A Midsummer Night's Scream (The Dulcie O'Neil Series Book 7) (16 page)

“There’s no third option where you get to go fuck yourself?” I asked as I scowled at him and my chest heaved up and down with indignation. The pain in my knee had become all-encompassing. With each beat of my heart, it felt as if the throbbing ache was invading all parts of my body. And it didn’t help that the heavens insisted on releasing a deluge of rain above us.

FML.

“The only option three that would involve fucking wouldn’t have me doing it to myself,” Jax answered.

“Then I choose option one,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest as soon as his attention dropped down to my bust. I didn’t have the strength left to waste arguing with him anymore.

“Shame, I was hoping for option three; or, at the very least, option two, but beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.” Then he offered me a radiant smile and all I wanted to do was sucker punch him.

“I’m still waiting for you to fall down a sinkhole,” I responded.

“Sorry to disappoint you, baby,” he said, his left eyebrow rising impatiently. “You’ve made your choice so get on with it.”

I declined to comment, but closed my eyes and clenched my right hand into a fist. The rain continued to assault me with its freezing cold drops, making me suddenly wish Jax had a car waiting for him. Or, at the very least, an umbrella …

Shaking my fist, I immediately felt my precious dust filling my palm and leaking through my clenched fingers. When I opened my eyes, I found Jax studying me intently.

“And don’t try anything funny,” he warned me. “No running away at ridiculous speeds, or sprouting wings like you’re back in the Netherworld,” he continued as we both honed in on a squirrel as he scurried up the side of a tree, ostensibly seeking shelter from the rain. “And no turning me into a ground squirrel either,” Jax finished with a knowing grin.

“The only thing I could magick you into is what you already are—a pile of shit,” I said haughtily, my nose in the air.

“Ah, don’t be a sore loser, Dulcie,” Jax responded with another boyish smile. “All’s fair in love and war, right?”

I didn’t respond because my knee was aching to such an extent that all I could think about was healing it. As such, I held my fist above it before opening my hand. I watched the glittery powder sprinkle down on top of my leg and then imagined my knee acting like a magnet. In response, the particles immediately clung to it. Then I closed my eyes and imagined a bright, white light enveloping my injury. I pictured the light growing even brighter as it healed, working little by little to return me to my pre-Jaxed state.

I felt heat warming the area behind my knee. Pretty soon, it extended to the front of my leg and traveled to my thigh before returning all the way back down my calf, heating my shin and then my ankle. Once the heat dissipated and I could feel the cold wetness of the forest again, I opened my eyes.

“Good as new?” Jax asked, his eyebrows arching like my little performance must have impressed him.

“Damn it, you’re still here,” I ground out.

This only made him smile even more broadly. “You’re too sexy for your own damn good.” I didn’t respond but lifted my bad leg a foot or so off the ground. Then I bent it, carefully lifting it up and down, back and forth, as I waited to feel any pain in my knee. “Good as new?” Jax asked.

“Only one way to find out,” I replied, taking a deep breath as I planted my foot back on the ground and then I took a step forward. I took another few steps, trying to determine whether or not my magic had completely healed me. “Looks like I’m okay,” I announced before glancing up at Jax who was studying me again.

“Good, then let’s be on our way,” he said with a quick smile which seemed at odds with how wet he was, completely soaked from head to toe. He took a step forward, but must have thought better of it, because he turned around again and reached for me. “Actually, I think I’ll be keeping you a bit closer to me this time,” he announced. He wrapped his mitt-like hand around my upper arm. “Don’t want you to get any more funny ideas,” he explained cheerily.

“You know what happens when women get funny ideas,” I grumbled while shaking my head. Of course, I intended on escaping again, but at this point, I figured there wasn’t really anything more I could do. Jax had already demonstrated his innate ability to locate me, even if I were miles away …

Not that I was giving up … As long as there was still breath in my body, I could and would never give up. As long as I knew Knight and Sam were still out there, I would fight my way back to them. But now wasn’t the time for impulsive decision-making. Now I had to formulate a new and improved plan—one that was foolproof.

Now, what I needed more than anything else, was the luxury of time.

###

If there was one thing to be grateful for in this whole crappy situation, it was the car that was waiting for Jax when we reached the road. If nothing else went my way, at least now we had shelter from the incessant rain. The storm was falling in raindrops so big, I wondered if it should have been categorized as a hurricane instead.

“You should rest,” Jax said as soon as I was seated in the passenger seat and he was behind the wheel. He cranked the heat up as high as it would go while turning on both of our seat heaters. I wasn’t sure what sort of vehicle we were in—just that it was black and an SUV of some type. Not that it really mattered.

“Rest?” I repeated with an acidic laugh. Glaring at him, I crossed my arms over my chest because when I looked down, it appeared that I’d become a contestant in a wet T-shirt contest. “You abducted me, I’m soaking wet, I don’t know if my friends are safe, and I have no idea where we’re going, or what I’m going to find when we get there. And you expect me to rest?”

“You won’t come to any harm,” he answered, like I was becoming overly dramatic.

“Again, I have a problem putting much stock into your word.” I took a deep breath as I faced the window. I couldn’t make out much of the scenery. The headlights managed to light the trees a bit, but the incessant rain relegated them to nothing more than drippy blobs of green and brown.

“Suit yourself. We’ve got a few hours until we reach the portal that will take us to my boss. Then, I imagine, you’ll find yourself very busy.”

“The portal?” I asked, my nerves suddenly jumping to full attention.

I actually wasn’t sure what startled me more—the fact that we were about to travel portal style or that I would supposedly be very busy once we arrived at our destination.

“Yes, the portal.”

“What portal?” I asked, deciding this was the more important topic to focus on for the immediate present. “Are we traveling to the Netherworld?”

Jax chuckled and shook his head as he faced me. I noticed that look of amusement had returned to his eyes. “Which question would you like me to answer first, Ms. O’Neil?”

“Where are we going?”

“I already told you, I can’t elaborate on that.”

“Elaborate?” I scoffed. “You won’t even answer it at all!”

“We are traveling out of state, but that’s all I can say about it.”

“To the Netherworld?” I repeated, although I was hoping and praying the answer was no. The Netherworld was about as far away from Splendor Headquarters as possible, and right now, there was no other place that I wanted to be than Splendor, if only to make sure that Sam and everyone else there were okay.

“No, we’re not going to the Netherworld,” Jax answered in a very matter-of-fact tone.

“That’s a relief.”

“Glad I could improve your mood,” he jested with a wink.

“And we’re driving to the location of the portal?” I asked, ignoring his wink.

“No, there’s a horse and wagon waiting for us just around this bend,” he answered. His eyebrows rose as we took said curve in the road.

“Funny, Jax,” I grumbled. Terrible thoughts of what might be happening at Splendor Headquarters suddenly overwhelmed me. “What’s going on in Splendor?” I demanded. I immediately regretted asking the question, however, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his answer. If I didn’t like Jax’s answer, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I repeated, frowning. Of course, I was more than convinced that he wasn’t telling me something. “Come on, Jax, do you really think I’m going to do anything with that information?” I asked, shaking my head. “What could I possibly do when I’m basically your prisoner?”

“I don’t know of anything you could do with that information; and yes, I agree, you are my prisoner. But that’s beside the point, because I’m telling you the truth.”

“Whatever,” I griped and then brought my attention to the window again because looking at Jax did nothing except piss me off.

“You exasperate me,” he said. “You must realize by now that not everything I say is a lie?”

“I don’t know that at all!” I railed back at him. “And as far as me exasperating you, you have no idea how utterly frustrating you are!”

“Regardless of who outdoes who on the scales of exasperation and frustration,” he continued in a bored tone, “I had orders to remove you from Headquarters. That’s what I did. As for what’s going on there now, your guess is as good as mine.”

“Fine,” I said, while crossing my arms over my chest and slouching down in my seat.

He glanced over at me, maybe to decide whether or not I believed him. “Did you happen to see a cell phone on me?”

“No.”

“Right,” he said with a nod. “That means I’ve had no contact with my boss or Crossbones since I was taken to Splendor. And since you and I escaped, I’ve had no way of knowing about anything except right here and right now.”

“So why haven’t you used that handy little Loki trick you exhibited during my telepathic conversation with Knight earlier?” I demanded, spearing him with a cross expression. “That would be the perfect way to keep in touch with your boss.”

“Clearly, you do not understand how that ability of ours works,” he started. “It’s not just a matter of reaching out and mentally phoning random people. It’s no E.T. Phone Whoever.”

“Clever,” I said with a grimace. “Then how does it work?”

“You either have to be within a few miles of someone or, in your man’s case with you, there has to exist an extremely strong connection between you both.” He was quiet for a couple of seconds. “Let me guess, he’s selected you, hasn’t he?”

I figured he meant the whole Knight’s eyes lighting up bit. Not that I was going to divulge any of that information to Jax. “I have no interest in discussing my relationship with you.”

“I’ll take that to mean ‘yes,’” he announced, but when I didn’t respond, he continued. “Regardless, the point is I have no way of getting in touch with anyone, so I know as much as you do regarding what’s happening at Splendor Headquarters.”

“How very coincidental,” I responded testily. I couldn’t help it though. I hated not knowing what was going on, or whether I should be worried or not. All the unanswered questions hovering in the air consumed me, making me feel like I would lose my mind if I couldn’t find the answers soon.

“I give you my word that nothing bad will happen to you.”

I faced him with narrowed eyes. “How can you be so sure of that? You already admitted you have absolutely no idea what your boss even wants to discuss with me?”

He shrugged. “Because he told me that your safety was my number one priority.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” I grumbled, facing forward and slouching deeper into my seat. The seat heater was suddenly overwhelmingly hot. Or maybe that was just my temper flaring up inside me and overheating my entire body. “If he intends to ransom me, I have to be healthy. Otherwise, I’m not worth much to anyone.”

“He’s not going to hold you for ransom.”

I faced him again and studied him for a few seconds. I was trying to grasp any clues from his body language, but he didn’t give anything away. As far as I could tell, it appeared he was telling the truth. He seemed confident and calculating in his responses. Of course, that could also suggest he was simply well versed in the art of deception. “How do you know?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “You don’t believe a word that comes out of my mouth, do you?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “In general, I’m not one for trusting criminals.”

“This mission was not about kidnapping you to hold you for ransom,” he said as he stepped on the brakes and the SUV began skidding on the wet road.

“What are you doing?” I yelled while bracing myself for whatever was coming. Luckily, the vehicle came to a complete stop and we ended up in the middle of the road, rather than becoming up close and personal with the nearest tree trunk. “Was that really necessary?” I asked.

Jax’s expression was full of determination. “My mission was to remove you from Headquarters, in order to keep you safe, and that’s what I did. Those were my boss’s exact words.”

“And you don’t think that maybe your boss was just pulling one over on you?” I asked as I scrutinized him.

“Pulling one over on me?”

I shrugged. The answer seemed obvious to me. “Maybe his plan all along was to ransom me, but he figured if he appealed to your great sense of chivalry, he could make you do his bidding without questioning his orders?”