I was a firm believer that a suit made any man infinitely better looking. Take a guy who’s already handsome? Wow. And I was surrounded by disgustingly good-looking men. Dakarai was no exception to the rule. The solid black should have made him look severe, or at least out of place, but he was as stylish as any nightclub or bar owner. His silver tie was a nice touch.
“Thank you, darling. Will you save me a dance or will you make me beg?”
“You can have all the dances you want. Why would you even ask?”
“A certain someone can be… how shall we say… protective of you? I would prefer to keep my appendages.”
I laughed and let him steer me into the great hall, which had been transformed into the reception area. “He’s all bark.”
“With you, maybe. He still terrifies the better part of the population. If he weren’t my friend, I would fear him, too.”
“We’ll just have to work on making him more accessible.”
“Dakarai,” shrieked Adriana as she came running toward us at full tilt, her amber dress swirling around her feet. “Where were you sitting? Mom said I could sit with you and Jasper, but I couldn’t find you. I lost money on a bet. I swore you’d cry, but I have no proof.”
He grinned at his protégé. “Now you will never know, I am afraid. Are you sitting with us?”
“Yeah. Cecilia said that it was only right considering I’m the Circle’s youngest member. Besides, I’d die if I had to sit at the kiddie table. I’m almost fifteen.”
Dakarai held out a seat for her, ignoring the flush of pleasure on her cheeks. She looked the same way whenever she was included with us. She’d grown on me.
“Wow,” said Esai. He ambled up to us with Marin on his arm. “You clean up nicely, boss.”
“You don’t look too bad yourself,” I said and meant it. He’d dyed those horrific platinum spikes back to his natural brown and had combed it for once.
“We are all impressive tonight, da?” said Mikael. He pulled out a seat for Heather, his date and possibly girlfriend. We hadn’t had any good gossiping time in almost a week, so I wasn’t sure where things stood between the two. Heather had moved to the Order from Amsterdam with Bastian. They’d both gone through initiation and were now full-fledged assassins. And Mikael was in the midst of a full-blown mega-crush. “This is the first time I have attended a wedding. Are they all like this?”
“I hope so,” said Heather. “I enjoy American celebrations. They’re so elaborate.”
“The Order does elaborate well,” Dakarai chuckled.
We chatted as the reception room filled and waited for the bridal party to enter. Hors d’oeuvres were nearly over when Nicholas made his way to our table. He was joined by Candice. I didn’t understand the two, and I’d stopped trying. A few days after the battle, Nicholas had visited me at my apartment to talk. Yes, he’d slept with Candice, but it had been after we’d broken up. He’d been drunk, he said, at least the first time. I tuned him out for a while, but the gist of it was that he’d always intended to win me back. He hated keeping such a huge secret and felt that he’d betrayed me, confessing his love when he had just slept with someone else. I’d hugged him and told him that I wanted him to be happy. Since then, things had been strained between us, at least on his side.
“Hi, everyone,” chirped Candice. “Sorry we’re late. Nick is such a slowpoke.”
He was no such thing, but whatever. No longer my problem.
He tried to smile through a clenched jaw and sat on my right. “I got sucked into a work thing. Did I miss anything good?”
“Nope, just some delicious appetizers.” I leaned in closer. “Your tie is crooked.”
“Fix it for me?”
I rolled my eyes and turned him toward Candice. “Fix his tie. It’s crooked.” She grinned at me and got to work.
The cocktail hour seemed to drag on with everyone paired off. Even Dakarai and Adriana were engrossed in conversation. Mikael, as always, was great in trying to keep me involved, but Heather occupied most of his attention.
The wedding party arrived and behind them, the bride and groom. I swore I’d never seen anyone look as happy as Danny and Cecilia. To say they were glowing would have been to cheapen the moment. They were so in love that everyone in the room could feel it as the couple grinned at their audience.
Jordan made his way to our table and sat next to me. “Sorry I took so long. Pictures and stuff. Did you save me a dance?”
“.I bet you fifty dollars that you can’t dance. I’m not losing money.”
The rest of the reception passed by in a blur of hugs, well-wishes and nosy old women who wanted to know my relationship status. They didn’t like my answer: I didn’t have one because Jordan and I agreed to hold off on putting labels on whatever we were. We had the whole immortality thing to figure out, so other than being exclusive, we just… were.
After all the traditional dances, Jordan offered me his hand and pulled me to the dance floor for a slow song. I draped my arms around his neck and swayed to the music.
“This doesn’t count. Anyone can dance to a slow song.”
“Whatever. So Cecilia and Danny, huh? Marriage is an insane concept, but they’re happy. Maybe it isn’t the big steaming pile of crap I always thought it was.”
“Yeah,” I said, terrified to see where this was going. “Marriage is special.”
“Not that I’m thinking about marriage,” he blurted. “We’re not… you’re too young… and we don’t…”
I laughed and covered his mouth with one hand. “Dude, same page. We’re good. Why are you freaking out?”
He shrugged. “All this perfection makes me sick to my stomach. I see these couples around us making things work so well.”
“I think we work just fine.”
“For now. I’m not the nicest or most communicative person on the planet.”
“And I have another personality that likes to beat up on you. I can kill you with a thought, and I whine whenever you drink the last of my orange juice.” I smiled. “Let’s say things don’t work out. We’ll always be friends, even if we never saw each other again.”
“That won’t happen.”
My cheeks flushed. “Well,” I said. “I’m not going anywhere, so we’ll be okay.”
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’m sorry for kidnapping you.” He tilted his head to one side. “And choking you. I could have used a different technique.”
I burst out into laughter. “I’ll forgive you this one time since it worked out for me.”
He kissed me, and all was right in my world.
✽ ✽ ✽
I held onto the magic of that night for as long as I could. And as Jordan’s arm, heavy with sleep, draped over me in bed, I pretended that there was nothing more to my life than a string of perfect moments like this one.
But we all knew we were on borrowed time. The cult was gone but whatever Carlo had done had unleashed some malevolent entity. Mikael’s visions, Dakarai’s meditations, and my own talks with Ashor revealed the same: Something was coming for us.
I couldn’t predict the future. I didn’t know how many more people we would lose along the way. What I knew was that I’d fight to my last breath to save the people I loved. And we would stand against the tide of chaos and save humanity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matilda Reyes grew up in the Bronx, NYC, lived in Los Angeles and now lives in South Florida. She believes life is about having experiences that will make great stories. Twist her arm hard enough, and she’ll try just about anything once. As a writer, Matilda is obsessed with pithy dialogue and dry humor. She dabbles in different genres including new adult, paranormal, urban fantasy, science fiction, bizarre, and non-fiction. Her major influences are diverse. Kevin Smith, Jon Stewart, Chris Hardwick, Jim Butcher, Karen Marie Moning, Christopher Moore, Brent Weeks, and Chuck Wendig are current favorites. Matilda loves chatting with her readers, so once you finish one of her novels, please leave a review, follow
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www.Matildareyes.com
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Also by Matilda Reyes
Jasper Andrews finds herself drawn into this superhuman world when a freak explosion exposes her to groups interested in secret abilities. When her family is killed under unbelievable circumstances, Jasper is the only suspect. She flees police custody and heads to New York City to lose herself in the crowds. Jasper wants revenge, but being chased by the police and superhuman bad guys, slows her down. While she’s in hiding Jasper becomes more volatile; she manifests traces of her siblings’ abilities. The Order of Vespers has decided she’s too dangerous and too important to leave unguarded and capture her. Before she can escape, the killers strike again, this time taking children connected to the Order. Jasper is forced to choose between her vendetta and the lives of the Vespers and humanity.
The Order of Vespers is in turmoil. Their most powerful supernatural members have been kidnapped by a cult hell-bent on destroying the cosmic balance. Its members are revolting and their leadership, The Circle, is hanging on by a thread. The one person who can save them, Jasper, has been missing for over a year. Jordan gets a lucky break when one raid turns up more than they could have hoped for: a way to bring back his dearest friend and partner-in-crime. While members of The Circle are against using magic to restore her, Jordan is convinced that Jasper has a larger role to play. He believes that she can stop the kidnappings, ferret out the traitors to the Order, and save the world. The Circle must decide whether to trust in dark magic and a friend that may no longer exist or to forget her and try to save the Order themselves.
The Black Knights Page 32