I didn’t twitch, meeting her gaze with a calm that seemed to irritate her. Petty of me, I know, but in the case of this vampire, I was okay with resorting to such tactics.
“What are you waiting for?” she snapped.
Aiden didn’t bother concealing his amusement at her expense, his expression slightly taunting.“Perhaps she is waiting to be told what exactly it is you expect her to do.”
I snorted, not even bothering to pretend a respect I didn’t feel. The vampire before me was a bully, one who liked to use her status to get others to dance to her wishes. I didn’t plan to be one of them.
“You’re needed in the parking lot.” Her very red lips curved upward.“To park cars.”
When I still didn’t move, her gaze turned angry.“Now what’s the hold up?”
I favored her with a bland smile.“I have my orders and they don’t come from Thomas.”
She rolled her eyes.“Thomas’s orders trump everyone else’s.”
“If they had come from Thomas, perhaps,” I said, pleasantly. Even then I probably wouldn’t have obeyed. To do so would be to admit his hold over me was real.
“I outrank you,” she spat, insult on her face.
I shrugged.“I don’t care.”
She huffed and stalked off.
“That woman is either going to end up ruling us all or dead when her maneuvering finally backfires,” Aiden observed.
“Someone like her is too smart to take the wrong side of any battle,” I said tiredly.“She’s like a virus that just won’t go away.”
Aiden’s laugh was surprised. I noted a vampire in the crowd near us turn his head slightly, intelligent eyes meeting mine before he bent his head to his companion. Neither vampire had moved in the entire time Aiden had been standing near me, as if they were hoping to listen in on something interesting. Or act as guard and protector, I thought, noticing as they shifted to block Aiden from view as one of the Fae circled in our direction.
They must be part of Aiden’s clan. Enforcers by the look of them, their presence unobtrusive but with the obvious intent of protecting their patriarch.
It was similar to those revolving around Thomas as he mingled with his visitors.
“She doesn’t outrank you. In case you were wondering,” Aiden said, pulling me from my thoughts.
I hadn’t been. What I told Kat was true. I truly didn’t care if she outranked me or not. She was playing a game when I wasn’t even on the board and had no intention of ever being on it.
Aiden seemed to follow the line of my thoughts or at least had learned to accurately read my body language.“Fascinating. I think I will enjoy watching you find your place.”
“I already know my place,” I told him, turning back to the crowd.
He took a sip of his wine.“Do you? Please, enlighten me.”
I didn’t answer.
“Because from my eyes, you’re lost and alone yet you yearn for purpose.”
I didn’t react, even when his words seemed to channel thoughts that plagued me during the deepest part of night when the world was still and I was on my own.
He was wrong, but he was also right.
I wasn’t lost; I knew exactly where I was. It just wasn’t necessarily where I wanted to be. I missed being part of something. I missed the sense of purpose that came from doing what you loved, or at least doing what was important.
In that sense, I was lost, but I also knew joining the vampires and toeing their line wasn’t going to give me what I wanted. It wouldn’t fill that void inside me, despite what vampires like Aiden and Thomas might believe.
“You never did answer my question earlier,” I said, not reacting to his words.
He tilted his head as I looked up at him.
