by Amelia Shaw
Fin tapped his fingers on his knee, the only outward sign of his anxiety. I’d already chewed my cuticles to bits with nerves. This wasn’t my first undercover mission, but I still feared screwing it up.
Fin captured my hand in his, stilling both our nervous tics. “Be the nice, pleasant woman I know is deep in there somewhere and nothing will go wrong.”
I jerked my hand away. “Thanks for the pep talk. You suck at it. Don’t worry, I won’t threaten anyone or curse at anyone. You forget I grew up with the elite of bounty hunters. I’ve been to these kinds of parties before. I hate them, and they often make me want to steal a bottle of booze and run away, but I can handle it.”
“Excellent,” he murmured. His focus flicked out the window.
The venue turned out to be an estate house, a little like Fin’s, nestled in the country. The mansion glowed from the long winding road. When the car pulled to a stop in front of an ornate set of doors, a man in a suit approached to open the car door. I let him help me out and gave him a sweet smile of thanks.
Fin came around the car, buttoning his tuxedo jacket, and took my arm.
“Ready?” he whispered.
I clutched his arm tighter, allowing myself to lean into him. “Absolutely not. Sure wish I had a few knives right now.”
We walked into a foyer lined with candelabras, wax candles warming the enormous space pleasantly. Men in tuxedos and gloves lined a path to a dining room so like Fin’s I almost checked for the coffee bar I’d fallen in love with.
Fin captured my chin in his hand and tilted my face toward him like he might kiss me. “Do you want to eat or skip to dancing?”
The way my stomach had dropped to my toes at the look on his face told me I couldn’t handle food right now.
“Dancing,” I said a little hoarsely.
Other couples milled around sipping drinks. Some ate, some danced. Fin led me to the center of a gleaming floor and turned all that smoldering attention to me. Shit. I wasn’t ready for that look.
“Catch sight of anyone we should investigate yet?” he whispered as he pulled me into his arms.
I wrapped my arms around him and let him take the lead. Probably the best choice since I couldn’t waltz to save my life. He made it seem like I could.
“I haven’t seen anyone yet,” I said. “Do you know what we’re looking for?
His hands gripped tighter, and he nuzzled my ear. Sparks shot through me. “I believe it will be more of a feeling than a sight. Otherwise, anyone who looks suspicious?”
I wished we had more time to prepare for this charade. “What’s suspicious is these people are drinking bottles of champagne worth thousands like it’s water. Who can afford to live like this?”
He coughed on a chuckle. “Most of these people likely inherited their riches. As I did.”
“And what are they doing with it? Drinking too much and eating other people’s food? At the very least you’re putting your money to a good purpose.”
We took another turn before he answered. “Thank you, I think.”
I tried to keep my focus on the room, the other couples, and yet Fin held my attention, the way the heat of him sunk into my skin. The spicy scent of his cologne.
Get it together.
This was nothing more than lust, and I needed to get over it or I might jeopardize our mission.
The music ended exactly at the right moment. I pulled myself from his arms and gave him what I hoped was a doting smile. It felt a little wobbly.
“We should split up and make a couple rounds.” I suggested. “See if we notice anything.”
He tugged me in and nuzzled my neck before inserting an earpiece into my ear. Then he kissed my cheek and walked off toward the bar.
A drink sounded great right now.
No. Focus. I swung back toward the crowd and walked the edge, pretending to admire the artwork on the walls. All the while, I listened intently for any snippets of conversation that would help me.
“You look incredible,” Fin’s voice said in my ear.
Oh, this earpiece wasn’t a good idea.
“Shh,.” I whispered. “You’re distracting me.”
A woman’s laugh peeled out in the crowd as a new song started from the quartet playing from the corner. Strains of music written hundreds of years ago. I couldn’t recognize the song, but I’m sure Fin did.
Stop thinking about Fin.
I kept walking, slowly, as if I had nothing better to do than wander a room in a gorgeous dress and drink free booze. I didn’t, but no-one here needed to know that.
A group of women in their early twenties milled in a small circle. They seemed to know each other, so I skirted the edge, listening.
One addressed the group. “Esteban really went all out this year. I wonder if they will bag up one of those footmen for me to take home.”
One of the other girls laughed. It sounded cutesy, a giggle advertising her IQ in two seconds flat. I kept moving, wondering who Esteban was.
Before I could ask Fin about the name, someone grabbed my elbow. I bit my tongue and plastered on a smile as I scanned up the arm to a beautiful man. Dark hair, dark eyes, his tuxedo jacket white with black pants.
“Do I know you?” he asked, his voice slightly accented.
“I don’t believe so.” I held my hand out for him to shake. “Sydney.”
He didn’t shake it but brought it to his lips and pressed a soft kiss on my knuckles. “Encantado conocerte.”
My Spanish was a little rusty, so I said, “Thank you.”
He dropped my fingers, and I resisted the urge to rub them on my dress. Something about him grated on my senses. Too beautiful, too polished, too damn smooth.
“May I have this dance?” The Spanish man asked.
I copied the giggle of the girl I’d passed earlier. “Won’t your date be upset if she sees you dancing with another woman?”
“Sadly, I am my own company tonight. Where is your date?”
I waved absently toward the bar. “Oh, he’s around here somewhere. He hasn’t given me much attention since we arrived, though.”
I pouted to add weight to my words.
I didn’t want to dance with this asshole, but I couldn’t leave him alone until I knew more about him. Checked him off my mental list as innocuous.
“Then dance with me. I’ll give you all the attention you crave. Trust me.”
Intriguing that I wanted to trust him, even while my brain screamed not to do it. Interesting. I scanned the crowd, looking for Fin. He blended right in here. I caught sight of him by the bar chatting with a big beefy man in a black tux.
“Why don’t we get a drink instead?” I said. “I’m thirsty and dancing would only make it worse.”
He tugged my hand toward him gently. “Or we could dance first and get a drink second. I confess, I want to feel you in my arms.”
Woah. Maybe it was a cultural thing, or a rich-man-can-get-whatever-he-wants thing, but he was laying it on thick. I searched for Fin again and we locked eyes.
He straightened, his shoulders hitching back. He said something to the man he’d been speaking to and took a step forward.
If I so much as twitched, Fin would rescue me. Charge over, sweep me from this man’s embrace, and break our cover.
I gestured at him to stand down and let the stranger pull me onto the dance floor. “One dance, then a drink.”
He gently placed his hand on my lower back and cupped my other with his own. “Of course, mi reina. I appreciate how fierce you are.”
I giggled again as he spun me around.
“I don’t think anyone has ever described me as fierce,” I lied. “I can stand up for myself, sure, but I try to be a good girl, make people happy.”
Fin’s snort broke through my earpiece. He’d moved closer and could hear us talking. I ignored the acid in my stomach as he spun a tiny blonde closer to us.
“You haven’t told me your name.” I reminded him.
He held me tighter,
right up against his long body, towering over me by almost a foot. “My apologies. You can call me Esteban.”
“Oh, this is your party. I’m so sorry. I’m a plus one. I didn’t realize.”
“Think nothing of it, Sydney.” He said my name, so I knew he remembered it. I bet girls all over the world dropped their panties with that move. Men with money like his didn’t need to remember women’s names.
“Are we celebrating something tonight?”
He smiled, a slick smooth grin that flashed his white teeth. “Life. We celebrate being alive tonight.”
Something I always appreciated. “Then we will drink to life once we finish this dance.”
He gazed down at me, his pretty brown eyes roving over my face and then back up to my eyes in a circuit. Bonus points for not staring at my chest. As small as it looked in this dress, I should have let the shop lady sell me some of those chicken cutlet things. It was hard to seduce information out of men without cleavage.
We took a few spins in silence and I focused on the conversations I could catch around us. When the song ended, we broke apart and clapped for the quartet.
Esteban led me to the bar as the next song queued up.
He ordered two white wines and handed me a glass. “To life.”
“To life,” I echoed.
I took the smallest sip I could manage. Men who ordered drinks for a woman without knowing her preference made me angry. No doubt the women in his world thought it charming, a sign he cared, or maybe that they were his equal. I did not.
“What do you do, Esteban?” I leaned my arm into the bar, trying to appear casual even if my insides were coiled up like rattlesnakes waiting for the moment to strike.
“I mostly run philanthropic endeavors these days. I inherited my money and now I spend most of my time trying to give it away.”
I smiled; the smarmy bastard was starting to reach the extent of my patience.
Then I felt it. A slight buzz. A tingle which felt like Fin’s magic, except... tainted.
Someone was using magic here. Cruel, corrupt, dark magic.
Chapter Fourteen
As the magic washed over me, I realized I needed to interact with magic wielding paranormals more often. Maybe with more experience, I would be able to pick the sensations for accurate identification. Shifters and vamps had a different feel to them, more elemental. This feeling though was a dark, heady tingle. Something between the shifters spark and Fin’s magic.
And I had no idea what it was.
Esteban gave me a concerned look. “Are you all right?”
I smiled faintly, as if I had nothing more in my brain than my desire to be near him. “I haven’t eaten yet. Just a little light-headed.”
Men could never resist the damsel in distress play.
With a quick snap of Esteban’s finger, a server appeared at our side with a tray of h’orderves. That was a useful trick to have at a party. Hope these guys got paid well.
I scooped up a couple things that vaguely resembled potatoes and ate them as daintily as I could manage. Women like my pretend persona didn’t eat full meals; they survived on alcohol and ambition.
As we idled on the edge of the dance floor, that unidentifiable feeling still bugged me, the crawling spiders down my spine. I couldn’t tell if it emanated from Esteban or someone near.
When I moved a couple of steps to the side, Esteban followed carefully. I flashed a blinding smile and let him press another drink into my hand. Even though I hadn’t finished the last one, the snack boy whisked away it.
I took another couple of steps, Esteban did more following, as if he thought I would flee the second he left me alone.
“Feeling better?” he asked, cupping my elbow.
“Oh, yes. You’re a prince to take care of me so well. I don’t get this kind of treatment at home.”
His smile turned predatory. He was no doubt considering how quickly he could steal me away from my date.
We’d moved further to the edge of the crowd, and the creepy crawly sensation hadn’t abated. Esteban definitely had something going on.
I batted my lashes and sipped my drink, leaning into him. “Do you throw parties like this every year? I can’t image how much work goes into them.”
His eyes softened. “Usually, a couple of times a year. And you are correct, these parties take a lot out of me and my staff. But I love the chance to see all my friends in one place and get to know new ones, like you.”
Smooth. Smooth. The accent only made him more endearing.
“And no lady of the manor to help you plan everything?” I asked as sweetly as I could without choking on my tongue.
He flipped the switch back to the predator waiting to pounce.
“Not yet.” He kissed my knuckles. “But I’m always on the lookout for the amazing woman who will stand by my side.”
I just bet you are.
“Oh, how romantic.” I punctuated my statement with a flirty giggle.
Holy fucking hell, someone put me out of my misery.
My hand was still trapped in one of his, and I let him hold it even though the awful feeling that was drowning me only got worse.
“Do you feel up for another dance?” he asked, his thumb grazing my knuckles back and forth in a caress.
Someone came by to swipe the glass I really wished I could down in one gulp. Esteban led me out onto the floor as a new song started.
His arms encircled me, and I resisted the urge to gag and shove my fist into his perfect nose.
I let him take the lead. One of these days, I would find a man who would allow me to lead. And then I would marry him.
With my face practically pressed into his wide chest, I noticed his cologne for the first time. Something smoky with a woodsy note. Not altogether unpleasant. It made me hate him a little more.
“Do you think I’ve scared your date away?” he whispered, his lips entirely too close to the sensitive flesh of my earlobes. My skin crawled and I suppressed the shudder that rose in me.
I scanned the crowd and caught sight of Fin watching us, standing near a group of people admiring a framed artwork on the wall. He fit right in here.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Fin said in my ear.
I extended my middle finger behind Esteban’s shoulder and caught the grin it earned me on Fin’s face. Not very ladylike, but the reprieve helped ground me back to the part I played.
“Oh, I’m sure he’s found another young lady to drape on his arm. Honestly, I think all I am to him is an accessory.” I put the real contempt I felt at the role in my voice. Let Mr. Suave bat one back.
Esteban’s full lips spread wide in a grin. “Do you have an occupation, Sydney?”
Subtle.
“I curate art at a paranormal gallery in the city.”
Something lit his eyes at the word paranormal. “How fascinating. Is it something you enjoy? Were you always a purveyor of the arts?”
I gave him a coy smile. “Since I was a little girl. My father introduced me to art, so I’ve always loved it.”
A truth mixed into a lie.
It was easy to force away the memory of my father showing me his art collection while I hunted his killer. Was the Black Mage Esteban? How could it be? He appeared maybe the same age as Fin, late twenties, early thirties at the oldest. But I couldn’t walk away from him, not with my mind on fire with illicit magic. Magic I needed to stop.
“Why paranormal art?” he asked.
I pasted the smile back on my mouth. “Oh, I don’t know. As a human and magic-less, the paranormal had always fascinated me. It’s incredible.”
There. Let him think me a groupie. It might work as long as I didn’t end up some kind of ritual sacrifice.
“Have you ever met a paranormal creature before?”
Interesting. A fine line to walk here. The upper elite human set considered paranormal beings beneath them. If I said yes, he might think I wasn’t in the same class as him. If I said no, well, that made me
a hypocrite, didn’t it? I rattled my brain and let my gut lead my answer.
“Only a few times. I have a staff who deals with the artists when they bring in new work, but occasionally there are those whose work I enjoy so much I choose to meet with them.”
There. Rich people loved making exceptions for eccentricity. Case in point: Fin hiring me.
We made a few circles on the floor quietly and I concentrated on figuring out this magic. What did Fin feel? The same disgusting, corrupt tingle I did? Or as a magic-wielder himself, did it feel different to him? I would ask him if we made it out of this house alive.
When the music stopped, everyone gave the quartet a round of applause. They started up again and Esteban reached for me.
I ducked his hold and smiled. “Excuse me, please. I’ll return in a moment.”
He bowed and kissed the back of hand. “Come find me when you return. I very much want to get to know you better, mi reina.”
I left to find a restroom. The sensations crawling over me were becoming overwhelming. When I entered the bathroom, a blonde woman in gold sequins was re-applying her red lipstick. We met eyes in the mirror, and I gave her a wan smile.
“My feet are killing me.”
She narrowed her eyes and then walked out of the bathroom. Guess my disguise of normal, helpless female, didn’t pass the powder-our-noses-check.
Alone for the first time since this escapade began, I took a few deep breaths.
“Are you okay?” Fin said in my ear. “You’re focusing on that man you were with pretty hard.”
Well, I not totally alone.
I sighed and leaned my hip against the sink counter. “You don’t feel it?”
He snorted. Impressive reception that the mic could catch it. “Of course, I do. I’m just not convinced it’s coming from him,”
I could see him scowling in my mind and it made me smile. “Jealous? Don’t worry, I won’t be putting a sock on the door tonight. Talk to him and see if you get the same creepy buzz I get.”
“Fine, but he’s starting to look a little antsy, watching the bathroom door. I believe you have a new fan, Zoey.”
I rolled my eyes and turned to check my liner in the mirror. “Just what I need, another billionaire thinking they can buy me.”