Vampire Debt - Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,114

being it took me twenty minutes to achieve and I needed total focus.

Today, I’d try something harder.

I focused until my ears were adequately stuffed. Holding on to the muting feeling in my ear tube things, I opened my eyes a crack. The sounds around me flared to life again, and I paused to stuff in more cotton until I regained control. I opened my eyes wider, repeating the process until they were totally open.

I fixed my gaze on Tom Hanks’s autobiography, my mind entirely on my ears. I stood and walked around the room until my head began to hurt from the concentration of managing two senses at once.

Phew. That wasn’t comfortable at all.

Fatigue rocked me, and I sat again. Morning practices were the easiest. Pretty sure I’d fainted last night while practicing.

Time for smell.

This was the easiest. Maybe I didn’t use my nose very much or maybe it was that smell was the weakest sense—it only extended a couple of rooms at the most. I wasn’t constantly assaulted with information as with my eyes and ears. Touch, I could control by avoiding contact—and by turning down the water temperature in the shower. The worst thing with my heightened skin sensitivity was clothing. At the beginning of the day, I could don tight clothes, but inevitably by lunch, I’d switch into something flowing and loose.

Nakedness would be preferable.

Settling in, I catalogued the smells around me, picking up Fred’s spicy cologne, the maid’s window cleaner, my body wash and hair products, and Grandmother’s lavender.

Adding another sense, I sniffed while shifting my gaze around the room.

Whoa, dizzy, dizzy.

That was enough for now. I crossed the room and switched on the noise-cancelling, sighing as my ears popped and normalcy returned. Throwing myself on the chaise, I slipped out my phone. My Live Right shifts only took up about five hours each weekday, but I had some serious downtime without them. The Le Spyre teams were so efficient, I literally listened to their reports and redirected them as needed, researching when I didn’t understand something.

I had a whole three messages. “Miss popular.”

My heart raced as I saw one belonged to Kyros. We hadn’t spoken since he, well, washed me and gave me a baby Vissimo lesson. I’d made myself look like a fool being a wuss over all the thrall stuff.

Dammit, I didn’t like that Kyros saw me acting all insecure and vulnerable.

Practicing?

His question was accompanied by a GIF of Magneto, arms out either side of him and metal flying everywhere.

A laugh burst from me. What? He knew how to send GIFs? And I couldn’t believe he’d watched X-Men but not the television phenomena known as Truth Ranges. Though I seemed to recall him mentioning one of his sisters liked the movies.

Humour filtered through our bond, and a small smile graced my face. Was he amused because I’d laughed? He couldn’t possibly know that it was at his joke.

Perhaps I’d tell him.

Using a heart emoji was okay, right? I used them all the time. It didn’t mean anything.

Get a grip!

I clicked Send and tossed the phone aside.

Tommy burst into the room. “I’m going on a secret date tonight.”

I feigned surprise as I rapidly tried to stuff cotton in my ears. “I thought you were heading to Furnley Gorge tomorrow?”

“We are. But he said he couldn’t wait to see me.”

Uhm, cute. “What kind of secret date? Like fun secret or I’m going to propose secret?

“It’s only been two months,” she said, rolling her eyes.

My jaw dropped and I abandoned my efforts. “Oh my god. You’re totally hoping he asks you.”

“I’m not. I’m twenty-one.”

“Are.”

“Basi.”

“Tom.”

She plonked down next to me. “Don’t be silly.”

I nudged her with my foot. “If he did ask?”

Her eyes widened, and my heart squeezed—not in a good way. I hadn’t even met this guy yet. No photos or details. I had to put him through the best friend grinder and make him nervous to the extreme. I had to threaten him with a show of power and money and ask what TV shows he liked.

“It’d be a maybe,” she said. “As in, let’s reassess in a year. He wants to take things slow, too, so I guarantee you it’s nothing like that.”

Better not be. “Any guesses then? What are you wearing?”

We settled into a gossip session, and I kept half my mind on curbing my powers in her company. I was already so relaxed with Tommy—in that I could look as strange as needed—that I succeeded in toning her voice down to levels