Chapter 5 Sebastian
Sebastian
She was enchanting. Her skin almost seemed to glow, her vitality shining from her. Right now, she was also nervous, but she had no reason to be scared around me.
I’d always protect her.
Wait, what? That protection thought had been…
unexpected. But protecting my interests sounded about right, and Kayla certainly offered the opportunity to do that, as well as increasing my status and standing with Nic.
I could be a success in New Orleans, and having inside knowledge about the witches should fast-track that.
So, yeah. I needed this woman. No wonder she brought out protective instincts in me.
As well as being beautiful…and enchanting…and alluring.
Guilt nudged at my conscience—when the hell did I grow one of those?—for bringing Kayla here under her current contract when really, I could probably have forgiven it as easily as enforced it.
Goddamn it. Maybe I’d never learn. I was still making fucking mistakes with women, even after Leia.
Something a little bit dark twisted briefly in my soul as I thought again of the events that had led up to me being here at all, but the shadow was fleeting as I refocused my attention on the woman in front of me.
Kayla still seemed to glow, despite the guilt I now felt about bringing her in front of me like this. Except I really did need Kayla to help me out. A family witch in our service was definitely the key to getting me on the right path to establishing Dupont rule in New Orleans.
Only…
Shit. I stood and walked to the small drink cabinet. I needed something stronger than water or soda. Something that would burn my throat as it went down and remind me I was alive — or at least hadn’t reached my final death yet.
“Drink?” I tilted a crystal tumbler toward Kayla, and she raised an eyebrow.
“You drink?”
I chuckled. “I can.” I rarely enjoyed it and it would never make me drunk again. It was a distraction more than anything—and damn, around Kayla, I needed to be distracted.
She was too easy to focus on completely, as if I were a boy with an infatuation.
My offer of a drink went unanswered, but I poured two double shots of Louisiana rum anyway and held one out toward her. She accepted it, but merely wrapped both hands around the glass and held it.
I watched her fingers, imagining them wrapped around me…the most intimate parts of me…before I wrenched my gaze away.
I cleared my throat, and she glanced at me— the merest flick of her eyes, really.
Like I made her nervous. I didn’t want Kayla McKenna scared of me.
Well, not outside of some light role play, anyway.
My gums ached and I took a moment longer to bring myself under control before I spoke, moderating my tone.
“I asked Kyle to bring you here if you proved difficult for him to convince.” I paused and smiled at her, but she scowled in return. “Kyle finds very few things difficult… What made him bring you in?”
For a moment, it felt like she might not answer, but I was a vampire. Being so long-lived brought patience. I could wait — I had the time. There was always time. Empires would rise and fall while I waited. That was just the way things were.
I settled back in my seat and channeled the stillness that usually unnerved humans, but Kayla seemed equally as still.
“I know what you’re doing,” she murmured.
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged, the movement small. “You’re waiting me out. Francois used to do it.”
Rage burned a fire beneath my skin. I wasn’t comparable to Francois.
He was a monster, a crazy man. My gaze strayed to the stack of books I’d brought home from Allécher—books Francois seemed to have updated almost daily that I still had to go through.
Journals, judging from the spidery scrawl that had covered the lined pages when I’d glanced through. Not financial records, anyway.
I moved, though, shifting my position, deliberately trying to distance myself from his memory. Then I stood and walked several paces before returning uselessly to my chair.
“Why are you here, Kayla?” I asked the question softly, and she met my gaze, more fire burning in her eyes than had ripped through me moments before.
“Because I won’t sign your fucking contract, and I’m leaving town as soon as you’re finished with your questions. I could have saved you the time and effort, but your goon, Kyle, wouldn’t take no for an answer.” She snapped her mouth shut, punctuating the end of her angry burst of speech.
I pretended to think for a moment before replying. “Hmm. Leaving town? Where do you plan to go?”
She glared harder. Then barked out a laugh, the sound harsh in our almost-silence. “Why the hell would I tell you?”
The scent of her fear had an acrid tang, but I tried to ignore it. She didn’t want me to know she was afraid. Not when she was acting like she had this situation completely under control.
“In case I need to get hold of you? For more questions?” I feigned ignorance that her question had been genuine.
She snorted a laugh. Or a huff of derision. It was like she couldn’t decide which she meant the sound to be. “No offense, but you won’t get my forwarding address. I’m done with vampires and being beholden to them.”
I nodded like I understood, but really, I was just nodding because she’d cleared quite a few things up for me. The witch sitting in front of me was a flight risk. She’d turn around and leave New Orleans as soon as I returned her home. Sooner, if she could find a way out of my house.
But that was okay. I had a contingency plan for just this occasion. “Kyle.” I barely raised my voice above the conversational tone I’d been using with Kayla, and she looked at me sharply as Kyle appeared in the doorway.
“You guys are freaky,” she said, her tone hard, but a fresh wave of fear pulsed from her, and it scented the whole room.
I directed my attention to Kyle, completely ignoring what Kayla had said. It made me a little proud, anyway. I’d always basked a bit in my freakishness and my ability to scare humans with a mere tilt of my head or a glance. “Can you show Ms. McKenna to one of the guest bedrooms?”
There was plenty of space in this house after all, and what better way to keep her from leaving the city than keeping her by my side, under my direct watch?
Kayla made a slightly strangled sound, and I swung my attention to her. “You’ll want for nothing, I assure you. The rooms here are very comfortable, and our amenities are… perfectly adequate.” The bathrooms were downright luxurious, but I could save that surprise for later.
She shook her head. “You really are freaky. No way can I stay here. I didn’t bring anything with me.” She stopped talking, but her mouth continued to open and close like she still had more words trapped inside her.
“Is there something you require?”
She leveled a look at me that rested somewhere between duh and ya think?
Then started ticking a list off on her fingers.
“Aside from my fucking freedom, you mean? Well, clean clothes would be nice, a book or two to read, my soap and toothbrush…” She trailed off as I lifted my hand to stop her flow of words.
“All of those things can be provided for you.” It would be my pleasure to dress her.
But she shook her head. “No. I want my own things.”
Curiously, she wasn’t fighting the fact I wanted her to stay, and I hadn’t used even the smallest amount of compulsion.
Perhaps Francois just had her so well trained that she’d learned not to argue.
Except… not arguing didn’t seem exactly in her nature.
She’d already proven that she wasn’t afraid to put up a verbal fight against both me and Kyle…
Whatever the reason, I didn’t need to argue with her, anyway, or certainly, I didn’t need to give her anything to argue against if she was essentially agreeing to stay but for these mild issues.
I told myself that having her as an… enforced guest…
was mere convenience, but something inside me yearned to keep her close.
“Kyle,” I said again.
He stepped farther inside the room and waited for my next instruction. His eyes told me he thought I was a fool, but I could live with that judgment.
“Take Ms. McKenna home first to gather a few things, then return her here where she may select a bedroom.”
Kyle nodded without a word and left the room, turning back just outside the doorway as he waited for Kayla to catch up to him.
But she remained exactly where she was, like a statue sitting on the sofa.
“I don’t think I want to do this.” Her speech was slow but definite as she swung her gaze between the two of us.
“I’ve been pushed around by vampires for long enough that I’m not about to let the two of you waltz in here and start doing the same. ”
Well, there went the compliance I’d been so grateful for.
“And you’re both insane if you think you can just decide to imprison me in this house and no one will even wonder where I’ve gone,” she continued. Her eyes darted away for a moment, and I could almost taste her lie in the air.
There was no one who would worry about her, no one to care? That fact almost made this situation more perfect.
Except, a tiny flicker of sadness flared inside me at the fact she truly had no one. No wonder the Ricards had been able to exert so much control over her, and no wonder she was chafing at my attempt now.
But I didn’t have time for that.
I had to test her. I leaned back in the uncomfortable chair I’d chosen to sit in, trying to make the act look casual rather than awkward, “Okay.” I said, and her eyes widened. “If you don’t want to be a guest here, you have a choice.”
She nodded her head, though her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. “Good. So you are prepared to be reasonable.”