“You know the answer to that.”
His heart, always calm, began to beat unevenly in his chest. A cold sweat broke out on his palms. “Why would you do this?”
“Because you’ll want it.”
Her throat worked as she tilted her head back to toss the dregs of her lemon drop down. Setting the empty glass back on the counter, she hopped off the old stool. Her cape fluttered around her shoulders as she adjusted the gauzy white blouse she wore underneath it.
Her tone was brusque, businesslike, when she continued, “You don’t want it now. I can respect that. But you will need it later.” He couldn’t make out her expression through the glamour, but when she lifted her head again, her inspection of her clothing finished, he knew that her face was set in hard lines. “I am not here to stop you from making mistakes, Kaz, but I’ll warn you now: you are going to regret not looking.”
Fear, cold and hard, closed a fist around his beating heart. “Why are you telling me this? Younevertell us—”
“Consider it a peace offering.”
“Apeace offering?”Anger burned through some of his fear. Kaz planted one booted foot on the filthy floor but stopped himself from standing up. If he challenged his sister in the bar, they’d draw all sorts of unwanted attention, and he really didn’t want to have to find a new haunt.
Snarling through his teeth, he said, “You shouldn’t be giving me a peace offering. You should beapologizingto our brother.”
Delilah stuck her hands into the pockets of her slim-fit slacks. “I won’t apologize for doing what needs to be done. You’ll accept it. Teddy will, too.”
“Lilah, I—”
Quick as lightning, she was only inches away. If she hadn’t been kin, one of the women who raised him and trained him, Kaz would have gone for her throat as soon as she moved. As it was, he sat ramrod straight, his lip curled over his prominent fangs, and allowed her to brush strands of his hair behind his pointed ear.
“Sweet boy,” she whispered, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek. “Tell your brother and his wife that I said hello.”
Just as quick, she turned around and walked away.
Kaz watched her tall figure cut through the smoke to reach the flier-covered door. Even drunk, people hastened to get out of her way. They might not have been able to tell who she was, but there was no hiding that she was an elf.
And even if they didn’t recognize that, only the dead wouldn’t fear Delilah Solbourne.
A nudge with her silver-tipped boot pushed the door open into the warm night. He watched her slip out, the buzzing in his ears disguising the uneasy murmuring that followed her exit.
The door swung shut. His eyes darted away, back to the packet on the bar.
It sat there, innocent, bent nearly in half, and taunted him with what he could never have.
Without his permission, his hands strayed to the envelope. His mind rebelled. He knew he shouldn’t look. Looking would only make the compulsion worse. It would only make the obsession he could feel budding in that dark part of his mind that much stronger, more resilient to extermination.
But he couldn’t stop himself.
His fingers, large and callused from years of fighting and handling weapons, shook as he fumbled with the little metal tab.
He held his breath as he lifted the flap. Tugging the papers out just an inch, his eyes snapped to the no-nonsense black text. His heartbeat thundered in his ears. Cold gripped him again, the burning sort of fear that stole the breath from a person’s lungs.
Kaz gnashed his teeth and shoved the papers back into the envelope.
But it was too late. The words were branded into the backs of his eyelids now. He could see them every time he blinked. When his heart beat, he swore he couldhearthem, each word keeping time with the unsteadythump-thump, thump-thump.
She was in him, her name seeping through his veins like a saccharine venom.
Atria Le Roy.
ChapterTwo
April 2048 - San Francisco, The Elvish Protectorate
By necessityas well as inclination, Atria Le Roy was not a particularly social person.
