“The meeting can carry on without us. It’s petty assholes with insignificant problems,” Anton purred.
Takashi grabbed Anton’s wrist before Anton tried to put his hand down his pants. At any second, others could be joining them in the hall. There were security personnel just down the way. The thought of getting caught in a public act didn’t bother Takashi, but who he was with did. While Kazik and Xenofon would likely make crass remarks if they spotted Anton and Takashi like this, no one in the leadership would likely care. Upper elites in covens screwed all the time.Hell, I might earn more points as a scary asshole if they did see me making out with him. They’d think I had his ear, at least for now.
What Zack and Roger thought did matter. Though they hadn’t minded Takashi’s occasional physical moments with Carver, Anton certainly wasnotin the remote possibilities of acceptable hookups. Not that Takashi was interested in him either.
And yet, the real reason Takashi continued to hold on to Anton’s wrist and held off from acting on any urges was the shadow of loneliness he glimpsed deep in Anton’s eyes. He caught a faint echo of an off-tune note, a hint at the broken spirit. Anton had laid layer upon layer over his mental wounds. He had grown around them.
He was the deadlier for it. The more untouchable immortal.
What would Roger have been like without Zack? Without me? Another hundred years, two hundred—could he have morphed into something like this?
“You won’t win my loyalty with a quick fuck and a nice drink,” Takashi said softly.
Anton pulled his hand away. His grin turned sly, another behavior slipping into place. He held his shoulders a fraction straighter, shifted his weight so he wasn’t pressing up against Takashi so closely. “That’s all Roger seemed to need. Zack, too.”
Takashi pushed away from the wall and forced Anton to take a step back. “Blindly applying pain takes no skill, Anton. If you want to hurt something, go animate a doll. I doubt anything living will give you the satisfaction you crave.”
As Takashi began to move away, Anton roughly grabbed him by the arm. His shell cracked. A boiling anger brewed in his voice. “I could get it out of you.”
However, with that contact, Takashi could steep in Anton’s desires and fears. He slithered through the less obvious gaps in his mental defenses, reaching past the barrage of surface wants and terrors that Anton kept in place to guard against such intrusion.
Anton wanted someone to depend on him. He was desperately scared of losing the love he had. Reading emotions couldn’t give refined thoughts, but Takashi could make an educated guess. Zack was taking what little spare time Seamus had, and he would continue to do so for weeks—possibly years. Raising a sireling was not a one-night endeavor.
“Try all you like,” Takashi said in a low, serious voice, “but I will not be your plaything as you wait for your lover to pay attention to you. Find. Someone. Else.”
Anton narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps Zack will be more amenable.”
A laugh threatened to bubble out of Takashi, but he managed to close his lips in time. The sheer idea of it was so ludicrous, and yet Anton had said it with complete sincerity. Had the arrogance of centuries made Anton believe he was capable of doinganything? Given enough time, perhaps he could—assuming his target wasn’t one of the most stubborn beings in all of existence.
“Zack would never bend,” Takashi replied.
“Then perhaps he will break,” Anton said.
“Your dear true love would be angry with you.” The others were filtering into the hall, so Takashi leaned in to whisper, “Besides, if broken toys made you happy, you’d already be drowning in ecstasy.”
The words must have struck home because Anton released Takashi’s arm, and rather than going back into the conference room, he strode down the hall. Takashi watched him leave far longer than he needed to, allowing the others to return before him.
Candide paused beside him. “I see you are no plucked flower, wilting without its sustenance. Rather, you are the caged lion. Careful how you prowl your confinement, mon cher.”
“If spectators poke, I will claw them,” Takashi said and gave a slight nod toward the direction Xenofon had gone.
“As you should. But be mindful of the keepers.”
“Are you worried about me?” Takashi asked, putting on an air of lightness.
Candide checked the hall for any obvious eavesdroppers and tightened her lips upon spotting the security detail far away. Then she let her shoulders drop and smiled brightly with a small laugh. Her socialite graces came into play as she threaded her arm into Takashi’s. “I clearly don’t need to be. It’s not as if you’re a fox whimpering at the door of my den. I need not shelter you.”
Fox. Kit was a werefox. Was she trying to give him a message? Takashi allowed her to link arms with him and kept his best smile in place. “Hopefully, you wouldn’t turn me away if I was.”
“I might arrange a bed if the circumstance demanded,” Candide replied. “One should always be allowed to lick one’s wounds in peace.”
Kit is with her, and they’re safe. Takashi put his hand over Candide’s on his arm and squeezed. Saying anything else on the subject might become too clear a giveaway.
She apparently thought so, too, because she switched topics. “You know, I saw you perform once in that charming circus. ‘The Gravity-Defying Acts of the Astonishing Sato!’ The way you spun and flipped through the air—I hadn’t seen anything mortal like it. I haven’t since.” She tightened her grip on his arm. “It is amazing how one can twist when one has the need.”
Is she wondering if I’d betray Roger? Or is she warning me not to trust her? “Agreed. But I think you’ve forgotten something about that act. I may have done a few tricks on my own, but I performed with partners. My most complicated tricks couldn’t be done alone.”
“Oh, isn’t that just the way of it?” Candide said warmly, a bubbling laugh in her voice but not in her eyes.
