Jewel of Darkness (33 page)

“Our wheelers want scary,” Sly said.

“Then we’ll give them scary,” Z finished.

The alley around them seemed to grow darker, as though someone had turned down the dimming switch. But that wasn’t what had chills crawling down Jewel’s spine. Both warlock males seemed to grow in size and their eyes were glowing. And then they both smiled and Jewel and Anna gasped. Two rows of razor sharp teeth greeted them. Then, almost instantly, the warlocks were back to their normal handsome selves and the alley had lost its grim darkness.

“Point taken,” Anna conceded. “You got scary covered.”

“Now, as I was saying,” Sly began again and was all business this time. “We’ve been instructed to make sure you have everything you need in order to carry out our master’s plan. We have money for food, lodging, and anything else needed. Z and I will make sure you get anywhere you need to go safely. We are to perform whatever task necessary to aid you in your appointed mission.”

“Okay.” Anna looked at her. “So at least we know we can get a place to stay for the night and then we can get a game plan in the morning. What do you think?”

“I think I’m horrible for doing this to you, but I also think I wouldn’t be able to handle it if you weren’t here. I think I need to say thank you, but I
know
that those words are so very, very inadequate.”

“Dang, girl, be blunt,” Sly retorted.

“We’ve already gone there, Jewel. We do what we have to in order to survive. And I plan to survive this.” Anna sounded so sure and it was then that Jewel could see the girl who had grown up taking care of herself. “I survived my gypsy mother, Jewel. I lived alone, went through puberty alone, ate dinner alone, ran a store alone, and I survived. I didn’t get through all of that only to crash and burn over a little witch blood.”

“Why aren’t you freaking out?” Jewel couldn’t help but ask because she understood human behavior and Anna’s wasn’t a normal reaction.

Anna laughed. “Probably because I’ve been too busy freaking out over having a mate. Who has time to worry about being a witch when you’ve got a male werewolf pursuing you?”

Jewel smiled back. She understood that. “I get that.”

“Whoa!” Z yelled.

“Wait a sec,” Sly added right after him. “You two are mated to werewolves?”

Jewel didn’t miss the fear that flashed in both of the warlock’s eyes.

“Sort of,” Anna offered.

“There is no such thing as
sort of
mated,” Z scoffed.

“I am marked by a werewolf,” Jewel told them. She didn’t offer up the fact that Volcan, their master, had destroyed their bond.

Anna bit her lip and shuffled her feet as she spoke, “I haven’t met the wolf who claims to be my mate, but he likes to talk to me in my head.”

Z and Sly just stared at them. They didn’t even blink. They just stared.

“Is, everything alright?” Jewel asked slowly.

“We thought we would be guarding you from other evil beings or guys who got touchy in clubs,” Sly finally said. “Volcan didn’t say anything about guarding your from your own mates.”

Jewel could tell that the two warlocks did not like the sudden revelation.

“Maybe if we explain things to them,” Anna began but stopped when Jewel shook her head.

“They won’t be able to hear us,” Jewel told her.

“I’m with Jewelry,” Sly agreed. “I’ve been around a few mated male wolves, and they don’t listen to reason when it comes to their females.”

“So what are you going to do?” Anna asked once again biting at her lip.

Z offered both of them a tight smile that Jewel was sure he meant to be reassuring. “We pray they don’t hunt you.”

“And if they do?” Jewel asked, but she already knew the answer.

Sly answered, “We pray they don’t find you. Because if they find you, then they find us ― two unmated males, traveling alone with their mates. If they find us, Z and I might as well gut ourselves.”

Anna frowned, “They would kill you for being with us? That seems like a little bit of an overreaction.”

Both warlocks laughed and their eyes began to glow. They bowed together to both the girls and said, “Welcome to the supernatural world, ladies.”

Jewel shivered as she stared back at their glowing eyes. They reminded her of another pair of eyes. Eyes that glowed pale blue out of a face that at times looked to be carved from stone. The warlocks were right. They had better pray that Dalton Black didn’t hunt her, because if he did, he would find her. And in his desperation to make sure she was safe and unharmed, he would kill anyone tied to Volcan without asking questions or listening to explanations.

Jewel and Anna followed their guardians down the alley and to the first hotel they could find. The address on the glass doors told them they were in Los Angeles.

“City of angels,” Anna whispered to her as they entered the hotel.

Jewel nodded, “Would hate to see how it turned out if they’d named it Los Devils.”

“Right,” Anna laughed.

They made it to their room without incident. Sly and Z had gotten a suite that connected two rooms with a bathroom. Jewel had wanted a shower, but she didn’t have a change of clothes. Something she and Anna agreed would have to be remedied quickly.

“Anna,” Jewel called from the bathroom as she washed her hands and face. “Could we maybe, share a bed? Or would that be weird?” Jewel didn’t know the protocol for girls and sleeping arrangements. She’d never once been invited to a sleepover when she was in school. But she figured that in dire situations, it was probably acceptable to share a bed.

Anna poked her head into the bathroom. “Even if you had wanted to sleep in separate beds, I would have totally climbed into yours after you fell asleep.”

Jewel didn’t know why, but Anna’s comment made her feel lighter.

Anna held up a hand and grabbed one of her fingers with the other hand and began ticking things off. “I’ve been dealing with a ridiculous ache that is only getting worse because I’m the true mate to a werewolf. I ran from said werewolf because I don’t know how to handle something so intense. I was tricked into leaving the pixie realm by a douche bag male pixie. And I’ve become a wheeler. If all that doesn’t constitute a good enough reason to need to sleep in the same bed as my fellow wheeler, holding hands and trembling, then I don’t know what does.”

Jewel laughed. “Holding hands and trembling?”

“If I recall, at one point during our relationship, you were willing to drink your own pee. Don’t judge.”

“I still stand by my recommendation. Urine is sterile, There are honestly worse things you could drink.”

Anna shook her head. “I’ll stick to hand holding and trembling.”

Once the lights were off and Jewel was indeed lying in the hotel bed next to Anna, holding her hand, the severity of their situation came crashing down on her. Her hand squeezed her friend’s reflexively, taking comfort in knowing that, though it wasn’t fair for the other healer, she was glad Anna was with her. Perhaps, with the two of them together, they could keep each other from sliding too far into the darkness. But even as she thought this, Jewel remembered the story of the snake and the boy, once again.
You knew what I was when you picked me up,
she said the words in her mind. The moral of the story? She could hope all day long that she wouldn’t embrace the power and darkness in her. But the reality was she knew when she agreed to go with Volcan what he was, and she went anyway.

Jewel closed her eyes, hoping sleep would come quickly so she could escape her worries for a little while. When sleep did finally come, she found herself back at Peri’s in a coma. Dalton was sitting beside her bed. He was holding one of her hands in his larger ones and stroking the back of it with his thumb. The look on his face was one of complete adoration. She wondered if he would ever look at her again in such a way again. Was there any way, if Peri somehow found a way to defeat Volcan, that Dalton could ever adore her again? The dream Dalton suddenly seemed aware of her watching them. His head turned slowly until his eyes were looking right at her. Despite being asleep, Jewel could feel her heart pounding in her chest. It pounded even harder when he spoke to her.

“Where — are — you?”

Jewel’s eyes snapped open. Her breathing was rapid and she could feel a cold sweat, slick against her back. She glanced over at Anna, but the other girl was sleeping, completely oblivious to Jewel’s reaction.

It had been a dream. But yet it had felt as though Dalton was there, looking at her and seeing her. Jewel’s stomach clenched even as her soul rejoiced. Her wolf was already on the hunt and he wouldn’t stop looking for her until he found her. The last words he’d said to her before she and Anna had stepped into the human realm reverberated through her mind like a warning bell.

“If I’m not here when you get back, it will be because I’m out there, looking for you.”

A
nna was scared. She was hiding it well because she knew Jewel needed her to keep it together. Not because Jewel was weak and couldn’t handle the situation but because she’d already been through hell seven times over. Anna hadn’t been maimed by Peri’s sister. Anna hadn’t been in a coma for months. Anna hadn’t been taken by Volcan and beaten by him and violated by his blood. Who was she to complain about suddenly finding herself turned into a witch? After the childhood and adolescence she’d had, Anna would take being a witch with a friend over being alone any day.

“Never alone,”
his voice whispered in her mind. It was so faint, but she still heard him. It was the first time he’d attempted to talk to her since she’d left the pixie realm. Anna had wondered if he would be able to use their bond once she was no longer in the same realm.
Guess that answers that,
she thought to herself.

“Are you safe, Querida?”
he spoke again.

Anna wasn’t sure what came over her. Maybe it was because of the blood Jewel had shared with her, or maybe it was just the stress of the situation causing her good sense to hitchhike out of town, but she decided to respond.

“That depends on your definition of safe.”
She could feel his shock that she’d responded, though it was faint, like his voice. What she wasn’t expecting to feel was the utter relief and joy that flooded him.

Anna couldn’t think of a time when anyone had ever been joyous over her.

“Then they were fools,”
he answered her thought.
“I would define safe for you as ‘you by my side.’ So perhaps, I should ask are you relatively safe? Is the pixie female with you?”

Anna would be lying if she said she wasn’t affected by his words. She felt the truth in them. He truly did think that anyone who didn’t rejoice over her was a fool. The ridiculousness of his definition of ‘safe’ made her want to laugh, but the emotion behind the comment kept her from doing so.

“What’s your name?”
Anna asked him ignoring the whole safe question. After what Sly and Z had said about male wolves not liking their mate being around other males, she figured he might not consider her situation as safe at all.

“You’re avoiding the question, Amor.”

“Humor me. It’s been a rough day.”

“I am Gustavo, Alpha of the Spain pack.”

That explains the accent,
Anna thought. She wasn’t even going to examine the fact that she was kind of happy that her mate had a Spanish accent because she had always thought Spanish accents were sexy. Nope, leaving that one alone right now.

“I’m Anna, gypsy of New Orleans.”

She heard him chuckle and she liked that just as much as the accent.

“My sweet, Anastasia, would you please tell me if you are safe. It would help my wolf and myself have better control.”

Oh, no it won’t, Anna nearly responded but stopped the thought before he could hear it, or at least she hoped she did. She didn’t want to lie to him, even though she was still scared of the whole mate thing. She didn’t want the beginning of their relationship to start with lies.

“Yes, I am safe right now.”
She felt his relief and was amazed to find herself relaxing a bit as well. She could tell he wanted to ask her where she was but he hesitated. He was off balance. She didn’t know if Gustavo was doing it on purpose or if he just didn’t realize it, but his mind was an open book as she heard his confusion about how to proceed. He didn’t want to push her too hard because she was frightened by his earlier pursuit. He was frustrated because he usually knew exactly how to handle a situation, but he was at a loss when it came to her.

He seemed to have come to a decision when he finally spoke again,
“Then for right now, that will have to be enough for me, yes? You sound tired so I will leave you be. And, Anna, gracias.”

“For what?”
She couldn’t stop the question from popping into her head.

“For speaking with me. I know you don’t understand but, my wolf and I, we needed to hear you. So we thank you.”

Anna heard so much more in that thank you than what he was acknowledging. He wasn’t forcing her to face it so she wasn’t going to worry about it.

“Goodnight, Gustavo.”