another.
“You understand how it is, right?” he asked, voice still low, still breathy. It almost sounded sexual in nature. “I am…someone of some importance. She is my protector. Were I do die in your establishment, it could go very wrong for you. There are, you understand, things that are stronger than you could imagine. Vampires…”
The bodyguard shook his head slowly, while the other one was staring at us outright. “Vampires…are citizens too. They have the same rights, but the same limitations.”
Jason laughed. “You’re an idiot if you think that. But you will let us through. And you will not stand in our way. Is that understood?”
“Understood,” he said slowly, voice trembling. He took a step to the side. “Welcome to the Lady Victoria Casino. I hope you enjoy your stay here.”
The other bodyguard slipped off his glasses, eyes wide, but not unhumanly so. “Now, wait a second, Wyatt, what the hell do—”
Wyatt shook his head. “Let them through. Any responsibility, I’ll take.”
We left the two bodyguards arguing behind us, but that hardly seemed to matter. The doors shut behind us, and the lights were almost blindingly bright, the sound of falling coins and the distant yells and groans echoing in my ears.
Jason stopped at the threshold, eyes closed, head tilted back, almost as though he were enjoying himself, basking in the glow of human greed and envy.
“What you just did,” I said quietly. “Glamour. You forced him to your will.”
He grimaced. “That sounds like a reprimand from you.”
“I thought it was illegal.”
He opened his eyes then, looked at me frankly. “My presence alone is dangerous. I’m sure what little I do will not be the end of the world, if you know what I mean.”
I didn’t, not really. “The whole reason vampires are allowed in this society is because they have agreed to follow certain rules and mandates set by Congress.”
“Am I a vampire?” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t think I am.”
“So you are a law onto yourself?”
He grinned wide, and a canine caught the artificial chandelier lights from above. “What an interesting concept. A law. Onto myself. So, who watches me?”
“Naturally, wouldn’t that be yourself?”
Pausing in his speech, he turned to look about the casino, his gaze falling upon an elderly couple, both dressed in blindingly bright tourist attire, as they hovered over a slot machine, the elderly woman’s eyes wide and glittering in the bright lights.
“Are you a gambler, perchance?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
“No? I supposed you never go for anything unless you have a hundred percent chance in success, hm?”
A corner of his lips kicked up, and he was beautiful.
Then again, he was always beautiful, but there was something in the glint in his eye, the way hair was tossed carelessly over the delicate features…
His smile widened. “You’re staring.”
I returned his expression. “I believe in honesty. Why hide something that is so obviously true?”
The corners of his dark eyes crinkled. “If only other people were as honest as you.”
And in that, I lost the ability to put words together. “Mm.”
He lifted his head then, nostrils flaring slightly, almost as though he smelled something unpleasant in the air. “I suppose I should have let you know something.”
His gaze flitted around the room, but his eyes didn’t seem to stay in one place for too long. “Would this be regarding your…safety?”
That I was protecting a vampire, that I had become an Ailward. It was enough to make me feel slightly ill.
He nodded. “This town, as small as it is, has —”
My shoulders tensed.
“Well! I don’t believe I’ve seen you folks here before.”
And underneath the expensive scent, was that pervasive stink of copper. It was something vampires could never hide, although they certainly tried. But vampires weren’t the only ones who smelled like blood.
I turned around slowly, shoulders as stiff as a lead pipe as Jason smiled widely, bowing low at the waist as though we were at a ball. “If it isn’t the Marcus Caldwell!”
A stout man, well-dressed with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, smiled at us maganimously, hands behind his back, the two bodyguards at his back, including the one Jason rolled, their sunglasses safely over their eyes.
The man tilted his head to one side. How he managed to say anything with a cigar in his mouth was completely beyond me. “Forgive me. I don’t believe we’ve met?”
Jason shook his head with a slight smile. “Oh, I don’t believe we have. But you are quite famous around these parts, aren’t you?”
Caldwell grinned wide and the canines,