Lifebound Page 3

  “Sign my deck!”

  “Dumbass, that’s not a Josh Trenton deck. You can’t ask him to sign the competition’s deck!”

  Josh just laughed and offered to sign anything they brought to him. In a few minutes, the boys were showing off their signatures to each other.

  “How about you? Can I sign anything for you?” Josh asked Adriana with a smile.

  In addition to the bad boy race-car driver haircut and the incredible blue eyes, Josh also had the most amazing dimples. She smiled back at him. “That’s okay. Maybe later.”

  “Hey, Josh, will you show us some stuff on the new videogame?” one boy asked.

  “I’d rather show you something on the board. But give me some names first.”

  “Telly.” Then the boy pointed around the circle. “Ben, John, and Joseph.”

  Each boy gave Josh a cool nod as his name was called.

  “And you are?” Josh turned toward Adriana and looked at her expectantly.

  “Adriana. Adriana Velen.”

  “Josh Trenton.” He held out his hand to her, but she pretended to be distracted by one of the boys.

  “Show us some stuff? Please?” Ben flipped back his blond hair.

  “Well, I can give you some pointers, but as you can see, I’m not really up to skating right now.” Josh followed the group down the steps outside, staying close to Adriana. “However, I have to say I feel better this morning than I have since I messed myself up.”

  They headed out into the paved courtyard where Josh gave the boys tips on doing all kinds of tricks with all kinds of strange names. Before long, they were talking a different language around her—ollie, fakie, 180, kickflip. She’d never even been on a skateboard.

  The boys began to practice their tricks as she and Josh sat on one of the many benches scattered around the grounds. She made certain to keep plenty of space between them, but even with the distance, a pull, like a magnetic force, drew her closer to him.

  “So what do you do when you aren’t vacationing?” Josh stretched his injured leg out in front of him.

  “I am a refugee from Silicon Valley.” She sighed. “I used to work for Tom Bridges before he died. I was his personal assistant.”

  “Wow.” Josh’s eyes widened. “I met him once at the release of one my computer games. He was pretty intense.”

  “He never quit.” Not until he died. “But I’m between jobs at the moment.”

  “I know some people in the industry. Want me to call up a few contacts? See who’s got something?”

  “That’s okay.”

  He looked away briefly.

  Had she said something wrong? “It’s just that my family has lots of connections. I know they’ll want to help me find something.”

  He looked back at her and smiled with those incredible dimples. “I’ve got twenty-five first cousins. I know about family.”

  Adriana didn’t have nearly as many cousins, but the Velen family was connected to every other lamia family in the world. To function and survive, lamia had to find hosts. But the only real closeness they could have was with each other.

  Unfortunately, closeness wasn’t something any of her people were very good at. They put a constant watch on their contacts in their everyday lives. Maybe that reservation made them cautious with everybody, turning them all cold, even with their own families.

  But Tom Bridges had been a warm, friendly person, and she’d enjoyed working for him. With him, she mattered to someone.

  As the boys skated, she asked Josh all kinds of questions about his career. At last she remembered where she’d heard his name. Tom’s young nephew had asked for one of his videogames for Christmas a few years ago, and Tom had gotten Josh to sign the game for him at the release party. At the time, she was unimpressed. But hearing Josh talk about his business and the competitive circuit opened her eyes to the world of extreme skating in all its crazy glory.

  Skateboarding came to life in his descriptions like part spring break madness, part Olympics, with a good measure of entrepreneurship thrown in. She’d had no idea there was so much money in endorsements and video games. Josh clearly loved what he did, and the wistful tone in his voice told her how much he missed it.

  “Do they think you’ll be back competing again soon?”

  He shrugged and looked away. They sat quietly for a while.

  Then he turned that blue-sky gaze on her. “Just because I’m not skateboarding doesn’t mean you’ve got to babysit me.” He pulled himself to his feet, leaning on his cane for support. “How about it, Adriana? Want to ride?”

  Adriana shook her head in terror. The last thing she wanted was to fall on her face in front of these boys—in front of Josh.

  But the boys wouldn’t take no for an answer. Telly stood on one side and quiet John on the other.

  “Don’t you let me fall,” she said.

  They assured her she was perfectly safe with them, and before long, they had her gliding across the courtyard, doing slow, lazy turns.

  She’d done plenty of ice-skating as a girl, which paid off as she found her balance pretty quickly. The board responded to her as she shifted her weight, curving back and forth across the pavement.

  A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Josh had borrowed a board and was also gliding along, weaving in and out of the benches that bordered the edges.

  “You guys need to work on grinding these benches and popping ollies over them,” he said. “This could be a great place to skate.”

  “Something tells me Sarka would not approve of us grinding her benches,” Joseph warned.

  Adriana suddenly remembered her promise to Sarka that she would go to her room and stay far away from Josh Trenton. She sighed then. The morning had been surprisingly enjoyable. But for her own good, she needed to pack it in.

  Sadly, she pushed off back toward the group of guys. “I’m going to have to call it a day,” she said as she drew closer to them.

  “For real?” Josh asked, disappointment in his voice.

  “Yes, I’ve got to get some work done,” she lied as she rolled up.

  Just as she reached the edge of the pavement where the group stood, her front wheel hung on a pebble, stopping the board suddenly and throwing her forward. She threw out her hands to catch herself, but Josh got there first.

  He reached out to grab her arms to keep her from falling, and despite her best effort to roll away from him, he caught her.

  They hit the ground hard.

  But it was done.

  He gripped her shoulders as he pulled her into him, and the contact between them completed with a rush of energy that left her lightheaded.

  Time stopped as his human strength surged between them, as it soaked up the overflow of power that had built in her, as it gave back its own life in return.

  The first contact with a prospective host generally felt a bit uncomfortable, almost like a negotiation, as her energies shifted and adjusted to be compatible with the host. With Tom it had taken months of casual touches—the barest brush of fingertips as she passed him a pen, a hand laid briefly on his arm through layers of clothing—before she could begin to allow any real interchange of energy flow between them. And even while she sat hand in hand with him in the ambulance, the flow had been controllable—at least for a while.

  What she felt now was not controllable. She lay on the ground on top of Josh, his hands gripping the bare skin of her arms tightly, their legs tangled together on the ground, her cheek pressed against his. Her focus zeroed in on the soft sensation of his breath against her neck and the warmth that surged from him as their bodies touched their entire length separated by only the thinnest layers of cotton.

  Their energies synchronized effortlessly and began to surge back and forth between them like
raw current. He poured into her like she was a dry well, and she soaked him up as if she could never get enough. His life flowed quicksilver-smooth in her veins. Her skin tingled and glowed as his essence washed over her in a flood of pure elation.

  But as much as she tried to give the flow back to him, she knew she took even more in an insidious unstoppable drain of his energies. She was going to hurt him. She was going to pull his life completely away from him if she didn’t break the connection—soon. She clamped down on her abilities, but she couldn’t stop up a fire hose with a piece of bubblegum.

  Desperately, she twisted against his grasp, but he held her tightly.

  “Josh, please,” she whispered into his ear, “you’ve got to let me go.”

  Finally, his hold relaxed enough for her to push herself away to sit a few feet from him on the ground. He sat up and looked at her, his breath coming in deep ragged gasps. He was pale and shaking.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” he asked, then his eyes fluttered shut and he passed out cold on the grass.

  Chapter Four

  “I can’t believe you let that happen, Adriana,” sweet, mellow Sage said as the group questioned her in Sarka’s office. She’d already taken a tongue lashing from Sarka, Cemil, and Rekkus.

  “I know, I know.” Adriana tried once more to explain how it happened. She’d never meant to get anywhere near close enough to touch anybody, much less a human, much less Josh. She had really enjoyed being with him, and maybe it had done him some good to be with her.

  It wasn’t fair.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him, Sage. Please believe me. I never meant to touch him at all.” But even as she said the words, her energies thrummed at the memory. She’d never experienced a contact that strong before. Only a few seconds of Josh had been enough to stabilize the flow within her to nearly normal levels. His life inside hers was a thunderbolt dipped in honey, so strong, so sweet.

  Maybe she could do it. Maybe she could find a way to stay close enough to him to get just enough of that connection to keep her going. She wouldn’t let him get too close. She wouldn’t let herself take too much from him.

  But she could never do it. They’d only been on the ground a few seconds, and she’d pulled so much life out of him that Cemil and Rekkus had to carry him back inside.

  The boys had whispered as they walked off. “She’s a lamia. An energy vampire. Don’t let her touch you.”

  She wasn’t a vampire, damn it. Her powers were a two-way street. She could give as well as take.

  Then why had she taken so much from Josh? Why had she been unable to stop herself?

  “She can’t be allowed to get near him again,” Rekkus said from where he’d pulled Cemil to one side.

  The energy flow had amplified her senses so she couldn’t help but overhear.

  “I know she didn’t mean for it to happen, but it’s just too dangerous.”

  “It’s not fair, Rekkus.” Cemil sighed. “I can feel their attraction to one another from here. Maybe we don’t need to interfere. How would you have felt if we told you that you couldn’t see Dana?”

  Rekkus growled beneath his breath. “Dana is my mate. Nothing could have stood between us—not you, not Cyrus, not Sarka, not the entire Syndicate.” He sniffed the air and shook his head. “And certainly not Sage and a dozen candles. You can’t keep drugging him like this.”

  Cemil shook his head. “Tell Sage that. She’s convinced aromatherapy cures everything, including lovesickness.”

  Rekkus snorted and shook his head sadly. “At least Adriana understands. She might hate it, but she understands. What are we going to tell him?” Rekkus crossed his strong arms across his chest.

  “I don’t know.” Cemil sighed again. “I don’t know.”

  Banished once more to her room, Adriana tried to read, to occupy her mind with thoughts of anything but Josh. Thanks to the connection to him, her energies were now completely balanced. She felt better than she had in weeks—better than she had since Tom had died—better than she had in her entire adult life.

  But her heart ached. She wondered how she could keep away from Josh. She’d promised Sarka she’d lock herself in her room, and that was how it would have to be. Maybe Sage would bring her something to eat at mealtimes. Maybe Cemil would work with her on centering herself and minimizing the energy flow that ran through her.

  But she really wanted to see Josh again. She couldn’t help it. He wasn’t like any man she’d ever met before. He was so confident, so comfortable in his own skin. And he made her feel like she was the most important person in the world. When she was with him, all his attention had been on her, especially when he caught her.

  He had moved like a cat—like a wereleopard—his reflexes quicker than gravity. Even when she tried to get away from him, he’d managed to catch her so she fell against him instead of on the ground. She could still feel his body beneath her, the strength in him like a coiled spring, so masculine, so alive.

  The memory alone was enough to make her pulse quicken and her breath catch in her chest. She wanted him to touch her again—to touch her as a man, as a lover—not as a host. How would it feel to run her fingers through that sexy hair, to feel his hands explore her body, to run her own down the muscles of his lean stomach and stroke him so that he couldn’t breathe without saying her name?

  With a cry of frustration, she threw her book across the room and went to take a cold shower.

  Josh woke that afternoon. A strong flowery smell hung heavy in the air, sweet but headache inducing. At least a dozen candles burned around the room. Damn it, what is with these people and freaking candles? He rolled out of bed. He blinked his eyes several times, but the scent kept lulling him back into drowsiness. He blew out every single candle and limped over to the window to throw it open and breathe in the fresh air.

  As his mind cleared, the morning replayed in his mind. He’d caught Adriana when she fell skating and had hit hard, slamming his hip onto the ground painfully. He remembered feeling lightheaded and confused as he lay there. But he also recalled the way her hair smelled and the way her breasts had felt against his chest as she lay in his arms. Her voice whispered in his ear that he had to let go of her. Then he’d passed out.

  Shit. This was embarrassing.

  He’d been a clingy stalker and a fainting wimp all within about thirty seconds. How would he face her at dinner?

  However, she didn’t come down for dinner. He asked the skater boys if they’d seen her, but they all gave him evasive answers and funny looks.

  “I don’t think she’ll be back down this trip,” Telly said at last.

  “Why not? I feel like a complete dick. She’s got to know I’m not a psycho.”

  “She knows you’re cool,” Ben said. “It’s her, not you, man. Trust us.”

  “Yeah, well, I want to talk to her myself.” Josh turned to head to the lobby, intent on getting her room number.

  “Dude, that’s the drugs talking.” Telly stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “I’m not on drugs,” Josh said.

  “We mean her.” Ben flipped back his hair. “She’s like a drug. You get hooked on her and can’t do without her.”

  Josh looked at the boys in disbelief. “Why am I getting relationship advice from a bunch of sixteen-year-olds? Trust me, guys. This is not my first pairs’ skate, if you know what I mean.”

  “Josh, dude—” Telly shook his head. “Believe us when we say you don’t want to go there with this one.”

  Josh stared at them until the four boys headed back outside. Then he approached Myron at the desk as she flipped over two more of her ever-present cards.

  “We don’t give out room numbers. You can leave a message for her with me,” Myron said before Josh even had a chance to ask.

  “C
an I call her on the house phone?”

  “No phones. Message only.”

  Angrily, he took the pad and pen she held out to him and scribbled a quick note.

  Meet me at the dock at 9:00 tonight. Please.

  Josh

  Then he folded the note, stuck it in an envelope from the counter, sealed it, wrote her name on the outside, and passed it back to the receptionist. “Will you please see that she gets this as soon as possible?”

  “She’ll get it,” Myron said blithely. Then she flipped over a card. She frowned and whispered sadly, “She’ll get it, but she won’t come.”

  Josh couldn’t believe his ears. What kind of place was this? When did his business become everyone’s business? Alicia had booked him a room in an insane asylum.

  He went back upstairs as quickly as his leg would allow him.

  Well before nine, Josh left for the boat dock unaware that Rekkus and his mate Dana watched him go.

  “Someone has to tell him something.” Dana sighed as she clung to Rekkus’s arm. “It’s not fair.”

  “Trust me, your heart is in the right place, but there’s no future for them, not like he wants.”

  “There was a future for us.” Her voice was low and soft.

  Rekkus bent his head and kissed her tenderly, cupping her cheek with his hand. “As I recall, you fainted in terror when you found out what I was.”

  “But I got over it. Josh will too.”

  “It’s not the same for them, love. A lamia survives on the give and take of energy from a human host, but they have to be very careful how much they take. A brief touch every few days is enough to keep the lamia’s energy balanced without overtaxing the resources of the host,” Rekkus explained. “Do you think for a moment that Josh would be happy being able to touch her hand only for a few seconds twice a week?”

  Dana frowned.