Chosen Thief (8 page)

I felt Shifter magic pulse softly through the air, but I paid it little attention since it wasn’t touching me.

King
Collins’s eyes narrowed slightly on Sin. “Then whom exactly have I agreed to pardon of their transgressions?”

My lips twitched, and I turned my face against Sin’s chest to keep from laughing, feeling Sin shrug. “We’ve grown up together in the same places, and many have called us brother and sister, so you’re more than welcome to use the term if it makes you feel better about,” he cleared his
throat, “the possibly extensive list of transgressions you’re going to exonerate me from.” A pause. “Oh, and having me live under your very impressive roof.”

“Be nice, Sin,” I murmured, thumping his chest, but I couldn’t help grinning as I peered up at him. This deal was really a sweet bargain on our part.

A green eyebrow rose. “After what you’ve already said to this group, I thought I was being
polite, albeit aloofly blunt.”

“Aloofly blunt,” London stated out of nowhere, “is an oxymoron.”

Sin and I stared at one another, and he whispered, “You were right. There aren’t words.”

“I know, right?”

The Shifter magic floating in the air heightened at that moment. Sin’s eyebrows rose slightly as he asked to no one in particular, “You don’t give up easily, do you?”

Brann moved in my peripheral,
altering his position to lean against the bar to casually rest his hip against it, and the magical pulsations disappeared. “Why can’t I feel your magic, either?”

“Ah, one of many irregularities between Caro and I,” Sin murmured quietly in answer, eyeing me before turning toward Brann. “And to tell you the truth, your probing feels extremely uncomfortable, so I would
appreciate
you not doing it
again.” Sin’s eyes tracked over Brann slowly while he stated, “And I believe you can make your own assumptions about me, given the blatant green hair.” I hadn’t chanced glancing at Brann’s face, so I had to assume Sin was staring him in the eyes since his head was tilted back a bit. He deadpanned, “Your tailor must work day and night to make clothes to fit you.” Brann’s wolf instantly growled quietly,
and Sin held up a hand. “All kidding aside, man…it probably doesn’t take just one tailor, I imagine you have two: one for the front and the other for the back.”

Oddly, Brann’s wolf stopped growling at the added insult, and he twisted to pour another two fingers of brandy in his crystal glass. “Actually, I only have one tailor, and she normally does get sidetracked when she’s measuring how greatly
she needs to let out the material for the side I dress on.” He sipped at his drink. “Something I’m sure you would never have an issue with.”

Well, it appeared I had been correct. The Shifter Prodigy definitely had some balls going toe to toe with Sin, since anyone with half a brain — which I already knew he had, even if he was annoyingly snooty — could see the intelligence and shrewd light in
Sin’s green eyes, plus there was the fact that Sin was a criminal.

Maneuvering smoothly between them when Sin stayed mute —a respectable action never came from that prelude — I patted Sin’s bare chest. “I don’t know about you, but I’m famished. How about we have one of the lovely Kings or Queens show us to the kitchen?”

Staring over my head at Brann, more than likely naughty thoughts dancing
merrily through his scheming head, Sin stated distractedly, “It’s down the hall to the right. Second left. Down the stairs. Head through the French doors, past the formal living room, the game room, and then you’re there. Although, I’m fairly sure there are more kitchens in the other wings of the place.”

“Perfect.” I grabbed his hand, jerking him around, and pulled him toward the door. “You can
show me, then.”

“But—”

“No buts,” I muttered, talking over him. “I’m hungry and you’re taking me.”

“Actually, it appears you’re taking me,” he mumbled as I dragged him past King Collins. He turned his head, talking to him. “Where’s our room in this place?”

I paused at the door, glancing back to King Collins and wondering that myself, but I was intelligent enough to keep a firm grasp on Sin’s
hand.

King Collins’s face was carefully blank when he peered at me. “One room or two?”

Instant. “One.” It had always been one for us when we lived together. “And we’ll need some clothes unless you brought our bags when you kidnapped us.”

He nodded once. “We brought your bags.” Brown eyes swung to Sin. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen you already…cased…in a half-hour to show you to your room.”

“Hold on,” Queen Ruckler interjected, walking to stand next to King Collins and staring at Sin. “King Collins will need to know your full name to get the process started for your charges.”

Sin muttered a curse quietly under his breath, glancing at me. I was proud I kept a straight face, only lifting my eyebrows while waiting for him to divulge his ungodly name, even if it was now well respected
in the criminal world. He scowled at me for a moment, then he sighed in defeat, turning his attention to Queen Ruckler. “My name’s Lawrence Che—”

London gasped loudly, which sounded like a half shout, cutting off Sin. He stumbled back against the wall, clutching his chest with a terrified expression on his face. “Oh. My. God!” He actually darted across the room to stand behind Queen Cooper, pointing
over her head since he was so much taller than her. “That’s,” he whispered fiercely, “Lawrence Chesterfield!”

Sin made a noise deep inside his throat, glancing at me, then both of us turned our attention to the muscled bound Mage hiding behind his Queen. We tried to hold it together as London’s eyes darted around the room frantically while he shouted, “He cannot stay in this house! He’ll murder
us all in our sleep!”

Sin lifted his free hand, his other still in mine, to point a finger in the air. “Now, that is only a rumor.”

Queen Ruckler’s head snapped to him.

“Huh, I’ll have to remember your nose is sensitive.” Sin shrugged a shoulder. “The bastard had the undignified death coming.”

“Did I know him?” I asked offhandedly.

“It was Dell.”

I blinked, not expecting that. Then lifted
happily and kissed his cheek. “You should have saved him for me, but thanks.”

“I tried to get you a souvenir, but it was,” his fingers pinched together with hardly any space between, “too small to cut off.”

There was a short silence, then London shrieked, “I am
not
staying here if he is!”

“Calm down, London.” Queen Cooper patted the hand he had on her shoulder, her expression exasperated. “I’m
sure he was kidding.” She turned golden eyes to Queen Ruckler expectantly.

Queen Ruckler scratched her nose and shook her head the barest bit.

Queen Cooper sighed when London really started arguing, shaking her with his hold on her. “London, how have you even heard of him when I haven’t?”

“I’ve heard of him,” King Zeller murmured, his head tilting as he studied Sin in what appeared to be a
new light. “Some of your work is impressive.”

Sin shrugged a shoulder even as King Collins started rubbing his forehead, muttering, “I’ve heard of him, too.” He rolled his shoulders. “Fuck, I’m going to be on the phone for days.”

“The internet!” London exclaimed over them. “You really need to keep up to date on the sadistic criminals of the underworld.” He pointed at Sin, appearing faint. “Or
you might end up inviting one to stay in our damn home.” He paused, his face turning even more frantic. “Tell me you’ve done a background check on the staff here?”

“London, for fuck’s sake, shut up,” Brann muttered, and oddly London did, staring at him with wide, fear-filled golden eyes. “Besides, the MIA database is much more truthful and informative than those ridiculous websites. If you’ve
got the cash and you want to know the facts, then do your research right with a decent hacker.” He paused. “It even has a photo of him.”

And…the room went silent.

“Skipping the fact you’ve been hacking into the restricted government database — you knew who he was?” King Zeller questioned slowly, asking what we were all thinking.

A growling sniff. “Of course.”

And shit, I glanced at him because
he had known who Sin was even when he had taunted him, which meant he not only had balls, but brass ones to boot. He was resting against the bar, one hand next to his hip on the top of the bar while he swirled his brandy in his glass. He was staring down at the twirling liquid. I stared at his facial structure, his perfectly styled black curls dangling carelessly on either side of his face. His
eyes lifted, not his head, as he peered out from between his curls directly at Sin.

Sin peered back at him steadily and began chuckling quietly. “The old saying of friends close, but enemies closer?”

Brann lifted his head, tossing his curls out of his face, and extremely slowly his lips began to curve at the edges, showing a rogue side to him. “Something like that.” Lifting his glass to his
supple lips, his amber eyes altered to me over the rim of his glass. I was held completely immobile, captured by their infinite depths; they were a magnificence unto themselves. He sipped slowly before lowering the glass to his waist, his head cocking in an animalistic, purely wolf fashion. A black curl slipped over his cheek, resting there softly. “That was decently played when you let King Collins
walk into his own trap.”

“Thank you.” I was able to breathe again. When his eyes dipped to watch my lips move, I averted my gaze to King Collins, blinking a few times past the fascination. “You did just leave it open-ended.”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I got what I wanted, and so did you. We’re good.”

I nodded. Turning to leave, I stopped, glancing over my shoulder around Sin’s body to Aria where
she still sat on the recliner. “You should really respect yourself more. You are far from stupid from what I just saw in here, and dressing as you do doesn’t hide your intelligence or distract anyone who has even the smallest bit of observational skills.”

Sin grunted, peering back at her completely frozen form. “Nice job on sitting there and being quiet while you scented everyone’s emotions,
evaluating the new dynamics, during what was a life-altering experience for you. And Caro’s right, so you should listen to her…plus, no one will respect you if you don’t respect yourself first.” He winked, grinning like the devil. “And with more clothes, you’ll be able to carry more than the knife you have stashed between your cleavage. And the small dagger ‘hidden’ in your right boot.”

I nodded
in agreement. “Moreover, you can carry silver weapons without the risk of hurting your bare skin, which you’re chancing with the one between your breasts, even if it is in a spelled sheath.” And with that, I pulled Sin out of the room.

Tossing the stress ball into the air, Sin caught it where we lay on our backs on the colossal bed that was ours.

I stated, “We should probably get ready for breakfast.”

Sin tossed the green ball again into the air, and it almost touched the ceiling before descending to where I caught it. “Probably.”

“I can’t believe they make everyone eat together for all three meals,” I muttered,
squeezing the ball before tossing it again to Sin. Yesterday after lunch King Collins had laid down their rules here while showing us to our room, which was in the farthest wing of the place: the Elemental wing. Our bedroom — if you could call it that since it was larger than most of the houses Sin and I had grown up in — was an enormous suite of sorts, with a retiring room where you first walked
in. Past the French doors lay an immaculately fashioned bedroom, bathroom, and closets. It was all done in green and white, a perfect mixture of our combined Elemental colors.

“You know these Kings and Queens are different than all the others before them,” Sin stated, throwing the ball up again. “They broke the boundaries after the war when they chose to live together.” He snorted because…yeah,
this place took up what had to be a whole city block, even if in the middle of the woods, so even I wouldn’t exactly call it living together. “And they have four of these castles around the world, so they’re bound to have weird ideas about unity of the Prodigies.”

I grunted, tossing the ball. Sin and I had gone exploring — snooping — after we had changed clothes yesterday. We had figured out
we were in Choep, New York, from license plates on the Rulers’ extensive car collection and a bit of flirting on Sin’s part with a housekeeper, which meant they had flown us here from New Orleans while we had been unconscious. Like Sin had said, this was one of the four castles they had around the world. They spent their time evenly between all four, so we were unsure how long we were going to be
inside this veritable fortress. The outside of the place was made completely of large chunks of stone, and even the windows were tall and thin like the castles of old, with colorful stained glass.

“Well, shall we?” Sin asked, and I heard his stomach growl. “We didn’t go to dinner last night.” Green eyes found mine with a bit of humor. I had been exerting my independence by defying the Rulers
the first night, which had resulted in King Collins pounding on our door for at least a good half-hour until he gave up. “And I’m starving.”

“We ate lunch yesterday,” I mumbled, but I crawled out of bed. “And it’s not as if we didn’t eat that huge fruit basket for dinner.”

“And the chocolates,” Sin crooned, stretching before he got out of bed.

I nodded with a small grin. “Now, the chocolates
I could get used to.” I turned to the mirror on the wall and stared at my reflection, trying to imagine a different set of clothes past my pajamas. My white and pink straight hair was a tousled mess, hanging down to my shoulders. My peaches-and-cream complexion was slightly flushed from sleep, and my sky blue eyes stared back at me from a heart-shaped face. My bitty diamond nose ring twinkled in
the morning light, and my pink lips opened wide in a yawn. “I should probably shower.” And then try to figure out something to wear.

Lifting the fine china delicately, I peered across the bar to Sin as he lifted his, eyeing it closely. I whispered, “Don’t even think about it.” These dishes would bring in a small fortune if hawked to the right store.