Twice as Hot (3 page)

Ever
since Sherridan had learned about my abilities, she’d been acting strangely,
retreating more and more into her mind. Oh, she still loved me. That wasn’t in
question. And I knew she didn’t fear me. If she asked me to blow-dry her hair
from fifty paces one more time, I was going to strangle her. But there was
something almost…depressed about her, as though her life now lacked excitement
and adventure.

I
knew that feeling.

There
were people in the world with beauty, riches, power. Their every step seemed
blessed; failure and rejection were not things they’d ever experienced.
Excitement greeted them everywhere they went, danger was something to be
laughed at and anything they desired, they could have. In their hands, they
held the power to change the world. At one time, I would have killed for such a
life. Now, I
have
killed for it, but it wasn’t the charmed existence I’d
once thought it would be.

Perhaps
I should have known such gifts would come with a price. But all I’d seen was
the glitz, the glamour. The exhilaration. I hadn’t known that there would
always be a thousand others willing to rip me apart to possess what I have.

I
prayed Sherridan didn’t desire what I had desired—what I had gotten. This power
beyond imagining. I prayed she was smarter.

Behind
me, I heard a door creak open. Close. Footsteps.

I
twisted. A slump-shouldered Tanner was strolling down the hall. I worried over
the change in his appearance. He wore black as usual, but in the past his
clothes had always been clean. Now his dark attire was dirty and wrinkled, his
azure hair unwashed and in spikes around his head. He looked terrible. There
were bruises under his eyes and lines of tension around his mouth. He’d even
taken out his signature eyebrow ring and Eight Ball contacts.

I’d
known and loved him for several months, and I hated seeing him like this. He
was tall and when I’d first met him he’d been extremely lean, more boy than
man. But he’d begun to fill out and muscle up, coming into his own in both
command and confidence. This past week, though, he’d started to slim down
again, as if he didn’t have the will to eat.

“Hey,
Crazy Bones,” I said. It was my pet name for him.

Usually
he grinned. Now he stopped a few feet away from me and peered down at Sherridan
as if I hadn’t spoken. “Happy Place?” he asked.

I
nodded, my heart lurching at the sadness in his tone.

“She’s
weird.”

“Tanner,”
I said, then stopped when he faced me. My heart gave another lurch. God, his
eyes. Once a bright blue (when he didn’t disguise them with those crazily
patterned contact lenses), they were now dull and listless and swimming with
misery. They were dark and dismal. Hopeless.

In
that moment, I hated Lexis. Tanner was the brother I’d never had, hadn’t known
I’d wanted and needed, and couldn’t live without. I couldn’t stand seeing him
like this.

“Don’t,”
he said. His jaw tightened. “Just don’t.”

“Don’t
what?” I asked, even though I knew what he meant. I just wanted to draw him out
of his miserable shell.

“Don’t
feel sorry for me.” He moved forward, brushing me aside with his shoulder.

I
remained in place, a little stunned. He hadn’t made a single derogatory comment
about my breasts or tried to cop a feel. Even when death had been breathing
down our necks, he’d been unable to go five minutes without talking about my
nipples.

Okay,
so maybe “brother” wasn’t the best word to describe him. He was the boyfriend I
adored but wouldn’t sleep with. Wait. No, that didn’t work, either. Whatever he
was, I loved him. Plain and simple.

“Tanner,
I don’t feel sorry for you,” I called, bypassing our air purifier and following
him into the kitchen. Because my abilities were so attuned to nature, toxins
were my greatest enemy now, so there was another air purifier in the kitchen.
Another in my bedroom. Another in the hallway.

Tanner
was digging inside the fridge. Bottles clinked together; something thumped from
the top shelf. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want to talk about her.”

“You
need to, because it’s festering inside you. You’re falling apart and—”

“Hey,
which of us is the master of emotions here? Besides, I know what you’re going
to say. You’ve been here, done that. Yeah, I know. Only difference is, you got
a happily ever after. I won’t.”

“She
was your first love, but there will be others. You’ll see. Just give it time.
You’ll get over her and someone else will catch your eye.”

Every
muscle in his body stiffened, but he didn’t face me. “So what you’re telling me
is that if Rome didn’t want you, you’d be okay with finding someone else?”

No.
Never. Rome was it for me. The one and only. My man. I couldn’t even imagine
myself with someone else. Poor Tanner, I thought again. Had he really loved
Lexis like that?

“Why
did she end things?” I asked softly.

Silent,
he straightened. He was holding a beer, staring down at it.

“Uh,
you’re not twenty-one,” I pointed out, just to break the quiet tension.

Finally
he flicked me a glance. “Feel free to turn me in.” He popped the cap and leaned
back, the rim suddenly at his lips. In record time, he drained the contents of
the bottle, tossed it into the trash and reached for another.

“No,
I meant, you’re not twenty-one so you shouldn’t be drinking without a responsible
adult drinking with you. Toss me one.”

That
earned me a grin. Swift, but there for that brief moment all the same. I felt
as if I’d conquered the world. And I hadn’t even had to use my powers! “Like
you’re responsible,” he said.

“Well,
I am an adult.”

“That’s
debatable, too.” He tossed me a beer.

My
reflexes were not as defined as my paranormal abilities, and I almost dropped
it, the condensation making it slick. I had to clasp it with two hands to
maintain a firm enough grip.

“Already
had one?” he asked.

I
looked drunk? This early in the morning? “I’m not belting out show tunes, so
no.”

With
a flick of his wrist, Tanner closed the fridge and faced me fully. I settled
atop one of the bar stools, sipping at the beer. Ick. Not my alcoholic beverage
of choice, especially for breakfast, but it would do. Anything for Tanner.
“Talk to me. Please. I’m worried about you.”

He
shrugged, his eyes once again swirling with more misery than any one person
should have to deal with. “Nothing to tell, really. We got together because she
needed someone to comfort her and I needed a willing body to lose my virginity
to.”

“And
did you?”

One
of his black brows arched. “None of your business.”

Did
that mean no? The Tanner I knew liked to kiss and tell and besides that, they’d
seemed so hot and heavy. PDA was not something they’d eschewed.

He
drained the second beer as quickly as the first, then closed his eyes and
pressed the dripping bottle against his chest. Once, twice, he banged his head
against the refrigerator, saying, “She told me she knew we weren’t meant to be
together. That something was going to happen, and one day I’d realize it.” He
laughed bitterly. “She said I’d even thank her.”

Oh,
crap. Lexis’s predictions were never wrong. That didn’t lessen the sting of the
here and now, though. I knew that well. Long ago, Lexis had dumped Rome because
she’d known deep down she wasn’t the woman of his heart, wasn’t his one and
only. She’d known he would stay with her anyway because he was the father of
their child. She’d known, and it had broken her. So she’d cut him loose. Just
like she’d cut Tanner loose.

Was
Tanner destined to love someone else?

Suddenly
I didn’t hate Lexis quite so much.

She’d
told me once that she didn’t know if I was Rome’s one and only, either, that
she’d had a vision of that girl but had never seen her face. A lot of days I
could pretend that didn’t bother me. Most days, in fact. Sometimes in the early
morning, though, when I was alone in bed, too sleepy to block my fears, I would
wonder if some girl was out there, soon to meet Rome—soon to enthrall him,
steal his affections.

But
then I would wake up and remind myself that Rome was not a man easily swayed.
He loved me. He wanted forever with me or he wouldn’t have asked me to marry
him.

Tanner’s
eyelids cracked open, his features now covered with an expressionless mask, his
gaze empty and his jaw relaxed. “She also said her true love would be coming
back into her life.” His voice was devoid of emotion, as well.

Okay.
I hated her again.
Her
true love? Her true love would be coming
back
to her? Last time I’d spoken with her, she had (mistakenly) thought her true
love was Rome. So what the hell had she meant by
true love?
There had
better be someone else she considered her true love, someone else from her
past, or I would extract her intestines and use them to choke her.

A
knock sounded at the door.

I
didn’t move, too keyed up from my rush of anger. Rome and Tanner were more
important to me than breathing, and that bitch had better—

Another
knock, this one harder, more insistent.

“You
should get that, ’cause damn,” Tanner said, “you’re about to light the house on
fire and I don’t need to add homelessness to my plate-o-shit. Besides, your
visitor might be John with the lowdown on Rome.”

The
one thing sure to push me into action. My fury drained. “Don’t move. I’ll get
the 411, get rid of whoever it is—” hopefully without too much of an emotional
outburst, whatever the news, which had better be good “—and we’ll finish our
discussion. You matter to me, and we’re going to figure this thing with Lexis
out.”
And then I’m going to hunt her down and demand some answers
Belle-style.

Uh-oh.
There was my anger again.

Tanner
shrugged, but I could see the spark of hope suddenly lighting his eyes. He
trusted me to help make things better, and that made me doubly determined to do
so.

As
yet another knock echoed, I rushed to him and hugged him tight. Then I raced
out of the kitchen and past the still-entranced Sherridan, not stopping until I
reached the door.

I
glanced through the peephole. The moment I saw who waited on the porch, my
hands curled into fists, plumes of dark smoke suddenly wafting from my nose.
Red dotted my vision like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Well, well, well.

Speak
of the devil and she would appear.

My
jaw was like stone
as I punched in the security code to disable the alarm and opened the door.

Lexis
stood before me, a vision of feminine beauty as always. Long dark hair,
straight as a pin. Hypnotic green eyes, pretty pink lips. Golden skin that
defined the word
perfection.
Sunlight bathed her, seeping from the sky
as if compelled to caress her.

Behind
her, cars meandered through the pristine neighborhood. Birds chirped from the
blue sky and locusts rattled in a surprisingly sensual beat. Intense humidity
and heat wafted my way. I, of course, began to sweat like a construction worker
while Lexis continued to appear unaffected, her silky emerald suit completely
dry.

“What
are you doing here?” I demanded, thinking,
Somehow, someway, I’m taking you
down.

Smelling
like an ancient garden, all flowers and magic, she tried to stride past me. My
arm and leg whipped out, blocking her path. After an indelicate
humph,
she glared up at me. I was taller than she was, nah nah nah. A girl had to find
joy where she could.

“Let
me in, Belle,” she snapped.

Usually
she was poised, nothing able to ruffle her. Score one for me. “No,” I snapped
back. A tiny flame flickered at the end of my index finger, and I whisked it
behind my back. Wouldn’t be good form to fry her up before I’d obtained
answers. “What do you want?”

She
squared her delicate shoulders, looked away from me. “I need to talk to you.”

“Uh,
that would be a no. Tanner’s here. Which means you’re not welcome anymore.”

Her
features softened and her eyes widened, regret churning in their depths. “This
is important.”

“He’s
more important than anything you’ve got to say,” I said, still not allowing her
inside. “By the way, where’s Sunny?”

“My
brother-in-law has her.”

“
Former
brother-in-law.” Bitch. “You’re divorced.” Sunny was Rome’s
little girl, his pride and joy, and we watched (and pampered) her every
weekend. Today was a weekday, but anytime Lexis was called away to work we
happily took over Sunny’s care early. I loved that child like she was my own.

Lexis’s
gaze met mine in a heated clash. “I’m here about Rome. Something’s happened.”

Magic
words. I moved aside. Fear instantly cascaded through me, dousing the heat of
my anger, freezing and thickening every drop of blood in my veins. Mist formed
in front of my nose with every exhalation I made.