Crimson Cove (10 page)

“Got me,” I said, folding my arms as Wyatt kept looking me over. Only this time, I didn’t mind the examination. This time I could stand the scrutiny a man often gives a woman. They could look all they wanted. At least until I shut them down. “I didn’t tell a soul.”

“How you been, Jani?” he finally asked, ignoring the shifter next to him when he cleared his throat.

“Good. Only back for this one job.” At my side, Mai shuffled her feet and I finally pulled my gaze from Wyatt’s handsome face. “This is my twin sister, Mai.” A nod and Wyatt shot her a smile. 

“Twins? Wow. That seems a little unfair.” My sister and I both frowned at Wyatt’s friend when he laughed, his gaze volleying between us. “Two beautiful woman, twins at that, in one small town. Not fair at all.”

              “Look at you with the flattery,” Mai said.

              “I call ‘em like I see them, Miss.”

              Wyatt slapped his friend on the shoulder. “This is my little cousin, Joe Arvel. He’s from our pack in Columbia.”

              Pleasantries were exchanged, handshakes were given, and at Wyatt’s explanation, I noticed how similar the two shifters were to each other—same narrow eyes, same elongated noses and each had high cheekbones that made their eyes nearly vanish when they smiled. But where Wyatt was sandy-haired with a few waves touching the back of his neck, Joe had dark, thick hair cut short and tight.

              “So this is the famous Janiver Benoit?” Joe asked, waving off his cousin when Wyatt elbowed him. My cocked eyebrow had Joe shrugging. “Sorry, but Bane said you were the best at tracking.” 

I bet he did and just for a second, I wondered what else Bane had said to the two cousins.

“She is the best,” Mai said. “She doesn’t track, she finds.”

              “Oh, Joe, there you are,” we heard as Lennon walked into the kitchen. He offered me a nod, then smiled easy, but still the professional. “Mr. Iles said that you and Wyatt...” Lennon nodded to the pair of them and then moved his gaze back toward me, straightening his spine when that gaze stopped on my sister.

There was a quick pull against the lines that we all seemed to feel. My skin went warm, tingled like I’d ran around a carpeted room in fuzzy socks, and Wyatt and Joe stepped back, away from Lennon as though he threw off a pheromone only the shifters could sense. At my side, Mai’s voice hummed, but she shook her head, blinking when Lennon cleared his throat. “Miss…that is, Mrs. Phillips. How…how are you feeling?”

              “Fine, thank you, Lennon.” I’d never seen Mai so timid around a man. I’d certainly never seen her fidget the way she did then with her foot bouncing against the tile floor. She’d never had to be timid before. My sister was beautiful, with her hair a shade or two lighter than my chestnut brown and she had beautiful pale skin and green eyes that shone against her complexion. Men gravitated toward her without any encouragement on Mai’s part.

She never had to cajole or flirt. And she’d never done the awkward, anxious thing when a man she liked paid attention to her. So this, between my sister and Bane’s guard, was just plain weird. We all stood there a moment, watching, it seemed, for who would speak again, Lennon or Mai and when this ridiculous back and forth shyness would play itself out.

Finally, with Joe clearing his throat, Mai stopped staring at Lennon and the guard nodded at her. “I’ll just…I’m…” And with that she stepped away from the counter to fuss with the cabinet next to the fridge, out of sight of Lennon’s gaze.

              “Pardon, Joe, Wyatt…Mr. Iles says your pack will head out first.”

              “Nice to meet you, Janiver,” Joe said, shaking my hand again and I blinked, pulling my attention away from my sister’s odd behavior. Joe’s skin was rough with calluses on the inside of his palm and as he gripped my fingers, I felt a cool, relaxed sensation passing from his skin to mine. It made me wonder if Joe had a little more than shifting magic beneath that tall, wide frame.

              Wyatt nodded, gave me a small wink before he left and I ignored that flirty smile as I took my hand back from Joe. “Please, call me Jani. Everyone does.”

              “Or Miss Benoit,” Bane said, coming into the room. Wyatt slapped him on the back as they met at the doorway, but I waved Joe off, doing my best to remind myself that Bane was the client. If he didn’t want anyone being too friendly, that was his prerogative.

              Still, I didn’t need him speaking for me. “Jani is fine. It was good to meet you as well.”

              From my peripheral, I could make out Mai’s shifting gaze, how she watched Lennon as Joe left and the guard listened as Bane said something to him in private. This skittish, shy twin burgeoned close to sad. “Here.” My sister frowned when I handed her a glass bottle from the counter, whiskey with a bite, but she didn’t outright refuse it.

              “I don’t…”

              “Please. You’re a smitten kitten. Have a drink. You’ll be all on your own with Lennon tonight. You’re gonna need liquid courage.”

              “Look who’s talking.” She handed me the bottle, glancing toward the two wizards as they chatted. Well, Bane chatted and Lennon nodded after every instruction his boss gave him. “Mr. Senior Year Fantasy will be right beside you for thousands of acres. You’ll be sleeping under the moonlight three feet from him.” I choked on the liquor and my twin laughed. “Uh, huh, now who’s the smitten kitten?” She laughed when I flipped her off and then kissed my cheek. “Be safe. Be smart,” she said, leaving me in the kitchen with that bottle and the Fantasy.

              Another swig, this one going down with a burn.

              “That’s not going to hinder your reach once we get out into the forest and you try to search for the Elam?”

              “No,” I said, closing my eyes when Bane stood next to me. “It’ll heighten it.”

              “So you say.”

              I took another sip. “I do.” Then another before I nodded at the black runes that were tattooed around his forearms. I couldn’t make out their meaning, but knew there were many Celtic and some Druid markings that seemed vaguely familiar. A majority of the patterns looked Asian-influenced. They weren’t tattoos, really. They were marks of knowledge, lessons taken and given, used to hone his craft.

“Some of us didn’t need to train in Tibet with thousand-year-old mages to learn our craft.” Made a little bolder by the liquor, I stepped into Bane’s personal space and ran the tip of my fingernail over the runes wrapped around his forearm. “All these runes, all that pain and blood, I never once had to suffer so much for my craft.”

              “Maybe,” Bane said, taking the bottle from me, “if you had, you wouldn’t need the liquor.”

              “Maybe I like the liquor.” My tongue felt heavy in my mouth and I wasn’t sure why my voice had suddenly lowered or how I could feel the ley lines whispering against my mind.

              But Bane wasn’t drinking and I doubted the lines could touch him. He was too versed in blocking raw magic. Still, he didn’t seem wholly unaffected and for whatever reason, he at least didn’t object at how closely I stood in front of him. “You strike me as the type of witch who likes things that are bad for her.”

              The laughter came quickly, with a sudden reminder of the worst possible thing for me—the wizard standing inches away. Unbidden, a memory of that solitary day when I’d bitten the forbidden fruit and I forgot myself for just a moment filled my head. Maybe I was drunk on the liquor. Maybe the lines were speaking, taunting too loudly anytime Bane was near. Whatever it was, I didn’t restrict my words or the blatant way I flirted.  “Oh, baby, you got zero idea.”

              Bane blinked. I blinked and just for a second I savored the silent room, the energy that built between us then. “Did you…did you just call me baby?”

              It was if he’d unstoppered a drain and I twirled down into its belly. Mortification, humiliation, it had to be all over my face, easily read in my expression. But I was not a witch that would admit defeat, or mistakes made so quickly. I was a natural survivor. I’d say anything to weasel my way out of a tight spot. Or utter humiliation.

“No.” There was a touch of humor in my response—forced and clearly fabricated—but it didn’t stop me from making that sound or stepping back when Bane held my wrist.

              “You did.” He pinned me in the corner of the counter with that wide body nearly engulfing me in shadow and heat. “Damn.” Bane came so close, mouth too near my neck as though he was just managing to control himself and not devour me right then and there. “Why do I like that?”

              I knew why and just then, I hated that he didn’t.
Because you claimed me! Ten years ago,
I wanted to scream.
Because I am yours, because you belong to me.

              Some part of him had to know the truth, despite the block I had put on his memories. Somewhere, behind all that power, the knowledge, the lists of lines of duty and expectations, lay the hidden memory of that one blissful afternoon with me in that empty classroom. The day our nexuses melded. The day we claimed each other.

              The way Bane looked at me, the deep focus of his gaze on my mouth, shifting across my fingers brought us closer and closer to the edge of something that could mean nothing but misery. For him, at least. And I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t want to stop it.

              All around us seemed to settle; every sound, every scent, just like it had that day, just like it had the first time we kissed. The only sound I could clearly hear was the steady, rhythmic pulse of his heart and mine—two separate bodies moving toward each other, closer, nearer until Bane’s stubble grazed on my cheek and he held my head still, insistent between his fingers.

              I had only to tilt my head back a little. Move my chin, wet my bottom lip and he’d take my mouth. It was all there on his face. Expressions that told a thousand stories, made a million promises and I wanted them all inside me with him, where he was meant to be.

              Just one small movement and it would be done.

              Bane tilted my chin, held my face between both hands now and I felt him come closer, waiting, making my mind up that I would only take a taste…

A taste that wasn’t mine.

A touch that belong to someone else.

Eyes shut tight to clear away Caridee’s perfect skin, her perfect hair—the flawless Rivers coven regalia that Bane deserved. The one taught over and over to us as expectation. Certainties that had never been changed. The way the Cove existed so that there was no upset, no chance of shaming all of the Cove by letting the mortals know what we are and how we lived.

Expectation.

Certainty.

Things that had been constants for everyone in the Cove. Each coven depended on the other. Each den, every pack, all connected.

The way of things.

The things I’d left behind.

The things Ronan had tried to topple.

The things I was there to recapture for my family.

Before I realized I’d uttered a sound, the word came out, my hands pushing against that wide, wonderful chest and “Parley!” echoed around the kitchen.

              Bane steadied my hands when I tried to push at him again, holding me by the shoulders so I wouldn’t leave. Eyes wrinkling as he squinted at me, the expectation was evident. He wanted clarification. He wanted me to explain why I’d used the most antiquated, passé respite possible in our world.

             
Parley?
Had I really said that?

              “What…did you just?”

              But the black flag had been lifted and measures were maintained even in such…personal matters. Bane was the incumbent leader for the most powerful coven in the Cove. Even he had to mind the rules we all lived by.

“I did.” Damn. An inhale to push back the tension crowding between my eyes and I glanced up at him, grateful that I hadn’t spelled him to back away. “Parley. Back off. Don’t…don’t touch me. Talk only.”

              “Why in the hell would you…”

              “I have reasons.” I waved my hand so he’d step back. “Please, Bane, I need to do a job and I can’t have you being a distraction.”

              “
I’m
the distraction?” He moved his gaze over my body.

              “Didn’t you say we’re on a time crunch here?”

              He nodded, reluctantly agreeing. “Fair enough.” He stepped back, pulling on the neck of that bottle fisted between my fingers. “We have to get this search going.” He set the bottle on the counter next to the sink.  I nodded, started to walk away, but Bane tugged on my arm, his fingers touching right on my skin. Shuddering in my limbs, in his and his eyes grew wide, he twisted his head to the side like he needed to shake the sensation away, then jerked his gaze up at my face. “What…what the hell was that?”

              “I…I don’t know.”

              He stared at me a long time, then at his fingers still gripping my arm before he dropped it.

              “The search?” I said when Bane had stayed too quiet. “I’ll see you out there in ten minutes.” Before I left into the hallway, Bane called my name. Stopping would be stupid. Not stopping, though, might tell him I couldn’t control myself alone with him. He’d already gotten enough of my fear in the past few days. I wouldn’t hand him anymore.