Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) (10 page)

T
rinity slid
the gearshift into park with way too much force.

Men. Stupid, stupid men. All of them.

She jostled free of the car and slammed the door shut. Usually she enjoyed coming home to her new place. Once a large home in the popular M streets of lower Greenville, it was now sectioned off into four modest, but trendy apartments. Tonight she’d have enjoyed a visit with a punching bag a whole lot more.

God, she had great friends. Really. They’d poked and prodded her into a night out with the best of intentions, primarily to keep her mind off the uber player of all times, Ramsay Shantos.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid Trinity. Opening herself up and thinking he’d actually call her back. Worse, she’d gone and tried to prove Ramsay’s ability to touch her was a fluke by shaking hands with a clean-cut guy at the bar tonight. She shuddered all over again, remembering the disgusting images the light contact had brought. Yeah, not so clean cut after all.

Her heels clicked against the concrete and the porch light cast a soft glow over the entry stoop.

Across the street, a car door opened.

She jogged up the three steps and glanced back. The streetlight reflected off the door of a black and chrome Hummer. A pretty decked out Hummer. The drug dealer variety.

With shaky fingers, she punched the code on the security pad and missed the last digit. The red light flashed an angry, “Nope, you’re a bumbling idiot, try again.”

Footsteps sounded behind her.

Her heart picked up steam.

Four-two-seven-nine. Enter. Green light.

Thank God.

She yanked the knob.

“Trinity.”

At the sound of Ramsay’s voice, she froze.

The door clattered shut and the lock re-engaged. Damned hydraulics.

She went for the numbers again.

“Trinity, wait.”

A second later his hand closed around her shoulder. Way too fast for him to have covered that kind of distance.

She flinched and braced for a flash of his unwelcome thoughts.

Nothing.

Her muscles uncoiled and a fresh surge of anger bubbled up behind it. Not one flash. Not a doggone thing. Yep, definitely should have found a punching bag tonight instead of those glasses of wine.

She spun to face him. “I might not have a lot of experience with men, but I know a brush off on a pretty intrinsic basis.”

Ramsay released her shoulder and held up both hands. “I get you’re mad I didn’t call. You have every right to be, but if you let me come up I’ll explain.”

Oh, no. The last time she’d let him in she’d really
let him in
. No way was she crossing either of those thresholds again. “You can explain right here.”

He glanced at the Hummer. “Actually, I’d rather show you.”

As if on cue, the Hummer back door opened. A set of booted feet appeared beneath the door, followed by another in heels. A beat later they moved into the street.

Whoa. Ramsay hadn’t lied when he’d said he had a twin, but something about the way the man carried himself screamed power. The woman was no slouch either. Together they strode toward her with movie star confidence.

“You didn’t tell me you brought an audience.” And here she was looking like Miss Marple.

“Actually, I brought a lot more than that, but I’d rather talk to you inside if you’re up for it.”

This was nuts. Letting Ramsay anywhere near her, let alone her apartment, was certifiably insane. What was the saying?

Insanity is defined by doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Yeah, that one.

The couple stopped a respectful distance from the porch. Ramsay’s twin was a weird mix of everyday Joe and Conan the Barbarian. Jeans, T-shirt, leather jacket, boots. And braids. Lots of them. All halfway down his back and tied off with what looked like metal beads. The woman had a lithe build, the kind you’d expect on a long distance runner, and something about her radiated exceptional force.

A buzz kicked in at the back of her head. Not as crippling as her warning signs and not altogether unpleasant.

The woman eased closer to Ramsay’s twin and gripped his arm.

The twin covered her hand and squeezed. A peaceful, reassuring gesture.

“I’ve got work in the morning,” Trinity said.

Ramsay dipped and met her eyes. “Understood. We’ll share what we need to and you can decide where we go from there.”

She punched the keypad, slower than before, but still shaky. Understandable considering the adrenaline firing out in all directions. She might have sensed a crossroads before, but now she felt as if she was standing in the middle of it with about fifty cars headed right toward her.

Ramsay and the couple followed her down the hallway with its scarred wood floors and up the narrow flight of steps. She keyed the bolt and fumbled for the light as Alicia Keys and a steady bass serenaded from behind her neighbor’s door.

“You’ve been busy.” Ramsay stood between the kitchen and the living room and scanned what boxes remained.

Trinity tossed her keys on the kitchen table and shrugged out of her jacket. “I’ve had time and incentive.”

Ramsay winced.

The woman and the man beside her smirked.

“Yeah.” Ramsay ruffled the hair at the top of his head. The hint of red in his cheeks was mildly gratifying. He dropped his hand and straightened. “Trinity, this is my brother Eryx and his baineann, Lexi.”

Eryx. That was a nice name. Odd, but nice. And what had he called Lexi?

Eryx held out his hand. The sleeve of his leather jacket rode up, revealing the edge of a tattoo.

Trinity stared at his hand. Not shaking it would probably be a huge insult. And she’d been able to touch Ramsay. Then again, a guy like Eryx had to have some scary stuff in his head. “What’s a baineann?”

“Wife.” Lexi tugged Eryx’s hand back and looked up at him. “Don’t push her.”

Trinity whipped her gaze to Ramsay. “You told them?”

“There’s a reason,” he said. “I promise.”

Lexi urged her intimidating husband toward the living room and motioned for Ramsay to follow. “How about we sit instead of looming by the front door and scaring the hell out of her.” She shrugged at Trinity. “Sorry, I’m a bit blunt sometimes.”

“I don’t mind blunt.” Heck, considering the situation, blunt was freakin’ great. She frowned at Ramsay. “Thoughtless kind of bugs me though.”

Lexi laughed, one of those big uninhibited ones. She shoved Ramsay, who still hadn’t moved, to join Eryx, leaned close to Trinity and whispered, “Pretty sure it’s more like scared shitless.”

The two settled into her tiny sitting area, Eryx at one end of the couch, Lexi nestled right beside him. Ramsay plunked in the lone club chair angled next to the sofa.

Trinity hesitated, too hung up on Lexi’s comment to initiate momentum. Ramsay? Scared? Of what? She’d never met a more self-assured man. Her gaze slid to Eryx. Okay, maybe there was one other more confident man. The two of them had the market share in spades.

And they were staring at her.

Right. Explanations.

The only space left on the sofa was way too close to Ramsay, so she stood opposite the coffee table and crossed her arms for a little extra oomph. “I doubt bringing your brother and his wife for a visit has much to do with your lack of common decency, so why are you here?”

Ramsay glanced at Eryx.

Eryx dipped his head. More silent permission than any kind of agreement.

Ramsay cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t call you back because I was trying to learn more about you.”

Okaaaay. Not where she’d thought he’d go. “You mean like a background check?”

He frowned at the floor. “Not exactly.”

Lexi chuckled.

Ramsay’s head snapped up, aimed at her. “You’re not helping.”

“Sorry, I never thought I’d see a little bitty thing like her make you fidget.”

Eryx squeezed her arm and Lexi rolled her eyes.

Ramsay let out an impatient breath and refocused on Trinity. “That night I met you, when you fell and I helped you up, I saw something. Something I never expected to see away from home.”

“Oklahoma?” Sure, Texas was a little more cosmopolitan than their northern neighbor, but it wasn’t exactly edgy like New York or California.

“Eden,” Ramsay said.

“As in New York?” she said. “I thought you said you lived in Tulsa with your family.”

Lexi’s laughter bubbled up again, though this time it was more along the lines of a sympathetic girlfriend. “Clearly, my geography sucks because that wasn’t my first response.”

The pleasant buzz in Trinity’s head kicked back in. “Well, where else is there?”

Ramsay stood, eyes locked on her, and took her hand. “
The
Eden, Trinity. Though the history for the one you’ve probably heard about isn’t entirely accurate.”

She tried to jerk her hand away, but Ramsay tightened his grip. Not hard, but firm. “Take a breath and hear me out.”

He trailed his fingers down her neck. They dipped beneath her crewneck sweater and under the chain of her necklace. A second later the pendant slipped free. “Your necklace, this symbol, it’s kind of a big deal where I’m from. Everyone’s talked about it for a long time, but no one had seen it until about a month ago.”

Lexi leaned forward, her mouth slack and eyes riveted on Trinity’s neckline. “Holy shit, it’s identical.”

“Identical to what?” Trinity fought the need to move. To hide. Run. Do something besides stand there while they all gaped at her. Even Eryx seemed a little shell-shocked, and she’d be willing to bet that took a lot to accomplish.

Her guests glanced from one to the other, their expressions shifting like they were holding a conversation without words.

Eryx stood and shrugged out of his jacket. He tossed the jacket to the sofa and faced her. Stretched up and down Eryx’s arm was a replica of the necklace her adopted father had given her. An exact replica.

Trinity stumbled back, dimly registering Ramsay’s steadying hand at her shoulder.

No. Freakin’. Way.

“Now you see why I was so surprised,” Ramsay said quietly beside her. “Why I started asking all those questions. That mark means a lot where I come from, more now than ever.”

Trinity shook her head and stepped away. She gripped the pendant. The black filigree bit into her fingertips and her heart pounded against her hand. “My father gave me his. Yours looks like a tattoo, so how did you come up with the design?”

“It’s a mating mark,” Eryx said. “When I took Lexi as my mate, I took her family symbol as well, just as she wears mine.” He smiled down at his wife. “We found her here in Evad, what we call the human realm. She was one of our lost, though at the time we didn’t have a clue she was Myren, let alone what her family mark would be.”

Trinity’s gaze snapped to Lexi. “Family mark.”

Lexi’s lips tightened and she stood, gripping Eryx’s hand. “Exactly. Every family has its own and they’re not repeated. The fact that you have a necklace that matches it makes us wonder if we’re not…well, related.”

The buzzing she’d felt when she saw Lexi. Not unpleasant so much as familiar.

Obviously Kazan hadn’t spilled all of his secrets.

But he wouldn’t have been able to. Sharing her history was one thing. Sharing someone else’s would’ve crossed the line.

This was it. Her crossroad.

Her heart lurched and tumbled, and her mouth ran so dry it almost hurt to speak. “What’s so important about this mark?”

“It’s the focal point of a prophecy. One that’s been around since our earliest generations.” Ramsay sidled closer. “They say that when a Shantos male takes a mate bearing that mark, a new era will dawn for our race.”

Vague. No direction or consequence of any manner. Which, if the fantasy books she loved were any indication, was the norm for such predictions. “That tells you almost nothing. How are you supposed to know what it means?”

Eryx sat on the edge of the couch and pulled Lexi down with him. “We were kind of hoping you could tell us.”

Trinity drifted to the club chair in a daze. Ramsay’s hand rested on her shoulder, the other at the small of her back, so maybe he was guiding her. Her mind was too muddled to clarify, or even care.

A prophecy. A different realm. A different race, if she’d caught that detail accurately. What had they called themselves? Myrens?

Oh, and she might have a relative, too.

Her breath kicked up and the space behind her chest burned. Kazan definitely hadn’t spilled everything from his almost-all-knowing hive mind.

And Ramsay. What he’d been after was information. The touching, he’d been after a visual, not really interested in her at all.

“So this…” She looked up at him, standing tall beside her, and waved between them. “It was all just to learn about me? Find out what I know?”

Ramsay crouched in front of her and gripped her limp hand from the armrest. His eyebrows drew in tight, sharpening the impact of his silver eyes. “At first, yeah.” His thumb stroked her knuckles. “I realized it was a dick move and I backed off.”

So the touching after he’d gotten an eyeful had been a pity thing. Excellent. And she’d called him like an eager puppy the next day.

Lexi stood abruptly and motioned her husband toward the door. “Let’s go.”

Eryx gazed between her and Ramsay, and then slowly joined her.

Lexi turned back with lips pinched tight, and jammed her hands in her pockets. “I know you’d probably like to kick his ass out the door, but if you can tolerate him a little longer, you could at least prod him for more information.” She shot Ramsay a death glare. “He might even pull his head out of his ass and own up to what he’s too afraid to acknowledge.”

Tugging her hands free, she took a tentative step toward Trinity and held out her hand. “I’m guessing a hug is too much right off the bat, but I don’t want to leave without telling you I’m thrilled to know I might have family.”

Trinity stared at her outstretched hand.

Family. Not adopted parents. Not a mystical parent incapable of a normal relationship, but an honest to God, flesh and blood human.