Here Be Sexist Vampires

Chapter Eight

(Jared)

Although Joy was whispering something in my ear about plans for tonight involving chocolate mousse, handcuffs and a whip, my eyes were on Sam. I guessed that Joy’s loud whispering was for Sam’s benefit. She felt threatened by Sam, I now knew, which was why she persistently appeared at the office, and I had to wonder if Joy’s mention of a whip was just to ensure that she got Sam the whip-queen’s attention. If Joy had succeeded, Sam wasn’t showing it.

She was at her desk staring at the documents in front of her, truly looking completely engrossed in what she was reading. Subconsciously she was twining a stray strand of her hair around her finger, reminding me of the time when I had my fingers in that hair. Her other hand was cupping her neck as she leant her head into it, reminding me of the time when I was leaving a trail of kisses along that neck. She was running her tongue along the inside of her bottom lip, reminding me of how that tongue had knotted with mine and how those lips had felt on mine. She was a greedy kisser, and I’d loved it.

The gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed was repeatedly drawing my attention to her cleavage that was already accentuated enough by that low-cut vest. God bless Fletcher and his clothing advice. Every time she twirled her ankle my attention drifted to those legs that had felt so good curled around me.

She could have no idea how much she, by doing nothing, was making me want her.

I almost hated her for it.

Hating her would be a good thing. She was the only woman ever to make me feel bad about myself. As soon as I’d calmed down after our fight I’d wanted to slap myself. She hadn’t meant that thing about her Sire the way it came out. I knew that. But I’d been an ass to her, and I regretted it. Would I tell her that? No. Pride and all that.

It was stupid that I’d accused her of having a thing for my brother. She hadn’t. I knew that. But it was likely that she now did. Evan was just as bad as Joy for coming to the office all the time. Sam and he would then always end up talking. He always seemed to have something to say to her. It felt like I was being sliced at every time I watched her laugh at something he said or greet him with that big smile that she had never once showed me.

Because of that, I liked that Joy came to the office. This way, both Sam and I felt awkward sometimes. She could pretend to be engrossed in those documents all she wanted, just as she always did, but I’d bet she was well aware of everything that Joy said and did.

The night when Joy had brought along Daniela and Tammy hadn’t been a good night for me. I knew seeing the three of them would remind Sam of just why she had refused me, would make her conclude that she had made the right decision. I’d been hoping that in time she would come to change her mind, open her eyes more to the idea of what I’d offered. If she had, the three of them turning up together like sisters would have cancelled that right out, because Sam was right; she could never be a part of anything like that. She was more than that. I respected her for it. I wanted her for it. I almost hated her for it.

It was always that I almost hated her. I could never get past the wanting her. Could never shake her off. Could never find anything about her that made me want her less. The wanting was quickly becoming aching. I didn’t want to be like this anymore; constantly thinking about and wanting someone that I couldn’t have but who my soul seemed to think was mine.

Christ, now she’s just making it worse...She had left her chair and was stretching up to reach the top shelf of one of the filing cabinets, returning some documents. Her top had risen up and the small of her back was showing, flashing me some kind of swirly tattoo. To make it even worse, but at the same time better, was that I could see the top of her panties...red silk with a band of lace at the top. I was seriously at risk of becoming painfully hard.

“Hey bro.” Oh great, Evan’s here.

I nodded a little. It was all I could manage because I knew what was coming next...

“Hey Coach,” he greeted Sam, grinning. Most of the Commanders were calling her that now, though they said it as a pet name whereas the recruits’ said it with an air of respect. She had come a long way with them, completely turned things around.

Her head swerved, revealing that smile that she always had for him. I wish I could say that I thought she did it to get a rise out of me. But it was so obvious that the smile was authentic. “Alright Ev.”

I stiffened. I don’t know why it got to me so much when she abbreviated his name like that. Joy seemed much more relaxed now that he was here. No prizes for guessing why. She loosened her hold on my neck but I still felt like I had a chimp hanging off my body.

Evan stood by Sam’s desk, tapping it with his fingers. “I was hoping you’d still be here.”

She seemed just as surprised as me by that. He had never come specifically to see her before. I won’t lie, I wanted to punch him.

“I’m just leaving for the arena,” she said apologetically as she returned to the desk and tidied the pile of papers on top of it.

“Actually, that’s why I’m here. I was thinking I could come along and watch. I’ll sit in the spectators’ box out the way and I won’t say a word, I swear.”

“Aren’t you working with your own squad?”

“I decided to give them half the evening off because it’s one of the guy’s birthdays.”

“You’re too sweet” – Did she want me to punch her too? – “I said I’d let mine leave early if, and only if, they did good. Why the sudden interest in my squad?”

“Well it turns out that, um, some pranks have been getting played on the other squads, particularly mine. The guys swear it’s payback from your squad, that a certain telekinetic individual called Harvey was responsible. But I thought they can’t possibly be right about that because you’ve only been training Harvey for like a week.”

“Huh, weird.” There was just as much humour in her voice as in his.

“And now I’m all curious. So, can I?” His grin was charming, he’d get his way.

“Alright, but I need a favour from you.”

He shrugged. “Whatever you want.”

“I’d like to borrow your squad some time to spar with mine. It won’t be for another week.”

“Do you think they’ll really be ready for that?”

“Well you can decide that for yourself, can’t you?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to his “Later, bro” or her “See you later”. At least, not anything that wouldn’t be a threat, curse, or insult.

Sam? Hell, I hadn’t even meant to call her. The last time I had spoken telepathically to her was when I had saw Max flirting with her at the pool. I wasn’t expecting a response now just like I hadn’t then, especially since she had continued to leave the office.

Yep? Forced friendliness.

Now I was going to have to come up with a reason why I had called her. I’ll be coming to watch too.

I’m surprised you haven’t sooner, they’re your recruits as well.

Joy grinned at me. “It’s only a matter of time.”

“What?”

“That’s if they’re not already.”

I sighed. “Joy, when have I ever liked riddles?”

“I was saying it’s only a matter of time before those two get together.”

A blazing heat of half-anger half-panic shot through me and I felt like I’d explode. No. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let them be together. If she was to ever be with Evan for even one night there would never be any chance of there ever being anything between Sam and me. I couldn’t ever be with someone for even one night who had been with my brother. Too weird for me. And the idea of there never being a chance sparked a dull ache in me. All this over a goddamn fuck?

“Are we going up now?” said Joy sweetly.

“You are. I’ve got somewhere I need to be.” I moved so fast around the table that she lost her monkey grip on me.

“Where are you going?”

“Why don’t you get the chocolate mousse ready,” I suggested in an irritated voice. Not that I had any intention of following her up there.

“It’s chocolate ice cream.”

Oh. Turns out I’d been paying even less attention to her than I’d thought. “That too.” I went at vampire speed to the arena, expecting to see Sam and Evan along the way, but it seemed that they had travelled at vampire speed too.

I joined Evan in the front row of the spectators’ box. He had his arms folded and a hand holding his chin, intensely interested. So was I. But only in Sam.

“Hey bro, I didn’t know you were coming.”

I only nodded at him.

He sighed. “Jared, I could be wrong, but I could swear that I’m supposed to have done something, and if I have, I truly have no idea what it is.”

I forced a mini smile and patted his back. “I’ve got a lot on my mind right now.” That was true. The upcoming attack on The Hollow’s walls wasn’t something that just slips from your brain.

“I’m guessing that it’s mostly Sam.”

“No,” I denied. “Squad stuff.”

“Yeah. Right.” He shook his head grinning before then returning his attention to the scene below us.

Sam was pacing in front of the guys who were all stood side by side in an almost perfectly straight line. None of them were smirking or fidgeting or whistling – which was more than what I could say for when they were training with me. Even Damien was focused. Wow, she ran a pretty tight ship. It was when she said the first few words that I realised exactly what they were focusing so much on doing.

(Sam)

“Harvey, there’s a tiny bit of excess energy around you, suck it in,” I said.

“Yes, Coach.” His expression was aggravated, as always. Harvey still hadn’t rid himself of his arrogant streak so he always got touchy whenever he was singled out for one reason or another. For once, however, he didn’t grunt before doing as I’d asked. I took that as progress. It was a case of baby steps with Harvey.

“Last session, you all met your goal of channelling all your energy. That’s an achievement, but it’s not yet the time to do a sing and a dance about it unless you can channel all that energy under pressure. During an attack, you won’t be in a nice, quiet arena, secure in your safety, with me right here to tell you if you’re doing it right. You’ll be out in the open, you’ll be surrounded by stimuli, you’ll have enemies hunting you down and you’ll have me to answer to if you don’t move your arse.”

They each smiled at the latter part, knowing better than to laugh. This was a serious matter and they were expected to treat it seriously.

“So, here’s where we get a hint of just how well you’ll do. Tonight, we’ll be doing two exercises. The first will involve me testing you all individually to see how well and quick you can respond to an oncoming threat. I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to know that I will be that threat,” I added, to which they smiled. “I know you’ll definitely be pleased to hear that I don’t want you to just defend, I want you to attack.”

Enthusiasm seeped out of every one of them; they wanted desperately to let go and abuse those powers. Boys and their toys.

A few of them suddenly noticed that the spectators’ box wasn’t empty tonight. I guessed that there must have been some movement from up there.

“Yes, yes, you have observers. Get over it. Note that my intention in this exercise isn’t to hurt you and see how well you can ignore the pain, we’ll leave that for another night.” More smiles. “During this exercise all I am interested in is your reaction to an attack. Only if I can be sure that you’re handling your gifts as you need to can we move on to the second exercise. All that understood?”

“Yes, Coach!” they shouted soldier-style. Dramatic, but whatever. I thought that they were probably showing off to Evan and Jared. I could swear that Jared’s eyes were on me. I had to expel that thought from my mind before becoming self-conscious and losing focus here. But it was hard, especially when only minutes ago he had spoken to me telepathically for the first time in days. It’s funny how you don’t realise you ever liked something until all of a sudden it happens when you weren’t expecting it.

Blocking out Jared for now, I moved at vampire speed toward the southern wall, stopping just short of five feet. Letting my body feel part of the ground beneath me as though my feet were roots of a tree, I stood firm and sucked in the natural energy of the earth. Ready, I then stamped twice with one foot and willed a decent sized bolder to rise. It was big, sturdy and bulky enough for each one of them to individually hide behind one-at-a-time, even tall David.

Returning to my spot near to the northern wall I repeated the action, creating myself an almost identical bolder. I then randomly called out a name.

“Harvey?”

“Coach?” He seemed eager for this. Harvey was eager during most exercises, but not so much enthusiastic...it was that he wanted to prove himself – prove that he didn’t need learning the way everyone else did. But all he proved time and time again was what I was already telling him and the rest of the squad; he’s not ready to take on the world yet. But Harvey could nonetheless be reckless and arrogant which made him not the best team player. If he could only get past that, I could properly consider the ideas that he was full of. But for now, as I said before, it’s a case of baby steps with him.

“I want you to go to that bolder over there.” I gestured with my head to the bolder at the southern point. “Use it as cover when you need it, but don’t hide behind it. Remember, I want you to attack and defend. But the intention isn’t for anyone to be hurt. Oh and nobody moves from their bolder unless I allow it.”

He wiggled his head as if loosening any tension in his neck, making his black silky hair dance around. “Sure thing, Coach.” However, behind that child-like grin lay a hint of mischief. His reckless side might just manifest here. If he believed that hurting me would make him seem power-tastic then that would be exactly what he would do. Then I’d have to twat him.

After I’d ushered the others to gather in the corner of the wall behind me, both Harvey and I stood behind our bolder. Twiddling my fingers, I drew in the energy surrounding me, especially the natural energies and held it in reserve, feeling it wriggle like a caged animal eager to be freed.

I then reached out with my sense of hearing, listening for any movement from Harvey. He was fidgeting crazily – wouldn’t be a good thing in combat, he’d be sounded out immediately. “Harvey, keep your movements to a minimum, remember.”

Instead, I’ve-something-to-prove Harvey attacked first; striving to move the bolder with his telekinesis. Idiot – did he really think I’d build something flimsy? Converting some of the absorbed energy into my beloved silvery-blue whip, I, in the swiftest movement, let half of my body peek around the bolder and cracked the whip at Harvey. He cried out, cursing.

“Don’t be a whelp, I didn’t whip you hard,” I called out. “But I will whip you senseless if you don’t give up trying to move the bolder and come up with something else. Come on, where are all those ideas of yours?”

I listened for him again. No movement. Wow, he’d actually listened to me.

I enjoyed the sizzling in my hands as I converted the whip into an energy ball. Vampire-swift again, I peeked around only long enough to fling the ball at the boulder before then retreating behind my own bolder; knowing perfectly well what Harvey would do in response. Sure enough, he used his telekinesis to deviate the energy ball. It crashed into the bolder but the mound didn’t at all crumble.

“Oh come on, you can do better than that!” I told him. “Stop trying to attack the bolder, that’s not what has a power to fling at you. If an enemy is really that intent on finding cover then they’ll simply find something else if you do manage to damage their cover.”

Again I threw an energy ball, but this time I kept my eye on Harvey. I then watched as he levitated the ball up into the air and then sent it zooming doom, hoping to catch me behind the bolder. Instantly I called on my energy shield, which made the ball rebound and hit the wall.

“Better!” I told him as I held up a hand as a gesture of the exercise having ended. We both then came out from behind our bolder.

“Oh Coach, I was just getting into it,” he complained.

“Sorry, but I’ve got nine other people to get through before we can move onto the next exercise. Did you not want to get out of the session early tonight...?”

His frown was replaced by a grin. “You’ll really let us?”

“I already told you I will – if you all do good. David, you’re next.”

As I expected, David did excellently. He waited patiently for his chance, and then peeked out and sent a psionic blast from his finger tips – my shield stopped the blast before it got to me. He was extremely pleased with himself because the nervousness that he had originally felt while handling his gift, not knowing exactly how to control the strength of the blast, had all but gone. I knew that because he was the youngest and had done well at the exercise all the other recruits would now try harder; not wanting the youngest to do better than them.

I then challenged Salem. His psychic punch wasn’t all that dissimilar from David’s blast, however Salem didn’t wait for an opening as David had; he didn’t have David’s patience. Instead, violence-lover Salem repeatedly tried penetrating my shield. Ballsy, but stupid. The psychic punch ricocheted both times and he narrowly avoided it each time, cursing ‘Fucker’ at the punch each time. His fumbling around gave me the opening I needed and pretty soon a gush of water sent him sliding backwards toward the wall. He didn’t care – the adrenalin was pumping so he was happy. Learning from his mistake however he took a leaf out of David’s book and waited for his chance, and got his opening. My shield protected me, of course, or I’d have been unconscious on the floor.

Damien did a lot better at the task than I’d been expecting. He peeped out one side, then the other and then above, but it turned out that he was only misleading me into thinking that was where he was. In fact, it was his astral self that had peeped out – meaning that his physical body was safe and sound. If he did that during an attack, he could keep his body safe while still baiting the enemy.

Next was Chico. As his aim still needed to be improved on, he couldn’t emit the thorns from his hands without actually having a visual of where I was. It took a few tries but he eventually got his opening – again my shield came in handy. He wasn’t too pleased when I used a teensy bolt of fire to singe his moustache, but it got a few laughs from the others of course and it served to make him concentrate better on me rather than on the fact that everyone was watching him – his fear was exhibiting weakness because he was kind of like the alpha of the squad. I could empathise slightly.

Denny farted some musk at me, the sod. But not before I zapped his butt with an energy blast. After that he decided that taking his eyes off me was a bad idea and took to becoming mush every time I attacked. This aggravated me because he wasn’t using his full potential; he needed to realise that attacking was just as important as defending himself, so I sent his mushy form swirling around using a nice gush of water. He got the point that being mush wouldn’t necessarily protect him and then began spraying ooze at me.

As Reuben’s gift depended on physical contact, I allowed him to leave his bolder and try to reach me. Even with my taking it easy on him he didn’t get the hang of it because he was too busy concentrating on dodging my gifts to concentrate on my movements and pre-empt where I was going. As he believed that it wasn’t possible for him to pre-empt me and reach me, I absorbed some of his energy to temporarily give me his gift and asked Denny to repeatedly spray ooze at me so that I could show Reuben how focusing on an enemy’s movements would both help him pre-empt their movements and notice when an enemy was about to attack with their gift. It took under thirty seconds for me to physically touch Denny, which made Reuben more optimistic. I also suggested that maybe he could tie back his lovely brown shoulder-length hair so it did not disturb his vision.

Butch did well with negating anything I flung at him, however when he got a little cocky and kept flashing that crooked grin of his and challenging me with those unbelievably dark eyes I put more force behind one of my fire blasts to illustrate to him that he couldn’t negate everything and would need to learn to bring up his shield better. We had practiced this last session, but Butch had only managed to do this the once. Not because he wasn’t a capable person or in very good control of his power, but because Butch was only just getting used to the idea that he can use his defensive negating power in different ways.

Max was absolutely delighted when I called him up. He was extremely chuffed with his gift and kept promising me that one day he’d rob me of my senses and then kiss me hard to which he received a small punch in the gut. Each time I felt him reaching out I popped my shield up, however I was impressed by how well he was able to dodge my gift – his agility really had improved, which he owed to Jared’s training.

God, Jared. I hadn’t once forgotten that he was up there. I couldn’t. Not when those eyes were drilling into me. I daren’t look up at him in case my brain shut off for a second; that’s what it felt like would happen if we made proper eye contact for the first time in days.

Out of all of the recruits, Stuart was the least enthusiastic. Mainly because he was still sore about not being able to do much else other than shred. He was able to explode into molecules almost each time before my gift hit him. But the almost part pissed him off. As did the fact that he was finding it extremely difficult to move from place to place as molecules. But he did move a step. Progress.

“You all did good,” I told them as they recreated the line. “Good enough to move onto the second exercise. I’m going to ask you all to line up; five of you against the eastern wall, the other five at the western wall. I want at least three-car spaces between each of you.”

“Yes, Coach,” was said in unison.

Without delay they found themselves a spot. Chico, Butch, David, Denny and Stuart lined up against the eastern wall while the others stood against the western wall; Damien was facing Chico, Salem was facing Butch, Reuben was facing David, Harvey was facing Denny, and Max was facing Stuart.

“Space yourselves out a bit more.” Pacing between the lines of blokes, I spoke, “Take a good look at who’s opposite you. Remember everything you can about their gifts, because in a moment those gifts will be heading right at you.” There was some discomfort in the lines; I’d never set them against each other before. “I’ll shout your names individually. As soon as you hear it, I want you to do your thing. And I want you to do it fast. Because that’s what it will be like out there: me barking your name or an order, and you acting without hesitation. If you panic now, if you buckle under this pressure, then you know you’ve got some learning left to do. Do not turn this into a spar. Only when I shout your name do you act. Those who have a gift coming at you, block it if you can, or dodge it. But do not retaliate. That all understood?”

“Yes, Coach.”

Turning and pacing back the way I came, I added, “You’ll remember that your second goal was to memorise as much as you can about the gifts of the rest of your squad; this exercise should therefore also give you an idea of just how near or far you are to that goal. Right, first I need you, Reuben, to weaken Max, Chico and Salem’s powers.”

“Coach,” obeyed Reuben. He touched each of them for only three seconds. Then his face twisted in confusion. “Coach, what about David?”

“Well David’s who you’re facing in the line up. You’ll get your chance to weaken him when I call you – but you’re going to need to do it in quicker than three seconds. An enemy won’t let you hold onto their shoulder and wait. For anyone who can move in vampire speed, three seconds is more like ten.”

“Coach,” he said, bowing his head, before then scooting back to his spot.

Once I was back at my own spot against the northern wall I let a moment of silence drag on. This served two purposes. One: it created a hint of the suspense that they could expect during an attack. Two: my call would sound exceptionally louder against the heavy silence. I could see some of them stood tall and still while others shuffled their weight from one foot to the other and others were balling their hands up into fists. I was terribly proud to see that each and every one of them was doing the one thing that I had instructed them to in past sessions: keep their eyes on their opponent.

“Chico!”

At the sound of his name Chico abruptly lifted one hand and shot out several thorns from his palm which embedded themselves in Damien’s chest, which would have made him cry out in pain at the sting had he not astral projected a few feet away in less than the time it took to blink – a handy way to dodge.

Without missing a beat, I called out, “Salem!”

Fixed where he stood, the blonde vampire threw an uppercut toward Butch. I could almost see the ripple in the air that the psychic energy had produced as it flew from Salem and headed toward Butch. More determined than I had ever seen him, Butch placed his hands in front of his chest, palms out. The effect was like watching the sun shine on glass. The boom hit the flat, glass-like shield and collapsed to the ground.

“Harvey!”

His grin cocky and smug, Harvey made a quick movement that resembled someone throwing a small ball upwards – I guessed he intended on sending poor Denny levitating to the ceiling. Before the impact could hit Denny, he instantly liquidised into green mush. Two seconds later he was himself again. Harvey made an animal tssssk noise in frustration.

“Max!”

He always wore the same tough-bloke expression when he was reaching out to paralyse senses – his eyes would narrow, his mouth would twist, his eyebrows would dip. He had this expression now as he, with the simple gesture of closing his open hand, attempted to temporarily quash Stuart’s senses. But Stuart had literally exploded into molecules – nice dodging! – and then reassembled quickly.

“Reuben!”

Ooh, good ole Reub was nervous. I would be too if I knew that David’s power would be heading for me shortly. God that bloke was fast: vampire speed had him at David in under a second. He touched his shoulder briefly before returning to his spot.

“David!”

Reuben stood still as a statue – there was no way to dodge David’s psionic blast. Reuben could only hope that he had weakened the power enough for it to only feel a split-second pain to the effect of a hammer hitting your head.

David, stood tall and determined, exhaled heavily and then splayed his fingers; the blast streamed from his fingertips and rushed toward Reuben. Every one of us watched intently – if Reuben hadn’t weakened the power well enough, he’d end up unconscious. If Reuben had accidentally strengthened David’s blast...he would die.

I think all of us released a brief sigh of relief when Reuben simply flinched and brought his hand to his head. I didn’t give them time to celebrate though.

“Stuart!”

This was the big test for Stuart. I watched as he stiffened and then, like before, exploded. I continued to watch as the molecules rushed toward the vampire opposite him. Max jerked backwards as Stuart, in under a second, reassembled in front of him. “Hi there,” he said to Max, winking. He had every reason to be chuffed with himself though.

“Denny!”

I wondered if Denny might use his anal musk on Harvey. It wasn’t that he didn’t like him, but Harvey picked on David a lot – who happened to be Denny’s best friend. Instead, Denny flexed his hands, making them appear more like claws, and then sprayed yellowy-green ooze from his thumbs and smallest fingers – the times when he attacked were the only moments that his baby face looked in any way threatening. The ooze was sturdy and stringy, wrapping around Harvey like a web in spite of his telekinetic efforts to divert it – there was just too much of it. Denny’s dimply smile surfaced instantly.

“Butch!”

Knowing what I wanted him to do, Butch placed his hands in front of his chest, palms out, in the same way that he had before. This time, instead of leaving them there he forcefully extended his arms in front of him and then spread them to the side, pushing his invisible shield outwards and all around him.

“Chico, David, Salem – get him now!”

Thorns, a psionic blast, and a psychic punch came at Butch from different directions...but all of it hit the shield.

Last but not least...

“Damien!”

I was very surprised when he didn’t hesitate or lick his lips nervously; this was the first time I had seen him sure of himself. So sure of himself that his dark skin wasn’t shimmering with sweat. He blinked hard and then, suddenly, his astral self was lounging on the floor in front of Chico, giggling in exhilaration.

With that, the eyes of every recruit concentrated on me, all of them keen to jump for joy but desperately wanting my approval first. I made them sweat by keeping silent a few seconds. “Now you can do a sing and a dance,” I said with a smile.

They practically did. Butts wiggled and arms shot up toward the sky, and I heard plenty of whoops and an ‘Oh yeah baby!’ and an ‘Alright!’ as they revelled in their own accomplishment.

Then they were all heading toward me.

“Oh no you don’t,” I warned them, one finger pointing at them. They appeared to be ignoring it as they were still coming at me. “Don’t you dare!” Too late. I was scooped up by Reuben and hung over his shoulder while he bounced. “This is a bit dramatic!”

I ended up with some of Denny’s ooze that had been dripping from Harvey now in my hair. Not so happy about that.

I heard cheering and clapping from the spectators’ box. I looked up. Evan was smiling and nodding, impressed as he called out ‘whoo’ and clapped. He was also alone.

“I don’t know what to say,” Evan said as he reached me and we began a slow walk out of the arena en-route to the apartment block. The recruits were still celebrating their glory further on ahead of us, heading to their own apartment block by the looks of things.

“You could say something flattering,” I suggested light-heartedly.

“I just...I never expected them to be in such control. It took my squad a long time before they reached that point. Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m not saying that I didn’t think you were capable -”

I interrupted before he tripped over his words. “It’s alright, I know what you were trying to say.”

“I’ve got to ask: you’ve been around my squad, right? Did you pick up any excess energy around them?”

I bit my bottom lip. “Yeah,” I finally admitted. “And there’s a little around you, too, if I’m honest.”

“Really?” He looked mortified though he was smiling. “I guess you’ll have to give me and my squad a lesson some time. You know, you’re a good coach. I take it you had a good coach to pick that up from.”

My smile faded. “Not exactly.” Before he could ask for me to elaborate I quickly asked, “So did Jared decide not to stay and watch?”

“He stayed to the end but then scarpered pretty quickly. Said he had somewhere to be.” His tone suggested he hadn’t believed that excuse. “Have you two had a falling out or something?”

I giggled. “Jared and I have never had a friendship to fall out of. Even our business relationship is beyond strained. Antonio employing me hurt his ego. You must know how your brother cherishes that ego.”

There was silence for a moment. “I don’t think it’s just that.”

“You mean the fact that I ‘wouldn’t let him screw me’, as you so aptly put it during your telepathic conversation with him.”

His cheeks reddened. “I can’t believe you heard that. Jared said absorbing some of his energy must have made you tune into it. He wouldn’t say much about the absorbing his energy part.” His tone was probing.

“There’s nothing to tell. I was in a bad way after killing Victor, and Jared let me absorb some of his energy.” I shrugged as if to emphasise the simplicity of it all.

“Well that confirms my suspicions.”

“Suspicions?”

“Jared doesn’t give anyone anything, let alone his energy. Like I said before, I don’t think his problem is just a wounded ego. I think he likes you, a lot actually.”

I gave him a doubtful look. “I fail to see how you could make that conclusion when he barely speaks or looks at me. He asked me to join his consort collection, yeah, but that’s just about sex. He’s been sulking ever since I said no.”

Evan pointed a finger at me. “But, see, that’s the thing with Jared. He’s never really liked a woman in more than a physical sense. So he doesn’t know how to handle it. He just knows that he wants you and probably thinks that if he screws you it’ll all make sense.”

“So you’re attuned to him, are you,” I mocked playfully.

“It’s a twin thing. Actually, when we were human we were really close. There wasn’t a part of his life that I didn’t know about, and vice versa. We did almost everything together.”

“What changed?”

“Jared.” He didn’t say it with bitterness or even disappointment, but understanding. “As soon as he was made Heir he totally changed. His ego was more inflated than ever before. He loved the attention and the respect and the rewards and the power that came with it all.”

“So he forgot about you, kind of left you behind?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. He wanted me to live the high life with him. He had the power to give it to me, he had the girls to share...but I wasn’t interested. He never took it personally, he respected that – even though he didn’t understand why – I didn’t want that kind of life.”

“You are a bit of an enigma.”

“I am?” He sounded amused.

“I get that power and attention isn’t what you feel you need in life. But everybody feels that they need something; little or big. And yet you just plod along, but always smiling. Even though you’ve never been short of offers from women you’ve turned them down, though I’m told that in the very beginning you were almost as bad as Jared. I’ve never once seen you even harmlessly flirt with anyone. Should I assume that there was a woman from your human life who you can’t forget?”

He smiled and then scrutinised my face. I got the idea that he was wondering how much or how little to say on the subject, whether or not he could trust me. I tried to assure him with my smile that he could.

Finally he made a puffing sound and sat down on the lawn outside the rear of the Mansion. “You know Luther has visions, right?” he asked. I nodded and I sat beside him. “Has Antonio ever asked you if you wanted to have one via Luther?”

“Yeah. I didn’t understand it, though.”

“In mine, I was in the rainforest somewhere, and I was waiting really anxiously for someone, worried they were in danger. Then Jared and two women appeared, and I almost collapsed in relief. One of them had blazing red hair and pale blue eyes and the most amazing smile you’ve ever seen. My emotions in the vision weren’t very clear, but I could feel that she was mine. Since then, I couldn’t bring myself to be with another woman, it would have felt like I was being unfaithful. That might sound weird.”

“No, no it doesn’t at all. You’re waiting for her. It’s really sweet.”

“After time just kept dragging on and she never showed, I was starting to think that maybe she was never going to. That maybe I’d made some sort of decision somewhere along the line that had changed the future. But then you came, and you can’t imagine how much optimism flowed through me.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were the other woman in my vision. You and Jared brought her to me.”

My eyebrows jumped up. “Oh.”

He laughed. “Yeah, oh.”

Well I really didn’t know how I felt about that.

“Spooked?” he asked, amused.

“Sort of. You’ve never told Jared about her,” I realised.

“He wouldn’t understand. He’s always loved himself too much for anyone else to have a chance,” he added jokingly. It truly wasn’t an insult, more of a playful comment. He was so close to Jared and yet so far apart. It made me sad. “I knew that if I told him he’d laugh about it and say she must be a really good screw for me to feel that. I didn’t want to hear that, I didn’t want him to taint it.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell him or anyone else.”

“I know.” It was said with utter confidence and trust. “You know that Jared’s a little unhappy about how much we talk and stuff, don’t you?”

“My guess is he’s worried you’ll manage to get in my pants when he couldn’t. That would be a huge blow to his ego.”

Evan laughed. “Yeah, it certainly would.”

“But I’ve never once felt like you were coming onto me.”

“In my vision, I could feel that I was relieved you were okay. That I cared about you just like a sister, the sister I never had. And I do, already.”

“And I think of you as a brother.”

His expression was so cheery. I guessed that hearing me say I felt that way was making everything click into place for him, giving him even more optimism that this girl would soon be in his life.

“You didn’t say the brother you never had. So you had a brother? Any sisters?”

“Nope. My mum and dad were workaholics, totally obsessed with the business they ran that didn’t even make any money, and they barely had time for me, let alone any other kids. I was a big disappointment to them because I wasn’t driven to follow in their footsteps and join the crappy family business. I have to say though it seems like an appealing future now, but no sense in dwelling.”

“Hey, you’ve done okay for yourself in your new life. So far you’ve got the big job, the flashy apartment, the hefty salary. All that’s missing is the husband. Anyone wanting to be your husband would either have to be incredibly turned on by being challenged, or quite content to be submissive in every way.”

“The latter wouldn’t be interesting.”

“Well I know of one person who fits the first.”

“Say your brother’s name and I’ll whip you senseless.”

“I was going to say Max,” he giggled. “I’m not going to root for Jared when I know what he wants is for you to be a consort, you’re better than that.”

“That’s what I said.” I was nice to hear someone tell me that there had been reason and rhyme to my choice. After the way Jared had overreacted I had occasionally wondered if I was being fussy or stupid because whether I was his consort or just a casual shag, the result was still the same; sex and nothing else.

Of course Fletcher had supported my position but he also believed that I needed a good one-off shag to burn off all the aggression and horniness so he wasn’t all that bothered who that shag was, even if it was Jared. If Jared’s own brother thought he was being idiotic, then maybe I wasn’t being as harsh as Jared thought.