Chapter 16.

I helped Justin gather up a folder full of Enchantress information. I did manage to convince him to let me make two copies of everything after I told him that my fiance was looking into the case as well.

Justin hadn't said too much since we'd been in the car. He'd gotten quiet after I had brought up Caleb. I kept checking the time and staring out the window. Dusk was less than an hour away and I was sure that Pallo would be up soon. I hadn't left a note or anything to tell any of them where I was. I really hadn't expected to be gone the entire day. I guess that attempting to clean out my office, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g my ex, and digging up information on some crazy Enchantress takes more time than I thought. Go figure!

"So, do you want to tell me anything about this friend of yours we're meeting?" I asked.

Justin shot me a wide smile. "Let's see, his name is Balec. I've known him for close to ten years, and he's got a thing for the ladies."

That caught my attention. "A thing for the ladies? Do tell."

Justin chuckled and changed lanes to avoid being stuck behind the slowest driver in the world. I had half a mind to use my power to move the car off the road, but I was a good girl and didn't.

"I think Balec will be into you. You are exactly his type of woman.

Tailor made, even." Justin must have sensed my disapproval with his statement because he immediately tried to clarify his meaning. "You see, he's always been good with women. I met him while I was in college. He'dshow up every now and then at a bar close to the campus. The ladies were into him, still are I'm sure. I haven't seen him for about a year. I've talked to him, but since he'd relocated up here and I was still in Miami it made it hard to get together."

Justin went on to tell me about Balec's natural gift with women.

Apparently, he was quite the gigolo. He had girls throwing themselves at him every time Justin had ever gone out with him. Justin admitted something that most men wouldn't do in front of a woman. He admitted to being jealous of Balec in that respect.

"I'm positive that he'll try to hit on you and if you're like the rest of the girls he's had, you'll fall for it. I'm just warning you ... take it or leave it, but I'll tell you this, the guy's a looker and he's got a thing for girls with long black hair, milky-white skin, lush lips, dark lashes and fit little bodies. Girls exactly like you."

I sat upright and tried not to look embarra.s.sed. I don't think I was very successful. "Thanks for the tip."

We pulled up outside a small bar. The place was an absolute dive. I gave Justin a look of disgust. Why in the heck were we meeting Balec down here? The place had bars on all the windows and enough posters of naked women on the windows to make a man blush.

I followed close behind Justin, carrying the folder full of information.

Justin pulled the door open for me and I went to walk in. My cell phone rang and I had to fish it out of my pocket. I backed up onto the street to make sure not to lose the signal.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"Hey babe's, how's it going?" Caleb said. It warmed my soul to hear his sweet voice.

"I'm fine, how's everything going for you? Did you guys find anything yet?"

"Yeah, we've got some great leads. I'm following up on one tonight. I just wanted to check in with you. I miss you."

"Caleb, if you get a chance--can you come home, I need to talk with you."I was answered with silence before he let out a long sigh. "What's going on, Gwen?"

"We need to talk. I need to tell you some things and let you decide if you want to go through with the wedding. Caleb, I love you." I closed my phone and shut it off. I didn't want to get into it with him over the phone. I'd said too much already. I'd see him soon enough and we could duke it out then.

Pushing the door to the bar open, I looked for Justin. He was waving at me from across the cramped bar. I never realized that bars got packed before nightfall. I a.s.sumed all the heavy partying and drinking went on after hours. I was wrong. These heathens did it anytime.

I could barely squeeze through the ma.s.s of people. I b.u.mped into a blonde who looked like she wanted to spit nails in my face for being within a foot of her. The feeling was mutual so I gave her a daring smile. Most of the crowd here looked rough. I was beginning to wonder about this Balec guy and Justin.

I slid into the seat across from Justin in the dark brown booth. The seat was cold even through my thick jeans. I lifted my b.u.t.t off the cold seat and hovered above it, hoping it would warm itself. When Justin saw the look on my face he burst into laughter. I didn't find my a.s.s freezing to be funny, but then again.

A middle-aged woman approached us and asked if we wanted any drinks. I said no, but Justin said yes. He ordered a beer and I went with ice water.

"I didn't think they let you drink on the job."

"Gwen, we don't have a normal job, n.o.body gives a rat's a.s.s what you do, so long as you do it quietly and you do it well."

I couldn't argue with him. He was right.

Chapter 17.

It was strange for me sitting there with Justin. We talked about everything and nothing at all. We talked about his father and psychotic brothers. We talked about how hard and dangerous our job is and how we receive absolutely no recognition by the public. Most of all, we talked about the people that are important in our lives. He told me about his ex-fiancee, who still lived in Miami. She'd broken his heart and it didn't seem like he was going to be healing that any time soon.

He ordered shots for us both after I finished telling him the story of my life. He was good with the part about me being brought back by my mother for a second chance at life. He was cool with my father being King of the Dark Realm. I hadn't even told my closest girl friend, Sharon, that much.

When I got to the part about juggling three men at one time, his mouth dropped open.

"So, do I know any of these guys?" he asked, before he licked the salt off his wrist. I watched him down another shot of tequila and followed suit myself. Yes, I succ.u.mbed to peer pressure, I'm a loser. I didn't want to drop Ken's name into the mix. He was now in charge at the Paranormal Regulators office and I didn't need one of his subordinates having that much information about him. It was common knowledge that we 'd been engaged up until eight months ago. It was not common knowledge that we were still sleeping together.

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

Justin leaned forward and tossed me another one of his father's smiles.

"I just wanted to size up my compet.i.tion."

I threw a lemon wedge at him. "s.h.i.t, I've got enough baggage, and after talking to you I realized that you may have more than me. We'd spend moremoney in therapy than we make. It'd be doomed from the get go."

We both sat there laughing. "I think you might be on to something there,"

he said. "Yeah, I'm already lugging around enough of my own s.h.i.t. I've been with a woman who broke my heart. I guess I should thank you for the warning." He laughed softly. He looked past me, back towards the entrance, and then down at his watch.

"What time is it?"

"He was supposed to be here an hour ago. He's usually pretty good about being on time. If he doesn't show up soon we can head out." Justin looked down at the table full of empty gla.s.ses. "We might need to call for a ride."

I couldn't believe how late it was. I knew that the vampires would be up by now and that Pallo would be either gone or ready to kill me. Caradoc would do whatever Pallo told him to. James, on the other hand, would worry about me. He would defy Pallo's orders in a heartbeat for me, and that could cost him his life. I felt bad for not checking in with him.

The place was way too loud for me to call James in there, so I decided to head out to the sidewalk.

"Justin, I need to call home and check in. I'm sure that they're going to be worried about me."

"Okay, I'll come with you."

I tried to argue with him that I really didn't require a chaperone to walk out front. He wouldn't hear any of it. I tried to stand up but he grabbed my wrist.

"He's here," Justin said. I followed Justin's gaze. I saw a swarm of girls surrounding someone in a black cowboy hat. Balec's back was to me and the crowd of women around him made it impossible to make him out. H is head was moving around oddly and it took me a minute to realize that he was kissing some brunette.

"Balec!" Justin called out.

The tall man turned reluctantly away from the woman he was kissing andlooked in our direction. I caught sight of a black t-shirt and that was all before another woman threw herself on him. My eyebrows rose as I turned to Justin.

"You weren't kidding, he is an honest-to-G.o.d chick magnet."

Justin laughed. "See why a guy could get a complex around him."

I did. I leaned back in my seat. My bladder was overflowing from all the drinks we'd had and the alcohol began to go to my head. Balec needed to get his a.s.s in gear or I was going to wet my pants and that would not make him very appealing in my opinion.

The group of people around us parted. I looked up to see two people walking straight at us. One was a tall brunette, with the biggest set of b.r.e.a.s.t.s money could buy. Her face was nuzzled into the neck of the man in the black hat and he had his hand planted on one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He shifted a bit. My jaw dropped and my pulse sped as I sat there looking up at Caleb.

He was too into returning her kisses to notice me. She slid her hand into the front of Caleb's jeans and grabbed hold of his erection. He let out a throaty laugh and continued going at her mouth. They were about to do each other on the friggin' table.

My blood boiled and worse yet, my power started to rise. I got that tingling sensation that begins in my elbows and moves to my hands. I could have made a tornado appear in the middle of the bar and whisk Caleb away. Instead, I glared at him and let my power build. I had been feeling horrible about what I'd done to him and he was whoring around too. He'd made such a big deal about getting married, settling down together, being monogamous, yet here he was leading some sick double-life.

"You okay?" Justin asked.

I turned my cold stare on him. He pulled himself backwards and looked stunned. "This is your friend Balec?"

Justin nodded. I lifted my head slowly and watched Caleb's tongue dive into the busty girl's parted mouth. She stroked his c.o.c.k as best she could in his jeans. I cleared my throat."I don't mean to interrupt, but I think you might want this ... Ba-lec!"

I let his name roll off my tongue slowly. I tossed the folder onto the table and stared up at Caleb. He pulled himself away from his little pet-s.l.u.t and looked at me. His green eyes widened, and he pushed the girl away from him quickly.

"I ... umm...," was all he got out before I picked up my gla.s.s and threw my drink at his groin. He backed up as I rose from my seat. Justin mirrored me. He didn't have a clue why I was so p.i.s.sed off, but Caleb did. The tall brunette stepped up to me ready to go to blows.

I would eat her for lunch. Poor girl, she was too stupid to see it coming.

"Who the h.e.l.l do you think you are?" she asked as she tried to smack me.

I grabbed her wrist and twisted it, hard enough to hurt her but not hard enough to break it. She gasped and I laughed. How sick is that?

"I'm his..." I didn't know what I was to him. "Correction, I was his fiancee."

Justin coughed apparently choking on his drink. The brunette looked up at Caleb and then to me. Caleb just stared at me wide-eyed. The bar suddenly felt way too small for us to be standing in. I needed fresh air. I went to walk past Caleb and he grabbed my arm. That was the dumbest thing he could have done. My power lashed out at him and set him flying backwards towards the bar.

I watched as his body slammed into two big guys on bar stools. Caleb wasn't hurt, but he'd managed to get some of the natives restless. They came up at him swinging. I smiled and stormed out towards the door.

Gotta love the power of p.i.s.sed off gal!

As the door swung shut behind me, it drowned out the sounds of the entire bar erupting into a brawl. I smiled and stormed off down the street. I didn't have a clue as to where I was going but I knew that I wanted to get away from Caleb. I had no ground to stand on with him about his cheating, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. What got me the most was that I had been beating myself up all day about what had happened with Ken and Pallo, all the while Caleb had a harem of women at his beck and call.Caleb averaged being gone three days away a week. Had he been seeing women the entire time he was away from me? Had I really been naive enou gh to believe I was important to him? No wonder he was so accommodating about leaving to hunt for the Enchantress even though I was sick. Gawd, he'd even had the nerve to ask me to marry him. I suddenly felt very cold and clammy, and I knew that I was in no position to be jealous. But I still was.

My stomach cramped. I'd thought that my case of the flu had subsided since it hadn't acted up all day. Guess I was wrong. The cold night air wasn't helping any. I still felt like c.r.a.p and I wanted to get as far away from Caleb as physically possible. I pulled my cell phone out and called home.

Chapter 18.

Twenty minutes later, I watched as Pallo's black car pulled up in front of me. The lights shut off and James stepped out of the driver's side. He walked over to me and hugged me tight to his chest. I knew when I called home and he answered that he'd come in an instant no questions asked.

I told him I'd left Pallo's car parked down at the Paranormal Regulators and I told him that my keys were in the office. I'm a.s.suming he called Ken because a vampire wouldn't get very far into the building without setting off every mystical alarm there was.

I stood there hugging James tight. I wanted to cry, and it would have been the perfect time to do it, but I couldn't. I was too d.a.m.n cold to do anything. James' long dead body felt so warm to me. I snuggled in tighterto him.

"James."

"Yes."

"Thanks for coming," I said as he kissed the top of my head lightly and led me around to the pa.s.senger side of the car. I climbed in and waited for him to get back in. I told him about the events of the day. He drove along silently and never pa.s.sed any judgment on me when I told him about sleeping with Ken. In fact, he never said anything at all.

"Pull the car over."

James never questioned my orders, he just did. I looked over at him. His dyed blue hair caught some of the light from the moon. He looked like a rock star--a very quiet rock star.

"James ... just say it, tell me what you're thinking."

His jaw tightened and he looked out his side window, away from me. He wa s quiet for a few minutes before he finally spoke. "Why do you surround yourself with men that are destined to hurt you?"

"What?"

He turned and looked straight at me. "Come on Gwen. First you pick Ken, its obvious the guy's a p.r.i.c.k. Sure, maybe he was good to you, but that doesn't make him any less of an a.s.shole. Then you find Pallo again. Yeah, you two have a history together, but that history was different, he was human when you loved him once. I've known the man for over two hundred years. He hasn't had a normal, healthy relationship once in that time frame, and then there's Caleb. You push him away and keep him at arm's length. The guy's spent four hundred years on this earth pining after you. That in itself screams issues. Then you're p.i.s.sed off when you find him s.h.a.ggin' gals that look just like you ... And for the record, I have to touch on Giovanni! I know what you're going to say--you don't have feelings for him. Bulls.h.i.t, I've been privy to your feelings long enough to know better."I sat there and let everything he'd said soak in. James was right and he'd only ventured a tiny bit into the Giovanni territory. I wasn't too sure about my history with Giovanni either, but I knew that the relationship was dysfunctional at best. James had valid points. I did seem to flock towards needy men. I didn't know what the h.e.l.l my problem was.

"What do you think I should do? You seem to be an expert on me now."

"For f.u.c.k sake, Gwen open your eyes and see what's right in front."

"What's right in front of me, James?"

"Forget it. The fact that you have to ask tells me that you don't get it, and you never will."

"That's the second time tonight you've said something like that. Just tell me what it is that's on your mind."