Page 33 of Henri's Little One
Ian glowered. “I see what you mean.”
“Try again.” Sean laughed. “Is Ian my best friend?”
Vitas answered right away. “Yes, unequivocally.”
“There is nothing else you’re getting?”
“Nope, drawing a blank here.” Vitas scrunched his face up.
“I had another best friend once. His name was Tony. He didn’t approve of Armand, so we’ve pretty much parted company except for the stray strained phone calls on birthdays and holidays. Good, we’ve established that you can’t read minds.”
“No, I can’t. Now it follows that if you said,Tony is my best friend,I’d know you’re lying. Someone has to say something. I can’t pull all of the information out of your head.”
“Let’s try this another way. We’ll start a conversation with Vitas consciously trying to ferret out a lie,” Julio suggested. “I’m an excellent liar. I’ll do it. The others know the answer to this, so everyone will be able to tell whether your gift works when you deliberately attempt to use it.”
“Go ahead. I’m ready.” Vitas turned toward Julio and focused.
“I once knew a man by the name of Peter Ames, and I killed him.” Julio smiled.
Vitas studied his face. It took him a minute or two. “That one was hard. Youthoughtyou killed him, but you didn’t. If I read you before you found out he was alive, I would have sensed your truth, that Peter Ames was dead. This gift is not infallible.”
“That’s why I asked that particular question. The answer could have gone either way, but you knew the truth of now, not then. Let’s try it without you using the gift.”
Donal volunteered. “I was a heroin addict. I got addicted to heroin because I liked being high and didn’t stop using until Alexei found me.”
Vitas intentionally tried not to use his gift and just assess Donal’s tale on its own merit. “I think that’s a lie, but I’m not sure.”
“Why do you think it’s a lie?” It was Ian who asked.
“Because from what I know of the gods, they wouldn’t pick a person for Alexei who deliberately set out to be a drug addict.” Vitas intently watched Donal’s face to see if he offended him.
“It was half a lie. I was addicted to heroin, but I didn’t set out to become an addict. Someone else deliberately got me hooked. I’ll tell you the story at one of our lunches.”
Vitas felt a great sense of relief. His gift was a burden. However, it wouldn’t prevent him from making friends outside of his Mate. If he could completely read the others, the Mates could have feared him and his gift. Now they knew they could speak freely without his gift getting in the way.
Colin scanned his notepad. “So, we’ve established that someone has to speak for you to tell if they’re truthful. If you must compel someone to talk so you can discern the truth, you need Sean, and your gift doesn’t work in casual conversation. You have to make a decision to use it.”
“Donal’s story answered the question that has plagued me since Papa named the gift the gods gave me. It isn’t random. I must choose to use it, thank the gods. I swear I will never use my gift in casual conversation unless one of you requests that I do. But, I’ll never use it on you. I must tell The Alpha and my Mate how it works.”
The Mates were quiet for a moment, and Vitas assumed they were thinking of what it would be like to be around him if he could always tell if someone was lying.
Richard broke the silence. “We already knew you wouldn’t use it on us unless we asked for the same reason you knew that Donal wouldn’t willingly become addicted to drugs. The gods wouldn’t pick someone like that for a council Mate, and they certainly wouldn’t give him such powerful gifts.” The others nodded in agreement.
Vitas scanned the table. They ate all of the pastries, and he ate more than his fair share. “I’m sorry I ate so much cake. I barely left a pastry for anyone else.”
Kane regarded him with an amused grin. “That’s the mating pheromones. We’ve all been there. I’m not a big eater, and I believe I ate twice my weight the first week I was exposed to Gabriel, and I didn’t know about the loup garou, or why I ate so much. I plain pigged out.”
As Kane spoke, Vitas heard Sean ask the steward for sandwiches. “And please make twice the number of sandwiches you made last time. Vitas needs the calories, and Ian just plain eats.” Richard guffawed, and Ian punched Sean’s arm, again. Everyone cracked up, and it was at that moment Vitas knew the Mates accepted him and his burdensome gift. He thanked the gods for his new friends.
§ § §
While Vitas tested his gift, Henri spoke to the council in the small conference room at the rear of the plane. “Vitas agreed that Kristina should stay as a housemaid in our home but as The Alpha suggested, I’ve brought back two additional Betas to act as personal guards for him. Neither he nor I need to constantly look over our shoulder to watch for a kidnapping attempt. We want him to try, not succeed.”
“Then, I trust you’ve told Valery and Mikhail to attempt to blend into the background. They will expect Mathieu, but it’s easier if Chernof believes that we think he has given up after Vitas was properly mated, and that we’ve relaxed our security.” Using an ornate dessert fork, Armand cut out a bite of the French horn he had scooped up and placed on his plate as they entered the jet. The pastry cream oozed out onto the plate emblazoned with Garou’s logo.
All wolves had a sweet tooth. It was a more pronounced trait in the council. Henri wondered if it was inbred in High Alphas as he picked up a Napoleon and bit down on the layers of pastry, Chantilly cream, and vanilla custard with buttercream frosting. He asked Aline once how it was made and when she told him in detail, he became even more appreciative of his favorite pastry.
“I’ve instructed Valery and Mikhail to lay low but to protect Vitas at all costs. I am aware that Vitas is not only important to me, but he is also a great asset to the North American Council and the loup garou people. His talent to prognosticate will help the council weather any future economic downturns. As the Chief of Security, any adversity we encounter automatically crosses my desk. I am aware that we can’t use his gift for personal gain, but the chance to tell our people to sock a little extra away against what’s to come is priceless.”
