Page 64 of To Crave Darkly
I was confused. What did that mean for me?
“Looks like you’re fucked, Princess,” Cassian crooned. I threw him a scowl and went back to ignoring him, although his words hit home.
“Am I?” I asked, looking at Jasper. I needed him to tell me everything was going to be ok, even though I knew it wasn’t. I hadn’t seen Jasper since before the incident, and even then, he’d been doing his best to avoid me like the fucking plague. I missed him and his grumpy demeanour. It hurt that he hadn’t even bothered to check if I was ok, and even though that made me as frustrated as Hell, I still wanted him.
The hard lines of his face softened slightly, and his shoulders sagged as he took a deep breath. He looked tired. Maybe my near-death experience had affected him more than he wanted it to.
“No. We won’t let that happen. But from now on, there will be no leaving the base. Until we know who sent Flint to get you, you aren’t even safe in the Conclave anymore.” My heart sunk. Jasper had saidwenotI. He didn’t care like I thought he did.
“It has to be someone with the ability to summon demons. Those two who attacked with Flint were possessed,” Fenris commented, steering the conversation back to the attack in the alley.
“There have been a number of sightings recently, mainly on the outskirts of town, but it is worrying that someone could be conjuring them to get to Lori. They’re expendable and that makes them a perfect tool,” Jasper disclosed.
“Well, it’s not a short list of suspects. It could be witches, necromancers; hell, anyone with even the remotest bit of magic could summon a demon,” Alec interjected.
Fenris smirked, amusement sparkling in his large eyes. “Yeah, but how many of those know how to null a mage?”
Alec’s elegant eyebrows rose towards his hairline. “Well, that certainly narrows the list down. I can only think of a handful with enough power to do that.”
I thought back to the moment in the alley when Fenris couldn’t call his magic. “Is that what happened to you? Did Flint block your power?”
Fenris turned to me and nodded. “All he had to do was get his hand on my skin and it was like I had no magic at all.”
Jasper turned to Alec. “Do you still have ties to the Coven of the Unseen?”
Alec flinched at Jasper’s mention of the witches and the colour fled from his face, but a second later his cocky smirk was back in place. What was that about? I glanced around the room, but no one else seemed to have noticed, or if they did, they gave no indication that they had. I guess it was just another secret that was kept within these walls.
“I have someone I can reach out to; she owes me a favour so I am sure she will help.”
“Great. Fenris, reach out to the Guild and see if any new mages have registered as visitors or if they have their eye on anyone. Saskia, get your ears on the ground, see if anyone has heard anything. Cassian, you know what to do.” Jasper issued his commands expertly and his tone brooked no argument. It was intimidating and sexy as hell. “Dismissed.”
Everyone stood to file out of the room, but Cassian grabbed my arm on the way out of the door. “Don’t forget we have training this afternoon. Meet me in the training room in an hour.”
Then he headed down the corridor towards his basement. I dreaded to think what was down there. What did he get up to? I had to admit, I was curious, but the guy terrified me. I couldn’t imagine he was down there doing anything good. He certainly didn’t seem like the type of guy to be doing crochet or painting pottery. An image of Cassian sat with knitting needles popped into my head and I chuckled. Nope. Definitely not one for knitting. Unless of course, he was taking someone’s eye out with the needle. That seemed more likely.
“Lori?”
I turned around at the sound of my name. I had forgotten Jasper was still behind me. As my gaze landed on his stern features, my heart skipped a beat. But I was still mad at him, and unsurprisingly, he seemed to still be mad at me. I feared this was going to be an explosion of his temper. He’d barely constrained it during the meeting and now he had me all to himself. I had yet to receive any sort of punishment for getting myself killed, or getting Fenris killed, and I had been dreading Jasper’s wrath. I was hoping that he would prefer to just avoid me, but it seemed I wasn’t going to be that lucky.
“What is it?” I replied walking back into the meeting room, closing the door softly behind me. I was determined to keep my cool. “Are you hoping to quarrel with me again? It was very thoughtful of you to dismiss the team. You could never have told me offreallywell with them overhearing every word you uttered.”
“How dare you convince Fenris to take you off the base!” Jasper roared thunderously.
“To be sure, it wasn’t the best idea I have ever had, but you will admit that going to see Levi was the right thing to do.Youclearly weren’t going to take me.” I knew it wasn’t really my idea to go in search of Levi, but I didn’t want Fenris getting into any more trouble. Besides, I think out of the two of us, Jasper would probably give me the lesser punishment.
Jasper’s jaw clenched audibly.
“Youhave been avoiding me. I’m grateful that Fenris decided to help me. We learned a lot from Levi.”
“Oh, is that what he’s been doing,” Jasper replied sardonically. “He’s beenhelpingyou?”
“Now you are just being ridiculous, Jasper. Fenris has been nothing but kind to me and you know it.”
“I know nothing of the sort,” he retorted. “Did you not sleep in his bed last night?”
Oh, so that’s what this is about. Was Jasper jealous? I laughed suddenly and Jasper’s frown deepened. “I did. He offered me comfort and I took it. Now, perhaps if you had even bothered to talk to me like a man instead of avoiding me like a coward, you would know that. Did it even bother you that I died? Did you even care?”
He flinched at my words. Good. He needed to know how much his avoidance hurt. But he didn’t say anything. He just stood there and stared at me, his bright blue eyes giving nothing away.
