The Breed Casstiel's Vow (9 page)

           
Cass did some quick jotting then looked at her again, “The voice that entered
your mind, do you think that you could identify it?”

           
“Yes,” she would know that voice anywhere.

           
“One last question Tessa, then I promise I’m done,” he gave her a warm smile
and squeezed her hand again, “That voice, did it sound plain old American, or
did it have any sort of accent at all?”

           
“It did sound a little weird, but I’m not sure … maybe Irish?” she strained her
memory.

           
“That’s because he’s been living in the United States for a couple hundred
years now, so he’s gotten good at covering it up,” Cass said smacking the desk
they were all sitting at.

           
“You know who it is?” Tessa asked shocked.

           
“You bet your ass we do,” Jax hollered out as Ghost swiveled his chair around
to the computer stationed behind him and began to type furiously.

           
“Really?” she asked, her voice breaking slightly as a single tear rolled down
her face.

           
She had held back the flood of tears during her story, but for some reason when
she heard the positive news she couldn’t stop them from leaking out.

           
Casstiel jumped from the table and had his arms around her before she even
noticed he had moved.

He hugged her warmly, as if
she wasn’t just a stranger that he had met hours ago.

           
She fell into his body without the slightest bit of hesitation. Usually she
would shy away from physical contact like this, especially from a stranger, but
their bodies fit perfectly together, and for a moment she allowed herself to be
lost in the heat of his touch.

           
“Thank you,” she whispered into his ear and pulled away.

           
“I could take you on a tour of this place,” he suggested, letting her pull back
from the hug but still keeping her caged in his arms, “It’ll take them a while
to dig up a sound file for you to listen to, so until then a tour would get you
out of this room, and hopefully get your mind off of things.”

           
“Yeah… yeah that’ll be great, you coming Nora?” He could have asked her to help
him re-tile the roof and Tessa would have gladly accepted the offer just to try
and get away from everything.

           
Nora stood across the table from them, her head cocked to the side as if she
was trying to figure out what exactly she was seeing.

           
“Nah, I think I’ll stay and hang out with these guys. While Cass is gone
someone’s gonna have to be the brains of this operation,” she winked, “Plus I
have to suck it up and call Memphis.”

           
“Looks like it’s just you and me,” she awkwardly unclamped his hands from
around her.

           
The grin he gave her in return made her knee’s quake.

Casstiel held the door open
and studiously ignored all the questioning glances he received.

           
They didn’t need an explanation from him about anything, especially when he
hardly knew any answers himself.

           
It would be better for them both if he just left her alone and tried to forget
about her. After everything that had happened to her and her family, the last
thing she needed was to be further involved with the Breed, but he couldn’t
stop himself.

           
He knew bonding with someone was serious, but so far it was stronger and worked
faster than he could ever have imagined. When he had seen her tears something
cracked in his heart and he would stop at nothing to make her happy
again. 

           
“So where to?”
She asked quietly.

           
“Well the only thing above us is a gym and guest rooms, so we’ll start with the
lower level and go from there,” he replied, heading for the elevator.

           
“There are sixty floors in this building; we’re only on the third floor. Are
you telling me that there are at least fifty floors of guest rooms in here?”
she was suddenly amazed.

           
“Every floor but the last four belong to guest rooms,” he smiled, happy to see
that she paid attention to her surroundings.

           
“What’s on the last four floors?” she asked.

           
“Each of the floors belong to one of my team, mine being the last floor. The
penthouse,” he added, wanting to brag a bit. 

           
As barbaric as it seemed he wanted to impress her, to let her know just how
much he could give her if she chose to be with him.

           
“The view must be amazing,” she sighed.

           
“Maybe you’d like to come up and see one day?” he asked smoothly.

           
“So… so why do you have so many guest rooms, there’s got to be at least a
hundred,” she quickly changed the subject as she fitted herself in the corner
furthest away from him.

           
For a brief moment he thought about boxing her in against the wall, he had been
dying to touch her since they’d left the others, but the bigger part of him
decided to follow her lead and take things slow.

           
“We actually have just about fifty floors of guest rooms in each one of these
buildings, every embassy does. It’s so that if something catastrophic ever
happened and the breed needed to immediately vacate their homes and get to
safety we could house them all comfortably, and for as long as they needed it.
Every embassy has the capability of safe housing the Breed for decades,” he
informed her, feeling like this trip was turning out to be more of an actual
tour, and less of a chance for him to be alone with her.

           
“Are there that many of you? I didn’t think the breed was that big,” she
wondered out loud, either not feeling, or choosing to ignore the intensity of
his gaze upon her.

           
“There are a little over a hundred thousand in the United States alone,” he
recited.

           
“That’s amazing. You guys have such solidarity,” Tessa replied, finally turning
her gaze to him.

           
“Well if we didn’t stand together as a unit we would have been extinct hundreds
of years ago. We very easily could have fallen apart internally with all the
fighting and wars there used to be,
then
humans were
added to the mix. Trust me, humans might not be as strong or as fast as us but
they are determined, and if they really want something destroyed they’ll do
anything to get it done,” he stated grimly, trying to keep his mind off of the
past.

He had just met the women
he had been lusting after for years, the last thing he wanted to do was scare
her off with the scars of his past.

           
“I’m sorry Cass,” she wouldn’t meet his eyes, but he felt in his heart that she
meant it.

           
“Please call me Casstiel… I like it so much better when you call me Casstiel,”
he replied, staring so hard at the smooth peach skin of her face, he was sure
he would burn a hole through it.

           
“I don’t think I’ve ever called you either one,” she looked up in confusion.

           
“Here we have the first floor lobby,” he cleared his throat, the last thing in
the world he felt like discussing is what she called him in his dreams, “and
this is Tallia; when the humans come by to do their inspections Tallia and the
other girls are the ones who get stuck chauffeuring them around.”

           
 “Aw, you’re making it sound like I really do a lot around here.  I
don’t work half as hard as you guys do,” she smiled brightly and placed a hand
on his arm.

           
Casstiel swelled with pride as a look of jealousy flitted across Tessa’s face.
It was only for a fleeting moment, but that was long enough to give him
hope. 

He nodded a quick goodbye,
then guided them down the main hallway and off to what appeared to be a food
court.

           
“Anything you’d like to eat they can make you here,” he explained as they
entered the room.

           
It was filled with large hand carved wooden tables and chairs. There was a
massive chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the center of the room, and an
elegant wooden fireplace that spanned the length of one wall.

Behind a stainless steel
counter stood two chatting teenagers in matching white aprons over their jeans
and t shirts.

           
“Are those Breed teenagers?” Tessa asked, sounding a little surprised.

           
“Yeah, everyone has to work around here. Just because these kids don’t have the
need to work doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t. Most of the Breed
are
firm believers in working hard for what you have, and
earning your money, so these guys work down here and in other places in the
embassy to earn money from their parents,” he stated, feeling a moment of pride
for his people.

           
“Can we make you guys something?” a sweet looking girl, who couldn’t have been
any older than sixteen, asked.

           
“Does it suck having to work down here?” Tessa blurted out.

           
“Nah,” the other teen, a tan young man, replied from the across the grill,
“When all your friends do it, it’s more like fun than work.”

           
“I guess I never thought of it that way. I always hated my part time job, I
just wanted to focus on getting my degree, but I guess you guys don’t need to
have degrees to get a job within the Breed huh?” she asked, and he noticed she
was really beginning to relax with the kids around.

           
“Not unless we want to get a job with the humans,
which
most of us don’t because of the risks, but we’ll have to go through a lot of
training for anything we want to do,” the girl explained.

           
“Sounds like a sweet deal to me.  Alright, what can you guys cook? What’s
your specialty?” she asked cheerfully, leaning over the counter to stare at
everything in the kitchen.

           
Casstiel watched in silence as his mate chatted with the children of his breed
and felt desire rising inside of him. He loved how easily she spoke with them,
she didn’t treat them any differently than she would have treated human
children.

It was rare to find a human
so accepting. Normally even the most open minded humans were skittish around
them, untrusting and nervous. Tessa was acting almost as if she didn’t know
they were Breed, as if she didn’t realize these teenagers were any different
from her.

           
It made him wonder if she could ever accept him into her life, knowing that he
killed those of her kind for a living, knowing that something could have
happened to her brother because of his people.

           
“Ready to taste this and see if these kids have any skills?” she asked
playfully, breaking Casstiel out of his thoughts.

           
He had been so absorbed in his thoughts of her he hadn’t noticed the time
flying by.

           
“Yeah, looks good,” He said noticing the food for the first time, two grilled
cheese sandwiches and tomato soup.

           
Tessa grabbed both plates and carried them in each hand waitress style, over to
a table. Cass felt like he should have taken the plates for her, but the way
her hips swung as she walked caught him off guard.

           
 He sat down in front of her and stared at his sandwich. He wasn’t the
least bit hungry but if it would make her happy he would choke it down.

           
Vampires were fierce predators who only needed blood regularly to refuel, and
the Breeds’ werewolves didn’t even need that. For most of them eating and
drinking were habits left over from their time as humans, a time which Casstiel
had never
experienced.

           
“They said it’s their specialty, so be nice,” she told him seriously, “plus
they’re watching, so even if you don’t like it pretend, ok?”

           
He nodded as a smile split across his face, he loved that she was so concerned
for their feelings.

He felt a small tinge of
jealousy in his heart when he realized he wanted her to be concerned and
protective over him as well.

           
“
Mmm
!”
Tessa cried as she
took the first bite of her sandwich.

           
The two kids behind the counter, who had been apprehensively waiting for the
verdict, smiled and high
fived
.

           
“This is the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had, and this soup is awesome! You
guys are amazing!” she exclaimed.

           
Not wanting to miss out on ‘the best grilled cheese sandwich ever’ or a chance
to share in on Tessa’s happiness he dug in.

           
The kids from behind the counter came over and sat with them, and soon an easy
stream of conversation fell over the table.

Casstiel sat back and
watched silently as she listened to the teenagers’ hopes and dreams. It turned
out that David really did want to become a cook, while Lilly wanted to go to a
human school for medicine.

           
Finally he had to call the conversation to a halt. He knew that any minute his
boys upstairs would be calling for them to come back and listen to the sound
bite, and truthfully he wanted to keep her to himself for as long as possible.

           
Tessa and the kids waved goodbye as he lead her back down to the main lobby.

           
“You got along so well with the Breed children, you’re very sociable for a
human,” he smiled at her.

           
“Actually pretty much the opposite,” she shyly corrected, her hands fidgeting
together in front of her.

           
Now that they were alone she was right back to being nervous and timid.

           
“Really?” he replied, hoping she would open up about herself.

           
“Yeah, actually I’m pretty socially awkward. It’s always been hard for me to
make friends and talk to people. Nora’s the first friend I’ve ever had,” she
explained, avoiding looking in his direction as they walked along.

           
“But you talked to David and Lilly quite easily, why is that? Are you
uncomfortable with me?” Casstiel stopped dead in front of her and gave her a
piercing
stare, that
she outright refused to look at.

           
“Thank you for taking me on this tour,” she smoothly changed the subject, “I
think maybe it’s just easier for me to be around people of the Breed.”

           
“Why?” he asked, deciding to let the question of her being comfortable around
him slide, if she wasn’t comfortable with him yet, he would just have to
convince her to be.

           
“I never really thought about it,” she confessed and looked up at him for the
first time, “maybe it’s because you guys have such a sense of unity. With
humans it’s ‘dog eat dog’ you know? Kill or be killed, everyone’s competing to
be better than someone else, there’s always a catch or false motives, here you
guys just accept and love each other.”

           
“It wasn’t always like that, we’ve had to work hard through the years to come
together despite old wounds and differences,” Cass replied stepping closer to
her. He could hear her heart beating like a hummingbird in her chest, but he
was greedy to make it pound faster.

           
Tessa took half a step away from him, but didn’t drop her gaze.

“I’m sorry for how your
kind have
been to you, but you are accepted here, no one
will judge you,” he said, reaching out to stroke a lock of her hair.

His finger tips itched to
feel the texture of her curls
again,
and alone in this
hallway, he knew she could almost feel the bond between them.

“Its fine,” She jumped away
from his touch, shattering the moment.