Authors: Wendy Higgins
“Will you tell the twins I said hello?”
He nodded. A silent moment ensued where we all stood there not knowing what to do next. Veronica cleared her throat and grabbed Jay’s arm.
“Let’s go,” she told him. Jay waved good-bye to Kope and they walked away with Gregory right behind.
“Call me if you all want to hang out or anything,” I told Kope.
With a hesitant movement, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist for a quick hug. Kopano held me close like a man who’d been starved of affection. I blinked back tears and ran my palms over his back. He was big and strong, and had no interest in letting me go. So I let him hold me. I rested my face against his chest and breathed in a mild tropical smell. When I started imagining the caramel pheromones he was capable of emitting, I had to pull away, feeling too shy to meet his eye.
“Take care of yourself, Anna,” he said.
“You, too,” I whispered.
I spent the next day lost in thought, mulling over Kopano’s comment about a husband, and also trying to figure out why the twins would fly into Atlanta instead of a city closer to Kope. Unless they wanted to see Kaidan, assuming Pharzuph was in New York. It made me jealous that the twins were allowed to call and see Kai, but I wasn’t.
And then there was Kopano. His words had jarred me. For all I knew, he could have been speaking in hypotheticals, but I didn’t think so. I believed he was talking about us. He was everything I wanted in a guy: gorgeous, humble, no games. If I’d met him first, there was no telling what might’ve happened. And as much as I knew I should let Kaidan go, I wasn’t ready.
The next day, just as the sun was setting, I sat on the edge of Patti’s bed while she packed her suitcase.
“I wish you would change your mind and come with me,” she said.
“I already made plans with Jay and Veronica for New Year’s.”
One of the papers was sending Patti to cover the ball dropping in Times Square. She must have earned herself a good rep, because it was a big deal to get this kind of job. I could see it was hurting her to leave me behind.
“It’s all right, Patti. I’ll be fine.”
“I know. But we always celebrate together. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m gonna miss you, too.”
My cell phone beeped in my pocket. When I pulled it out, my pulse jumped at the sight of my dad’s number. He’d never texted me before.
Meeting tonight. Your ride is on his way. Be ready.
I jumped when Patti spoke behind me.
“Everything okay, hon?” She glanced at the phone in my shaking hand.
I read her the text. Sharp, dark fear pushed through her aura as she stood in front of me rubbing my shoulders. Patti’s guardian angel whispered something to her, causing her fear to lighten into a haze of nervousness.
“It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Your dad is there.” She leaned her forehead into mine and closed her eyes. I did the same, getting a comforting whiff of her oatmeal shampoo.
My hair was in a messy bun, and I was dressed like a slob. I took a superfast shower, then put on dark jeans, a black shirt Veronica had picked out, and black boots. I ran the brush through my hair with some gel, and brushed my teeth. There was no time to mess with the blow-dryer and flatiron. I managed to dab on some makeup with a shaking hand. My hair was still wet when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” I called out, shoving the mascara back in my makeup bag and reaching for my purple zip-up hoodie.
I heard Patti’s voice as she answered the door. I darted into the living room and nearly tripped at the sight of her hugging someone. I came to a halt in the middle of the room, confused. I almost didn’t recognize him.
When he stood up straight his blue eyes bore down on me with the same intensity as always. He’d had his hair cut really short all over, revealing a small cowlick that fanned out on his left temple. And he’d obviously been hitting the gym more often, because his arms and shoulders were bigger. The sight of him made me want to sit down and take a breath. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt with skulls up the side, and baggy cargo pants. He had a gray woolly cap in his hand.
“I’m sorry, Anna, but you’re going to have to come with me.”
“What’s going on?” Patti and I asked at the same time.
“My father is having a meeting with all U.S. Dukes, and they’ve requested you to come. Specifically, your father requested you.”
“Is there going to be trouble?” Patti asked.
“I think it’s just a formality. I’m sure her father has a plan.”
We stood in a triangle of worry until I broke away and grabbed my hoodie, pulling it on and hugging Patti.
“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” I told her. She nodded, face tight with worry. I hated leaving her there alone. Kaidan pulled the warm beanie hat over his head.
I heard Patti whispering, “Please, please, please,” as I shut the door behind me.
W
hy did he send you instead of asking me to drive myself?” I asked as we drove out of the neighborhood.
“He told the other Dukes you had no transportation.”
My dad must have wanted Kaidan to give me a heads-up.
“I’m still surprised he sent you,” I admitted.
“Trust me, I think he had one of the others in mind, but my father volunteered me.”
“Who else will be there?”
“My father’s having a party, so there’re a lot of people at the house. They’ve already had their official meeting. When I left, Belial and Melchom were playing cards, and my father was in the pool. I’m hoping it’ll still be like that when we get there. If you can avoid going in the same room as my father, he won’t be able to sense you. Go straight to your father, and then we can leave. The four other Neph you know are there, and the Dukes think we’re working a party tonight. Blake’s there because of his father, and the others are making a short holiday of it. The twins get away from England any chance they have. Oh, and Ginger’s been a ray of sunshine today.” He rolled his eyes, peeved.
There it was again: that mysterious thing between Kai and Ginger. She brought out emotions in him, even if they were negative ones.
“Okay,” I said, needing a refresher course. “Remind me again—Melchom is Blake’s father?”
“Yes.”
I wished there were some way to hide my attention-grabbing badge. I didn’t want the Dukes noticing the white swirl and wondering why I was different. Kaidan glanced at me as I bit my lip, then shook his head and looked back at the road, driving with one hand while rubbing the back of his neck.
“What?” I asked.
“Here we are, possibly in danger, and all I can think about is...”
“What?” Anticipatory goose bumps sprouted all over me.
“You look good,” he said with reluctance. He tore off the woolly hat and scrubbed his head as if the buzzed hair were sensitive.
I pressed my lips together and did my best to appear unaffected. I didn’t want to feel gratified by his words. I’d worked hard to try to push him out of my heart, and now he was slicing me wide open all over again.
“How does my dad seem tonight?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.”
“He’s intimidating, isn’t he?”
“Just a bit.”
I tried to imagine Kaidan’s house with Dukes, Neph, and humans all together. I hoped there would be enough distractions to get us in and out fast. I was glad I’d be seeing the other Neph again. Well, mostly. Thinking of Kopano sent a fluttery jolt of nervousness through my system, and questions about the history between Ginger and Kaidan still bothered me.
“Kaidan, can I ask you something? I understand if you don’t want to talk about it.” He shot me an inquisitive glance, and I barreled on. “What happened between you and Ginger?”
He made an unpleasant
och
noise and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought.
“I don’t know. We spent a lot of time together during childhood. We were close until I turned thirteen.”
“Close?” My mouth was suddenly dry. “I always imagined you being alone.”
He shook his head, face tight. “It was always Ginger and me.”
“Oh.” Well, that changed things. A new vision formed in my mind. I knew it was selfish, but I didn’t want to think about him having a close childhood bond with her.
Kaidan began with reservation, as if words were being siphoned from him against his will.
“It’s beyond strange to even think about it. It was a different lifetime.” He paused for so long I thought he was closing the conversation.
“You can tell me,” I whispered.
He grumbled at my therapist voice, and then the floodgates opened, and he let it all out.
“As much as I hate to admit it, she and I are a lot alike. We both understood very early what would be expected of us, before the others did, and it made us curious. We sort of experimented together, nothing serious, just kid stuff. Her nanny caught us when I was eight and Ginger was nine. The woman told our fathers and naturally they thought it was bloody amusing. My father was sent to Italy for one year while I was twelve. The twins were turning thirteen, so that was the year they started working. When I came back to England, Ginger was changed, like a completely different person. She was hardened and critical, and viciously protective of Marna. It was a sign of things to come for me. It was never the same after that. I found it easier not to talk to her or anyone else.”
He’d cut her off. He was good at that. But to have it happen as a child would have been even more traumatic.
“Maybe she thought of herself as your girlfriend,” I said.
“I couldn’t worry about that. Things were changing for me at that time. I couldn’t think about Ginger or being a child anymore. There was no looking back. Blake started hanging with us the following year, and he was all about Ginger from the start. She’s always enjoyed the attention. One night when we were all working a party outside of London, Blake hooked up with this girl, and he was snogging her right there. Out of nowhere, Ginger started coming on to me.”
“She was trying to make him jealous?”
“That’s what I think. At that point I was sixteen, and I mostly hooked up with strangers who I could avoid seeing again, but it’s not like I’d be able to avoid Ginger the rest of my life. Our history made things uncomfortable enough as it was. I guess she figured I hooked up casually all the time, so it wouldn’t be a big deal for me. It was quite the ugly scene when I told her to go find some other bloke if she was feeling randy. It’s been brutal ever since. And then there’s the issue of Blake’s freakout.”
I leaned toward him over the armrest, captivated. “Was that the one time you said he got jealous over a girl?”
Kaidan nodded. “He’d witnessed our whole conversation. Dropped the girl he was snogging and threw a wobbler, yelling and breaking things.”
I couldn’t imagine Blake on an envy rampage, yelling and breaking things. There had to be so many hidden emotions under the surface of these stories.
“I think she still has feelings for you,” I said.
“No. I think she’s pissed off about her life and she misses being close to someone she considers her equal. Marna is more like her bear cub.”
Emotions rolled through me and I pushed them down.
“You’re upset I didn’t tell you, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Kind of.” There was no use denying it.
“It was forever ago.”
“But we’re shaped by the things that happen to us as children. She’s still hurting from it. Don’t you miss her, too? As a friend, at least?”
“This is the first time I’ve thought about her in ages, and it’s only because you asked me. Do you remember what I told you about the twins and their father, Astaroth?” he asked. “About how they can sense romantic bonds between people?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why I hit the booze that night when we were all together this summer. I didn’t want them to know there was anything there. I didn’t want to have to explain anything or listen to their rubbish.”
My pulse quickened. He was admitting there was something between us. Something mutual.
“And tonight?” I asked, playing with the zipper on my jacket. He pulled a flask out from under his seat as an answer, and my heart rate turned to a solid gallop in my chest.
“Don’t worry. I’m sober right now. I’ll start drinking when we pull up.”
“Do I need to drink, too?”
“No. Just one of us will do the trick.”
I wound a lock of hair around my finger and kept my eyes on the console in front of me, trying not to stutter when I asked, “If you didn’t drink, what would they see?”
He stared at the road, clutching the wheel. It took a long time for him to answer. Too long.
“I don’t know. Maybe attraction. Maybe nothing. A lot of time has passed. Five miles is coming up now.”
What did that mean,
maybe nothing
? On whose side was it possibly gone, his or mine? I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Of course he wouldn’t want them to know he was attracted to me. But it didn’t mean he felt more than that.
I scrunched down in my seat. Seeing him again was going to set me back, but there was no way I’d let myself fall into that dark place again. I closed my eyes, meditating. An image of Kopano swam into my head. He would never string me along and confuse me like this. I wished I could make myself want him the way I wanted Kai. The heart was a confusing thing.
At his house Kaidan punched a code into the security box and pulled into the driveway, which was packed with cars. I pushed my hearing into the house and moved it around until I found a gruff voice using poker lingo. I didn’t recognize the other voices at the table, which meant Pharzuph wasn’t there. Kaidan opened the flask and tipped it up. The sweet pungency of bourbon reached me where I sat. I could probably discern the brand if I had a sip myself. He shoved the flask into a side pocket of his pants and we got out.
We first went down to the basement, which was packed with people. Blake was showing some guy the newest high-tech thingy, causing the guy to be encased in green. Ginger and Marna were in the tiki bar area, sipping drinks and making eyes at a man across the room. He was trying to have a conversation with a woman, but he was distracted by his lust for the gorgeous twins.
Kopano sat next to Marna on a stool. Marna turned her attention to him, twisting the tips of his hair for a cool, spiky effect. He lifted his head and his gaze banged into mine. We were both very still until he gave me a nod and I returned it.
The twins assessed first Kopano and me, then Kaidan and me, moving their eyes between the two of us, and then looking at each other with knowing grins. I would have paid a chunk of my dad’s money to know whether they’d seen anything.
“We’ll leave for that party in a minute,” Kaidan told them. He shot me a glare that screamed,
I saw that look between you and Kope
.
I raised my eyebrows, sending him a silent response of,
What’s it to you?
“Hmph,” he grumbled. I followed when he went back up the stairs.
My stomach twisted as we made our way through the house full of people to the heated veranda, where men were sitting around a table, swigging top-shelf whiskey straight from the bottles and talking over one another. I saw my father and had to fight emotions from bursting out around me. I kept my head down.
His eyes were hard when he saw me.
“Come here, kid,” he said with unfamiliar menace. I took small steps to stand at his side. “You got plans for New Year’s?”
“Yes, sir.” I cleared my throat. “A big hotel party in Atlanta.” That was the truth.
“Goody bags for the party.” He handed me baggies of dried green stuff and white powder. Marijuana and cocaine.
Steady, girl
, I told myself, gripping the bags to my abdomen.
“Thanks,” I whispered, eyes down.
A voice next to him spoke. “Might want to consider having all of these Neph working that gig together on New Year’s.” I lifted my eyes to take in the sight of a handsome Japanese man, who I assumed was Melchom, the Duke of Envy. He took a fine cigar from his lips and played his hand of cards, which made the entire table groan and break into frustrated conversation about their losing hands. He smiled, putting the cigar between his lips as he gathered his winnings, and spoke from the side of his mouth. “Just saying. Could do a lot of damage if the whole group worked a big party together. I have no plans for Blake. I doubt Astaroth or Alocer will disapprove.”
“All right then.” My father grumbled in my direction, “You all work New Year’s together.”
To my relief, he made a shooing motion with his hand, dismissing me. I started to turn, then saw movement from my other side, where Pharzuph, in a robe, walked toward us from the indoor pool area.
“You still standing here?” my father snapped at me. I swiveled on my heels and headed for the door, where Kaidan stood waiting for me. From the corner of my eye I saw Pharzuph entering the veranda through the sliding doors just as we were rushing out.
“Let’s go,” Kaidan said out loud, to the air. By the time we made it to the front door, the four Neph had come up from the basement and were joining us, shrugging into their jackets. Kaidan tossed his keys to Blake. Their eyes were all distant, listening. I joined them, pressing my hearing toward the veranda as we left the house.
“That girl of yours leaves a stink of virtue behind her.” Pharzuph spoke with quiet disdain to my father, not wanting the human men in the room to hear.
Shoot! I hadn’t made it out of the room in time!
We picked up our pace, walking faster and cramming into Kaidan’s car, Kai taking shotgun.
“Well, that won’t last long,” my dad said, sounding so believable it hurt. “She’s just getting good at her job, and the rest will follow. She can drink any man here under the table, that’s for damn sure.”
It was all poker talk after that, but I continued to listen until we were out of range.
I chewed my thumbnail until Marna took my hand and held it in hers. As soon as Blake signaled we were out of the five-mile range of Duke hearing, Blake turned and glanced at me.
“You’re a virgin?” I nodded, and he looked me over like some sort of anomaly, which I guess I was. He laughed and slapped the steering wheel. “Man, things are definitely more interesting with you around.”
I wanted to crawl under the seat and hide my face. Kaidan took a drink from his flask.
“Are we really partying together on New Year’s?” Marna asked.
“As if we have a choice now,” Ginger stated.
We’d been ordered to go, but how would they know if we were working or not? What if one of them decided to check on us? And then it hit me: Kopano would be expected to be there working, too. I angled myself toward him.
“Maybe you can come up with an excuse or something,” I offered, feeling horrible. He shook his head.
“I cannot raise suspicion against my father or any of you. I will work.”
The car went ghostly silent. Nobody here had ever seen Kopano work. I closed my eyes. This was so wrong. We kept our thoughts to ourselves as the reality settled in. Marna squeezed my hand.