I remained still, afraid that if I moved, if I shifted even a little bit, the things that made me Aileen Travers would shatter and what would emerge would no longer be me. That thought was scarier than any monster I’d ever faced.
“You’re going to hate me for this,” Thomas told me. “Rail at me, despise me, tell yourself all the pretty lies, but in your heart, you know I did you a favor. Know this myastór,I will always do what I feel is best for you. Your conscience is clear. I made you take this step. Just like I’ll make you take the next.”
He sauntered out of the room without waiting for another response.
I stayed where I was. This all felt like a dream, a horrible nightmare.
Liam’s sigh was heavy as he reached for my shoulder. I flinched away from his touch.
“Don’t touch me. Never touch me again,” I said, my tone steely, determined. It sounded like someone else talking, someone more put together than me, not this hot mess who was barely holding herself together.
“Aileen.”
Just that. Just my name.
I moved to the door, my back bowed, my steps as tentative as a century-old grandma. “We have a pair of bodies to look over.”
I didn’t wait for an answer, leaving the room where I’d lost the last remnants of my human self without a backward glance.
Liam would follow or he wouldn’t. If he didn’t, I’d head home and forget. Or maybe I’d head for Dahlia’s for a little help in forgetting. It didn’t really matter to me.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
I stood in the corner, arms folded across my chest and shoulders a little more bowed than usual as Joseph referred to his notes.
A tall man with skin the color of coffee and eyes a very light hazel, Joseph had a face that invited sin and a presence that always reminded me of a caged tiger. Beautiful but deadly, if you got close enough to touch.
He didn’t remark on the tension my presence had caused or the clear awkwardness between Liam and me. We stood on opposite sides of the room. If I could have found a spot farther away, I would have. Right now, I didn’t want to be in the same space as him—or any of the vampires really. Right or wrong, they’d all been painted with the same brush. As dangerous for my continued health and wellbeing as the master of the city.
The last thing I wanted to do was be standing in a room with them, but there was a job to do. Until it was done,I’d suck it up and work with them, but as soon as it was done, I planned to never cross a vampire’s path again. I didn’t care what it took or even if I had to move to the sunniest spot on earth to accomplish my goal. One way or another our association was at an end.
The rest of Liam’s enforcers had gathered, at least the ones I knew. There might be more, but I had yet to meet them.
The only one missing was Nathan. Away on some mission only he and Liam knew about, no doubt.
A few of the enforcers glanced in my direction, picking up on the tension between Liam and me. They were subtle about it, until they weren’t, staring outright when neither one of us made any move to address the problem.
Men. They were as bad about gossip as any group of ladies I knew.
I stared at the bodies on the table, ignoring their side-looks.
Even Joseph seemed to be aware something was going on, his gaze curious and considering.
“Something I should know?” he asked.
“It doesn’t concern you,” Liam replied, not looking up from the bodies.“Makoto, what do we know about these two?”
Makoto busied himself on the tablet in his hands, quickly sifting through information as he bopped his head to a beat only he could hear, numerous earrings glinting along the upper rim of his ear.
He had shaved his head on both sides, leaving the hair on top slightly longer. Today it was green, a bright spot of edginess in the otherwise formal room.
Joseph’s study looked about as far as you could get from a morgue. The furnishings were all antiques with a mixture of textures and clean lines. Masculine and formal at the same time.
“Alright, the woman was Joanna Saska, from clan Raelle. Her sire was Angelique. She was practically a baby. Only a few years out of her hundred years of service,” he recited, eyes focused on his tablet.
“Shame, that,” Anton drawled.
Daniel grunted and folded his arms across his chest, his pretty hazel eyes fixed on me. He wore a beard, something rare in most of the vampiresI’d met. It made him seem even gruffer than he already was. I didn’t normally care for beards but on him it worked, adding to the impression that he was just off a battlefield, ready and willing to pillage the surrounding land. He was tall and fair-haired. A Viking through and through.
