Chapter 28 #2
The dark-skinned male beside her had an expression of stone.
He was tall, built like he was carved from a mountain.
The other was around twenty, I guessed, when he was turned.
He had shoulder-length wavy blond hair and sun-tanned skin.
He didn’t look annoyed—he looked hungry.
I preferred the look of stone. I swallowed and looked away.
“This is Amelia,” Karson answered, then his eyes shot to Josh and his tone was sharp. “Mary would like your help, if you’re capable of using a feather duster?”
“I think I can manage as long as the feathers aren’t sharp.” He laughed awkwardly. His joke fell short. Karson’s lips thinned. Josh’s cheeks burned pink. “Sure, I will just get going, then,” he said as he scurried across the room.
“Rodney, Kenneth, Janice,” Michael said as he entered through the front door. “How lovely of you to call in.”
“Michael,” Janice responded. “I see old defense habits have not changed.”
Michael smiled. “We weren’t sure who was calling in unexpectedly. Had I known it was you, I wouldn’t have bothered.”
Kenneth shook Michael’s hand. He wore two large silver rings on his left hand and had a silver chain around his neck. He cleared his throat. “Monique,” he said quietly. “It’s good to see you.”
She ignored him as if he hadn’t spoken.
My eyes drifted back to Janice’s tattoo.
She caught me staring and placed a hand on her hip, shifting her long black jacket slightly, and I caught a glimpse of blade handles tucked against her belt.
A vampire didn’t need blades to fight, but some still preferred them.
Unlike a witch, they couldn’t conceal her weapons with a glamor spell.
I had that up on her, at least. Well, I would if I carried them …
Get your weapons, fool, I imagined Dahlia snapping.
Every instinct told me to step away, and my stomach knotted as I resisted the urge to step behind Karson. I stopped beside him.
Rodney’s nostrils flared. He was sniffing me. Bastard. My back stiffened. Karson’s did too, but it was subtle, and from where he stood Rodney wouldn’t notice. Was I going to let him get away with that? Hell no.
“The perfume is from Victoria’s Secret, in case you’re curious.”
He blinked. But then he recovered and practically purred, “There are only a few scents a vampire is interested in, and one has nothing to do with the perfume you wear.”
“There are only a few polite ways to greet someone, and they don’t include sniffing them.”
Rodney’s lips moved up, but you wouldn’t call it a smile. It was the grin of a piranha. “How rude of me, I apologize.”
He reached out to shake my hand. The thought of touching him made my skin crawl. It would be rude not to; I’d just given him a lesson on etiquette, after all. And he was Karson’s friend. My manners outweighed the chills this guy gave me. I began to raise my hand.
Karson flattened his fingers against my arm and pushed it back down.
Rodney darted his gaze between us, a cunning in his eyes.
He dropped his hand down. “I see,” was all he said, and yet it was pointed.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Amelia.” He bowed his head as if I was a queen.
Weird—a vampire thing, I assumed. I didn’t bow back. If it was vampire etiquette, too bad.
Only my mother, Michael, and Karson called me Amelia. It irked me coming from him. I forced a smile. “Call me Amy.”
“I had heard you were sheltering a witch, Karson, and I didn’t believe it. But here she is.” He spread his hands out dramatically. “Standing in the house of the man who slaughters witches for afternoon tea.”
A muscle ticked on Karson’s jaw, but he asked smoothly, “And who is it that spread rumors all the way to Paris?”
Paris, where Sarah supposedly was.
“You know how far rumors fly. Kenneth was at a bar and overheard a vampire saying how you were working with a witch.”
“Does the vampire have a name?” he asked, his tone coated in oil on the cusp of being lit.
“I don’t know who he was,” Kenneth answered, stepping beside Rodney, his voice as deep as his sprawling chest. “I was pretending not to listen and didn’t want to look at him. He was from Portland, and he said he had witnessed you tearing the head off a vampire who had threatened two witches.”
That was at The Bite months ago. It seemed far too big a coincidence they were only just hearing about it now.
“And then we come here,” Rodney tilted his head and his gaze skewered me again, “and find there’s some discord between vampires and witches, and I’m wondering what is so special about this one that you would harbor her instead of tearing her pretty head from her neck or sucking her dry?”
The threat roiled through me and my head began to pound.
I wanted to respond, but I forced myself not to.
I waited for Karson to react, but he showed not a trace of concern on his features.
Instead, he rolled up his sleeves casually.
“You know, Rodney, everything I do is for a reason, and this particular witch is of no concern to anyone but me.”
Rodney’s eyes followed Karson’s movements warily. “Well, then, old friend.” He brightened his tone. “Perhaps we can share a drink and catch up. It’s been far too long, and from what I hear, you could do with my help.”
Karson smiled as if the notion was absurd. “We have everything well under control, but a drink with one of my dearest friends sounds like a splendid way to spend the afternoon.”
Monique smiled like her lips were pulled by a string. “A drink will remove the bitter taste in my mouth.” She staked Kenneth with her gaze before she strutted through the group toward the ballroom, her hips and ass swinging like she knew Kenneth’s eyes were hooked to them.
“Perhaps you’d like to find something else to do?” Karson said, barely throwing me a sideways glance.
His dismissal panged through me, but I kept my back straight, my expression bored. I tossed my hair over my shoulder and muttered, “Sure, I’ll just go and order some sage, shall I? I’ve heard it’s fantastic for repelling negative energies.”
Karson ignored me as if I hadn’t spoken. Instead, he slipped his palm to the middle of Rodney’s back and shepherded them all to the ballroom.
Michael tossed me an apologetic look before he followed them in. I knew they were dangerous; knew he didn’t want me anywhere near them. I could reason it all in my head, but no matter what I told myself, when I was left standing alone, rejection flayed me bare.