Constantine’s eyes closed.
Finally released from that powerful gaze, I turned to find my brother, spitting mad, staring at me with accusations in his eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only wanted to move him out of the direct sunlight, but we haven’t done it yet.” I batted my eyelashes at my brother.
“Get the fuck out of there,” he ordered.
Constantine came to his feet, without jostling me, and faced off with my brother.
“I’ve been a model citizen while your juvenile detectives have treated me with nothing but disrespect,” he started saying. “But I will not tolerate you using that kind of language against this woman that’s done nothing to you.”
I blinked.
Corbin blinked.
Nash, however, laughed.
“You tell him, man,” Nash said as he came around the corner and entered the cell. “You’re free to go.”
Constantine, however, didn’t take his gaze off of Corbin for a few long seconds.
When my brother blinked and turned his head, breaking eye contact with Constantine, I realized that something had happened there.
Everyone that was anyone knew not to make eye contact with a vampire for too long.
It was almost instinctual to turn your eyes away, because if you didn’t, there was a possibility that they’d be able to take control of your mind.
But I hadn’t worried about that long seconds ago. All I’d been thinking was the fact that the man was insanely beautiful, and I’d love to ride him like a cowgirl while he bucked underneath of me like a bull.
Then I got flustered.
Could he smell my desire? I wanted to say no, but I really had no clue about vampires, other than what was released to us by the vampires.
They could’ve just as easily held back with what they told us.
“Thank you,” Constantine said, holding his hand out to Nash.
Nash took it, handed him some paperwork, and led the way outside.
I followed, making sure to bump into Corbin who was still pissed, and followed the two other men outside.
Nash peeled off and went to his car, and it was then I realized how green he looked. He must’ve crawled himself out of bed, and I grimaced. Poor guy.
“He’s okay.”
I blinked, surprised to find Constantine so close to me.
“What?”
“The sickness that he had… it’s gone now from his bloodstream. Food poisoning.”
“How did you know my brother was sick then?” I asked.
His gaze moved back to my lips, then went to my eyes.
“I heard you tell someone outside that he was sick. A partner of his.”
I nodded, my eyes going to his lips in return, but staying there when I couldn’t force my gaze to move up again.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked breathlessly.
We were so close that I was nearly touching him. I could feel him… the tingle that seemed to waft from his skin. It was like a pull of some sort, an electrical current that had me wanting to touch him. Run my fingers over his bristled jaw.
“Oh, I’ll make it.” He winked, then was gone before I could take my next breath.
One second he was there, and the next he wasn’t. It was like he’d disappeared in a cloud of fog and weaved his body into it as an illusion. Or something. Hell, I didn’t know what he just did.
If I had to guess, I would’ve said he was a freakin’ teleporter… but if that was the case, why would he have stayed in that jail cell when he didn’t have to?
CHAPTER 6
One never knows why a man falling in love does stupid shit when he could’ve prevented it by not engaging at all.
-Con to Abe
CONSTANTINE
“Why did you stay in that jail cell when you didn’t have to?” Pavlov asked in confusion.
“Because they knew who I was, and where I supposedly lived. I wouldn’t be able to walk around the city ever again unencumbered. They would’ve killed me on the spot.” I sighed. “And to be honest, I quite like my head attached to my body.”
“You could’ve made the illusion that you were there. You didn’t have to stay,” Pavlov countered. “You wanted to stay because of the woman.”
I sighed. The man was sometimes too smart for his own good.
“Brother, leave it alone,” Abraham, Abe for short, said.
Abe and Pavlov were brothers, real life brothers, and they were twins on top of that. They were identical twins, in fact, and I couldn’t tell them apart. Not when they were actually trying to look like twins.
The only true way for me to tell them apart was by the sound of their mind, but that was something I didn’t intrude upon often. I didn’t like when they did it to me, so I didn’t do it to them.
Though, that was only something the men of my inner circle, which consisted of four men, could do.
Pavlov, Abraham, Fox, and Render were four of the only men in the world I would trust with my life, and that was it. I didn’t even trust my own maker, Carrion, with my life. Not when he was the first person to take it… or at least try to.
“Yes, I have a thing for her,” I answered. The other men around the room chose not to speak up, keeping their thoughts on my revelation to themselves. “However, that had no bearing on why I chose to stay in that jail cell. If you’re ever in the position that I was in tonight, I’ll find you a lawyer. There better not be any disappearing, because I don’t want them to kill me in search of you. Understand?”
I looked at each man in turn, and they all nodded their assents.
Pavlov stood and brought me a stack of messages, knowing I was finally done with the ass chewing I’d been giving them for the last twenty minutes.
“You got three calls, two of which were from the girl.”
I could tell he was trying not to smile, and I wanted to smack him upside the head.
Pavlov, however, would retaliate and I didn’t feel like ripping the clothes I was wearing. They smelled like her, and I would look weird wearing torn clothing around tomorrow. I could pass off the pants and the shirt, no one would know but the men in the room that I was wearing them for the second day in a row.
Who was the third call from?
I’d lapsed into telepathy, not even realizing I’d done it. Though, I’d been doing it all night, coordinating with the men to figure out a way out of this without losing my head or burning up due to the sun that was only seconds away from rising in the sky.
Not that it would’ve done me any serious harm, though they—the humans—didn’t know that. And I wanted to keep it that way.
There were a lot of things that they were still learning about us, and the more we could keep them in the dark about our abilities, the better for us that it was.
“Jolie.”
I growled low in my throat. “Did you tell her that I refused to take her call?”
Something I’d been doing for a month now, and she couldn’t take a fuckin’ hint.
“She can’t see past the fact that you don’t want to talk to her to comprehend the fact that you no longer need her services.”
I laughed roughly under my breath and stood, walking to the small fridge in the corner of the room and yanking out a bag of blood.