Tempest by Jenna-Lynne Duncan Read Free Book Online Page A

soon as Ana started
to get up, I knew something was off. My eyes shot to Sansha and the
potion she was holding in her hand. No.
    “What did you do?”
I accused Sansha. Did she understand the war she would have caused,
if she had really done what I thought she did? Ana swayed slightly
and my hand shot out to steady her. “Are you alright?”
    “I am fine.” She
was smiling so genuinely at me. I was relieved to know that whatever
Sansha had given her wasn’t meant to kill her. If that was the
case, she would have been dead by now.
    I leaned in to whisper
into her ear. “Follow Luke out to the car. I will meet you there in
a moment.” In lack of self-control, I brushed her ear with my lips
as I pulled away.
    She nodded and I
watched her briefly, following a stunned Luke, before turning my fury
back to Sansha.
    “What?” She feigned
innocence. “You’ll thank me later.”
    “What did you give
her? An uncrossing potion? A power spell?
    “Just somethin’ to
help her remain compliant. It will wear off in a few hours.”
    “If one hair on her
body is harmed because of her—“
    “Your protectiveness
intrigues me.”
    “Stay out of it. I
just came to know why LaLaurie wants her and who is after her.”
    “I can’t answer
either but maybe she can,” Sansha pointed indiscriminately behind
me. I looked to see her finger was either directed at the painting of
Marie Laveau voodoo Queen of New Orleans or out the window where Ana
was trying to get in the truck.
    “Who can? What does
that mean?”
    She shrugged. No wonder
others had rumored her crazy.
    I grunted. “Did you
know this was all going to happen when you sent me to New Orleans?”
    She shrugged again but
opened her mouth to speak. “I would be careful leaving her alone
with him.”
    “Why? What is he
planning to do?”
    She shrugged again like
the matter wasn’t urgent.
    “Good bye, Sansha.”
I didn’t know what she saw but she was right, I shouldn’t leave
Ana alone.
    When I hopped back in
the truck, Ana held a lazy, sensual smile that made my heart skip.
“Hayden!”
    “We’ve got a
problem,” Luke said as I started the engine.
    If Sansha gave her the
potion I thought she indicated, then Ana should be knocked out within
minutes.
    I looked at her,
clearly trying to fight its effects. Her eye lids kept blinking as
she tried to keep them open and I cursed at myself again for leaving
her alone with a voodoun. I was just so enraged with what Luke and
Sansha implied that I couldn’t think. I usually made calm and
well-thought out decisions. I hated that I kept making mistakes when
it came to her.
    I sped up, needing to
get a start on evacuating so we could stop for the night. Ana
suddenly grabbed my shoulders in order to hold herself up.
    “What the hell,
Hayden? What else could go wrong?” Luke barked. I figured she must
have grabbed onto Luke’s as well and he was awfully touchy about
it.
    “Sansha said it would
wear off in a few hours. Supposedly, it was for our own good.”
    Luke shook his head,
“Our own good. Right .”
    I looked at Ana who was
still awake but swaying. “She needs some food. It may wear off
quicker that way. How are you feeling, Ana?”
    “I feel really, really good.”
    I smothered a grin. “I
know you may be feeling a little funny and I’m sorry. It will be
over with shortly.”
    “Hayden,” she
leaned toward me pulling my jaw to face her, “you worry too much.
I. Am. Fine. See?” She waved her hand up and down her body and I
couldn’t help following it with my eyes.
    She must have noticed
the darkening of my eyes because her brow creased briefly then
softened as she leaned in closer to me. I turned my gaze back to the
road and felt her nose against my cheek. I could have easily kissed
her, and she would have let me. Or the potion would have let her let
me. What was the difference? It would still be her kissing me, right?
But suddenly that wasn’t enough.
    I felt her soft, warm
breath against my neck before she