His eyes narrow on mine. “You have two things going for you, Raven. I know you’re not about to go and rub on a crystal ball. You’re not about to tell all those humans their fortune. So, the only other thing…” His eyes drop to my chest. He has a way of making me feel cheap. It’s crazy how I mistook that for admiration. For attraction. “You have other things going for you. Maybe we can find a town with a—”
“Don’t!” Maddox growls. His eyes have darkened. “Don’t you dare go there.”
West pushes out a breath and rolls his eyes. “In all seriousness, what the fuck are we going to do?”
“We’ll figure it out.” Maddox turns the key in the ignition, and the car engine rumbles to life. “We’ll land on our feet. We always do,” he adds as we pull off.
3
Stephanus
I can’t stop thinking about her. Not just about what she said to me, even though that’s fresh in my mind as well, but about her. She read me.
Raven.
A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. She saw into my future. No one has ever been able to do that before. I used to seek out fortune tellers when I was in my teens and in my early adulthood. I tried to find someone who was like me. There were one or two with some sort of ability, but no one with anything close to my powers. No one who could see the future of another person in vivid technicolor. Sometimes like a movie, moving in fast-forward, and other times, brief snips of random events. The worst is when it’s a jumble of obscure images that don’t make full sense. I haven’t been able to find anyone who can do what I can do. Someone like her.
Raven.
Non-human.
Who is she?
Then I think about her words, and a chill runs through me. Maybe she was mistaken? No! She definitely saw something bad. She certainly looked spooked. Like I must look sometimes when the vision isn’t as clear as it could be. Sometimes it’s more the feeling you get than the actual vision itself. Raven was scared for me. Gooseflesh broke out on her arms. I need to heed her warning, and it’ll be fine.
“What the hell happened in there?” Jarrod pushes out as he fastens his seatbelt.
Rage doesn’t say anything. He stares, stony-faced at the road ahead.
I check for traffic and pull out into the road. “West wasn’t human, was he?” I’m not sure why I’m looking for confirmation from Rage when I already know the answer.
“No. Not human.”
“There were three of them,” I mumble. “None of them were human.” I’m talking more to myself.
“I don’t know about the girl so much. She looked like a puny human.” Jarrod shrugs.
“I couldn’t read her, remember? She’s not human.” I should probably tell them what she saw, but I don’t. Most of it was a jumble. Ultimately, nothing really concrete, except for the warning to stay away from the ocean. The other part of her vision freaked me the fuck out. She knew things about me she couldn’t possibly know. I need to stay away from the ocean. I don’t have any trips planned, so I’m good.
Jarrod grunts and nods. “What was that kiss all about?”
“Nothing.” I feel my cheeks heat. Raven kissed me on the cheek. The cheek, for fuck’s sake, and it’s making me blush like a girl. “I asked her out, and she turned me down.” It’s not a complete lie. The sequence of events maybe.
“What?” Jarrod chokes out a laugh. “Really? You? Just like that?”
“Yeah.” I smile, indicating to make a turn. “I thought she was fucking gorgeous. It’s not often I meet someone I can actually date.”
“Don’t you mean fuck?” He lifts his brows as I glance his way. Jarrod grins. My twin can be such an ass. Probably on account of him not getting much action himself. It’s not that great when you can see into a person’s past. All the bullshit they got up to. All the partners they’ve been with. Sometimes in live-action inside your head. One hell of a buzzkill when you’re trying to get it on.
“No.” I shake my head. “I mean date, asshole. She turned me down, hence the kiss. She was just being nice. They’re leaving town.” I slow down when the light up ahead turns red.
“Did she happen to mention what they are?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t even think to ask. Not really the right place for it.”
“Too mesmerized by her lovely big eyes.” Jarrod chokes out a laugh.
I roll my eyes. The light changes, so I pull off, making my way out of town.
“That’s too bad,” Rage says, out of the blue.
“What is?” I ask.
“I was looking forward to a rematch with West.” His voice deepens, and a frown mars his forehead.
I snort-laugh. “That would have been a bad idea.”
“I can take him….in my sleep,” Rage says. “Somewhere private. I’d unleash a smidgen of my power on him, and he’d be toast.”
“You mean dead.” Jarrod turns back to look at Rage.
I glance in the rearview mirror. “I have some control,” he mutters. “Enough to bring that asshole down a rung or two. He needs it. He couldn’t fight me without his superhuman strength.” He grunts.
“That’s how he got those first punches in,” I say.
“Damn straight,” Rage mutters. “He used his superhuman strength, and I didn’t. He needs his ass whipped. Arrogant little prick!”
“They’re leaving town. It’s for the best.” I feel a pang as I say it. I would have liked to have gotten to know Raven. I’ve never seen eyes that color before.
“I agree,” Jarrod says. “It’s absolutely for the best.”
“I thought I saw scales for a moment,” Rage says. “On West. I might have been mistaken. My head was ringing after he snuck in a power-riddled punch. It was for a split second, but…” He scrunches his eyes up in thought. “I could have sworn…”
Jarrod pulls in a breath. “There’s a good possibility that they are dragon shifters.” There are stories about small dragon weyrs that no longer have any contact with the main weyr. The one we were born into. They’re just stories. Then again, where there’s smoke, there is sometimes fire.
Rage shakes his head and scratches his jaw. “Part shifter…I think. West was too strong. I don’t think he was pure dragon. There was more there.” He shrugs.
“That’s interesting. Do you think they could be…?” I shake my head at the thought.
“Who knows.” Jarrod shrugs. “More and more, we’re coming to realize that we share this planet with various creatures. That harpy, centaur shifters, those cyclopes… Then there’s Death…us…who knows what else might be out there.”
“Straight up demigods?” Rage adds.
“Yep…those too.” Jarrod nods.
“We can talk circles around this for hours.” I look in the rearview mirror for a second. “They’re leaving. We’ll never know.” Again, I feel an unexpected pang at the thought of Raven going. I’m being an idiot. I don’t know her. I met her for all of a minute. Dating her would never have worked, since she can read me. If she’s anything like me, she doesn’t like touching people she can read. Me being one of them. I know that I purposely stay far away from humans. I hardly know any non-humans. There are so few of us. My dating pool is seriously small. I need to forget all about it and concentrate on getting us home. I have work to do. A pile of work. I’ll focus on that instead of a certain curly-haired beauty.