Crimson Cove (9 page)

              “What is it about you, Jani?”

              He’d said my name like that once, right after he’d confessed he wasn’t sure what I wanted. But one look, one real, honest examination of my expression and Bane had guessed. I wanted him, and my name falling from his mouth in that throaty, eager whisper was all it had taken to unravel my hesitation.

              My fingers rubbing against my eyelids, another breath against the top of my head and the sweet, warm bourbon scent brought my awareness away from the never-dimming desire to kiss him. He was twisting magic, working me over on purpose. Bane let the lines take him over, just a bit. His control was waning as he moved his fingers through the ends of my hair.

“You’re more open out here, this close to the lines, aren’t you?”

              “We all are,” I told him, curling my arms around my waist like I could really protect myself from him.

              “They’ll get stronger,” he said, taking one wavy strand of hair off my shoulder to curl around his finger. “They’ll get stronger and you’ll want to lose control.”

              Eyes closed tight, I saw what that loss of control would look like. Something erotic and inappropriate involving that large wizard behind me and lots and lots of fallen red maple leaves sticking to our naked skin.

I blinked, stepped out of his reach to block that imaginary scenario. “That is not going to happen.”

              “Why not?” he asked, moving in front of me, keeping me from retreating further away from him. 

              I arched an eyebrow and smiled. “Why do you think,
Mr. Iles?
”

              His shoulders fell and the tension crowded around his features again when my small words pushed reality right back into his mind. One low grunt and Bane turned his head, attention back on the crowd in the clearing. “You know how to ruin a moment, don’t you?”

              “Was that a moment?” I teased, trying not to laugh when Bane started working his jaw.

              His gaze flashed back at me and some of that irritation lessened the severity of his expression. “Could have been.”

              Sometimes Bane let a little emotion—real emotion that has nothing to do with teasing or trying to bait me into a reaction—pass in his eyes. I saw it just then. It was sincerity, maybe a little longing, but I couldn’t stop and give it much weight. How could I when that would lead to nothing but disappointment?

I cleared my throat, bringing my eyes down to the ground where I kicked a rock with the tip of my boot. “I don’t think your fiancé would have appreciated any moments you might have wanted with me.”

              “Probably not,” he said and the humor in his voice was forced, as though he’d noticed the real emotion had snuck in for a moment and he needed to tamp it down quickly. Bane put back on that dominant, in-control mask and moved his head, trying to catch my eye. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t happen anyway.”

              “That’s a little selfish of you, don’t you think?” When he squinted at me as though he were confused, I clarified. “You engaging with moments not reserved for the witch you’re supposed to marry.”

              “Maybe, but you know, Miss Benoit, I’m not married yet.” He stepped even closer, bringing my hair back between his fingers. “And when the right moments come, I generally don’t care who they’re with.”

              It was a lie, one that I saw clearly through his arrogant demeanor. But Bane walked away from me then, looking back only once as though he wanted me to see the promise in his expression with the low glance of his eyes over my body and that thick bottom lips between his teeth. That expression, that promise he gave, was a challenge he wanted me to take. But as he climbed back up the hill and greeted several of members of the Birmingham coven, I knew the challenge would be unmatched. Just like us, it’d be the game I’d refuse to play with him.

                                                                                    ***                                                                             

“Here,” Mai said, handing me the bag she’d packed while I grabbed several bottles of cold water from the refrigerator. Outside, dozens of weres—wolves ravens, panthers and eagles among them—as well as a handful of skilled witches and wizards organized into groups of five, followed Bane’s command as he pointed out markers among the vast acres of his coven’s property.

              My twin stood next to me, shoving the pack over my shoulders and we both watched the activity through the large window in the kitchen.

              “That’s a lot of people coming here to find something that maybe can’t be found.” I felt the vibration of my sister’s voice as she looked up at me. That frown, the stupid, scrunched up dip between her eyes—there was real fear and worry in her expression. “I’d hate to be you.”

              “It does suck sometimes.”

              “But you aren’t worried?”

              The water was cold with the smallest flecks of ice floating around the bottle when I drank from it. I could deflect my response to my sister’s comment, but not for long. She knew me too well. She’d see right through me if I tried to deny I wasn’t generally concerned about how things could turn out during our search.

“You worry enough for the both of us.” I took another swallow when she only continued to glare at me, forgetting for a moment that Mai wouldn’t let me hide my fear for too long. “Besides, this is nothing compared to the search party last year in Ohio. Those mortals brought out the National Guard and four different sheriff departments from three counties. All of them going off of my direction.”

              Mai made a little sound of surprise and touched my arm to pull my attention to her shocked face. “You told them you were psychic?”

              “I told them I had a gut feeling. They didn’t much care how I knew, just that I did.” My sister relaxed with my explanation and leaned against the counter as I mirrored her stance. “Mortals see and believe what they want, you know that. It doesn’t matter if the truth is right there in front of their eyes. They’ll only see what their brain tells them makes sense.”

              Mai nodded at the crowd outside that window. “These aren’t mortals, Jani.”

              “Which is good. No need to lie to them.”

              When I straightened and turned back to stare out of the window again, Mai joined me and we both watched the weres and covens tossing their packs and listening to Bane as he and his shifter friend Wyatt pointed toward the forest.

“Yes, but that means they’ll expect more from you.” She paused, taking the bottle of water from me. “I’m worried about this. I’m worried that whoever took the Elam is going to target you.”

              “They won’t touch me.”

              “How do you know?”

              Mai didn’t fight me for the bottle when I took it. “Bane won’t let them.”

              My twin’s smile was wide and hopeful, advertising the intent behind that look. She wanted me back in the Cove and I guess being around Bane gave her a little too much hope that might happen. I almost hated deflating that pretty bubble of anticipation. “Get over yourself, nosy witch. It’s not like that.”

              “So you say.”

              I stared at my twin, shaking my head when that wide grin didn’t falter in the least. “It’s like you forgot that we aren’t eighteen anymore.”

              “I know what I see and I know what drove you away ten years ago.” She didn’t, not really, no one did, but Mai liked to think of herself as all-knowing when it came to love. More specifically, when it came to me and love. She’d been way off her game for a long damn time.

              “He’s engaged, Mai, and not interested in anything with me. Besides, this is a job. The money will help with my debt and doing well will help Papa’s business save face.” She frowned, as though only just remembering that it was her husband who’d ruined things for our father. “Stop with the grimace. You’ll get wrinkles.”

              “Ronan…”

              “You were stupid in love with him.” She didn’t loosen the tight set of her mouth when I nudged her, seeming unwilling to let me tease her a little. I hated Mai letting that guilt get inside of her. “He was a charmer and good looking. We’ve all done stupid things when our libidos are firing on all cylinders.”

              Finally, that frown eased and my sister shook her head. “What have you done because of your cylinders?”

              “Stupid, stupid people, sis.”

              “You aren’t the only one.” Two shifters approached the door, pulling our attention away from talk of wayward cylinders, and I smiled at the slow grin that came across Wyatt Rimmel’s mouth when he nodded to us both. 

Ten years back, I’d met Wyatt one afternoon after I had ditched the last fifteen minutes of English Lit. He’d been waiting on Bane, a surprise visit, he’d claimed. “It’s his eighteenth birthday this weekend,” he’d told me as I nodded at the comfortable spot he’d taken up on the hood of my patchy, rusted, holes-in-the-bumper ‘68 Shelby.

“That right?” The shifter hadn’t moved, so I edged him off the hood and dumped my backpack onto the front seat. “This information should matter to me somehow?”

“You’re Jani,” Wyatt had said, laughing when my face went flushed and blotchy.

I slammed the car door, which rattled the front window and the shifter finally slid off my car. “How do you know?”

“Folks talk.” Eyes shifting to my tight grip on the door handle, Wyatt relaxed, seeming like he found my little bout of curiosity funny. “Especially smitten folk who try to play like no one touches them.”

“Who on earth…” But I hadn’t needed to ask the question. I knew, of course I did, but couldn’t seem to bring myself around to thinking that Bane wanted anything other than to trade long, knowing, unresolved looks with me. “What’d he say?”

With another laugh, Wyatt had leaned against my car. “Ah, beautiful, what kind of friend would I be if I let my boy’s secrets spill?”

“Honest,” I offered. “Helpful.” My smile couldn’t quite match his, but Wyatt seemed to have gotten a kick out of my exuberance.

“Shameless. I like it.” He moved in closer, too close for my liking and he knew, saw that he made me a little uncomfortable as I stepped back. He didn’t follow, but did offer a generous examination of my frame, my face, before the smile he wore turned genuine. “I see now. You’re something else.”

“You’ve heard different?”

“No. I haven’t heard anything but good. Maybe,” he’d said, sidling a little closer, “just maybe you should take initiative, jump before he can break away?”

My go-to defense was always to curl a bit inside myself and back then, Wyatt’s confession had stirred up a lot inside of me. Still, I thought that maybe he was messing with me, just to get under my skin. Teenage boys did that. Hell, my brother still does that.

When I didn't respond, Wyatt cut me some slack and stepped away, a decent enough distance that I felt relieved. “Listen, Jani, it’s only my gut instinct, but I know what I’ve been told and I know what I see in front of me. You like him, get him.”

“It’s not like that. He’s…taken.”

“Hell, beautiful, no one’s taken, not really. Especially not that one.” Wyatt nodded over my shoulder and I looked around, eyes blinking fast when I noticed Bane watching us closely as he came down the steps of the school. I kept my gaze on Bane and that curious, mildly irritated expression of his. But Wyatt moved closer, stepping to my side so he could whisper in my ear. “Sometimes, you gotta take what’s yours before anyone else can latch on to it.”

“He’s not mine.” I had my door open and my butt on the seat before Bane made it into the parking lot.

“No? Well, shit, maybe I should change my plans and keep you company this weekend, Miss Jani.”

Engine running and my hand on the wheel, I’d smiled up at Wyatt and laughed at the glint in his eyes and the way he hadn’t looked at my face. “You’re a hell of a lot of trouble, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I’d probably be better off ignoring everything you just told me.”

Wyatt shrugged and glanced to his left as Bane walked closer. “It’ll probably keep me from a busted nose if you do.”

“Well, I’d hate to come between two secret-keeping friends.”

“You do that, Jani, and I’ll owe you one.”

“I’ll remember that.”

And I had, just then as Wyatt strolled into the kitchen followed by a younger, smaller version of himself. The Rimmell genes were excellent and Wyatt still had the same soft features that were exaggerated by the smooth shape of his jaw and the whirl of green in his hazel eyes.

“You here so I can collect?”

Wyatt’s laugh was still loud, still carried around the room with very little effort. He remembered. “Never said a thing, did you?”

“Nope.”

“Then why’d I still end up with a bloody nose that weekend?”

He leaned against the counter, sizing me up, looking like he wanted to see the differences, the similarities from the kid he had met that one time years ago.