Tarnished Knight
Author: Shiloh Walker
Date: 2010-10-09 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Paranormal Romance; Paranormal; Fantasy; Romance; Erotica; Fairy Tales; Urban Fantasy; Adult; Angels
Description: THE MIND FORGETS, BUT THE BODY REMEMBERS. EVERYTHING. Grimm's Circle, Book 4 One look at Jack Wallace and Perci knows he's going to be trouble. Even surrounded by soul stealers, he's a one-man wrecking crew. What does he need Grimm training for? He's already hell on earth, a warrior bent on destruction. And something...more. He's too strong and fast to be a mere mortal. Even covered in blood, he makes her forget she's only here to do a job and get out. It's twisted. Sick. She hasn't felt this alive in three centuries. Born with a natural talent for killing unnatural things, Jack has always kno
Publisher: Independently published
Rights: All Rights Reserved (c) 2010 Shiloh Walker

Dedication

Mandy…you still have to wait. As you can see, you’re not ready yet.

Lynn, I never would have thought to try Rapunzel. But then I got to nosing around and discovered the older version and wheels started to turn.

Ann in CA, thanks for the help. I appreciate it!

Prologue

She looked…broken.

Will stared at her face and tried to remind himself that in stasis, her body healed, her mind slept, and she knew nothing of the painful memories. It had been only weeks…

A warm, comforting presence brushed against his mind.

He wanted to shut it out, but he knew he could not.

“I don’t want to leave her alone,” he said quietly.

There was an acknowledgement…and understanding.

He hadn’t been able to leave Mandy’s side since he’d brought her here.

He couldn’t leave her now.

But—

The knowledge came to him, filled his mind and he knew the job that awaited, who was meant to go to the job and what lay ahead.

What awaited Perci.

Only Perci.

Abruptly, he scowled.

“You mean to separate them? But they belong together,” he said. They needed only to heal to see that.

Even as he said it, he wondered why he asked. He always questioned…and he was always wrong.

There was no answer this time. Just a patient silence.

“Very well.”

Shifting his gaze, he said, “Who is to tell them though? If I’m to remain here…?”

Chapter One

“All of it?”

Luc smirked as he listened to the hair stylist’s horror.

He’d heard the dismay a hundred times, it seemed. More. Every time Perci did this.

“Yep. All of it.”

“But…I don’t get it. Oh, wait, maybe this is for Locks of Love or something? Sweetie, you know, it’s nice you wanting to help those kids with cancer, but most of that’s nothing but a scam. I heard they don’t even get all the hair. There’s better ways to help them, you know.”

At his side, Krell stiffened.

Luc rested a hand on the dog’s head, and without a blink he melded their minds and stared through the dog’s eyes. It was his only way to see…unless Perci let him use her eyes, and she wouldn’t.

Not right now.

She never let him inside when she hurt, and now, she hurt.

Through Krell’s eyes, he could see that her face had gone tight with grief.

Her hands gripped the armrests of the chair.

Swearing under his breath, Luc reached down and grabbed Krell’s harness. He didn’t need it though—he used it more to make those around him comfortable.

He might be blind, but he’d developed a phenomenal sense of awareness living like that for three hundred years.

I am one with the force.

Besides, he also had Krell’s vision. He stopped just a few inches from the chair, reached out and rested a hand on the counter where the stylist kept her tools. There was a pair of scissors there, shears, whatever they called them. “So it’s a haircut you want, chere?” he said.

The stylist gasped with horror as he took the scissors. And she wasn’t quite swift enough to stop him as he spun the chair around, found the thick, heavy cable of Perci’s hair.

“Rapunzel, let down your hair…” he teased as he began to cut through the golden braid.

He was halfway through when the stylist finally emerged from her frozen state.

“Sir, you can’t do that! You…you’re blind!”

“Well, you weren’t doing it,” he pointed out. Politely, he held out the scissors. “She asked for you to cut it off, and you stand here babbling about it instead of doing it, although I do believe that’s your job. If you don’t want me doing it, perhaps you would like to finish it up?”

They left thirty minutes later.

Slipping his arm around her waist, he pressed his lips to Perci’s brow. “She did not intend to make you sad, chere.”

“I know.” She sighed and leaned into him. “I think you almost gave her a heart attack, baby. You really can’t go picking up sharp objects around all these people who don’t get that you’re not going to stumble into them.”

He would have replied, but at just that moment, the pendant he wore around his neck heated.

Perci stiffened, then sighed.

“Well, it looks like we’re working tonight,” she murmured. “Damn it, I wanted to go out, have a drink or something.”

Of course she wanted to go out. Anything to avoid having a quiet night alone with him.

She hated those.

She avoided them as often as possible.

“Perhaps tomorrow.” As he said it, he felt a heavy, painful ache in his heart, one he didn’t entirely understand. Brushing it aside, he reached up and touched his hand to her nape. Touch wasn’t needed for him to see through her eyes, but knowing her emotions were raw, he wanted to warn her before he did so.

Although after so many years together, she likely knew. She turned her head and together, they glanced through the metal exit doors tucked off the side of the mall’s main walkway. It was empty.

“Cameras,” Perci said.

“Yes. Well, if it’s that important, he can handle them. He’ll know they are there.”

“Yes.”

They pushed through the doors and headed outside. Krell walked at their side, his nails clicking on the ground. Luc bent down and lifted the dog in his arms as he felt the tightening in the air. The dog didn’t care for this method of transportation. Gently, he pressed on the dog’s throat until he went lax.

“Sorry, my friend,” he whispered. “It will be easier if you just sleep through this.”

A moment later, he saw the brilliant flash of light through Perci’s eyes.

And then they were passing through it.

The silent and swift travel was a means available only to Will. He could let anybody use it though. Luc didn’t need much time to figure out why they had come to Will, instead of Will coming to them.

It was the girl.

There were a hundred rumors floating among the Grimm about this girl…and Will.

Their leader, all but brought to his knees by a mortal girl who liked to dye her hair purple, one who teased and mocked him.

Except she was no longer mortal.

Mandy was now one of the Grimm—a guardian angel, and her passage from her old life must have been brutal.

Very brutal, Luc realized. It had been a few weeks since her mortal death and she still slept, her body in stasis as she healed. He could not see, but his other senses were remarkably acute, and he could smell the unmistakable scent of raw, healing flesh. A lot of it.

The image of her fogged and he knelt down, placed Krell’s sleeping form on the ground before he rose and wrapped an arm around Perci’s shoulders.

It hurt for Perci to look at the girl, at what had been done to her. “She heals, cher,” he whispered.

“Yes.” She nodded and blinked away the tears. “We all heal…more or less.”

Then she reached up and touched the corner of one sightless eye. “Right?”

Catching her wrist, he pressed a kiss to her hand. He had healed better than she had. Perhaps he couldn’t see, but he had adjusted to that. Her broken heart though…it had never healed. Not over what had been done to her, or him, or to their children.

He’d failed her…failed to protect her, failed to help her heal…failed her so miserably.

I hate it when he looks at me like that. Even though he can’t see me right now. That only happens when he’s looking at me through Krell’s eyes or if I’m looking in a mirror.

He doesn’t have to see me to really see me.

Not Luc.

He sees clearer than anybody.

He sees me, he loves me…and I no longer love him.

It’s not that I don’t want to. If I could force myself to do it, I would have done it ages ago. Centuries. But I can’t make my heart feel what just isn’t there. The cold lump of muscle and flesh inside my chest is mostly worthless anyway.

What little love I am capable of, what little love I do feel, I give to Luc, but it isn’t enough.

I know I’m not giving him what he needs. I’m not in love with him.

He died for me, he came back for me and even though I know he needs me, I can’t feel much more than a distant sort of love for him. I don’t love anybody since our babies died.

“Perci.”

I looked away from Luc and saw Will. He was in a chair by the woman’s bed. Mandy, I thought. Her name was Mandy.

My shields buckled and shuddered under the pain I felt coming off her, even in stasis. Steady…steady…

Although the thought of feeling that much pain was enough to make my stomach clench, I eased myself closer to the bed. If it was this bad for me, I couldn’t think of how bad it had been for her. If Will needed me to ease things for her, speed her healing, I could do that.

“Do you need my help?” I asked, lifting a hand. My fingers curled into a fist, then spread out, hovering over her battered, broken body. Just the thought of taking on that agony had me shuddering.

Luc rested a hand on my spine, steadying me.

But Will reached up, closed a hand around my wrist and squeezed lightly. “No, Perci,” he said softly, never taking his eyes from Mandy’s face. “She cannot heal fast.”

I looked at him.

His face was emotionless, his silver eyes flat.

But something about his words made me ache.

Looking back at the woman, I studied her injuries deeper. The bandages and dressings and blankets in the way made no difference—they wouldn’t, not to a healer. We can feel the damage. I sank ever so slightly inside her and then stumbled back, staggering into Luc’s long, lean form.

He caught me, steadied me.

“Perci?” He hugged me gently.

Shaking my head, I whispered, “Holy shit.”

I’ve seen bad things in my time. Very bad things. In three hundred years, you realize there are things that people can do to the human body that defy description. And that’s just what the humans do—that’s not including the demons.

But I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anybody living with this much damage. I know I’d never felt this much. Not even when I’d healed Luc…

She did still live—she healed. She would eventually wake from the healing sleep of stasis and she’d be one of us—was already one of us really, because no human could live with those injuries.

Although why would she want to be one of us…when we hadn’t been able to do a better job caring for her when she was still mortal?

“Man, what did they do to her?” I whispered before I could stop myself.

“You don’t want to know what they did to her,” Will murmured.

A spasm tightened Will’s face. I realized he looked…older. Not old, at least not physically. We don’t age, at least not unless we decide we’re done with the guardian bit, and I don’t think Will is ever going to be done. It’s all he knows.

Then again, maybe not. Judging by how he looks at this girl…this kid…because she couldn’t be much more than that, even by mortal standards.

I hadn’t ever seen his face so heavy with grief.

It was a nice face too. Pretty, almost too pretty.

But he had sad, sad eyes.

He looked away from Mandy’s face, focused on mine. Those silvery eyes were emotionless now, flat and hard. “I have a job…for you, Perci. Just you.”

“Just me?” I blinked, then shook my head. I didn’t do jobs on my own. I hadn’t, not even once. I couldn’t. Shit…Luc…he needed me. Damn it, Luc needed me.

And even as I stood there gaping at Will, thinking it, even as that little voice was circling through my head, part of me thought… Luc needs you?

Damn straight he needed me. Without me he spent his days totally lost in darkness. He needed me. Me.

“No.” Focusing my eyes on Will, I shook my head. “No. Can’t happen.”

Will lifted a brow. “It’s not up for discussion. This assignment falls to you, and you alone.”

“But Luc needs me.”

“Perci,” Luc said, his voice soft and level.

Turning, I stared at him. “No. We don’t get separated. Ever.”

Not in three hundred years. We just don’t. Even thinking about it was enough to leave me shaking.

“Perci, I think I can take care of myself.” His eyes, beautiful green eyes, sought out my face, and although I knew he didn’t see me, it looked like he did. Felt like he did.

Three hundred years ago, he had been one of the finest marksmen in France. A skilled swordsman. My husband. My life.

I might not love him anymore, but I owed him.

And damn it, even after all these years, I sometimes forget how easily he can sense my moods, my thoughts.

I can feel a person’s physical pain, but his gifts run deeper than that…especially with me.

His face went tight, hard.

“Will, if you would, open your pathway.” Luc knelt down and took Krell in his arms, not sparing me even a glance.

“Damn it, Luc, whatever this job is, there’s no reason we can’t both go.”

“There must be,” Luc said, his voice soft…incredibly reasonable, incredibly calm.

And sad.

So sad, my throat felt thick with tears. “Luc…”

But Will was already opening the path.

A moment later, Luc was gone.

Damn it!

No.

Damn me. I’d done it again—ripped out his heart. Again.

Turning around, I glared at Will. “Damn it, he needs me.”

“No, he doesn’t.” Will stood, staring at me. “And you don’t need or want him. How long will you make him suffer like this?”

I gaped at him. “Make him suffer? Damn it, he wants me with him. He wants me. He loves me.”

“Yes…but he wants you to love him, and you’ll never love him again. Not the way you once did.”

“That isn’t fair.”

“And is it fair to him for you to hurt him as you do, Perci? Is it fair for him to grieve, to reach for you and have you turn your back on him? Fair of you to do anything and everything to avoid spending any time alone with him?”

I flinched. Pain clawed at me. It was nothing but truth…and it hurt. “That’s none of your business, damn it.”

“No. None of my business. But Luc doesn’t need you, and clinging to him, for fear of life, to keep from living, it’s not fair to either of you. You use him as a shield. He might use your eyes so he can still glimpse this world, but you use him to hide from it. That is over—no more hiding, Perci.” He lifted a hand and another silver circle of light flashed into existence. “Life is living, Perci. Even for us. Go live it.”

I didn’t step into the circle. I wanted to stand here, fight with him, argue. Resist whatever he was trying to push me into.

But then he did push me. Maybe not with his hands, but I felt the push all the same.

I started to fall, and I just kept falling for moments on end. When it stopped, I crashed to my knees on hard, rough pavement, hard enough to split the skin. It hurt and I swore, even as warmth rushed through, healing the minor injuries.

Rising to my feet, I looked all around, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on.

And there, right in front of me, was a man surrounded by three of the demonic.

Taunting them.

“I will never have her back, will I?” Luc asked quietly when he found himself back in the cabin.

“No.”

He nodded.

“I’m sorry.”

Surprise rippled through him. He wished he could see Will’s face, but Krell was still sleeping, and he wouldn’t have brought him through that passageway, not unless he had no choice.

“You’re sorry,” Luc murmured. “Why are you sorry?”

“You love her still.”

Sadly, Luc smiled. “Yes. I love her still. Three hundred years—do you think I could stop loving her as easy as that?” Then he reached up and touched his dead eyes. “She is a part of me, a part of my life, my past. Yes. I will always love her.”

He turned away, feeling so raw, so exposed. “I wanted so much to heal her, to give her peace for what was taken from us. For what was done to us, for what I let happen to her. I couldn’t protect her from that, I couldn’t protect our children, and I couldn’t give her peace. How much more completely could I fail her, Will?”

“You didn’t fail her, Luc. She wouldn’t let herself heal. You can’t fault yourself for that,” Will said quietly.

Humorlessly, Luc smiled. “Can’t I?”

Pain, guilt gnawed at him. “Will…” He paused and then blew the breath out. “Is she going to be happier now? Is she going to find whatever it is that I could never give her?”

“I think she will find what she needs,” Will said, choosing his words carefully. “But this is no fault of yours. Perci’s pain—she kept it close, Luc. You know that. Part of her wouldn’t let it go. She wouldn’t let you help her.”

“Yes. I know this.” Bitter anger tried to rise inside him, but he wouldn’t let it.

The anger would bubble and burn and boil out, but not here.

He’d give into it when he was alone…and lost in his own darkness. This time, forever.

Selfish, selfish bastard…

“It’s not selfish to be angry over losing your window into the world,” Will said quietly. “And you’re fooling yourself if you think that’s the only reason you’re angry.”

“Send me back, Will.” The anger grew and grew. He had to get out before it exploded. Before it killed him.

Chapter Two

This was one bad-ass idea that’s going to kill me, Jack Wallace thought.

But he didn’t regret it.

“Oh, come on, you fucking pussy,” he said, panting as one of them tried to sneak around him. He dropped and spun, taking the bastard’s feet out from under him. “Can’t three of you handle me? I’m human, crying out loud.”

He knew what these things were, and if that fucking Will didn’t show up and help out the way he’d promised, the way he’d always done in the past—

A flash of red-gold caught his eye.

It was a girl, reed-slender, long and lean, her hair cropped close to her scalp. She didn’t belong here—that heart-shaped face, those big brown eyes. She didn’t belong here and she’d be lucky if she didn’t end up dead or worse—and oh, man, was there worse than dead.

The image of worse stained his mind, and the savage pleasure he’d felt as he lost himself in the fight faded.

Swearing, Jack reached inside his jacket and pulled out the Desert Eagle he’d kept tucked inside his coat. It was modified, silenced, deadly as hell.

It would take down the demon-possessed, mostly by putting a hole the size of Kansas through their sternums, and that was why he didn’t like using it. It left too noticeable a trail. But if he didn’t…do…something…

Holy…

Shit.

He lowered the Eagle to his side and stared dumbly around him.

The girl—no—woman.

As young as she looked, she wasn’t a girl.

She wasn’t a girl, and she wasn’t human either, he realized.

If he’d taken more than a split second to look at her earlier, he would have seen it. It all but glowed…all over her. And for the briefest moment, she looked damned familiar. She stood there, with one hand on a cocked hip, her head tilted to the side and a smirk on her lips.

And three demons at her feet.

Jack had only taken down one of them. And it wasn’t even dead yet—or at least, the demon inside it wasn’t giving up. Jack could feel it pushing at him. Pushing against him psychically, and as he grimaced and prepared himself for that mental battle, the woman came sauntering up and smirked at him. “Amateur,” she said, her voice vaguely accented.

Then she crouched down and used a blade to hurry along the demon’s demise.

Abruptly, the pushing and shoving and crowding Jack had felt against his mental shields stopped.

He barely noticed though.

A silver chain had slipped free from her white shirt.

It held a silver disc…wings.

Mesmerized, Jack stared at the pendant.

As she straightened up, she reached inside her pocket and withdrew a snowy white handkerchief and used it to wipe the blood from the knife.

“A word of advice if you’re going to play with things like this? When you actually try to kill them, make sure you don’t just try. Do it. If that thing had gotten its hooks inside you… Well, by the time you figured it out, it would be too late.”

She waggled her knife so that the blade caught the light and reflected it. “Then I’d also be sticking this knife inside you.”

With that, she tucked the knife away, turned on her heel and sauntered away.

He might have said something—told himself he needed to. But he couldn’t think. At least not just yet. His brain was still trying to process what he had just seen—that silver necklace…a silver disc.

Upswept wings…

He’d seen that before.

On the neck of his mother.

Before she died.

What the hell…

“Just keep walking,” I muttered. I kept telling myself that, over and over, and somehow I managed to keep walking.

One foot after the other, and fast, because if I stopped or even slowed, I knew I’d look back, and I wasn’t about to let myself get curious over what I’d just seen.

And what did I just see?

Who…man, I wonder what his name is…

“No. Don’t think about that. Or him. And it’s a what, don’t think about him as a who.”

Just a what, I told myself. An anomaly, just an anomaly. “You saw some demons. They are dead now. End of. Doesn’t matter how they got dead, as long as they are dead.”

And throughout that entire mental pep talk, I kept walking.

Fast. Very fast.

Before I could give in to the urge to look back.

And I desperately wanted to look back and see him. Curiosity wasn’t something I’d felt much of, not in a good long while. But I wanted to look back, wanted to see him again. Badly.

He wasn’t a pretty man…no polished, perfect prince. About as far from Luc as he could be. Broad and rough, that craggy face looked like it had been carved from golden granite or something. His eyes had stared into mine with something that closely resembled the shock I’d felt, although man, I hoped I hid it better.

I probably had. Several hundred years of practice had better prove useful for that much at least.

His eyes…

I swallowed. My knees got a little weak thinking about those eyes. They were the color of the mist in the early morning, almost too soft, too gentle for that hard face, but as he’d stared at me, they’d darkened. Darkened to smoke…

Part of me wondered if maybe that wasn’t something I couldn’t get lost in. And even as I thought that, I wanted to kick myself. It was wrong to think that.

Luc. I needed to think of Luc. I needed to finish this damn job so I could get back to him.

He was no longer my husband.

No, I’d seen to that well enough. It had broken something inside us both when I forced that issue, and I’d hated myself for knowing I’d broken Luc’s heart. We stayed together though, and I told myself that it didn’t matter if we were married or not.

I told myself it was enough because he needed me. I needed him.

We were a pair, the two of us, whether we were married or not.

But it didn’t matter if I was married—Luc was still there, still a part of my life and thinking about a sexy mortal stranger? We can just place that in a column marked “Things I don’t need to do”.

Although one thing I did need to do. I needed to figure out just why a mortal had been fighting a couple of orin in an alley.

How in the hell had he managed to hold his own?

Well, other than the obvious—being damn strong. And fast. Shit, he was fast. Almost too fast for me to believe he was human, but there was no way he wasn’t human.

He knew how to fight too. Pretty damn obvious he knew he was facing something not exactly normal. And that gun—shit. Most of the Grimm didn’t like guns—too messy and mortals tend to get in more trouble with those things.

But I didn’t have to like them to be able to admire the serious firepower that thing would possess. It had been a miniature cannon, and if he had needed to use it, it would have destroyed any of the demonic fool enough to get caught in his range.

He’d done too good a job holding his own against them, especially up until I’d distracted him. How had he been able to do that? And who was he?

He was mortal. I could feel it.

But still, there was also something…more.

Dawn broke with him sitting on the deck of the small house, staring out over the Chesapeake Bay and nursing a beer.

Jack held a picture of his mother, not that he needed to see it to remember what her medallion looked liked.

He knew far too well.

He couldn’t exactly compare it to the one he’d seen tonight, of course. He’d like to, but he hadn’t seen a piece like that since her death.

Cancer had killed his mother shortly before his thirteenth birthday and he’d been at her side. Him and a dude by the name of Will.

He hadn’t ever known his dad.

When he had been a kid, a part of him had kind of hoped, sometimes even pretended it had been Will. He had already known it wasn’t true.

Still, even if he hadn’t been his father, Will had been there. Always.

The guy had come and gone all too often, but whenever Jack had needed somebody around, he had always been able to count on Will.

That was better than nobody, he supposed. And other than Will, after his mom had died, nobody was about all he’d had.

And other than Will and his mother, he’d never seen another living soul with one of those pieces either.

Not until tonight.

Will hadn’t ever told him the meaning of the piece, but Jack knew what it was. He’d always known it. Even just touching it was enough to tell him. The lightest touch was like sticking his finger in a light socket—that odd, sizzling jolt.

She was one of them.

She wasn’t as old as Will, but that didn’t change what she was.

There really wasn’t much question about it, although he was still sitting here, feeling stunned, shocked and downright… Hell. Jack didn’t know how he felt. Confused. Curious.

His hand started to tighten around the picture’s frame. The metal dented under his hand and carefully, he sat it down.

“Careful, Jack,” he muttered. “Careful.”

Pissed off.

Shit. Pissed off didn’t touch it.

Standing up, he started to pace the porch. He shoved his hands through his hair, linked them behind his neck, staring off into the lightening skies without truly seeing it.

Yeah. He was pissed off.

He’d been pissed off at the world in general for the past twenty years of his life. Maybe even before that. Sometimes Jack felt like he’d been born with a grudge.

He knew he’d been born with a mission.

Killing things.

All those things he shouldn’t know about, but did.

The things his mother had fought and killed before she’d decided to give up that life. She hadn’t told him about any of it, but then again, she hadn’t needed to.

He’d just…known.

Jack hadn’t ever not known those things. He hated it, because he knew the weird knowledge he carried had broken his mother’s heart. She had wanted away from whatever life she’d left behind. And she’d gotten away from it, all right.

But bits and pieces of it followed her…through her son.

Bits and pieces of memory.

Battles.

A knowledge he shouldn’t have.

He had looked at the things earlier and known they were no longer human.

Orin. Soul stealers. The closest thing to vampires that existed, but there was nothing about them that could be romanticized. Demonic parasites. Whatever had once been human inside them was long gone, and the mortal body wasn’t anything more than a vehicle.

Jack couldn’t even explain how he knew, but he did know, and he fought with the ease born of practice, something that made no sense. Even as he hacked away with a bowie knife, part of him felt like he’d done it before a thousand times—but with a longer blade.

For as long as he could remember, he’d dreamt of killing monsters. Demons.

And he’d known the different sort of demons too. He could recall them from vivid, vivid dreams. But the dreams never terrified him. Even when he awoke at night and found his mother sitting by his bed, watching him with concerned, sad eyes, he hadn’t worried.

To Jack, it seemed normal to dream of battling demons. So many demons.

The time had come when he didn’t just battle them in his dreams, but in reality. He’d killed the first one when he was fifteen, and it had felt so easy…so natural…like a habit. It hadn’t felt like the first time. It wasn’t exactly something he’d planned on, but it was what he was meant to do—what he was built for. What he was destined for.

The battle.

Always the battle.

Each day.

Each night.

Nothing mattered but the demons, ending as many of them as he could, before they got to another human, before they hurt another human, before they killed.

Some of them didn’t always kill the human right away. Some of them just sort of pushed the human aside, but kept them in there. An unwilling passenger along for the ride. A very gruesome ride.

There were others, but the ones Jack hated the most were the ones like he’d been fighting earlier. The kinds that could push inside and feed on the soul until there was nothing left…nothing but a husk.

Those husks though, they could be pretty dangerous. The demons controlling them could stay in them for quite a while—Jack didn’t know how long. He’d be damned if he turned out that way.

Absently, he muttered, “If I end up like that, princess, just do me a favor, make it quick.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I will.”

He drew his Desert Eagle, spun and aimed, all in one smooth, practiced motion.

Most people would have been scared shitless to have the piece of equipment pointed at their forehead.

Red? She just looked amused, one strawberry-blonde brow lifted, a slight smirk on that pretty, lush mouth. She focused her gaze on the Desert Eagle and then looked back at him. Her smirk widened into an all-out grin and she tucked her hands into her back pockets. Rocking back on her heels, she said, “You know, I could take that away from you so fast, it would make you cry.”

“Try it.” Jack braced himself. He might not be as fast as they were. But he had years of trying to be…and all of them, the demons and the Grimm, they all underestimated him.

But she just shrugged one smooth, soft, white shoulder. “It wouldn’t be that much fun. Like taking candy from a baby.”

That last part was tossed back over one of those smooth white shoulders as she sauntered over to one of his chaise lounges and flung her lean, sexy body down on it.

As she stretched out, Jack realized he couldn’t quite take his eyes from those legs of hers. They stretched on forever, it seemed.

She crossed them at the ankle and smiled at him. Although it wasn’t exactly a smile. It was that very appealing smirk.

He wanted to kiss the look off her face.

And if she kept staring at him, he just might start panting.

Or drooling.

Or both.

Scrubbing a hand down his face, he took a few seconds and then put his gun away since he probably wasn’t going to use it. He’d much rather fuck her than shoot her.

He thought.

That was right up until he saw that she’d snagged his beer and was lifting it to that pretty, rosebud mouth of hers.

“Do you mind?” he snapped, storming over to her and grabbing it.

She lifted a brow and smiled. “You’re not a very good host.”

“You’re not exactly a guest. You weren’t invited—actually, that makes you a trespasser.”

“Hmm. Good point.” She came to her feet, all long legs and sleek curves. Shooting him a slow smile, she said, “I’ll get my own.”

Staring at her back, he decided he’d just stay right where he was instead of arguing with her. Definitely the wiser option just now. It would give him a few seconds to figure out what the hell she might be doing here, how she’d gotten here, and what in the hell he should do about it.

Chapter Three

What in the hell am I doing?

I stared into the fridge for a few seconds longer than it really took to grab a bottle of beer. A beer I really didn’t want, but damn it, I needed something to drink.

For some reason, just looking at him was enough to make my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, make my throat dry. Just looking at him made my heart race, made my belly clench and my knees weak.

Logically, I knew what all of this was.

Logically.

But it had been…ages…since I’d felt this way.

Not since before…

Not since Luc.

Back when we had still…been whole.

Shit. Luc.

Swearing, I grabbed a bottle of Bud and straightened up, twisting it open and lifting it to my lips. I drained half of it, but it didn’t do anything to ease the burning in my veins…or the ache in my heart.

What in the hell was I doing here?

Feeling a pair of eyes on me, I turned my head and saw him standing there in the open doorway.

The sun was rising behind him, coming up over the bay, casting him into shadow, doing all sorts of lovely, lovely things to that body of his. He had one massive shoulder propped against the doorframe. He held the bottle of beer loosely in his hand. A big hand.

Damn it, I didn’t like big men.

Never had.

The sight of a big man was enough to bring back memories I’d rather never think about.

But this guy…

Not now, Perci, I told myself.

Lifting the beer to my lips, I gave him my best, wide-eyed, innocent look. “So…” I took a drink and then smiled at him over the bottle.

“How in the hell did you find my house?”

I shrugged. “Wasn’t hard. Just kind of followed my gut.”

He narrowed those amazing, beautiful eyes. They all but glowed against the warm gold of his skin. Those eyes… Man, I think I could get lost in them. I hadn’t felt like this with a man in far, far too long. Guilt swelled inside me and I knew I should put the bottle down and leave. Knew I should figure out what all Will wanted done here so I could get back to Luc.

Luc…

But I couldn’t walk away from this. Couldn’t walk away from this mortal just yet.

Standing here made me feel more alive than I had in years. Decades. Centuries.

Abruptly, I found myself remembering what Will had said just before he’d pushed me into this man’s way.

Life is living, Perci. Even for us. Go live it.

Will. Oh, shit. It dawned on me then. I’m in major trouble.

“Just followed your gut. What, were you born with some sort of genetic GPS?” he asked sarcastically. “Try again, princess.”

I flinched. From the darkness of the past, a whisper of memory rushed up to torment me. My lovely princess, locked away in your tower. But I shoved it away. No. I wouldn’t let this happen now. Not now. Refusing to let him see the pain of memory, I looked back at him and gave him a sharp-edged smile.

“Do yourself a favor, my friend. Don’t call me that.”

He shoved off the wall and sauntered to me. For a man his size, hell, for a human, he moved far too silently, far too easily, far too at ease in his skin. He dipped his head until we were eye to eye, then he murmured, “Or what, princess?”

His mouth twisted in a smirk as he reached past me and snagged a bottle of beer. I could feel my hand curling into a fist and I was a little amazed at just how much I wanted to hit him. How much I was tempted to do it, just to see the shock on his face when I sent him flying back across the room. I refused, and just stood there, counting silently as he sauntered across the room and leaned against the counter opposite me.

“So, let’s try this again. How did you find me?” he asked, watching me with that same smirk.

I closed the refrigerator and leaned against the other counter. “I already did. What’s your name?”

“Jack. Yours?”

“Perci.” Then I scowled and looked down at the beer I held. Why had I told him that?

“Perci…” he murmured. Something flickered in the depths of his beautiful eyes, there, then gone again, so fast. Too fast for me to quite understand what it was. He shook his head and then looked at me again. “How did you find my place, Perci?”

“I already told you.” I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you tell about what I saw earlier?”

Without batting an eyelash, he said, “What, is there something wrong with your eyesight, princess?”

Anger—irrational and incomprehensible—rolled through me. Slamming my beer down, I stormed across the floor and glared at him. “Don’t call me that,” I said, forcing the words out through clenched teeth.

That arrogant smirk on his face as he took another swig of his beer was like glass scraping across raw skin.

“Yeah, yeah, so you’ve said. Look, I’m tired. If you’re not going to be straight with me, then do me a favor and get out, okay, honey?”

“Honey?” I gaped at him. And what…was he calling me a liar? Planting my hands on my hips, I glared. “I already told you how I found you. You think I somehow managed to plant a bug up your ass in the two seconds we were in the alley together?”

“Hmm. The idea occurred to me. Although if you feel the need to do anything to my ass, you’re welcome to…just no bugs.” Then he winked at me. “Unless you ask me really nice. Who knows, maybe I’d like it.”

Heat rushed up my neck, stained my cheeks. Holy hell, I was blushing.

He reached out, brushed the tip of his finger over my lip.

Inside my chest, my heart started to race.

Oh, hell.

“All of a sudden, you’re not quite so mouthy, Perci,” he murmured, his voice rougher, lower.

And he was closer. When had he gotten closer?

Blood pounded in my ears.

Roared.

He was so close…I could feel his body heat. I could smell him. Then he was touching me.

One big hand was cupping my chin, angling my face back so that I was meeting his gaze…that smoky, deep gaze.

“What’s the matter, princess? Cat got your tongue?” He reached up and toyed with my pendant, and part of me wanted to smack that big hand of his away. But the other part…as long as he kept touching me, what did I care?

“I’ve got a name,” I said. I licked my lips and almost groaned when his gaze dropped to my mouth.

Then I did groan, because he dipped his head and pressed his mouth to mine.

Shit.

No. This wasn’t good. Not good at all.

His tongue stroked over my lower lip and I opened for him. Those big hands of his gripped my waist and lifted me, hauling me against him, hard and tight and close. One forearm rested just under my ass while his free hand stroked under the hemline of my shirt and stroked my back. The heat of him threatened to scald me. Mark me.

No. This wasn’t good…it was so beyond good it was frightening.

And I knew I needed to get the hell away from him.

But I couldn’t.

Her mouth…

Jack shuddered as her mouth opened under his. She tasted like cinnamon and cream and honey and heaven and damn it, he didn’t think he’d get enough of that taste. Then she tore her mouth away from his and he growled, reached up and fisted his hand in her short, silken hair. “Kiss me,” he muttered against her cheek.

“This is insane,” she whispered.

“Yeah. Don’t care. Kiss me.”

A sigh shuddered out of her. “I can’t be doing this.” Her shoulders rose and fell and Jack found himself staring at those sleek, pale curves. Soft…

Without realizing it, he found himself lowering his head and pressing his mouth to one shoulder, left all but bare by the skinny strap of her tank. Soft…smooth. Hmmm.

He touched his tongue to her skin. She stiffened, then shuddered.

Turning around, he walked blindly until he could put her down on the counter by the refrigerator. Lifting his head, he stared into her dark eyes, watched her face as he slid his hand under the hem of her shirt. Simple, basic cotton—nothing fancy, and yet it would be a pleasure to peel away from her.

An image flashed through his mind.

Her…her hair long and luxurious. Her lean body had been softer then, clad in a lush gown of velvet.

A man was with her, and he was peeling that velvet away from her body. Slowly. Teasingly. And watching her with a look of such love and awe. They knelt together on a blanket.

He could see them—had seen them. Watched…wanted. Loved.

It hit him in the gut like a punch and he should have pulled away.

Would have pulled away.

But then Perci rested her hands on his forearms, stroked up. The image shattered, fell away under her touch. Need and hunger swamped him. She cupped his face in her hands and tugged his mouth to hers.

“I thought you said this was insane,” he muttered against her lips. Pull away, Jack. Something strange is going on here, man.

“It is. I’ll figure it out later.” She caught his hands and guided them to her breasts. “Touch me…damn it, please touch me. I… Shit, I feel alive when you’re touching me.”

There was something so broken, so raw in her voice.

He couldn’t not touch her. Couldn’t not cup her face in his hands, lift it to his and brush his lips over hers. “I think I like the taste of you,” he muttered. “The feel of you.”

He wanted to make love to her…gentle, slow. Needed it.

But she didn’t want gentle. Greedy, hungry, she skimmed her hands down his sides, grabbed the hem of his shirt and jerked it up and over his head. As she bared his chest, she leaned forward and nipped at his nipple with sharp teeth. “I don’t want slow, and I don’t want soft and sweet words. Fuck me,” she said, tipping her head back and staring at him.

She scraped her nails over the denim-covered ridge of his cock and Jack shuddered. Reaching down, he closed his hand around her wrist. “Is there any reason to rush?” he muttered against her mouth.

She cupped him with her other hand and squeezed.

Groaning, he caught that hand as well and then penned them behind her back. He lifted his head to stare down into her glittering, hungry eyes. “What’s the rush, princess?”

She snarled at him. “Don’t call me that.”

“Fuck, but I think it turns me on when you glare at me,” he muttered, dipping his head and nipping her lower lip. Then he licked it with his tongue and kissed a trail down along her chin, her neck, until he could bite her gently through her bra. “I want to see you naked.”

“Then let go of my hands and I’ll get naked.”

He smiled at the command in her voice. “And what if I’d rather be the one to get you naked?” He let go of her hands, but before she could take care of her shirt, he did it by reaching up and grabbing the neckline. He smiled down into her eyes and watched the surprise flicker as he tore the thin cotton apart.

Her breath caught in her throat and she glanced down, stared at the torn tank top before looking back up at him. “You forgot something.” Then a smirk twisted her mouth. “Although I bet you can’t tear the bra quite so easy. They make them pretty sturdy.”

That smirk…damn but it turned him on, and he was already so fucking hot, he hurt. “I can think of a way to get it off.” Holding her gaze, he reached up and grabbed one of the blades he had on the refrigerator.

He kept sharp, shiny objects in a variety of places all over his house. It had saved his ass a time or two.

But this time, it proved to be worth it for a different reason.

As he pulled the blade down and slipped the tip of it under her bra, he watched her eyes widen, watched as her lashes fluttered.

“You scared?” he teased.

Not that he really thought she would be, and he wasn’t surprised when her brown eyes opened and she smiled at him. “Of you? No way in hell.”

Keeping the knife still, he watched her. “Should I stop?” All it would take was the slightest bit of pressure, just the slightest bit.

“If you stop, how are you going to finish getting me naked?”

He gave the slightest flick of his wrist and watched as the blade cut through the lace and silk. Her eyes went dark, and as he reached up and pushed the straps off her shoulders, she smiled at him.

Holy hell.

Just one look from her was enough to make him weak in the knees.

He laid the knife down and she glanced at it, flicked him a look from under her lashes. “What, you’re not going to cut my pants off too?”

“Don’t tempt me,” he muttered. He reached up, fisted his hand in the waistband of her jeans and tugged her forward. She slid off, keeping her palms resting on the counter as he unbuttoned her jeans and started to slide them down. His mouth went dry as he realized something. “You’re not wearing any panties.”

“No. Is that a problem?”

“Shit, no.” But if he’d realized she was naked under that denim, he might have lost his mind even sooner.

She was naked thirty seconds later.

Jack just about went to his knees—might have done just that so he could press his mouth to the curls that covered her sex, but she was still watching him with that taunting smile.

He wanted, needed, to see just how much more he could push her.

Grasping her waist, he turned them around and rested his hips against the counter. “Your turn,” he said, his voice hoarse.

She grinned at him and then glanced at the knife. “And are you going to trust me if I decide to start cutting your clothes off?”

Jack knew she wouldn’t need it. But he shrugged. “You didn’t seem worried when you saw me with it. I think it’s safe.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t be so trusting, Jack,” she murmured, reaching for the knife and trailing the tip of it across his belly.

The muscles quivered in response, but he just smiled. She wasn’t about to do anything stupid with that blade and he knew it—of course, she didn’t realize he knew what she was.

“Why not, darlin’? I don’t think you’re going to do anything too bad with it, but whatever you’re going to do? Hurry it up. I’m dying here.”

Then he dropped his gaze and stared at the pale, sweet curves of her breasts. “Slowly and painfully dying.”

A flush settled on her cheeks and she set the knife down, reached for the button on his jeans. “You look pretty healthy to me.”

As she lowered the zipper to his jeans, her breath caught in her throat and she shot him a glance.

“Okay,” I muttered. “Very healthy.”

My belly cramped as I thought about taking him inside me.

Hard. Rough. Fast.

That was what I wanted—what I needed.

He could give me that, and damn it, he would. I pushed his jeans and the snug-fitting boxers he wore out of the way, just past the hard, taut muscle of his ass. Then I bent over and caught the head of his cock in my mouth, listened as he grunted, first in shock, then in pleasure, as I started to suck on him. His hand stroked down my back, rested on the flare of my hip, kneading the flesh lightly.

Salty, sweaty and hard…

I sucked and licked and nipped his flesh until he started to rock against my mouth and then I straightened and stared at him. Because I’d already figured out that it drove him crazy, I smirked at him.

He reached out and hauled me to him, his mouth slanting against mine. He growled against my lips. “You’re trying to drive me nuts,” he muttered. “I know it.”

I rubbed against him, wished I was taller. I could feel his length at my belly and I wanted him inside me. I rocked against him, desperate. Screw this. I braced my hands on his shoulders and jumped, using my knees to grip his hips and that—oh, hell yes…

I reached down and gripped him, held him steady.

“Damn it, stop,” he muttered, banding one arm around me and pressing tight. But it couldn’t stop me. I wouldn’t let it.

Then I found myself on my feet, my head spinning at how fast it happened, how fast he moved.

“Slow down,” he muttered against my ear. He stroked a hand down my side. “Would you slow down? I’ve barely had a chance to touch you, to taste you…”

“I just want you to fuck me,” I snarled.

“You can’t always have your way, princess.” Then he tried to kiss me.

I bit him. Hard. “I told you not to call me that.” I glared at him.

Something glittered in his eyes. A weird mix of rage and heat and hunger…and it made me burn so much hotter.

Lifting my chin, I said, “Are you going to fuck me or not?”

“Oh, you bet your darling little ass I am…princess,” he purred. Then, before I could blink, he had me bent over the counter.

I caught my breath. It was all I had time for, and then he was pressing against me, pushing inside me…and oh, shit—he was big, thick. Heavy. Stretching me.

With one hand resting low on my spine, he held me still as he fed me one slow, inexorable inch after another. I keened and shifted my hips, reaching down to brace my elbows on the counter, thinking to lift up, anything to ease the pressure.

He stilled, then reached up, caught one wrist, then the other. “You wanted to get fucked,” he muttered in my ear. “Fine. You’re getting fucked, and right now, it’s my way.”

I shoved back against him and jerked on my wrists. “Let me go.”

“No way.” He tightened his grip and started to withdraw, then pressed against me again, harder. Deeper. Faster.

My breath caught.

He did it again. Again. And that was when I realized he was still being cautious, that I still hadn’t taken all of him. Swearing, I twisted my hips against him, tried to take him deeper. Desperate for it. Desperate for him—all of him.

But as I pushed back, he retreated as well.

“Damn it, what are you waiting for?” I snarled.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Hell, maybe that was what I wanted—maybe I even needed it.

I tugged against his hold and shot him a look over my shoulder the best I could. “I can handle anything you think you can give me,” I whispered. Then I clenched down, using my muscles to milk his cock. It had been years since I’d deliberately set out to drive a man wild…but I still knew how. Milking him with my pussy, smirking at him—

“Brat,” he muttered. “Stop it.”

I didn’t. I could almost hear it when his patience snapped. He growled low in his throat and started to slam into me, harder. Faster. I tried to get my hands under me, tried to brace myself, but he caught my wrists again, leaned over me. I could feel him…all of him. Pressed hard and tight and firm against me while his cock dug into me, stroking deep, deep, so fucking deep. I cried out, squeezed my eyes shut as hot, brilliant pleasure stormed through me.

It was heaven…and it was hell, because in the back of my mind, I knew I shouldn’t feel this, shouldn’t want more of this, shouldn’t crave more of this…of him.

Tears burned my eyes and I begged, “More, damn it. Please. Oh, please…”

His breath was hot on my ear. My neck. He bit my shoulder and muttered, “Yeah, princess. I’ll give you more. Say my name.”

“Jack,” I whispered.

I didn’t even care that he’d called me princess. He could call me whatever in the hell he wanted as long as he kept touching me.

And then he let go of me. Stopped. He pulled away and I could have cried.

“What…what are you doing?” Damn it, I was going cry. Either that or I was going to attack him and beat him bloody if he didn’t touch me, come back to me…something…

But then he lifted me in arms and took me to the floor. “I need more than that,” he whispered, stretching me out.

That plain linoleum floor could have been a bed of roses for all the care he gave me. I could have dressed in silk and velvet and lace, the way his eyes gleamed as he stared down at me. He lay between my thighs and when he pressed his mouth to my sex, I cried out.

No. I couldn’t…no.

Hard, driving sex was one thing…but the tenderness, that was something else.

“Damn it, stop,” I begged him.

“Not on your life.” He licked my clit. “Not on mine.”

I brought my knees up, fisted my hands in his hair. Pull away, I told myself. I could do that, could make myself do it.

Except I couldn’t. As he pressed his tongue against me, inside me, all I could manage was to lie there…and take it…and enjoy. When he made me come, I cried out. And when he came back up over me, I clutched him close, needed to feel his weight.

But even as he brought me to climax again, even as he came, I knew it wasn’t enough.

I hadn’t felt this alive in far, far too long.

And it was going to hurt far, far too much to lose it again.

I had no right.

None.

Chapter Four

Will wasn’t surprised when somebody else joined him at the cabin.

And he wasn’t surprised at who it was either.

Glancing up, he met Sina’s blue gaze. He wasn’t surprised at the censure he saw there either.

Her gifts were those of sights.

She saw things…many things. Things of the past, of the future…and of the present.

No doubt she’d somehow picked up on something connected to Perci.

No. Judging by the anger he felt in her, it wasn’t Perci.

It was Luc.

“Hello, Sina,” he said softly.

Her blue eyes, blue as sapphires, narrowed on his face. “Don’t you just sit there and use that tone with me.”

She sounded like she’d been born and raised in the southern United States.

But she was older than that. Much older. She was one of his older recruits, and normally she wouldn’t have spoken to him with that censure in her tone, because she knew, better than most, that he had no control over the things that happened.

But Sina… Well, she had a blind spot when it came to Luc. She always had.

“And what tone should I use?” he asked blandly. “Should I sing soprano? I’m not sure I can.”

“Maybe if I helped, it could be arranged.”

Will just stared at her. “Sina, I had no control over this.”

“Oh, don’t give me that.”

He just sighed. He was so tired of this. He hadn’t realized how tired until recently. But now, as he watched over Mandy, watched her body struggle to heal from what had been done to it, he realized how tired he was. How fucking lonely.

How empty he was.

The white fall of his hair hid his face. “Sina, I was told who to send, and where.”

“And you couldn’t send him with her? Do you know what he is doing right now?”

He lifted his head and stared into her blue eyes. “Yes. He’s hurting. And for the first time in several hundred years, he’s accepted one crucial fact—she can’t love him anymore. Which means he’ll eventually move on.”

For the longest time, she just glared at him.

“Will…”

He shook his head.

“Sina, Perci can’t love Luc the way she needs to. The way he deserves. Hell, the way she deserves. She’s too damaged inside. And that’s through no fault of hers…or his.” He closed his eyes. “Neither of them deserved this, you know. They should have had the choice, a long, somewhat happy life with each other. But that crazy bitch…”

Sina made a strange, somewhat strangled sound low in her throat.

Yes, that crazy bitch—she was something of a legend. One who had made Luc and Perci’s lives sheer hell. One who had killed innocents. One who had done the very worst things imaginable.

And they should have been able to trust her.

“There is no hope for them?” Sina asked, rubbing the heel of her hand over her heart. “He loves her so much.”

He, Will thought. Sina made no reference to Perci, although Perci was the one who had yet to heal. Luc had more or less dealt with the lot life had dealt him. Perci never had.

But it was Luc that Sina was concerned about.

“Oh, there is hope for them,” Will said quietly, tearing his gaze from Mandy’s slumbering form and looking at Sina. “But not together. If they were meant to be together, would they be pulled apart?”

Sina just stared at him.

He saw the heartbreak in the depths of her eyes though.

She’d accepted that Luc loved Perci. Now she must accept that Luc would find another.

In the back of his mind, he started to wonder…

Sina had always watched the Frenchman.

Always, it seemed.

In the back of Will’s mind, he began to wonder.

But he couldn’t dwell on that for long, not with Sina here. Her gift was strong and even though he shielded, it wasn’t always possible to shield against precognition.

As though his thoughts had brought it on, he saw Sina’s dark eyes cloud, the blue turning milky and opaque. “We will be needed soon,” she whispered, her voice husky and rough. Her gaze shifted to Mandy, although he knew she didn’t see the other woman right now. “Call for your brother, Will. He shall have to watch over her, as I know you won’t leave her alone.”

“No.” Will stiffened. He couldn’t leave her—couldn’t.

Sina shook her head. “You will have to…or Perci dies. As will he. He was just returned to us. Is he to die again? Because you cannot leave your woman’s side?”

Then, Sina’s eyes cleared, and she sighed.

“We often do things we wish not to do. And this is a small thing,” she said, shaking her head. “Do you not trust him to care for her?”

Will closed his eyes. It wasn’t a matter of trust…it was a matter of leaving her.

“Very well. I will call him.”

Chapter Five

They were called the Grimm.

They had a name…now. But they hadn’t always.

It wasn’t until the stories started to circulate and they realized that there were dangers that awaited them if they caught too much notice…that was when they decided they needed to hide themselves.

And what better way to do it than fanciful tales?

It took time.

A great deal of time, more than mortals would understand. Several hundred years went into the concocting what would become the most clever ruse known to man. Or rather…the most clever ruse man would never know.

And the man known as Jacques had helped create that story.

“If they believe it is but a story, a fancy, they will not look beyond it,” he said, watching as the man known as William paced the hard-packed, earthen floor.

“It is ridiculous,” William said, shaking his head. “And far too dangerous.”

“Is it not more dangerous to let people see and hear things they should never know? People talk. Word will spread. We must take precaution. But if we are going to do this, we must begin now. It will take time for this to take root. A great deal of time.”

William sighed and rubbed his eyes. Then he stopped and looked past Jacques to another…another brother-in-arms.

“It seems to be the wisest choice.”

“Yes.”

William nodded. “The wisest choice.”

Time drifted away. For the very oldest among them, time sometimes lost all meaning, and by the time the eighteenth century rolled around, many of the tales were already being spread.

Help came in the form of Sina—one of their seers.

Sometimes she glimpsed who would come to them and she started the tales early…a lifetime early. They hadn’t been wrong when they had decided it would take time for the stories to take root.

There were still problems, yes, but for the most part, already men were quick to explain away what they didn’t choose to believe.

“And nobody questions what happened to Giselle?” William asked, scrutinizing Jacques closely.

“No. She was of little importance, I fear.”

William nodded. “What of the prince?”

“He searches for her still. I do not know if he will accept her disappearance.”

“Sina warned me of this,” William murmured. “I shall handle it. I believe I need to have a word with him.”

“With the prince? Is that wise?”

“Wise or not, it is what I am to do.” He looked at Jacques. “We will speak of it more when you return. For now, there is an assignment for you. Another two mortals—they will be like us in time. You will act as their guard for now. War comes, and they must be guarded.”

Jacques nodded.

He would, of course, do as he was asked. He would protect those who were yet unable. He wouldn’t fail.

Only that was exactly what he did.

Jacques did not fail.

He did not know the meaning of the word. He upheld his duty. His honor. His word.

Right up until the moment he laid eyes upon Persinette.

Had it just been a lovely package, he might have been able to ignore it. He was just a man—yes, an immortal one, but just a man. But the lovely package was only the beginning.

She was so lovely, but her soul was as pure and lovely as her body. So strong and true. Her heart never wavered and her soul was strong. She stood steady in the face of adversity and even when she was frightened, she never let it show.

As war ravaged their country, she never faltered, never hesitated. She provided for those under her care and when soldiers would have tried to claim her lands, she held them back.

Nothing made her pause. Nothing made her blink.

He suspected he’d loved her from the very first. But she had been wedded to another long before he even knew her name. Wedded…and so very in love.

Her name was Persinette, and in time she’d become one of them, as would her husband.

If Jacques was a wise man, he would distance himself.

Loving her, loving a wedded woman, was only opening himself up for heartbreak, and he’d gone hundreds of years without that. He’d happily forgo that experience.

But in the end, he couldn’t stop himself from loving her. And in the end, he couldn’t save her either. All he could do was love her. And he lost her anyway.

Not that she ever knew…

Twisting, tearing away from the sheets, Jack rolled out of the bed and landed on his hands and knees.

No. He didn’t have nightmares about demons and monsters…but the nightmare he’d just had was far, far worse.

Perci.

Fuck, had he just slept with one of them? He’d known it even as he was taking her, but damned if he could resist.

Yes, he had. He could smell her on his skin. Almost feel the silken brush of her lips gliding over him. Even though she was gone. Long gone.

Squeezing his eyes closed, he settled back and pressed the heels of his hands against his eye sockets, hoping it might block out the visions there.

Shit.

Shit.

Shit.

Why had he dreamed that? And why did it seem like he had dreamed it before?

Why did it seem more like a memory than dream?

Even as he tried to scrub the memory away, it came on stronger and stronger, and before he even knew what was happening, he was falling back…back through time, back through space.

Into another life.

His name was Jacques.

In this life.

He stood at the side of a young maiden by the name of Persinette. Her dark eyes filled with tears she wouldn’t let fall as she watched her husband ride away with his men.

“He will return to you,” Jacques murmured.

“I know.” She gave him a tight smile. “It is not as though he leaves me alone, is it?”

No. She hadn’t been left alone. She stayed in the large home of his mother, many servants to care for her, and a protector at her side.

A protector who was more than human, because both Persinette and Luc were special.

Jacques was there to watch over them until her time came.

Until Luc’s time came.

He was there to guard them…and while Luc was away, he was there to protect Persinette.

He was not there to fall in love with her.

No man would come near her and no harm would befall her. Not while he was near. Perhaps war might ravage much of the countryside, but it wouldn’t harm Persinette.

Not while he breathed.

Even as he made himself that promise, he felt a blinding, hideous pain tear through him…and all was dark.

Jack was choking. Hardly able to breathe, lopping around like a landed fish—

A pair of feet came into view, followed by a familiar face.

Will reached out and poked him in the chest. “It’s over and done now, old friend. You can breathe again, you know.”

Choking, still feeling like a landed fish, he smacked at the hand and struggled to sit up. He shot Will a glare. “What in the fuck are you doing here?”

Wheezing, trying to breathe past the hideous, blinding pain, he rolled over to push himself to his hands and knees. His body didn’t want to cooperate and his head ached. His heart raced. His throat felt raw, like butchered, minced meat.

It took him almost two minutes just to get up, and then all he could do was sit on the edge of the bed and wonder if he was going to puke.

He felt like he had the flu, a hangover and an adrenaline rush all at once. He also felt like somebody had pounded on his ass for the last six months straight.

And at the same time, he was reliving the very last moments of that dream.

Seeing Perci’s face…it was her face. In another time. But it felt so fucking real…

Abruptly, he remembered Will was there and he looked up, glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

“This very moment? I’m waiting for you to calm down,” he said, that familiar smirk on his face. It widened to an outright grin as he studied Jack’s face. “You look like you were having an interesting dream there, Jack.”

“Interesting?” Jack swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Interesting doesn’t touch it.”

“Hmmm.” Will leaned against the wall and studied the bedroom, the tangled mess of the sheets.

Although Jack couldn’t really see any signs of Perci’s presence, he had the weirdest feeling Will saw something.

Shit, Will seemed to see everything.

“An interesting night, altogether,” Will murmured.

Jack curled his lip. “Yeah, interesting. Whatever happened to ‘If you have a need of me, I’ll know, and I’ll be there’? Whatever happened to that? Because I had a need last night and almost ended up gutted. Where the hell were you?”

“I made certain you had the help you needed.” Will shrugged negligently. “Perci is quite capable, isn’t she?”

Capable? Yeah. Jack just stared at Will for a long moment, trying to figure out what the hell was going on inside the man’s head. Then he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

He could smell Perci on his skin, he realized. He needed to shower, but he almost hated to do it, because he didn’t want to wash her scent away. But he needed to shower to see if he could wash the cobwebs out of his head, the nasty dregs of that dream.

Absently, he reached up and rubbed his throat. It still hurt. Still felt raw.

“What the fuck…” he muttered.

Feeling the weight of Will’s gaze, he looked up.

“The mind forgets,” Will said quietly. “But the body doesn’t.”

A chill raced down his spine as he stared into strange, glowing silver eyes.

“The body doesn’t forget what?” he whispered.

“Dying.”

I hadn’t slept.

Dry-eyed, tired and desperate for the mental escape of sleep, I lay on the bed in my hotel room.

The lights were off, the curtains were drawn but despite the dim light, I saw fine. Not that there was much to see in the bland, impersonal room. It was a nice hotel—I had a thing for comfort. Although right now, I figured I should be somewhere lying on a bed of nails.

What in the hell had I done?

And then my memory started to fill in the details…

I’d slept with a total stranger. Well, actually, I hadn’t slept. I’d had the best sex of my entire life with a complete and total stranger. And not just once, but several times over. It wasn’t until sleep had claimed him that I’d been able to tear myself away.

He’d fucked me six different ways to Sunday and my body had been a sweet, sweet ache when I slid out of his house after he’d drifted off to sleep. Thankfully, he was mortal and he did need to sleep, although extricating myself from those big arms of his had been a task. One I hadn’t really wanted to do, but I couldn’t just stay there.

Never mind the fact that I wanted to do just that.

I could have happily stayed with him the rest of the day, and probably that night, and the next, and the next—

“Stop it,” I muttered, covering my face with my hands.

Job. I had a job to do, and then I needed to get back to Luc.

Luc—think about Luc.

But as I tried to pull that face to mind, another face kept superimposing itself. Misty gray eyes instead of clear and vivid green. A roughly hewn face instead of Luc’s angelic, almost poetic beauty.

Groaning, I rolled over to my belly and buried my face in the pillow, but then I had the vivid, sensory memory of Jack covering my body with his, that hard, muscled length crushing into me. He hadn’t been careful, or cautious and I’d loved it.

Just thinking about it, about him, made me burn for more.

A lot more.

I stiffened as the air tightened. Grabbing one of the blankets, I wrapped it around myself and sat up only seconds before Will arrived. I blinked at the brilliant flash of light. As it faded, I had only one clear thought in my mind.

Thank God he’s alone.

Immediately guilt flooded me. I should be dying to have Luc back with me. But just then, I couldn’t have handled it. I could barely handle looking at my own reflection.

And before me stood the source of my problems. If he hadn’t separated us…

“What in the hell do you want?” I demanded.

“And hello to you too.”

I curled my lip at him. “What do you want? Just out with it so you can get back to babysitting your new angel.”

Something flashed through his eyes. If I hadn’t known better, I might have thought it was pain…grief.

But this was Will.

“Perci, you’re being quite the bitch today,” Will said mildly.

“Will, you’re being quite the ass. What in the hell do you want?”

For a long moment, he just watched me, his pale silver eyes shrewd, measuring. Then, as though he’d found some answer only he could see, he nodded. “You’re on assignment—the mortal you fought with last night. He’s to be one of us, and you’re to watch over him.”

“I…what?” I gaped at him.

“You heard me well enough.”

Silver light flashed.

I lunged for him and caught his arm before he could step through the light. “Oh, hell, no. You’re not dumping that surprise on me and just disappearing. How long am I to watch over him?”

“For however long he needs it,” Will said, lifting one shoulder in a lazy shrug.

“No. Oh, hell, no. Have you forgotten I’ve already got a partner?”

“You’re being reassigned.”

“You can’t do that.” My hand curled into a fist and I wanted to hit something—no. Not something. Will. I wanted to hit Will. “Damn it, what about Luc?”

“Luc isn’t your concern.”

“And who in the hell is going to be his eyes?” I shook my head. “You can’t do this to him. He needs me.”

“He’ll have a new partner…and I imagine it will be one who will be well-suited to his needs,” Will said. He glanced at my hand where I still clutched his arm, and then back at my face. “And no, he doesn’t need you. Stop telling yourself that. It’s been your crutch for far too long, Perci.”

“It’s the truth,” I growled.

“No. It’s your truth, and you refuse to see anything else.” Will sighed, and then he waved a hand. The light collapsed in on itself and he reached out and caught my arm.

I stiffened, but reluctantly followed as he led me to the bed.

“Persinette, you have never let yourself heal from what was done to you, to him, to your children.”

I flinched. Heal? How could I heal…? Swallowing, I shook my head and whispered, “I don’t want to talk about this.”

Will gazed at me, his silver eyes gentle and warm. “Nor would I. And we don’t have to. But it’s time you and Luc let go of the past—it’s past time you let go. You can’t heal, you won’t love him…and worse, you blame him.”

“No, I don’t.” I jerked away from him and stormed across the room. My voice shook as I said it again. “I don’t.”

“You do. Just as you blame yourself.”

“It wasn’t our fault it was done. I know that.”

Will lifted a brow. “Yes, and logic always goes so well with heartbreak and grief. Of course, you know it isn’t his fault. Just as you know it isn’t your fault. Nonetheless, you blame Luc for the deaths of your children. For what was done to you, to him. Just as you blame yourself. That is why you were never able to love him as you once did.”

Each word was a brutal, bitter dagger in my heart.

He was wrong.

“No.” I shook my head. Tears burned my eyes. He had to be wrong.

“Look inside your heart, Perci. Am I truly wrong?”

I turned away and covered my face with my hands. Cold air danced along my skin and I realized I’d dropped the sheet, but I didn’t—couldn’t care.

Then something warm came around my shoulders—the robe from the bathroom. Will wrapped a comforting arm around me. “There is too much grief, too much pain trapped inside you, Perci. I feel it any time I am near you. Luc feels it every day. It’s a festering wound—a poisoned one—and it’s tearing you apart. It’s destroying Luc.”

I could handle the pain tearing me apart. Hell, I lived with it.

But as I realized what Will was saying, and just how glaringly obvious it was, I started to shake. No, I hadn’t been in love with Luc for centuries. But I did love him. And I’d been torturing him.

“Oh, God, what am I doing?” I whispered. “What have I been doing?”

The truth was there, lurking…waiting for me to see it, to acknowledge it.

Will wasn’t wrong.

Deep inside, I had blamed Luc. I had blamed myself. I could live with blaming myself, hating myself. But blaming him, letting him feel that…no. I couldn’t stomach that.

And all this time, Luc knew.

“Oh, God…”

My legs gave out and I would have fallen if Will hadn’t been there. He caught me, but I barely noticed. Sick inside, full of so much self-hatred, I wanted to scream. I wanted to rant. I wanted to hurt myself.

Badly.

“You will not,” Will said, his voice flat and hard.

“Leave me alone,” I rasped.

“No.” His hands braceleted my wrists when I would have pulled away, and although I’m strong, nobody can move Will when he doesn’t want to be moved. “You will not harm yourself, and if you think I’ve told you this so you will place more blame, more guilt on yourself, then you’re a fool. Perci…you are not a fool.”

I jerked against his hold. “Damn it, let me go and leave me alone.”

“No. I’ve let this go and I’ve left the two of you alone, hoping you would work it out on your own for far too long. But if you haven’t dealt with it in the past three centuries, it’s rather clear you will not work it out on your own. So I’m stepping in.”

Stepping in? I glared at him and tried once more to pull away from him. When that didn’t work, I kicked him. But he was prepared for that, and the second time I tried to kick him, he narrowed his eyes. “Either act like an adult and be still, or I’ll make you.”

“Bite me, Will,” I snarled. I kicked him again—I wanted him to retaliate. Hell, I needed it. Poison inside me? Damn straight, there was poison. Poison and I needed to spew it out somehow. Oh, hell, Luc…

Tears burned my eyes. I shoved my weight against Will and this time, he retaliated.

But not physically.

Of all of us, he’s the strongest. He has gifts I know nothing about, gifts I want to know nothing about. Someone once told me that if it’s a talent one of the Grimm has, then Will has it as well…just in case nobody else is able to help train.

This was one of the gifts I knew nothing about, and as his mind slammed into mine and froze me, physically, I wished I’d listened when he said he would make me be still.

As I struggled to force my body to respond to my commands, Will stepped back. He adjusted the robe I wore, tying it shut at my waist—such a gentleman—and then crossed his arms over his chest and watched me narrowly.

“Do you think this is easy for me, Perci? Do you think I want to come down and intervene in everybody’s lives?” he asked.

I could speak, I realize. “Why the hell not? You’re constantly doing it.”

“No—not constantly, and think on this—if I didn’t hate seeing you so miserably unhappy, I wouldn’t bother.”

Well, that was one way to take the wind out of my sails. “Damn it, Will…”

He sighed and looked down. White hair fell down, shielding his face.

I could move again.

But I didn’t try to attack him. Wrapping my arms around myself, I moved to the window, opened the curtains and stared outside. The hotel was perched on the edge of the beach and I stared out over the sparkling water, but I wasn’t seeing the water, the sunbathers, or anything else.

All I could see was Luc.

A hundred times, a thousand times.

“How many times have I broken his heart?” I whispered.

“I don’t know.”

Closing my eyes, I pressed my brow against the sun-warmed glass. I was freezing, I realized. Freezing. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know. I should have. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry…” Tears clogged my throat. I turned around and looked at him. “I’ve been ripping his heart to shreds for three hundred years and I’ve been too fucking blind, too self-centered, too caught up in my own pain to even care. How can I face him? How can I make this up to him?”

“Perci, you don’t need to.” Will came to me then, reached up and cupped my cheek. “All he ever wanted, more than anything, was to see you happy. You can’t have that until you forgive yourself. Do that…and you’ll be able to look at him again without so much anger and rage in your heart. That’s what he needs from you.”

“He wants me to love him again and I can’t.” I licked my lips and shook my head. I tried to picture myself loving Luc, being with him. And despite the raging grief in my heart, despite the pain, I found myself thinking of the mortal…of Jack.

Blood rushed to my cheeks and I banished the thought of him from my mind.

Luc. I needed to think of Luc now.

“I have blamed him, you know. You’re right. And he’s not to blame. I…I have to acknowledge that and let it go. Forgive him. I can do that, and I will, but even after I do that, I still can’t give him what he wants. He wants me to love again, for us to be what we were.”

“Nothing is ever as it was—life is about change. For you…and for him.”

I looked up, saw a weird glimmer in Will’s eyes. “Will?”

He smiled.

Something fluttered in my heart. Maybe it was hope. For Luc.

“Is there…is he…?”

“Luc will move on, Perci. Once he knows you’re happy. Once he knows you will be fine.”

The hope that had begun to bloom died.

“Happy?” I shook my head. “I don’t deserve to be happy.”

“Yes.” He pinched my chin. “You do. And you will be.”

He pressed a kiss to my brow. “I think we tore open that badly healed wound…let the poison come out now, Persinette. And remember what I told you the other day. Life is for living—go live. And find your trainee before he gets into too much trouble.”

Chapter Six

Dying.

He couldn’t get drunk enough to wipe those words from his mind.

The mind forgets. But the body doesn’t.

The body doesn’t forget what?

Dying.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

He needed to forget those words, forget them, or wipe them from his mind.

Try as he might, he couldn’t quite manage to convince himself that Will had been pulling his leg.

But since he couldn’t forget, and since he couldn’t make himself believe Will was fucking with him, Jack was determined to get drunk. Shit-faced drunk.

Sitting at the far end of the bar, he tossed back another shot of tequila, grimaced and then reached for the bottle. The bartender was watching him warily, but Jack ignored him. He had plenty of cash to buy more booze, and at some point he’d either pass out or drop dead of alcohol poisoning—either way, problem solved. He wouldn’t have to figure out just what Will had been getting at.

He wouldn’t have to think about it. He’d been trying pretty damn hard all day not to think about it.

A shadow fell across him, but he ignored it. The scent of woman rose above the stink of the bar. Perfumed flesh…a little too much perfume. Jack preferred his women to smell a little more natural. That much perfume gave him a headache anyway. As she leaned in and laid a hand next to his, Jack reached for the bottle again.

“Hey there, sugar.”

Jack flicked a glance at her. Big blonde hair. Big blue eyes. Big boobs. And something inside her eyes he didn’t like. It nipped and clawed to get out.

Demon. Succubae.

Too fucking bad. She wasn’t here looking to body-swap, she just wanted to fuck. He wasn’t interested. “Go away,” he said, pouring himself another shot.

Instead of going away, she sidled closer, pressing her generous chest against his arm. “You want some company?”

Jack sighed. Absently, he flexed his ankle, his forearm, checking for his knives. He’d left the Desert Eagle in the car, but he didn’t go unarmed if he could avoid it. He really wasn’t in the mood for a fight though. Especially not here, and not with a succubae. Any other soul that looked at her would see just a blue-eyed blonde out looking for action, and the last thing he wanted was to get noticed.

He tossed back the tequila, eyed the level in the bottle. If he just guzzled it, would it be enough to put him under? She couldn’t do jack with him if he was passed out. But that wasn’t likely, because he still felt way too sober. Setting the shot glass down, he looked at the demon-possessed. “I’m not interested, lady.”

“You don’t seem to be finding whatever you want at the bottom of that bottle.” She trailed a blood-red finger down his hand.

What the hell… Jerking away, he glared at her as he slid off the stool. “Can you not take a hint?”

The hunger in her eyes burned hotter. Brighter.

She advanced a step, lifted a hand and pressed it to his chest. “You just look lonely. I know I’m lonely…”

“Lonely?”

Jack had been so focused on the blonde, he hadn’t realized the redhead was here watching them. But at the sound of Perci’s voice, he went still. Lifting up his head, he stared past the blonde into big, brown eyes. Sad eyes, he thought, and his heart wrenched.

She looked terribly, terribly sad…and so tired. Her eyes met his for the briefest moment, then she looked at the blonde.

“He’s not lonely. Get lost,” Perci said, her voice flat, hard.

Did she already know? Could she sense it? Them?

“Precious, you don’t want to be here,” Perci said softly, shaking her head. “It’s a bad, bad idea…”

Oh, yes. She knew.

“Honey, if you can’t keep your man at home, that’s not my fault,” the blonde said, smirking.

Those warm brown eyes could flash as cold as ice, Jack realized. He watched as she smiled at the woman, watched as she reached up, ran a finger down the silver chain of her necklace. The medallion wasn’t visible. It disappeared under her shirt, nestled in her cleavage, and although he hadn’t been the least bit interested by the blonde’s offer, all he wanted to do was go to Perci and nuzzle around the neckline of her shirt, nuzzle the pale, soft flesh and taste her. Again. And again. And again.

His cock started to throb.

Like a fucking shark, the succubae sensed his hunger, but she didn’t realize she wasn’t the target. She pressed her tits against his arm and smiled up at him. “You maybe wanna come outside with me?”

“No. I maybe don’t wanna,” he bit off, moving away.

She was like a damn two-armed octopus though. Following him, clutching at him and rubbing against him. All he had to do was look in her eyes and see the demon peering out at him to lose interest, but then he’d see Perci again. That was all it took.

And fuck, she was smirking now, watching him with a glint of amusement in her eyes, one that had managed to chase the shadows from her eyes.

“You think this is funny?” he growled at her as the blonde slid her hand down the front of his crotch.

She cocked a brow at him. “It has certain amusing aspects,” she drawled.

Then she reached over and grabbed the blonde’s hair.

Hard.

The blonde screeched and whirled, lifting a hand. She came down with a force that would have shattered bone if Perci had been human.

Perci just blocked it easily, and then she used her grip on the succubae to hurl her to the floor.

There was knowledge in the demon’s eyes as she looked up at Perci. Perci stroked a finger down the chain and tugged it free.

The succubae hissed, leaped to her feet and took off out the door quick as a blink.

Perci shot him a look. “I’ll be back. You be here when I am.”

Then she was gone.

“What the…”

He might have tried to go after them, but he wouldn’t be able to catch up and he knew it.

Plus, he realized a few too many people had been watching them, and there was a look of uneasiness in their eyes.

Too uneasy. They’d seen something their minds weren’t wanting to process—didn’t want to process. Although it was just two women with unusual strength and then the blonde moving with a speed that just a little too much, it still wasn’t…normal.

People didn’t like the unexplained. All he had to do was give them an explanation. They’d let it go.

“The redhead’s my girlfriend,” he said, the lie coming with just a little too much ease. “The blonde is her cousin—used to be big into running, almost made it into the Olympics, but had a drug problem. They’ll work it out.”

It was far-fetched as hell, but people would rather believe the improbable than the truth, Jack had realized. Even when the improbable was a little far-fetched itself.

Within another thirty seconds, the small crowd was no longer paying him much attention. And he was sitting back on his stool, contemplating the bottle of tequila once more.

If I’d been asked a few hours earlier, I would have said a kill would do me good.

But right now, I was tired. So fucking tired. By the time I’d dealt with the succubae and the human’s body, all I really wanted to do was sleep.

Except that I had to go back to the bar and find Jack.

The mortal Will expected me to train. The mortal I’d slept with. The mortal who made me feel strangely alive. The mortal who seemed to know far, far too much about things he shouldn’t.

He hadn’t said as much, but he’d known there was something not right about me…something different. And he had known there was something weird about the blonde earlier—I’d seen it in his eyes.

I wasn’t ready to face him, to deal with him. I felt too drained. I wanted to curl up someplace and sleep for weeks. Months, even. Idly, I wondered if Will had ever had one of us request stasis. Right now, it would suit me just fine.

Except I’d already let some part of me exist in limbo for too long and look at the damage I’d done.

Shit, Luc…

Tears burned my eyes, and I wanted so desperately to go see him. To find him. To tell him how sorry I was.

I needed to get myself together first though, because Will had been right. Luc needed to see that I’d be okay first. But how could I make myself okay…?

As I drew closer to the bar, I heard the rumble of noise. Too much noise. I paused and closed my eyes, filtering through it all. Fight.

Hell.

I didn’t even have to see it to know Jack was involved. Somehow.

Picking up my pace, I made it inside just in time to see one of the guys in the bar take a cue stick and swing toward Jack’s back. I winced in sympathy as it broke, watched as he staggered a little, then shifted around and aimed a kick at Cue Stick Boy’s knee. The guy went down hard, and judging by the sound of bone crunching, he wouldn’t be getting up soon, and not without crutches and a cast for a good long while.

Good. Hitting at somebody’s back?

Dismissing him, I looked around the bar. Hell. It was trashed.

Besides Cue Stick, three more lay around in various stages of injury. I glanced at Jack, watched as he drove a fist into somebody’s gut and then followed it up with an elbow. And another one bit the dust.

Damn.

The guy was a one-man wrecking crew. Shit, what did he need me for? To make him more dangerous than he already was? It was a damn good thing he was on the side of the angels, that was for sure.

I glanced behind the bar, saw the bartender standing there with a gun. He looked worried and pissed and I couldn’t blame him. Then I saw the phone in his other hand. Hell. Cops. He’d called the cops.

Sighing, I bent down and grabbed one of the cue sticks. They were lying scattered all over the place and a quick look at the back of the bar revealed why. The pool table lay on its side. Took some strength for that—somehow I suspected Jack was involved.

Three brave souls decided the best way to get at Jack was to rush him as one.

Smart plan.

Bad timing.

I took one of them out with the cue stick, using just enough force to make sure he went down and would wake up with a headache. Jack dealt with one of them and the third was as easy as tripping when he stumbled and glanced around to look for his buddy.

There weren’t many people left willing to give Jack a go.

I could see why.

As he turned around and caught sight of me, that one look was enough to make my heart do a crazed little dance in my chest. If I’d still been mortal, if I’d still been that blushing maiden who had fallen in love with Luc, I think I might have fainted dead away at the sight of him.

He looked like hell on earth…like a warrior bent on destruction.

He also looked so damned hot, even smeared with blood, I just wanted to jump him.

Man. I was sick. Twisted and sick.

Hoping none of it showed, I jerked my head to the back door. “We need to be gone. Now. The cops are coming.”

He curled his lip. “Figures.”

“Did you drive?”

“Yeah.” He started toward me and then winced and pressed a hand to his side. I knew that look, felt the echo of pain whisper through him. Grimly, I lowered my shields and that whisper of pain became a scream as I read the injuries on his body.

Oh, a lot of injuries. The worst were the ribs. Nothing fatal, but it was hurting him like a bitch. Somebody had busted a rib or two. I’d have to deal with that later.

I just hoped he’d prove as tough as he looked. Right now, we needed to move.

I reached into my hip pocket and pulled out the cash. As I counted off some bills, I said, “I sure hope you didn’t start this.”

“Yeah, princess. That’s my idea of fun—picking a fight with a bunch of drunk morons.”

On my way out the door, I threw the bills at the bartender. “For the damage. If you can avoid giving too clear a description of my friend here, I’ll even see to it that more money is delivered within the next few weeks.”

The bartender glanced at the cash, then at me. “He didn’t start it. No reason to get too detailed, I reckon.”

The money was tucked away before we even made the door.

We’d just pulled out of the parking lot in his beat-up old truck when the first of the flashing lights appeared in the rearview mirror. A little too close for comfort.

Shooting Jack a narrow look, I muttered, “You’re going to be trouble.”

“I’ve always been trouble.” A ghost of a smile danced around his lips. But his eyes were closed, lines of pain fanning out from the corners.

We hit a bump and he grimaced. “We might need to find an ED. I’ve got some ribs busted—need to make sure they aren’t poking into anything.”

“They aren’t.” I’d feel it if they were. It would be a different pain.

He shot me a sidelong glance. “You got X-ray vision?”

“Something like that.” As I drove, I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. I needed a drink. It was going to be a long, long night. And a painful one. For both of us. But I didn’t think about what was coming. I was better off not doing that. If I thought about it too much, it was going to put me in a bad, bad place.

The illness within him was enough to make Persinette’s belly clench, even from here.

She could not risk going near him.

She already knew he could not be saved.

Looking at Jacques, she said, “I cannot help him. Would you please…”

She had no need to say another word to him. He gestured to several of her men. As they escorted her away, he went to speak to her mother-in-law, Cosette.

She had come to Persinette, begging, pleading. “I cannot bury another man I love…I cannot.”

Persinette’s heart broke for her, truly. She was not Luc’s mother, although she had raised him, loved him as a mother would. Luc’s mother had died shortly after she had given birth to him and just a few months later, Cosette had come into his life.

Sadly Luc had lost his father when he was but ten, and Cosette was all he had. She had remarried but her husband had taken ill, and now he lay dying.

Cosette had looked to Persinette.

Many people looked to Persinette. They did not understand why she was able to help so many, and Persinette would not enlighten them. Let them think it was the teas and the tonics—they need not know the truth. But Cosette was one of the few who did know. Persinette could heal. She couldn’t heal all ills, though.

Cosette’s husband would not be healed, and if Persinette tried it would kill her. It would kill her and the baby she carried. Pressing a hand to the swell of her stomach, she glanced back over her shoulder as Cosette started to sob. One of her ladies wrapped an arm around her and gave Persinette a censuring look. Persinette closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do for the man. She had to live with that.

As Jacques strode toward her, she carefully wiped the grief from her features. This brooding, protective man saw too much, read her too easily, and she wouldn’t have him see this pain.

But he saw it, nonetheless.

He rested a big hand on her shoulder. “There is nothing you can do for him, milady. If you tried, you would endanger yourself and the child you carry.”

“I know.” She sighed and looked back once more at Cosette. “She has never asked anything of me though. I only wish to help—”

“She should not have asked this—not now. Not of a woman with child.” A grim look crossed his face. “Your husband wouldn’t be pleased to know his mother has asked this of you.”

She reached out and caught his arm. “You will not tell him. When he returns, it will be hard enough to learn that his mother has been forced to bury another husband. He will be dead in days. He cannot be saved. There is no reason to trouble Luc with this.”

“He is your husband. He would want to know—he should know.” Jacques studied her face, his gray eyes dark and unreadable.

“You cannot tell him…”

She would have tried to make him promise, but just then, a harsh, brutal pain gripped her belly and she cried out. Darkness swamped her. The last thing she knew was his hands catching her.

Something had her pissed off, Jack decided.

Or upset her…something. The drive to his place was made in complete silence. And considering it was a good forty-minute drive, that was a lot of silence. He didn’t mind it, but he rather liked listening to her talk, even if she was a smart-ass guardian angel. Even if he didn’t know why she was here…or why she wouldn’t take him to the damn ED, because shit, he was hurting.

Well, she’d dump him on his ass and then he’d just haul himself to the local county ED, make sure nothing was broken. He had some Vicodin in the medicine cabinet and if he popped a few of those, he’d get some sleep. He healed fast, and in a few days he’d be feeling okay.

Still, he wished she’d say something.

But she didn’t. She just stared straight ahead as she drove. She barely blinked, hardly even seemed to breathe.

When she pulled up in front of his place, he stayed where he was as she slid out.

“You coming?” she asked, lifting a red-gold brow at him.

“I’ll wait here a few.” He kept his eyes closed, tried not to breathe too deep. No way in hell was he climbing out of the truck, then back in once she disappeared.

Perci sighed. “Would you get out of the damn truck so I can take a look at you?”

“Unless you’re a doctor, you taking a look at me isn’t going to do much good.” He cracked one eye open and slanted a look at her. “I need to go get an X-Ray, and I’d rather do it now because I’m already hurting like a bitch.”

“Get the fuck out of the truck or I’ll haul you out.” She gave him a sharp-edged smile and added, “And somehow, I think you know I can.”

“Damn it.” He glared at her and started to shift, only to freeze as pain lanced through him. Sweat broke out all over him and he gritted his teeth, fought to breathe through it. After the wave passed, he gritted out, “Look, unlike you, I get hurt, and I don’t heal the way you do.”

“You know, I’m really curious just how you know these things.” Then she came over and touched a finger to his lower lip. Pain flared and he remembered somebody had punched him in the mouth. That pain had seemed minor compared to his ribs though. He’d forgotten about it until she’d touched him. “Look at me. Don’t blink. Don’t close your eyes, not even for a second, Jack.”

Then she pressed down. He grimaced and he might have knocked her hand away, but before he could, he saw it happen. He watched as her mouth—her perfect, bow-shaped mouth bloomed with an ugly bruise, a cut splitting her lower lip.

Although he hadn’t looked in the mirror, he suspected that was a lot how his mouth looked. As the bruising on her face spread, the pain in his own faded.

He was still gaping at her as she reached up and touched her fingers to his blackened eye.

And as she took that injury away, took it onto herself, the injury on her lower lip was knitting together, fading away bit by bit.

“You don’t need a doctor,” she said. “I can take care of your side. But I’m not doing it out here.”

“No.”

I narrowed my eyes at him as he refused to get out of the truck.

He was in so much pain, I was almost ill with it. I wouldn’t block it out though, because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell if the pain was anything serious. I didn’t think it was, but he had quite a few injuries on him.

I sighed and pushed my hand through my hair, debated on my choices.

I really did not want to do this out here. Once I took the injuries on his ribs, I was going to be in much worse shape than him. I’d heal quicker, but the price of that was I’d be damn near incapacitated for a short period of time and I’d rather not collapse out here.

Not that he’d leave me unconscious on the ground though…

Well, hell.

“Are you going to haul your butt inside or not?” I asked him, folding my arms across my chest.

“No.” He glared at me, his face unmarked, his eyes furious and glinting at me. Oh, he was pissed. This was lovely. He was mad because I had healed him. This was just plain lovely.

Fine. He was going to be even more pissed off in a minute.

Sidling closer, careful not to let him see what I was up to, I said, “So what are you going to do? Just deal with the busted ribs and the pain?”

“I’ve had worse.”

Yeah, I suspected he had. He watched me warily. Like he knew I was up to something.

Smart guy. Just as he went to shift away from me, I moved, flowing into the front seat of the truck and curling up on the small space in the floorboard. I slammed my hands onto either side of him so he couldn’t evade me that way. “Sorry. I can’t let you suffer,” I said.

He started cussing and jerked away.

As I laid my hands on him, I did the same thing—cussing in English, then switching to French when I ran out of creative ways to swear. I kept right on cursing until the pain stole my breath away.

Vicious and brutal…that was the only way to describe this kind of pain. It sucks the breath right out of you and every single microsecond is agonizing. I tasted blood in the back of my throat, and even though his broken ribs hadn’t pierced his lungs, I suspected I wouldn’t be so lucky. Black dots danced in front of my eyes and I knew consciousness wasn’t going to hold out much longer. I pressed the flats of my hands against his sides, searched for the pain inside. But it was gone.

All gone.

Thank God.

I collapsed in a heap and he caught me. I glimpsed his rigid, angry face through my lashes and my last clear thought was… Have we done this before?

She weighed nothing.

Jack carried her into his house and tried not to think about how fragile she felt, how delicate.

As he lay her on his bed, he sat down beside her and touched the pulse in her neck, although he wasn’t sure why.

It wasn’t like she could die, right?

But she’d coughed up blood. She’d collapsed. She was unconscious, and damn it, why the hell had she done that? It wasn’t like he hadn’t dealt with busted ribs before.

The pulse under his touch was strong, steady, although slower than he would have expected. He sighed and shifted around, buried his face in his hands, and even as he did it, he marveled that he could do it without pain. Not even ten minutes ago, he’d been all but ready to beg for her to just leave him the hell alone just so he could do something about his fucking ribs, and now he was fine.

Driven by curiosity, he stood and moved to the mirror over his bureau, staring at his face. He should have looked like a human punching bag.

But there wasn’t even a damn mark on him.

He grabbed the hem of his bloodied and stained T-shirt and pulled it off. His ribs should have been black and blue, but there was nothing.

In the mirror, he looked at Perci’s reflection, watched as she shifted, watched her face tighten with pain. He clenched his jaw and turned around, strode across the floor.

She’d taken his injuries, his fucking busted ribs. Sitting down on the side of the bed, he caught her shirt and eased it up. And felt like he’d been sucker-punched all over again. Because her ribs looked easily twice as bad as his should have looked.

“It’s…passing.”

Shifting his gaze up, he realized she’d woken up and was staring at him, her brown eyes clouded with pain.

“If you hadn’t fucking done that, there wouldn’t be anything to pass.”

“I still would have been hurting, as long as I was anywhere near you.” She grimaced. “I heal. I can’t be around somebody in physical pain without feeling something, and it’s worse with somebody I know, somebody I’ve…ah…well…”

“Fucked?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I was thinking connected with. If there’s some sort of connection, it’s a lot worse.”

“Then you should have just gotten the hell away from me.” He stared at the bruises, willing them to fade. But it didn’t seem like they were. Impatient, he grabbed the knife from his boot and sliced her shirt open.

Perci glared at him. “Damn it, what are you doing?”

“You said you heal fast. You should heal fast and I’m not seeing it happen.”

“It’s only been a few minutes.” Then she closed her eyes and took a slow, clearly cautious breath. “I can breathe easier, and it’s not hurting as much. The bruises will be the last thing to go. But it’s getting better.”

Gently, he touched one finger to a bruise. It was an ugly stain on her pale, pale skin and just the sight of it was like an obscenity. “You shouldn’t have done this,” he muttered. “It was my fight, my fault. You shouldn’t have had to deal with the pain.”

“I was given a gift to use it.” She stared at him with unconcerned eyes, liked she wasn’t bothered by the fact that her entire torso was a dark rainbow. “And hey, I’ve had worse.”

“You honestly feel the pain of everybody around you?”

She shrugged. “Not all the time. I can shield against it and I don’t help everybody. I can’t. Even my energy isn’t endless. I’ve figured that out.” She closed her eyes. “And the gift has…changed over time. But this was easy.”

“You call this easy?”

“Compared to some of the people I’ve had to heal? Yes.”

He was staring so hard at the bruises it took him a few moments to realize they were actually lessening. Fading away.

It was a slow, gradual thing, and he counted the minutes away as he watched her body slowly absorb the bruises she’d taken from him.

Fifteen minutes after she’d opened her eyes, she squinted at him and demanded, “Are you going to sit there until every last bruise is gone?”

“Yes.” He curled his hand over her hip, rubbed one bruise with his thumb. “They never should have gone to you to begin with.”

“Oh, for crying out loud…” She went to sit up, but then she froze.

Her brown eyes were only inches away from him, her mouth so very, very close.

“I don’t like seeing marks on you,” Jack muttered.

Perci’s lashes lowered over her eyes. “Unfortunately, I get marked up a lot. But I heal fast. Deal with it.”

“Hmmm.” He dipped his head and skimmed his lips down her neck. “Why did you leave so fast?”

“I…” She shuddered. “I needed to think.”

“Thinking can be very overrated.”

“Yeah. But it needed to be done.”

“Okay.” He brushed the ruin of her shirt aside and nipped the soft curve of her shoulder. “Did it help you figure anything out?”

“No. Not a damn thing.” She tilted her head to the side, baring her neck.

Jack took the hint and nuzzled her neck again, scraping the flesh with his teeth and smiling as she shivered. “I like the feel of you, Perci. I like the taste of you.”

“Hmmm. The feeling is mutual.” She stroked a hand up his side and then whispered, “Jack, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” Damn, he’d give her anything…

“I could use a shower.”

Hell. Not quite what he’d been hoping for.

Dipping his head, he caught her lower lip between his teeth and tugged. Then he stood up and caught her in his arms. She snorted. “I can walk.”

“Yeah. This works too though. And I figure you owe me for taking ten years of my life when you passed out on me.”

She lifted a brow. “If you’d listened and come inside the house, I would have explained that I’d be in bad shape when I was done.”

“Bad shape and passing out are two different things. I was in bad shape. You passed out.” He shouldered the door open and sat her down on the counter before flicking the light on. “Shower or bath?”

She eyed the bath, a wistful little sigh escaping her. “Shower, although a soak sounds lovely.”

“There’s no reason you can’t have one.”

“Actually, yeah, there is. We need to talk.”

He knelt down in front of her and went to work on the laces of her boots. “Talk about what?”

“All sorts of things. And I can handle my boots.”

“So can I.” He dropped one on the floor. “See?”

As he straightened in front of me, I found myself staring at his chest. I really should look away from his chest—really. I knew this. But I was having the hardest damn time.

As a matter of fact, instead of looking away, I found myself leaning closer and pressing my mouth against him. Just above his heart.

His breath hissed out of him and his hand came up, cradled the back of my head.

“We’re not going to talk, and you’re not going to shower if you keep things like this up,” he muttered. “At least not for a good long while.”

I looked at him from under my lashes. “You could always join me in the shower.”

He skimmed a hand down my side. “You’re not up for that.”

“Aren’t I?” I took a deep breath and there was no pain, no tightness. Leaning back, I glanced down at my torso. All but a few yellowish, green shadows were gone and I barely even felt the discomfort from those. “I feel fine. A little stiff, but that’s what the shower is for.”

Heat, hunger, they burned in his eyes and turned that misty gray to smoke. He laid his hands on my thighs and I could feel the warmth of him through the denim. I wanted to feel it on my bare skin—wanted to feel him on my bare skin.

I shouldn’t do this…

The whisper of guilt tried to rouse in the back of my mind, but this time, instead of ignoring it and shoving it aside—I faced it. Actually, there was no real reason why I shouldn’t, was there? After all, we already had.

There is Luc, that voice whispered. You still need to face Luc.

But Luc already knew. Luc had known for years, and I’d been cruelly, foolishly clinging to him and letting him keep his illusions. But we were no longer married, and although I loved him, I wasn’t in love with him. More…he knew it.

Yes, I needed to tell him that, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from taking pleasure with this man, was it?

Although… I sighed and closed my eyes. Damn my brain anyway. Damn my heart.

Jack reached up and cupped my face. He pressed a kiss to my brow. “So you’re not up for it.”

Yeah. Let him think that. It was easier, right?

As he pulled away, I gave him a strained smile. “You know, I think maybe a bath wouldn’t be a bad idea, after all.”

Baths took longer, right?

Chapter Seven

Luc loved the mountains.

Although Perci wasn’t here with him, he could still enjoy the beauty and enjoy them he would. Alaska didn’t feel the same though. Not without Perci.

Nothing would ever feel the same without Perci.

He walked the paths of the house they had built three decades earlier and tried to find peace. It wasn’t here.

He tried to find comfort. It wasn’t here.

He wondered if perhaps he had given her up too easily, but after three hundred years, was it really easy? It wasn’t like he hadn’t waited for her to heal, for her to come back to him.

It just wasn’t meant to be.

It was edging closer to dusk when he returned home, not that he could tell by sight. He hadn’t used Krell’s eyes once since Perci had been taken from him. For some reason, it was easier to just live in the darkness right now, although he didn’t know why.

He knew it was night by the chance in the air, the feel of it, the smell of it.

When he felt the air draw tight, he was tempted to use the dog’s sight though. After all, it would make it easier to get his hands around Will’s throat if he could see the bastard.

“Hello, Luc.”

His heart stuttered.

It was Perci. And the ache that had resided in her heart for three hundred years…

“Perci,” he said, amazed that his voice sounded so normal. So calm. He reached down and rested a hand on Krell’s head. The dog didn’t stiffen, didn’t blink as he merged their minds and gazed at Perci.

He hissed out a breath at the sight of her. Bruises faded on her narrow torso and her shirt was missing. “You’re in a state.”

“Yeah. Healed somebody and it was bad.” She glanced down and grimaced as she eyed the fading bruises.

That didn’t explain the loss of her shirt though. Keeping his connection with Krell, he released the dog and crossed the ground to her, studying her face. Something had changed on her…within her. Something major, something momentous…and in such a short time.

There was grief in her eyes.

And there was a strange sort of peace as well. That pain that knotted her heart, it was easing. He had waited years, centuries for this…dare he hope?

Perci kicked at the ground and he realized she was missing a boot.

Just one.

Perplexed, he looked at her face. “Perci, where is your other boot?”

She scowled and glanced down. “Shoot.” Shoving a hand through her hair, she said, “I was in a rush. I needed to get this done while it was on my mind and I just got a hold of Will, made him send me here. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Get it done.

No. He didn’t dare hope. That was something he shouldn’t have even considered. Didn’t he know better than that by now?

“Get what done?” he asked. Although he hadn’t thought it was possible to hurt more, the crack in his heart widened and started to spill something vile and bitter through him. He wanted to back away—perhaps go into the house, away from her. Could she make him listen if he wasn’t here?

“I need to tell you I’m sorry.”

Caught off-guard, Luc stilled. “You are sorry.” He curled a hand into a fist, wished he could reach for her. Inside her mind, she was a dark tangle of misery, and although it had eased, the pain was there. He wanted to take that from her, but he couldn’t. She had never allowed him to help ease that pain. “Why are you sorry?”

“For blaming you…all this time. For never letting go of you, even when both of us knew it was over.”

Over. Luc closed his sightless eyes against the burn of tears. She’d finally said it. He wanted to make her take the words back. But he couldn’t undo what was happening inside her. And he couldn’t make her love him again.

“Perhaps I wasn’t ready to admit it was over,” he whispered quietly. “I wasn’t ready to let you go either.”

She sighed and it was a sad, desolate sound. “We were only married for fifteen years. And nearly half of that, you were gone from me. Why is it so hard to let go of something that existed so long ago?”

For him, it was only yesterday. But he didn’t tell her that. She needed this. He would let her have it. He still loved her, after all. How could he do otherwise?

Crossing to her, he laid a hand on her cheek. Memory slammed into him…yes, for him, it was only yesterday. He remembered the day they wed, the day she pledged herself to him. He had touched her just so and promised always to love her…and he had meant it. Although theirs had been an arranged marriage, as had so many, it had also been one of love. A gift, he’d always thought.

Until the day the gift had become a nightmare.

“We were happy,” he said quietly. “And although we’ve lived many, many years, Persinette, it was the only time we were truly happy. Is it any wonder we cannot let those memories go?”

She took a deep breath and it caught in her throat. “I’ve been so unfair to you, Luc. You were never to blame, and if I hadn’t spent the past three centuries hating myself, blaming myself, blaming you, maybe you could have moved on, found something…found somebody. You deserve to be happy.”

Pressing his thumb to her lips, he said, “Enough. I have spent this time exactly where I wanted to be. Yes, I had hopes you would in time heal…and return to me. But in my heart of hearts, I knew I fooled myself. And that fault is mine. Not yours.”

“Luc—”

“Shhh.” He kissed her softly. “You are my heart, Perci, and I have hoped, have prayed, that in time you would come to love me again. But that is not meant to be. But it was my choice to wait, to hope…my choice. Not yours. Because I knew it wouldn’t happen, even if I didn’t want to admit it.”

“If I could have made it happen, I would have. I do love you. I just can’t love you like I did when we married. Before…”

“Shhh.”

She was crying now. Crying, and every tear tore a dagger into his already broken heart. Brushing the tears aside, he said gently, “If we could control the heart, what good would we be? The heart isn’t meant to be controlled, love. And you know it. Now stop hating yourself. Let it go, Perci. Perhaps we have both clung to the past for far too long.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. One harsh sob escaped her.

He stroked a hand up her back and closed his eyes. For years, he had prayed one simple prayer… Bring her back to me.

But he realized, he had prayed for the wrong thing.

Now he opened his sightless eyes and stared at the heavens he could no longer see. Give her peace. Let her be happy again.

If it was without him, then fine—he’d swallow that nasty, bitter pill.

Because he just couldn’t handle thinking about her out there…and without him there to watch over her.

“It was never our fault, Perci,” he murmured. He kissed her brow. “Never.”

The air grew tight.

He knew what it meant and he wanted to cling to her, press her close.

Instead, he caught her chin in his hand. “One kiss, Perci?”

He tasted her tears as she pressed her mouth to his.

“I’m going to make myself okay, Luc. I wanted to tell you that.”

Although it was the very last thing he wanted to do, he let her go. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“But you need to promise me something.”

She was backing away from him, and because he couldn’t stand to watch her leave him for the very last time, he severed his connection with Krell. Lost in the darkness, he forced a smile. “And what would you have me promise you?”

“Will told me that life is for living…even for us. If I’m supposed to go and live, then so are you. We both held on too long. Go and live, Luc. There’s something, somebody out there for you. Find her.”

And then she was gone.

Luc closed his eyes. “I found her three hundred years ago,” he said quietly.

Krell pressed himself against his leg and whined. Luc shook his head, unable to find comfort in his friend’s presence. “Just give her peace…and I’ll make myself accept this,” he muttered. “Somehow.”

Chapter Eight

The water was cooling by the time I sank my aching bones into it.

I felt old. Yeah, I am old, but I usually don’t feel that way.

Shit, that had been hard. I’m not tuned into emotional pain, thank God, but I didn’t have to be for me to feel his agony.

I’d just broken Luc’s heart.

Again.

For probably the thousandth time. I worried the medallion absently. He’d be better for this though. He’d have to be. I was like the albatross around his neck and once he realized that…

The door flew open. Jack stood there, his eyes narrowed and furious.

“What in the hell…” he growled.

I lifted a brow.

“I could say the same thing.”

“Where have you been?”

I glanced at the water. “Taking a bath?”

“Don’t lie to me.” His lip peeled back from his teeth, and although my heart was still aching from what I’d just done, I felt a ridiculous little quiver too. “I came in here fifteen minutes ago to check on you and you weren’t here.”

Oops.

I just stared at him. He glared back at me.

Huffing out a sigh, I said, “Well, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

He stalked over to the tub and bent over, bracing his hands on either side. “Is there any particular reason you’ve decided to plant your cute little ass in my life? Is there?”

“Actually…yes.” My heart banged against my ribs so hard, it was a miracle neither of us actually heard it. “And we can talk about that. After my bath. Now if you don’t mind…”

For the longest time, he didn’t move. I didn’t dare breathe until he straightened up and pulled away. When he did leave, I sagged and sank into the water until it covered my head.

Shit.

This had been one hellaciously exhausting day. Yeah, so what if I’d felt more alive than I had in centuries? Even just now with Luc, when I’d been shredding his heart—yeah, it had hurt—but I’d let myself feel. I hadn’t let myself feel in so long…

Right now I wasn’t entirely sure this was a good thing.

Jack stormed into the kitchen and only one thing kept him from plowing his fist into the solid granite counter top.

It was the knowledge that if he did it, he’d end up bashing the hell out of his hand, and then what? If Perci did felt the physical pain of those around her, what in the hell would he do if he actually busted his hand?

He was pissed enough right now to do that, but shit, he couldn’t risk actually causing her pain.

Where in the hell had she been?

“Have a care with her, would you, Jack?”

He spun around, snarling as Will stepped through the doorway.

Will.

Jack knew him by no other name. As far as he knew, the man had no other name. In all the years he’d known him, Will hadn’t aged a day, hadn’t changed a bit. He was Jack’s height—topping off at six foot two, but where Jack was broadly built, Will was lean. He was pale, his hair silvery-white, although it wasn’t from age. No, the guy’s face was unlined and smooth.

He wasn’t a young man though. Jack knew that just by looking in those silver-gray eyes.

Will had seen things. He’d seen civilizations rise, fall. He’d seen life and death and things Jack didn’t even want to think about. Not that Will had ever told him. Jack just knew.

Normally, he wouldn’t have minded seeing the man in his home, even though he did have a problem knocking. Will just tended to appear. Wherever, whenever he wanted.

But right now, he wasn’t in the mood.

Closing one hand into a fist, he snarled, “Get the hell out.”

Will cocked a brow. “Have a care with her,” he repeated, his voice soft. Mild.

But the warning was clear.

Jack curled his lip. “It’s not like I’m going to go whaling on her. Even if I was inclined to beat women, she’s one of yours. She could kick my ass and we both know it.”

“I didn’t mean physically.” Will sighed.

He looked…tired.

Jack frowned and shoved off the counter, crossing his arms over his chest as he studied the other man’s face.

But any questions he might have asked fell to the wayside as Will focused his strange, unearthly eyes on Jack’s face. “Perci doesn’t need gentle physical handling, and you’re quite right, she’d hand your ass to you on a platter if you had a mind to get rough with her. Not that you would. Perci is just…fragile right now, Jack.” He looked away, staring off into the distance.

In an absent voice, he said, “I pushed her too hard, I think.”

“What are you talking about?”

Will looked back at him. “Some wounds, they are buried so deep…they heal wrong. You know that? Perci’s wounds healed very, very wrong. She finally faced some of that, but I should have forced her to do it long before now. Long before…”

Will went quiet.

“Before what?”

But Will wouldn’t say, and as he shifted his silver gaze to the doorway, Jack figured out why.

Perci was coming.

“Have a care with her,” Will murmured again, his voice almost soundless.

Jack snarled but kept the question behind his teeth, ready for Will to disappear, the way he liked to do.

But as Perci appeared in the doorway, Will lingered.

She didn’t look surprised to see him, although her mouth went tight.

“Damn it, haven’t I had to handle enough in the past few days?” she muttered.

As Jack tried to figure out how to address that cryptic question, Will moved to join her. “Yes.”

Tension jerked Jack’s spine straight as a poker as Will came to a stop at her side. He rested a hand on her shoulder and Jack couldn’t help but notice…they looked…well…nice together.

Not exactly like a matched set, but Will had that easy elegance about him, and Perci looked like she’d been born to well silks and satins and lace. Jack felt more at home in his jeans. He’d take a beer over a glass of wine any day. He was out of place with her and he knew it.

And what the hell did that matter? They didn’t know each other. He had no idea why she was in his life. Once she’d taken care of whatever she felt she needed to take care of, she’d be gone and he’d probably never see her again. Just thinking that left a bad, bad ache in his heart. An old, old wound…one that had never healed…

Perci edged away from Will and Jack wanted to grab her, pull her against him. He didn’t want the other man touching her. At all. Not at all.

She shot Jack a shuttered look, and it was a punch in the gut to see the grief there. That pain.

Have a care with her.

Perci is just…fragile right now.

Fragile?

She looked shattered. Heartbroken.

Her brown eyes stared into his and despite the anger that still burned in his gut, he found himself reaching up, skimming his fingers down her cheek. “What’s the matter, princess?” he murmured. “You didn’t look quite so sad earlier.”

She reached up, but instead of knocking his hand away the way he’d expected, she just sighed, wrapped her fingers around his wrist and squeezed. “Nothing’s wrong, Jack. Nothing more than normal, at least.” Then, with some hint of her normal attitude, she cocked a brow and added, “Stop calling me princess.”

She let go, moved to the table and settled down in the chair with easy, boneless grace. Her gaze moved to Will and she stared at him for a long moment before looking back at Jack. “You know this guy, I take it?”

“Ah…yeah.” Jack shot Will a glance, but the man had his inscrutable mask in place and Jack had no idea what he was up to.

“Hmm. Figures.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “Will, is there a reason you’re gracing us with your presence or did you just miss the pleasure of my company?”

She smirked with the last bit and Will gave her a ghost of a smile.

“Well, you’re being so charming, Persinette,” he murmured. “How can I resist?”

She snorted and then sighed. “Stop worrying. I’m fine. Or I will be. Go on. You’ve got other…issues on your mind.”

“Issues,” Will mused. “Yes. Issues.”

Will still had that strange look in his eyes and although he said nothing, Jack felt the weight of his words slamming through him all over again.

Have a care.

What in the hell?

In the blink between moments, Will disappeared.

He barely noticed, but Perci gazed at the spot where Will had been, like she could almost see the echo of his passage.

Could she, he wondered?

Maybe she could have, except she wasn’t exactly too focused on the here and now.

Her eyes looked so damned sad.

Abruptly, the anger he’d felt drained away.

Hauling the chair out, he spun it around and sat. He brought his arms up and rested his chin on the back, staring at her. The delicate lines of her face didn’t look any different than they had earlier. But there was a grief on her…pain. “You look miserable,” he said quietly.

“You’re a real sweet-talker.” She gave him a whisper of a smile, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Anybody ever tell you that?”

“What has you so sad?”

I looked away. I couldn’t talk about this with him. And damn it, where was that vaunted self-control of mine? I should be able to look at him without him seeing all the misery and pain, without him knowing a damn thing I felt. I was good at hiding what I felt. Years of practice.

Years that proved useless with him.

Determined to distract him, I looked back at him. “How do you know Will?”

“He knew my mother. And you haven’t answered me.”

I blinked. “He knew your mother?” I repeated. Leaning forward, I peered at his face. “What do you mean he knew your mother?”

He reached out and when he touched me, I felt the shock of it clear down to my toes. I would have leaned into that touch, happily, maybe even invited a deeper, more intimate touch. But he was more interested in toying with the silver chain wrapped around my neck.

“I’ve seen this before,” he said quietly.

“Seen…what? My necklace?”

“Not yours. One like it.”

My heart started to race. Somewhere deep inside I could feel things coiling tight, cold. My hands were sweating. “Will wears one.”

Jack’s gaze swept up to meet mine.

“Yeah. He does. But it wasn’t his.” He rubbed his thumb over the etched wings, and I saw grief in the soft, misty gray of his eyes.

“Who was it, Jack?”

“My mother,” he murmured. “She wore one just like this. Until the day she died.”

I jerked away so hard the chair clattered to the floor and the chain broke. He was left holding my pendant and I snatched it away from him. “You lying son of a bitch. If she had one just like this, then she wouldn’t be dead.”

I didn’t say it out loud, but we didn’t procreate either. He couldn’t have one of us for a mother.

“Liar. You’re fucking lying,” I said, shaking my head at him.

He lifted a brow. “You sure about that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” I shoved a hand through my hair. What in the hell was I doing here? Had Will stuck me with some screwed-up head case that I was going to have to “guide” before he could be one of us? Why was he handing me this story?

Maybe it’s not a story…he seems to know too much.

I shot him a look. “Just like this?”

“Exactly.”

“There’s only one way she could have gotten one just like this. One way.”

He shrugged. “Then I guess that’s how she got it. I never asked. She always had it. I never saw her without it.”

“How old were you when she died?”

His lashes flickered. “Almost thirteen,” he said, his voice gruff.

I ached for him. It must have been almost twenty years, but the heart never forgot those we loved. “Thirteen…” I shook my head. Okay, there was another slim possibility. Maybe she’d taken him in when he was young—maybe she had been the one set intended to train him, and then she’d gotten in a fight she couldn’t win.

We can die—it’s just not that easy to kill us. Maybe she just let him think she was his mom, although that didn’t settle well…

“Are you sure she was your mother?”

A grim smile twisted his lips. “Oh, yeah. She was my mother. Birth-mother, don’t go trying to find another explanation out of it.”

He sounded certain of it—too certain. And I believed him.

“Doesn’t make sense,” I muttered. None of it.

“Why not?”

I looked down at my pendant. “These…mean something.”

He smirked at me. “I know what they mean, princess.”

“Do you?”

He stood and kicked a leg over the chair. I had the bizarre image of a man dismounting a horse—a man wearing tarnished armor, wielding a sword. Then the image changed and the armor became chain mail. I rubbed my eyes and the image altered yet again and I saw him in the garb I would have seen in the time when I had lived as a human.

My knees buckled and I had to slam a hand against the wall to keep from falling.

The face…it seemed all wrong. But something about his eyes…the way he moved, even the body…

A shiver raced down my spine.

I passed a hand over my eyes and then looked at Jack. “What do you know about the pendants, Jack? About…?”

“About the Grimm?” he asked, his voice mocking. “Enough. Everything.”

The Grimm—

My heart knocked against my ribs. How did he know?

His mother…?

“Did your mother tell you about us?”

“Shit, no. My mother never broke her vows and there are all sorts of promises they make you give—they don’t end when you give up your wings, do they, Perci?” he asked softly.

Give up your wings…

“She gave up her wings.”

“Yes. She met my dad and fell in love with him—got knocked up with me. Somewhere along the way, my dad disappeared. I don’t know what happened, but I never knew him and it hurt her too much to talk about it, so I didn’t ask. I don’t know how long she had before she got pregnant with me, but I don’t think it was long. And she died before I was thirteen. She could have had eternity…and she died in so much fucking pain, she barely knew her own name.” Jack’s voice was so thick with bitterness it hurt to even listen to him.

“I’m so sorry,” I murmured.

“Yeah.” He closed his eyes. “Will was coming around before then. He’d always been coming around.”

“Is he the one who told you about us?”

“No.” Jack opened his eyes and stared at me. “Nobody told me, princess. I’ve always known. Always.”

Then he stood and shoved the chair toward the table, violence barely restrained.

Always.

As he left the kitchen, his words echoed in my head.

Always.

Chapter Nine

So much for trying to help her get over the pain she felt, Jack thought.

Fragile.

Shit.

That woman wasn’t fragile. She might look a bit more…well, human, than normal, but she wasn’t fragile. Still, the pain he’d glimpsed in her eyes tore at him. He wanted to soothe…stroke, take it away.

Liar.

Shit, what had he expected, that she’d believed him? And why in the hell was he so angry? Jack didn’t know, but he was beyond furious. Beyond pissed and he unloaded on the heavy bag with unrestrained rage. He’d been pounding away for damn near an hour and his arms felt like lead, but he couldn’t stop.

Liar.

Yeah, probably seemed easier to think he was lying than to consider he might be telling the truth, he supposed.

Abruptly, he realized he wasn’t alone.

Without looking at her, he said, “Do us both a favor and just get the hell out of my house, princess.”

“One of these days, you’ll get the point when I tell you not to call me that,” she said, sighing. But the heat was missing from her voice. “And I’m not leaving. In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m here for a reason.”

“Yeah? You mean other than pissing me off?” He landed one last punch on the bag and then turned to stare at her. Sweat dripped into his eyes, stinging them. He stalked over to the edge of the workout area he had installed in his garage, grabbed the towel and wiped his face off.

Perci remained quiet. He shot her a glance and immediately wished he hadn’t. The look in those dark brown eyes was enough to lay him low.

Fuck…that hunger just might stop his heart.

He choked back a groan and looked away, throwing the towel down. Bracing his hands on the unpainted concrete wall, he bowed his head and closed his eyes. Don’t look at her. She can’t read emotion—just pain, and seriously, having your dick tied into a knot isn’t real pain. Is it?

He heard the heavy bag’s chain rustle and he looked back, saw her standing next to it, watched as she stroked one hand down the worn leather.

He wanted to see that hand stroking something else.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

She needed to get the hell out of here.

“You and me both know you would knock that thing clear off the chain in one punch,” he said. He smirked at her. “And although I really don’t need to coddle my ego, I’d just as soon not watch a woman bust the bag. So let’s just not.”

Perci smiled at him. Then, quicker than he could even track, she moved. That long, slender body moved up in the air, she kicked—jumping back kick, he thought, but damn she was fast. The bag went flying…and stayed on the chain. She caught it on the first backswing and smiled at him. “I know how to pull it. We learn that early on. Control. It’s important.”

“Considering you could probably break me in half? Yeah. Important.” He tried another tactic. “I need a shower. So if you’re not going to get the hell out, can we chat when I’m done, princess?”

Her lashes flickered over dark eyes and he sauntered over to her, reached up. He trailed one finger along her jaw line, watched as her eyes closed, as a breath shuddered out of her. “Unless you want to join me. Want to wash my back, princess?”

Her lashes lifted and she stared at him, her gaze hot, heavy…and so fucking hungry.

Backfire.

His mind started to screech a warning as she closed the scant distance between them. “Sure, slick. I’ll wash your back…after.” Then she reached up, curled a hand around the back of his neck and pulled his head down to hers.

As their mouths met, Jack realized this hadn’t quite been the outcome he’d been pushing for.

She slid her hands up his sweaty sides and he tore his mouth away.

“Stop it,” he muttered. “I need a damn shower and not that long ago, you invited me into the shower and then decided maybe we shouldn’t. If you weren’t up for it then, you aren’t up for it now.”

Perci leaned in and licked him, stroking her tongue along the line of his neck like a little cat, and he shuddered. “I think I know if I’m feeling up for it or not. Come on, Jack. I think I can handle you.” She pushed up on her toes and murmured in his ear, “Unless you’re that convinced you can’t handle me.”

She bit his earlobe and then eased back down, her breasts rubbing over his chest.

Jack caught her arms and forced her back.

“Stop it,” he snarled. “Unless you really want me on you, right here, right now…just stop it.”

“Right here, right now?”

I stared at him, my mouth going dry.

Unless you really want me on you, right here, right now.

Damn it, I couldn’t even explain how badly I wanted that.

He glared at me, those misty gray eyes glinting and hot and hungry. Dark red flags of color rode on his cheekbones and his mouth was a sexy snarl that had me wanting to bite him.

I think that was exactly what I was going to do too. This ache for him wasn’t going to go away. No matter what I did, and no matter what I said.

Life is living, Perci. Even for us. Go live it.

That was what Will had said to me, right before he sent me to this man who wouldn’t stay out of my thoughts. If I was supposed to start living, then damn it, why not start with him? I grabbed the hem of my shirt, pulled it off and let it fall to my feet.

Jack’s eyes locked on my mostly naked chest and I think almost stopped breathing.

“What in the hell are you doing?” he rasped.

I reached behind me and undid the clasp of my bra. “Making it easy for you,” I said with a smile. “If you’re going to be on me, right here, right now, can’t we get the clothes out of the way?”

He froze.

As I reached for the zipper of my jeans, he stared at my fingers like he was mesmerized. I pushed them down and stepped out of them, but as I reached for panties, he swore and stepped forward, gripping my wrists in a tight, uncompromising grip.

“What in the hell are you doing?” he repeated.

I smiled. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Why?”

Oh, now that was harder to answer…even though I knew the answer. I didn’t understand it, but I knew it. Quietly, I said, “Let go of my hands.”

For a few seconds, Jack just stared at me, and then he let go slowly. I rested my hands on his waist and stared at how it looked. I was still so pale. I could stay out in the sun for days on end and I wouldn’t tan. Fortunately, I didn’t burn either.

But I was so pale…his skin looked unbelievably dark by comparison, deep, swarthy and glistening with a fine sheen of sweat.

Stroking my hands upward, I mused, “Do you know, the first time I looked at you, I think that was the first time I actually felt anything in years?”

My hands were on his chest now, and I felt the way his heart banged against my hand, felt his reaction. I didn’t look at him though. Not at his face.

We may not react to physical injuries the way mortals do…but our hearts, they are still all too human, and I don’t know how I’d handle it if he pulled away. I knew he wanted me, but wanting is easy…and it doesn’t necessarily mean much of anything.

“I can fight anything you put in front of me, and not feel a damn thing,” I continued. “It doesn’t matter if I’m winning, if I’m losing, if I’ve got a hole in my gut the size of the Grand Canyon…I don’t feel it. It doesn’t matter if I’m this close to true death…and we can die. Just takes a whole hell of a lot to make it happen. But as close as I can come to death, I’ve been that close and it doesn’t touch me. Not emotionally. Physical pain passes so fast. I almost welcome it, because at least I feel something. It’s the only time I’ve felt…in years.”

His heart was racing now. So fast…so strong and so fast. I slid my hands higher and curled them over his shoulders.

Finally, I made myself look into his eyes.

“But then I saw you and I finally felt something else. And it sure as hell wasn’t pain.”

That misty gray gaze burned. I caught the barest flicker of something…that familiar hunger, but also something else. It went deeper, burned hotter, brighter.

But there was no time to process it.

His hands curved around my waist and he pulled me close. The heat of his body all but scorched me. My feet left the ground as he lifted me up. One hand cradled the back of my head and his mouth was close…so damn close.

“Be sure, Perci,” he whispered against my lips. “You damned sure you want this?”

I nibbled his lower lip. “What do you think?”

“And are you going to disappear when it’s over?” He skimmed his hands up, cupped my breasts in his hands. “Because I’m going to be pissed off if I wake up alone again.”

“You won’t.” I hadn’t yet explained to him that I wasn’t going anywhere yet, and I wasn’t going to. Although maybe I should.

I pressed my mouth to his and caught his lower lip between my teeth. “I’m waiting…”

And then I wasn’t waiting anymore.

For a mortal, he moved damned fast. So fast, the room spun around me as he turned and pressed my bare back against the bare concrete wall. Cold and hard, it was a shock against my system, especially compared to his heat.

His chest, wide and hot and slicked with sweat, crushed against my breasts. His mouth, hungry and hot and demanding, ate at mine. And his hands were everywhere.

I gripped his shoulders, certain that I could catch my breath if he would just give me a second…

He started to kiss a burning, blazing trail down my chin and I sucked in a breath—yes, I could breathe. But then he went to his knees, catching my breasts in his hands and plumping them together, squeezing them, pinching my nipples. Each touch, each stroke…so much pleasure. Too much pleasure.

I fisted my hands in his dark hair, tried to hold on, tried to keep my balance.

Blood pounded in my ears.

He tugged on one nipple restlessly, teased it while he kissed and nipped a stinging trail over to the other. When he caught it between his teeth and bit down, the pleasure blistered through me.

I wanted to tell him to slow down—I needed him to. I needed a second…just five seconds to breathe…

Then he shifted his focus lower. He tore my panties off and dropped the shredded silk to the floor. When he caught me behind one leg, I started to wobble. I would have fallen if he hadn’t braced me. Would have fallen all over him and I still might, because then he pressed his mouth against me and licked me. One long slow lick that opened me.

Harsh, panting breaths exploded out of me. He curled his tongue around my clit and sucked it into his mouth. Then he slid his hand up my inner thigh and pushed two fingers inside me. Still suckling on my clit, he started to fuck two fingers in and out of my pussy, and I shattered.

I keened out his name and my other knee buckled.

“Again,” Jack snarled, surging to his feet and fisting a hand in her hair. He jerked her head back, covered her mouth with his and swallowed her groan.

Even though he’d driven her to shattering climax only hours ago—not that long ago, truly—it seemed like he’d been waiting years, decades, an eternity, to hold her. The hours they’d spent together earlier hadn’t even taken the edge off.

He needed her so much it blew his mind.

He needed more. So much more.

“Damn it, I want to see that again…fuck, you’re so beautiful.”

She shuddered in his arms, that long, willowy body arching against his, and he felt the press of her belly against his cock. He cupped her ass and lifted her up. Through the thin, worn cotton of his workout shorts, he could feel how hot she was and he was dying to be inside her, to feel her coming around him this time.

He put her down and had a moment’s satisfaction as she wobbled and slammed her hands against the wall to balance herself. Then he was too busy dealing with his shorts and the aching burn in his cock. Long, agonizing seconds later, he reached for her, only to freeze and swear, long, viciously and raggedly.

“Fuck. Condoms. In the house…forgot them earlier, but…”

Perci’s lashes lifted and she gave him a slow smile. “You don’t need them. You’re healthy. I’d know if you weren’t. And you have no need to use them with me.”

It should have cooled the fire in his veins. He knew who she was—what she was. Part of him still wanted to rage at her…why in the hell couldn’t she just be normal?

Normal? You mean like you are?

And even as he held still, he saw the flicker of her lashes, saw the minute tensing of her shoulders as she braced herself. Almost as though she’d been following his train of thought, but could she do that?

Shit. He couldn’t walk away from her. It just wasn’t possible. For some reason, fate had put her in his life and right now, he needed her. Right now…always.

Swearing, he curled one arm around her waist and lifted her. She was so slender, so slim but strong. Her legs came around his hips, gripped him as he pressed the head of his cock against the slick, swollen entrance of her pussy.

“This is insane,” he muttered against her mouth. “You know that? Insane…”

“Yes. Shut up. Just shut the hell up and fuck me,” she panted.

It should have sounded so wrong listening to that pretty mouth making that demand. To his surprise, he managed a painful laugh and bit her lip. “Is that any way for an angel to talk?”

She bit his lip. “Jack…”

“Impatient.” He leaned into her, pressed his brow against hers. “Damn it, you’re hot.”

“And you’re too slow…” She wiggled against him, arched her back and tried to rock against him.

Deliberately, he pulled back. “Don’t women like it slow?”

Perci swore and slammed her head back against the concrete wall.

Jack winced, but it didn’t even faze her. A devious look crept into her eyes.

Instinctively, Jack shifted his hold, hooked her knees over his arms, taking her leverage away. “Don’t rush me,” he whispered against her lips. And then he started to sink inside. This time, damn it, this time he was going to enjoy it. Enjoy her.

“Watch,” he muttered, tearing his mouth away from hers and lowering his gaze, watching as he slowly, oh-so-slowly sank inside her. She stretched tight around him, and the sight of it was so damn hot he could feel his balls drawing tight, could feel the burn, the need to climax already starting to build.

Perci’s breath sobbed out of her and he shifted his gaze upward, saw that she’d been watching too. “Fucking hot, yeah?” he muttered, watching her face.

“Hmm.” Her lashes, thick and black but tipped with golden-red, fluttered over her eyes and she lifted her head up. Her face was flushed, her mouth swollen from his. Her dark brown eyes glowed with heat…and she stared at him as though mesmerized.

A rush of tenderness swamped him and he released her legs, drew her close, cradled her close. “Damn it, you’re doing things to me, Perci. What in the hell are you doing to me?”

“Nothing more than what you’re doing to me. Kiss me, Jack.” She turned her face to his, teased his lips with her tongue.

Groaning, he opened his mouth as he slid one hand down her side and cupped her ass.

She clenched around him, hot, tight—slick.

Her fingers trailed up his back, dipped in his hair, tangled there. The other hand curled into his shoulder, and as he stroked deep and hard, her nails tore into his flesh, a sweet, burning pain.

“Harder,” she begged against his mouth. “Please…”

Jack shuddered. “Fuck, I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“You won’t.” She arched closer, ground her hips against his and his eyes damn near crossed.

Too fucking hot—too much. Damn it, damn it, damn it. His muscles bunched, his body ached with the need to drive hard…deep.

“Please…”

Aw, hell.

Control disintegrated, and with a savage growl, Jack slammed into her. Perci cried out. He froze—

“Are you okay?”

She curled an arm around his neck and jerked him close, sinking her teeth into his lower lip. “Don’t you fucking stop,” she snarled at him. “Don’t you…”

The next words died in her throat as he drove into her again and again, slamming into her hard, fast, driving into her with a force he’d never dared use with a lover before.

Perci sobbed out his name and begged for more, pleaded with him not to stop. Her nails tore up the flesh on his arms and back, her mouth sought out his, hungry, avid and desperate.

She came once, twice—so hard, so fucking tight, he had to fight just to get back inside her, and it was bliss. Nirvana and perfection and torment, because when she walked away, he knew he’d never touch a woman without feeling her, tasting her, wanting her.

As she shuddered around him, he felt the warning burn race down his spine, knew he couldn’t fight it any longer. “Damn it, Perci.”

She plunged her tongue into his mouth and he bit her. As she bucked against him, he started to come, hard, vicious…unending.

“All my life,” he muttered blindly against her mouth. “I feel like I’ve been waiting all my life for you…longer.”

It was insanity, he knew it. And he’d never meant anything more.

Chapter Ten

We finally did make it to the shower. Jack insisted on washing me, and I was fine with that. As long as I got to return the favor. He had the most amazing body. Those wide shoulders, that deep, muscled chest…why in the hell was I so hot over him? Guys like him had never done it for me before…

Of course, guys like him weren’t him.

And there really weren’t guys like him. Jack was one of a kind, and his body was only the beginning, I suspected. But it was such a nice beginning. I could have spent hours, days, longer enjoying it. And I would, I decided. Wasn’t like we wouldn’t have time together. We had plenty of time—

Time.

Oh, my dear one. You have plenty of time.

Those words echoed through Persinette’s head as she paced her prison. Locked away in the tower, sick in both body and soul, each day, she prayed that Luc would return.

Even as she feared it.

What would happen if he returned and found Cosette mad?

Mad.

Mad didn’t describe her. The woman’s grief had driven her insane, and it was pushing her to grievous sins. Like Jacques—

Persinette wanted to weep as she recalled what had been done to him. He had been so focused on her—yet another sin Persinette must bear. His death was at her feet and his blood was on her soul.

He had tried to help her.

Tried to take the healing from her, and somehow, Persinette knew that Cosette had planned that. The child had been so hurt though.

So grievously hurt…

Persinette hadn’t been able to turn her back on that battered, broken body. So small. The boy had been so small, and the pain had wracked Persinette, screamed through and torn into her with angry claws. Yet she had known, in the depths of her soul, she could save the child.

Despite the baby she carried, she hadn’t been able to walk away. But the healing had taken a terrible toll.

When Jacques had come to her, rested his hands on her shoulders and told her, “Push the pain into me, madam. Release the pain into me.”

She hadn’t wanted to do it—hadn’t thought she could.

“You can…take my hand, release the pain. It will flow into me. You cannot bear this pain without risking your health, the health of your child.”

And so she had tried. With tears in her eyes, she had taken his big, scarred hand and she had tried…tried to release the pain. It had been so simple. So very simple.

For a few, brief moments, then his body, strong and powerful, had crumpled.

Persinette had been rising from her sickbed, had watched in horror as four of Cosette’s men had come in and held Jacques’s helpless body in place. Another had welded an ax. She hadn’t moved with enough haste to stop them. Two more men had emerged, catching her as she screamed, heedless of the child she carried.

And Cosette had stood there, laughing, as Persinette stared in shock at Jacques’s lifeless, beheaded body.

No…

“My dear one. You have plenty of time now. And no protector to keep you from me while you think about what you have cost me. When my son returns, perhaps he’ll suffer the same fate. Perhaps he will not.”

Then her gaze dropped to the ripening swell of Persinette’s belly. “I have not yet decided what I shall do about the child you carry. Something I must think on…”

Persinette stared at Cosette. “You cannot do this.”

“Yes. I can.” And then she glanced at her men.

Persinette was dragged kicking and screaming out of the room, and when she landed one solid blow on one of her captors, she was struck in the belly.

Cringing inward, she went still.

The child…she had to protect the child.

Jacques was no longer there to protect her. And Luc…Luc was still away. She was alone—

I was crying, I realized. Lying in Jack’s arms and crying.

“What’s wrong?” he asked me softly.

I shuddered and blew out a breath. “Memories.”

Old, old memories…where had they come from?

Poison…

Will had spoken of releasing the poison. But I didn’t want to release this poison.

Shaking it off, I sat up and wiped the tears from my face. Over my shoulder, I looked at Jack’s face. He was in shadow, all but those misty gray eyes. So familiar, those eyes.

“Bad memories,” I murmured.

He sat up and curled his big body around mine, rested his hands on my thighs, a sheltering, warm cave. “I imagine you got a lot of those.”

“Bad memories?” I didn’t have to think about it. “Not as many as some. I’ve never let myself get close to many people. All these come from…well, before.”

“When you were still human.”

I sighed and covered his hands with mine. “Jack, how do you know so much about us?”

“I already told you. I just know.”

Resting my head against his shoulder, I stared off into the darkened room. He didn’t feel like he was lying. If he was lying, I think I’d glimpse something of that—I was good at that. All of us were. But nothing on him tasted of a lie, felt of it.

It felt like truth.

“How can you just know?”

I felt his shrug. He reached up, toyed with my pendant. “I just do.”

He sighed and I felt it against my back. Although my gift had never been keyed into emotions, I felt a weight in his chest when asked, “How come you’re in my life right now, Perci? How much longer until Will pulls you away?”

Closing my eyes, I searched inside myself for the answer.

How did I tell him this?

Gently, I eased out of his arms and then turned and knelt across his thighs. I slid my hand through his black hair, once, twice, fisted in it. Then I let go and smoothed it back from his face. “You know what I am. And you know I was human once. Right?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, a restless move of wide shoulders. “I gotta admit, I’m kind of wracking my brain trying to figure out just who you might be too.”

I narrowed my eyes, studying his face. Interesting… “Damn, you really do know a lot.”

“Don’t ask me how.” He slanted a grin at me. “I just know. I don’t know how.” He stroked a hand up my back, one of those absent, gentle touches that said, I’m touching you just because I need to.

It made me melt inside. It also made it damn hard to concentrate on what he saying.

“I was going to get online and figure it out, but you keep showing up.”

“Figure it out?” I echoed. Then I snorted. “Shit, you think you’ll find a bio of me online?”

Jack’s eyes came back to me. “Will called you by your name. Your real name. I think I’d find something if I looked around some…Persinette.”

Shit.

Interesting? Hell. That didn’t even touch it. How did he know so much?

Tired, I snuggled against him and rested my head against one wide shoulder. I’d figure that out later, I guess. I didn’t really have to know—I wanted to, but it wasn’t crucial.

However, the talk we needed to have, that was crucial, and it would be easier if he would trust me. Maybe the best way to establish some level of trust would be to give him…something.

I reached up and stroked my finger down a scar he had over his chest—all too close to his mortal heart, I thought. Too, too close.

“So you want to know who I am, huh?”

“I’m curious, yeah.”

I remembered a few days earlier when I’d gotten my hair cut. I don’t remember when I’d started doing that—growing it out just to get it whacked off. There was something weirdly satisfying about it, although I don’t know what.

Cosette hadn’t let me bathe, hadn’t allowed me clean clothes, or even bath water. By the time Luc found me I was barely a step away from an animal. After, when I became a Grimm, the first thing I did was cut my hair. Short, as short as I could. For years after, that was how I kept it. Sometime in the past hundred years or so was when I’d started growing it out just to cut it off.

And Luc teased me, just to see me smile a little.

The similarities between the tale of Rapunzel, and the earlier adaption of Persinette and my own story weren’t really all that similar. But they didn’t need to be, not really. The point of the fairy tales had always been to draw attention away from the real events.

And Sina had been quite clever spinning the tale of Persinette the way she had. It had been written just a few years before my entire life went straight to hell, but I’d much rather people think my mother had some cravings and that’s what led to me being locked up in a tower than the truth. I didn’t want anybody knowing the truth.

I didn’t even want to know the truth.

But I’d have to share some of it with Jack.

Sighing, I said, “You ever heard the story about Rapunzel?”

Jack lifted a brow. Then he combed a hand through my shorn locks.

“As in Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair?”

“Yeah.” I smirked. “I bet you’re thinking, what hair? Although, really, Jack. People can get haircuts, you know.” I continued to trace the scar on his chest.

“There was an older story before that one. Rapunzel was based on that story. It was called Persinette.”

Persinette…

Her voice, soft and low, reverberated through him. Her accent had thickened, but Jack had no trouble understanding her.

Persinette…

Blood roared in his ears. His heart raced. Every muscle in his body tensed and he squeezed his eyes closed, tried to focus, because Perci was speaking.

But he couldn’t hear a damn word she said.

Suddenly, he was seeing her on a bed, her body wracked with pain and face tight and contorted…

Push the pain into me, madam. Release the pain into me. You can…take my hand, release the pain. It will flow into me. You cannot bear this pain without risking your health, the health of your child.

And she had gripped his hand.

Pain gripped him, shuddered through him…and her face eased.

Then abruptly, horror flooded her eyes and pain tore through him again. Then everything ceased—

“Jack?”

Swearing, he shook his head and made himself focus on her face, stare into her eyes. They were dark, dark with worry, with regret and fear… Fear of what? That he’d walk? Yeah. He suspected that was exactly what she feared. But how in the hell could he walk away from her?

“Rapunzel, huh?”

It was the only thing he could come up with, and once more, he found himself staring at her close-cropped, red-gold hair. And thinking that he knew exactly how she would look if that hair hung past her slender hips.

Perci cocked a brow at him. “Persinette’s tale came first, but yeah. That’s basically the story.”

Jack wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, the remnants of the story coming to him. A tower. There was a tower. The long hair. “She was locked in a tower by a witch,” he murmured.

Perci looked away. “There was a tower, yes. But she wasn’t a witch. She was my husband’s mother.”

“Your…” He set his jaw. Even as he tried to wrap his mind around that bit of information, he had an image in mind. A man, tall and slender—the one he’d seen with Perci before—in images that seemed like memories.

Luc. She called him Luc.

“Your husband,” he finished, his voice rough as gravel, tight and harsh.

“Yes.”

“His mother.” Jack closed his eyes.

Another image slammed into his mind. This time a woman…older, but not unattractive with it. Grief lined her face, and then the grief pushed her to madness.

Cosette.

Her name is Cosette and I must protect Persinette from her.

“Why did she lock you in a tower?” He sat rigidly, but Perci barely seemed aware.

She slid off his lap and stared off into the distance. “Because I wouldn’t heal her husband. Not Luc’s father. He had already died. This was her new husband and he was ill. I’ve always been able to heal. But he had an illness I couldn’t heal. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but it was cancer, deep, deep inside him and trying to heal that would have killed me…and the child I carried.”

The child.

Luc.

Abruptly, Jack didn’t want to hear anymore. But when he looked up, he saw there were tears rolling down her pale cheeks and her eyes were a silent, screaming hell. “You were pregnant,” he said. He knew that—he knew.

And somehow, he knew how the high, hard mound of her belly felt under his hand.

“Yes. It was our first…twins, although I didn’t know that until later.” A sad, bittersweet smile curled her lips and she turned her head toward him. “Too late.”

I don’t want to know this.

“She kept me locked away. My husband, Luc, he was fighting in the war.” The sad smile on her face turned bitter and angry. “Such a useless war. So many useless wars, you mortals fight. It took my husband away, because it was the noble thing for him to do. And when he returned to me, that crazy bitch of a mother had killed our children while I still carried them in my womb.”

She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “It was slow, you know. I did not even know how to recognize the symptoms of illness in my own body. I never took ill and I thought it was just being with child, and what she was doing—locking me away…”

“What are you talking about?”

Perci lifted her head and stared at him. Her eyes glittered, with grief, rage, and a pain that all but stole his breath away. “She was poisoning me. Not enough to kill me…but she was a wise woman. Far wiser than many of the time, and she knew whatever I ate or drank would affect the children. I’m not sure, but I think she was putting arsenic in the water that was brought to me. Slowly, over time, it killed the babies, and it weakened me. When Luc returned…”

A sigh shuddered out of her. She walked to the window and stared out at the endless expanse of blue water. With her brow pressed to the glass, she said, “She knew he was coming. And she lay a trap for him. She had all of his men killed. I heard him fighting, struggling to get to me…and then I went into labor. While I struggled to deliver the babies, he was struggling to get to me.”

Jack came off the bed and came up behind her, wrapped her in his arms. A harsh, bitter sob wracked her body and then, her voice eerily calm, she said, “The babes were stillborn. And…then…I lay there, and I was dying, listening to Luc scream. They kept him alive, just to torture him, so I could hear him screaming, and I knew Cosette would keep him alive as long as I lived.”

She was silent for the longest moment.

“So I decided not to live anymore.”

He tightened his arms. Dread gripped his heart.

“I was climbing up to jump out the window… Cosette never thought I would do that. But she didn’t know me well, I guess. My death would end Luc’s suffering and I wasn’t going to listen to her torment him.” She spoke in a monotone now, her voice so dispassionate and empty, it was as though she discussed the weather. “That was when Will arrived. I hadn’t met him before that and he caught me just as I would have made that jump. He told me my life would be worth more than that, and that by ending my life, I let her madness win. Did I allow her to win, or did I try to save my husband?”

Perci turned in his arms and rested her head against his chest. “I wanted to let her win. More than I can explain, because I wanted that pain to end. But if I could save him…if there was a chance. So I listened. I…I already knew about the Grimm. One had already come to us, told us about them. But I’d…well, forgotten.”

Gaze locked on her face, he stared at her, waiting.

“We’re given a choice…do you know about that as well?”

He gave a short, terse nod.

“Why am I not surprised? Okay, then. So I made my choice, and then…” Perci grimaced. “Then I jumped. Will was pissed. Apparently that wasn’t quite how he’d planned it, but since I was grieving, ill and not entirely right in the head after what Cosette had done, well…the lines of communication weren’t all that clear, I guess. He brought me back, but—”

“You jumped.”

In his mind’s eye, he could see that tower.

Whether it was real or not no longer mattered, not in this moment.

He could see her hovering there, lost in grief and despair, and his heart wanted to shatter. Closing his hands around her upper arms, he eased her back and stared at her face.

“You jumped,” he said again.

“Yes. I don’t remember much of it. I think I thought that was what I needed to do to pay Cosette back, although it wasn’t about paying her back.”

Paying Cosette back—how many years of my life had longed to do just that?

A snarl twisted my face and I pulled away from Jack to pace the bedroom. “I wanted to pay her back. She’d killed my babies. Driven me to madness…and by the time I emerged from Will’s healing, Luc was past anything I could do to help him. I tried, but…” I reached up, touched my face, remembered the brutal punch of pain that had wracked me when I’d tried to heal his eyes.

That was what she’d done first.

After she’d managed to capture him, she’d used a scalding hot blade and pierced his eyes with it. Blinded him. The same blade had been used to carve up his chest like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Blinded, tortured…and the sad thing was, he would have done it all again because he loved me.

Sadly, I whispered, “I failed him so miserably. Luc, my babies. Everybody who depended on me. I failed them.”

“You’re wrong,” Jack murmured, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me back against him.

The feel of his nude body against mine didn’t send shivers of want and lust and need running through me this time. It was warmth…and comfort. And I desperately needed both.

“I did fail them.”

“How?” He pressed his lips to my brow. “You were victimized by a woman who went mad with grief, and after she murdered your children, she murdered your husband. You were sick with grief yourself, but you didn’t go mad and decide to kill innocents, or torment an innocent woman. You hold no blame here.”

“People have told me that for years,” I said quietly. “And I still can’t let go of the guilt.”

“Maybe it’s high time you do.” He swept me into his arms, carried me back to the bed and settled down against the headboard with me in his lap. There, he wrapped the blanket around me before he cupped my chin and made me look at him. “How long ago was it?”

I looked up at him. “A long time ago…and only yesterday.”

The compassion in his gray eyes was enough to nearly level me, and I didn’t know how to handle it. It could have leveled me. Almost did. Reaching up, I laid my hand along his stubbled cheek and forced a smile.

“Three hundred years ago,” I said quietly. I watched his eyes, waiting for the disbelief, the shock.

It didn’t come.

He just nodded. “You’ve kept all that pain, all that guilt hidden inside. All this time.” He tipped my chin back and kissed me gently. “No wonder I keep seeing this heartbreak inside you.”

Heartbreak.

He saw heartbreak inside me? And I thought my shields were so thick and solid. But he saw deeper than I’d realized—there were more to him than I’d suspected. A lot more.

Drained, emotionally and physically, I rested my head on his shoulder. I wanted to curl up around him and sleep for weeks. Just sleep. But although my heart and my body were weary, my mind wasn’t ready to shut down.

I still needed to address some things with Jack. Things that I had been putting off too long. Sighing, I reached up and stroked a hand down across his chest, once more stroking the scar over his heart.

Under my hand, his heart jumped and his muscles flexed and rippled. And although I had the best of intentions, I couldn’t help but stare a minute.

I guess I was feeling better.

Man, but I loved his body. What in the hell was up with me? Nobody had ever reduced me to a puddle of drooling female flesh before, but Jack was pretty damn close.

“You’re doing bad, bad things to my head, Jack Wallace,” I said softly. “You know that?”

“Am I?” A grin slashed across his face and he dipped his head and kissed the tip of my nose. “Can’t say I mind hearing that, because you’ve totally managed to screw my head up to hell and back, Perci.” Then he eased me off his lap, pausing to tuck the blankets around me.

The show of consideration touched my heart in the weirdest way. It wasn’t that it was cold in his house. It wasn’t. The misery of the memories and my grief had left me chilled through. There was just something comforting about having the blankets, warmed from our bodies, wrapped around me.

Small kindnesses. At first glance, somebody who looked at him might not expect them from him. I closed my eyes, smiling a little to myself. Those small kindnesses didn’t surprise me.

Something flashed through my mind—

Lying in the bed, sick with the babe I carried…the man at my side wiping down my brow with a cool, wet cloth. “It will pass, Persinette. It will pass.”

Beautiful, misty gray eyes that watched me so very closely—

With a gasp, I tore myself out of that memory.

Jacques.

“Perci?”

I blinked and looked up at Jack. He was staring at me, his gaze worried, a scowl drawing that rough-hewn face tight. “Are you okay?”

Breathing raggedly, my heart pounding in my chest, I rolled out of the bed and stumbled to the bathroom. “A minute,” I muttered over my shoulder.

Between my breasts, my pendant suddenly felt terribly heavy, terribly cold.

What the hell…

Kicking the door shut behind me, I made my way to the sink and bent over it. It took three tries to get the cold water on, my hands shook so badly.

What the hell…

What was going on? So familiar. Something about him had seemed so familiar, almost from the beginning. Not his face, even though his eyes had captured me from the beginning. No, it had been something deeper.

“Am I going crazy?” I muttered.

The door opened and I lifted my head and stared at Jack’s reflection in the mirror.

“What’s wrong?” he asked flatly.

Numb, I shook my head.

“Then why in the hell are you staring at me like you just saw a ghost?”

Chapter Eleven

For the briefest minute, when she’d looked at him, it had been like… Hell. Jack had felt like a ghost. Felt like everything and everybody and everywhere…shit, even time had fallen away.

Only Perci had remained and she hadn’t been sitting on the bed in his room.

She had been lying on a bed in a dark chamber, a long, white gown twisted around her, clinging to her. She had been ill. Her face was pale, slick with perspiration, and her eyes were glassy.

Nausea had gripped her and although Jack didn’t know how he knew, he knew she’d been pregnant—it hadn’t shown, not yet. But she’d been sick from a child, and even though he had known she shouldn’t have tried to heal anybody while she carried the babe, he had also known she wouldn’t turn away from a child she could save.

Push the pain into me, madam. Release the pain into me. You can…take my hand, release the pain. It will flow into me. You cannot bear this pain without risking your health, the health of your child.

His heart had broken for her, even as it swelled for the love he felt for her…for the child she carried. A child that wasn’t his. He had no right to her, to that child, and yet he’d wanted—

Then the moment shattered and she was sitting on the bed in his room, staring at him. Like she’d seen a ghost. And her mouth had formed a name…

Jacques.

Fuck.

She had all but ran into the bathroom, leaving him there to stare at her back and wonder what in the hell was going on.

Acutely, he was aware of the pain in his neck, slashing through his throat.

Acutely, he remembered the dream.

And Will’s words…

The mind forgets… But the body doesn’t.

The body doesn’t forget what?

Dying.

Dying.

Feeling savage, half-insane—and although he wouldn’t admit it, somewhere deep inside, there was a flickering warmth—Jack stormed to the bathroom, shoved the door open and stared at Perci’s reflection in the mirror.

She was pale, and when she looked up and met his reflection, he saw that she looked as shaken as he felt.

“What’s wrong?”

She just shook her head.

“Then why in the hell are you staring at me like you just saw a ghost?”

“Was I?” she asked, and her voice was just a little too cool. A little too controlled.

He advanced on her. She watched him in the mirror, her eyes unreadable, her face calm. Between her breasts, the pendant she wore was beginning to glow ever so slightly.

“What did you call me?” he asked gruffly.

“When?”

Gently, he reached up and lay his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t play dumb with me, Perci.” He stroked his hands down her arms and gripped her wrists. “It doesn’t suit you and I won’t buy it.”

“I don’t believe in playing dumb, Jack,” she replied. Then she leaned back against him, holding his gaze in the mirror. “Stop the brooding, intimidating male bit. I’ve seen it too many times to be impressed. You wanted to know my story, and there you have it. Now…there’s more talking we need to do. Or would you rather fight?”

He bent down, bracing his hands on either side of her, and stared into her eyes in the mirror. She had that damned smirk on her face now—the one that made him want to haul her against him and kiss it off. But not right now. She was trying to distract him and he wanted a fucking answer.

Jacques.

She had called him Jacques.

And it was like she’d thrown a stone in a still lake. The ripples were still echoing through him, but instead of fading, each ripple grew stronger, weighing down on him, pressing on him, harder. Harder. Harder.

“Perci, what in the fuck did you call me?” He was hard-pressed not to haul her around and force her to look at him.

She straightened away from the counter, reached up and twined her arms up and back, curling them around his neck as a smile curved her lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if there’s something you’d like me to call you, just tell me. Want me to call you something special, lover?”

Blood roared in his ears. His heart pounded.

Jacques.

Gripping her waist, he muttered, “Damn it, Perci. I want an answer. I don’t want…”

She wiggled her hips, pressed her ass snug against his rigid cock. “Want to bet? You definitely want.”

But then she sighed, and let go, disentangling herself from his hands.

“We have things to talk about, Jack, and it’s important we get it done now.”

And before he could press his issues any further, she dropped a bombshell in his lap.

“Why in the hell do you think I’ve put in your life, Jack? Have you taken five seconds to really think it through?”

Those dark gray eyes locked on my face, and if I had been the type to get intimidated? That look would have done it. There was just something about the way he stared at me. Something about being the focus of that heavy-lidded, intense gaze. It was…disturbing. It was almost eerie.

And damn it, I have to be sick, because it was also erotic as hell. As my nipples stiffened, I folded my arms across my chest and tried to think why I’d thought I could have this conversation while the two of us were naked.

Clothing, or the lack of it, hadn’t ever much bothered me in the past few centuries, but then again, in the past few centuries, I’d rarely felt the draw of sex and when I did…

No, not thinking of that right now.

I was trying to face too many demons, own up to too many wrongs today. Instead of thinking about the fuck-ups of my past, I faced the present dilemma of my future and tried not to think about how much I wanted to shelf the conversation.

He wasn’t going to take this well. I already knew it.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded, his voice a harsh, demanding snarl.

“I’m not here just because I want to see your pretty face or take advantage of you again,” I said. Then, because I couldn’t stop myself, I added, “Although I got to admit, I really do like taking advantage.”

A gleam lit his eyes, and despite the tension mounting in the air, he said, “You feel free to take advantage of me all you want, princess…after you explain what you’re talking about. And after we finish the conversation you just put off.”

Damn. He wasn’t going to let that go and I had no idea how to answer him either. How could I answer him though? Looking into his eyes was like…shit. I felt like I’d done it before. The face was all wrong. The body wasn’t exactly right, although he moved the same.

The eyes though…those misty, beautiful eyes. I felt like I knew them, had known them a long, long time ago, in a memory hidden by the mists of time and the pain I’d spent too much of my life shying away from.

Something weird was going on…too weird, and until I understood it, I couldn’t give him any answers.

“I’ll hold you to that,” I said, forcing a smile I didn’t feel.

Unable to keep standing in front of him naked, I turned away. From the corner of my eye, I saw a shirt hanging on the doorknob and I grabbed it and tugged it on. It smelled of him, and as it warmed against my flesh, I was hard-pressed not to bury my face in the faded cotton and breathe it in.

“You know so much about us, Jack. I’d be freaked out about it, but Will isn’t worried,” I said, padding into the bedroom and settling down on the edge of the bed.

Jack followed but stopped in the doorway. With one shoulder braced against the doorjamb, he stared at me. “Why would you be freaked out? It’s not like I’m any kind of threat to you.”

Oh, he had no idea. He was all sorts of threat…to me. I kept quiet about that part though.

Absently, I stroked my hands down my thighs and frowned. “I’m not overly worried about you specifically. More about the general idea of a mortal knowing about us. Can you imagine what would happen if some of those conspiracy kooks got wind of us? The hell they could make our lives?” Then I sneered and added, “Or worse…imagine the hell we’d get if it came out what we have to do. You know what we hunt, and why…and you understand. The typical mortal doesn’t. They’d look at us and see us as murderers. They don’t realize the lives we save when we kill the demonic hosts. And none of us are about to go to prison for doing what needs to be done. Nor can we stop doing what must be done.”

“Okay.” He nodded slowly. “I get that. But it’s not like I’m going to take out a front-page ad.”

I grinned at him. “I know that.”

“And if I did, people would just assume I was insane.”

“Yes.” Swiping my damp palms down the sheets, I sighed. “But that’s not even what I need to talk to you about. I’m definitely still curious about how you know.”

Jack blew out a frustrated breath and shoved a hand through his hair. “Damn it, Perci. I just know. Okay? I always have. Always.”

Always. How could he always know…

I closed my eyes and in the back of my mind, I saw Jacques. The first time I had seen him he was riding toward the chateau where I had lived with Luc. The first time I’d seen him, I remembered thinking he looked like some tarnished knight from some old tale…and he had frightened me.

Forcing myself to look at Jack, I let myself wonder.

Could it be…? It would explain—

I looked down and crossed my legs, folded my hands. I couldn’t think about that now. “Fine,” I said, my voice husky and rough. I couldn’t believe I was even considering the idea. Couldn’t believe it.

“Jack, why do you think I’m here?”

He was quiet for so long, I wasn’t sure if he’d answer. From under my lashes, I looked at him.

As our gazes locked, a crooked grin slanted his mouth and he shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. Either you’re here to torment me or I’ve really, really got some trouble coming after my ass, I figure.”

“Why would you think that?”

“If Will thinks I need a full-time guardian-angel bodyguard? Yeah, that would mean there’s trouble coming after me.” He jerked a shoulder again.

“Why would you have trouble coming after you?”

He snorted. “Princess, you got any idea how many of those things I’ve killed in the past seventeen years? It’s a miracle one of them hasn’t gutted me already, and unlike you, I don’t have any of the supernatural hiding skills. I’m just me and sooner or later, they’ll catch up with me.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“And what do you plan on doing when that happens, Jack?”

He shoved off the wall and sauntered off to the nightstand. “As long as I’m able, if they show up?” He pulled open the drawer and pulled out the gun.

The sight of it made my heart clench.

“I’ll die before I let one of them take me. And if I can’t stop it? I just hope one of you are around to put an end to me fast.”

Shit.

I shoved off the bed and started to pace. The words boiled up my throat, blasted out of me before I could stop them. “I’m not here to be your bodyguard, Jack. I’m here to train you. You’re supposed to be one of us.”

The look on his face was one of poor bewilderment. If I had taken the gun from him, pressed it to his brow and pulled the trigger, I don’t think he would have been any more surprised. But the shock passed quickly, bleeding over into anger.

“One of you?” He raked me with a contemptuous glare and shook his head. “I’ll pass. Just make sure you’re close by when my end comes.”

It was a blow to my heart, and my soul. He’d rather die…no, he’d rather a demon take him, and me have to kill him than be one of us.

But I didn’t blink, didn’t so much as flicker an eyelash. Keeping my voice calm and steady, I held his gaze. “Why? You already do what we do. What’s so bad about being one of us?”

“You abandoned my mother—left her to suffer, to rot from the inside out. And you want to know what’s so bad?” His lip curled and he shook his head. “Fuck it, Princess. Just fuck it.”

He stormed past me out of the bedroom. As he left me alone, I stared at the wall. Once again, I’d royally screwed up. Toying with the pendant I wore, I whispered, “This job should come with a handbook.” Then I sighed and stood.

I needed to get dressed. Needed to figure out where to go from here. Outright leaving wasn’t an option. And somehow, I didn’t think Jack was up to more discussion just yet.

I had a bag stashed in his living room. He hadn’t noticed it yet. I grabbed it and I tugged out a pair of black BDUs and a snug black sport bra and tank. Without looking around for him, I took another quick shower and got dressed.

My gut told me that Jack was going to be itching for a fight tonight and unless I was reading him way wrong, he wasn’t going to take the easy way and have that fight with me. He’d leave. And since he was pissed off, and distracted…

Nope. He wouldn’t leave alone. If he did decide he had to have a fight tonight, he could damn well have it with me at his side… The hair on the back of my neck lifted. The cloying taint of evil flooded my entire being. I felt something pressing closer, and closer. Closing my eyes, I lowered my shields minutely and reached out.

Vankyr.

Orin.

And more.

With a hiss, I jerked my shields back up and stormed out of the bathroom. I found Jack striding into the kitchen, his hair hanging down to his shoulder in wet ropes. Apparently, he’d taken a plunge in the bay.

As he stalked through a small door off the side of the kitchen, I followed him.

“Out of sheer curiosity, lover,” I drawled. “Just how many of those things have you killed in the last seventeen years?”

He swiped a towel over his damp, naked body and then started to rub it over his hair. “Lost count after the first couple of years. A lot.”

A lot.

As he reached for a pair of jeans, I knocked them out of his hands and grabbed a pair of black cotton instead. A little looser, easier to move in.

“What the—”

Baring my teeth at him in a mean smile, I said, “Maybe I get to play bodyguard for a while after all. Until you get your head out of your ass. You do have trouble coming. A lot.”

Too much for me to handle, actually. Especially with nobody but a mortal at my side.

Even if he was a damned talented mortal who moved with more skill and speed than any mortal I had ever seen.

Reaching for the pendant, I met his gray eyes.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“You seemed to think they’d come after you. You’re right.”

“They’re coming? Now?”

I nodded. “Yes. We have a few minutes. They are miles away still. But it won’t be that long.”

His eyes darkened to black and he looked past me, as though he could see through the window. His home was isolated and I suspected he’d picked it, in part, because it was isolated…and he had always known a day like this would come.

“Will.” I knew he’d hear me. The pendant warmed under my hand, a single pulse. What that answer meant, I didn’t know.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked, as he tugged the pants on. He stormed past me and I watched as he headed into the living room.

“Calling for backup.”

“Like that will help,” he muttered and flipped open the lid on the trunk that served as a coffee table.

“It will. Regardless of what you think, we don’t abandon our own,” I said quietly. “And you’re one of us…even if you won’t claim us. We’ll still help.”

My heart ached as I said it. For the first time in long, empty years, I really didn’t want to be quite so isolated, but this man didn’t want me with him. Perhaps this was karma, I thought. I was reaping what I’d sowed with Luc all those years.

“Nobody’s going to help me. Will may or may not, but he can shove his help if the price tag is being like you. Which means I’m probably on my own,” Jack said, shaking his head. He had emptied a small arsenal onto the floor beside him and he gave me a tight smile. “Hang around if you want. Or just come back when the blood bath is over and deal with me then.”

I narrowed my eyes and sneered at him. He actually thought I’d leave him?

“Yes.”

I looked up as Will stepped through the arched doorway that led to the kitchen. And he wasn’t alone. I’d been so focused on Jack, I hadn’t even paid attention. Stupid, stupid. At least it wasn’t the demons yet.

Krell caught sight of me and wagged his tail. “Hi, boy,” I said, smiling at him.

Luc stood next to Will and on his other side was Sina. Greta and Rip were there, and now that I was focused, I could feel others.

Jack stood and glared at Will. “Why you here now, old man?”

“I always told you that if you had a need, we’d be here,” Will said quietly.

Jack snorted, still more focused on his weapons than anything else.

“He seems to think we would abandon him.” I narrowed my eyes as I gazed at Will. “He feels we abandoned his mother.”

“His mother owed him a life…and once she’d paid that debt, her time was done,” Will said cryptically. “And now…”

There was no more time for talking. Glass shattered and I whirled, putting my body between Jack and the vankyr.

Just come back when the blood bath is over, Jack had said.

Oh, yes, there would be a blood bath.

I kept myself locked at his side. If he fell, I’d do my damnedest to heal him, even though it was suicide with this many demons. At least I wasn’t alone. I knew my friends would lay down their lives to protect me.

An orin lunged for me, struggled to get past me. Judging by the look in her eyes, she wanted to get her hands on Jack. I was just the obstacle. Problem for her was that I was one very skilled obstacle. I used my dagger to destroy her heart, and as the demon’s essence faded, I watched the mortal’s body die. Pity stirred my heart, but there was no time to pause. Already another was coming at me.

They’d overwhelm us by sheer numbers if this kept up. I heard a hideous bellow of pain—felt it tear through me. I screamed and went to my knees. Behind me, I knew Jack had done the same.

One of them had gotten to him. And because I hadn’t shielded against him, I felt it.

Blood rose in his throat, and I tasted it. I heard Luc, saw him fighting to get to me. Krell bit and tore through everything that blocked him, and although Luc’s eyes no longer functioned, it didn’t slow him. He used a bladed staff with a speed and skill no sighted mortal could ever hope to duplicate.

But he wouldn’t reach me in time.

Then, brilliant, blistering white-hot light ripped through the small cabin. The demonic hosts screamed…and all went gray…then black. And silent.

Luc saw her fall through Krell’s eyes. He watched her sway, then falter and go down. A bellow of denial rose in his throat, but he bit it back as he hacked his way through to her side. He wanted to send the dog to her, but he needed the canine with him to see as he fought to get to her.

Perci.

White-hot heat scalded him. Instinctively, although he had little fear from injury, he lifted an arm and shielded his face.

As quickly as it came, the heat faded.

And his sensitive ears detected no sound of the demonic. He tried to see through Krell’s eyes, but the dog couldn’t see anything…just a blinding, brilliant light.

Chapter Twelve

Jack was bleeding out. It was amazing how he could feel that. Even more amazing was how he could see it as he hovered over his own dying body.

“You’re not supposed to die.”

A familiar voice spoke to him and he looked up, saw Will striding toward him through a misty, insubstantial world.

“Everybody dies,” Jack said. He bent down and tried to touch his own body out of some morbid fascination, but his hand just passed through, and it was like touching fire.

“Yes, everybody dies, you fool. But you weren’t supposed to. Not yet. Why didn’t you accept what Perci offered you?”

Jack looked at Will. “I don’t want to be one of you.”

“You are already one of us. Or you were.”

Jack realized that Will looked pretty fucking pissed off. Those weird eyes of his all but burned and his face was a cold, hard mask. It was easier to focus on that oddity than what Will was talking about—so much easier…

“By God, you will listen,” Will snarled, and he reached for Jack.

Jack smirked, expecting Will’s hands to pass right through him.

But the silver-haired man’s hands gripped Jack’s arms, solid, certain and unrelenting. His grip was too strong to evade, too strong to break, and as Jack struggled, Will said, “You need to remember, Jack…Jacques. Remember, because you won’t get this chance again. Cosette has made amends for the mistakes she made, and now you have a chance at the happiness you couldn’t have in life. But you have to remember…”

And even as Jack struggled, he was already falling.

“Why are you doing this?” Jacques stared at Cosette and tried to understand what had changed the woman before him. Although he knew. Love could do strange things to the mind, and this woman had loved. Grief had turned her love to madness.

She gave him a wide-eyed, innocent smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Nothing reached her eyes. Nothing changed that pale blue gaze. Always, a madwoman lurked there.

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice husky and soft.

“I saw the woman you tried to take to Persinette. You cannot continue to bring her these people to heal. She is too ill with the child. Do you wish to kill your grandson?”

“But Persinette is a healer. God has given her this gift and she must use it to do God’s work,” Cosette said quietly, her voice soft, pious…and under it, so very malicious.

She went to go around him.

Jacques caught her arm. “You will stop this.” The woman before him once had kindness in her. He had seen it. He had to find it again, for Persinette’s sake. “You must stop this, before you destroy her…and yourself.”

For long, tense moments, Cosette stared at him.

And then, abruptly, tears flooded her eyes and she hissed, “I am destroyed, because she would not give me aid. Because she would not heal my husband. Have I not lost enough? What else must I lose? What else is left that I can lose?”

“How about her love? The love of your son? Your people? What about your soul?”

Cosette snorted. The demure, refined image she presented to the world fell away and she stared at him with flat, hard eyes. “My soul? And what do you care of my soul, Jacques? You do not truly believe there is a god watching over us, do you? If there was, he would not have taken all from me. Again and again. No, there is no god. But there is a cruel, heartless wretched woman who will pay for what she did—and she will pay.”

She tried to pull away from him, but Jacques only tightened his grasp.

“If you harm her, you will know cruel and heartless, woman,” Jacques warned. And although it was forbidden, he lowered the mask he wore around mortals and allowed her to see the man he was, not the man he pretended to be. “She has done you no ill and could not have saved your husband.”

As he spoke, he drove the words into her mind, knowing she did not just hear them, but felt them, ached with them, shuddered with them. She would hear those words in her sleep. They would follow her and haunt her.

But Cosette was no simpering, shy miss, and although she flinched under his power, she didn’t buckle. Instead, as he released, she jerked away and glared at him. “So…you are like her.” Cosette stared at him. Then she shook her head. “I do not care. She will pay, and I do not care what the cost is.”

“And if the cost is the life of an innocent child?”

Her lids flickered. But then her face hardened. “She made her choice.” Cosette turned and walked away.

Jacques murmured quietly, “As have you. And as have I.”

“Choices, Jack. Life is about them,” Will said.

Jack tore away from Will and stumbled into the wall. Or rather…through it. The moment Will wasn’t touching him he lost whatever solidity he had. “What in the fuck…you’re messing with my head,” he muttered.

“No. I’m showing you the truth you’ve hidden from for too long. Your mother always knew.” And with that, Will grabbed him and once more, shoved him hurtling back.

Back into the past…

Only this time, it was just years, mere decades, not centuries. Jack even remembered the moments.

Sitting by the bedside as his mother breathed through a machine, watching as she wasted away.

“Why are you dying?” He hated that he sounded like a little kid…he wasn’t. He was twelve fucking years old. Practically an adult.

But his mother just smiled sadly. “We all die, Jack. It’s part of life.”

“But you’re too young. And…and I need you,” he whispered.

“I’ll always be around,” she murmured. She reached over and caught his hand, squeezed. Although her body was weak, her grasp was still strong, still steady. “I love you, baby.”

He tore his hand away. “You shouldn’t have done it.”

“Done what?” she asked.

But she knew. He saw the answer in her eyes. She already knew.

“Stop being one of them. You wouldn’t have gotten sick then.”

Mom sighed. “And I wouldn’t have you. All along, I was meant to have you, Jack.” She held out a hand.

Jack stared at it, and then lifted his eyes and stared into her pale blue eyes.

They looked nothing alike. He must have inherited his dad’s looks, but he’d never know, because he’d never met his dad.

“Jack, come here,” she said quietly.

Reluctantly, he walked over and placed his hand in hers. “What?” he asked sullenly.

“Sometimes I hated how you always knew the things you’ve known,” she said.

Blood rushed to his cheeks and he looked away. They never spoke of this, but he knew she didn’t like it, knew it made her sad.

“And sometimes I wish I knew just how much you knew…” Then she brushed his hair back from his face. “But you can’t know all, because then you would hate me.”

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his brow. “The time will come when you will know all. I just hope you can forgive me, although I don’t imagine you will. But know this—I lived this life with no regrets. I made this choice and I’m glad of it. I wouldn’t undo a moment I had with you.”

Confused, scared, Jack looked at his mom. “What are you talking about?”

But she just shook her head and moments later, Will entered the room.

And later that night, his mother died quietly in her sleep.

Leaving Jack alone.

Jack tore away from Will and stared at him.

I hope you can forgive me…

He remembered his mother’s pale blue eyes. And her strange, cryptic words.

I lived this life with no regrets. I made this choice and I’m glad of it. I wouldn’t undo a moment I had with you.

And then he remembered Will’s words—words he’d said to Perci, but Jack had heard them nonetheless.

His mother owed him a life.

“Shit,” he muttered.

He went to rub his face, but his hands passed through his insubstantial flesh—not a pleasant feeling. Glaring at Will, he said, “Please tell me this isn’t real.”

“Oh, it’s quite real…and you’re running out of time.” Then he looked down.

That was when Jack saw Perci.

Perci’s still, pale body.

“And so is she.”

And Jack’s world seemed to come to a complete and utter stop.

He sank to his knees, and this time, he didn’t pass through the floor. Staring at Perci’s face, he reached out to touch her. And he touched warm flesh, warm…but cooling.

She breathed, but not well. Her heart beat, but somehow, he could hear it faltering. Shaking his head, he went to look up at Will and found himself staring at a face that he knew he had seen before.

“Luc,” he rasped out.

The man stilled, then reached out.

Jack saw the sightless eyes. But as Luc’s hand came toward him, somehow, he knew the man could see him. Somehow. And he knew the man saw more than just what lay on the surface. He tried to fall back, even as he wondered if the man could touch his incorporeal form.

But he didn’t move fast enough, and yes, Luc could touch him.

For a moment, incomprehension rolled over Luc’s face. Then, like a movie reel, the memories Will had dumped inside Jack’s head started to roll. And Jack knew he wasn’t the only one seeing them.

Shock flickered across Luc’s face.

“Jacques,” Luc whispered.

“Jack,” he snarled as he jerked away. This time, his hand passed through Luc’s, as insubstantial as a wish.

“What…” Then Luc shook his head. “It does not matter.”

He turned, his gaze unerringly seeking out Will. “I don’t know what is killing her, but she’s fading. Save her.”

Will’s gaze rested on Jack.

“I can’t,” Will said flatly. “Only Jack can. She’s connected to him and he chooses to die. That means when he dies, she will die with him.”

Those words hit Jack square in the chest and he found himself staring at Perci’s still face. And then he looked up and stared at Luc.

Luc… Memory after memory rolled through him.

Luc. The man Perci—Persinette had married all those years ago.

Back when Jack had asked who she was, and she’d told him, he’d just assumed her husband had died as well.

But he hadn’t.

“You’re a fucking bastard,” he said to Will, and then he looked back at the ripped meat that was his body. Oddly enough, no blood flowed, and he really didn’t look any closer to dead than he had a few minutes ago.

And although Jack said nothing out loud, Will knew exactly what thoughts rolled through his mind.

“That’s because I’m keeping you alive. Giving you a moment to decide. Is it death you want? Or are you going to come back to what you are?”

Shifting his gaze to Perci, he focused on her face. Now he had a lifetime of memories swarming inside him, and he remembered the love he’d had for her. He could have done without that. Especially as he stood there just a few feet away from her husband.

Without looking at Luc, he said grimly, “I’ll do it.”

But damn it, Will was damn well going to find somebody else to train him, or whatever the fuck Perci was supposed to do. It wasn’t like he really needed training now anyway, did he?

And then, before his thoughts could even complete, he was being sucked back into his body…and it hurt.

It hurt.

I came awake with a scream, curled into a ball and whimpered, all but ready to beg for mercy.

Luc was there and he caught me in his arms, pulled me against his chest. “Hush, Perci…just breathe, the pain will pass. It always does. Just breathe, just breathe…”

Breathe…I can’t…it hurts…

“You have to breathe.” His voice was firm and hard.

I curled my hands into his thighs, arched against the fiery pain tearing through me. I tasted blood in the back of my throat.

“Breathe…breathe…”

A hand touched my brow. “Perci. I could use your help.”

I knew that voice.

Will.

At his touch, a cooling, comforting rush washed over me, and I tried to open my eyes, tried to look at him. Hard though. So hard. Through cracked, dry lips, I whispered, “Hurts.”

“I know.” His eyes were grim and he slanted a look past my shoulder. “It’s not helping you that your new partner isn’t letting me help him. You’re feeling his pain, and until it passes you know you’ll both suffer. He might let you let you help.”

Will lifted a hand, let it hover over me. “May I?”

“Shit, if it will stop this…” And even if it didn’t, I’d let him. My partner…did he mean Jack?

Tears blurred my eyes. Jack hadn’t wanted to be one of us. He’d wanted to die.

“Jack isn’t dead,” Will said quietly. Then he placed his hand over my breastbone. “Choices, Perci. We all make them and he made his.”

I sucked in a breath as his power washed over me, undoing whatever damage had been done. I could still feel the pain though, and now that the hideous agony wasn’t blinding me, I knew why. My shields…I’d lowered them and when the vankyr had torn into Jack, it had just about killed me as well. Overloaded me.

Not smart, not smart.

“Can you stand?” Luc asked.

My legs were rubbery, watery. I knew that even without putting any weight on them. “I don’t know.”

I felt eyes on me and I looked up, realized that we had an audience…a large one. Greta, Rip. I saw Elle and although I didn’t see him, I knew Michael must be somewhere. Sina stood just beyond Will and there were others. I could sense them.

Sina’s eyes, dark, dark blue bored into me and I looked away. Something about her stare had always unsettled me and today was no different. I braced a hand on Luc’s shoulder and tried to push to my feet, but I couldn’t.

“Let me help,” he said.

Shame flooded me as he helped me to my feet. The times I had hurt him, all the times I had failed him. Like always, Luc knew what I was thinking. He stroked a hand down my arm. “You must move past this, Perci. If we were meant to be, we would. And if you failed me, then I failed you as well.” He kissed my brow. “Let it go…and go help your man. He needs you now.”

My man. Luc nudged me along toward Jack, and when I saw him lying there, still bloodied, still broken, my heart all but stopped.

I ran to him. “No,” I snarled. I didn’t even know who I was talking to. “You can’t do this. You can’t.”

Finally, the cold aching knot that was my heart had thawed and I could feel something beyond grief and pain…or at least I had felt something. For a few days, I’d felt…something.

And now Jack lay here—

“No.” Sinking to my hands, I covered the bloody, torn flesh of his sides.

But he knocked me aside, even as battered and broken as his body was. “No,” he rasped, glaring at me.

I would have argued with him, except I was too far across the room and staring at him in utter shock. He wasn’t that strong—mortals weren’t. Not even him, and he was definitely the strongest mortal I’d ever known.

Dazed, I looked across the room to Will.

“He is as he is meant to be,” Will said obliquely.

I wanted to tell him to shove the cryptic shit, but I could feel Jack’s pain even through my shields, and it hurt so bad—so bad.

“How?” My question came out through gritted teeth.

But there was no answer and just then, I couldn’t try to pound it out of Will, even if I had a chance at that. No, I had to take care of Jack.

“Fuck how,” I muttered. “Just hold him.”

Luc caught one thrashing arm, evading Jack easily despite his lack of sight.

Will caught the other one. Rip and Greta pinned his legs.

Rip shot me a wide grin and said, “He’s a strong one, eh?”

Strong…yes. And he’d have to be, because the wound in his side would have killed even one of us. And how could he be one of us…

“Don’t,” Jack panted as I knelt down. “Don’t you fucking dare. It will heal.”

“You’re too weak,” I said. I could feel the energy, the life seeping out of him. And below that was my own nagging weakness—no, none of this was good. I had to heal him, take that pain away…or we were both screwed.

My weakness concerned me, but it wasn’t enough to kill me. I knew that, could sense it. Besides, Will was here. If I faltered, Will could steady me. He’d done it before.

When my hands covered the hot, pulpy mess of his side, blood gushed out. I ignored it. I’d felt worse. I’d had my hands buried in blood and guts more times than I could count and it hadn’t ever bothered me. The only thing about this that would slow me down was if I failed…and I wouldn’t fail.

Not now. Not this time. Not with Jack.

Pain arced through us. We both screamed. Jack stopped screaming long, long before I did.

Chapter Thirteen

“Where are you going?”

Jack flicked Luc a look and then resumed the task of buttoning his shirt. It shouldn’t take this long. Really, it shouldn’t. But he wanted to concentrate on it. The longer it took, the more thought he put into each detail, the less he thought about…well, everything else.

Like the fact that Perci’s husband stood just a few feet away from him.

Like the fact that Perci lay in his bed, still unconscious.

After more than twenty-four hours.

It had been quite a while since he’d done this bit, but he knew that wasn’t normal. Will had assured him that she was fine, and despite the fact that Jack was still madder than hell at the other guy, he knew Will wouldn’t lie.

Oh, he’d withhold secrets—like the fact that Jack was living out his second life. Like the fact that his mother had been living out her second life…after she’d killed him in her first life.

Cosette.

Fuck. None of this made sense.

“Have you no answer?”

Through slitted eyes, he looked at Luc. “I’m leaving,” he said succinctly. He grabbed his work boots, shoved his feet into them and sat on the edge of the couch to tie them.

“Leaving…”

It wasn’t until he was striding across the room that Luc made another sound, made another move. And then Jack’s next move was to go flying head first into the ground.

“You selfish bastard,” Luc said, his accent growing thick and heavy. “Leave her, will you? After all she has suffered?”

Jack shoved upright and glared at Luc. “Yeah. I’m leaving. And I never asked her to help me. I didn’t ask for any of this.”

He hadn’t asked to come back…hadn’t ever wanted to fall in love with her to begin with, not then. Not now.

Especially not now, when he had endless, empty years stretching out before him.

There was a harsh intake of breath behind him. And then, to his surprise, Luc started to laugh. It was a bitter, ugly laugh…hard and wrenching. “You go on then, Jacques. You run. Fool.”

Waking is rarely pleasant after doing a major healing. This time, it was even less pleasant. The worst pain wasn’t in my side though, or my gut, despite the fact that my guts had all but been ripped out as I took Jack’s pain.

The worst pain was right in my heart.

Even before I opened my eyes, I knew he was gone.

With a sigh, I rolled to my hip, lifted my lashes and stared out the window.

He didn’t want to be with me.

Didn’t even want this life, and I couldn’t blame him. Chances were that Will had somehow manipulated him into it. Maybe even used me to do it, although that wouldn’t have set him running. Although it would certainly harden his resolve.

For long, long moments, I stared out the window at the moonlight sparking off the water. I would have stared at it for hours, except I knew I wasn’t alone, and the woman with me wasn’t going to tolerate being ignored for too long.

“How long will you remain here feeling sorry for yourself?”

Blowing out a breath, I sat up. The sheet fell to my waist, but I was too tired to care.

I met Sina’s level gaze with one of my own. “Why don’t you go hump a dwarf, Snow White?”

A cool smile twisted her lips. Her midnight-dark eyes flashed. Eerie power rolled from her.

But I wasn’t afraid of her. Tired and aching, I shifted on the bed. “Save the theatrics for somebody who might be impressed.” I waited a beat and added, “Unlike me.”

“Always so strong,” Sina murmured. “So unwilling to need somebody.”

“I’m not unwilling.”

“You never let yourself need Luc.”

That might have hurt. Except she was wrong. Frowning, I climbed out of the bed and looked around for my clothes. They weren’t anywhere to be found. Tucked in the corner was a closet and I headed over there. I found a worn, white polo that smelled of Jack and it made my heart hurt as I pulled it on.

“You’re wrong,” I said, keeping my back to her. “I did need Luc. Maybe I didn’t love him the way I would have liked—and the way he deserved, but I did need him. And I do still need his friendship. I just can’t love him.”

Turning, I faced her. I crossed my arms over my chest. That ache inside, it still lingered. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Hmm.” She reached up and stroked one of the chains around her neck. One held her medallion. The other, I couldn’t see. Her hair fell to her shoulders, framing her face.

She wasn’t lovely—not the way the fairy tale portrayed her. But she also wasn’t stupid enough to eat a poisoned apple, and as far as I knew, she’d never had a prince kiss her out of a drugged slumber. Most of the men I knew were more than a little scared of Sina.

She had a way of cutting people off at the knees…or the balls.

Sina might not be lovely, but she was exotic, sensual…and when you looked at her, it was hard to look away, especially if she was looking back.

And right now, she was looking back at me with a faint smile curling her ruby red lips. She wore no make-up. Never had, not in all the years I’d known her. Rising from the seat by the window, Sina strolled over to stand at my side. “This Jack,” she said. “Do you love him?”

“I hardly know him.”

“Not an answer.”

“I…” I blew out a breath and stared into those eerie, insightful blue eyes. Then I shifted my gaze elsewhere. Inside. Jack made me feel again. For the first time in this life. “I don’t know. But I think I could. If he lets me…if he stays, I think I will. But he doesn’t want me.”

Sina looked past me.

I already knew why. Looking up, I saw Luc standing in the doorway. Krell was at his side and the moment I looked at the dog, he wagged his tail. Out of habit, I snapped my fingers and he bounded over to me. Crouching down in front of him, I buried my fingers in his fur. “Hey, boy.”

He went to lick my nose and despite myself, I smiled.

“Your man thinks we’re still married, Perci,” Luc said.

My smile wobbled. Died.

“He…he what?”

Luc came inside and knelt by Krell. His hand came up, rested by mine. “I saw in his mind. All the memories…Jacques.” A spasm of grief tightened his face and he whispered, “I cannot believe what Cosette did…”

I covered his hand with mine. Some of those memories I had never shared. I hadn’t wanted him to know, and now he knew anyway. “It is over,” I said.

He turned his hand over, gripped mine. “Over,” he echoed. Then he tugged his hand away and stood. “I saw it in his mind as he was leaving. He hasn’t remembered how to shield, or perhaps he never learned. I do not know. But I saw it, heard it all. He remembered who I am, that we’d been wed. And he thought I had died. Then he saw that I still lived and he…” Luc shrugged. “He wouldn’t stay. It felt to me like he couldn’t. He thinks we are together, and it hurts him.”

“Oh, shit,” I muttered, my gut clenching. I looked at Luc and saw the pain he tried to hide. No matter what, I was hurting these two men.

Luc combed his hand through my hair. “Go, Perci. Find him.”

“Luc—”

He pressed his finger to my lips. “Go,” he said again.

And I went.

The door closed behind Perci before Sina said a word. Luc knew it was coming. Unspoken words carried a weight, a heavy one.

“You still love her.”

Luc made his way to the window, relying on the imagery he’d gleaned from his link with Krell. Before he answered, he opened it and leaned out, breathing in the fresh sea air. He thought he might like to walk the beach for a while. Perhaps.

Sighing, he turned back to Sina. “Whether I love her or not changes nothing. She doesn’t love me, and more than anything, I need her to be happy. And at peace.”

“So selfless,” Sina said. “Always so selfless.”

“If I was selfless, I would have walked away from her years ago, instead of taking whatever scraps she would give me. But because I kept clinging to a useless hope, I held her tight and neither of us healed.” Luc shook his head. “Both of us are to blame, Sina. I don’t know why you are so angry with Perci, but it ends. Now.”

Then he turned and strode away.

As he left her alone in the room, Sina turned to look out the window.

Such a clueless man. He’d loved a woman for years. And Sina had loved him for years. Why shouldn’t she be angry? Of course, he had never seen it. Nobody saw it. And that was how it would remain. It was safer that way. Much, much safer.

Chapter Fourteen

It was hard to trail him. I’d been after him for weeks. Two, at least. Maybe three. I was losing track, and running on too little sleep. I think it had been four days since I’d slept, and almost a week since I’d eaten. Where was he and how was he moving so fast?

He was still too new. He shouldn’t be able to move like this. But he did. I followed the ache in my heart, knowing it would lead me to him.

Before it had been a burn…a buzz. Now it was pain, hot and lashing.

I was in Maine now and somehow, I wasn’t surprised. The ocean seemed to draw him, and right now, the wild, turbulent waters echoed the chaos in my heart. It would echo his as well. And when the tears clogged my throat, I knew I was close. I pulled off the road and found myself close to the shore.

There was a small, rickety looking cabin, but he wasn’t in there. The path under my feet kept trying to crumble as I headed down to the rocky beach.

I saw his silhouette even from nearly half a mile away, and I knew the exact moment he sensed me. I was almost a quarter mile away when he did, and I wondered if he would leave. It would be harder for me to catch him now, but damn it, if he thought he’d just run away…

But all he did was turn and watch me approach. Words crowded my head, leaped into my throat. What was I supposed to say?

Why in the hell did you leave like that?

I’m not married. Technically, both of us died so the marriage was null, but I wanted it more official and we’re not married, haven’t been for more than three centuries. Is that why you left?

Are you angry?

The distance between us closed all too soon, and I found myself standing in front of him and staring into those misty, beautiful eyes…and I had no idea what to say to him.

He broke our little staring contest and turned away, looking back out over the water.

“I don’t need a trainer. So run on back to Will and tell him you tried. You did your job. You can go back to your husband now and leave me the hell alone.”

I scowled at him. “I’m not here because of Will. And for your information, Luc hasn’t been my husband in over three hundred years. We were divorced before it was the in thing to do.”

If I hadn’t been watching him so closely, I wouldn’t have seen it, wouldn’t have seen how his shoulders went rigid, wouldn’t have heard his harsh intake of breath.

And as quickly as that, he relaxed and shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t want a trainer and in case nobody clued you in, I’ve done this gig before. I was doing it before you were even a thought, princess, so I think I can handle it. Now get the hell away from me.”

“Are you trying to piss me off?” I asked. “Or does it just come naturally?”

He looked back at me. “No. I’m not trying. I just want you gone. So…go.”

His eyes…they were so fucking cold. Glacier cold. It hit me square in the chest. I could have screamed it hurt so bad, and that was when I realized.

I did love him.

I’d been wrong when Sina asked me. I couldn’t grow to love him, because I already did. But he didn’t want me here. Karma…talk about karma. As the pain twisted inside my heart, I pasted a false, bitter smile on my face. “Yeah, fine.”

He didn’t want me here. He didn’t want me. Oh, the irony. Luc had been wrong.

Sadly though, I knew I wasn’t going to get much relief by pointing that out to him. As I made my way across the sharp, jagged rocks, I focused every last bit of energy I had on that single task.

I didn’t think about anything else, because I couldn’t.

The rocks, they were all that mattered.

And then I was clear of the rocks…but there was the path ahead. It was a twisty path, and eroding something terrible. I didn’t want to fall, right? So I concentrated on that. Just that. After all, it wouldn’t do for me to fall, because the way my luck was going, I’d break my ankle and then I’d be stuck here long enough to get Will out to set it. Stuck here with Jack—

I hissed out a breath.

Don’t think about him.

Just like that, he was in front of me.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, his craggy, rough face darkened in a snarl.

I edged around him and tossed back over my shoulder, “Nothing. Going now.”

The path. Focus on the path. And after that, I’d find something else—

Jack’s hand, hard and hot, closed around my arm and swung me around.

“What’s wrong?”

I stared at him. What’s wrong? He wanted to know what was wrong. I spent three weeks trailing after him, I find him, and he pushes me away and he wants to know what’s wrong.

But I wasn’t going to tell him that I’d just realized I was in love with him. He didn’t get that from me. He didn’t care enough. Carefully, I said, “Nothing is wrong. Would you let me go, please?”

He shook me, staring down at me with intense eyes. Eyes that glowed. Shit. His gift. It was his gift—

“Don’t tell me that,” he muttered. He laid a hand on my cheek. “You’re hurting somewhere. I feel it. What’s wrong?”

Hurting.

I jerked back, so hard and fast I ended up on my butt with the sharp rocks digging into my tender flesh. Now I had some real physical, if somewhat minor pain.

But that wasn’t the pain he’d felt.

No. Oh, shit, no.

Shoving to my feet, I skirted around him. “I’m not hurting,” I told him.

“Yeah, you are.”

I sneered at him. “You a healer now? Fine. I just gouged my ass on the rocks over there. You come kiss it and make it better.”

“Perci—”

He tried to reach for me again, but I was prepared this time. Yeah, he was fast. But I was just as fast. I moved away, evading him. I stood with the cliff at my back as I faced him. The wind slashed across my face, stinging my eyes.

“You have a nice life, Jack. Sorry you got stuck with this deal again—I know you didn’t want it.” Then I started the climb up, moving as fast as I could. And it was pretty damn fast. It should have been fast enough. But even as fast as I was, he caught me. I was nearly to the top, but he still caught me.

“Wait,” he muttered, catching me and crowding up against me on the narrow trail.

“Sorry. I need to be gone.”

“Why?” he asked baldly. “You just got here.”

“Yeah, and you just told me to get the hell out.”

He didn’t even respond to that, he was too busy staring at me, like he’d see something on me, in me. Why was he staring at me? “Damn it, what do you want?”

“What’s hurting you?” he demanded and his eyes looked slightly wild. “You’re not still hurt, are you? Damn it, it’s been more than three weeks.”

More than three weeks.

Those words circled around in my head as he reached up, touched my face, tipped my head back and peered down at me. His touch, his nearness, it numbed me, dazed me, made it so hard to think.

But I had to think. Damn it. Tearing free from him, I back away, edging closer and closer to the edge of the trail. If I got to my damn car, it wouldn’t matter how fast he was. None of us moved faster than cars. We might be a little more than human, but we were basically still human under the fancy trappings we’d been given, and we weren’t prone to things like Superman’s skills of “faster than a speeding bullet”.

“I’m not hurt,” I said, forcing the words out through a tight, raspy throat. “I’m not hurt and you can stop worrying…although why in the hell you feel the need, I don’t know.”

“If you’re not hurt, why does it feel like something inside me is…” His voice trailed away and he stared into my eyes.

Broken.

He didn’t say it out loud.

But he didn’t need to. He felt broken inside because he was feeling my pain. And I was broken inside. Shit.

I slammed up heavy, thick mental shields, layering them as thick as I could and hoping it would block him. Empathy—why in the hell had they gifted somebody like him with empathy?

I had to get away before he figured it out. Damn it. I was going to leave here with something intact, and the only thing I had left was my pride.

“I’m fine,” I said again with a sharp-edged smile. “Chances are you didn’t have this gift before…” And I was still trying to get my mind wrapped around that. “It’s all new and weird and more when you change over. So it takes a while to adjust. So you stay here and adjust and have fun with it. Ciao.”

I turned on my heel and rushed for my car.

I had my hand on the fucking handle when he reached over my shoulder and slammed down on the door. I jerked against him and he shoved the door with so much force, I saw the metal crumple under his hand.

“Damn it, Jack.”

“Why are you here, Perci?”

Desperately, I jerked on the door. I needed to get away. Now.

He brought a hand up and curved it over my hip. “This pain, it’s just in one place, you know. Right in my heart. Like somebody has a knife there, twisting it. But you aren’t hurt there.” He lowered his head, pressed his mouth to my shoulder.

A shudder wracked me from head to toe.

“If it’s not something I can see, then what was I feeling? And why can’t I feel it now?” He pressed his lips to my hair. “What’s going on, Perci?”

“You’re too new to your gift,” I snapped. “Nothing’s going on. Learn your gift, how to use it. And take your hands off me.”

But he didn’t. All he did was breathe me in. Strangely…I felt that.

“I don’t really want to take my hands off you, Perci.”

He dipped his head and kissed my nape. The brush of his mouth against my flesh jolted through me, making my nerve endings sizzle and my knees weaken. My heart slammed against my ribs, beating at a speed that might have been dangerous had I still been completely mortal.

Too damn bad—passing out just then might have been handy.

“You wanted me gone, Jack,” I said, keeping my voice hard and flat, even though all I wanted to do was melt against him. “Now I want to be gone. I’ve got things to do, people to see, and it’s easier for me to do that if you would let go.”

“People to see…like Luc?” Big, rough hands curled over my shoulders. His voice was a ragged snarl in my ear as he said, “You know what it did to me when I saw him? It was like somebody had punched a hole into my chest and just ripped my heart out. I remember, you know—that other life. I remember the way you used to watch him, how he watched you. It was…beautiful, and even though it hurt me then to see it, it was what you needed. And all I could think was that you belonged with him, you needed that beauty back. I hate myself for thinking I had taken what belonged to another man…and I kept wondering why in the hell you didn’t tell me.”

“There was nothing to tell—not to you, at least, Jack. Luc and I don’t belong together.” I blinked back my tears, struggled to maintain whatever shields I could to keep him from feeling my anguish. This was torment. This was hell. And I wanted, more than anything that blissful numb state I had known for years. It was better than this. Better than this gut-wrenching agony. Keeping my voice neutral, I stared off over my car as I said, “Luc and I aren’t the people we used to be. What happened during our mortal lives, at the end of them, changed us—too much and we can’t go back to who we were. A part of me has known that ever since it happened, and Luc has come to see it as well.”

He tugged on my shoulders, tried to make me face him, but I couldn’t do that—wouldn’t. Swallowing the knot in my throat, I added, “And like I said, Luc and I haven’t been married in years. So you weren’t fucking a married woman. You haven’t sullied your precious honor.”

I still didn’t understand completely what had happened, but I knew back during my mortal life, honor had been important to Jacques. It would matter to Jack as well. Thinking he had been sleeping with a married woman had probably been weighing on him. Although if he had been sleeping with a married woman, and I’d kept that secret—the sin would have been mine, not his.

Men. I swear, they made no sense.

“You think this is just about honor?” A harsh, grating laugh escaped him. “Yeah, I don’t like the idea of fucking a married woman, but it was more than that…and damn it, will you look at me?”

This time, when he tried to turn me around, there was enough force in it. It was going to look pretty foolish if I resisted. I didn’t want him knowing why I resisted, after all. Didn’t want him feeling anything from me, didn’t want him guessing that it hurt too damn much to look at him.

Setting my jaw, I turned around and met his eyes. Even though I’d prepared myself, my heart still leaped, still jumped and danced inside my chest. And now that I knew, I could see it…Jacques. Yes, the face was different, and the body…but those eyes. Those eyes were the same, and as I stared into them, I knew the soul was the same as well.

Jacques.

He’d frightened me, intimidated me in that first life.

Dear God, how was this possible…

But there really wasn’t any need to ask that. I’d learned that nothing was impossible, not really. After all, here I was…some three hundred years after I’d been born. I’d fought things that never should have existed. Why shouldn’t I be standing in front of the man who’d fought to protect me all those years ago?

“You’re hiding something,” he muttered, lifting a hand to touch my cheek.

I turned my head aside, evading that light touch—couldn’t let him touch me now. Not now. From the corner of my eye, I saw his fingers curl into his palm, watched until his hand fisted and fell away.

As I looked back at him, I fixed an impassive mask firmly in place. But it didn’t do much good. He was one of us. He could hear my heart rate, could hear the miniscule catches in my breathing that I couldn’t regulate, no matter how hard I tried.

He lifted an arm, braced it over my shoulder and rested his hand on the car behind me. I felt surrounded by him and it did bad, bad things to my mental state. Bad, bad… As my heart accelerated, I saw his eyes widen, watched the misty gray of his pupils darken.

“What’s going on, Perci?” He didn’t touch me, but he leaned in close, so close I could feel his heat all along my body. “What are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” I said. “You want me gone, right? So get out of my way.”

Those sad, sad eyes… They’d gutted him, right from the first. But now they weren’t sad. They were carefully, deliberately blank—just like everything else about her.

If it wasn’t for her jacked-up heart rate and the slightly erratic cadence of her breathing, Jack would have thought he was staring at a stone statue. That was how much emotion Perci showed—how much emotion she put out.

It was too fucking much—from the moment she’d stepped foot on his beach, he’d felt the pain radiating from her, like a vicious, burning wound, and then, as quick as a blink, it was all gone.

In the back of his mind, a voice whispered the answer, but he didn’t want to listen to that voice. He wanted the answer from her, because then he could trust it.

“I wanted you gone because it hurts too much to look at you and think about how you belong to somebody else,” he said slowly, forcing the words through a tight, tight throat. He didn’t want to tell her that, didn’t want to strip himself so completely bare.

Staring into her dark eyes, he lifted a hand and rested it on her waist. “I saw Luc and it was like everything inside of me just ended. I knew what would happen—somehow, I just knew. You’d be back with him and your world would be right again. I…my head’s been fucked up since then, can you get that?”

She didn’t say anything, just shifted her gaze away from him and stared off over the cliff toward the water.

“Perci”

“My world hasn’t been right in so long, I can’t even comprehend what right would be like. I don’t know what right feels like.” She sent him a look from the corner of her eye. “I’m messed up, okay? I locked everybody, everything out and I’ve spent the past few centuries hurting Luc because I couldn’t drag myself out of the pit I’d dug for myself. But I don’t love him the way I need to, and I never will. He’s not a part of my life anymore, except for being a friend.” She paused, then opened her mouth. “I…no. You know what? Fuck it. I’m leaving. I’m out of here, Jack.”

She shoved against his chest, but Jack just reached up and caught her wrists. “Not yet,” he muttered. “I don’t want you leaving yet.”

“And what if I want to?” she demanded. She glared at him. “Damn it, I’ve been on a roller coaster ever since I met you and I can’t do this. It hurts too much. I’d rather go back to not feeling anything than to feel like this. Either you want me or you don’t—stop jerking me around.”

“Ah, hell, Perci. That’s the problem.” Still holding her wrists, he dipped his head and gently rubbed his lips over hers. “I’ve always wanted you. Even when you belonged to somebody else and I had no chance in hell of ever having you. I wanted you then. Dying didn’t stop that. All the years between didn’t stop that. And the minute I saw you…I wanted you then. I want you now. I’ll always want you. Want you…need you.”

Her hands, balled into fists, abruptly loosened and curled into his T-shirt. Daring to let go, he cupped her face in one hand, angled it back and slanted his mouth over hers. “You’re my heart, princess,” he whispered. “I must have been sent back to find you. We can’t live, or even rest in peace without a heart, I guess. And you’re mine. Always have been.”

Her lips parted on a sob and he took another chance and eased his tongue inside. Her rigid body went lax and she all but fell against him. Jack groaned and caught her weight in his arms. She wrapped hers around his neck, her mouth moving under his.

And the shields—that solid, cool wall that had come between them, evaporated. As her emotions crashed into him, he sagged, might have fallen, but he didn’t want her on the rough, unkind ground. So he shifted and crashed into the car, keeping her cradled against him as the weight of her emotions washed over him.

Tearing his mouth away from hers, he whispered, “Perci?”

She pressed her brow to his, her narrow shoulders shaking.

“You wanted me to leave,” she rasped.

“No. Hell, no. It was just killing me to think I couldn’t keep you.” His heart clenched in agony as the pain inside her washed over him.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered. “I haven’t felt alive, felt real, until I met you. I…shit, Jack. I think I’m in love with you.”

Shaken, he cradled the back of her head and stared up at the dark gray skies over head. Words he hadn’t thought he’d ever hear…not from her.

“Perci…”

She lifted her head. “Don’t go freaking out,” she said, forcing a smile. “I’m not going to get all clingy and desperate. I just—”

He fisted his hand in her hair and hauled her against him, silencing her words with his mouth. He stopped just long enough to mutter, “Three hundred years. I knew I loved you then. And I know I love you now. If you’re not going to get all desperate, and even a little clingy sometimes, I’m going to get pissed. I waited two lifetimes to hear you say that. I think a little desperation is just fine. I’m sure as hell desperate. And I plan on clinging to you a lot. Starting now.”

“Oh…um. Okay.” Tears gleamed diamond bright in her eyes, but she smiled and a hiccupping laugh escaped her. Her teeth caught her lower lip and she glanced around. “Now? Right now?”

“Yeah.”

Without waiting another second, Jack swept her into his arms, grinning as a surprised giggle escaped her lips. “You know, I’ve never had a chance to do that.”

“You do it really well.” She snuggled against his chest, absently stroking her finger over his chest as he carried her across the uneven ground to his small cabin.

It wasn’t much, and just then, he wished it was. He’d love for it to be a palace, a mansion, something with a wide, luxurious bed, silken sheets that would glow against her skin. But she didn’t seem to even notice, and once he got her inside, Jack didn’t much notice either.

He barely even remembered carrying her to the bed. The cabin had just two rooms. The bathroom was separated from the rest of the cabin and the bed was tucked up under a window that faced out over the water. He lay her down on it and stretched out beside her. As he lifted his hand to her face, he realized his fingers were shaking.

This was real.

A few days ago, he hadn’t even known this woman. And now, his head flooded with memories of another life, and his heart ached with the love he’d had for her then. She stared at him as though she needed this as much as he did.

“You’re really here, right?” he whispered. He stroked a hand down her side, gripped the hem of her shirt and slid it up, baring the smooth, soft skin there. “You’re not going to disappear when I wake up.”

“I’m really here. Really here…” She pressed her lips to his throat, breathed him in. “And so are you. Touch me. Would you please just touch me?”

“I am touching you.” He cupped one small, firm breast in his hand, stroked his thumb over the silk-covered nipple and when she shuddered, he did too. Her pleasure became his and he groaned. “Fuck, this might kill me.”

“No. It won’t—promise.” Her hands dipped into his hair, tugging.

Obliging, he lowered his head and caught the tip of her breast between his teeth, hissing out as the pleasure arced through him as well. Too much, too much, too much.

Swearing, he sat back on his heels, grabbed the hem of her shirt and tore it away. His hands, usually so steady, fumbled with her bra, her jeans and panties. Her jeans and panties tangled around her ankles and for about two seconds, he contemplated just ripping them off—he could—he knew he could, especially now.

But instead, hands shaking, he fought the tangle of clothing off and then closed his hands around her ankles. Sliding his gaze along the long, pale length of her body, he rested his gaze on the tight curls covering her pussy, then along her flat belly, along her torso and higher, until he was staring into her eyes.

“One of these days, I’m going to be able to take my time, make love to you soft and slow, the way you deserve. But right now, I can’t,” he said, his voice harsh and rough. “I need you too much.”

A drowsy smile curled her lips. “Then have me. And I don’t need soft and slow—just need you.”

Pushing upright, he grabbed his shirt and wasn’t quite so patient with it when his hands got clumsy. Fabric ripped and he threw the remains off to the side. He fumbled with his jeans and managed to get them off without tearing the sturdy denim. When he looked back at Perci, she was lying there with a smile curving her lips and a light of amusement dancing in her eyes.

“What?”

“You’re impatient.”

A dull red flush crept up his neck. Levering his body over hers, he fisted his hand in her short, red-gold hair. “Damn straight. Didn’t think I’d ever have this…have you.” Pressing a hard kiss to her mouth, he whispered, “Open for me, Perci…open for me.”

She opened for him, arching her neck and giving him access to her mouth even as she brought up her knees and squeezed his hips.

He pressed against her, groaning as he felt the slick wet heat of her. She slid her tongue along his lower lip and he caught it, bit her gently.

“Want you,” he muttered.

She arched her hips against him. “Stop waiting already, Jack.”

With a harsh growl, he braced his arm on the bed and lifted up, staring in her eyes.

It left him stripped bare. Completely bare.

But he needed to see her…needed her to see him.

Somehow, it felt like the first time. And maybe in a way it was. He knew who he was now. Abruptly, that driving, burning need eased and he found some of the gentleness he’d needed, wanted to have for her.

Holding her gaze, he sank slowly inside her. Her breath caught in her chest, and he could feel that, just like he could feel the spirals of heat spreading through her. Her pleasure was his, and it was bliss and agony, heaven and hell… “Killing me,” he whispered. “Fuck, you’re killing me.”

“Hmm. If I am, just make sure you take me with you.” She tugged him down and slanted her mouth over his.

Heaven. Hell.

Cupping her cheek in his hand, he angled her head back and took the kiss deeper. His heart squeezed in his chest as she stroked her hands along his sides, then dipped into his hair. And all the while, she watched him from under her lashes, watched him the way he watched her, like she feared he’d disappear.

Savage, desperate need twisted through him and he drove into her deeper, harder. Perci cried out. Jack stiffened and swore. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “Fuck, please don’t…please.”

Gathering her close, he braced an arm under her shoulders and drove deep. Her nails raked down his shoulders and neck and each sweet pain had him gritting his teeth, nearly insane from the pleasure.

She tightened around him, the silken muscles of her pussy clenching around him, milking him.

“Fuck, that feels good,” he growled against her mouth. Cupping her ass, he tilted her hips up, rode her deeper, harder.

Perci mewled and started to shudder, his name coming from her in ragged, whimpering cries. And when she squeezed down around him, tighter…tighter…the top of his head felt like it was going to come off. Shifting, he reached between them and stroked her clit. He was going to lose it—going to lose it, and damn it—

She came, shattering under him.

Jack growled, taking her mouth in a savage, rough kiss. Pleasure so sharp it hurt blistered through him and he lost himself in it, fell into it…and she fell with him. He could feel her. Not just her body…but her.

And as they drifted back, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, her fingers stroking through his hair, he could still feel her through some tenuous, vague connection. Reaching up, he caught one hand and laced their fingers.

“You’re staying, right?”

A smile, brash and cocky, curled her lips, but he could feel the nerves and pain inside her now as she stared at him. “As long as you want me.”

“Then you’re staying for always, Perci,” he whispered. “Always.”

“I could go for that.” She turned her face into his neck and breathed him in. “Yeah, I can go for that.”

About the Author

To learn more about Shiloh, please visit www.shilohwalker.com. Send an email to Shiloh at shiloh_@shilohwalker.com or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Shiloh. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wicked_writers/

Look for these titles by Shiloh Walker

Now Available:

Always Yours

Legends: Hunters and Heroes

Talking with the Dead

Malachi

Hunter’s Pride

The Huntress

For the Love of Jazz

Beautiful Girl

Hunter’s Edge

Vicious Vixen

Playing for Keeps

My Lady

The Redeeming

No Longer Mine

Grimm’s Circle

Candy Houses

No Prince Charming

Crazed Hearts

I Thought It was You

She thought she had a life—until being hunted shows her she’s never really lived.

Savage Transformation

© 2010 Lexxie Couper

Savage Australia, Book 2

Jacqueline Huddart has spent her entire adult life on the run. Not from the law, or even a jealous lover. From herself—and what she is. That strategy works for her until a funeral demands she return to home ground, and her best friend disappears. Finding Delainie means Jackie must confront the truth…and accept the help of a mysterious, sexy-as-sin Texan.

Marshall Rourke isn’t the only one flying under the radar. He’s on an off-the-grid quest to track down a rogue ex-partner who hunts paranormal beings for the joy of the kill. Convincing the unexpectedly feisty Jackie to trust him isn’t easy, but there’s no better way to lure the hunter into the open than to dangle as unique a target as Jackie—the last Tasmanian Tiger shifter in existence.

Trouble is, Marshall hadn’t counted on Jackie’s brutal right cross. Or the fact that her simmering sexuality calls to his inner wolf on every imaginable level. And that the killer is about to use their desire to add them both to his trophy case…

Warning: This title contains the following: explicit sex out in the bush, wild shifter sex in an abandoned shack, passionate sex in a hotel shower. Plus a Texan hero with a very big secret, an Australian heroine with an even bigger one, a significant amount of violence and as always, Australian sarcasm.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Savage Transformation:

Her thylacine growled, surging though her being with rapid ease. Snatching back control had been hard. She’d shoved the need to transform down into the pit of her existence and half-walked, half-ran down the hotel’s stairs into the car park, scanning the area for any sign of Delanie.

And now here she was, walking around her best friend’s car, breathing shallow for fear of losing herself to her inner animal when she knew she should be breathing deep to detect any hint of Delanie’s location.

Then stop being a chicken shit and do it.

Coming to a standstill, wishing—again—she had her gun, Jackie closed her eyes and pulled in a long, slow breath.

There! Delanie.

Faint, almost dispersed to nothing, but there. To her right. Delanie’s scent tinged with…

She turned, lifting her head slightly and pulling in another breath.

Her heart clenched. Fear. Delanie’s scent was tinged with fear. The acrid kind of a sudden fright.

God, what is going on?

Following the scent, the thylacine inside her itching for release, she moved through the car park. Clapped-out combi-vans stood beside shiny hybrids. Dented station wagons shared the asphalt with lovingly looked-after sedans. Each waited for their owners to return, the setting sun casting their paintwork in a fiery orange glow.

Jackie pulled in another breath, tasting the air. Del had been here.

She narrowed her eyes, approaching a low red convertible. Heat rolled from it in unpleasant waves, the stench of burning motor oil almost choking her. Reaching out, she placed her right palm on the car’s hood. Hot. Hot enough to tell her the engine had only recently been running.

She took another breath, separating the car’s fumes from the delicate scent of her best friend. Delanie’s scent grew stronger here. More concentrated.

Jackie’s chest squeezed tight. It wasn’t just Del’s scent that was more potent here. Her fear tainted the air like a thick mist.

Damnit, Del. What’s going on?

She took another breath. There was more on the air than Delanie’s fear-laced scent. There was something else, something she couldn’t put her finger on. A scent that wasn’t a scent.

That doesn’t make sense, Huddart.

No, it didn’t, but she didn’t know how else to explain it. There was a void to the air, as if something had erased the particles of which it was comprised. Removed them from existence.

Her pulse quickened. Removing something from a crime scene—and worryingly, this is exactly what this seemed to be—meant Delanie wasn’t just missing. She was…

“Taken,” she whispered.

Her stomach rolled and she ran her stare over the red convertible. She could do one of two things. She could call the local police force and report Delanie as missing, and aid them in finding her by following standard police procedure. Or she could track Del herself. Alone.

She straightened, removing her hand from the car and turning into the gentle breeze at her back.

It blew against her face, barely strong enough to move the strands of her hair. Closing her eyes, she drew in another breath, through her mouth as well this time, tasting Delanie on the air. No, it wasn’t just on the air. It was on the ground as well. Whoever had taken Del had left a scent trail on the road.

On purpose?

The question slipped through Jackie’s mind, making her already fast pulse thump faster. Who would do that? Who would take her best friend and leave a scent trail?

She ground her teeth. No one. She was being dramatic. Ridiculous. She had to stop standing here wasting time with stupid notions of malevolent intentions and find Delanie. Find her and then teach the bastard who took her what happens to those who mess with a cop’s best friend.

Heart racing, she began running, nose into the breeze, Del’s scent flowing into her body.

Four blocks passed. Five. Six. The houses flanking her became light industrial buildings and warehouses. And still, Delanie’s scent pulled her forward. Faster. Her inner animal ached for release. Hungered to track, to run…

She ran, her blood roaring in her ears, and skidded to a halt, heels digging into the now gravel road when a man stepped toward her from behind a big black van. A tall man with impossibly broad shoulders and narrow lean hips.

The very man she’d caught looking at her inside the airport terminal yesterday. The same man who’d driven away from the airport car park in a black Audi an hour later.

The same man she’d seen standing under a snow gum at Pyengana’s cemetery.

Cold fury ripped through her. “You’ve been following me.” She bunched her fists by her side and took a step closer to him, fixing him with an unwavering glare. “What the hell have you done with Delanie?”

A tiny dimple creased his left cheek beside lips curled into a small grin, giving Jackie the impression he knew a secret he found entirely humourous. Dark honey-blonde hair fell over his forehead in a tousled mess, brushing straight eyebrows a shade darker. “I have, Detective Huddart. But I’m afraid I haven’t taken your friend.”

He studied her from behind impenetrable black sunglasses, the intensity of his unseen but wholly felt inspection making Jackie want to shiver.

And smash her fist against his far too square jaw.

“I’ve seen you three times in the last twenty four hours and now my best friend is missing.” Her heart thumped hard in her throat. “That’s not coincidence. Who are you and how the hell do you know who I am?”

She could hear her control cracking, hear the violence of her animal’s soul cutting each word she said, but she didn’t care. He—whoever he was—had the advantage over her. She didn’t like that. Not as a cop. Not as an animal. She didn’t like it at all.

He however, seemed unaffected by her obvious aggression. His lips curled into a broader grin. “Marshall Rourke, at your service.”

Jackie didn’t return his smile. “You’re American?”

Long, straight fingers came up to tip an imaginary hat. “Texan, actually, but it’s pretty much the same thing.”

“Enough of the charm, Mr. Rourke.” Jackie snapped. Damn, she wished she had her gun. And her badge. She’d wipe that far-too-sexy grin from his face in two seconds flat. “Time to tell me why you’re following me, how you know who I am and where the hell Del—”

Her best friend’s name slipped from her lips before she could stop it and she bit back a sharp curse. Damn it, cop law 101—don’t give away information not already revealed. She clenched her fists, glaring at Marshall Rourke.

“I know you have no reason to trust me.” He removed his dark sunglasses, and Jackie’s chest squeezed. His eyes were stunning. Piercing light blue the colour of Antarctic ice. “But if you want to see Delanie McKenzie alive again, I recommend you come with me.”

He’s no fairy-tale prince. But he just may be the hero she needs.

Crazed Hearts

© 2010 Shiloh Walker

Grimm’s Circle, Book 3

Ren has always danced along the fine line between being a little bit crazy and being overcome by a darkness that’s haunted him since his mortal days. As an empath, he prefers to live far from people who would leak their emotions all over him, so he’s not expecting the woman who drives right into the heart of his wood. She has a cursed book with her and demons hot on her heels. Even more surprising are her abilities and the reaction Ren has to her.

Aileas is on the run. She just isn’t certain if she’s running from something real or imagined. One thing is for sure, her brother is dead and she’s certain the book she found has something to do with his death. She really starts to doubt her sanity when she meets a hot but somewhat crazed man in the middle of nowhere.

He calls himself Ren, and although he doesn’t seem to be out to hurt her, he definitely seems to want something. She just doesn’t understand what. She does know what she wants though. She wants him, and the shadows and darkness she glimpses inside him don’t matter. At least, right up until he claims to be a guardian angel.

And she thought she was going crazy.

Warning: this title contains soul-sucking demons, kick-ass angels and a hero who is a little crazy and a whole lot sexy.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Crazed Hearts:

Don’t stop. If you stop, you’ll die.

It was one hell of a motivator, she had to admit.

The skin along the back of her neck crawled and the hair there stood on edge. Aileas Corbett knew she was being followed. She’d been followed for weeks, ever since she’d buried her brother. Ever since she’d found that damn book…

She’d tried to ignore it at first. Tried to write it off as grief, exhaustion. Tried to go about her job, her life. Tried to ignore the shadows she saw at night and the weird whispers that echoed through the solitary apartment.

But she couldn’t ignore it anymore.

Not after—

No.

She couldn’t think about that right now.

Swallowing, she glanced at the damned thing wrapped in a blanket, lying in the back seat.

Damned.

A shiver raced down her spine. It was damned.

She’d swear she heard it whispering to her.

She hadn’t slept a night through since she’d found the damn thing and that had been nearly three weeks earlier.

“You’re going crazy,” she whispered, reaching up to toy with the strand of pearls she wore around her neck. “That’s all there is to it—you’re going crazy.”

That was the most likely explanation too.

A psychotic break brought on by grief, lack of sleep and who knows what else. A shrink would have a field day with her.

Assuming she actually stopped running to talk with one.

But she wouldn’t stop running. Not until she figured out what to do. And she couldn’t figure out what to do until she had this book someplace where it couldn’t hurt anybody.

She pressed the heel of her hand against her temple and muttered, “I sound insane. It’s a book. It can’t hurt anybody.”

It could though. In her gut, she knew it. And the thought terrified her, left her so frightened, so afraid.

You don’t need to be afraid, the book whispered to her. Open me. Use me. I shall make you strong. I shall make you immortal…immortal. You could avenge the death of your brother.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she muttered. Reaching out, she turned on the radio, but the only thing that came through was static, static and more static. Sighing, she grabbed her iPod and one of the earbuds. So it wasn’t exactly safe. But it wasn’t like she was running into a lot of traffic driving through these woods on the way to the cabin her parents had left to her and her brother.

Just her now though… A sob rose in her throat, tried to break free.

She swallowed it down. Crying right now? On these roads? A quick, certain way to get herself killed. The cabin, tucked away in a remote part of Wisconsin’s North Woods, wasn’t exactly in the most easily accessible area, and if she wanted to keep the car on the road, she didn’t have time to cry.

Of course, if she wanted to be smart, the last thing she needed to be doing right now was driving someplace so isolated when she knew she was being followed.

The fear tried to press in. Overwhelm.

But before it could, without her even understanding why, there was a warm touch on her mind, on her heart, her soul.

“Everything will be fine,” she murmured. “I just need to keep going to the cabin.”

That warm touch spread, became a sense of peace, pushing out the dark, uneasy, edgy feeling. A sense that managed to last right up until the time a big black dog—practically the size of a pony—darted out in front of the car.

With a half-scream, Aileas slammed on the brakes.

Ren heard her scream, but he was more concerned with Pan.

“Damn dog,” he muttered. Glancing at Mandy, he said, “Stay up here.”

Bent over, her hands braced on her knees, she glared at him from under her lashes.

“Aye-aye, Cap-i-tan,” she mocked between breaths.

“Smart arse.”

He jogged down the incline.

There was a woman down there. Ren had had about two seconds to notice the fact that she was female, and the fact that she was far too close to Pan. The wolf/dog breed wasn’t an aggressive animal, but she was a stranger and Pan considered this his territory.

Ren sighed.

He leaped down, covering the twenty foot incline in a silent, single jump. She was being careful, he had to admire that, not trying to approach Pan, talking to the dog in a calm, quiet voice.

“Sit, Pan,” Ren said.

The woman went rigid.

Pan growled.

Ren narrowed his eyes and reached out, silently repeating the order with a mental command that no animal could resist. The dog obeyed, lowering his hindquarters to the ground, still staring at the woman with suspicious eyes.

He was tempted to do the same with the woman, but he hadn’t tried to impress a command on a mortal in decades, more than a century to be exact. He wasn’t about to do it now.

“He won’t attack,” Ren said, keeping his voice light, crisp. “You best get in your car, run along.”

She turned around and studied him, her eyes narrowing. “Run along?” she repeated.

Her tone was offended.

Her eyes were dark brown, shot through with slivers of pale gold.

Around her long, slim neck, she wore a strand of pearls. He wanted to see her wearing nothing but those pearls.

Her mouth was quite possibly the softest he’d ever seen.

When he looked at her, Ren was certain the very earth beneath his feet shifted. He wanted to stare into those eyes for a very long time. Then he wanted to cradle that face in his hands and take his time as he kissed that mouth and learned it, explored it…

He sucked in a breath as the punch of hunger hit him hard and fast. Hunger, need, something too intense for him to describe.

Her eyes widened as she stared at him and he saw something…was it an echo of what he felt? There was something in her eyes. He sensed it dancing just beyond the shields he didn’t dare lower.

He couldn’t risk that.

He didn’t need to lower them to see some things though. Like the way her pulse was pounding against the fragile skin in her neck. The way her nipples hardened, pressing against the thin worn flannel of the shirt she wore.

Slowly, he breathed in through his nose, wondering what she’d smell like.

And that was when he realized something else.

Something rather pressing. It cleared the fire in his blood, the fog in his mind all too quickly.

She had the stink of death, destruction and demon hanging in the air around her.

Around her.

But… He closed his eyes, dragged the air in, tasted it, rolled it around on his tongue… The smell was not on her, but it was damn close.

She hadn’t been tainted…yet. But there was something very, very wrong. And it was close. Far too bloody close and on his land too.

Tarnished Knight

Shiloh Walker

The mind forgets, but the body remembers. Everything.

Grimm’s Circle, Book 4

One look at Jack Wallace and Perci knows he’s going to be trouble. Even surrounded by soul stealers, he’s a one-man wrecking crew. What does he need Grimm training for? He’s already hell on earth, a warrior bent on destruction. And something…more.

He’s too strong and fast to be a mere mortal. Even covered in blood, he makes her forget she’s only here to do a job and get out. It’s twisted. Sick. She hasn’t felt this alive in three centuries.

Born with a natural talent for killing unnatural things, Jack has always known things he shouldn’t. The fact that Perci is one of them glows all over her. Giving him an unholy urge to see just how far he can push her before don’t touch me melts into touch me there.

When they come together, it isn’t careful or cautious. It’s heaven and hell, exposing all their raw and wounded places to healing heat, resurrecting memories of a destined love from the distant past. But the evil that destroyed them once before has tracked them here, threatening their second and last chance at forever. Demanding a sacrifice no one—Grimm or human—should ever be asked to make…

Warning: Dark, sexy, a little bit scary—this fairy tale is only for grownups and is best saved for bedtime.

eBooks are not transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

Macon GA 31201

Tarnished Knight

Copyright © 2010 by Shiloh Walker

ISBN: 978-1-60928-231-8

Edited by Heidi Moore

Cover by Scott Carpenter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2010
www.samhainpublishing.com

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

About the Author

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