Abbott gave me a minute to process the two names he’d given me before continuing. “Josef is my head of security, and Alexander and Fawne are likely who I will send if you need someone to bodyguard you and I can’t get to you. I realize Aaron provides for your security, but should the need arise for me to arrange for protection when the sun is down, I can and will do so. However, the important thing you need to know is that I consider these five people to be my friends. You can trust them as you trust me.”
“It’s nice to meet all of you, and I look forward to getting to know you better.” It probably wasn’t enough, but it was the best I could come up with.
Gavin’s smile helped set me at ease as he said, “If Abbott is intrigued by you then I have no doubt the rest of us will be intrigued, as well.”
I felt someone probing my mind, and it only took a split second to follow the probe to Gavin. My gaze met his, and I let my eyebrows rise as I gave him a smirk and made sure my shields were firmly in place. I pulsed against the probe and his eyes grew big, so I immediately pulled back, since I didn’t really know what I was doing and didn’t want to do anything to tick off Abbott’s second in command.
“Gavin,” Abbott asked with a smile, “you aren’t trying to poke into Kirsten’s head, are you? If you are, it won’t work, and not only that but she can tell you are doing it, as I believe you just discovered.”
“So the stories are true?” Fawne asked. “No wonder you’re intrigued by her, Abbott.”
I thought it was time to change the conversation. “Do any human companions live here? Or is it just vampires?”
Fawne slid to the front of her chair. “Mine lives here, as well as two more, but you’ll see more than that in and out, at times. Not all of the vampires you met live here. We have nine bedroom suites with their own bathrooms, one of which is Abbott’s and he isn’t here full time, and then there’s a large room on the top floor with ten beds, ten armoires, and a large shared closet area, but there are some empty beds at the present time. We currently only have fourteen vampires living here full time, and another five or six who stay a decent amount of time. Abbott is the only one who is only occasionally here who has his own bedroom, the rest stay in the top room or bunk with someone when they stay. We have the original five car garage, and we also have parking around back to accommodate another nine cars so no one is blocked in. We try not to make it obvious how many live here.”
I heard a bong sound and looked at Abbott, silently asking him what the noise meant.
“Doorbell,” he told me out loud.
I pulled my cell phone from my jeans to see the time, five till nine. I looked back up and said, “I’m supposed to meet Mordecai and Aaron at nine, I should probably go find them.”
Abbott nodded. “Yes, I suppose you should. I will pick you up tomorrow evening between six fifteen and six thirty, and we’ll take my private jet to Chicago to see a play. I’ll see to it that you’re fed on the plane, so don’t eat ahead of time.”
Private jet? For a date? “You know, you really don’t have to try so hard to impress me. Flying me off to other cities isn’t necessary, surely there’s something in town we could enjoy?”
As I stood and headed toward the door he stepped in front of me, opened it, and said, “I will walk you downstairs where Aaron and Mordecai are awaiting you.”
Chapter Fourteen
Mordecai walked Aaron and I through the kitchen and out the back door, down a garden path to the edge of a bluff, and said, “We will levitate down about twenty feet to a shelf on the face of the bluff. There are some trees on the ledge so we have a space to work where we won’t be seen by anyone on the river below.”
Aaron took my hand, but I told him, “Hopefully I can do this without help. I’d like to try, if it’s okay?”
Aaron let go of my hand. “Of course.”
I was certain they both smelled my fear as I went over the edge, but I was too scared to even try to hide it. I’m pretty good at levitating
up
, but it’s always a bit scary when I step off a cliff, and I’m still getting the hang of it. When I go up I know where the ground is, and I navigate up and down from that, but when I go over an edge I have to find the ground before I can keep myself lifted. In the split second it takes me to find it, nothing is holding me up and I’m in freefall. I’m not sure how to explain what I do when I levitate, but I think I’m playing around with gravity in some way. If you imagine the gravity field is similar to a magnetic field, then I’m reversing polarity so I’m repelled instead of attracted. Sort of.
Once we reached the area Mordecai had picked out, I tried to get comfortable on it. The shelf was probably eight yards deep at the biggest spot, and twenty yards wide before it became too narrow to use. Mordecai had me use my blue laser to cut his baby finger off between the two middle joints, and I watched in horrified fascination as he breathed deeply about five times like he was in a great deal of pain, and then held his hand up with his fingers straight and breathed another ten or so full breaths as his finger slowly regrew. I didn’t time it, but it was easily less than two minutes.
Amazing
.
Mordecai asked all kinds of questions about how I draw energy in, and how I go about using it. He asked where in my body I store it, and we talked about chakras a good bit. He had me completely deplete my energy, and then timed me to see how long it took me to rapidly fill up as far as was comfortable, and then he timed me again as he asked me to empty it. Then he had me fill up and use the red laser until I was depleted, then fill back up and use the blue laser until I was depleted. He had me use the blue laser to cut plate sized slices off a log, and he made me keep at it until I could do it evenly. He annoyed me — almost pissed me off a few times — but I managed to hold my tongue and not snap at him. He was trying to teach me, after all, and apparently he hadn’t offered to teach anyone anything for as long as anyone could remember.
And the people around me had very long memories.
He waited until I was exhausted to try to teach me something new, and I had to concentrate to focus on his words as he explained how to put a flame on the tip of my finger. It would be like having a lighter handy all of the time, and would be incredibly cool, but I couldn’t make it work. The heat was there, but no flame. He said it was homework, and we made plans to meet at nine thirty Sunday night for another thirty minute session.
I was exhausted, and reached for Aaron’s hand to let him help me levitate back up. Mordecai said he’d rather I do it without help, so I let go of Aaron, took a few deep breaths to smooth my energy, and levitated up. It was hard, I was
so
tired, but I managed it.
Abbott was sitting at the island in the kitchen with Gavin, Fawne and a few others when we returned. I told them I needed to get home, and Abbott stood as he said he’d walk me out to my car.
I wanted to fall into his arms, but didn’t, as I was afraid it would make me appear weak.
I said goodbye to Mordecai, who apparently was going to sit at the island and talk to the vampires, and I walked out with Abbott and Aaron. Aaron got into his SUV and left, and I walked over to my car, flicking the remote to unlock it as I neared. Abbott opened my door and then reached for me and turned my world upside down with another of those kisses that made me melt around him.
Somewhere, I found enough energy to kiss him back. My arms wrapped themselves around him, and my right leg wanted to lift and wrap around him as well, but I managed to keep both feet on the ground. His hand went to my head and he deftly slid my ponytail holder out so he could run his hands through my hair and then hold my head as he kissed me. The world faded and it was just Abbott and me, his arms, his lips, his
tongue
.
I finally settled a hand on his chest and gently pushed away from the kiss, though every cell in my body protested at the loss of him.
I had no idea where things were going with Abbott, though common sense told me the smart move would be to keep him at a distance. Was this why he was going all out with our date? Because he knew I was dipping my toes in with the idea of running, and not with the idea of dipping the rest of my foot?
If he were human, the fact he was being patient might have meant more, but I had a feeling ancient vampires were masters at patience. What’s a few weeks or months, when you have forever?
I told him I looked forward to seeing him tomorrow night, and I got in my car and left. Thank goodness I only had to drive three or four miles on back roads to get home. I was drained.
Aaron called me as I parked in my driveway. “You okay?” he asked. “You looked pretty wiped.”
“I’m okay, but you’re right about my being tired. Is this like exercise? The more I do it the less drained I’ll feel, eventually?”
“For supernaturals, yes, but you’re human so I don’t think anyone knows for sure. I wanted to say how impressed I am that you managed to hold your tongue and didn’t smart off to Mordecai, but I know it won’t last and it might be better for him to get the real you sooner rather than later.”
“You’re telling me I should exercise my smart-assed wit?” I smiled into the phone. “Wait, I thought I was talking to Aaron, who is this?”
“I’m just saying the longer you make him think you’re all docile and submissive, the harder it’s going to be for him to get used to you not being so.”
“Docile and submissive? That’s how you thought I was being? And what makes you think those two terms go together? Even when I’m being submissive, I’m rarely docile.”
He chuckled. “Why does this not surprise me? You did good tonight, but I think the two of you need to work one-on-one without me there as support, so I’m not coming Sunday night. I’ll sit in on some sessions in the future, but the two of you need some time without me around.”
He was right, but it didn’t mean I had to like it. No sense arguing, though. “Okay, can I come spar with someone tomorrow? Lauren has to be at the theater from noon to three. Can I drop her off and then come by the Drake offices to see if I can find a sparring partner?”
“Just make sure it’s someone you’ve sparred with before, no first timers unless Nathan or I are there to supervise.”
“Yeah Yeah. Goodnight, Aery. Thanks for taking care of me. Oh! That reminds me — apparently the word is out that I’m under your protection? What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means if anyone messes with you they know I’ll come after them.”
“Right, but is there any obligation on my part? Or, does this put me in a specified designation? Is there more to it than I realize?”
He sighed. “Yes, there is, but I’m not going to take you out from under my protection so you’ll just have to live with it. Goodnight, Bug.”
And he was gone. I hated when he did that, but it served a purpose now because it reminded me how much older Aaron is than Abbott.
Seeing Denny had reminded me how easily he was able to take advantage of me, and he was only ten years older than me. At nineteen and twenty-nine, though, ten years is a huge deal. I couldn’t see it at the time, but looking back, it’s obvious.
Were Aaron and Abbott able to take advantage of me in the same way, but I couldn’t see it because I had no idea of the experiences they’d had?
Deep down, I’d known Denny wasn’t good for me, but he was fun and I convinced myself I loved him, so I ignored my inner voice.
Now, my inner voice was fine with Aaron, but was warning me against Abbott. It wasn’t telling me to run and not look back, but it seemed to be warning against getting in too deep.
I sighed and got out of my car. I was going out on a date with Abbott tomorrow, and we’d see what happened from there.
Chapter Fifteen
As I left Testosterone Central aka Drake Security the next day, my body hurt, but in a good way. I was exhausted, but I’d
needed
to spar with someone and get some aggression out.
Another of those little-known facts about me is that while I was meditating on mountains with monks, they’d also taught me their own brand of martial arts. Practically speaking, this skill didn’t do me much good in the supernatural world, and I didn’t have a big need for it against humans. I’d kicked the guy’s ass who tried to date rape me a couple of years ago, but other than that I hadn’t had any humans come after me, just demons and supernaturals, and my martial arts skills didn’t mean diddly against either of those. Well, if I carried a quarterstaff around it might, but I didn’t. However, it still didn’t hurt to keep up the practice, and it was a great way to get some aggression out when I needed. Plus, it was a cardio workout I actually enjoyed.
Normally, I meet with a local sensei once a week, but he’s out of the country for three months so I’m on my own for a little while, and I’ve discovered sparring with the men at Drake to be a good substitute until he returns.
Aaron had showed up at the end to spar with me, and commented he thought I was getting faster. I reminded him I had fast reflexes to start with, it wasn’t a supernatural thing. He looked thoughtful and didn’t comment back.
When we finished, he told me, “I know you have a lot going on, but we need to work on increasing your capacity.”
My heart skipped a beat and my stomach filled with dread, but I knew he was right. I stopped in the changing room to use the restroom and get the clothes I intended to wear home, and then followed him to one of the soundproof interrogation rooms, so no one would hear my screams.
Aaron closed and locked the door as I walked to the cuffs hanging from a steel beam. This setup was designed to hold a supernatural for interrogation. Or, rather, questioning with the threat of torture if they didn’t answer.
Full of nervous energy, I talked as Aaron fastened my wrists and ankles. “You know, I’m grateful you do this for me, as I can tell a big difference in how much energy I can hold, but sometimes I hate you when you’re actually doing it.”