Finding the Magic (10 page)

“I’m sorry about earlier. It won’t happen again.”

She quirked a brow at him. “
Wanna
bet?”

He frowned and she just smiled back at him. “You want to tell me why you called in the cavalry, Cam?” She held up a finger. “Think before you speak. You still haven’t even given me a good explanation why anyone would be after me. There is no way on this earth I’m going to believe they just dropped in by chance. Mary said they run a security company but I don’t buy it and I’m tired of being in the dark. And while you’re thinking about that then you’d better think about how to explain your big friend over there.” She glanced at Chris who still lounged near the doorway. “Because I already have some ideas of my own.”

Cameron looked up at his friend, well aware the man had heard her though her voice was low. Chris shrugged. “It’s Chris’ story to tell, Jayne. If he decides to share it then that’s up to him. As for the reason they’re here,” he gestured at the team as one by one they took seats at the table around them, “you’re right, I called them.” He paused while Mary sat mugs in front of them. “You know about Jack’s brother, aye?”

“Yes, he disappeared.”

“This afternoon, I got an e-mail from someone claiming to know where he is.”

She looked from him to the serious faces around the table and frowned in puzzlement. “But that’s good, isn’t it? I assume you guys are here to go get him?”

Jonathon cleared his throat. “It’s not that simple, Jayne.” He looked at Cam, waiting for his nod of encouragement before he continued. “It could well be a trap. It’s only been two days since someone tried to snatch you two and you’ve been holed up here ever since. This could just be an attempt to get Cam away from the house.”

“Also, why now after all this time? There’s nothing to suggest that Nick is even still alive,”
Rianne
interjected. “What?” She glared at
Ciaran
when he nudged her. “It’s the truth!”

“You spent way too much of your childhood with Mister Doom an’ Gloom,
darlin
’.” He glanced at Cameron.

“He’s alive.” The quiet statement came from
Fynn
. His American voice unmistakable though his face remained as expressionless as if he hadn’t spoken.

Jayne looked at the faces of the people around her but no one looked surprised by the surety in
Fynn’s
voice. She opened her mouth to ask how he knew only to close it abruptly when Cameron bumped her knee under the table. She looked at him and he shook his head slightly.
Right
, she scowled. One more damn mystery. She hadn’t missed the fact that he had ignored her prod about explaining who was after them. But she kept her silence as he addressed the people seated at the table. She glanced up to see
Fynn’s
wintry gaze on her. She shivered and he looked away.

“I’m still waiting for a reply to the message and I haven’t been able to get any more information. I even pulled in some
favors
to check whether the libraries in the city have any kind of security surveillance in them. They do, but it’s switched off in the daytime so no help there, even if we could find out which one was used.”

Rianne
launched into a detailed conversation with Cam about IP and Mac addresses and routing that made Jayne’s eyes cross. Two computer geeks together. She tuned them out and studied the others at the table again.
Ciaran
and Jonathon were serious for once, talking in undertones. Christopher and Mary were talking about someone named Rebecca. From the occasional word she caught, Jayne gathered she was Chris’ little girl. That surprised her, she couldn’t quite imagine the big, silent man with a child. They were certainly a unique bunch. Chris most of all, though
Fynn
came a close second. It looked as though neither man spoke much. There was no way Cameron would convince her there was nothing unusual about them.

It was clear they all knew each other very well. Despite a slightly awkward first few minutes, Cameron had merged seamlessly with them. This was the most relaxed she had ever seen him. There was still a fine tension in him that she sensed had to do with her. He seemed to be hyper-aware of every move she made. There was an almost palpable connection between them and Jayne knew the others had picked up on it. She saw it in the glances exchanged between them.

When the conversation began to drift to a halt, Mary stood, yawning. “Well, boys and girls, I believe I’ll go to bed. It’s getting late.”

Rianne
stood. “I’ll come with you, Mum.”

There were murmurs of agreement around the table and one by one the others stood until only she and Cameron were left. She listened to their voices as they retrieved their bags and headed for their rooms.

“And then there were two.” She turned to watch Cam, surprised when he didn’t show any signs of leaving. Instead, he stared back at her, his expression quizzical.

“What?”

“You puzzle me, Jayne. Why do you find it so easy to believe in the fantastic when most people would accept any other explanation?”

“Yep, it drives Megan crazy too.” She smiled and tried to answer his question. “I don’t know why, Cam, it’s just who I am, who I’ve always been, even as a child. Tell me about the monster under the bed and I’d want to know why the poor guy was hiding in there. I cried when I found out about the tooth fairy, and Santa Claus,” she shook her head, “when I found out about him I was devastated.”

“Who told you there were monsters under the bed?”

“Megan. I stole her
coloring
book and wouldn’t give it back.”

He shook his head and swung round in his seat ‘til their knees touched. His mouth quirked in a slight smile. She had yet to see a full-fledged grin from him and wondered if the presence of his friends would change that. “This
isnae
a romance novel, you know, there’s no guaranteed happy ending.”

“Okay, now you’re just trying to annoy me. I see you just fine, Cameron, and you look real enough to me. Besides, there’s been way more frustration than satisfaction so far. You keep winding me up and letting me go!” He scowled at her and, encouraged, she leaned forward and purred against his lips. “The hero of a romance novel would have made sure I had at least one orgasm before now.”

The longer she spent in his presence, the more twitchy she got. She didn’t know how he made her feel this way when no one else ever had. She got to her feet, intending to make her exit. He grabbed her wrist and stood facing her.

“Woman, you drive me crazy! You
dinnae
ken what you’re
messin
’ with.”

“Then tell me!” she hissed, their faces so close together she could see the darker gold striations in his eyes. There was anger and desire in his face and his body was shaking from the force of it. Abruptly he released her wrist. “All right!
Goddammit
! All right.” He walked away and leaned against the granite counter with his back to her. Jayne took a deep breath and attempted to bring her racing pulse back under control.

“You’ve guessed most of it anyway…” She saw him visibly brace himself. “I’m a
shapeshifter
.”

“I knew it! Jack too, right? And your friends? This is brilliant!”

Cameron turned, disbelief on his face. “Doesn’t this even shock you a wee bit?”

“Why would it? It’s not as if I didn’t know already. Can I see you change?”

“No!” He raked his hand through his hair. “It
disnae
work like that. Look, sit down, okay?” He went to the other end of the kitchen and rummaged in cupboards, producing a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He sat, poured them both a generous portion before beginning to speak again.

“Okay, here it is. I’m a feline
shapeshifter
, so were my parents and so are many of my friends. We’re not freaks or monsters. What we are is a separate race with a different culture and history. A history that as far as anyone can trace begins right here in Scotland. We live relatively normal lives. Except that puberty for us, along with
everythin
’ else, means our first transformation.”

“That has to suck.” Especially for him, since that’s when he’d lost his parents.

“Aye, it does. But we get plenty of time to recover from it since we don’t change again until around the age of thirty, give or take a few years. That’s when we have to deal with a new hell. It’s called the mating cycle.”

“And you’d be thirty…?”

“Three.”

“Ah.”

He raised his glass in a mocking toast and lifted it to his lips then put it down again with a grimace. “The
matin
’ cycle is a polite way of saying that the animal that lives inside me wants—no,
demands
—a mate. So I get an increased sex drive and in return I gradually lose my appetite and my ability to sleep. Until I give in to the demand.”

“And if you don’t give in?”

“Then, in theory, I could eventually starve to death. Though I
dinnae
think anyone has let it get that far, not for a long time anyway.”

She looked at the cold, untouched mug of chocolate he had left sitting on the table and the glass of whiskey he had yet to drink from. Remembered all the missed meals in the last few days. And worried. “So, why don’t you just find a woman?”

“Oh, that’s the best part. See not just any woman will do, only the ones who are genetically compatible. There’s always a very strong sexual pull between shifters and those women and, during the
matin
’ cycle, we just
cannae
get it up for anyone else. Aside from the obvious,” he gestured to the bulge of his erection under his jeans. “There are other signs that
you
are one of the ones who are compatible. That birthmark you have on the inside of your thigh, the one shaped like a cat’s paw is one.”

Her hand immediately went to cover the mark though it was under her jeans.

“And another is the fact that I can hear some of your thoughts and feelings, especially if we are close to each other.”

Jayne flushed crimson as she remembered all the lustful daydreams she had had about Cameron in the last couple of days. She took a large gulp of the whiskey. It burned all the way down, making her eyes water.

“Oh aye, I definitely caught some of those. You
havnae
made it easy to stay away from you, Jayne.”

“Then why did you?”

“Because if I take you, make you my mate…then we’d be stuck with each other for good. And if one of us decides we
dinnae
like the other,” he shrugged, “too bad.”

There was a bitterness in his voice that didn’t match his matter-of-fact words and Jayne wondered at its source. “You still haven’t told me how all this is related to you changing. I take it that it has something to do with this mating cycle?”
And why do you hate the idea so much
?

“It has everything to do with it. It’s just hard to explain to someone who
cannae
feel what I feel. I
dinnae
hate what I am, Jayne, although what I’ve said might make you think that. I just hate what I have to do to someone else so that I can be complete.” He spun his glass in slow circles on the table. “I could give all the sensible, reasonable explanations for what we are and what we do. Especially when it comes to the
matin
’ bond. Scent, pheromones, biological markers…but at the root of it all is magic.” The tips of his ears flushed red,
signaling
his embarrassment. His obvious discomfort made Jayne want to hug him but she sat where she was, worried that she might put him off.

“We all have our own theories about how it works and everyone is told a slightly different version as a child but it basically always comes down to the same thing. The magic in me recognizes the dormant magic in you and it needs it. But in order to bring it to the surface, it has to feed it with some of the energy that is usually used to control the cat. It happens through direct contact, we do have some control over when it happens but it takes concentration. Here.” He reached out his hand. “Give me your hand and close your eyes. Concentrate, tell me what you feel.”

Jayne felt his hand close over hers. “Warmth, your skin on mine, your heartbeat…mine…and something else. A tingling…very faint, like pins and needles.” He released her hand abruptly and she opened her eyes and saw his fingers trembling.

“We call it the
Ceangal
, it’s Gaelic for bond. It’s an instinct—like an automatic reflex—and the longer you put it off, the harder it gets to control. Once that link is made I have no say over where or when I change into the cat until the energy is equalized and the bond is completed. And if I don’t complete it, the changes come more often until, eventually, I just wouldn’t change back from the feline form.”

“Which would really suck.”

“Oh aye.”

He really was a very attractive man in a rough-around-the-edges sort of way. He had relaxed a bit, slouching in the chair so that his long legs stretched out under the table in a graceful sprawl. His golden eyes reflected the
color
of the whiskey in his glass and his tawny hair gleamed under the bright lights of the kitchen.

“Okay, I’m getting that it’s no picnic for you but you also said you didn’t like what you’d have to do to someone else, so spill.”