Cloak of Deceit: An Alex Moore Novel (15 page)

“I don’t trust part of you.” His jaw flexed. It cast the crescent scar on his cheek into relief. With the rest of his battle wounds bared, and the spark of lust gone from his eyes, he didn’t look sexy anymore. He looked fierce. Lover to enforcer in two seconds flat — that was impressive.

“I thought you didn’t care about
that
.”

He winced and glanced away from me. “I don’t. But I didn’t think drinking would trigger your psychic powers. You were fine with the bottled blood. You should have told me right away. We’re here on Monique’s goodwill. I will
not
put her or her charges in danger. Not for you, or for anyone. If the Grigori hones in on you here…”

I didn’t know what to say to that. I hadn’t thought about what our —my— presence here meant to the others, aside from Carl, whom I’d almost killed. Julian had a point. “You already have, haven’t you? Just by bringing me here. Like she said.”

“We have to tell her what happened,” Julian replied in a clipped tone. He didn’t wait for me before swinging the door open and marching out into the hall. I scrambled after him.

If my first meeting with Monique had been less than ideal, I really wasn’t looking forward to telling her that she’d been compromised by harboring me. Julian didn’t trust a part of me. As much as the idea hurt, that was fine. I wasn’t sure I trusted either part anymore.

I owed Monique the truth, even if it meant my welcome had worn itself out. What would that mean for Julian and me? First things first. At least I’d washed the blood off my hands.

I caught up to Julian halfway down the long hall and stayed at his back, quietly wondering how much time he spent here. He seemed to know his way around, and the two people I’d met knew him too. Had I just ruined yet another part of Julian’s life? How much more of that would he take? “Aren’t you going to put a shirt on?”

“You want to give mine back?” He sounded irritated, but not angry. That gave me some hope.

“Jules, wait.” I snatched his hand on the backswing and planted my feet. He turned around and gazed down at me. Some of the harshness faded from his face. I offered him a half-smile when he didn’t try to pull his hand away.

“I’m sorry.” It was too difficult to meet his eyes, so I stared at his large, calloused hand instead. “I didn’t want to tell you about the voices because…because I was afraid it would change your mind. About me.”

He sighed and tilted my chin up. “Alex, it doesn’t matter to me what you are.”

I frowned. That didn’t sound very convincing.

“I mean it. It doesn’t. But you can’t keep things from me. Our safety depends on it. I can’t protect you if you’re going to keep secrets that could get us killed.”

“You keep plenty of secrets.”

“I know.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb. “There’s so much to tell you. And I will. I just need some time.”

I leaned into his hand, wondering if that meant we’d forgiven each other. “So, we’ll tell each other the truth from now on?”

He nodded and pulled me into a loose hug.

“Then, can you tell me where you were?”

“We need to see Monique first.” He took my hand again and started back down the hall.

“Will you at least tell me how you know her?” I persisted.

A blotch of color appeared on his cheeks. He licked his lips.

“Is she your… lover?” I asked the worst possible question because I wanted to know before I got any deeper into whatever was going on between the two of us.

Julian pursed his lips and glanced sideways at me. I was beginning to recognize it as him trying to read my reaction, and my heart dropped into my stomach. “She was once. Among other things.”

“Other things?” I raised one eyebrow.

He squeezed my hand. “She was my lover and donor a long time ago. She remains a friend and ally.”

“Oh.” Was that supposed to make me feel better? Now I only had more questions. Questions I couldn’t ask, because first I had to go and apologize to Julian’s ex-girlfriend for nearly bleeding one of her rescued runaways to death. That, and possibly bringing a psychic shitstorm down on her little hideaway.

Day 2 of being an Undead was starting to suck just as bad as Day 1.

Julian stopped in front of a set of ornate wood doors. He let go of my hand and knocked before pushing one open. The room beyond was open and airy with dark wood floors and taupe walls, and a large circular brown rug. The only decoration was a giant mural painted on one wall, a depiction of the temptation of Eve. Even with as little as I’d seen of Monique, I wasn’t surprised. It was sultry, yet sophisticated, like the impression I’d gotten of the woman herself.

Monique joined us from another door at the end of the room. She was dressed in a tight-fitting burgundy dress I hadn’t had the sense to notice before. I noticed now. It clung to her tall, curvaceous figure in all the right places as she stalked towards us with unfair grace. Her black hair fell in a curtain of shiny waves over her shoulders, and I reached up to flatten my own unruly locks. I was all of the sudden very conscious of my baggy borrowed jeans and overall plain-Jane look.

I didn’t need to be, because she wasn’t even looking at me.

No, her slanted, mis-matched cat-eyes were set on Julian as she crossed the room. I didn’t have to use a single psychic power to glean that whatever had been between them wasn’t over, at least on her end. I cleared my throat, and her gaze locked onto mine. Her crimson lips curled into an artfully polite smile. At the same time, her mind brushed against me, like a tickle of silk. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Alex. I am Monique.” She bowed her head in formal greeting. Before I could answer, her gaze flicked back to Julian, and her smile widened. “Are you making a fashion statement, or do I need to have the heat turned down?”

It wasn’t lost on me that she took her fill of the sight of Julian’s naked torso.

Julian was all business. “There wasn’t time to put something on.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “I see. There is something else wrong already?”

Julian gave me an encouraging nod.

“I…” Suddenly wasn’t feeling too apologetic. “I’m sorry. About Carl, I mean.”

“Yes, well, he is quite besotted, but he will make a full recovery.”

“I’d like to see him.” I spoke up before I had time to process the thought, but it was true. “To say I’m sorry.”

Monique seemed displeased, but nodded. “Perhaps after he’s had some rest. Is that all?”

I looked at Julian, whose features were tight with restraint. If I didn’t tell her, he would.

“When I was…drinking from Carl, the Grigori spoke to me. They might know where I am.”

“Ah.” Monique crossed her arms, displaying her perfectly manicured nails. I hid my hands behind my back. “Luckily, I was not so cavalier with our safety as Julian.”

He stiffened, and so did I. Not because of her obvious dig, but because of the way she said his name — accented like it started with a “ge” and so adoring it made my skin itch. I resisted the urge to clench my fists.

“I took my own precautions.”

“Precautions?” Julian asked.

Monique nodded and flashed him a dazzling smile. “Did you think I would take such a risk without insurance? You are dear to me, my love, but not that dear.”

I wanted to gag on her words, and was surprised at the strength of my reaction, but I swallowed them down instead. “What insurance?”

Monique’s heels clacked to the corner of the room. On a small shelf in front of her perched a small metallic object that looked like a mini-speaker. I did a quick scan of the room and noticed one in each corner. Monique opened a nearby drawer and pulled out a tiny remote. She smiled as she pushed a button on it. A series of purple beams appeared around us in a crisscross pattern. Julian stiffened next to me. I ducked my head, but the lasers stabilized, and apparently posed no threat.

Monique hit another button and the beams disappeared. She lifted the palm-sized gadget from the shelf and tossed it through the air. Julian caught it one-handed. I stepped closer as he opened his hand, and saw the device was inlaid with a polished crystal, very à la Superman. I gave Monique a skeptical look, but she just gave me a smug smile.

“I had them installed in your room as well. They are psychic inhibitors — a special prototype design we have developed. They should provide an adequate shield to keep our location concealed. I did not expect her connection the Grigori to be already so powerful. They should not have been able to reach her here at all, but I suspect they’ve formed an internal connection with her — a loophole I hadn’t considered.”

I frowned, but Monique proceeded as if I weren’t there.

“If we had not interfered, they might have broken through the inhibitor field and discovered our position. Then I would be most displeased. As it is now, no real harm has been done. I’m satisfied with their performance.”

Julian smoothed his finger over the glittering face of the inhibitor, closed his fist around it, and then handed it back to her. “Is there a way to modify one of these to protect Alex directly? Close up the loophole?”

Monique arched her sculpted black eyebrow and looked from him to me, as if realizing for the first time we were connected.

Gee — ya think?
I straightened a little and met her gaze full on.

“Perhaps.” She tilted her head. “But it would not be specific. The only way would block her powers entirely.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. It’s not that I planned on using them, but my psychic abilities were the only weapons I had to defend myself. They’d already saved Julian’s life once. I opened my mouth to say as much, but Julian beat me to it.

“Can it be done?”

Monique nodded.

“Hey.” I scowled at Julian. He gave me a stern look, and I matched it. Enforcer, self-appointed guardian, Sponsor, whatever — I was
not
a child. “I think I should get a say in this.”

Julian braced my arms and spoke to me in a low voice. “It’s the only way to ensure that they don’t find us. We can’t stay here forever. It will give me some time to work something out without having to worry about you.”

“I might need my powers.” I hated it, but a child was exactly what I sounded like — one being forced to give up a favorite toy.

“I can keep you safe,” Julian said, “but you have to trust me, Alex. Do you?”

I chewed on my lower lip as I contemplated it. Did I trust him? Yes. I looked over his shoulder to see Monique studying us intently, and seeming not too happy about what she saw. That I didn’t trust. But I didn’t know how to say it without sounding like a spoiled, jealous baby. I frowned, and Julian must have misinterpreted it. His face fell.

“I trust you,” I forced out on a sigh, and hoped it was enough.

Chapter Ten

A
fter a little more prodding, it turned out that Monique had already thought of using one of her hokey crystal inhibitors on me. She presented me with another prototype unit: a collar. If I hadn’t already been on thin ice, I would have said
hell no
. Number one — I didn’t want to be anyone’s guinea pig. Number two — I was already enough of a pariah. I didn’t need to walk around with a collar, like some freak experiment gone wrong.

Monique was kinder as she explained to me how it would feel awkward to have all of my psychic abilities nullified. There is a certain amount of psychic shielding and ability we all have naturally, a subconscious sense that protects us from interference in the environment and allows us to perceive fluctuations in the currents of energy around us.

The difference between “psychics” and regular people is just how developed this sense is. I could tell Monique counseled people on metaphysics for a living, and grudgingly had to admit she was good at it. The idea of less shielding in my situation sounded like reverse logic to me, but Monique sounded certain that inhibiting my “psychic center” was the only way to block out the Grigori completely. They had formed a link to me since my awakening, and blocking all psychic energy put me back under their radar as if I had never realized my powers. I knew arguing would get me nowhere — Julian was sold on the idea and seemed to trust Monique implicitly.

As vain as it was, most of my concerns about the collar were about how it would make me look. Yet on the inside, it made me uneasy too. Until then I had never recognized the senses she was talking about, or how much I relied on them, even before my real powers had come online. They’re the tiny feelings in the back of your head that can alert you to danger, tell you when someone’s lying, or give you a compulsion to take the long way home. You take them for granted, until they’re gone. I felt completely naked, and I didn’t like it one bit.

After she fitted the collar on me and activated it, Julian wanted to talk to Monique alone. I didn’t like that idea either, but no one asked me. I got directions to find Carl, and petty or not, felt gratified to see a faint trace of irritation in Julian when I brought him up, which I decided to interpret as jealousy. At least it wasn’t a one-way street with us.

When I left them to discuss their private business, I wondered if Julian would keep his word and tell me what they discussed if I asked. Sure, he had a history with Monique. But this time it had been me that brought Julian here. The least he could do was keep me in the loop.