Contingency (13 page)

“You have no idea of your aura, do you, Sage?” This came from Elaine who had an incredulous look on her face that I couldn’t fathom. “You draw people to you, you are beautiful and are so very sure of who you are. Men are drawn to you and the vibration you emit.” She said. It was my turn to look incredulously at her. Me? Beautiful and sure of myself? I had never felt that way about myself. Elaine shook her head at the doubtful look on my face.

“Either way,” I said clearing my throat. “I don’t think we are compromised and we should just continue on as planned.” I took a long drink of my wine while everyone started loudly discussing the situation. Suddenly Travis stood up from the table and we all stopped to stare at his abruptness. “She’s right. We should carry on as planned, our dealings with the vampire have all been above reproach and our informant would have uncovered something by now if he had some sinister plot brewing.” He cleared his throat and continued on looking tired and irritated, “The mission is too important to back out of now.”

I stood up as well, looking around the table at the people who had become my friends in the past few weeks. It suddenly hit me how much I was going to miss everyone if I got my wish to go back home. “I don’t plan on backing out anyway, and nothing short of locking me up would stop me from carrying on with the mission. And I dare anyone to try
that
.” I said as I met each of their stares. No one said anything for a moment. “Good. Well, that settles that. I don’t know about all of you, but I have had a long day and I have to meet with Soren tomorrow, so I’d love to try and get some rest.” I purposely ignored the daggers Aldwin was starring in my direction and went around the table to embrace Elaine again. “It’s going to be fine.” I whispered in her ear. I pulled back and gave her a small encouraging smile.

She tsked “I see you have your mind made up so I won’t argue. You do look tired, so try and get some sleep. Aldwin will stay here to secure the townhouse before heading back to Howell Home.” She walked out of the dining room with Travis in tow, leaving me alone to face the wrath of one very pissed off doctor.

“Aldwin, please, don’t. I just can’t handle any more today.” I walked over to him but he wouldn’t look at me and his jaw was clenched so hard I thought it might shatter. I sighed and walked out of the dining room and headed up the stairs to my bedroom. I almost made it too. Aldwin was right on my heels as I opened my bedroom door, I didn’t even bother to try and shut him out, I just left the door open and commenced with ‘operation ignore the large sexy brooding doctor.’

The door closed but I knew he was in the room, I could feel him starring holes into the back of my head. Whatever. I
so
did not need any drama. I plucked the pins out of my hair feeling a little stress seep away when it all came free. I pulled my shirt out of the waistband of my skirt, and turned to raise my eyebrow at my peeping tom, giving him a chance to leave. He scowled even harder at me. “We need to discuss this, Sage,” he growled with his fury barely contained.

“You may think we need to discuss this, but I don’t
need
to do anything except go to bed.” I said my own irritation starting to stir. Pompous, arrogant, overbearing, caveman! He just crossed his arms defiantly. Ah, well, two could play at that game. I unbuttoned the top button of my shirt and then the second and the third. He stood unmoved and unaffected. Hard ball was it? I grinned, I did love a good challenge.

My blouse was hanging open as I turned my back to Aldwin. I slipped it slowly off of my shoulders. I reached behind me to unbutton my skirt, pausing long enough to give him another chance to leave. When I heard nothing, I continued. When the last button came free, I held my skirt up and wondered if I had enough guts to go on with my little challenge. Maybe I should just let him win and get it over with.

Nah, I wasn’t a quitter, even if it meant embarrassing myself a little. Mind made up, I dropped my skirt and stepped out of the bundle of fabric on the floor clad only in my cream corset, panties, thigh-high stockings held up by my garters, my brown leather high heeled boots and two dirks. I turned around slowly, my cheeks flaming at my own brazenness.

When I saw the look in his eye though, I knew it had been worth it. All his rage had melted away and was channeled into a man who was starving; and I was the main course. He walked over to me, his movements graceful and predator-like as he circled around me. I couldn’t quite pull off a smirk or a snarky comment, not when he looked at me like that. I let a soft sigh escape my lips. I was bone tired and I tended to do stupid things when I was exhausted. I obviously hadn’t learned anything from my actions earlier in the day.

“Aldwin...” He reached over and tucked a lock of my hair over my shoulder grazing the bare skin there. I nearly stopped breathing and my corset felt way too tight as I sucked in a breath. He stepped even closer to me and lifted my chin gently with his hand causing me to meet his eyes as he leaned in to kiss me. Just the promise of his kiss was enough to cause my knees to tremble in anticipation.

He had barely grazed my lips when I heard his breath hiss in through his teeth. I felt light headed and confused. Why wasn’t he kissing me senseless? Why was he
sniffing
my neck?

Before my mind could catch up with what was going on he had both my arms in a bruising grip and shook me once so hard my head snapped back. His glacier colored eyes filled with blue fire. “You KISSED him?” My eyes widened at the anger rolling off of him. How in the hell would he be able to tell that?

“What do you mean?” I asked, my mind scrambling to make sense at the turn of events. “Don’t play games with me, Sage.” He said his body starting to shake with barely restrained violence. “I can
smell
him all over you.” he growled.

“What do you mean, you can
smell
him on me?” I asked my anger rising. “Yes, he kissed me, OK? I was undercover and I winging it all on my own out there. I’m just trying to survive in a world I don’t understand yet, Aldwin.” I gritted out. My arms were starting to hurt where he was still grabbing me, I’d probably have bruises. “Now get your fucking hands off of me.” I said so low and menacingly that I didn’t even recognize the sound of my own voice. That seemed to snap him out of his rage and he dropped his hands and stepped away from me. He raked a hand through his hair and yanked on it in frustration. “Get out.” I said quietly not looking at him.

“Sage...” he whispered. I heard the regret in his voice but at that moment it didn’t matter.

“I said get out, Aldwin.”

Long after I heard the door close as he left and long after I’d stripped down and dressed in my soft cotton night gown I could still smell the heavy aroma of honey and spices lingering in my room. I banished it all from my mind, I was too tired to deal with so many weird things at once. The next day I had to deal with a brooding vampire and whatever other shit could be thrown in my path. I slept straight through the night as if I hadn’t a worry in the world.

Chapter Twenty-One

The next day came too quickly and I didn’t feel any better about the altercation between Aldwin and myself the night before. Too many things didn’t add up and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it all meant. I was obviously missing something, and as soon as I could put the energy and thought into it I was going to figure out what it was.

I was picking at my lunch when Marie brought me a black card with Soren’s name embossed in red on the front. On the inside written in a bold slashing hand was the equivalent of a vampire summons.

I will pick you up at 7 tonight.

Please wear the gown I have provided.

Even though it wasn’t signed, I knew who had sent it. What gown? I looked up at Marie, who I’d just realized was still standing close by. And sure enough she had a large black box with a red velvet bow attached to the top. I scrunched up my nose. Great, next thing he’d be telling me what underwear to put on.

In the privacy of my own room, after writing a quick note to Elaine to tell her I’d be accompanying Soren out to a private dinner later, I stood at the foot of my bed staring at the offending box. I contemplated ignoring his instructions altogether. I had several lovely gowns, and I didn’t want him to think he was calling all the shots. That would have worked out well, had I not opened the box.

My curiosity got the best of me once again and having opened the box there was no possible way I was going to wear anything else. I caressed the satiny fabric with a finger and then gently lifted the sapphire colored dress out of the box. The dress had very fine sleeves that would drape elegantly at the edge of my shoulders and across my breasts, leaving them mostly bare. The bodice was finely ruched all the way down to the hips and then the wispy fabric fell elegantly to the floor. It was breathtaking.

I bathed a few hours later and washed my hair with the lemongrass scented soap I’d come to prefer. I dressed quickly in my specialty underthings and slipped my dirks in their proper places. My hand caressed the engraving of my sgian dubh and I felt a pain in my chest at the thought of Aldwin and how we’d left things. He hadn’t shown up at all that day and I wouldn’t get to talk to him until at least tomorrow.

I sighed and slipped into the dress Soren had given me. Marie came in and her eyes widened when she took in my appearance. I hoped that was a good reaction. She buttoned me up and then expertly managed my hair into a loose bun on top of my head, shaping a few small escape curls around her finger to lie softly around my temples and on the back of my neck. Marie made my unruly semi-curly hair look like it was purposely styled to look whimsical.

I heard voices downstairs, so I quickly grabbed my cuff bracelet and made my way down to begin my first night as the pretend mistress of Sir Soren Blackwell. As a result of some meditating and deep breathing I had done that afternoon I felt more calm than usual, but that’s not to say I wasn’t intimidated at the thought of being out at night with a vampire investigating violent vampire crimes. Geez, I felt like I was in the middle of a bad horror film. I just had to remember not to go into any basements.

Soren met me at the foot of the stairs wearing a fashionable black suit with a black waistcoat and a sapphire blue neckcloth. His eyes seemed brighter than normal and I wondered if he had dropped using his glamour a little or if his mood affected his eyes. He didn’t say anything but continued to stare at me like I was some mystery to solve.

I stepped off the last step causing him to take a step back. He cleared his throat and offered me his arm. I took a deep breath and took it. I nodded to Zachary as he held the door open for us and tried give him a reassuring smile. Soren helped me up into his fancy black carriage and seated himself right next too me. He tapped the top of the carriage and we were off.

The silence was unsettling, not to mention the vampire sitting too close to me. I could hear my breathing and the clopping of the horse’s hooves. “I hope you don’t think you have a right to tell me how to dress since I wore this tonight.” I blurted. I looked over at my silent companion and raised my brow, pretty sure his nighttime vision was good enough to see it in the dark interior of the carriage.

“Of course not. You have to admit it does look divine on you though.” He answered dismissively. “I need you to look the part tonight since we will be dining with a very particular group,” he said in an annoyingly vague manner.

“What kind of group? I need to know what I will be getting into.” I relaxed slightly back into the plush cushions.

“It will be a mixed group of important people from the preternatural community. A few leaders, influential people and their wives or lovers. Nothing to get nervous about. You will be with me, and no one is foolish enough to harm someone under my protection.” He said as though he dealt with this every day. Oh wait, he probably
did
deal with this every day. Oh how I longed for the days when the most drama I ever saw was who was kissing who on “The Bachelor”. I closed my eyes and wondered if my life would ever be so utterly safe and boring again. Somehow I didn’t think I’d like the answer to that.

We arrived at our destination a few minutes later and I was glad to see that it looked as though a normal house party was going on inside and nothing nefarious. As Soren was helped me out of the carriage, he whispered into my ear. “No matter what you see inside, please remember that most of these people are not human or are only partially human, so they don’t abide by society’s moral code.” I looked up into his very inhuman eyes and whispered back

“Why tell me this now and not earlier?”

“I just don’t want you to be shocked or I wouldn’t have said anything at all.” he murmured close to my ear.

“I am from a hundred years in the future, Soren. It will take a lot to shock me.” I whispered back. My lips accidentally grazed his ear.

His body jerked almost imperceptibly as he stepped back to hand me all the way down from the steps of the carriage. I hooked my arm under his and we strolled up to the front door like we had been together for years.