ached anew from being dragged behind me, and I clung to it, used it as fuel. I had to focus, because I had only a moment to decide what to do, how to play this. I opted for sympathy, hoping he was just crazed enough to buy it.
“Levi?” I asked and blinked my eyes a few times. “I’m sorry, I’m dizzy. I didn’t know you were here.”
Brown eyes smiled beneath blond hair that was shaggier than he’d worn it before. “It’s my particular version of glamour. I’m rather good at it.”
So he’d been hiding in plain sight. Connor and I had expected the loft to be empty, so a little glamour just made us think we were right. Pushed us just enough. He’d watched me talk to Connor, watched me feed the cat, until it was time to reveal himself.
“Connor will be back . . . in a minute,” I said slowly, as if still unable to focus.
“The dog will have his own problems,” Levi said. And the fear that slid through me was a cold and silver thread. “And you really, really need to stop thinking about him, Elisa.” The words were tight, pinched off, angry.
He started pacing, and I glanced down, around, looking for something to use. The weapon I needed—that gleaming knife—was in his hand. But that wasn’t going to happen, so I rubbed my wrists together, trying to scrunch up the fabric enough to get a hand free. Keep him talking, I thought, and figure out a way to get free.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean I wanted him here. I just wanted you to know that he’d be back. He’ll come looking. So you have to be careful.”
I kept my lids lowered, playacting drowsiness, and tried to listen to the world outside, to any scuffle below. But there was only silence, at least for now. Behind my eyes, the monster watched, waited. It wasn’t foggy. And it was pissed.
Soon, I told it. A promise.
Levi moved across the loft, hunting knife in hand. “I’m supposed to be your partner. Your friend.” He stopped, looked back at me. “You’re friendly with shifters—with dogs. I’m disappointed in you. So angry that I gave you my trust.”
I stared at him, trying to pick my way through his rambling words, the sentiment behind them. He was past logic and rationality.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m very sorry that I hurt you.” I softened the words with glamour, just enough to make him believe. “It’s just, I only got your note a few days ago. So this is a bit of a surprise.”
“I suppose I did take my time. But I had to wait until everything was in place.” He stopped, looked back at me. “Why didn’t you do what Clive asked? You just had to pick a House, and then I could join you. We’d be married and Masters one day, together.”
“Levi, Clive didn’t give me any time to think. He just showed up and made demands.”
“He is impulsive,” Levi agreed. “Not nearly as strategic, as intentional, as me. He doesn’t think things through,” he said, tapping a finger to his head. “Nicole wanted the Compliance Bureau, but he wanted it more. He doesn’t like cheaters. Rule breakers.”
And I didn’t like the gleam in his eyes when he said that.
“You’re an experiment,” he said, and my blood went cold.
“What do you mean?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. Was this about Testing? Had they wanted to conduct scientific experiments on me?
“For the Bureau,” Levi said. “To see how far its authority extends, how much Nicole will let them do.”
That . . . had nothing to do with my making, or my monster. “You’re sure?”
“Of course. He tells me everything.”
I doubted that was true. But there was no point in asking Levi more questions about it. He’d just get suspicious.
He walked to the kitchen island. Sat down on a stool. “And Clive just hates you.” There was a hint of dark joy in his eyes when he said that. Was he happy to pit us against each other, with him in the middle?
“He hates me?”
“Of course. You’re from Cadogan House. Spoiled.” He leaned forward conspiratorially. “He doesn’t know you like I know you.”
You don’t know me at all, I thought. Didn’t know me or the monster, and was more than willing to offer up his brother as a foil for his devotion.
“Maybe we were too late,” he muttered to himself. “You saved him—Connor Keene—yesterday.”