that already, because her sister never acted with anything but the best intentions.
But now she understood why the two men were so focused on her. They were being compelled by a spell. None of it was real.
Trying to fight through a crushing depression, she looked her sister square in the face. Lorelai was eyeing her warily.
“I only wanted to make you happy.”
Aria heaved a sigh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I know.” She was more disappointed than she wanted to be, knowing that the two men—especially Declan—weren’t acting of their own accord. “I’m pissed, but let’s talk about it later. “
“Why are you all scratched up?” Seeming grateful for the distraction, Lorelai reached out and ran tentative fingers over her sister’s cuts. The worst of them were still tacky with blood.
“Have you ever come across any mention of a gray, shadowlike creature in any of the books?” In the back room of the apothecary the twins kept all the volumes of their family’s history, the diaries, the
“What kind of gray shadow?” Lorelai had paled at the words, and Aria knew with a sinking sensation in her gut that she wasn’t going to like what she heard next.
“It looked like a person. But it was more of a mist...and it wasn’t sentient. I’m sure of it.” Aria resisted the urge to press her fingers to her temples as Lorelai uttered a curse.
“One of Gran’s diaries mentioned the exact same thing.” Lorelai tugged on the length of her ponytail, the golden curls springing back as soon as she released them. “I don’t remember which one, though. Let me look.”
“It’s from the spell, isn’t it?” They’d never been able to keep secrets from one another.
Lorelai shook her head stubbornly.
“It can’t be. We’ve both cast thousands of spells and nothing like this has ever happened.” Lorelai looked as though she might cry when she looked at the blood on Aria’s arm.
“I think it might be, Lori.” She couldn’t sugarcoat it, not even to save her sister’s feelings. Her intuition was telling her that this creature was cued into her specifically, and she had a sinking certainty that it was an unwitting result of the lust spell.
“Let me go look through Gran’s diaries.” Lorelai set her chin, as if she knew that her sister would argue. “If I made this mess, then I need to clean it up.”
“No.” Aria’s voice was firm, and she made sure that it was loud enough that Declan would be able to hear her outside. “I don’t want this thing anywhere near you.”
“It would be best for you to go upstairs, Lorelai.” Declan was in the room so quickly that Aria blinked, startled. Once upon a time she’d been used to the speed with which he moved, but it had been so long. “Go to bed. We’ll talk again in the morning.”
“Do you think she’ll be safe up there?” Aria asked.
Lorelai grumbled and insisted on at least dragging the box of Gran’s diaries out of the back room. She placed a stack of them on the counter for Aria and the men to flip through.
“We’ll be able to hear her.” They’d also be able to reach her in time, Aria knew, if anything happened. Or at least, Declan would—she didn’t know about Adam.
The werewolf entered the shop as Lorelai passed through the door to the stairwell which led upstairs to the apartment that the twins shared. He paused to lock the door behind him, and to draw the blinds over the glass.
In his hand he held a coffee cup from McDonald’s, the only fast food joint in the small town.
“I thought you might need a boost.” He handed the steaming cup to Aria. The heat seeped through the thin cardboard to singe her fingers.
She was floored by the thoughtfulness of the gesture.
The reserves that she had built over the years began to melt.
“Did Lorelai have any insight into your assailant?” Declan raised an eyebrow at her, and she squirmed under the intensity of his stare.
She wanted him again, damn it. She wanted them both, even though she’d just had them.
She couldn’t have them. They didn’t know what they were doing.
“She remembered a mention of something similar in one of my Gran’s old books.” Aria gestured nervously to the pile that Lorelai had left on the table. Aria recognized the look in Declan’s eyes.
He wanted her, too.
She didn’t know if she had the strength to resist him.
“Did she have any idea of why?” One look at Declan’s face as he crossed the small space between them told her that he already had a pretty good idea of the answer, and she wondered how much he had overheard with his vampire hearing.
She couldn’t, just couldn’t, admit that her twin had cast a spell to get her laid.
“It’s to do with a spell.” Aria kept her tone deliberately vague. She was distracted as Declan stalked the remaining distance between them, then lifted her onto the counter.
With one quick movement he’d unsnapped her jeans and his own and was pressing his cock against her entrance. She was already hot and wet, and all of her common sense fled as, without any warning, he seated himself inside of her.
“Declan!” Aria’s voice echoed off the walls of the shop as she clung to his shoulders and looked over his shoulder at Adam. After what had transpired between them, she knew it was ridiculous to feel embarrassed that the werewolf was watching.
“Don’t stop on my account.” Though the werewolf continued to chew on his late dinner, he watched with avid interest as Declan caught Aria around the waist and began to thrust, hot and fast.
“I just can’t get enough of you.” Declan’s fangs extended as he set a merciless pace. Aria’s fingers slid from his shoulders to claw at the counter, trying to find something, anything, to grab on to. “I never could.”
Though her heart quickened with guilt, she was too far gone into the pleasure to do more than moan as Declan brought her to a quick, brutal climax with the press of his thumb on her clit. She felt him flood inside of her himself, his tongue swiping over the tips of his fangs as he came.
Panting, Aria winced as Declan slid from between her legs. What the hell had that been?
She blinked in amazement as Adam filled the space Declan had vacated. He pushed inside her more slowly than Declan had, his passage eased by the vampire’s pleasure.
“Declan.” With wild eyes Aria looked at the man who had once meant so much to her. He was zipping his jeans, but possession sparkled in his eyes.
Aria barely had a moment to catch her breath before Adam began to move, seating himself inside of her again and again with long, hard strokes.
She came before he could even move his hand between her legs, her flesh so sensitive by that point that every little move was painful and still full of pleasure.
As her flesh clenched around his cock, Adam thrust one last time and grunted, his heat filling the depths of her belly.
Aria’s elbow knocked one of her Gran’s diaries off the counter as Adam withdrew from her heat. Flustered, she slid from the counter, straightening her hair, her clothing as she bent to retrieve it.
“Holy goddess.” It had fallen open to the page with a pencil drawing of the shadowy figure.
Her Gran had always taught her that there were no coincidences in the world. This page was important.
With trembling fingers, she held it out so that the two men could see.
Declan looked at her, his face expressionless.
“There are no coincidences.” His words were low, but she realized at once that he was repeating something she’d often said to him.
“No, there are not.” She turned the book back to face her, reading aloud.
