There was no way any of them, mutant or regular, could resist its power.
Merc selected one of the eateries. The waiter came over and listed the items on the menu. They both picked corn rice with river shrimp. Ash ordered a coconut lemonade, and Merc took a beer. When they were alone, he leaned back in his chair and considered her.
“Why do you travel alone?” he asked.
She sipped her drink, then tilted her head. “Is that an existential question?”
“Purely logistical. This area isn’t exactly the safest for a lone woman.”
“I was here before with no problems. Maybe safety is overrated.”
“So is abduction, torture, extortion, and rape.”
“I have nothing to extort. There’s no ransom to collect. And I can’t explain it, but I feel protected.”
“You have a restless soul.”
She leaned her elbows on the small bistro table. “Don’t you? Don’t you want adventure, to see everything there is to see, to learn everything there is to learn?”
“No. I’d like to have a little garden plot at the top of a lush mountain.”
“Why are you here? I mean, really, ditch the coffee cover.”
“Looking for a friend and keeping a lookout for my enemies.”
Ash’s eyes got big. “You are doing something illegal.”
“Depends. If you adhere to regular ethics, maybe.” A corner of Merc’s mouth tilted up when he saw her frown. She was so deliciously naïve. Her soul still saw beauty—in nature and in humans. If he weren’t strong enough to resist her, their joining would shred her—long before the Omnis ever even came for her. “Why did you come back?”
Took a couple beats for her to answer. “Something happened here. Something I can’t let go of.”
“The miracles you mentioned.”
She stared into his eyes. Were she a mutant, she’d be ferreting out all of his secrets with her agile mind. Their food came. They went silent while the waiter asked if they needed anything else. They didn’t.
“What happened here is connected to you somehow,” she said.
“But I’m a bully, remember? Bullies don’t create miracles.”
“Merc, I need to know that you won’t lie to me.”
“Sadly, the boundary between lies and truth is insubstantial.”
“Selena said you were fighters. You’re really here to cut a deal with drug lords, aren’t you?”
Merc cast a glance around the plaza. “This would be the place to do that. But not everyone here is involved with contraband.”
“And you?”
“What I’m after is so much worse than that.”
“You’re just trying to scare me.”
“Is it working?”
“Yes. We can’t share that room. I don’t feel safe around you.”
“You don’t feel safe around me? Or within yourself when you’re around me?” Her answer was clearly the latter, and it sent another jolt to his perpetually aroused state. He shifted in his seat. “You’re welcome to find another place to stay. Even better, you could go home.”
Ash stared at her food. “I also came here for you.”
Merc went quiet as he glared across the table at her. “Why?”
“The nightmares.”
“Of?”
“You. In trouble.”
“And you think you could help me? You, a little regular civilian from Colorado?”
She frowned. He hated that he’d brought the shadows to her eyes.
“The danger wasn’t clear. It seemed it was your heart or your spirit in trouble.”
Merc fiddled with his fork and the leftover food on his plate. “I lied when I said I didn’t want you.” Her eyes shot up to his. “I should have said that I didn’t want to want you.”
“Same difference.”
“Not at all.”
“Well, I don’t want to want you either.” She straightened and folded her hands in her lap. She had the stormiest blue eyes he’d ever seen. “I really just want my life back the way it was.”
“Then you should forget everything that happened here. Some things shouldn’t be delved into.”
“I need the answers.”
“Why can’t you just accept that it was what it was? Let it go. Go home and have your regular life.”
Her lips moved soundlessly over words she struggled with before she said, “Merc, I’m losing my mind. Things have been happening that I can’t explain. Dreams, knowings, cravings. None of that makes sense.”
“If you get the answers you’re after, all of that will get worse. So you have a choice to make: meet the devil in the details, or keep the bliss of ignorance. You can’t have it both ways.”
“But you know the answers I’m after?”
“Yes.”
They lingered for a bit longer. Merc was relieved that she didn’t dig deeper. What would he do if she chose the devil instead of bliss?
He’d deal with it when it happened. Until then, he had to double down on his efforts here so he could get them both back to Colorado in one piece.
“I’m surprised no one seems to recognize you,” Ash said as they walked back to the room they shared.
And that was thanks to the mirage he wore. “You were here before. No one is falling over themselves to greet you.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t involved in making miracles.”
“Nor was I.” No, what he’d created was its evil twin—a portal to hell, a black hole that he had to close once and for all.
They reached their shared room. Ash dug out her keys. “So we have an agreement? You’ll be away from the room until the morning?”
“Yup.”
“And you’ll knock before coming in?”
He grinned. “Course.”
“Do you need anything from here before you go?”
“Nope. Maybe we can have breakfast in the morning. You a late sleeper?”
“I can be. But I’m not here to relax. And I only have a short while to figure out what I need to.”
“Want my help?”
“I don’t trust you. You’ll flummox me with your weird thinking, and I’ll leave here as mystified as ever.”
Merc felt the humor—and hope—leave him. She matched him perfectly in intellect, curiosity, humor, hunger. She was almost a better match than his Tina had been. But any way he looked at it, he couldn’t accept her as his mate. Rejecting her was the noble thing to do. She would live, and she would thrive without him. And he would die, thereby satisfying the Matchmaker’s Curse.
It was the right decision, yet every cell in his body resisted that decision.
He craved her.
She opened the door. He’d already tested the room’s energy, making sure no regular or mutant lingered inside. The place was clear. She would be safe when he left—he’d make sure of that.
The afternoon showers had moved out, leaving a soft blue sky that made her face glow in the light reflected off the white stucco.
Somehow, he had to convince her to go back to Colorado before she lost more than just her job. The key to her survival lay in returning to her regular existence.