Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (21 page)

I balked for a second, remembering the devastation I’d left behind in the woods.  What if that happened again?  Mrs. Val would be replacing more than her kitchen floor, that was for sure—if she was alive to replace anything at all.

“Think of something calming,” Mrs. Val said when I confessed my fears to her.  “Close your eyes and find something that brings you peace.  Then release your fears and find your center.”

Doing as I was instructed, I closed my eyes again and tried to find something peaceful in my chaotic life.  It took me completely by surprise when Tyler’s face sprang up behind my eyes.  As I focused on it, tracing the familiar lines of the image in my mind, I could feel the tension seeping out of my shoulders, could feel the fear ebbing away.

Without even thinking about it, I opened my eyes and let out a low breath.  As I exhaled, the candles sprang
to life around me.  The flames were crazy high at first, but as I continued to breathe they slowly receded until they were the small flickers of light they were meant to be.

“Very good, honey,” Mrs. Val said, smiling at the glowing candles.  “Now.  I want you to really concentrate and let your element fill you. 
The trick is to keep it
inside
of you.”

“Rather than become a flaming torch?” I asked with a grin.

“Exactly,” she said with a nod and a laugh.  “The Council tends to frown on such vivid displays of power.  I believe the last witch that gave such a brilliant demonstration of power in public is still in the archives of the Council headquarters cataloguing relics as penance.”

Wow.  Magical community service. 
“How long has she been there?”

“Twelve years, I believe,” Mrs. Val said with a shrug.  “They have a lot of relics in that basement.  But
you
have to be especially careful, Em.  They won’t give you penance.  They’ll make you disappear…permanently.  Shea’s already having one hell of a time keeping them from taking you, sweetie.  You don’t want to give them any reason to change their minds.”

I stared at her, too shocked to say anything.  Was that why Grams had run off, leaving me with Nathan and Tyler?  Had that critical vote been about
me
? 

“Em
ber, you’re not concentrating!” Mrs. Val suddenly cried, backing away as the candle flames shot up like geysers again. I shook myself and focused my power again, pushing the Council and their plans to the back of my mind to be examined later.

“Sorry,” I muttered when the candles were barely flickering again. 

“No problem,” Mrs. Val said, though she still looked a little shaken.  “You’ve been bound.  It was to be expected.  Our power is like anything else; without practice we get rusty.”

Those words meant a whole lot more to me four hours later when Mrs. Val finally let me call it quits.  Manifesting my element had been easy as pie, but controlling it was like harnessing the wind and making it blow only in the direction I wanted it to.  In other words, it was hard as hell. 

But I didn’t give up.  Every time I screwed up, I became that much more determined to get it right.  By the time Mrs. Val let me go, I could not only summon my element, I could control it so effortlessly that it felt like I’d been doing it my whole life.

“You did amazingly
well, Em,” Mrs. Val said with a proud smile when I’d managed to do the charm flawlessly ten times in a row. I grinned when I saw the way she pointedly kept her eyes away from the scorch marks on the floor.  “You should go change and take your shot.  I’m supposed to have you at the salon in an hour.  My daughter’s orders.”

Nodding, I got up and started to walk out of the kitchen.  I was about to turn the corner when she called my name again.

“Em, just out of curiosity, what were you thinking about to center yourself?”

“I was thinking about Tyler,” I told her, shrugging, without actually meeting her gaze. 

“Yeah,” she sighed as I turned and made my escape.  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“That is bloody
fabulous
!”  Tyler whistled as the beautician at Kim’s favorite salon spun my chair around, revealing me to Tyler, Kim, and Blake. 

I turned back to the mirror and smiled at the result of my
two hours in the chair.  My curls were smoothed out into a waterfall of red silk that hung down to my hips.  It was highlighted with chunks of raven black and the combination was
amazing
.  I shook my head, loving the feel of it, and smiled.

Makeup was next.  The girl giving me my makeup lesson was a true artist.  But the best thing she did for me was give me a means to cover the mark on my neck.  I don’t know what kind of concealer it was, but it was some really good stuff.  Once we smoothed it on, I couldn’t see my mark at all.  That caused the ice around my heart to crack a little.  It was one thing to wish it gone, it was something else entirely to feel like I had gotten what I wanted.

“Time to get dressed!” Kim cried gleefully, literally dancing around in excitement, once my hair and makeup were done.

I almost changed my mind about the whole makeover when I saw the sample of my new wardrobe Kim had brought along for me to change into.  The copper satin corset top cinched in my waist and put my too-big boobs on prominent display.  The corset was paired with a black micro-mini
skirt that, I swear, barely covered more than the bare necessities.  Finishing off the ensemble was a black leather jacket that when zipped was as tight as the corset and a pair of knee high boots with heels that were at least six inches high.

When I complained about my scars showing in the daring top she’d chosen for me, Kim simply walked over and laid her hands on my shoulders and whispered
something I could barely understand.  I felt the skin beneath her fingers tingle, raising the tiny hairs on my arms, and then Kim stepped away and gave me a brilliant smile.

“It’s amazing what you can cover up with a Glamour, Em,” she said, dragging me over to the full-length mirror.  “I’ll teach you how to do it yourself.  Now stop dragging your feet.  Are you ready to see the new Ember?”

The real answer was no, but I didn’t dare tell Kim how scared I was.  Still, when she took my shoulders and turned me toward the mirror, I had to force myself to look. 

And I was
hot
!  Like, super hot!  A slow smile spread across my face, and when Kim’s eyes met mine in the mirror, I saw the same smug satisfaction that I was sure she was seeing in mine.

The reaction of the waiting crowd when we stepped out of the dressing room was enough to make any girl a little vain.  Even Blake stared at me, deep admiration in his eyes.  Tyler didn’t have to say
anything
; the warm intensity in his eyes said it all for him.  The mere mortals in the room just looked blown away.

“Where?” Kim asked, winking at Blake and smiling when he had to shake his head before he could answer her.

“Icon,” he told her, shrugging.  “Every night since…”

She cleared her throat and he shut up.  It didn’t matter that he hadn’t finished his sentence.  I knew what he had been about to say.  Every night since Nathan had dumped me.  I knew the club he was talking about.  You couldn’t be under the age of fifty in Moonlight, Missouri, and not know about Icon.  If you wanted to have a good time, it was the place to be.

“Let’s go out tonight,” Kim said, looping her arm through mine.  “Blake and Tyler, you guys go change and pick me and Em up about nine.”

I tensed, wanting to say no, but I had passed the point of no return.  It had been my decision to become a new me.  So it was time to see just what the new me was really made of. 

∞§∞§∞§∞

Kim was like a hurricane of positive energy as she got dressed, chattering on and on about what a blast we were going to have and how sick Nathan was going to be when he saw me, getting on with my life without him and having a ball doing it.  I, on the other hand, got quieter and quieter and less and less sure about my plan as the minutes ticked by until Blake and Tyler got back.  When Kim finally took a second to take a breath, she noticed my preoccupation and came to sit down next to me, taking my hand in hers.

“What is it, Em?” she asked, pushing my hair back so she could see my face. She flinched when she saw how scared I actually was.

“What if I can’t do it, Kim?” I asked, picking at a chipped nail so I wouldn’t have to see the disappointment on her face that I was already chickening out.  My makeover had been my idea, but it had only changed what was on the outside.  On the inside, I was just as scared and sad as I had been the day Nathan dumped me.  “What if I take one look at him and fall apart?”

“You won’t.”  She sounded so sure that I almost believed it myself. 
Almost
.  “You’re going to walk in there like you own the place.  You’re going to dance, you’re going to laugh, and you’re going to have the time of your life.  Even if you’re not, you’re going to fake it so well that only you will know that.  You can do this, Em.  I know you can, because I’ve been watching you fake happiness for the last twelve years.  And we will be right beside you the entire time.  If it gets to be too much, we’ll get you out of there.”

“Now, how do I look?” she asked, getting up and twirling in front of me.

“Gorgeous, as usual,” I told her, smiling.

She really did, too. Her outfit was totally sexy without being too much.  She had paired a pair of black skinny jeans with a black lace cami top and black ankle boots, topping it off with a velvet jacket that laced up in the back, corset style.  Sexy, but not smoking hot.  I knew what she was doing.  She was making sure the only person in our group people would be staring at was me.

“Ready?” she asked when the doorbell chimed, alerting us to the fact that the guys had arrived and girl time was over.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I told her, smiling when she laughed and grabbed my hand to drag me down the stairs.

“Oh, you’re ready,” she said as her bedroom door closed behind us.  “And if you’re not, your date will see to it that you don’t even know Nathan’s in the building.”

And, I swear, she had a good point.  The guys looked
really
yummy.  Blake’s white sweater and jeans made him seem even more tall, dark, and handsome than usual.  But, Tyler…Tyler had gone all out.  His sun-streaked dark hair was the usual gorgeously tousled mess, but, like Kim, he had dressed all in black.  It made his lean body look even more muscular than I knew it to be.  There was something about him, something dangerous, mysterious.  And I realized that I knew that look.  It was the same aura he’d been giving off the night we banished Bastian.  He was just as amazing standing there in Mrs. Val’s entryway as he’d been that night.

I suddenly
wanted to touch him so badly that I could barely keep my hands to myself.

Yeah, that wasn’t good.  That wasn’t good
at all
.

“Tyler, you’re officially Em’s date,” Kim said, smiling up at him and fixing the collar of his jacket so it would lay just right.  “That’s going to kind of make you enemy number one if Nathan gets a thorn up his ass.  You ready?”

“More than ready,” he told her, his gaze fastened on mine.

“Then let’s do this!” Blake said, grabbing Kim around the waist and me by the hand.  “Time to get our drink on!”

It was a happy group that arrived at Icon twenty minutes later.  If the others were worried about how things would go, they were hiding it really well.  The line to get into the club was pretty long and we waited with the rest of the mortals, talking about what a great time we were going to have.  Tyler kept his arms wrapped around me,
and his warmth, combined with the charm Mrs. Val had taught me, kept the cold from seeping into my bones. 

When the line stopped moving altogether, I frowned and peered around the people ahead of us to see the big, hulking, guy at the door shaking his head.  The club was over
max capacity and he had orders not to let anyone else in.

“I think it’s time for a little persuasion,” I muttered low enough
that only Tyler seemed to hear me.  I expected him to protest when I slipped off my jacket and tossed it to him, but he didn’t.  Smiling, glad that he wasn’t going to go all caveman on me like Nathan would have, I turned around and headed for the bouncer and, hopefully, admittance for four to the warmth of the club.

Before I even reached him,
the bouncer’s eyes were bugging out of his head.  I thanked every god I could think of that I had taken an extra dose of Nexus when his fire-red aura brightened so much that he appeared to be
on
fire.  If I hadn’t, I didn’t even want to think what I might have done.

Oddly enough, there were no little spirals of light like I had seen in Nathan’s aura,
or Tyler’s the day he’d sent me into a feeding frenzy, or even Ainsley’s the night she’d shot me.  Pushing that to the back of my mind to be analyzed later, I concentrated on the matter at hand—which was getting us out of the cold and into the damn club before I got so cold that I did something regrettable.

The bouncer didn’t say a word as I sashayed up to him, a seductive smile on my lips.  When I laid my hand on his arm and winked at him, I thought he was going to pass out. 
Batting my eyelashes at him, I cooed, “Don’t you think the club could hold just
four
more people?”

As soon as he was able to pull his eyes from the amount of cleavage I was showing off and look in my eyes, I knew I had him. His gaze went all dreamy and the goofy smile that blossomed on his lips was priceless.

“Go ahead, gorgeous,” he said, still grinning down at me like a lovesick puppy.  “You and your friends have a good time.”

“Thanks, sweetie,” I winked at him again and then waved to Kim, Tyler and Blake.

“Okay, that was just
too
good,” Kim said, laughing, as we ran inside before the mesmerizing effect of my eyes wore off.

Blake shook his head at me, chuckling, and Tyler just
smiled indulgently as he held my jacket for me to slip back on.  I winked at him, then we were lost in the middle of the crowd.  There were so many bodies on the dance floor that we had to push our way through to the bar on the far side.  I sweet-talked a couple of frat boys off their stools, and Kim and I perched on them while the guys ordered us a drink.

I saw Nathan before he saw me.  He was leaning on the balcony railing, a drink in his hand and his new playmates on either side of him.  My eyes narrowed in intense dislike when they fell on Ainsley.  She was wearing
a tight, strapless red slip dress that barely came to mid-thigh.  Her hair was gelled into tiny ringlets around her face and she was smiling at Zan like she thought he might be her new favorite dessert.

Zan was a little underdressed for the crowd he was in.  His jeans and tight black tee were a little tame for him.  I wondered what had brought on the change from leather to denim, but wasn’t really concerned enough to actually put a lot of thought into it.

Nathan was looking as scrumptious as ever.  I examined him from the top of his tousled head, down the perfectly sculpted face to the navy blue button-down that made him look even more muscular than usual.  I felt a painful little jab in the vicinity of my heart when a platinum blonde head appeared next to him—and then a wash of rage and disgust when I realized it belonged to Stacy Martin.  As I watched, Nathan leaned down so she could whisper in his ear.  I thought I might be sick when his empty hand slid down her arm, his fingertips barely skimming her skin in a way I remembered all too well.  I hoped the skank’s legs gave out on her.  The embarrassment would do her good.

Watching him smile down at the biggest skank of all time, I couldn’t help but
think of the soul bond we’d completed again—a bond that had obviously meant a hell of a lot more to me than it did to him.  He was supposed to want me and only me.  Just another lie to add to so many others.  He didn’t seem to even notice I wasn’t there. 

I didn’t take a breath until Stacy gave him a disgustingly slavish smile and walked away. 
His sexy little smile disappeared the second she was out of sight.  Looking back out over the crowd—probably searching for his nasty new plaything—Nathan lifted his glass for another drink.  It was halfway to his mouth when he stopped and lowered it slowly, turning and scanning the room with a strange expression that looked like panic.

“Take your jacket off!” Kim hissed, having followed my intense gaze to the balcony. “Hurry, Em, before he sees you!”

I stood up and slowly unzipped the jacket, my gaze still trained on the trio at the balcony railing.  I slid it off just as Nathan’s eyes found mine.  I couldn’t help but notice how surprised—and maybe a little hurt—he seemed when I smiled at him.  His eyes raked me from head to toe, widening as they went, and then traced the same path back up.  His gaze lingered on my neck, looking for the mark I’d covered up.  When our eyes met again the anger in his was enough to make me feel pretty damned smug.

His companions had noticed me, too.  Ainsley was glaring at me like she’d love to shoot me again.  Zan’s lips had formed an ‘O’, making me think maybe he was whistling.  When Nathan reached over and shoved him, hard, I was sure of it.