Lifebound (10 page)

On the morning of their penultimate day on the island, he woke with a mixture of regret and excitement. He’d really enjoyed himself at the spa—more than he thought he would, thanks to Adriana—and he would miss it. He’d miss the breathing and the relaxation. He’d even miss the wolfpack continually pestering him for another skating tip. The last couple of days, he’d even felt strong enough again to try doing a few tricks—until Sarka had caught him doing ollies over her flower pots and threatened them all with expulsion until the boards were completely put away.

But he was also excited. He couldn’t wait to take Adriana home with him. He hoped she wouldn’t feel overloaded by his family. Fortunately, they weren’t the huggy-kissy kind, so he expected she could get away with only a couple of casual touches, like the inevitable hug from his mother. Adriana was more likely to get talked to death at his parents’ house, and he hoped she was ready to tell all about growing up a Velen. The lamia part would have to wait until after the wedding.

That was the other thing he was excited about. The instant they left the ferry, he was taking her into the first jewelry store he saw for an engagement ring.

But he was going to ask her to marry him after dinner that very night.

Chapter Eleven

A
driana had heard all kinds of stories about the farewell dinners at Wiccan Haus. Apparently the staff never repeated a theme, but tailored each to the clientele and the state of affairs between the various couples that had inevitably formed. Tonight’s finale found most everyone—Sarka and Cyrus the most obvious absentees—at low tables on the beach surrounded by torches.

Preston Mitchell—“the suit,” as Josh liked to call him—stepped through the flowered archway onto the beach with a very attractive older woman at his side. Preston had ditched the suit that evening for a comfortable looking pair of slacks, a garish flowered shirt, and a pair of sandals.

Adriana had only known the investment banker by his all-business reputation until coming here. Tonight Preston actually smiled and looked at ease. Maybe the island had been good for him. Maybe he wasn’t quite as much of a shark as rumor would have it. The older gentleman certainly seemed happy as Sage slipped a lei of tropical flowers over his head.

“I can’t believe we’re having a farewell luau in New England,” Josh said quietly at her side, fingering his own flower necklace. “I could understand a clam bake, but a luau just seems weird.”

“There is a reason for everything that happens at Wiccan Haus,” Rekkus said from behind him. “I guarantee you that somebody needs this to be a luau.”

“Maybe it’s so you can watch me hula later,” Dana teased her mate as she strolled to the table beside theirs, a provocative wiggle to her hips. Rekkus growled at her—he actually growled—as he joined her.

“I think you should hula too,” Josh said with a rakish grin, those sexy dimples making her warm all over as he flashed them at her. He adjusted the flower in her hair with a gentle touch, and a feeling ran through her—something not sexual, something else entirely. At first she was afraid because this feeling was strange and new, something she’d never felt.

When she finally named it, a deep contentment settled into her bones.

Recognition. She finally knew who he was.

He was that other part of her that had been missing all this time. He was the piece of herself that she’d always had to live without.

She hadn’t even known he was lost from her before she found him.

The earth moved under her feet as every priority in her life subtly readjusted itself. From that moment on, every facet of her life would circle around the central core of her relationship with Josh.

A sudden burst of anxiety flashed through her as she considered just how thoroughly her entire existence would change. Then he ran his hand softly over her hair once more in a gesture so tender her breath caught.

“I’ll hula for you,” she promised, “tonight and every night for the rest of our lives.” She pulled his head down to hers for a soft, sweet kiss, keeping the tightest rein possible on her power to drain him so that only a bare trickle of his life energy flowed into her.

Yet even after she’d broken the contact, she could still feel him resonating next to her, their energies vibrating together, strumming her body like the sweet overtones of a pair of violins perfectly in tune.

The meal tasted delicious, though unconventional for New England, and between courses the twenty or so guests participated in a variety of cheesy games and dance contests. Josh and Adriana won a bizarre-looking tiki statuette for passing a round breath mint back and forth the most times using only toothpicks held in their teeth.

“We’ve got lots of practice at not using our hands,” Josh said to the losers as they took their seat back at the table.

The tiki’s wide mouth gaped open in a friendly grin, its black eyes shining in the torchlight almost as if it really looked at her, as if it knew a secret it wasn’t quite willing to share.

The party wrapped up at last, and Josh and Adriana waited for the elevator along with Preston and his date, Josh playing with the hem of her blouse.

“So, Josh”—Preston turned to them—“I hear your company is publicly traded.”

“I’m sorry? What?” Josh dropped her clothing. “Yes, for the past three years. Why do you ask?”

Adriana narrowed her eyes as suspicion ran through her. “Mr. Mitchell here is an investment banker. My family has worked with him a great deal over the past years. I’m sure he’s always on the lookout for a new opportunity.”

“Absolutely,” the older man agreed. “What’s the stock symbol for your group, Josh? I’d like to look into it as a potential addition to my clients’ portfolios.”

Josh rattled off the letters, but the elevator doors opened before anything more could be said. As the two couples rode together to the third floor, Adriana studied Preston’s profile. She knew what he was thinking. Preston Mitchell was one of the paranormal world’s most illustrious investment bankers. He was completely human, but a financial wizard in his own right and had been sought out by the Syndicate as a liaison between Wall Street and their wealth. He would be certainly familiar with her family and the Lamia Council.

They stepped out into the hallway and the couples parted ways. As they entered Josh’s room, Adriana told Josh she’d be right back. Then she headed down the hall where Preston was opening the door of his own room.

“Mr. Mitchell.”

“Please, it’s Preston.” He opened his door and handed his date inside, then turned back to speak with her.

Adriana nodded. “Preston, just why are you interested in Josh’s company?”

“A good investor is always on the lookout for a stock about to rise in price. With a daughter of the Velens at his side, I look to see great things from your young man,” Preston said matter-of-factly. “I will, of course, hold off for the official announcement by the Council, but I want to be ready and ahead of the mundane market.”

“Isn’t that insider trading?” Adriana said. The thoughts of going before the Council with her request for a new host—a skateboarding host—made her stomach flip nervously.

“What the mundane world does not know will not hurt it. However, I would not dream of making the purchases before it is officially announced in the paranormal world. The Syndicate would indeed label that as insider trading, and I have no intention of endangering my relationship with them, rest assured.”

“No one knows about me and Josh.” Adriana gave him a hard warning look. “No one off this island.”

He looked down at the doorknob in his hand for a moment, then turned to her with a reassuring smile. “Word will travel fast once you reach the mainland. All the guests here, paranormal and human alike, can see what’s going on between the two of you. The Council will find out, my dear. One way or another, they will find out.”

A dark cloud descended around Adriana as she considered his words. A few doors down, Josh stepped out into the hallway to look for her.

“Good night, Miss Velen.” Preston inclined his head in a polite bow, as if she were some kind of royalty.

She nodded and rapidly retraced her steps toward Josh’s room.

“You have to see this,” Josh said as he walked closer, his hand reaching out to her.

She brushed his fingertips lightly in the abbreviated form of handholding they’d developed. But her conversation with Preston had left her shaken and with such poor control that she drew on him a little without meaning to.

He backed into the room ahead of her and gestured toward a basket on the small dining table in the corner. It held a chilled bottle of champagne, a variety of fruits and chocolates, and a cream colored envelope with their names scrawled across the front.

Adriana set the tiki down and picked up the envelope. “What does it say?”

“I don’t know. I was waiting for you.”

She pulled out a card bearing the Wiccan Haus logo. The paper was rich and heavy and inside was a handwritten note. Their heads bent closely together, but careful not to touch, Adriana took the card and began to read.

Josh and Adriana—

By now the luau is over. You can thank Myron for that choice of celebration. Apparently it was in the cards. I am sorry that I was not able to attend, but I have been working very hard on a gift for the two of you and the effort will have left me exhausted. Cyrus will stay with me as he isn’t much on parties either.

The tiki Myron foresaw you win is more than an ugly home décor piece. It has the uncommon magical property of being able to shield its possessors from the flow of energy that surrounds us. As you know, lamia tap into this flow constantly and need the anchor of their host to balance themselves; otherwise, their volatile personal energy fields do odd things like blow light bulbs. (Those were added to your bill, by the way.)

However, my little Hawaiian friend can temporarily cut you both off from the energy flow and allow you to touch each other freely without the exchange or the subsequent danger to Josh.

I wish I could tell you that you can use this item as often as you wish, but unfortunately that is not the case. His power lasts only about two hours and must be recharged through a fairly involved and very exhausting process. I will likely sleep for at least twenty-four hours once I have finished this charge.

And also unfortunately, repeating the use of the tiki too soon has very dangerous repercussions for you, Adriana, and less so for you, Josh. Adriana, you cannot cut yourself off from your life-giving energy source too often, or you run the risk of serious harm to yourself, including death. These two hours you spend together will likely be the last two for at least eighteen months. You should be completely recovered by then, and you will be more than welcome to return to Wiccan Haus for another use of the tiki.

At the bottom of this card I have printed the final words of the incantation that must be spoken in order to activate the spell. Before you speak them aloud, I ask you to consider very seriously whether you want to even use it at all. Perhaps it would be best to part now as friends rather than live as frustrated lovers.

However, I did want to give you the choice.

Best regards,

Sarka Rowan

At the bottom of the card were the words
ku’oko’a ipo mea po’ino
.

“Are you sure, Adriana?” he asked her, his bright blue eyes serious. “If we do this now, there’s no going back. It’ll be a year and a half before we can do it again. Are you one hundred percent certain this is what you want?”

“Oh, yes.” She clutched the card tightly in her fingers. “I don’t care about next year. I don’t care about tomorrow. All we have is now.”

Josh nodded, took the card in his hand, and carefully pronounced the words that would complete the spell.

At first she felt nothing, no change in the energy pulse that constantly surrounded her.

“Did it work?” Josh asked in a quiet voice.

Just as Adriana began to shrug in reply, the energy field that had sustained her since the day she was born vanished.

If all the air had left the room or if gravity had ceased to hold her feet to the floor, the change could not have been more overwhelming or more terrifying. Josh’s arms caught her before she could even register the fact that she was falling. The entire world slipped on its axis, and she went completely blind to one of her most important senses.

“Are you okay?” he asked. His firm grip supported her as he pushed the hair away from her face to peer into her eyes.

She tried to keep breathing, to pull in oxygen to replace the sudden lack of contact with the electromagnetic forces that both grounded and energized her.

“Talk to me.” Josh crushed her against him. “Please, Adriana, answer me. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she finally said. “It’s just the strangest feeling. How do you function without being able to feel the earth within you?”

“I can go get somebody. I bet Sage has candles.”

“No, no.” The world gradually stopped dropping into space, and she regrouped her senses to concentrate on all the things she could feel—Josh’s hand cupping her cheek tenderly, the muscles of his chest where she pressed against him, his hand warm against her waist as he held her so close, protecting her from forces he couldn’t even fathom. She felt cherished.

And there was no pull between them. No pull against his life that she had to fight. “It’s gone, Josh,” she whispered. “I can’t feel you.”

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, tangling his hand into her hair and pulling her into him to bury his face against her neck. “I’m so sorry.”

She forced her feet beneath her again and reached up to his face, feeling the skin beneath her fingertips where the barest hint of beard began to break through the barrier of his morning shave. She’d never felt that before. A garden of discovery opened before her. Every inch of him could be hers without fear. Hers to enjoy. His lips trembled a little against hers as she kissed him, leisurely at first, just enjoying the sensation.

Then she pulled away just far enough to speak. “I’m not sorry, Josh. I’m not sorry at all.”