Shine (Mageri Series: Book 5) Read online

  “I’d like to show you a few of my own,” Logan said obliquely. He reached to the wall and lifted a dagger with a black handle and serrated edges.

  “Boys, do we have to do this now?” I sensed a challenge.

  Logan swung his eyes at me and smiled.

  “You don’t get off that easy,” Simon said, tossing me to the side.

  “No, but I bet you do,” Logan suggested.

  Game on.

  Chapter 2

  Over the past few months since Tarek’s death, much had changed, and yet life stayed the same. I had accepted Logan Cross to be my mate, but we hadn’t decided on when to make the leap. My accepting him was all the claim he needed, but a ceremony would make it official in my eyes. The problem was, we weren’t the same Breed, so it wouldn’t be legal.

  Logan and I had been intimate on several occasions. It could hardly be helped in his presence. What had begun as a noble gesture when I had temporarily gone blind had continued in our relationship. Logan immersed us in darkness so he would not see my body, even going so far as to install thick shutters and drapes in his condo for privacy. Not a great way to boost a woman’s ego, but on the other hand, Logan had the skilled hands and mouth of a god. I tried to convince him that sex in the dark wasn’t necessary now that I could see, but Logan said he didn’t want to know all of me all at once. He liked unwrapping his gifts slowly, admiring the ribbon, feeling the silky wrapping beneath his fingertips, and knowing there was more to come.

  I still lived with my Ghuardian, whom I still called Ghuardian, despite his proclamation that by accepting Logan I would no longer be under his care. With Justus in the house, it felt more like sneaking my boyfriend in after Dad went to bed, so Logan and I were only intimate at his condo.

  Justus came from a different time when women probably didn’t have sex until marriage. It didn’t deter him from having sex all over Cognito, but he believed a respectable woman should make a man wait. I wondered what he thought of Page since they had wrinkled the sheets rather quickly. Maybe after developing feelings for her, he’d begun to regret having treated her like all his other concubines. Maybe that’s why it ended between them.

  Logan insisted that I continue living with Justus. Nero remained a threat. He had formed an alliance with Tarek, a Chitah Lord, in hopes it would make him privy to inside information. After Tarek’s violent death at Logan’s hand, Nero had retaliated by killing Knox and trying to finish off Sunny in the process. The Overlord had offered Tarek’s family a settlement for their loss, but they’d refused to be compensated. Without closure, the investigation remained open, although no arrests had been made.

  Logan felt it wouldn’t be dignified to take me from my Ghuardian. He abided by the laws of my Breed and said I needed to learn as much as I could—that I was still too inexperienced to be cut loose in the world.

  As frustrating as it was, I respected Logan even more. I worked harder in the training room and listened to my Ghuardian when he imparted his wisdom upon me.

  Although most of his words of wisdom had to do with my toiletries hogging up the bathroom sink.

  While sitting at the desk in our study, I glanced at the photograph of me on Justus’s desk. The picture was one Adam had taken a million years ago of me sitting in a patch of tall grass back in Memphis where I first met Justus. I reflected on that time—that naïve girl who couldn’t have imagined the fate that lay ahead of her. Justus had swiped the photo from Adam’s bag during a visit and kept it in his private study. Now he seemed less embarrassed by it and prominently displayed the photograph on his desk.

  Justus and Simon had left the house a little while ago to pick up some equipment for tree cutting; some of the branches near the garage had split due to the recent heavy snow. Simon had suggested hacking down all the overgrown trees near the driveway and garage. After they left, I’d sent Logan out to pick something up for me.

  Something very special.

  The study had a chair in the corner, a foldaway couch, and Tiffany lamps. The soft glow from the light against the dark brown walls gave the room a tranquil charm. Amid the small collection of antique books, one book was glaringly absent from that room—a weathered book with red leather binding that contained the records of HALO’s investigations. After retrieving the book from our old house and giving it to Justus, I’d never seen it again. They used it to document evidence that would incriminate the outlaws they hunted. HALO worked independently of any higher authority, but they respected the law. They made excellent money, and the men who represented the organization were comprised of different Breeds.

  But that wasn’t the life for me. I worked as an apprentice for Novis—a Councilman who served under the Mageri. Novis was also the official keeper of the records. As his apprentice, I was tasked with relaying information; he didn’t trust the privacy of electronic devices. There were also times when Novis meeting with someone would raise suspicion, so I acted as his messenger. During those meetings, I wore sunglasses to deter any Vampires from charming me for information. Something about the reflective lens covering the eyes thwarted their gift.

  In any case, I still had Christian as my bodyguard, and he kept a tight watch on me. If anyone got too close, Christian would step in and tell them to saunter on. For a Vampire, he seemed to tolerate guarding a Mage just fine.

  I clicked a few keys on the laptop and smiled when Sunny appeared on my screen. She looked radiant with a rose tint on her apple cheeks. The sun filtered through the window beside her and picked up the vibrant color of her blond hair. She kept it wavy and stylishly above her shoulders. I had plans to give her a surprise baby shower in another month or two. I had asked Simon for help finding a baby mobile with disco balls. It was a joke, of course, but knowing Sunny, she’d hang it up proudly.

  “Hi, Sunshine. How are you feeling today?”

  “Bloated,” she replied with a twist of her mouth. “Novis is probably wondering what the heck is going on with me lately. All I do is eat.”

  “Well, you have two mouths to feed in there. Can you feel them moving?”

  Her expression brightened “At first it was just flutters and wiggling. Novis calls it the quickening. I call it gas.” She laughed melodically and twirled her hair between her fingers. “Now I really feel something going on in there. I’m over five months along, so I guess it only gets worse from here.”

  “I don’t see why you won’t stay with us,” I argued, tapping my fingers on the desk.

  She leaned back and adjusted her monitor. “You know I love you, girl. But I need to figure out how to get on with my life again. Novis isn’t going to keep me around forever, and I seriously doubt Justus could handle two screaming babies.”

  A laugh burst out of my mouth. “The offer stands and we have a guestroom upstairs if you’re worried about the noise. You’d be close to the kitchen and I could help with whatever you needed. Two babies? That’s a handful, Sunny. How are you going to manage it?”

  She shrugged. “Women worse off than me seem to manage just fine. I guess I’ll figure it out soon enough. Knox bought some books…” Her blue eyes glittered and she looked down wistfully. “I still can’t believe he’s gone. Sometimes I roll over at night and think he’s lying next to me. I can feel his warm chest against my back and the way he’d trace his finger over my shoulder when he thought I was sleeping. I’d give anything to just have one more moment with him.”

  “Please don’t make me cry, Sunny,” I said, wiping away a tear.

  She rubbed her face and blew out a breath. “It’s hard, that’s all.” Her fingers laced together in front of her face and a knock sounded. She looked to the right and a voice murmured in the distance.

  “Is that Novis?” I asked.

  “I’m fine,” she said, still looking up. “No, I had a glass of milk a little while ago. Really, I’m good.”

  A door closed and she sighed heavily.

  “Well?”

  “Novis checking on me for the millionth time. He must thi
nk I’m about to give birth at any minute. I don’t know how he feels about all this. Sometimes it looks like it freaks him out, and I catch him staring at my belly. Which, by the way, is getting fatter by the day. Ugh! I can’t fit into my clothes anymore and the ones he’s been buying me are hideous!”

  “Well, who’s gonna see you?”

  “I see me, and I look like a float in a parade. I asked for stretchy jeans, but he keeps buying me these long, flowy dresses. Do I look like a flowy-dress kind of girl?”

  “You’d look beautiful in a tablecloth, Sunny. Seriously. Have you had any luck finding Kane?”

  Kane was Sunny’s brother. He always showed up for birthdays and made sure she had money, but he traveled a lot. They’d fallen out of touch and she wanted to track him down. Sunny needed family with her, and maybe she hoped Kane would settle down and take care of her for a little while.

  “No,” she said in a disheartened voice. “I don’t even know where to begin. He always knew how to find me, but it was never the other way around. What if something happened to him?”

  “I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably looking for you now that you moved away from Texas.”

  “I left a phone number with some people down there that he knows, but it’s like he just disappeared off the face of the earth.”

  “Maybe I’ll put a bug in Justus’s ear and see if he knows anyone who could look for Kane.”

  “Would you?” Her brows slanted pleadingly.

  “Absolutely.” My phone vibrated. “Hey, I have to run. Logan is back,” I said excitedly. “I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk longer. I want to hear some ideas for baby names.”

  “I already told you, Silver, I’m calling her Zoë and that’s final.”

  I sighed. “Please don’t give her my old name because you feel some kind of guilt—or Knox did—for what happened to me.”

  “Jeez, I like the name,” she bit out. “Now shut up about it. By the way, will you just look at this!”

  Sunny held up her delicate hands to the camera with her nails facing out. I snorted as her mouth twisted to the side.

  “He won’t even let me paint my nails.”

  “Novis? Maybe he’s right. Those chemicals can’t be good for the babies.”

  “My mother used to dye her hair, paint her nails, and probably chain-smoked until I was born, and I turned out perfectly fine.”

  “On that note, I’ll talk to you soon.”

  I caught a glimpse of Sunny poking out her tongue as I shut the lid to the laptop.

  Without missing a beat, I dashed upstairs to let Logan in the garage. He looked handsome with his choppy hair styled every which way. His black sneakers squeaked on the polished floor as he spun around and slammed the car door. The garage door lowered and when I leapt into his arms, he swung me around.

  “Mmm, I like it when my female greets me this way,” he purred.

  I nuzzled my face into his neck as he slowly set my feet on the ground. Logan Cross was six and a half feet of divine maleness. His smell always reminded me of an oncoming storm, and I still got butterflies looking at his unearthly amber eyes, sharply lined with black rims around the irises. Nothing compared to the predatory stare of a Chitah, and it put goose bumps on my arms.

  “Did I ever tell you how much I love you, Mr. Cross?”

  “No, Little Raven,” he murmured against my ear. “I’m afraid you will have to say it again and again until I can remember.”

  His mouth was on mine and his hands slid down my back and cupped my ass. I nibbled on his bottom lip and a small growl rose from his throat. My hungry kisses crossed the line of his smooth jaw, my lips moving to his throat as I stood on my tiptoes. I lightly licked his Adam’s apple and Logan gripped me tighter. It was a Chitah thing, and I no longer fought my instincts.

  A deep vibration rose from his chest. Logan backed me up and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the hood of Justus’s sleek Porsche. What was once a vast collection of exquisite cars was now a collection of three, aside from the Ducati, which he rarely drove.

  Logan’s ravenous tongue found a sensitive spot on my neck that made me crave his skin against mine. I slipped my hands beneath his shirt, scratching at his strong back. I loved the way his body felt. The taut muscles along his abs, the baby-fine hair on his arms and legs, the masculine cut of his jaw, and especially right now, the thick press between my legs. The hood of the car dented from our weight and Logan’s heated breath stirred a voice within me that wanted to say “to hell with it” and have sex right on top of my Ghuardian’s one-hundred-thousand-dollar Porsche.

  “Wait, Logan. We’re going to mess up his car.”

  When his tongue entered my mouth, the complaint was forgotten.

  Until the garage door lifted up.

  “Learner!” Justus bellowed. “I can feel your energy. You better not be doing what I think you’re doing in there.”

  “Oh shit!” I said, pushing Logan away and scrambling off the car.

  The garage door rose, slowly revealing Justus’s ankles, knees, and tightly clenched fists. I flashed to the door and once the vertical crease in his forehead came into view, I lifted my arms.

  “Surprise!” I shouted.

  He incinerated me with his molten gaze.

  Simon ambled past us and didn’t utter a word.

  “Your energy was bleeding all over the driveway. Do you think that’s how a lady behaves? I don’t care if you have accepted Cross. A man of worth wouldn’t—”

  I gripped his steel jaw and angled his head up. “Happy birthday, Ghuardian.”

  All color bled away from Justus’s face. His jaw went slack and his eyes darted back to mine. “What is that?”

  “That,” I said, waving my arm, “is your very own Mercedes-Benz Roadster. The salesman said it’s a limited edition. I can’t remember all the SLR stuff. I chose an onyx finish because you already have a silver car, and the doors are really cool the way they lift up. There’s no back seat—this is all for you. Turns out the guy running the place was a Mage, so I got a Breed discount and a choice between cars he doesn’t offer humans.”

  Without moving his jaw, Justus spoke in a low voice. “How did you pay for this?”

  “I’ve been saving up all my paychecks. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m an apprentice for a Councilman. We make pretty good money. There was a better model, but I couldn’t afford it and your birthday was around the corner. Simon told me the date of your creation, so I wanted to do something special. I still feel responsible for your destroyed cars and I know this isn’t as good as them, but…”

  “I need everyone out of here,” Justus ordered, his voice reverberating off the walls.

  “Well, Logan, that’s us,” Simon said with a disgusted arch of his brow. “Let’s leave the Ghuardian alone to chastise his thoughtful Learner.”

  “If you utter one cruel thing to her, I will not let it slide,” Logan promised, pointing his finger at the floor. “Do not test me on this. You may be her Ghuardian, but I am her mate and I will not allow another male to beat her down for thoughtfulness.” He slowly turned around and joined Simon in the elevator that led to our underground home.

  I wrung my hands anxiously, not having envisioned this reaction. I hadn’t prepared for anything but laughter and a haughty thanks. Justus valued expensive things and although it wasn’t the best model on the lot, it was the classiest one I could afford.

  Justus approached the car with a heavy gait. When he reached the front end, his finger drew a circle on the glossy paint.

  “Logan went to pick it up while you guys were shopping for chain saws. I couldn’t figure out a way to get you out of the house, so Simon hatched a plan that involved manual labor—something he knows you like.”

  Butterflies swarmed in my stomach because I couldn’t see his face. Was the vein in his forehead sticking out? Was he mad? Maybe I’d insulted him by giving him the cheaper model.

  When he knelt down on one knee, I nervously turned ar
ound and closed the garage door. The frosty air was filling up the room and making me shiver. Or maybe Justus was the one making me shiver.

  I approached him from behind and glanced around the room. There were no windows, the floor was spotless, clean tools hung from the walls, and the space was large enough to accommodate twenty cars. Instead, the only vehicles he owned were the motorcycle, Porsche, Jaguar, and his beloved Aston Martin. Maybe that was enough for most men, but Justus wasn’t most men.

  “If you don’t like it, the salesman said I could return it right away. You can keep the money and do what you—”

  “Learner,” he interrupted.

  I fell silent, studying the lines on the back of his neck as he lifted his head to look at the car. I walked around until I faced him and knelt down on both knees, sitting back on my calves.

  Justus lifted his right hand and touched my face. I felt warmth not only in his touch but in his gaze.

  “I have no words for how honored I am by your gift. You could have given me a plant and I would be as equally moved that you thought to mark this day.”

  “You have a black thumb and Max would probably eat it,” I said softly. “This seemed like a better idea.”

  He shook his head and retracted his arm. “My Learner bought me a car,” he said to himself. “I have given you nothing of this value…”

  “No, no, no. Don’t you dare start up. You’ve not only given me all those expensive dresses, but a beautiful bedroom. Not to mention a roof over my head and taking on the impossible task of protecting me.”

  “Impossible indeed,” he said with a subtle smirk. Justus rose to his feet and looked down at me with tenderness. “Why don’t you take one of my other cars,” he offered.

  “I like my car.”

  He glared behind me at the beat-up silver car that had become an eyesore in his pristine garage. The bumper had a ding and dirt coated the hood. “You want to give me a car worth fifty times the value of yours and expect nothing in return?”

  “Pretty much, yeah.”

  “Are you always going to be as stubborn as you are now?”