Darkness & Discovery (The Bespelled Trilogy #2) (22 page)

“I
can’t believe you’re actually happy about that,” I said, knitting my brows at
him. “And now do you see why it’s a terrible idea to go off by yourself? There
are people totally gunning for you.” He and I were still arguing about the idea
of him leaving, and I hoped I was making some progress in talking him out of
it.

“Besides,”
said Athos, shifting in his seat and crossing his long legs at the ankles,
“you’re only worth a fifth of Alastair’s bounty, so I wouldn’t get too cocky.”

“Yeah,
you know what, dude? I’ll take being worth a fifth as much as the strongest
vampire and the only hybrid on the planet. And I don’t see anyone bothering to
put a bounty on
your
head.” Joey looked smug.

“That’s
an incredibly stupid thing to gloat about,” I said, pushing to my feet. “And I
can’t take any more inertia, I’m doing a lap. But can I just say, we totally
need a new plan. Because this whole hoping-to-accidentally-run-into-Jin thing
is getting really old.”

Alastair
got up too and said, “Bryn assures us Jin’s here, moving all around this hotel
every day. He just can’t pinpoint him. But there’s still a chance we’ll run into
him.” He picked up my hand and said, “Come on, I’ll go with you. Let’s do the
tropical lap, I could use some fresh air.” We’d taken to naming our various
routes around the property, and the tropical route included swinging through
the pool area. It was the only outside space that fell within Bryn’s spell perimeter,
so it was currently the only place Alastair could be outside.

We
walked across the lobby hand in hand, several hotel staff members turning their
backs to us and wandering off as we did so. By now Joey had compelled most of
the staff, one by one, and told them to ignore our comings and goings, since
we’d been acting really suspicious and it had started to attract attention.

Now
we did the exact opposite of attracting attention, and it was mildly
entertaining. I intentionally took a couple steps toward one of the plain
clothes security guards that worked in the hotel, and he automatically took an
equal number of steps away from me, never looking right at me. It was kind of
like herding sheep – if I kept moving toward him, he’d keep moving in the opposite
direction.

Well
hey, I was getting bored with all of this, and had to entertain myself
somehow
.

It
was verging on stormy when we got outside by the pool, but neither of us
minded. And it meant we had the place to ourselves for a change. We took off
our shoes and socks and rolled up our jeans, then stuck our feet in the warm
water as a fairly strong breeze pushed our hair around. Alastair took my hand
and leaned against my arm, and I relaxed against him.

The
pool was lit from beneath and glowed a pretty shade of turquoise, and the
breeze created ripples and patterns across the surface of the water. After a
while, Allie said, “I wonder if I know how to swim.”

I
turned to him with a little grin. “Want to find out?”

“What,
now?”

“Why
not? It’s the first time we’ve had the pool area to ourselves. We might as well
enjoy it.”

He
smiled at me. “We’re supposed to be looking for Jin.”

“We
have been
looking for Jin. Taking twenty minutes to not look for him
will in all likelihood make zero difference.”

“I
don’t have a swimsuit,” Alastair said, a sparkle in his dark eyes.

“Neither
do I. So we’ll improvise.”

He
smiled at me and said, “Why Miss Harper, what are you suggesting?”

“Not
skinny dipping, I’m not insane. Someone could come out here any minute. But you
know what? Underwear’s not all that different from swimwear.” And with that, I
stood up on the pool deck, shook the water off my feet, and quickly shucked my
jeans and t-shirt, then executed a perfect dive into the deep end of the pool.

When
I surfaced, Alastair was still seated on the edge of the pool, watching me and
smiling. “Will you be joining me?” I asked.

“I
still don’t know if I can swim.”

“So,
find out the hard way. And if you start to drown, I’ll rescue you.”

“Alright.”
He got up and pulled off his dark blue t-shirt, tossing it on a nearby lounge
chair with my clothes. His Levi’s were next, and then he walked around to the
far end of the pool, dressed in nothing but a pair of black and dark red plaid
boxers, and climbed up onto the diving board. He was incredibly beautiful, his
body strong and lean, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow waist. I knew I was
flat-out staring at him, but I couldn’t help myself.

He
hesitated, biting his full lower lip, and peered over the end of the board into
the water. Then he looked at me and asked, “Are you really qualified to save me
if I sink like a rock?”

I
smiled at that. “I worked at the pool every summer during high school. As a
life guard, even. So yes, I am actually qualified to save your bacon if you prove
to possess rocklike qualities.”

Alastair
bounced up and down on his toes a few times, experimentally trying out the
diving board. He swung his arms back and forth, clapping his hands in front of
him on each upswing, and then he grinned and said, “I’m tempted to dive in. But
the problem is, I’m
thinking
about it. Which means I can’t just go on
autopilot and rely on my instincts to take over. Plus, what if I really don’t
know how to swim? What if I get partway into the dive and then realize I can’t
do it?”

“I
told you I won’t let you drown, Allie.”

“I
know. And I trust you to save me. But,” he added, “what you can’t save me from
is me making an utter and complete arse of myself if the dive goes
pear-shaped.”

I
smiled and said, “I love that Britism, even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense
to me. Go ahead, quit stalling. Execute a perfect pear-shaped dive, then come
over here and kiss me.”

“Alright,”
he said, and stepped back to the base of the diving board. “Here goes nothing.”
He ran to the end of the board and bounced off, hugging his knees to his chest
as he cannonballed into the pool with a huge splash. In the next moment, he was
grabbing me around my waist and kissing me, treading water just like I was.

“Aw,”
I said with a grin, my arms around his neck, “I was looking forward to seeing
your pear-shaped dive attempt.”

“You
must not have been paying attention, because that was most assuredly
pear-shaped.”

“In
that you were shaped like a pear when you hit the water?”

“Exactly.”

“Yeah,
ok,” I smiled, and kissed him again.

He
floated on his back and I did, too, holding hands and watching the turbulent
night sky. The fast-moving clouds overhead were illuminated by the steady glow
of Las Vegas, the city noontime bright even at night. The breeze had picked up
slightly but it really wasn’t cold, and the pool itself was nice and warm. The
thought of staying in the water with Alastair all night held a lot of appeal.

“So,
not surprisingly, turns out you can swim,” I said, glancing over at his profile,
which was just above the surface of the water.

“Apparently.”

“Figures.
I’m pretty sure there’s nothing you can’t do.”

“That’s
quite the vote of confidence.”

“It’s
just a statement of fact. You really are like a superhero. Strong, capable,
courageous….”

“Oh,
I’m not courageous,” he said.

I
flipped upright and began treading water again. “Sure you are. How are you not
courageous?”

He
flipped upright too, treading water right beside me and still holding my hand.
“I’ll tell you how. There’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you for days
now, and I haven’t found the courage to do so.”

“Really?”
I said with a smile. “Well, now you
have to
say it.”

He
smiled at me, the pool light casting reflections across his handsome face. “Do
I?”

 “Oh
yes. The rules of conversation clearly state that you must now proceed with
whatever topic you’ve introduced,” I teased.

He
pulled me close, and I wrapped my arms around him. “Who makes these rules?” he
asked, tilting his head and smiling at me. “Because I need to talk to them
about filing a cowardice extension.”

Just
then, we were plunged into total blackness. “Ah. Saved by a power outage,”
Alastair joked, hugging me to him. “Probably be just a moment before the
generators kick in, I assume. May as well enjoy it while it lasts.” And his
lips found mine, his kiss deep and tender at the same time. Moments later, the
generators kicked in with a loud click and a whirr.

“Let’s
get out of the pool,” I said, taking his hand and towing him toward the shallow
end. “Just in case that happens again. Dark water is super creepy.”

We
grabbed towels from a large stack and I wrapped up quickly, self-conscious in
my wet bra and underwear now that I was out of the water. “The wind stopped,” I
observed as I rubbed at my wet hair with another towel.

“Hey,”
Joey called out as he burst through the door to the pool area, “I was wondering
what happened to you guys.” He reversed direction suddenly, turning his back to
us and exclaiming, “Oops. Were you skinny dipping?”

“No,
of course not,” I said. “we’re wearing underwear. And that’s just like wearing
a bathing suit.”

“Uh
huh,” Joey said, his back still to us.

We
got dressed quickly as I asked, “What did you do with Athos?”

“I
didn’t
do
anything with him. He’s around here somewhere,” Joey said.

“You
two should have stuck together. A good rule when everyone’s trying to kill you
is don’t wander around alone.”

“That’s
a good rule in theory,” Joey said, rocking back on his heels. “But it kind of
falls apart when you try to pair me with Manly McMuscles.”

“Aren’t
you ever going to run out of nicknames for him?” I asked, coming up behind Joey
and attempting to net him with my wet towel.

He
dodged the towel effortlessly, even though his back had been to me, and turned
around with a big grin. “Not likely. There’s so much to work with, between his ridiculous
degree of muscle-boundness, his leather wardrobe – and I haven’t even started
in on his lovely locks of lusciousness yet.”

Athos
came through the door just then, and Joey said, “Well, if it isn’t Hulk Bulkin.”
I shot Joey a dirty look and he said, “
Fine
.”

“We
need a new plan,” said Athos. “Because wandering aimlessly around the hotel for
days on end is getting us nowhere.”

“Agreed,”
I said. “I’m going to go up to the room and shower off the chlorine. After
that, we can try to brainstorm a less lame plan.”

I was freshly showered
and dressed in clean jeans and a t-shirt, dragging a comb through my wet tangle
of hair when my cell phone rang. I took a look at the caller i.d., and answered
with, “Hey Bryn. How are you?”

“This
isn’t Bryn. It’s Augustine,” the shaky voice on the line said. “Luna, something
terrible has happened.”

“Augustine,
what is it? Are you ok?”

“I’m
fine. But Bryn’s in the hospital.”

“Oh
my God! Why? What happened?”

“He
did something really stupid. I can’t believe he even attempted something like
this.” His voice cracked and he drew a deep breath.

“What
happened? Was it all the alcohol he’d been drinking?”

“No.
I mean, not directly.”

“What
happened, Augustine?”

“He
decided he needed to go see Philippe. Right then. He decided that getting on a
plane would take too long. So he tried to teleport himself to France.”

“He
can’t do that, can he?”

“No!
Of course he can’t do that. At best, he can teleport himself a couple blocks.
Not halfway around the globe!”

“Well,
why on earth did he think he could do that?”

“Because
drunk people make really, really bad decisions. He decided it was possible to
teleport anywhere he wanted to, that it was just a question of building up
enough power, accessing more than just his personal energy.”

“So
what did he do?”

“He
tapped into the city’s electrical supply, drew directly from the power grid.”

“The
blackout. Did he do that?”

“Yes.”

“Oh
God, did he electrocute himself?” I sunk down onto a corner of the mattress.

“No.
It was worse than that.”

“Worse
than electrocution? Augustine, what’s wrong with Bryn?”

“He’s
in a coma. Sort of.”

“Sort
of?”

 “That’s
what the doctors think is happening here at the hospital. And I can’t explain
to them what’s really happened. I can’t explain that he left his body behind
and teleported his essence out in an insane, drunken attempt at going to see
his selfish jerk of an ex-boyfriend.”