JUMP (The Senses) (22 page)

“How dare you give me orders
!”

He lowered his voice. “Danielle, please. Have mercy on me. If the other men see you like
this, I will not be able to control myself. No one may see what luscious banana legs and delicious melons you have except me. Please?” he said. “I beg of you.”

Danielle’s mouth dropped open and then she gave him a half-ass
ed smack on the chest. “I hate testosterone. Fine, have your little male powwow,” she said. “But next time you have the urge to order me around, bite down real hard on your tongue and say to yourself, ‘I’m a jackass.’”

“Or maybe I’ll just shut my mouth by doing this first,” Balen said lowering his head and giving her a soft kiss on the lips. He couldn’t help himself, even though he knew he should keep his distance
, something kept drawing him back. He felt warmth and contentment in her arms, something he’d never had in his life. And it felt like heaven.

“I want to know every detail. Understand?” She slipped from his grasp and turned to go back to her room, her hips swaying provocatively. She glanced over her shoulder. “By the way, the kiss—that’ll work,” she purred.

Balen groaned. Hell, she’d have him crawling on his hands and knees before long.

****

“Where have you been for the last two years?” Keir asked as soon as Balen entered the living room.

Balen walked over to the bar and helped himself to a Bombay and
tonic. “Nowhere special,” he replied. Discussing the hell he’d been through trying to rid himself of the vampire blood was not something he wanted to go into. Ever.

Waleron
, who rarely sat in anyone’s presence, was looking casual, sitting in the high-backed leather chair, one leg resting over the other. “It may have something to do with why you and Danielle cannot be separated. Did you speak of Danielle to anyone?”

“No. I was trying to forget her, not torture myself,” Balen
said. And it had failed miserably considering she had haunted his mind every single waking and sleeping hour.

“I don’t understand it,” Keir said. “Who can do this? And why? What is the point of
Bonding two people together? It has no purpose. Even Trinity cannot bond two people together like this.”

Balen remembered the time Philana, a witch in Trinity’s coven, had attempted a love spell on him. It lasted five days and when it faded he
’d found himself lying in Philana’s bed. His fury was catastrophic and if it hadn’t been for Waleron and Trinity, he would’ve killed the horrid witch. Could it be possible that one of them put some sort of spell on Danielle?

“Bonded? Meaning a spell?” Balen asked. He leaned up against the cabinet that held an array of ancient artifacts. He swirled his drink around and
around. It felt like what was happening inside him. “A powerful witch could do that, but not Trinity or her coven. GQ?” Balen asked.

Keir
raised his brows. “A witch would have nothing to gain. And a GQ has no knowledge of spells.” He shook his head. “No, someone more powerful. She would’ve died if . . . God, to think if you’d been put to Rest.”

“More powerful,” Waleron repeated. “Did you feel anything while you were away? A spell being cast?”

Balen hesitated. He had spent most of his time fighting the tainted blood inside him. It had been potent and stole his emotions, leaving him cold and heartless. It took every ounce of him to refrain from seeking vamps and joining them. The constant thirst begged him to drink from any who came near him. Addictive stuff when you hated all that you were and were seeking to rid yourself of guilt and disgust.

“Balen?” Waleron asked.

“No spells,” Balen replied.

“How far were you from here?” Waleron asked.

“I went to England for the first year and then returned to Canada. However, I never came to see her until recently.”

“And when you came back?” Waleron asked.

All he knew was that he’d had this urgency to be with Danielle the minute he laid eyes on her again. “It was odd. I never thought of it before now, but when I came back and saw her again, it was like . . . shit, I don’t know, like I was compelled to be with her. God, I even stayed outside her place like some stalker,” Balen admitted.

“Shit
.” Keir pressed his fingers to his temple. “Sounds like a spell. Why, though?”

“Delara knows something,” Waleron said. Both men looked at him. “She warned me that Danielle would die if you were put in Rest. She refused to tell me why or who has done this.”

“Refused you?” Keir asked, obviously baffled by the possibility.

Waleron ignored him. “Bonding is an ancient spell used by our ancestors. It was originally for breeding purposes. The most powerful male Senses were Bonded to the most powerful women so reproduction was guaranteed to produce a child with the strongest abilities. It was a way for us to become stronger.
Damien is of a Bonded line. That is why he is a Tracker and a Visionary.”

“But there is nothing gained by Bonding us together. She’s human,” Balen said. All he could think about was Danielle being put in danger again. No, never. She’d been through enough because of him.

“I’ve never heard of this. Who is capable of this Bonding?” Keir asked.

“Few,” Waleron replied. He placed his untouched brandy on the coffee table and rose to his feet. “Be ready for battle. I will return shortly.”

“I promised to tell her about us,” Balen said before Waleron had a chance to Trace.

Keir swore under his breath, but remained quiet.

“I assumed you would. It is time. She must join us,” Waleron said.

“Meaning?” Balen asked
, eyes narrowing.

Waleron
said, “She must become a Senses.”

Before Balen could ask how the hell that was possible,
Waleron left in his usual fashion, disappearing. Waleron was a cold, unemotional Taldeburu, but he wasn’t always like that. Something had drastically changed.

A few thought that it was from some after
effect from when Waleron was captured by a Lilac over a hundred years ago. Lilacs were Center World Others—females, nasty as the most venomous spiders and as sexy as Jessica Biel. They lured men into their web and sucked the life right out of them. Sometimes the Lilacs placed their preys in cocoons and let them stay there for weeks trapped in hell. Waleron had been in her hands for years. Some believed she had put him in one of her cocoons and tortured him at her pleasure. Others said that Waleron and the Lilac had fallen in love with one another and, when she was killed, he was left with no emotions, becoming the cold and abrupt Senses that he was now.

Not that it mattered
, considering he was the most loyal and powerful of all Senses. He kept his word and protected all without question.

Balen chugged back the rest of his drink and set it on the glass bar. “So, ever hear of a human becoming one of us?”

“Nope,” Keir said.

“Think he’s shit
tin’ me?”

“Nope.”

“Yeah, figured that.” He poured himself another drink.

A knock sounded on the bedroom door and Danielle smiled, anticipating Balen after his “testosterone only” conference. She noticed her stomach do the flip-flop thing. Just thinking of the guy sent her pulse racing and insides melting like butter on a hot stove. God, she felt a teenager again.

She swung open the door and her smile faded at the sight of Anstice. She half closed the door in her face then stopped herself
, remembering Balen’s words. Being rude was just plain immature. Still, it hurt to look at her friend after what she’d done.

“Come to tell me more lies?” Danielle asked as she walked back to finish making the bed. She was going home as soon as Balen returned. The hurt was still fresh over Anstice not telling her about Balen being her brother. God, it still was difficult to swallow.

“I just wanted to see . . . Danielle, please look at me . . . I want to explain things.” Anstice hesitated at the door and then changed her mind and approached the bed. “Every time you painted his portrait, the words were on my lips, but I was sworn to secrecy.” She wrung her hands together. “I thought you’d get over him. I don’t know . . . maybe that you’d give up on the paintings of him. But then . . . then he came back, and it all changed.”

Danielle pulled the duvet up over the pillows and smoothed it out with her hands. “It changed way before that
, Anstice. It changed when you met Keir. Quit your job. God, you loved being a vet. You studied for six years, and then you met him and wham. You threw it all out the window to be a what? Housewife? But I supported you. You wanted to be at Keir’s beck and call. I never said boo. I trusted you to tell me things. I thought we confided in each other. Guess I was wrong.”

Anstice put her hand on her shoulder
, and she stopped fiddling with the duvet. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Balen.” She hesitated as if she was having difficulty getting words past a large lump in her throat. “Ryszard was after me, Danielle. He used you and Balen to get to me.”

Danielle straightened when she heard the choked sob. She glanced at Anstice and saw the anguish in her eyes. Christ
. She’d at least give her the courtesy of listening.

Anstice continued, “We are different. Keir, Balen, Jedrik, myself, all of us here—and
, well other places too.” She sat on the edge of the bed with her hands in her lap. “I didn’t know any of this until I met Keir. Didn’t know I had a brother or that I was different. We were different. When he told me . . . well, at first I thought he was some psychotic zealot.” She gave a semi-snort. “God, it scared the crap out of me what he was saying, but . . .” She looked up at her. “But soon it made sense and my reality became surreal. The thing with my hands—”

“When you touch injured people?”

Anstice gave a single nod. “I am called a Healer. A Senses Healer.”

“A what?” Danielle felt a tremor rush through her veins at the name. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what her friend was going to tell her
, and yet still she needed to know.

“We are called Senses. All of us
who have these unique abilities. Umm . . . like when I touch someone with an injury, I can heal it.”

Danielle felt like either laughing at the ludicrousness or crying for her friend
, who thought she could heal people with her hands. She did neither, Anstice looked downright serious, and after all vampires were . . . real. Yeah, that still was not sitting well. “Okay, say this absurdity is true. Then why didn’t you heal me when I fell off my bike and broke my arm that time when I was eight? Or can you only heal certain injuries? Or maybe there is the possibility that Keir is involved with drugs and he’s slipping you something to make you think you have this . . . capability.” God and she thought she was insane, now her friend was going to end up in a padded cell with her.

“You don’t believe me
.” Anstice looked up at her.

Danielle huffed. “Well
, come on, Anst, healing with the touch of your hands? It’s a little hard to swallow. You don’t have to make things up in order to try to make amends, okay? We’ve been friends a long time. I hate that you kept shit from me, but I’m not going to throw our relationship away because you swore to some secret about your husband’s criminal activity. And obviously, your brother is involved too. Did Balen and Keir screw over this Ryszard guy? Is he Mafia?”

“His is . . . was a vampire, Danielle.”

“A vampire,” Danielle repeated. “Got it. Scary shaved-head doctor guy told me that one already.”

Anstice sighed, her fingers curling together. “If I told you two years ago that the guy who abducted you was a vampire, do you think you’d have
believed me? You were talking to the police, what if you’d told them what I’d said? We . . . the Senses can’t allow that, Danielle. It is forbidden for humans to know about us. Can you imagine if the world knew we existed?” Anstice hesitated and Danielle stopped pacing to look at her friend. “Ryszard wanted my healing capabilities for himself. He was using you to get to me until . . . well, until Balen made the deal with him. In exchange for your life, Balen gave Ryszard the location of where Keir and the other warriors were hiding me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yep, sounds like the drugs have done their job.”

Anstice sighed. “You of all people know that I wouldn’t lie about something so . . . implausible.”

Okay, so a vampire sucked her blood. Padded room, here she comes. But she knew the Ryszard guy had
bitten her neck. She had holes in her neck to prove it. Dr. Scary had also said that vampires existed. So maybe it was true. Could it be true? She sure as hell didn’t want it to be.

“Ryszard released you and Balen led him to me,” Anstice said.

Oh, crap. Talk about guilt being placed on the shoulders. Danielle felt her knees weaken and she dropped to sit on the bed beside Anstice. “That’s what he meant,” Danielle said more to herself.

“What?”

“Balen said he betrayed someone. He betrayed you. He risked your life for mine.” How could he make that choice? Why pick her? Anstice was his sister. God, this was getting shittier by the second. If this was all true and she wasn’t having some hallucinations.