Chosen by Sin (21 page)

A familiar anger boiled within his veins and along with it, a pinch of
pain ached in his chest. He was rubbing the renewed ache when the boy looked up
and saw him.

“Hi,” the kid said.

Dex frowned. Considered walking away without responding. But ultimately
he nodded in greeting. “Hey.”

“Wanna play sword fighting?”

“No.” Dex’s negative response was instinctive, but because his memories
were still raw, it came out harsher than he’d intended. He waited for the kid
to pout or cry, but he didn’t. Like Cy had done earlier, the kid merely
shrugged.

“Okay.”

He threw the stick down and started doing those pathetic cartwheels
again.

Dex walked past him and was about a hundred feet away before he stopped
and looked back. He winced when the kid bobbled and landed heavily on his side.
Again, Dex waited for the kid to cry. Again, he didn’t. With a determined look
on his face, he started hopping around again.

“Oh come on,” Dex snapped out in exasperation. “Surely you can do
better than that.”

The kid stopped and pushed his bangs out of his face. “Huh?”

“Have you actually seen someone do a cartwheel before?”

“Sure. I see Jes do them all the time. I do them just like her.”

Dex arched a brow. If that was true, than Jes wasn’t very coordinated,
but he knew for a fact that she was quite limber…at least when it came to sex.

“You show me,” the kid demanded.

“What?” Dex scowled. “No. I just came out here to make a phone call.”
He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and held it up as if the kid was a
juror and the phone was a piece of evidence.

“Please?” the kid said.

“Don’t try looking all sad and pathetic. It won’t work with me.”

The kid shrugged, said, “Okay,” then went back to his drunken hopping.

Dex grunted. Watched. Grunted again. Damn it. What kid gave in that
easily? It made him think the kid must be used to disappointment. That in turn
made him think of Cy and what Cy had said about life being too short not to be
happy. At least, he’d said something like that, hadn’t he?

“Okay, fine,” he said, as if the kid had been pleading with him for
five minutes straight. “I’ll do a cartwheel. But I’m only going to do it once,
okay? So pay attention.”

The kid stepped back and watched expectantly.

Still holding the phone in his hand, Dex did a smooth cartwheel. Even
with his burns and the time he’d spent in bed, the movements were graceful and
strong. “See how I kept my legs straight and up in the air? That’s what you
need to do.”

The kid jumped up and down. “Okay, okay.” Then he did the same bad
version of a cartwheel he’d already been doing. Looking pleased with himself,
he said, “Like that?”

Dex was about to say no, but just managed to stop himself in time.
“That was okay. Just keep practicing.”

“Okay. Thanks. Can I try it one more time?”

“Sure.”

The kid’s tongue stuck out of his mouth as he concentrated. He raised
both his palms and this time, when his palms slapped the ground, his legs were
a lot straighter than they’d been before.

Dex nodded. “Good. Keep practicing and you’ll have it down in no time.”

“Thanks, mister.” The kid pushed at his bangs again and inadvertently
shoved the knit cap off his head.

Light brown hair came tumbling down across his face.

Uh, make that her face.

He
was a
she
.

Never a good mistake to make, Dex thought. At least he hadn’t called
her a boy to her face.

“What’s your name?” he asked, not even sure why he had.

“Ella,” she said. “What’s yours?”

From somewhere behind the castle, a voice called. Ella turned toward
it. But rather than leaving, she looked back at him expectantly, obviously
waiting for him to answer her question.

“Dex,” he said.

She nodded. “Bye, Dex. I gotta go. See you later.” She waved and ran
off.

Dex watched as her little legs carried her away. When he realized he was
staring after her, he picked up the stick that she’d been using as a sword. He
stared at it for a long time as well, before flinging it to the ground. When he
looked up, Ella had been joined by a woman. The woman crouched down in front of
Ella and they talked for several seconds before Ella ran off again.

The woman straightened and walked closer to Dex.

It was Jes.

***

Jes froze when she saw Dex Hunt standing in front of her.

As both Cy and Amanda had indicated, he seemed composed. Nothing like
the crazed were he’d been when she’d last seen him conscious.

But what was he doing out of bed? Her initial instinct was to scold him
and shoo him back to his room, but she stopped herself just in time. Mothering
him would be the last thing that Dex would want. So instead of walking toward
him, she stood where she was, some distance away, wondering if he would simply
turn and walk away from her without saying a word.

To her surprise, he approached her, stopping only when he was about ten
feet away. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

She startled. “I didn’t think you were.”

“Why not? From what I hear, I tried to kill Cy in front of you.
Shouldn’t that make you at least a little nervous?”

She cleared her throat. She’d already talked to Cy about what had
happened. Cy seemed to think Dex had been possessed by some kind of dark power,
but she figured Dex had probably been in shock after the news she’d delivered.
“You were upset. Cy startled you when he grabbed you. People do things they
wouldn’t normally do when they’re upset and surprised.” She certainly knew that
was true. Look at all the things she did out of desperation. And they were
things, at least she hoped it was the case, that didn’t really reflect who she
was inside. “Besides,” she said, twisting her mouth, “It’s not like you can
actually kill me or anything.”

He frowned. “I know better. Vampires can die.”

“Yes, but no matter how much you hate me, I’m not going to just stand
here and let you rip out my heart and burn it, so I think we’re okay.”

“Oh yeah. That’s right. You’re a super-strong badass immortal vampire,
right? Lucky you.” He seemed to be watching her closely as he said it.

She smiled tightly, her face feeling so stiff she was surprised it
didn’t crack. “Yes. Lucky me.” Suddenly feeling cold, she stuck her hands in
her jacket pockets and hunched her shoulders. “Your hands are okay?”

He held them up for her inspection. His palms were still pink, but the
blisters and raw burns were gone, having healed far faster than they should
have. Further proof of how incredible this were was. Yet she’d made up her
mind. She couldn’t force him to stay, not even to protect her child. “So…was
there something you needed before you go?”

“Go?” he asked, obviously surprised. “But I thought—” He narrowed
his eyes. “So now that I almost killed your boyfriend, you don’t want me to
stay. You no longer care whether your baby lives or dies. Is that it? Or was it
all just bullshit after all?”

Her first response was fury. How dare he imply she didn’t want her baby
to live? When that’s what she wanted most right now. Yet, she was also
confused. What was he talking about? What boyfriend? Unless he meant—

“Cy is not my boyfriend. He’s my adoptive brother.”

Dex grunted, but said nothing else.

“And as for wanting you to go, I don’t. Want you to, I mean. I asked
you to stay. I told you why. But I’m not going to keep you here against your
will, Dex. And you made it more than clear yesterday that you don’t want to
stay. I just want to say again, I didn’t trick you into getting me pregnant. I
really didn’t think it was possible, with or without the condoms.”

He was silent as he seemed to contemplate what she’d said. She held her
breath, hoping he wouldn’t sneer or snarl or accuse her of lying again. Goddess
knew she’d deceived him, yes, even lied to him in a way, but not about their
baby. Never about something like that.

When he nodded, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Okay. I believe you.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Jes. If you’re going to have the baby, you can’t
expect anything from me. I’m not parent material. I don’t want to be. I have a
life in the States and things I need to do. Thing I’ve been needing to take
care of for a long time.”

Things like killing his grandfather? Since she only knew it because
she’d read his mind in L.A., she didn’t say it out loud. Nor would she mention
that his grandfather was a patient in the very castle he was standing next to,
and not in the States as she knew he probably thought. “Okay,” she said
cautiously.

He held up his cell phone. “I need to call Mahone, my boss. Tell him
what’s been happening and check in. Only I haven’t been able to get a strong
enough signal.”

“I don’t have a phone line. I—uh, generally don’t need it, since
I can teleport and talk to people directly. Plus, since others live here, it’s
easier to use individual cell phones. The best hot spot is actually in the
gazebo over there.” She pointed.

He frowned and looked like he wanted to ask her something. Instead, he
said, “We’ll talk afterward.”

She nodded. “Okay.” And despite herself, despite how horribly he’d
reacted yesterday, she couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope that maybe, just
maybe, Dex Hunt would give her what she and her baby so desperately
needed—himself.

***

Thirty minutes later, Dex pressed the disconnect button of his cell
phone and cursed.

Damn Mahone, Dex thought. Leave it to that son of a bitch to send him
to France without giving him all the facts. Like the fact that several of the
murders he was investigating had been linked to dark magic and rituals to raise
the dead. Like the fact all the shape-shifters who’d confessed to killing their
own in self-defense had said they’d acted in order to protect themselves and
others from evil spirits trying to come back to earth. Of course, no one had
really emphasized that part of the confessions in their reports because the
responding officers had thought the shape-shifters were spouting some made-up
bullshit but still…

Dex didn’t think it was bullshit.

He knew what he’d seen. And he knew what he’d felt. And most of all, he
knew what Cy had told him.

That he hadn’t looked like himself when he’d gone after the
dragon-shifter.

Just like Trosseau hadn’t looked like himself when he’d gone after Dex.

So what did it all mean? That there was some kind of dark spirit
floating around and following him, trying to find a comfortable body to inhabit
so it didn’t have to return to hell?

Even if that was the case, Dex didn’t know what to do with that
information any more than he knew what to do with the news of Jes’s pregnancy.

Fuck.

Jes’s pregnancy. She’d asked him to stay. He knew he couldn’t. Not for
three weeks. But he needed to regroup and…he needed to call Lucy and tell her
he was probably going to be gone longer than he thought.

“Lucy,” he said when she answered her cell.

“Dex. Is everything okay?”

Hell, no, he wanted to say. Instead, he said, “Yes. But I haven’t had
any luck with the shape-shifters here yet. I’m hoping that’ll change.
I’ve—uh, managed to track down Jesmina Martin, the vampire we met in
L.A.”

“Yeah, I remember who she is,” Lucy drawled.

Dex winced. Of course she did. He shoved a hand in his hair as he
paced. “Turns out she lives in France and she has some leads for me to pursue.
But it might take me a few days. I wanted to make sure you’re okay. That you’re
not…suffering.”

“You need to stop worrying about me, Dex. I’m fine. I’ve arranged to
talk to the same shape-shifter who tried to take me from that club, but he was
transferred to another facility just before you left. He has a new attorney
who’s slowing things down.”

He frowned. “I told you I already talked to him. He gave me some names
to explore, but said he didn’t know anything about the shape-shifter murders.”

“I know. But he likes felines. He might be willing to tell me something
he wasn’t willing to tell you. How’s Jes, by the way?”

Not missing her teasing tone, he muttered, “She’s…okay.”

“Are you sure nothing’s wrong? You sound weird.”

Maybe I sound like an expectant father, he thought. A shell-shocked
one. “I just called to let you know where I was and that you can still call me
if you need me. But cell service is pretty spotty here. If you can’t get
through, leave a message and I’ll call you back. Also, I wanted to fill you in
on some things. There’s some weird shit going on, Lucy. Black magic type stuff—”

“What?” Static crackled on the line. “Wh…say…ear…ex...”

“Damn it. Lucy?”

“Losing…say…”

“Lucy, can you hear me?”

When she didn’t answer, he cursed, hung up, then texted her, his
fingers fumbling with the tiny keyboard on his phone.

Call Mahone. I gave him info u need 2 know. Shape-shifters calling
forth dark spirits. Be careful
.

About a minute later, his phone finally bleeped as she texted him back.

Got it. Take care. Have fun. :)

Dex snorted. He’d worried Lucy couldn’t manage the heat without him. Leave
it to her to still be playing matchmaker between him and Jes. Hell, if only she
knew about the baby…

Someone behind him cleared her throat.

Dex whirled around.

It was Jes.

“Hi,” she said. She notched her chin at the tray she carried. It was
stacked with several plates and bottles. “I figured you’d be hungry, and you
said you wanted to talk after your call. Or I can leave you alone if you want?”
In addition to her words, her expression evidenced her uncertainty of her
welcome. As he gazed at her, Dex didn’t dwell on the way they’d fought
yesterday, but on how good it had felt to hold her. To be held by her.