Magic, New Mexico: Bewitching Birgit (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  It took him nearly two hours to walk back to town. He could have moved faster in his other form, but it would have been risky to run across the open land as a tiger. Instead, he hoofed it back on two feet and made his way to the garage.

  “Hey, man. I heard about what happened at the cave. “ Deno slapped him on the upper arm. “I’m sorry I got there too late to be of any use.”

  “Not as sorry as I am.” Reno shoved his fingers through his hair. “Where’s Ceno?”

  “He’s with the human women you two rescued from the snake heads.” Xeno said from beneath a car.

  “It didn’t take you long to get the gold and get your ass back here.”

  “Nope. I went to one of those places that buys old gold jewelry from people and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. “I heard I missed some excitement.”

  “I found their ship,” Reno replied with a tight smile.

  “A ship?” Xeno rolled out from under the vehicle on his new creeper and pinned Reno with a look so much like their father’s it almost made him squirm. “You mean they had a ship hidden on the mountain? I knew it!” He stood, tossed his wrench in his toolbox and wiped his hands on his coveralls. “I knew they’d have a ship.” He held Reno’s gaze for a moment. “You don’t seem too happy about the prospect of going home.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Whatever happened to wanting nothing more than to get the hell off this rock?” Deno rested his hands on his hips. “Did you fool around and fall in love with that human chick?”

  “She’s my mate. What do you think?” Reno fisted his hands at his sides. Why did he suddenly feel the urge to punch his brother in the face?

  “I seem to recall you saying you refused to make it with a human. That they’re too primitive and weak.”

  Xeno shot Deno a glare as his twin stepped back out of the way.

  “Coward.” He laughed and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm. “Congratulations, brother. I’m glad to hear you’ve finally found someone to share your life with, here. We’ve been worried about you.” He glanced back at Deno. “We’ve all been worried about all of us. But not anymore. If you can find a mate, so can we.”

  “Of course you can.” Reno pressed his lips together. “Anywhere, but here.” He strode to the door before turning to look at them. “Pack your shit. We’re leaving.”

  The walk to his house, wasn’t nearly long enough to help him go numb. He feared such a measurement of time didn’t exist. He entered his home and took a deep breath. Her scent, though faint, remained and he wanted nothing more than to drink it in and shut it out, all at the same time.

  His cell rang and he pulled it from his pocket. It was Ceno.

  “Get your ass home and pack your shit. I found the Argarian’s ship. We’re leaving.”

  “Wait-what?”

  He didn’t give his brother another opportunity to speak. He ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket and surveyed the room. There were so many things he’d purchased over the last few years. So many things he would miss.

  The TV had been a love-hate relationship, from the start. He loved the shows and movies, but he hated the news channels that seemed to have forgotten what unbiased reporting meant. Music was another matter. He loved it all. From classical to country and hip-hop. They’d never heard anything like it before.

  The stereo and all of his CDs would go. He would take his tablet and play the silly games his brother had downloaded for him until the device died of old age. He walked into the kitchen to grab his coffee maker and the little cups to use with it. He would drink coffee until he ran out. After that, he would cannibalize the brewer to make something else. It was what his kind did, after all.

  He stared at the basket he’d taken their picnic lunch in earlier that day and his eyes burned. He shouldn’t have left her alone after they’d made love. If he hadn’t, she would never have seen the killer side of him.

  Grabbing the table, he pushed it over. The remainder of their lunch spilled onto the floor. Reno stared at it for a moment, before he turned and stormed from the room.

  Taking the steps two at a time, he made his way up to the attic on the third floor, grabbed four boxes and tossed them down the stairs. Just enough space to pack his music, his coffee and a few changes of clothes.

  He’d take what he had stored in his bank account and purchase gold and more coffee for the trip. Any raider worth anything at all would return with gold before any other substance. It seemed as though their mission had not gone so wrong in spite of their accident.

  Three hours later, his boxes packed, Reno returned to the garage to find his brothers alternately working on cars and talking.

  “I told you two to pack your shit.” He glared at Xeno and Deno. “What the hell are you doing to that car?”

  “We’re fixing it. What does it look like?” The sound of Ceno’s voice came from behind one of the cars. “It’s what we do. We do own the only full-service garage in Magic, you know.”

  “I told Deno and Xeno to pack their shit. We’re going home. We have a ship, now.” Reno moved to the side in an attempt to see what Ceno was up to on the other side of the bowl.

  “What if we don’t want to go home?”

  “Why the hell not?” Did he need to clean his ears or were his brothers defying him?

  “We like it here. There’s plenty of water, green grass and women. What red-blooded man in his right mind would want to leave?”

  “You’re blood is purple, not red, you idiot.”

  “Same difference.” Deno shrugged. “I still don’t want to go back home where a date is some kind of fruit I remember eating on this planet.” He met Reno’s gaze and stood firm. “I want to date. I want to learn how to fall in love and, eventually, I want a woman I can call my own.”

  “Then find one elsewhere,” Reno said with a snarl. “Apparently, human women can’t handle what we are. They can’t deal with the violence in us when something threatens them and they won’t fight for us.” He swallowed the thick lump forming in his throat and continued, “When it comes right down to it, we’ll frighten them. You’ll frighten them and they’ll leave you before you know it. It’s better not to take the chance.”

  “I get it, she hurt you, but that’s no reason to hurt her back.”

  “What the fuck are you going on about now?” Reno spun around to face Deno. He couldn’t believe his ears. Did his brothers think he wanted to leave Birgit? “I wouldn’t hurt her for anything in the universe.”

  “She’ll come around in a few days. She’s had a shock. What will happen when she decides she loves you more than she fears a future with an alien, and you’re gone? What will she do then? You’ll have ruined her for all other men. She won’t be able to stop comparing them to you.” Ceno stood and threw the rachet he’d been using on the floor with a scowl. “Suck it up, and go to her, you asshole. She’s been through a horrible trauma today and you’ve left her to deal with it all on her own.”

  “She didn’t want me there.”

  “Bullshit!” Ceno grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. “She wanted you to hold her—to take her in your arms and tell her everything would be alright. It’s what men here do when their women are frightened or upset. She wanted you to show her that you could still be gentle with her, after you took the lives of the creatures who had imprisoned her and what did you do?”

  Pain exploded in his jaw and Reno fell to the floor. He hadn’t even seen the first punch coming, but he saw the second and the third. After the sixth, he started dodging them. His brother had gotten his point across.

  Ceno was right. Many of the shifters, hell many of the men in Magic would kill, had already killed, for their women. What made him any different?

  Turning, he headed for his car. He was already belted in before he realized he didn’t have the keys. He glanced up to see Ceno striding from the garage, the keys in hand.

  “Tell her you love her, asshole. She might just r
ealize she loves you, too. If she does, the rest won’t really matter.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Birgit sat on the sofa in her room, her suitcase on the table in front of her. Tears streamed down her face as she thought of Reno and everything that had happened.

  Angie had just left to go to bed when she decided to pack. It was time to go. She’d keep her car the way it was, inane chatter and all. Perhaps it would be nice to have someone who knew about the bizarre things that happened in this town. Angie had already decided the Argarians had drugged her and she’d hallucinated the entire matter before she toddled off to the room Deno had rented for her.

  She tried not to think about what happened in the cave. The entire terrifying ordeal was over and she wanted to keep it out of her mind.

  No matter how hard she tried not to think about it, she kept thinking about Reno attacking the lizard-like aliens while strange orange blood shot everywhere. What if they had hurt him? She wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if they’d killed him. He’d come to rescue her, after all. If he’d died, it would have been her fault—well, sort of her fault.

  No matter how much she wanted to see Reno, all she could see was the horrible fight between the man she loved and the creatures that had planned to kill both her and Angie. She had no doubt that the lizard men would have killed Reno, too, if they’d had a chance.

  The reptiles had wanted to kill her. Birgit knew that. In fact, she tried to keep that foremost in her mind. Still, she couldn’t shake the knowledge that Reno could have been killed because of her.

  “Just a minute.” She stood, wiping the tears from her eyes when someone knocked on the door.

  It was probably Angie, again. She’d checked on Birgit several times since she’d gone to her room. Birgit was sure it was because she hadn’t stopped crying since they left the cave.

  “I told you I’d be okay,” she said as she opened the door.

  “I’m not,” Reno replied as he stared down at her. His gorgeous blue eyes glowed in the dim hallway and she swallowed.

  “What are you doing here?” Stepping back, she waved him into her room.

  “I’m here to apologize.”

  “Apologize?” She tried to laugh, but it came out more a croak. “For what?”

  “For leaving you in the cave before I explained that I have never taken a life before today.” He held up his hand when she would have said something. “Hear me out. I’ll go after that, if it’s still what you want.”

  He took a deep breath and waited for her nod before he continued, “All my life, my father has told me what it was like when he found my mother. How he changed into his beast for the first time and how he frightened her without meaning to. I never understood what he meant, before today. How can you frighten someone who loves you?” He shook his head.

  “It’s easier than I thought. You move too fast, or you don’t let them get to know you the way you should, or worse yet, you kill someone in front of them.” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I never meant to frighten you. I tried communicating with you, to tell you to close your eyes, but I think our connection is still too new. You didn’t hear me and I did some pretty horrible things while you watched. I can’t change that. I wouldn’t if I could.” He sat down and clasped his hands together between his knees.

  “The Argarians would have killed you with no thought to keep you from feeling pain. In fact, many of them do whatever it takes to make sure their victims stay alive as long as possible. They have even been known to project their plans into the minds of their victims, torturing them with the knowledge of what they plan to do to them.”

  Birgit covered her mouth with her hand as she thought about the images in her head just before Reno and Ceno made their appearance. Had the horrifying images been something the Argarians had implanted in her mind? Had they really been so cruel, so depraved?

  “After Ceno told me about telling the men in black where to find you, I thought of little else but their bloodthirsty nature. I kept praying I would find you before they had harmed you. When I saw the one ready to deal a killing blow to your head, I lost it.” He sighed. “I didn’t think about what you’d see or how you would feel about me afterward. I could only think to save you from those who would do you harm.”

  He stared down at his hands for a moment before looking up and meeting her gaze, his eyes filled with remorse.

  Her stomach clenched as she watched him. He didn’t look like a wanton killer and she could never believe that of him. He looked like the man she’d fallen in love with in such an impossibly short length of time. If only he wanted her for more than some strange, chemical bond his brother had set in motion with the drug he’d created.

  “I could only think of what my life would be like without you in it. It didn’t take me long at all to realize I don’t want to live without you. I love you more than life itself and I can’t think of a reason for my actions other than I can’t see me without you anymore.” He closed his eyes and bowed his head. “You are my weakness. There is no me without you and that scares me to death.”

  “Oh!” Birgit covered her mouth as the tears streamed down her face. “You love me?” Her voice broke as she sat heavily on the sofa when her knees gave out. Resting her hand on his, she took a deep breath when he pinned her little finger in place with his thumb.

  “Yes, I love you. Is it really that difficult to see?” He cupped her chin in his hand. “I love you so much. I don’t mean to scare you. I would do anything to keep from making you fear me. However, it seems as though I will make those mistakes. I can only ask you to accept my failures as I try to learn from them.”

  “I want to do that.” She wiped her face on the back of her arm. “You have no idea how much I want to do that.”

  “You are my life.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “I go completely crazy when I think of someone harming you.”

  “So long as you don’t go wild on me, my love.”

  “Your love?” He smiled and took her hands in his.

  “Yes. My love.” Birgit leaned forward. “I love you, too,” she whispered in his ear. “I sat here beside myself for the better part of the evening. I didn’t want to leave, but I wasn’t sure I could stay. It seems as though I’m a bit of a hypocrite, after all. I say I can accept aliens, and then when a few come along, I freak out.” She smiled, hoping he could see she meant what she said. “I kept asking myself how I could deal with so many aliens running around.” Reaching up, she smoothed the resulting frown from his face. “Then I realized they were running around, whether I was with you, or not.”

  “Stay with me, lincha.” He pulled her into his arms. “I would rather not make a habit of killing others, but I will do everything I must to keep you safe.”

  “What does lincha mean?” She drew back and met his gaze.

  His eyes crinkled at the corners and Birgit decided she wanted to spend the rest of her life with this man. She wanted to see him laugh and smile every day. Most of all, she wanted to be certain he lived a life full of laughter that would etch those little lines deeper into his face to show the world she had loved him well.

  “It means beloved in my language.” He cupped the back of her head and lowered his face to hers. His lips brushed against hers in a feathery caress. “It means I love you more than I ever dreamed possible.”

  He closed the infinitesimal distance between them and pressed their lips together. She melted against him with a soft sigh. Opening her mouth to his sensual kiss that left her breathless. She wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him closer. Reno’s tongue slipped between her teeth and she groaned.

  His arms tightened around her, pressing her against his hard body. She loved the feel of his muscled chest pressed against hers. His teeth nipped her lower lip and she trembled as he captured her mouth with his, once again. After a long moment, Reno drew away and stood.

  “I think this would be better served in your bed.” Bending, he scooped her up in his a
rms and headed to the large four-poster bed set in the corner of the room.

  Gently, he set her on the bed before cupping her cheeks in his hands. His warm lips covering hers and swallowing her half-hearted protest.

  “What is it, love?” He continued to press little kisses over her face, his touch so gentle, it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

  “Not here.” She shook her head. “There’s someone in the room next door and I couldn’t bear it if they…” She took several deep breaths before continuing. “If they heard us.”

  Birgit stared up at him, hoping he could understand how she felt, yet not knowing how else to tell him she just couldn’t make love with him in her room at the B & B with the other guests so close by.

  “Then we’ll go to my house for tonight and we’ll pick up your things tomorrow.” Reno stood and pulled her to her feet. “There’ll be no one there but us and we can make all the noise we like.” He waggled his brows and held out his arm. “Shall we?”

  “Yes, sir. I believe we shall.” Birgit giggled, her eyes clashing with his as she took his proffered arm.

  Quiet as they could, they made their way down the stairs and out through the front door of the large, old Victorian home.

  The trip to his house didn’t take long. Before she knew it, they had pulled up in front of his house and he’d turned off the car’s purring engine. He looked up at the light coming from the downstairs windows and sighed.

  “It looks as though we won’t be alone, after all.” He glanced at her. “Stay there. I’ll come get your door.”

  Birgit stared up at the old house and twisted her fingers together. She’d hoped for some alone time with Reno. She wanted to get to know him better. Her face burned at the thought that getting to know him better had been the last thing on her mind when she agreed to go to his house. She’d been thinking with her hormones, then, not her intellect. Lost in thought, she jumped when Reno opened her door.