Stone Cold Seduction

Chapter Eleven

Maura. One of the hunters. I felt sick and angry all at the same time. We hadn’t even made it out of the United States, and a hunter had found us. Or rather, she’d found me.

Jax circled her, and she gave him a sultry smile.

“Hello, Jaxon.”

It was official. I hated her. She said his name like she knew him.

“Why are you here?”

I felt marginally better when I heard the irritation in Jax’s deep voice. He watched her with a wary expression. The predatory gleam in her eyes had shifted when she’d seen Jax. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was sexual. I curled my fingers into fists.

“I’m looking for Jedren’s daughter, but seeing you is an unexpected treat.” She walked her fingers up his chest. She moved with a dancer’s grace. I hated her even more. And watching her put her fingers on my mate pissed me off. For the first time in my life, I wanted to hurt someone. I wanted to break her fingers and all of those scary, red fingernails.

Teryl gave me a hard nudge in the back. I looked down and saw small flames at the end of my hands.

I swallowed a groan. Fire too? All on the same day? Getting to Scotland to retrieve my fate became more crucial by the hour. I tucked my hands behind my back and made fists, quickly extinguishing the flames. The fire would have to wait.

Too late. Maura had noticed and watched with interest. “Well, well. What do we have here? I know Jedren’s daughter is a shadow elf, but apparently you’re a…light elf? Phoenix?”

She dropped her hand from where it caressed Jax’s chest and stepped closer to me. Those strange black eyes regarded me as if I were a novelty. “You don’t look like a phoenix.”

Jax stepped closer, forcing Maura to shift away from me. “Maura is a gargoyle,” he said to me.

“I’m a lot more than that.” She giggled, and the sound grated against my eardrums. She winked at me. “Jaxon and I go way back.”

Condescending bitch. My smile was brittle.

“Oh, really? Funny, he’s never mentioned a Marlene being anyone important to him.”

Satisfaction curved the corners of my mouth as I watched her expression shift. Two could play at that game, I thought.

I saw the hunter return. Her features smoothed out, and cold, unemotional black eyes stared at me. I’m pretty sure she would have killed me right then and there if she could. The feeling was mutual. I should have been more upset by the violent feelings churning through me, but I wasn’t.

“Maura,” she corrected me, in a contemptuous voice.

I blinked in false surprise. “I’m sorry, what?”

“My name is Maura.” Her teeth were clenched.

“Right, whatever.” I waved a hand at her and smiled at Jax. “You brought food? I’m starving.”

I took the bag and threaded my arm through his. Maura might have a history with Jax and she might be out for my head, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

“I know you’re Jedren’s daughter.”

I didn’t deny it. I didn’t say a word, just waited as she stared with those creepy black eyes.

“You’re coming with me.” She stared down at her fingernails, as if bored.

I had at least four inches and twenty-five pounds on her. I wanted to see her try.

“Sorry, Mary, but I’ve got things to do. My mate and I are taking a trip. Jax can be so romantic.” I smiled at him.

He gave me a strange look.

Maybe my comment had been a little overboard, but her reaction made it worth it. Her head snapped up and her nostrils flared.

“Mate?” She looked from me to Jax. “She’s joking, isn’t she? You’re not actually mated to a…whatever she is. Are you?”

Jax said nothing.

Fury began to boil beneath my skin. At her insult and his silence.

Teryl cleared his throat. “Yeah, well this has been fun, but we’ve got to get back to our lunch.”

Maura didn’t take the hint. In fact, she ignored Teryl completely. I gave him points for trying. She lost points for stupidity.

“Jaxon, I’m not sure what game you’re playing, and I really don’t care. Jedren’s daughter needs to come with me. I won’t ask again.” She reached behind herself, and I remembered Jax saying she carried a dagger. Instinct kicked in.

“Leave your dagger where it is,” I told her. “Walk away. Forget you saw me.” I put as much intention behind it as I could. It wasn’t difficult. I wanted the bitch as far away as she could get.

Her eyes flashed silver, like Jax’s could, but she dropped her hand in a jerky movement. “Jaxon,” she snarled. “What is she doing?”

“Walk away,” I repeated with a little more force. “Forget this.”

Without another word, she pivoted on her heels and walked away, her joints moving in a stiff, awkward manner.

“I can’t believe that actually worked.” Shock and relief swept through me. I smiled at Teryl. Maybe this magic thing wasn’t so bad after all.

He frowned at me, looking anything but pleased. “That was dumb.”

“Dumb? What are you talking about? I got her to leave. I thought that’s what we wanted. She’s a hunter who wants to kill me and collect the money hanging over my head.” The farther she was from me, the better. Jax, too.

“Sit,” Jax ordered, and steered us into our chairs at the gate. “Keep your voices down, we’re attracting attention.”

He was right. Other travelers sent curious glances and disapproving frowns our way.

I ignored them and crossed my arms in front of me as I slumped into a chair. Glaring, I whispered, “What did you want me to do? Let her attack me?”

“That has nothing to do with it,” Teryl snapped in a hushed voice. “Now the hunters know you have more powers than what’s typical of a shadow elf. We didn’t need to bring that to their attention.”

“He’s right. If the hunters know, they’ll go straight to the Council. Maura has not one, but two, of your secrets. And that’s something she can use against you now.”

I hadn’t thought about that. Well, crap.

“I’m surprised that worked on Maura.” Teryl sounded more worried than surprised.

“It won’t work for long. We’ll be lucky if our flight leaves before she comes back.” Jax checked over his shoulder for good measure.

“Why do you say that?” I refused to look. I was jumpy enough, and I didn’t need to worry about what she’d do to me when she finally caught up.

“She’s a gargoyle and a hunter,” Jax said, as if that were the best explanation in the world.

I waited, trying to keep my annoyance to a slow simmer. I wasn’t successful.

Teryl sighed. “What he means is, it shouldn’t have worked on her at all. Hunters are good at what they do because they’re immune or mostly immune to many forms of magic.”

“Apparently, she’s an exception.” I didn’t really care as long as she was gone. Arching a brow at Jax, I asked in a syrupy sweet voice, “Care to tell me about your history with her?”

His skin flushed, and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Not really.”

Teryl pointed to a small shop a few gates down. “Wow, look at that. I need to…ah…go over there.”

He jumped up and quickly walked away. Smart man.

The jealousy I’d felt when Maura had put her hands on Jax had been instant and overwhelming. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t seem to get over it. I wasn’t going to let it go, especially since the bitch was hunting me. I had a feeling she’d hunt for Jax next. “You were telling me…?”

“Maura is a gargoyle,” Jax said on a sigh.

“You mentioned that already.”

“I’ve known her most of my life.”

I rubbed my forehead. At some point, I hoped we could have a conversation without me having to drag every drop of information out of him.

He shifted in his seat, discomfort clear on his face. “There was a time, when I was younger, when I knew you were engaged to the phoenix.”

My hand dropped to my lap, and I swiveled my head to stare at him. I hadn’t even thought about that.

“Where were you when I was engaged to MacLean?”

“I was there.” His gaze was direct. “I’ve always been there. But when I thought you were going to marry him, I was…upset.”

“Okay,” I said carefully. “What does that have to do with her?”

“We dated for a time.”

My heart stopped. My breath hitched. I couldn’t believe how painful those words were to hear. Was it just yesterday I’d told him I needed time to catch up? And now I wanted to rip her to pieces, knowing she’d had Jax. It was ridiculous. I knew it was, but I felt something inside me crack.

I nodded for him to continue. I didn’t trust myself to speak.

“We were together for about seven months.”

This time, I looked away. Seven months was a long time to develop a relationship. It was five months longer than I’d had with him. My jealousy was unreasonable, but I couldn’t seem to help it. I spoke around the lump in my throat. “What happened?”

Jax put his finger under my chin and forced my gaze up. “She wasn’t you.”

I scoffed around the hurt. “Yeah, she knows who she is. Must be nice.”

Jax shrugged. “I supposed you could look at it like that. But you’re perfect. And talented. And I know who you are.”

“Who?” I whispered. It was the million dollar question in my mind.

“You’re my mate. You’re Elle. You’re a successful business owner, and you have a smile so beautiful, it makes me crazy.” He stopped and pressed his lips together. After a moment, he sighed. “I have no talent for words. Little gem, you were destined for me. She was not. It’s that simple.”

“And now, she’s trying to kill me.”

Silver eyes gleamed at me. “She won’t succeed.”

“Not right now, because I sent her away.”

“Promise me you won’t do that again.” He rubbed his hand along one side of his jaw and I heard the soft rasp of the whiskers he hadn’t had time to shave.

“Why? Don’t I have the right to protect myself? You said I needed to handle this myself, so that’s what I was doing.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” He raked a hand through his hair and stared over at Teryl, who was trying hard to pretend he wasn’t watching us from twenty feet away.

“Feel free to tell me what you meant. Because I’m not going to sit here and let some bitch paw at you.”

My fury grew when I saw that slow, wicked smile light up his face.

“What? You think that’s funny? I wanted to tear her hair out. I am not a violent person.”

It should have scared me. Instead, it amazed me a little bit. I didn’t know I had that in me. I felt almost liberated, in a sense. Not because I wanted to hurt someone, but because I’d been willing to stand up for myself. Against someone who probably ate people like me for breakfast on a frequent basis.

“Are you jealous?”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re just now realizing that?”

His laugh was deep and rich, and a few people looked over and smiled when he pulled me close for a hug. “You have nothing to worry about, I promise you that. I have no interest in her. You are all I need. You are all I can handle.”

I was only slightly mollified. I pulled away from his embrace as Teryl walked over, relief clear on his face. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how stressed he’d been. His brown eyes even had their usual spark. A crease still marred his brow, adding a few years to his face, but the small, devilish smile I knew and loved was back.

“You guys get that all cleared up?” he asked.

“Enough for now,” I said. “What’s got you smiling?”

“I got a hold of Clio.”

“You did? That’s great. How is she?” I needed news like that.

“She’s fine. Said she’s been putting in long hours. Jedren’s working her too hard.” A shadow passed over his face, but he shrugged it off. “I was going to ask if she could meet us in London, but I want to keep her away from this.”

Guilt shot through me.

Teryl must have noticed my expression, because he added, “It’s okay. Hearing her voice helped. She sounded good. I just needed to hear her voice. I’ll fly over to see her when we get this cleared up. I’ll make it work.”

I rubbed his shoulder and forced my guilt down. “Thank God. I was worried about her, too.”

We finished our food in silence, and Teryl held up his watch. “We’ve got about thirty minutes left. Want to talk about whatever the hell you did with the fire?”

I’d almost forgotten about that. “Not really. But are you going to give me a choice?”

Teryl held up fingers as he listed my abilities. “Shadowing, mind control, fire. What else could happen?”

Jax grabbed the food wrappers and tossed them into the nearest waste basket. “I’m not sure. Let’s hope Carys will be willing to divulge more information.”

“There’s something that still doesn’t make sense to me,” Teryl said. “What if Jedren doesn’t know Elle’s fate? I can’t believe he would have written her off if he’d known what she was capable of. She’d be an asset to him, and he’d use her to his advantage.”

“Maybe he does know,” I said. “I don’t remember one way or the other.”

“If Jedren does know, there’s a reason he kept your fate from you, but there’s a good possibility it didn’t mention anything about your potential. I doubt he would have alienated you if he knew of your abilities. We’ll have to wait and talk to Carys.”

A female voice announced our plane was boarding, so I sighed. “Okay. I’ll do more reading on the plane, and we can hope Carys will tell me more.” Our next flight was heading for London. I hoped to do a little reading and a lot of sleeping, if I was lucky. I doubted I’d get much sleep once we got to Scotland. I could feel tension creeping along my shoulders and neck already.

As soon as the plane began to lumber down the runway, Jax tensed as his fear of flying kicked in. I held his hand and tried to distract him. “Why Maura?”

The tension that thrummed through him shifted in an instant. “What do you mean?”

“What made you choose her when you already had a mate?”

“As I said earlier, you were engaged to the phoenix. I was angry. She was available. It was short-lived.”

“Seven months isn’t short,” I said. “Seven days or seven hours, that’s short. But seven months is a long time.”

His hand tightened around mine for a moment. “I was angry for most of it. I wasn’t fully present. We weren’t interested in each other’s minds. As relationships go, it was superficial. I didn’t care about her, and I doubt she cared about me. Hunters don’t make good mates because they’re emotionally detached by nature. Which is why it only worked for a short time.”

I could understand that. If I were in his shoes, I probably wouldn’t have waited around, either. I squeezed his hand back. “What’s your favorite color?”

He blinked at the quick subject change. “My favorite color? Blue. The color of your eyes.”

I felt a blush stain my cheeks. “Flattery will get you everywhere. What about your favorite food?”

I could see some of his tension beginning to ease. “Anything I don’t have to make myself. Why?”

“A mate should know these things.”

Teryl had been studiously ignoring us and writing on his paper. He tapped it with his pen a few times. “Found them.”

“Who?”

“The other hunters. Maura didn’t make it out of the airport. If I had to guess, I would say she’s booking another flight as we speak. You kind of screwed up her first one,” he said with a smile.

I peeked at his paper and couldn’t make sense of his notes. “How did you find them?”

“I’m an oracle.”

Pissed off by his flip reply, I retorted, “I know that, thank you very much. I meant, how did you find them? What do you actually do, Mr. Oracle?”

“This is my magic. I can get a sense of where they are, then I have to figure out their coordinates. Sort of like an internal GPS. Sometimes there’s a delay, or a blip in the system, but usually I can pinpoint their location to within thirty minutes or so.”

“How close are the others?”

Teryl made a few notations, then double-checked his paper. “Falon is almost to Nevada. Altair is outside of New York, maybe even over the Atlantic, and Blythe is already in England. MacLean’s on a plane now, following us to London.”

I was equal parts relieved and freaked. At least they weren’t on the plane with us. Wait… “What about Luke?”

Teryl frowned. “He’s with Jedren at the Seattle office. I think.”

“What do you mean, you think?” Jax asked, his deep voice lowering an octave.

“They’re really unclear. Jedren might be blocking, so I can’t say for sure where they’re at.”

I leaned back in my seat and took a few deep breaths. Worrying about where Luke was wouldn’t do me much good. Especially when he could so easily…

I put up a huge mental wall. I had to stop thinking like that.

“I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

Neither man argued. Teryl went back to making notes, and Jax pulled out an iPod.

I slept fitfully for five hours. Strange dreams and visions curled through my mind, making truly restful sleep impossible. They alternated between Luke and Maura chasing me, and a variety of faceless hunters. When my dreams turned to visions of Jax and Maura, I decided sleep wasn’t worth it.

I sat up and grabbed the little book Teryl had given me. I didn’t want to sift through the ramblings anymore. “Do you have any others?” I asked, as I handed it back to him.

He dug in his carry-on and handed me another book without a word. This one was titled Gargoyles. Well, at least I didn’t have to guess at the content. Teryl flashed a wicked grin when I ran my finger across the embossed title.

“I figured some of the information might be useful for you.” He nudged my side.

I shook my head, trying not to smile. He was such a smart ass sometimes. The book in my lap was about the same size as the other, and dark red in color. I opened to the first page and settled in for the rest of the flight. Hopefully, I’d find some juicy details.