“Guys, please. There’s gotta be another way. How many times do I have to say this—traveling through the past is dangerous.”
“Aden!” Cool fingers shook him.
Aden forced the room back into focus. “Victoria, I—” The words died in his throat.
His father was sitting next to a too calm Tonya, a gun resting on his thigh, the barrel pointed at Aden. Immediately Aden jumped to his feet, in front of Victoria, acting as her shield. Junior belted out a snarl, responding to the spike of aggression in Aden’s veins.
The ward to control the beast suddenly seemed like a brilliant idea, damn the consequences.
Aden did a little deep breathing, keeping his blood pressure down and his head clear. Emotions were not going to engulf him. Not this time.
“How’d you find me?” he asked.
“Do you really think I’d ward you and not make one of them a tracker?”
Joe had always known where he was, he realized. His father had simply chosen not to seek him, until now. Don’t react. That’s what he wants.
“Now, if I was going to hurt your girl, I would have hurt her already.” Joe tapped at the trigger, light but threatening all the same. “Sit down.”
Aden sat, angling his body so that he remained Victoria’s shield. She trembled against him, her chilled breath shuddering over his neck.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“No reason to be.”
“He snuck in, and…” Another shudder raked her.
He reached back and squeezed her knee.
“I’d be still if I were you,” Joe said. “The slightest move makes me twitchy.”
Warning received.
Tonya hadn’t moved or spoken during the entire exchange. She wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t all there, either.
“I drugged her,” Joe explained, having noticed Aden’s attention on the woman. “One injection, and she’s out but still functioning. Guy learns to use what weapons he can when he’s always running for his life.”
The first wave of danger had passed. Clearly conversation was up next on the chopping board. “You sound bitter. As old as you are, you should get over yourself already. Some people have had harder lives.”
Junior kicked up a bit of a fuss, drowning out the arguing souls.
One sandy-colored brow arched. “Meaning you? You think you had a harder life than me, boy?”
Don’t you dare react. “Meaning you’re a baby. By the way, you should see what happened to the last guy who held a weapon on me. Oh, wait. You can’t. He’s dead.”
Joe placed his free hand over his heart. “My son, the killer. I’m so proud.”
First time Joe had ever willingly acknowledged their link. And to do it that way, full of piss and vinegar, well, that was a far more deadly weapon than the gun. “So you’ve never killed in self-defense, you—”
Reacting…
In and out he breathed.
Victoria linked their hands. Her trembling had intensified, though her expression was serene. Junior gave another roar. Much as Aden despised his…this man—no way he’d refer to the guy as his dad again—he didn’t want Joe to become a Happy Meal for his beast.
“By the way, your conversations with yourself are more interesting now than they were when you were three.” Joe’s gaze shifted to Victoria. “Do you know what his first word was? Lijah. His second was Ebb. His third, Jew-els. His forth, Kayb. Yes, he had a slight pronunciation problem.”
I was last? Caleb said. Thanks for the love, Hay-den.
Rather than getting caught up in a distracting conversation with the soul, Aden ignored him. There had been no affection to Joe’s words. Just straight-up facts. No question, Joe was determined to flay him alive and leave him bleeding to death internally.
Murder with words. Smart. You couldn’t be convicted for that.
Victoria tsked under her tongue. “You know, Joe—may I call you Joe?—Aden probably said the names of the souls first because they were better parents and friends to him than you had ever been or would ever be. Food for thought, don’t you think?”
Joe popped his jaw, and Aden squeezed Victoria’s knee, in warning this time, hoping to stop her from lashing out again. However sweetly she lashed out. Do not poke at the armed bear. Aden could, because well—fine, that wasn’t such a good idea, either. Not while Victoria was so vulnerable.
“Enough of that. Let’s get down to business, shall we?” Joe said. “Why do you want to travel back through this woman’s life?”
“I don’t.” But why not tell him the rest? Wasn’t like Aden had been doing anything wrong. “However, she was bespelled, and I need to break that spell. To break it, I need to know what spell was used.”
“You can’t tell?” Asked with the same intonation Joe might have used speaking to a special needs kid.
At least he hadn’t called Aden a liar. “You can?”
“Wait. You can time travel into people’s pasts, you’re apparently king of the vampires and wolves, and you can’t hear the echo of the spell cast? Can’t feel the vibe of its magic?”
Again with the special needs voice. “You can?” he repeated. “Wait. Don’t tell me. You have a ward for that, too.”
A shake of his blond head. “Practice.” Then, “Why do you care about this woman anyway? She’s nothing to you.”
“I don’t care.”
Hey, now, Julian snapped.
Joe frowned. “Then why—”
“I don’t,” he went on, “but one of the souls inside my head does.”
Okay, then. I can respect that.
“The souls. Of course. You always did love them best.” Joe turned to Tonya. “Be a dear and fetch me a pen and paper, darlin’. All right?”
“Yes, of course,” she said, slurring the words. “Pen and paper.” She stood and stumbled off, unconcerned, unwitting and in a lot of danger.
Victoria made a play to follow her, but Joe shook the gun “no-no” as if he were shaking his head, and she remained in place. “Aren’t you afraid she’ll run?”
“No,” was all the man said. “The drug opens her mind to suggestion. She’ll do only what she’s told.”
Perhaps not the wisest thing to admit.
Victoria studied him for a moment. “You know, you’re worse than my father, and I didn’t think that was possible. He used to whip me with a cat-o’-nine-tails, you know. Just for fun.”
“Yeah, and who’s your father, honey?”
Aden squeezed her knee in another bid for silence. Much as Joe hated the creatures of the otherworld, he might try and punish Victoria for her origins or even the sins of others.
Joe offered him a small smile, content to let the mystery of her pass. “You picked a damaged girl with daddy issues. I guess we’re more alike than I ever thought possible.”
What was he saying? That Aden’s mother was damaged? That she, too, had daddy issues? So badly he wanted to ask. Despite everything, he was hungry for information about his mother.
The few times he’d allowed himself to think about her, he’d wondered what she looked like, if she’d been as eager to give him away as Joe had been, or if she’d wanted to keep him. Where was she now? What was she doing?
Was she the woman Riley and Mary Ann had seen with Joe that day in his truck?
“Don’t ask,” Joe said stiffly, sensing the direction of his thoughts.
He opened his mouth to do just that, but Tonya returned with the commanded paper and pen and handed them to Joe before reclaiming her seat beside him. Joe balanced the notepad on his thigh and began writing, his other hand never leaving the gun. When he finished he tore off the paper and slapped it against the coffee table.
His gaze met Aden’s, familiar and once again blank. “Now you can’t say I’ve never helped you.”
Do NOT react.
He couldn’t stop his heart from pounding in surprise or Junior’s consequent slamming against his skull. He slanted his head to the side, motioning to the paper. “What’s that?”