Page 7 of Fanged Desire
“Tonight is probably the happiest she’s been in her entire life. I could call her a carrot-top and she’d still forgive me.” Maxine sidled up beside me with a smirk, “You’ve got that far-off look in your eyes again. Could the elusive Hunter be thinking about a special someone?”
A short, sharp laugh burst from my lips and I shook my head, flicking the cigarette butt into a nearby pot plant. No doubt Sigrid would have my head for that later, but for the time being she was caught up in what looked like a very intimate conversation with another Leyore vamp.
“I think the magnificent Maxine is deluding herself.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” She gave me a once-over, wrinkling her nose at the muted colors of my suit, before her smile broadened. “Whoever’s got you daydreaming must be a real catch.”
I sighed, leaning over the railing, and gave her a sidelong glance. “It’s nothing. Just on edge about this whole Elvish deal, it’s hard to relax until things are official. You know – the usual stuff.”
“Uh-huh.” Maxine’s eyes gleamed with barely contained excitement. “And I suppose it was this unease about Elliot’s loyalty that had you skipping out on Dylan and Amara’s party last weekend?”
I winced inwardly. I’d given Dylan a pathetic, half-assed excuse for missing their celebration, and from the way Maxine was looking at me it was clear Dylan had shared that information. I’d gone to the club that night, choosing lonely moping over joining my friends. But Kinsley had been as dazzling as ever, so who was the real winner here?
“I had something come up.” I looked away, twirling the stem of the wineglass between my fingers.
Maxine chuckled, swaying at my shoulder with a smirk on her lips. “Right, ‘something.’ You sure it wasn’t someone?”
I didn’t dignify that with a response, but something in my eyes must have given me away. The tiny vamp studied me for a moment longer, waiting patiently for the facade to crack. When I only glared in response she scoffed down the rest of her cocktail, delicately wiping a stray drop with her pinkie. “All right then… liar.”
I groaned loud enough to earn a condemning stare from Jordan’s mother who glanced up from the patio below.
Eager to avoid Sigrid’s wrath, I hastily withdrew from the balustrade and backed towards the French doors, keeping my face firmly turned away from Maxine. “Believe what you want. But I have to go, I’ve got a stack of paperwork to sort and I’ve been putting it off for weeks.”
Maxine’s uncanny ability to see right through me was both endearing and infuriating.
“Hunter.”
It was the tone of her voice that made me falter and I risked a small glance in her direction. Her teasing smile had been replaced with a somber stare, revealing the Maxine beneath the cheerful mask.
Even though I had, technically, done nothing wrong, I stared back at her like a deer caught in headlights. Maxine was rarelyserious, and it always caught me off guard when that side of her slipped out.
She opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again, sighing quietly as her gaze dropped to the floor, “Just – be careful, okay? What happened with Selene… You can’t let that happen again.”
The name hit like a punch to the gut and I balked, chest tightening as my drink threatened to crawl back up my throat.
Maxine met my eyes, all mirth drained from her expression. “I don’t want to see you broken like that.”
Selene. That name had not been spoken aloud in a very long time. Maxine had been there, though – she’d seen the aftermath, the way I crumbled in the weeks following the woman’s departure.
“I – It’s not like that,” I said eventually, committed to brushing it off, but my voice was more strained than I meant it to be.
Maxine gave me a small smile but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “All right then.”
I didn’t respond, not directly. Instead, I offered her a watery smile of my own, grateful for the concern, even if it made me feel more vulnerable than I would have liked.
I hightailed it out of the party quickly after that and ended up sitting in my car, keeping the engine running but unsure of where to steer it. I was restless, and the conversation with Maxine had sewn doubt into my swirling mind – doubts about getting too close to Kinsley, about chasing current pleasures at the cost of future tears. But despite those doubts, the pull was still there.
I checked my watch, mentally calculating the time it would take to get to the nightclub. I could still make it.
Maxine’s words echoed in my mind – Just… be careful – but a sensation I couldn’t place overrode all caution. I could justify it a hundred different ways, but deep down there was a simple explanation. I just couldn’t stay away.
By the time I reached Micere, the club was emptying and the last stragglers were ordering their final rounds. I stepped through the doors, already slipping into the persona I wore so well, the one that let me blend in anywhere without breaking a sweat.
I scanned the sparse dance floor and spotted her on stage, moving with the same grace and precision that had captivated me from the start. And, for a moment, I stood by, taking in the way the dancer commanded the room with long legs and a dimpled smile.
But that night, I wasn’t content to simply sit back and watch.
When the set was over Kinsley stepped off stage, and her wandering eyes found mine immediately. Her face lit up for a split second before she blushed and looked away. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, grappling with herself, before she started to move toward me, picking up the pace like she expected me to bolt any second.
