Freakshow Page 20

  “Will we have to practice?” I asked, suppressing a shudder.

  “We will, I had hoped to get started immediately.”

  “Can I make a request?” I asked.

  “Certainly,” he said, his face unreadable.

  “I would like Cairo present for our practices,” I said, staring him directly in the eye.

  “Why?”

  “So I feel safe.”

  “The entire point seems to be lost on you, Olivia. You are not supposed to feel safe.”

  “So I feel safe during rehearsal,” I said emphatically, “I don’t feel that way around you.”

  He looked me up and down, once again found me wanting, and sneered, “Good.”

  “So?”

  “I suppose there’s no harm. It might be interesting to get the object of our control between the two of us, to find out who does actually exert the most pressure.” He seemed almost triumphant, assuming he would still maintain his absolute power over his son. I wasn’t sure how the entire wolf pack thing worked, but from what Cairo had told me, he was implicitly governed by his father, his pack leader.

  I couldn’t imagine having no freedom, to have that supernatural entanglement, the curse woven around your heart so even when you wanted to do something like medical school, your father’s commands dictated your entire existence.

  It would have driven me to madness.

  “It will be interesting indeed,” I replied, arching my brow. “Shall I go get him now?”

  “Don’t bother,” he said, waving his hand at me dismissively, “I will bring him tomorrow. Be here at ten in the morning precisely.”

  With that he was done, he turned and left the tent.

  I stood on the stage, my knees trembling after the encounter with Orion. I’d managed to maintain my act the entire way through, but as soon as he was gone, it all flooded over me.

  He was fucking dangerous, he was fucking with me, and I was putting myself right in the middle of his control. I was fucking insane apparently.

  The silence was broken by a muffled noise from behind me, I whirled around and saw nothing.

  “Hello?” I asked.

  I heard a sharp knock, followed by a thud.

  “Hello?” I said again, “I know you’re here. Come out, please, or I’ll go get security.”

  I took a step towards the noise to let whoever it was know that I was serious.

  In reality, I was shaking like a leaf in an autumn wind, but that stupid self-destructive part of me would never let me back down.

  “Don’t tell anyone,” Carl’s voice came from behind a thick canvas interior wall. The only real back stage to speak of.

  “Carl? What the hell are you doing here? Don’t tell me there’s some weird clown fetish in After Dark,” I laughed.

  My friend stepped out into the dim light with a grin, “Not yet,” he said, “but maybe soon.”

  “What are you doing here? If you weren’t so desperately in love with Dave, I’d assume you were trying to get a look at my body,” I said and winked.

  He laughed, and said, “Oh no. You can’t tell anyone, but sometimes I like to come in here to get away from everything. It’s my quiet place. I was so excited when Orion started it up again.”

  “There have got to be other places on site,” I replied.

  “Not like this,” he said, “I can nap for an hour and nobody finds me. The morning time is dead, most rehearsals are done in the afternoon and performances are late, like after midnight. And not that often, once a week or so.”

  “So you were back there taking a nap?” I asked.

  “Guilty,” he said. As he stepped closer, I saw how sweaty and nervous he looked. We must have startled him during his secret sleep session...or was he doing something else?

  His face was bare, and he was dressed in a loose fitting suit. He looked almost normal, except for the remains of some clown make up down the side of his face.

  “You’ve got some make up there,” I said and grabbed a napkin from my pocket. I swiped up towards the smear of red. Carl ducked away as I made contact with his flesh, put his hand up and leaned back.

  “It’s quite all right,” he said, “I have special remover. If you don’t use it, it just smears. Anyhow, that’s my cue to get back to work I guess.”

  “I guess,” I said, “but now I’m tired, I think I’m going to go have a nap.”

  “Lucky you,” he exclaimed and walked away. As he reached the door, he turned and the light caught his face, making deep hollows under his eyes. He looked almost menacing. “Remember, Liv,” he said in a low voice, “Don’t tell a soul you saw me here.”

  “I won’t,” I said in a whisper, he grinned, turned and was gone. “What the fuck was that?” I said under my breath as I left the tent.

  I sometimes felt like I had stepped into an alternate Cirque, somewhere along the line I’d fallen into a rabbit hole where Cai was a werewolf, Carl was fucking freaky, and I was some kind of powerful player in it all.

  And in spite of everything, my brain seemed numb to the dangers I was nipping the heels of and the only thing that matter was Cairo and my love for him.

  And then I would remember that this was no dream, it was happening, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  “I think the only way you’ll believe me is to see it,” Cairo said that night after we’d snuck out together.

  Orion knew of course, I was fully aware of this fact. Orion knew we were meeting up, and he knew there wasn’t much that he could do about it.

  Or perhaps there was, and I was vastly underestimating his control. At this point I didn’t know or care, I just wanted Cairo.

  “You mean show me yourself as a wolf?” I laughed openly, still not entirely sure I believed him.

  “Yes, exactly,” he said.

  We were sitting in the stands inside the main performance tent. I was straddling him, he had his arms around my waist and we’d spent the better portion of an hour just making out like teenagers.

  I loved it, the way he held me when he wanted me, his fingers digging into me, seeking purchase on my body, clinging to me like a mountain climber on a cliff face...knowing that one slip would mean he fell to his death.

  It was incredibly sexy, feeling like falling away from me would mean his death, he needed me with the ferocity that I needed him.

  And the pleasure, my god, the pleasure.

  Kissing him, nipping him, his tongue and teeth on me. No pain, but I almost came when he bit my neck or held my throat in his hand and squeezed gently.

  “Where can we do it?” I asked, “and I thought you had to wait until the full moon.”

  “Not with you around,” he smiled, “I don’t know what the fuck you are, Liv, but every day I’m near you I feel the bond with my pack leader growing thinner and thinner. You’ve given me control over my own body, you’ve given me the ability to dictate when I shift. I don’t think you quite yet understand how fucking profound that is.”

  “I really don’t,” I laughed and kissed him. I understood on some level that I was able to wrestle away his power from Orion, but on another level, I couldn’t feel what difference it was. So it meant little to me.

  “Let’s go out back, into the big field. I want to do it in the open, it’s easier that way,” he said.

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “It’s so much easier to do anything when I can touch the soil. It has to do with our connection to the earth, the energies of the planet and such. But, like most people these days, I know the how of things but not the why. A lot of information has been lost to us over the generations, so don’t take my word for it.”

  “Now that I understand,” I said shyly.

  “What?”

  “Touching the earth. I can feel those energies, I just never knew anybody else could, especially my werewolf boyfriend.”

  “Shifter, it’s different. And you can feel them?” he asked, startled. He pulled back an
d looked at me, as if scanning me for humour or deception.

  “I can,” I said and looked down at my scarred arms. Pale criss crossed patterns were all that reminded me of the many extreme injuries I’d suffered over the years. “Most people with my condition have horrible lives. They are prone to really bad accidents and injuries.”

  “And you aren’t somehow?”

  “I am. But I heal fast.”

  “That might just be a metabolism thing.”

  “No, I was trained from an early age to touch the ground when I needed to fix something in my body. I can pin point what’s damaged, and I can draw what I need to patch it up.”

  “You were?” Cai asked, surprise in his voice. “Who taught you?”

  “My Grandma. My mother’s mother. She told me many times that this condition was normal in our family, her own older sister had the same thing when they were growing up. She’d always been told that the only way to combat it was with earth energies.”

  “So you come from witches,” Cai exhaled reverently, “That explains a lot.”

  “I would hardly call my family witches,” I replied, pursing my lips, “Maybe my sister is a bitch, but they were all pretty dull farmer types. Nothing supernatural in the whole lot of them.”

  “But your grandma...”

  “She died when I was young. If she had anything to teach beyond the healing magic, I didn’t have a chance to learn it. And after my parents died, I was essentially on my own.”

  “Do you have anything from your family? Any papers or journals that might give you some information?”

  “There were a couple old dusty trunks,” I said, “but my sister has them now, if she hasn’t thrown them out.”

  “Damn, it seems we’re blocked at every turn,” he said, equal parts contemplation and admiration thickening his voice. “What are you, my love?”

  “Just your love, that’s enough for me,” I said.

  “For me too,” he replied and pulled me against him. I stared down at him and let my hair pile around us. He brought me down and kissed me, I rocked back and forth against his hardening cock, grinding myself on his lap.

  He groaned and bit my lower lip. We kissed for a few minutes until he pulled back and said, “I need to show you. I need this.”

  “Fine,” I said, “do your parlour trick.”

  I stood up and he smacked my ass, hard. I jumped and looked back at him.

  “That’s for your sass, woman.”

  I squealed and punched his arm playfully. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder and walked out of the tent with me wiggling and giggling in his grip.

  Once we got to the field behind the Cirque main grounds, he set me down and I looked up at him, once again startled by his massive body. He was so tall, so broad, and so fucking hot.

  “How are we going to do this?” I asked.

  “Just watch,” he said, stripping out of his clothes.

  “I think I like this game,” I laughed and folded his clothes carefully as he handed them to me.

  “It’s not a game, Liv,” he said and stared at me with his father’s hooded eyes, unnerving me for half a second. “This is serious. This is real life, and this is how fucking important you are to me, to the Cirque. You’ve given us all our freedom, and I love you so fucking much for it.”

  “I love you too,” I said and took his hand, “For the same thing.”

  “I have something for my tattoo, it’s for you, Liv,” he said, taking my hand and placing it on his rib cage. “I carry the universe in my house of flesh, I will love you until the last star burns out and the heavens descend into darkness.”

  “That’s beautiful,” I whispered. It gave me shivers, the magic behind the words streaked through my body and left me a little breathless.

  Sometimes words are just words, but other times a single sentence will make your hair stand on end and awaken something in the heart of you. Cai’s words woke something in me, and the air practically crackled with the importance of them.

  “As are you,” he said, kissed me quickly, and dropped to the ground. I held my breath and watched his body shimmer, go jointless, almost translucent, and stretch.

  His face extended and dark, thick, black hair grew out all over. His hands shortened and his legs became almost squat, equal to his arms.

  If they could be called arms any longer.

  There was a guttural fleshy sound, like meat smacking on bone, cracking and ripping, and he was done.

  In all, it took less than a minute. He was no longer my Cairo, my tall, dark and handsome fire breathing circus manager.

  He was my savior, my protector.

  He was a wolf, the wolf who had saved me that night, come to my rescue and prevented what would have certainly been my death.

  “Cai?” I exhaled quietly.

  He turned his head to me, we were almost eye level now, his wolf form was so massive. His eyes were the same though, I should have known the first night I saw him, it was so obviously the man I loved.

  “What now?” I asked, reaching out slowly to touch him. He spun his head and licked my arm, dragging his soft tongue along it.

  I laughed and pulled back. He whimpered and nuzzled me. I couldn’t resist, I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face in his silken fur.

  “Cai, it is you,” I said, “You smell the same.”

  I held onto him, wondering where the human part of him went. If he couldn’t transform with his clothes, what happened to his tattoos and piercings? Any books on magic I might have read over the years didn’t seem to have covered pierced cocked in shapes shifters.

  I supposed they were outdated, but I would have to ask Cai when he was back.

  “So what now?” I asked.

  He leaned down and motioned to his back.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  He nodded and I swung myself up on him, gripping his body with my thighs, leaning over his neck like a jockey, and clung to his fur.

  “Don’t go too fast,” I said as he shot off through the night.

  It was exhilarating. He was fast, faster than anything in nature, it must have been part of his magic, his power.

  We sped over the landscape, we were outside of the city, so he raced through empty industrial areas and overgrown lots. He leapt fences, scrambled over walls, and passed along roadways unseen.

  There was nothing that could contain him, and while it was thrilling to be riding him, it did make me realize how frightening it would be to have a werewolf or shifter...as an enemy.

  I wondered if Orion could do this and how much control he had over his own shape shifting, and prayed he’d never come after me.

  We bounded back into the field next to the pile of Cairo’s clothes. We couldn’t have been gone for more than ten minutes, but we’d covered so much ground it was surreal.

  The entire thing was surreal.

  I slipped off his back and stood next to him, wondering if there was some etiquette I should be observing regarding the distance one stood while a person was shifting.

  His body shimmered and loosened up, and the process reversed.

  In moments he was naked in front of me, in all his glory. His tattoos seemed to be in place, and I risked a glance down at his piercings. All seemed on the up and up.

  He caught me looking and laughed. “Like I said, I don’t know how it works, but yes, everything connected to my body goes through the change with me.”

  “You mean you’re a wolf with a pierced dick?” I asked and started to giggle.

  “Well, yeah, but when you say it like that it sounds weird.”

  “This whole fucking thing sounds weird,” I said, giggling harder.

  He grabbed me and kissed me, cutting off my giggles with soft lips and persistent hands.

  My clothes fell onto the pile with his, and he pulled me with him as he sunk onto the grass.

  I rode him, sliding myself down his shaft and digging my feet into the cool, damp earth beneath him.

>   He reached up for me, his hands seeking me again, needing me again, as if he were falling away.

  I linked my fingers in his and he held me up as I threw my head back and screamed an orgasm that was drawn up from my molten core and from the earth my toes were touching.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched myself, shivering and thrashing in the night air. It rocked me almost back onto my ass, the force of it. I felt as though a shockwave had started somewhere far away, a sonic boom was released in the distance and it slammed through my body.

  I had a death grip on his fingers, my body felt as light as air.

  “Liv,” he said as he shuddered his own release, flooding me with his heat and need. His voice was thick and ragged, and he said my name again. “Liv.”

  I opened my eyes and looked down at him, his face was lit with a strange light.

  It was then I realized I had drawn something from the earth, I was glowing the lightest, translucent blue all over my body. I was in a similar state as when I healed myself.

  I was connected to the planet, and to Cairo. They both coursed through me, and they both kept me balanced and focused, present in the moment.

  I looked down, his hands traced along my body, stirring the light up as it slowly faded.

  “What the fuck are you, my love?” he asked, reverence in his voice.

  “Who the fuck knows,” I replied and fell to his chest.

  “You’re incredible,” he said, dragging his fingers along the bumps of my spine, joining them up across my hips. “And you’re mine. You know that right? You are mine.”

  “As long as you are mine,” I said dreamily. “We belong to each other, right?”

  “Of course,” he replied, not saying what we both were thinking. He had an engagement to end, and we had to come up with a plan to save the Cirque from financial disaster without Mila’s family money. There were girls missing and his father was exhibiting signs of being a serious sociopath. “Until the stars burn out,” he said and we lay there like that, together, under the night sky, on the damp earth, in the chilly air.