Jane The Nymph: The Boxed Set (The Circle Series Book 2) Read online

  Jane grabbed the man’s face, pulling him downward and held on with every bit of strength she had. Please, please work, she begged the nymph.

  And it did. Jane felt a tiny shift in the nymph, tiny but exactly right.

  Gunnar screamed as the nymph siphoned away his life force. She sucked it away like a greedy child, tearing away the magic that lived within him. Stealing energy this way filled the well differently, like chucking rocks and boulders into a vessel made for liquid.

  Jane didn’t know she was screaming. Or that Jake wasn’t in danger any longer. Jane didn’t know any of that because Jane wasn’t there any longer.

  9

  Jake, back in human form, gawked at the floating, gray-skinned thing that had taken over Jane’s body. What the fuck is that thing?! He thought to himself.

  The Nymph ripped her hands away from the man’s face, taking scraps of flesh with her, and floated backward like a fucking superhero. “Who do you think you are, Norse Man, Son of Alder, Keeper of Secrets?” she asked with Jane’s voice. “Why do you keep the girl from setting me free?”

  HA! She just true-named him!

  “I have to guard the seal,” Gunnar wheezed and wobbled as he tried to look up at the creature that Jane had become. Its thin, elongated limbs reached for Gunnar. He tried to step away but could only hop backward.

  Nothing was out of the Nymph’s reach, her arms grew and extended outward again, this time wrapping themselves around his throat like the thin gray tentacles of a squid. “You heal well, I see,” the Nymph said as Gunnar’s newly replenished magic flowed into her body.

  “Please.” The words came from Gunnar’s throat like a hiss. “Spare me,” he pleaded as the Nymph picked Gunnar’s six foot six inch frame off the ground.

  “Why? You keep magic locked away! Why should I spare you?”

  “It’s better,” Gunnar rattled. “Safer,” he said before lack of oxygen made Gunnar Ahlstrom pass out. He sagged limp in the Nymph’s limbs, and she threw his body away like a rag doll.

  He landed in a spoke off the circle a quarter of a mile away.

  The Nymph looked down at Jake who looked back at the creature’s lidless eyes, papery gray skin and tentacle-long limbs with the sickening curiosity reserved for traffic accidents. It wasn’t a sight Jake was likely to forget.

  He stepped backward, away from the thing that could rend him limb from limb.

  “Help her,” the Nymph said and fell eight feet to the ground.

  Skin wrinkling and collapsing inward, the creature’s body deflated. The dehydrated, papery shell of the Nymph sloughed away to reveal Jane’s nude body, unconscious and in the center of town. The transformation to the Nymph had torn Jane’s clothing to shreds.

  Jake collected the items that weren’t destroyed, Jane’s phone, her keys, her combat boots which the Nymph had floated out of, put his white t-shirt on her, and carried her back to her studio.

  Jake didn’t leave her side, not even to run with the pack until she woke. But that wouldn’t be until the next evening, after he’d had every healer of every magical variety in to make sure she would, in fact, wake up.

  10

  The first word out of Jane’s mouth when she finally opened her eyes was fuck.

  “Did she kill him?” The second thing Jane said.

  “I need a shower,” was the third.

  “No, close, but Gunnar has his hands in all sorts of genetic shit, he’s probably already healed himself - it’s been a day and a half.”

  Jane nodded and went to take a shower. The studio was so tiny Jake didn’t have to move from the recliner to hear her over the water. “Did she hurt you?” she asked.

  “No,” Jake said. After a moment, “Did she hurt you?”

  “Every time,” Jane said as purpley-blue rivulets of water swirled down the drain. She sobbed silently, but only allowed herself a moment of self-pity before scrubbing her face clean of all the dirt and tears.

  “On the plus side,” Jake said when Jane stepped out of the shower and wrapped her slight frame in a towel, “I don’t think Gunnar is ever gonna fuck with you again. You could throw a party in the circle if you wanted. You know she true-named him?”

  Jane smiled and was able to look at Jake’s eyes for the first time since she’d awoken. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

  She’d never intentionally let the nymph escape, but when she had, anyone who witnessed it never acted the same around her. Jake seemed strangely unaffected by it.

  He smiled at her. “I was a combat specialist in the Army. I’ve seen men blown apart. The creature you turned into was terrifying, but I’ve seen worse.”

  “OK. Well, I know you have questions. Everyone does. Just ask, whatever it is. You’ll feel better, trust me.” Jane said.

  Jake thought a moment. “I don’t get why a vamp would ever put that on you, in you, uh, whatever. That creature could wipe out a vamp, easy.”

  “They always made sure we were well fed so that never happened. Vampire energy keeps the nymphs happiest - so it’s kind of an Ouroboros - we feed them with our blood, and they feed the nymph with energy.”

  “But now that you’ve broken free from the vampire that enslaved you...”

  “I don’t have much access to vamp energy, although I met an empath that filled me pretty well.”

  “So, why did she escape this time?”

  “Partially for self-protection. She won’t survive if I’m dead. I also asked her to feed off Gunnar in a way she didn’t like. I think it made her mad.”

  Jake nodded.

  “OK, let’s get back out there. I wasted a day and a half being unconscious.”

  “Hang on a sec,” Jake said. “You need to eat, you haven’t—”

  “Jake, I don’t have time for that. I only have a few hours until I get kicked out.”

  “Sit down,” Jake said. “I need to tell you something.” Jane was going to argue but thought better of it when she saw Jake’s expression.

  “Oh, fuck. Did she hurt someone else? Someone I didn’t realize? I only know what happens right before I change - did she go hunting?”

  “No,” Jake said. “But yesterday Amari and Gunnar had a confrontation.” Jake sighed, and to Jane’s utter disbelief, tears welled in the huge shifter’s amber eyes. “Amari didn’t make it. His fucking slut of a girlfriend did, but Amari is gone.”

  “Don’t call women sluts,” Jane said absently. Then, “Was the confrontation about me?”

  “No.”

  Jane felt a twinge of guilt about her self-absorbed question. “That’s really awful. I know he was a good to you. He was probably a good leader too.”

  “He was the best.”

  “Of course,” Jane said. “I’m really sorry, Jake.”

  Jake took a big breath and shook his head. “The point is, you don’t have to rush and go off guns half-cocked and blazing. Let’s take our time. Research is our friend, Jane. Let’s see what we can find out about the area’s history. Maybe if we know why the seal was made, we can figure out how to unmake it. The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

  11

  Three weeks of research, of conning her way into public works record rooms, and combing through ancient, dusty city plans passed before the pieces fell together.

  Jane chewed on a dill pickle, the last bit of the boxed lunches she and Jake had ordered from the deli down the street. “I don’t think we can undo this,” she said, and threw the pickle on the paper plate, slinging juice onto the carpet.

  Jane didn’t have a table, so all the records Jane had “borrowed” were spread across the carpet of her studio. She and Jake had shared many meals on her floor while trying to unravel the history behind the seal, and had seemingly grown accustomed to her not cleaning up afterward herself. He picked up the plate, crumpled it and chucked it at the trash can.

  They’d discovered exactly what kind of magic held the seal. Blood magic. Many people died to corral and trap the wild magic of the are
a, and the only way to release it was to spill an equal amount of blood.

  “If the mind is willing, the flesh could go on and on without many things,” Jake said quoting The Art of War to Jane for the second time.

  “Forty, Jake. Forty people died putting the seal up. Even if we bleed ourselves to death, we don’t have that much blood to give.”

  “I’m a shifter and you have a nymph within you.”

  “Yeah? And?”

  “My body heals exponentially faster than most. If I were to slice a vein over the seal, my body would continue to make more blood just as fast as it left me. I’d have to find a way to keep the wound from healing, but that shouldn’t be too hard. The hard part would be keeping anyone out who tried to stop us.”

  Jane knew where he was going, and didn’t like it one bit.

  “No,” she said. “I won’t. Find another way.”

  “I don’t think there is.”

  Jane had never let the nymph out on purpose. Never. “I don’t even think it’s possible.”

  “I think it is. She wants out of you as much as you want her out. Reach out to her, make her see that keeping me safe while I bleed out over the sigils is the best shot she has of becoming free of you.”

  Jane picked at the pile of the dirty beige carpet. “I hate it,” she whispered. “I hate becoming her,”

  Jake said nothing. He had no Sun Tzu quotes for her, no sympathetic words. He tucked her tiny hand in his and gave it a squeeze. “You’ll need to feed before then.”

  “I know,” she said, and pulled her hand out of his.

  Jake got off the floor and went to the front door. “Midnight?”

  “Midnight,” Jane said and Jake left her to feed on whomever she chose.

  She didn’t need a lot of energy, she was still three-quarters full from that old vamp. They’d worked out an exchange agreement, similar to the one she had with her former master, except without the forced servitude bit.

  She hadn’t been able to track down the empath from a few weeks ago, and with The Laughing Cat burned out, there wasn’t a lot of places to accidentally run into people with energy to spare. So, she decided to try out her old trick, picking up targets at work.

  “Hey Jane,” Frankie said when Jane entered the coffee shop. “Are you here to cover Bryan’s shift? He just called out.”

  “Sorry Frankie, just here for some coffee,” she said and ordered a medium drip coffee.

  “Room for cream?” Frankie asked.

  “No, black is perfect.” Jane hated coffee, and covering up the bitter taste with milk or sugar made her stomach turn. But it was the quickest way to more energy.

  The regular kind.

  Frankie came back with Jane’s coffee, and Jane settled into a corner table that gave her a view of the whole shop.

  Ten minutes passed. Twenty. A half an hour before anyone with energy to spare entered the shop.

  “Eric!” Jane said as the empath entered.

  Eric had to keep himself from stopping in his tracks. “Jane, hey. I thought you were off on Thursdays,” he blurted. Blotches of red crept up from his shirt collar. “I-uh-I mean, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Jane smirked at the man as he tumbled over his words.

  “Wait a minute,” he said. “What are you up to?” he asked, and came to her table.

  Jane smiled. “Fucking empaths,” she joked. “I can’t tell you that, but I do need your help.”

  “I-I don’t think I can do that again, Jane.”

  “It won’t be like before, I’m not as empty as I was the first time we met. This would just be a fun top off. You know I’m being truthful.” Jane said as Eric tipped his head to the left, his telltale cue that he was reading her thoughts.

  “What are you planning,” he asked.

  “I can’t tell you,” repeated Jane. “Just know it’s a good thing.”

  Eric nodded, got his usual obnoxious order, and sat at Jane’s table. He skimmed the foam off the top of his coffee and plopped it into a napkin. “I asked her for no foam,” he mumbled.

  “Yeah, and you also ordered it extra hot. The hotter the milk, the more the foam. Can’t have both.”

  “Huh,” Eric said. “I didn’t know that.”

  Jane finished her coffee, chucked the cup in the trash and propositioned Eric. “Would you like to walk me back to my place?”

  It was Eric’s turn to smirk at Jane. “What? You mean no alley fun?” he teased.

  Jane laughed. “I got in big trouble for that. Gotta keep it off the streets, if possible.”

  Even though Amari was gone, she wasn’t going to press her luck with whoever may take his place. Plus, now that she knew Gunnar was watching her, she wasn’t keen on the idea of giving him a show, or letting him know she was collecting energy.

  “So what do ya say?” Jane asked again.

  “Lead the way.”

  12

  “It’s not much,” Jane said as she unlocked her studio, throwing her hip into the door to get it unstuck. “But, I work part time in a coffee shop, so you couldn’t have expected much.” Eric looked around the tiny space as Jane rushed to gather the plans and documents she’d left scattered on the floor. She piled them more neatly in one corner.

  “Jane, this place is a dump,” Eric teased. He looked to the tiny hopper window on the far wall. The only source of natural light in the studio was blocked entirely by the next building. Jane had a fantastic view of a brick wall, and no sunlight whatsoever.

  “I know,” she said. “It was supposed to be temporary. But I kinda like how such little space keeps me from collecting too much junk.”

  The couple stood in the tiny studio, awkward and silent. “Do you want a drink?” Jane asked when the silence grew uncomfortable.

  “No, but I do think we should talk about ground rules.”

  “OK,” Jane said.

  “I don’t want you to use any coercion spells on me.”

  Jane shifted in her boots.

  “Oh. I—wow I didn’t know. I’m sorry,” Eric’s apology fell out of his mouth as he no doubt caught hold of her thought.

  “It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Jane said. “I just...”

  “Whatever you need, Jane. I’m sorry I said anything.”

  Jane the nymph was also technically Jane the virgin. She’d never had sex outside of the nymph’s need. To ask her to do so without the nymph’s magic present was, to say the least, uncomfortable for Jane.

  Eric, stepped forward, touching Jane’s face. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “It’s OK,” she said, leaning into his touch. “Maybe one day we can get there, but I’d been saving that for someone who cares about me.”

  “How about this,” Eric offered. “After you’ve finished whatever you’re scheming, why don’t we go out and get to know each other?”

  Jane smiled. She’d never been asked on a date before. “I’d be delighted, Mr. Empath,” she said and before the moment passed, released a bright chord of the nymph’s magic. Eric’s blue eyes darkened as the magic reached him. He took hold of Jane’s face and kissed her, breathing her in. It made Jane’s vision blur, her heart pound, and her stomach flip.

  Jane jumped up, wrapping her legs around Eric’s hips and he walked them over to her bed. He pulled off her boots, one by one. “Please,” Jane said, pulling Eric closer. “Now.”

  She couldn’t wait the few seconds it would take to get undressed. She reached for a condom from the tiny bedside table and handed it to Eric. As he rolled it on, Jane reached under her skirt and wriggled out of her underwear, just as the tattoo on her arm wriggled in anticipation of new energy. “Please,” she said again, and Eric crawled on top of her.

  He entered her roughly, and with a grunt, he’d buried his entirety within her. Jane squealed at the orgasm the single stroke brought to the surface, raising her hips to grind against him. Eric grabbed her hips and pulled her down on his cock even harder than before, and again Jane squealed
as a second orgasm layered on top of the lingering wave of the first. “Fuck, Eric you need to come,” Jane whispered.

  Eric smirked at her. He plowed into her again and again, this time stroking a thumb against Jane’s clit as he did. Jane shook uncontrollably as he pulled orgasms from both her clit and from penetration. No one had ever done that to her before. “Eric,” Jane said, voice breaking, “you have to come or she’ll make you.”

  “What’s the harm in—” Eric started but the nymph had had enough. She tightened all the muscles in Jane’s lower parts until they were vice-like around Eric.

  He had no choice but to climax, jerking as the sensations rolled over him. The nymph pulled the energies she wanted from him. This time having learned from the last, she only chose energies that innately harmonized. They filled the well without the strain and effort of before.

  Eric collapsed on top of Jane, heaving and shaking. She pushed his dead weight off her and waited for him to recover.

  “I tried to warn you,” she said when he’d stopped shivering. “You never want to have the nymph make you come. It takes a lot out of you,” Jane smirked.

  Eric nodded. “Not a mistake I’ll repeat.”

  Jane patted him on the head and took a shower. Eric was fully recovered by the time she returned.

  “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the tattoo on her upper arm.

  “It an Ouroboros, the mark of the nymph within me.”

  Eric stepped closer, tracing the shape of the swirly, stylized snake eating its own tail. The tattoo responded to his touch, wriggling around in a circle on Jane’s arm.

  “She likes you,” Jane said and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I do too.”

  Eric left a few hours later, after they’d made plans for a dinner date the following week. Jane didn’t share her past with him, she didn’t tell him about her plans to open the seal that night, but she would, eventually.