Love (The Allure Chronicles Book 4) (3 page)

“Meaning my father?” Levi clarified.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Why would my father have wanted him to leave?” Levi’s brow furrowed.

“Because my uncle insisted certain mythical creatures existed that The Society said didn’t exist.” And he’d been right. Completely right. I wondered how much would be different if The Society had embraced him instead of sending him away. Would that have changed anything for Daisy? Would the paste have ever been created? The answer to that lay in Taylor. I was sure of it.

“I am sure my father had a reason.” Levi’s expression darkened. “Although I can’t say it was a good one.”

Taylor snickered. “Daddy issues?”

“No.” Levi shook his head. “But I understand nothing is black and white. It’s the right way to look at the world.”

“Really wise coming from a bird.” Wyatt made a flapping motion with his hands.

“Would you like me to throw you out?” Levi narrowed his eyes. “Because I’d be happy to arrange it.”

“You don’t like being called a bird?” Wyatt smirked.

“You know the answer to that.” Levi scowled.

“I don’t mind being called a dragon, although a dragon and a bird are very different creatures.” Wyatt lifted his chin.

“Birds descended from dinosaurs.” Daisy straightened up.

“And that’s relevant to this conversation because…?” Taylor gestured with her hand.

“Because dinosaurs and dragons aren’t all that different.” Daisy shrugged.

“Does that mean I should listen to him?” Levi turned to her. “Even after he repeatedly insults me.”

“What does it matter what I think?” Daisy looked down.

“You are the reason we are all assembled right now.” Levi pointed out.

I caught Levi’s eye. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this line of conversation. Daisy had enough going on, and I hoped Levi would tread carefully. Otherwise I would have to intervene. King or not, he wasn’t going to disrespect or upset her.

“I think Taylor needs to do some talking.” Daisy crossed her arms. “You wanted to talk to me. So talk. We don’t know how much time we have before the Elders catch up with us.”

“They won’t come here yet.” Wyatt leaned back against the wall. “They will want to prepare first.”

“Prepare?” I knew that couldn’t be a good thing. “What kind of preparation are they doing?” The Elders were frightening. I wasn’t one to get intimidated easily, but they had the kind of power very few had—and no one should. It was too all encompassing, and they took it lightly. They played with us as though we were small toys for amusement. No one was going to play me like a pawn. I was done being treated like a playing piece.

“Let Taylor talk.” Wyatt nodded toward where Taylor sat. “Then we can discuss the Elders.”

“There’s no way you could provide a private space for Daisy and me?” Taylor looked to Levi. “We need to have part of this conversation alone.”

“There is nothing you need to tell her privately. I am king. I need to hear everything.”

“But some of this doesn’t pertain to you.” Taylor thrust out her chest. “Most of it doesn’t.”

“I’ve been brought in on it, so it all pertains to me now.” Levi’s expression was unreadable. He was good at hiding his thoughts and opinions when he wanted to be.

“Not exactly.” Taylor turned and walked over to where Daisy and I stood. She reached out, and Daisy stepped back.

I resisted the urge to step between them. Daisy was strong. I needed to let her handle this.

Taylor grabbed Daisy’s free hand. Daisy pursed her lips.

“Please.” Taylor’s voice softened to nearly a whisper. “We need to talk alone. I promise it won’t take long. Then we can talk to everyone else.”

Daisy looked at me. “Do you mind if I do?”

“You want to talk with her alone?” I studied Daisy’s face trying to make sure I was reading her desires right. Was she looking for a way out of speaking with Taylor or only reassurance it was okay?

Daisy nodded. “Yes.”

I had no right to stand in her way even if letting her out of my sight worried me. “Levi, can you make that happen?” I wouldn’t be far.

Levi appeared to mull it over. “You are asking me to allow a private meeting between them?”

“Yes, but not for long.” I would make sure of that. I didn’t know how Taylor was alive, but she appeared to be completely human. Of course appearances could be deceiving. One realized that quickly when you grew up in a supernatural world.

“Fine.” Levi walked to the closed door. “Follow me.”

Daisy looked to me again. Did she expect me to change my mind? I wanted to. I wanted to keep her close, but I couldn’t get in the way. This was important. Taylor was human again. Could Daisy learn how to do the same thing? I tried to keep my excitement to a minimum for both of our sakes.

I followed the girls and Levi out of the room and watched as they entered Levi’s office. Taylor closed the door in Levi’s face.

“That one has an attitude.” Levi pointed to the closed door.

“She does.” I had no interest in chit chatting about Taylor, but maybe it would help pass the time as I waited for them to reemerge from his office.

“Speaking of attitudes, Allie is going to have one if I don’t check in.”

“She puts up with a lot.” Way more than most women would.

“She does.” Levi nodded. “She’s more than I deserve.”

“I hope to get to that point.” I couldn’t keep the wistfulness out of my voice.

“Get to the point where Daisy puts up with you even though she shouldn’t?” Levi laughed. “Doesn’t she do that already?”

“Not in the normal sense.”

“Normal? Do you think your life will ever be normal?”

I shrugged. “One can hope.”

“I gave up on that hope years ago, and I have realized normal is overrated.”

“Maybe I’ll feel that way eventually.” It had taken years for Levi get there. Hopefully I wasn’t too far behind.

“And you are going to stand here and stare at my office door until they leave, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“I’d tell you you were crazy, but you’re not.”

“Because at one time you would have done the same thing.”

“I still would do the same thing.” He patted my shoulder. “I’m going to make sure the Drago doesn’t set fire to the sitting room.”

“And call your wife.”

“Yes, that too.” Levi smiled. “And maybe if I’m lucky I’ll actually get home tonight.”

“Thanks.” I’d never thanked him for showing up to help. “And you will get home. I know Wyatt says it involves The Society, but it’s not your problem as much as it’s mine.”

“No problem. You would, and have essentially done, the same thing for me.”

“Except I never had a wife to leave behind to help you.”

“It turns out you were going through quite a bit yourself.” He gave me a knowing look, and I assumed he was referring to the years between Daisy getting the Seduction’s Kiss and us finally reconnecting. I still regretted my decision not to hunt her down. But life wasn’t made for regrets. It was made for action.

“Yeah, well. Still, thanks.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to help.” Levi leaned in toward me. “I need you to know that.”

“But there will be a limit…” Levi was hinting at more than his words were saying. “And when you reach that point…”

“I’m saying that if there comes a point where you have to do more than I can let you, do it. I’ll still be here.”

“Thanks.” Our conversation likely would have made no sense to anyone else, but I’d understood him completely. He was giving me permission to break the rules. It was permission I didn’t need, but it was nice to have anyway.

He pointed to the still closed door. “If they aren’t out in twenty minutes I’m coming back.”

“Worried about Daisy?” I guess I wasn’t the only one.

“And worried about my office.” He grinned before walking back down the hallway.

I
watched
as Taylor closed the door to the office. I looked around at the space that hadn’t changed much since the last time I’d been inside. There was still a pile of papers on Levi’s desk. This time the pile was higher, and I wondered if some of the same papers were still waiting on the bottom of the stack.

I was both anxious and terrified to hear what Taylor had to say, which is why I studied the framed photo of Allie that sat on the desk in front of the papers.

“Are you done staring at that picture?” Taylor pulled my attention away from the photo.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Good.” Taylor stepped further into the room. “I thought we’d never get a few minutes to talk.”

“It’s been crazy.” I stared at the door. Owen was probably waiting right on the other side.

“You’re telling me.” Taylor shook her head. “But I guess you’re used to flying that way, huh?”

“I am. Kind of.” Was Taylor really thrown off from flying? Being an Allure brought so many crazy things with it, but I guess flying wasn’t one of them. My experience with flying came from a completely different reason. “I wish I were more used to it. I could do it all the time.”

“What you mean is you wish you could spend all your time with Owen.” She rolled her eyes.

“Something like that.” She was right of course.

“You love him.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate with my answer, although the feeling behind it felt odd. The numbness was getting worse. I needed to fight. I wasn’t giving up love.

“Yet you’re an Allure.” Taylor’s voice lilted as if asking a question.

“Unfortunately.”

“You don’t like the gift?” There was something about her voice that made it hard to tell what she was getting at. I didn’t know whether she was being serious or not.

“No.” I hopped up onto the desk. “Not at all. It is not something I ever wanted.”

“Despite the beauty and the power?” Taylor eyed the empty chairs.

“Yes.” The desk had seemed like a better option than the chairs. I liked sitting up higher. It gave me an artificial feeling of being in control.

“Despite the immortality?”

“Immortality is overrated.” Who wants to live forever without those they love?
I’m not supposed to love.
The answer to my question ran through my head.

“Says the girl who’s only just started to experience it.” Taylor sat down beside me. “It’s supposed to happen so differently. Has anyone explained the real process to you?”

“No, and I don’t care.” I didn’t care about anything but changing back.

She ignored me. “You’re supposed to lose emotion. The numbness fades away as you manipulate and the essence grows. The more you manipulate the faster it grows until its whole again.”

“But you can never give a piece of it again?” I definitely had major holes in my Allure knowledge.

“Nope.” She shook her head. “It’s a one-time deal. Each Allure gets to give once.”

“I want my life back. Well, my life plus Owen.” I never wanted to go back to life before him. I couldn’t even imagine that anymore.

“I admit he’s cute.”

“He’s more than cute.” He was the most attractive man I’d ever met. I still remembered the first moment I saw him. His expression-filled eyes had pulled me in. But it was more than his appearance that had me hooked. It was his heart, his humor. The way he made me feel alive and whole.

She laughed. “I wasn’t putting him down.”

“I know.” I did. Just as I knew this conversation wasn’t supposed to be about Owen. “But what did you want to talk about?”

“There’s a lot that I want to talk about, but we only have time to discuss a few things.”

“Then we should probably start discussing them.” I glanced at the clock on the wall. That was new since the last time I’d been in the office.

“And there’s that edge to you again. It disappears when you talk about Owen.”

“Don’t change the subject again.” Mentioning Owen was a very easy way to distract me, but I wouldn’t let that work this time.

“Fine.” She nodded. “How much do you know about the Allures you were spending time with?”

“Only what they told me.” And that hadn’t been much. I’d had to pull details about their lives from them.

“In other words, almost nothing.”

“Pretty much.” But it hadn’t mattered before. “Are you really Roland’s maker?”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. She opened it again. “Why do you ask?”

“Because he seemed pretty hung up on you disappearing.” And unfortunately he transferred his feelings to me.

She ran her teeth over her bottom lip. “He came onto you I assume.”

I frowned at the mention of it. “Yes. Annoyance was one thing I could still feel, and he made me feel it a lot.”

“Poor Roland.” She looked off across the room.

“You chose him.”

“I did.” She swung her legs.

“Why?”

She laughed. That wasn’t the response I was expecting. She laughed and laughed.

“Is there a reason you’re laughing?”

“It’s how you said it. Like it’s crazy I chose him as a companion.”

“No offense, but he wouldn’t be my choice.” I rested a hand between us on the desk.

“I am well aware of who your choice would be.”

“But I wouldn’t want to pick Owen.” I hoped to never be in the position to have to. “I would never want to subject him to a life without emotions.”

“You shouldn’t even care anymore.” She hopped off the desk.

“I know.” But for one reason or another I did.

“So something is wrong.”

“Or something is right.” That was how I was going to look at myself now. Not as a broken Allure, but as someone too attuned to emotions to give them up.

“That’s an interesting way to look at your situation.”

“It’s the only way I’m looking at it now.” I looked up at the white ceiling.

“This positive attitude thing is a bit hard to take. It’s too unexpected.”

“There’s nothing wrong with unexpected.” Many of the best things in life are surprises. Although many of the worst are too.

“There’s plenty wrong with it.”

“Enough!” I hopped off the desk. “Either talk about what was so important you dragged me in here, or we’re going back to the others.” I was done wasting time. Owen was on the other side of the door, and if Taylor couldn’t help me I’d have sure rather have been with him.

“How well do you know this place?” She gestured to the office, but I knew she was talking about more than the room.

“The Society?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Not all that well.” I told her the truth. I knew only what I’d learned from Owen, and it wasn’t his favorite topic of conversation.

“Then what I have to tell you may not be as hard for you to handle as I’d feared.”

“Ok.” I braced myself.

“You can’t trust them.”

“Oh.” Trust was a weighted word. I only trusted one other person in the world anymore. Well aside from my family, and I couldn’t see them without taking the chance of getting them in trouble. That meant I couldn’t see them. I wasn’t putting anyone else in harm’s way.

“You can’t trust the Allures either. Or the Elders. Or Wyatt. Or even your lover boy, Owen. Or anyone really.”

“Or you?” I asked slowly. I fought off the seed of doubt about Owen. I needed to trust him. It was the only thing I had.

“You probably shouldn’t, but I need you to.”

“Need me to?” The fact that she said that she needed me to, not the other way around didn’t go unnoticed.

“It’s the only chance either of us has to survive.”

“To survive?” She was talking about my life or death now? “Please explain.”

“You’re probably wondering how I’m alive.”

“Yes. That thought has crossed my mind more than a few times.”

“Which it should have. I’m supposed to be dead.” She slumped into one of the seats.

“But you’re not…” At least she seemed perfectly alive to me. But what did I know? Maybe corpses walked around like normal people if they were former Allures.

“Nope. I’m alive. But not for long.”

“Not for long?”

She pulled her knees up to her chest. “I’m living on borrowed time.”

“Borrowed time?” I raised an eyebrow. “Care to explain?”

“When they took my essence I thought I was dead. I think I did die at first. Well, not really. Evidently they thought they’d killed me because they threw me in a ditch and buried me.”

“Wait. Who is ‘they’?” I got chills.

“You don’t know?” Taylor narrowed her eyed.

“I know there was a witch… Kalisa.” The last time I’d seen her she was being dragged off by Louie’s men. She’d been the root of most of my problems, but I still didn’t want to think about her being tortured—or worse.

“She was just a pawn. She wasn’t the one behind it.”

“Then who was?” I wasn’t surprised by Taylor’s words. Kalisa had told us she was working for someone else.

“I can’t believe you haven’t figured it out.” Taylor put her feet back down on the ground.

“Tell me.” I wasn’t going to play games.

“I’m not sure if I should.” Taylor looked down at the floor.

“Nuh uh. None of that. Tell me.”

“What did Roland tell you about me?” She looked up at my eyes.

“Not much. Just that he missed you. And since I had your essence… well you know. I reminded him of you or whatever.”

Her face hardened. “Glad I left such an impression on him.”

“He can’t feel…” And I suddenly understood the significance of that. Even if you had half of another Allure’s essence you still couldn’t feel for them.

“Sometimes the sex can fool you into thinking you do.” She looked off again. She seemed lost in thought half of the time.

“Yeah… I heard that. Sort of.”

“Is that how he tried to get you to sleep with him?” She crossed her legs.

“One of the ways. He said it would help with the numbness.”

“Numbness?”

“Yes. The numbness. Why am I not surprised that you don’t know what I’m talking about?” I sighed.

“I do know… but it was never much of a problem. It’s supposed to be a quick change.”

I shrugged. “Not for me. Nothing seems to happen the way it was meant to happen.”

“Or it happened exactly the way it was meant to be. Isn’t that how you’re supposed to spin it?” Taylor smirked. “Since you’re all positive about things right now.”

I shrugged. “True.” I waited a moment before repeating my question. “Tell me. Who took your essence?”

She said nothing for a few moments. Instead she played with a loose string on her t-shirt. Finally, when I was about ready to repeat my question, she answered. “I don’t know.”

I forced myself to keep my annoyance down. “Uh, you just chided me for not knowing.”

“Because I hoped it would make you spill the beans.”

“Why did you think I would know? Because I have it?”

She shook her head. “No. I know you didn’t do it, but you’ve spent a lot of time with someone who might have.”

“Who?” This was news to me. I thought about the Elders, the Dragos. Is that why she wanted to talk alone? She wanted to get away from Wyatt?

“Violet.” She said a name I hadn’t been expecting.

“Uh…” I struggled to come up with an answer. “Why would Violet have wanted to do that?”

Without a moment’s hesitation Taylor answered. “Because she hates me.”

“She hates you because…”

“The because doesn’t matter. She was behind it. I’m sure of it.” Taylor slumped down in the chair again. This time so far, she nearly slipped off the chair.

“Then why not confront her?”

“Are you crazy?” Taylor looked at me as if I had two heads. “Confront Violet? Do you know who her maker is?”

“Uh…”

“Abe. The leader of the Elders… I thought you met them. I doubt you’d forget him.”

Abe. The mention of his name made me shudder. No wonder everyone held Violet in such reverence. Her maker was the head Elder. “I…I guess you have a point then.”

“You see why confronting her is not my first choice. But now I’m looking at death, so I’m done waiting.”

“Why?” I looked her over. She appeared perfectly fine from the outside. “What’s wrong? Why do you think you’re going to die?”

She sat up. “I can hear it.”

“Hear what?” I strained my ears to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious.

“The ticking clock.” She pulled her knees up to her chest again. “It never stops.”

“Um…” I struggled to come up with some reasonable response.

“I’m not crazy!” She yelled.

There was a loud knock on the door. “Daisy? You okay?” Owen’s worried voice called.

“Yes.” I sure hoped I was. “I’m fine.”

“I’m not crazy.” Taylor spoke softly this time.

“I believe you.” I replied right away. “I know what it’s like when everyone assumes you lost your mind. It’s one of the worst feelings ever, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” I’d spent years in therapy because of it. “But tell me more. What kind of ticking clock?”

“It’s a constant ticking, and it’s speeding up.”

“You hear it all the time?” I asked to buy myself time to think.

“Not when I’m sleeping.”

“I guess that’s good. You get a short break.” I continued to struggle for words. Being on the other side of this was harder than I thought.

Taylor lowered her knees and scooted to the end of her seat. “Can I have it back?”

“Excuse me?” I watched her looking for a sign she was joking.

“The essence.” Her eyes got wide. “You don’t want it. I do.”

“Uh.. .you just told me you’re going to die without it. I feel for you, but I don’t particularly want to die either, especially if there’s a chance I can keep my feelings.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.” She clasped her hands together in her lap.

“Then how did you mean it?”

“Maybe we could split it? Like you give me half of your essence.”

“Like I’m selecting you as my companion?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Kind of. I mean it was mine to begin with.” She stood up.

“Do you really want to be an Allure again?” I looked at her long and hard. “To return to that emotionless state?”

“I want to live. I want to live forever.”

“If I could give it back to you I would, but I’m not giving my life for you.” I had too much to live for. Owen, my parents. I had barely started my life. I’d have sacrificed myself to save a friend in heartbeat, but Taylor wasn’t my friend. Even if I was giving her the chance to talk, that didn’t mean I trusted her in the slightest.