Page 21 of Never Run from an Immortal

He released her from his hold, almost running a hand through his hair in frustration before remembering it was bound, and thinking about that decanter of visk in his study back at the manor. Rae was already one big fucking headache, and she was going to drag this out until she got whatever the fuck she wanted from him.

When he didn’t move, she slipped past him, her arm brushing his as she reached up for a glass. She tilted her head up to look at him, an eyebrow raised. Another lick of rage tainted the air. At her predicament, no doubt. Aidan couldn’t be certain. Her pulse spiked again, knuckles white where she spun a ring on her thumb, and Aidan stepped away to give her some space. To get her fucking vanilla perfume and the scent of her blood out of his lungs.

He hadn’t been surprised by Thadlia’s suggestion to become his Odalik, and though he could think of nothing worse than a human traipsing around the manor, he would endure it.

“Why?” she finally asked. “There’s a huge imbalance of power out there.” She waved a hand to the city beyond the workshop. “And you’re contributing to it, lording around in your fucking manor like every one of your kind that came before you. Except you actually have some say in what goes on out there. Asking me to move in with you doesn’t seem like the smartest option.”

The temptation to just take what he wanted whispered at him, to walk out of the studio with answers, but something held him back. A feeling he couldn’t place, and that alone was enough to stay his hand. Aidan shrugged. “Surely my reasons are obvious. The bigger question is why the leader of Omnia would even entertain such a suggestion.”

“I told you. I need money to buy silver. To arm humans.” It wasn’t actually to arm them, but to protect them. “Why not just take what you want from me and be done with this?” she asked when he didn’t answer.

Aidan canted his head, taking her in. He should. Should take everything he wanted from her and leave her limp and lifeless on the floor for someone else to deal with—but he wasn’t his uncle. “You think I want a faction leader—one responsible for killing my kind—living under my roof?”

“You want me where you can watch me. Because that’s what you do, isn’t it? Just watch the world turn to shit around you.”

The Fae had been less than discreet in creating stories about him, delivered to citizens’ PADs with their daily updates. Most likely some of his fellow Vampires had also been the origin of a story or two. Aidan didn’t care; none of them were true. “I can also halt silver deliveries across the city.” He couldn’t, but it was a bluff worth attempting.

That caught her attention, but she hid her alarm at the prospect as well as every other feeling she held tight to her chest. “If you send out the announcement before we leave, I’ll agree,” Rae said finally.

Odalik announcements were part of the tradition, but it would secure her safety and offer her protection, which, considering what had happened to her the last three nights in a row, she sorely needed. It wouldn’t protect her fromhim, but she had her own bargaining chip for that. Something told him she wanted the same thing he did, an end to the nightmare Demesia hadgotten itself into, and part of him wondered if she might be able to help him change it, even if Omnia belonged to her.

Baelin had called him a dreamer, but Aidan knew it was the true reason his Ascendant pledged his life for him. He called out to Baelin to give the instruction. “Done.”

Rae’s PAD chimed with an alert, and she pulled it out of the bag he’d carried back with her. Her eyebrows rose as she took in the message Baelin would have blind-copied her in on, biting down on her full bottom lip. A twist of anticipation, and then relief was all that followed it. “Good. I need to make a call, then I’ll grab my things.”

You’re sure about this?Baelin asked.

Aidan didn’t like it any more than his Ascendant did.A little late for doubt, isn’t it? She heads up Omnia.

A pause. Aidan had considered waiting until he and Baelin were face to face before delivering that piece of information, but then Baelin said,I’m sorry. I should have looked deeper. I’ll do another sweep of her files.

He considered offering some reassurance, but Aidan had received little comfort in his life, so he didn’t know where to begin with offering it.Just make sure Quinn doesn’t eat her.

I don’t think it’s Quinn we have to be worried about.

Rae swore under her breath as she hung up the unanswered call on her PAD. “They must be having a good night,” she said, but there was no conviction to her words. She began shoving things into a bag: a hand saw, some files, a small blowtorch. Little boxes and trays of items rattled around. “I’m not sure I like the idea of Nim here alone.” She cast her gaze across the workshop and shook her head, worry leaking from her every pore.

Her Witch friend was a weakness, and Aidan tucked that fact away for another time.

“I’ll have my Ascendant install some better security; assign someone to her if it’ll put your mind at rest.” And it would serve him to keep tabs on anything that was important to her. “Why Silver Star?”

Rae paused at his words for a moment and nodded as if she was satisfied. “We work primarily in silver. I was playing around with Rae…” With a wave of a hand, she dropped another box into her bag. “The sun.” A shrug. “It’s dumb, but it stuck.”

There was more she wasn’t telling him, but he didn’t press her.

“Is it true you killed your uncle to claim your position?” A stack of sketchbooks went into the bag next, along with a leather apron and some safety equipment.

“Just because he raised me doesn’t mean I owed him anything.”

“I feel that,” Rae said, blowing out a breath. “I’d gut my mother in a heartbeat if she wasn’t dead already. Okay, we’re done here.”

“No clothes? No personal effects?”

“Thesearemy personal effects.” A shake of her bag. “And you’re going to be doting on your Odalik with a new wardrobe, right?” She shot him a grin that said she was already enjoying this, but he felt her worry cutting through—for her friend, not for herself.

He took in her ripped shorts, the holes in her shirt, and imagined everything else she owned was as equally work-worn. She had a point.

Aidan shook his head, opened the door, and stood to one side. “After you, human.”

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