“I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘grace’.” She forced a smile for the three lucani males sitting in front of Caeles. She didn’t recognize them but she didn’t know all of the lucani who lived in this small village. They were exempt from serving in the legion because they directly served the Lady of the Silver Light.
“You’re too modest,” Caeles said. “I’ve had the pleasure of playing with you before. You have a true gift.”
His choice of words made her smile slip. Her “true gift” brought her much more pain than this. Occasionally, she’d let herself wonder what her life would have been like without her Gift. But she didn’t let herself think about that anywhere but in the privacy of her room and only then late at night, when her mother was asleep.
“Thank you, Caeles. What should we play?”
“Your choice for the first song.”
She thought about it as she slid onto the bench, letting her fingers get the feel of the ivory.
Without conscious thought, she began to pick out the opening notes to Heaven Help My Heart from the Broadway show, Chess.
She stopped when she realized Caeles probably wouldn’t know a song from a show that never really hit the big time. But he immediately picked up the melody.
With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and released her brain.
And let the music take her away.
Chapter Six
“Gods damn it, Nic, wake the fuck up. She’s gone.”
Nic’s eyes flew open and he sat straight up, only to gasp in pain as his broken ribs protested.
“Shit. Fuck, that hurt.” Shaking his head, Nic tried to make sense of Duke’s words. “Vaffanculo, what do you mean she’s gone?”
“My Jeep’s gone and so is she, that’s what I fucking mean.”
“Is her stuff gone?”
Duke stopped pacing the living room and practically ran for the bedroom where he’d stowed her bag— Yesterday?
Nic turned to look at the clock on the microwave in the kitchen and winced again at the pain in his side. Not as bad as earlier, which was good.
“Stuff’s still there.” Duke stalked back into the room, running his hand through his hair, a sure sign he was scared. And Duke didn’t do scared.
Nic had to admit he was a little freaked as well but the fact that she hadn’t taken her stuff was a point in their favor.
If she’d abandoned them, she would have taken her bag. Unless she’d been too freaked to even remember she had brought a bag.
“Shit, Nic. Where the hell’d she go? Damn it, we shouldn’t have pushed her.”
Nic felt a momentary twinge that had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with guilt. Yeah, he’d pushed her. But she hadn’t been unwilling. They’d given her more than enough chances to say no.
And he didn’t regret it. Not one fucking bit.
Tinia’s teat, it was the best sex he’d ever had. And he’d only touched himself.
Watching her had been amazing. He swore he’d been able to feel her pleasure in his body.
“Ceffo, stop pacing for two seconds and think about this. It’s almost three in the morning. Where could she go?”
Duke gave him the finger for calling him an asshole but he paused long enough to take a breath, his unfocused gaze staring out the window. “Nica.”
Nic shook his head, his own mind shifting through possibilities. “Away for the week. Home?”
“She would have taken her stuff. And she wouldn’t disturb her mom in the middle of the night. Tam and Kyle.”
Nic nodded. “Possible, yeah.
“I’ll take a run over—”
“I’m coming too.”
Duke snorted as he headed for the front door. “Yeah, right. You can barely move. I don’t want to have to be dragging your sorry ass again. Just stay the fuck here.”
Nic felt his blood pressure start to soar at Duke’s dismissal. He wasn’t a scraggly little kid anymore, trailing in Duke’s sturdy, athletic wake. And he wasn’t a gods damn invalid.
Knowing he’d actually be speeding his healing process by shifting into his wolf, but also knowing it was going to hurt like hell, Nic pushed off the chair and stood. He refused to look at Duke and refused to show any sign of pain.
Already naked, Nic didn’t have to do anything other than reach inside himself for his pelt.
He almost stopped when his injured ribs broadcast their agony through his body but he needed to go with Duke. He needed to be there when he found Tira. They were meant to be in this together. He wasn’t fucking dead yet.
Somehow he managed to hold on to the magic as his ribs and, to a lesser extent, his head protested. He still had a lingering headache from the concussion but none of that mattered.
Only Tira mattered.
He held on to the thought of her as time stretched into forever and finally he called forth his wolf. Each part of the shift seemed heightened. He swore he felt each hair as it formed his pelt, each transfiguration of his bones. The way his muscles reattached themselves.
The way his cells magically turned his body into his wolf.
He’d never had that happen before, had never cared to break down the process like some others. Like Duke, he merely thanked the gods for their Gift and ran with it.
After he gave his final, full-body shake, just to make sure everything was where it should be, he cocked his head, hearing a strange, clacking noise.
He realized a second later it was his claws on the wood floor. He was shaking from the effort.
Still, the pain in his ribs had dialed back to a dull ache and his headache was only a distant throb in his temples.
A quiet huff caught his attention and his head swung around toward the kitchen, where Duke sat, already shifted. Duke cocked his head at him then shook it back and forth and huffed.
Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too.
They left by the special flap they’d installed in the back door. Bigger than a normal doggie door, it accommodated their unusual size and they could lock and unlock it from the outside as well as the inside with their paws.
Duke shot off, heading for the woods that separated this house from Kyle and Tam’s place. He disappeared the second he hit the tree line but Nic knew Duke would double back for him if he didn’t follow right away.
But first, he took a moment to enjoy lingering flashes of magic through his body, little zings of pleasure almost like mini-orgasms.
Then he leaped off the porch and headed for the woods.
Damn, he loved the smell of the forest, even in the winter when the ground was frozen and the trees dormant, waiting.
The scents were more subtle now, fresher, as if scrubbed clean. He could almost smell the anticipation of spring in the leaf buds and slow-moving sap.
As he ran, his muscles stretched and sang with relief, cold air brushing through his fur.
He caught up with Duke halfway to Kyle’s. Duke must not have been running full out because Nic caught him easily.
So Nic poured on the speed, pulling ahead of Duke, knowing Duke would be forced to give chase. Nic knew the guy better than anyone and, though he tried to hide it, he had just as much of a competitive nature as the next person.
They ran silently, focused on getting to Kyle’s as quickly as they could. They almost didn’t realize they’d been joined on their run until Tivr streaked ahead of them, a flash of gray in the dark.
The god obviously wanted them to halt so Nic and Duke stopped on a dime as Tivr turned back on them. Staring at him with their heads cocked, they waited for him to tell them what he was doing here.
Tivr sat on his haunches in front of them. “She’s not there.”
Nic automatically shook his head at the sight of a wolf’s mouth moving and human words coming out of it. He’d been reared around magic. He’d seen people disappear in front of him or create fireballs with their fingertips. But no lucani he knew could speak in wolf form. Except Tivr. Yes, the guy was a god but still…