The Soul Mate (6 page)

“Now I’m just kinda pissed he left me
somewhere I don’t really belong. I’m a goddamn mechanic in a clan
of some of the most powerful Roma in the world.” He looked down and
snorted.

I could identify. I didn’t belong here
either. The fire meeting tonight had, once again, painfully driven
that stake a just a little deeper.

Even Gerik, who claimed to care for me and
desire me, still wouldn’t share so many things with me. Things I
knew he could easily share with Onyx, a fellow Roma. I had to
question how anything between us could ever be real when a wall of
secrets would always lay smack in the middle.

“See you later fată.” Xan nodded at Gerik,
who had wandered over to us and was watching me curiously. Probably
wondering why I had been avoiding him the entire day. No bruises
marred his perfect face. A whisper of pity for Xan slithered
through me. Gerik won everything, got everything he wanted.

“Frate,” Xan said to Gerik. He left quickly,
walking toward the fire pit.

“Where have you been? And why are you
smoking?” Gerik asked. “I thought that after…" He trailed off. I
mean, I thought we were good.”

Good? What did that mean?

“Everything is fine.” I tried to walk around
him but he mimicked my footsteps and blocked my way.

He shook his head. “You are avoiding me.”

I sighed. “I’m not. Honestly.”

Skepticism crossed his features.

“I’m really not. I just needed some…” I
paused thinking of how Simza had almost accidently betrayed some
magical Roma secret in my presence and had been shushed by her
mother.

I shot him a hard look. “I needed some Gaje
time.”

He rolled his eyes. “You can’t take it
personally Trinity, you’re not one of us, you can’t expect an
entire culture to change their ways overnight because you have hurt
feelings.”

“No,” I said, agreeing with him. “I
don’t.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Gerik, it isn’t them I expect anything
from.”

He narrowed his blue eyes in confusion while
I continued to stare at him.

“Me,” He said flatly as realization hit. “You
expect it of me even though you know I can’t, yeah?”

"Can’t? Or won’t?” I shot back.

Gerik drew himself to his full height, his
legs spread wide and his jaw set in a hard line. He laced his hands
behind his neck causing his t-shirt to pull up, exposing his
abdomen. My breathing increased as the thin cotton stretched tight
across his broad expanse of muscled chest.

I drank him in, the sight of him, the smell
of him, all instantly steering me away from my anger. All my
previous hurts fled as the magic that compelled me to react to
Gerik in this manner infused me. Unwillingly I took a step closer
to him.

My reactions to him never went unnoticed.
With his hands still around his neck, he took a step forward as
well, his eyes now burning gray.

“Let me come home with you tonight,” He
whispered.

My body screamed yes. The blood streaming
under my skin itched and burned to move forward, to touch skin to
skin, and fuse with this man.

“I can make you feel better Trinity. You know
I can make everything better.”

My will broke and although Gerik’s facial
expression hadn’t changed, his eyes shone brilliantly with
triumph.

“Are we interrupting?” Shandor’s head
appeared in between us. He was grinning like a jack-o-lantern.
Behind him were two of the Horváth triplets, an arm slung over each
of them.

“Oh Gods,” I mumbled, shaking my head
clear.

“And sometimes you make everything worse,” I
pointedly told Gerik.

Gerik continued to stare at me until I felt
like I had empty holes where my eyes had been. I had never thought
of him as anything but Gerik, but for the first time he looked
frightening. Between his height and his impressive muscular
stature, he was a formidable sight. Add the ridged set of his jaw
and the moonlight glinting off his eyes, he looked downright
scary.

He turned abruptly then, nearly knocking into
Xan and Fifi. His long legs ate up the distance back to the living
lot in a matter of seconds.

CHAPTER SIX

“Gimme the bottle Xan!” Fifi whined jumping
on Xan’s back.

“Chill fată.” He took a swig and passed the
bottle upwards to her.

“You okay Trin?” Xan’s dark eyes missed
nothing.

I didn’t answer him.

“I do believe this is a first frate. A fată
ignoring you!” Shandor mocked from beneath the eager lips of the
youngest triplet, Magdolna.

Fifi burst out laughing, causing her to lose
her footing around Xan, who hadn’t been holding onto her. She
landed hard on her bottom. Still studying me, Xan reached down to
snatch his bottle back from her. “You’re free to join us if you’d
like.”

I snorted. The thought of being the fifth
wheel in their drunken orgy didn’t sound the least bit fun. I shook
my head and turned to go.

“You think you’re too good for us, Gaje?”
Fifi’s pretty face was scrunched up in a scowl and she was pointing
a long, red fingernail at me.

“She’s just playing hard to get, aren’t you?”
Shandor released Magdolna’s face for a few seconds to grin at me.
Yep, I thought. Definitely a hyena.

“Yeah, that’s it,” I muttered. “As I walk
home I am going to be wishing one of you had begged me to stay and
partake in… in whatever the hell this is? Gypsies gone wild?”

Xan’s eyes narrowed.

Fifi balled up her fist and struck a very
menacing pose for a 5’3”, 110 pound girl. Xan, smirking, grabbed
her by the waist and pulled her back.

“Aw Trin, you’re selling yourself short. I
seem to remember just last night by the creek seeing a very
public-

“XAN!” I shouted over him as realization
dawned. “Shut. Up.”

His smile was lazy but his eyes were as sharp
as knives, ready to slice straight through any dignity I had.

“Please…” He mocked, his lips curving into a
wicked smile.

“Please…” He repeated. All eyes were on me
now.

“So did he Trin?” Xan’s tone had gone from
mocking to downright acidic. “Did Gerik give you what you needed?
Cuz, from where I was standing, it sure as hell looked like
it.”

Shandor and Magdolna exploded in laughter
behind me.

“You are such a jerk,” I hissed.

“Aww Xan…” Fifi slipped in front of him,
wrapping her arms around his neck, lifting her chin. “You made the
little Gaje slut upset.” Giggling seductively, she went up on her
toes, moving in for a kiss.

Using her hair to angle her head the way he
wanted it, he kissed her back. Within seconds Fifi was mewling
softly, rocking her body against Xan’s.

I was instantly jealous. Not of Fifi’s
rendezvous with Xan, but of the freedom she had to do as she
pleased. At any time she could pull away from him, he had no
supernatural power unwillingly tethering her to him. I didn’t have
that luxury.

Xan glanced up and caught me staring. My face
heated. Whipping around, I stalked quickly in the direction of the
creek.

“I should ask that Até lover to get me some
Xanax instead of Midol,” I sputtered.

“If you didn’t call me a… whatever the hell
you just called me, I just might do it.”

I closed my eyes and blew out a breath. He
must have literally thrown Fifi off of him to catch up to me this
quickly.

“Why in all the Gods are you following me,
don’t you have females in need of your expert services?”

He grinned. “You’re a female.”

I nearly choked. “Not when it comes to
you.”

“Fată, if I was after that sweet stash of
yours, I could have already had it.”

I gaped at him. “You did not just say that to
me.”

“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Xan began
individually cracking his knuckles as he looked up at the sky, his
face a portrait of arrogance. “I’ve seen the way you look at me,
like you’re soaking wet and need me to wring you out until you’re
good and dry.”

I think I had a mini heart attack just then.
“You piece of-

“Whoa! Trin! Back up the hate truck. I just
came over here to apologize. I was way out of line back there fată.
What happens between you and Gerik is none of anyone’s
business.”

He continued to grin. “But don’t be
embarrassed about being caught in the middle of the big ‘O’. You
looked damn good all heated up.”

My jaw went lax. I had no idea how to respond
to that.

“Your idea of apologizing is very odd,” I
told him.

He took a very deliberate step toward me.
“Want me to try again?” He asked in a low voice.

Feeling like a cornered rabbit, I immediately
put my hand up and took a step backwards. “I thought you weren’t
after my… uh… whatever you said.”

Xan froze and covered his face with his
hands. His shoulders began to shake with laughter.

“What?” I asked him, confused.

With a loud guffaw, he looked up at me and
burst into full hysterics. “You’re too goddamn innocent for your
own good, you know that?” He continued laughing at me.

Feeling like a complete idiot, I did the only
thing left to do, I turned to leave. “I really hate you,” I told
him.

“Wait!" He called after me. "Fată-

A scream sliced through his words, more
screams followed. I glanced back. Xan’s head was whipping back and
forth.

Suddenly rushing me, Xan grabbed me from
behind. His arms were like bands of steel across my stomach.

“Wh…what?”

“The wards are down!”

My stomach dropped. I looked around, noticing
nothing at all different about the camp, but I wouldn’t notice the
differences; I had no sense of magic at all. Apparently having a
Roma for a mother at least gave you the perception of magic,
something Xan obviously had, even if he didn’t actually have any
powers.

A loud growl had my head jerking to the
left.

“Xan!” I whispered, as he began herding me
over toward the circle of vehicles. We slid in between one of the
large panel vans and a truck.

“I know!” He hissed. “I heard it!”

We stood there, my back pressed to his
stomach, barely breathing, listening to the sounds of shooting and
yelling from the living lot. What was actually only minutes felt
like hours.

“The wards are back up,” Xan breathed against
my face, his breath smelling strongly of whisky. Hearing that, I
nearly collapsed in relief.

A sharp peal of laughter from behind us had
my stomach leaping back up into my throat. Xan’s grip on me
tightened, his fingers dug painfully into my hipbones. His heart
was hammering a wild rhythm against my back.

A blur of skin in front of us caught my eye.
Then another, this time to the side of us.

“Fuckers are surrounding us,” Xan whispered.
He let go of me long enough to fumble with the leg of his pants.
When his arms returned, he was checking the chamber of his gun. A
cacophony of throaty masculine laughter echoed around us.

“You think to kill us with that, human?”

“I think I’ll kill you with my bare hands if
you take one more step,” Xan shot back. It only made them laugh
harder.

Freaking out, I clutched Xan tighter.

“Run Trin,” Xan whispered into my ear. “I’m
going to distract them. As soon as they make a grab for me, just
run.”

“I can’t,” I managed to choke out. I was
terrified. There was no way I was going to take off running into
what would surely be my death.

The creature in front of us stepped out of
the shadows, revealing himself. I couldn’t contain the tremor of
terror that rippled through me or the gasp that found its way out
of my mouth. Seeing his grin, a mouth full of fangs already
dripping blood, caused my terror to skyrocket. Had he fed on
someone from camp? Was Becki alright? Little Benyamin? Adi?

Xan tensed, ready for the attack. “I mean it
Trin." He ground out, "You’d better run.”

“I can’t,” I told him, through chattering
teeth.

“Stupid girl,” He spat at me.

Before I could respond, chaos erupted.
Gunfire boomed in my ears, followed by garbled howling growls.

The face of the creature in front of us
exploded just as he sprang to attack. A mess of blood and bone
sprayed wildly upon impact. Xan turned me roughly in his arms, then
hoisted me up and over him. He ran from the scene, clutching me
tightly to him.

Small battles were being waged all around us.
The creatures, although few, were much stronger than humans, much
faster, and healed at the speed of lightening.

But these were no ordinary humans they had
decided to try and make an evening snack out of. I had wanted a
lesson in Roma magic and I was about to get one, up close and
personal.

“Xan!” I screamed, able to only watch as a
naked blur of breasts and fangs tore through the trees and launched
herself at us. He jerked a hard left toward the living lot but
wasn’t fast enough.

My breath left my lungs in one big ‘whoosh’
as we hit the ground hard. Xan quickly pushed me away from him and
began struggling valiantly with the creature that’d jumped astride
him. She slashed wildly at him with talon tipped fingers. With both
hands wrapped around her throat, he struggled to fend off her
fangs. He was going to tire long before she was.

Frozen in fear, I could only watch. He was
going to die right in front of me, just as my baby sister had, and
I was helpless once again, unable to move.

The screams were deafening. The grinding
metal and whirring motors of the carnival rides could no longer be
heard above the sounds of human terror.

“
Trinity!” Tahyra screamed, trapped behind
a wall of people, trampling each other in an attempt to flee. I
could only stare as the gruesome mass of blood and limbs surged
forward, enveloping her.

“
Trinity!” She screamed again, her arms
outstretched, reaching for me.