Chapter Thirteen – Evaine

Helena warmed to Eva, or so she hoped. If it was an act, to lull Eva into a false sense of security, it worked.

“Never had a home?” Helena asked Eva over a late lunch that turned into dinner, with wine, and beer. The room was looking fuzzy, and Eva’s tongue was loose.

“Never. I was sent from one foster home to another all my life.” She took another sip of wine. “I began to realize there must be something wrong with me.”

“Wrong with you? Like what?” Jack asked.

He looked remarkably sober. “Aren’t you drinking?” Eva asked.

“I have had one or two, but someone has to get us all home,” Jack said.

“That’s our Jack, always the hero,” Helena said.

“I think you should stop drinking too,” he warned the witch.

“It’s called Dutch Courage,” she said, and raised her glass.

“Courage for what?” Eva asked.

“For going and fighting the demon.” Helena giggled. “I wonder if his demon is big or small.”

“His demon is big,” Eva said, her eyes large. “Like, really big. The biggest I ever saw.”

Helena burst out laughing, her lips making a raspberry sound. “Hey, Jack, it sounds as if your lady is impressed by Gareth’s demon.”

“Enough, Helena.” Jack took her glass from her and set it down. “You need to take this seriously.”

“I am taking it seriously. That is why I’m drinking.” Helena reached out for her cup, but Jack held it out of reach. “Hey, will one of you boys defend me?”

Liam and Kurt looked up; they were sitting on the back porch drinking beer. “You don’t need us to defend you,” Liam said. “You’re the strongest of us all.”

Helena’s face dropped, and she looked older than her years as she said, “You don’t know how much it means to me that you have my back.”

“We have each other’s backs,” Kurt said. “You are family.”

She smiled sadly. “I’ll hold you to that, no matter what.”

Kurt came in and knelt before her, taking her hand in his. “Our hearts are yours, our hearth is yours,” he said, his voice slurred, but the meaning of the old oath was true.

Helena stroked his cheek, with the back of her hand. “My heart is yours, my hearth is yours. From now and for all time.” She kissed his forehead, then she rose and said, “You are drunk.”

“Maybe a little,” Kurt said. “But I mean it. We mean it. Knowing you have our backs, no matter what we face, it makes you family.”

“Thank you.” Helena stood up, her head turned to the window, and she wiped away tears she didn’t want anyone to see. When she was fully composed she faced them again. “It’s time.”

Jack stood up and dug into his pocket, giving her the fake Dragon’s Tear. “Remember, he might be expecting you to swap it.”

“Don’t worry, by the time I’ve finished with him, he would give me the real thing anyway.” She winked at Eva, who blushed, which made Helena laugh, high and musical. A temptress, a siren, no man would stand a chance against such a woman. A sideways glance at Jack told her one man would. The mating bond was stronger than the siren’s song, and Jack only had eyes for Eva, which made her blush deepen. She hid it behind her wine glass, knowing she had drunk too much, but drinking more anyway. Helena wasn’t the only one who needed courage.

“Swap it. Then get out. That is all you have to do,” Jack was reminding Helena.

She swayed before him, leaning into Jack, and Eva experienced a stab of jealousy. Quickly dismissing it, she drank the rest of her wine and the got up, asking, “Do you want me to wash these glasses, Helena?”

“No, leave them. I’ll do them in the morning.” She ushered everyone outside, and then locked the door, mumbling a few words as she did.

“OK, Kurt, give me the keys, I’ll drive,” Jack said.

Kurt fished them out of his pocket. “Thanks.”

They all got in the vehicle, Kurt taking Jack’s place in the back, next to Eva. “No puking in the back,” Kurt told her with a grin. Then he put his arm around Eva and said, “We will get your mom back. You know that?”

“Yes,” she lied. There was no certainty her mom was still OK. Crosshead had given her three days, but would he keep his word? Would he keep her unharmed?

Jack backed the Land Rover up, and turned it around before driving slowly back along the pitted trail. Eva soon realized why Kurt had told her not to puke in the back of the Land Rover. It was like being at sea: the vehicle lurched from side to side, as though big waves were hitting it and making it roll. She closed her eyes, and tried to think of something else, anything else. That was when her sixth sense, or the voice of the Night Hunter, broke in.

You should go and retrieve the Dragon’s Tear. It should not fall into the hands of a witch, or one of these shifters. The voice had returned; the alcohol must have torn down her mental defenses.

I trust them, she answered.

You are a fool, it replied hotly. To think you are the child of a Night Hunter! You are as much a traitor to your people as Henry Talbot.

Thank you for my father’s name, Eva replied.

You do not carry his name, you do not carry our courage. You are nothing, the voice spat viciously.

And you are a miserable drunk, Eva replied. She opened her eyes, and mentally slammed the door shut on the voice. The Grimmwold had told her she could control it, and that was what she was going to do. She owed it nothing.

“OK, Helena. You are sure about this?” Jack asked.

“Perfectly. You need the Dragon’s Tear, and there is no way Gareth is going to let any of you guys get near it. So it’s down to me. If I have a little enjoyable pleasure along the way, then why not?” She shrugged, blew a kiss at no one in particular, and opened the door, getting out, her shoes crunching into the gravel.

“Take care, Helena,” Liam called.

“I will see you all in the morning. Nice and early. I don’t mind spending the night with a druid, but I do not want to make small talk with him. I’ll need coffee, and some of that porridge.” She slammed the door shut, and her footsteps faded into the distance.

Jack turned the vehicle around, and Eva ducked her head to look outside. The house was huge, a manor house, the kind lords and ladies lived in. That explained Gareth’s arrogance.

“Will she be OK?” Eva asked.

“Yes. She knows how to look after herself. As long as he doesn’t set that degetty on her.” Kurt looked perplexed. “If he does, then we will take him out, even if it means we all die.”

“Not the time for talk like that,” Liam said, slapping Kurt on the shoulder.

“Ouch.”

“Wimp.”

“Loser.”

“Hey. Not in here,” Jack yelled from the front.

“Stop and let us out,” Kurt called. “I think Liam and I need to run off some of this alcohol.”

Jack pulled over, and Liam opened the door and got out. “Come on, Eva, you get to ride up front. Kurt and I are going to go bear.”

Eva took Liam’s offered hand and got out of the Land Rover, her legs unsteady. She put her hand out, resting against the side of the vehicle. If she hadn’t seen Jack shift before, she would have thought she was imagining it, as the two men shifted into bears before her eyes. Then they were gone, blending into the forest, as if they were never there.

Her hand rested on the side of the Land Rover, helping to keep her steady on her feet as she moved around to the passenger door and pulled it open. “They’ve gone.” She pulled herself inside and put her seatbelt on.

“Yeah, they get like that when they’ve been drinking. Only time Kurt gets anywhere close to being wound up.” Jack pulled away. “He’s the easiest-going shifter I know.”

“I like him,” she confessed. “I like all of you.” Her words caught in her throat. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” She’d turned into a melancholy drunk.

“We won’t.” Jack indicated to turn down the trail that led to the small enclave. There were lights on in a couple of the other houses, as twilight gathered. Jack parked the vehicle outside his house and turned off the ignition. He turned to look at her. “Think you can walk, or do you want me to carry you?”

She took her seatbelt off and opened the door. “I do not need carrying.”

“Pity,” he said, a wicked smile covering his face, which did all kinds of exciting things to her body. In her head, Eva felt a light pressure, and knew her sixth sense was trying to push its way back into her conscious mind. Isn’t happening, she told it firmly. There was no way Eva was going to let that thing spoil her evening. This was the calm before the storm, the stillness before a stone was thrown into a pond, leaving ripples that would seal her fate forever.

Win or lose, tomorrow her life was going to change. She would either lose for good the mom she never knew, or finally meet her and ask her all the questions she needed answers to.

“Hey. Don’t get caught up in overthinking it.” Jack looped his arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the front door. “I’ve been on enough missions that I know the best thing is an early night. Unless you are my brothers, and then they just run all the energy off.”

“So that was what it was about? Not just the alcohol?” she asked, finding it difficult to put one foot in front of the other as they entered the house. “Damn, I’m tired.”

“Which is why I recommend an early night. I’ll make you some tea. Herbal, of course.”

She sniggered. “You do not look like the herbal tea kind of a guy.”

“There is nothing wrong with chamomile tea when you want to relax,” he said, and then grinned. His hair hung around his face, and she brushed it back, stroking his cheek. He groaned, a deep, guttural sound.

“Do you need some chamomile tea now?” she asked innocently.

“No, I’m good,” he said, his voice tight.

Eva smiled seductively, the alcohol continuing to loosen her otherwise tight inhibitions. She pushed him back against the wall and pressed her body close to his. “What about now?”

“Still good.” But his eyes burned with desire. She should back off now, let him go make her some tea. That would be the sensible move, but Eva wasn’t feeling sensible.

Standing on tiptoes, she kissed his cheek, feeling a faint buzz of static across her lips which spread out through her body, warming her in ways she hadn’t experienced with a man before. Eva placed her hands on his chest to steady her, and Jack looked down, moistening his lips, anticipating their first kiss.

“I’m not promising you forever,” she said softly.

“I know,” he said.

Hesitantly, he placed his hand on the small of her back, pulling her close to him. Eva could feel the strength of his arousal, his hardness pressing against her. Jack lowered his head and she tilted her head back to capture his kiss. Soft, sensitive, enquiring, he didn’t rush, he didn’t command, he asked her, and she answered, her lips moving against his.

His hand slid lower, stroking her bottom, tucking her body tighter against his, and she ached for him. Moving slightly, she made the most of the contact between their bodies, his shaft pressing against her clit. She gasped against his mouth, wanting more, wanting it all.

Jack moved, bending down to pick her up. They were about to give in to the undeniable attraction they shared, when the front door flew open and Liam and Kurt burst in.

She jumped back away from Jack, whose face looked like thunder. “Can a man have no privacy around here?”

“Oh, shit, sorry. Want us to go back out?” Liam asked.

“No.” Her voice came too loud, too firm. “I think it would be a good idea if I had that chamomile tea and an early night. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

She avoided Jack’s eyes and ignored the sound in her head, of her sixth sense crowing at the interruption. One thing she was definitely going to ask her mom was if there was any way to shut that damn voice up!