Dark Desires After Dusk (Immortals After Dark #6)(22)

“Talismans?”

“Do you feel stronger when you wear them?”

Holly bit her lip and nodded.

“Then, yes, talismans. Now, those pearls have been bespelled. When you wear them, you’ll be protected from scrying eyes.”

Holly turned to Cade, as if for translation.

“It means, don’t take them off.” He collected the necklace from Holly and turned her around by the shoulders. “Pull up your hair.”

When she piled up all those red-gold curls, he just prevented himself from kissing her slender nape . . . .

He shook himself and finished.

“You need to get dry,” N?x told her. “You’re still a vulnerable little mortal. Oops, I forgot—you want to stay that way.” She tittered behind her fingertips as if that inclination was so misguided it was cute.

Seeming dazed, Holly took the bag and turned toward the station bathroom.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Cade snapped.

He tore into the bag and snatched the first pair of shoes he could find, shoving them on her feet. Then he took the bag and escorted her to the women’s bathroom.

She groaned when he followed her inside and checked the stalls. Before he left, he pinched her chin. “Little bit, if anybody f*cks with you in here, you give ’em a taste of what you gave the demons. Clear?”

*

Anytime someone asked Holly what she’d done the night before, she answered: “Studied, went to the library, swam.”

Occasionally she varied the first two by doing them with Tim.

Tonight’s activities? “Slew demons in horrific bloodbath, got shot at by vampires with machine guns, had a mad car chase through a swamp. Found out who—and what—my birth mother was. Learned about a secret world existing side by side with our own . . . .”

Too much to take in. She didn’t respond well to change in even the most ideal circumstances. Now, she was just . . . numb, deadened to the shocks that kept coming.

At least, she hoped that she was numb. Otherwise that would mean she didn’t particularly feel bad about her mass murders this evening.

Yes, those men were monsters, and, yes, Holly believed they’d gotten what they deserved, but shouldn’t she feel a twinge of something that she’d done it? Revulsion? Fear?

She stood in front of the mirror and stared at her eyes. The rings that had always circled her irises were much more noticeable. Because—don’t you know—I’m part Fury.

Whatever that was.

N?x’s eyes were also uncanny, but their golden color was breathtaking, while Holly’s violet was merely odd.

Holly drew back her hair, unable to ignore her sharply pointed ears any longer. Again, ears like this looked great on N?x—exotic and interesting—while seeming foreign and weird on Holly.

One of the most classic OCD symptoms was an unfounded fear of losing oneself. But Holly’s fear wasn’t unfounded. She truly was losing herself, one feature at a time. If only I had my—

Her eyes widened. If N?x had picked up things for her, surely she would have noticed all the pill bottles Holly had left lined up on the counter.

Diving into her suitcase, she yanked the zipper open. Inside, she found the contents of the shoulder bag she’d dropped when she’d been abducted. Her wireless laptop and case, her cell phone, even her antibacterial wipes were all there.

But no pills . . . .

N?x had somehow found that bag, then deliberately removed the two bottles. Why, N?x? Holly leaned against the wall, tempted to run away, to escape all of this.

But Cadeon and N?x were the only ones she knew who could help her get back to normal. Holly had no choice but to go along with their plans for her.

Plans that involved leaving town.

She hadn’t crossed the borders of Orleans Parish in fifteen years. In fact, she rarely went anywhere except from her loft to the campus ten minutes away.

The campus really was her entire world—a regimented and orchestrated microcosm where things made sense. Days were divided into class hours, weeks into school days, and years into semesters.

Yet now she felt as if she’d been temporarily exiled.

Shaking away that thought, she collected her phone and dialed her friend Mei. When there was no answer, she left a message.

“Hi, Mei, this is Holly. I was wondering if you can take over my classes for a spell? Not a literal spell. Ha-ha. Um, I’ve had a family emergency crop up and might not be back for”—how long will I be gone?—“a week?”

Holly felt distanced from herself as she spoke, stunned by how normal she sounded when she was on the verge of breaking down. “Call my cell if anything comes up. I owe you big-time.”

After she hung up, she exhaled unsteadily. Need to get dressed, get moving.

Crouching beside her bag, Holly checked the side compartment for her underwear, frowning at what she found. Inside were thigh-highs, thongs, and demi-cup bras, each still packaged or with the tags attached. They were all in her size, and they were . . . provocative.

Why on earth would N?x swap out Holly’s perfectly good high-waisted briefs and minimizer bras for these?

Left with little other choice, Holly smoothed on silky thigh-highs, and for the first time in her life, she donned a thong.

Once she was fully dressed with her pearls and glasses in place, she set about righting her hair. With angry strokes, she brushed the curls back, wrestling them into submission as usual, only now she made sure her weird ears were covered.