Tempest by Jenna-Lynne Duncan

were
driving had a masking spell on it. They aren’t taking any shortcuts
this time. Get in.” I started the truck.
    “What’s your plan?”
Luke closed the car door after jumping in. There was a surprising
lack of mock in his tone.
    “I don’t have one,”
I replied honestly. I had never felt emptier, more hopeless, in my
entire existence. I had imagined it was just how Ana had felt before
she stole my car.
    “I have to get her
back, Hayden.”
    He had to get
her back? She was mine! “ I will do anything to get back.
I’ve vowed to protect her. She is mine to protect.”
    “I already know you
know. Do you really want to have this discussion now?”
    I shrugged. “What
better time to do it?” I spoke through closed teeth.
    “Where are we going?”
Luke asked as we passed the private road to my parent’s house.
    “New Orleans.”
Where else?
    “Look, I already know
you know. You’ve had to smell her on me.”
    I hadn’t. But now
that he mentioned it, I could smell her on him. Strongly. “Luke, I
am killing mad right now. I’m also older than you and stronger than
you. It’s in your best interest to not piss me off right now. Ana
is mine. The only reason you are coming along right now is because I
can’t waste a second dropping you back off, although tossing you
out of a moving vehicle is sounding more and more appealing…”
    “Listen, I didn’t
plan on this. No one chooses who their mates are.”
    I scoffed. “Your mate ? Finding the One isn’t just about attraction. It’s
something you don’t understand. Something I got from the start
while you contemplated killing her.” I added this last part with
disgust. “You’ve been a hunter for like, what, two years? I have
waited over a century for her. I know in some messed up version of
your head you think that this desire you feel toward her means she’s
your mate but she’s not, because she is mine! And Hunters only have One .”
    “You don’t think I
wish that were true. You don’t think I am ashamed to admit that I
can’t stop thinking about her, that I can’t stay away from her?”
    No.
    “I know you are angry
but I think she feels it, too. There is an attraction between us. And
as long as she is willing, I am going to keep trying.”
    “This is
unbelievable,” I shook my head. “She thinks you hate you her! And
you’ve done a very good job of making her think so thus far.”
    “I know, and I hate
myself for that. But she knows how I feel now and when we kissed—“
    “You kissed her?” I
roared and slammed on the breaks simultaneously. The car jerked to a
stop in the middle of the lane. Cars honked their horns as they
blazed past us. I clenched the steering wheel. Holding onto my
control with a thread.
    “Jeez, Hayden! What
the hell!”
    “ You kissed her?” I repeated.
    He sighed. “Yes, yes
I kissed her. I couldn’t help it. I love her.”
    I clenched the wheel
harder, not caring if it broke clean off. “Did she kiss you back?”
    I knew we should get
moving again but I couldn’t until I knew the truth. Is that why
Luke had smelled so strongly of her?
    “Yeah. Well, no.”
    “Did she or did she
not?”
    “If you must know,
she kinda pushed me off. She thinks she’s in love with you. That’s
why she ran up the boardwalk alone. I wanted to give her some time to
think.”
    I started driving
again, despite feeling as if I were dying. I only could concentrate
on one thing; getting Ana back.
    “No wonder she gave
herself up so easily!”
    “Why would she do
that?”
    “If you can’t
answer that, it’s obvious you don’t know her at all.” The phone
buzzed in the cup holder beside me. “Hello,” I answered my
parents call. “We found the car at a cemetery up the road… No, we
don’t have her… Why? Because Ana was being self-sacrificial…No,
they have masking spell on the car; I told you witches were involved.
We’re on our way to New Orleans now… I know.” I hung up the
phone and put it back in the cup