Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) - By Fionn Jameson Page 0,70
slim, tall form. “I do.”
“Then you’ll know that it is similar to magnets. When you have lived for as long as we have, we tend to form a certain...barrier.”
I blinked. “You mean, like magnets pushing each other away.”
He nodded. “Just so. After a while, it gets the point where normal humans cannot stand to be around us. Our aura engulfs theirs and they become violently sick to be in our presence. Sometimes they even die.”
“I was sick in the hallway,” I pointed out.
“Once,” he said. “You were sick once. By all rights, you should be bleeding from every orifice, dying from the blood willingly leaving your mortal body. To be standing for so long in the presence of so many of the Elders...do you know what that means for us?”
There was a lump in my throat and I felt the walls begin to close in around me. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
“You are not afraid of us.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It was such a preposterous idea. “Not afraid of you? Are you joking? I’m surprised I haven’t pissed my pants yet.”
His eyes, a light brown that reminded me of coffee narrowed. “That’s not what I meant. You have grown used to us. You have, for the lack of a better word, evolved.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“You have adjusted to our presence, and that is worrying,” he continued. “Were your so-called Fellowship to find out, they would not hesitate to...” he paused. “Incidentally, were you given orders to assassinate someone? Is that why you are here?”
Heart in my throat, I could only shake my head. “I couldn’t possibly slay anyone. Not here.”
Fenrir took his feet off the table, one eye speculative. “And yet you are here. Guarding a vampire. Guarding what you have sworn to destroy? Forgive us if we find this situation highly...unusual.”
Jason put a hand around my shoulder and it seemed awkward, to say the least. I was not used to standing this close to someone. “If you know who I am, you will know I have money. Money enough to persuade a hunter to protect me.”
Vincent pulled away from us, face immobile. “And yet, if one were to inquire into her past, it seems as though she is not the type to be persuaded by just money.”
Someone spoke up, a feminine voice not Annabelle. “If not money, then what about sex?”
I wondered if they could see my face burning in the dim candlelight. If my true purpose were to be ascertained now, the chances of me leaving this room alive was worse than zero.
I ran a hand down Jason’s back, trembling badly, and in his dark eyes, I saw a question. “Not just sex.”
My fingers found his mouth, traced the curve of his plump lower lip and when his tongue licked my thumb, I swallowed a painfully dry throat. That I was doing this when I had never once initiated sexual contact with anyone was...strange.
Jason’s hand slid down to my waist and drew me to him, body pressing against his as if our only thoughts were to meld into one. “As you can see, there are a multitude of reasons why she is mine.”
I prayed my smile did not wobble too much, as I smoothed a lock of hair from his face. “And why you are mine.”
That we could fool anyone with our almost childlike romance seemed almost too much to hope for.
But Ryder spoke up then. “Yeah. They could hardly keep their hands off each other in the car.”
I was glad the Committee could not see my face, could not see the surprise flitting through my eyes.
“It was kind of sweet, actually,” he continued and then sighed deeply. “I mean, even for me, it was sweet. I know you don’t really have to take my word for it, but there’s history between these two lovebirds. Serious history.”
Matthias tapped his chin. “Is there? Vincent? Can you collaborate on his story?”
After a moment of silence, a moment spent in which he looked at us, he nodded once. “I knew of their relationship when they came to Centennial. Reiko seemed worried about it.”
Matthias turned to Shannon. “And what of you? You were with them. What do you say of their...relationship?”
She sneered at me, but nodded all the same. “They seemed quite...friendly. I can think of no other reason why she would protect him, if not for love.”
She flung out “love” as though it were an arrow and I felt her hatred as clear as night and day.