Night Marks (17 page)

Sebastian chuckles and leans down for a last little peck. “You know I dreamed of you last night. I think you were a Greek goddess.”

“Imagine that, you were in my dream, too. I don't think I was a goddess, however. I think it was laundry day and I didn't have anything else to wear but the spare sheets. Of course, none of my sheets are white, so it was a little odd.”

“It was a different look for you that's for sure. Too lily white, sacrificial virgin for my tastes, though.”

“I bet you liked the chaise. It was right up your alley.”

“It was a little too narrow to be any fun. Plus, any activity that I would like to enjoy on it with you gets a little sweaty. Sweat and leather don't tend to mix all that well. You would probably end up stuck to it, and what fun is that?”

“You have a point. Did you stay behind after he released me?” I ask moving to get up so I can stretch. I arch my back to get any kinks out and then crank my neck to each side so it will pop. That's better. I always hate the mornings I cannot get it to snap.

“Just for a second. I wanted to see if he would let anything slip without you being there. Since you have had more experience with him, you can imagine the brick wall I hit with my attempts. He is very set in his idea that you will eventually change your mind about babies and he wants to have one with you.”

“I guess I should be happy he isn’t asking for a football team worth of rugrats.” The clock says it is nine, so I don’t have a ton of time to get ready and get to the office before Josephina arrives.

I start by gathering up my knives for the day and then hit the closet to get my clothes. With my bundle in hand, I walk into the bathroom to take a shower.

“You mentioned cold showers for all of us; you need anyone to wash your back?” Sebastian asks. “It would save water.” He likes to use that line on me a lot. It has never worked out like he hoped.

“I don’t think we are hurting for money, so we will be partaking in separate showers today, big boy.”

I take a quick, normal heated, shower. My hair feels much better clean. I brush it out and pull it back into a ponytail. Trying to dry it would be next to impossible in the amount of time I have. Even with a full hour dedicated just to it, I don't think it would fully dry.

Hair taken care of, I attach my thigh sheaths and insert their knives before shimmying into a pair of my patented black pants that have slits cut in them to reach the knives underneath. Once they are on, I arm and clothe my upper half. I forgot my socks, so I have to return to the bedroom to find a pair.

Sebastian is still laid out on the bed with the blankets strategically placed to look inviting. I know he has lounge pants on, but if I didn't I might be tempted to try to see under the sheet.

“Hey, you were pretty cold this morning when we first woke up. Do you need
sustenance?” I ask grabbing a pair of socks and my boots, before sitting on the bed next to him.

“Not right now, but maybe after you get home. Dream jumping takes a lot out of me and it is possible that I might be able to regenerate my strength on my own. I almost forgot how it feels in the morning,” he replies moving out of bed.

At some point during my shower, the lounge pants were lost, so he is down to just boxers. I know he is just doing it to taunt me, but I won't let him see how it affects me. And yes, seeing him mostly naked does make my body tingle.

Having just seen Alex in a similar outfit recently, I stop to compare the two. Alex has darker skin, which is kind of a given since Sebby has spent years out of the sun and has only recently started working on his tan. As far as muscles go, Alex would probably just edge out Sebby. Sebby, for me though, looks like a sculpture come to life. There is just something inherently perfect about him.

I could stare at Alex's abs all day because they are just that good to look at, but I could sit back and stare at Sebastian for the same amount of time as a whole body, not just some of his parts. I don't know how to explain and I know my thought process doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In the end, either way you look at it, my mates are studs.

“I am off to my cold shower. I imagine it will take a while, so I will give you your good-bye kiss now.” He keeps this one very chaste, but it is a bit more than just a peck on the lips.

“If you get bored later, come by and watch me teach. I am sure you will find it hilarious.”

“You have Jonas and Marcus with you tonight. I will just ask one of them to videotape it for me.”

Note to self: disable guards’ camera phones.

“You would,” I say to his back.

When I get my feet wrestled into my boots, I slip my boot knife into my right ankle. Now that my knives are in place, I settle into my triple holster for the guns. Usually I don't go total commando just for the office, mainly because my office is armed to the gills, but tonight I want to impress Phee.

Yup, Josephina is too long, so she is getting a nickname. I decided Jose or Joe was just a little bit too masculine.

“Alex, you got my breakfast ready?” I ask as I exit my partition into the living area.

“I thought you were going to be too busy dry humping fang face to eat this morning,” he announces from the kitchen. I just love their little nicknames for each other. Not.

“Very funny. We didn't even get to the dry humping stage. If you want, I can go catch him in the shower so we can give it a try.” We have actually made it to that stage once before. It was during my first feeding as a baby vampire. Things got a little away from us, but clothing was kept in place.

“Princess,” Jonas starts, “I don't know who you been talking to, but I am pretty sure it is impossible to dry hump in a shower. Two bodies all slick with the water slipping and sliding and the next thing you know, oops, something be slipping into a hole and you graduate to plain, old-fashioned humping.”

“Thanks for the visual, Jonas. Now, you are going to have to deal with a hot and bothered ward for the day,” I say teasingly before adding, “You better be ready to leave in five.” I enter the kitchen where Alex is standing with a protein shake in a to go glass reaching towards me. “Perfect just what I wanted.”

“I know, you subconsciously screamed it at me. Now, come over here real quick and give me what I want, so you can go earn your teacher of the year award.”

Most days we don't do the whole relationship thing. I allow a kiss here and there to be nice, but there isn't always hello and good-bye kisses guaranteed. Since he already knows that Sebby got some tongue action today and probably ended up really turned on from it, I take pity on him.

I hop over and wrap my arms around his neck trying not to spill my shake in his hair. I stand on tippy toes and he bends down so our lips meet in the middle. It isn't much because he knows better than to push me early in the morning. At least I like to think he knows better, but he doesn't always behave.

The quick kiss ends and I back up waving at him as I leave the room. “The offer to come watch is extended to you, too. It is only supposed to be for an hour, though, so I will probably be back here before you know it.”

“I have to do a few things at the office, but I would like you to stop by later for a chat about the positions Jonas mentioned to you last night.”

It takes me a second, but I remember the talk about them having assassination assignments come up every once in a while. “Any set time or just show up?” I ask excited to see what he has to say.

“Any time will be fine. I have some meetings, but people know to come get me if you grace us with your presence.”

“Sounds good,” I say collecting the guards and heading to the elevator. I forgot to press Demon Boy on whether my resident statues were aware of me. From the way he talked, I am sure at least one of them is. If I had to pick one, I would say he left Venus conscious. He seemed to dislike her a lot for the whole stealing thing. Shoot, she is even missing her arms.

“Do you mind if we take one of the Continentals?” Jonas asks when we reach the garage. “Even though no one believes it will help, your Suburban is getting protectified.”

“You would think someone would mention that to me,” I retort. “I didn't really feel like driving anyway.” Not exactly the truth because I don't enjoy being a passenger, but I don't like driving the Continentals. They sit too low to the ground for me.

“Great. We are in the black one then,” he says leading the way.

I take my place riding shotgun, Jonas gets behind the wheel, and Marcus settles in the back.

Time to put my teacher hat on.

Chapter 22

You cannot teach common sense

We pull up outside the building and even though it is a good ten minutes before ten, my new little recruit is waiting for me.

She is looking about fifty percent healed. Her face still has some bruising, but it has changed to that really ugly yellowish, blackish color. Her eyes are no longer swollen and I can see barely harnessed anticipation sparkling in them. It actually scares me just a little.

Her attire leaves something to be desired, in my mind anyway. She is wearing baggy clothes, which are a big no-no in Nyx’s world of self-defense. They work in an opponent’s favor and them and the sandals she is wearing are going to have to be addressed.

“I hope you don’t mind me being early?” she says as I step towards her.

“How long have you been waiting out here? This isn’t exactly the best place for a young girl like you to be standing,” I reply gesturing towards Sins, the sex dungeon, right next door.

“It’s only been a minute or two, I promise. Plus, I figured beat up as I am, I won’t attract any unwanted attention.”

I don’t think I will mention to her that some paranorms, mostly werewolves, like their sex a bit rough and since they heal quickly, they aren’t afraid to leave a lot of bruises, or that her standing here is like a giant billboard advertising that she is a good lay.

“Do you at least have a weapon on you that would detract unwanted attention?” I ask unlocking my door and pushing her inside.

“Well, no. I don’t know anything about them, so I didn’t think it was a good idea if I had something.”

She would probably end up knifing herself, so I guess I will let that go. This is going to be more work than I thought. It can be really difficult to teach common sense.

“Guys, do you mind rearranging the furniture real quick. I think we will just try some holds today, so I don’t need a lot of room,” I instruct the guards. “Oh and thanks.” I add the last bit as they get to the furniture juggling. The big pieces head to my office and the rest are pushed to the side.

I notice that Phee doesn’t seem scared of them. I was afraid she might have issues with them being around, but she appears to be too excited to even notice.

“Okay, Phee, first we need to talk about this ensemble. The loose shirt and sweatpants aren’t doing it for me, and don’t get me started on the shoe choice.”

“Phee. I like it. No one has given me a nickname before. It is so cool,” she replies not even touching on my concerns. People wonder why I don't want my own kids.

“Yes, it is awesome. Now, do you have any comment on the clothing situation?”

“Oh. Well, I don’t work out very often, but when I do this is what I wear. All my other clothes are like jeans and skirts and such. I thought those would be worse.”

Thank God, she didn’t show up in one of those skirts. I would have had to ask the guys to shoot me. She seems like the type of person that actually enjoys wearing those death traps. Some days, I fantasize about finding the inventor of the skirt and playing “hunt the idiot” with them. Trust me, in my imagination it is a really fun game.

“You need to go shopping. After we are done here, I will take you by the store I go to and we will see if we can find you attire that is more appropriate. If you end up training and hanging out with me, I have a feeling we are going to have to make a number of improvements.”

“Wait. Hang out with you? Oh my God, that would be so cool. I cannot wait to tell my friends.” I am guessing she is excited, but to me it looks like she is having an epileptic seizure.

“Hold the phones, just a second. I spend all my hours with guys, so having a female around might prove interesting. I am willing to try it. It is just a trial, though, and you won’t be able to mention it to your friends. I don’t want a bunch of teenagers showing up on my door trying to befriend me. You should know right off, that I suck at being sociable, so you will probably think most of the time I am mad at you. About fifty percent of the time I probably will be,” I tell her trying to get her to calm down. Why I chose to extend this invitation to squealy here, I don’t know, but it is too late to recant.

“Got it. You won’t be sorry. I can keep a secret like no one else. My best friend, Molly, told me five years ago about this crush she has on this guy named Liam and how she watches outside his bedroom window while he sleeps and I haven’t told another soul about it.”

I refrain from pointing out the obvious. Definitely not going to give her the inside scoop on any relationship ideas floating around in my mind. I remove my holster and move to place it on my desk. Probably a good idea to keep her far away from my guns. With all of her excitement, she would shoot everyone in the room, including herself, and I would be the only one waking up from it.

“Good,” I say commenting on her fantastic skill of keeping a secret as long as she isn't telling another person how great she is at keeping them. The guys have our area ready and are holding up the wall by the door waiting for us to get started. Looking at Jonas, I can tell he is trying very hard not to laugh and succeeding remarkably well. “First, before we get into any fighting, I think you should learn how to defend yourself when someone gets you into a hold. Since you are so tiny, getting free and running is probably your best bet.”

“Okay. What do I do?” she asks ready to get down to business.

“You stand right here,” I say positioning her in front of me. I reach my arms under her arms and pull mine up, so my elbows bend around her shoulders. I proceed to lock my hands in place behind her neck putting her in a full nelson.