“Why don’t you go mingle,” I suggested to Nick. “I’m going to find out what’s wrong with Trevor, and I’m sure Dylan will want to come with me.”
“No problem.” Nick then headed further into the house.
“What do you think Trevor’s upset about?” I asked Dylan.
He reached down to squeeze my hand. “I’m not sure. He definitely isn’t thrilled about us bringing Nick, but I told him we were bringing a guest.”
“Now, I get it,” I mused. “Trevor must have thought you meant Mel.”
Dylan shook his head. “He asked me if I was bringing Melina, but I told him it was a vampire. Then he just told me to make sure he fed before coming over. It might have nothing to do with Nick at all. Trevor wasn’t happy about you telling him Melina won’t go out with him, so maybe he’s taking his bad mood out on Nick.”
I flinched. “I really didn’t mean to hurt him by saying that.”
Dylan caught my hand and brought my knuckles up to his lips, a move that had my heart beating rapidly. His smile proved he knew the effect that simple gesture had on me. “I know you didn’t say it to hurt him, and so does he. While I don’t know Melina very well, her reputation suggests she’s not going to date Trevor, no matter what he does. It’s best that you’re honest with him.”
“Why did it have to be Mel?” I asked with a sigh.
“Trevor will get over his obsession with Melina,” Dylan assured me. “Actually, I figured he’d be over her by now. It’s been hours since he met her.”
“Trevor isn’t that bad,” I said, but he did usually forget the women who turned him down pretty quickly—not that he got turned down often.
“We probably shouldn’t have come here tonight since Trevor’s not crazy about vampires,” Dylan admitted. “I’m not usually fond of them, but Nick’s a nice guy. That’s why I completely forgot about Trevor not liking them much.”
“You’re right. We shouldn’t have brought Nick here,” I agreed. “If I’d known Trevor felt that way, I wouldn’t have suggested it.”
“Don’t worry too much about it,” Dylan said. “Trevor will get over it, and Nick will find plenty of witches to talk to. Not everyone here has Trevor’s hang-ups.”
We found Trevor in the family room, sprawled out on a sofa with a witch trying her best to get his attention. Seated on the arm of the sofa, she was telling him how excited she was to be in his home, and batting her pretty blue eyes at him. Unfortunately for her, Trevor didn’t seem interested in her attentions.
“Hey, Trev,” I said as I came into the room. “Sorry about assuming we could bring Nick. It was my idea because he was having a rough night.”
He sat up and shrugged. “No big deal. Dylan told me you were bringing a guest, so I already knew the vampire was coming.”
“You’re disappointed Allie’s cousin didn’t show up tonight,” Dylan said.
Trevor looked like he was going to tell Dylan his assumption was wrong, but he just let his head drop back and closed his eyes. “Yeah, well, I should have known Melina wouldn’t be seen at something this juvenile,” he stated bitterly.
The way he said it led me to believe Trevor had talked to Mel more after the meeting with the council. “Did you find a way to get my cousin’s number and call her?”
Trevor flushed. “I didn’t call her,” he replied, looking guilty and embarrassed.
Dylan laughed and sat beside Trevor. “So, you showed up at her house?”
“The studio while she was there,” he mumbled. “She had security escort me off the property.”
“Poor Trevor,” I said, clutching his arm and resting my head on his shoulder. “Even if Mel had wanted to come tonight, she would have needed to find a sitter for Mr. Whiskers. Plus, most of the episodes for Night High are filmed around this time.”
I decided not to add the fact that Mel wasn’t going to date Trevor because I’d already said that, and there was no reason to keep reminding him.
“Who’s Mr. Whiskers?” Dylan asked.
“Her familiar,” I explained, surprised he didn’t already know that. It was one of those stories that had a way of getting around.
“I thought her familiar was a bird,” Dylan said, still looking confused.
“He is,” Trevor said. “I met him at the studio, and he likes me more than Melina does. I asked about his name, but Melina just gave me a pissed off glare.”
“Don’t take it personally,” I told Trevor. “Mel usually looks mad, even when she’s not.”
“She also hates me,” Trevor said with a defeated sigh. “Women never hate me, so why does Melina hate me?”
“Stop being such a whiney little pussy,” Dylan said. “Go get laid and you’ll feel better. There are plenty of witches here dying to help you forget Melina.”
“Sure, I might just do that,” Trevor said, but I could tell he was lying just to get Dylan to stop pushing him. “What’s the deal with the vampire?”
“Poor guy got ditched tonight at SpellBinders,” I explained. “I was supposed to be setting up a scene for him, but I found him alone. Naturally, I figured he was going to ask me to fill in, but he didn’t. We talked for a while, and then Dylan and I made it look like we’d all had a great time in the room so his friends wouldn’t make fun of him. We couldn’t just leave him there broken-hearted.”
“So, you decided to keep him,” Trevor finished for me.
“He’s not a pet I’m adopting,” I insisted.
Both Trevor and Dylan laughed, proving they thought I adopted everyone in need, which wasn’t true. Okay, maybe it was a little true.
“You wanna tell me why you don’t like Nick?” Dylan asked Trevor. “Is it just him being a vampire?”
“It’s not that,” Trevor insisted.
“Then what is it?” Dylan pushed. “Your reaction to him surprised me, and I’m your best friend.”
Trevor shrugged the shoulder I wasn’t leaning on. “No reason really. Maybe I’m just having a bad night.”
“Go have some fun. Dylan’s right about you needing to take your mind off Mel turning you down,” I said, squeezing his arm.
“I guess you might be right,” Trevor admitted, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“Let’s go have some fun,” I said, standing and tugging on Trevor’s arm.
“You go ahead,” he said. “I need to go upstairs and check on a few things related to a filing next week.”
Dylan raised an eyebrow. “Are you abandoning your own party?”
“Nah,” Trevor said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll be back down soon, and then I’ll find a hot little witch to help me forget Melina.”
With that, Trevor stood and walked out of the room.
“Do you believe him?” I asked Dylan.
“Nope,” Dylan said with a shake of his head. “Don’t worry too much about Trevor. He’ll be over Melina in no time and back to his old self.”
“You’re probably right,” I agreed. “Let’s go make sure Nick is having fun.”
Dylan chuckled. “Yep, we’d better make sure your newest pet is behaving.”
“Stop calling him that!”
“It’s not an insult,” Dylan said, rubbing a thumb across my lower lip. “Near as I can tell, it’s pretty nice being one of your pets. Your werewolf doesn’t seem to mind, despite all of his complaining. Trevor doesn’t mind it much, either.”
“How about you?” I asked. “Are you saying you’re my lap dog?”
Rather than taking offense, Dylan chuckled. “I’d be happy being your favorite pet.”
“Let’s go find Nick before you say something even more ridiculous.” I laughed. “I want to exchange numbers with him before we leave so we can hang out again.”
Dylan just laughed and shook his head. “I figured you’d want to, so I exchanged numbers with him at SpellBinders.”
My eyes widened with shock at Dylan’s admission. It never ceased to amaze, and scare me, how much Dylan understood me after
just a short time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Dylan
Trevor avoided us for the rest of the evening, which came as no surprise since I figured he needed his space. The hard part was keeping Allie from tracking him down. It had been my plan to keep her busy with Nick, but the vampire had found a witch with a thing for younger men to take him home to her windowless basement. Most found it creepy when you wanted to show them your basement, but I guess it was a good pick-up line with a vampire.
Since Trevor was avoiding us, and I was tired, I took Allie home after only a couple of hours. She was fast asleep in the passenger seat of my car as I pulled into the garage. When I opened her door and undid her seatbelt, she stirred some and gave me a shy sleepy smile before looking away.
“A blushing succubus,” I said in wonder. “Damn, you are something else.”
“I’m exhausted,” she murmured in a voice that sounded more like an apology.
At first, I wasn’t quite sure why she was apologizing, but then it hit me that she was probably assuming I was planning to take her inside and fuck her. No denying, I wanted to do that, but she was tired, and I’d be happy just sleeping next to her.
“Let’s get you tucked into bed,” I said. “Neither of us has had much sleep in the last couple of days, and I need to be in the office by ten.”
“Don’t you have the morning off?” she asked sleepily.
“I do, but I have a few things I need to take care of before any clients come in,” I told her as I scooped her up in my arms, relieved when she didn’t complain.
“Don’t expect me to get up with you,” she said around a yawn.
Cradled in my arms, she looked innocent and sweet, and that made me hate the dresses she wore at SpellBinders even more.
“You wanna hear something crazy?” I asked as I carried her up the stairs.
“Sure,” she said. “Crazy seems to be dominating my life lately.”
“Just thinking about how much more I like you in your baggy sleep shirt turns me on.”
She let out a sleepy giggle. “Maybe you’re just tired of seeing my boobs on display.”
“I’ll never get tired of seeing your luscious breasts,” I said. “It’s just that I like seeing you relaxed. You act more like yourself when you’re dressed comfortably. The woman you try to be at work isn’t the real you. It’s just a part you play—one you don’t seem to like very much.”
She was quiet for a moment, and I wondered if she’d dozed off, until I set her on the bed and looked down into her eyes, which were studying me with some unreadable emotion. “What makes you think it’s not the real me? Or that I don’t like who I am at work?” she asked.
As I stared at her beautiful face, which was covered with far too much makeup at the moment, I considered my answer. “When you’re dressed like this, with the makeup and the sexy shoes and dresses, you look almost uncomfortable. Sure, the real you peeks out some, but not as often. When you’re wearing comfortable clothes with no makeup, you’re my Allie. You’re just perfect.”
Allie’s eyes drifted away from mine, and I could see her struggling with what she was going to say next. What we had scared her, and I got it because it scared me, too.
“You’re not at all what I expected,” she finally said.
“Is that a good thing?” I asked.
“Considering I thought you were a worthless man-whore, I suppose it’s probably a good thing,” she answered. “I need to go wash off this makeup.”
Obviously, she was trying to end the conversation because things were getting too serious, and we were touching on subjects she wasn’t ready to deal with. While I wanted to talk about this more, I decided pushing her would probably backfire. Besides, I’d had a lot of victories today. As I watched her disappear into the bathroom, I found myself grinning like an idiot. How could I not be happy about the end of this day? After the council meeting, I’d expected her to insist on staying in a guest room, but she was willingly coming back to my bed, and she’d agreed to date me.
No doubt about it, I was falling hard for Alana Talbot.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Allie
“Damn!” I raced across Dylan’s living room and slammed my toe into his coffee table in an attempt to get to my phone before it went to voicemail. Dylan hadn’t been happy about me staying home alone today, despite his security spell. Funny how he hadn’t even considered that I’d be alone until he’d been dressing to go to the office. That’s when he’d tried to talk me into going with him, which sounded beyond boring. There was also the fact that I’d been too tired to get dressed. So, he’d reluctantly left after telling me he’d call to check on me as soon as he could. From what he’d told me before leaving this morning, he had some big cases coming up involving spell patents, an area of the law he didn’t usually handle. That meant he had to do even more research for those cases.
I knew Dylan would freak out if I didn’t answer his call, but it was hard to do more than bounce around and run through my expansive list of swear words as the throbbing pain of my baby toe brought tears to my eyes. Coffee tables were truly evil!
When the phone stopped ringing, I decided I’d better hurry before Dylan had the police at the house checking on me. When I finally got to my phone in the kitchen, I saw that the missed call was actually from Nick, which came as a surprise since it was two in the afternoon; I’d always assumed vampires slept all day. Just went to show how little I really knew about them. In my defense, vampires didn’t socialize with the rest of the preternatural community very often. In some ways, they could be even bigger elitists than witches.
Grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, I limped over to the breakfast bar and sat down to call Nick back. I was just about to open the bottle, when I realized how good the cold would feel on my baby toe, so I grabbed my phone and went into the living room, because I was pretty sure I’d fall off of the stools in Dylan’s kitchen if I tried propping my foot up to put the bottle on my toe. Settling onto the couch, I eyed the evil coffee table, wondering if Dylan would use one of his fire spells on it if I asked. I hit Nick’s number and put it on speaker.
“Hey, Allie,” he answered cheerfully.
“Hi, Nick,” I responded. “Sorry I didn’t pick up when you called, but I left my phone in the kitchen, and then I stubbed my toe racing to get it.”
“Ouch,” Nick said, sounding genuinely sympathetic. “I just wanted to call and thank you for last night again. That was really awesome what you did for me.”
“Any time,” I said. “What are you doing up in the afternoon? Aren’t vampires allergic to sunlight?”
Nick chuckled. “We are, but we don’t need to sleep all day. I’m hanging out in the basement at the witch from the party’s house until I can go out without turning into a pile of ash.”
“Must be boring,” I said.
“Yeah, but at least she’s got a television down here. I watch way too much daytime television most days, but I only need a few hours of sleep,” he explained. “How’s it going with you? I was just watching the news and saw there’s some crazy guy killing succubi. Did you hear about that?”
“That’s actually why Dylan has been sticking so close to me,” I told him.
“I guess that makes sense since he’s your boyfriend,” Nick said.
“Oh no!” I denied quickly. “Dylan is not my boyfriend. Actually, I guess he is. I even called him that last night. Hell, this has been a confusing couple of days,” I said, a little embarrassed about my mini panic attack over Nick calling Dylan my boyfriend.
“Sorry,” Nick said, sounding embarrassed. “I just kind of assumed you guys were as good as married after the way he was hanging all over you last night and the way he talks about you.”
I groaned. “If Dylan’s mother has her way, we’ll be married soon. I’m beginning to think I need to hide from the Council of Witches.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, sounding completely lost, not that I blamed
him for being confused by my ramblings.
“The Council of Witches is forcing an affinity test between Dylan and me,” I explained.
“Don’t let them pressure you into this,” Nick said in a more urgent tone.
“I won’t,” I assured him. “Okay, the affinity test is probably going to happen, but nothing will come of it. My father might be willing to allow Dylan’s mother to push for the test, but he’d never allow her to push me into an actual ceremony.”
Nick was quiet for a short time, making me wonder if he was still there. “You should refuse to take the test. I’ve heard your council can be old-fashioned in their thinking, and they might convince your father to force the issue. As part sex demon, you can get out of the test.”
Nick’s knowledge of witches came as a surprise since he was a newly turned vampire. At least, I was assuming he was newly turned. While I hadn’t asked when he’d been turned, he was too nice to be an older vampire. Sadly, most vampires became cold and withdrawn as they aged. They started to view everyone as either a threat or a food source. Nick still had friends, and he seemed too sweet to be an older vampire, but I decided to ask anyway. “When were you turned,” I asked him.
“Just after my eighteenth birthday,” he answered excitedly. “It was a relief to finally go through the change.”
“So, you weren’t afraid?” I asked because I’d always wondered if the vampires were scared when they died. They lived in a very strange culture, so they probably had different ideas about life and death. Each vampire was responsible for freezing eggs or sperm prior to the change so they could keep their gene pool as pure as possible—their words, not mine. They would later use a human surrogate to carry their child. In some cases, they even had more than one child with a surrogate. Those children were changed at adulthood. In older times, they’d been required to produce a child before the change. For some reason, vampirism only passed down to people of certain decent, so this was how they continued their line. I guess they ended up with the occasional vampire who had a child with the wrong person, and their children died when they tried to change them. I’d always felt bad for the children who lived in vampire communities. It couldn’t be easy being a human who knew they would die between eighteen and twenty. None of them really had an option to remain human.
Sinfully Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 1) Page 16