The gnome took it, examining the invitation for a brief moment before waving the rest of us inside. “Welcome. Come aboard. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty of room for everyone.”
As if by magic, the elevator seemed to expand before our eyes, gaining width and depth until there really was enough room to accommodate Thomas, Ahrun, and the rest of their entourage.
Liam waved Daniel and Eric into the elevator to check it out while he hung back to confer briefly with his counterpart in Daylight. “You and the rest stay here to keep a lookout. You know what to do.”
“Understood,” the man acknowledged before turning to bark orders at the rest of his people.
When Eric gave the all clear, Thomas and Sienna joined the enforcers in the elevator. Ahrun the last of the three to follow.
Nathan touched my back, leaning down to speak in a voice meant only for me. “Remember—no matter what happens be careful not to give you-know-what away.”
The warning look he leveraged on me left no confusion as to what he was talking about.
“Worried about me?” I teased.
Nathan chucked me under the chin. “Just don’t want to have to audition a new best friend is all.”
“In that case, I’ll have to let Eric know his position has been usurped,” I drawled, stepping into the elevator and almost falling.
Luckily, Nathan was there to catch my elbow to help steady me. “Be careful of those heels. You wouldn’t want to break your neck.”
I didn’t object when Nathan wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me into his side, my legs still too weak to fully support my weight without drawing attention.
That first step into the elevator had been brutal. Like stepping into a too hot oven. The air so dense it was a little hard to breathe. My skin dry and overly hot. A sensation similar to what I remembered it felt like to have a particularly bad sunburn. Only this was a full body discomfort. Irritating prickles that felt like there were tiny fire ants biting me constantly and a too tight sensation in my skin. As if it had been stretched too far over my bones.
Worse, though, was the feeling of repulsion. Something in the magic trying to force me out. Like two opposite polarity magnets.
I forced my face to show none of my discomfort. Nathan’s cool arm across my back helped. The power that was vampire providing a soothing counterpoint to the boiling sensation.
I concentrated on it. All the while trying to seem normal.
Nothing to see here. Just a clumsy vampire unused to skyscraper heels. Fortunately, Sienna’s foresight had provided me with the perfect excuse.
I leaned against him and breathed.
“You okay?” he asked in a low voice.
I hummed a response.
I would be.
Liam was looking at me, the faintest lowering of his brow a micro-expression of concern that only those who knew him well would pick up on.
For the first time, I wished the gnome wasn’t in the elevator with us. He needed to know what I’d just found out.
Then again, you could never trust the walls in a place like this not to have ears.
Glancing at Thomas and Ahrun, I disregarded the possibility of relaying the information I’d just gleaned to either of them. Ahrun for obvious reasons. Thomas was a possibility, but I was closer to Liam. Trusted him not to abuse the opening into my mind I gave him.
Damn. Who would have thought little old paranoid me would ever willingly open a bridge to allow someone else into my mind?
I really had evolved.
Making sure to hold Liam’s gaze, I brushed a finger along the tattoo of an oak tree that served as his claim to me. A metaphysical connection that I rarely used.
I was hoping the link would allow us to speak privately.
Focusing, I fumbled for the connection between us. The chill air of a winter’s night by a fireside brushed against my senses. Its presence delicate and faint enough that I wasn’t sure I hadn’t imagined it.
