Eternal Craving (8 page)

She rose and headed for the door, determined to track down Al and wring every last bit of information from him.

“Jenna.”

She looked back at Fin.

“I hope you decide to stay.”

“Maybe.” Definitely. Unless she could find a way to drag her sister back to Houston without Ty. Fat chance of that happening, though. So she’d be staying here as long as Kelly might be in danger. And from what Fin had told her and what she’d seen, there was a whole lot of danger going around.

“I don’t invite many people to my condo. I invited you.”

“Thanks?” What was he getting at?

“Sixty-five million years ago, I had a series of visions. You were in one of them. You’re very important to the Eleven, Jenna.” With that parting shot, he twirled his chair around to stare out at the city again.

She knew a dismissal when she heard it. That was fine, though, because she couldn’t have gotten a word past the shock clogging her throat. Numbly, she opened the door and almost knocked down the man on the other side.

He was about six feet tall and lean, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a big smile. “Hi, I’m Shen, Fin’s assistant. And you’re Jenna. If you need anything while you’re here, let me know.”

All she could do was nod dumbly and slip past him. Then she went in search of Al.

Al didn’t even pretend to be amusing himself. Things were happening, and he was sitting in front of a freaking TV.

Someone had slaughtered—and slaughtered was the only word for it—a bunch of humans and left the body parts in a used furniture store.

A member of the local werewolf pack had caught the scent of death as he walked past and investigated. Almost buried under the stench of blood and body fluids, he’d caught a fading whiff of nonhumans. He’d reported to his pack leader.

Luckily, Fin’s relationship with the Houston pack leader had paid off in timely info from the Philly pack leader.

Fin had ordered all of the Eleven except for Al onto the streets to see if they could track down any of the killers. When a mass murder happened in a city where the immortals were at work, it probably could be traced back to them. Eight must’ve had a busy night.

Shen had taken care of mobilizing a cleanup. If the ones who did the slaughtering were hoping to make a splash on the news with this, they were in for a disappointment. Yes, there would be missing-person reports, but the bodies would never be found, and no sign of the murder would remain at the store.

And what was
he
doing while everyone else was out being useful? He was sitting on a couch staring at a blank screen. He wasn’t even motivated to turn the damn TV on.

Grounded like some kid. He tried to work up a healthy rage, but for once he had other things on his mind beside his soul.

What was Fin telling Jenna, the truth or an elaborate lie? She’d seen too much to night, so he must be laying out the truth. Would she pack her bags and take the first flight out of town? She’d panicked to night, but who wouldn’t? She might stick around for her sister.
But she sure enough won’t ever relax around you again.

Footsteps coming toward the media room warned him that he was about to lose his precious solitude. Good or bad? He wasn’t sure, because before she even entered the room he knew it was Jenna. Her distinctive scent of cool mint and hot temptation went before her. She wouldn’t be happy to know how easy she was to identify.

She walked into the room, glanced around, and then hesitated when she realized he was the only one there. A ripple of bitterness touched him. Yeah, Fin had told her the truth. She was afraid to be alone with him now.

But he was in a defiant mood, so he patted the spot beside him on the couch. “Have a seat. What do you want to watch?”

Jenna hesitated for just a few beats too long before walking to a nearby chair and sitting. She didn’t look like she was here to watch TV. Her expression said she was a woman with a mission. Crap.

Smoothing her fingers over the arm of her chair, she leaned back and crossed her legs. Must be trying to look relaxed. It wasn’t working. He could smell her fear. It was a scent he’d always gloried in, as long as it wasn’t his. It had always meant he was close to a kill, and the kill was what his life had been all about in that other time.

Her scent made him feel defensive—not a familiar emotion—and that made him mad. He shouldn’t care what she felt about him. “Okay, I get that you’re not here to watch TV or because you want to be with me.”

Jenna narrowed her gaze on him. She had to recognize the aggression pushing at him, and she didn’t like it. Too damn bad.

“I just got through talking with Fin. He explained the basics of what’s going on with you guys, but he left a lot of blank spots.”

Al empathized. “Fin is all about blank spots.” How many times had Al felt that Fin lived in his own hidden world? Their beloved leader was a font of nonanswers. Al hated being manipulated, and deep in what passed for his heart, he believed Fin was using all of them.

“Fin didn’t get to answer all my questions because someone named Shen interrupted. Fin said you’d fill me in on the rest.”

Al wanted to be anywhere but here. Exactly how much had Fin told her? Did she know what he was? She might have a clue, but she probably wasn’t certain, because if she was certain she wouldn’t be here at all.
Thanks, Fin, for laying this load on me.

Somewhere in his mind, he heard Fin’s laughter.

“Sure, what do you want to know?”
Do you want to know how much I need your long bare legs wrapped around me? How about if I tell you how much I want to bury myself in your heat and feel your soul-deep shudder as I drive deeper and deeper? Sure, ask me anything.

She nodded but didn’t quite meet his gaze. “What are you?”

Ah, she was starting with the money ball. “What do you think I am?” Coward. He wanted her to say it first. He didn’t want to be the one to put the word out there and watch it scare the shit out of her.

“I hate game playing.” Jenna finally met his gaze. Her eyes were cool and controlled.

Brave lady. He shrugged. “Otherkin have nonhuman souls trapped in human bodies. Our cook, Greer, is otherkin. He has the soul of a tiger.”

Al studied her expression. So far no panic, just intent interest. She nodded for him to go on.

“Greer has all the instincts of the tiger, but he’ll never walk the Earth in the form of his beast. His soul is trapped. The Eleven are a kind of otherkin, but we have the power to release our souls.” And sometimes their souls escaped and ran wild.

Some emotion flooded her eyes and then was gone. “The shadow I saw to night.”

“Yeah.”

“What happens when you release your soul? Do you shift?” She edged forward in her seat. She’d stopped stroking the arm of the chair. Her gaze was intent.

“My soul manifests its physical form with every scary detail in working order. It’s a flesh-and-blood ancient predator stalking the city streets looking for prey. But it’s not powerful enough to completely overwhelm the human part of me. If you look closely, you can still see the shadow of my human form within the…beast.” That hurt. Not because he was ashamed of what he was, but because of how she’d react to that word.

“Fin talked about sixty-five million years ago. That’s when the dinosaurs went extinct.” She swallowed hard, a brief sign of what she must be feeling if he could only get past the calm exterior. “So your soul is a T. rex?” She blurted it out as though the word burned her tongue.

“Allosaurus.” He waited a beat. “Ty’s the T. rex.” Then he held his breath and watched her.

Hours and years passed before she slowly nodded. “I see.”

Did she? He didn’t think so. She didn’t see his agony at being an abomination in a time he despised. She didn’t see his aloneness without his pack, his failed attempts to fit in with this new pack. She didn’t see his disgust at his rage and inability to control it. “Anything else you want to know?”

Then the most surprising thing of all happened. Jenna laughed. Sure, it was a shaky laugh, but a laugh all the same. And as far as he could tell, it didn’t sound hysterical.

“Yes, I have lots of questions. But first let me savor probably the biggest story of my life.” She dug her nails into the arm of her chair.

Okay, maybe she did have a little hysteria going on.

“The biggest story of my life and absolutely no one would believe it.” She looked thoughtful. “Of course, no one believed my alien abduction stories either. But in this case, I probably wouldn’t even get the story written.”

“Why not?” He watched her wiggle her beautiful little behind into a more comfortable position on the cushion. Without warning, desire exploded, and his soul awoke.

Oh, hell. Al forced his gaze away from her. He stared out the window, tried to concentrate on the city lights.
Count them. One, two, three—

A small gasp brought his attention back to her. She stared at him from wide, startled eyes. But he didn’t have any trouble reading the emotion churning behind those eyes. Lust. So strong that it practically oozed from her pores.

While he stared at her, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and rocked forward. “Stop it. Just freaking stop it.”

It took him a second to realize she was talking to him. Taking a deep breath, he imagined stepping into a giant bucket of ice. At the same time, he forced his soul deeper into its cave. When he felt nothing more than a normal sexual attraction, he looked at her again.

Jenna had straightened and was staring at him with a mixture of fear and outrage. “What the hell was that? It was coming from you. I know it was, because I’ve never felt that kind of arousal before, didn’t think it was possible to feel it. It…it
hurt
.” She looked amazed by the revelation.

It was time to ramp down the intensity. “Hey, sixty-five million years is a long time to go without sex. Besides, I have a big soul with the big emotions to go with it. Promise, I won’t broadcast around you again.”

“Broadcast?”

“Let my emotions get away from me. They’re strong enough for someone else to feel. Sorry that happened.” Not sorry. He wanted to share more than just some sexual emotions with her.

Her gaze skittered around the room, never resting on him once. Not surprising. Fin and he had turned her world upside down to night. She was handling it a lot better than he’d expected. He hadn’t had much experience with putting people at ease, but that’s what he wanted to do now. He didn’t want her to jump up from that chair and run from the room. He wanted her to keep talking to him.

“You never finished telling me why you can’t write your story.” Fin had probably threatened her. But it wouldn’t be with violence. Fin was more subtle than that. And he wasn’t stupid. Kelly was married to Ty. A threat to Kelly’s sister would impact Ty and through him the rest of the Eleven.

“He’d probably take away my memory of what happened. Can’t write about what you don’t remember.”

Al stilled, every instinct telling him something important was about to happen. “What makes you think he can do that?”

She looked surprised he’d have to ask. “He gave me a demo. Very impressive. One minute I remembered what happened to night, and then I didn’t. And since he can jump into my mind and root around, he’d know if I was thinking about putting out a story. I’ll keep my memories, thank you very much.” She sounded like she was taking Fin’s demonstration lightly, but her eyes said something else.

He couldn’t imagine what
his
eyes were saying. Rubbing his hand across his forehead, he tried to think. All those times when bits and pieces of memories started to surface and then wham, the headache struck and the fog rolled in. Everything gone. Had that been Fin? Could the bastard have done something like that to his own men? If so, why?

“I still have some questions.”

You’re not the only one.
Al pulled himself from the brink. Racing off to confront Fin wouldn’t achieve anything. He had to think things through. Uncontrolled rage had already gotten him into trouble. “Ask away.”

“Why does Kelly have to be with Ty? He doesn’t need her. I saw that to night. He can drive himself.”

Al forced himself to concentrate on the answer. “Eight can sense us when we’re alone, but his signals don’t work when we’re close to a human. Solution: keep a human near in the form of a driver.”

Jenna nodded as though she’d added his answer to some inner notebook. “One last thing. Fin said you guys got rid of Nine back in Houston. He’s immortal, so you just tossed him out into the cosmos. Why doesn’t he come back?”

Al didn’t want to talk about Nine. The only way he could push the bone he had to pick with Fin under the rug for the moment was to concentrate on something just as powerful. And that meant Jenna. He wanted to know more about her. Wanted to get closer to her. Who was he kidding? He wasn’t good at getting close to anyone. Not since Fin had taken him from his pack.

He shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. Guess they have a boss somewhere pulling their strings, because these guys only seem to get one shot at the end of each time period to mess with Earth. Once they’re here, they stay until the start of the new period and then they have to leave. If they leave before that, it must count as an official visit. They won’t be back until the end of the next period.”

“Nine must’ve been totally ticked.”

“Yeah.” He couldn’t help it; he smiled. He’d never thought of it from the immortal’s viewpoint. “I didn’t see the actual event, but Ty said Kelly kicked butt that night.”

“Kelly?” Horror filled her eyes. “She was there? She was in danger?”

Uh-oh. “She was the key.”

“The key?” Jenna didn’t like the sound of that. Up till now, she’d been running on adrenaline and emotion. Most of the emotion since she’d entered this room had centered on the man sitting across from her. With that intriguing braid she itched to undo so she could slide her fingers through all that hair, the strong hard face with those hazel eyes that bled sadness when he wasn’t guarding his expression, and the muscular body exposed by the clingy sweater he wore, he was a major distraction.

The things Fin had told her, along with the holes Al had filled, gave her a picture of life that could only exist in some alternate universe. She was in shock. That’s the only reason she was still here.

No, you’re here for Kelly.
And what Al had just said about her sister needed expanding. But she wouldn’t ask him; she’d ask her sister. “Well, thanks for answering my questions. Guess I’ll head to my room.” She stood, swaying a little from exhaustion.

“It isn’t real to you yet, is it?”

His voice was warm and husky, with a sensual pull that softened her insides like bread dough ready for baking. But there’d be no baking going on in her life as long as she was here in Philly. Because everything still had a crazy feel to it, and she didn’t intend to cozy up to her insanity.

“No, it doesn’t.” She met his gaze directly. “Will you make it real for me?”

Wariness crept into his eyes. “How?”

“You know how. I only saw a shadow to night. I can’t believe in shadows.”

He stared at her for a long time and then nodded. “Come with me.”

Be careful what you wish for.
Dread stalked Jenna as she climbed the ornate staircase with him. She hadn’t been up here before. “How much condo does Fin have?”

“As much as he needs. I don’t know where he gets his money, and I don’t ask.” He turned to smile at her. “The guy’s saving humanity, he deserves his perks.”