Embrace, Entice, Emblaze (53 page)

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“See?” he barked. “This is stupid! We come all this way to train with this chick and she can’t even last long enough to make me

sweat.” He stormed over to Nyla and Rudyard, leaving me sitting on the ground. “It’s not fair. I’m a good fighter. I should be allowed to hunt! I shouldn’t have to wait for my partner.” He flung a hand back toward me. “She doesn’t even know how to handle herself

against me and she’s allowed to hunt.”

Steph stood up, hands on hips. “Hey, macho man. Have you ever

disabled more than half a dozen exiles in one go? While you’re lying on the ground dying?” Steph had a nice way of getting to the point.

“Who are you, anyway? This isn’t a spectator sport, you know,”

Spence spat at her.

“I’m the one who’s going to explain two very important things to you. First, you need deodorant…like now. Second, if you thought beating Violet in a bit of sparring and then boasting about it like a total idiot would somehow make you look like some kind of

underappreciated hero- in- the- making, you are so out of luck it’s almost funny.”

Spence looked around the room as if he were waiting for

someone to drag Steph out and throw her on the street.

Rudyard stood up and put an arm out for Nyla to join him.

“We are finished for tonight. We’re going back to the hotel. Zoe, Salvatore, and Spence, we expect you for dinner.” Rudyard gave

Spence a brief nod. “Strong fighting.” Then he turned to Steph.

“You, Stephanie, are welcome to watch any training sessions Violet invites you to. I find your approach…effective.”

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As they walked out the door, Rudyard looked back at Lincoln

and Magda and then lowered his gaze toward me and winked,

stirring something in me. It made me feel vulnerable, as though somehow he saw through me, somehow he knew why I’d fought so

badly and was letting me off the hook. But he couldn’t know. He couldn’t have overheard Lincoln and Magda. And he sure as hell

couldn’t see my heart twisting itself into an ugly knot.

Salvatore put a hand out to help me up. It seemed like it was

obvious to everyone that Lincoln hadn’t approached. I could see his disappointment. I’d fought badly, and I knew that since he’d been responsible for all my training to this point, I had let him down too. Things were just getting worse and worse.

I needed some air and made for the door. I still had my rules: no running and no quitting. I thought being Grigori might make me

consider them less often, but I found I was still having to seriously resist the urge to take flight at times. Like now.

Steph raised her eyebrows as she saw me walking out. She was

offering to join me, but I just shook my head. I knew she wouldn’t push it.

I walked a little down the street and sat on a neighboring

fence. Although Lincoln lived in a busy area, his street was short and relatively quiet. It used to be entirely old warehouses, but now there wasn’t one building that hadn’t been converted into a trendy home.

“Hey, you taking off ?”

I looked up to see Spence. He had his hands in his pockets and

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looked uncomfortable, like he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to be talking to me— which made two of us.

“No,” I said defensively. I didn’t like the thought that someone would assume I’d just run away like that— even if he had completely slaughtered me.

“Okay,” he said, smiling a bit with his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot. Look, I just wanted to say…I…Anyone could see you were

off your game and I…Anyway, it was poor form. Not my usual

style. It just pisses me off that they won’t let me out to hunt with everyone else. I thought if they saw— ”

“If they saw you take me down, they would overlook the fact

that if you’re hurt by an exile, you could die?”

“Yeah. Put like that, it makes me sound like an idiot, but I had to try.”

“I get it. It wasn’t your fault, anyway. Like you said, I was…

distracted.”

“By Lincoln and Griffin’s partner, Maggy?”

“
Magda
,” I corrected.

“She causing a problem?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” A couple walking their dog cruised by

and smiled at us. All I could think was: they have no idea. And I was envious.

Spence hoisted himself up and got comfortable beside me.

“Well, why don’t you start by telling me what happened to make

you fight like a girl?”

I laughed. “I am a girl.”

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“Yeah,” he shrugged, swinging his legs out, “but no Grigori

worth their salt fights like a girl, and I’ve heard you’ve got skills.”

“Thanks.”

“So?”

“I don’t know,” I said. But Spence just waited, and eventually I gave in. “I overheard them talking. She told him something that had him freaking out. He kept asking if she was sure. Then, when she suggested they tell Griffin and me, Lincoln panicked and made her promise not to tell me. I don’t know what it is, but it’s big and it’s bad and he swore he would never lie to me again.”

And
for
the
life
of
me, I have no idea why I am confiding in this
stranger who has just pummeled the crap out of me. I guess it’s true
what they say: physical combat can be as emotional as any other
major connection.

“Wow, that sounds bad. So you and Lincoln have history? You

know that’s not really in the cards for partners, don’t you? I mean, someone’s explained…” he trailed off.

“Yeah, yeah, we can never be together like that. I got the memo.

It’s complicated, though. I thought we…I just didn’t think he

would be…”

“Right, I get it. And Lincoln and Magda? It sounds like she was telling him something major, something personal. Do you…?” He

held a kind of frozen cringe while his hands made a wide circle at his belly.

“I know what you think. That’s not it,” I said quickly, shutting him down.

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“Okay. But if they had a history before you two, I’m just saying, is it possible?”

“No. I…I don’t know. He never told me if they were…are…”

I said, looking down, holding back the tears. I didn’t want to cry in front of Spence. I barely knew him. It was bad enough I was

spilling my guts to him.

“Okay, no stress. Well”— he nudged me— “if you want to find

out, we could always follow them.”

I looked up to see Lincoln and Magda coming down his front

steps and walking in the opposite direction. They hadn’t seen us.

In that moment, something clicked, and I was suddenly very

glad Spence had come into my life.

“Let’s go,” I said, jumping down off the fence.

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chapter
eight

“Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty; believe me, that
Angel’s hand is there.”

fRa GIoVaNNI GIoCoNdo

Following people through the city is tricky. Especially when they have a special connection to you that means if you get too close, there’s a good chance they’ll become aware of your presence.

It was still light at least, so we could hang back a bit and keep them in sight when there weren’t too many people blocking our view.

Spence was like a pro sleuth. I was totally impressed and glad

to follow his lead. We tailed Lincoln and Magda for several blocks, and just when I was starting to think we should give up, Spence ducked into a shop doorway and pulled me in too.

“What?” I whispered.

He smiled. “You don’t have to whisper.”

He was right; they were almost a hundred yards ahead of us.

“What?” I repeated in a normal tone.

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“I think I know where they’re going.” He pointed out the

doorway.

Magda and Lincoln were walking toward a small hotel. Spence

watched quietly while I held my breath. Sure enough, in they went.

A
hotel.

I bit down on my lip and tried to hold back the tears.

How
could
he
do
this
to
me? To us?
But really, that was my answer.

There is no “us.”

The part of me I would rather ignore taunted me from within.

You
never
had
him
in
the
first
place.

Spence, who had been standing silently beside me while these

thoughts raced through my mind, grabbed my arm. “Come on.”

“What? Where?” I asked.

“Over there.”

“I’m not going over there. Let’s just go.” I turned and motioned to walk away. Spence folded his arms and shook his head.

“Look, I get it: you’re in a bad place. But right now, you’re

thinking worst- case scenario. There’s still a chance it’s something else. Let’s go find out. It can’t make things worse.”

He pulled me back onto the street and marched on toward the

hotel. I shuffled reluctantly after him. This was not a good idea.

As we came closer to the doors, my angelic senses started going off like a metal detector.

“Spence,” I said cautiously. “Spence— something’s not right.

There are exiles in there.”

I tried to calm the senses, to swallow away the tartness of apple, 81

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drown out the sound of birds crashing into branches, move past the cloying aroma of so many overlaid floral scents. I blinked away the flashes of morning and evening that flickered beneath my eyelids and tried to calm the sting of heat coursing through my entire

body. Normally, these days, I had this process well in hand, but it could still be overwhelming when I was dealing with multiples.

Spence steadied me. “You all right?”

“For now. But I don’t know if we should be going in there.” I

was already starting to back away.

“We should
definitely
be going in there.” He bounced on the spot. “I mean, Lincoln and Magda are already inside. What if

they’re in trouble?”

“I don’t think so. I’d sense it if Lincoln was in danger.”

“Yes, but can you sense it if he doesn’t realize it himself ?”

Good point.

“Okay, but let’s not get into anything we don’t have to.”

Spence was checking his dagger. Luckily, we have to wear them

when we do training sessions, so we are used to fighting with them on. Though not as awkward as a sword, Grigori daggers are on the larger side, with a forearm- length blade. Spence looked so excited.

I looked down at my own weapon.
Damn
it
. I wasn’t excited at all.

At best, I was going in there to fight with exiles when I was still too much of a chicken to pull out my dagger. At worst…I didn’t even want to consider the other possibility.

When we entered the lobby, we saw that the hotel was surpris-

ingly large. From the outside, it looked quite boutique, but although 82

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it was narrow, it was actually very deep. There was a marble bar down at the far end and a reception area by the entrance, with

armchairs and tables scattered in between.

I scanned the room quickly. In the heavily male- dominated

lobby, the few women were dressed expensively but provocatively.

On some, the fabric between the Manolos and designer blouses

was so scant that little was left to the imagination.

“Ew,” I said.

“Yeah,” Spence agreed, though he didn’t sound all that grossed out, and when I looked at him scanning the joint, I just rolled my eyes.

“What?” he asked in response.

“You’re such a guy,” I said, moving us toward a more discreet

position behind one of the large marble pillars.

Men in suits, some wearing wedding rings, huddled at small

tables with girls. A sense of deception emanated from the place. It felt tainted and dangerous.

“I think we should make this quick,” I whispered.

“Yeah, some of them really need to get a room,” Spence

responded in all seriousness, and although I was a little disgusted by his comment, I agreed. PDA can be cute at the right time and in moderation, but this was…

I spotted Lincoln and Magda at one of the small tables near