Flirting With Fate (19 page)

“So what do we do now?”

She wasn’t sure whether he meant about their
relationship or her power or something else altogether, but she said, “We
experiment.”

Josie was awakened by something brushing the
inside of her wrist. Sleep hung over her and she struggled to open her eyes.

“Wiley?”

He was in her bed. Hovering over her, holding her
hands above her head.

She blinked and looked at the clock. She had
another hour before her alarm would go off so she could meet Dr. Martin. “What
are you doing here?” But she knew why she
wanted
him to be here, what
her body was demanding.

“Shh,” he said, studying her face.

Her hips lifted instinctively. Half asleep,
nothing else mattered, nothing but feeling his mouth against her skin, feeling
his cock slide inside her.

Cool metal slid against her wrist, then she heard
the buzz and click of handcuffs sliding closed.

A jolt of equal parts concern and excitement shot
through her. “Tanner, what are you doing?”

He grinned, and slipped a cuff around her other
wrist.

She tugged at her hands, but she was cuffed to the
bedpost. “You kinky man.” She only cared about was how soon he could touch her.
She could feel the slickness gathering between her legs. She’d been dreaming of
him incessantly, and she was constantly aching for what she continued to deny
herself.

He brushed fingers over the edge of her jaw, and
she frowned. Something wasn’t right about his face.

“Your eyes,” she said, her breath catching. They
were wrong. They were the same color, but there was a kindness in Tanner’s
eyes. A vulnerability, like somehow his eyes carried his whole history in them.
But not now. They weren’t—

His smile grew. The hard edges of his face
softened and morphed.

“Oh, shit,” Josie said, as her doppelganger
climbed off her.

“I just need you to stay here for a little bit,”
he…she…it…whatever it was said to Josie in Josie’s voice. From Josie’s body.

“Mallory? Is that you?”

Her look-alike cocked her head. “Seriously, why do
you keep calling me that? Who is Mallory?”

“Who are you?” Josie demanded. She wasn’t having
any trouble waking up now.

The Shifter grinned. “I am just a figment of your
imagination.” She pulled open the closet door and shuffled through the
contents. “You really would have just let him cuff you to the bed that easily,
huh? What ever happened to
Girl Power
and
always maintain the upper
hand
?” She pulled a red dress from its hanger.

Josie glared. “That’s my favorite, bitch.”

The Shifter winked. “I know. It’s going to look so
good on me.” She peeled off the black tee and jeans she’d worn as Tanner, then
shimmied into the dress. “Don’t worry. We’ll send someone for you later.”

“Who’s
we
?” She yanked at the cuffs again
and winced as pain shot down her arm. Josie tugged again, and her doppelganger
chuckled.

“Sexy dreams,” she said before she sauntered out of
the room.

Tanner punched the speed dial for Fernandez.

“Do you know what fucking time it is?” Fernandez
growled.

“I know and I’m sorry.”

“Then make it good.”

“Remember that old legend about the immortal
Special who would take powers until he could manipulate free will?”

“Yeah,” Fernandez said, his sleep heavy voice
lightening now. “What’d they call him? The Keeper?”

“Do you remember what the legend said about how he
gets his power?”

“No, I never paid attention to that crap. I
learned it long enough for the SIA exams and promptly forgot—” He cursed. “No,
wait. The Keys? Right? He uses the Keys to become all powerful—a precog and her
non-Special match—something about draining them simultaneously?”

Tanner closed his eyes. “That’s the one.”

“Shit, you don’t think Josie is—”

“I don’t know, but Darian found reference to ‘The
Keys’ in her mother’s journal. I need you to go to the SIA library and dig a
little more. See what you can find related to this legend and call me back. I
called Chrissie and she’s going to meet you there.”

“Dude, I don’t need her to—”

“Stop being an ass and let her help. You can only
read one book at a time.”

“Where will you be?”

“I’m going to check on Josie.” He looked at the
clock and frowned. “She won’t answer my calls.”

Tara wobbled in a pair of Josie’s stiletto boots
and wondered how they hell the girls regularly kicked ass wearing the damn
things. If Tara were in charge at Stilettos, Inc., the uniform was the first
thing she’d change.

Attention all employees: The stiletto is really
more of a metaphor for our hotness, not a literal necessity.

But no one was asking her, and this is the kind of
outfit Josie would wear to meet some dude she wanted information from.

A block from the Torpedo Factory she jumped when
someone grabbed her arm.

“Shhh!”

She turned and put her hand to her chest when she
saw it was Collin. “You scared me,” she said. Then, remembering she was Josie,
she said, “What are you even doing here?” That probably wasn’t enough. The
girls were pretty bitchy to Collin. “Why are you in my business again?”

Collin’s lip twitched. “If you’re going to be good
at this shifting thing, we’re going to need to work on your acting skills.”

Tara flinched. “I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“Tara, I know it’s you.”

She sagged. She’d wanted to keep this trip a
secret and bring back the answers Collin and Rider were so frantically digging
for. She’d wanted to show them she was valuable so they’d tell her what they
knew.

“Let me take care of this guy.” He pointed to the
Torpedo Factory, where she was supposed to meet the doctor and the Aaron
impersonator.

She stiffened. “Why?”

“I need your help,” he said.

She softened and pulled her bottom lip between her
teeth. “You do?”

“I need you to get the journal for me.” He looked
over each shoulder as if to check to see if they were being watched.

“Why? Who has it? How did you lose it?”

Collin shook his head. “No, it’s my brother,
Rider. I don’t think we can trust him, and we need to know what the journal
says if we’re going to stop the Ascendants.”

Tara frowned. There was no one Collin trusted more
than Rider. They’d been through hell together as children and were so connected
they hardly had to speak to communicate. “Why couldn’t we trust Rider?”

“Do you really think he found Aaron’s body?”
Collin looked over his shoulder. “Listen, the Ascendants would offer him
anything to get their hands on that journal, and Rider hasn’t been himself
since Chrissie broke up with him. What would he be leaving behind?”

Tara’s heart hammered. Could Rider have turned? It
was no secret that neither Rider nor Collin was a fan of the SIA, but the only
thing the hated more were the Ascendants.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t know.”

“Please, Tara?” He lowered his head and brushed
his lips against hers.

Tara stopped breathing for five seconds. Collin
had finally made the move she’d been waiting for. “How should I do it?”

“Shift into Chrissie,” he said.

That made sense. Chrissie had left Rider six
months ago when she found out he’d been lying to her. Even when she’d found out
he’d had good reason, she hadn’t gone back to him, and Rider hadn’t gotten over
her. “Like I did with you when I shifted into Paige?”

His smile was tentative. “Yeah, just like that.”

She narrowed her eyes. He seemed…different. She’d
slid into bed with him. Surely he didn’t want her sliding into bed with his
brother.

“Okay. Where do you want me to meet you?”

Ethan Aston closed his eyes at the chiming of his
door bell. They’d come. He’d known they would, and he hadn’t run. What good
would it have done?

He crossed the room and reached for the knob with
steady hands. The shaking had subsided after Mallory had left, but he’d spent
years fearing this.

Ethan hesitated before pulling the door open and
greeting his fate. The bells chimed again. How had he ever been naïve enough to
think he could do this? How had he ever believed he could raise her from birth
and go along with the original plan?

And now fate was quite literally ringing the bell
like some visitor who would turn on his heel and leave if he wasn’t welcome.

He cracked the door, choosing to put only a foot
into the icy cold inevitability. A braver man would have jumped in.

He’d never been very brave. Perhaps that was how
he’d gotten into this position to begin with.

“Hello, there,” a melodious female voice called
from the other side. “Open the door, love.”

He obeyed the order. Not because he trusted her—he
didn’t. And not because he was a brave man—he wasn’t. He let her in because he
was too terrified of what would happen if he disobeyed.

The woman took a step into his apartment, long
skirts flowing behind her, and drew in a long breath through her nose. When she
turned to him it was with inhuman speed, the way vampires—monsters—moved in
popular television.

“Where is she?”

His stomach pitched. Oh, he was such a fool.

Everything was an illusion. The power he’d thought
he had, the control, his life—it was all an illusion created to keep him under
their thumbs.

He’d told himself things would change. He told
himself the Keeper would never have to follow through with the plan; they’d
find another way to unlock his powers.

But as Mallory had gotten older, it had been
harder to ignore the wicked fate she’d been created for. Ten years ago, he’d
been planning his own disappearance when he’d gotten word about the other Key’s
parents. The Americans had been preparing to visit a Special who could change
their appearances. They were going to change the Key’s DNA.

The Keeper had gotten word and sent someone to
take care of them. That put a stop to Ethan’s plans. He had been too cowardly
to do anything then. He’d consoled himself with the knowledge that trying to
run would give him even less of an opportunity to protect Mallory.

 “Where is she?” She flipped her long hair and
narrowed her unnaturally green eyes.

“I don’t know.”

In a blink, she’d closed the space between them.
“Where is she?” she repeated, her nose an inch from his.

Would she let him live for several more hours yet?
Minutes? “I. Don’t. Know.”

She wrapped her hands around his neck. He looked
straight into her eyes as she read his mind.

“Ethan,” she muttered, gripping a little tighter,
“you fool. There is no denying Him.”

“You know he doesn’t give a damn about you, don’t
you?”

Her eyes flashed briefly, enough to let him know
he’d guessed right about her affections for their leader.

“He doesn’t.” He choked out the words even as her
thumbs bruised the skin at his Adam’s apple. “He’s using you. A means to an end.”

Her hands released his neck and a fraction of a
second later they returned, but this time he could feel the sharp point of the
spike she’d slid on her thumb. “Shut up,” she whispered. “They’ll find her, you
know. You’re only postponing the inevitable.”

“It’s the best I can do.” And in that, he’d failed
her. His Mallory. His daughter. Once merely a tool he was charged with tending,
now the only person he loved that mattered. “Kill me. Take my blood and my
power and be done with me.” Again, fear, not bravery, drove him.

“Tempting. I could use your power, but if I kill
you,” she said, sticking out her lower lip in a pout, “how will I get the
girl?”

“She won’t look for me. She knows better.”

“You underestimate your daughter. The Keys were
programmed better than that. When she finds out we have you, she’ll come.”

Tanner pounded on Josie’s apartment door. “Josie?”

He had answers and he didn’t like them, but he’d
be damned if she was going to keep shutting him out. She didn’t know the half
of the danger she was in, but she could at least have the courtesy to pick up
the phone and let him know she’d gotten his message. Let him know she’d be
careful.

“Yes! Tanner! Come in. Please!”

He threw his weight against the door and it
opened. “Good security,” he grumbled. That would go on his list first, if she
insisted on staying here. He’d rather she just stay with him. Hell, maybe they
should skip town altogether.

“Josie?” He stepped into the foyer and frowned.
All the lights were off. “Where are you?” He squinted as his eyes adjusted to
the dark.

“I’m back here,” she called, her voice husky.

He followed her voice to the bedroom and stalled
one step in the door. “Mother of all that is holy.”

His eyes had begun to adjust to the dark apartment
and there was Josie—in a little black slip handcuffed to her headboard.

She pulled herself up so she was half-leaning
against the headboard, her arms awkwardly positioned behind her. “Thank God
you’re here!”

His cock hardened in his jeans. How could it not
at a sight that beautiful? Josie cuffed to the bed, her long legs exposed in
her little slip, her blond hair loose around her shoulders—this was stuff of
fantasy. “Had I known you were waiting on me,” he said, strolling slowly into
the room but not toward the bed, “I would have come hours ago.”

“Hurry, Tanner.”

He grinned. “I thought you didn’t want anything to
do with me.” Was this Josie? Or was their Shifter at work again?

“Just turn on the light and come over here.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Still a little bewildered, he
flipped the wall switch and light flooded the room. He swallowed. She’d looked
sexy in the dim light of the street lamp creeping in through the curtains, but
in the full light, her beauty was intimidating. Long legs, full breasts, pale
skin. Her full lips were shaped into a sultry pout, and her blue eyes
were—angry.