[Southern Arcana 1] Crux (16 page)

“Jesus. More than okay. So much more than okay.” He couldn’t hold back the satisfaction that flared at her words. “Good.” He pressed another kiss to her cheek. “Now I really,
really
need to go.”

She still looked dazed, but her expression faded from sleepy and sated to perplexed. “Wait, what? You can’t go.” Her hip rubbed his erection and she smiled. “That’s not fair.” He swallowed his groan. “Neither is life in general, darlin’, and more’s the pity.”

Her lips sought his, and she kissed him gently, tracing her tongue over his lower lip. “I’m not going to pin you down and force you to have hot sex with me, but I’m more than willing.” He rolled away. “If I don’t go now, Mahalia will whip my ass. Hell, she might do it anyway.”

Mackenzie laughed. “You’re scared of a sweet little lady.

That’s cute.”

He stared at the ceiling fan and willed his heart to slow its pounding. “She is sweet. Until she thinks you’re taking advantage of some pretty young thing in trouble.” Her fingers trailed lightly up his arm. “Want me to tell her
I
took advantage of
you
?” He eased off the bed. “Then she might whip your ass.

She’s protective of me.”

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She chuckled again, low and warm and with a husky, sated edge that made it hard as hell to keep from turning around and climbing back over her, sliding into her. “Fine. But just because I’m letting you go now doesn’t mean I’m not going to pounce on you as soon as the bad guys are taken care of.”

“I’ll consider that a promise.” He chanced a look at her, taking in her disheveled hair and flushed skin. “Sleep tight, Mackenzie.”

Her lips curled in a lazy smile. “Good night, Jackson. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Jackson thought that maybe a dip in the pool would help cool his libido, but he didn’t get past removing his shirt before Mahalia’s voice stopped him. “Hang on a second, Casanova.” He turned to find her sitting in a wrought-iron chair on the patio, smoking. “You know those things’ll kill you, right?”

“Not before you do, kid.” She flicked ashes onto the grass. “You two ran Steven off.”

“He heard?”

“Yeah.” She looked annoyed. “He heard.” Jackson snorted. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt your booty call?”

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“Hush your mouth.” The words lacked heat, and Mahalia fastened him with an appraising stare. “Do you really think you need to be messing around with that girl right now? With everything she’s gone through, not to mention what she’s got ahead of her?”

He had to look away. “It’s not like that, May.” Mahalia tilted her head. “
Tsk
. I saw you earlier, Jack. She lights you up.” She held up a hand to halt his protest. “Mind you, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If you find someone who makes you feel that way, you should grab ’em and hold on.

The problem is the situation.”

Jackson wanted to deny it, all of it. He wanted to say he liked Mackenzie just fine, but there was nothing going on between them. But the way she’d felt beneath him wasn’t nothing, so he shrugged at his mentor. “What do you want from me?”

Her answer was firm. “I want you to say that you’re thinking with more than your dick, and I want you to mean it.”

“Jesus, May.” Jackson’s cheeks heated. “Fine. I’m thinking with more than my dick.”

She extinguished her cigarette. “All right.”

“I mean it,” he insisted. “Nothing happened, because this whole thing is just messed up, and that’s no way to start something.”

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“No, it isn’t.” She rose from her chair. “I remember when I first met you, Jack. You were…miserable. Working that awful job at the insurance company, no friends. But you always smiled and joked, and not a single one of the regulars at the bar knew just how unhappy you were.” As a cautionary tale, its clarity was questionable. “I’m not sure I get your meaning, May.”

She sighed. “If you can let this woman see beneath all that good ol’ boy bullshit, I think she could be good for you. And I
know
you could be good for her.” She was warning him again, he was sure of it, but he just grumbled, “I’m going to go pull out the sofa in the living room.”

Mahalia smiled. “Good boy.”

He made a face and reached for the sliding glass door.

“Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“She’d be lucky to have you.”

Jackson was watching infomercials on the converted sofa bed when Steven came back. He nodded to the older man as he flipped channels. “Sorry about earlier. You didn’t have to go.”

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Steven leaned against the doorframe and gave him a flat look. “I really did.”

“Mahalia already read me the riot act. Not that I needed it,” he added pointedly.

Steven dropped into the chair beside the couch. “I’m heading to the airport in the morning. I can’t do anything to help until Peyton arrives, and my presence could put you all in danger. But there are things you need to know before I go.

Things
she’ll
need to know when she’s ready. You’re going to have to tell her if I can’t.”

Jackson turned off the television. “All right.” Steven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I have to leave because there’s no spell you can cast to hide me from Charles Talbot.” A bitter smile tugged at his lips as he opened his eyes again, and the look in them was chilling. “Blood calls to blood. That’s what Mahalia says. He’s my uncle.” Jackson just stared at him, trying to make sense of his words. “That’s why you were helping Mackenzie’s parents.

How you even knew they needed help. Jesus.”

“It was supposed to be voluntary,” Steven said quietly.

“Cougar couples who believed in Charles’s dream, who were willing to work with him. I wasn’t around much because I was the one who traveled the country to
find
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came home, they were dead and Charles was raising Marcus as his own son.”

“Talbot killed them.” It wasn’t a question.

“The closer he got to success the more…unbalanced he became.” Steven rubbed at the side of his face. “It seems brutal, the way the wolves treat Michelle, but there’s a reason Seers are so feared. Having access to that much power…

Charles started to think he could play God.” Anger welled in Jackson with surprising speed, and he rose from the sofa bed and began to pace. “Except he wasn’t just
playing
God, was he? He was getting it done, and you were helping.”

Steven didn’t defend himself, only nodded. “Yes. I was helping. I’ve tried to tell myself over the years that I didn’t know, but there’s nothing I can do to change what happened.

All I can say is that as soon as I realized he wasn’t looking for willing participants, I tried to make it right.” Jackson fought to calm himself. Whatever Steven’s role in Talbot’s operation had been, it was ancient history.

“Mackenzie was already on the way, so you took her parents to New Orleans. To Mahalia.”

“I’d met her during one of my trips,” Steven confirmed.

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while I tracked down Zacharias. It took four years to find him.

Even then he was a virtual recluse.”

Jackson leaned on the arm of the couch. “Wait, so…

Mahalia knew Mackenzie after she was born?”

“No. She cast the spells, but they didn’t stay in contact.

They were only supposed to call Mahalia if there was an emergency, even after Zacharias cast his spell. Simon and Janice called her when Charles came after them, but by the time we got there all that was left was an empty, burned-out house.”

“The fire that supposedly killed them all.”

“Yes. That’s the end of what I know. Janice, Simon and Jessica Evans disappeared. I didn’t believe any of them had survived until Mahalia called me.”

Jackson nodded, his jaw tight. “We’ll have to get the rest of the story from Talbot when we find him.”

“Jackson—” Steven’s expression was serious. “You
have
to understand what we’re dealing with. Charles isn’t just powerful; he’s experienced. He’s had over sixty years to fine-tune his skills, and he has more raw power than anyone you’ve ever met. If we get the chance, we take him out. No questions, no complicated plans and no asking him why. It’s the only way Mackenzie will
ever
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Jackson ran his hands through his hair. “If he’s so damn powerful, how exactly are we supposed to take him out in the first place? Do we have a plan?”

“We have Michelle.”

“
That’s
your plan?” Jackson asked, incredulous. They couldn’t throw Nick’s sister at Charles Talbot and hope she managed to best him. “Will there be a steel cage involved, or is this going to be more of a street fight?” Steven sighed. “That’s not the plan. But she’s the only one with a chance of stopping him, and unless you can tell me exactly what she’s capable of, I don’t know
how
to plan at this point. Mahalia has the experience and Michelle has the raw power. We’ll do what
they
think will work.” His smile was self-deprecating. “I’m just the muscle.” Jackson dropped to the sofa again. “I’m sorry. I feel so damn
helpless
. But that’s not your fault, so I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“You like her.”

Jackson played dumb. “Who, Mahalia?”

Steven snorted.

Jackson shot him a look. “Fine, yes. I like Mackenzie. I thought that much would have been obvious, seeing as how you had to leave when she and I started making out.”

“I didn’t ask if you wanted her. You’re both young, attractive and dealing with a lot of stress. Sex wouldn’t be www.samhainpublishing.com 177

Moira Rogers

terribly surprising. I was asking if there was something more going on.”

It was Jackson’s turn to snort. “I tend to save my requests for casual sex for women whose lives
aren’t
in danger, thanks.”

“I suppose I screwed up taking care of her and have no right to worry now.” He shrugged. “I want to do a better job this time. Take care of her, Jackson.”

“I will,” he promised. “Don’t worry about her.”

“Take care of Mahalia too,” Steven added with a grin.

“Just don’t tell her I told you to. She’ll kick both of our asses.”

“Will do. Thanks, Steven.”

Steven smiled as he rose. “Good night, Jackson.”

“’Night.” Jackson watched him go, trying to not to think about the fact that the man was headed in the direction of Mahalia’s bedroom. Instead, he settled back down on the sofa bed and retrieved the remote control again.

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It was a sign of how much better she felt about the world in general that Mackenzie didn’t panic when a gentle hand on her shoulder woke her. She rolled over with a sleepy yawn and blinked at Jackson’s face in the dim light. “Hey.” He smiled softly as he lowered himself to the bed. “Hey.

Mahalia’s making breakfast and Steven just caught a cab. It’s safest for everyone if he leaves now.”

His words distracted her from how nice it was to wake up to his smile. “What do you mean? Why are we safer if he’s gone?”

“Because Talbot can find him,” he answered simply.

“Maybe easier than he can find the rest of us. It’s hard to explain.”

She took him at his word and moved closer to slide her arm around him. “You’re staying here though, right?”

“Of course I am.”

Mackenzie smiled, feeling surprisingly at peace. A full night’s sleep in a comfortable bed had done wonders for her
Moira Rogers

state of mind. So had the memory of how amazing Jackson’s body had felt pressing hers into the mattress.

“We said no sex,” she murmured as she rubbed lazily at his back, “but what are your feelings on good morning kisses?”

“Acceptable under most circumstances.” He wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger. “Is that a purely hypothetical question, or were you planning to ravish me?” She probably had morning breath and most of her hair had escaped its braid to tangle wildly around her head, but she didn’t care. “It depends. Hypothetically, do you have anywhere else you need to be?”

He considered the question with too much deliberateness to be believed. “Hmm. I was going to take a shower, but I might have a little time. Maybe just a few smooches. Like this.” He feathered a kiss across the tip of her nose.

The gesture made her laugh as she played with the hair at the back of his head, just above his neck. “I’m going to kiss you.” She whispered the words against his cheek. “Really, really kiss you. Open mouths and tongues and maybe some whimpering. If you’re not interested, you might want to run.” Heat flared in his eyes, darkening them. “Oh, I’m interested.”

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“Good.” She only had to shift her mouth an inch to the side to catch his lower lip between hers, and she ran her tongue teasingly along it before kissing him in earnest.

He moaned softly and tilted his head, bringing his lips closer to hers, his tongue delving into her mouth as he cupped the back of her neck. His warm, strong fingers on the sensitive skin made her shiver.

She wasn’t sure when she made the conscious decision to move, but she was suddenly on her back, her arms around him as he leaned over her, his mouth leaving hers to skim over the edge of her jaw to her throat. “Is this going to hold you over?”

“No.” She laughed and tilted her head back, loving the feeling of his lips on her. “But I suppose I’ll manage somehow. Especially since Mahalia’s all of thirty feet away right now.”

Jackson rose from the bed. “I’ll be out of the shower in time for pancakes, so save me some, all right?”