He grinned, disarming, deliriously gorgeous, and charming. “Perhaps a silk sheet, and perhaps only a smile.”
If my face had been on fire before, it turned into a blazing inferno now. I had no idea what to say to such a brazen come-on, so I just stared at said shirt in a darker shade of jade than his eyes. How could a man wear green silk and still look utterly masculine?
“Let’s take that beauty for a spin, shall we?” He took my hand and spun me in a dance move, as if he’d rehearsed it a thousand times. The skirt did its thing, flaring up around my hips. I was damn glad I had on full coverage boy shorts and not a thong. That would have been drafty. When he spun me again, I ended up stumbling into someone. Asher. Oh, sure, it just haaaad to be him.
“What are you doing?” he ground out through a face so tight with anger I backed away from them both. “Touch her again and I’ll break you.”
“Chill, brother,” Marcus said, smiling wide. “Her storm is locked up tighter than Fort Knox right now, and I didn’t touch her long enough to do any damage. We were just having fun, not that you understand the concept.” He rolled his eyes at the last.
Asher pushed in, got up in his face. “I’m not your goddamned brother. We’re working, not fraternizing, so stop thinking with your dick and get your mind on the job.”
Remy cleared his throat and put his bulk in the midst of the imminent fisticuffs. “Brahs, we in kindigarten or in the Machine, eh? Why not put the balls away an’ do some planning, yeah?”
Taka cough-laughed before catching me staring at him, at which point he glared death mixed with icy-cold fear at me. I got the feeling he wasn’t sorry for trying to whack me and might take another crack at it if he found me alone. Fantastic.
I smiled at Remy as the men separated. Black shirt rolled up over his giant forearms, black jeans, and cowboy boots. Tribal giant does the rodeo. Although his eyes weren’t that different from Asher’s or Marcus’s in general description, they held warmth and honesty instead of a winter’s chill. Could Remy really have betrayed the Machine? No way. My heart didn’t want to believe it. If it turned out to be him, that same heart would break.
I surveyed the others in the room. Was the Misgiver standing with us? Kat had come in and posed by Taka. She wore a short black skirt and thigh-high suede boots with not much more than a pink tube-top covering her boobs. Her white-blonde hair hung shining and loose around her shoulders, and her makeup made her eyes pop.
Taka had on black dress pants and a modern version of a Hawaiian shirt. Somehow, it worked on him. What were his talents? How did he live with the knowledge that he’d killed someone he loved? The answer kicked me in the stomach. None of them were really living, only existing, and that had to change. I still couldn’t believe he’d killed her just by loving her. I had a strange feeling that I could help him if I could only figure out how.
“Plaid?”
I turned to find Asher bursting a vein as if he’d been talking to me for a while. “Stop calling me that,” I said.
“Over here, now.” He jabbed his finger at the floor beside him. “I asked … twice … do you dance?”
I shrugged, hating to admit to yet another place I fell short of his refinement. “I did the two-step with my gramps at a wedding when I was eight. Does that count?”
Gripping the hips of his well-fitted pin-striped suit, he stared at the ceiling. Maybe he was counting to ten.
I stood there and tried not to notice how good he looked in the suit with a deep blue shirt that made his eyes appear more blue than green. Somewhere between storm-cloud slate and robin’s egg, only brighter, cleaner, with an edge of ice. I couldn’t help thinking that we looked pretty good together, elegant and polished, but mine was just a façade. Inside, I was still the country girl, the plaid-loving redneck, and no amount of silk or satin would change that even if I wanted to. I shook off the sadness that tried to descend on me.
“I think she should go as she is,” Marcus said, his “look-how-cute-I-am” smile pointed at me. It wasn’t a comforting smile, but one I imagined he used often to cover some inner machination because he knew the person on the receiving end of it wouldn’t like what he was thinking.
“What do you mean?” Asher stopped his silent fuming and stared at the other sentinel. By the dip in his brow, he didn’t like the smile any more than I did.
“This is Xavier we’re talking about here,” Marcus said. “You know what he likes.” He traced me up and down with more heat than a toaster oven.
I blushed harder. “Why are you looking at me like that? And how do you know this infected guy? Has he been infected before?”
Remy nodded, expression grim. “Once they infected once, it easier for the wraith to find ’em again. Like roaches. Just keep coming back.”
How did that even happen? Wasn’t there a way to close up a person after the wraith came out?
“No,” Asher barked.
“Look at her, Ash,” Marcus said. “He likes the innocent, the inexperienced. He likes to teach them to move the way he wants. She doesn’t even have to act. She screams innocent and sweet, and you can’t deny her allure, especially in that red dress.”
“I said no. Kat is our bait.” Asher sounded almost desperate.
“Kat’s good, but for this one, Addison will be better,” Marcus said, his smile a beacon. “Won’t you, little rabbit?”
Kat did her best to slay Marcus with those evil lasers of hers. Not too much pressure. “Sure,” I said, and might have convinced exactly nobody with the lame chuckle I gave afterward.
“I don’t know ’bout this, brah.” Remy rubbed his forehead as if it hurt. “This could go way wrong.”
“You’ve got to be joking.” Kat stomped around in her screw-me boots. “Not wrong, a goddamn disaster.”
Marcus clapped his hands together. “It’s perfect. It’s settled, then.”
Asher shook his head, jabbing a finger toward the other sentinel. “No, it isn’t.”
“I’m the highest ranking sentinel here, and I say it is. Let’s go, boys and girls.”
My steak really wanted to come back for a visit. I so did not want to do this.
Chapter 27
Everyone else faded out into the Shift. Kat flipped me off before she went.
“Nice,” I said. “Classy.”
“She hates that you look hotter than she does.” Sophia came around from behind me, offering a red beaded clutch purse.
I’d totally forgotten she was even in the room. She did the disappearing act really well. I wished I did. “Uh … if you say so.” I took the purse and tucked it under my arm.
“So, is it as bad as you thought?” Her body language changed, waiting for me to wound her, no doubt. “The dress, I mean.”
I hugged her, forgetting the rules for a moment, until she squeaked and jerked out of my grasp. “Sorry I startled you,” I said. “Hugging you felt good, and neither of us died, so please don’t be mad. And the dress is beautiful. It feels like walking in a cloud. You do good work.”
An innocent smile curled up her lips. She rubbed her own arms as if remembering mine around her. “Hugs are nice, I just wasn’t expecting it. Thank you. And watch your back tonight. From every direction, if you catch my drift. I’d say I wish I was going with you, but I’m not that brave, sorry.”
“Leave us,” Asher said.
Neither of us moved until he yelled it again. “Fine, fine, I’m going.” Sophia marched toward the door. “You bring her back to me in one piece, sentinel, or I’ll sew razors into the crotch of your next suit.”
She went out, and the instant the door shut, my anxiety cranked up. So did the gravity to the hot professor. The one I still wanted to touch the way I wanted to gulp ice water on a hot day. A compulsion that overrode reason. God, he looked good, his eyes like jade and blue fire, the suit fitted to him perfectly.
I stared at his feet, feeling naked in the dress. My skin grew tight and warm as I imagined him staring at me. I crossed my arms over my
boobage. “Are we going, or what?”
“I’m always late to the party,” he said through a sigh, sauntering over to me.
Shit, I so could not handle being near him right now. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, nothing.” He shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair. “It is a beautiful dress.”
A beautiful dress, not I looked beautiful in the dress. The obvious distinction stung more than it should have. “Then why didn’t you tell Sophia? A girl likes to know her work is appreciated.”
“We don’t coddle feelings here, Plaid. The Outfitter does her job, and I do mine.”
“That’s part of what’s wrong with the Machine.”
He frowned at me, and even that didn’t make him any less gorgeous. When he spoke again, the words came glass-edged and hot with anger. “I don’t want you to do this. You were just supposed to watch and learn. How am I supposed to … I don’t want that asshole anywhere near you.”
I squinted at him, confused and all tingly at the same time. Maybe he did care about me on some level. “You know I have to do this after what Izan said. And Marcus outranks you, anyway.”
Asher nodded. A slice of his energy flared over me. “Yeah, I know, but I don’t have to like it.”
“Why does he outrank you, anyway? It wasn’t in sparring skills, because you danced around his grinning ass. He said something about weapons and power.”
His laughter rippled over me like hot fudge, but it stopped abruptly. “I wish I knew. His eyes are brighter, but I’ve never seen him do anything out of the ordinary. We don’t hunt together, though, so maybe he’s better at pulling out wraiths than I am. It’s forbidden to ask or to touch so I can taste his power, so I have to accept that there’s a good reason.”
“Well, we’ll see tonight. Do you think it’s him?” I didn’t have to say “Misgiver.” The tightness of his mouth let me know he got it just fine.
“It could be any of them, but I could only get the Colonel to agree to bring these four. It didn’t take much convincing to agree to a group going to protect you after your little display earlier. He was ready to put you at the bottom rank and be done with you before you got lucky. Now he doesn’t know what to do with you, and, quite frankly, I think he’s scared shitless of you.”
I snorted, couldn’t help it. “You think I got lucky? Nice.” I shook my head, getting back on topic. “Could it be him? The Colonel?”
“No, I can’t believe it’s him. He keeps us in line, keeps us to the law.”
“But the laws are wrong.”
The look on Asher’s face could have melted glass. “What?”
I shrugged. How could I explain a feeling I didn’t understand? Answer: I didn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t. “They’re waiting for us. We need to go.”
A breath hissed out of him, long and slow. “Agreed, but you will explain once we’re clear of this night. You still don’t know what will happen to you tonight via your new sensei?” He made “sensei” sound like I did when addressing him with it, vile and insulting. Was he jealous of Izan? Nah.
“No idea.” I shivered, my fear rising like a black tide.
Asher closed the distance. Reached for me, stopped. Reached again.
“Yeah, you’re not good with the whole comforting thing, and you can’t stand to touch me, I get it.” I turned away. “Now, let’s go, before I totally lose my nerve.”
He made a sound between a growl and a roar. “I won’t let you out of my sight tonight. I may not like this, but Marcus was right, you will catch Xavier’s eye. He owns the club and makes sure everyone knows it. Just let that innocent charm you have flow over him, get him good and snared, and then ask him to take you outside.”
“What? Why would I want him to do that?”
“We can’t rip out a wraith in front of an audience. We need to take him someplace private.”
Ah, that made sense. Still, it meant I’d have to be alone with the guy. I hadn’t even met him, and I was already trying not to pee my boy shorts. “Okay. So how do I sense the wraith-infected through the Shift? That’s part of this whole hunt thing, even if you already found one, right?” It occurred to me it kind of happened by accident back at Waterloo when Ava and her jock friend were infected, but I had no idea how to go looking for one on purpose.
“Another time. For now, let’s just concentrate on you watching how to pull out the wraith.”
I swallowed hard. Stay down, steak. Good boy. “Okay, I’m ready.”
Warmth hit my lower back before Asher’s hand landed there. It was the sort of touch you’d give a sleeping baby, one you were afraid to jar awake in case it might cry. I hated that touch worse than him not touching me.
The great beating heart thundered inside my chest as realities piled on top of whatever one the facility had been built in. Mountains shone crystal white from noon-day sun shining down on their snowy peaks, faint but there, like the surreal out-of-focus landscape from a pleasant dream. Buildings overlaid that one, the windows all dark, the streets barren. More and more piled up and then faded out again until we arrived on a dark street between two brick buildings. No, not a street, but an alley. “Where are we?” I asked. My nose wrinkled from the stench of exhaust and that nasty sewer smell a lot of big cities had.
Asher started for the street at the end of the alley. The way he squinted into every shadow made my adrenaline surge. What was he looking for? Wraiths? Something else? I could only see a small cross section of the street, but it was alive with foot traffic and yellow cabs.
“New York,” I said, hurrying after him, remembering what Sophia had said about The Swan Club. I had a creeping sensation crawling over my flesh I hadn’t felt in years. Not since I was little and alone in the dark in the cornfield waiting for Evangeline’s brothers to come and scare the bajeepers out of me. My legs tensed to run, the urge overwhelming.
“Yes,” Asher said, his one word filled with the tension that seemed to be ringing through his body. “Stay close.”
“Is this Xavier guy close? What is it you’re looking for in the shadows?”
“The biggest threat tonight isn’t from the wraiths. Don’t forget that.”
Right. The Misgiver. Did Asher think he or she would be waiting to ambush us? If so, then why? Had I slipped and given away that I knew about the traitor? And why would whatever I did tonight make them react? Izan, a little help here?
We came to the end of the alley. Asher made an abrupt turn before we made it out of the shadows and into the light of the street lamps. I stopped just short of ramming into him.
“A little warning,” I said.
The bedroom heat in his eyes welded me in place. “We’ll figure this out,” he said, his voice rich with that heart-wrenching emotion he’d shown in the chamber, and it sounded just as genuine now as it had then. “You can do this, I know you can.”
Beginning to squirm under his bold appraisal, I moved back a step when he edged closer. “Sensei?”
“Asher,” he said. “I don’t deserve that title.” Rubbing a hand along his jaw, he raised his gaze from my dress and moved closer until he blotted out the world. “You really do look spectacular in red.” He reached out a hand that swept gently over my hair, picking up the curl at the end and watching it fall back over my arm, mesmerized, as it slid through his fingers. “I’m sorry I made you think I didn’t believe in you, or that you were incapable of fulfilling the tasks Izan has written into your future. I’m the coward here, not you.”
Wow. Did he just admit to being coward? That was epic. I rejoined reality when he played his fingers through my hair again. “Your hair looks good down,” he whispered. “You should wear it this way more often.”
Oh, my God, he was touching me. I’d been aching for him to make contact in some way, and it had finally happened. I sighed, holding my energy inside by sheer will when it ached to rush out and meet him. What about the rules? I licked my suddenly dry lips, and as if I’d invited him, his gaze zeroed in on them. It ling
ered there until I squirmed harder, his expression as intense as it had been during the night of my induction. He raised his shaking hand, his thumb poised as if to run across my lips.
Words left me before I thought them through. “I don’t need convincing to go to the club, and I’m not on the verge of freaking out like I was in the chamber, so … is this real? Because it feels real. The eyes never lie, and yours are full of some pretty intense stuff right now. I can hardly breathe when you look at me that way.” Crap, I did not just say that out loud.
I caught something dark and wild in his eyes before he stepped back, rubbing a hand over his mouth and then letting it fall to his side. “I uh … dammit.” He cleared his throat, his jaw clenching. “We don’t know each other tonight, Plaid. The Swan Club is just down a few blocks. Turn right out of this alley, and you won’t miss it. I’ll watch from the first layer of the Shift until you go in, and then I’ll see you inside. Your ID is in your handbag.” A moment later, after one last penetrating look, he vanished.
Stupid! Why did I have to go and open my big mouth and make him go away? My lips tingled as if his stare had physically touched me, or he’d been thinking so hard about kissing me that my body thought he had. Smacking them together, I rounded the corner and stopped at a window display. No, I was just being a hormonal idiot and had probably read more into our little moment than was there. Now, if I could just convince my body to stop with the hot thrills in my groin, I might be able to think about what I had to do.
Knowing he was up in the Shift, watching over me, I relaxed a smidge. What was he thinking right now? Was he pissed? Disappointed like me that I’d ruined the moment? While composing myself, I stared at a painting in the window of an art gallery. An elderly man sat on an old-fashioned porch swing with a little boy beside him, both of them engrossed in a book they held between them. The man reminded me of Dad in another twenty or thirty years.
I always thought I’d find someone, settle down into some job, and have kids of my own. Now there was one giant problem with that: nobody in the Machine aged, touched, or had meaningful relationships of any kind, only cold sex with strangers. That might work for the some, but I couldn’t imagine finding any satisfaction without an emotional connection.
Darkside Sun (Entangled Embrace) Page 24