Crossover: Franchise Mtg. (3 page)

“Because I felt like I was getting mind-fucked too.” Sam’s hand slipped back into Mason’s. She said to Logan, “You can’t sleep with her, you know.”

“Whoa.” The two guys who were friends with Sheldon, Corrigan and Bryce, both jerked backwards. The one with black hair said, “Seriously. We have enough problems.”

Corrigan bobbed his head up and down firmly. “Oh yeah. Trust us. We have stalker issues. You don’t want our baggage.”

“We burned someone’s house down,” Logan replied.

Corrigan asked, “Was someone inside it?”

“No.”

“Then we win. We have people dying in our saga.”

Logan’s head tilted to the side, glancing at Mason.

“No.” Mason shook his head quickly. “We’re not killing Sebastian.”

“Okay.” But Logan had already moved on. He was studying the black-haired guy, Bryce, and he asked, “Don’t you play soccer?”

“Yes, well, not right now.” He grimaced, sharing a look with his friend. “Like we said before. We’re going through some things right now.”

Corrigan grunted. “That’s putting it lightly.”

“Okay! Everyone!” a voice boomed from behind the kitchen counter.

“What the fuck?” someone grunted.

A woman, who had her hair pulled back in a bun, held up two wooden spoons in the air and circled them around. She wore a chef’s white coat. It was unbuttoned and showed a red apron tied around her waist. Two guys carried a large cake from the kitchen and placed it on the counter before her. They were also wearing red aprons, the ends tied around their necks, and they were shirtless underneath. The woman brandished one of the wooden spoons to the side. As she did, another woman scurried up to her and took the spoons, replacing one with a knife and the other with a flat-end spatula. As she bent over and began cutting the cake, she shouted to the room, “I need everyone to take a seat. There are assigned seats so some of you don’t use the other people as snacks.”

“Snacks?” someone asked.

“Again,” Logan grunted. “What the fuck?”

But the chef wasn’t answering questions. People began moving around, looking for their assigned seats. A large section at one end of the table was empty. When everyone sat down, they saw the empty seats and looked around for the people still not sitting, but there was no one else in the room.

The chef glanced up, saw what was going on, and rolled her eyes. “Like I said. Those would be the snackers.” She tipped her head back and yelled, “DAVINA!”

At the command, the doors opened from the front entrance, and a suspended pause settled over the crowd. The group sensed something powerful was about to enter the room. They waited, watching the hallway as another group appeared. In the lead was a woman with bright-red hair and fiery eyes. She wore a black leather corset top that blended seamlessly into black leather pants. A sword was strapped to her back, along with a bow and arrow. Behind her, another man appeared, but he was dressed in athletic clothes. Standing above six feet with a trim figure, he could’ve passed for a professional athlete. The third man wasn’t a man. He was a giant. As he walked around the first two, everyone moved back an inch in response to his overpowering presence.

“I repeat for a third time,” Logan said in an awed tone. “What the fuckkkkk?”

But that wasn't the whole group. There were two more people, and as they came in, the first three moved aside. It was obvious these last two were the leaders. The guy was trim with tapered shoulders, but he moved with an athleticism that could only be described as both predatory and dangerous. He had dark hair and almost black eyes. Like the woman with red hair, he had two swords strapped to his back. He was dressed in black leather too, but had the clothing of a warrior. The last person stepped into the middle of them and took the lead. She didn’t seem to fit in with the group, but she was important. They were waiting for her to speak first.

She had brown hair, an almost petite build, and was dressed in a white tee shirt and baggy jeans with frayed ends covered in dirt.

“Davina,” a voice echoed through the room. It echoed into all corners, as if someone had spoken from above them.

People glanced to the chef, but it hadn’t come from her. She continued cutting the cake. As the echoes reverberated, the girl, who looked like an average college student, sighed from annoyance. She tilted her head back and spoke, “Saren, we have to attend this meeting.”

The air exploded, then a woman with glistening black hair appeared, standing in the middle of the table. Her red eyes snapped to attention and she leapt in the air, landing right in front of the college student. The woman with red eyes drew upright, standing erect.

Logan leaned over from his seat to Sam, and whispered, “She’s got your hair. What the fuck?”

Sam nudged him in the chest. “Hush.”

Mason glanced over to them and said, “They’re from the paranormal franchise. If I’m remembering right, I believe some of them are vampires, but I don’t know about the girl who just showed up. She seems different.”

“What about the girl called Davina?”

Mason shrugged, but recognized the look of interest in Logan’s eyes. He warned, “I wouldn’t even try to make a move. I’m pretty sure she’s with the warrior guy.”

Logan snorted. “Warrior guy. Whatever. We can hold our own.”

“Logan, he has two swords on him. Do you walk around carrying your own sword?” As soon as the words left his mouth, Mason regretted them. He muttered, “Don’t even respond to that. Please—”

Logan smirked. “Are you kidding me? My sword has its own Twitter account.”

“I walked right into that one,” Mason muttered.

Logan added, “I’m thinking of starting its own Instagram account: Logan’s Sword.”

Sam hissed, “If I start getting pics of your dick, I’m reporting you to whoever owns this franchise Mason keeps talking about.”

“Guys.”

Mason silenced them and turned back to the new group. He noticed that the newcomer was dressed similar to the other two warriors, but her leather outfit was all blue. She hissed, “We have important matters to handle. Jacith is approaching with his army—”

Suddenly, the college student girl snapped. Her eyes had been dark brown, but they flashed a blinding white. As they did, the others around the room started murmuring as their confusion and fear swept through the room. When they looked away from the girl with the blinding white eyes, they realized their plates and silverware were rising in the air. People grabbed for their things, then a few screamed.

The entire table and everyone's chairs were in the air.

The higher everyone was lifted in the air, the college student’s skin grew translucent. Red lines that almost looked like veins appeared in her skin and rose sharply over her body, but would disappear in the next instant, only to appear again.

“Yeah.” Logan leaned over. “That chick’s not human. You’re right, Mase.”

Mason gave his brother a dumbfounded look, but shook his head. He reached for Sam, making sure she didn’t fly away.

The girl who was causing everything to float addressed the woman in front of her. She spoke in a deep voice, one that sounded powerful and ancient, like a separate entity of its own, “I told you and Sireenia gave me approval, not that I need it. We have to be here; this is important. We’ll go right back as soon as it’s over. You think I enjoy being held captive by Roane’s psychotic twin brother?”

The male warrior frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“I don’t. This is my vacation and I’m taking it, then we’ll go right back and fight to save the world.”

A ripple effect started at Saren’s—the woman in blue leather—feet and moved upwards, circling her body. As people watched, her feet started to disappear into thin air. She was there, then not there, but it wasn’t quick. She continued to stare at Davina, both locked in a heated gaze, as her body disappeared inch by inch. Her toes. Her ankles. Her calves. Her knees. Her waist. Then it started around her hands, her elbows, her shoulders, and before her head disappeared, she looked back at the table. Her eyes had been red before, but a literal flame was in them now.

The air smelled like smoke and right before she completely vanished, she said, “Please hurry. Jacith is coming.”

Then, poof! She was gone.

The college girl’s eyes returned back to normal, and she looked like a normal college student once more. No flashing white eyes. Everyone was slowly lowered back to the ground, and the table fell with them. Almost all the plates and silverware moved back to their original location.

A fork landed in someone’s hair while a knife landed, facing down, splintering into the wood, like someone had slammed it there on purpose. The girl who sat there, where the knife had landed before her, exclaimed, “Why is it always me?”

Next to her, a guy with dirty blonde hair reached over and plucked the knife up. He grinned at her. “I should teach you how to throw these things, Rayna. That’d be hot. Hell yeah. That’s our next chapter. Rayna and Brady, Warrior Ninjas.”

She groaned, covering her head with her hands. “Don’t get any ideas.”

He perked up, inspecting the knife. “Oh yeah. I can see it. Viola could be our sensei. Your grandma would be all over that.”

A girl with blonde hair sitting on his other side grunted. “I could totally see that. Rayna, heads up. You’re going to learn how to kick ass in your next book.”

Rayna just shook her head, then reached for her glass of water and downed it. She started sputtering immediately, coughing some of it out. “Oh man.” Her hand wiped at her eye. “That wasn’t water.”

Logan, who’d been watching the group, alternating between them and the vampire people, laughed to himself. He said to Samantha, “She’s a book nerd down there. I bet you anything.” He studied the guy beside her. “Virgin. He took it from her.” He patted himself on the shoulder. “I’m damn good at figuring these people out.”

“Okay! Everyone sit. Cake’s coming now.” The chef drew everyone’s attention once again. The vampire group migrated towards their seats, and the chef nodded to the two male servers who lifted their trays at the same time and started for the table. As they drew closer, they began placing small plates of cake in front of each person. They needed to make two more trips back to the counter before everyone had a piece of cake.

The chef wandered to the end of the table. She gazed over every one sitting. They were all waiting. No one reached for their cake and the chef smiled, a tear coming to the corner of her eye. She nodded to the other end of the table, and as one, everyone’s heads turned to see who she was looking at.

The guy wearing a suit, who Mason had said was Carter Reed, held his glass up and waited until everyone picked up their glass. Then he raised his in the air. He drew attention without commanding it. In a voice that had a quiet authority, he said, “To the franchise. May we come together and continue growing.” He grinned back to the chef before adding, “We welcome any new members to our family.”

When his toast was finished, he stood.

Everyone rose around the table.

All of them turned and looked towards the chef who had her hands clasped over her mouth.

“Salute.” That one word from Carter was like a signal. They all lifted their glasses one last time and took a sip. After, they returned to their seats, but still didn’t eat. Everyone waited to see if anything more would be said.

Then a chair was scraped backwards and a cup dropped from someone’s hands. Everyone turned to a far corner, where a girl had her hands cupped over her mouth in disbelief. She almost stumbled back from everyone, her eyes glued to the hallway behind the chef. “Jace,” she whispered, tears coming to her eyes. “My god.”

A new person had come in late. A man with fierce grey eyes, cheekbones that could’ve graced any magazine cover, and a lean form stood in the doorway. Lines of stress were around his mouth and there were bags under his eyes, but he was alert. As he stood there, he grinned to the chef and said, “I got your notice today. Sorry I’m late.”

The chef shrugged. “Well, you
are
undercover. It’s nice you could come.”

He inclined his head towards her, but the girl had sprinted to him by then. She threw her arms around him and leapt. He caught her, holding her for a moment. They didn’t kiss. It wasn’t that type of embrace. The girl held onto him as if he might disappear. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, and as he held her, he closed his eyes, a blissful expression coming over him before he smoothed some of her hair from her forehead. Then, very slowly, he lowered his head so his forehead was resting atop hers.

They remained like that for a few more beats before another guy—this one with sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes—walked down from his seat, where he’d been sitting next to the girl. . Grinning, he waited, giving a nod of respect as the other guy lifted his head and looked to him. Still holding the girl, he reached out a hand. The two males clasped each other’s hands, and as they did, an understanding passed over everyone in the room. This was a heartfelt welcome home, among all three of them.

“Taryn,” the guy with grey eyes murmured. “Let me go so I can give your boyfriend a hug.”

She laughed, relinquishing her hold. As she stepped back, she wiped the corners of her eyes and gave both a watery grin. “Sorry. Yes. Hug away.”