The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) (20 page)

I nodded
, storing that little tidbit away. I looked over the document, now, for the first real time and realized it wasn’t in English. It wasn’t in Spanish or French either for that matter. The whole document in numbers.

“This is
gibberish.”

“Only if you don’t know how to read it. It’s an ancient Alchemist language.”

“Which you know how to write?”

“Yes.”

“So what exactly does this say?”

“It just says you’re with me.”

I looked over the long contract. “There’s an awful lot of writing here to say ‘you’re with me’.”

“It’s
nothing unusual. These documents are very common.” He reached over and took the vellum paper from my hand, and I couldn’t help but breathe him in. Why did he always smell so damn good? I was relieved when he stepped away and walked back to his office. He took the paper over to a safe hidden behind a wall panel.

“Really? It’s worthy of the safe?”

“Just habit,” he said, but I wasn’t sure I believed him.

“I didn’t sign over my first born did I?”

“No. How are you feeling, by the way?”

I turned, watching the Vegas skyline through the windows
, and heard the click of the safe tumblers behind me. He came and perched on the edge of his desk, partially blocking my view of the skyline. I wished it annoyed me but it didn’t. He was a gloriously masculine looking man, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the fabric stretched tight over his arms as he leaned forward slightly.

“I’m fine. I slept better than I have in ages.”

“Yes, that’s one of the perks. You sleep like a babe after a nice dose.”

“Why aren’t you yelling
, anymore?”

“I understand wh
y you did it. I’m not mad. I’m just concerned.”

I saw a shadow cross his face and he got up quickly, hiding whatever emotion was there. He walked over to the window and watched the same view I’d been admiring. I stood and walked
over to stand next to him.

He looked at me and then back out the window. “It never gets dull. You would think, after all this time, I’d
be sick of looking at it, but I don’t. It’s the life and energy. It saturates the air.”

“Are y
ou going to let me help again?”

“No.”

“Why? It went off perfectly.”

“No.”

“You make no sense. You wanted me here to help. You wanted me here to keep me from Vitor. Now you almost let Vitor drag me away and you won’t let me help. What is your angle?”

He looked down at me and I met his eyes, the lights of the strip reflected upon their icy surface. “I don’t need your help at the moment. If it comes to it, I’ll reassess then.” Then he smirked. “And I w
as never going to let Vitor have you.”

“You were bluffing.
” I just shook my head annoyed. “God damn it.”

“Of course I was
bluffing. I own a casino. If I couldn’t bluff out a green girl like you, I’d have to sell and walk out with my tail between my legs.”

“There’s nothing green about me.” It wasn’t
a confessional, just the truth.

“Compared to me, you’re as green as spring grass after a week of rain.”

“Festiva is in a few days,” he said after a long pause. “Did you have any interest in going? We hold it out in the middle of the desert. It’s quite an event.”

“I didn’t know I was invited.”

“Because of what you are, you have an automatic invite. It might be a good idea to go, meet all the players on the scene.”

“Is it out in the middle of the wide open desert?”
Wide open sky above? Uh oh.

“We set up huge tents, but in essence
, yes.”

Tents, that was good. I couldn’t fly off with a tent. “I’ll go.”

“It’s formal. I’ll have a driver take us in.”

Did I just agree to a date? I wasn’t quite sure what I just said yes to, but that
last part sounded like a date. He left the room before I could ask. Right, like I would’ve asked.

I’d shoppe
d for days. The way I figured, whatever this was, I needed to look spectacular. It was no secret, most men were easier to manipulate when you looked your best. It went way beyond Cormac tonight. This was my opportunity to get information, and I had a whole lot of questions that still needed answering.

I’d told no one about the bloody scene with my mother twenty years ago,
or the crazy page left behind, and I still wasn’t going to tell anyone. I also had my own personal stake in what was messing up the portal. I’d tried to broach the subject again with Cormac about getting more involved, but he was putting up a brick wall ever since I’d brought all the people over behind his back. Pleasant, he’d been. Helpful? Not at all. Tonight was going to be all about reconnaissance.

Someone was messing with the portal, and maybe, just maybe, there was a connection between my mother’s attack and what was happening now.
If that page was about me, there definitely was. I understood the motives for messing with the portal. Now I needed to figure out what had motivated the attack all those years ago. I was becoming increasingly worried. I didn’t want to be “the last hope of the bereft” but it was looking like that was exactly who I might be. This just sucked. Who in their right mind would want to be the savior of the bereft? Why couldn’t I have turned out to be some long lost Princess of the Rich and Beautiful?

I looked at my reflection one last time. Even with all the hours I’d spent inside lately, my skin still retained its golden glow. My long, naturally blond hair hung almost to my waist in soft platinum waves. The black dress I wore fell quite a bit short of my knees, but not quite high enough to look trashy. It hugged my curves just enough to emphasize my curvy figure without showing every detail. It was the perfect balance of enough, but not too much. I knew I looked my best, and I planned on using it for whatever it was worth tonight.

I guessed there would be alcohol. It was hard to imagine this group having a dry party. In my experience, nothing loosened the lips as much as a few too many drinks. My game plan was to stake out the bar for the drinkers. They were soft targets.

“Are you ready?” I heard Cormac shout from the foyer. A scream from the foyer was not exactly romantic date material. I guess this was business.

“Coming!” I screamed back just as unromantically and put some extra gloss on my lips. Guys loved full glossy lips. I grabbed my dress purse and headed out.

Cormac was standing and looking at his watch
when I walked into the foyer, and I was grateful for the few seconds that bought me to hide my reaction. He was in a full tuxedo. I’d never seen a man look sexier in my life. He was primal sex incarnate. It made me resent that this wasn’t a date. I had to remember why I’d turned him down in the first place. I couldn’t go there. No matter how kind he could be, he was dangerous. I couldn’t forget that, but sometimes it was so hard to remember.

He turned his gorgeous pale blue eyes on me. I watched as they ran the length of my body
, from my toes to my hair. His eyes stopped on my own with a piercing gaze. It made me remember what his hands felt like, how hot it had been when he’d pressed against me in the elevator.

“Let’s go,” he said and abruptly broke the eye contact.

There was a stretch limo waiting for us outside. I found it empty when I climbed into the back.

“Where are the guys?”

“They had things to handle over there, so they left before us.”

We settled in and rode through the desert in silence. I was used to the silence with him, but the tension was unusually high for a reason I couldn’t quite understand.

It broke the moment the lights started to appear in the distance, or perhaps my excitement made me numb to it. In the middle of nothing, Festiva shone like a beacon. Problem was I wasn’t sure if it would turn out to be a wealth of information and contacts, or a snake pit. I was more inclined to think it would be of the reptilian variety.

“It’s massive.”

“Yes, between the people here, and the people that come over for the celebration, it’s quite large.”

“What are we celebrating again?”

“The signing of the contract and the pact.”

“
So it was that big of a deal?”

“It was the beginning of everything.”

The closer we got the more details I could make out. A glimmering gold fabric tented the massive area and reflected the light of the surrounding torches that lined its perimeter. As we pulled up, I saw just how massive it was. Hundreds of people had attended.

Cormac held out his hand to me as I took a step onto the carpeting that covered the sand. As I got a better look, I ran a self-conscious hand over my dress. These people screamed power and money. I wasn’t an insecure person by nature, but I knew when I was outclassed. It might have been the way they stood, or the
clothes they wore. I didn’t know if I could describe the atmosphere to anyone not there, but it was beyond daunting.

I ran through the speech I’
d given myself countless times in my life, the speech I hadn’t used in years. I’m just as good as these people. The only difference is consequence of birth. They are no better than I am. It was amazing, no matter how far I came I could be yanked back into that insecure little girl’s brain this quickly. Even with a beautiful and expensive dress on, I felt like it was the first day of third grade again, with my hand-me-down clothes.

But
, it wasn’t third grade, and I wasn’t her, anymore. I straightened my spine and strolled into the party as if I owned it. It didn’t matter what I felt like on the inside, on the outside I looked calm and cool.

With Cormac by my side, every pair of eyes in the place turned toward us as we made our way through the elaborately decorated area. Lights hung from the top of the tent frames, fountains flowed in every corner. In the center, flame-throwers performed underneath a crystal chandelier, while Arabian looking women danced provocatively.

Cormac grabbed two champagnes from a passing waiter and then started a long procession of introductions, as it seemed that everyone there wanted to meet me. I wasn’t sure why I ranked so high, but I barely had a moment to contemplate it as wave after wave approached.

“Why is everyone so interested in me?” I asked Cormac the second there was a break.

“They might have heard things.”

“What things?”

“That little trick you pulled in the portal was unusual. They think you have power, and these people like power.”

It startled me a little to think that I might have something everyone else wanted. It wasn’t a position I was used to being in. I scanned the crowd
, wondering if I could use this to my advantage.

“Are you all right? You look a touch flushed
.”

“I’
m fine, but I am going to step outside. I need some air. It’s pretty packed in here.”

“If you give me a minute, I can go with you, but I have to check on a couple of things first.”

“Since when did I become someone you needed to tend?” I wanted to bite my tongue the second I said it. I knew why I did it. No matter whether I wanted to or not, regardless of what had transpired between us, I liked him, and I didn’t want to.

“Fine
,” he said as he walked away. The words were mild, but the tone held an edge.

It didn’t matter. After I got my answers, and he got his portal issue fixed, I would be leaving. This was a short-term situation. I couldn’t afford emotional entanglements with these people. If I decided to start laying roots, this wasn’t the garden I had in mind.

I stepped away quickly, before I was cornered by anyone else. It was nice to be away from the crowd, getting a breather. I’d never excelled at small talk, and for all that these people weren’t exactly people, they sure liked their small talk.

Once I was outside, I was too nervous to step far from the tent, and made sure I stayed within reach of it, just in case I started floating or something else odd. Hidden in the sh
adows, I was safely out of site when I heard Tracker speaking to someone, not even ten feet away.

“What the fuck happened?”

“It wasn’t my fault. It was her.”

“I’ve about had it. You need to fix this. We’ve lost all the progress we’ve made.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“You
’d better. Come on, I don’t want to talk here.”

I watched the two men cross the distance to enter the tent opening. They had to be talking about the portal. I rushed back into the tent, and scanned the heads for Cormac’s. He was across the room
, but it took me forever to get there, with every third person stopping me to talk.

When I finally got within reach of him, he was talking to someone I couldn’t see. I tapped his back to get his attention, as it was such a close press, it was hard to circle around.