Odd Melody (Odd Series Book 2) (19 page)

I shut that link down as fast as it had opened and shut him out. The easy connection had to be some sort of side effect of whatever I had done earlier. I did not like it.

Mia stared at me funny so I put on a big smile and sped up my walk. We entered Brennan’s as our starting point, apt as it was where I’d left off the night before. A wave of sound pulsed around us, music and laughter, talk and the hum of humans in general.

The sun had only begun to set. Vance had probably not awakened yet. How long after he rose would someone tell him that I had landed in the middle of Odd Stuff with a half-naked man on top of me in a compromising position? Would he believe whoever shared that damning information?

Chance teased at my mind again, and I wondered if the connection went two ways. I searched for him down that treacherous line. He stood in water. Hot and steamy, it sluiced down his body in rivulets. He must have been showering, a terribly ordinary thing for him to be doing. His hands slid down his smooth, firm chest, trailing bubbles. I watched and I saw—

When he felt me spying, he reached out and snagged me before I could escape. I went blind. I stopped dead in my tracks. I could see nothing in the room that physically surrounded me. All I could see was the wall of the shower and Chance’s lean strong hand.

“You want to play?” He spoke out loud, his voice breathless and a little shocked because like me, he did not know until he had done it that he could reach through the line. His voice echoed in my head and his head and out loud, and I stood, blind and still, in a bar because if I moved, I would have fallen or hit someone or worse.

I could hear the sounds of the bar. But my eyes could only take in the shower and the hand that rested on the wet, tiled wall. I could see only what he saw. I gritted my teeth. I had no idea how to make him let me go again.

“Do you like this?” His hand and his eyes dropped to his soapy chest, and he slid the hand lower.

I sucked in a breath. I couldn’t help it. “No.” I said it aloud because I wasn’t sure how to talk to him otherwise. I had to look pretty dumb, standing blind in a bar, talking to myself. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

He glided the hand lower and for the first time I saw him, or rather the rock hard, intimate pieces of him. Captive and captivated, my eyes followed the path his did, all choice on my part gone because I saw through his eyes. Not, mind you, that it was a terribly offensive view.

My breath quickened. I had no choice there either. And when he closed that hand around himself, I trembled where I stood, blind and suddenly dumb as well. Oh, so eager to see, yet so afraid to cross that barrier.

“Please,” I whispered when I found my voice. Then I pleaded in my head, hoping he could hear me.
Don’t make me beg
.

“For this?”

The question and his voice grated across my sensitized nerves. He tightened the hand and moved it in one long jerk. Through the connection, my hand traveled the length of his smooth, hot skin. When he touched himself, he stroked not only himself, but my body as well. Perhaps I simply felt what he felt. Either way, my face went hot. My body tightened and grew moist, and my heart sped.

I fought to remain still, but my hips jerked slightly when he tugged as if he controlled my body rather than his own. I tried desperately to not move or speak or look any stranger than I did.

Not here
.
Not now. I did not do this on purpose
.

I watched because he watched as the hand moved. I felt because he felt. I needed. I wasn’t sure I could blame the last one entirely on him. I wanted something to lean on.

“I can bring you here.” His voice lost its steadiness. “Tell me what you want. Admit it and I’ll let you go. Lie to me and I will bring you here and give you what we both want.”

Part of me wanted to lie. I bit my lip against the thought, knowing that he knew. He laughed, a rough sound. His power built. He would come get me. He would pop me there, however he did that, and I would be in that shower with a naked, wet, hard, soapy Chance. And it would be because I lied. Because he saw in my head that I wanted him to fetch me and take me in more ways than one. That I wanted to replace his hand with my own and watch him…

I stood straighter and thought to him, as clearly and loudly as I could,
I admit it. I want you. Let me go. I did not do this on purpose. Please. I am in a bar, for goodness sake. I cannot simply disappear in front of all these people.
 

His hand stilled, and I breathed deeply, a clean clear breath that trembled only a little as it left my lips. He did one last fast hard jerk that made us both gasp, but did not fulfill either of us.

Say it once more. Like you mean it.

He paused because I said nothing.

Please
. His voice in my head edged with desire.

I want you.
My own need vibrated in the words. I could not hide from him and expect him to free me. So I let him hear because he could feel it as clearly as I could see him hard with the shower water raining down on his glistening body.

He snapped the connection and I sagged in relief. I ached in unfulfilled need. I had ached for days. He had kept me in a nearly perpetual state of arousal. This had to stop. I ignored that the shower episode had been technically my fault for bad timing. Regardless of when I tried reaching toward him, timing would have sucked with Chance.

But back in the crowded bar, I caught a few curious glances. I dragged a hand through my hair and took a clean, if still ragged, breath. Although I could see the bar again, I could not see anyone I had come in with. I wove through the crowd and found my parade of strange folk. It sounded like the beginning of a joke, really.
So a muse, a fairy and a witch go to a bar and then…
 

I found them questioning a woman wearing horn-rimmed glasses in the back of the bar. She sat beside a taller woman who had a black pool cue with skulls painted on it that she swung like a baton.

The woman with glasses smiled at Avery with adoration on her face. Her hair fell to her ass, all of it blonde, and her eyes, behind the specs, sparkled a pretty blue. She talked about her boyfriend and Frank listened with interest.

Mia filled me in.

Apparently, the woman had a boyfriend who had been one of the original victims of the Hammer this time around. Her name was Amanda, and when Avery smiled at her, she seemed simply amazed by him.

It took me a minute to realize he had used glamour on the strangers. I snagged his scrawny arm and pulled him aside. “I thought I told you no glamour when you’re up here?”

He didn’t react.

I had spoken over his head again and, in the loud bar, he had not heard a word. I growled and bent down to him. “Avery.” I spoke into his ear so he could hear me. “I thought we went over glamour.”

He smiled and his teeth flashed very white in the darkness. I had never noticed before how sharp the teeth of the fey are. A few weeks ago, Vickie and I had been watching some show about animals and predators and prey. It came back to me how a person could identify an animal as prey or predator by the set of its eyes because prey had eyes on the sides of their heads, like deer and fish. Predators had eyes set to the front. To hunt. Also predators had sharper teeth.

Most of Avery’s teeth had sharp points, not only the canines. All of them seemed to come to a point, slightly. Not human. Something Chance said crashed around me in a wave.

I am not human.

The siren part hovered as close to vampire as possible without drinking blood. And this creature smiling up at me, the representative of my mother’s people, could not pass as human. His sharp teeth, his catlike movements, and way of thinking…were distinctly not human.

I stood in a bar in the Harbor and wondered suddenly who I was. I let go of his arm and backed away.

I hit Mia in my retreat and Avery came closer to me. “Princess, I only intended to get your attention. I meant no harm. Do not fear me.”

His concern seemed wrong somehow on that alien face, and I turned to Mia. I did not fear him or the glamour. I terrified myself with my realizations. I was afraid of
me
. What in God’s name had I become? Suddenly, I did not care about the Hammer, or Chance or any of it. I wanted to run. If I left, maybe I could leave all of it behind. “I gotta go, Mia.” I gave her a swift hug and headed for the door.

“What are you talking about? Janie!”

She tried to catch my arm, but I easily dodged her outstretched hand. She was, as Chance had said, merely human. She may have been a witch with powers, but at the end of the day, she remained only a powerful human.

I’m not human at all
.

I moved through the bar in a blur, not sure if anyone even saw me move. By the time I hit the street, I had reached full speed. Then, without warning, liquid night crashed down from the sky and landed on top of me, crushing us both to the sidewalk in a heap.

I lay breathless for a moment and I could not see.
Shit, he took my eyes again.
 

For a moment, I really thought Chance had done something to me again. Then I realized I could see light through the stands of silky darkness that smelled like steak. I wrapped my fingers in a handful. It felt as cold as the night itself, and I tried to relearn how to breathe. The darkness had arms and weight. “Good morning, Vance.”

His lips grazed my neck and he whispered back, “Good morning. Where are you off to?”

Running from myself
. I wasn’t sure how far or fast I had to go to get away from me, but I was willing to find out. “Away.”

He turned me in his arms, and I studied his lovely blue eyes while he tugged me to my feet. His hair fell around us like black water, straight and so dark it glowed nearly blue. His skin under my hands gave no warmth, even compared to the night, and I sighed. I thought of our song, Moondance, and how he had held me in his arms and danced to that song across the very air with me. Would I give up all the magic in my world for a little humanity?

That the answer was yes would probably have made him frown. The song played in my head, and I slid my hands to his face, closed my eyes, and kissed him firmly. I would fight for him. It wasn’t too late. I could still be nearly human. I could still be with him. It wasn’t too late.

He kissed me back, his lips cold and hard on mine.

I had just begun to enjoy the feel of him when Chance jerked the line between us. He filled my head and my eyes snapped open. Chance could feel Vance’s lips on mine. He could feel my vampire lover’s hands on me and my heated reaction.

His white-hot fury shot like a lance down my spine. I closed my eyes again and fought against bowing to his will. I stayed in Vance’s arms despite Chance trying to make me move away. Finally, I broke the kiss and whispered, “We’re in the street.” I did not admit even to myself that I had caved to Chance’s insistence that I stop what I was doing or else, but I did not want to know what his idea of or else was.

Vance nuzzled my neck. “I know, but I want you.”

He wanted to bite me. I read between the lines and shivered. Oh, I wanted that, too. But not with Chance in the backseat, so to speak.
Get out of my head!
 

You want passion? Tell me which you like more, Janie
.

Vance had his hands on my body. His lips grazed the siren mark. Why do guys always go for the easy spots? As if a vampire with magic lips cruising over a spot that made me go wild wasn’t enough, Chance used his power to slide his hand down my body and between my legs. He did not physically touch me but, through the connection, he might as well have.

My mouth opened and a loud moan escaped from the two eroticisms hitting me at once. Both men teased my most sensitive zones. The sensations fell this side of too much to resist.

Vance glanced up from what he was doing, his eyes glowing cobalt with masculine ego and need in equal measure. “Shh, street, remember? Can I bite you, Janie?”

Tell him no, Janie.
And Chance punctuated his words by pinching a very important portion of my anatomy and rubbing it harder.
Tell him it is me you want.
 

My breath came faster, and I clutched Vance desperately. “Oh, God, yes.” I whispered out loud, and Chance hissed through my mind. The words had slipped between my lips as I rubbed my body against Vance to relieve the pressure Chance had created.

No
.
Don’t answer me out loud! Pay attention.
 

But it was too late. Vance had his fangs out and since he respected my privacy and didn’t peek into my mind, he assumed we were alone. He thought I responded to him and his touch. He did not sense the other man between us, did not feel Chance’s hands on my body and his lips that grazed that needy place between my legs.

So with Chance there, Vance pierced my skin above the siren mark. I clutched his jacket and did not have the breath to say anything. I barely had the breath to breathe. A cacophony of ecstatic shrieks filled my head. None of it made much sense, but I perched on the edge of sensory overload.

Vance’s teeth sank deep in my skin, his mouth drawing me out and tugging a line of pleasure down my body. His cool hands soothed my overheated flesh.

Chance used the tie between us to try to override vampire pleasure with his power…his control over me. He tried to persuade me to believe he offered more, that he could bring me more pleasure without even touching me physically.

The two attempts to drive me over the edge caused my spine to bow in Vance’s arm and my fingers to clench with desperation. I had no energy to do more. I had no control to respond or react or do anything clever to either of them. They had overridden all that I had in personal defense with their twin attacks, and I became a slave to the feelings. As I lost control over myself, the siren fist opened.

Suddenly Vance glowed like a light before me. I could see his life as color and I wanted that. As he drew from me, I caught my hand in his hair and began to pull his light away from him. No conscious thought made me feed off of him. It was automatic. Light equaled sustenance to my battered body.