Shadow Thief - Eva Chase Page 0,13
matter what the guy in charge had believed.
“Can’t hurt to ask, though, if it makes you feel better. Come on.” She motioned for us to head back to the front of the room where several other Fund members were scattered across the folding seats, munching popcorn and chatting. The projection screen flashed briefly as Ellen and Huyen must have fiddled with their weekly visual report, which they would share once the meeting really got underway.
We’d only made it halfway down the aisle when one of the lounging figures yanked himself to his feet and ambled our way. My steps slowed. “Here comes the rain again,” I murmured to Vivi, but my heart wasn’t in the joke.
“Hey,” Leland said as he reached us, his voice light but cool, his expression outright cold. The muscles in his stout frame, which a bodybuilder would have envied, flexed beneath his polo shirt. I forced myself to smile, but his gaze only rested on me for a second before flitting to Vivi and staying there.
Ever since we’d broken off our friends-with-benefits arrangement, emphasis on the benefits, months ago—or rather, since I’d broken it off after he’d started snapping at me for not doting on him like an actual girlfriend—he’d turned to ice around me. Somehow he couldn’t stop making a point of shoving that ice in my face at least once a meeting. Did he think I was going to throw myself into his arms with sobs of regret because of his pointed demonstrations?
I wasn’t, because honestly, I didn’t miss even the casual relationship I’d lost all that much. I’d always found Leland easy on the eyes, that soft face and schoolboy haircut paired with his tough-guy physique, but in personality? We’d gotten along well enough when all we’d had to discuss was where we’d be hooking up on a given night. We hadn’t had much to talk about otherwise. The fact that he’d apparently wanted more had thrown me for a loop.
But it still stung that I hadn’t picked up on the signs soon enough to avoid his obvious hurt and that I’d managed to disappoint him so thoroughly even when we’d seemed to be on the same page… It wasn’t the first time. No matter what kind of relationship I ended up in, it always turned out I wasn’t giving enough.
I’d been doing my best to show I had no hard feelings and wanted to co-exist peacefully, so I ignored the intended snub with my smile still in place. “Hey. Looks like it’s going to be a busy meeting tonight.”
He responded with a noncommittal grunt, nodded to Vivi, and veered closer to the seats to pass us on her side. As he stepped by, his foot must have caught on the base of the nearest chair. I didn’t see it happen, but one second he was striding along, and the next he was sprawling forward onto his hands and knees with an audible “Ooof!”, ass in the air.
As Leland picked himself up, one of the old members who’d come over to the popcorn machine chuckled. “Watch yourself there, kid!” Leland brushed himself off with a briskness that showed his embarrassment and hustled on giving the chairs a wide berth.
Vivi wrinkled her nose and leaned in to talk under her breath. “Maybe if he paid more attention to where he was walking than to giving you the cold shoulder…”
“At some point he’s got to forgive and forget,” I replied. I sure hoped so. For now, I could stick to giving him whatever space he felt he needed. It was a big room—plenty of chairs for everyone.
Shaking off the gloom of that exchange, I continued on to the other familiar—and much more welcoming—faces gathered near the screen. With Vivi looking on, I phrased my questions about new hunter behavior carefully, but all I got were shaken heads and doubtful expressions. If a larger than usual effort to confine the shadowkind was underway, word of it hadn’t reached our group yet.
Which meant it either wasn’t happening… or the people involved were covering their tracks incredibly well.
“All right, folks,” Ellen called out as she and Huyen emerged from the projection booth. “Let’s see what we can put in motion today. We had an incident earlier this week that should remind us all why none of the beings that cross over into our world deserve to be left in the hands of people who see them only as supernatural collectibles. A member of the Defense Fund in L.A.