Page 5 of To Teleport, or Not to Teleport?
The bell above the door announced a customer, and I gasped in surprise. Only this time, I choked on my spit. My eyes watered, blurring Grayson’s concerned expression.
“She okay?” he asked.
Cami set the empty tray on top of the case and pounded on my back. “Oh, you know the usual, trying to breathe food versus swallowing it.”
The glare I shot my cousin lost its effect at Grayson’s deep chuckle. The sound reached inside me and did funny things. The doggone butterflies returned, and my heart squeezed, flopped, and jerked under my breastbone.
His knowing grin told me he knew I was having a mini meltdown. My cheeks warmed when I remembered his Shifter hearing was better than any of ours.
“I think she’ll live,” Cami told him, cocking one hip and raising a brow. “Are you done, so we can figure out how you managed to teleport?”
I waved her words away. “Maybe you should attend to your customer first?” I grabbed another donut and examined it as the tips of my ears burned with embarrassment.
“You teleported?” Grayson asked, stepping forward.
“If you mark up my glass with your fingerprints, I’m putting you to work,” Cami threatened Grayson, who threw up his hands and took two steps to the side, where he could lean on the wooden counter. “And yes, a second before you arrived, she scared the shit out of me by popping in.”
“I’m guessing it was the first time?” Grayson asked, clearly remembering the times I’d tried and failed as a young witch. Once I’d accepted my inability to teleport, I’d kept it a secret between the two of them and my closest family.
Another donut consumed, I licked the powdery goodness off my thumb and index finger as I nodded. I dropped my hand at the dark look he shot me and rubbed my offending phalanges on my jeans. “Uh-huh, but maybe it’s just a side effect after the issues we’ve had with magic.”
Cami laughed, the sound loud and short. “Wait, you’re being serious?”
I shrugged.
“Aileen! All of that happened years ago,” she said, referring to when the honey badgers and a witch named Judith tried stealing the town’s magic. As if that hadn’t been bad enough, Judith was also Zelda, their Shifter Wanker’s mom. “I’m going to call bullshit. What happened just before you popped in here?”
My spine straightened, and my earlier frustration mixed with Cami’s pushy attitude. My gaze slid toward Grayson, telling her without words that I did not want to talk about it at the moment.
“So now you don’t want to talk because Grayson is here?Buuuuullshit, babe. You were skirting me seconds before he showed.”
I sucked in a breath, hoping it would calm me. Instead of it soothing the tornado of emotions swirling inside me, I was smacked with a vision at the slight whiff of copper.
Blurry visions assaulted my senses, one swooping in after another. They weren’t complete or possibly in order. I slapped a hand over my mouth at the malicious energy souring my stomach.
The entire event took maybe two or three seconds but left me feeling weak and off balance. Forcing my eyes open, I was met by Grayson’s blue-green ones, worry etched on the lines around them.
“Lee?” His voice dripped with concern, but its sharp gravely edges slid straight to my most private spots.
My cheeks flushed the moment his pupils enlarged, reminding me of his sensitive sense of smell. Our noses were two peas in a pod, it seemed. His thanks to his panther lineage, and mine was an utter curse.
Grayson brushed his knuckles down my cheek, the heat from his touch warming my cold and clammy skin. “What did you see?”
“Weren’t you on the other side of the counter?” I asked, my brows pinching together when I looked toward the spot he’d been at.
He cupped my cheek and turned my face, gently guiding my gaze back to his.
“He jumped it the moment… you know,” Cami said, amused.
“Lee, the vision.”
“It was all jumbled. I’m going to need a second.”
Grayson nodded and lowered his hand. My traitorous body nearly followed it, wanting the contact between us.
I scrubbed my face with my hands and sighed. “It felt ominous. I haven’t had one like that since…”
“Since when?” Grayson asked.
