you’re anything but mundane in every other sense of the word.
Warmth washed through me, which I strove to keep him from feeling, but I knew by the smug smile in his mind that he felt it nonetheless.
I seriously needed to get out of here and away from this man before I lost all my wits and ended up like Jas. “I think that this is just about the worst place I’ve ever been in, Diamond. I’ve asked Alec to help us get out of here, in fact, and I think maybe you should help us think of a way out.”
“Oh, that’s no problem,” she said, waving away something so minor as permanent occupation in the Akasha. “My great-grandmother is very resourceful. I’m sure she’ll figure out something to get us out of here.”
Mentally, I shook my head at that comment, but so long as she wasn’t worried about being stuck here, I wasn’t going to push the point.
“In the meantime,” she continued happily, “I intend on enjoying myself. I think I’ll sit in on one of those meetings Margaretta told me about. Why don’t you and Alec come with me, and we can brainstorm if it will make you feel better?”
“Pass,” I told her, smiling to myself at Alec’s mental shudder. “We’ll just work on getting out of here. I’ll give you a yell if we find a way.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, giving Alec another once-over that had me shifting closer to him, which just made my inner devil giggle. “Then again, perhaps you are doing exactly that. Ta-ta!”
“Don’t say it,” I told Alec as he was about to make a comment that I knew would make me blush. Don’t even think it.
He laughed, and my stomach did a happy little quiver at the sound of it. Dammit, he had a wonderful laugh, warm and deep and filled with genuine amusement. “I won’t, but only because I’m doomed to disappoint you by not finding a magic solution to the problem of you being here.”
“All of us being here,” I said, allowing him to lead me out to a courtyard. It was the same shade of dusty brown as everything else, the building an anachronism of modernity in an otherwise blighted landscape. “You’ll have to come with us when we leave.”
“I can’t. I’ve been banished here by the Moravian Council. If I was to manage to find a way out, they’d simply send me back.”
I eyed him, leaning against yet another sharp, pointy rock. “What exactly did you do to piss off all the other vamps? ”
His gaze skittered away as he gently, but firmly, closed his mind. “Seduced my best friend’s Beloved, tried to have them both destroyed, and betrayed Dark Ones to those who would see us exterminated.”
His face was a mask of indifference, but his eyes, oh, those lovely eyes, they revealed the emotions he kept from me. Pain was in them, both self-loathing and pain caused by others. His words confirmed what I believed about vampires—that their characters were reprehensible and unworthy of my concern—but just as I knew that not every vampire was created equal, so I knew that Alec wasn’t truly any of those things.
“When you killed that woman, what were you thinking?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
It took him a minute to respond. I had the feeling he was far away in his thoughts. “The one who killed my Beloved? ”
I nodded.
His eyes closed for a few seconds as he struggled with the gut-searing agony that memory brought him. “I didn’t think. I saw the corpse burned and mangled, and knew the reaper had deliberately killed her. I struck out of instinct. It wasn’t until recently that I found out it had been an accident all along, and that the reaper hadn’t specifically targeted my Beloved.” He gave a short, bitter laugh. “All those centuries I spent convinced revenge would lessen the pain, all that wasted time . . .”
“I don’t believe you,” I told him, my emotions tangled up with one another, but his honor, at least, was something I didn’t doubt.
His expression hardened. “That doesn’t surprise me. No one
Warmth washed through me, which I strove to keep him from feeling, but I knew by the smug smile in his mind that he felt it nonetheless.
I seriously needed to get out of here and away from this man before I lost all my wits and ended up like Jas. “I think that this is just about the worst place I’ve ever been in, Diamond. I’ve asked Alec to help us get out of here, in fact, and I think maybe you should help us think of a way out.”
“Oh, that’s no problem,” she said, waving away something so minor as permanent occupation in the Akasha. “My great-grandmother is very resourceful. I’m sure she’ll figure out something to get us out of here.”
Mentally, I shook my head at that comment, but so long as she wasn’t worried about being stuck here, I wasn’t going to push the point.
“In the meantime,” she continued happily, “I intend on enjoying myself. I think I’ll sit in on one of those meetings Margaretta told me about. Why don’t you and Alec come with me, and we can brainstorm if it will make you feel better?”
“Pass,” I told her, smiling to myself at Alec’s mental shudder. “We’ll just work on getting out of here. I’ll give you a yell if we find a way.”
“Suit yourself,” she said, giving Alec another once-over that had me shifting closer to him, which just made my inner devil giggle. “Then again, perhaps you are doing exactly that. Ta-ta!”
“Don’t say it,” I told Alec as he was about to make a comment that I knew would make me blush. Don’t even think it.
He laughed, and my stomach did a happy little quiver at the sound of it. Dammit, he had a wonderful laugh, warm and deep and filled with genuine amusement. “I won’t, but only because I’m doomed to disappoint you by not finding a magic solution to the problem of you being here.”
“All of us being here,” I said, allowing him to lead me out to a courtyard. It was the same shade of dusty brown as everything else, the building an anachronism of modernity in an otherwise blighted landscape. “You’ll have to come with us when we leave.”
“I can’t. I’ve been banished here by the Moravian Council. If I was to manage to find a way out, they’d simply send me back.”
I eyed him, leaning against yet another sharp, pointy rock. “What exactly did you do to piss off all the other vamps? ”
His gaze skittered away as he gently, but firmly, closed his mind. “Seduced my best friend’s Beloved, tried to have them both destroyed, and betrayed Dark Ones to those who would see us exterminated.”
His face was a mask of indifference, but his eyes, oh, those lovely eyes, they revealed the emotions he kept from me. Pain was in them, both self-loathing and pain caused by others. His words confirmed what I believed about vampires—that their characters were reprehensible and unworthy of my concern—but just as I knew that not every vampire was created equal, so I knew that Alec wasn’t truly any of those things.
“When you killed that woman, what were you thinking?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
It took him a minute to respond. I had the feeling he was far away in his thoughts. “The one who killed my Beloved? ”
I nodded.
His eyes closed for a few seconds as he struggled with the gut-searing agony that memory brought him. “I didn’t think. I saw the corpse burned and mangled, and knew the reaper had deliberately killed her. I struck out of instinct. It wasn’t until recently that I found out it had been an accident all along, and that the reaper hadn’t specifically targeted my Beloved.” He gave a short, bitter laugh. “All those centuries I spent convinced revenge would lessen the pain, all that wasted time . . .”
“I don’t believe you,” I told him, my emotions tangled up with one another, but his honor, at least, was something I didn’t doubt.
His expression hardened. “That doesn’t surprise me. No one
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