optimal situation.”
“You can hardly blame them, knowing what you are. Most of them came to me half-starved victims, and they’ve seen others run down by your kind.”
“Stories I’ve heard a thousand times,” he said dismissively. “But Marisa likes to watch late-night reruns of Desperate Housewives . Li sings AC/DC songs in the shower, and Ana hordes food in her mattress. Saltines, which I thought was an odd choice, because she likes sugar and you have graham crackers in your pantry. But she knows Saul enjoys those with peanut butter. I think they’re coping.”
Raina felt that coldness return, a fist in her lower abdomen. “Are you mocking me?”
“No.” Now there was an edge to his voice, a hint of impatience. “I’m telling you that you don’t need to beat a dead horse. Life isn’t supposed to be fair, Raina. This is a testing ground, and the choices we make determine whether we have a weak character or a strong one. Your demons have made good choices, and you’ve helped strengthen them. It’s admirable what you’ve accomplished with them. But all that’s obvious.”
He set the paper aside once more, crossed his ankle on his knee and hooked a shoulder around the back of the chair, another lazy lord of the manor pose, all the more damnably appealing because of its unconscious authority. When was the last time he’d felt out of place, uncomfortable, embarrassed…nervous?
“What’s not so obvious, and therefore intriguing, is you. You’re not one of them, because you’re a half-breed and a witch. But even if that wasn’t the case, a protector is never fully part of the group. It’s the price you pay for the responsibility. It’s also why you’re sitting with me. In the end, you have a greater connection to who and what I am than you do to them. Which is also why you’re fencing words with me, rather than spitting in my face and trying to kick me out.”
She counted to ten. To twenty. Then leveled her most contemptuous gaze on him and raised her voice. “Everyone? I want to make a formal introduction. This is Mikhael Roman. He’ll be staying with us, very briefly.”
6
H IS GAZE NARROWED, BUT SHE KEPT HER FOCUS ON HER attentive staff. “I expect you to treat him with courtesy. Our schedule will be the same as always. Isaac will also be with us, though for a less defined amount of time. Trouble is following him. We’re going to try to help him with that. The protections on this place have been reinforced by Mikhael’s presence here, but if you notice anything unusual, even if it’s minor, please bring it to our attention, whichever one of us you can reach the fastest. Understood?” She glanced at Li, waiting until her senior staff member gave her a subtle nod, telling her he’d make sure of it.
Isaac had tensed, as if expecting castigating looks for bringing trouble to their midst. Instead Isabella slid closer to him and Luke put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, caressing his nape. “We all brought trouble with us when we came,” Marisa said, her brown eyes crinkling with humor. “Though none of us brought a Dark Guardian, so you get top bragging rights for that one.”
She darted a look at Raina, then an even quicker one at Mikhael, to make sure she hadn’t caused offense; then she beamed at the incubus. Isaac blinked, unsmiling. He appeared baffled by his surroundings, overwhelmed. For an incubus who’d never learned to trust, being in a place where trust might be possible was more frightening than being chased through the swamp by a Dark Guardian.
It squeezed her heart, but she put the emotions in check. Isaac was a far cry from the others at this table. Though they’d come from bad circumstances, almost as dire as Isaac’s, they had something missing from Isaac’s experience. At some key point in their lives, before they came to her, they’d been exposed to hope, a glimpse of how life could be better. Even more important, something in their makeup had
“You can hardly blame them, knowing what you are. Most of them came to me half-starved victims, and they’ve seen others run down by your kind.”
“Stories I’ve heard a thousand times,” he said dismissively. “But Marisa likes to watch late-night reruns of Desperate Housewives . Li sings AC/DC songs in the shower, and Ana hordes food in her mattress. Saltines, which I thought was an odd choice, because she likes sugar and you have graham crackers in your pantry. But she knows Saul enjoys those with peanut butter. I think they’re coping.”
Raina felt that coldness return, a fist in her lower abdomen. “Are you mocking me?”
“No.” Now there was an edge to his voice, a hint of impatience. “I’m telling you that you don’t need to beat a dead horse. Life isn’t supposed to be fair, Raina. This is a testing ground, and the choices we make determine whether we have a weak character or a strong one. Your demons have made good choices, and you’ve helped strengthen them. It’s admirable what you’ve accomplished with them. But all that’s obvious.”
He set the paper aside once more, crossed his ankle on his knee and hooked a shoulder around the back of the chair, another lazy lord of the manor pose, all the more damnably appealing because of its unconscious authority. When was the last time he’d felt out of place, uncomfortable, embarrassed…nervous?
“What’s not so obvious, and therefore intriguing, is you. You’re not one of them, because you’re a half-breed and a witch. But even if that wasn’t the case, a protector is never fully part of the group. It’s the price you pay for the responsibility. It’s also why you’re sitting with me. In the end, you have a greater connection to who and what I am than you do to them. Which is also why you’re fencing words with me, rather than spitting in my face and trying to kick me out.”
She counted to ten. To twenty. Then leveled her most contemptuous gaze on him and raised her voice. “Everyone? I want to make a formal introduction. This is Mikhael Roman. He’ll be staying with us, very briefly.”
6
H IS GAZE NARROWED, BUT SHE KEPT HER FOCUS ON HER attentive staff. “I expect you to treat him with courtesy. Our schedule will be the same as always. Isaac will also be with us, though for a less defined amount of time. Trouble is following him. We’re going to try to help him with that. The protections on this place have been reinforced by Mikhael’s presence here, but if you notice anything unusual, even if it’s minor, please bring it to our attention, whichever one of us you can reach the fastest. Understood?” She glanced at Li, waiting until her senior staff member gave her a subtle nod, telling her he’d make sure of it.
Isaac had tensed, as if expecting castigating looks for bringing trouble to their midst. Instead Isabella slid closer to him and Luke put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, caressing his nape. “We all brought trouble with us when we came,” Marisa said, her brown eyes crinkling with humor. “Though none of us brought a Dark Guardian, so you get top bragging rights for that one.”
She darted a look at Raina, then an even quicker one at Mikhael, to make sure she hadn’t caused offense; then she beamed at the incubus. Isaac blinked, unsmiling. He appeared baffled by his surroundings, overwhelmed. For an incubus who’d never learned to trust, being in a place where trust might be possible was more frightening than being chased through the swamp by a Dark Guardian.
It squeezed her heart, but she put the emotions in check. Isaac was a far cry from the others at this table. Though they’d come from bad circumstances, almost as dire as Isaac’s, they had something missing from Isaac’s experience. At some key point in their lives, before they came to her, they’d been exposed to hope, a glimpse of how life could be better. Even more important, something in their makeup had
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