happy to know this, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s assume I didn’t hear a thing.”
“Zero accountability?”
There was a hint of a smile on her red lips. “Something like that.”
Jason patted the cushion next to him. “Sit.”
“I’ll stand.”
He opened to say something, but never got the chance.
Someone came up the stairs, and instinctively my muscles tightened.
I’d seen his pictures several times in the Daily Centennial, but to see Vincent in real life, is like seeing a masterpiece through dirty lenses and then having them cleaned.
Vampires were beautiful.
It was both their curse and their gift.
With Vincent, it was hard to see his beauty as anything less than a gift from the Gods.
Auburn hair shone like garnets, tucked into a loose queue at the nape of his slender neck, and his green eyes crinkled at the corners as he held out his arms to Reiko.
She jumped up and hugged him, all little girl instead of the pedophile dream she tried so hard to pull off.
Behind him were several people, Eve, a pouting tall, brunette dressed in more furs than a caveman in the middle of the Ice Age, and the blond vampire I ran into at the front doors.
Vincent held Reiko at an arms length, teeth glinting white in the strobe lights. “What are you wearing?”
She preened under his eyes. “Do you like it?”
He laughed and let her go. “You look like a child prostitute, Reiko.”
I winced. He didn’t mince his words.
Instead of punching a hole in his chest like I half-expected, she wilted like a plucked flower left out in the summer sun. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
Well, better him than me.
She latched onto Marcus’s arm, voice plaintive. “Take me home. I want to change.”
Jason made as if to stand up. “We’ll go with you.”
“No,” said Reiko with a shake of her head. “Stay here. We won’t be long.”
Vincent stood aside as Reiko shuffled down the stairs, Marcus holding her hand to keep her from falling down the stairs in her six inch stilettos.
Jason stood up and held out a hand to Vincent, lips fixed in an easy smile. “I believe this is the first time we’ve met…like this.”
Vincent didn’t take his hand, and his face turned cloudy, a drastic change to the laughing, smiling vampire I’d seen with Reiko.
“You are treading on very dangerous ground.”
Jason’s smile never flickered. “I’m not sure if I know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?”
“No. I don’t.”
Vincent looked past him and when the vampire lord’s eyes fell on me, I pasted a smile on my face. He was old, but not as old as Reiko, and for that I was grateful. It was easier to be around him since I spent the past three days with a child vampire capable of tearing me from limb to limb.
“I know who you are.”
Was that a compliment?
From the tone of his voice, harsh, biting, I didn’t think so. But I took it as such. It never killed anyone to be polite. “Thank you.”
“The only reason you and your…Order are still alive is because you fulfill a sort of…purpose,” he began, a muscle next to his lips twitching. “You get rid of the riffraff. I’m sure you wish you were hitting us where it hurt, but quite frankly, you couldn’t. I heard about Rammstein.”
My throat went dry. Civilized, or not, old or not, he was still a force to be reckoned with. Hunting Noir…perhaps I had a chance. But with Vincent? Not in a million years. There’s a reason why he’s head of the four vampire leaders. “Rammstein was an idiot.”
“For hunting Noir, yes, I would agree.” His gaze hardened and something inside of me curled in on itself. Not that I would ever admit it. “Do not mistake his gentleness for weakness. You don’t want to make him mad. Ever.”
With that warning, he turned to Jason, arms crossed over his chest. “I might not be your Dominus, but as a Lord of Centennial, I feel as though I have the right to ask you a question.”
The smile had never left his face. “I’m not stopping you.”
“What is the woman doing here with you?
He couldn’t possibly have said “that woman” with more scorn and animosity.
“She’s my Ailward,” said Jason easily.
Ryder’s eyes widened and Eve’s dark eyes narrowed.
“Ailward?” Vincent let out a sigh. “We do not observe such standing here in America.”
“Fine,” said Jason, his smile starting to crack around the varnished edges. “She’s my bodyguard. Satisfied?”
“A human for a bodyguard.” Vincent walked a slow circle around me, looking me up and down