looked gorgeous in a pair of jeans. He had on a dark blue v-neck t-shirt and it made me feel better about my jeans and sweater. Our eyes met briefly as he walked into the room but he barely acknowledged me before moving to the other end of the room to sit down. It didn't escape my notice that he was seated right next to the raven-haired snob. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who noticed because she turned and gave me a satisfied smile. My inner an alarm went instantly on alert. I just knew there was history between Dylan and the other woman. Feeling even more insecure, I looked at him but he refused to look back even though he must have felt me staring at him. Looking down at my teacup, I felt the painful sting of rejection.
“All right everyone, we need to run through what happened this evening.”
My attention was drawn by a curvy woman. I could see from her name tag that her name was Elona Bigsby. From the air of authority around her, I assumed she was in charge of the London HQ, or at least in charge of this operation, or whatever it was. She had light chocolate skin, lighter than my best friend, Claire's. Her hair was in short, black curls, tight curls which made me green with envy. She had golden brown eyes and at close to six feet tall, you didn't want to meet with her in a back alley. Her voice drew me away from my reflection.
“We scoured the area along the Serpentine and as we suspected, a bomb was detonated.” She paused and there was complete silence in the room as all eyes were focused on her. “I certainly don't need to tell you all how serious this is. It is a breach of our protocol to use explosives; we leave that for the humans. What this tells us is that whoever is after the Keeper is both dangerous and wild. Whoever it is has absolutely no regard for our protocol and our laws and this is a serious matter.”
She turned to look at me as she spoke and I felt all eyes on me. I kept my eyes trained on her and I got the feeling that I could completely trust her.
“To put it bluntly, Luanne's life is in danger. But that's not all that's in danger, people. If anything should happen to Luanne, our race as we know it ceases to exist.”
The silence in the room was profound. I noticed that the other Protectors were now looking at me with something akin to awe. Even raven locks no longer had disdain written all over her face as she turned to look at me. The only person who kept his gaze determinedly away from mine was Dylan. I looked at him briefly and then turned away. He wanted to be childish, that was fine with me.
As the briefing went on, I felt anger begin to build inside me. I had issues, I readily acknowledged that. But in comparison with his issues mine paled into insignificance. How were we supposed to build a relationship when he wouldn't speak to me? This was not the first time he'd retreated into a sulking silence because of something I'd supposedly done, and I had no idea what it was. I was not going to allow him humiliate me that way. I decided to focus on the briefing instead.
Back in my room, I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I felt numb and I desperately wished my mind could be numb too as I went through the information I'd heard during the briefing. They'd profiled possible rogue vampires who could have made use of the explosive, and as they'd discussed strategies and dangers, I began to feel real fear for Katrina's safety. It occurred to me for the first time that she might not make it out alive.
Thinking about it now, I clenched my teeth together tightly to keep from hyperventilating. I wish I could have given up the stone to save Katrina and if I'd thought for one moment it would have made a difference, I would have done it, even if it had destroyed me in the process. But giving up the stone would mean the destruction of our race and that meant Katrina would still lose her life. It was a catch-22 situation.
I got up and began to pace. I felt so helpless. Elona had concluded