Page 20 of House of Pain
When she took over the leadership position from the old leader, Cassandra Valenti, and made Blaze her Second, she convinced him it was appropriate, knowing their status.
Blaze didn’t argue, mostly because it offered a quiet and isolated corner for him to work on his craft when he wasn’t in practice or drinking.
Once he slammed the door behind him, he shrugged off his black short-sleeved shirt, dropping it on the leather armchair sitting by a large wooden bookshelf covering the whole side of one room.
Walking over to open all the windows, he took the tucked-in white tank out of his skinny black jeans and let it hang out messily.
In one of the antique nightstands standing by his large king-size bed, he fished out a pack of cigarettes and an old metal lighter with a skull that Andro got him from the mortal world as a present last Yule.
Blaze popped a cigarette between his lips, sitting on one of the windowsills, the view through his window opening up to the park that separated the Old Darly from the New Darly, or as locals simply called Darly these days.
Just as he was about to exhale the smoke, his door cracked open, a black head appearing.
“What do you want?” Blaze asked, turning back to the window as Val slipped inside his room, closing the door behind her.
She stayed silent for a moment, lurking by the door.
“Have fun last night?”
Blaze shrugged, leaning his head back against the wall. “It was as boring as I anticipated.”
Val’s heels made a dull sound as she walked from the door to the window. Slowly, she leaned a shoulder against the wall opposite Blaze.
“Then what was that all about?” she inquired, her voice dangerously sweet. “Bringing Alecto out of line, standing with the third and fourth years instead of being where she was supposed to be?”
Now Blaze turned to face her.
“Why do you care, Val? It’s not as if that ruined your fucking performance.”
She straightened her spine, pulling her shoulders back.“People noticed.”
“Val, get the fuck out of my hair. Nobody fucking did.”
“Yourfatherdid, asshole,” she hissed.
Ah, of course.
“So what? He hates her just as much I do, if not more. In his eyes, she’s just a half breed.”
“And I’m just a filthy street rat,” Val sneered, lowering herself on the windowsill. “We had an agreement.”
Blaze would barely call what they had an agreement.
Val wanted his father’s recognition and access to him because he owned half the fucking Avalon Hills, and the only thing Val ever wanted was to go into politics. Having the support of Galliermo Leveau would guarantee her a career in the city.
Blaze couldn’t tell her that he didn’t hold any power over his father and his decisions. So he just let her trail with him, which was more than enough to satisfy her.
For Blaze, this loose agreement guaranteed him a date to all the charity events and balls his father and mother dragged him to, not having to always look for a pretty whore to dangle by his side.
Val knew the people, she knew how to talk, she knew how to act. He just had to show up and not piss off his father too early in the evening.
“We still have an agreement,” Blaze scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Just because I decided to play around, it doesn’t change anything.”
Val’s eyes flickered with obvious dissatisfaction, but she didn’t say anything else. One of her hands landed on Blaze’s thigh, black nails digging into his flesh.
Warmth surged through him, gathering right at his groin, and he swallowed hard.
“I don’t really like you being with Alecto in front of your father,” Val said, her voice sweet as honey as her hand massaged his thigh with those skilled fingers. “What if he and her father suddenly come up with the idea that you two would look great as anitem?”
