CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ALEXIUS
“Pretty little thing,” Maria said softly after Everly was gone. “And you can really see who she’s becoming as a vampire. There’s fire to her.”
“So says everyone who meets her,” Alexius replied, not enjoying that a light danced in the Tribunal Mistress’s eyes.
“Must be why people keep saying it. It’s spreading around.
The fiery young vampire willing to burn ancients to kill monsters.
The Molotov cocktail was in the report, and many of those ancients may not give details of what happened, but they are certainly talking about your protégé.
” Maria chuckled. “I’m glad none of it happened when I was hosting, though I’m not sure it would have.
Jacob and I were friendly, but Isaiah was his lover.
You and I are cordial and professional, while Isaiah is your…
” Maria searched for a word. “Old friend?”
Alexius snorted. That was a way of putting it, but to Maria, he wasn’t in the mood to go off about all the things Isaiah was or was not to him on a daily basis.
And she wasn’t wrong in her estimation of the dynamics at play.
Jacob and Isaiah had been so close for so long, their on-and-off-again relationship, blood lovers, bound to it, always leaving and going back.
Alexius stuck watching the dance because of his familial relationship with Jacob.
Maria was both unfortunate and privileged to stand outside it.
“It’s been a shock to her brother,” Alexius finally said. Maria knew of Declan; there was no hiding that. The fact that Callahan had gotten to Declan first was a blessing. “I believe she told me… Declan said she seemed to have been body snatched.”
“Oh, that’s painful,” Maria said softly.
“It certainly seemed so. Sadly… I don’t have the same experience with humans and family the way other vampires do, so I couldn’t even begin to offer advice on the matter.
” Alexius hated his own shortcomings, especially when they impacted Everly.
He wished he could tell her the answers to all her problems.
“Yes, you don’t remember anything.” It was a well-known fact about him.
“Correct. Much of life before Jacob was a blur,” he confirmed once again.
“Well, there’s still plenty of time in the trip. A week hasn’t even passed. She and her brother have time to reconnect and come to terms with who she’s becoming under your… watchful eye,” Maria said, something mischievous at the end. “Don’t think I didn’t see how you watched her leave, Alexius.”
“Don’t go there,” Alexius warned.
“Why not? You know when she gets down there, someone is going to try to buy her a drink. Perhaps ask her to dance. Or, for her sake, ask her to head to a private room or go home with them. You think I couldn’t feel it?
The crackling tension. She sat just far enough away so that you wouldn’t touch, but not so far away you couldn’t reach her.
And for some unknown reason, you brought this woman into your world and refuse to do the very thing that you actually want to do. ”
He bared his teeth, fury rising up in him as Maria calculated and read him and Everly the moment she saw them in the same room. She’d probably had suspicions, and the way he and Everly moved together gave it away.
“Can you handle it? Her going home with another man?” Maria asked simply. “Because that’s an important thing you need to think about, Alexius.”
“Why don’t we talk about work instead?” he snapped.
Maria took the hint, her smile fading and her expression turning sober and intense.
“What have you discovered so far?” she asked.
“I’m still scoping out the areas where the sightings have been. All seemingly abandoned places or near to them. Makes me wonder if there’s an illicit ring in those places, but since I’m still early in the investigation, I haven’t taken any risks.”
“Yes, that’s what I surmised as well, but none of my people can take the risks you can, and I’m not allowed to.”
“Of course. By the end of this first week, I’ll have fully investigated at least one area.
And I recommend putting up watchers around similar areas.
That way I don’t have to be everywhere at once.
Cameras would do, with someone monitoring them.
” He caught the way Maria’s lip curled up once again.
He could practically read her mind. Everly would have recommended that and handled it.
Put up the cameras and put alerts on them or whatever she could do.
“And if the vampires are spotted, I can be notified to move quickly. Remember, I can be up during the day. I won’t take the risk of burning, but I’ll be able to move fast enough with sun fall to try catching people who might be waking up from their own rest.”
“I shall get my people on it. Expect it done by the end of this week,” she promised. “Without anyone here to take the dangerous risks, not with other things happening with the death of Jacob and the incident with the vampires in Alaska… thank you for offering a hand while you are here for her.”
“My eternal goal has always been the same, no matter who I need to work for or with to do it,” he said, looking out the window.
And he saw her, that bright red hair not lost in the lights. He’d know her anywhere. How she walked and moved through a crowd, further accentuated by being in heels she wasn’t accustomed to.
She looks very good in them, though…
He swallowed and had to work to tear his eyes from her to look at Maria once again. The look on her face was suspiciously blank.
“And the second matter? I know it’s early, but has anyone kicked up a fuss that I’m here?” He was curious. It wasn’t in his purview to follow money or anything like that, but he found Maria’s tactic bold and interesting and with the potential to work.
“Oh, people always kick up some fuss with your visit, but nothing worth concern yet. The books continue to remain off, but no sign of who is actually causing the discrepancy. I have them reviewed daily now, by different accountants independently, so I know the results aren’t being fudged by anyone close to me.
We’ll see. If it doesn’t get solved while you’re here, I’ll start shutting down accounts until I find the bleed…
something I’d rather avoid because setting it all back up would be expensive and could lead to a lapse in any of the number of things I must provide the nest.”
“Well, I wish you the best,” Alexius said, grateful he was only the head of a small household of two vampires and less than a dozen humans. He also didn’t care about the accounting so long as everything ran smoothly.
They sat in silence for a time, and Alexius allowed it, not rushing to leave her presence, knowing Maria didn’t often get nights like this one, where she could sit with a fellow ancient and just enjoy the view of people.
Most ancients lorded over their people alone, and it got terribly lonely.
He knew all too well how lonely it could be.
He even saw it in Jacob with his son’s nest, and Jacob had tried his best to be friendly with his people.
So, Alexius would be nice for a moment and allow her simple, professional companionship.
“Oh, look at that,” Maria purred after twenty minutes of silence. “Right there.” She pointed, and he knew where she was looking. He’d been watching too much.
Everly was talking to a man at the bar. She was laughing.
And he hated the way the stranger looked at her. And he hated how she touched his arm.
“So, the little introvert can flirt!” Maria said with a laugh. “Adorable. She probably needs to have some fun—”
Alexius was standing up as Maria spoke.
“Don’t do it,” Maria said sharply as he turned for the door.
“Excuse me? Don’t do what?” He could hear the growl in his own words.
“Interrupt her. Don’t do it. Let her have this.”
“How…” Maria was good at reading the ways of men and women. Isaiah never gave her enough credit. Maria had read him like an open book, though he hadn’t been working hard enough to keep his feelings private. Or he’d been utterly failing to do so after trying to hold it for so long.
“You need to ask yourself if you can stand seeing her with someone else because if you can’t, you better be ready to fulfill the role.
Anything outside of those two options is robbing her of a life she could be enjoying to its fullest, and you know that as well as I do.
” Maria laughed. “As for how? Alexius… Isaiah tried to hide the part about you waking up from a healing sleep in a berserker’s rage, but there were enough witnesses to how she lay in front of you, injured and vulnerable herself, and you nuzzled into her and fell back asleep.
“Most ancients already think there is something there. I cannot tell you how many of them are wondering how a fiery little redhead finally claimed Alexius the Hunter in his own household, a place so few have ever been to or even heard a whisper about. The whole world who is privy is five steps ahead of you,” she said, laughing harder before turning back to the glass.
“And the only people who are suffering for it are you and her. She, who would throw herself at monsters previously unknown and unfathomable to our kind… for you.”
He walked out, unable to listen anymore.
Damn her…
He growled to himself as he walked into the main club.
I guess it was something I needed to hear, though, the rumors the other ancients are spreading around.
He knew he was about to fuel those rumors, but he couldn’t handle the idea of Everly with some stranger in the club.
He hadn’t been able to tell if the person was human or vampire.
He didn’t care. It was possessive. It was controlling.
It was wildly out of character for him to the point that his step stuttered once he realized just how out of character it was. He wasn’t possessive. No. Not him.
But now he was in a situation he couldn’t get out of.
His eyes met her green ones, and he saw the temper in her gaze.
She had realized what he had been about to do.
She lifted a hand to the man she was speaking to and dismissed herself from the conversation, leaving him hopefully watching her until he saw Alexius in the direction she was walking.
That was when Alexius realized it was a vampire, because the fear that took over could only have been from one.
“What are you doing down here?” Everly asked him very softly.
“I didn’t think…” Alexius trailed off. “You can’t possibly want that,” he finally forced out. “You don’t want him.”
“Don’t tell me what I want,” she hissed.
For the first time, he faced her fury, realizing he had two choices.
His avoidance, the third option, was no longer available.
He either fell to the lust between them and that became part of their relationship, or he put a final nail in the coffin, killing it and letting her move on with some random man in the club or a vampire in a different nest. Whatever she needed.
He didn’t like the idea of her with someone else.
And he thought she was beautiful when she was angry, and that didn’t change even when it was directed at him.
So devastatingly beautiful.
Some switch in him was flipped now, and he knew there was only one option for him.
“Why not?” he leaned down low, his fingers testing as he reached for her hip. She didn’t pull away, so he grabbed it and drew her closer. “We both know what you want.”
“You arrogant son of a bitch,” she hissed, but there was something breathless in the words.
She reached for his hand, grabbing it and trying to pull it without being obvious.
Until she told him to remove it, though, he was going to keep right where it was.
She knew how to use her words, and now he expected her to.
“I’m done with Maria, and there’s nothing here for either of us,” he said softly, finally turning on everything he knew about seducing a woman, angry or not. “Let’s go.”