by Myers, AJ
“Mick was right about one thing, you know?” Kellum said, distracting me from my unpleasant thoughts as he leaned against the doorframe next to him and gave me a curious look. “Nate really did luck up this time. You’ll be good for him. He’s been sad for way too long. You’ll keep things interesting, I have no doubt.”
“You’ve known each other for a long time, haven’t you?”
“We grew up on neighboring estates,” he said with a rueful grin. “He was a hellion then, too. He was noble by birth, but I don’t think anyone ever bothered to tell Nate that. He spent his time running wild with the children of the village instead. I envied the hell out of him, I won’t lie. I was my father’s only son, so I didn’t have the freedom Nate had. Not that I didn’t press my boundaries every chance I got. Nate and I got into more than our fair share of trouble together.”
I smiled, imagining the two of them, scrawny little boys, getting into everything they weren’t supposed to and then trying to explain to their very angry fathers what they had been up to. I didn’t know if I was right, though. Nathan didn’t talk about his childhood. I had always figured it was kind of a sore subject with him, so I’d left it alone. Maybe I could get Kellum to tell me some stories sometime. It would be nice to hear about what Nathan was like before he became…well, my Nathan.
“Then, Mick’s mate, Moira, took a liking to me one night in a pub and we became friends,” Kellum continued, giving me the story I guess he knew I was going to ask for eventually. “She was just a girl, Moira, but Mick had done something to her to keep her from aging. She wasn’t a vampire, but she wasn’t human anymore, either. She truly loved Mick, though, and I believe he loved her. When she asked him to turn me so she would have someone to talk to when he was away, he did it without even blinking. He never denied her anything.”
“Nathan’s father was higher up on the aristocratic totem pole than my father was, so when my father went to him for his assistance after I disappeared he took up arms and went on the hunt, taking his sons along for the fun.” His voice turned hard and angry, and I saw deep sadness fill his eyes. “Nate refused to join them. He wouldn’t play a part in them finding me. He knew, you see. He knew what I had become. He was my only real friend, and I had gone to him, scared and dying of thirst, right after I was turned.”
“I guess you know what happened after that,” he murmured, quietly.
Yeah, I knew. I shuddered as I remembered Nathan’s expression the day he told me that story. I had never seen that kind of agony or anger before. It had left a lasting impression.
“If it hadn’t been for Nate, I would have deserted after what Mick did to Lady Lisette and the girls,” Kellum said, his voice whisper soft. “Lady Lisette was the kindest woman I have ever met, and the girls were the mirror image of her, pure sweetness and light all three of them. They were innocent. He had no right to do what he did.”
Raised voices coming up the front steps drew our attention then, and we turned in time to see the most amazingly beautiful woman I had ever seen come through the door, shouting orders as she walked. Her golden hair was piled on top of her head with wisps coming down to caress her neck and cheeks. She was wearing a low cut silk blouse the exact gold of her hair and a long, white, wool coat paired with the shortest skirt she could possibly find, leaving her long legs bare to the knee. Leather boots with heels that had to be six inches high completed her ensemble, making her even taller than she already was.
Her aura was less than appealing, however. It was this awful jaundice-yellow color and the stench coming off of it reminded me of Stacy’s. Really, when they call some people ‘spoiled rotten’ it’s not just a figure of speech. This chick was just as foul as my human nemesis was—and then some. Seriously, she reeked.
She stopped when she spotted me and Kellum in the corner of the entryway and sniffed disdainfully. “My boys are going to need some help with my bags,” she said, imperiously. “See to it, and be quick about it.”
See to it? Seriously? When Kellum and I just stood there, exchanging a ‘Who the hell does she think she is?’ kind of look, she let out an impatient huff and clapped her hands sharply. “Now, infants! Chop, chop!”
Infants? Oh, hell no! She did not just call me an infant!
“Sure I will,” I chirped sweetly, with the coldest smile I could muster up.
“Then get on with it, wench,” she said, lifting her chin imperiously.
“You didn’t let me finish,” I told her, my voice losing all that sweetness real fast. First infant, now wench? Oh, she was so asking for an attitude adjustment. “What I meant to say is that I will carry your luggage in just as soon as Hell gets air conditioning and ice cubes. You want your bags brought in? Carry your arrogant ass back out there and get them.”
Kellum choked on his laughter as her mouth fell open in shock. She reached up to slide her shades down, revealing pale green eyes that were beginning to glow with anger, like that was going to intimidate me. I guess it wasn’t her fault that she was too stupid to know who she was dealing with. These older vamps really needed someone to take them down a peg or two.
Weren’t they lucky they had me to help them out?
“Little girl, do you know who I am?” she asked icily, removing her shades so she could really glare at me.
“Nope,” I said, shrugging. “And I really don’t care.”
“I am Blaire Dubois, you wretched child,” she growled.
The smile on my face died like a rose in winter. This foul-tempered prima donna was Zan’s maker, the one who killed people on a whim when she didn’t get her way. If I remembered correctly, she hadn’t been invited. At least, no one had told me they’d invited her.
“And my name is Ember Blaylock,” I told her coldly, letting her see the dislike in my eyes. “Around here, that puts me a little higher on the totem pole than you, Barbie, so I suggest you watch your step.”
“Why you insolent little—!” she hissed, stepping toward me. Before she could make a real mistake and piss me off, salvation—for her, not me—arrived dressed in the form of Zan himself.
“Play nice, Firecracker,” Zan said, as he came through the door with his hands full of suitcases, followed by what looked like quadruplets. Seriously they all looked alike, like someone had cloned a dark-haired cabana boy. “Blaire, stop that damned hissing. It won’t do you any good, anyway. Ember’s not like everyone else you step on. She has a tendency to bite. Hard.”
I smiled at him. That was high praise, coming from Zan. I was suddenly very proud of my smart mouth and bad attitude.
“Did you hear what she said to me, Zander?” Blaire wailed, causing me to roll my eyes again. “She suggested that I should carry my own luggage! Can you believe it? Do something!”
“You did?” Zan asked me, chuckling. “You really suggested that?”
“No, I didn’t,” I told him, raising my voice so he could hear me over Kellum’s howling laughter and Blaire’s continued whining. “What I said was that if she wanted her luggage brought in, she could carry her arrogant ass out there and get it. See? I didn’t suggest anything.”
“Zander!” Blaire screeched when Zan started laughing, too.
She was shrieking loud enough to wake the dead and more than a few of them were peeking in to see what was up. That was another thing I’d noticed over the years. Ghosts love drama. I’ve always wondered if that’s because being dead is just plain boring. The dead weren’t the only ones interested in the show she was putting on, though. A few of the living were starting to stick their heads over the banister to watch the show, too.
“What the blazes is that racket?” Skippy roared, appearing at the door of the library. He stopped when he saw the gathering crowd, my satisfied smirk, and Blaire’s furiously glowing eyes. “Oh, this looks interesting,” he crooned, grinning and crossing his arms over his chest as he took in the situation and made all the correct assumptions. Winking at me, he asked, “Are you making new friends, my sweet?”
“Yo
u know how it is, Skippy,” I told him, returning his wink. I saw more than one mouth fall open in shock. “People just flock around me. It must be my charm.”
“Skippy?” Blaire whined, turning on him with her lips already poking out in a pout. “Why does she get to call you Skippy? You wouldn’t let me!”
“I like her more than I like you,” Skippy told her, one eyebrow arched. Suddenly, he didn’t sound quite so friendly. “And for the record, you are still not allowed to address me as such. I will tolerate that kind of insolence only from her. Is that understood, Blaire?”
“Yes, Skipper,” she muttered, lowering her eyes respectfully. “I meant no disrespect.”
“Of course not.” He noticed Kellum then and I was surprised when his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Ember, my love, can I assume that Mikhail and his team have arrived?”
“Yes, sir, we arrived barely half an hour ago,” Kellum said before I could answer. The respect in his voice would have been hard to miss. “I’m sure Mick will be in to see you shortly. I believe he’s discussing the situation with Nate.”
“See to it that he does,” Skippy said shortly. The chill in his tone was enough to make everyone in the hall shiver just a little. “He is not to make a single move without my permission. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll let him know immediately.”
I gave Skippy a sour look for being such an ass to Kellum and he winked at me again. Skippy was such a show-off. Since I had already reduced him to putty in my hands, I decided to let his attitude with Kellum go. For all I knew, he had a good reason for it.
“Oh, and Ember?” he called over his shoulder, already walking back into the library.
“Yeah, Skippy?”
“Try not to make any more friends,” he said, grinning impishly. “I believe it is becoming a hazard to your health, darling.”
Nobody seemed to know what to make of the exchange between me and Skippy. Kellum looked incredulous, Blaire looked pissed, the cabana boys looked amazed, and Zan looked proud. Personally, I couldn’t see what the big deal was. So Skippy liked me? Surely I wasn’t the only person he’d liked in seven centuries.
Was I?
Blaire gave me one more evil look before stomping up the stairs like a three year old, followed by her cabana boy entourage. Shrugging, Zan dropped Blaire’s luggage in the middle of the hall and sauntered over to where Kellum and I were standing. Seeing that the drama had come to an end, the people who’d been watching over the banister started drifting away.
“What is she doing here?” I demanded with a scowl as Zan slouched against the wall next to me.
“Looking for Hamilton,” he answered with another shrug. “Well, she’s looking for a Hamilton, at any rate. Seems good old Benny killed one of her favorite toys a while back. Blaire likes to kill her toys herself, you see. She’s a little put out with him, and a pissed off Blaire is not someone you want to meet up with in a dark alley.”
“But that still doesn’t explain what she’s doing here,” I huffed in exasperation.
“She’s expecting him to come back up his big brother,” Zan said, examining the nails on his right hand.
“And why would he do that?” I asked, noticing that Kellum wasn’t really looking at me anymore, either.
After sharing a loaded look with Kellum, Zan finally sighed and said, “Because Benjamin Hamilton is a demon hunter, Firecracker.”’
A demon… Oh, hell.
“Anyway,” Zan hurried on. “She’s here, so we may as well let her make herself useful.” When he saw the stormy expression on my face and the slight glow of irritation in my eyes, he started backing toward the closest door. “I think I’ll go check on Nate. I’ll catch you kids later.”
I blinked and he was gone. Growling softly, I turned back to Kellum only to find him watching me with a startled expression on his handsome face.
“You really bring out the best in guys, huh?” he asked with a shaky laugh. “Zan’s not easily won over, you know. And what’s with you and the Boss? He actually seems to like you.”
“I was mean to him,” I told him honestly with a shrug. “We got off on the wrong foot, me and Skippy, but we worked it out in the end and now we adore one another. And it only took me one day! That has to be some kind of record, right?”
“You were mean to him?” I smiled at the way Kellum was looking at me. I swear, he looked like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
“Yep. Weird, huh?”
He looked at me for a second, then laughed and started walking down the hall in the same direction Zan had gone.
“Where are you going?” I called after him, confused.
“To see if Skipper has a chapel in this mausoleum,” he called back without missing a beat. “I haven’t prayed in a while but I think I can remember how. I spent a decade studying with a Buddhist monk. Then another two with a Wiccan high priestess—though, I admit, in her case I was mostly studying her rather than learning anything spiritual. Hell, I might even have to dig down deep, back to childhood when I was a good little Catholic boy, and light a candle or two for good measure. Yeah, and maybe say a few Hail Mary’s, just to make sure I’m getting through to the right people.”
“Who on earth are you praying for?” I asked as I ran to catch up with him, astonished by the list he had just rattled off.
“Nate,” he said, really laughing now. “I was wrong. He isn’t lucky, he’s cursed. With you as a mate, he’s going to need all the help he can get.”
Chapter 35: Angels Are Such Jerks
I made it through the rest of the night without pissing anyone else off. It wasn’t easy, especially with Mikhail’s bunch of jerks roaming around like they owned the place, Mikhail himself hogging all my boyfriend’s time, and Blaire glaring daggers at me every time we happened to be in the same room together, but I managed it.
It was after two in the morning when I decided I’d had all of the undead I could take and retreated back to the room Kim and I had decided to share. Kim was out cold on the sofa, so I picked out a comfy piece of carpet next to the window, wrapped myself in a thick blanket so my ghosts wouldn’t freeze me to death, and pulled the curtains back so I could watch the snow fall.
It took longer than usual to clear my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about Dragon Lady Cantrell. I know. Weird, right? But, for some reason, even after everything else was neatly stored away in little mental drawers, she just refused to let me rest.
So much about her suddenly made sense to me. Her bitterness, her lack of emotion, all of it. She had shut it all off. She had forced herself to stop feeling after her one true love had marked her and abandoned her. I couldn’t fault her for that. I could envy her, but not fault her. I knew what that felt like, that terrible, soul-bruising agony of losing your other half. I had felt it for months, and it had nearly destroyed me.
But refusing to feel it had destroyed Ms. Cantrell, too. She had stopped living when she lost her mate. As I thought about that, I was glad I hadn’t taken that road. The ability to truly feel was the only human trait I had left. Even if what I’d felt was so painful I had wished I could die, at least I’d been able to feel it. I couldn’t help but wonder if Ms. Cantrell still could. And that thought made me sad.
I was still sitting there thinking about how the choices we make change us when the door creaked open and Tyler slipped in, scanning the room until he found me. I wanted to kick myself when my heart gave a happy little leap at the sight of him.
“What’s up?” I asked, keeping my voice down so I wouldn’t wake Kim up, as he slid down the wall next to me.
“I’m on guard duty,” he whispered with a grin—and a shiver, seeing as I was still surrounded by the dead. “You might not believe this, but Nate asked me to come keep an eye on you. I get the distinct impression he doesn’t trust his creator where you’re concerned.”
“Yeah? Well, that makes two of us,” I admitted, turning back to the window and the snow. “You should have seen the way
he looked at me, Ty. It gave me a seriously nasty case of the heebie-jeebies. Just between me and you? Mikhail scares the shit out of me. He’s up to something, I know he is. I just don’t know what yet.”
“Well, whatever he’s planning, he won’t be putting it into action tonight,” Tyler said, putting his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to his warm body. “He’d have to kill me to get to you. If I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s why Nate sent me to watch you instead of one of the others. He might become a jealous caveman every time I get near you, but he knows I’d never let anything happen to you.”
Because you love me, I finished for him, laying my head on his shoulder with a sigh. You love me and Nathan knows it.
We sat there for a long time, both of us watching the snow, lost in our own thoughts. And, for the first time since the night we met, I couldn’t seem to relax. Everything had changed. The Tyler I’d known was gone. In his place was a guy who was in love with me—and who I just might love in return. He had gone from being my friend to something more, something romantic, and I didn’t know how to handle that.
As if he could sense the tension building inside me, Tyler leaned down to whisper, “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours, Em? Something’s wrong. I can feel it. Did I do something to upset you?”
I glanced up at him, into the golden eyes that had always been so warm and familiar to me. I could see it there, in his gaze, that he was ready to have ‘The Talk’, the one that would end our friendship forever—and I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t. I wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet. Because I knew, once we laid all our cards on the table, I was going to lose him.
So, selfish cow that I am, I forced a smile and murmured, “Not lately.”
“Then what has you so fidgety?” I saw the disappointment in his eyes and felt even worse than I had before. “You’ve never been nervous with me. What’s going on?”
“I was thinking about Hamilton,” I lied, spitting out the first excuse I could think of. And really, that’s what I should have been thinking about—not my love life. “Speaking of which, I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t look very happy about your angel buddies coming to help out.”