Eric chuckled. Kenneth grinned. Even Karson smirked.
I watched Rodney intently. I didn’t think he would hurt Mary, but you never truly knew with a vampire. They were volatile creatures, prone to sudden bursts of violence.
He held a goblet in his left hand, running his long fingers over the fine detailing etched in its side. He said with a voice like silk and daggers, “You forget, Mary, whom you speak to. There is a limit to my patience.”
Mary snapped her gaze to him, no fear in her eyes, but a wariness as if she expected him to rush at her.
“Do not threaten Mary,” I snapped. Somehow, my palms were up and my powers surged. The chair he was seated on screeched as it flew back along the timber floorboards, leaving great scratches in its wake. I held him frozen to his chair.
Karson remained seated.
Georgie clutched Josh’s arm so tightly her fingers faded into the white of his shirt.
Michael whispered something into her ear. She nodded and relaxed but didn’t let Josh go.
Rodney just sat there, studying me like I was a creature of interest and he had all the time in the world.
Eric whipped a hand over his mouth in an unsuccessful attempt to smother laughter. Kenneth grinned at Monique, but she looked away. Janice wished me dead.
“Amelia,” Karson said calmly. “Perhaps it might be somewhat more appropriate, if you let our dinner guest back to the table.” Like it was a complete overreaction.
Mary threw daggers with her eyes at Rodney and muttered under her breath. Rodney looked like he wanted to laugh.
Mary’s lips were pulled so thin they disappeared into her mouth. She yanked the next plate off the table, and it clattered on top of the others. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she hurled them at him, but instead she pivoted like a woman half her age and strutted from the room.
“It’s a little hard to reach my drink from here.” He waved a hand casually. “So, if you would be so kind to remove the vice off my chest.”
When Mary left the room, I let my hands fall and sat back in my seat as Rodney collected his chair and returned to the table.
“Have a nice trip?” Eric grinned. “Cold out there?”
“You keep that up, Eric, and you will find out,” Rodney quipped, but he smiled as if the whole thing was funny.
Karson sat there like nothing had happened. Why didn’t he defend Mary? I hurled my boot into his shin so hard, the thump could be heard around the table.
He dropped his gaze to me, amused. “Trust me when I tell you, Amelia, Mary is more than capable of holding her own against any of us on this table, and Rodney was only baiting her. He revels in firing people up.”
“Georgie.” Rodney smiled, the sound of her name rolling off his caviar tongue irking me. His eyes swept to the V of the fitted black dress she was wearing and back again. Her hair was out and curled, and her lips shone a glossy pink. She too looked beautiful, even if her eyes were a little bloodshot and glassy. “I heard about your little run-in with Sarah.”
I sighed loudly. He could read Georgie’s mind without even trying. I didn’t know how much Karson had shared, and I didn’t know how much Georgie might reveal. She never saw the grimoire in Sarah’s hand, but the wolf, if she even thought of the wolf, Rodney would know about my connection to the waters. The more people that knew, the greater risk I was in. If the grimoire surfaced, whoever sought it would actively hunt down anything in their way. And I was in their way.
Pin prickles landed on her arms as she rubbed them abstractly. “Yes, but Amy kicked her ass.”
Rodney’s eyes swept over my face. “Really, quite the achievement to fight someone with her skill, Amelia, and live to talk about it. What coven do you belong to?”
I grabbed another dinner roll and thumped it into the gravy. “I don’t.”
He sat back in his chair and interlinked his hands over his head. “A witch without her coven is like a wolf without its pack. It can survive, but it’s lonely, and always feels like something is missing.”
His words struck somewhere deep. I wanted to belong, to fit in. It’s all I’d ever really wanted. I had love though. I had Karson, Ethan, Georgie, Jodie, BJ, Darcy, Michael, and Josh. I was lucky to have so many friends. Still, the yearning for family spread through my stomach like a void I needed to fill.
I threw back a mouthful of wine, wiping my lips with the back of my hand, and settled the glass softly on the table. “What about your coven, where are they?” I asked sweetly.
He spread his arms out. “I’m a vampire now, this is my coven.” He quickly turned his attention back to Georgie. Interesting. “Sarah attacked you in revenge for cheating with Ethan, did she not?”
Georgie’s face bloomed red and she dropped her gaze to the table.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Rodney.” Monique threw him a sharp look. “Leave the girls alone. You can see Georgie isn’t comfortable talking about it.”
