“My love?—”
“Don’t.”
Anton nestled into Seamus’s side and put his hand over Seamus’s fist. Seamus yanked his hand free. When Anton tried again, Seamus pushed him away, sending him up against the car door.
“For all the talk of immaturity,” Takashi said, “you are the only one behaving like a child. How many tantrums can be thrown in a millennium, I wonder?”
“You will close your mouth if you know what’s good for you,” Seamus replied.
“Perhaps I will.” Takashi turned his attention to Anton, speaking his words to him over anyone else. “Because the result will always be the same, won’t it? Life attempts to grow in a garden whose caretaker only sees weeds, no matter the shape or color of the leaves. To him, the earth is not to be tended but salted. Then he wonders why he commands a coven of dust and blames the rain for the muddy, useless ground.”
Anton’s eyes widened a fraction. Just a minute, tiny difference.
“I have had enough of you,” Seamus growled. He blurred, rushing across the limo’s cabin.
Though Takashi tried to dodge him, he wasn’t quick enough. Seamus grabbed him by the jaw and twisted. Unconsciousness came with a snap.
The rest of the ride back to the mansion was silent after Seamus knocked Takashi out. Seamus had continued to sit by Takashi and break his neck whenever he began to rouse. Zack knew intellectually that Takashi’s wound would heal, but every time it happened, he flinched and held his breath until Takashi began to move again. He struggled to continue singing repetitive songs in his mind, hesitating more and more before starting the next round.
When they reached the mansion, Seamus dragged Takashi out of the limo and dumped him onto the pavement of the circle drive. Sneering, he said, “I have half a mind to leave him in the greenhouse for the day. However, letting him off the hook that easily won’t do. Zack, take him to my love’s special room.”
“I’ll do it,” Anton said lightly. But there was a wariness in his eyes.
“I said?—”
“I would rather he didn’t interfere with my current experiments. Besides, I have keys, and he doesn’t.” Anton hoisted Takashi over one shoulder and carried him into the mansion.
“Very well,” Seamus said. “There’s still a little time before dawn, pets. Shall we?”
Seamus strode up and into his mansion, expecting the three mortals to follow him. They did without hesitation.
Zack wondered if a limo drove as easily as his compact car had. It probably didn’t. And he couldn’t leave Takashi behind.Shaking his head at himself, he went with Katie into the house and up to their suites. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her gaze focused on the floor.
“Why does Takashi care about me?” Katie asked as they neared their doors.
“Because he made you,” Zack replied.
“Yeah, but we’ve barely talked. My ability to read emotions comes out like songs to me, and I always have this sweet, sad song in the back of my head. It makes me want to run outdoors or dance in the rain. Be free.” Katie hugged her arms tighter. “When we’re apart, the song is for him, and I overhear it, but when we’re together, it changes key, and I know that’s what he wants for me. Anton has this terrible reputation, but he’s been great to me, too.”
Zack slowed his pace and stopped beside Katie’s door. “Even if Anton is only a monster because Seamus made him that way, that doesn’t make him less of a monster. My other boyfriend, Roger, has had to do some pretty terrible stuff, but he feels guilty for it. He wants to be better than that.”
“Anton’s hard to read,” Katie said. “Sometimes, when we’re practicing magic, he seems like a completely different person. He’s … a brutal practitioner. Don’t frown like that about it. He hasn’t hurt me, but the spells and potions he’s been teaching me aren’t the kind of thing I’d learn at Versinal. Of course, all Versinal professors really cared about was anti-aging creams, tiny glamours, and the theory of bigger spells.”
“What has he been teaching you?” Zack asked.
“Shielding, lightning blasts. Maybe we raised a dead squirrel or two,” Katie replied.
“You didn’t learn anything about that at the academy?”
Katie groaned. “They’re not that deficient. But I didn’t get to have so much hands-on experience. Everyone said there wasn’t a point in wasting effort on that kind of stuff, which I thought wasstupid. What I said before, I’m not really that upset about how I became a vampire anymore. Ilikethis. Don’t you?”
“I … okay, being a vampire isn’t the worst,” Zack said. “But …”
“But Seamusisthe worst.” Katie bit the corner of her bottom lip, one fang lightly touching. “Anton said he’d protect me from everything, but I’m not sure he can.”
“I don’t think he can either.”
Katie nodded. “Okay. That settles it.”
