by Amie Gibbons
“He doesn’t know what he’s missing, lea,” Carvi whispered, stroking my hair. “Some men can’t let themselves have what they want because they think that means they’ve gone to the dark side or whatever. Your Grant is one of those.”
He reached around and wiped away a tear. “Hey, think of it this way, he cares enough about you to not want to be the man who has you and moves on.”
I stopped crying.
“See, I make good points.” Carvi hugged me. “He doesn’t realize you’re not the young mistress you play with, you’d be a mate equal to him if he’d let you.”
“Why does he think that I’m just hit it and quit it then?” I asked.
“Because you’re young,” he said. “And you do give in to lust, so he thinks that’s all he is. And he doesn’t know how someone so much younger than him could love him like you do.”
“I think he’s right,” I said, voice breaking. “I’m here cheatin’ on Quil. Obviously I don’t take love too seriously.”
“You do,” he said. “You just know how to love more than one person at once. But being pretty and young and liking sex doesn’t make you less of true mate material. I can see these things, you and Grant would be a great pair. He’s just afraid to let himself go there. I was testing him with you here. I wasn’t trying to corrupt him. I was trying to free him.”
“And get some in the process.” I hiccupped.
“And get some in the process,” Carvi said, kissing my hair.
“Why are you being so nice right now?” I sniffed as another sob broke out.
“Because I got him in here and used you to temp him and you were hurt because of it. I don’t feel bad often, but I do now. I underestimated the man’s self-loathing.”
“I don’t think it’s self-loathing,” I said.
“I do. Who else would feel the need to punish themselves by denying the pleasures of a beautiful young woman?”
“You are a honey tongued devil,” I said.
“Why yes, yes I am. Go to sleep, lea. You’ve had a long day.”
“I slept most of it.”
“Well, a good deal, but you were shot and healed and that takes a lot out of a girl. Sleep. I’ll behave.”
I nodded and closed my eyes.
I dreamed of the woman Maria and the look of shock on her face when the bullets started flying, giant eyes watching from the wall.
###
“Okay,” I said after I woke up. “What time is the meeting tonight?”
“It starts at nine. We have about half an hour,” Carvi said. “Barely enough time to get presentable.”
“Hey!” I said.
“I meant both of us. We need a shower.” Carvi pulled me off the bed by the hands. “Be my bath buddy?”
“We don’t have time for that, Carvagio.” I slapped his arm and he just grinned bigger. “To do something more than just shower, because you’re right about that.”
He kissed my nose and pulled me back towards the bathroom.
We hopped in the shower. It had two shower heads, which was just brilliant. We scrubbed each other’s backs and talked about the meeting tonight.
Kind of like a couple getting ready for their day.
I got on my knees in the living room to dig through my suitcase and Carvi tapped my shoulder, making me turn.
“For my little lea,” he said.
A gorgeous waterfall of cloth dropped next to me and I stood, staring at it.
I fingered it with a soft gasp and dropped it.
The dress was made of some material so soft I couldn’t figure out what it could be made from besides very light cashmere. It was a green gown but the skirt shimmered with scintillating light that made it change colors and I reached forward, afraid to touch it again because that might make the magic disappear.
“It’s alright, lea, you can touch it.” Carvi shook it. “Very sturdy.”
“What’s it made of?” I asked, taking it by the top, which was a pretty emerald green, but sturdy and thick, with boning built in. The straps would help keep it up, but I had a feeling it’d be so tight, I wouldn’t need them.
“It’s spun from a being on the Other Side. Kind of like a sheep. Your Pyro is probably made from something similar, though the sentience is something not even that animal could make on its own. It was some strong magic that created him.”
I grabbed a pair of panties and slipped them on, Carvi watchin’ every movement.
Why did this feel more intimate than what we’d done in the bed?
I pulled the dress on, movin’ my wet hair to the side. Carvi didn’t need to be asked, he came over and zipped me up.
I had to suck in for the last few inches and yep, tight enough to stay up.
I pulled my breasts up, the dress hopefully well designed enough to keep them in place.
Carvi turned me around and I looked at him.
Really looked.
I’d seen him naked like half the time I was with him. But I was always tryin’ not to look or too busy enjoying what he was doing while naked.
He didn’t stand that tall for a guy. They were shorter back when he was human. But he was thick. Broad shoulders and big chest, heavy with muscle that had to be earned even if vamps had an easier time at it.
His stomach was flat and a trail of curly dark hair traveled from his belly button down.
I ran my hand down it and Carvi grinned. “Well if you want, we can-”
“Shussssh,” I said. “I’m looking at you.”
The smile dropped and he looked almost wary. “Ariana.”
“Just let me see you.”
He had long, strong legs. Ones made for fighting in armor.
A scar ran down the side of his left leg, jagged and at least a foot long.
I touched the top of it and Carvi flinched.
“You shouldn’t be able to see that,” he said, voice flat and human.
“Somehow I knew that,” I said. “Why is that?”
“My power hides it.”
“You don’t need to hide all the time,” I said, walking around him.
His high tight butt was the most obvious thing, but I looked above.
Lash marks decorated his back. Thin and white, long healed, but so obvious now I didn’t know how I missed them.
I touched one and Carvi grunted.
“How did these happen?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything.
“You weren’t saying theoretically when you were talkin’ to Claude yesterday, were you?” I said. “You really were a slave too? Back in Rome?”
“Egypt,” he said.
I paused.
Carvi turned around. “I was a slave in Egypt. I saw the plagues and I felt the power it came from. I fled before the rest of my people.”
“No, I saw. You and Milo were turned in Ancient Rome. Moses and all that was like fifteen hundred B.C. or something like that. Was Rome that big like thirty-five hundred years ago too?”
“No. You started this, lea. You tell me. What am I?”
“Jewish. You’re Jewish.”
“On my mother’s side.”
“And your father’s?”
“That’s where I got my powers.”
“I don’t understand.” My jaw dropped. “You were still human in Ancient Rome because…”
“I was never human.” He stepped back. “That’s enough truth for one night, lea. I’ll call one of my girls to come do your hair and makeup.”
He walked into the bedroom and shut the door with a click of finality that made me flinch.
He’d already been a thousand something year old human, or non-human I guess, when he’d been turned.
“Holy crap on a cracker,” I whispered, pulling heels out of my suitcase.
Chapter nine
The girl came a few minutes later, like she was just waiting on standby.
“Hey, I’m Shonda, I’m here to make you beautiful. Thank sweet baby Jesus you’re cute cuz the last woman I worked on needed abo
ut two hours to approach even that. Yikes.”
I grinned and looked at the bedroom.
“I don’t know if we should go in there,” I said.
Carvi burst out like he was waiting for his cue and waved us through it, makin’ jokes about how she had to get me beautiful as a trophy since that’d be what I was tonight.
His smile was still him, that smirk so arrogant you wanted to knock it off his face, but something in his eyes said I’d struck a nerve.
I wasn’t supposed to see through him.
No one was.
When I’d met his brother Milo, he’d been a lot like Carvi, all flirty and teasing, but he’d been so much more open and genuine. He had scars everyone could see and no one cared.
What had happened to Carvi to make him so guarded, when his brother who was almost as old as him wasn’t?
His brother was psychic too, but I’d seen in his head, seen he’d been through some crap too.
But he didn’t have the seduction like Carvi.
And Carvi was a few years older. Maybe he protected his baby brother from whatever had left him so damaged.
The stylist must’ve said something because she said, “Hello? Anyone in there?”
“Oh sorry, what’d you say?” I asked.
“You really were out of it.” She grinned.
“Yeah, sorry again. I’ve just had a long day. I was shot earlier.”
Her eyes flew wide. “What?”
“Yeah, long story, but there was a shooting when we were talkin’ to some people and I was the unlucky one who got shot. Go figure. I think everyone else was okay.”
I hadn’t even thought to ask.
“So what did you ask?” I said.
“Oh, just wondering what’s going on. The boss was pretty insistent on me getting up here but if we only have like twenty minutes, why didn’t he schedule me earlier?”
“No clue.” I shrugged. “I’m just here. I didn’t even pack a fancy dress for this shindig tonight because I thought it’d be business suits. Carvi had this made for me. And I’m not sure I should tell you what’s going on if he didn’t. I just work here.”
“Hey, that’s what I always say,” she said. “What do you want done with your hair?”
“Ummmmm. Maybe pulled up? To go with the fancy dress, I guess.”
“Got it.”
She pulled up my hair, pulling some strands loose and curling them, then put on makeup, chatting the whole time.
It was nice to just gab about nothing for a bit.
“Voilà,” she said, stepping away so I could see the mirror.
“Wow,” I said. “Whatever Carvi’s payin’ you, he owes you a raise.”
“Amen, sister friend,” she said.
My eyes were huge, but you couldn’t see any actual colors to give away eyeshadow, just some eyeliner and mascara, though I knew she put a ton on there. My skin looked perfect and she’d put red lipstick on me that set off everything else and made my lips stand out.
I looked truly beautiful… and kind of dangerous somehow.
“I… I feel like a princess and you are the fairy godmother,” I said.
“Now I’m blushing,” she said. “Go on, girl. The boss said to get you down there fast as I could.”
“Ummmm, do you know where? He kinda forgot to tell me that.”
“The Camerine Ballroom,” she said. “First floor, first door to the left of the elevator.”
“Got it. Okay. Thank you again.”
I grabbed my little purse, put my gun in the hip holster under the dress, the knife on the other side, and hustled downstairs.
I turned the corner after getting off the elevator and smacked into something, bouncing off it.
I looked up and froze.
Grant stared down at me, looking nearly as shocked.
“Sir! Hi!” I said.
The memory of earlier came rushing back and I must’ve turned bright red cuz Grant set his jaw and his eyes looked so hard they could’ve crushed my bones.
Or my heart.
“As far as I’m concerned, it never happened,” he said, voice cold enough to freeze off Carvi’s thing. “Got it?”
“Sir, that doesn’t seem to be workin’.”
“Yes, it does. It’s the only thing that does.”
He walked down the hall and I followed.
“But, sir.”
“Ariana!” He turned on me and I stumbled back. “I don’t want to hear another word. I’m chalking it up to that bastard messing with both of us and I can guarantee you, it will not happen again. If you helped him plan that and weren’t an innocent bystander like I think you were, we will have a serious discussion about the appropriateness of keeping you on my team. We clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, blinking fast to keep the tears down.
They’d ruin my makeup.
We walked to the ballroom and Grant opened the door, letting me through first.
Oh, of course, he was playing security.
He parked himself by the door and I curtsied to the room, walking around the table to Carvi.
Carvi’s table was on the raised stage up front, and lines of chairs stretched back through the giant room, not even half of them occupied.
The room had tapestries of hunting scenes like stuff I’d seen on vacation in Rome along the walls, chandeliers hanging every few feet, and a hardwood dance floor.
Carvi gave me a smile, but it didn’t make his eyes any warmer than Grant’s.
Yep, we were all just touchy with each other tonight.
Maybe Grant was right. Intimacy didn’t help when you were working together.
I sat next to Carvi and realized there actually was talking, the vamps were just being quiet in their little groups.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, leaning in.
“Discussions amongst the factions. We split up according to different ideas on what we should do with the movement to come out, and each group will have one representative speak. It was chaos a moment ago with everything fighting for airspace.”
I believed it. There must’ve been about a hundred vamps.
So, one hundred cities represented. And it looked like six different groups.
And then Carvi.
“You’re leading the movement to go public, right?” I asked. He nodded. “Why aren’t you in a group?”
“I am technically in that one.” He nodded towards the ones closest to us on the right. “But I’m leading this whole thing so I’m speaking no matter what.”
Yeah, like that was a surprise.
“Why are you leading the whole thing? I thought you just offered to host,” I asked.
“I’m the oldest. I speak, they listen.”
“Ah.” I sat back in my seat, lookin’ over the crowd.
There were a few vamps I probably knew from meetings back in the Nashville nest. We’d had something similar to this back when I first met all of the vamps up there.
And Quil.
My heart panged and I looked up at Carvi.
How could I have cheated on Quil so thoroughly?
He’d said I could, but did that make it right?
Maybe the betrayal really was in the lie and not the act, and if he said it was fine, that’d make it so.
But then why did I feel so guilty when I thought of him?
I looked back at the crowd and found a face I really didn’t want to see.
Jade stared right back at me, like she’d been looking for a while and just waitin’ for me to notice her.
She smiled, big and sweet.
And I thought I looked dangerous tonight.
Jade was a delicate little pixy of an Asian vamp. Long black hair, skin like a porcelain doll, and huge brown eyes. She wore a green kimono the same shade as her name, and she stood about three inches shorter than me if I remembered right.
She’d been Quil’s first love as a vamp. It hadn’t lasted but he’d been her right hand for centuries after. She became leader in the mid
dle of the country back during the Civil War, when Nashville wasn’t much more than a town drownin’ in blood.
As the city grew, so had her ego, and she took it out on her people.
She was a despot, a true dictator, and Quil wanted her dead, the woman he’d loved either long gone or a lie from the beginning, he’d never been sure.
Her fangs slid out and she ran her tongue over one.
And no, it wasn’t at all sexy.
She’d wanted me dead from the night we met.
What if she used this weekend to finally accomplish her goal?
She turned back to her group and I shook myself out, realizing too late that someone was probably watching and got that I was scared.
Fear in front of vamps is never safe.
The vamps talked amongst themselves for a while and I watched, trying to overhear something of what they were saying.
“Try not to be so obvious, lea,” Carvi said in my head.
“Sorry,” I whispered. “Just getting kinda antsy sittin’ here. Is there anything you actually need me to do while I’m here?”
“I need you to get some visions, but not yet,” he whispered back.
“Why not yet?”
“We’re going to start soon. I want to know what they say first. Then look for their lies.”
“Got it. What are their different beliefs? There’s like six of them.”
“We have the ones like me who want to just announce it on national news, show some proof. We have others who think we should break it to humans slowly, like let a group see something, let it get around, more and more, until it’s not a great shock. There’s another one similar to that, just slower still. We have the never going to tell ones, basically the status quo, the maybe someday, but don’t start now, wait for the humans to get to a calm point again, and then the vamp supremacists.”
He said it with the same disgust someone would say about a racial supremacist and I looked at him.
“And those are?” I finally asked.
“What do they sound like? Vamps better than people. People should be enslaved, not catered to.”
“Yikes.”
“Yes, guess who is the spokesperson for that group.”
“No way. She’s crazy but she’s not that crazy.”
“You want to think about that before you answer?”