Instinct (5 page)

“You practicing diplomacy to take my job, O?”

“Shit, man, I’d die doing your job. It wouldn’t be nearly as fun! I can fuck up and blame it on you. You fuck up, you’re just screwed.”

Xavier shook his head, laughing. “You aren’t right in the head, my friend.”

“Yes, I know. But I help keep you alive. Seriously, how are we going to spin this?”

“I think I have a plan, O. Just follow my lead. Tell Dirk I want to make a deal for more shows with the dancer. Get him brought to me. He’s a Level-Zero Fire Senser. He can’t hope to beat the best. I will deal with the fact that my mate isn’t what I expected later. For now, I need to make sure she is safe.”

* * * *

Red hair sparking around her like the Fire she controlled, Leia strolled into Posh like she owned the place. Hip-hugger jeans rode her like second skin, and she tossed her hair over a white tailored blazer—with nothing under it, Xavier saw with disgust. No man wanted to see his sister like that. No man.

“What do you need?” she asked, all business. She’d become like that after the murder of their parents. Sometimes he glimpsed the woman she had been before, and missed her.

“I have a situation. The owner of this establishment is a Level-Zero Fire Senser. He stole a human from topside.”

“Dumbass,” his sister hissed. “Want me to torch the place?”

“Let’s just keep it at ‘threaten’ right now. The woman he stole is my mate.” He could have heard a pin drop after he said that.

“Your mate?” his sister repeated, stepping back for a second. “She’s human?”

“Yes, Leia. My Jag chose her.”

“We’ll have to get her out of here,” she said then, rolling her shoulders. He could still see the tension in them, but she’d thrown her choice in with him. That’s all he needed. That was the woman he had known before their parents’ deaths.

“Oron is getting Dirk for me, and I wanted you to come in with us. He’ll try to hold her over my head one day, I’m sure, if he ever needs anything.”

“So, again, do you want me to torch the place?”

“I just might. Here they come, Leia. Just stick to what I say, okay?”

“Fine. But I want to meet this human after this. I don’t like her, then she can’t be your mate.” She stuck her tongue out at him, and in that moment, she was the old Leia. He smiled down at her and then turned to meet Dirk.

“I understand that you want to schedule more meetings with my Ecstasy Rain,” Dirk said.

“Not exactly. I want to buy her contract out. She is in agreement,” Xavier returned.

Leia closed in on one side, twirling her fingers for a moment, letting fire dance on her fingertips.

“She’s not for sale.”

“I’m not buying her. Every Senser in this establishment can have a patron buy out their contract, if they agree, and leave. It’s their right when they go into service.”

“She’s not for sale. She cannot complete her contract.”

Chapter Ten

“So are you saying she’s a slave? You know that’s illegal,” Oron returned from behind Dirk.

Dirk was effectively blocked in the hallway and had no one to help him. Xavier saw in his face the moment he realized what was happening around him.

“You know!” Dirk exclaimed then. “She’s human. I don’t have to give her up. If I do, then I can open myself up to prosecution. If you take her, you open yourself up to it. Leave her where she is, and everyone is a happy camper.”

“We could report you,” Oron said then. Xavier watched, waiting to spring his own trap.

“Then she goes home, returned to the loving arms of people who hated her, tossed her on the streets, all because they thought she was Senser, one of us.”

Xavier felt his sister shift behind him. He could feel her tension radiating from her skin like a beacon. A pissed-off Fire Senser could spell trouble.

“Be calm, sis,”
he said to her mind. It was a well-kept secret that Sensers of the same bloodline could speak to each other privately, one that had oftentimes saved their lives.

“She is like us,”
she returned,
“alone in a world that hates her, and cannot come to Sensers who would hate her for being human. Perhaps, in her very life itself, she’s better at your side than she would be anywhere else.”

His sister’s words surprised and humbled him. Siren had a tough life for simply appearing to be one of them. She didn’t belong anywhere. Now with his bond of mate, she belonged to him, with him, but his denial of her must have cut deep. Another loss on top of so many. And he had made it seem like all they needed in their bond was the magnetism to make it. He was starting to think maybe he’d been a little unkind to her. If his sister could accept her, he should have been able to.

“I will have my mate, Leia, and she will never know pain again. Go find her. Give her the clothes I told you to bring. She’s in the private room at the end of the hall. I think she needs to see this.”

Xavier waited as Leia walked away. Dirk tried to follow her, but Xavier stopped him. He stayed quiet until he heard the door open, signaling Leia was returning with Siren. He scented her before he felt her coming closer. It rolled over him, soothing his frayed nerves.

“You know who I am?” Xavier growled then, staring Dirk down. Diameter Twelve was covered in Sensers, and not all of them would know him by sight. His name, however, would change that.

“Should I?”

“I am Xavier Plavadi, and the woman you hold is my mate.” He watched as Dirk blanched.

“Primus of all Sensers,” Dirk sputtered, stepping back. “She can’t be. She’s hu—”

“She is. You will let me buy her contract out, like any other Senser in your employ. She will leave by my side. She will go home where she belongs, and when you see her again, you bow before her, as befitting a Prima.”

“And if I tell that you have bought an illegal human?” Dirk sneered, his fear running into anger in seconds.

Leia returned, her eyes reddening, “then I’ll burn this place down. But first I’ll make sure it looks like you did it, and then I’ll make sure they can find you.” As a Level Two, she far surpassed anything that he could do to stop her, and Dirk knew it. His control of the element wouldn’t surpass hers. Fires danced around them, growing closer to the walls and then sputtering out before they caught hold.

Xavier feared, though, they would need something more permanent to silence Dirk. Killing him, though possibly satisfying, left a bad taste on Xavier’s tongue. He didn’t want to add cold-blooded murderer to his résumé. He would need something easier to get to him and make it so that he would never try to hurt Siren.

“Leia, how much control do you have over your powers?”

“Getting better every day, brother. I may need to test them soon.”

“I thought of that. I need to know if you can do something to his vocal cords.”

“Melt them with some sort of fire, you mean?”

“Yes. If he can’t speak, he can’t tell what he’s learned or what he’s done. He’ll be too afraid to challenge us again. That should be message enough to never test the theory of what you can do or what I will do to him if he betrays me.”

“Do you think that will be enough? Do you not worry that he will be angered and come after you later?”

“I don’t have a choice. This will take him out of commission long enough that I can further protect her. As a mate, she can be logged with the Senser documentation and will be protected more.”

“This I can do. Are you sure this is what you want?”

“I don’t have a choice, Leia. It sickens me, but I will never let him hurt her again. I cannot. A mate can do nothing else but protect their mate.”

The skillful way she controlled her powers told Xavier she’d been practicing, and also that they may have to screen her again. She may very well have surpassed the initial impression of her level.

“I could kill you. Is your life worth more than hers to you?” Xavier asked coldly. He didn’t want his mate in any danger from this man. Enough fear, and Dirk would be sure to keep their secret between them. “And to ensure that you do nothing silly now…”

Xavier turned away and tucked Siren under his arm. She fit there as she was meant to, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She was priceless to him. She was his mate, the future mother of his children, and his light. He may not be okay with the arrangement, but it was what it was. He pulled her away as Dirk started screaming.

“What—”

“Don’t look, Siren. Leia is just making sure that he’ll be too afraid to talk…Well, he won’t be able to talk.”

“Xavier, I—”

“Say it again.”

“What?”

“My name, say it again.”

“Xavier, I don’t want someone to get hurt because of me.”

“He’s getting hurt so that he’ll never be able to hurt us again. If we don’t do this, you’ll never be safe.
We’ll
never be safe. I don’t ever want you hurt again.”

“Xavier,” Siren whispered, letting him take her away from the hell that had been her life. He would have enough to prove to her when they got home.

Chapter Eleven

She wasn’t sure exactly how she’d gotten into a limo surrounded by Sensers, but here she was. A female across from her, Leia, Xavier had called her, watched her silently. She sat next to a blue-eyed man—Oron, if she remembered correctly—who was nearly as sexy as her mate beside her. The limo was speeding away from Posh, and Siren wasn’t positive what was going to happen next. Xavier may have protected her, but she wouldn’t fool herself into believing that he could give up years of hatred just because they’d mated and he’d heard her story. He couldn’t help his protective instincts any more than she could help her want of him.

Neo New York, as the Sensers called their city, sprawled before her through the windows. Freedom. She was free. It may have come at the price of being claimed by a human-hating Senser, but she was free. She knew enough about mates to know that Xavier couldn’t harm her, but it did little to ease her trepidation. She was bound to him, irrevocably, and her senses were calling to him. Intellectually she knew it was the draw of mates, something that biologically she couldn’t help, but it still didn’t make it any better.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire
, she thought to herself.

Tall skyscrapers made of glass and steel towered over the limo as they drove down the busy street. Life, for the Sensers outside of Posh, was going on like normal. She didn’t know how to be normal, didn’t even know what it was. For three years, her life had been nothing but dancing, money, and her codec unit. To think that Dirk had known all along that she was human and still kept her left a bitter taste in her mouth. He could have let her go so long ago, but had kept her. It pained her to know that she had thought him thinking she was a Senser had kept her marginally safe. He had skillfully played her like a fiddle. She shuddered at the thought.

“Are you cold?” Xavier asked, and she shook her head. He sighed and pulled her into his embrace.

If she felt safer there next to him, she wouldn’t admit it. She let his warmth seep into her bones, closing her eyes to combat the feeling, but that only made it worse. Her eyes snapped open, and she stiffened in his embrace.

“We will be home soon,” he whispered to her.

A few minutes later, they arrived at a high-rise building, and Xavier helped her out of the car. People bowed as he strode past with Leia and Oron behind them. The interior was decorated in warm brown and gold. Those who milled about spoke quietly in the lobby, drinking at a bar or sitting in a common area. Siren tried her best to be invisible next to Xavier. She could feel eyes on her, and it was disconcerting. Despite her job—make that former job—Siren wasn’t comfortable being the center of attention. She’d learned that too much attention could prove deadly. She was sure they all wondered who she could be so near to the Primus of all Sensers.

A bellhop escorted them to an elevator, and they rode up in silence. When the doors opened, Leia and Oron stepped out, while the bellhop held the doors open.

“We’ll meet you for dinner. I’m sure there is much to…discuss,” Oron said then, saluting the couple before leaving.

“If you need me, call,” Leia said, and Siren was surprised to see the redhead was speaking to her.

“Okay,” she whispered as the doors closed.

“My sister will take you under her wing. There will be much you need to learn as my mate. I rule these people, and they will expect much from you.”

“Aren’t you happy?” she grumbled, some of her spirit sparking.

“Yes,” he said then, and her gaze jumped to his face. She couldn’t discern any sense of sarcasm in his tone or features, but she couldn’t trust that. She had felt his immediate denial when he realized she was human.

The doors slid open once more, and Xavier escorted her out into a large room colored in slate and navy. It was inviting, to say the least, and screamed money. In the center of the room, sitting on a plush blue couch, was one of the most dazzling women Siren had ever seen. Her platinum locks swirled around her as if trapped in water, her violet eyes crackled with power, and her features were striking, all soft lines and pale skin. Her full lips split into a welcoming smile as she stood.

“Oracle Mother,” Xavier greeted, smiling warmly.

“You are home,” the woman whispered, her voice carrying as if on the wind. Her startled eyes shifted to Siren.

“Welcome, mate of a child of my lines. I am Josephine.” She bowed slightly, and Siren was at a loss of how to respond. All this was surreal to her. She felt completely out of her element.

She backed out of Xavier’s arms feeling like she was someone else. Where was the woman who’d fought Dirk tooth and nail? Where was her pride? Was she just going to be a captive once more? It may be a gilded cage now, but it was still a cage.

“No,” Siren whispered fiercely, her eyes searching for some way out.

She couldn’t do this. Didn’t want to do this. Xavier couldn’t act like he was suddenly happy that she was his mate. She’d felt his hatred, his anger. Rage welled up in her as she spun on him.