Awakening (21 page)

“What?!”
Celeste straightened her back, bumping Adam's chin with the back of her head and hearing his grunt. Blushing furiously, she slid into her own seat so she didn't cause any more damage to her lover.

Auberon laughed, “I
was just teasing, sweetheart.”

"Oh," she frowned slightly, obviously weighing the sincerity of his words.

Auberon popped another ice cube in his mouth and crunched down on it, an amused expression lightening his features, making him dangerously sexy as he dragged a glance over Celeste. Leaning back in his chair, he smiled idly, “I do see the attraction; you are delectable.”

Heat poured over her skin under his blatantly sexual perusal
and she felt it in her bones. Her eyes returned to Adam in time to see the tic working in his jaw. Leaning over, she kissed the slight movement, catching Adam off guard. He jumped slightly before turning his head to face her, the look of astonishment on his face was priceless as she brushed her fingers over the stubborn tic that she managed to kiss away. “You have my heart, Adam.”

Auberon watched with morbid fascination as a wealth of emotions played across his brother’s face. He furtively glanced at the girl, who held his brother in her spell without even being aware of it. Four weeks ago, Auberon would have laughed had anyone suggested
Adam was going to be enthralled by a human – a human – willing to break
Apocritum
law and human law to have her. Yet, here his brother sat, not ten minutes after drinking from the girl in a restaurant, looking at her as if she were a goddess and he had no desire other than to worship her for all eternity. He pulled out another ice cube and crushed it between his teeth. Lucky bastard.

“
I did find a passing reference to a new Queen coming to power,” Auberon said casually, thinking that he was probably better off talking to the walls around him for all the good it would do. Since it was the only thing that seemed remotely interesting, he figured he could at least amuse himself as the two of them sat and made googly eyes at one another. “But Mother already took steps to avoid that possibility.”

“Uh huh,”
Adam muttered, still lost in his own little drama, his thoughts of Celeste.

“What kind of steps?” Celeste asked, tearing her eyes from
Adam and looking at Auberon. And just like that, he understood her power over his brother as it punched him in the gut. He wanted a taste…. “Auberon?”

He cleared his throat, letting a lusty smile spread across his lips to hide his bout of bewilderment. “She made us without DNA. We cannot have children.”

Her eyes widened and she nodded her head but when she continued to remain silent, he shrugged, “
Apocritae
do not create life-producing fluids. The bitch gave us immortality only to make us sterile.”

“Uh h
uh,” Celeste said as she expelled a breath. Catching her lower lip between her teeth, she slowly looked between him and Adam, a frown furrowing her brows. Licking the abused flesh, she asked, “So, what happens if a new Queen comes along? Your Mother wouldn’t be okay with that, would she?”

“Hell, no,” Auberon laughed without humor. Why couldn’t he hold his tongue when she asked him a question? “She is a selfish bitch who
is more than willing to eliminate any competition, even if it is only the hint of a rival and not truly a threat; Mother has not lived for so long without learning a few tricks, this being one of many.”

“What
does she do to the competition?” she asked, her face blanching even as her eyes grew impossibly large as she stared at Auberon.

Feeling the need to sit straight under her intense gaze, Auberon forced himself to slouch lower, though he was unable to stop himself from losing himself in those hazel depths. “Mother
is ruthless when it comes to protecting her position of power. She once set an example by tearing out the guts of an innocent simply because she could. Do you remember why she did that?”

Adam grimaced at the memory, "There was a small group of
Apocritae
that was re-enacting a rebellion they had discovered in a human play. Mother wanted to make sure they didn't get any ideas."

Auberon leaned back in his chair and laughed, slapping his hand down on the table, "Mother is not always rationale, is she? Imagine what she will do to us if she discovers our plans."

"I imagine it won't be pretty," Adam grinned darkly, his black eyes grim as he glanced at Celeste.
How will I be able to protect her if I am dead?

Do not worry, brother,
Auberon assured him, not letting the smile fade from his lips.
I do not think it is something we need worry about. We will find the wrinkle and take care of it so Mother does not suspect a thing.
"You are her favorite, Adam; I doubt she would be able to stay mad at you for long."

“Hmm
,” Celeste said, the color gone from her face as she hastily stood up. Looking wildly around the restaurant, at everything that wasn't Adam or Auberon, she blurted, “I think I have to go to the bathroom.”

Auberon watched the girl stagger towards the
bathroom, turning as Adam stood to follow after her. “She is the wrinkle, is she not?”

Adam
glanced around, momentarily distracted by his brother’s question. With a grimace, he muttered, “I believe she is part of it.”

Masking his jealousy and lust with an aloof façade, he grinned, “They called us in to take care of the problem,
Adam, not fuck it.”

“'
Fucking it’ seems to be what created the problem,” Adam said wryly.

“Actually, biting it seems to be what created it.” Auberon stood and followed his brother as they made their way to Celeste, simply walking into the lady’s room as if it were an everyday occurrence, as if it were their right.
Besides, I doubt she is a threat; she is merely human
.

The girl was standing in front of the mirror, staring at her ashen expression, droplets of water glistening on her skin and her hair from the cool water she splashed on her face.
Adam moved to stand behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders and meeting her eyes in the mirror, “What is it?”

She looked up and met
Adam’s gaze in the reflection, offering a half smile even as she lied through her teeth, “My lunch hour is nearly over and I have to get back to work, even if I was given the rest of the day off.”

“Oh? Where do you work?” Auberon asked, watching with some fascination as his brother stiffened slightly.

“In the library at BioGenesis,” she smiled, turning around and facing the two gorgeous men. “Research and such.”

“Ah,” Auberon nodded his head
and smiling. His brother had spent weeks in Paris searching for this girl and she was right under his nose the entire time; it just took coming home to find her.

“I still think it would be prudent for you to move in with us,”
Adam interjected, returning to the topic that was several tales back.
If she is a wrinkle, we need to keep an eye on her.

Or you want to keep her close at hand for other reasons
, Auberon replied, though he was willing to back his brother up. Adam was his brother, after all; it was the least he could do. “It might not be such a bad idea if you lived with us, Celeste. It would please my brother to no end.”

She bit down on her lips to prevent the smile that threatened even as her eyes sparkled with amusement at Auberon’s words. “It’s not going to happen, boys.”

Move in with us
, they ordered in unison. Adam smiled, taking her hand in his, “Come, love; it’s necessary.”

This time her laughter escaped causing the twins to exchange a wary glance. To refuse
Adam alone was impossible; to deny both of them….
What is she not telling us?

Adam
shook his head no at Auberon’s question, knowing there were many possibilities.
We’ll let it go for now. Soon, though, she will move in with us
. “Very well, I’ll give you time to reconsider.”

“My answer will remain the same,” she told him
with a serene smile. “And now, gentleman, I must return to my job; there is still so much I have to do.”

Adam
and Auberon stared after her as she strolled between them and back out the bathroom door, leaving the two of them in the ladies’ restroom. “I think that went well.”

“It's a disaster
,” Adam sighed, running his hands through his hair until it was in complete disarray and very un-Adam-like. “She drives me insane with her sweetness, her warmth, her sensuality….”

“Her ability to disregard a direct command,” Auberon grinned, throwing his arm around his brother’s shoulders and leading him out of the bathroom and putting him back on the trail of following Celeste who had already left the small restaurant.

“You’ve noticed that,” he said wryly, an appreciative smile on his lips.

“She is more than an all-you-can-eat buffet, my brother,” Auberon grinned, watching the gentle sway of her backside as she walked down the sidewalk back to the BioGenesis building. Tilting his head to the side, he gave her an admiring perusal, the way her skirt
hugged her hips and twined around her slender legs; the soft blouse that sheathed her body. “She is not wearing underwear, is she?"

“
No,” Adam laughed, “As soon as I saw her I attacked and I shredded them in my haste to have her.”

“
Very nice,” Auberon said with a smirk, watching as the light changed and Celeste jogged across the street, her dark hair bobbing behind her, her skirt flying out, beckoning. “She is very young.”

“Yes,”
Adam nodded his head as the two of them casually walked across the busy street unencumbered with fear of being hit by a speeding vehicle. Shadow Walking was always so enjoyable, and perhaps even more so with the advent of combustible engines. The slight buzz of being driven through was something at any rate; never as good as blood, but exhilarating on a small scale. “And yet when she touches me, I forget how young she truly is and I burn.”

Auberon chuckled, “That you do,
Adam. I envy you.”

“What makes her different, Auberon?”
Adam asked, genuinely interested in hearing his brother’s theories.

“It is Fate’s way of fucking with us,” he grinned as the girl pulled the glass door open and stepped into the familiar building that
was home to some of their more intriguing plots. “Or maybe she is a gift for your years of loyalty to the bitch."

Celeste stood outside the door to the lab where her father worked, unsure whether she really wanted to see him. For just over two weeks she had been able to avoid Adam and Auberon by forced determination and sheer luck, but she could tell that their patience was at an end and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to avoid them much longer. She was grateful that they allowed her this brief reprieve. Maybe her destiny was written in those ancient scrolls after all because somehow she knew without a doubt that the baby she carried was as
Apocritum
Queen.

She would do anything to protect her baby, even take on the Queen herself knowing that it was suicide for a human to confront the ancient power and so she researched
. Unfortunately, the books she had been “borrowing” had been of little help in learning how she was supposed to defeat the Queen and claim the title for her child. However, the alternative definitely did not appeal to her: her child fighting the Queen instead.
Death is not an option
was, in fact, her new mantra as she rubbed her belly, determined to fight or flee.

She still hadn’t decided if her best course of action was to move away and start fresh in a new city
, give her baby the best opportunity to grow up away from the Queen she was supposed to defeat. Maybe if she ran away her daughter would have a chance at a normal life; maybe the Queen would never learn of her existence and their life could almost be normal.

She would just have to learn to live without Adam, which two weeks apart from him had proven how difficult it was to do so. But how could she take on the world when
she hadn’t even worked up the courage to tell Kim what was going on? She carefully avoided any conversations that had to do with Adam, babies, prophecies and cravings for strange foods, the latest one being chocolate milk and spicy chicken wings. Perhaps if she knew all of the details, Kim would be willing to make a fresh start.