2 Hungry, Hungry Hoodoo (2 page)

Cheney never talked about elf business outside of the castle. Sebastian, Cheney, and I were trying to sift through mounds of records to figure out what his father had been up to. I wasn’t sure I was useful, since I couldn’t read ninety percent of the documents because they were in a foreign language, but Cheney liked for me to be there. We were also making plans to invite all the fae races to choose a representative to serve on his council. I had only seen my friends a handful of times—at the coven meetings, to be more precise—since we took over. Being a queen wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. However, I wasn’t about to let office duties stand in the way of protecting those I loved. Michael and I hadn’t worked out, but I still cared about him, and he was in danger because of me.

Cheney glared at Femi. “It isn’t like that. I want to save the human too, but we have obligations and can’t afford to lose any more time.”

I closed my eyes, doubting Cheney’s statement. He didn’t like Michael; he couldn’t even say his name. I didn’t think he cared a whit whether he lived or died. I didn’t blame him, exactly, but it didn’t change how I felt either. “I can’t ignore something like this,” I said. “You and Sebastian can carry on without me. I have to help Sy and Femi.”

“Mmm, no. That’s not a good idea.” Cheney shook his head. “Whoever did this was probably hoping for this response. You’re playing into their hands.”

“If no one else will say it, I will,” Femi purred, one hand on her jutted hip, her bronze skin rippling with emotion. “This sure as hell wasn’t an electrical fire, and I’d be willing to bet a life that the so-called rebels didn’t do this either. The human might still be alive. You can’t just ignore that.”

Femi’s goddess heritage was showing in full force, and as she stared down Cheney, her vertical pupils almost disappeared. I took a step back.

Unlike me, however, Cheney didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by her take-no-shit-from-anyone attitude or the fighting stance her leather-clad, cat-lithe muscular body had suddenly assumed.

“Relax, Sekhmet. We’ll figure something out,” Cheney grumbled.

Her posture eased and she winked at me when I stared too long, snapping me back to reality. “Sorry. So what do we do?”

She laughed. “That’s what I like about you. You haven’t had a clue what’s going on since I met you, but you’re always in the thick of it. What other enemies do you have, Hermione?”

“Human Selene,” I patted myself on the chest, “doesn’t have enemies. But the half-elf me was apparently a bitch that no one liked.” I ran my hands through my hair. “You guys know more about who hated me most than I do.” I couldn’t wrap my mind around why Jaron and his men would destroy my studio. It wasn’t a logical move if they wanted me to come back.

Femi gave me a peculiar look before spinning around and walking away with her phone in hand. I moved in the opposite direction, needing to be in motion.

“I like you, coz.” Sy gave me a lop-sided grin. My eyes filled with tears and his eyes widened slightly. “We’ll find this guy. Don’t worry.”

“I wish I remembered something. Anything. Why can’t people leave me alone?”

No one could explain why awakening my elf half hadn’t brought back my memories. My grandmother, Edith Meriweather, and my coven had cast every spell they could think of the past weeks, trying to recover my memory—with pathetic results. Each memory they managed to return came with pain. It started off small with headaches but intensified with every new spell. Now, sensations ranged from feeling I was eating broken glass to being hit with a bat. On occasion there had even been blood. And nothing I remembered seemed significant in any way or helped me understand anything better.

I was everyone’s favorite topic of discussion. What’s wrong with Selene? She’s not
herself.
My human friends insisted I’d changed, always pointing out the elf. Cheney and his second in command, Sebastian, always pointed out my human weaknesses. I had begun to spend a lot more time alone because they all got on my nerves.

“You will get your memories back. Just be patient,” Cheney said.

“We don’t have time for patience—and how do you know I will? What if I don’t and someone takes Grandma or my friends or you?” I threw my arms up in the air. “I can’t keep dealing with all the things I did wrong in the past. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t put everyone else in danger because I seemed to have made one bad decision after another.” By the end of my rant I was shouting and the already unstable room was vibrating. I needed to calm down. I took a deep breath and shut down the fear, worry, and panic threatening to take over.

Femi slung her arm over my shoulder. “We’ll get to the bottom of this, but there’s nothing we can do tonight. You need a night out away from everything.” She led me toward the door, ignoring Cheney’s and my objections. “Don’t wait up, boys.”

Femi dragged me out of the studio and to her car. We needed to look for Michael, but nevertheless, here we were, walking into a weird bar one scary-fast car ride later. The place was called Snow, and everything inside was stark white except for the black lights that made the room glow. I followed Femi to a table where Olivia, a guardian, sat with an amused expression.

“You managed to get away from your guard dog?” Femi asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Olivia shook her head. “If Holden knew I intended to meet you at yet
another
jinn bar, I would’ve never made it out of the house.” She laughed, not looking overly upset.

I glanced around the room again, wondering what she meant by a “jinn bar.” From Sebastian’s lessons I knew jinn were supposed to be bad, but if that was true, what were we doing there?

“Damn, I always forget,” Femi said, taking a chair to the left of Olivia.

I sat too. “It’s not safe here?”

Olivia laughed. “Not at all. Femi’s idea of a girls’ night out isn’t the same as yours or mine. She likes to poke bears.”

Femi held up her hands innocently. “I just want to have a good time. We’re perfectly safe. Olivia is the scariest person in here.” Olivia laughed again and shrugged. I doubted she could frighten anyone. “But enough talk. Let’s dance.” Femi was on the dance floor in a flash, her body becoming one with the music. I looked at Olivia and she got up, her blue-green eyes twinkling.

“Stay near me,” she said in my ear.

I nodded. As soon as I stepped down the two steps and onto the dance floor, my mind was wiped clear. I didn’t think or feel anything except the vibrating beat. A hand brushed my arm and instinctively I followed the touch, my mind blank.

“No, you don’t,” Olivia said behind me, catching my shoulder and keeping her hand there. Everything cleared. The ache from being away from Cheney was back, along with worry and uncertainty—I liked the dreamy haze better. Olivia held onto me until I turned back to her and Femi. “We shouldn’t have come here, Femi,” Olivia shouted over the music.

“Why?” Femi yelled back. Olivia nodded in my direction, and I suddenly felt like a child who couldn’t take care of herself and I didn’t like it. I was perfectly capable. “She’s fine,” Femi said. “You’re a fighter, aren’t you, Selene?”

Damn right
, my inner voice said.
I could make all these people my puppets if I wanted.
The thought made me smile and feel a little better. The muscles in my shoulders loosened as we danced and laughed with each other. After several songs, another hand brushed my elbow, but it wasn’t the same this time. The sensation was familiar, but not alluring. I turned around and Jaron was behind me. My stomach dropped and I was flooded with curiosity and trepidation. I backed up, plowing directly into Femi.

He held his hands up in a surrendering gesture, though his eyes sparked with something else. “I just want to talk.”

“Get out of here, Jaron.” Femi came around me. “Selene’s taking the night off.”

I hadn’t been able to get away from the castle long enough, or alone, to talk to Jaron—and I needed to hear what he had to say, whether I wanted to or not. I had to know what happened before I became a changeling, and obviously Cheney’s information was one sided. Jaron could fill in a lot of missing gaps.

I took a deep breath and stepped around Femi. “It’s okay.” I looked up at Jaron. He was so tall and broad, I felt tiny. “Let’s talk.”

Femi’s stare drilled into my back as I walked off the dance floor and to our table. The fact that Jaron made her nervous made me nervous. I sat in Olivia’s chair and nodded to the seat across from me. “How did you find me?”

“I followed you.”

“Where’s Michael?”

“Who’s Michael?” he asked, his heavy eyebrows pulling together. I glared, and his lips tilted up slightly. “Yet another lover, Selene? My, my, you have been busy.” His voice was cold and harsh.

The ever-so-brief memory I had the first time I met Jaron crept into my mind and made me look down. He was definitely my boyfriend at some point, but I didn’t know when or why we broke up. “What do you want from me?” Was I asking him or the part of myself that urged me to go with Jaron and forget about Michael and Cheney?
Oh, multiple personalities, thy name is Selene.

He rubbed his rough jaw line. “At the moment? An explanation will do.”

An explanation? Didn’t we all want that? What the hell was elf Selene thinking? The club was too noisy to have a conversation like this. I wasn’t going to shout about what a lunatic I was or that I was possibly stringing along two men. “We can’t talk here.”

His jaw stiffened and his cloud-gray eyes iced over. He offered his hand. “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

I shook my head. “I’ll arrange a time through Sy to meet with you. Don’t follow me again.”

Jaron’s shoulders straightened and those big hands gripped the side of the table. “You owe me an explanation.” His voice barely reached me.

I swallowed hard. I didn’t have any explanations to give. “Soon,” I squeaked and cleared my throat, banishing the weakness from my voice. “We’ll meet soon.”

“We better, Selene. Or I will come for you, the Erlking be damned.” The air between us changed and vibrated. The anger faded and was replaced with something far more carnal. He ran his thumb seductively along his lower lip; I wasn’t even sure if he was conscious of the motion. His deliberate gaze seared me from my forehead to my fingertips. I didn’t blush, but a tingling sensation spread through me as if his fingers followed his eyes. “Should I leave you with a memory?” he asked.

It took everything I had in me not to say please. When I didn’t answer, he leaned forward and traced that same thumb over my trembling mouth.

The sun soaked into my skin, melting away all of my concerns about what I was about to do. My toes dug into the soft, white sand. I looked over at Jaron lying next to me. He turned his head in sync with mine. He was always in sync with me and I liked it. I couldn’t see the eyes I loved beneath his dark sunglasses, but his permanent 5 o’clock shadow and bold nose made me smile. He reached out and took my hand, pressing a scratchy kiss to the back of my fingers.

“You’ll have to behave when you’re with the prince,” he said lightly, but I knew his feelings were heavy. Jaron didn’t like the plan.

“It’s the only way.”

He dropped my hand and looked forward again. “What if he doesn’t like you? Do you have a plan B?”

He hated that I’d be with another man if all went as designed, but it was the best way, the most efficient way, to get what we wanted. Emotions shouldn’t factor into it—they certainly wouldn’t for the elves. If we wanted to beat the cold, unfeeling fae at their own game, I had no choice but to play dirty. Elves were tricky. They wove lies and partial truths like spiders casting webs to get what they wanted. Jaron taught me that. I had to be ruthless if we were going to win.

“Everybody likes me,” I said with a self-assured smile that I didn’t feel. “He had to practically pick his jaw up from the ground.” I laughed, remembering Cheney’s reaction to my trap. Naked and communing with the goddess in the forest he just happened to be hunting in. Men were so easy. A small smile tilted Jaron’s mouth before it was smothered with a scowl.

“What do you want from me, Jaron? This is what
we
planned.”

He took off his sunglasses and tossed them into the sand, his intense gray eyes swirling with emotion. “Just make sure you want what you’re chasing, Selene. Once it’s done, you can’t take it back.”

I studied him for a moment. Jaron was always threatening to leave me, but he hadn’t managed yet. I amended my earlier inner statement: Men were easy, except for Jaron. I abandoned my beach chair and moved over to him, straddling his muscular legs. “That’s what you always say.”

A small part of me worried he meant it this time, that I might actually go too far, but Jaron had to see that getting my hooks in the king’s son was the only way to bring real change. I wasn’t doing this for myself. I was doing it for him, for everyone.

He gripped the flare of my hips and pulled me closer. “You’ll fall in love with him.”