Changing Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 2)

“You don’t know it’s woman,” Karma drawls. “But I do know that I’d better not get left behind again.”

“Same here,” two guys say at once.

“Someone owes me a thousand dollars when it turns out to be a woman.” I know that voice. It’s Dice.

Dice and Karma?

I try to sit up, but my head just pounds. But it feels like I’m moving. It also feels like someone is holding me as I move.

“Calyps

o and Drackus are on it. They’ll find something in either Drackus’s books or in Chaz’s book. Kane knows a lot of people who were older than his dead sire, so he might be able to shake down some leads too.”

“And we twiddle our thumbs?” Ella asks.

“You twiddle your fucking thumbs,” Dice tells her. “Every time you try to help, you go a little too wild. What happens when Slade isn’t there? He said he’s done with us.”

Tense silence fills the air, and I try harder to move, but no such luck.

I feel my body being lowered, but someone is still holding me. Not just someone. It’s Thad. He smells so good, and I really hope I’m not still dreaming.

“So what if he’s done?” Ella mumbles. “I can learn control. Mom did. Dad did. So will I. It just takes time and practice. At least I contribute more than a pretty face.”

“Hey!” Dice yells. “I contribute, damn it. Considering most of you motherfuckers go insane after using too much power, I’d say I’m a damn fine asset.”

Why is he so loud?

“You just gonna carry her around everywhere until she wakes up?” Dice asks, even though it seems completely random.

“Yep. I don’t want her to wake up alone.” At the sound of Thad’s voice, it’s like my body finally responds to my desperate attempt to wake up, and my eyes fly open to see the bottom of his chin.

“Is it weird you dated her mother and now you’re dating the daughter?”

What? Sure he didn’t—

“For the last time, I didn’t fucking date her mother.”

“If you say so. New question: Am I supposed to start being all overbearing and protective? And what happens when you two fuck? The sexual energy finds me whether I want it to or not,” Dice says, confusing the hell out of me. “Is it creepy to feed off my own sister’s sexual energy?”

Several spurts of laughter follow that, while Thad drops his head back to stare at the ceiling. He starts running his fingers through my hair, a soothing motion that feels so good.

“She’s not your sister just because your moms are fucking,” Thad grumbles, sounding exhausted or exasperated.

Whoa. Wait. They’re talking about me?

Ohhh. Suddenly Liza’s attention to my mother makes so much more sense. And so does the fact that my father didn’t seem too happy about being around Liza.

“Technically, since she’s Sadie’s daughter and Sadie comes from Freya’s bloodline, she’s also related to Ella and Alyssa. Which makes me all the more tied to the family,” Dice proudly boasts.

“I don’t claim you,” Ella says playfully, just as Thad drops his head and our eyes collide.

He blinks several times, and his fingers pause their ministrations in my hair. It takes a lot of effort, but I finally find my voice.

“You’re here,” I whisper.

It takes him a second, but he gently pulls me up until I’m sitting in his lap, and his lips crush mine. My arms and legs decide to move, and one of my hands fists his hair, pulling him closer as I taste the proof this is real and not a delusion.

“See? This is what I was worried about,” Dice says flippantly, but I ignore him and so does Thad. I never want to let him go— “I’m already feeling her sexual energy, and it just feels wrong. Dirty.”