Chapter 5

"I

should break her vibrator," he mused aloud.

Not that Harper Ashley, the woman destined to save him, needed one. Surely plenty of men chased after her.

She was shapely, with nice curves, with ruler-straight bangs and equally ruler-straight black hair tumbling past her shoulders. Her skin looked soft to the touch, so pale it seemed nearly translucent. Though her face might be considered plain to some, he saw keen intelligence stamped on it and her smile at the server made her attractive. Too far away to determine her eye color, Jared still reasoned she was nice looking.

He tired of screwing women who were so thin they practically melted into the mattress.

Jared glanced at the immortal wizard who had joined him at the bar. "I could easily do it and then she'd fall into my bed."

"You're not exactly being courtly, for a man who is supposed to court a woman. You're here to flirt and romance Harper Ashley, not to seduce her." Xavier, the Crystal Wizard, shook his head.

Jared grinned slyly at the wizard. "Mind fucks can be quite pleasurable. She seemed to enjoy it."

"Stop it." Xavier narrowed his gaze. "Behave, or I'll take you to task for turning that woman's mouth into grouper lips."

"She deserved it."

"She did, which is why I'm not punishing you for this. But as for Harper, you got her hot and bothered and you're here for romance, not sex."

Jared fished an ice cube out of his glass and chucked it at Harper.

It hit her back and instantly melted.

"That should cool her down," he drawled.

She turned, a puzzled look on her face as if she knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what.

"I don't believe in hearts and flowers and all that b.s." Jared took another sip of whiskey, glanced at the clock hanging on the wall that merrily declared IT'S FIVE O'CLOCK AND THIS IS SOMEWHERE. "Or being here, wizard."

"Stop watching the time. You have four hours until you turn into a pumpkin.'

"Not exactly a pumpkin, you ass."

"Figure of speech. Lighten up." Xavier flicked a finger and an amber fluid poured into a tumbler and floated toward him. "Women adore men with a sense of humor. Laugh once in a while."

As he reached for the whiskey, the glass suddenly floated upward, and then tipped over Xavier's head. The wizard sputtered as whiskey dripped onto his head and face.

"Ha ha," Jared said.

Take that you son of a bitch. He didn't want to be here. Waste of time. No woman could ever love him. His soul was darker than the form he assumed at midnight, thanks to the witch who cursed him 100 years ago. Xavier wasted his time as well. If not for the wizard's insistence, Jared would have shrugged off any attempts at help.

Well, Xavier's daughter, he amended. Six-year-old Sonia begged her father to save Jared. Sonia, who saw him in his menacing demon form and chortled, clapping her hands, then tugging playfully at his forked tail as if she were teasing a kitty cat.

Sonia, the innocent whose pleas her father couldn't resist.

Xavier waved a hand and his hair and face dried instantly. A cold stare from her sire's icy blue eyes met Jared's amused gaze. Suddenly air fled his lungs, and his throat began to squeeze, suffocating him. Jared tried to play it cool, but he gasped, choking.

Glancing over he saw Xavier fold his fingers into a fist and regard him with a level look.

"You may be powerful, Jared, but never forget I have greater magick than you." Xavier unflexed his hand.

Air, wonderful air, rushed back into his lungs. Jared coughed, rubbing his aching neck. "Nice trick. Watching too much Star Wars, X? Think you're Darth Vadar?"

"I am trying to get Sonia weaned off Batman movies." The wizard picked up Jared's whiskey and drained it, backhanding his mouth.

"You're being courted to the dark side, Jared. I am here to save you from that temptation and tipping over the edge." Xavier's gaze flattened. "If you attempt to join the Dark Lord, you know what your punishment from the Brehon will be."

Oh, he knew. Prison in the Shadowlands for immortals – encased in an icy, dark cell for eternity. His soul damned for all time. Xavier nagged him about it constantly in the past two months since Jared had killed a drunk truck driver after the human had caused an accident that hurt a child. Such punishment was intended for humans/Skins to deliver, not for Others to take into their own hands. Only Xavier out of all the wizards, wanted to save him. The other members of the Brehon, the immortal wizards who ruled over OtherWorlders, wanted him destroyed.

Jared didn't bother flagging down the bartender. He didn't care to order another, hell, he wasn't staying. Soulmates were for wizards and their charges. Not him.

"You should have kept squeezing," he said quietly. "Ended this. Ended your problem. I don't have a soulmate and she sure as hell can't redeem me."

He would die, but death was preferable to this living hell where daily he felt the struggle and the temptation to say screw it all and finally turn into the evil entity the other wizards declared him. Every day he felt himself slipping closer over the edge.

Every sunrise he found it harder to shift back into human skin.

If I don't bond with my soulmate in another three weeks, I'll be stuck in demon form forever.

That part of the witch's curse galvanized him into coming here more than the thought of spending eternal darkness imprisoned alone.

"Had I listened to the other wizards, you would certainly be living out eternity in a cell amplified with darkness and pain the next time you committed an evil act and seduced a woman without her permission." Xavier glanced back at Harper, the woman professed to be Jared's soulmate. "However, I believe even you should have a second chance. Here comes her date."

Incredulous, he studied the ordinary male, clad in ordinary dress, approach the table. Guy looked like a professor, but he detected an air of pure arrogance. Nothing special.

Jared snorted. "This won't last long."

Xavier tilted his head as if listening to a distant call. "I must leave you. Remember Jared. Be charming."

The wizard waved a hand and vanished. No humans at the bar seemed to notice, but the bartender, a tall, leggy blonde woman looked surprised.

He blinked and the bartender's shape-shifting form appeared – a troll. Figures. Good hires, actually. They had the stamina for long nights serving mortals and could break up a nasty bar fight.

Jared ordered another whiskey, flashed a knowing smile at the bartender, who nodded back. He swiveled on his stool and sat back to observe.

This should be good.