Dire Desires

asking me something.”

“I have.” She looked down at her hands. “Did you mean what you said? About me being both healer and destroyer.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I know about the destroyer part, unfortunately. But the healer—is that just because of the doctor thing or—”

“Don’t you know the answer to that?”

“I was born of a Dire with abilities and a human. I have no idea of the answer.”

“Does it matter?”

She looked at him with complete honesty in her eyes. “I guess it can’t be helped if it’s here. I just see all of you with abilities and . . . it seems like they take so much out of you.”

“It’s okay to be scared, Gwen. I’m surprised you’re not spinning with everything that’s happened to you in the short span of time. But you’re taking to all of it—you’re dealing. Whether or not you’ve got it, you’ll handle it. We may not like it, but we handle it. And that’s the most important thing.” He turned and headed away from the room. “Now I’m going to take my own goddamned advice.”

He didn’t have to turn around to know that she was smiling.

* * *

They stayed under the stars for a long time, until Jinx mentioned having to go to work, which Gillian supposed meant ghost hunting. She didn’t bother asking if she could go with him. Today, of all days, that would be a death wish. They reluctantly dressed and went inside. Jinx returned some calls and she paced around a little, exhausted but still wired from the sex . . . and the news that she was a wolf.

Jinx suggested a long bath and she did that, soaking under bubbles in the Jacuzzi-sized tub for a long time, her sore muscles enjoying the warmth. When she got out, she stared over her shoulder at the bruising on her back, trying to picture how it could actually form a glyph like Jinx’s.

She heard Jez and Jinx arguing about Jinx going hunting alone, with Jinx saying something about how those dogs will listen to me more than they will you, and finally Jez agreed that staying home to protect her was more important.

“It’s the most important thing to me,” Jinx had said and that made the vampire relent.

Now, Jinx was gone but Jez was there, sitting on the couch, drinking a beer. She grabbed a soda from the fridge, because Diet Coke in the morning was the best thing.

“Rough night?” he asked.

“A little,” she admitted. “Are you a wolf too?”

“Hell no.” Jez looked so offended that she nearly laughed, took a drink of soda as he said, “I’m vampire.”

She choked on her soda. When she finally stopped coughing, she told him, “No admitting things like that when I’m drinking, all right?”

“Wolves are all so odd. Worse than humans,” Jez observed, offered her the box of fresh-baked doughnuts he must’ve snagged on his way home from . . . vampire-ing.

“Do you have to hide during the day—from the light?”

“No,” Jez sniffed. “Not my kind of vampire. I’m sufficiently indestructible, but I much prefer to sleep during the day. I guess old habits die hard.”

“I’m a wolf, sitting next to a vampire. I’m a wolf who hangs around with vampires.”

Jez watched her steadily. “You’re not going to have some kind of breakdown, are you? I signed on to watch out for you while Jinx had business to attend to, but he didn’t mention anything about crying.”

“I’m not crying,” she protested. “Mildly freaking out, maybe.”

“Want to watch a movie? Dracula? The Wolfman?” he asked and she looked at him, astonished. “That was my attempt at humor.”

She snickered in spite of herself. Wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “It might’ve worked.”

“It’ll get easier, Gillian. You’re surrounded by good wolves.”

“What about other vampires?”

“Tired of me already?” he smirked. “How about some Chinese food? I know a place with great sesame noodles.”

He was looking through a pile of papers on the table in front of him and triumphantly pulled out a menu like he’d found the prize in the cereal box.

“You’re worried about Jinx being out there alone,” she said quietly and before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door. Jez moved toward it silently, looked out the peephole and then opened it to reveal a handsome, tall man with a shaved head and glyphs running down the side of his head and neck.

Wolf, the rustling said.

“Jinx’s twin,” she heard herself murmur, but he’d heard her anyway. Nodded in her direction.

“I came to talk to Jinx.”

“Good timing, since he’s out hunting by himself,” Jez told him, named a cemetery in the area.

“I’ll go to him. He won’t be alone tonight,” Rogue said. “Are you okay, Gillian?”

“I will be once I know Jinx is all right,” she said honestly and his expression softened. He even smiled a little and she had a feeling that didn’t happen often.

Chapter 15

Jinx thought about reaching out to Vice the entire way to the cemetery, but he knew the wolf would insist on joining him, and Jinx couldn’t forgive himself if anything happened to Vice. But he’d do anything not to come out here alone.

It had taken him several rides around the cemetery grounds to actually force himself to park outside the iron gates. Another long twenty minutes of waiting in his truck, listening to music as loud as possible to try to get himself in the right headspace. Ghost hunting was definitely a way to ruin his afterglow, and he’d wanted to stay next to Gillian tonight. Laying all the wolf stuff on her and then sleeping with her and running would make her vulnerable. Maybe even angry.

As he moved forward and took a few steps inside the gates, a truck rumbled up next to his that looked like it could ride through fire, and he turned to see Rogue climbing out of it.

Jinx, of course, immediately thought of hellfire and waved for the wolf to turn around and get the hell out, to not walk through the iron gates. But Rogue ignored him.

“Jez told me where you were,” Rogue called.

“Of course he did.”

“He didn’t want you out here alone. I told him we had to do this alone. Get our rhythm back.”

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.”

“Yeah, I thought that too,” Rogue admitted. Jinx didn’t push him, just grateful to have his twin back by his side. “You didn’t sense me coming.”

“No.”

Rogue cursed under his breath, but his ire didn’t seem to be directed at Jinx. “I felt you a little. But we’re being blocked from each other.”

By what’s out here, Jinx thought, but Rogue would see it soon enough. Together, they walked through the cemetery.

“Yours here?” Rogue asked and Jinx nodded, ignoring them.

“They’re subdued. Can you really not see anything?”

“No. Not yet,” Rogue confessed. “I went out the other night. Got as far as finding some hunters before I turned around and went back.”

“They’re really still not . . . coming around you?” Jinx asked, perplexed. The Dire house was a ghost – and spirit-free zone, the mare being an exception. But once Rogue hit the outside air, the spirits usually rushed him.