by A. L. Larsen
“Gonna go join the pirate show at Treasure Island, on those big ships they have out in front of the hotel. Looks like fun,” he said with a goofy grin, adjusting the lacy white cuffs that spilled out of the sleeves of his long, red velvet jacket.
“And they’re really going to let you join in?”
“Well, I wouldn’t describe it as letting me. But what they don’t know while they’re bespelled won’t hurt ‘em.”
“Be careful out there, ok? Apparently the Alliance summit is this weekend. I don’t know if you’re actually on anyone’s hit list, but just be aware of it,” I told him.
This seemed to instantly sober Bryn up, and he dropped into the chair across from us and said, “Allie, that’s really bad news for you, mate.” His serious expression was offset by the huge red pirate hat he wore, its long white plume sticking up jauntily and bouncing when he moved his head.
“Yeah, that’s what I hear,” Alastair said.
“My protection spell should keep them out of here,” Bryn hold us.
“Yeah, that’s what Augustine said,” I chimed in. “We all know he’s here, by the way.”
“Oh? His clever spy disguise didn’t fool you?” Bryn said with a sparkle in his eye and a little grin.
“Yeah, no. Shockingly,” I said with a grin of my own.
Bryn thought for a moment, and then stood up. “Alastair, don’t leave the hotel grounds and you’ll be fine. I’ll reinforce the wards just to be on the safe side, but there’s no reason they shouldn’t hold. Ok, I’m off to join a group of fake pirates on a fake pirate ship in a fake lagoon. Viva Las Vegas!” And he smiled brightly and exited the lobby, strolling regally as nearly everyone stopped to stare at him.
Joey got up too. “Ok, I seriously can’t just sit here. I’m going to do a few more laps around the hotel. Anyone want to come along?”
“I’ll go,” I said, getting up from the couch.
Alastair got up too. “I guess I’ll check the casino again. Coming, little bro?” he asked Athos.
The big warrior smirked and got to his feet. “I have a better idea. Why don’t you and I go to the gym, and I’ll show you a few of the Order’s fighting techniques? I can also tell you where each of their vulnerabilities are. But on one condition: you have to promise to knock off the little.”
“I’ll work on that,” Alastair said with a grin, before turning to me and kissing my cheek. “Be careful Lu, and call me if you need me. See you soon.” And he and Athos headed for the gym.
Joey sighed almost imperceptibly, and he and I went in the opposite direction.
My usually bubbly companion was subdued as we did a lap around the ground floor of the hotel. I lingered in a Victorian-style indoor atrium, lushly decorated with pines and exotic flowers and fake snow in a fanciful Christmas display. A family of tourists stopped us and asked me to take their picture. They posed before the colorful floral backdrop, all smiles as they put their arms around each other and actually said cheese.
I watched them go after I handed the camera back to them. The mother and daughter were holding hands, and the father hoisted the giggling little boy up onto his shoulders. “I think I’m becoming bitter,” Joey said quietly, also watching the family closely as they left the indoor garden. “I used to see a family like that and feel happy. Now it just reminds me of all I don’t have. All I’ll never have.”
I took my friend’s hand. “Where’s that coming from?”
“I dunno.”
“Are you ok, Joey?”
He shrugged and turned our hands over, putting mine on top and running his thumb over the back of it. “Sure. I’ve just got a lot on my mind. It’s been harder to put on a happy face lately.”
“Would it help to talk about it?”
“Nothing really to talk about.” He’d been looking down at our joined hands, and now he met my gaze and said, “Well, there is one thing I’ve been wanting to tell you. After we find Jin and Alastair gets his memories back, and after we get you and him out of Vegas safely…I think I’m gonna take off for a while.”
“You mean by yourself?” He nodded, and I asked, “Why?”
“You and Alastair need some time to be together, just the two of you. You don’t need me constantly under foot.”
“Does this have to do with Athos?”
“I was already thinking about this before ‘little bro’ came into the picture. But now that he’s a part of our group, me hanging around is even more pointless.” He let go of my hand and turned toward the huge floral display, resting his palms on the railing surrounding it.
I stood right behind him and put my hands on his shoulders as I said, “No.”
“No?”
“That’s right: no. You’re not going off and sulking, or whatever it is you’re planning on doing. You’re my best friend, Joey, and you belong with us. We’re a team. No, scratch that. We’re a family. If you’re feeling a bit displaced right now because Alastair just found his half-brother, I get it. But going off alone isn’t the answer.”
“I told you, I was thinking about leaving even before Athos,” Joey said.
“Why?”
He turned to face me, his extraordinary jade green eyes a storm of emotions. “Do you really not know, Lu? Can you really not guess why I’m leaving?”
“No, I can’t. You’re a part of our family Joey, and I love you, and Alastair loves you. You belong with us.”
“I love you too, Lu. And that’s exactly the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
Joey sighed, and then he took a step forward and held my face between his hands. “I mean I love you, Luna,” he said quietly, and then he kissed me, softly, gently.
I stepped back in surprise after a moment, my fingertips automatically going to my lips. “Joey, I—”
He held his hand up and said, “I know. I totally know. You don’t feel the same way. You want to be with Alastair, not me. I know all that. And now you see why I have to leave. Seeing you and Alastair together, the two of you falling a little more in love every day – I just can’t keep torturing myself like that.”
“Joey—”
He looked embarrassed. “Actually, you know what? Alastair will be fine without my help, and so will you. Athos has your back, and you don’t really need me at all. So there’s no reason to put off leaving.”
“Joey,” I began again.
He turned and started to head toward the door, but then he stopped and looked at me. “I’m sorry I kissed you. I know you didn’t want me to do that. But I had to know what it felt like. Just once. I had to know.”
He took a couple more steps toward the exit and stopped again. “I’m lying. I’m not sorry, not even a little. I’m glad I kissed you, and if it was up to me, I’d spend every minute of the rest of my life kissing you. Good bye, Lu.”
In the next instant, he was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
I was utterly in shock. I’d suspected all along that Joey had a crush on me, there were plenty of signs. But this – this was so much more than I’d anticipated. And I had absolutely no clue what to do about it, I didn’t even sort of know how to talk it over with him.
I just knew that him running off like that, alone, out into a world with enemies at every turn – that could not happen.
I took a deep breath and yelled, “Joey!” at the top of my lungs. I had to be loud – he was moving at vampire speed, so who knew how far he’d gotten? People passing by the atrium turned to stare at me, and I smiled at them pleasantly before once again calling Joey’s name as loud as I could. I followed that up with, “If I keep yelling like this, I’m going to get kicked out of the hotel! And you know as well as I do that getting kicked out of here is a very, very bad thing! So get back here, Joey!”
A little crowd had gathered at the door to the atrium to stare at me, and suddenly the tall double doors were slammed in their faces. Joey leaned against the doors, his arms behind his back, and raised an eyebrow at me. “What are you doing?�
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“Getting your attention.”
“By threatening to get yourself thrown out past Bryn’s protection spell, which would, of course, endanger your life?”
“Yeah, sorry. I know that was heavy-handed, but I was desperate. I really needed you to come back.”
“Why?”
“So we could talk.”
“Are you in love with me?” he asked, one eyebrow still raised.
“Well no, but—”
“Then there’s really nothing to talk about. I’m a jerk for falling for my friend’s girl, she doesn’t love me, and I need to get a grip. End of story.”
“We do need to talk about this.”
“We really don’t.”
“You running off by yourself is no solution.”
He shrugged and said, “It’s the only one I’ve got.”
“I need you, Joey. You can’t leave.”
“You don’t need me. You’ve got Alastair, and Bryn, and that muscle bound moron to watch out for you. And you’re perfectly capable of defending yourself, too.”
“I don’t need you to physically defend me. I need you to be my best friend. Joey, I love you. Not the way you want me to, but I do love you, so much. And the thought of you running off somewhere all alone makes me heartsick. So, we need to talk about this. We need to figure it out. And you need to stay with Alastair and me, because we’re your family, and that’s all there is to it.”
Joey was wavering a bit now, I could tell. His jaw was no longer set in a hard line, and he was kicking at the floor absently. “I kind of have to leave now, after what I did. I mean, first of all, that was mortifying. And second of all, when Alastair finds out I kissed you, he’s gonna yank my still-beating heart out of my chest and show it to me.”
“You’re a vampire, Joey. Your heart doesn’t beat.”
He grinned, just a little. “Don’t mess up my dramatic imagery. It’s gorier if the heart’s still beating when it’s yanked out.”
“Ok, fine, your inexplicably beating heart will surely be yanked out and shown to you.” I was grinning a little too.
“I’m talking about being murdered at the hands of your boyfriend, and you find it amusing.”
“I find your flair for the dramatic amusing, not your pending homicide.”
“I feel so guilty right now,” Joey said, slumping against the door. “I don’t know how I could have done that to Alastair. It’s just not right. And I have no idea how I’m going to face him and tell him what I did. He’s going to go ballistic.”
“No he’s not.”
“Oh no, trust me, he is.”
I grabbed his hand and tugged him away from the double doors, then flung them open. “Let’s go prove me right. We’re telling him right now,” I said, and dragged Joey out into the lobby. There was still a small crowd gathered there, drawn by my earlier yelling. And I told them, “There are a thousand shows, amusements and attractions in Vegas, folks. But a girl yelling for her best friend just isn’t one of ‘em.”
In the gym, Alastair and Athos had moved all the insanely heavy exercise equipment to the edges of the room, and were sparring in the center of the space. As we came in, Athos launched a flying kick at Alastair, who deflected his leg easily, sending Athos into a backwards summersault. Athos landed on his feet and crouched to take another run at Alastair, but I interrupted with a cheerful, “Hey, can you guys stop beating each other up for a sec?”
They both smiled when they saw me, and Athos grabbed a nearby towel and rubbed it over his sweaty face, breathing heavily. Alastair didn’t even sort of look winded.
“So, here’s what just happened,” I said, still dragging Joey with me by the hand. “Joey kissed me. He has a crush on me. Now he’s afraid to face you, Allie, both because he’s ashamed of what he did, and because he thinks you’re going to rip his heart out. I assured him that wasn’t going to happen. Oh, and he’s talking about running off by himself, which is nuts. Not only is that dangerous, but as I explained to him, we’re a family and we all belong together. So there you go.”
“Oh God,” Joey murmured.
Alastair brushed his hands together before crossing the room to stand right in front of Joey. He looked down at the young vampire for several seconds, his expression unreadable. Joey was making a valiant effort not to cower, though fear was plainly visible in his eyes. And then Alastair did something even more shocking than ripping Joey’s heart out. He pulled him into a hug.
A sound escaped Joey that was equal parts gasp and sob, all his pent up fear and embarrassment and guilt made vocal. “I’m sorry, Allie. God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it. I know that. I was only thinking about myself. Please forgive me.”
“I already have,” Alastair said.
Joey let go of him and quickly dragged the back of his hand over his eyes. “I…I don’t get why you’re not mad at me.”
“I knew it was just a matter of time before you mustered the courage to kiss her, Joey,” Alastair said, sitting on a weight bench and resting his elbows on his knees. “And this is just how I knew it would go. I kind of feel bad for you, mate, because I knew all along you were headed for heartbreak. But that’s just how love goes sometimes.”
“Wait. You knew I had a crush on Lu? How?”
Allie grinned a little. “It was incredibly obvious. The looks, the little sighs, the puppy dog eyes.” Across the room, Athos covered a laugh with his patented cough-into-his-fist maneuver.
“Oh God,” Joey said. He looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock.
I asked Alastair, “And you weren’t worried that I’d pick Joey over you?”
“Nope,” he said serenely.
“You’re that confident?” I asked with a little grin.
“No,” he said, “I’m that able to count.”
“Count what?”
“The beats of your heart, Lu. When you’re around Joey, your heartbeat actually slows down a little. He’s soothing to you, as a best friend should be. But when you’re around me,” he said, a little smile tugging at one corner of his mouth, “Your heartbeat absolutely accelerates.”
I laughed at that. “Well damn, busted by biology. I can’t even pretend not to be smitten with you. You’ve got me all figured out.”
He grinned shyly and said, “Oh no I haven’t. Not by a long shot. And I very much look forward to spending the rest of my life learning your every intricacy, and each exquisite nuance that comprises you.”
“Oh man, what a line. And just like that, I feel like a total third wheel. Come on Ath, how about if we give these two a little space?” Joey said, heading for the door.
The big warrior was right behind him. “Good idea. But it’s Athos. Not Ath.”
“Funny,” Joey said, right before the door shut behind them, “you look like an Ath to me.”
I crossed the room to Alastair and took his face in my hands. “You handled that incredibly well.”
“To be honest, I’m actually furious that Joey kissed you. Part of me wants to go all caveman-like and territorial and beat him up while grunting about no one touching my woman. But you embarrassing him half to death by dragging him in here was already harsh punishment. He really didn’t need more from me.”
“I didn’t mean to embarrass him. I just wanted to get that all out in the open, so he didn’t feel he had to run away.” I brushed his dark hair back from his face as I said, “And you’re really quite evolved, Allie. Most men probably would have gone the caveman route.”
“I’m not that evolved, and I’m about to do something that proves it,” Alastair said with a sparkle in his eyes.
“Oh? And what are you going to do?”
He grabbed me and swung me down onto the weight bench, hovering over me as he said, his voice low and seductive, “I’m going to kiss you long and hard, until you don’t taste him on your lips anymore. Until all you taste is me.” And he claimed my mouth in a deep, passionate kiss, my fingers twining in his dark hair as he held my body to his.
“You know,” I whispered when he finally pulled back a couple inches, “sometimes a touch of caveman is a good thing.”
He smiled at me as he sat up and pulled me onto his lap. “Well, I won’t make a habit of it. Clearly, you like me evolved and civilized.”
“I like discovering new parts of you, evolved and otherwise. In fact, I very much look forward to spending the rest of my life learning your every intricacy, and each exquisite nuance that comprises you,” I grinned. “And it is my lifespan we’re talking about here, by the way, because you’ll clearly outlive me by a few millennia.”
“I doubt that. Have you noticed that pretty much everyone is trying to kill me? What am I supposed to do about that, Lu?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder.
“I really don’t know.”
He grinned a little and said, “Think it’s too late to send all my enemies a peace offering? A nice fruit basket or something?”
“There you go. That ought to smooth things over,” I said with a smile.
“We can probably get a bulk discount on all those fruit baskets. I have a lot of enemies to send them to, you know.”
“Dang, I just realized why this plan won’t work,” I said with mock seriousness.
“The vampires won’t like the baskets because they don’t eat fruit?”
“Exactly.”
“Back to square one,” he said as I stroked his silky hair.
“Yup.”
“Maybe we can just sneak out of town undetected and go and live in the Himalayas, someplace where the number of people who want me dead is in no more than the triple digits.”
“Sure,” I said. “We can disguise ourselves as Penn and Teller and slip out of Vegas quietly. No bloodshed, and no exorbitant cost of fruit baskets.”
“Who are Penn and Teller?”
“A pair of famous magicians.”
“We’ll never fool anyone. We don’t know any magic tricks.” Alastair relaxed against me, picking up one of my hands and interlacing our fingers.
“Well, no. But you can do your E.T. impersonation and light up your fingertip. Then while the crowd’s giving you a standing ovation, we can make a break for it.”