Next I found Leric where he stood with King Collins and Queen Cooper. He was wearing a pair of white trousers with a silver cuff at the bottom, with white leather flip-flops — honestly, I wasn’t sure if he had ever worn shoes before. This went with the thin cotton, collared white shirt that was actually buttoned, kind of — the top three were undone, revealing a goodly amount of his tanned hard flesh — and a white leather twisted necklace tight against his muscled throat. Pathetically, I realized the outfit actually suited him, a kind of Caribbean-meets-professional style, and fuck, he wore it well, everything stretching exactly where it should, and loose where it needed to be.
Nostrils flaring, I pulled my attention away from him, catching Sin glancing at me. He rolled his eyes, obviously having caught me ogling for too long even as he spoke with Queen Ruckler. I wrinkled my nose at him but glanced to my right and found Roselle where she was speaking to London. I blinked, watching as London darted to the side when she laughed at something he said and reached a hand out to his arm in what appeared like natural affection. London was having none of it as he murmured something to her, deftly evading her hand, all while gallantly refilling her glass. My lips twitched as I saw Roselle watch his movements with a knowing eye, but she kept her hands to herself after that, holding them at her stomach. She was wearing a white, tasteful, baby doll summer dress, the straps thin, and she also wore white flip-flops, but these were wedge-styled and definitely more feminine than Leric’s.
“Measuring the occupants of our casual dinner for possible attack?” Leric’s deep, intimidating rumble sounded directly to my left, and I barely managed not to jump straight into the air in surprise.
Instead, I swallowed and inhaled — only a tad shakily — before I regained my control to tilt my head back and stare at the damn man as he practically loomed over me. “Of course not.” I blinked, and I stared in surprise at the small crystal glass of vodka he held out to me with one hand, his other holding his own few sips of vodka. The drink was a favorite among spirits. Cautiously, I took it from his hand, making sure not to brush his fingers but still managing to make it look natural. “Thank you.”
Darkly shaded silver eyes peered down at me while white silken rolls of his hair hung on either side of his face. Slowly, one of his thin white eyebrows lifted as his gaze roved my face. “Come now, Sprite. Don’t lie to me.”
“It’s Caro,” I muttered. “And I’m not lying.”
His teeth flashed white against his tanned skin for the barest moment. “Yes, Sprite. You are.” He rolled a wrist majestically. “But feel free to continue if it makes you feel better.” He took a slow sip of his drink, eyes steadfast on me, threatening to unnerve the control I had built up before coming to dinner. Gradually he lowered his glass, and he asked bluntly, “Are you always this cautious?”
My lips pinched, and I glanced down at his chest to get away from his gaze…which didn’t help a whole fucking lot, since his flesh was somewhat on display. “Yes. Always.” No need to lie about that. My eyes flicked up to his then out to the room as I decided that would be safer, and I saw King Zeller blatantly watching us across the room, more than likely listening in on our conversation. “And you?”
Leric chuckled quietly, the softness of the sound making my stomach warm. “Yes. Always.” He paused. “Although, I don’t rely on the many weapons you have on your person to defend myself.” My nostrils flared in instant irritation that he had easily spotted what I had tried so hard to hide. I took a sip of my drink to cover anything I was feeling as I felt him lean closer, bending to state softly at my ear, “I use my fucking power as my protection. As you know you should be doing since it’s utterly foolish not to do so.” He paused, and he chuckled quietly, his warm breath smelling of mints and vodka, fanning the hair along the side of my head. “Unless you enjoy getting sick and being vulnerable, my little sprite.”
My jaw clenched, eyes flaring in aggravation as I swung my head in his direction…which put me fucking nose to nose with him in his bent-over state. I inhaled sharply, forcing myself not to back away as I stared into molten mercury, and hissed, “I am not your goddamn anything, so don’t ever imply it. I am going to be the Queen of the Elementals. Respect me and I’ll respect your position, even if I’ve chosen a life outside the Temple.” I stared at him hard. “And you have plenty of women at your beck and call, so bless them with your fucking nicknames, not me. My goddamn name is Caro…not Sprite.”
I watched in even further irritation as I saw actual humor enter his hard gaze for a moment, and yeah, he didn’t take me very seriously when he tilted his head, bringing those damn eyes even closer. But I noticed he was oddly careful not to touch me. “I’ll try to remember your very unique position…Sprite…as you so humbly respect mine.” Silver studied my eyes closely, right before he stated softly, “I remember you.”
My brain went numb as my whole body turned to stone.
All the air was just gone, as if it had been sucked from the very room.
I watched in shock and fear as his lips curled ever so slowly. “You were, maybe, eighteen then. Dyed red hair, but your natural white roots were showing. I believe that was what caught my advisors’ attention if I remember correctly from what they told me.” His head tilted slightly, and his nose brushed mine the barest bit, waking me from my frozen state, but he didn’t press any power on me. “I also vividly remember seeing you for the first time, after you had snuck into my bedroom…to steal from me.” His lips tilted and stayed that way, flashing his teeth blatantly, but there was humor dancing inside his feral gaze. “I also remember your unskilled diversion when you tried to distract me.”
My mind was reeling in shock and fear as that night played inside my head.
Scared. I had been scared as I had snuck into his room. I had been kidnapped and taken to the spirit Temple, their mecca of a home base that no other Mysticals could enter.
I had half understood why they had taken me when they had realized I had never been there to learn of our gifts — normally a spirit child grew up there — but then they hadn’t let me leave when I had asked a week later. They had originally told me it was my choice to stay or go, but for some reason the One, Leric Damon, the man staring me in the eyes, had selfishly decided a week wasn’t enough for an eighteen-year-old to decide. I had been told he had ordered I stay longer. To learn more and experience as much as I could before making my decision.
Now, at twenty-three, I understood his decision better, but at eighteen I hadn’t. Instead, I had felt like a hostage, frightened and just wanting to return home. So I had used every ounce of skill I had learned throughout my hard eighteen years of life, and I did as I was told: I learned. Oh yes, I had learned more about spirits in that full month, but I had also searched and learned through subtle questioning and gossip of a way to leave the place.
The One had a spelled item he kept inside his bedroom, a portal to leave the Temple and travel to any destination he chose in the blink of an eye, so I had gone in search of it…and got caught. I tried my best in my fear and desperation to overcome the physical reaction I’d had to him, and seduce him from noticing what I was doing inside his room. I hadn’t known he knew what I was doing in there. I knew I hadn’t been perfect — all right, it had been a mortifying, fumbling attempt — but I thought I had gotten away with it. When I’d had the back of his knees pressed to his bed and taken off my shirt…well, at that moment, my saving grace had been a knock at his door. He had ordered me not to leave his room as he stepped outside to speak with someone. I had found the device right as he caught me, and I had barely managed to stuff it in my back pocket before he saw it. When he stepped outside, I used the spelled device to get home.
Inhaling sharply, I licked my lips and mumbled the first thing that came to my thoughts. “I only wanted to go home. It was supposed to be my choice, and you took that away from me.”
Hard, slash-like white eyebrows raised a smidge. “No lying this time,” he murmured softly. “Much better, Sprit
e.” He blinked slowly, mercury eyes gone for a brief moment before reappearing. “You’re correct, I did take that choice away from you, but I believed, as I still do, that it was needed with someone so young and out of touch with those of our kind.”
I didn’t argue, so his eyebrows rose even further. “And you agree with me. That is truly remarkable since you still do not use your powers, as if you were scarred by the experience.” He tsked me softly. “Just because you use them doesn’t mean you’ll become like some of us. Your power is nothing to truly fear if you have enough control.”
“My control is just fine,” I muttered, glaring at him now, a bit of sanity returning. “Control has never been the issue.”
He stared at me a moment. “Ah, then it’s the knowing that bothers you.” My jaw clenched as he nailed my issue dead on, and he chuckled quietly, stunning eyes scanning my face. “That, my little sprite, is something you eventually learn to accustom yourself to. Everyone lies. Everyone has a past. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. Those are the facts of life, something you cannot hide from even in normal, everyday occurrences, or you will always be the lamb and not the wolf.” He stared at me steadily and stated bluntly, “You do get used to it. And really, it’s just another part of the control. Control of the mental variation.”
I kept my gaze steadfast on him. “You’re being very open in a room that has more than one pair of listening ears.”
One side of his lips curved, and the action was cocky, making him appear all the more handsome. “I’m not here to hide.”
“Why are you here, exposing yourself now?”
“Correct question, my little sprite,” he whispered softly, watching me steadily. “But I’m not ready to answer that yet.” He paused when my eyes narrowed on his. “Although, I will tell you honestly, it’s with no malicious intent toward anyone under this roof. My services are not needed here, even if a certain sprite still owes me the token she stole from my bedchambers.” His white brows lifted. “I truly want that back. Do you happen to have it?”
“No, I don’t.” Lie. That shiny ‘token’ was mine now. Though, as I watched him carefully, I slowly realized from his tone and actions that he wasn’t doing this to intimidate me…he was flirting with me.
Sexy red lips began to curl. He eyed me carefully as he had been doing the whole time. “It took you long enough.” Again, his head tilted unhurriedly, his nose brushing mine gently, not startling me at all this time. Instead, the action set off a damn inferno inside my lower stomach that no one, not even Brann, had managed to do. My insides damn near quivered for him as he breathed in the barest whisper, so quietly no Vampire in the room would be able to hear him, “You should also know, should you ever offer again what you offered me the first time we met,” his eyes hooded the briefest bit as they dipped, and I froze, recognizing he was gazing down at my modest cleavage, “I would most assuredly accept. And I don’t kiss and tell. My own affairs are kept completely private when I want them to be.”
Air rushed past my lips. He tilted his head, using his hair as a shield as he opened his mouth and caught my breath, sucking it in. His nostrils flared and he inhaled heavily, his eyes closed. Just when I was realizing he was scenting my arousal and I started to step back, he cleared his throat quietly, opening his eyes to me again. They were darker than before, starting to dilate as he muttered again in the barest of breaths, “If you want anything between us to be kept private, I suggest you leave the room for a few minutes. Roselle, or any Shifter, will be able to smell it on you.”
I blinked as he leisurely straightened, then I instantly downed the rest of my drink and handed my empty crystal over to him where his hand already waited for it. I then turned on my heel and walked at a fast pace out the door and down another hallway, directly to a damn bathroom to splash cold water on my face and calm the hell down.
“Where is Reese?” Roselle’s voice, light and musical, sounded across the table from me as we all sat at the fine dining table for dinner. “He did know what time dinner was, didn’t he?”
Once again in control of my hormones, I kept my attention steadfast on her as she spoke to Leric next to her, even as the table went quiet. I knew that if I glanced anywhere else it would be some proof of guilt. I also didn’t peer at the fingernails of London, Brann, or Aria, since I had noticed when I had returned to the room that they all had a smidge of dirt under them…unlike Sin, sitting directly to my right, who could easily remove any dirt from his body with a single twitch of his power. In other words, I really didn’t want to know if they had buried a dead spirit body on the grounds somewhere.
I switched my steady attention to Leric when I saw his head tilt in Sin’s direction. Silver eyes roamed Sin’s face unhurriedly — thank fuck, Sin was resting on his chair relaxed and in utter control — before his attention swung to me, and he asked calmly, “Do you have any idea where my second in command may be?”
I shook my head casually. “No.” Simple, and the truth.
He was staring at my lips as his head cocked. “You’re sure of this?”
“She told the truth,” Brann stated calmly, gaining Leric’s attention on the other side of me where he sat.
Leric’s lips thinned as his gaze slowly evaluated Brann, but he eventually quirked one eyebrow. “And would you happen to know where he is?”
Brann’s head tilted, curls brushing his shoulder, and I became conscious that my initial reason I was attracted to him — because he reminded me of Leric — was a load of shit. A colossal, self-protecting load of cow dung. The fresh kind you hope not to step in. That same rolling of my stomach, a nice warming, was still one hundred percent there. The two men had damn near nothing in common. Except for possibly their large size, their dispositions and features were nowhere near the same. I groaned inwardly because I had half hoped seeing them together would dispel any attraction I had toward Brann, someone I should most definitely not be with.
Brann’s lips tilted on one side as he regarded Leric, and he murmured, “I can honestly say I’ve never formally met whom you speak of.” He shrugged one of his massive shoulders. “He could be resting, though. Didn’t you all travel a long way to get here?”
I blinked slowly, realizing he was more than likely telling the truth, and that he smoothly rebounded with distraction together with a bit of prying.
Leric’s eyebrows rose the barest bit as he continued watching him, and his eyes darted to me before sliding coolly back to Brann. “It was a journey.” He then rested further on his chair and turned his head to ignore Brann, stating to Roselle, “I’m sure he’ll reappear when he’s done resting.” Silver eyes then moved to Queen Cooper at one end of the table where she sat next to London, while soups and salads were placed in front of each of us. “Queen Cooper, your necklace is utterly enchanting…practically spellbinding to view.”
Queen Cooper instantly placed her hand over her sapphire necklace while dipping her spoon into the soup. Her response took a second longer than I thought natural as she stated, “Thank you. I cherish it dearly as I’m sure you do your jewelry.”
Leric’s lips curved as he obviously remembered something particularly attractive in its revolting nature with that smile. He glanced down at his arrowhead diamond ring, respectfully touching it. “Yes, I do cherish it and the many fond memories it has afforded me.” He placed his napkin on his lap absently, his eyes roaming the table to land on King Collins at the head of the table. “King Collins, I wanted to tell you…congratulations.” Pausing, he rearranged the napkin on his lap. “The way you have helped increase the unity between the four Rulers in so few years is truly remarkable.” He paused, head tilting as he held fixed eye contact with King Collins. “Just as it is for the other Rulers at this table,” a graceful shrug of his massive shoulder, “sometimes twice over.”
I sipped at my soup slowly, watching carefully as King Collins nodded his head dutifully, but there was the slightest tick on the right side of his jaw. I wasn’t sure a
nyone else noticed as they ate, talking quietly amongst themselves, plus his blue hair hid it decently. “That’s very kind of you to say. Change is never easy on anyone…much less the entirety of the Mystical people.”
I watched silently as Leric nodded, lifting his spoon from the table. “No, it’s not. Too much revolution at one time can be detrimental to a society.” His eyes flicked back up to King Collins. “Not unlike the type of impairment I would feel, should my second in command not wake fully rested by morning.”
King Collins’s lips tilted at one side, a slim, unpleasant grin as the table quieted a bit from that comment, one which Leric hadn’t even tried to say softly. “As I’m sure that would be a great personal injury to you, it would be a tragedy we won’t allow under our roof, not as our guests here. Come breakfast, I’m sure he’ll be eating with us, hardy and hale.”
Leric glanced at Roselle, eyes wide. “Exactly what I said, was it not?”
“As always, sire.” Roselle’s head dipped, and I saw her lips curve slightly as Leric turned his attention to his appetizer, dipping his spoon into his soup. “It’s clam chowder.”
Leric’s spoon stilled in his soup. “Fish?”
“Yes, it is,” Queen Ruckler stated, staring down at her soup bowl. “It’s not what I asked to be prepared for tonight’s meal,” she glanced up at Leric, and I noticed her eyes were frosty in her regard, “but it is delicious, nonetheless.”
“Oh,” I lifted my full spoon, gaze swinging between Queen Ruckler and Leric with innocent eyes, “I called the kitchen staff a few hours ago and informed them Leric’s favorite dish is fish.” I took my bite, smiling around it as I started to flat out lie, murmuring softly, “At least, that’s what I remember the cooks saying at the Temple.” Really, I just remembered from years ago a dish that had been left on his desk, everything eaten on it but the fish. I blinked innocently at Leric. “That is correct, isn’t it? I would really hate if I got it wrong.”
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