Love (The Allure Chronicles Book 4) (5 page)

"
W
hy am
I not surprised they left?" I wasn't annoyed at Owen exactly. How could I be? He'd done so much to help me, and I knew his visit to the Dragos wasn’t a social one, but I was afraid. I was afraid of him getting hurt, and I was afraid the numbness would return now that we were separated. I already felt it spreading when I dealt with Taylor. I couldn’t handle if I lost all emotion again. Would I have the strength to fight to get them back? It wouldn't happen. I could hold off the numbness. I was strong enough, and it was worth any effort. Owen was worth it.  

"Because those boys never stay out of trouble." Allie leaned back against the couch. "Eventually you get used to it."

"Is Levi's life always like this?"

"This hard to predict? Always involved in something?" Allie stretched out her long legs. She looked far more tired than the last time I’d seen her. I felt guilty knowing Levi was away because of me. Even if she was used to it—it couldn’t have been easy.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Mostly, but he's tried to be home more." She rested her head back.

"How's your job going?" I was making small talk, but I was also curious. I couldn’t imagine what life was like for a queen.

"Busy." Allie tugged down on the fabric of her navy blue dress. "But I like it that way."

"You have a job?" Taylor’s eyes widened. “As in a real job?”

"Why do you sound so surprised?" Allie put a hand to her chest.

"Because you’re a supernatural queen. Isn't your job to smile and look pretty?" Taylor crossed her arms.

Allie took in a sharp breath. "Yeah. I'm not that kind of queen."

Taylor nodded. "Ok. Maybe The Society has changed."

"You're older than you look?” Allie asked.

"Yes, but nothing crazy. I’m not a hundred or anything. And I didn't ever really know The Society. I mean my mom is friends with your grandmother-in-law.”

"Your mother is friends with Georgina?" Allie crossed her legs and leaned forward.

"Yes." Taylor smiled. “Old friends. Her name is Mayanne, but I can’t imagine you’ve heard of her.”

“Mayanne?” I froze. Was she serious? "The witch who’s a healer?”

“That’s one way to describe her sort of magic.” Taylor grinned. “You have heard of her?”

"Yes. She’s helped me." More than once. She’d saved me. She was also the first person to suggest I had an actual chance with Owen. She’d seen something the first time she met us—even if I was close to death.

"She's helped me too." Allie rested her hands in her lap. "I owe her my life."

"Same here." I would never be able to repay the debt I owed her.

"Wow.” Taylor rolled her shoulders back. “My mom has been busy."

"Haven't you missed her?” Allie leaned back. It was a subject change, but one that made sense.

"Recently yes, but I haven't had the nerve to face her. I felt nothing when I was an Allure." She looked at me as she said the last part. 

"The nerve?" Allie asked for clarification.

“I left with the man my mother had a crush on.”

"Wow. This story gets more and more interesting." Allie leaned forward.

“Had a crush on?” That wasn’t a saying I associated with adults.

"Yes, a crush.” Taylor shook out her long brown hair. “She didn't love him."

“How can you be sure of that?” I was being unnecessarily nosy and borderline rude, but I didn’t care. The numbness was spreading. I was sure of it.

"If it had been love he would have chosen her. He didn’t.”

"Who's the he?" Allie asked.

My stomach turned as I realized exactly who it was. Could a mother and daughter have really fought over Louie?

My distaste must have shown on my face.

Taylor turned to me. "You don't find Louie attractive?"

"I haven’t seen him in a while, and I hope to avoid him for the foreseeable future."

"Not a fan of my creator or the one I created.” Taylor stood up. “It's odd."

"Should she be?" Allie asked. “A fan of them?”

"She has my essence, so yes." Taylor began pacing the room.

"Louie, no. Just no. He creeped me out. No offense. And Roland had a calming effect on me until he started coming on to me. Then not so much."

Allie’s eyes widened. "Your life has been crazy, Daisy."

"I've heard your life was nuts for a while too." And I had a feeling the stories I’d heard were only the tip of the iceberg.

"Oh yes." She looked off into the distance as if remembering something. "I’ve had my share of crazy experiences, but that’s not worth going into right now."

"No. Not when we have things to deal with currently." Taylor had stopped pacing and stood there watching. “Important things to deal with.”

"Don’t even try to convince me to die so you can be an Allure again." I decided to cut right to the chase before she could go down that line of talk again. I didn't want to subject Allie to listening to what my response would be this time. It wouldn’t be pretty. I wasn’t that numb.

"Yeah, Daisy isn't dying." Allie scooted to the edge of the couch. "And you had better not want her to, or you are going to have me to deal with."

Taylor held her hands up in front of her. "I don't want her to die. That’s not what I meant, but Daisy wouldn't give me the chance to finish explaining."

"Because once the part about my death came up I knew it wasn't something I wanted to discuss." Maybe I was being selfish. Taylor did say she was living on borrowed time, but I didn't want to die. I had so much more in life I wanted to experience.

Taylor groaned. “Listen. I want my essence back. You want to be human again. We might be able to make this work.”

"You've heard of safely removing an Allure essence from someone?" Allie held onto the cushion of the couch. “I thought that was impossible. At least from all the information I’ve found.”

"I'm alive." Taylor put a hand to her chest. “It’s possible.”

"Yet you told me you were on borrowed time." I raised an eyebrow. "That's not reassuring."

"Borrowed time?" Allie narrowed her eyes. “What does that even mean?”

Taylor threw me a look, and I knew she wanted to make sure I didn't say anything about the ticking. Her secret was safe with me— unless she kept pushing the ‘take the essence back’ thing. I wanted to give it back but only with some guarantees in place. Although I also knew there would never be a guarantee. Only a hope. But a real one. A real hope that one day I'd fully feel emotions again. 

"Daisy wants to feel again, and we're going to make that happen." Allie reached over and took my hand. "We're not going to give up until it happens."

"You have more confidence than I do." I looked at our joined hands.

“It's easier to be confident when you are watching from the outside."

I nodded, "Maybe."

Allie squeezed my hand and then let go. "So did you and Owen get any alone time?"

"We got some alone time." I smiled.

"And?" Allie gestured with her hand for me to continue. "Did it still feel like something?"

"Yes. Amazing.” Amazing was far too tame of a word for what we’d experienced, but I wasn’t going to gross out the queen—or someone who may or may not have been my enemy. “I won't lose that again."

“Wait, you and Owen have had sex since you've been an Allure?' Taylor sat down on the chair catty-corner from me. “When?”

I was too numb to feel embarrassed, but that didn’t mean I had any interest in discussing my sex life with Taylor. "Yes. Not that it’s your business."

“Yet it’s Allie’s business?” Taylor raised an eyebrow. “It’s more my business than hers.”

"Allie isn’t try to kill me.”

"Or so you think. You never know who's really trying to kill you." Taylor rolled her eyes toward Allie.

"Now would be a good time to reassure her that you also have no intention of killing her." Allie folded her hands in her lap. “That would have been the logical and normal thing for you to do, but you aren’t either of those things.”

"Why would I bother reassuring her?” Taylor frowned. "She's not going to believe me no matter what I say."

"Still, if you cared, you'd try."

"Who said I cared?” Taylor laughed dryly. "Just because I got my emotions back doesn't mean I really use them."

Taylor was something else. I couldn't completely hate the girl. She’d been through so much—even if the initial part had been voluntary. Although that was an assumption. Maybe you don't get a choice when an Allure offers you half their essence. That wasn't a concern I imagined even got discussed by the Allures. They couldn’t care, so they didn't.
They.
What I meant was
we
. I was still an Allure whether I wanted to be or not. 

"Well, I care." Allie straightened up.

"Yes, I got that. You care even though I have no idea why. You're a queen, and she's just a girl involved with an employee." Taylor looked away.

"An employee?" Allie rose to her feet. "Do you actually think we view Owen that way?"

"How else do you view him?" Taylor crossed her arms.

"As family. He's an uncle to my kids. His sister is their godmother. Got it?" Allie stepped toward Taylor.

"Who’s his sister?” Taylor jumped to her feet. 

“Hailey. She’s amazing, my best friend and chief advisor.” Allie smiled.

The door bagged open, and Hailey walked in. "Man do I have good timing or what?"  

"Hailey!" Allie ran and threw her arms around the redhead’s waist. "You’re back."

"I am.” Hailey hugged Allie back, and then broke the contact. “I can't say I have good news though."

"What happened?" I wasn't responding to her words as much as her appearance. Her long hair was a mess, and she had dirt all over her clothes. The most disturbing part was the blood on her forehead.

"Yes.” Allie stepped back, as if suddenly noticing her friend’s disheveled appearance. "Yes, what happened?"

"I'm not saying anything until one of you tells me who she is." Hailey pointed to Taylor.

"Someone you're not going to like." Taylor smiled. "I'll save your friends the effort of trying to be polite. I’m the Allure whose essence Daisy has. I want it back, and I want to get back at the people who took it."

"We're not fans of those people either.” Hailey took in Taylor. “Considering my guess is they had something to do with Daisy getting it."

"I'm sure they did. Everything in life is connected." Taylor clasped her hands together.

"I may not like you, but I do like that you are a straight shooter." Hailey pulled a hair tie from her wrist and pulled her messy hair into a bun.

"I am when I want to be." Taylor smiled again.

"And then you had to go and add that." Hailey sighed.

"Taylor is really good at that. Saying the worst things at the worst times." She seemed to do it constantly.

"But can we trust her?" Hailey asked.

"She already knows a lot..." Allie shrugged. “I’m not sure a little bit more information could hurt.”

"Then I'll go ahead and tell you." Hailey turned to me. “By the way, nice to see you Daisy.”

“Nice to see you too.” After a moment’s hesitation I hugged her. I didn’t know Hailey well, but she was Owen’s sister.

Hailey seemed startled by the hug but not put off.

I waited nervously for Hailey to tell the story. The condition she was in couldn't be a good thing for me since she’d been looking for an herb to help me.

“Well, first the good news." Hailey looked down at the ground for a moment and then back up.

"There’s some good news?" A small glimmer of hope flowed through me. I hadn’t been expecting that.

"Yes.” Hailey nodded. “We found the herb. My uncle Jim thinks it can help you."

"That's really good news." I digested it as I braced myself for the second part. The bad news was more likely than not going to counteract the good. "And the bad news?" I asked nervously.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a second before answering. "Someone stole it."

"Who?" Taylor sounded suddenly interested.

“A Shadow.”

"A Shadow?"  My chest clenched as I remembered the vile dark vapor like creature that had attacked us in the Glamour Realm. 

"Yes." Hailey nodded solemnly.

"A Shadow?" Allie put a hand to her throat. "Does every awful creature I've heard about actually exist?"

"Yes, and then some." Taylor nodded. “Get used to it.”

"Don't sound so happy about it,” Hailey grumbled.

"I'm not happy. You'd know if I were happy."

"My guess is we'd also know if you were mad,” I added.

"Oh yes, you would. So quit worrying about me.”

She had a point. "For the short term I will.”

"Who's going to tell me what a Shadow really is?" Allie asked. “I only read two lines about them in one of Georgina’s books.” 

"I'll let Hailey tell you." I pushed off the onus on her. "But you might want to sit down for this.”

I
don’t know
where I thought the Dragos would be waiting, but I didn’t think it would be in Colorado. I couldn’t quite believe I was back here again. I was back in the place where I'd had no plans to ever return to. Not that it mattered. Any place away from Daisy was a bad place for me. We had so much time to make up for, and I still didn’t trust that her feelings wouldn’t slip away again. The thought sent a pang of fear through me.

I needed to keep my head clear and focused. Worrying about Daisy wasn't going to help her. And helping her was exactly what I needed to do. Having her safety tied into The Society was unexpected, but if it meant we had more help, it was a good thing.

We flew over Coleville, and I thought of Clyde. I wondered if he'd figured out I was gone. As in really gone. I felt a tad guilty about the whole thing. I'd left him in the lurch on the bar deal, but it wasn’t as if I had a choice. I’d left in a rush and leaving a note wouldn’t have made any difference. I was sure he was fine, and I'd check back in once life returned to normal. Well, life would never return to normal if normal meant life before Daisy. But life when I wasn't constantly worried about losing the woman I loved. Or the crazy Elders trying to take out The Society.

"Let me take the lead on this." Jared broke the silence that had set in as we neared our destination.

"Why would we do that?" This was Levi’s mission first since he was king, and mine second since it concerned Daisy. If anything I should have taken the lead. I was the one who first met the Dragos, and the Elders were after Daisy foremost. "This relates to me the most."

"And I'm king, which means I always take the lead."  Levi left no room for argument.

"You had to play the king card?" Jared groaned. "You'd think one day you'd come up with something more original."

"I played the prince card for years. I haven't been king all that long."

"There was no playing the prince card. You played the ‘I'm going to be king’ card." I joked. 

"You two made out well because I played the card." Levi flew ahead. "Need I remind you how much trouble I kept you out of over the years because of it?”

"If I'm remembering correctly, I wasn't the one getting in trouble. Unless you counted when I was forced to go along with your crazy plans." I was always the level-headed one. The one who tried to keep Levi from getting in over his head with stupid ideas Jared usually came up with.

"Wait." Jared flew around me. "You are finally admitting to being the loser who would have never done anything on his own?" 

"Loser? Is that what you call people who make sane, logical decisions?” I flew toward him.

Jared moved out of the way at the last moment.

"You both are losers." Levi turned back toward us. "Ok?"

We started to descend toward the blur of grey and brown mountains. It was late at night, and the stone looked forbidding in the moonlight. 

"Why are we meeting here exactly?" Jared asked exactly what I was thinking.  

"They have a temporary den here," Levi replied calmly.

He had to be kidding. A den? “You said we were meeting on neutral ground."

"Because I didn't want to deal with your argument if you knew it wasn't."

"Why did you give in?” Jared asked. “It’s not like you.”

"Because the other choice was to go to another realm." Levi landed beside a large boulder. "Would you have preferred that?"

"No." Being in a different state from Daisy was bad enough. Being in a different world was absolutely out of the question. 

Levi grinned. "See. I can see the wheels turning in your head. I'm right."

"Fine. I prefer this, but we have to be smart."

"Aren't we always smart?" Levi retracted his wings.

"No comment." Jared gazed all around. "We go in, find out what help they want, what the situation is, and we leave. We promise nothing until we talk about it. Make them sweat it. Got it?"

"When did you get so level headed?" Levi grinned.

"About the time you got married." Jared nodded toward Levi.

Levi laughed. "Allie got to both of you. Not as much as she changed me, but still some."

“She did.” I couldn’t deny it. She’d changed us all in some way.

"Welcome." Wyatt walked toward us in the darkness.

"We came to the place you designated." Levi addressed him. "Let's get down to business."

"Business?" Wyatt quirked an eyebrow. "You're considering this business?"

"What else would I consider it?" Levi appeared unmoved.

Wyatt’s eyes darkened. "The future of both of our kinds."

Jared laughed. "Getting a little bit dramatic aren't you?"

Wyatt's expression remained stony. "This is nothing to laugh about." He turned to me. "Maybe your friend can explain to you the kind of creatures we are dealing with."

The worst kind. I'd only gotten a taste of the destruction the Elders could cause, but it was enough. They were the worst kind of creatures because they got pleasure out of hurting others. It wasn't only about what they could gain, but what pain they could cause in the process. 

Levi touched my shoulder. "Owen's told us plenty." He was thinking of my wings. What he didn't understand was that it wasn't the wings I was thinking about. It was Daisy's tears and cries. It was the way my heart split into pieces when I was pulled away from her.

And the Dragos did nothing during all that. They did nothing to help us. They helped the Elders tear us apart.

I turned to Wyatt. "Why did you help them?"

He looked me right in the eye. "Because we had no choice."

I shook my head. "I don't believe it."

"Wait." Wyatt’s brows furrowed. "Who are you talking about? The Elders or the Allures?"

"Both." Violet, Hugh, and Roland, especially Roland, were no friends of mine. They were using Daisy. They were willing to hurt her because it suited them. 

"I've known Violet for years. I owe her favors." Wyatt kicked the dirt with his black boot.

"Then why didn't you go to them for help?" Levi asked. "Why come to us? Couldn’t you have gotten more favors from them if the Allures are as powerful as they want us to believe?”

"Because Violet is powerless to help us this time. Not with her connection to Abe."

"The leader of the Elders." Hearing his name made my stomach turn. 

"What's the connection?" Jared asked nonchalantly. That was part of how he was so successful. He could stay calm and collected and make people believe he didn't care. Not always though. Not when it came to his own life. If this had been about his wife, the conversation would have gone very differently. 

"He's her creator. She has half his essence, and she's going to be the next elder." Wyatt looked at me as he spoke. "Or she would have been."

"What do you mean would have been?" Switching to the past tense wasn't an accident. 

"Daisy changed everything.” Wyatt glanced behind him in the darkness and then back at us. “The power she might wield..."

"You think the Elders want to make her one of them?" I didn’t fully understand the motivations at play. I’d been thinking they wanted to kill her—not make her part of their circle.

"Not for any reason good for her.” Wyatt leaned in. “Because they want to use her."

"Use her for what exactly?" Levi asked nearly as calmly as Jared. He cared. I knew he did, but it was different. He handled things entirely differently anytime Allie was in danger. And she'd been in danger before. He was even more protective now that he was a dad. 

"Not anything good." Wyatt looked at me. "But if our plan works she won't be used at all."

"What's the plan?" I was afraid of any plan he had to offer.

"That's the reason you're here." Wyatt gestured to the entrance of a cave. "To discuss our plan."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Jared headed toward the month of the cave without waiting for Wyatt.

Wyatt jumped in front of him. "Let me go first. You don't want to catch my friends off guard."

"Don't they know we're coming?" Levi froze.

"They know I called someone in, but I don't believe they know who is coming exactly." 

"Oh wonderful." I hoped we weren't walking into a fight. Dragos and Pterons didn't know each other anymore so it's not like it was something I'd experienced before, but a fight between our kinds didn't sound like a particularly good idea. Unless it came down to Daisy. Then I’d fight anyone. 

"They will be grateful for your help when all is said and done,” Wyatt assured us. "We need your cooperation whether they want to admit it or not."

"This is going to take longer than the few hours I promised Allie." Levi winced.

Jared nodded. "Yes it is, but it's not as if she will be surprised.”