As I took care of business, then washed my hands, I stared in the mirror. Lazenti had hit me hard with the story of his girlfriend. Love was a tough emotion, and it could so easily go south. I loved my friends, I loved my mother, but I couldn’t ever say I’d been in love. I’d dated—and I did enjoy sex—but I’d never let myself fall for anyone.
For a brief time when I was around sixteen, I had a crush on Dante, but he was smart enough to see it and gently lay it to rest. And I understood, after a bit of disappointment, that my crush had grown as a reaction to his kindness and generosity. He’d been the first man to ever treat me well. I had no father figure, and most of the men I’d encountered while on the streets had tried to take advantage of me.
Now, I loved Dante more than I loved anybody else except Penn, but it was the love of a friend, of found family. I had his back, and I always would. And he had mine. But any sexual attraction that might have sprung up had long faded. We were brother and sister, at heart. And that made the bond between us even stronger.
I felt bad for Lazenti. He had lost the love of his heart, and when he thought he saved her, she ended up turning away from him. It must be terribly lonely, loving someone who would die long before you. Was it worth it? That I couldn’t answer. I only knew that I never wanted to fall for someone I would lose too soon.
Solemn, deep in thought, I headed back to the breakroom.
“So,” I asked, returning to my seat. “Did you tell Lazenti everything you found out about the temple?”
Carson nodded. “Which is practically zilch, but hey…”
“There’s an open meeting tomorrow night. I thought I’d go and check it out,” I said, telling them about the advertisement we’d seen. “I’m going to take Penn with me,” I said. “She’s good at sussing out energy.”
“It makes sense for two friends to go together. If you go with a man, they might think you’re a couple and avoid targeting you,” Dante said.
“I doubt that matters—for all they know, Penn and I could be a couple.” I laughed. “You never know.” I looked at Lazenti. “Hey, I know it’s not a good time for you to be prowling around down in the Underground, but can you do some research from your…well…wherever you’re staying and see if you can come up with the name of any vamps in Seattle willing to sire for hire? We should check out any potential option that we think of.”
“Will do. Say, don’t you have a meeting with your father coming up?” he asked.
I nodded. “Tonight. Dinner. I’m nervous—this is the first official meeting we’re having, in terms of talking about business. I have no idea what he’s going to say. And I have to deal with my brother as well. I need to put him off Penn—though I think he’s just pursuing her because he knows it makes both of us mad.”
Carson let out a little growl. “If he tries anything?—”
“If he tries anything,” I said, “I’ll put a stop to it. Don’t you go playing hero. One, Penn doesn’t appreciate it when anybody else tries to fight her battles. Two, you wouldn’t last two seconds against Vaurice. My brother’s a full demon, remember.”
I really wished Carson would let go of his obsession with Penn. Unfortunately, once a human fell under the glamour of a member of the Fae race—whether or not it was deliberate—it was hard as hell to shake them loose from it.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, but I could tell he knew I was right.
“Walk softly?—”
“And carry a big stick,” he finished, finally smiling. “I’ll be good. I promise.”
“Other than what we’ve already discussed, I don’t know what we can do about Mark,” I added. “I guess…Sophia, did you find out anything?”
“No, I called his friends. I called the hospitals. I called everybody on the list with absolutely no results,” she said. “Nobody’s heard from him in several weeks.”
“Dante, can you think of anything else?” I asked.
“I’ll look into his background, though I doubt if I’ll come up with much. He seemed to keep his nose clean for the most part.” Dante scribbled something down on a notebook. “Oh, this is off topic, but I got a note from the Lou—Rowan’s husband.”
Dante had a stalker who had ended up being committed for observation, and she was deemed potentially dangerous to others as well as herself, so they signed her in for observation. Lou, her husband who was a rabbit shifter, had been unaware of what was going on. But that had happened several weeks ago and I had no idea what was going on with the case now.
“What did he say?” Sophia asked.
“She’s being transferred to an anti-magic mental hospital. She tried to blast one of the guards and ended up almost killing him. Apparently, being locked up was the final straw and any pretense she had at being socialized enough to interact on the outside flew right out of the window. Lou’s filing for divorce, and he’s planning to move to the east coast. Rowan blames him, and he’s afraid that if she ever gets out, she’ll come gunning for him. She’s a powerful witch, and so they’re going to hold her indefinitely in an anti-magic zone.”
“Poor guy,” I said. “Lou really got shafted by her. At least he’s able to file for citizenship now, and he can move on and find someone who loves him.”
“I wish him the best,” Dante said. “He deserves someone better than Rowan.”
Lou had married Rowan because he thought she loved him. Apparently, her love had an expiration date and it had led her to new obsessions. Dante wasn’t the only man she had stalked.
“Well, I’m glad that’s resolved. Just watch who you meet. I know you didn’t lead her on, but you’re pretty magnetic, dude,” I said.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he said. “So, speaking of people we know, how’s Konstantine doing?”
