Supernatural Seduction (Book 2 of the Coffin Girls Series) (27 page)

“Idiot’s a bit tame,” she interjected. “I
called you a…”

“I know what you called me. Your creative use
of language is not easily forgotten.”

Vérène’s laughter trilled across the throne
room, bouncing off the walls to create a lyrical ode to her power
as fae princess. It was infectious and a sound he remembered from
their childhood. He joined in as naturally as he had back then.

“What changed things?” She looked at him with
curiosity.

Feeling uncomfortable, he shrugged. “Sophie
and what you said.”

Vérène rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy!
Geez! What about Sophie? What about what I said? I say many wise
things, you know.” She flicked an imaginary piece of lint off her
sleeve. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “I’m a
guy. I get to speak in sentences, not essays.”

“That doesn’t sound like groveling to me,”
Vérène pointed out.

“I won’t…” Sylvain began, and then checked
himself. “Okay, okay,” he held up his hands, “you made your point.”
He conjured two glasses of deep red and handed one to her. “Might
as well get comfortable.”

The heart to heart was uncomfortable, but he
felt lighter. It was surprising and oddly warming to his insides.
Not that he would ever let his sister know that. She had been right
on more account than she knew. Being a monarch, he had few people
he could confide in. Conall was one, Sophie had become another, but
there was something special about a filial relationship. Only his
sister, as another fae ruler, could truly understand him. It didn’t
undermine what he had with his other two confidants; it was just
different with his twin.

“I’m sorry too, you know,” she touched his
arm gently. She apparently felt the same way.

“I know,” Sylvain looked at her. “What had
happened with Marianne was tragic, but I have mourned for too long
and the Seelie and Unseelie courts have suffered for it. It is time
to let go.” He looked at the woman who he'd blamed for her death -
his sister. He waited for the anger to come rushing back, but it
didn’t. Maybe Marianne was at peace and this was a sign of that.
“She would have wanted me to move on ages ago.”

“Yes she would have,” agreed Vérène. “The
Marianne I remember would also have understood your hurt and anger.
She wouldn’t have liked it, but she would have understood.”

“You’re being too kind,” Sylvain replied.

“Oh no!” Vérène corrected. “Not kind at all -
just saying things as they are. I’m still pissed you took three
thousand years to get your stubborn ass to apologize,” she wagged a
finger at him, her tone firm and her eyes soft. “Don’t think I’m
letting you get off this quickly. I think the only reason why I’m
not yelling at you now is because I’m still in shock. Here I
thought you were going to tell me to stay the hell out of your
life, but instead, you apologize. You’re nuts! You know that?
You’re abso-fucking-lutely nuts!” She wasn’t done. “Don’t think I’m
done with you. I’m still in shock.”

Sylvain dragged a hand through his hair.
Goddess, he’d missed her. “I have no doubt you are planning many
ways to kick my ass, despite your proclamations of shock! You’re
welcome to try and do so. You won’t succeed.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that a
challenge?”

Sylvain caught the anticipatory glint in her
eyes. It took him back to where they had left off before everything
went south. It would take time to re-build the relationship, but
that was one commodity they had plenty of and given their aversion
to failure. They couldn’t be what they had been in the past but, in
future, with determination and commitment, they’d be better. “Oh
yeah, sister. To quote you, 'abo-fucking-lutely'!”

xxx

“Girls, girls,” Sophie called out, “calm
down.” She was standing in the bigger of the classrooms and the
girls were in awe of their guests. They had met Arianna before but
had never been tutored by her. The fae sorceress was impressive and
oozed knowledge and power. Equally admirable was their other guest,
Ida, Conall’s sister and one of the royal witch triplets. When
teenage girls were in awe, they literally tittered and chirped like
an aviary of birds.

“Nope,” Rose leaned in and whispered, “birds
aren’t even this nosy. They are too engrossed in our visitors to
hear you.” Rose had juggled a busy calendar of appointments to sit
in on the lesson. After the first meeting that Sophie, Arianna, and
Ida had held had gone so well, they decided to have a special
lesson for the girls on empath skills. Not all of the girls were
natural empaths but it was a good way to increase their general
knowledge of magick and also to help them spot the true empaths as
a trio so that they could take those girls under their wing and
train them in the correct manner.

Sophie nodded at Rose. Frankly, she couldn’t
blame the girls. The other women were just that extraordinary. “You
have a point.” The lesson had to end soon and she had a dinner to
prepare for, so she let down the shield on her empath powers and
allowed a trickle of energy to wash over the group of girls. It was
invisible, except to those with power. As all the girls possessed
some magick, they all saw the calm blue energy settle first around
them and then inside of them, like a gentle mist. Sophie
purposefully did not send too much calm to them. It was important
to her for the girls to be able to feel the myriad of always
extreme, often confusing emotions that teenage girls do. Those
emotions were a right of passage each of the Coffin Girls had been
denied and these girls, their wards, would be afforded every
opportunity for as normal a life as they could possibly be
given.

“Ooh,” Mary exclaimed. “Can you teach us how
to do that?”

“Yeah,” agreed Antoinette, a local werewolf.
“Professor Farrell could do with some of that.”

Sophie arched a brow at Antoinette, pursing
her lips together to keep them from twitching. Farrell was
perfectly nondescript. He wouldn’t hit anyone’s radar except when
he spoke of magickal history. Then, he became so passionate that
the often lost himself, literally. They’d had to use location
spells after each history lesson to first find the man, and then
had to request that someone from the Enchanted Island, Conall’s
home, went to whatever place and century he was, in order to bring
him back. Unfortunately, Farrell was also a time-traveler. That
would have been okay, but for the fact that whenever he went to
another place in time, he often upset the apple cart. Thus far, his
misdemeanors had had little impact, but upsetting the future
through changing the past, however inadvertently, was not something
to be taken lightly. As Farrell was also amongst the most
knowledgeable magickal historian they had, they had taken to
rotating other tutors to sit in on his classes instead of sending
him back to the Enchanted Island. Thus far, it worked, but some
calm would definitely help the situation.

Antoinette dropped her head demurely, which
didn’t fool Sophie for a minute, but the apology that she gave
afterwards was accepted.

Sophie turned to face the girls. “Arianna,
Ida, and I will be holding one on one sessions with each of you
tomorrow. If you have empath ability, we will begin more specific
empath training to each one’s ability. We’ll start with the basics
and take things from there.”

The girls began to wiggle around in their
chairs and put their hands up, eager to begin training and at their
age, it would be more for the power than the knowledge. That was to
be expected and a quick glance at Ida and Arianna confirmed that
they shared her opinion. The two women seemed as enchanted by the
girls as they were by them.

Sophie faced the girls once more. “Our guests
will be with us for a few more days. Arianna will be coming in
daily from the hollow and Ida will be staying over at the
plantation house. I can see that you have more questions, but they
must wait for tomorrow because you have to get ready for your trip
to Baton Rouge. I need to get back to the mansion, but will leave
you in Rose, Ida, and Arianna’s capable hands.”

The girls barely heard her greeting. They
chattered and giggled away in the manner that teenagers do, eagerly
anticipating their outing later. The purpose of the school was not
to isolate the girls, so, they went on excursions to New Orleans
and Baton Rouge at least twice a week. Of course, Conall’s witches
might be tutors, but they were also magickally powerful and more
than capable of chaperoning and protecting the girls.

Sophie felt a twinge of guilt for leaving
their guests with Rose. Rose had volunteered though, needing a
break from the endless events, she’d been running, and Sophie had
needed to get away from the two women she was fast becoming friends
with before they picked at her emotions about Sylvain. Taking a
deep breath, she stepped into the mansion and began checking the
details for the dinner. There wasn’t a wedding planned. It was a
homecoming of sorts. For the first time in months, all the Coffin
Girls would be home together, along with Raulf, Niul, and Conall.
Sylvain had been invited too, but she doubted he would come. It had
been nearly a month since she had seen him, since he had walked
away from the mission at its completion without another word. That
had stung. She had nursed some hope that he would perhaps come
around. He had certainly been flirtatious enough and she had been
lying to herself at that stage - telling herself that she needed
distance when all she had truly wanted was to be engulfed by him,
and soaked in the love she so badly craved from him.

At first, she’d hoped that their relationship
was on new ground – tentative but promising. She’d waited and
waited, but had heard nothing from him. Eventually she had to
accept that whatever they’d had between them was not enough to
last. It was the push she had needed to move on. Oh, it had been
hard, excruciatingly so. At times, she didn’t know if she was manic
or mad, depressed or just plain tired. She had cried many times,
alone, in silence, and in the comforting arms of Miss Suzette.

Eventually, as days went by without a word
from him, that had changed. Yes, she had gone through denial,
anger, bargaining, and then finally, acceptance. Acceptance that
her mother’s wish would be fulfilled, that she could and would find
love out there. The kind of love that was returned, cherished, and
nurtured. It was her deal breaker. She had accepted her gift. She
shook her head at her thoughts as she placed a delicate lily in a
vase. It seemed strange to even think it. Yes, she had known that
she had a gift and from a young age. Her mother had seen to it that
she’d had initial training before they were ripped apart. She had
used her gift until it had been bound upon entering the convent in
France. She had used it again when it became unbound when she had
become a vampire. She had entered into training with Arianna with
zeal that consumed her and fired her thirst to know more. But
through all of that, she hadn’t accepted it as who she was. It had
always been something separate to her - sometimes a blessing,
sometimes a curse. And, she'd had doubts.
Dieu
! Did she have
doubts! She had doubted her ability to correctly use her gift;
doubted her ability to control her gift.

Sometime during that dark hour of pain, she
had finally realized and accepted that she was an empath, witch,
vampire, Coffin Girl, sister, daughter, tutor, friend, and even
wedding planner. She had seen the many roles she played and how
they wove together to create the ultimate role she played - the
role of Sophie. The most startling realization was that she could
see herself as lover too - a sensual woman able to enjoy and return
emotional and physical love to a man. Given her history with men,
it felt like her greatest accomplishment. Yes, she did not have a
lover yet. She wasn’t in a rush. The unshakeable hope she felt was
powerful enough to allow her to wait with confidence.

With these thoughts, she rolled her shoulders
and relished in the absence of the twinge that tension brought to
them. Sophie smiled. It was beatific and yes, she acknowledged her
beauty too, and felt no shame in that. She cast her eyes over the
formal dining room, and smiled widely. Tonight she would welcome
her sisters and friends home. She would nurture them and give them
love. It would not be the dutiful response of the past, but one
given freely and confidently.

“Sophie, would you get the door,” Miss
Suzette hollered. Her booming voice travelled through the ground
level of the house, attacking Sophie’s sensitive hearing. Miss
Suzette must have realized what she had done because Sophie heard a
softer, “sorry," follow quickly.

She smiled at that. Miss Suzette was as
anxious as she was to have everything perfect for the dinner. Rose
was in the worst state out of the three. Sophie had eventually sent
her off to collect the enormous amount of gifts from the baby
stores in New Orleans. The dinner would also serve as a baby
shower. Sophie grinned wryly. It was unconventional to have the
guys there, but the games she'd planned for the after-dinner baby
shower would work. They wouldn’t know what had hit them.

“Sophie,” Miss Suzette interrupted her
musings. “The door.”

“Sorry,” Sophie called out. “On my way.”

And for the love of the Goddess, she found
Sylvain standing in front of her.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Sylvain didn’t know what to say. He felt his
mouth open, then close, and then open again. He had been designated
to look like a guppy. He shook his head. Sophie was staring at him
as though he were an ass and the last person on earth she wanted to
see.. And, she was probably right, he berated himself. He had
imagined this moment. He’d pictured her, serenely beautiful and
happy to see him and not the pissed off, stunning, and angry woman
in front of him. It was a new and humbling emotion and one he
wasn’t too upset by because he understood it.