Chapter 2 Kayla #3
“Everything,” Naomi whispered. When she turned to me, her eyes were wide, her fear palpable. “Where’s Lettie?”
I sighed. “I have no idea.” I rubbed my hands over my cheeks, my fingertips scrabbling at my forehead like I could claw some sense into myself. “Maybe I should go back to the club and find out if they know anything.”
The club. I couldn’t bring myself to call it The Neutral Zone because the specter of Francois loomed there, but neither could I give it Sebastian’s fancy new name, because that man was just as scary—in many very different ways.
Something inside me that I was trying to ignore tugged toward him, and I didn’t want to go back to tempt myself. I almost didn’t dare.
And after all, I could be sitting in Naomi’s house a free woman now—why the hell would I voluntarily return to a place where I’d been under contract to the previous owners?
I’d been pretty much owned. Forget the pretty much.
The Ricards had owned me lock, stock, and barrel, regardless of how little power the contract legally gave them.
“I’ll just open up the shop tomorrow.” Naomi’s thoughts hadn’t strayed much beyond her own situation, and I raised an eyebrow in her general direction as she refocused on me. “So, are you going to head back to The Neutral Zone?”
I waited a moment while I considered her question carefully, examining my feelings, and finding myself to be too tempted and untrustworthy to make that decision.
Honestly, if I didn’t think about the consequences, I’d go back there in a heartbeat.
Skip through the fucking front door, most likely, to see those blue eyes and tousled hair again.
And then regret it. Big time regret it.
As much about Sebastian Dupont both attracted and repelled me.
And danger lay in that direction.
The fact that he was another vampire helped to ward off some of the attraction. I was done with them. Especially the powerful ones.
Out here, I was definitely my own person. They couldn’t see me, they couldn’t catch me.
In there, all bets were off.
That was why I’d wanted to find Lettie in the first place, so I could ensure my freedom wasn’t simply imagined.
“I don’t think I’ll go back,” I said, my words slow and deliberate. It didn’t matter that an insistent part of me really wanted to.
Naomi frowned. “I’ve heard pretty good things about the new king.”
I shrugged. “But Sebastian Dupont isn’t the new king, is he? He’s only a prince. Besides, you know how…compelling vampires can be. How tricky.”
She nodded and her lips pulled into a flat line of agreement. “Ain’t that the truth. So, what are you going to do?”
“Well, I need a job.”
“Sooo…?” she prompted.
“So, I’ll find something.” I waved the question off, my movement deliberately casual, even though unexpectedly being without a job had put a major crimp in my plans.
Everything about the power exchange had impeded my plans, as well as Lettie being missing.
I hadn’t even really considered the bigger picture yet.
I hated being owned, but the Ricards had also protected me from other vampires and supernaturals.
I was without that protection now. Especially without Lettie and her spell to keep me hidden as a prospective mate.
“I guess.” Naomi sounded doubtful.
“Look, this is New Orleans. It’s not like we have a shortage of bars and restaurants. I can be waitstaff.” I just needed to find somewhere with as much clout as The Neutral Zone, where it would be known that no one would be able to mess with me without suffering the consequences.
She snorted. “You, Kayla McKenna, serve people?”
“Hey now! It could happen.” But I only made a half-hearted protest as my mind wandered around my new problem, poking at it to see if I could shake a better solution loose.
My new freedom came with a potential downside, too. It wouldn’t take the local covens and magical movers and shakers long to see my newly acquired vulnerability.
She flattened her mouth again. “If you say so. But usually, you’re just… You’re just…”
“Just what?”
She flapped her hands toward me. “Just way too look at me to want to fade into the background. It’s why you sing, right?”
I huffed then reconsidered. “Maybe. But right now, I think I’d prefer fading. Just think —no more vampires, no more contracts, no more being beholden. I can fade for those terms.” Maybe I could even leave town once and for all? It would put paid to all my fucking problems in one fell swoop.
I just had to find Lettie first. Sort out this spell thing and make sure she was okay.
Naomi nodded. “Couldn’t we all fade on those terms, though?”
I looked her. “You aren’t contracted, right?”
She shook her head. “Nope, but I can imagine. Lettie doesn’t seem a whole lot like she ever enjoyed it, either.”
At the new mention of our friend, worry gnawed at me stronger again. “I hope she’s okay,” I said because there just weren’t any other words.
“Yeah, me too. I hope I don’t have to be in charge of the shop for too long. It’s a lot of responsibility.” Naomi flipped her hair and sighed, and I shook my head.
“I think the shop might be the least of our worries.” Lettie was missing and my freedom and safety were in doubt—or if not in doubt, there was a fragility around it.
I had to rebuild my whole life to try to stay under the radar of the new king’s representative and any witch who might like to choose now to seek retribution for my past sins when I’d been under instruction from Francois.
I tapped my pocket, where Sebastian’s business card felt like it might spontaneously combust.
Avoiding the overwhelming draw to run back to the new club just to see him was going to be a challenge.
I wasn’t sure which of my tasks sounded hardest.