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It was patterned Hs, for God’s sake, not the famous Cs.
The bottle blonde wearing an I Heart New York shirt didn’t seem to have the faintest clue. She was snapping bubble gum and telling her bored-looking beau how everyone “back home” would think she’d spent a fortune on it.
I wanted to give her a smack upside the head, but I had bigger fish to fry.
Like finding an invisible secret nightclub.
The building between the grocer and the knockoff vendor was our supposed destination, but it was nothing more than a dark, abandoned-looking apartment complex. Not even a hip brownstone that might be an ideal place for drunk rich kids to go, or an empty warehouse in Brooklyn where all-night parties were popular.
This was just…sad.
“Did you write the address down wrong?” I asked Holden.
The vampire made a face that begged the question, Do I look like a fucking idiot to you?
“Geez, just asking. ”
I was still uncomfortable standing between Desmond and Holden. There was a little too much testosterone flying, and the divided parts of my nature were all up in arms. The cool collected vampire half was calmly trying to explain why I should ditch the wolf and go with what was behind door number one. My werewolf half, who I now understood was a real, living entity inside me—damn bitch almost got us killed the first time she got into the driver’s seat of our body—was telling me lust was nothing compared to a soul-bond.
The wolf tugged me one way, the vampire held her on a leash.
Neither of them was pleased with the other.
A simple love triangle would have been great. In a human body, as a human girl, I would just have to ask myself Who do I love more? But that wouldn’t work here. I wasn’t a single entity making a decision based solely on love. I was a monster with divided destinies, and each of the men at my side represented a prize at the end of a path.
Choose to be a vampire and I could be with Holden. Forever.
Choose to be a werewolf and I could have Desmond back. Until one of us died.
The lifelines on my palms itched, and I rubbed them against my jeans. How many stupid decisions had I made in love because of something one of my monstrous halves wanted? I’d married Lucas because I thought it was right for the pack.
If only it was a simply human choice. Not one that would define the entire outcome of my future. Love was one thing, and though I wouldn’t call it an easy choice, it was one I could make. But I wasn’t ready to decide on my fate quite yet. I didn’t think the boys would be willing to share me until I was ready. It was bad enough I’d expected Desmond to share me with Lucas.
Look how well that had ended.
“Earth to Secret,” Desmond said, snapping his fingers in front of my face. “The bloodsucker asked you a question. Where did you go?”
“What?”
“I asked—”
“I said—”
They both stopped talking as simultaneously as they’d started, shooting each other withering glares over the top of my head. Which wasn’t terribly difficult since Desmond was over six feet, Holden was just under it, and I was practically miniature.
“I said,” Desmond began again, and paused, waiting to be interrupted. When Holden didn’t speak, the werewolf continued, “Where did you go?”
“Sorry, I was…thinking about something. ”
“What?”
I shrugged and gave him a sad smile. “How much easier my life would be if I was human. ”
Had I said those words to Lucas, he would have looked crushed. At least during our courtship. Being a werewolf had been what brought us together. Ultimately it was also what tore us asunder, but I wouldn’t expect the wolf king to see it that way. Desmond, though, he understood. Although the soul-bond had been what drew me into his arms in the first place, it was something else that made me want to stay with him.
Love might not have been supernatural, but it wa
s the one fantastic, sublimely magical thing that even the most mundane human could experience.
