To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (113 page)

“You heard me.”

“
Unbelievable
.”

Lucian cleared his throat.  “Deli—”

“It’s okay, Lucian.  I’ll handle this.”  I flashed him a reassuring smile, and when he returned it, my heart did its stupid fluttering dance and my protective instincts swelled up.  I tore my gaze from Lucian to give Dyvian the most ferocious scowl I could muster.  “Are you blackmailing him?”

He huffed.  “Why do you assume I’m the one blackmailing him and not the other way around?”

“Because Lucian would never do that.”  I turned to beam at Lucian.  “Right, Lucian?”

“Well,” he deflected in all modesty.

“See?”

“He just said ‘well’!”

“Lucian is honorable.  He’s always fair and honest, unlike
some
people.”  Lucian coughed behind me and I turned to him in concern.  “Lucian?”

“Dyvian’s—ah, not that bad and he wasn’t really blackmailing me.”  He avoided my gaze.

I snorted.  “You don’t need to defend him.”

“You’re being unfair.”  Dyvian’s twinkling eyes made it obvious he wasn’t taking any of this seriously.  “I can be nice, too.  In fact, I was actually arguing with Lucian out of concern for you.”

“For me?”

“Dyvian,” Lucian hissed at the same time.

My eyes flitted back and forth between the two brothers.  “What, exactly, were you arguing about?”

“The Voice,” Dyvian intoned, letting the words fall from his tongue like they held the key to the universe’s secrets.

“For God’s sake,” Lucian muttered.

I blinked several times.  “The Voice?  You mean, like The Voice Lucian and I can hear and you can’t?”

A strangely ironic smile played on Dyvian’s lips.  “Got it in one, Deli.  Since he’s so much older and experienced than you are, I wanted to make sure he’d educate you
properly
about The Voice.”

“How?”

He sat on the other end of the sofa and extended his arms on the back.  “Like the fact that The Voice shouldn’t listen to your thoughts all the time.”

I frowned.  “Shouldn’t listen—”

“He means hear,” Lucian stepped in quickly.  “The Voice
may
not be able to hear you all the time.  We know so little about it that it would be foolish to rely on it too much.”

“In fact, I think you should tell me everything The Voice says,” Dyvian suggested.  “Sometimes, you need an outside perspective, and though Lucian here is smarter than I am, he could have been brainwashed—” Dyvian ignored the choking sound coming from Lucian, “—by The Voice.”

“The Voice,” he continued in an oddly careful tone, “just isn’t something you should fully trust at this stage.”

“Dyvian—”

But Dyvian went on, ignoring Lucian’s interruption.  “It’s just not safe for you to completely believe what it’s saying, even if it never wants to hurt you.”

The amount of concern Dyvian was exhibiting unnerved me, and I blurted out, “So when it told me I’m the girl Lucian cares most about, The Voice could have misunderstood things?”  I clapped my hands over my mouth right after, embarrassed at the sort of beans I had spilled.

Dyvian’s eyes gleamed.  “It said that?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“It was lying,” Lucian gritted.

“It wasn’t,” Dyvian countered.

“Lucian?” I appealed, hurt by his words.

For a second there, I thought Lucian would be stubborn—and cruel—enough to maintain his stony silence, but in the end, he just shrugged.

I took that as a yes and nearly jumped in happiness.  “Then it’s true,” I enthused.  “I am the girl you care about most!”

“Like a little sister,” he snarled.

I opened my mouth to argue but Dyvian forestalled with a shake of his head.  “Give the poor guy a break, Deli.”

I grinned.  “Poor guy indeed.”  I sent Lucian a look of sham sympathy.  “I’ve noticed how hard it is for him to acknowledge his true feelings.”

Lucian snatched a magazine from the coffee table, held it up until it covered his entire face, and began to flip through it.

“You’re reading Vogue?”

“Whatever,” he muttered, completely focused on page flipping.

I stepped close to Dyvian and nudged him with my foot to gain his attention.  “That’s really what you guys were talking about?”

“In a nutshell,” he answered with a lazy shrug.

“Lucian?”

Lucian grunted.

But somehow, I still wasn’t completely convinced.  “I don’t think you guys are telling me the truth, but I’ll let it go for now.”

“How magnanimous of you.”  Lucian lowered the magazine long enough to snarl.

“True,” I replied airily while promising myself to Google what magnani-something meant.  Davie had never used that with me.

Dyvian grinned.  “Admit it, Deli.  You just don’t know what—”

“Anyway,” I interrupted him, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I have a little announcement to make.”

“The floor’s yours.”  Dyvian waved a negligent hand.

I took a deep breath.  “I want you two to teach me everything there is to know about Evren powers.”  My announcement took them by surprise, which I expected.

“That’s a sensible decision to make,” Lucian began.

“Especially when the last time we tried to teach you those things, you told us you only wanted to learn the easiest and coolest stuff,” Dyvian ended.

“Well, I’ve changed my mind.”

Lucian’s eyes settled on me in steady contemplation.  “What is this for?”

Another deep breath.  “I need to learn everything because I want to kill my parents’ murderers.”

My task list for my third day in school—second day, technically, considering the little mishap the day before—was slightly unique.  Catch up with homework, catch up with Audrey, practice becoming the toughest Evren chick in town, and maybe, if I was lucky, get Lucian to flirt with me.

But first, I had to get past the bullies.  Beautiful, sexy, and blonde, but you know how bullies come in all shapes and sizes.

“And here I was thinking you had chickened out when you didn’t show up for school yesterday.”

If Queen Melissa thought I was still going to play nice, she was wrong.  Suicidally wrong.  I hadn’t slept a wink last night.  Whether I had my eyes open or closed, the images I saw in my mind stayed the same—Zekans murdering my parents, Zekans after me, and Zekans after Davie.

Needless to say, thoughts of Zekans didn’t put me in a good mood.

“Don’t draw attention to yourself
,
”
the Voice spoke inside my head just as I opened my mouth to let small-town Barbie know exactly what I was capable of.  And I wasn’t even talking about my Evren powers.

“You’re going to endanger everyone—yourself and even your sister.”

I snapped my mouth shut and pasted a smile on my face.  “We just had things to do in Vegas.”

“Whatever.”  Melissa’s fingers made a talking motion.

And that was it.

Gaping as she flounced off with the rest of her entourage, I stayed rooted to my spot, unable to believe that was the end to today’s bullying session.

“You’re wondering why she’s letting you off so easily, huh?”  Audrey suddenly popped in front me with a smirk.

I squealed, throwing my arms around her.  “I missed you.”

She pulled away with a grimace.  “
Deli
.  It’s not as if we hadn’t seen each other in a million years.  And it’s not like we’re BFF or something.”  She wrinkled her nose.

I gave her my most winning smile.  “But you missed me anyway, didn’t you?”

“Whatever.”  She even mimicked Melissa’s expression and hand gesture, making me laugh.

I curled my arm through hers.  “Anything interesting happen yesterday?”  It was so nice to be with someone so…uncomplicated.  I mean, not that I was belittling what happened between her and her jerk of an ex, but at least she wasn’t getting targeted by reptilian bloodsuckers right?

“Give yourself a month and you’ll know how stupid that question is.”

“Stop putting Sanger High down and show some school spirit—”

“God, I knew it.”  She gave me a pained look.  “You were a
cheerleader
in your old school, weren’t you?”

“Yeeeees, and I don’t know about here, but in my old school, cheerleaders weren’t synonymous to nose-picking, prejudiced serial killers.”  That was how she made cheerleaders sound—disgusting, snooty, and evil.

She smiled grudgingly.  “Fine.  Maybe there are rare—really rare—exceptions.”

“I knew you could stop being cynical for five seconds.”  We had about five minutes before first period started and we took our time walking to class.  “So, what about yesterday?  Anything interesting I missed?”

Audrey pretended to think hard.  “Let me see…our lit teacher was absent because he had to hold a memorial service for his pet.”

“Aww.”

“It was a pig.”

I choked back a laugh.  “But still sad.”

“Exciting, isn’t it?” Audrey drawled as we reached her room.

She probably hadn’t noticed how guys left and right had been checking us both out, but I had.  Personally, I wasn’t interested—I was a one-man woman, and it was Lucian for me.  But as for Audrey…I was sure a number of them would have gladly asked her out if not for Matthew’s lies.

Maybe if I was not so busy learning how to be a proper Evren, I could figure out a way to get rid of Audrey’s ugly reputation.

P.E. was another class I shared with Audrey.  She was baffled when she realized how serious I was about learning basketball, the sport assigned for us juniors.

“You heard what Coach said,” I told her while practicing dribbling the ball.  “Basketball won’t just improve your aim and accuracy but it can also develop your speed, grace, and reflexes.”  And I definitely needed all three to beat up some snakes.

Audrey’s eyes widened and she immediately checked my forehead.  “You’re not running a fever.”  Her eyes narrowed.  “Don’t tell me you’re a closet sports buff?”

“Of course not.”

“Then why all this interest in basketball?  It’s not like you’ve got to be the next Michael Jordan to pass this class.”

Because I need to practice fire shooting?  Tail-whipping?  Flying? 
All honest answers but the truth wouldn’t fly right now, no pun intended.

“Well, ahh—”  An image of Lucian entered my mind.  He tended be the first person I thought of when I was in trouble.

Inspiration struck.  “It’s Lucian,” I confided and dribbled the ball some more.  “He likes it when a girl’s good at sports, and I thought basketball would be a nice sport to learn.”

“I can teach you,” a voice offered from behind.

Wesley jogged into view, his good-looking face creased with a smile.  Since he was playing for the varsity team, he didn’t have to wear our P.E. uniform.  He had on Sanger High’s red and gold basketball jersey instead, and it showed off his buff body to perfection.

Not as good as Lucian’s, of course, but still good.

Wesley smiled at my friend.  “Audrey, right?”

I waited for Audrey to act all cool and sarcastic like she usually did and readied myself to apologize on her behalf.

My jaw slackened when Audrey’s face slowly cracked with a rare smile.  “Yeah.  You’re, uhh, Wesley, right?”  Audrey’s voice was completely unlike her.  You know, sweet, cute, and nice.  Not that she wasn’t all of those, but she tended to keep such traits hidden behind her cool, cynical, badass persona.

“Yup.  Glad to meet you officially,” he replied even as his eyes were embarrassingly glued to me.

Awkward. 
That was the best way to describe our threesome.

“So…”  He tossed me another grin.  “What do you say?  I can teach you basketball if you want.”

“Uhh, sure, when there’s time, but thanks for offering.”

Wesley was visibly disappointed but he smiled back at me anyway.  What a really nice guy.  If I hadn’t met Lucian before him, I’d no doubt fall for him.

After a few more minutes of small talk, Wesley was called away by his buddies, who were flirting with Melissa and her gang near the bleachers.  I asked Audrey right away, “What’s up with you?”

She shrugged, grabbed the ball, dribbled, then took a shot.  It fell through the hoop seamlessly.  “What are you talking about?”

“Showoff,” I muttered and jogged to get the ball back.

When I was standing next to her again, I paused mid-dribble and frowned at her.  “You’re usually antisocial and all, so what’s that about, acting like you’re suddenly Miss Sunshine with Wesley?”

“You’re talking crap—”

The brain cells kicked in, later than they should have as usual.  “Oh, my God, Audrey, you like—”

Audrey’s hand slapped against my mouth and she looked around fearfully.  “Will you keep it down?”

I started to laugh.  “You do.”

She grumbled, “Even if I did, he obviously likes you so it makes no difference, you know.”

“He doesn’t.”  I dribbled the ball one last time, aimed, and let it fly.  It didn’t even reach the ring, darn it.

Audrey smothered a laugh and I scowled.  “Laugh one more time, and I’m going to take Wesley up on his offer to teach me basketball.”  My tone dropped a notch.  “One on one.”

“I don’t care,” Audrey retorted.

“You don’t, really?”  I turned away to look for Wesley and spotted him talking to the coach.  “Wes—”

Audrey hastily covered my mouth once more.  “All right, you blackmailing witch.  You win.”

I curtsied with flourish.  “Now repeat after me.  Please, Deli, please help me with the boy I like.”  I ended the plea with an exaggerated flutter of my lashes.

I expected her to snap at me, maybe even pretend to puke, but instead, she gave me a somber look and she said slowly, “Please, Deli, please help me with the boy I like.”

My grin vanished.  “Hey, I was just—”

Audrey shook her head.  “But even if you wanted to, you can’t.  One thing you should learn about small towns is that people rarely forget.”

~~~

Dyvian was waiting for me when I stepped out of school with Audrey.  Another thing we had agreed on was that it would be safer for me not to be alone on my way to or from school.  It was a relief, honestly, but it also increased the guilt inside me for adding another burden to the Chevalier brothers.

In my current state, I was no match for any Zekan.

Yet.

“See you tomorrow then?”  Audrey’s smile was a bit strained.  She was no doubt uncomfortable at how much she had revealed to me during P.E.

“Yup.”  And ignoring her rolling eyes, I insisted on giving her a quick hug before parting ways, wanting to make her smile.  She did, and this time it reached her eyes.

“Cute friend you have there,” Dyvian remarked when I reached him.  “You should’ve introduced me.”

I might not have known Dyvian long, but I knew enough about guys—human or not—to know when I was in the presence of a pro.  I smiled up at him.  “Never.”

His lower lip pushed forward, the male version of a pout and something he was
extremely
good at.  “Aww, come on.  I just want to get to know her.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Since Lucian will kill me before that happens, I guess it’s never then.”