Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Teariki
Ipark my bike in the garage at Kian’s estate and kick off my boots.
The last thing I need is him having a little shit fit about dirt on the rugs.
Maybe that’s the difference between fallen and shifters, we don’t mind getting a little dirty.
A few years ago, Nik and I came home drunk and forgot to take off our shoes; the next morning, we found ourselves strapped to a floating mattress in the estate’s lake with a note that said, “Your invitation is rescinded until you learn basic hygiene.” He’s a neat freak dick like that.
On second thought, I better remove my riding jacket as well.
I hang it on the handlebars and head into the main house.
You’d never know by looking at Kian’s pristine modern home that he has a reputation for being ruthless. It’s overly tidy. Everything has its place. He built this house when I went to the institute so that we’d have an easy meeting place. Now, it functions as a home base for us all.
Kian’s assistant, Petra, saunters into the foyer. “Kian is in the den. There’s a beer waiting for you.”
“Thanks, Petra. How are you doing?” A smile plays on my lips—nothing wrong with a little light flirting.
“Fine.” She’s as cold as ever. She leads the way into the den, a favorite meeting space of Nik’s. It gives pretentious professor vibes for sure. Nik and Kian are both seated in the wingback chairs next to the fireplace, sipping on whisky.
“Damn, Nik, you look like shit.” I playfully kick his shin before taking a seat on the leather sofa across from them.
He’s wearing his usual scowl and dark cardigan. “Don’t touch me with your smelly paws” he complains, lip curling.
“They don’t smell.” I sniff the air just to make sure. He cracks a smile. I knew he was fucking around with me.
“First week of the year sucks,” he grumbles, closing the book that’s on his lap. “Useless meetings, nagging parents, whiny first years. My least favorite things.”
“Awww, come on, Nik, you love breaking in the first years.” I give him a pouty smile.
“True, I do love it when all their hopes and dreams crumble.” A dark smile flashes across his face.
He complains about the students, but it’s one of his favorite parts of the job.
He always wanted to be a scholar. He had only worked at the institute for a decade or so when our families died and he became heir apparent.
His coronation was delayed at his suggestion so he could babysit us until we finished school.
But I know it was because he fucking loves being a professor. Of course, all of that ends soon.
My phone buzzes with a message from Cal. They are running late. “Boden and Cal are just leaving campus now. Should we wait for them?”
“No. We have a lot to cover. So let’s hear it, Nik. What did you learn?” Kian cuts right to the chase and the reason for this meeting: Lena Solis.
Kian and Boden are worried about her impact on the Convalescere Kingdom.
Cal probably wants to study her under a microscope like one of their plants or crystals.
For Nik, this is just another game of strategy that he’s sure to win.
And me? Well, she’s just the right type of firecracker that gets me going in a way that’s definitely dangerous, if not outright lethal.
“I learned that she’s a brat and woefully unprepared to be enrolled in an institution of this caliber,” Nik growls and takes a sip of his whisky before adding, “And that her drink of choice is an old-fashioned.”
I roll my eyes. Speaking of brats, I’m not surprised that Nik’s acting out a little bit.
He’s not entirely happy with being assigned as Lena’s advisor, and Cal mentioned picking her up from her Independent Study at the pub last night.
Nik will find a way to subtly challenge any directive he’s given, especially if it comes from Kian.
He exudes “you’re not the boss of me” energy.
He’s certainly not happy about being the linchpin in Kian’s plan to unravel Lena.
“That’s it?” I ask. I was eagerly hoping we would finally get some answers from Nik’s mental sleuthing.
“Her mind’s locked up tighter than the vault at Fabergé.” He shrugs as if he is indifferent, but judging by the tick in his jaw, he’s anything but. “She has a stronger mental shield than Kian.”
There’s no way. It’s a difficult skill to master. Kian has had over a century of practice at keeping up his mental shields.
“How’s that possible?” I ask. “You’re one of the most skilled mind readers alive.”
Nik flashes me a bright smile at the compliment.
I point a serious finger at him. “If you ever tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it and then kick your ass.”
“She’s clearly lying about her lack of abilities and not knowing who she is,” Kian gripes, fiddling with his cuff links—his only nervous tell.
“Yeah, I suppose that’s possible,” Nik says. “However, I’m not entirely of that opinion. I’m not sure what she has to gain from pretending to know absolutely fuck all.” Nik bounces his knee. “There’s one more thing.”
I look at him expectantly, and Kian makes an annoyed little gesture for him to continue.
“She’s frustrating.” Nik sighs. “And impervious to compulsion.” We blink back at him.
No one who’s untrained could possibly withstand compulsion as strong as Nik’s.
“She trounced in on me mid-feeding this afternoon. It took everything I had not to rip her to shreds right there, by the way. Interrupting a vampire when they’re feeding isn’t the behavior of someone who knows about our way of life.
It’s one of the reasons I’m not sure she has an awareness of what she is.
Anyway, I tried to compel her to leave and forget.
It had no effect. I tried twice. I’ve never had to try twice. ” Nik runs a hand through his curls.
I can’t even resist Nik’s compulsion, and I have a pretty damn strong mental fortitude. “What happened?”
“She told me to go fuck myself.” Nik chuckles.
“She’s got balls.” I laugh. “I will give her that. Big balls, staring down a feeding vampire.”
“Please don’t start on her balls, or lack thereof, again.” Kian groans. “Last time you embarrassed yourself.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” I lament. “It’s kept me up at night.” I’m still embarrassed by my slip of the tongue. A tongue I’d love to slip all over Lena’s—No, stop it. Bad wolf. It’s just she is sooo pretty, with that wicked pouty mouth and her curvy little body. And then there’s her scent…
A scent I haven’t been able to get off my mind since we met.
It’s a smoky wintery scent. Like a winter morning, the air soaked in the remnant of woodsmoke from evening fires, mixing with the distinct perfume of frost-covered roses and juniper berries crushed under the weight of the first crisp snow.
It’s such a unique scent, one that’s immediately comforting.
Reminds me of home, of childhood winters spent in my family’s cabin in Maine.
And yet, at the same time, it’s disconcerting.
The smell of roses blooming in a snowstorm—an impossibility.
A contradictory smell teetering on the edge between new life and early death.
And through all that, it never gives a clue as to what her insignis is.
Nik turns to Kian. “You really don’t get anything from her aura?”
“Not quite,’” Kian explains. “I can see it, but it’s unusual.”
“Unusual how?” Nik inquires.
“Always the academic.” Kian lets out a breath.
“Most auras are either one color or a gradient, slowly changing from one shade into another. Hers is almost iridescent, like every time she moves, the colors shift.” Kian adjusts his suit.
“At first glance, it looks black, so when we first met, I assumed she was a fallen. But then, it shifted to a blueish-purple and then a greenish-yellow, both with flashes of red, like an oil spill.”
I don’t know much about auras, but from what Kian has explained, magicae have similar colors in their auras as others within their insignis, and something like this would be quite unusual.
Boden and Callum amble into the den.
“You’re late,” Kian criticizes.
“Sorry, Boden had to lay the smack down on his team for combat games.” Cal pokes Bo in the side. “Someone else actually might have a shot at winning. Which apparently means extra reps at the gym.”
“I got shafted,” Boden grumbles as he throws himself down on the sofa. “I got Vladlena-fucking-Solis. Also known as number four hundred and one.”
“You’re screwed.” Nik smirks. “Five hundred bucks Bo’s team doesn’t win this year.”
“I’ll take that bet.” I reach over and shake his hand. “Lena fearlessly punched a dude with a gun.”
“You wouldn’t take that bet if you saw her spar.” Boden runs a hand over his face. “It’s like watching a beached fish with a death wish flop around.”
We spend the next few minutes poring over Lena’s collection file. Kian, all business, turns to me. “Ariki, what updates do you have on who tried to kidnap her?”
“We were able to identify and track down the magica who hired Luke to kidnap Lena,” I explain. I took a burner phone off Luke, and our intelligence team was able to trace his contacts. “We sent a collection team to Portland, and we’ve got surveillance on the magica now.”
“Any confirmation he was with the Dark Suns?” Nik asks, fingers tapping on the side of his whisky glass.