Dark Spirits (22 page)

 “No, probably half of them, but I earned the rest. I worked at a video store and did odd jobs to buy the parts. You know. You get paid well walking rich people’s dogs.”

A vision of Brayden strolling down the boardwalk with a group of leash bound canines prancing in front of him popped in my head. The words to tell him I could communicate with animals caught in my throat, wanting to tumble out. I pressed my lips together, telling myself that wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Tree is so jealous of this car,” Brayden gloated. “He keeps begging me to borrow it.”

I could tell he enjoyed having a better vehicle than Tree, especially since Tree’s dad owns a garage and is one of Astoria’s top mechanics. Tree should be the one with the bitchin’ ride, but instead he drove an International Scout that was loud and rattled a lot.

“Are you going to let him?”

“Of course, but I want him to sweat over it a little.”

Yup, he was definitely relishing in the glory of it.

“You’re bad,” I said, shaking my head in false disapproval. I glanced out the window, surprised we were driving along the coast. I hadn’t paid much attention until now and shifted uneasily in my seat. “Where are we going?”

“Candy’s Tavern.” He said it as if we were heading to McDonald’s, like it was no big deal. Just another place to satisfy your hunger. Our destination did appease starving people but in a different manner, and the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?” didn’t exist there.

I glared at him. “You’re taking me to a strip club?” I couldn’t believe he would expose me to a frickin’ titty bar. There was only one in Astoria, and Candy’s Tavern was it.

Ahead of us to the right appeared a two-story white clapboard building, nestled in a group of trees. Above it stood a bright pink and black neon sign that said Candy’s Tavern with a naked girl leaning against the “n” in a provocative pose.

“Yes, and we’re here.” He had a humorous smirk on his face. I slapped his arm, once, twice, three times. He parked the car and sat back, holding his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I didn’t purposely pick this place. This is where Nathan and Cassondra are.”

I grabbed a fistful of his shirt and leaned to him, my face inches from his. My thoughts instantly abandoned me, and I forgot why I was so annoyed with him. My gaze rested on his lips. Memories of how they felt against mine when we used to makeout in the woods behind my house, flooded my mind: soft and gentle, teasing, then strong and passionate. My stomach dipped, and my breathing became unsteady. Something gnawed inside me, stirring feelings I didn’t want. But I didn’t move. At least not right away. He stared at my mouth, but his hands were still raised. Our hearts were beating faster. The air grew thick and hot and seemed to pulse around us. He lifted his eyes to mine. They were bright green. I pushed myself off him and flipped the window visor down, checking to see if there was a mirror. There wasn’t.

“Your eyes are the same as mine, Paige,” Brayden said in a husky voice. “You can’t deny your feelings for me.” He sat up and pocketed his keys. “You need to face the fact you and I belong together.”

I didn’t comment. What would be the point? He had his mind set we were destined for each other. However, he was right about my feelings. I couldn’t deny it, nor the fact what just happened was intense. But I wasn’t in love with him.

I wasn’t.

So I ignored his statement and asked him a question instead.

“How do you know Nathan is here?”

He sighed and stared out the windshield, his hands gripping the edge of his seat. The muscle in his arm flexed against his sleeve. His lips were in a tight line, and the energy between us swelled with frustration. I knew he had hoped I would agree with him about us and give into my feelings for him, but that wasn’t going to happen. I waited for his reply, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge what had just occurred and how I felt about it.

“Anwar told me,” he finally said.

I blinked at him in surprise. “Anwar? Why would he--”

“C’mon. I’ll tell ya in a minute.” He opened his door and stepped out before I could respond.

I joined his side and could hear music playing inside the building. “We’re not twenty-one.” This was crazy. Why in the hell would Anwar tell him Nathan was here with Cassondra? But then I remembered what Nathan told me. Supposedly, Brayden had gone to Anwar to get further training. But it still didn’t answer my question why Anwar would lead us here?

He snorted, amused by my comment for some reason. “You’re immortal, remember? You could zip by the bouncer.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, my cheeks burning.

He took my hand and pulled me toward the side of the building. “We’re not going in anyway.”

“This is crazy,” I whispered, my heart thudding in my chest.

When we reached a group of trees next to the building, Brayden put his finger on his lips. Slowly, we crept forward, staying hidden in the shadows. As we neared the back, a door slammed and feet scuffed the ground. We stopped near two hedges at the edge of the building and crouched out of sight.

“Don’t you miss it?” a girl asked in a flirtatious voice.

 I peeked between the bushes, and my eyes rested on the guy standing with the girl–who looked like a porn star with her long blonde hair, big boobs and tight ass clothes.

It was Nathan.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, quickly telling myself this had to be a misunderstanding. I didn’t want to believe it, even though he stood there with Cassondra when he was suppose to be getting me a present.

“Sometimes I do,” he admitted. I couldn’t see his face because he had his back to me, but his shoulders looked tensed.

“Well, you don’t have to miss
this
anymore.” She swung her arms suggestively around his shoulders and kissed him, long and deep.

I couldn’t believe it.

How?

Why?

With everything we’d been through.

I muffled a sob.

He jerked his head back, as if her lips stung him.

He heard me.

Untangling her arms from his shoulders, he stepped away from her. I stood, revealing our position. Wide-eyed, I stared at him. A tornado of emotions whirled inside me and another sob escaped my lips. Brayden popped up beside me. Nathan turned, and when his eyes found mine, they rounded with surprise and then narrowed in despair, his expression broken. I wanted to scream at him, but my throat was too tight to say anything. So I took my Claddagh ring off and threw it at him instead.

“Paige, it’s not what you think,” he choked out in a panicked voice.

But I didn’t want to listen to him or his excuses. So I spun and ran before he or Brayden could react and follow me.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nathan

“Paige!” I hollered and moved to go after her but hit something hard and fell backwards. I jumped to my feet. Anwar stood in front of me.

“Let her go, Nathaniel.” His tone was resolute and stoic, matching the look on his face.

I glanced at Cassondra. She licked her lips and smiled. A deep hatred toward her and Anwar consumed me. It rushed through my veins, causing my blood to boil with fierce anger.

I tried to get around Anwar, but strong hands tossed me sideways. My back slammed against a low brick wall, pieces of it tumbling over my shoulders. When I snapped upright again, Anwar dealt me a blow to the stomach, sending me across the courtyard. I curled forward and crashed against a tree. The impact caused a loud splitting noise, and I thought for sure the tree would collapse. But that concern quickly left me, outranked by my desperate need to find Paige, and with Anwar denying me passage to do just that, he fueled my rage.

A growl issued through my lips as I charged Anwar, knocking him to the ground, my hands around his throat. He lifted his knees and pushed me over his shoulders, catapulting me in the air. I somersaulted and landed in a crouched position. My muscles twitched in response to my eagerness to subdue Anwar. I jerked forward and rushed at him, but then halted when he held his hand out, palm facing me. Brayden suddenly appeared between us. He looked worried, his complexion the color of ash. I knew then it had to do with Paige.

Fisted anxiety and panic battered my chest, temporarily quelling my rage. Every muscle in my body tensed. My heart pounded in my ears.

Completely disregarding me, Brayden turned to Anwar. “She’s gone.”

Snatching his arm, I turned him around. “What do you mean she’s gone?” My voice came out low and deep through clenched teeth.

“She’s gone,” he barked in my face, yanking his arm away. “And it’s
your
fault.”

I kicked his feet out from under him. He fell to the ground, knocking the wind from him. I pressed my foot against his chest. “Do you remember what I said the last time we were in this position?”

Brayden gasped for air, trying to speak but couldn’t, so he flipped his middle finger up instead.

I dropped my knee to his chest and gripped his throat, my face hovering over his. “You have no idea what you’re talking about you stupid son-of-a-bitch. If you gave a
shit
about Paige, you would have never brought her here.” I released his neck in disgust and got off of him.

“I brought her here,” Brayden coughed, rubbing his neck, pushing himself off the ground, “because I love her enough to let her know you can’t keep your pecker in your pants.”

Cassondra squealed with amusement behind me. I wheeled on her, and she slapped a hand over her mouth, but her eyes were jumping with laughter. I got in her face. She tried dodging me, but I was too quick and had a fistful of leopard print material. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I was about to find out and damned sure Cassondra and Anwar were in on it. She may be Brayden’s mentor, but my strength exceeded hers, and she knew it.

I shook her, practically spitting in her face. “What did you do, Cassondra?”

“Brayden belongs with Paige, not you.” Her words came out brittle, cracked with fear. I pushed my fist against her chest just to add to it. “I loved you, and you broke my heart. I wanted you to know how it felt like to have your heart crushed.”

“What?” I said, appalled. For a second I didn’t think I heard her right.

“Paige knows about you and Cassondra’s perverse relationship,” Brayden said behind me. “She knows only Cassondra can full fill those
urges
you have.”

The back of my neck burned, the heat sliding to my face. All I could think about was how Paige must have felt when Brayden told her tales of my sordid past.

“Yeah,” Brayden continued in a revolting tone, “and you proved it to her tonight by being here and kissing Cassondra. Because let me tell ya, Paige didn’t believe me until she saw it with her own two eyes. So who’s the asshole here? Ah, you.” He stepped in my space, pointing his finger. I snatched it and twisted it, hearing a
pop
when the bones snapped apart. Brayden yowled and held his hand, cursing under his breath.

Now everything came into focus. Cassondra had staged this whole thing because she was jealous of my feelings toward Paige and wanted to pay me back. But in order to pull it off, she had to involve Brayden, so he would bring Paige here. And now Paige was somewhere, brokenhearted. The very thought of her suffering crushed me to the core. Cassondra would confess to Paige, and if she didn’t then I’d make her life a living hell, matching what mine would be without Paige in it.

“You’re going to make this right, Cassondra.” I shook her again. She must have seen something terrifying in my face because she closed her eyes and cringed. “Because if you don’t, I’ll make your life a living nightmare.”

She swallowed and nodded.

“You’ll start by telling Brayden the truth.” I dropped her and clamped her arm, turning her to Brayden. I noticed Anwar quietly standing nearby with his arms across his chest, his expression unreadable.

“Nathan never cheated on Paige,” she told Brayden. “I called him and told him I had something he needed to see that would help Paige, but I wanted him to meet me here. He objected, but when I told him it was something detrimental, he hightailed it here.”

“But he
kissed
you. Paige and I both saw it.” He shot me a look that clearly said I was a piece of shit.

“
I
kissed
him
,” she stressed. “If you remember, he pushed my arms off him when he realized what I was doing.”

 “No,” Brayden objected. “He
lingered
on the kiss. He might have stopped you, but only because he heard a sob come out of Paige’s mouth.”

I flinched at his words and something inside me shattered with the thought of how hurt Paige must be and having to witness what she thought was my betrayal. I couldn’t stand one more second of her thinking such things and wanted to end this so I could go find her.

I looked at Brayden. “I’m going to tell you about the relationship I had with Cassondra. It happened a very long time ago when I didn’t want to feel anything but pleasure.”

Brayden glared. “Oh, please. Spare me.”

“Listen!” I shouted. “I drank and gambled a lot, feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t take part in my family’s life. They were dying off, leaving behind nieces and nephews I’d never get to know. So I didn’t want to
feel
anything. I was either numb from the excessive alcohol or feeling good in a brothel where I met Cassondra. Half the time I didn’t even remember what we did because I was too loaded. But every time I entered the brothel, Cassondra would be there, offering her services.”

“I can’t believe you were a whore,” Brayden said to Cassondra in surprise, annoying the shit out of me because it was like he tuned out everything else I had said.

“I like sex. You know that.” She gave him a “look,” and Brayden’s cheeks turned pink.

I yanked Cassondra to me. “When I find Paige, you’re going to tell her everything,” I snarled through tight lips. She made a weird squeaking noise and said she would. I pushed her away and turned to Brayden. “When Cassondra kissed me earlier, I
lingered
as you so eloquently put it, because in that split second, I was trapped back in time. But I assure you, I have no interest in her or anybody else, except for Paige.”

Brayden snorted. “Yeah. Right.”

“Nathaniel.”

I looked at Anwar, standing beneath a canopy of trees with indifference. “What?”

“I told Brayden you would be here,” he said without apologies.

 I looked at him in disbelief. A buzzing noise filled my head, and the world seemed to shift out of place. After all those years of having long conversations, spending lazy nights playing chess, working out in the field long after dark, swapping jokes, sharing laughter, engaging in debates, and training, I’d never fathomed Anwar could betray me, not once, not twice, but continuously. The level of his deception was so deep, it rendered me speechless.

“I do not want to hurt or fight you, Nathaniel, but I agree with Cassondra. Paige does belong with Brayden. You are a tracker. One of the best. Since you have been with Paige, dis world has suffered because of you overlooking your immortal duties.”

In a flash, I closed the gap between us. “Bullshit!” I shoved him in the chest, and he flew fifty feet into a clump of berry bushes.

“You said you missed it,” Cassondra said in Anwar’s defense.

I spun to confront her, my voice a growl. “I said
sometimes.
But I’d give it all up just to be with Paige.”

She winced, and jealousy entered her brown eyes. At the same time I felt another presence approaching from behind. “She’s a lucky girl then.” She smirked, punctuating the shitty look on her face.

“She’s not lucky. They don’t belong together.” Brayden’s voice was high, sarcastic, mocking even. “If anything, you and Nathan should be together because you’re both from the same era.”

“Aosoth is back. If you want to find Paige, I suggest you go track Aosoth.”

Ayperos.

I could tell by the bored, arrogant tone. I turned to the sound, my heart pounding painfully in my chest at the thought of Aosoth capturing Paige. Ayperos was in the same vessel he’d been in since the first time I’d seen him. With his long black hair tied back behind his neck, he looked like he belonged on the cover of a Gothic romance novel. His piercing blue eyes told me all I needed to know. It was true, Aosoth had returned, and Paige was in danger. Go find her before it was too late.

Panic stricken, I fled with an emptiness in me I only felt once in my entire life–when I thought Paige had died. A lump formed in my throat, and my eyeballs felt raw, the cool air stinging them as I ran. I scraped my palm across each eye. They were damp with emotions only Paige could draw from me.

I made a vow that if anything happened to Paige, or if I lost her, I would make it my life’s mission to create a hell on earth for Anwar and Cassondra. And although Brayden was a pestilence in my life, he hadn’t been aware of their devious plan. So I would have to pardon him somewhat on that account. But the other two had no idea how brutal I could become. I knew it resided inside me, a beast tethered to the darkest part of my soul. Lately, it had been tugging within, making small presentations such as when Volac had shown up, a ghost of what it could actually do. And frankly, I wasn’t too sure about the depth of my brutality. But I felt it raging at the thought of Paige being hurt.

And so I kept running, hoping to God she would remain safe, and I could find her before she met her demise.