Changing Beauty (Book 2) (The Deadly Beauties Live On) (18 page)

“I traveled. I never got to travel before, so I finally traveled. I guess… I felt compelled to travel. Life sort of pushed me in that direction, even though I really wanted to go to college.”

“Where’d you travel?”

Leaning back, I take in his profile as he continues to strum those soft lips over my hand. Every time he speaks, I felt the heat of his breath and the vibrations of his voice against my skin. It’s relaxing me, even though I wouldn’t have thought it possible to relax after my bizarre morning.

“Italy. Rome. France. Ireland. Australia… A little bit of everywhere all over the world.”

“Oh?” he asks, still seeming lost in thought. “How did the food taste there?”

I frown as I try to recall a memory, finding nothing but images in my mind instead of any mouthwatering memories. That’s weird.

“I… can’t remember.”

He nods as though he was expecting that answer. “Any smells that you can recall? I know in Italy, I love smelling a true pizzeria. I also love the smell of the air in Ireland. It’s fresh—fresher than anything I’ve ever experienced anywhere else. I almost didn’t leave when I went to visit.”

Squirming in my seat, I once again find the absence of any sensory memories. Taste, touch, smell, sounds… All I have are random images popping into my mind—blurry memories at best.

“I… I can’t remember,” I echo, slowly feeling deflated. Why can’t I remember?

“So visuals only?” he asks, acting as though he’s solving a puzzle.

I don’t speak, mostly because I never thought of it until he pointed it out. Now I feel like I’m missing something. The memories I once held in high regard seem less convincing. Everything in my memories is much too perfect. There was never even a bad storm, or a stumble. Hell, there wasn’t even a missed step.

“What about when you were little? Did you ever see anything odd? Like maybe a wolf hanging around? Possibly a black wolf?”

Cold seizes my blood, and he clutches my hand a little tighter when I start to pull away. How could he possibly know that?

“Only in my dreams,” I whisper.

“Was this wolf a protective figure?” he asks, seeming to climb around in my mind and pluck memories I’ve forever held my silence on.

“How did…”

My voice trails off, and he turns my hand over, kissing the inside of my palm as we go through a stretch of woods that starred in my wild dreams last night. I shiver as the dream hits me hard with all the sensory memories I can’t recall from my travels.

“Just piecing things together, sweet girl. So which motel did you wake up in this morning?”

“Edgebrook Motel,” I say, still distracted as I try to piece together all the weirdness for myself.

He releases my hand, and I look over as he types in a quick message into his phone. As soon as he puts it down, he’s taking my hand in his again, this time threading our fingers together.

“There’s something going on, and I need you to stay with me for a while. I think I can help you. If you’ll let me.”

Great. Now I’m a charity case, and he’s stuck with the crazy girl.

“Thad, you don’t have to—”

“I know I don’t have to do anything,” he says with that cocky grin forming. “But I really want to do something, Roslyn. And all those things revolve around you. Let’s get back. I have someone waiting who can help.”

I don’t argue with that. I feel like a complete and total pathetic drama queen, so I shut up and just let him continue holding my hand. My tears try to fall, but as I’ve done so often, I restrain them.

“By the end of today, you’ll be mine,” he says as we enter Pine Shore. Looking over, he stares into my eyes with a determination that almost stings. “And it’ll stay that way.”

I’m already his, but I’m surprised he still wants me. This is way too intense, and I should be running like a fire is behind me, but he should be running, too. Instead, we keep colliding.

“Why?” I ask as he heads down our stretch of the street.

He bypasses our houses, confusing me, and he doesn’t bother answering me until we’re pulling up at the same house where we went for the party the other night. Without a word, he gets out and jogs around to my door.

I almost want to crawl under the seat as opposed to going in looking like this. Why did he bring me here first?

“Because,” he says as he opens my door and pulls me to him, apparently deciding to answer the forgotten question, “you’re not quite as sweet as I thought, and I like you even better now.”

I have no idea what that means, and he doesn’t give me a chance to process it before his lips are on mine, stealing whatever words I might have conjured up. His wicked tongue breaches my lips, devouring me as he clutches my sides and lifts me out of the Hummer.

My arms go around his neck, but my feet dangle in front of him. My sheet is too confining, so I can’t wrap my legs around his waist. My fingers thread through his hair, and I pull him to me as I return the kiss with just as much primal hunger as he’s showing.

By the time he breaks the kiss, he’s almost growling, and I’m full-on panting like an idiot. His forehead touches mine, and he puts me down on a porch rail. Hell, I don’t even remember him walking up the steps.

“Definitely going to be mine,” he says, smirking as though he has a secret I don’t know.

Chapter 17

THAD

Alyssa stands the second we walk in, and Roslyn tucks herself against my side. I can’t even begin to explain the relief I felt the second I saw Jenny’s car at that gas station. I was inside before Zee, but I just stared at her when I finally found her, unable to fully comprehend that she was safe and standing right in front of me.

And she didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on.

I still don’t know if her memory is wiped, or if she feels crazy for believing all that she’s seen. I think it’s the latter of the two, and she refuses to accept it as reality. I do, however, fully believe that she has no memory during the times she’s in changed form or using her with powers.

“You couldn’t have let me get some clothes?” Roslyn whispers at my side.

Alyssa battles a smile, and eventually covers it.

“The toga looks good on you,” I tell her, giving her a wink that has a blush creeping up on her. I’m gonna miss the hell out of that. She’ll change once she remembers everything.

But I’m going to love getting to know the real Roslyn.

“Wait,” Roslyn says, her eyes sparking with recognition. “You’re Alyssa Ice—the one I bought the house from.”

Alyssa nods before handing her a change of clothes. Well damn. I wanted to keep her in the sheet. It’d be easier to strip off once Alyssa is done restoring her to normal. And I
will
be stripping it off her by then.

“I am,” Alyssa tells her as Roslyn accepts the clothes.

“I have clothes at my house,” Roslyn says sheepishly, looking down as she scoots even closer against me. I hope she continues to do that even after she knows who she is.

“You can wear those until you have your own,” Alyssa says with her soft smile.

Roslyn clutches them against her, eyeing Alyssa then looking down. Roslyn’s hips are a little bigger, but I’m sure Alyssa has already made sure they fit her perfectly—magic is a great thing.

She looks up at me with those oddly violet eyes—eyes a shade darker than that of a black widow. She’s unique in every possible way.

“There’s a room upstairs on the left. Use it,” I tell her, kissing her forehead softly before she leans back.

She seems hesitant, but she finally moves toward the stairs, and I motion with my head for Alyssa to follow me outside of the soundproof glass.

“Kimber will be up there. She’ll get you something to drink. I just need to speak with Thad about some work stuff,” Alyssa calls out.

Roslyn’s voice is muffled, but we hear her say something that resembles an
okay
and a
thank you.

“I take it her hearing is amped up?” Alyssa asks me as we shut the door.

“Yeah. I think that’s why she ran last night, even though she thinks it was all a dream. I didn’t put that together until after I figured out who she really was. She’s strong, so it’d make sense that she could hear almost as well as us. Ella okay?”

It was the middle of the night when we got the text saying Ella was back. Zee stayed out with me even though I could tell he was worried about her. I sure as hell owe him one, especially since he’s scrubbing the video footage and memories of everyone back at the motel.

Really hope he doesn’t accidentally fry someone’s brain or something. He’s pretty new to his powers still.

“She’s sleeping it off. She was still on a high when she got here, but she was herself. Slade—which is apparently this creature god’s name—took care of her, yet he tried to kill Roslyn. Of the two, Ella is a greater threat. So why go after Roslyn and save my daughter?”

Staring out over the lake, I shrug.

“I don’t know, but he sure as hell won’t be killing her now that I have her. She won’t be out of my protection again.”

For some reason, I can actually hear her lips tug in a smirk.

“I guess that means I win this battle. I never wanted the werewolf hybrid or the anointed dead. One out of two isn’t so bad. Especially not within this outfit.”

Rolling my eyes, I decide to let her think she had something to do with this win. No one is touching her because she’s mine. Otherwise, she’d already be dead. Then again, it makes me wonder if maybe I shouldn’t listen to Alyssa more often.

Dice’s car rolls up, and he hops out of the driver’s seat, looking more pissed off than I’ve ever seen him. Karma, however, seems to be fighting really damn hard not to laugh.

“I said I was sorry!” Karma says, half laughing even though she’s still trying to sound serious.

“Sorry isn’t good enough, woman! I’m scarred for life. You’ve ruined something very precious to me. I could starve to death. You know that, right? You’ve broken me!”

That has my attention, even though I have much bigger things to worry about.

“What’s going on?” Alyssa asks as Karma doubles over and tries to catch her breath, still shaking from silent laughter.

“What’s going on is my cruel girlfriend has a sick sense of humor, and she’s reveling in my pain. I’m no masochist. I won’t tolerate this shit!” Dice snaps, walking toward us in an all-leather ensemble that truly does look ridiculous. I mean, leather’s not as cool as it used to be.

Karma steadies herself, and Dice glares over his shoulder at her, warning her with his eyes not to speak. Obviously Karma doesn’t listen.

“We had a little incident, and Dice is struggling to get over it.”

Zee materializes beside me, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“Elaborate,” he says, clearly intrigued, which halts my inquiry about what he found at the motel.

“We were—”

“Don’t!” Dice snaps.

Karma pretends as though the surly incubus isn’t protesting. “Dice and I were having some fun after we found out Ella was okay. Fights get him all riled up and turned on—”

“Never mind,” Zee says, grimacing. “I don’t want to know.”

“I do,” Alyssa chimes in, always eager to find something to torment the annoying incubus with.

“Anyway, I’ve been on the lam for a while, and I’ve grown paranoid. Obviously. I was a prisoner for a slave ring, so I hear a sound, and I… retreat.”

I cock my head to the side as Dice unrolls a litany of curses.

“So you stopped mid-fuck to run out and investigate a sound?” Zee asks.

Horrible story. Pathetic story, actually.

“Not exactly,” Karma says, still snickering as Dice turns a shade of red that has me a tad bit worried his head might explode.

“She fucking retreated from her body!” Dice explodes. “She possessed a doll to go investigate, and I… I… I didn’t know until… Well… Until I fucking got mine and realized she was stiff under me.”

He shudders before mocking a gag. Zee, Alyssa, and I exchange a look before bursting out laughing. Dice’s face turns a darker shade of red, and Karma joins us, laughing just as hard.

“This shit isn’t funny! It scarred me for life, dammit!”

Alyssa is laughing so hard that she is holding her side, and Zee is pounding his chest when he laughs so hard he starts to cough. I’m half roaring, half laughing. Fucking shit.

“I didn’t mean to. And honestly, I thought you’d notice when I didn’t move for ten minutes,” Karma goes on, only making it worse.

“For ten minutes you fucked a lifeless body and didn’t know it?” I ask, hurting as the side-splitting hilarity actually inflicts physical pain on me.

“I was feeding off the sexual energy! I was lost in the zone!” he defends, his voice an octave higher than usual.

“Hashtag—Necrophilia,” Alyssa mocks, smirking at the fuming incubus who storms inside, slamming the door behind him for a dramatic effect.

Karma is still snickering as she follows him in, probably trying to soothe his burn or make it burn more. Knowing her, it’s the latter of the two.

Our laughter tapers off, and Alyssa wipes the tears from her eyes.

“You had an announcement to tell us? Kane said we missed the convo that went on last night, but that you wanted to tell us in person.”

I lean against the railing, waiting on her to answer, anxious to get back in and see my girl.

“Oh. Now?” she asks, but Zee and I only nod in response.

She sighs while looking around, then she motions us inside. We follow her through the house, and I look around for Roslyn. I hear Kimber talking, and as we reach the kitchen, I hear Roslyn responding.

Relaxing a little, I follow Alyssa into the secret room in the back that leads to a hidden basement. All of Kane’s houses have secret, soundproof rooms like this where Sierra and Amy can be chained up during the red moon. Alyssa and Kane have control of their red moon urges.

Ella, however, has to have a separate room with much bigger chains that are bound with much stronger spells.

If she’s bringing us down here to talk, then it must be some serious shit.

“You’re worrying me, Alyssa,” Zee says, echoing my own thoughts.

She groans while dropping her head back. “I’m worried too.” Her head comes back down, but my eyes are more focused on the hand that’s circling her stomach.

“Turns out, I’m pregnant. Again. Three months along, and I didn’t even know it until the other day. And we know how much it weakened me last time when I hit the second trimester.”

“You could only use your witch powers,” Zee says on a sigh.

“Yeah. And in case you haven’t noticed, shit around here is getting really crazy and serious. I can’t risk my baby or me, and in a few weeks, I’ll be no more help than a beginner level witch. The baby takes most of my energy. I can already feel that this one is going to be stronger than Ella, so I need to preserve my strength as much as possible.”

She takes a seat on a rickety chair next to the stairs we came down, and I lean against the wall.

“Kane needs to stay with you. If nothing else, he can get the two of you out of dodge.”

She nods as though that’s already the plan. No way would Kane leave his pregnant wife to fend for herself, but I still thought I’d point it out.

“Drackus and Mom will be coming with us, too, but they’ll be on call if you need them. I tried getting Ella to join us, but with the arrival of the new creature god and a possible twin… Well, she feels it’s better if she’s here. I still think she’s too dangerous. If you need more power, call Kane. He’ll be there. And he has more control than she does.”

That’s an understatement.

“We got this, light girl,” I tell her, bringing her in for a hug.

She stands and wraps her arms around me, resting her head on my chest.

“Sorry about the timing,” she whispers softly. “We were using a spell, but it must have expired or something.”

“Don’t apologize for getting pregnant,” I say around a small chuckle.

“Yeah, well, I mean because there’s never been a time in the past twenty years that you’ve needed us to be here more than now, and I’ve got to go into hiding. As long as no one sees me with a swollen belly, they won’t know I’m pregnant. No one will be stupid enough to attack if they think I’m at full strength.”

I kiss the top of her head, then glance back at the stairs. “I should get back to Roslyn. Last time I left her alone for too long—”

“Go,” Alyssa says with a small smile, pushing me toward the door.

I look back down at her, frowning. “Don’t worry about the spell. I don’t want you exhausting yourself. A spell like that would take a lot of power. I’ll wait until Gage is back. He’ll be able to do it.”

She starts to object, but Zee helps me out.

“It’s just one more day, Alyssa. Gage said he’d be back tomorrow at the latest if he and Chaz can’t get any leads on where this Slade guy and his crew are holed up.”

Before we continue arguing with her—because she’s going to argue—I meet Zee’s eyes. “What’d you find at the motel?”

He shudders. “You mean besides a lot of gross? No security films. The cameras are dummies that are just there to make people think they have security. Only one woman seemed to have seen her. My Spanish isn’t all that good, but from what I eavesdropped on, she saw your girl ‘disappear once she stepped out of the car, and one eye looked like it had flames, while the other sparked with a wild orangey red color. I dusted her memories and the memories of everyone there. She was a manager or something. I wanted to be safe. She called the authorities, but they didn’t believe her—obviously. That’s what she was bitching about when I was listening to her talking to a few of the maids.”

Now to go find my girl before something goes wrong. No more taking chances.

“Someone else cover my shift for a few days,” I say, clapping Zee on the shoulder before heading up the stairs.

“Ah, hell. If I hear howling,” he says, pointing a finger at me, “I’m totally going to start a cock-blocking mission.”

There won’t be any sounds, because I’m not taking her until she’s herself.

Whoever that may be.