The Haunting (Immortals) (17 page)

“They belong to a guy I used to date. He must have left them at my place the last time he stayed over, and, well, they got packed up with everything else when I moved. I found them when I unpacked.”

“What guy?” Nick realized, too late, that he sounded like a jealous boyfriend.

“Ricco. He’s a vampire.”

“You used to date a vampire?” He wasn’t sure what he’d expected her to say, but it sure as hell hadn’t been that.

“Not just any vampire. The First Fang of the largest gang in town—and we’re still close, so you might want to think twice before you make any snide comments.”

He frowned. “I don’t know if I approve of you dating a vampire.” He hadn’t realized he’d said it aloud until she replied.

“I don’t know that I care what you think.”

Knowing he’d deserved that, he kept quiet as he took the clothes into the bathroom and put on the pants and
shoes. He found the hair shears in the same drawer they’d been in last night and cut away the sleeves and neckband of the T-shirt, turning it into a looser muscle shirt.

He found Mai in the kitchen and when she saw what he’d done, her eyes opened wide. “You destroyed the shirt.”

“Yeah, but now it fits. If your boyfriend has a problem with it, tell him to come see me.”

“You don’t want to mess with a vampire.”

The irritation he’d tried to keep at bay bubbled up. “If you’re so worried about him, tell him to come see me at night, then. I wouldn’t want your boyfriend to burn up trying to get payback for his damn shirt.”

Mai rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible. And for the record, he’s not my boyfriend.” She didn’t know why she was giving Nick such a hard time over the shirt. Well, that wasn’t true. She did know. She was mad at herself. How could she have sex with him? She wasn’t even sure she liked him. Her inner self threw up her arms and screamed in frustration. Her vow to wait until she was in a serious relationship before having sex—tossed out the window at the first contact with a hot male. His declaration that they were dating didn’t count.

He was watching her and she knew she had to get her act together. He’d saved her life last night. She owed him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, turning back to him. “You’re right. It’s just a shirt—and it’s not even one of Ricco’s favorites. Which is probably why he left it here. Yours now.”

“Truce?”

She smiled. “Truce.”

“Excellent.” He glanced around her kitchen. “I don’t suppose you have anything here to eat?”

At the mention of food, she realized how hungry she was. “I have a little. Eggs and bread, I think.”

“Works for me unless you’d rather eat out? My treat?”

The offer was tempting and probably much safer than
sharing a cozy breakfast for two in her apartment. “Let’s eat here,” she heard herself saying.

He smiled. “Sounds good—especially if you have coffee? I’ll even make it if you tell me where you keep it.”

“The pantry,” she told him, pointing. “How would you like your eggs cooked?”

“Fried hard.” He set about making the coffee while she got the skillet out of the cabinet. While she cooked, she sneaked a peek at Nick standing beside her and couldn’t help feeling a little breathless. He looked so damn good in that cut-up T-shirt. Yummy.

“Tell me about yourself,” she said in an effort to distract herself. “Where do you live? How did you get into security work? Tell me about your family—parents? Brothers? Sisters?”

With the coffee starting to brew, he turned around and leaned against the counter, looking at her with a gleam in his eye. “You really are a reporter, aren’t you? By the way, do you mind if I make toast?” He was already flipping open the lid on her bread box.

“No, please do.” She blushed. She hadn’t even thought about what she sounded like. He intrigued her despite her best efforts not to let him. If he wanted to think she was asking out of a reporter’s sense of curiosity, then she’d let him. “Guilty as charged,” she said. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

The smile he gave her seemed so intimate it warmed her. “I don’t mind. As you know, I’m a chameleon and a spirit walker. It’s the way of Los Paseantes de Espíritu.”

“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of your people before.”

“We’ve gone to great lengths to fly under the radar. Besides, it’s pretty easy for us to go unnoticed. Blending in is what we do. If the government knew there was a tribe of chameleons living nearby, they’d find some use for us—spying, testing. So there’s a reason we keep to ourselves.”

Mai understood the need to blend in and be treated like
everyone else. Finished cooking the eggs, she transferred them to plates. Nick poured out two cups of coffee, then placed the carafe back on the warming plate so it could stay warm.

“I have two younger brothers—twins,” Nick continued as he set the two cups on the table and went back for the toast as it popped up from the toaster. He carried it over to the table and they sat at the table to eat. “My father is the tribe’s shaman and has been for as long as I can remember. And my mother…well, she’s human.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” She offered him a tentative smile because she’d detected an uneasiness about him when he talked about his mother. “Is it unusual for your people to marry humans?” She took a drink of her coffee so he might not notice just how important it was for her to know the answer.

“No. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s not unusual. What is unusual is that they’re spirit mates.”

“Spirit mates? I’m not familiar with that term. Is it like soul mates?”

“Something like that. The spiritual realms are complex, but it’s not impossible for two halves of a single spirit to find each other. When they do, they forge a special bond.”

“How do you know when you’ve found your spirit mate?”

He smiled. “Easy. If you have to ask, then you haven’t found yours. It’s complicated finding a spirit mate in the spiritual realm, but it’s a hundred times harder finding your spirit mate in the physical realm—because dreams don’t really give any details about where they are or what they really look like.”

“So you could be in the same room with your spirit mate and not even know it.” Their gazes met and for an instant, time seemed frozen.

“I’d know her if I met her.” He sounded like he was
trying to convince himself more than her, but Mai, being a reporter, was more focused on what he hadn’t said.

“So you’ve found your spirit mate in the spiritual realm?”

“No,” he replied a little too emphatically. “I don’t believe in the fairy tale of two souls united in love, living out their lives in eternal bliss.”

“Why not?”

“Because spirit mates don’t walk out on you, taking half the family when they leave.”

Though shocked by the confession, Mai was also sensitive to the hurt in Nick’s voice. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know that you’d been…mated? Is that the term? Or that you have children.”

“What? No, not me. My parents. They were spirit mates and I know they loved each other, yet my mother left my father almost twenty years ago. Even took my younger brothers with her. I haven’t seen them since.” His face took on a closed expression. “Yeah, I’m not sure I believe in the fairy tale.”

“Why would she do such a thing?” Mai asked, not understanding.

“I asked myself that same question for years. My mother’s reason, according to the note she left, was because she was afraid for my brothers, because they were born nulls.”

“Nulls?”

“Without the ability to change or walk in the spirit world. Some of the more superstitious members of our tribe thought they were cursed and wanted them cast out. Others said mating with a human was tainting the tribe.”

“How horrible.”

“Yeah. It was hard on my folks. My father wanted to take his family and leave, but he was the shaman. There was no one else who could take his place. He is very dedicated to his faith and believes that his purpose in life is to
help others. He just didn’t understand how much his own family needed him.

“The position of shaman is handed down from father to son, so he started taking me with him at an early age to visit the people who needed him. One day we had a particularly tough visit scheduled. We knew it would take all day, so we left early.” He sighed. “I should have known something was wrong when my mother tried to talk me into staying home with her. But I was enjoying the work and didn’t want to get stuck babysitting my younger brothers. Before my father and I left, she held me a little longer than usual and told me that she loved me.

“My father and I were gone all day and didn’t finish until well after the sun went down. We came home to a dark and empty house, with only a note from my mother telling us she had taken the twins to live in an environment where they wouldn’t be judged or ostracized simply because they had no magical abilities.”

Mai was stunned. Her heart ached at Nick’s pain. She could well imagine how abandoned and hurt he must have felt.

“It couldn’t have been an easy thing for your mother to do,” she said as kindly as she could. “It must have broken her heart to leave you behind.” Mai reached out to touch Nick’s arm. She wondered what she would have done under a similar situation. “Did you ever see her again?”

“No. She never came back and I never looked for her.”

“Why not?” The idea was inconceivable to Mai.

“If she wanted me in her life, she wouldn’t have left.”

“Oh no. That can’t be the case,” Mai said. “No mother would willingly leave behind a child.”

“And yet that’s precisely what my mother did.”

“She must have felt she had a good reason to leave when she did.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” he said shortly. He took a
bite of food and chewed carefully before swallowing. “Tell me about you. What’s your family like?”

She shrugged and buttered a piece of toast. “I guess they are like you’d expect for wood nymphs. I grew up with my extended family all around me. The Don Groves family. He was my great-great-grandfather. All of his kids, their kids, their kids’ kids and so on down the line.”

“That sounds nice,” he said.

Mai looked at him, shocked. “Are you kidding? Imagine five generations living in an assortment of RVs and traveling together from city to city. I never had any privacy. And there was always a ton of chores to be done. And when we weren’t setting up camp or tearing it down, we were entertaining the townspeople. If there’s one thing wood nymphs excel at, it’s having a good time. I could hardly wait to get away to the big city where I would finally have a life of my own.”

“Do you still see your family?”

“It’s been a while,” she admitted. “When I first arrived in New York City, I didn’t want to see them. Then I got busy and—well—there just hasn’t been time.”

“There’s always time,” Nick told her softly. “If it’s important, you find a way.”

She understood. From his perspective, family was important. His family had walked out, leaving him alone with a father who obviously hadn’t cared enough for his own wife and sons to fight for them.

But just because Nick had lost some of his family didn’t mean that she should feel bad for wanting some distance from hers. It was just one of those differences between them that couldn’t be resolved. She didn’t try.

Instead, she finished eating her breakfast. “Would you like more coffee?” She hoped he would refuse because now that she was finished eating, the embarrassment of waking up naked—ugh! It was too much to think about.

“No, thanks,” he said to her immense relief. “I should probably go. I’ve got some work to do.”

“Okay.” Then she thought of something. “Do you need money for a cab?”

“Nope. Not taking a cab.”

He didn’t elaborate and so Mai didn’t ask. “All right. I guess I’ll see you later.”

He smiled. “Yes, you will.”

She walked him to the door. “Thanks for—you know, everything.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You’re welcome.”

She felt awkward. “ ‘Thank you’ seems so inadequate for saving my life.”

“Oh, that. Yes, well, you’re welcome.”

Now she was confused. “What did you think I was thanking you for?”

He smiled.

“Right. I don’t think so,” she told him, stepping out into the hall after him.

“Are you walking me to the elevator?” he asked with a grin.

“No. Sorry to dash your hopes. I wanted to see if Jenna’s heard from Sarah.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Sure.” They walked the short distance to the next apartment in silence. When they reached Jenna’s door, Mai knocked. After a minute, she knocked again, louder. “Maybe she’s still asleep,” she said.

There was no sound from inside the apartment. Mai knocked once more. “She works two jobs,” she said. “So maybe she’s at work. I’ll check back later.”

There was an awkward moment as she turned to Nick to say good-bye again. He was looking down at her with a grin on his face. “Thanks for everything—and I’m
not
talking about just breakfast and the medical treatment.”

She cringed. She didn’t want any further reminders of that morning. She was already afraid she’d be reliving it in her daydreams—and enjoying every memory.

He turned and started walking toward the elevator. Watching him leave, she felt like a young child watching her parent leave after being dropped off at day care. She didn’t want him to go. She was pathetic. She forced herself to turn around and head back to her apartment.

“Mai, wait.”

His voice came from right behind her and she spun around, startled. “What’s the matter?”

He was standing in front of her, having covered the distance between them without her noticing. “I forgot something.”

“What?”

“This.” He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, throwing her off balance so she clutched him for balance. His lips came down on hers, warm, firm, masterful. He kissed her until she was breathless, until her head was spinning and her ears were ringing.

And ringing.

It suddenly stopped and a disembodied male voice asked, “Hello? Jenna? Are you there?”

Nick lifted his head and as if on cue, they both turned to face Jenna’s door.

“Jenna, pick up if you’re there. Damn it. You were supposed to be here an hour ago. Walters is going crazy.” There was a deep sigh. “Okay, look. Call me as soon as you get this. Bye.”