Dark Descendant

FIFTEEN

I drove back to the mansion in something of a daze. I had never seen Steph so angry before. And the things she’d said…

I knew I was carrying around a load of baggage everywhere I went. How could I not have baggage after everything I’d been through as a kid? But I’d never realized how it had affected Steph. I could freely admit to myself that I was jealous of her at times, but I thought I kept those unworthy emotions well hidden. It had never occurred to me that she might have any ill feelings toward me.

Steph had been the ideal older sister from the moment I’d moved into the Glasses’ house. I was a sullen handful of bad behavior during that first year, when I was sure the Glasses would be as temporary as any of my other foster families. Not that we hadn’t ever fought—she was ideal, but she wasn’t perfect, and a saint couldn’t have put up with all the crap I pulled when I first moved in. But she’d never seemed to harbor any real resentment.

Had her words today meant I’d been seeing her through rose-colored glasses this whole time? Deep inside, did she hate me for having usurped a portion of her parents’ love? Surely she didn’t really think I was self-centered. Did she? I mean, I was self-sufficient, but that wasn’t the same thing. I was almost sure of it.

I brooded and wallowed right up until I reached the gates of the mansion. Then, as I waited for the gates to open, I swallowed my hurt feelings and summoned up my righteous indignation. I might not have been able to convince Steph that Blake was bad news, but I could sure as hell make him rue the day he decided to mess with my sister.

I entered the house like a guided missile.

I climbed the stairs two at a time, practically sprinting to my room to get my gun. I hadn’t liked leaving it behind, but I’d worried what Steph would say if she saw it. A physical sensation of relief flowed though me when my hand closed around the butt of the gun, and I cocked it with vicious glee.

I pounded down the stairs to the second floor, angrier than I’d ever been in my life. Angrier even than I’d been when Alexis threatened Steph. It was one thing to have the bad guy make threats; it was another when the supposed good guys did it.

When Maggie had taken me on the tour of the house, we’d only gone through the public rooms, so I didn’t know which of the rooms in the west wing belonged to Blake. Come to think of it, I had no way of knowing if he was even home. That didn’t stop me from marching up to the second door on the left and pounding on it. Don’t ask me why I chose that particular door—it just kinda happened that way.

“Blake, you son of a bitch!” I yelled. “Open this door!” I was going to feel like an idiot if this wasn’t his room, but I was running on adrenaline and instinct and ignored all logical concerns.

The door cracked open and I lunged forward, holding it open with my body so Blake couldn’t slam it on me. He took a startled step back, and by the time he recovered, my gun was aimed squarely at his forehead. His eyes widened, and he held his hands up as if to show he wasn’t armed. I was fully prepared to shoot if I felt the slightest hint he was about to use his aura against me, but he wasn’t an idiot. We’d already established that I could pull the trigger faster than he could put me under.

“You stay the hell away from my sister,” I ordered, and though my hands were shaking with fury, I didn’t for a moment doubt my aim.

“Take it easy, Nikki,” he said. “I was just—”

“You were just what?” I interrupted. “Taking a page out of Alexis’s book and threatening Steph to keep me under control?”

“I didn’t threaten her!” he snapped, putting his hands down. “I was helping keep an eye on her, and she happened to notice me. Women do, you know, and it’s not something I can control.”

“You took her out on a date.” I kept the gun pointed steadily at his forehead.

“I didn’t sleep with her, if that’s what you’re freaking out about. I asked her out because I’d already blown my cover, and I figured that way I could help protect her without having to try to hide.”

He sounded perfectly sincere, but how could I believe him? I’d seen how ruthlessly he’d used that aura before, and the idea of him turning it on Steph made me sick to my stomach.

“I don’t believe you,” I said, moving my aim from his forehead to his crotch. His eyes went a little wider, and he swallowed hard. I was glad to know he was less scared of me blowing his brains out than shooting him somewhere really important.

“I’m telling the truth,” he said, a little desperately. “If I were the kind of guy who preyed on innocent bystanders like that, I’d be with the Olympians, not with Anderson.”

For some reason, his words had a ring of truth to them, and I took a baby step back from the edge. I still kept the gun pointed at his family jewels, but I didn’t feel like I was moments away from pulling the trigger.

“I don’t want you anywhere near her.”

“I’m one of the few people Alexis is actually afraid of. You saw how he reacted to me in the diner. He’s not getting within a hundred yards of her as long as I’m around.”

I shook my head. “And I’m supposed to think that letting you seduce her is okay as long as you keep Alexis away?”

Blake rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to seduce her. I won’t let things go further than a little flirtation.”

“Why not? Don’t you like women?” I couldn’t imagine there were a whole lot of straight men who wouldn’t leap at the chance of getting Steph into bed.

To my surprise, Blake blushed. “Yeah, I like women. Look, any chance we can continue this conversation without you threatening to shoot me? Because you’re almost as berserk as Jamaal, and it’s getting old.”

Crap. I was acting a bit like Jamaal, come to think of it. Assuming the worst and threatening violence. That wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be, but I’d already really stuck my foot in it. “What’s to stop you from doing something nasty with your aura if I put the gun away?”

“The fact that Anderson would ‘lay hands’ on me if I did. He takes a pretty dim view of infighting.”

Again, there was that ring of truth. Plus, there was the fact that I couldn’t keep him at gunpoint forever. Reluctantly, I uncocked the gun and lowered my arm.

Blake let out a sigh of relief. “Just to clarify something: I made some threats to you at the diner, but I wouldn’t have followed through on them. I’d have used my aura to lower your inhibitions and get you to go with me, but I wouldn’t have taken advantage of it. I could do it to Alexis without my conscience uttering a peep, but that’s because I know exactly what he’s capable of. Rampant abuse of power is an Olympian thing.”

I wasn’t sure whether I believed him or not, but at least he wasn’t on the attack at the moment.

“So, if you like women, then why aren’t you interested in Steph?”

Once again, he blushed. It was almost cute. Emphasis on “almost.”

“I never said I wasn’t interested. It’s just …” He cleared his throat and looked at the floor. “As a descendant of Eros, I have certain … skills. If a woman has too much exposure to those skills, she’ll have a hard time being satisfied with normal men.”

I gaped at him. “I’ve heard men brag about their sexual prowess before, but you take the cake.”

“It’s not a boast, and I’d turn it off if I could. If I were an Olympian, it wouldn’t bother me to make a woman unable to achieve satisfaction with another man for the rest of her life, as long as I enjoyed myself. But I’m not an Olympian, and it would bother me. As far as sex is concerned, I will always have to be a one-night-stand kind of guy. That’s nothing to boast about.”

I’d never thought learning the guy who was dating Steph was into one night stands would be a relief. “If you decide to make Steph one of those one night stands, we’ll be having this conversation again. And I might find myself pulling the trigger by accident. Got it?”

Blake gave me a wide-eyed innocent look. “I got it. Now how about you and your gun do an about-face and get out of my apartment?”

By that point, I was happy to oblige.