Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (224 page)

“
No. It’s not on the
surface. It’s your instinct, the way you carry yourself. It’s who
you are.”

I
tried
not to get all
uber-excited over the fact he noticed things about me. “So
basically, you’re saying you think I’m half and half?” I wiped my
eyes. “Is that even possible?”

“
Two Kembers have Kember
offspring. Two Dreas have Drea offspring. Why not get a little bit
of both with a Kember and a Drea?”

As scary as it was, he made sense. My
mouth opened, but it took a moment for words to spring out. “Isn’t
there a way to find out for sure? I mean, Delmari and Aileen
couldn’t have been the only ones.”

“
The attraction is weird,
Taylee.” He paused, rubbing his chin. “I guarantee, if it’s
happened, it hasn’t happened very often.”

Except, it happened to me. Maybe I was
broken like my mother, who had apparently been keen on getting busy
with Kembers. “How do we find out for sure?”

He took a deep breath. “I don’t know.
I’m not going to make phone calls and risk raising suspicions.
Delmari hid it for a reason and I’m not about to go against
that.”

“
So, what do we do? Sit
here?”

“
We’ll deal with it on our
own. I don’t see any other option.”

We
. It gave me hope. I
wasn’t
alone in this.
“You think Delmari knew?”

“
I only observed you for a
few moments before I figured out something was off. I’m positive he
knew.”

He had to have. Even I noticed how
different I was from Skyler and all the other Dreas. I was
aggressive and mouthy and always seemed to find myself in a
predicament.

“
What a bastard.” My voice
quivered.

Hesitantly, Aiden reached toward me.
His hand skimmed across the top of my back as he brushed my hair
from one shoulder to the other. Grabbing the top of my arm, he
pulled me to him, and I rested my head against his
chest.

My eyes burned when I blinked. I took
a few deep breaths, inhaling his intoxicating scent and relaxed
into him. I knew in the morning I’d regret letting him see me like
this. Right now, I didn’t care. No matter how much I tried to deny
it, I needed this and I needed him.

“
This is such a
disaster.”

“
No it’s not.” He rubbed my
arm. “It’s a little bump; one of those tests in life that shape who
we are.”

I had a feeling he’d had a lot of
those. I tilted my head, gazing at him. “How many more do you think
there are?”

His lips quirked into a half-smile.
“Well, I was hoping they’d stop after you turn twenty-four, but so
far I haven’t noticed much of a difference.”

I almost
didn’t hear what he said. I stared at him, taking in his
perfect-shaped lips and soft green eyes. There it was again. My
heart sputtered as he peered at me, sending a flash of heat through
my body. Mortified he felt my emotions, I peeled my eyes from his
and looked down, taking a deep breath. “Well, the faster we figure
out what these vision things mean, the faster I can push
their
obscenity
to
the back of my mind.”

“
I wish I could tell you.
Now that the girl’s your mom, I have no idea. We can’t save her
because obviously she’s already, well…gone.” His chest moved when
he sighed. “There has to be a reason you’re seeing those things. I
wonder…”

“
I hate when you do
that.”

He stiffened. “Do what?”

“
Stop
midsentence.”

He paused a moment. “Someone has to be
planting those images in your mind. Both times you’ve seen the
Kember. Maybe we should be picking up on something
else.”

I hadn’t realized until now that one
of my arms had moved from my legs and rested across Aiden’s
stomach. My eyes snapped open. When did they close? “Um, could be
the Kember. He can communicate telepathically, why not create
illusions and past memories?”

“
Maybe, but why would he do
that?”

“
Same reason he hangs out
in the girls’ bathroom—because he can.”

Leaning back against the headboard,
with his feet crossed, Aiden didn’t respond. Mind reading wasn’t
required for me to know he was thinking through every possibility.
His body felt tense and hard against mine, but strangely
embraceable.

I tucked my chilled arms close between
us, submersing myself in his body heat. His smell. His touch. My
mind couldn’t get past either. I closed my eyes and entered into
the best night’s sleep I’d had in months.

The next
thing I knew, Aiden was shaking me awake, saying something about
noon. I wiped what I hoped—but didn’t seem likely—was dewdrops off
my face and rubbed my eyes. Outside, a white, cottony substance
fell from the sky. For the sake of my short sleeves, I desperately
hoped it
was
cotton or maybe even blossoms of some sort.

Nope. Snow. It proved to be the icy
bitch I anticipated as we walked the five miles back to the house.
Instead of piling, like normal snow, it turned to slush, making the
trail muddy and gross. My feet were frozen after only a few minutes
of walking in it, but I didn’t care. My heart was just as
numb.

My white shoes weren’t so white when I
got home. Peering into the mirror, right before I got into the
shower, I realized the day for petty shoe problems were gone. “Son
of a bitch!” I jerked my dirty jeans back on, secured my bra and
raced down the hall.

“
Aiden, look.” I threw his
door open, my heart hammering. “It’s bigger.”

He spun
around in the desk chair and dropped his pen when he saw me. He
blinked and it seemed to take his eyes a minute to find the mark.
“It- It
is
bigger.” The shock left his features and he leaned forward.
“It’s a—”

“
Flower, yeah. What the
hell does it mean?”

Aiden reached out and rubbed his thumb
over what was now, obviously, a stem. He continued up the arc of my
hip to the new white blossom and rubbed it.

I was too worked up and freaked out to
care.

“
No idea. Do you know what
kind of flower it is?”

“
What do you think I am? A
freakin’ old lady flower lover?” I snapped.

Aiden sat back and directed his gaze
at me. He folded his arms across his chest, his expression telling
me he’d put up with anything but my attitude right now.

I took a
deep breath and grabbed my hair at the scalp. Since we got home
this morning, I hadn’t been able to shake the Aileen-Delmari taboo.
Now on top of all that, I had to be reminded of
this
. None of it was his fault and I
figured I shouldn’t take it out on him.

I collapsed on his bed and put my face
in my hands. “I just—”

“
It’s fine. Let’s look it
up and see what we find.”

I nodded, reached down and picked up
his pencil. My pathetic attempt at a sorry gesture.

He tapped his fingers on his laptop
keyboard and called me over to his desk a few minutes
later.

I stared at the screen seeing the
exact same flower that was now tattooed on my hip: white petals
with yellow antenna things sticking out of the middle. It was
actually pretty—when it wasn’t on me.

“
It’s a lily,” Aiden
said.

Part 2 is available now!

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