Knight Shift (28 page)

Jax was true to his word and returned quickly. As he entered the room, he announced, “Food is already on its way and the family says hello. They want you to know that they’re thinking about you.”

Penny was hit by a pang of guilt and said, “I really should call them.”

“They understand and know that you’ll talk them when you’re ready. Right now let’s focus on getting some food in you. Lunch should be here any minute.”

After the delivery man dropped off the bags, Jax spread out on the table everything he purchased. He wanted to make sure Penny ate something so he used his Casper knowledge to buy items he knew she liked.

Penny wrapped up in a sheet and walked over to the buffet of food. As she sat back on the bed with a container of french fries, she asked, “I’ve shared my secret now time for you to share yours, so out with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me the truth about how you manage to always buy the things I like. And don’t tell me that you’re a good guesser.” She offered a suggestion, “Are you sure you can’t read minds like Ben?”

He shook his head. “I’m just very observant.”

“But prior to this trip, you and I didn’t spend much time together one-on-one. And there’s no way that you could have seen me eat some of these things. Many I only eat—”

Before she could complete her thought, he finished it for her. “…at night.”

A look of confusion grew on her face and she asked, “How would you know what I eat at night?”

He looked away not sure how to respond.

Seeing his mental struggles, she said, “No more secrets between us.”

He sighed, knowing that he needed to finally tell her the truth. While staring out the window, he asked, “Do you recall the first time we met?”

“Yes. You came into the store to look at climbing shoes.”

“That wasn’t why I was there. I came to check out the source of my family’s destruction. I’m a protector of my world and my job has been to kill anyone or anything that threatens that.”

“And you considered me a threat?”

He turned toward her and said, “I did, that is, before I got to know you. You have to understand that when Humans discover us, we’re tortured and experimented on. That’s why Changelings had to go into hiding. We were being slaughtered out of fear. We had to fight back to survive.”

She replied, “Humans have the ability to be quite evil.”

“There’s evil in my world as well.” He spread out his arms and said, “Just look at me. I’m the perfect example of that evil.”

She shook her head in anger and exclaimed, “No, you’re not evil and I don’t ever want to hear you refer to yourself that way again! If you were evil, you would have killed me the day we met.”

“I tried.”

With a look of surprise she asked, “What?”

“The night I first met you, I followed you to your car.”

She gasped. “You were the creature that stepped out of the woods?” When he nodded, she asked, “Why didn’t you kill me? I couldn’t have fought you off.”

“I was about to attack when you left with your police escort.” Wanting her to know the whole truth, he explained his actions. “When you began to interact with the twins, I feared you would be our destruction. I vowed to protect my world even if that meant taking you out of the picture permanently. I came to the store with every intention of killing you. It had been a few weeks since I hunted Human prey and I was even excited by the thought of it. If it wasn’t for that cop showing up, I would have ripped your throat out and not thought twice about it.”

“Why did you hate me so much?”

“It wasn’t that I hated you. Actually, I didn’t even know you. You were someone that could expose my world and, as a potential threat, you needed to be eliminated.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me to confirm that I was actually a threat?”

“As you’ve already found out, I don’t do anything half way. Before getting to know you, my life was very black and white. Ensuring our secret meant that you had to die.”

“Then why did you give up the hunt?”

“I didn’t.”

“But I didn’t see you again until months later at Sam’s.”

“I decided to track down where you lived. I staked out your home and waited in the shadows. A couple of days after the parking lot incident, you came home and I snuck into your house while you were asleep. I was within inches of slitting your throat. My pulse raced with excitement just thinking about causing your death and my mouth watered, anxiously waiting for the taste of your blood.”

“How did you get into my cabin? I always lock it up tight at night.”

“It’s another gift. There isn’t a lock on this planet that I can’t easily get past.”

“Then why didn’t you come in and kill me? I would have been unarmed and defenseless. Easy prey.”

“That’s what I thought at the time as well, but you woke just before I struck and, for some reason that I can’t explain, I hid back in the shadows. Then on your way to the bathroom, you sensed me. No one has ever detected my presence before—Human or Changeling—so I postponed your death to try and find out how you did it. But as I continued to watch you from the shadows, you talked to me. I tried to stay away several times, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill you and I couldn’t stay away either. At first I convinced myself that I was letting you live only to amuse me or because your death would upset the twins.”

“How many times did you come to watch me?”

He debated on how much to tell her but, given the turn in their relationship, he decided that he needed to confess everything and said, “I was in your home almost every night.”

“But we met over a year ago.”

He nodded. “Somehow one day turned into two, which turned into weeks, then months. I was fascinated by your nightly routine.”

“You’ve been coming into my house just to watch me? Why would you do that? I’m not very exciting to watch.”

He sat down next to her and said, “Oh, I beg to differ. You’re quite entertaining. In fact, you became my obsession. You talked to me each night. Even though it was a one-sided conversation, no one has ever just talked to me and shared their inner thoughts and desires. Your words were like music to my ears and I became addicted to the sound of your voice.”

“But I was talking to someone else and said things I wouldn’t have told even my best girlfriend.” She shook her head in disbelief and added, “This can’t be true. If you were in my house I would have seen you.”

“It’s my gift.” He decided it was easier to show her than try to explain, so he said, “Look at me.” When their eyes were locked on each other, he instantly disappeared.

She jumped out of the bed and scanned the room, calling “Where did you go?”

She spun when a voice whispered from the other side of the room, “I’m still here. Find me.”

She had no idea what was happening, but decided to play along. As she walked around the room, she sensed a familiar tingle in the air. She closed her eyes and followed that feeling. When she knew she was near, she opened her eyes and found herself looking into a dark, empty corner. She jumped back when she reached out and touched something solid, but invisible.

From the darkness in front of her, she heard a male’s voice start to hum a tune. When the melody registered in her mind, she covered her mouth with her hand, gasped, and staggered. She grabbed the edge of a nearby chair and whispered with her voice shaking, “Casper?” The one in the shadow was humming the theme song to the cartoon Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

Jax started to speak as he walked out of the darkness. While his body slowly came into focus, he said, “You tell everyone that your favorite color is the green of a dense forest but, in reality, you love the color pink. You don’t want anyone to know because you think pink makes you seem like a weak, ditsy woman. Your favorite number is twelve. That’s because you think it’s cool that it has another name ‘dozen’. You like to make and eat raw cookie dough when you’ve had a good day, but you rarely ever make the actual cookies. You’re hopelessly addicted to bad disaster movies and you like to watch sappy romances when you’re lonely. They always make you cry, by the way. You rarely drink liquor unless you’re homesick and then you only do shots from a bottle of Jack your brothers gave you when you moved away. But once drunk, you could out dance a stripper.”

She backed away and he continued to walk toward her. “When you’re sad, you like to curl up on the couch hugging a pillow and listen to old ballads and any chocolate within arm’s reach is doomed.” He chucked while adding, “On especially bad days, you have an unnerving desire to sing along to a song about muskrats in love.” He involuntarily quivered.

He continued while closing the distance between them. “You hate doing dishes but, for some reason, you love to vacuum. You’re at peace when surrounded by nature and it provides you endless inspiration for your artwork. To watch you paint is awe inspiring. You actually come alive with a paintbrush in your hand and the resulting passion is intoxicating to be around.”

Penny’s backward momentum stopped abruptly when she butted-up against the edge of the bed.

He scanned her body and said, “You’re obsessed with collecting sexy negligee’s—a habit that I’ve grown to dearly love.” With a wicked grin he asked, “Do you want me to list my top 20?”

She gasped and asked, “You saw me? But some nights I slept…”

A leering smile lit his face. “Naked. That was my favorite choice for evening wear. Next in line is that little pink number with the white lace.” He let out a low growl. “When we were camping out, you wondered why I didn’t react to seeing you naked. That was partially because I made sure that seeing you naked was part of my everyday routine.”

Penny felt dizzy and sat down on the edge of the bed. She thought about all of the times she spent with Casper as she took long baths, painted topless, and walked around the cabin in nightwear inappropriate for anyone but a lover to see. As her mind swirled, suddenly her mind filled with images from several nights where her loneliness was fueled by seductive movies. She jumped to her feet and all color drained from her face. She screamed, “Oh my God! You were there and watched me when I…” In a flash, she ran to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

While splashing water on her face, Jax came to the door and said, “Penny, please come back out here and talk to me.”

She slid down to the floor in front of the closed door and said, “Those nights were private and you had no right to watch. I’m mortified.”

Jax sat down on the opposite side of the door and said, “You have no idea how hard those nights were on me…no pun intended. I wanted to help you address your needs so badly that I actually lost my ability to remain invisible. If you had opened your eyes my secret would have been revealed a long time ago. Since those nights, I’ve longed to know what it would be like to share your passions and, now that I’ve experienced it, I underestimated the sensations a thousand fold.”

“That wasn’t the only time you materialized, was it?”

“No.”

“The night I got drunk after talking to my brothers…you carried me to bed, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Without thinking, as if on instinct, I raced to your side so that you wouldn’t fall. I was so impacted by your touch, I had to force myself to stay away for days.”

“That’s when I sensed that Casper was gone. He was away for several weeks and I missed him terribly.”

“I went away to try and erase your effect on me. It didn’t work and I had to come back. I assumed that you would have remembered seeing me but, to my luck, you told Casper that he had carried you. My secret was safe and I returned to hiding in the shadows.” After a brief pause he added. “Do you want to know what else I’ve learned by watching you?” Without waiting for a response, he said, “You have an uncanny ability to calm people around you. Not only do you trust unconditionally, you also instill instant trust in complete strangers. Although you want everyone to think that you’re independent, you desperately want someone to take care of you as well as have someone to care about. But you seem unable to find anyone that touches your heart—although many would offer their services if you would let them, especially when you’re sad and out in public. Your pain attracts men like flies to fly paper.” He growled protectively.

While looking down at her hand, she asked, “Is that why you gave me the ring?”

“Yes. When others approached you, it bothered me more than words can express. You were mine and no one else was allowed to touch you.”

“You think of me as yours? I don’t understand any of this. Why didn’t you come forward right from the start? I would have let you into my home willingly.”

“That’s why I stayed hidden. You’re fearless when it comes to Changelings and your draw was too strong. You’re Human and I fought with all of my might the unwelcomed feelings that you stirred within me.”

“I thought you despised me. Until this trip, I had no idea that you actually cared about me at all.”

“That’s because that’s what I wanted you to think. I’m very good at projecting hate or nothing at all. It’s another of my gifts and I’ve had a lifetime to practice. But you broke down that wall. The night in the moon room, I felt your desire for me and my protective shield almost completely broke down. I know that you think I was teasing you, but it wasn’t an act. If Susi hadn’t come home, the night would have ended much differently. But I’m Ice—a cold blooded killer. Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought that someone like you could ever genuinely care for someone like me.”