Impulse (5 page)
“I wasn’t aware this was a charity function or I would have brought my checkbook,” the Vampire remarked in a flat voice.
I cut my eyes at the stranger who tilted his head in manner that implied he thought himself better than me.
“I’m Silver. Did someone forget to take your coat, or are you going to be putting on the magic act later?” I exaggerated my smile as he folded his arms.
“Silver, this is Christian.” Adam dropped his eyes to my shirt and took a sip of his drink.
I slapped my hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Tell me there’s a karaoke machine in here because I’m ready to take my shower performance to a whole new level.”
Adam didn’t just laugh, he spit his drink back in the glass and set it down on a table. “You’re always stirring it up, aren’t you?”
“That is my modus operandi.”
“Save it for later. It’s too early to bring this party to a halt.”
Across the room, Justus cozied up to a woman in a revealing blue dress. Her hand slipped into his pocket and she leaned in close and spoke against his cheek. I didn’t see any distinct features on her so I couldn’t tell what Breed she was. His amorous grin irritated me.
That was the man I met in Memphis—the one who had every woman in the bar at his disposal. He never brought women home, but there were nights that Justus came in late wearing a wrinkled shirt with smears of lipstick on the collar.
Christian looked at Adam. “The babes are always the spoiled ones, aren’t they?” he said in a slow Irish accent.
“Adam is younger than me,” I pointed out, exploiting the flaw in his comment. Human years didn’t count and I had been a Mage for months longer.
“Looks like Simon found some competition,” Adam remarked, pointing in the adjacent room.
A chessboard divided the space between Simon and a young woman. Her body was delicate and thin and covered up in a long-sleeved, pale green dress. She also wasn’t sporting the generous cup size that Simon was known to revere. Her ginger hair was braided against her head, wrapped up tight with pins. Simon rubbed his chin with his aviators still on—something Justus would have also worn had he not thought it would insult the Council. When Vampires were present, people shielded their eyes from their power. Simon lifted his black knight.
“Poor bastard,” Christian remarked.
Adam folded his arms. “How so?”
The woman lifted her rook and took his piece off the board. Simon’s leg began jumping under the table—one of his nervous tics when the game wasn’t going his way.
“She’s one of Hannah’s progeny.” We all simultaneously glanced at Hannah, who was showing her intolerance at the rowdy behavior of some men across the room. “I think he’s finally met his match,” Christian chuckled. “No one beats her. Ever.”
“Come with me.” He took my elbow and the olives scattered on the floor.
“So nice meeting you, Sister Christian,” I yelled over my shoulder. Adam hurried me to the back of the house and I stumbled over my shoes as we entered a darkened room.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“What makes you think anything’s wrong?”
He lifted my hand. “Your mood ring is black.”
I snatched it away. “It’s just a ring.”
Adam folded his arms. “The getup?” he said, nodding at my shirt.
“I always preferred acceptance to conformity.”
“Woman, tell me what’s wrong. I know you better than that.”
“What’s right?”
I turned my back and walked to the window, admiring the landscape. It looked like an English countryside with manicured shrubbery and paved walkways.
“I feel useless, that’s what’s wrong. Just when I’m becoming a part of something, I get pushed out of it again. I want the normal things everyone else does, Adam. But I’ll never have my life back until Nero is caught. I don’t have a job and Justus won’t let me in on the investigation. I sit around all day and read. Justus tries to get me to work out, but I don’t even feel like doing that anymore.”
He sighed and groaned all at once. “So not much is new?”
I threw my head back and closed my eyes. “Do you ever wonder where we’d be right now if none of this ever happened?”
“How are things with Logan?”
I whirled around. “That reminds me… I heard through the grapevine that you have a sweetheart.”
Adam massaged the back of his neck with a nervous hand and that’s when I knew it wasn’t a rumor. “Do me a favor and go easy on her.”
Justus used the same tone when he was afraid I would embarrass him. I sagged.
“I’m really happy for you, Adam. I’m not out to sabotage your love life.”
He smiled warmly, eyes still on the floor. “I care for her,” he admitted. “I’ve waited a long time to find someone who looks at me the way she does. Maybe I am starting to believe in fate.”
“Adam?”
We both turned toward the doorway. A silhouette of a lovely woman stepped into view, wearing a ruby-red dress with tiny tassels skimming across her thighs. She was familiar.
“I was looking for you
and
the wine.” She leaned against the frame and smiled as he approached.
“I’ll get it.” He kissed her on the cheek and briskly left the room, not introducing us on purpose.
“Do I know you?”
“Kind of,” she said with a melodic wave to her voice. “I’m Cheri.”
Cheri was one of the prisoners released from Nero’s compound and the last time I had seen her, she was nothing but a scant of a girl in dirty clothes with tangled blond hair.
Why didn’t it ever occur to me? When Novis took her in, Adam’s nurturing personality would have won her over. I remembered how at ease he made me feel when we first met with his generous eyes and integrity.
“Cheri, of course. It’s great to see you again. Your dress is beautiful.”
“And you look…” Her gaze darted over my body.
“Mmm,” she replied. “Quite the looker, isn’t he?”
Cheri smiled when Adam appeared at her side with a glass of white wine. He stretched his arm over her head and leaned on it while she took a sip.
“They just started bringing out the chow,” he said with a smirk. When he took her arm, Cheri pulled back.
“No, you go ahead. Why don’t you fix me a plate and I’ll meet you in there. I need to take a walk and get some fresh air.” They shared a tender glance and Adam lifted her hand, gently placing a kiss on her knuckles.
“I’ll be waiting,” he said and turned away.
“It was nice to see you again, Cheri.” We smiled at each other as I brushed by. She waved and continued sipping her wine.
“Silver,” a voice barked out. “Making your Ghuardian proud I see.”
Through the opening to the study on my left was Merc—one of the Council members—setting his glass of wine on the white fireplace mantel.
Each time I’d been in his presence, he made it clear that he didn’t like me. There was an unspoken animosity between him and Justus; the glances they exchanged made it obvious they despised one another.
Merc stood there with his stringy light hair and beady little eyes pressed into a gladiator face. The dress shirt he wore looked painted on and the sleeves were rolled up, showing off the thick veins in his arms. This was a man voted least likely to have a political position by his fellow prison inmates.
“What’s not to be proud of?” I challenged.
“Tell me, did the homeless person put up much of a struggle when you robbed them of their attire?” He laughed along with a few curious spectators.
My eyes narrowed into sharp slivers. Council member or no, this man was not about to stand there and publicly insult me.
“You might want to give your parole officer a call before they report you missing.”
A man snickered and Merc invaded my space with a step of his giant black shoe. I was never told the story behind his incarceration, but he didn’t know that.
“You want to cozy up to the Grim Reaper? Your call, you worthless woman,” he said, lowering his voice. His fingers tugged at the ends of my hair. “Perhaps you need to be taught a lesson.”
A thick body wedged between us.
“Merc, keep in mind this is a social affair and we are all invited guests. Do not throw around your position here,” the man warned.
The back of his hair was short, neatly groomed, and a reddish tint with blond highlights. He was spectacularly tall and when I saw Merc’s eyes flinch, I gave him a nice
fuck you
smile as he backed away and walked off.
“He really is the prick he makes himself out to be,” the deep voice mumbled as he turned around.
His features were mature and rugged with a broad chest and a thick jaw covered with a closely trimmed shadow of a beard. His broad mouth and large golden eyes were Cross trademarks, but he looked Irish. Deep lines were etched high on his cheeks near his eyes—a clear mark of a man who loved to laugh.
“Logan talks about you all the time. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I stumbled over my words with our unexpected introduction and reached out to shake his hand. It was a clumsy human reaction and I quickly dropped my arm. Leo held a strong presence that made me feel like I was around someone important.
“The pleasure is all mine,” he said with a nod. “Come.” His arm fell around my shoulders and he guided me to a private corner of the room. I folded my arms to hide the obscene writing on my shirt and we faced each other.
“I want to be frank with you, Silver. I’m much older than Logan is and I watched him come up as a boy. He was an impulsive child with a brave heart, but always getting himself tangled up with trouble. When this was still bear country, a grizzly pissed him off something fierce and Logan flipped his switch.” Leo laughed and his eyes sparkled with memories. “Had I not been there, he’d still wear claw marks down his chest. Sometimes he has no sense of what is a danger to him.”
Leo was the kind of man who didn’t look away in conversation and I found the direction of my gaze drifting to his lapels.
“In order to ensure that our line is continued, we only mate with our own kind,” he said. “I think we both know that a Mage and a Chitah mix like oil and water. You two have a number of strikes against you.”
My face cooled when the blood drained from it, and I looked at a piece of lint on his sleeve, feeling just as small.
His fingers lifted my chin. “That being said, I think you two are both equally stubborn and need to come to a decision about your relationship. Logan carries a dark past that has nothing to do with you and yet—everything.”
“I know about his woman and all that he lost. What makes me nervous is how sure he is about us. Look at me. If he saw me tonight he would—”
“Show you off proudly. I don’t want to watch him spiral back to the man he once was. Tell him what he needs to hear before it breaks him—a decision. My brother will court you for as long as it takes, but he’s doubtful where your feelings lie. That doubt is eating him alive. Any other male it wouldn’t matter, but this is Logan.”
Leo was afraid that his little brother would revert to the cold-hearted killer he once was.
Elegant cocktail dresses and suits swirled about the room and I realized how poorly I had played my hand.
“I appreciate your concern Leo, but it’s complicated. Don’t put my back against the wall and force me to rush a decision I’m not ready to make. You know how unfair that would be for both of us. There’s no time limit on courtship.”
Leo sighed and touched my shoulder. “You should also know that the Gathering is coming.”
“I know. I told him to go.”
“This is what bothers me. You don’t seem to understand the risk in holding him at arm’s length.”
“What risk? Logan finding his soul mate? Who am I to deny him what Chitahs so fiercely believe in?”
Leo slid his hands in his pockets. “If Logan goes in his condition, he’s likely to make a poor choice. Can you live with that?”
“He’s a man who doesn’t know where his female stands;
that
is a condition. You are putting him in a position where potential mates who have waited for their chance will do everything within their power to win his affection. Had he not been damaged, I wouldn’t be as concerned. A long courtship gives us the opportunity to show what we have to offer. I’m afraid it’s not your fault as you are a Mage and do not know the customs of how a female behaves in such situations. You continue to send mixed messages by pushing him away, and I’m only looking out for his best interest.”
I knew he could scent my anger, jealousy, and confusion. His nostrils flared.
“He’s been a solitary man for many years,” Leo said. “After his mate’s death, he was inconsolable. You brought him back to us, Silver. Men don’t always make sound decisions when they’re not sure if their love is reciprocated. I won’t lie and tell you that it will be an easy road if you accept Logan. He’s not the man he once was, and the pairing would be subject to public ridicule. You’ll be on the receiving end of a lot of unkind words.” Leo widened his stance and cupped his hands together. “I know you care for him. If he’s going to settle, let him settle for you.”