“No one, and I make sure of it.”
“I missed you.”
He hadn’t let himself think about how much he missed everyone while traveling, but he couldn’t bury it now. Growing up with his nine siblings was annoying, frustrating, and infuriating. But it was also an adventure, fun, and a lot of love between them.
His siblings were his closest friends and knew him better than anyone, even if they didn’t know his biggest secret. They’d made him laugh, and they’d made him cry, but they were always there for him. And now, he was back. They would all be excited to see him, and though they were going to bombard him with questions, he couldn’t wait to see them too.
They could never know he’d returned to say goodbye; he would never put that burden on them.
“We missed you too,” Cassidy said. “A lot. How long are you staying in Boston?”
“I’ll be around for a little bit.”
“Is that hours or days?”
“At least a couple of days.”
When her beautiful face split into a grin, he realized he would’ve promised her a month for that smile. She was trying to stay mad at him and failing. Although, he would have to check his shoes and clothes regularly as he suspected Cassidy would find a way to get back at him for leaving.
She rose and walked over to embrace him again. He hugged her as she rested her head on his chest.
“Cassidy!” a man shouted down the hall. “Two minutes!”
“I’ll be right there!” she yelled back.
She stepped from his arms and smoothed out her shirt. “I’m singing until eleven; will you stay and watch some if it?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Good. Kyle and Aida will be so happy to see you.”
The blood rushed into Julian’s ears as excitement and dread filled him. “Aida will be here?”
Cassidy’s brow furrowed. “Didn’t you know she was our roommate?”
“Yeah, I knew.”
“She usually comes in to have dinner when she gets off work.”
“Oh.”
He’d known there was a chance of running into her here, but he’d hoped to avoid her. And he’d also hoped she would walk through the door so he could see her again.
“I thought you liked Aida,” Cassidy said. “You used to be really close.”
“I do like her. It will be good to see her again.”
Cassidy peered intently up at him, and he could tell she didn’t entirely believe what he was telling her. “Are you still going to stay?”
“Of course,” he said as he rested his hand on her shoulder.
“For a couple of days?”
“Yes.”
The worry in Cassidy’s eyes made him feel like the biggest asshole. He’d ruined her trust in him when he walked away, and he wouldn’t do it again by leaving now. Even if he did see Aida, and if she was with someone else, he would control himself, and he would go when the time came. He’d done it once before; he could do it again. This was the last time he’d see Kyle and Cassidy, and he was going to spend as much time with them as he could.
She inspected him more closely. “Is Aida the reason you left?”
“I left because I wanted to see the world.” It was partially the truth, but she didn’t look like she was buying it.
“Cassidy, it’s time!” the man shouted down the hall.
“Go on.” Julian nudged her toward the door. “You have the masses to entertain tonight.”
“Aida works at Gallery Tremont down the street,” Cassidy said. “It’s a beautiful place. The owner, Nicolette, is a bit of a bitch, but I love visiting Aida and seeing the work they exhibit.”
“O…kay,” he said slowly, unsure why she was telling him this.
Cassidy tossed her long hair over her shoulder. “It’s a nice place and pretty close to here.”
Was she trying to play matchmaker? Her eyes were guileless, but Julian suspected something behind her innocent words.
“Cassidy!” the man yelled, and Julian gritted his teeth against going down there and beating the shit out of the guy.
“I’ll see you soon,” Cassidy said.
She hugged him again before slipping out the door. Julian stepped into the hall as she strolled toward the large, bull-like man at the end. The man said something to her, and she glanced back to wave at him.
The man glowered at him as Julian waved back. He waited until the piano started playing, and the haunting melody of her voice filled the air before he walked down the hall and into the bar.
Kyle still wasn’t here, and Cassidy stood on the stage beneath a dim spotlight. Her voice was more beautiful than he remembered as he listened to three songs. Tapping his foot, he glanced at his watch and realized he still had half an hour before Kyle was due to arrive.
With nothing to distract him from the humans filling the bar, the beat of their hearts drowned out the sound of Cassidy’s voice.
He had to get out of here. Slipping through the shadows of the bar, he dug his fingers into his palms until they bled as he made his way to the front door.
CHAPTER 4
Aida stood in the middle of the gallery as she examined the paintings hanging on the white wall. Nicolette had left her in charge of putting the final touches on the display, or at least that’s what she said. Aida fully expected a 6:00 a.m. phone call telling her to come in to rearrange things.
Nicolette did this every time they had a showing. She’d entrust Aida to make sure everything was all set, but every time, Nicolette came in early and decided she didn’t like Aida’s work. They’d spend a few hours rearranging, and when they finished, everything would wind up almost exactly where it started.
Aida didn’t know why she was still standing here when it was all going to move, but she couldn’t get herself to walk away until she approved of it.
She should find a new job; it wasn’t like Nicolette appreciated her, but trying to get hired at another gallery would be almost impossible. Those jobs were snapped up the second there was an opening, and by people with more experience than her.
Besides, for all of Nicolette’s faults, she had some good traits too. She allowed Aida to show her photographs on occasion, and Aida had been here pretty much since the day she arrived in Boston. It had started as an unpaid internship while in college, but after she graduated, Nicolette offered her a paid position.
What she made barely covered her share of the rent, and it didn’t feed her, but she had a job most people only dreamed about, and she showed her work sometimes. She was living the dream. She may not have known it was the dream in her teens, but she’d figured it out in her twenties, and no matter how crazy Nicolette made her and how much she struggled to pay her bills, she wasn’t going to let it go.
Thankfully, she supplemented her pay by selling some of her photos and doing some photoshoots for lesser-known magazines. She also booked headshots for aspiring models and actors a few times a month. Hopefully, in a few years, she could support herself by selling her photographs and working the art gallery, but until then, the magazines kept her fed and clothed.
“It looks amazing,” Owen said as he emerged from the left hall.
From the main room, two hallways split off. The main room was always white, but sometimes the halls would be different colors or splashed with paint. For the past few months, and for this showing, the halls matched the pristine white of the main gallery.
Owen stopped and smiled at his paintings on the walls. He was the hottest new artist in the city; every gallery was vying to show his work, and he was extremely conceited about it. Nicolette scored this opportunity because he interned here when Aida started at the gallery. Even with all his arrogance, he didn’t forget those who helped him get where he was, and Nicolette was his biggest supporter when no one knew his name.
His good looks only added to his arrogance. With his shaggy brown hair and bright blue eyes, he was very aware many women found him intriguing. Once they learned he was an artist to
o, they practically threw themselves at him.
Aida had no idea what she was thinking when she agreed to go out on her first date with him, never mind her third. She must have been a glutton for punishment, but by the end of the third date, she realized she wasn’t enough of a masochist to agree to a fourth date.
Unfortunately, he didn’t take no well and still asked about date number four.
“Don’t get used to it,” she said. “Nicolette will have me change it in the morning.”
He stopped in front of her. “I don’t understand why you stay here.”
Aida returned her attention to the painting she’d been inspecting. Stepping forward, she adjusted it so the red rowboat in the center was more directly beneath the light focused on it. When she shifted it, the colors of the storm-tossed sea came into more vivid detail.
She blinked when she spotted the tiny threads interwoven throughout the waves. Instead of paint, they’d been used to make the waves stand out more and brought out the colors of the sea.
He really was talented; it was too bad he was also a giant asshole.
“It’s truly beautiful,” she said as she stepped back to stand beside him.
“I know.”
Of course, he did.
“You should quit this place,” he said. “Any gallery would jump at the opportunity to hire you.”
That was a lie, and they both knew it. She would never say she wasn’t talented or didn’t know her stuff, and she definitely had an eye for organizing the showings in the best possible way, but no one was jumping for her when they had boatloads of applicants.
“Nicolette isn’t so bad,” she said.
He ran a hand through his hair and gave her a lopsided grin that flashed his perfect teeth and made his eyes twinkle. She swore he practiced it in the mirror.
“She’s a bitch, but I love her,” he said.
She smiled at him, but turned away when her stomach rumbled. She wanted to get this finished so she could go to the bar and eat. Images of biting into one of their thick, juicy cheeseburgers filled her head.
She didn’t make it more than two steps before he rested his hand on her shoulder and turned her toward him. Aida stiffened beneath his touch. Before her captivity, she hadn’t exactly welcomed the unexpected touch of another. After her imprisonment, her first instinct was to punch, kick, and scream her head off. She could always ask questions later.
Grinding her teeth together, she forced herself to smile. It felt more like a grimace, but it didn’t deter him as he brushed a strand of hair over her shoulder. She tried to shrug off his hand, but he kept a firm hold on her.
I will not hit him even if he is asking for it.
“You’re extremely talented, Aida,” he said. “The two of us would make a spectacular team. Not only do you have an amazing eye for displaying shows, but your photographs are spectacular.”
I will not roll my eyes. I will not roll my eyes. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
He grinned at her, and before he could respond, she tugged her shoulder free from his grasp and strolled across the pale wood floor. The sound of her boots clicking against the floor rebounded throughout the room and off the thick wood beams stretching across the white ceiling.
It was all so elegant and matched Nicolette’s modern yet simple style. Her boss was a pain in the ass, but she had fantastic taste and a passion for discovering and promoting new artists that made her the big hope for every starving artist in the city.
A pyramid of champagne sat on a table in the center of the room. The caterers had left an hour ago after setting up some of their displays. They would return in the morning, probably while Nicolette was still having Aida and some workers rearrange all the paintings. Aida inspected the glasses to make sure there were no smudges on them while Owen trailed her around the table.
Convinced everything was as good as it was going to get, Aida started for the door. “I’m supposed to meet some friends,” she told him.
“I’ll join you.”
Aida barely managed to keep herself from groaning. He really didn’t know how to take a hint. “I don’t think it’s your thing.”
“But you are very much my thing, Aida.”
A shudder ran through her; the vamps who imprisoned her believed she was their thing too. She closed her eyes against the wave of memories assailing her.
Stay here. Stay in the present.
She repeated the words over and over again to herself, but she couldn’t cling to the present when the past was pulling at her. It had been years since she left the island, yet one small reminder could plunge her back into that basement with all those smells and the sounds of slurping as the vamps fed from her and the others.
The others, she thought with an inward moan. She hadn’t known any of the people imprisoned with her before going to the island, but they became her friends. When they were alone, in the dark, they would all whisper about their lives, their dreams, and their loved ones to keep from going insane.
During that time, she grew to know them better than all her high school friends, understood their suffering, and held them while they wept. She wouldn’t have remained sane without them to help guide her through the worst of that place, and none of them survived those monsters.
Aida mentally shook the memories from her mind. She would not allow now to become one of the times when the past took her over and she found herself huddled in the corner of the bathroom, shoving her fist in her mouth to muffle her screams.
When she left Maine for Arizona, she hoped coming back to the human world would make her nightmares go away; it hadn’t. It took her years, but eventually, she realized a part of her remained imprisoned on the island; it always would.
Still feeling raw, she couldn’t look at Owen while she went into the storage room to retrieve her purse and coat before returning to the showroom. Strolling along the wall, Owen inspected each of his paintings with a smile that made her eyes roll.
If he hadn’t been so smug, she might have dated him for a lot longer. He was intelligent, talented, and he was here, which was more than she could say for a certain someone else that she tried not to think about, but as much as she fought it, Julian crept his way into her head daily.
She’d never revealed the details of their kiss, not even to Mollie. She wasn’t exactly eager to tell people he’d scrambled her brain, awakened her body in ways she never dreamed possible, and vanished without a word.
Just thinking about it made her blood boil. Julian Byrne was an asshole.
CHAPTER 5
“You did a fantastic job, Aida,” Owen said. “Nicolette is an idiot for always making you think otherwise.”
“She’s a perfectionist.”
Aida had no idea why she was defending the woman who could make her life a living hell, but it had become instinctual as she often heard the same thing from Kyle and Cassidy. Neither of them understood why she continued to work here, but they didn’t realize her love for the place outweighed her hate for it.
When that changed, she’d probably move on, but until then, she could suffer through Nicolette’s craziness if it meant she could stand in this building and absorb the beauty and peace of the art surrounding her. It was a balm on her battered soul.
“That’s not why she makes you rearrange everything every time,” Owen said.
“Oh, and why do you think she does it?”
“Because she’s afraid you’ll realize how talented you are and leave her.”
Aida started to laugh but stopped when she saw the seriousness on his face. “That’s not why.”
And then she recalled the many, many times Nicolette called her in to rearrange everything she’d done, only to have it look almost exactly the same afterward. For all his self-absorption, Aida realized Owen might be onto something, but there wasn’t much she could do about it.
“She shows my photographs sometimes,” Aida said.
“You’re talented in photography, Aida, but this is where you
really shine. You should run, or own, a gallery.”
Aida stared at the painting on the walls as she considered the idea of running or owning a gallery. Right now, her focus was on paying her bills and her photography, but the idea of owning a gallery intrigued her.
She had no idea where she’d get the money for such a thing, but it would be amazing to walk through the halls of her gallery. Maybe Mike and some of the others would invest in it, but before she could ask, she had to save up enough money to help in the investment, and she would have to formulate a solid plan to present to them. It could take years, but that was okay, she had a lot more to learn about this business anyway. And maybe next week she wouldn’t think this was a great idea, but she doubted it.
“I… ah… I never really thought about it,” she admitted.
“You should,” he said. “Now, let’s go meet your friends.”
She didn’t know how he could make her like him one second and dislike him so much in the next. She wanted an hour or two of relaxing with some food, a beer, and Cassidy’s songs. Having to spend the rest of the night fending off Owen’s advances was about as relaxing as having a tornado coming at her, but she didn’t have a choice.
She had to kiss his ass, because no matter what he said about Nicolette being scared she’d leave, if he pulled his paintings out of here tomorrow, she’d find herself jobless. No gallery was going to hire the girl who blew an Owen showing.
“I’m not staying out late,” she said. “Nicolette’s probably going to call me at six.”
“I have no doubt.”
Pulling her keys out of her purse, she sorted through them until she found the one for the main door. She started toward the door, but he stopped her by clasping her arm and pulled her toward him.
Shock immobilized her, and when she released a startled sound, he stuck his tongue in her mouth. Aida almost chomped down on it, but before she bit it off, she came back to her senses enough to jerk away from him.
Don’t hit the talent. But she yearned to punch him in his too smug, too handsome face. How dare he! She’d told him “no” more times than she could count, reiterating they were better as friends, and she’d never given him any reason to think anything was different. Yet, he’d still touched her, and worse, he kissed her.
Forsaken (Vampire Awakenings, Book 10) Page 4