Page 29 of Secret of the Vampire
He looked away, scrubbing his face with his hands. When he met my eyes again, his were still not happy, but they were resigned. “I know.”
There was more he wanted to say, I could tell by the look on his face, but he held himself back. Even his power was held tightly, wrapped around him like a second skin and no longer holding me in its grasp.
My anger melted away, replaced once again by the loneliness that had assaulted me since the first night he came to see me. And he hadn’t even left yet. I dropped my eyes, not wanting him to notice the longing I felt for him. Clearing my throat, I made to move past him, and after a brief pause, he stepped away and let me pass. I tried to remember everything from our earlier conversation before we’d gotten…sidetracked. “Is there anything else I need to know about the djinn?” I asked him as I got my coat and bag from behind the bar.
“No.”
Slinging the strap of my bag over my shoulder and folding my coat over my arms, I stared at him from a safer distance. “Is there anything else I need to know about you?”
He stayed where he was, but I felt his essence touch me, timidly at first, and then with slightly more force before it retracted again. “Only that you don’t need to be frightened of me, Kenya. I would never, ever, hurt you.”
Why did I have the feeling he was talking about more than the fact that he was part djinn?
He was waiting for a response, but I wasn’t sure what to say, so I just gave him a nod. “I need to go home and figure out how I’m going to let Killian know you told us tonight without actually telling him you were the one who told us.”
“Don’t you need to change your clothes first?”
Shit. “Yes. Thank you.” I laid my bag and my coat on top of the bar, then made my way back out to the floor, stopping near the door. “Um…”
Saving me from my awkwardness, he grabbed his coat from the floor, pausing when he reached me. “Lock the door behind me.”
I trembled when he brushed my cheek with the back of his knuckles, then gently pushed my glasses back into place.
“I’m leaving, but I won’t be gone. If you need me for anything, I’ll be here.” Ducking his head, he dropped a quick kiss on my lips and walked out the door.
Sorrow mixed with relief as I locked the door behind him. Knowing what he was, I doubted I would ever feel safe around him. Aroused? Hell, yes. But safe?
My instincts told me I was right to fear him.
And my instincts were never wrong.
Chapter 11
Alex
When I stepped outside, I saw Jamal leaning against a streetlight just down the block. He didn’t move. Didn’t wave. He just stared at me.
Pulling my coat up to protect the back of my neck from the chill, I turned my back to him and headed in the opposite direction. I didn’t rush, knowing he’d stay there to watch me go, and giving Kenya time to get changed. Plus, it would piss him off.
And that was just fun for me.
I licked my bottom lip. I could still taste Kenya on my mouth. Could still smell her on my clothes. Jamal was upwind from me, which was a stroke of luck on my part. Something told me he would’ve been on me by now if he’d caught the slightest whiff of what we’d been up to in there.
And thank the gods for the wonderful people of The Quarter who kept the party going until the wee hours of the morning. With all of the jazz and the chatter of tourists, I doubted even he could’ve heard us from that far away.
I kept everything all calm and cool until I finally turned a corner. It was only then that I allowed my frustration to show. Raking my fingers through my hair, I quickened my pace.
I wasn’t ready to leave her.
But I couldn’t have stayed, not when she was clearly so uncomfortable by me being there.
Fuck, maybe I shouldn’t have told her anything. At least not the part about me. But I couldn’t just let her run around New Orleans without knowing the danger she was in. And what if she found out some other way? Then I’d not only be part djinn, I’d have lived up to the reputation of one. I’d be a liar. Someone she couldn’t trust.
As I neared the end of The Quarter, the crowd—for what it was this time of year—began to thin out, awarding me a clear view of the High Priestess of my coven waiting for me across the street, just on the other side of the border drawn by our pact with the vampires. She looked like anyone’s elderly aunt in her puffed up coat and sturdy shoes. Her short, gray hair was still peppered with the original black, and her bright blue eyes were unclouded by age.
Walking up to her, I didn’t try to make excuses or explain my way out of anything. She knew exactly why I was wandering around The Quarter, and I wasn’t going to insult her intelligence or mine by pretending otherwise. Plus, she was my mother’s sister, and it would be disrespectful of my mother’s memory. “Hey,” I greeted her.
“Hey yourself,” she said.
