to make her mad. Anger was a better emotion than pain any day of the week.

“Not enough,” he said in answer to her question. “Nowhere near enough. She got to town a few days ago. Saw her then, but didn’t say anything to her. She looked like a woman with too much in her head, so I left her alone. Shouldn’t have. If I had known she was gonna go to The Dark…” his voice trailed off, his mouth tightening. Closing his eyes, he tried to block out the pain that had hit him the moment the pretty, pale lady had disappeared. He had felt her go, fighting and screaming into the darkness.

Damn it, he should have stopped her.

“The Dark?” she repeated after a moment.

Opening his eyes, he met her stare once more as he dropped the Southern “good ol’ boy” act. “A local bar. Maybe more of a club. Bad, bad vibes in that place. Makes me sick just to get near it. I tried, though. After I felt something happen, I tried. Late last night. It was like a storm, fast, angry and powerful. I felt her fight, but she wasn’t strong enough. Not alone. But I feel nothing there. Well, beyond the sex, the blood, the power. But I don’t feel her.”

“What’s The Dark?”

Beau had to admire her restraint. Here he was, doing his best stupid country boy impression, exaggerating his drawl, reaching up to scratch thoughtfully at his chin…and she was irritated as hell.

Shit, she looked as though she wanted to pummel him with those pretty hands, and he was very glad she was holding back, because he did hate to hit a woman, but he suspected if she attacked him and he didn’t fight back, he would be toast.

“It’s a bar,” he repeated patiently, all the while grinning inside as her eyes flew wide and her jaw clenched. Gritting her teeth, he’d bet anything. “I’ll take you there, though I reckon somebody like you would find it on your own within a matter of days. She did.”

“You know about us,” she said quietly, some of the frustration draining out of her, replaced by sheer dismay. The smooth line of her brow wrinkled, her full mouth parting in surprise as she stared at him. “You know. How?”

He shrugged. “There was a lady…once. When I was a kid. Had eyes like yours,” he murmured, recalling the tall, sleek lady with ebony skin and silver eyes, a lady who shifted from raven to human and back again with a blink of the eye. “She scared the hell out of the bad guys. That’s all they were to me—the bad guys. Scared the hell out of ’em. But she looked like an angel to me, tall, regal, skin the color of dark chocolate, and the sweetest smile I’d ever seen. She made me feel safe. I hadn’t ever felt safe until I met her.”

“Keisha. You know Keisha,” she whispered. He watched her shake her head, as though she didn’t believe it.

“That her name? Only saw her the once. I remember her eyes the most. She hunted. I could tell that just by looking at her. People like us, we know predators. But she was the first one who ever preyed on something that hunted the weak. Once you see somebody like her, you don’t forget. I see her in you.

“Keisha… Man, after all this time, I finally know her name. I haven’t thought about her in years. Been a long time,” he mused.
A very long time
, Beau thought, remembering. Keisha. It fit, strong, exotic…powerful.

“It would have to be. She died fifteen years ago,” Steph said.

That knowledge hit him like a fist, but he hid it as he laughed sadly. “That’s not long. I met her fifty years ago,” he mused, recalling how she had pulled a frightened, terrified boy out of a rather sadistic witch coven, saving him from a life of rape, cruelty and pain, then delivered him to a man with kind, tired eyes.
A good man, Dexter. He’ll take care of you, he can help you.
He shook his head, clearing the memories away. Staring into her eyes, he said, “Stephanie, I do believe you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She frowned at him.

With a small smile, he shrugged. “Sorry. Questions, you got questions, I know. I knew Jenai was
autre
the moment I saw her. But she was more. Just like you are, just like Keisha was. I never knew her name…all this time. Never knew her name,” he murmured. Shaking his head, he forced a slow smile. “I’m sorry. I usually can focus better than this, but something is bad wrong around here. It’s getting to my head.”

He held out a hand. “C’mon. We can’t keep standing in the middle of the sidewalk, and what I have to say isn’t really a good thing to blurt out in public.” He had a second to wonder if she’d take his hand, and then she slipped her hand into his, slowly, cautiously.

That light touch jolted through his system like wildfire. His nostrils flared, blood pounded hot and thick in his veins, coursing down to his groin as his cock stiffened and started to throb. Just that light touch…

And judging by the hot glow in her eyes, she felt it too.

Even if she didn’t want to.

He turned away, leading her down the street as a slow smile spread across his face. She didn’t want to
now
.

But she would.

* * * * *

Okay, so there was something a little charming about the slow way he talked, that smile that curved his mouth. She didn’t have to lie and pretend otherwise. After all, once he told her what she needed to know, she could walk away and continue searching for Jenai.

He smiled and she realized she was thinking too loud again. “Not that I mind being called charming, sugar,” he murmured as he guided her into the small, well-kept park. A statue stood to one side, a firefighter with two small kids. All around them were people, cops, men in business suits, ladies walking with long quick strides as they spoke into their cell phones in rapid-fire voices. “But
you
won’t be able to find her.”

She swallowed, the sound terribly loud. “I will find her,” she contradicted.

“You can’t. She’s in a place you can’t go unless you are taken there.”

Snarling, Steph grabbed his collar and jerked him ever so close as she whispered, “I
will
find her, even if I have to go to hell and back. E-even if she…she’s dead…there’s a body. Something. And I’ll find it. Just like I’ll find the man who hurt her.”

A gentle smile entered his eyes as he curled his hand around hers, leaning closer to her, unobtrusively making her furious hold on him seem like something of a different nature.