Impulse (14 page)
A light flared in Justus’s eyes for a brief moment before he spoke. “No arguments. Christian is the best man for the job. It was not my decision to have you leave the city outside of my protection. Remember that there are no safe places from Breed; we’re everywhere. Keep your wits about you and conceal your light. Speak with your mother and then come home.”
Justus walked off and murmured something to Christian in the other room.
“Why the long face, love?” Simon asked.
“Christian didn’t help anyone at the party. Why did Leo ask for a Vampire when we were trying to pull the sword?”
“They’re strong, and their blood can heal.”
“So why didn’t he heal them?”
“What the hell do I look like—a juice box?” Christian shouted from the other room.
I worked my jaw to the side, irritated by the unsolicited comments about my private conversation.
“Vamps think their blood is sacred, so they’re real dicks about it.” Simon brushed past me and we rejoined our guest, who was sitting in the chair nearest to the fireplace with his legs dramatically crossed.
Justus continued with the formalities. “Silver, this is Christian Poe. He’s an old friend and we go back many years. Christian, this is my Learner, Silver.”
The Vampire flew out of his chair theatrically and moved toward me with a one-armed bow, never taking his eyes from mine.
I could handle a man with a smart mouth because I gave as good as I got, but he was just rude. His image did not fit the bill in getting inside my mother’s house. This man had a mission to mortify me—a confirmed suspicion when he stroked the chain around his neck.
Christian put both hands on Justus’s shoulders and shook him, saying in a thick voice, “Don’t you worry, da. I’ll be sure to have her home by ten.”
“Bring her home,” Justus warned. “Safely. Remember what I told you.”
“Ghuardian, you neglected to mention that my partner would be a halfwit.”
Christian squinted as he turned around. “I’ll have you know that my talents are legendary, and my reputation has spread like—”
“A rash?”
As I lifted my bag, I realized the root of my irritation was the fear of going home and facing my mother.
***
“So tell me all about your mum.”
Our trip to the airport was elaborate; Christian and I rode in separate vehicles. Guards sprayed a liquid on each car that would shield our scent from any Chitahs who worked as trackers. I looked out the tinted windows and remained quiet for the entire ride as instructed. My hair was tucked inside of a loose-knit cap and Justus had lent me his aviator sunglasses. I was beginning to understand what it felt like to be a celebrity hiding from the paparazzi.
Christian was desperate to instigate conversation, despite the fact that I was airsick.
“Could you please not talk?”
“Don’t get your knickers in a knot,” he replied as he crossed his leg over a knee and looked around with bored interest.
A dull ache in my stomach triggered a cold sweat and I leaned forward.
“Why don’t you just puke and get it over with?”
“Is that what you say to the women you pick up?”
Christian reached out and snatched the wrist of the flight attendant. Her short brown hair bounced as she turned, but once their eyes met, her concern evaporated into a vacant smile. She was entranced.
“Yes sir?” she asked in a monotone voice.
“Could we have a stick of gum?”
“We don’t serve gum. Could I bring you a drink?”
Christian’s hand traced her delicate wrist, adorned with a thin gold bracelet.
“Maybe later,” he laughed darkly. “Do
you
have any gum?”
“In my purse.”
“Be a dear and fetch me a piece?”
She blinked a few times and pulled slowly out of his grasp, walking up the aisle.
“No wonder,” I muttered.
Christian stuck his nose right up to my cheek. “I’m sorry, what’s that you said?”
I shouldered him away. “Now I’m starting to see how you pick up your dates.”
“We can make them talk, but we can’t force them to do something if they really don’t want to. The weaker the mind, the easier it is to convince them. That fine thing with the lovely tits wanted to give me her gum. The only thing holding her back was she was afraid she might get in trouble. And if she wants to bang me in the bathroom later, then I’ll be there for her. Think of me as an in-flight therapist.”
“You mean a slut.”
Christian clucked his tongue. “Like you wouldn’t want to bed me.”
The seat cushioned my back and I stretched my legs. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but that’s one carnival ride I don’t care to get on.”
“That cougar over there wants a ticket.”
I glimpsed the woman he was pointing at, who didn’t look a day under ninety. “That’s no cougar, that’s a mountain lion.”
Christian widened his black eyes. “Admit it, you find me attractive.”
He used the same suggestive tone as he had with the flight attendant. Little did he know that I had a number of talents of my own, one of which included an immunity to most Breed gifts.
“From the moment I met you, Christian, I’ve hidden my desire. I want to marry you and be nailed together in a coffin for
all
eternity.”
He flinched, confounded by my noncompliant response. “Do you not—”
“Sir, your gum.”
Paper ripped and he tapped a stick of wintergreen against my nose.
“Chew. It helps with the nausea.”
Fifteen minutes and another stick of gum later, my nausea abated and I could breathe again.
Christian watched me the entire time, which was unsettling. “So, you don’t succumb to the Vampire magic?”
I pulled off my hat and a mess of hair fell out. “Don’t get your hopes up about shagging me because clearly it’s not going to happen.”
Christian laughed. “Don’t flatter yourself! You’re
not
my type.”
Which wouldn’t have bothered me had it not been the way his eyes dragged over my body with disgust.
“What? Cheap, easy, and desperate?”
His crooked smile sloped down and painted a look of irritation. “No. Classy, beautiful, and refined. I
do
have taste.”
My face tightened and he averted his eyes.
I reached over and snapped the shade open, sending a shower of sunlight across his lap. “Shall I have the flight attendant bring a dustpan?”
He lifted a pair of dark shades from his shirt pocket. “I could use a little sun.”
I realized that everything I knew about Vampires came from the movies. “Shouldn’t you be—”
“Slowly disintegrating into a pile of ash? Are you really that new?” He sighed and glanced around, but no one sat in front or behind us. “Our pupils are fully dilated, so it’s irritating, like when you flip the lights on in a dark room. We have a natural tolerance to sunlight, but it takes a minute to adjust. I also enjoy silver against my skin.”
I didn’t acknowledge his pun.
“Worry not,” he assured me. “As I said before, you aren’t my type and I wouldn’t want to corrupt you with sexual goodness.”
“So you keep telling yourself.”
“Justus was right on the money.”
I snapped my head to the right. “About?”
He gave me an appraising glance before he shook his head in disdain. “You always have to have the last word.”
“What else did he say?”
Christian groaned and stretched out his leather-clad legs. A woman in the aisle across from us looked like a cat who just stumbled on a canary without wings. “He warned me that by the time this trip was over, I was going to need a lobotomy.”
“That
asshole
,” I whispered to myself. Justus didn’t allow others to belittle me, but knowing he did it behind my back really hurt.
“You shouldn’t curse; it’s vulgar on a woman.”
“I really have no interest in what you think. The only thing I care about is getting information from my mom. Speaking of which, you’re going to have to change into something less… dramatic. Nobody dresses like that where we’re going.
You look like Satan on a holiday.”
“
You
have on a leather jacket,” he said observantly.
“But I’m not wearing leather pants commando.”
“You noticed.” His smug grin broadened.
“As did every passenger on this plane when you walked by—not to mention the female security guard who performed the body search. So when we meet my mom, you’re going to dress like a nice Southern boy because that’s the only way we’re going to get into that house.”
“Let this be a reminder why I never visit hillbilly country.”
The gum had gone stale so I wound it up in the wrapper. “Where are you from?”
“Were you made into a Vampire there?”
“Wasn’t until I came to America that I was turned. I was twenty-five when I arrived in New York. Irish had a rough go finding jobs; I changed my name to something less Irish and tried not to talk so much to hide my accent.”
Imagining him not talking was like imagining the sun wasn’t shining on my lap. “How old were you when you were turned?”
“Ah… that came later. By then my brothers and I had gone our separate ways. I was in my thirties.”
“By choice?”
He gave me a pointed look. “Of
course
by choice. No one makes a Breed against their will.”
I turned away and closed the shade, reminded of the man who made me what I was by force. We didn’t speak for the remainder of the flight.
Chapter 9
“I feel like a regular Dickey Dazzler in this suit,” Christian said admiringly as we rounded a corner in my mother’s neighborhood
. One mandatory shopping trip later, he acquired a pair of ashen trousers, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up casually to the elbows, and a thin black tie. He lifted a pub cap from the mannequin and when I rolled my eyes, he threw it on the register.
It was close to sunset and we needed to move because once it was dark, there was no way my mom was going to open up, even for Santa himself.
“Let me do the talking,” I instructed. My finger pressed over the dirty yellow button and a bell clanged inside. I blew out a nervous breath when the locks turned and the smell of potpourri wafted through the screen door.
“Yes?”
I blinked and went into panic mode, not having seen my mother for over a year. “Hi! My name is Cassandra and this is my husband, Tom. We just bought a house in the neighborhood and we wanted to meet our neighbors.”
Christian lightly stepped on my toe to stop my mouth from running a marathon. My mom looked weathered; she’d cut her hair and stopped dying it.
“You keep a lovely yard ma’am,” Christian spoke up. “Do you have a gardener that you can recommend?” I skewered him with my eyes as he broke the cardinal rule of no talking until I got us inside the house. Christian normally had a slow and assured way of speaking, but he switched his accent to American with just a hint of Southern, picking up the tempo. Clever.
My mom opened the door a little wider as she admired her yard. “I do all the gardening myself.”
“You have the most beautiful yard on the block.” He tucked an arm around me. “When we were house hunting, it was your pruned crepe myrtles that caught my eye. Anyone who takes such good care of their home must be good people.”
Mom beamed and flattery was getting him everywhere. Sunny mentioned that my mom had turned religious, so I thought of another way in.
“We’re also looking for a church,” I began. “I don’t know if you… uh, are a practicing—”
“You aren’t going to get rid of that easily. It roots deep,” my mom said as she swung the door wide and brushed her hands over her blue dress. “Come on in. Would you like a glass of tea or water?”