CHAPTER 6 AILEEN
CHAPTER 6
AILEEN
Purple sky greeted me again, and this time, I knew where I was and what to expect.
Climbing to my feet, I saw the one-eyed woman, Eliza, walking toward me with a satisfied smile on her face. “I can feel you’ve been practicing,” she told me as a way of greeting.
“I have,” I responded, which was the truth. I’d been reading more than just that single page of A Sacred Past to make more sense of my newfound powers, and reading about how other Sacreds throughout the centuries cultivated their magic was quite helpful. However—“I can only use my magic for about five seconds, tops.”
Eliza cocked her head. “And what is the nature of your magic, again?”
I gave her a Cheshire cat smile. “The book said Sacreds never reveal these things as a self-preservation method.”
She did not seem impressed with my response. “If you tell me, I can better help you, you know,” she said dryly.
Feeling a sense of tart viciousness after my dinner with Atalon, I folded my arms and countered, “Would you tell me why you’re helping me, then?”
Her single eye packed quite the glare. “Touché,” she murmured almost ominously.
The truth was, I had no idea who Eliza actually was or why she was helping me, and it seemed she wasn’t about to reveal any of this. The same went for my magic; I refused to tell her that I could stop time. Everything in me rebelled against revealing it to her—or anyone else, for that matter.
Which was fine by me. She could have her secrets, and I would be keeping mine too.
“All right, then,” she said, putting her hands together. “Let’s discuss meditation.”
The word made me feel put out at once. “I’m really not into this type of thing, Eliza.”
She shrugged. “Then start getting into it if you want to use your magic for more than five seconds.”
Pacing across the wilted grass, she gave me a meaningful look. “Mental fortitude is the key to mastering your Sacred ability,” she explained, “and meditation is the best way to achieve it.”
I grimaced and asked, “Isn’t there another way?” I was not the spiritual type. I’d never been, despite what I’d done in my childhood. Meditation was more than simply an alien concept to me; it was inconceivable.
Eliza smirked. “Sit down and close your eyes.”
Glaring at her, I debated whether I should do as she said. I never did well with authority, and Eliza’s commanding voice made my ire rise.
Seeming to realize that, she sighed. “Please sit down and close your eyes, Aileen.”
Scowling, I forced myself to do as told.
“Good,” she said, and I heard her moving closer. “Now empty your mind—”
“Don’t feed me this bullshit.” I cut her off, annoyed. “What does it even mean to empty your mind? It’s not like I can just turn off my thoughts.”
“Let your mind roam, then,” she said. “Think about everything and nothing, for all I care. You just need to make sure you are calm and relaxed, so refrain from any intrusive thoughts.”
Pursing my lips, I attempted to “let my mind roam.” What it meant was that, in the silence that followed Eliza’s latest statement, my mind seemed to make a beeline to one topic only.
Ragnor looking at me with midnight blue eyes filled with heat as he pressed me against the wall, lips crashing against mine.
Ragnor licking my throat before penetrating my skin with his sharpened fangs.
Ragnor’s cock pushing into me with force, making me see stars.
I snapped my eyes open and glared at Eliza. “It’s not working,” I growled.
She stared at me silently. “What did you think about?”
Having no urge to tell her, I folded my arms and replied, “That this whole thing is useless.”
“No, it is not,” she said in a clipped tone. “This is your homework for next time; work on clearing your mind.”
My jaw ticked. I really hated the idea of taking orders from anyone, especially from someone I couldn’t trust, and yet my intuition told me it was for my own good, and not just for the sake of developing my powers.
It seemed that no amount of distraction could get Ragnor Rayne out of my head, and I needed to stop thinking about him.
“Have you written me a compare and contrast essay?” Zion, my boss, said curtly as a way of greeting when I stepped into the Atalonian Museum manager’s office the next morning.
I gave him a short nod. “I did. Here.” I handed him a sheet of paper.
As Zion read through what was on the sheet, leaning against his office chair, I took a seat in the chair on the other side of his large mahogany desk. Waiting nervously for him to finish reading—I was not confident in my writing skills—I studied the office as I’d done many times before.
Unlike Atalon’s office, which was full of art, Zion’s was entirely lacking. The walls were a shade of maple with nothing on them but for a stuffed reindeer head that gave me the willies.
“Good job.” Zion’s voice brought my eyes back to him. He stared at me and nodded. “I think you’re ready for the next step.”
Relieved, I said, “Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“There is something else I would like to talk about before we start the second phase of your training,” he said, folding his arms. “The annual Atalonian gala event is set to happen next month.”
Vaguely, I remembered him mentioning something about it before.
“Guests from all over the States will be in attendance,” he continued. “Humans and vampires alike. There will be an official briefing about it later on, but I just wanted to let you know so you work extra hard until then.” His face grew even more serious, which I hadn’t thought was possible. “It’s your chance to prove yourself not just to our Lord but to the rest of the Atalon League members.”
Even if he hadn’t said it, I knew it to be an opportunity. It was a chance to raise my status in the League.
But my mind was not on that. “When you say vampires will be in attendance, do you know from which Leagues?”
If he found my question odd, Zion didn’t show it. “The guest list hasn’t been finalized yet,” he said curtly. “But a few Lords have already confirmed their attendance.”
My heart sank as I reluctantly asked, “Is Lord Rayne one of them?”
Zion’s eyes landed on mine, and I had the odd feeling that he could see right through me. “Yes.”
Fan-fucking-tastic.
When I unlocked the suite’s door after a long, tedious day at work, I saw my two suitemates were sitting in front of the TV screen, watching what looked like a romantic comedy movie.
After Zion put me through mental drills just to become a freaking museum guide assistant, my head was going in circles about the fact I was going to see Ragnor sooner rather than later.
And watching a romantic comedy would not help my foul mood.
Isora paused the movie and waved at me. “Aileen! Come join us!”
“It’s a really good movie,” Eleanor chimed in. “Promise.”
The last thing I wanted was to watch a movie, let alone a rom-com, so I gave both of them a smile I hoped wasn’t too strained and said, “Thanks, but I’m gonna hit the hay.”
Their faces comically fell together. “You always refuse to join us for movie nights,” Isora grumbled.
I untied my sneakers. “I can’t help that I’m busy.”
Eleanor rolled her pretty brown eyes. “We’re all busy, Aileen, but you need to let loose a bit, you nerd.”
High strung as I was, I doubted I was good company. But Eleanor and Isora looked at me with such pleading eyes I felt it was beyond me to refuse again. “Fine,” I grumbled and stomped toward them, then plopped myself on the sofa between the two. “Just no romance, okay?”
“No problem,” Isora said perkily while Eleanor murmured something that sounded suspiciously like party pooper .
I shot the latter a look. “That’s my one condition. Deal with it.”
Eleanor stuck her tongue out before we settled on an action-comedy movie that had no romance in it.
Or so I’d thought. Apparently, even an insignificant subplot of the hero’s flirting with the pretty and shallow damsel in distress was enough to put me in distress.
When an abrupt sex scene came on screen—a far too revealing scene, too, for a supposedly R-rated movie—I found myself looking away. Isora and Eleanor, however, provided commentary that didn’t let me ignore the scene in peace.
“Damn! Why did they censor his dick?” Eleanor protested. “His ass is fine, but it’s not enough!”
Isora snorted. “Yeah, that’s one hell of a double standard, considering you could almost see her crotch.”
Eleanor murmured in agreement before she suddenly asked, “Do you think they have sex for real when filming these scenes?”
“I highly doubt it,” Isora replied. “But some part of me wishes they did. It would make all the moaning sound less fake.”
A chuckle escaped me at that last remark. Isora and I locked eyes right after, and we both grinned and looked away when Eleanor began defending the movie for doing a good enough job to make her think the moans were real.
It was such a mundane thing to do, chatter about a B movie with friends, that for a moment, I almost felt like I was in a different universe. Surely we weren’t vampires finding our feet in a new League. How could we be so normal, then?
That feeling didn’t last long, however, and when the movie ended and Eleanor went to sleep first, telling us she was going to open our Lord’s secretarial office for the first time since she was appointed there, reality came back with a vengeance.
Right. I wasn’t with Skye and Cassidy, back in my tiny apartment. I wasn’t working in a grocery store and barely scraping by. I was no longer free.
And if Ragnor had agreed to keep me with him, perhaps I wouldn’t have minded losing my freedom, if I got him in return.
But that was not the case.
“Aileen?”
I jumped and turned around to look at Isora. I realized then that I was standing in the living room, too lost in thought to move.
Isora stepped toward me hesitantly. “Are you all right?”
She must’ve been worried about how I’d stared into space like that. “Yeah, I was just thinking about the movie,” I said airily, giving her a breezy smile I hoped didn’t look as fake as it felt. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I saw you looking away, you know,” she said quietly, ignoring what I’d just said. “At the sex scene. You seemed in pain.”
My first instinct was to fold my arms, as if it would defend me against whatever this was, but when I looked at her pretty face and saw she was genuinely concerned, I voted against it. “It’s nothing much,” I said quietly. “Just ... it reminded me of what we talked about before.”
She gave me a long silent look before she grabbed my shoulders, a wicked grin spreading over her face. “I have the perfect idea for how to take your mind off everything.”
I frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
She smiled like the cat that got the cream. “What do you think about breathing some fresh air?”
My eyes widened. “You don’t mean ...”
“Oh, but I do.” She chuckled almost evilly. “Put on your shoes, Aileen. We’re going out.”