Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (20 page)

It was me who shot her a look this time. She just smiled and

directed her attention to Phoenix. “Why don’t you and I go and have a drink at the bar? Violet can come and find us when she’s ready.” At that moment, I loved Steph beyond words. Phoenix grudg-ingly followed her, but not before entertaining himself. He planted a slow kiss on my cheek followed by a departing smile at Lincoln.

It was annoying, given that Phoenix had been the one bugging me to see Lincoln for the last couple of weeks.

We walked in silence out to the back terrace. Fresh air seemed

like a good idea, and increasing the distance between Lincoln and Phoenix an even better one.

“You look beautiful with your hair down,” he said, without

looking at me. His voice touched that part of me that only he

could, and I wanted to surrender, to dive into it, but I reminded myself that that time had passed.

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“You’ve seen it down a million times.” I blew him off, tucking

my hair behind my ear.

“And a million times I’ve wanted to tell you how beautiful it

looks.” He turned and looked straight into my eyes and then deliberately dropped his gaze to the neckline of my dress. It was subtle compared to the way Phoenix forced his emotions on me, but it

hit me like a wrecking ball anyway. I wanted so much to reach for him. He had never allowed himself to look at me like that before.

“Don’t,” I said instead.

“Okay,” he said a little defensively. “If you just want to get back to your boyfriend”— he swung his arm toward the doors— “don’t

let me stop you.”

“He’s not…you have no right…Damn you!” I couldn’t even put

a sentence together around him.

Lincoln put his hands in his pockets and looked down. While

he wasn’t watching, I took a few deep breaths to steady myself.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “But I’ve been going crazy not seeing you, not knowing how you are. I’ve tried to respect your space, but then you turn up here with
him.
”

“I’m sorry it’s been so hard for you,” I replied sarcastically. “What are you doing here anyway?”

“The fund your dad’s company is supporting tonight invited

me. I’m one of their main contributors.”

“Just another thing I didn’t know,” I said under my breath.

“It was a trust fund, set up when Mom died. It’s not something

I think about often. I wasn’t keeping it from you.”

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He had never talked about his parents much. All I knew was

that his dad died in a car crash a week after he was born and his mom died of cancer when he was seventeen. Apparently she’d been some kind of entrepreneur, and since Lincoln was an only child, I’d gathered he inherited a fair bit of money, enough to buy the warehouse, at least. The spare room in his place was filled to the ceiling with boxes of his mother’s old company documents. He never went in there, always saying he was going to clear it out and turn it into a gym, although I knew he never would.

His tone dropped. “You shouldn’t trust him.”

“I shouldn’t have trusted you,” I said, matching his tone.

He grimaced with the pain of my words and it looked genuine,

but I wasn’t convinced.

“Have you decided what you want to do?” he said, turning

away from me, bracing his hands on the railing. “About becoming a Grigori?”

“No. To be honest, there’s still a lot I’m figuring out about the whole thing.”

“Will you let me help you?” he almost begged.

The truth was, seeing what had happened to Claudia— the

way that exile had forced her to kneel before him and ask for her death— had done something to me. Watching her will torn from

her impenitently. I didn’t know anymore if I really
could
turn away from my fate, knowing I could possibly prevent that from

happening to another innocent person one day.

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hungry to be around Lincoln, I couldn’t resist his offer. I put my hands on the railings, and we both looked out into the night,

standing shoulder to shoulder.

“Okay,” I conceded. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re okay.”

“Okay,” Lincoln said.

Great. Everything was
okay
.

————

The woman who’d been with Lincoln inside materialized at his

shoulder. Her willowy figure and wavy blond hair were complemented by a slinky, cream designer gown. I gritted my teeth. Perfect, now I was going to have the pleasure of being dumped for this beautiful creature.

She gestured for him to speak with her privately. Instead, Lincoln said, “Violet, this is Magda. She’s Griffin’s partner.”

Magda looked at me and smiled, but it was the smile one woman

gives another when she’s sizing her up. Her eyes were cold. It made me feel a little better for disliking her instantly.

She extended her long, slim arm to me, which matched the rest

of her perfect figure.

“
Grigori
partner,” she clarified. Three guesses why. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Violet. I’m sure we’ll get a chance to get to know each other soon, but I’m sorry, we have to go.” She had a faint accent. It wasn’t foreign, more of a you’re- beneath- me accent.

“Why?” Lincoln sounded a little irritated.

Magda glanced suggestively from Lincoln to me then back.

“It’s fine, Magda. You can speak in front of her. There’ll be no more secrets.”

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I scoffed out loud and they both looked at me. If they thought I was going to apologize, they would be waiting a while.

She hesitated then gave a brief nod. “The group that followed up on our lead today was ambushed. Griffin’s expecting us.”

Lincoln’s jaw clenched. He looked at me. “I have to go. I’m sorry.” Out of nowhere, I blurted, “I want to come.”

Now it was Lincoln’s turn to let his eyes dart from me to Magda.

She gave a slight shake of her head. Yep, she and I were never going to be besties.

To my surprise, Lincoln ignored her. “She has a right to see this, to understand.” He turned to me. “Okay, but you have to promise to stay with me the whole time.”

I nodded. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, but I had a guilty suspicion a green- eyed monster had just made my next move.

————

I leaned my head against the window in the backseat of Magda’s car.

There’d been no time for good-byes, so I sent Steph a text to let her and Phoenix know I’d had to leave. I was secretly glad for the excuse to escape. Since witnessing Steph’s hard stare and Phoenix’s brilliant chemistry with Lincoln, I hadn’t been looking forward to dealing with the explanations tonight. No doubt I would pay for it tomorrow.

In the front, Magda and Lincoln talked about things I didn’t

understand, people I didn’t know. A trickle of jealousy ran through me. I was being faced again with the harsh reality that there was a big part of Lincoln’s life I was clueless about. It made me angry that I had been so stupid, so naïve.

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A few other things were abundantly clear from watching them.

He was relaxed and clearly felt at ease around her. Even though she was driving, she fidgeted constantly, adjusting her hair, playing with her necklace. She inched closer to the center console, to him, any chance she got. It was clear how she felt. The question was, how did he feel about her?

What I gathered from their conversation— aside from my

complex breakdown of their body language— was that there had

been a confrontation between a number of exiled angels and

Grigori. The Grigori had tracked the exiles to their hideout but had been ambushed and outnumbered.

“So explain to me again why they hate Grigori so much?” I

asked from the plush leather seats in the back of the Audi wagon.

Of course Magda had an expensive European car.

Lincoln turned to face me, leaning over the center console. I

noticed Magda didn’t move away to give him space. Instead, their arms were now touching from shoulder to elbow. I gave a mental

eye roll.

Please, could she be more obvious?

“Because we’re the only thing that stands in their way,” he said.

“To
what
exactly?”

“To power.” He smiled wryly. “They want to rule over humanity.

They want power and they want to strip our right to free will,

turn us into slaves. They can make humans do almost anything.

Some are erratic, irrational…Others are more organized. Either

way, with that kind of power, it’s bad. They want to destroy us 167

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because we’re the only ones who can stop them and…we’re the

only ones strong enough to fight them.” He shook his head as he spoke. “Sometimes that’s the worst thing about it. Knowing that they enjoy hunting Grigori so much…that it’s become entertainment, a sport to them.”

“But they don’t
all
want to cause harm,” I said. “Griffin said there were exceptions.”

Lincoln knew immediately who I was referring to. He turned

back in his chair, no longer looking at me. “Every now and then an angel that has chosen to exile just wants to live quietly among humans. We call them ‘silents’ and we leave them be, as long as they don’t cause trouble. But
most
exiles are riddled with pride, desire, and the need for power. There’s a reason they leave the angel realm to come here, and it rarely ends well for humans.”

Magda parked outside an old warehouse block. The area

seemed familiar. I was sure we weren’t far from Lincoln’s place. A pang of something like homesickness shot through me. I wanted

to slap myself.

I followed as they walked slowly into the deserted building. It looked like it was scheduled for demolition, or should be. Almost all of the dirty windows were broken. There were some old flattened cardboard boxes that looked like they had been used as

makeshift beds.

At the far end of the warehouse was a small group of people,

huddled around something. We walked toward them, my heels

clicking on the floor. The ground was covered in a thick layer

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of dust, highlighted by a scattering of recent footprints and scuff marks. Steph was going to kill me when she saw the state of her Jimmy Choos.

I felt out of place, like I was a kid getting smuggled into an

R- rated movie. I kept expecting someone to single me out. Magda glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. It was obvious
she
didn’t think I should be there.

Griffin broke away from the group and walked toward us. On

seeing me, he smiled and I let go of a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

“I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to send out a search party,” he said.

I smiled. He was kind of awkward in his attempts to be funny.

“Well, here I am,” I replied.

“Yes.” Griffin shot a look at Lincoln. “I had hoped you wouldn’t have to be thrown into the thick of it like this…” He was still staring at Lincoln. “Still, I’m flattered that you dressed up.” I zeroed in on him. “It was my idea to come, so you can lay off with the accusing eyes.”

Griffin’s face registered his shock. I’d probably gone a bit too far, but I needed to reassert myself. The last time he’d seen me, I’d been a blubbering mess. I couldn’t have him thinking I was always such a girl.

Lincoln started to laugh. I spun around to see him shaking

his head.

“What?” I spat the word at him. Griffin was looking equally unsure.

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“Nothing, I’ve just never seen Griffin so taken by surprise.

Usually he can see people coming a mile off.”

I turned back to see Griffin’s reaction, but he was starting to laugh himself.

Magda gave a huff. “Is this really the place for mental break-

downs, people?” Then she stalked off.

I didn’t know whether it was her words or her attitude that

made me laugh, but either way, for the briefest of moments, we

were all smiling.

Lincoln was the first to remember why we were there. He

frowned and turned to Griffin. “What happened? I thought tonight was just supposed to be about reconnaissance.”

A look of regret crossed Griffin’s face. His eyes were shadowed and weary. I could see that he felt the burden of being a leader.

“It was. We still don’t know what happened. How they could

have been…It doesn’t make sense, Linc.” He was shaking his head in disbelief.

“How many did we lose?” Lincoln asked, looking toward the far

end of the wharf building, where all the other Grigori were gathered.

Griffin brushed his hands across his face. “Three. We thought it might be the same group we’ve been tracking, but now…we’re not

so sure. Tom’s dead, Linc. They were ready, organized.”

Lincoln stiffened. I wanted to comfort him, at least put a hand on his shoulder, but I held myself back.

“Why don’t you think it was the same group?” he growled. “It

must have been! Why aren’t we going after them?”

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“Because our people were killed by light
and
dark forces. We thought at first they’d been caught in a skirmish between the two sides. But this has a dark exile’s stamp all over it. It’s possible they are forcing light exiles to do their bidding. It wouldn’t be the first time one side has taken hostages from the other.”