Chosen by Sin Page 16

  Instead of blowing Dex’s question off or making some flippant response, Cy seemed to give it careful consideration. When he answered, he spoke slowly. Thoughtfully. “I’m not sure if you’ll believe this or not, but here’s the thing. In the grand scheme of things, my life on this earth will be relatively short. I know that. But I also know my time is precious. And I will be happy, no matter what it takes. You and Jes? You’re two of the saddest people I know. I wouldn’t trade places with you even if I could.”

  ***

  After talking to Cy, Dex took several moments to inventory what he was feeling. Yes, he was still pissed at Jes, or more specifically at the idea of her being pregnant, but he was also beginning to come to terms with it and accept it wasn’t her fault. Condom or not, he’d stuck his dick in her several times. He’d even done it again yesterday despite knowing full well he wasn’t wearing protection. But regardless, if she was pregnant with his child, he had to take his share of responsibility for that. It didn’t mean he was any happier about having a child with her, but she’d only asked him to stay until the baby was born; she’d made it clear she didn’t want them to be one big happy family.

  He should be jumping for joy, right?

  Because that meant she could have the baby and it wouldn’t affect him directly. Not if she was the one who kept it and cared for it. But hell, he didn’t even know her well enough to trust in her ability to be a good mother.

  It didn’t matter that he didn’t want the baby—if Jes gave birth to his child, Dex needed to know the child would be well taken care of. No child deserved to suffer, not even his.

  Fortunately, there was no reason to think Jes would hurt their child. In fact, if Cy could be believed, she’d likely cherish the kid within an inch of its life. So he wasn’t going to add yet another worry to the heaping pile he was accumulating.

  Right now, he was going to call Mahone and let him know about his meeting with the shape-shifters.

  Although it took longer than he’d have liked, Dex finally managed to get dressed and retrieved his things from the bedside cabinet. He punched Mahone’s number into his cell phone, cursing when he didn’t get a signal.

  Impossible. She had to have cell service here.

  Moving slowly but ever more steadily, Dex stepped out of his room and into a hall with several closed doors. He opened one and found another recovery room, the bed made up but empty. Door number two yielded the same results. The next door he opened led him outside and he immediately recognized the outer doors to Jes’s surgical room nearby.

  The sun had set but the grounds were once again lit up with bright lights. There were several structures on the perimeter of the property, including a small shed a few hundred feet away, likely a woodshed given the split logs piled next to it. He heard voices in the distance and followed them. When he turned the corner of the castle, however, he froze.

  A kid who looked to be about seven years old was making a rather pathetic attempt at what he could only assume were cartwheels. The kid—he couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl given the baggy jeans, sweatshirt, and knit cap—wasn’t very graceful but was certainly persistent. As Dex watched, the kid bounced and kicked on all fours like a drunken toad at least ten times before giving up.

  When the kid picked up a stick and began using it like a fencing sword, Dex assumed it was a boy. Unbidden, he remembered himself as a child, wielding a wooden sword and running up a hill. Shortly after that, moments before his grandfather had sent him away, he’d hugged his mother for the last time.

  A familiar anger boiled within his veins and along with it, a pinch of pain ached in his chest. He was rubbing the renewed ache when the boy looked up and saw him.

  “Hi,” the kid said.

  Dex frowned. Considered walking away without responding. But ultimately he nodded in greeting. “Hey.”

  “Wanna play sword fighting?”

  “No.” Dex’s negative response was instinctive, but because his memories were still raw, it came out harsher than he’d intended. He waited for the kid to pout or cry, but he didn’t. Like Cy had done earlier, the kid merely shrugged.

  “Okay.”

  He threw the stick down and started doing those pathetic cartwheels again.

  Dex walked past him and was about a hundred feet away before he stopped and looked back. He winced when the kid bobbled and landed heavily on his side. Again, Dex waited for the kid to cry. Again, he didn’t. With a determined look on his face, he started hopping around again.

  “Oh come on,” Dex snapped out in exasperation. “Surely you can do better than that.”

  The kid stopped and pushed his bangs out of his face. “Huh?”

  “Have you actually seen someone do a cartwheel before?”

  “Sure. I see Jes do them all the time. I do them just like her.”

  Dex arched a brow. If that was true, than Jes wasn’t very coordinated, but he knew for a fact that she was quite limber…at least when it came to sex.

  “You show me,” the kid demanded.

  “What?” Dex scowled. “No. I just came out here to make a phone call.” He dug his cell phone out of his pocket and held it up as if the kid was a juror and the phone was a piece of evidence.

  “Please?” the kid said.

  “Don’t try looking all sad and pathetic. It won’t work with me.”

  The kid shrugged, said, “Okay,” then went back to his drunken hopping.

  Dex grunted. Watched. Grunted again. Damn it. What kid gave in that easily? It made him think the kid must be used to disappointment. That in turn made him think of Cy and what Cy had said about life being too short not to be happy. At least, he’d said something like that, hadn’t he?

  “Okay, fine,” he said, as if the kid had been pleading with him for five minutes straight. “I’ll do a cartwheel. But I’m only going to do it once, okay? So pay attention.”

  The kid stepped back and watched expectantly.

  Still holding the phone in his hand, Dex did a smooth cartwheel. Even with his burns and the time he’d spent in bed, the movements were graceful and strong. “See how I kept my legs straight and up in the air? That’s what you need to do.”

  The kid jumped up and down. “Okay, okay.” Then he did the same bad version of a cartwheel he’d already been doing. Looking pleased with himself, he said, “Like that?”

  Dex was about to say no, but just managed to stop himself in time. “That was okay. Just keep practicing.”

  “Okay. Thanks. Can I try it one more time?”

  “Sure.”

  The kid’s tongue stuck out of his mouth as he concentrated. He raised both his palms and this time, when his palms slapped the ground, his legs were a lot straighter than they’d been before.

  Dex nodded. “Good. Keep practicing and you’ll have it down in no time.”

  “Thanks, mister.” The kid pushed at his bangs again and inadvertently shoved the knit cap off his head.

  Light brown hair came tumbling down across his face.

  Uh, make that her face.

  He was a she.

  Never a good mistake to make, Dex thought. At least he hadn’t called her a boy to her face.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, not even sure why he had.

  “Ella,” she said. “What’s yours?”

  From somewhere behind the castle, a voice called. Ella turned toward it. But rather than leaving, she looked back at him expectantly, obviously waiting for him to answer her question.

  “Dex,” he said.

  She nodded. “Bye, Dex. I gotta go. See you later.” She waved and ran off.

  Dex watched as her little legs carried her away. When he realized he was staring after her, he picked up the stick that she’d been using as a sword. He stared at it for a long time as well, before flinging it to the ground. When he looked up, Ella had been joined by a woman. The woman crouched down in front of Ella and they talked for several seconds before Ella ran off again.

  The woman straightened and
walked closer to Dex.

  It was Jes.

  ***

  Jes froze when she saw Dex Hunt standing in front of her.

  As both Cy and Amanda had indicated, he seemed composed. Nothing like the crazed were he’d been when she’d last seen him conscious.

  But what was he doing out of bed? Her initial instinct was to scold him and shoo him back to his room, but she stopped herself just in time. Mothering him would be the last thing that Dex would want. So instead of walking toward him, she stood where she was, some distance away, wondering if he would simply turn and walk away from her without saying a word.

  To her surprise, he approached her, stopping only when he was about ten feet away. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

  She startled. “I didn’t think you were.”

  “Why not? From what I hear, I tried to kill Cy in front of you. Shouldn’t that make you at least a little nervous?”

  She cleared her throat. She’d already talked to Cy about what had happened. Cy seemed to think Dex had been possessed by some kind of dark power, but she figured Dex had probably been in shock after the news she’d delivered. “You were upset. Cy startled you when he grabbed you. People do things they wouldn’t normally do when they’re upset and surprised.” She certainly knew that was true. Look at all the things she did out of desperation. And they were things, at least she hoped it was the case, that didn’t really reflect who she was inside. “Besides,” she said, twisting her mouth, “It’s not like you can actually kill me or anything.”

  He frowned. “I know better. Vampires can die.”

  “Yes, but no matter how much you hate me, I’m not going to just stand here and let you rip out my heart and burn it, so I think we’re okay.”

  “Oh yeah. That’s right. You’re a super-strong badass immortal vampire, right? Lucky you.” He seemed to be watching her closely as he said it.

  She smiled tightly, her face feeling so stiff she was surprised it didn’t crack. “Yes. Lucky me.” Suddenly feeling cold, she stuck her hands in her jacket pockets and hunched her shoulders. “Your hands are okay?”

  He held them up for her inspection. His palms were still pink, but the blisters and raw burns were gone, having healed far faster than they should have. Further proof of how incredible this were was. Yet she’d made up her mind. She couldn’t force him to stay, not even to protect her child. “So…was there something you needed before you go?”

  “Go?” he asked, obviously surprised. “But I thought—” He narrowed his eyes. “So now that I almost killed your boyfriend, you don’t want me to stay. You no longer care whether your baby lives or dies. Is that it? Or was it all just bullshit after all?”

  Her first response was fury. How dare he imply she didn’t want her baby to live? When that’s what she wanted most right now. Yet, she was also confused. What was he talking about? What boyfriend? Unless he meant—

  “Cy is not my boyfriend. He’s my adoptive brother.”

  Dex grunted, but said nothing else.

  “And as for wanting you to go, I don’t. Want you to, I mean. I asked you to stay. I told you why. But I’m not going to keep you here against your will, Dex. And you made it more than clear yesterday that you don’t want to stay. I just want to say again, I didn’t trick you into getting me pregnant. I really didn’t think it was possible, with or without the condoms.”

  He was silent as he seemed to contemplate what she’d said. She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t sneer or snarl or accuse her of lying again. Goddess knew she’d deceived him, yes, even lied to him in a way, but not about their baby. Never about something like that.

  When he nodded, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Okay. I believe you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me, Jes. If you’re going to have the baby, you can’t expect anything from me. I’m not parent material. I don’t want to be. I have a life in the States and things I need to do. Thing I’ve been needing to take care of for a long time.”

  Things like killing his grandfather? Since she only knew it because she’d read his mind in L.A., she didn’t say it out loud. Nor would she mention that his grandfather was a patient in the very castle he was standing next to, and not in the States as she knew he probably thought. “Okay,” she said cautiously.

  He held up his cell phone. “I need to call Mahone, my boss. Tell him what’s been happening and check in. Only I haven’t been able to get a strong enough signal.”

  “I don’t have a phone line. I—uh, generally don’t need it, since I can teleport and talk to people directly. Plus, since others live here, it’s easier to use individual cell phones. The best hot spot is actually in the gazebo over there.” She pointed.

  He frowned and looked like he wanted to ask her something. Instead, he said, “We’ll talk afterward.”

  She nodded. “Okay.” And despite herself, despite how horribly he’d reacted yesterday, she couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, Dex Hunt would give her what she and her baby so desperately needed—himself.

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, Dex pressed the disconnect button of his cell phone and cursed.

  Damn Mahone, Dex thought. Leave it to that son of a bitch to send him to France without giving him all the facts. Like the fact that several of the murders he was investigating had been linked to dark magic and rituals to raise the dead. Like the fact all the shape-shifters who’d confessed to killing their own in self-defense had said they’d acted in order to protect themselves and others from evil spirits trying to come back to earth. Of course, no one had really emphasized that part of the confessions in their reports because the responding officers had thought the shape-shifters were spouting some made-up bullshit but still…

  Dex didn’t think it was bullshit.

  He knew what he’d seen. And he knew what he’d felt. And most of all, he knew what Cy had told him.

  That he hadn’t looked like himself when he’d gone after the dragon-shifter.

  Just like Trosseau hadn’t looked like himself when he’d gone after Dex.

  So what did it all mean? That there was some kind of dark spirit floating around and following him, trying to find a comfortable body to inhabit so it didn’t have to return to hell?

  Even if that was the case, Dex didn’t know what to do with that information any more than he knew what to do with the news of Jes’s pregnancy.

  Fuck.

  Jes’s pregnancy. She’d asked him to stay. He knew he couldn’t. Not for three weeks. But he needed to regroup and…he needed to call Lucy and tell her he was probably going to be gone longer than he thought.

  “Lucy,” he said when she answered her cell.

  “Dex. Is everything okay?”

  Hell, no, he wanted to say. Instead, he said, “Yes. But I haven’t had any luck with the shape-shifters here yet. I’m hoping that’ll change. I’ve—uh, managed to track down Jesmina Martin, the vampire we met in L.A.”

  “Yeah, I remember who she is,” Lucy drawled.

  Dex winced. Of course she did. He shoved a hand in his hair as he paced. “Turns out she lives in France and she has some leads for me to pursue. But it might take me a few days. I wanted to make sure you’re okay. That you’re not…suffering.”

  “You need to stop worrying about me, Dex. I’m fine. I’ve arranged to talk to the same shape-shifter who tried to take me from that club, but he was transferred to another facility just before you left. He has a new attorney who’s slowing things down.”

  He frowned. “I told you I already talked to him. He gave me some names to explore, but said he didn’t know anything about the shape-shifter murders.”

  “I know. But he likes felines. He might be willing to tell me something he wasn’t willing to tell you. How’s Jes, by the way?”

  Not missing her teasing tone, he muttered, “She’s…okay.”

  “Are you sure nothing’s wrong? You sound weird.”

  May
be I sound like an expectant father, he thought. A shell-shocked one. “I just called to let you know where I was and that you can still call me if you need me. But cell service is pretty spotty here. If you can’t get through, leave a message and I’ll call you back. Also, I wanted to fill you in on some things. There’s some weird shit going on, Lucy. Black magic type stuff—”

  “What?” Static crackled on the line. “Wh…say…ear…ex...”

  “Damn it. Lucy?”

  “Losing…say…”

  “Lucy, can you hear me?”

  When she didn’t answer, he cursed, hung up, then texted her, his fingers fumbling with the tiny keyboard on his phone.

  Call Mahone. I gave him info u need 2 know. Shape-shifters calling forth dark spirits. Be careful.

  About a minute later, his phone finally bleeped as she texted him back.

  Got it. Take care. Have fun. :)

  Dex snorted. He’d worried Lucy couldn’t manage the heat without him. Leave it to her to still be playing matchmaker between him and Jes. Hell, if only she knew about the baby…

  Someone behind him cleared her throat.

  Dex whirled around.

  It was Jes.

  “Hi,” she said. She notched her chin at the tray she carried. It was stacked with several plates and bottles. “I figured you’d be hungry, and you said you wanted to talk after your call. Or I can leave you alone if you want?” In addition to her words, her expression evidenced her uncertainty of her welcome. As he gazed at her, Dex didn’t dwell on the way they’d fought yesterday, but on how good it had felt to hold her. To be held by her.

  He cleared his throat and pocketed his phone. “No. I am hungry. Thanks.”

  She stepped into the gazebo and they sat across from one another at the small table and chair set. She pointed to the food on the tray. “It’s nothing fancy. Lettuce and toasted bread with grilled goat’s cheese and apples in caramel.”

  “Looks good.”

  They ate in polite silence. Made painfully superficial small talk. They were being so civilized, in fact, it was burning his ass. Desperate to make some kind of significant subject change, he asked, “So who’s Ella?”