I didn’t know where that had come from, and quite frankly I didn’t care. If I hadn’t already accepted this job,I’d be heading out the door toward home right about now.
Liam’s footsteps were angry as he followed me.“Aileen.”
I held up a hand.“We’re not talking about my personal life.”
“I have the right to know.”
I spun to face him, ready and raring to go for this fight.“No, you don’t. You’re not my boyfriend, my lover or anything else.”
The words didn’t make him back down. If anything, they seemed to spur him on.“And if I wanted to be?”
I scoffed.“You don’t want that. You want a convenient body that’s there when you’ve got an itch.”
His face darkened.“Don’t presume to know what I want, sweetheart.”
I lifted an eyebrow, abruptly willing to follow this wherever it might lead.“Okay, answer me this—where were you for the past three months?”
I waited. A mask slammed down on his face, and suddenly he was the LiamI’d first met. A statue impersonating a person. Cold and impersonal, no hint of his true thoughts.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I said.I’d expected his response, but somehow it still stung.“I’m not your toy. I won’t be waiting for you whenever you deign to return. I suggest you go elsewhere if that’s what you’re looking for.”
“And what would you have of me?” he asked, wielding his words like a whip.“You treat anything to do with vampires like it’s the plague. I can’t share because I can’t trust what you’ll do with the information.”
The words hurt, even if they were partially true. I did avoid all things vampire. However, if he thought I would use knowledge he’d given me to hurt him, he didn’t know me at all.
Some of that must have been written on my face, because his expression thawed slightly.
“I guess we each know where we stand,” I said, my voice flat. I turned toward the door.“I believe you said you wanted to see one of my friends. Which friend?”
He remained still for a long moment, long enough that I thought he was going to ignore my question before he started after me.
“You still have connections with the witches?” he asked.
I nodded.“They’re tentative. I can’t guarantee she’ll talk to us.”
In fact, I wasn’t sure she wouldn’t try to hex us at first sight. She wasn’t exactly my biggest fan.
“That’ll have to do,” he said.
“What’s the interest in the witches?” I asked.
“I suspect some of them were part of the group that came after us last night,” he replied, moving past me to a car, one that was sleek and sporty and looked wicked fast. It was a burnt umber color, a treat for the eyes.
I paused at the sight of it, recalling the conversation we’d had last night. For a moment, I thought he might have gotten this because of whatI’d said. I shook off the thought in the next second. There was no way he would have had time to get this car between now and then. This was coincidence, nothing else.
“You coming?” he asked, pausing on the driver’s side.
I nodded and joined him. Whether this was because of me or not, I heartily approved of the ride.
*
Elements was much the same as I remembered. Liam hadn’t had any trouble finding parking near it. He seemed to possess some uncanny knack to arrive at the exact moment someone was vacating a spot, a feat I never seemed to manage. Whenever I came to the Short North, I usually ended up parking a mile away from my destination.
Named for its location just north of downtown Columbus, the Short North was on one of the busiest streets in the city. Once upon a time, it had been considered little more than a dying neighborhood. When I was growing up, people avoided this place after dark and sometimes before it. Since then it had undergone a revitalization and was now home to some of the funkiest and coolest shops and restaurants in the city. Ostensibly it was known as the arts district, but it was so much more than that.
At ten on a Wednesday night, it was still hopping, the bar and club scene just beginning to pick up.
Columbus wasn’t a big city, therefore many of the districts were left to butt up against each other. The start of the Arena district was just one street over, and marked the beginning of many vampire owned bars. The witches had claimed the Short North— a decision that allowed them to take advantage of the attractions drawing tourists and sightseers who didn’t mind the new age mysticism permeating everything.
