Stormfront (Undertow Book 2) (9 page)

Kian eyed me warily, “No. I’m a figment of your boring imagination. Of course I’m here! What is wrong with you? You have some weird look on your face - like you’re high or something.”

Oh, I was high on something, and she stood about five and a half feet tall and was in my shower. I just shrugged, trying to safeguard Eila’s privacy if she didn’t want anyone else knowing she was here.

“I went hunting again. Took down a buck and a doe. Well, almost a doe. That’s all – excess energy, is all.”

“Would that excess energy also involve a fair skinned brunette who could double as a disco ball? Because her Jeep is parked outside.”

I had forgotten about her car and couldn’t quickly come up with a good excuse. I tightened my jaw and quietly gave in to the truth. “Fine. She’s upstairs taking a shower. She fell riding and messed up her back. She didn’t want Mae to see.”

“Messed up her back riding, huh? Sure she doesn’t just have rug burns from you?”

Anger cut through me instantly, and my fist connected with his jaw before I even realized I swung. The punch sent him staggering back until he hit
the edge of the doorway that led to the library, where all of Dalca’s things were kept.

I began to come at him again, enraged that he dared to imagine Eila in such a degrading way.
To even visualize her in such a manner. I went to swing, but he caught my curled fist, striking me in the jaw with his free hand. The hit felt like a steel bat and sent me sliding along the marble floor into the sunken living room. I had forgotten that Kian had already begun hunting humans. His hits would be harder, faster, but I didn’t care. He had insulted Eila in a way that burned me right through the gut.

I shook my head to clear the ringing, and began to go after him again, but then I heard
Eila’s voice behind me. I turned, and she was coming down the stairs, her stained t-shirt and old jeans still on. Kian and I immediately switched to a more neutral stance so she wouldn’t know we had just tried to start our own Fight Club.

“Oh,” she said, halting on the stairs, “I didn’t know you were here
, Kian. Everything all right?”

He glanced at me, then to Eila. “Of course. I was just going to keep digging through
Dalca’s journals. Ana might join me later.”

“Really?” she asked, genuinely surprised and happy.

He shrugged. “It will keep her mind busy.”

She nodded, “That’s a great idea. Thank you, by the way, for helping her yesterday.”

He shifted, looking more uncomfortable. The subject of Ana’s father was never mentioned around Kian.

“I’m going to leave you two, so you can get back to whatever it is you have to do. I’ll be in the library.” Kian eyed me once last time as he turned to leave.

I looked back to Eila and she gave me a shy smile. I came to the stairs and walked my way up to her, “You didn’t take a shower?”

“I can’t raise my arms enough to get my shirt off. Do you have scissors? ‘Cause I’m just
gonna cut it off – it’s old anyway.”

“Christian probably does somewhere, but I’d need to find them,” I replied, stepping closer to her and taking the edge of her t-shirt in my hands. “Turn around,” I instructed and she gave me a curious glance, but obeyed, turning her back to me.

With one good pull, I tore the t-shirt straight up her back, turning the top into a smock.

“Better?” I asked.

“Uh . . . yup,” she replied with a breathless squeak.

I spent the vast majorit
y
of Saturday up to my eyeballs in guilt.

I hadn’t told Raef about Thor for multiple reasons, though none could ease how bad I felt about leaving him in the dark. But there was something about the man from the woods that nagged at me. I couldn’t place my finger on it yet and I needed a chance to figure it out.

If I told the guys that some giant had approached me in the woods, I would immediately be placed back in the horrible Buddy System. Additionally, I was certain that Raef, Kian, and MJ would try to track the hunter and spy on him, or worse.

So I kept my mouth shut, pushing Thor to the back of my mind, which wasn’t too difficult after the scorching kiss that Raef had given me.

Holy, ever-loving crab cakes.

Sure, I had kissed Raef before, but last night? Last night made every
liplock I had swooned over in the movies look like a kindergartener’s crush. Last night I
felt
how much he wanted me, and it shocked me, leaving me with both a stratospheric high and a deep-set panic.

And then there was the whole shirt-modification move.

Dear heavens.

 
But he was also a complete gentleman when he checked over my back, putting ointment on the few small cuts I had from hitting the road. But all I could think about while he tended my bruises was that kiss and the nerves it brought with it.

Maybe I was freaking out for no reason - Raef would never push me into something that I wasn’t ready for. But
that
kiss wasn’t the end-of-the-road type kiss, but a turn in the road that led to a new place. A place I knew I wasn’t ready for.

Plus, Raef had lived for nearly two centuries, and had loads of experience with female
soul thieves. While I had never met one, I could only imagine what they looked like. I mean, if the guys looked as insane as Raef, Kian, and Christian . . . yeah.

And it wasn’t like I picked apart my flaws in the mirror, but hell – Mortis females? The contrast between the women Raef was used to and me was like comparing a Stealth bomber to a paper airplane. For the first time in my life, I doubted how I looked.

Plus, I had no experience with guys and my idea of undie excitement was a plaid sports bra from the discount store. Somehow I doubted that is where the killer chicks selected their intimates.

Actually, I did kiss another boy once in second grade. He dared me over a bag of M&Ms and I had a chocolate addiction. That kid was so not worth the candy. Raef, I knew, was completely worth the calories. Me
, however? I probably was more along the lines of artificial sweetener, which is never as good as the cane sugar.

By the time Sunday night rolled around, I had twisted myself into such a knot of stress that even Ana knew something was up. She eyed me carefully as we shared the bathroom mirror, getting ready for the football game.

“So are you going to cough up the details on what happened at Christian’s on Friday or not?” she asked, running her hands through her short cropped blonde hair. I had already given
Ana the whole story about falling while riding, and how I went to Torrent Road to avoid Mae.

I shrugged, hoping I could deflect her questions. “I already told you. I just took a shower, had some dinner, and came back here.”

Ana twisted her body and hopped up onto the counter, leaning right into my line of sight, as a devious smile curled onto her pale pink lips.

I laughed, trying to push her out of the way, but Ana was like a bloodhound, hot on the trail of something. “Eila Walker
, you better spill! I know I am not getting the full details – your emotions are all over the map and I definitely get an undertone of LUST in there!”

I blushed hot and my mind went to a vivid flash of Raef’s hands running across my back. Ana’s eyes widened, no doubt catching the heated emotion rolling off my body. Only I would have a human
lie-detector for a BFF, making secrets entirely pointless. But then I panicked, worried she would somehow get a hint about what really happened in the woods.

Ana’s face instantly fell the moment my attitude changed. “Eila – what happened?” she asked, now serious, concern written all over her face. I sighed
, dragging a brush through my hair yet again.

“He kissed me. Or rather, I kissed him. Actually, we basically kissed each other.” I tossed the brush in a drawer and dug around looking for a hair elastic.

I could feel Ana’s eyes boring a hole through the top of my head as she watched me look through the drawer. “And you . . . didn’t like it?” she questioned, clearly trying to sort out why my emotions were all over the map.

“Oh no. I liked it – a lot. I think he did too,” I replied, finally recovering a wayward hair tie. I refused to meet her eyes, choosing instead to study my reflection in the mirror as I pulled my long, dark hair to one side of my neck and began braiding. Primping wasn’t my thing. Like, ever. Basics. I liked the basics. I WAS basic.

Ana scooted over slightly, giving me more room, “So then why do I KNOW I am missing some vital piece of intel?”

I glanced at her
, refusing to answer and her eyes narrowed. She huffed, crossing her arms. “Fine then. I’ll just guess. Umm - his breath stank?”

“What? NO!” I laughed.

“Too much tongue? Too little? None at all?”

“WHAT?” I screeched.

“His hands were too rough? Too adventurous?” she demanded, and I was laughing while trying to make her stop. I finally gave in, “ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! Stop!” I choked.

She gestured for me to get on with the details. I looked at her for a long moment. “The kiss was amazing. It was, but . . .”

“BUT?”

I sighed. “Have you ever seen a female Mortis?” I asked.

Ana looked completely confused. She shook her head, “No. Why?”

I finished braiding my hair, wrapping the tie to the end. I walked out of the bathroom to my room and Ana followed. I began rummaging through my closet for a sweatshirt to wear.

“Well?” demanded Ana from her perch on the corner of my four-poster bed.

I sorted through my hanging clothes, finally answering her. “The kiss was killer and, I don’t know, felt different. More . . . uh, you know – heat between us. But afterward I got to thinking about how Raef is,
ya know, experienced . . .”

“And you’re not,” finished Ana. “I get that. I do. But Raef isn’t expecting you to be experienced, so don’t feel like you should be a smooching superstar.”

“No, I know that,” I continued, yanking a gray sweater from a hanger. I walked out of the closet and changed into a tank top while I continued talking. “It’s just that I could really feel what he wanted – really wanted. And I am not ready to go much beyond the kissing thing. Yet. What if that drives him nuts?”

Ana pulled her feet up under her. “Even if it does drive him nuts, Raef won’t go much past the kissing part anyway, and never without your say-so. Kian wouldn’t with me either – it’s too risky, so stop stressing about that,” she replied, suddenly finding the details in the engraved wood of my bed SUPER interesting.

I glared at her, recognizing avoidance when I saw it. “Exactly how far did you and Kian get last summer?” I asked, now suspicious of the petite blonde on my bed.

Her face started to flush. “We, uh, got around most of the bases, just no homeruns,” she said, finally flashing a huge grin, but it slowly slipped away.
A sadness crept into her body and she picked at the wood. “One night we did go pretty far, but . . .”

“But?” I demanded, now dying to know all the details of last summer.

“But my Dad had a heart attack,” she said quietly.

I knew the rest of that story and I felt bad that I had dragged her mind back to those painful days.
Ana slid off my bed, her mood quiet.

“Ana . . .” I started, but she just shrugged.

“It’s okay, Eila. I know,” she said with a pale smile as she left my room, heading to change. Suddenly my worries with Raef seemed so small in the grand scheme of life.

 
   I grabbed my puffy coat from the desk chair and headed down the stairs, sliding my hand along the smooth cherry handrail that poured effortlessly towards the first floor. I yelled up to Ana’s room as I reached the last step and grabbed my keys from the hall table, “I’ll start the car – it’s freakin’ cold out!”

“Wimp!” I heard her yell back through her bedroom door.

I fished in my coat pockets for my gloves as I walked through to the kitchen and pulled side door open to leave. Just as I did so, Agent Howe’s fist nearly connected with my forehead.

“Holy
shi . . . WHAT the heck!” I demanded, pin-wheeling my arms as I narrowly avoided his gloved hand knocking on my skull.

 
   “Whoa – sorry Ms. Walker! I was just about to knock,” he replied, the apology slipping away into the freezing night like smoke from a cigarette. His young face was pink from the ocean breeze biting his cheeks, and he squeezed his chin further down in his plaid scarf.

Sometimes I looked at Howe and thought he could pass as a college student, given how young he looked. And yeah – he was cute in a semi-disheveled, CSI sort of way, especially with his wayward auburn hair. Unfortunately his constant nagging deleted any positive points he had, and made me want to poke him in the eyeball every time his freckled face appeared.

I looked out into the darkness and saw his blue sedan sitting in my driveway. “Does your damn car come with stealth mode? I didn’t even hear you pull in!” I accused. I was so aggravated that I was once again facing the FBI. Couldn’t they just leave me alone? Toss their hands in the air and scream Uncle over the whole Breakers thing? What ever happened to the appeal of a little unsolved mystery?

Howe apparently wasn’t a fan of loose ends – as a kid, I was sure he debunked Santa and the Tooth Fairy in the same day, no doubt sharing his horrifying discoveries with the other small kids on the playground.

I pushed past him and headed for my Jeep, keys in hand.

“Ms. Walker – I really do need to talk with you and your friends again. When can I meet with all of you?” he asked, following me over the crushed seashell driveway. I heard the house door slam and looked up to see Ana glaring at Howe as she exited the house.

He glanced back and almost winced, “Oh – Ms. Lane is here too.” His voice was barely a whisper and I was pretty sure I saw him shiver.

I bit back a smile, remembering the last time Ana was face to face with Howe. She had mentioned that his ability to fetch coffee was divine, and she couldn’t understand why his partner
Sollen only allowed him to handle the drinks. Surely he could also move up to take-out orders. She may have also mentioned that men in the FBI as young as him needed a job that was full-time since they had no love life.

Yeah – Ana was his least favorite suspect, no doubt because she ruthlessly stomped out any spark of self-worth he had, reducing his confidence to a smoldering heap of ash
 . . . repeatedly. She came striding over to the Jeep as I unlocked the door and cranked the engine to life. Howe took a step back as she approached, the fire in her eyes glowing brightly.

“You again? Jeez
man, you need to get a life. I mean look at this,” she said gesturing to his outfit, plaid scarf and all. “No wonder the ladies run in the opposite direction. Plus – you nag, like all the time. It’s annoying. You’re like a Cabbage Patch doll with a pull string, except you yank it yourself and repeat the same inane questions over and over again.” She slammed her arms across her chest.

Howe gave her an exasperated look, “Ms. Lane. Lovely to see you, as always.”

“Yeah, well, the feeling ain’t mutual,” she replied.

Howe tried
to twist down a smile, “I’m sure. I was just telling Ms. Walker that we all need to meet up again. For a chat.” Ana dramatically rolled her eyes and slid into the car with me. Howe shut the door for her and then walked around my side. I wondered if I would go to jail for a long time if I just ran him over.

He leaned down near my window and rapped on the glass, so I rolled it down. “What?” I
snapped.

“Dalca Anescu’s shop was vandalized last night – well, what remains of the shop. Would you know anything about that?”

I gave him a ridiculous look, “Are you kidding me? Hell no. Probably some moron decided it would be fun to wreck the place further on a dare.” It was the truth, though it made me uneasy that anyone would set foot inside the Crimson Moon again, especially in its current state as a burned out shell.

Howe looked at me for a moment and my unease grew. He finally pulled out a photograph from his jacket pocket. He held it out to me and I gave him a curious glance as I looked down to the picture of a gear with a white, glassy finish. It had a strange, looping symbol engraved into its surface. “What’s this?” I asked, taking the photo from Howe.

“We uncovered a safe built into the floor of the Moon, after it was ransacked last night. When we got it open, this gear was inside it in a wooden box. You don’t know anything about it?”