The Spirit Seducer (The Echo Series Book 1) (15 page)

“What about you and Layla?”

Zeke’s chest tensed and his voice was thicker with emotion when he said, “Unwanted and unplanned, all the way. Gods don’t choose to have us very often. We’re harder to control because we have our own agendas and abilities—and human emotions. Not the ones they’d plan to transfer to us so that we’re beholden to them.”

Grief blanketed my chest. I ached for my mother but even more for my father. He’d cared for her, but, if that memory Zeke showed was true, he’d loved and wanted me, too.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Sotuk.”

“No one knows. Or they aren’t talking. He hasn’t been seen since he forced your mom to Santa Fe. If we’re right, he gave over a lot of his power to protect you. He may have depleted himself.”

“You mean killed himself?”

“I don’t know if that’s possible,” he said. He slid his hands over my hair again, playing with the ends. “You can sleep. I’m here.”

His words both soothed me and caused me to panic. Zeke had to fight my battles; being near me put him in constant danger.

“What about Layla?” I asked.

“She’s down the hall.”

I hesitated, my pulse pattering too loud. “Is she mad you’re in here?”

“Why would she be?”

I opened my mouth. Shut it. Clearing my throat, I blurted, “Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

All my muscles relaxed. We were quiet. “You should have one,” I whispered. “You’re good at cuddling.”

He pulled me closer. “You should sleep some more.”

“How long was I out?”

“About an hour. Sleep.”

I pressed my cheek more tightly against his chest, lulled by his heat and the rhythm of his heart under my ear.

“Promise?” I whispered. I didn’t want to admit how scared I was to close my eyes.

He pressed a soft kiss to the vulnerable skin between my brows. “Always,” he murmured against the skin there.

“Zeke?” I grabbed his hand, opening my eyes, searching his. “You make me feel safe.”

He looked away, his jaw hard with emotions I knew he wouldn’t want to admit to feeling. His gaze skimmed my forehead, then slid down to rove over my throat. He laid his thumb against my pulse.

I snuggled against his chest, soaking up his warmth and strength. I sighed, my body relaxing in slow increments. My eyelids slid shut. His warm breath bathed the back of my neck. I sighed, pleasure blossoming in my chest.

“I’m glad.”

I must have imagined his lips brushing against the corner of my mouth.

I
woke
, alone and shivering.

“Zeke?”

I sat up and flinched as my battered skin flexed and pulled.

Layla stuck her head in the doorway. Her eyes were dark with concern. Dried tear tracks limned her cheeks. Once she caught my eyes, she walked in, settling on the edge of the bed.

“How you feeling, E?”

“Where’s Zeke?”

“In the other room.”

I closed my eyes as shame washed over me. I was too needy. Clearly, he couldn’t wait to leave. I must have imagined that caress. I curled onto my side. Images danced through my mind and my eyes sprang open.

“What time is it?”

“Early afternoon. Zeke thinks something’s going to happen by dusk.”

“Want to tell me why you left me yesterday?” I asked. “Coyote knocked me down, but you’d already let go of my hand, Layla.”

She walked into the bathroom and came back with the brush. She sat on the edge of the bed and began to work out the tangles from my long hair.

“I know you’re angry, E.”

I slapped the brush from her hand. It flew across the room and thudded against the door. “This isn’t girlie time. You left me there. I was tossed between Jaguar and Coyote like the spoils of war. They wanted to rape me.”

Layla turned back to me, her shoulders stiff and her chin quivering. “But you weren’t. There’s an enormous difference.”

“With no help from you,” I gritted.

“You’re safe. Zeke saved you,” Layla said, her eyes dark swirls of molten silver. “He always does.”

“One day he won’t get there in time, Layla. And, unlike you, I don’t have any training. I don’t know how to protect myself from gods.”

Layla laughed, but it was an ugly, hateful sound. “You think I knew how to fight when I needed to?” She slashed her hand through the air. “I learned afterward. When it no longer mattered. Not really.”

“Screw you.” I shoved her. Layla, caught off guard, slid from the edge of the bed and sprawled onto the floor. She bounded up faster than I could blink, her eyes narrowed, anger dripping from her every pore.

“I didn’t leave you there,” she snapped.

“I’m totally calling BS. You did. You let go of me.”

“No, I didn’t. Not on purpose, like you’re thinking.”

“You’re right. I’m thinking you wanted to leave me there.”

“That’s because you have no idea what’s going on!”

“Because you won’t tell me,” I yelled back. It felt great to yell. I pushed up on my knees and met her eyes. “You lied to me.” I let all my emotions into that one.

“I never did. Not once,” she ground out. One of the most irritating things about Layla was her ability to get quieter when she was angry. I wanted to rage and break things and she got coolly logical.

Silence, thick and full of accusation, settled around us.

“You think this is about trust?” Layla scoffed.

I sat back on my heels and shoved her shoulder. “What else would it be about, Layla? You betrayed me.”

“No,” she shook her head in an emphatic gesture. Conviction fueled her movements, brightened her eyes. “You want to hear about betrayal?”

I hated her in that moment.

“At least pretend it was a tough call for you to make,” I gritted.

Pulling the cami farther down, I lifted my chin so she could see my mutilated neck. “’Cause this was some serious reality. They hurt me.” I choked on the sob trying to claw its way up my throat. I didn’t have the right for tears—not with my mom missing.

Layla’s face paled further. She raised her eyes to my face, hers swimming with tears. “I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I thought . . .”

Zeke’s reddish head popped around the edge of the door, concern clear in his expression long before his emotion slammed into me. “Everything okay in here?”

“Is Layla a spy for Sussistanako?” I asked.

Zeke stepped farther into the room; his gaze sliding from Layla’s set face to mine. He lingered there, taking in my sleep-crazed hair and the frown I couldn’t shake.

“I can’t tell you what to believe. Think about what you know about her and ask what you need to in order to get to the truth.”

I swallowed and looked away, suddenly shy. Sure, Zeke had seen me naked, but I didn’t want my battered body to be the image of me he carried around.

“Thank you for checking on me. I’m sorry if I woke you,” I said.

“Echo?”

The silence stretched past unbearable until I looked up. This was one of his weapons, this ability to force me into compliance with nothing more than silence. I didn’t know how to fight my compulsion to answer him.

“You didn’t wake me. I got up about an hour ago.”

I blinked. Hard. Dropped my head in a quick nod.

“I’m going to get something to eat,” he said. “Take it easy on each other, ladies.”

He walked from the room, pulling the door shut with a firm click.

There was my answer—he was willing to leave me alone with Layla. If that didn’t say how much he trusted her, not much else would.

“Did he sleep in here?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I let my head fall back against the headboard. Well, that was something . . . Good. It was good. I hoped. But he and Layla had a thing.

“Do you like him?”

“Who?” Layla asked.

“Zeke.”

“Oh.” She hesitated. “He’s been a good friend.”

“That doesn’t answer the question,” I muttered.

The longer we sat there, not looking at each other, the more I mourned what we’d once shared.

“I’m so sorry, Echo. About yesterday. I didn’t mean to let go of your hand.”

“You dropped it,” I said.

Layla wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I was scared.”

“And that makes it okay?”

“No. Of course not! It’s just . . . I—I know what you went through.” Layla gestured toward my neck. “You aren’t the only one familiar with Jaguar’s proclivities.”

As Layla’s shame and anger grew bigger, my breath leaked from my lungs. I’d been weak and scared pinned under Jaguar’s body. What had happened to her?

“Jaguar wasn’t there then. At Old Oraibi. Coyote was.”

Layla cleared her throat, a dry raspy sound that bounced through my head. “He scares me, too. I’ve heard the stories. He’s like Jaguar. He takes what he wants.”

“He’s a god.”

“And he’s freaking scary.”

“But that’s not what you planned to tell me, is it?” I tried to keep my voice gentle. Her emotions wrapped around us both; we nearly suffocated in their intensity.

“I met Jaguar almost six years ago, totally by accident.” She twisted her shirt into a ball, her brows pulled together in a series of wrinkles.

The only time we’d been apart that year was during that one cross-country trip with her father. They’d planned a summer in San Diego, but they’d come home weeks early. Layla had been withdrawn. I thought she’d had a fight with her dad; they’d been rocky most of that school year, but their strained relationship was much worse after that trip.

“He told me his name was Troy and he was a freshman at UC San Diego. He can do a full-on human mode—part of his demon magic. I didn’t know that then.”

My stomach twisted. “He didn’t—”

“I’d just started to have these weird blips of power. That’s pretty common.” She shrugged. “Your mother did something to block your powers—but that didn’t stop them. Not if you were able to see Zeke in your dreams.” She blew out a breath. “Jaguar was more than happy to help me figure out what my powers were. He told me he was studying native cultures. I trusted him. My dad’s a federal cop, and I trusted a guy I knew less than a day.”

She dropped her shirt and gripped her arms tight, her fingers white. “My dad was being a dick—all over some chick in the bar. I met Jaguar outside and he suggested we take a walk on the beach. I thought he was being romantic when he took me to that cove.”

Her eyes dilated. She didn’t seem to see me as I moved closer. The instinct to comfort her was strong. “We were too far away from the hotel for anyone to hear my screams,” she whispered.

“Layla . . .” I’d felt his teeth tearing my flesh, his hot breath on my neck and chest. The shudder rippled through her and I answered it, a subconscious attempt to cleanse our bodies of his memory.

She turned to smirk at me, but the horror lingered, deep in her eyes. “It was a long time ago. Haven’t you heard that time heals all wounds?”

My eyes burned with the need to shed her tears. “Not betrayal. Those wounds are too deep.” I paused, swallowed a couple times before I was able to say, “That’s why I was so angry with you.”

Layla brushed her gleaming hair from her cheek. “I never want you hurt like that, E.”

I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, remembering Zeke stepping from the darkness. He’d been calculating, ready to kill a powerful god and the kachina—anyone who posed a threat to me.

The truth settled on my chest, sending tingles through my fingers. “He rescued you from Jaguar. That’s why Zeke hates him so much.”

Layla nodded. “One of the reasons.”

I opened my mouth, but wasn’t sure what to ask. This silence wasn’t accusatory. “Jaguar talked about owning you.”

“He owns my body.” She swallowed. Her chin wobbled and her eyes dropped.

“No. He can’t. He raped you.” I nearly gagged on the word. “That doesn’t mean he has any claim on you now.”

Her gray eyes were wet. “It’s different for us. What isn’t?” Her smile wobbled, collapsed.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“That’s why the gods and kachina are fighting over you. Your first time—that lover,” she spat the word. “He owns your ability to have children.”

I stilled. Even my heart seemed to quit beating. “What?”

“The man who takes your virginity. He owns your ability to have children.”

“Just mine?”

Layla shook her head. “It’s similar for them. Not the same though. For them, it’s about love. The woman they love is the only one they can have children with.”

“Whoa,” I whispered. “No wonder there are so few of us.” I frowned. That’s not what Zeke had said about his parentage. “But Zeke said he wasn’t wanted. I got the feeling his parents weren’t in love.”

“The one epic flaw in an otherwise horrific system.” She laughed, but it was abrasive. “Believe me, the gods are not known for their celibacy. Every once in a while, something happens. Like a condom breaking. Then you get me. And Zeke, too, I guess. A cosmic middle finger.”

What could I say to alleviate her bitterness? “I’m glad you’re here. Zeke, too. Even if it’s from a birth-control malfunction.”

“Poorly designed system,” Layla said, her voice dry.

I cleared my throat. I wanted to be thankful she was making a joke, but . . . Not now. Not this kind of joke.

Layla drew a deep breath. “Yes. I-I can’t be near Jaguar, Echo. I just wanted to leave.”

I dropped my head. Yeah, I could see that. I’d been so scared when he attacked me. I couldn’t really comprehend how much strength Layla had shown to be near him again. But that didn’t give her the right to sacrifice me to the sick bastard.

“Zeke had been tailing Jaguar and heard my screams. The fight was brutal. Jaguar likes blood.”

You don’t stay dead.
Zeke had said that to Jaguar last night.

“I noticed. So Zeke killed Jaguar.”

Layla nodded. “Gutted him. Like he’d tried to . . .” Her voice faded as she slid back into the memory. She shuddered, hands creeping up to grip at her stomach.

I forced my fingers to relax, smoothing them over the comforter. “But Jaguar’s a kachina and they can reform, more quickly if a god summons them. That’s why they rode in to my house the other day with Coyote. Because he called them back from the underworld.”

“Zeke and I think so.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it? I would’ve supported you. Helped you any way I could.”

Layla shook her head. “My mom visited me. That didn’t go well, by the way. I was so hurt and scared. Zeke had wrapped me in his shirt. My clothes were too torn.”

I gripped her hand; her shame slid into me and she sighed, relaxing. “Sussistanako forced Zeke to leave. She healed me. Physically anyway. She told me I’d never have the powers I could have had because I’d been stupid enough to let that kachina rape me.”

A tear spilled over Layla’s lashes and she dashed it away with her pale fingers.

“That’s when you started hanging out at our place more. When my mom got so serious about me never dating.” I sighed. Small details in my life clicked into place. “And you started going to Arizona in the summers.”

“I came here, actually. To visit Zeke and mommy-dearest. I wanted to learn to fight and Zeke offered to teach me. She decided as her only half-human child I’d be a big help saving the world. Especially as your BFF.”

“I’m not sure I want to meet your mom, Layla.”

“You don’t.”

I gripped her hand again, squeezing her fingers. Layla smiled, and this one reached her eyes.

“There it is. My sordid past.”

“You kicked sordid’s ass,” I said, leaning my head on her thin shoulder.

She hesitated, then squeezed my fingers.

Her eyes glowed bright. I knew that look. She planned to tell me something I wouldn’t like.

I braced myself to hear about her fling with Zeke after he rescued her. My nails dug deep into my palms, opening the scabs. I tried to regulate my breathing.

“Do me a favor, okay? Be careful. I know you like Zeke. But he’s a walking arsenal. Totally alpha kick-ass-and-don’t-bother-with-the questions kind of guy. And Masau’s not the warm cuddly type.”

“What are you saying?”

She met my gaze, her eyes as serious as the line of her mouth. “Zeke makes Jaguar look like a kitten.”