Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies (9 page)

It only took a few heartbeats for them to find their old rhythm. Pressing her feet to the magic carpet, she lifted her butt up, matching his thrusts in and out with an up and down motion. The increased contact sent waves of hot, silky tension through her clit. Again, the vibrations intensified throughout her body, tightening her muscles enveloping him.

“Oh God, yes,” Jax groaned. “Babe, I’m gonna–” His body went rigid as he plunged into her one last time as his orgasm overtook him.

She continued to move against his shaking form, and a moment later, her back snapped with a second climax.

They snuggled on the magic carpet, Veronica trying to catch her breath. Surrounded by a languid cocoon of satisfaction and the warmth of Jax’s arms, she relished the bliss that had turned her body to mush. She couldn’t stop smiling. A warm breeze tickled her cheeks. This was how she was meant to be. Not naked in the middle of the woods necessarily, but happy, relaxed and at peace. And Jax had wanted to talk first. What had the crazy boy been thinking?

“Thank you for agreeing to do this first.” She kissed the underside of his jaw. “So what was it you wanted to tell me? What deep, dark secret have you been hiding?” She laughed at her joke.

Jax turned onto his side, propped his head up with one hand. He’d lost his contented smile. Worry lines crinkled his forehead and tension radiated from him despite his relaxed posture.

Her stomach sank. She wanted to reach out and cover his mouth. Whatever he was about to say wouldn’t be good.

A vein throbbed at his temple. “I used a love spell to make you fall in love with me.”

Chapter 9

Before Veronica even opened her mouth, he knew he was doomed, but like a condemned man, couldn’t let go of the last thread of hope.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Tell me you’re joking, Jax.” She jumped off the magic carpet. “Tell me!”

As if Mother Nature needed to add her two cents to the discussion, thunder boomed loud enough to startle the goose. It waddled over to Veronica and scooted its feathered butt close to her leg.

A fat drop of rain splattered Jax’s bare shoulder. “I didn’t do it on purpose.” He sat up and reached for her but she brushed his hand away.

She rolled her eyes. “What, you just accidentally whipped up a cauldron of double, double, toil and trouble?”

She couldn’t get much closer to the truth than that, but she’d never see it that way. Wind scattered the leaves at their feet and twisted her ebony hair around her face. Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Veronica in her fearsome glory. Like a vengeful goddess, she didn’t even flinch when thunder cracked a moment later.

“Answer me, dammit.”

He’d wanted so badly to make her his that he’d lost her. Bile rose in his throat as his body rebelled against his own stupidity. “Sort of.”

“What kind of answer is that?” She snorted and started to get dressed. “Then again, why should I expect any more out of someone who was willing to manipulate me with magic to make me do what he wanted.”

She stilled in the middle of pulling on her leather jumpsuit, her long hair twisting and turning around her head like an angry bird’s nest come to life. When she looked up, tears glistened, heavy in her eyes. Shoulders slumped with resignation, she slouched, half naked and emotionally vulnerable. She took in a deep breath and blinked furiously.

“You’re worse than my father. He’d berate and humiliate me in an effort to create his perfect little heiress, but he never stooped so low as to use magic to trick me.”

When Jax started to speak, she held up her hand. “Don’t bother.”

Helpless to do anything to stop her, short of sitting on her, he stood by while she finished dressing, her movements jerky. Every once in a while she’d go perfectly still with her hands curled into fists by her side. After a few deep breaths, she would loosen her hands and seemingly let go of whatever emotion had tied her up.

Seeing her like this was his worst nightmare come to life. He’d never wanted to hurt her, but it was all he’d done. A potent cocktail of guilt and remorse nearly choked him as his lungs tightened. His mother had urged him from the beginning to tell Veronica the truth, but like an idiot, he hadn’t listened. He took a deep breath and prayed it wasn’t too late. “I’d gone home to North Carolina to visit my mama after we’d recovered the Bavarian wolpertinger. You remember the craziness of tracking down that mean little horned rabbit? I’d fallen in love with you on that trip, but I couldn’t figure out how to get you to see me as more than that Jax boy with the funny accent.”

They’d spent two days tracking down the wolpertinger before cornering it in a hollow tree stump. Little did they know, the stump was actually a fairy house. A blast of magic had blown the wolpertinger out of the stump and into Veronica’s arms, the force of it knocking her on her ass. She’d lain there with twigs in her hair, laughing, but never let go of the horned rabbit. Something inside him had shifted as he’d watched dawn’s light dance across her smiling face.

“My mama had been working on a love spell when I surprised her by showing up unannounced. She’d left the bat’s wool, dog’s tongue, fairy wing and moon dust on the counter and run up to the house to fetch us some sweet tea. When I was checking out her crafting ingredients, I accidentally slipped and knocked them into her cauldron. Now, I’m a witch’s boy. I grew up next to that pot and know just enough magic to be dangerous, but not enough to help anyone a damn bit–including myself. Still, I know a love spell when I see one.”

He hadn’t planned to do it, but he’d been too selfish and lovesick to realize what a fatal mistake he was making.

“The water began to boil and swirl. A pink mist rose up, filling my nose with the scent of vanilla and my eyes with visions of your beautiful face. It knew what I wanted and just how desperate I was. I should have known better, but I called out your name anyway. That’s all it took. I tried to take it back, but it was too late. By the time my mama returned with two big glasses of sweet tea, the die was cast. Mama told me not to worry–love spells were notorious for being weak magic and the spell wouldn’t take. But when I got back to New York, it was like the world had started to spin on another axis. Within a week we were dating, a few months later we were engaged. I should have been the happiest man in the world, but the knowledge of what I’d done ate away at me. I knew I had to reverse the spell, whatever it took. What I did to you was the lowest thing one human being could do to another. I was wrong and I am so sorry.”

Pain shimmered in Veronica’s eyes as she zipped up her jumpsuit. “Did you reverse it?”

“Yes.” It had taken several pints of his blood and he’d had to forfeit three years off his life, but a medicine man in Haiti had done it.

“How do I know you’re not lying?”

“Would you rather kiss me right now or kick me in the balls?” She flipped him off and his gut sank. “Yeah, well that answers that question.”

She glared at him, bringing her hands up behind her neck. A moment later the onyx rabbit cameo fell to the ground. “Tomorrow morning we’ll go up that beanstalk. We’re going to find that damn harp for Antoine and make a dying man happy one last time. Then I’m going to walk out of these woods and never set eyes on you again.”

She snapped her fingers. The magic carpet folded itself until it was the size of a business card and flew into a pocket on her tool belt. Without another word, she pivoted and marched toward the campsite, the goose dogging her heels.

The sky let loose with a torrential rainfall, pelting Jax with icy droplets that skated across his skin. Naked, alone and shivering at the sudden temperature change, he stood in the middle of the woods that only an hour before had been filled with their laughter. He had well and truly lost the only woman he’d ever loved and it was his own damn fault.

Chapter 10

Dawn broke without a single sparrow’s song or bright yellow ray of light. Veronica stomped out of her tent, not giving a damn about the thick gray clouds that blocked out any hint of sunshine. All she wanted was to get this last day over with. She tossed the duffel bag with Hermes’ shoes in front of Jax’s tent. She’d rather fall than accept any gifts from him.

One of her clients had been begging her to come to South Korea and hunt for Yongwang the Dragon King’s jade shield. She’d call them as soon as they got back down the blasted beanstalk. The Eastern Seaboard couldn’t get in her rearview mirror fast enough.

So dark was her mood, she ran smack dab into Antoine near the beanstalk’s base, nearly knocking the older man onto his well-padded behind.

“Well, don’t you match the skies today? You aren’t planning to slit my throat with that, are you?”

She had a white-knuckle grip around the Chisa Katana sword’s handle. With conscious effort, she peeled one finger off at a time, then slid it into the worn leather sheath on her thigh. “Sorry. Rough night.”

“Nightmares?”

“Only when I’m awake.”

“I know all of this.” He waved his hand at the beanstalk. “It has been a bit much, but it has to be done. One last trip up.” Her mentor paused and stroked his chin. “But that’s not it at all, is it? Do tell.”

Heat raced to her cheeks, while anger and humiliation mixed together in the pit of her stomach. Her body flirted with the need to puke. Admitting to what had happened–even to her mentor–seemed like an exercise in self-abuse, but if she couldn’t tell Antoine, she couldn’t tell anyone. And she needed to let her frustration out so it wouldn’t interfere with the job ahead.

“Jax used a love spell to make me fall in love with him.”

Antoine lifted his shoulders in the Gallic way the French Canadians had about them. “Oh, is that all.”

“Is that all?” Fire and brimstone whooshed out along with the words.

“Those spells are really a bit of snake oil, even the witches agree. They’re like a mood ring. You had one of those as a child, didn’t you?”

She shook her head.

“Strange, I thought every young girl had one. Anyway, they are cheap, little rings with stones that change color, supposedly based on your mood. It’s a fabulous con, of course. The stone is actually a hollow glass shell filled with thermotropic liquid crystals that twist in response to changes in temperature. The eye reads these different configurations as colors. A blue color, for instance, meant the wearer was feeling high passion. Really what was going on was the crystals were twisting in response to the wearer’s increasing body temperature, not because of her mood.”

In full-on professorial mode now, Antoine paced through the thick grass. “Love is not something the witches can create. Trust me, I put serious effort into researching this. Love is a magic unto itself and beyond our measly interferences. All a love spell can do is show you what you’re already feeling–much like a mood ring when it turns blue.”

He clasped his hands in front of his round belly and stared at her expectantly with his keen blue eyes.

Realization hit her like a sucker punch. “So it was real.”

“Of course it was real. It still is. That boy loves you like the Yeti loves snow. And you feel the same. You can’t hide your feelings from me. I’ve seen the way you watch him when you think no one is looking.” He patted her shoulder. “If I’ve learned anything in my life it’s that it’s too damn short to deny yourself the things that make you happy and that you have to take what you want. No one is going to hand it to you. In fact, if you’re not careful, they’ll yank it away before you even realize what’s happening.”

All the fury wheezed out of her body, leaving her as deflated as a flat tire. Jax had fucked up and he’d have some mighty groveling to do to make up for it, but he hadn’t turned her into some kind of emotional zombie there to do his bidding. Their time together, their love, had been real.

“Do you love him?”

She didn’t even have to think about it. “Yes.”

“Good. That is exactly what I needed to hear.” Antoine gave her a light push toward the beanstalk. “Then start climbing. He’s got a half hour head start on us.”

Lucky she loved Jax, because otherwise she’d wring his neck when she caught up to him. “What was he thinking, going up alone?”

“You’ll have to ask him when we get there.”

They climbed through mist and fog so thick in places, Veronica could barely see the bright green vines she used to pull herself higher. By the time they’d reached the top, the precipitation had soaked her hair, the short strands at her nape stuck to her skin.