Knight Predator (15 page)

I had to grin at her. The blood was making me feel light-headed.

I have no idea what that young man had taken before I took him, but I could already see this would make for an interesting evening. Well, if worst came to worst I would just go home and sleep it off while Bronwyn went to her after formal party.

“Patience, youngling, we’ll get there.” I wagged a finger and smiled.

She smirked and gave me a kiss on the end of my nose. “What was in that person’s blood? You look very strange.”

I shook my head and kissed her back on the nose. “I have no idea.

Just pull me out of there if things get well . . . you know . . .”

She giggled. “Okay, I think I can do that. But you better let me drive there.”

“Well, you know where the keys are.” Lucky for me they were in the ignition and not my pocket.

“Okay, my beloved angel, get in the car.” She opened the door for me. Much to my embarrassment, my feet didn’t quite understand what I was asking them to do, and I tripped forward and fell into her arms. They tightened around me for a moment, and then she helped me to my feet, grinning evilly the whole time. “Yeah, good on ya, Crowley.”

She helped me into the car, and we set off with a great squealing of tires.

“Shit, they’re starting to hand out the diplomas.” Bronwyn strained her neck to see over the throng of people the snakelike line of young people in the upper gallery. They went up one set of stairs, all along the top and down the other set of stairs. The master of ceremonies had reached the D’s and was rapidly heading toward the H’s.

Bronwyn grabbed my hand and tugged me toward her school-mates. We bolted up the wide, carpeted stairs, miraculously missing all the other traffic using them, and then ran along the line looking for her classmates. She garnered a couple of stares, some greetings, and several snarled curses as we brushed against people and the half empty tables on the upper levels.

“Oops, sorry.” She gasped and apologized to the kids around us as she found her place in line. I sauntered up behind her and seated myself on the metal railing, arms crossed.

She sidled up to me. “What the hell are you doing?”

I looked down at her, wondering what the fuss was all about. “I’m sitting down. What’s the problem?”

“What happens if you fall?”

I shrugged and threw my hands into the air, balance wobbling slightly. “So I fall. So what? I can play dead quite well, so they take me to the morgue. I bust out. Case closed.” I smiled, thinking that she was amazingly beautiful when furious with me. Her classmates tried not to stare at me.

“Has it ever occurred to you that I might not want—” She sighed, avoiding my eyes. “That I maybe I couldn’t—” She shook her head, threw up her hands, and turned away. “Never mind. You sit there.”

I slid off the railing, turned her to face me, standing so close our bodies were almost touching. “Look at me.” She refused, studying the buttons and smooth white of my shirt with intense interest. “Look at me.” I lifted her chin with my forefinger so I caught her anguished green eyes and held them. “That’s better. I’ll be fine. I’m a survivor.”

Her shadowed, pained green eyes locked onto mine. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a survivor or not, what matters is whether or not I see you splattered all over the ground. I can tell you right now, that’s something I simply can’t see.” She dropped her eyes and fiddled with my shirt buttons. I was only dimly aware that the kids around us had snuck back an inch or two, sensing that we were having a very private conversation in a very public place.

I lifted her chin and held it as gently as I could so she would have to keep looking at me. “I’m sorry if it upsets you, but you have to realize that I’m impervious to things that would hurt a mortal. There are a lot of things I’m not afraid of anymore, and falling and hurting myself is one of them. On top of that, this will all be a memory to you when you’re sitting in your rocking chair next to your old goat of a husband, wishing to God the kid you have dangling on your knee would just burp and be done with it.”

She glared and drew in breath to answer. Just as she opened her mouth, a tall, pimply boy with carefully brushed dark hair ran up to us.

“Bronwyn. I’ve been looking all over for you.” His anxious puppy dog blue eyes stared soulfully at her. One of the girls close to us gave him a glare that would have turned him to stone if she had been a medusa.

I raised an internal set of eyebrows, and then turned my attention back to Bronwyn and the young man.

“Robbie.” Bronwyn looked as if she wished she were somewhere else, and both of us let him know by our twin glares that his intrusion was not welcome.

His puppy dog eyes remained unchanged as he put on a half smile to try and attract her. “I just wanted to say you look terrific. Will you dance with me later?” The girl who glared at him now rolled her eyes in disgust.

Bronwyn sighed, clearly struggling to find something nice to say that would get rid of him. “Robbie, we broke up months ago. Get over it. And no, I don’t want to dance with you.” There was a gleam of triumph in the girl’s eyes that went unnoticed by both Bronwyn and Robbie.

“Just once.” The pleading in his voice was terrible, and the other kids were giving us more attention than I really wanted. “You don’t really mean it’s over? Couldn’t we just try again?” The other kids were staring at us now, some with sympathy, some with disgust.

She looked as if she was about to give in to him. I felt an unexpected stab of intense jealousy. For this one, final evening, Bronwyn Hunter was mine, and I was in no mood to share her with anyone.

I leaned around Bronwyn’s back and touched her. “Look. I hate to tell you this, but her dance card’s full.” My voice was gentle but my eyes were not.

Bronwyn turned to me, brushing me with her body, and put a restraining hand on my chest. She turned back to Robbie. “Sorry, Robbie, looks like I’m taken.”

Robbie glared at us with hatred in his eyes. “Everything was lies, then, about why you broke up with me. I didn’t stress you out, and we weren’t too different. You broke up with me so you could go out with her, didn’t you? You’re one of those, aren’t you, and you always were?

And you didn’t have the guts to tell me the truth, did you?”

Bronwyn said nothing, just held his gaze, expressionless.

Since I’d won this round, I could afford to laugh and did so.

Bronwyn had never broken up with him because of us—there was, after all, no “us.” He just figured now that he wasn’t man enough for her. His ignorance astounded and disgusted me. Now the other kids were gaping at us.

“Kid, just go back to your place in line.” We shuffled up one as another person’s name was read out.

“Just who the hell do you think you are, pervert?” He stood so he was almost nose to nose with me, glaring at me, shaking a finger in my face.

My temper, already on shaky ground because of my interrupted exchange with Bronwyn, slipped another notch. “Move your finger, son, or I’ll bite it off.” My voice was silken, and he paled slightly.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

I leaned forward, tense, and jumped a little when I felt Bronwyn’s soft, hesitant touch.

She looked at me anxiously. “Don’t hurt him.” In the distance, I was dimly aware that her name had been called. The girl who had been glaring at Robbie nudged Bronwyn and earned her own glare as Bronwyn let her know that the intrusion was not welcome.

I felt a kind of sad surprise at her words, and a sliver of hurt filtered through into my eyes. The boy was a kid. Did my loose morals really look that bad to her? Did she really think I would hurt a poor, defenseless child? “I’ll meet you on the other side.” I took her arm awkwardly and led her down the stairs as Robbie fumed behind us, the girl grabbing his arm and pulling him in for a few well chosen words.

“Don’t worry about him, and no I won’t hurt him.” I smiled as I gave her hand a quick, reassuring squeeze and took off to the other side of the highly polished dance floor.

I watched her confidently walk across the dance floor, her heels clicking on the wood. She shook the Bishop’s hand as he gave her the diploma and laughed softly at his undoubtedly sub standard joke. The men standing around him, the school principal and counselor, I guessed, watched her for any signs of disrespect. Bronwyn ignored them, no doubt relieved she could finally do so without fear of reprisal.

She walked back across the slippery floor with ease, shoulders straight and head held high, incredibly beautiful in the artificial light and her sensual evening dress. I felt a shot of possessiveness and a quick sinking feeling that no matter what I did, I probably would not be able to escape the gentle snare of her incredible inner and outer beauty. I knew I was losing the fight with myself, but all I had to do was make it through the night and it would be done. Bronwyn would leave my life, and I could continue on, gasping in shaky relief at the mistake I could have made.

Perfumed adults in lovingly kept and infrequently worn evening wear, clutching a multitude of different alcoholic drinks, milled around me. The servers and some of the girls and boys brushed too close by me, unable to resist the predatory pull I had over them. I willed them to not notice me with anything other than the most cursory of interest, but I was only partially successful. People glanced at me, stroked me, and whispered about me. I did my best to ignore them, focusing solely on my lovely, young charge.

Bronwyn held her diploma in a white knuckled grip. She marched up to me, lips pressed in a straight line. “Outside. Now.”

“Who the hell was that girl who kept glaring at Robbie? The one who nudged you in the back?”

Bronwyn stared at me, storm clouds gathering on her brow. “She’s been in love with Robbie forever, and now he’s a single man she still can’t get him to look at her. She hates me. Don’t change the subject.”

I held out my hands in denial. “I didn’t. We don’t have a subject yet.”

People brushed around us, trying not to stare. She glanced around, noticing apparently for the first time the number of eyes on us, slavering for details of our disagreement.

I allowed her to take my hand and tug me outdoors. Out in the smooth blackness of the night, she shoved me back and poked a finger in my chest. “For fuck’s sake, what the hell are you playing at? You already told me I’m a free woman. If I want to dance with him and try to resurrect my relationship, you can’t stop me.”

God that hurt. The fact that it was true made it hurt worse. “Look, he’s an idiot. You can do better than that.”

“Yes, well, I tried. And that didn’t work.” She turned away to hide her pain. The tense set of her shoulders said more than anything else ever could. I touched her and watched her melt and turn to me. She was bravely struggling with her tears. A feather light touch to her beautiful green eyes made her smile.

“We have one night. One night.” I reached for her, but she was already in my arms, warm body against mine, heart aching in time with mine. I was grateful she couldn’t see me. My ability to fight the battle against myself to hold her at arm’s length slipped another notch.

I closed my eyes, not allowing the outside world to see the love I had for her.

“One night is all I ever asked for. No promises from you—I’m not stupid. I realized that early on.” Her forlorn voice was muffled against my chest as she breathed deeply of my nonexistent scent.

We stood for the longest time, holding one another, simply basking in the warmth of our shared existence. I drew in a breath to tell her we had to talk, when the music started. It was the dance of the debutants.

Bronwyn pulled back and stared at me with carefully masked features. I could still see the turmoil inside her and felt my own. It was shredding us. “That’s our cue, my beautiful angel.”

I smiled ruefully and gestured toward the brightly lit room with all the laughing people. “Lead on, MacDuff.”

She slipped her arm through mine, and we went to the dance floor.

I made sure the people parted before us. Not that it took much effort.

Most people couldn’t take their eyes off us—we did make a gorgeous couple. Ebony and ivory, carefully entwined. The fact that we were also both beautiful women certainly didn’t hurt.

We took our place, gazes locking as all others around us disappeared. We were more natural a couple than the schoolgirls and schoolboys with their mothers and fathers all around us. We knew each other in a way that none of them ever could.

I led her around the dance floor, and she held me tight. I can say I enjoyed the dancing experience. Even with the partner changes that had me stuck with a whole load of gangling, uncoordinated schoolgirls who got even worse when I held them. Through it all, I could not take my eyes off her. Her natural good spirits reasserted themselves, and she whirled in time to the music, laughing with her dance partners.

I was amazed at her ability to remain calm and enjoy the evening, even with the uncertainties of her life.

Finally, the music stopped, and she caught my stare. I’m afraid my eyes may have said much more than I wanted them to because when she walked toward me, it was as though the entire world faded away, leaving just the two of us.

Together.

I liked the sound of that more than I cared to admit.

The energy between us crackled as the music started up again, and we began to dance. I held her in my arms and spun her around the room, and we both laughed wildly. She was one of the best sixties dancers I’d ever seen, swimming, snorkeling, and generally wiggling and waving all over the room with gay abandon, causing a lot of the people to laugh, me included. A few people tried to take my partner from me, but I stopped that from happening. She had me transfixed with her wild energy and full acceptance of the demands the music made of us.

Some time later, I led her off the crowded dance floor and past the sparsely populated tables, to the outside of the circular building.

She was breathing hard, and I made sure I remembered to do at least that for her. I didn’t, after all, want to freak out any of the human folk inside the hall.