PHENOMENAL GIRL 5 (24 page)

Far be it from me to agree with a villain trying to kill us, but I could tell Wesley was already straining to keep the shield up. It was time to take action. “Can he fly?” I asked Wesley.

“You know more about him than I do.”

“Let’s find out,” I said, grabbing him and bolting up into the sky. Talon shot a blast of magic at us, but I swerved and it missed.

“You needed to mind your own business and stay out of this, Old One!” Talon yelled after us. “You can’t stop the Divine One from coming.”

I flew around a building, putting space between us. “Do you think Fantazia told him about us?” I asked.

“She said she wouldn’t.”

“And you believe that tramp?”

“Hey, she’s not a tramp!”

“Just because she’s—”

I screamed as Talon appeared right in front of us. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, shooting a blast of energy right at me. Lucky for us, Wesley’s shield was still up. I still took some of the blow and plummeted, but at the last moment glided around the corner of a building, crash-landing in front of an abandoned ware house. Instinct had led me to take the fight somewhere with fewer civilians.

“It’s not fair that he can teleport, too,” I grumbled.

“If he can, then where is he?”

“For God’s sake, don’t wish him on us, Wes. Maybe he gave up.”

“I need a power boost,” Wesley panted. “He’s right, I can’t hold on to the shield and do any sort of offensive spell with the levels I’m at now.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do? I still can’t teleport long distances, and I don’t think we want to chance him following us home and killing us there.”

“I…I need to take the power from you.”

“Huh?”

His face hardened and he stared at me. “You have part of my soul; you have part of my power. It came from me, so I can tap into it. I need to take some of it back.”

“Permanently?”

“Well, it’s like a blood transfusion. You’ll replace it in time.”

“Is it going to hurt?”

“Probably not as much as dying will if you don’t stop questioning me and just let me do it!” he blasted.

I glared at him. “Fine. Take it.” I held out an arm.

“I didn’t mean the blood thing literally,” he groused, looking heavenward as if asking God why I was stupid and annoying. He put his hands on either side of my head and spouted off something in rapid-fire Italian, of which I only picked up bits. The last Italian word was barely spoken before what felt like an electric current ran through me. And I had been electrocuted before, so I had a basis for comparison. It didn’t hurt as bad as Syn’s attack on me, but it was damn close.

He let go of me and I collapsed onto my hands and knees, curling up for a moment, concentrating on moving my sore body. Tears were streaming down my face.

“I’m sorry, Lainey,” he said.

“Don’t talk to me,” I growled, closing my eyes. I wasn’t really mad at him, just still in terrible pain. “That freaking hurt.”

“Not as much as this is going to,” I heard. That psycho Talon had appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to blast me with some sort of spell. I flew backward, slamming into a car, my already sore limbs going numb.

“Just stay down!” Talon ordered me, as if I could move of my own accord. “I’ll take care of you later. You and I have dealings, Old One. You were not meant to be involved.”

“But I am now.” I heard the glass in the windows of the ware house rattle and my skin started to tingle. Wesley was preparing to fight.

“Your theatrics don’t scare me, or your reputation. I have gazed upon real power and yours is nothing,” the villain bragged.

“And you shouldn’t waste time gloating.” There was a loud explosion, and I managed to drag myself behind the safety of the car door as glass shards rained down on us.

I shuddered, trying to stay conscious, but the sides of my vision kept going dark and all my eyes wanted to do was close. I heard the sounds of a battle, and knew it was Talon fighting Wesley. Praying he hadn’t taken all of what little magic I had, I whispered the Italian words to a healing spell and felt it take effect. I could move again, though I felt like a walking bruise. Wesley had depleted me with his power transfer, but I had a feeling some bones would have been broken had the magic not worked.

I got to my unsteady feet to see Talon shooting some sort of fireball at Wesley. But his back was to me. Seizing the advantage, I flew over, wound up, and punched the psycho as hard as I could in the back of the head, not caring if I killed him.

He must have had a shield up, because my fist would have gone straight through his skull otherwise. As it was, he flew through the concrete wall several feet behind him.

I turned back to Wesley, who looked exhausted and had several bleeding cuts and burn marks on his skin. I probably didn’t look too much better.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What?”

That was all the warning I got before he did it again: grabbed me by the head and zapped me with his draining spell. This time, my throat burned with my screams and tears streamed down my face. I fell to the ground boneless and whimpering as he released me.

I heard Talon laughing, and he stood up amidst the wreckage. “The Master will be pleased when I bring back your skull, Old One. You’re too weak to fight me for long.”

“
Alle terre scure con voi
,” Wesley spoke. I recognized the Italian—it was a banishment spell—and then the entire ground shook.

“Sending me to the Darklands won’t help, Reincarnist. Our time nears!” Talon screamed. But then his words cut off. A harsh silence followed. I lay still on the ground, unable to move and crying to myself.

“Lainey, oh Lainey, I’m so, so sorry,” Wesley said, and I heard the gravel under him shift as he bent over; then I felt his hands hovering over me. “I couldn’t do the banishing spell without a little more power, I’m sorry. I had to get him out of here before he killed the both of us!”

“Did you want to kill me yourself?” I spat as he tried to make me more comfortable. “Don’t touch me!”

“I could do a healing spell…”

“You do another spell on me and I will take your damn head off!” I got on my hands and knees, swearing like a trucker had inhabited my body. I rested there for a moment, willing my body to work. Right now, I had to be tough, not show any weakness. I had to show him I could handle anything this job threw at me and not that I was stinging from betrayal at how he had used me.

“I didn’t want to hurt you…”

“Then I’d hate to see what you’re like when you set out to hurt somebody.” I was able to get to my feet.

He backed off. “I had to,
cara
, I’m sorry.”

My head snapped to attention. “What did you just call me?”

He looked astonished. “I don’t know; it just came to me.”

I slapped him on the arm—a girly thing to do, I know, but it was the only violent gesture I could manage in my current state of mind without hurting him. He looked just as shocked as if I’d punched him. “You can’t call me that. Especially after what you just did.” I smacked him again.

He caught my hand in his. “I don’t understand. Didn’t I used to call you that?”

I wrenched my hand away and he moved back, but not before I managed to smack him again. “Robert did. But you’re not him!” I emphasized each word with a smack.

He looked exhausted. “Lainey…”

Turning away, I wrapped my arms around myself, as if that would ward off the pain, and whispered the words to the healing spell again. Nothing this time; I was tapped out. That only angered me further, and I lashed out with a nasty glare over my shoulder. “He never hurt me, and that’s all you ever do.”

Wesley’s face hardened. “Stop it.”

But I couldn’t. I had to get it out. I turned to face him, my mouth a thin line of barely concealed hurt. “All you do is bring me pain.”

“Stop it, Lainey.”

“Over and over again.”

“God damn it,
stop it
!” He grabbed me with brute force, one hand on my back, crushing me against him, and one on the back of my head, pulling my hair slightly, and he kissed me roughly. His mouth forced mine open. I made a bare effort to resist that we both knew was for show, and then gave in. I had to: it was one of those kisses where you had to give back as much as you were getting or risk being devoured. My hands slid up his back, pulling him close against me with
a small whimper of pleasure. He gave a soft groan into my mouth as my tongue danced with his and the tension went out of his body. He was so familiar and yet so different, the same scent of soap and
male
, but he tasted more like that heavily scented tea he drank. I let my hands explore his body, still strong, but in a different way. Just like the way he was holding me was different: still with care, but with a bit more aggressiveness. He wasn’t holding anything back.

Why do we always seem to go at it after a fight?
I wondered, before he released me, breathing heavy and looking dazed.

“Are you calm now?” he gasped.

I stared, lightly touching my face. I had beard-burn from him, his taste was still on my lips, and he was asking me if I was calm? I was in a tailspin. No matter who he was, he still knew how to kiss. But the kiss illustrated what I had been beginning to realize about the differences between him and the man he used to be.

Elements I had liked about Robert were still in Wesley, but I was starting to fall in love with Wesley for himself.

How bizarre was that?

It felt like I was betraying Robert, but yet not. Wesley was still him, just in new packaging and with little differences throughout, ones I was really starting to prefer. No matter how much I had loved Robert and how much I knew that he loved me, he had always been reserved. Wesley was more open than Robert ever was, even in our closest moments. He didn’t hold back.

“Lainey? Are you okay?”

I realized I had been staring off into space ever since he kissed me. “No. I still hate you.” My tone conveyed the opposite sentiment, though.

He flashed me a grin. “I could tell.”

“Yeah, that was an interesting way of snapping me out of it,” I said.

“It was better than slapping you,” he retorted, holding
out a hand. “If you’re okay now, let’s teleport home. I want to get out of here—just in case.”

I took his hand. “Okay.” He wasn’t going to say anything else? Like, let’s go home and pick up where we left off?

In a flash, we were back home. He didn’t get sick this time, though. I guess my power had helped. My stomach rolled a bit, but my dinner stayed where it was. And I had just been getting used to being able to teleport without feeling queasy.

He kept hold of my hand, like always, and reached up to brush back a strand of my hair, an intimate gesture. “You alright?”

I shivered at the touch. “I’m getting there.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“You’ve said that before.”

“It bears repeating.” He leaned forward like he was going to kiss me again, and my eyes half closed as I moved toward him.

He stopped, looking at something beyond me. “That’s odd. I wonder why Ben’s here.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Rath’s car parked next to Wes’s Escalade.

“He didn’t say he was stopping by, did he?” Wesley let go of my hand and moved away toward the door.

“No.” I ground my teeth in frustration as another moment slipped away.

“Maybe he saw a shift in the magic grid or has news about the spell…”

“Wes!” I caught up to him, determined to not let go of what ever was happening between us.

“Hmm?” he asked, looking distracted.

“Do you want me to stick around?” I touched his arm in what I hoped was a suggestive move.

“Oh, no, that’s alright. You’ve had a long night. I know how draining that had to have been for you. Go rest and I’ll fill you in on the details tomorrow.”

“O-okay.”

“Get some sleep,” he said and opened the door. “Mayhew? Why’s Ben here?”

I caught the door as it started to swing shut, cursing myself for having seductive powers so severely lacking. I headed up to bed.

Nothing in the world mattered except this moment. There might be pain and nights of loneliness on their way, but they weren’t now. I wasn’t alone now. In this moment, I had him, and I had what I always wanted: someone I loved returning that feeling. Everything he did spoke of it, from the way he held me, so gentle and careful, to the way he looked at me, eyes full of warmth and love, communicating volumes without a word.

His skin was warm against mine, and I leaned up to taste it, kissing his throat, feeling his pulse under my mouth. His heart beat so fast, like I knew mine did, reminding me how alive I felt, released and finally free, no longer repressed and hidden. I belonged to him and he to me. I was able to express physically what my heart had always felt.

His mouth reclaimed mine, in soft, chaste, open-mouthed kisses in between whispered endearments in both English and Italian. The soft sheets whispered against my skin in tune to our created rhythm. I dared to look into his eyes, making something already intimate even more so.

“I love you, Robert,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

“I’ll always love you,
cara
. Always.”

And then I woke up in the darkness, cold and alone. I raised a shaking hand to my lips, feeling the ghost of his kisses, the phantom taste of him on my mouth. Unbidden, a sob escaped from my throat, and I cursed it. My dream of Robert’s and my one night together had only reminded me of one thing—how important it was to take any moment I could grasp.

There was a chance Wesley and I could have something on our own. I needed to know if he felt the same, and if so, what we were going to do about it.

I picked out my sexiest dress and descended the stairs to the lair, hearing heavy metal playing this time. He had multiple personalities when it came to music.

“Wes?” I called out, walking into the room in a way I hoped was seductive and not clunky.

I skidded to a stop, seeing Doctor Rath there as well, flipping through a book.

“Good morning, Miss Livingston,” he said cheerfully. “You look nice today. You seem to have recuperated after last night’s events.”