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  “Like what Ted did to her.”

  “I guess.”

  “What about Roger in all of this? Did he know his wife was having an affair?” It seemed to me in this bizarre love triangle that Roger should be the number one suspect. He refused to divorce his wife and found out she was about to leave him for another man anyway. What husband in that situation wouldn’t want get rid of that man?

  “I’m not sure if Roger knew or not,” Jodi said. “Rebecca was discreet. She didn’t want to damage Roger’s reputation, or Ted’s, or her own. But…”

  “But?”

  “Roger’s face. At the party. When he saw Ted there, he was surprised and angry. But when he noticed me looking, it was like a shutter came down. His face revealed nothing.”

  “Roger was at the party?” I said.

  “Just briefly, at the beginning. He left after he saw Ted. I saw him leave.”

  “Did he speak with anyone?” I questioned. “Why did he leave Rebecca behind?”

  “They arrived separately. That’s the argument I got into with Rebecca. She was in a panic because Roger had turned up and she wasn’t expecting him to, but she was also thrilled that Ted was there because she hoped to corner him and have it out with him about why he broke up with her. And try and talk him out of it, of course.”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I’m not clear. Why did you argue with Rebecca?”

  “I wanted her to stop all the sneaking around and just tell her husband the truth. She refused. She wanted to talk Ted around first, but I thought she stood a better chance of winning Ted back if she actually left her husband first.”

  Sound advice. I’d probably do the same, although I’d never condone a married friend having an affair in the first place. Anyone that unhappy should just get out instead.

  “Back to Roger,” I said. “So he, what? Turned up, saw Ted, and left?”

  “Basically,” Jodi confirmed.

  “And you didn’t see him speaking with anyone else?”

  “He stopped for a brief word with Wes Quinn on his way out. That was all.”

  Wes Quinn. Was he really the grieving friend he portrayed himself to be, or was he involved in all of this somehow? His dislike of me seemed disproportionate and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to it. Or maybe that was my ego talking—and my willingness to paint him as the villain, just because I couldn’t deal with the fact that someone didn’t like me.

  “Thanks for dropping by, Jodi. That took a lot of guts.”

  She shrugged, giving me a tentative smile. “I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you over the years. I’m not proud of my behavior.”

  “Apology accepted. Again. And thanks for all the inside info. It helps. I’ll chat with the Watcher and see what he makes of it.”

  Jodi frowned. “The Watcher?”

  “Detective Hoffman,” I bluffed, acting as if she’d misheard me. “The cop who’s investigating the murder?”

  “Oh, yeah. He’s gorgeous,” she breathed.

  “He sure is.” I winked, then saw her out of the shop, watching as she walked away. I wondered if Rebecca had been influencing Jodi all these years. She claimed she didn’t have the ability, but for Jodi to suddenly have a conscience and do a one-eighty—the timing was suspicious.

  12

  “I found out something interesting today.” Ben swirled the red wine in his glass and eyed me over the top.

  “Oh?” I took a sip of my own drink and waited.

  “Roger Keller is a Belphegor.”

  “Oh my God! Really? Do you think he’s the same one who got in Paul’s ear?”

  “Could be. I need to go back and show Paul a photo, but this is all linked, it seems like too much of a coincidence for it not to be.”

  “And Rebecca is a Nephilim.” I told him about Jodi’s visit to the shop and everything she’d told me about Rebecca, Roger, and Ted—and that I had suspicions Rebecca had been influencing Jodi’s behavior.

  “That could have been Roger,” Ben pointed out. “Enticing her to steal from you, to demolish you as her competition through nefarious ways. That sounds like the influence of a Belphegor.”

  “You could be right. I wonder why?” I thought about it for a minute. “What if Rebecca and Roger planned all this, but they didn’t expect Ted to die? What if Rebecca was meant to heal him and absorb any of his powers?”

  “Good theory, but Ted was human. He didn’t have any powers,” Ben said. “But I agree there is more to the relationship—like why Ted suddenly ended it. If he really was in love with her, wouldn’t he have fought for her? He was a shrewd businessman. I doubt he would have been played by her.”

  “Maybe she was played by him? Maybe he got what he needed from her and, boom, relationship over.”

  Ben nodded in agreement, reaching across the table for my hand. We’d stayed in tonight. He’d ordered pizza, and it was the most romantic date I’d had in a long time. Not that I had a lot of dates. I didn’t date humans. It was too difficult to keep my magic hidden, and most of the paranormals I met refused to date a hybrid. Ben didn’t care, and it warmed my heart. I was falling for the guy, and hard.

  The buzzing of his phone broke the mood.

  “Hoffman.” Pushing back his chair, he left the kitchen, and I could hear him walking back and forth in the hallway. Ben liked to walk and talk. I’d never seen him just sit and answer his phone. He liked to be in motion.

  “Fuck,” he cursed. “I’ll be right there.” Returning to the kitchen, he gave me an apologetic kiss. “Sorry, babe, there’s been a kidnapping. I’ve gotta go. She’s a teenage were, and they think she’s been taken by a rival pack. I’ve got to get this under control before any blood is shed. And to stop an underage mating.”

  “How awful! I hope you find her quickly.”

  Ben let himself out and I began clearing up after our meal.

  A couple of minutes passed before I heard footsteps behind me again. I smiled and said, “Forget something?”

  I wasn’t expecting the funny-smelling rag that suddenly pressed against my nose and mouth. I dropped the dishes and wine glass, heard the glass break, and saw the red wine splash across the floor. I tried to call out, but the rag muffled my voice. And when I tried to suck in a breath, all I got was the strange chemical smell from the rag. My vision started to blur and my knees buckled. Whoever was behind me caught me, a hard arm around my waist, while the rag remained clamped to my face until I passed out.

  When I came to, I was tied to a chair and greeted with the sight of Rebecca and Wes making out. What the hell? I blinked a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, but yeah—Rebecca was lip-locked with Wes, whose image was flickering between black beast and human.

  “Ah, she’s awake.” Wes dragged his mouth from Rebecca’s and turned to study me. We were in some sort of large, empty building. Maybe an old warehouse or giant shed. It was cold and damp, and I had the feeling I wasn’t meant to leave this place. Ever.

  “What’s going on?” I demanded, eyeing the pair.

  Rebecca smoothed her Chanel suit over her hips and sneered at me. “Stupid witch fae who doesn’t even know her own powers.”

  “What are you talking about?” My head was foggy with whatever they’d used to drug me. I was having a hard time computing the fact that these two were sucking face. What about Ted? Rebecca’s lover and Wes’s best friend?

  Rebecca saw my confusion and laughed, her head thrown back. “Look at her face, darling. She has no clue.”

  “Allow me to explain it to you.” Wes walked around my chair, eyeing me up and down. “It’s the least we can do.”

  “Why is your face all funny?” His features wouldn’t stop switching from crazy dog beast to human Wes.

  “Only a hybrid of a witch and a fae can see my true form. I thought I’d gotten rid of them all, but then you turned up. Quite unexpected. I played it cool, hoping to deflect the attention elsewhere, but you wouldn’t quit. You were like a dog at a
bone, always pushing, pushing, pushing.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  “I’m a shadow shifter. Heard of us?”

  I scanned my memory. Shadow shifter. Shadow shifter. “You inhabit the body of a host because your true form cannot exist in the mortal realm.”

  “Very good. Do you know the rest?”

  “There’s more?”

  Wes offered a twisted smile. “A human body can only sustain my possession for a few years before the vessel—well, it pretty much disintegrates. So every five years, I need to jump to a different body. If I keep doing this, it also allows me to use my true shifter form every now and then, as long as I keep to the shadows.”

  “You’re Ted,” I realized. That was why Wes had changed—because he was no longer Wes. The shadow shifter had occupied Ted’s body before moving into Wes.

  “Why kill Ted?” I asked.

  “Ted’s consciousness died the minute I entered his body. But whenever I leave a host, I like to play games and kill the flesh in different ways. This time it was Abatwa poison. A nice touch, I thought.”

  I nodded toward Rebecca. “And what does she have to do with all this?”

  Wes shrugged. “She’s just a means to an end.”

  Rebecca shrieked at him in outrage. “What the hell, Teddy?”

  “Oh, come now, you’re in this for your own interests. Don’t think you fooled me for one second. I used you to monitor Roger, sneaky Belphegor that he is. You used me for sex because we both know he can’t get it up, and you wanted to steal good old Wes’s shifter powers. Don’t pretend for one second it was love.”

  “But Wes isn’t a shifter,” I protested.

  “And didn’t the Quinn family do an excellent job of keeping that secret? Imagine my surprise when I wounded Wes and Rebecca healed him, only to discover…nothing. Human. Of course, I needed him to be human to possess his body, but we’d thought him a shifter. Cunning bastards.”

  “Wait. What? So you hurt Wes with the intention that she heal him and steal his powers, then when he was helpless, you were going to take over his body?”

  “Got it in one, babycakes. Knew you were a smart cookie.”

  Rebecca moved into my line of vision, brushing dust from her skirt. “Of course I got the raw end of the deal on both accounts. Roger trapped me into an unbreakable marriage deal. Wes gypped me of his were powers. We had to rally. To keep my own powers, I need to consume others. You are our next best option. Teddy wants you out of the equation, and I need to feed.”

  “And stop calling me Teddy. It’s Wes now,” Wes grumbled at her.

  “And Roger didn’t guess any of this?” I asked. “The affair? It was him, wasn’t it, messing with Jodi?”

  “Oh, yes, he was playing with her. He does that from time to time.” Rebecca shrugged. “We had to step up our plan because you’re right, Roger was onto us. He knew about the affair—I mean, when you come home smelling of sex, it’s a dead giveaway, right?”

  “And he didn’t care?”

  Rebecca shook her head. “Not about that. Roger has his own plans, and while he didn’t care about the affair, per se, he doesn’t like to be made a fool of. Roger got in Wes’s ear, tricked him into a couple of bad deals, lost us a fortune. When we realized what had happened, we had to act fast.”

  I looked at Wes. “Was it you who broke into my home? Knocked me down?”

  Wes winked at me. “I needed you to back off. I couldn’t have you blowing my cover to the Watcher and the Council. It was a piss-poor attempt, I admit.” He glanced at Rebecca for a moment, then turned his attention back to me. “Time for talking is over, sugar plum.” Wes grinned, tossing a knife over and over in his hand. “Not that this isn’t fun chatting and all, but things to do, places to see. People to fuck.” He eyed Rebecca, and she ran her tongue over her lips. Gross.

  “Wait!” I shouted, my heart thundering in my chest. I’d been so caught up in getting the truth out of them that I’d allowed myself to forget about the perilous situation I was in. “Tell me one more thing.”

  “What is it?” Wes sighed, standing behind me and caressing my neck with the knife.

  “Who poisoned my cupcake?”

  Wes barked out a laugh. “I dropped a minute trace of Abatwa poison on the cupcake I’d taken a bite out of, then I poisoned myself.” He moved to stand in front of me, clearly pleased with himself.

  “How did you get the poison?”

  “That’s two questions. Time’s up, precious!” Before I could react, Wes drove the knife into my stomach. I screamed. The white-hot pain as the blade cut through flesh, muscle, and organs was excruciating. He pulled the knife out, watching as my blood dripped from the blade onto the floor.

  “You want to feed?” he asked Rebecca. “Then feed.”

  I tried to contain the groan that tore out of me. The pain was almost unbearable. I was losing blood fast, knew I was dying. I tried to collect myself, tried to use my own magic, but I needed my hands. They were tied behind me and covered with something that bound my magic.

  Rebecca was in front of me now. With her hands above my wound, she sent her own magic into me. The bleeding stopped and my wound began to heal, but with it, I could feel my magic being leached from me. I could see it as it flowed from my body to her hands. I was getting weaker by the second, knew that when she took the last drop, I’d be dead.

  “Stop!” A blast of light shot across the room, knocking Rebecca away from me. She fell back onto her ass and slid a couple of feet on the filthy floor. “Get away from her!”

  Ben. Thank you, Lord, I threw up a prayer.

  Rebecca scrambled to her feet, outrage written on her face. Rather than go for Ben, she lunged at me, toppling my chair backward. I went down with her straddling me, her hands around my throat as she continued draining my magic. Each squeeze of her hands choked me; each wave of her magic healed me—and stole from me. Crafty bitch had done this before.

  I could hear Ben and Wes fighting, could make out flashes of magic behind my closed eyelids. I heard the thud of flesh hitting the floor and prayed that it wasn’t Ben who’d been defeated. I was weak, so weak that drawing a breath hurt. Rebecca was pulling my magic from me so hard that she almost had my soul, and I knew my time on this earth was almost up. Ben hadn’t been fast enough.

  Then her weight was gone. I heard her squeal as she was thrown through the air.

  “Hold on,” Ben told me, crouching by my side and touching my face. “You hold on. Don’t stop fighting, Kristina. You hear me? Fight it!”

  And then he was gone. The scuffling wasn’t so loud now, but that could be because my hearing was going. I was cold, as cold as ice, and everything was black. I turned my head in the direction I thought they were, but couldn’t see a thing—only the darkness, waiting to claim me.

  “Don’t you fucking dare.” Ben was back, skidding to his knees by my side. His hot mouth landed on mine. Strong fingers on my jaw forced my mouth open. A warmth flowed from his mouth to mine and a blissful nirvana cascaded down my throat. My magic. He was returning my magic that Rebecca had stolen. The way it tore through me, happy to be back, was overwhelming. It also stung like a bitch. Finally, Ben lifted his head, his worried face looking down at me.

  “I thought I’d lost you,” he said, voice gruff and eyes glassy.

  My own filled with tears that trickled down my temples and into my hair. “I did, too, just for a minute.”

  Wiping my tears away, Ben righted the chair and freed me, pulling me into his arms and holding me like he’d never let me go. I wrapped my own arms around his waist and held on equally tight.

  “Let’s get out of here,” he said.

  “What about them?” I nodded at the bodies of Wes and Rebecca, unmoving on the dirty floor.

  “The Council knows. They’ll send Cleaners. My job is done.” He swept me up into his arms, even though I protested that I could walk. “Humor me.” So I did. Wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face
in his shoulder, I let him carry me from the building that would have witnessed my death and settle me into the passenger seat of his car.

  “I love you.” He clasped my face in his hands and kissed me tenderly. “Call me crazy, but tonight, when I thought I’d lose you, all I could think of was how much I love you. I told myself that if we got through this...I’d tell you. Even if it is too soon. I don’t care. I love you.”

  I smiled up at him. “I love you, too.”

  The drive home passed in a blur, and the long night of love-making went all too quickly. Before I knew it, we were sitting at my kitchen table once more, silly, sated grins on our faces, when the house shook and a parchment appeared in front of me.

  The Council. Now what?

  “Kristina Esmerelda Gates, your probation is hereby lifted. You have been cleared in all matters relating to the death of the human Ted McNeil and any use of excessive magic.” Another display of sparks and smoke and the parchment disappeared into thin air.

  Ben hugged me. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” I was shell shocked. Such a lot had happened. I’d been accused of murder, cleared of murder, and almost murdered. And I’d found the love of my life. I couldn’t wait to see what next week would bring!

  The End

  Ready for book two in the Hearts on Fire Series? Check out Secret Fates today!

  About the Author

  Aussie Author, Jane Hinchey writes sexy, snarky, badass, paranormal romance and suspense.

  Living in the City of Churches (aka Adelaide, South Australia) with her man, two cats, and turtle, she spends her days writing fantastical stories full of dark sexy vampires, hot shifters, sexy aliens, jaw-dropping demons, sinful angels, and magical witches – and while they can be snarky and swear a lot, they mean well and you’ll grow to love them. Honestly.

  When she’s not in her writing cave she’s usually playing the Sims, Civilizations or something similar, binge watching Netflix or upping the ante in the crazy cat lady stakes.