Addict (6 page)

“Not a simple client then? I can feel your emotion. You’re very angry with that woman. Take a deep breath. Acknowledge the emotion without letting it get the best of you. It’s all right. I’m with you. You won’t be forced to do anything you don’t like.” The vampire’s hand gently pushed the sleeve of my sweater up and his thumb rubbed soothing circles across the skin on my wrist. He pushed a sense of calm toward me and I accepted it. It helped me think with a clear head.

Act. Don’t react.
My life had become a series of psychiatric homilies.
Acknowledge the emotion so it can’t get the best of me.
I remembered a time when I acknowledged the emotion by drinking a bottle of tequila and pretending it didn’t exist, like the rest of the human world. Of course, that was before I realized I had a violent, bloodthirsty she-wolf sharing my soul, and she loved to react. So I took a deep breath and promised I wasn’t going to fight. I didn’t need to. I won by simply staying calm.

Liv turned toward us and her eyes lit up. “Kelsey, they said you were coming back, but I didn’t quite believe it.”

She walked toward us, her heels clacking on the hardwood floors.

Everything about Olivia Carey was delicate and feminine. She was a witch of moderate power and I’d met her in high school. I’d been an outsider all my life, the weird kid no one really wanted to be around. Growing up, I’d only had my two brothers, Jamie and Nathan. Jamie was six years older, so he had taken the role of protector. Nathan had been my playmate. The man who raised us had been a hard, violent person who despised my existence for reasons I only so recently understood. It had been difficult to make friends under those circumstances. Liv had been the first person outside of my brothers to take that chance.

Of course, she’d also been the person who offered me up to the king on a silver platter. Rather than giving me a heads-up on the whole “you’re a freak and the king wants to put you in a cage” front, she kept her mouth shut and encouraged me to walk into the cage on my own.

“You look great,” Liv said with a wary smile.

She looked fragile, like she hadn’t slept much lately. It struck me that Liv was the type of woman the king would likely sit down with and discuss her troubles and find out how he could help her. He would treat a woman like Olivia with respect and kindness. He wouldn’t scream at her and slap leg shackles on her to see if she’d turn from Jekyll to Hyde for him. I wasn’t the girl men opened doors for or sought to take care of. I suppose that was why I’d immediately fallen for the two who’d done those things for me.

I turned my chin up to look at my escort. I focused on keeping my emotions buried under a nice protective wall. The last thing I wanted to do was upset Marcus. I’d managed to shield when the king had tested me. I wasn’t going to upset him over this. “Could you take me to my rooms instead, Hugo? It’s been a long day. I think I’d like to take a nap and wait for Marcus.”

Liv’s lips turned down as she turned from me to the vampire. “Kelsey, please. I need to talk to you.”

As for Hugo, his eyes narrowed as he glanced from Liv to me. “I read your file, Kelsey, dear. This is the friend who betrayed you?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I would prefer to avoid her.”

“You can’t avoid me forever,” Liv said stubbornly.

“I can sure as hell try,” I grumbled.

Wells took a step toward Liv, his eyes not unkindly. “It would be best if you waited to confront her when her trainer is around. She has strong emotions concerning you and while she’s doing an excellent job of controlling them, it would be easier if Marcus was the one with her. I’m merely a stand-in.”

“Why does she need someone with her?” Liv’s questions became rapid-fire bullets, pelting the vampire. “What are you doing to her hand? Are you trying to control her? I want to know what’s going on. I tried to call her for months, but someone named Lucia kept putting me off.”

“Ms. Owens is in training,” Hugo began.

The door to the elevator dinged suddenly. It startled me for a moment, a sure sign I was emotional. I turned, looking for a threat, but I smiled as my world was filled with glorious, grubby little boys. My mood went from dour to shiny in an instant.

“Kelsey!” Lee Donovan-Quinn plowed off the elevator and powered down the hall. He was nine years old and so heartbreakingly handsome I feared for women everywhere when he came of age. Now he was a boy in a T-shirt and jeans, with sneakers that needed to be tied.

I knelt down and braced myself for impact. I had a ton of reasons I didn’t want to come back to the Council HQ. Lee was the one reason I did. Somehow I’d formed a connection with this kid, and I didn’t even try to deny it.

“Hi, Lee,” I said as he threw his arms around me.

He’d written me while I was in Italy, his warm e-mails full of questions about how my training was going. We’d talked a few times over the computer, his little face a welcome sight as he told me all about how school was and which Xbox game he was currently playing. I’d written him back or told him about all the places Marcus took me to. Holding Lee in my arms made me understand how much I had come to care for the boy. I couldn’t help myself. I kissed the top of his thick dark hair. It felt right to be with him.

It had occurred to me that he was Donovan’s way of keeping track of me, but I didn’t care.

“Papa told me you were back, but he said I shouldn’t bother you while you were working,” Lee explained.

“But Lee said he was going to help you,” another voice said. I smiled over at Rhys, Lee’s twin brother. They were perfectly identical except for the eyes. Lee’s were a warm chocolate brown while Rhys had his father’s emerald eyes. Rhys also had Dev Quinn’s fertility powers. He was a cute kid, but he made me want to shield my womb.

“Lee says you’re a detective and that you need people to help you on your cases,” a third boy explained. He was Sean Quinn and he could certainly have been the twins’ brother. His father was the future king of Faery. Declan Quinn held the Faery seat on the Council. Sean Quinn looked me up and down. “She is pretty.” He nodded as he turned to Rhys. “I think she would do well. My father talked about her before she fled. I believe he was definitely interested.”

Rhys smiled up at me, looking like he’d come up with the best plan ever. My every instinct went on high alert. His plans usually involved kissing. “It’s a great idea. I think you’ll really like my Uncle Declan. He’s looking for another wife, and you would be perfect.”

“Except that she’s with Uncle Marcus,” Lee said with a huff. “Duh. I don’t think Uncle Marcus is into sharing.”

Lee Donovan-Quinn. The only freaking one of the bunch who knew me and he was nine years old. “He isn’t. Sorry. You’ll have to look elsewhere for your dad’s new honey.”

Sean Quinn shrugged. “Maybe it’s just as well. Father told Uncle Dev he also thought you would be a beast in the sack. I don’t know why he wants to put you in a sack, especially if it forces some violent change in you.”

“Yes.” I tried valiantly to suppress the wealth of laughter threatening to burst out of me. “I will avoid any sack your father tries to put me in.”

Rhys’s brilliant green eyes narrowed, all thoughts of matchmaking obviously forgotten as he moved on to more important matters. “If Uncle Marcus is here then he brought us candy.”

Lee high-fived his brother. “Yes!” He looked back at me in explanation. “Mama thinks my anger issues can be solved by keeping me away from sugar and soda. It’s not working, Kelsey. I just get angry about not having candy and soda.”

I smoothed back his hair. “Well, I happen to know your Uncle Marcus made a stop at a nice candy shop before we left Venice. You’ll have to go see him about it though. I would be quick. Your Uncle Marcus has quite the sweet tooth himself, and he might eat them all up before you have a chance to get any.”

Lee’s eyes got big at the thought of missing out, but Sean Quinn shook his head. He greatly resembled his superarrogant father in that moment. “Uncle Marcus is a vampire, Kelsey. He doesn’t eat candy.”

Hugo laughed behind me. “Oh, I assure you he can now. Your Uncle Daniel might be a king, but Marcus is an academic, like me.”

“One of Uncle Marcus’s superpowers is that he can taste the food I eat,” I explained. “He can only do this with very close female friends, but once the bond is formed, he can taste food through me.”

I heard Liv react to that. Of course, she was probably shocked a man like Marcus would form a bond with someone like me. I hadn’t been a hot commodity while we were friends. I ignored her, preferring to explain to the boys. “It’s been a really long time since Marcus had a girlfriend like me. He hadn’t even tasted Reese’s.”

“No way,” Lee said, dumbfounded. He tried to live off them. Peanut butter cups and Dr. Pepper were Lee’s dietary staples before his mother had outlawed sugar.

“It’s true. I bought a whole bunch of them because they’re the best stuff in the world and he didn’t believe me. He told me,”—I went into my best Marcus impersonation, complete with a bad Italian accent—“I have tasted chocolate and I have tasted peanut butter. I do not see how putting the two together makes them better,
bella
.”

“Did he like them?” Rhys asked, an expectant smile on his face.

“He made me eat the whole bag,” I assured them. “There’s an awful lot he hasn’t tried yet. I think we should make an afternoon of it.”

“He should try root beer,” Rhys said.

“And Skittles,” Sean offered.

I stood up and smiled at Hugo. “I’m so glad I have a werewolf metabolism.”

Liv was still there. “Kelsey, I need to talk to you.”

The boys were busy planning a menu that would kill a diabetic. As I looked down on them affectionately, I realized I was in perfect control. Hugo patted me on the back, and I knew he could feel my satisfaction in my own progress. I kept my voice down, and there was little anger in it as I spoke to the woman I used to love dearly. “I don’t have anything to say to you, Olivia.”

“Fine,” she replied dully. “You don’t have any interest in hearing me out. I get that. I make one mistake in ten years of friendship and the great Kelsey Atwood has no more use for me. Fine. I’m not here as your friend. You obviously don’t need me now that you’re in good with the vamps. But I am here as a client and you can’t turn me away. I’m still a member of this community and I need your services.”

I sighed, seeing straight through her. “Liv, I don’t have time to waste on some wild-goose chase you and Nathan cooked up to manipulate your way back into my life.”

Liv’s voice was low so the boys couldn’t hear her. “You bitch,” she breathed righteously. “I loved you like a sister for years. I did what I did to protect you and you don’t even ask me for an explanation. You’re just judge, jury, and executioner. I might have been wrong, but I also loved you. You know what, Kelsey? Maybe I was wrong. Trust me, sister. I don’t particularly want to waste my time getting back into your life when I know I’m not perfect enough for you. I would spend the rest of the time waiting for you to turn on me. I need your professional services.”

Hugo’s hand slid over my shoulder. It was a good thing, too, because Liv was getting to me. I didn’t like seeing myself through her eyes. All the years of friendship played through my head, including the fact that once she’d saved my life. I’d spent months stewing in happy, comfortable anger. Was there something to what Liv was saying? I settled on dealing with the problem I could handle. “What’s this case you need my help on?”

Tears sprang to Liv’s gorgeous eyes, and that did nothing to alleviate the guilt that gnawed at my gut. There were dark circles under her eyes. I wondered exactly what had been happening here while I was happily ensconced in Italy. It didn’t look like the time had been kind to my ex-friend.

“It’s Scott,” she said. “He’s missing.”

I felt a warm hand push itself into mine.

“Do we have a case?” Lee asked, his face so serious I had to school mine.

“Looks like it, buddy,” I replied. “Let’s take the rest of this meeting in the office.”

* * * *

Sean and Rhys split at the first sign that the day had taken a distinctly work-like tone, but Lee sat in the chair beside mine, his brown eyes looking Liv over. His small hands were steepled in front of him and a distinctly somber air surrounded him.

“And this Scott is your boyfriend?” Lee asked seriously.

Liv stared at me, her lips a flat line. “He’s nine, you know. He’s not exactly assistant material.”

“My actual assistant can’t be here until he wakes from his undead stupor. Lee’s the best I got. Besides, he’s very astute. He knows pretty much everything that goes on in this club, which means he knows more about the supernatural world than most people. He’s also an awesome little thief.” I glanced at the boy who carried my father’s name. “You know she’s a teacher at your school, right?”

It would intimidate a lesser child, but Lee was having none of that. “She teaches high school. She hasn’t had the chance to suspend me yet. Did you have a fight with him?”

“No, not exactly.” Liv sat back in the comfortable chair I was sure Quinn had decided looked like something out of a film noir.

My office had a distinctly art deco look to it. I kept expecting a femme fatale to walk in at any moment, but I just had Liv and her gentle, accusatory eyes. I was feeling the sting of her earlier indictments.

Was I being too harsh on her? On everyone? Marcus thought so. I knew that. I felt his disappointment every time I wouldn’t take a call from my mother. But I was truly stubborn and pushed through, unwilling to deal with unpleasant emotions.

“Scott is too lazy to ever get involved in an actual fight.” It was so much easier to focus on the case. “Has he been working lately?”

Scott’s employment history was spotty to say the least. He preferred to mooch off his perpetual fiancée. They’d been engaged for four years. Most people would have been married in an elaborate ceremony, popped out a couple of kids, and gone through a righteous divorce by now, but Liv and Scott hadn’t even set a date yet. Scott was content to mooch off her not very profitable career in mentoring tomorrow’s supernatural creatures.