Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) (26 page)

I turned and watched as Caden left the room, ending the conversation, obviously not caring that I wasn’t through with him.

I waited about ten minutes, just long enough to make Mike some chicken noodle soup, before I tracked Caden down. I was ready to completely explode and force a confrontation.

I handed Mike his soup, and he said goodbye wishing me luck, knowing that I was on my way to go start World War Three with Caden.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Caden was in his room sitting at his large wooden desk when I found him. Storming in, I slammed the door so that there was no way he could deny my presence and marched up to where he sat.

“What is your problem? We had an agreement.” I stood there, hands on my hips, waiting for his reply.

“I’m busy.” He spoke quietly, not even looking up from where he sat.

I stared at his large shoulders, facing away from me, and rage starting boiling over.

“What is your problem?”

He sat there ignoring me, flipping through his papers. I could see the pulsing vein in his neck and he seemed to be breathing heavier than normal. I knew he was boiling angry and warning bells were ringing in my head that perhaps I should give him space, but if there is one thing in life that makes me lose it, it is getting the silent treatment. So instead of leaving, I reached over his shoulder and ripped the papers he was looking at from his grip and threw them across the room.

“Can you talk to me now?” I was never a yeller, until now. I didn’t know why he struck right to the heart of me but everything to do with him left me raw. I was acting like an irrational nut, but I couldn’t seem to stop my inner psycho from showing its ugly face.

“You need to leave.” His voice was soft, deadly so. Goosebumps ran up my arms as my brain screamed it was time for flight, but the rest of me was still looking for a fight.

“Not until I get some answers.”

In one quick lightning fast movement, he was now standing and I was sitting on his desk with him in between my knees.

“Why were you touching him?” he demanded. He was in every inch of my space, staring me down with his intense eyes boring into me.

“Mike?” I asked. I was shocked at the jealous rage he seemed to be exhibiting.

“Why were you touching him?”

“I was looking at his injuries. That’s all.” Shock made me gape at him.

His mouth covered mine and he was all over me. His hand was in my hair pulling my head back as he devoured me. His hips ground into mine, as his other hand gripped me from behind and pressed me close to him. My senses were overloaded with raw intensity. I guess he had learned a thing or two being alive this long, because his every touch was exactly what my body wanted. His mouth was nipping at my neck while his hips pressed the hard length of him against me while whispering what he wanted to do to me, how he was going to take me over and over. I gripped his shoulders looking for some stability in this erotic onslaught and I knew I was done. The attraction I had had for him before had been just the barest hint of the connection we actually had. I’d never felt this overwhelmed by a man in my life. I could barely keep a thought in my head. I was ready to surrender completely to whatever he wanted, when the sound of Alex calling his name from the living room dragged us harshly back to reality.

He stepped back, looking at me with raging heat in his eyes. He reached forward and pulled my shirt together over my black lace push up bra. I didn’t have any buttons left, so it just fell open again. I self-consciously held it back together. The buttons were scattered on the floor.

He left me to go head off Alex in the hallway, and it felt like a bucket of cold water had just been thrown on me. He walked away, and I took the moment to get myself together. I realized quickly it was going to take more than a few minutes. I felt like I’d just come out of a tornado. I was completely thrown off my axis by the intensity. I couldn’t even believe how explosive it had been. It rattled me to my core.

I stood on shaky legs and realized my jeans had gotten unzipped as well. Jeez, I hadn’t even notice when that had happened. We would have been full blown in the act in another couple of minutes if Alex hadn’t shown up.

I walked over and listened by his door, and then peeked around the corner. It sounded like they were off in the kitchen, so I scooted across the hall into my room quickly. I’d try to reclaim my buttons later, after I had a fully functioning shirt on and an empty apartment. I threw on a snug soft chocolate brown v-neck cashmere sweater that worked wonders on my curves. I wasn’t putting it on for him, I just liked it because it was really warm. Then I headed down into the kitchen area where I could hear Alex and Caden talking.

“He looks pretty good,” Alex said. I knew they were probably talking about Mike.

“Yeah, he says he’s good for tonight,” said Caden.

“So it’s going to be you, Mike and me?” Alex asked.

“And Lex.” Caden turned and looked at me.

I was slightly surprised that he had included me. I didn’t know where we stood anymore. I wasn’t the only one either. Alex seemed taken aback as well, but didn’t remark. Just said he would see us later and left to go visit with Mike.

“We’re going to their chateau. Are you sure you want to go?” His look said he thought I wasn’t.

I was on the verge of letting the memories scare me into staying huddled up here but somehow, when I found my voice, I said I was going. I didn’t know why I was going. I didn’t want to. A big part of me was just too embarrassed to say I still felt traumatized over that night. I didn’t want to explain how deeply it had bothered me. For some unexplainable reason, I felt it would be easier to go then to explain.

“Lex,” Caden said in soft husky voice.

I turned to look up at Caden now just inches away from me. “About what happened, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You didn’t force me.”

“I know. That’s not what I meant. It’s not a good idea for us to go there.”

“Oh, yeah, it wasn’t a big deal. We were both just fired up,” I lied. Not about being fired up, just that it was no big deal. My knees were still weak from it, and I was clinging to the last shred of pride I had. He was paying my bills. I lived in his home. I couldn’t seem to take a step out the door without him having to come and save me. And now, to add insult to injury, I had just been about to give him the only thing I did have left and he declined. I didn’t know why I was being rejected but I wasn’t going to ask. That would mean I cared.

“I’ve got to go take a shower.” I stood up to leave and he looked like he wanted to say something else but couldn’t find the words. I didn’t give him the time to think of them.

“Be ready in two hours.” Caden, finally finding something to say, yelled at my retreating back.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I walked into the bar room wearing what I thought was my cutest reconnaissance outfit of black boots, snug black leggings, and snug v-neck sweater with a push up bra underneath. My hair was loose and flowing, and my makeup was perfect. It was just enough to make me glow but not enough for him to realize I tried. This was always my fallback position in trying times. Look as pretty as possible and pretend I didn’t care. Might be a bit shallow and desperate, but it was all I had left.

“Lex, you look a little too good for crawling around in the bushes.” Mike said.

I was so happy to see him up and about, looking like his old self. I jumped on him and gave him a huge hug not giving Caden’s feelings a second thought. He said he didn’t want me. Why should I worry about how he felt? “I’m so glad you are better.”

“When you guys are done, we’ve got work to do,” Caden said glaring our way.

I wasn’t sure if he was annoyed at me for hugging Mike or annoyed because he wanted to get going. Mike was all smiles though and didn’t move to put me down that quickly. If I had to guess, I would have thought Mike might have been provoking Caden.

“I’ll be outside.” Caden left slamming the door as he went.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, looking to Mike for the answer, which was a good thing because I didn’t want to explain.

“I think Caden has a thing for Lex.” He replied grinning ear to ear. Alex starting laughing and then Mike joined as he was putting me on my feet.

“I don’t think he does you guys, and if he did, what would be so funny about that anyway?” I stood staring at the two of them while they shared their own private joke.

Mike finally looked down at me as the laughter winded down. “We aren’t laughing at you Lex. It’s because it’s Caden. Caden who avoids all relationships, at all costs, is now living under the same roof with a woman he wants. Let’s see how well this works out for him.” He reached over and patted Alex on the back and they looked like they would start laughing again any second.

“We’ve been pushing him for years to get into something more substantial. Thought it would be good for him.” Alex chimed in.

“But all of you guys are single except for Dave?” I asked. I found it curious that this gang of bachelors would be pushing for one of their own to get into a committed relationship.

“We’ve all been in long term relationships at some point in the last century, except for him. It’s hard to date humans because of the differences, but there are other options.”

“Like what?” I didn’t like him having other options I realized.

“I’ve dated female vampires, some fairys, a couple of female werewolves, but I try to stay clear of them. They’re really hairy.” Alex said grimacing.

“What about that chick Lenora? She was really pretty for a werewolf and didn’t seem hairy at all.”

“Yeah, Mike, because she was getting laser treatments, but it kept coming back. Every time I saw her too far in between appointments it got pretty rough. It was too hard to time the dates right.”

As distracted as I was about the hairy werewolf Alex had dated, my mind was reeling. Not only was I partly demon, but there was everything under the sun running around out there.

“How come nobody knows about all of this?”

“About what?” Mike asked completely oblivious to what I meant.

“Vampires, and demons, and all that?”

“It’s not like we broadcast it,” Alex explained.

“Plus, every time a regular human tries to break a story everybody says they are crazy. Doctors put them on non hallucinogenic drugs, and they get convinced that they had a psychotic break,” Mike added.

“It’s getting trickier with all the cell phones now. Only a matter of time before one gets out. Then the shit will really hit the fan. Right Mike?”

“Total mayhem!”

Mike and Alex started laughing again. I wasn’t sure why that was so funny, but before I could figure it out, it was cut short by Caden yelling from the door, asking if we planned on joining him anytime soon.

When I walked outside, I saw three bikes lined up. I was wondering who I’d be riding with when Caden took my arm and brought me over to his side and handed me a helmet. I was the only one that wore one. I toyed with the idea of completely snubbing him, and hopping on the back of Mike’s or Alex’s bike, but I didn’t want to start a fight between the guys. I couldn’t understand why he even wanted me to ride with him anyway.

We got there, in what had to be record time, but the chateau was nowhere in sight when we stopped. “Where is it?” I asked looking at nothing but densely wooded forest. A huge part of me was hoping that at the last minute the plans had been changed and they forgot to inform me. That just maybe, I’d be able to skate on this one. I still couldn’t figure out why it was so hard for me to just say no, I don’t want to go there. If I didn’t want to explain why, I didn’t have to.

“It’s about ten miles north east of here,” Caden said.

“Oh, okay.” And after that whole conversation in my head about what I should say, that was my big statement. So what if they knew I was scared? And now, even more pathetically, I’m scared of them knowing I’m scared.

“Are you going to carry her?” Alex asked Caden, referring to me.

“No, I think it might be kicking in. She just hasn’t realized it.”

“What do you mean? What’s kicking in?” You better not have gi
ven me anything funny,” I warned
as they were camouflaging their bikes with branches.

“Why would I give you something? There isn’t anything to give you anyway. Even if there was, trust me, you’re going to change enough on your own. Now come on.” Caden held out his hand to me. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“You’re delusional. I’m never going to be able to keep up with you guys.”

“I think you can. We’ll start slow.” He started in at a quick jog, and I followed along waiting for my lungs to start burning like they always did when I pushed hard for a while, but they didn’t. He kept pulling me a bit quicker and a bit quicker and I was waiting for my legs to give out but somehow every time he upped the pace, I was able to keep up. We were flying through the forest now, the branches whizzing past us, and it was amazing. It almost felt like I was flying as my feet were hitting the ground maybe once every ten feet.