Chapter 15 Jasmine #3
When Ezekial begins talking, mentioning that the new recruits start date has been pushed back another week due to the ‘lockdown’, their conversation flows effortlessly.
Every so often, I’ll feel a brush of something. A glance, a silent check-in, a wisp of shadow, while I happily indulge in the mound of pastries someone assembled for me.
Between bites, I steal glances at them—mid-conversation, sipping from their mugs, laughing, smiling—and it makes me feel... warm. These terrifying men, these powerfully dark-beings, are having a meeting over coffee and pastries in a quaint bakery, and it’s all just so…
Cute.
Shit.
I shut my eyes.
I know the second that thought slipped out because their conversation halts.
“What’s cute, Red?”
Thankfully, we’ve lost the bread nickname.
I peer up at Sai’s piercing gaze, his smirk well and truly in place with both dimples displayed.
“Martha,” I say, never dropping my gaze as I bite into the chocolaty centre. His eyes dart to my lips.
“Thought we said no more lies, Red?” He tilts his head, placing his other arm on the table to shift closer.
“Oh no, I’m allowed to lie.” I scoff, taking another bite, chewing, swallowing. He watches it all. “But you’re not,” I clarify, placing the pastry down and picking up my mug.
“Ah, so it was a lie.”
My eyes flare in irritation, he smirks.
I sigh, admitting defeat. “This, this is cute.” I nod towards the table. “You guys meeting like this, here, having breakfast together, chatting like this. It reminds me of…” I let my words trail off.
I take a sip of my coffee, then another, hoping someone will fill the silence.
“You can talk about them, Jasmine,” Ezekial says, his soft, silver gaze calm.
“If you’d like to. I know we were quick to judge.
We should know better than most not to simply assume things.
” He glances around at the others. “They were your family for five years, and we were wrong to come to such… rash conclusions. Especially, when we still don’t know all the facts.
They may have kept you hidden, but it kept you safe. It’s clear they did care for you.”
I definitely wasn’t prepared for that—or to talk about it, especially not with them.
“I’ll… keep that in mind,” I murmur, focusing back on the array of pastries. “But the whole hidden thing reminds me. Any luck finding the guys in green? Or the girl from the cells?”
It’s like the energy from all of them drains away, each man withdrawing inwards somehow.
Then Ezekial pulls out a smaller version of the tablet I’ve seen him use before, still slightly bigger than our phones. He places it—screen displaying a map of the district—on the table.
The familiarity of this moment seems to strike us both. My tendrils coil around me, as though confirming the memory. Ezekial’s gaze softens, a faint smile tugging at his mouth, the kind that says he remembers too.
Discussing my control… How could I forget what he said? How each part of me needed to be sated.
I decide to study the map more studiously than before, letting it distract me from the way that memory lingers. I note the arrangement of markers, different coloured Xs jotted almost everywhere.
“We’ve begun searching the same areas,” Ezekial explains.
“Prospero, the Green Cloaks, seem to be moving seconds before we get there.” I frown at the hidden implication, that they’re somehow being tipped off.
“We’ve looked into our enforcer units and staff, but somehow, they’re still getting intel that keeps them ahead of us. ”
I nod at his words as I continue to search the map. “I know I don’t have this type of expertise, but can I have a closer look? Sometimes, a fresh pair of eyes...”
Instantly, without waiting for me to finish, without a single apprehensive expression—he places the tablet into my hand.
His innate trust in me and my ability makes me feel warm, so warm I have to uncross and recross my legs, meaning my boot knocks into Sai. His markings flare from that tiny action which I purposefully ignore.
I remember the pinching action Ezekial taught me—I’m pretty sure I remember every moment of that conversation... but when I zoom in, I become distracted by even more X’s.
They really have searched everywhere.
My eyes scale the map, picking out areas I’d retreat to and noting several markings already there. Notes outside the map read, ‘3rd check—clear’, with someone’s signature. So they sign off each time—
Something—someone—knocks my foot.
“Friends don’t play footsie,” I admonish Sai mentally, keeping my eyes on the map, still swiping to distract myself from his boot tapping mine.
“What about best friends?”
I huff a soft laugh. “Should I ask Julien?”
“Oh, he won’t admit it. He’s shy.”
I shake my head, hiding a smile behind my hair as I keep searching.
“How and where do you discuss the next search area?” I ask, not looking away from the map as I scan the farthest edges.
“Mostly like this, or mentally,” Ezekial explains, leaning over the table further. “Then we inform our Lead Commanders in the meeting room, who then distribute the mission to their enforcer units—they act immediately.”
I keep zooming in and out. “How many of these Lead Commanders are there?”
“Four in this district, two stayed in the Entertainment District with Delphine.”
At the new name, I look up at Ezekial.
“The other Council member,” he adds, and I instantly remember.
The empath who tried to keep me seated when I refused to sit by and watch Amelia be murdered. She’s also the only other empath I’ve ever met…
“She stayed there after the ambush at Purgatory,” Julien finishes.
Which is when I remember where Ezekial was during that time. In a room with me, about to lose himself to his darkness after he touched my mark…
I swallow, refocus. “And you trust all of these Lead Commanders?” I look at each of them.
They never trusted me that easily. Especially…
My eyes fall on Kane, and he’s already staring back.
“We have ways of ensuring loyalty,” he simply says.
I hum, nodding. “Yes, coercion under duress works really well for loyalty.”
It’s meant to be serious—scathing, even—but somehow it rolls off my tongue like a joke. Too smooth. Too amused.
And did… did Kane’s lip just twitch?
Ezekial’s eyes dart to his brother before he adds, “They have served us for at least a decade, and they each underwent rigorous interviews before being promoted.”
“Interviews like mine?” I’m still looking at Kane, and I try again to sound serious, but it seems I can’t control my tone. “Truth serum, threats to torture and kill loved ones, things like that?”
Why am I smiling about this? It’s not funny. It wasn’t funny. So why the hell am I teasing him like it is?
“Not quite. But we may consider that for future promotions.” Then Kane smiles.
He smiles.
It’s the fullest I think I’ve ever seen his lips stretch—top teeth showing—and my mind goes absolutely blank.
Goddesses.
When he smiles like that, his eyes glimmer like obsidian jewels, brilliant teeth stark against his caramel skin. He looks like another being when he smiles.
One I want to know.
Deeply.
Immediately.
“We do use a truth serum,” Ezekial continues, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “However, it’s a more potent version, due to…” The way his words stop catches my attention.
“A special ingredient,” Sai ends for him.
I force myself to look away from Kane. “Special ingredient?” I repeat in a murmur, waiting for an answer neither Ezekial nor Sai seem eager to give.
Sai inhales through his teeth, then casts a not-so-subtle glance to my other side. I frown at the implication—
My darkness reacts quicker than my mind.
I twist towards Julien. “You give them your blood?”
I know how angry I sound, I also know I shouldn’t care, but my darkness? She cares. She’s absolutely furious.
The room flickers into grey as I wait for Julien’s response. But he’s hesitant, and his gaze warily searches my darkening expression.
“Mon désir, it is a small—”
“Don’t mon désir me,” I snarl, low in my throat.
Some other beings have had his blood.
My bond’s blood.
My bond.
My chest tightens. “That’s how you know they’re loyal? Because they’re all over you?!”
“Oh buddy,” Sai murmurs. “You’re in big trouble. Might’ve handled this better if you weren’t running on pigs’ blood.”
Pigs’ blood?
“Jasmine, it isn’t like that—”
“You’re not feeding, yet you’re giving these commanders your blood?” I cut him off, jaw tight, vision darker.
Julien’s concerned expression fractures as his brow dips. “How do you know I haven’t been feeding?”
Fuck.
I shake my head, my rising anger twining with embarrassment. But I just can’t seem to shake the idea of his blood in someone else’s veins.
My bond’s blood.
My blood.
Shadows bleed into my gaze as I stare at the man who is mine.
“It’s mine.” My words crack through the room, echoing.
Julien says nothing. He just stares as I pant through this envious rage, until a sliver of darkness curls around my ankle, and the cold touch fractures the heat.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep, shaky breath and will my darkness to calm, to draw back.
When the burning rage finally slips into something less potent, I risk a sheepish glance at Julien.
“I’m… That was really... uncalled for,” I mutter apologetically, eyes dropping to the tablet clutched in my lap. “I’m struggling with control. Again. Just…” I exhale slowly. “Logically, it makes sense. I know that. Giving your…” I nod so I don’t have to say the word. “It’s a good strategy. Sorry.”
“Never apologise for staking your claim.” Julien’s voice rumbles and when I lift my gaze, I find eyes black streaked with burning red, darting from my mouth to my eyes.
“I’m yours. Be possessive.” His warm fingers brush the nape of my neck, lifting the edge of my hair, and every drop of blood in my body is scorching.
“I apologise for not considering the implication. In the future, I will ask your permission first.”
“The future?” I bite off that final word, eyes narrowed.