Time's Daughter (26 page)

“
But apparently you purr,” I added
with a smile.

“
Was I supposed to dislike that you
were touching me just about everywhere?”

My cheeks flushed hot at the reminder. Not only had
I been touching him everywhere, for all intents and purposes, he’d
been nude. “I was feeling for wounds.”

His grin returned and increased mischievously. “In
that case I ought to get into fights more often.”

I swatted him on the arm, frowning as I did. “That
isn’t funny. I was really worried.”

Alex snatched up the hand that had hit him and
pulled me forward until I was inches from him. He kissed me lightly
on the nose. “Well, you really worried me too. Do you always run
into a fight instead of away?”

“
I don’t know. It was the first time
I’ve been involved in one.”

“
You earned my mother’s
respect.”

“
But not the others.” It was a guess
on my part based on his wording.

Alex snorted in irritation. “I’m not sure you’ll
ever be able to win Alicia over because of what you are.”

“
What I am?”

“
A Time witch.”

“
But I’m not a Time
witch.”

“
You manipulate time. It’s enough to
earn her anger.” He glanced away as he spoke. “Her husband was
killed by someone who could.”

My eyes rounded at the idea of someone good,
someone’s husband, being killed by a time manipulator like me.

“
That’s awful. No wonder she hates
me.”

“
She doesn’t hate you.” He assured
me though I didn’t believe it. “She hates what you are. If she knew
you at all, she’d adore you like the rest of us.”

“
You adore me?”

A slow smile spread across his face. His gaze
lowered to my mouth. Alex gave a lazy blink. My pulse quickened in
anticipation. It amazed me that he didn’t have to touch me to get
such a reaction.

Alex’s hand lifted to my right cheek as he leaned
forward to meet my lips.

Nervously I laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“
I more than adore you, Aeon.” The
serious expression that had descended into his eyes made me take
note. He truly believed it. “And I’d adore you even more if you’d
kiss me.”

“
I am kissing you,” I said with a
gesture to our nearly touching lips.

Alex pulled back into his seat with a sly half
smile. I considered following him so I could continue to kiss him
but decided against it. We were in a car, alone, at night. There
was only so much kissing we could do before it would have to go
further.

“
I hate that we are hounded by
cameras,” Alex said as I slid back to my own seat. “I want to take
you out for a nice date tomorrow but I know we’ll have at least one
person following our every move.”

“
It will be a nice date
anyway.”

His lips twisted at me. “How do you know?”

“
Because it’s with you.”

He breathed through his nose in a slight laugh.
“Look how well our last date ended. I want to do something special
to make it up to you.”

I assumed he was referring to my visiting his
family. I hadn’t really considered it a date. “You could take me to
McDonald’s for fries you won on a coupon and it would be
special.”

Alex stared at me silently for a long moment with a
frozen expression. I contemplated adding more to my cheesy line to
make it less pathetic but couldn’t seem to form words on my lips.
He adjusted himself so that he was seated normally in the seat
again and threw his hand up to his forehead.

I’d said something wrong.
He was upset now.
Why did I always have to mess everything up?

“
I must be crazy.” He pressed his
eyes shut and gave a shake of his head.

My stomach flipped sickly. He’d obviously realized
how much of a loser I really was. How could I have said that about
McDonald’s
? People like Alex probably never ate fast
food.

I followed his lead by sitting in the seat as
designed and waiting with an unsettled stomach for him to explain
why he was crazy.

“
You’re going to run screaming to
the hills,” he said at last.

Me?
What could possibly make me run screaming
to the hills if a flesh-eating zombie-thing hadn’t done the
trick?

Alex continued speaking in what sounded to be
sincerity. “I don’t know how it’s possible after only a few weeks
but I think I’m falling in love with you.”

My unsettled stomach flipped again while my heart
skipped several beats. I stared forward in shock, unwilling to look
at him in case he recanted. Gorgeous new guy Alex Chattan thought
he was falling in love with
me
? How had that happened?

“
I mean, I knew I liked you, a lot,”
he said at a rambling pace. “But when you stepped back on that dock
and demanded the thing stop, I was floored. I was also so scared I
could hardly think. I don’t know what I would have done if
something had happened to you.”

I turned toward him, grasped his face in between my
hands and kissed him full on the lips. The startled eyes that
looked into mine slowly slid shut a moment later. I let my eyes
shut as well. Then I kissed him harder.

He was smiling more broadly than I ever recalled
seeing when I pulled back. It was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever
seen. I couldn’t help but smile back.

“
You’re not screaming,” he said
sheepishly.

“
No.”

“
That was nice.”

I nibbled on my lower lip. “I don’t suck at it?”

Alex laughed quickly. “No. No, you definitely don’t
suck at it.”

When am I going to wake up from this dream,
Alex?”

“
What?” He’d sounded
confused.

“
You’re too good to be true. That
usually means I’m either dreaming or I’m missing
something.”

He shifted his pose abruptly, facing me more. Alex’s
tone was incredulous. “You think
I’m
too good to be
true?”

“
Well…yes.”

“
I’m a shapeshifter,” he said. “I
turn into a cat. How can I be too good to be true?”

“
The fact that you’re different
makes you even more too good to be true. Like you said, we can be
ourselves together.” I paused for a breath. “Alex, I barely
functioned all week because I was scared I’d never see you
again.”

He slid his arm behind my shoulder and pulled me to
him for a hug. “We Chattans are a hardy bunch. You’ll be seeing a
lot more of me.”

I couldn’t stop my stupid smile because that was
exactly what I wanted.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The glass behind Alex’s head shattered. A hand
curled over the top of his hair, yanking him away from me. An
animalistic growl emitted from him followed by a cat-like shriek as
his body was pulled through the glass shards into the parking lot
beyond.

Alex shifted into his other form midair and quickly
broke free from his attacker. A half second later his huge midnight
paw clawed the creature in the face.

The shock of it all kept me quiet but it didn’t keep
me frozen. I bounded from the car without a thought for my own
safety and ran around the front of the Chevy to gauge the
situation.

Another seven-foot tall ghastly thin creature with
tattered clothing was attacking my boyfriend. I tried to find an
opening in the fight to apply my special power. Limbs moved far too
quickly as they clawed and swatted each other. Despite the color
difference I could barely make out where the tattered creature
ended and Alex began. I needed them to split apart.

As if hearing my wish, the creature lunged for me,
no doubt because I was tastier smelling than my animal companion.
It was the opening I needed. I jumped forward, laid a hand on its
arm and made it freeze.

The panther clawed and snarled a few more times. He
soon realized his quarry had stopped moving. Alex pulled back
cautiously and eyed the creature closely before trotting to the
back door of his car. He turned to look at me and then nudged the
handle with his nose. I covered the small smile on my face.

Poor Alex.
With no opposable thumbs he
couldn’t do something as simple as open the car door on his own. It
was sweet in a bizarre way.

I didn’t know why he wanted in the car but I wasn’t
going to argue with him. It was his car. If he wanted to tear up
the upholstery with his massive claws then who was I to stop
him?

I closed the distance, waited for him to step back
so there was room and then opened the door for him. He hopped in,
pawed at the door again as if he wanted me to close it and then
settled into the back seat until I had.

A sneezing noise from within had me turning quickly
on my heel to face the opposite direction. I took the opportunity
to pick up Alex’s shredded clothing off the blacktop so that no one
would know we’d been there. The black jeans and gray thermal shirt
he’d been wearing were torn into pieces by the force of his body
changing. Even his tennis shoes had been split in two. How many
sets of clothes did the Chattans go through in a month?

The door opened behind me. I assumed that meant he’d
shifted back but I didn’t dare turn around. Who knew what he was
wearing now.

I blushed at the sight of his naked upper half. He’d
pulled on sweat pants that he’d no doubt stashed in the back of his
car. Apparently he hadn’t thought to bring extra shirts, socks or
shoes. The sight of his wounds offset my embarrassment. Three long
gashes from the glass of the window glistened painfully. I was
instantly concerned that they might not heal properly if he didn’t
get them stitched soon.

“
We can’t leave that thing here and
we certainly can’t set it on fire here. I need to get it home where
it’s safe,” Alex said.

He had a point. The parking lot outside the factory
operating on second shift was not the best place to dispose of a
supernatural creature. I closed the distance to it and waited to be
told what to do.

Alex took hold of the wendigo from behind, careful
not to touch any fluids on it. The thing’s bulky frame was nearly
impossible to get into the car. Alex was forced to climb in the
back seat and tug with all his might until we got the thing halfway
in.

Back in the passenger seat, I sat with a keen gaze
fixed on the disgusting sunken eyes in the seat behind us. If it
awoke from its frozen state, I’d have to put the whammy on it
pronto before it distracted my driver. The last thing we needed was
a bloodthirsty cannibal playing backseat driver.

“
I hope you don’t mind coming out to
the house again,” Alex said as we pulled onto the main
street.

I laughed a little hysterically that he was
bothering to worry about something as simple as that. “No. I
wouldn’t let you drive with this thing in the car without me.”

“
I’m
definitely
falling in
love with you.”

My heart skipped again. It was an odd time to tell
me something like that but somehow it fit perfectly for us.

“
Here.” He handed me a cellular
phone from beneath the armrest before I could respond. “Can you
find ‘home’ and call it? The speaker phone button will show up once
you’ve hit call.”

I fumbled with the digital menus until I found the
item for home. Seconds later the phone rang loudly in the car. I
kept an eye on the wendigo in the back seat in case the phone
disturbed it while holding the screen in between us.

The sugary sweet voice of his little sister
answered. “Lex!”

“
Put Dad on the phone, Abs,” he said
brusquely.

“
Dad!” she shouted without pulling
the phone away. The sound reverberated in my eardrums. “It’s Lex!
He wants to talk to you on the phone.” Abby wasn’t content with
waiting quietly for her father to come to the phone. “Did you kiss
her?”

Alex glanced at me briefly and smiled. “Of course I
kissed her.”

“
Did she notice your foul cat
breath?”

“
Abs,” he griped
petulantly.

“
So you had a breath mint
first?”

“
She can hear you, Abs.”

“
Oh, oopsie,” Abby responded
sheepishly. “Hi, Aeon!”

I chuckled for her benefit. “Hi, Abby.”

“
Here’s Dad.”

The phone changed hands noisily. Arthur’s smooth
voice spoke over the speaker. “Hello?”

Alex was all business. “We’ve got another one of
those things in the back seat. It attacked me while I was in the
car but Aeon froze it. We’re bringing it to you. I’m going to need
help getting it out of the car and doing something with it.”

Arthur swore quietly. “I’ll get the clan together.
Be safe, Alex.”

“
I will.”

The call disconnected abruptly. I set the phone in
the area beneath the armrest then resumed my vigil over the thing
behind me.

Alex’s car stunk now. The odor was unbearable. I had
to open my window to keep from gagging even though it was thirty
degrees outside. The stench was definitely because of the wendigo
because the car had smelled perfectly fine the few times I’d been
in it. It had smelled more than fine. It had smelled like Alex.

“
I’m gonna need a new car,” Alex
grumbled.

“
We’ll spray three bottles of
Febreeze in here.”

“
Well, not only that, but the
window.” He gestured beside him.

“
Your
back
!” I frowned upon
remembering what it had looked like.