Fighting Fate (29 page)

Soon, Amara, Eliana, Jamie, and eventually, Becca moved to join the group hug. Nadie could

feel Faith’s tears seep into her shirt and knew that her friends weren’t there to comfort Nadie, but

Faith. The woman wouldn’t accept the comfort otherwise, and everyone knew it.

Sometimes she and her friends just had to be sneaky about things like hugs and showing Faith

they loved her just as much as they loved the rest of the girls.

“Okay, break it up. I can’t breathe under all of you,” Faith snapped.

Nadie just shook her head as Faith wiped her tears, straightened her shoulders, and then sat back

in her seat on the other side of the circle.

“So, we hate Chadwick,” Amara said as she pulled her auburn hair into a ponytail. She smiled

prettily at Faith who rolled her eyes.

“His name was Chad, not Chadwick,” Faith answered. “Stop making him sound like some

dweeb who loves his mom and the country club.”

Nadie tilted her head then took a sip of her lemon drop. “Um, but he
did
love his mom and his

country club. Wasn’t that the whole point? That he wanted to be with mommy and her money rather

than stand up for something more? I thought you said something about the snooty mommy and her leech

of a son.”

Faith narrowed her eyes. “You’re not supposed to throw my words back in my face.”

“On the contrary,” Amara put in. “We’re you’re friends. If he’s a right bastard with mommy

issues, that’s our job. You’re the one who told us that dear Chadwick was a limp neck—and probably

had limp other things too—mommy’s boy. Or should we call him
mother’s
boy. He seemed like the

guy who would raise his eyebrows all haughtily and call for his
mother
.” Amara tried and failed to

use a British accent—which Chad, not Chadwick, did not possess, and the girls fell over in giggles.

“Oh sweet baby Jesus, stop making me laugh like that. I think I’ll start leaking,” Lily said as she

pressed her hands to her breasts. The new mom had control issues sometimes. Lily. A mom. So weird

yet perfect at the same time.

“Oh God, you leak when you laugh?” Becca asked, her eyes wide before she turned to Jamie.

“That’ll be us in a few months.”

Nadie just smiled and took another drink of her lemon drop as her now-mated friends talked

about babies, leaking, and growly mates. She didn’t want to feel jealous, but the little green monster

wrapped its spindly arms around her, and she winced. It wasn’t Becca’s, Jamie’s, or Lily’s fault that

they had met their true halves and something like a perfect life had actually stuck.

So much had changed in the short time since the world had grown around them that sometimes

Nadie couldn’t run fast enough to catch up.

She frowned and thought about the date then sat straight up. “Well, hell.” The other girls stopped

what they were doing and looked at her.

“Did you just curse?” Jamie asked, her hand on her baby bump. “You never curse.”

Nadie snorted. “I curse, you just never listen. That isn’t the point though. Think about what day it

is and where we are.”

Amara’s eyes widened. “Well, hell,” she repeated. “It’s been two years, hasn’t it?”

Nadie nodded then sat back as she watched the reactions wash over her friends’ faces. It had

been two years since the seven of them walked into Dante’s Circle like they normally did, but they’d

left with something much more.

Something most of them
still
didn’t have a handle on.

Lightning had hit the building, or at least
inside
the building, on that day. Nadie, her six friends,

and the owner of the bar…Dante, were struck by that same bolt of lightning. She could still remember

the screams, the feel of her body rising from her chair then slamming down to the ground, and the

heated sensation of something…else…flowing through her in an arc. It still haunted her nightmares

sometimes.

After all of that, none of them had been the worse for wear, just a few cuts and bruises and, of

course, Amara’s broken arm, but that was it. Amara had healed quickly, as had the rest of them. Too

quickly, in Nadie’s opinion.

They had been forever changed though.

Lily had been the first to notice—though they all had in a way considering it was weird that eight

of them had been struck by lightning and hadn’t been killed or injured beyond falling to the ground.

They’d discovered that their human world wasn’t quite human.

Every human who called themselves human, Nadie included, were diluted versions of

supernaturals, and most weren’t in the know about the fact that hundreds of realms existed near and

entwined with their own realm.

“I can’t believe it’s been two years since I met Shade,” Lily whispered then gave a little smile.

Shade was a warrior angel and Lily’s true half. Apparently supernaturals had another part of

their souls out in the world, and they were lucky when they found it. Or at least they were lucky when

they found it, and the other half actually
wanted
it, but that was another story altogether.

“And I met Ambrose around that time, though it took another year to meet Balin,” Jamie put in.

Jamie had not just one mate, but two. Nadie held back a blush at that thought. What on earth

would she do with two men? She hadn’t even been with one let alone two. Oh no way, too much for

her. That didn’t mean she couldn’t have her own fantasies though.

“That means it’s almost been a year since I met Hunter,” Becca said as she frowned. “It seems

like so much longer, you know? I mean, Jamie and I are pregnant, and Lily just had Kelly. We’re

bonded with our mates and have seen so…much.”

Nadie nodded, knowing what she meant—at least when it came to what they’d seen. That was

the other part of being struck by that particular bolt of lightning.

Each of them had a new energy within themselves. It was as if the lightning had altered their

DNA, which the scientist Lily said was possible, considering the paranormal worlds were so much

different than the human one. Now, apparently, once one of them met their true half—or the other two-

thirds in Jamie’s case—they started to grow weak, as if their body was rejecting itself. Then once

they made love with their true half, they turned into a paranormal creature.

It was as if she were now in some sci-fi movie that she couldn’t quite wake up from. Lily had

turned into a brownie; Jamie, a djinn; Becca, a leprechaun. Each of them had met with others of their

realm and, in some cases, fell right in step with that part of their lives while others had fought for

their right to live—at peace and in general. Not everyone in the realms was happy about the turn of

events.

Frankly, Nadie wasn’t sure she was either.

The others were talking about how much had changed and how the rest of them still needed to

find their true halves. Nadie, though, knew she was in a different place than the rest of them. While

the others had hope for a future or were on the bliss side of happiness, Nadie knew she had nothing

like that. No, she had nothing. She had a feeling she’d known her true half longer than the rest of them,

longer than they’d even known what true halves were, yet he’d done nothing about it.

She closed her eyes, a sudden rush of something more powerful than herself seeming to wrench

whatever energy she had left from her bones. Pain arced across her body, bile filling her throat as

something clawed at her, her body growing weak. Her hand shook as she set down her lemon drop,

but she didn’t think anyone noticed. Life was moving on for the rest of them, yet Nadie didn’t think

she’d move on with her friends.

She swallowed hard, the truth slapping her in the face.

Again.

Her dragon didn’t want her.

Well, not
her
dragon, as he never would be hers. He’d seen to that. The tattooed, sexy bar

owner, Dante, had known her for years and yet hadn’t taken one step toward her beyond being her

friend. And he’d started to move away from even that since the lightning. They weren’t the friends

they’d once been and the loss was almost too much to bear. She’d had a crush on him ever since she

could remember and
she’d
never done anything about it, either.

He was a freaking dragon, meaning that even when she’d been human and ignorant of all that

went beneath the surface of the human realm, he would have been able to feel her as his true half,

would have been able to feel that pull, that deep desire not only to have the other person in his life for

eternity, but to have them in all ways possible.

Yet he’d done nothing about it.

Well, that was just fine then. She didn’t need him anyway.

Another wave of pain drenched in power washed over her, and she closed her eyes, willing it

away. Damn that dragon. No, damn her as well. If she’d had the courage to actually speak her mind,

maybe she’d have been able to see what he wanted from her or, rather, what he didn’t want from her.

Now she was alone and too scared to do anything about it.

Honestly, she had only herself to blame for it.

She wasn’t weak, but she sure as heck was acting like it. Her fingers slid over the smooth wood

on the table as she tried to regain some semblance of control. She didn’t want this to be the last time

she came with her six girlfriends into the bar that had become their getaway, but it was looking more

and more like that was what would have to happen.

She couldn’t come into the place that called to them and not think about the dragon who filled her

dreams. Not that she’d ever seen him in his dragon form, but his human form was exactly what she

wanted.

“Hello, ladies,” Dante said as he walked up to them. His piercing blue—not that blue was a

good enough word for the pools of color she saw—eyes met hers for a moment before moving on to

the rest of the girls at the table.

His attention elsewhere, she could do what she loved best—study her dragon. While she was the

plain Jane with straight blonde hair and a way-too-innocent face, according to Faith, Dante was the

exact opposite.

He’d tied his long black hair in a ponytail so the blue streaks stood out even more. She wasn’t

sure if he dyed it that way or if black and blue just came naturally. Since he was a dragon, it could

just be who he was. He’d chopped off a lot of it recently, something she wasn’t sure about, but she

thought he was sexy no matter what. So it settled in the middle of his back. She knew that if he didn’t

keep on it, though, it would grow so long that it touched the floor again.

God, she envied his hair.

He was built, but not too bulky, and wicked tall. At five foot three herself, everyone seemed a

bit tall to her, but Dante was a couple inches over six and a half feet. She felt like a tiny fairy next to

him, but she liked it.

If she ever wanted to kiss him, though, she might need to stand on a chair to accomplish it.

She blinked away those thoughts, knowing it was a lost cause.

There would be no kissing when it came to the dragon. He couldn’t even stand to look at her for

too long.

Her eyes went to the tribal dragon-like tattoos running down his arms and the small black hoops

in his ears and brow. When he spoke, she could sometimes catch a glimpse of the tongue ring he

wore, but he’d never flat out shown it to anyone. Becca thought that Dante might have a few more

piercings…lower on his body, but Nadie and the rest of them had never been brave enough to ask.

“Nadie, are you okay?” The deep voice broke her out of her thoughts and sent decadent shivers

down her spine.

Nadie look up at Dante and swallowed hard. “I’m fine,” she croaked out.

He tilted his head, his penetrating gaze not leaving hers. She needed to stop looking at him

because once she left the bar she wouldn’t be coming back. Yes, she’d come to that conclusion. She

couldn’t force herself to live in the shadow of what she’d once been and think she wasn’t good

enough for him anymore. It would make it only that much harder to leave him if she didn’t stop staring

at him.

“If you’re sure,” he said, his voice telling her he didn’t believe her.

Well, it was his fault anyway she was feeling like this. He’d ignored her for years, so apparently

she wasn’t good enough to be his true half. The thought that she wasn’t good enough in his eyes

burned, but she’d get over it. She had to. Leaving might kill her, but she’d walk out of the bar with her

head held high.

She might be rejected, but she wouldn’t be kicked while she was down.

“I’m sure. Thank you for asking.” She held back a wince. No matter how hard she tried to act

cool and unmoved, those stupid manners her parents had droned into her never quite went away.

Dante frowned at her, his eyebrow ring moving delicately as he did so. She didn’t like to see

him frown, even though she’d noticed him doing it more than usual since the lightning strike.

Not that she’d been watching him or anything.