Chapter 17 #2
Witches, she felt, had a seductive, defiant kind of appeal.
Shifters had an untamed, golden-hour beauty. It was wild around the edges—fierce and majestic.
Demons, Arden included, had that wicked beauty. Sinful by design. All temptation and teeth.
And the fae, well, they had an ethereal beauty. Like a dream that didn’t want to let go.
This was her first up-close-and-personal interaction with a vampire.
But her immediate thought was they had a cold, sculpted kind of beauty—polished, practiced, timeless.
This vampire had flowing red hair spilling over the shoulders of her crushed velvet black gown that hugged each of her dangerous curves.
Her face was all sharp cheekbones, pale skin, and keen blue eyes.
“Arden,” she purred. She made her way over toward the demon. She pressed her body to his. A little too close, a tad too intimate, for a quick peck on each cheek. “How long has it been? Fifty years?”
“Carm,” Arden greeted her. “At least seventy-five,” he said. “We were at the opera. You were in the opposite -balcony, on your knees, feasting from the femoral vein of one of the actresses.”
“I remember her. Bouncy brown hair. Big, golden eyes. She was delicious.”
Iris didn’t realize that her face had betrayed her, until the vampire’s gaze slid in her direction, a sly smile toying at her lips.
“Just a taste, not a full meal. In the good old days,” she went on. “Before the bite cards.”
“You can’t blame humans for wanting protection,” Selene—always the one to defend others—said.
“Can’t I?” the vampire asked. She moved closer to Selene. “I believe I can do anything I like,” she said.
Iris was close enough to see how the vampire’s pupils dilated, but far enough not to get a direct hit of her glamour like Selene did.
Her usually controlled friend wavered on her feet, leaning closer to the vampire, her eyes full of wonder.
“I believe you would let me do anything I want, wouldn’t you?” the vampire intoned.
Selene’s lips parted, and her head tilted to the side, opening up her neck.
Iris’s fists clenched at her sides as she watched Selene fall under Carm’s glamour.
A part of her wanted to rush forward and pull her friend away.
Another part of her wondered if this was just how things were.
Paranormal or not, weren’t they all just constantly being seduced, pressured, and manipulated into giving themselves over?
The pool. The chaise. The way she’d melted under Finn’s touch.
Was every interaction with another person just a form of glamour?
“That’s enough, Carm,” Arden said. He dropped an arm on Selene’s shoulders. “This one is under my protection,” he said, curling Selene into him.
“Like hell, I am,” Selene objected. She tried to wrench away from Arden, but he held her tight as Carm shrugged and moved further into her store.
“Don’t be an ingrate,” Arden said. He gave Selene a raised-brow look.
“If I hadn’t stepped in, you would have been pants-free, spread-eagled on the chair over there, begging for Carm to bite you.
And as much as I may have enjoyed that image, I know you’re the high priestess of personal boundaries and wouldn’t appreciate that. ”
“I thought glamouring was illegal,” Iris whispered.
“It’s … a gray area,” Arden admitted.
“There’s nothing gray about it. The current lawmakers are just too chicken to stand up to the vampires.”
“But not her future lawmaker,” Arden said.
“Really?” Iris asked.
“Yeah, Finn’s platform includes a ban on glamouring outside of consensual relationships and vampire clubs,” Selene explained. “Right now, the only law on the books is that vampires can’t compel someone against their will to commit crimes or have sex. The new law would be a lot more far-reaching.”
“Which is why Finn is not very popular among the vampires,” Arden concluded.
Iris distinctly remembered overhearing Finn and Henry having a heated debate in the kitchen while she had been trying to ignore them in the living room as she read her book.
It had been about the vampires.
With Henry trying to get Finn to bend on the issue. And Finn putting his foot down.
It stuck with her because he always seemed to roll over and do whatever his campaign manager said. It had been kind of hot to see him have his own opinion and the backbone to stick to it.
“I didn’t climb out of the coffin at this sun-cursed hour for chit-chat,” Carm said, waving a fine-boned hand toward a rack of dresses. No, not dresses—gowns.
“Carm, we talked about this,” Arden said, striding toward the vampire. With his arm still around Selene, he pulled her along with him.
Iris followed. She was excited about the gowns, even if she wasn’t exactly looking forward to a formal charity event.
“About my impeccable taste? Yes, yes, we did.”
“Carm. Everything here is black.”
“Nonsense, this is navy blue,” she declared, waving toward the only gown on the rack that wasn’t midnight black.
“And it is lovely. But it doesn’t work with Iris’s coloring. We want her to stun in a soft summer palette: mauve, rose, soft blue …”
Carm mimed a yawn but sighed and threw up a hand. “Fine! Come with me.”
With that, all three of them followed the vampire to a back room where the colorful gowns were hidden.
Arden pulled Selene down on the couch beside him. Iris watched as Selene scooted an inch away, a move so small that it was almost imperceptible. Her friend was ruffled. And Selene hated to be ruffled.
But before Iris could read more into it, Carm was making a beeline for her, her heels clicking on the stone floor. She shooed Iris into a curtained-off dressing room and shoved gown after gown at her.
Both she and Arden had been ruthless with their criti-cisms of the gowns, with Selene throwing in her usual clap-backs and support.
Iris knew it the moment she moved out from behind the curtains when they finally landed on the right gown—and thank the seas, because there were only three left.
It was a satin halter gown with a gathered waist and a pooling hemline in a stunning shade of ‘Sienna rose.’
“Wow,” Selene said, nodding. “That’s the one. For sure.”
“It is so close to perfect. But do you have it in blue?” Arden asked.
“Why does it have to be blue?” Selene asked.
“It goes with the whole mermaid thing.”
“The whole mermaid thing being, you know, her entire identity? For goddess’s sake, you don’t have to keep shoving that down everyone’s throats.”
Arden considered her words. “I don’t know if Henry will agree with that, but he’s not here. All right, Carm. Let’s ring this up.”
With that, Arden’s arm finally fell from Selene’s shoulders. Iris could have sworn there was something akin to disappointment on the witch’s face.
“Come on,” she said, fighting through those feelings Iris imagined she wanted nothing to do with. “Get back in your street clothes. You must be ready for another hot pretzel by now.”
“And a good book and comfy clothes,” Iris agreed. “And about a week of nothing to do.”
Fate—and Henry—had other plans for her.