Waiting (22 page)

He silenced me with a kiss before I could tell him I wasn't. I
t would've been a lie
since I was nervous, but not scared per say.

“Please don't wipe my mind.”

“Ok.” Francis shrugged and started walking back to the stairwell, fazing Brian.

“Ok?”

We all stared at him, waiting for him to say
gotcha
or something
since he hated Brian the most.

“Piper doesn't want it to happen,
” he explained before leveling a deadly glare in
Brian’s
direction. “A
nd he knows I'll kill him after slowly
torturing
him, making him watch every member of his family die before I finally let him go with t
he kiss of death.” Brian gulped
then nodded in understanding. “Oh, one more thing.” Francis strode back up to Brian and stopped only a foot away
, towering over him to intimidate him more
. “If you so much as look at Piper in a sexual
way I will detach your dangley
s with my bare hands. Got it?”

Wow. That was kind of intense.

“Got it. Promise. I swear to not tell anyone and to not have feelings for Piper.”

Francis turned to face me and Parker, who looked annoyed, whereas I was just happy to have someone else know about these wonderful beings, albeit a little
eccentric
.

“My work here is done.” He extended his hand out to Sam who took it while acting
a taken
with him. “We'll meet you back at the fort.”

With one arm wrapped around Sam's waist and one hand shot straight up in the air with a fist, he began slowly floating in the air.

“To infinity
…
and beyond!”

They shot up and out, disappearing almost immediately
after cloaking themselves
.

I couldn't help but
laugh. They acted like children
but had fun all the same.

Instead of walking, Parker grabbed onto both of us and seconds later we were back on my work floor. Brian looked ready to throw u
p but
held his ground, probably no
t wanting to seem any weaker tha
n he already did.

“You're lucky that Piper considers you a friend and that my brother has such a good sense of humor. If you think he was joking about his threat, you won't live long to regret it.”

“I understand. Perfectly.”

Parker nodded
then turned and
retrieved my purse before hitting
the elevator button.

“So
….
you're going out tonight?”

“Yeah
but it's sort of a girls night
,
I think.” I looked up at Parker who pretended like he wasn't listening to us. “But if we go out again, I'll let you know.”

He no
dded in understanding then got i
n the elevator once the doors opened.

“Thank you, again. Maybe next time I can get some questions answered. Call me if you need anything.” He was cut off
 
when
the doors slid shut.

“Wanker.” Parker closed his lips and looked down at me with a grin, seeming to have said the words out loud by mistake.

“Sorry about that.”

“Not a problem. Let's head home.”

We flew down the stairs and beat Brian who was walking out of the elevator just as we exited the building.

“Can we stop by my place first? I need to get actual going out clothes.”

His smile was suspicious
and
he didn't explain.

“Got your clothes and some other belongings at my place for you, in
preparation
for tonight.  B
ut if there's something specific that you don't think I would've grabbed, then yes. Oh, and I fed Princess too.”

He winked as we started around a corner into an alley.

“That reminds me.” I turned to face him, wanting to see his face. “Do you have anything to do with the fact that Princess died and then came back to life a few times?”

His lips twitched, making me grin, waiting for him to answer.

“You were
so sad the first time she died.
I had your building manager replace her before you got home since he had access to your apartment.”
I knew it! “I've had him
replace her a good dozen times, though he has no recollection of it.”

I stood on my tip toes and kissed him.

“Jules and I thought she
was some sort of super goldfish
since she's lived for over a year now. And since she came back to life so many times.” He is so thoughtful, too thoughtful maybe. “You can stop replacing her now. I was only upset the first time she died because of my Grandma. I'm really not attached to the goldfish or anything.”

Parker chuckled.

“I know. I just thought she was good company while
you sat and talked to her
staring out at the sky.”

“It's really embarrassing that you know so much about me. But since you still seem to like me, even while knowing all my lame quirks and personality traits, I'll let it go that you spied on me all these years.”

“Spied on is kind of a harsh term.” I rolled my eyes and smiled at his defensive tone. “Ready to go?”

“Yes. Can we get some food for me? The human needs to eat, not drink, to stay alive.”

He kissed my forehead then wrap
ped me tightly against him and
took off flying, cloaked so no
one could see us in the day light. He hovered above the building, looking down at me with a smile.
The cold chill surrounding us wasn’t as bad as it used to be. Or maybe I’m just getting used to it.

“I've got it all taken care of.” He kissed the tip of my nose and I eagerly climbed around him until we were face to face, pressing my lips to his and rotating my hips against his. “We'll be home in no time lover, hold that thought.”

He chuckled when I pulled his face back to mine, ignoring the sting of our clothes flapping against my skin since he was now traveling faster than ever trying to get back to his place.

FIFTEEN

“Those aren't my clothes.”

We'd gotten home about forty minutes ago and gone straight to his bedroom to finish what I'd started in the sky, after he assured me no
one else was here.

I cleaned up in the bathroom then came out to look through what he'd brought from my apartment, only to find that none of the girls clothes in his room were mine.

“Yes, they are.”

He looked at me expectantly, as if I was about to catch onto his joke.

“No. I've never seen these before.” I picked up an especially slinky dress, purple with a black belt just beneath the breast line, then looked back at him when I felt the scratchy tag rub against my arm. “Did you buy these clothes?”

“Yes. They're for you. Do you like them? We can throw out whatever you don't like, or what doesn't fit.”

Throw out? He obviously didn't care about money.

“Thank you
but you really didn't need to buy all these clothes for me.” There were probably twenty dresses hanging, all with tags still on them, beautiful as can be. “I mean, I don't expect you to buy me things.”

He assured me it was nothing and that he simply wanted me to have things at his place, so I'd feel comfortable.
 
Comfortable and spoiled are two very different things.

Parker made me pasta, delicious
Mostaco
l
li
with a Caesar
salad. Not a bad meal for a late lunch. He watched me eat, or devour, that seemed to be the more appropriate term since the food disappeared faster than I thought possib
le. Not eating my normal brunch
messed with my system.

By five o'clock Francis and Sam reappeared, got ready in less than five minutes and were dressed and looking beautiful almost instantly. They'd look sexy in sweats, so breathtaking was a more suitable word for when they tried.

We talked in the make-
shift living room for a bit before Sam got restless and begged us all to go out.

Sam wasn't happy with the dress I'd chosen and helpfully brought me back into her room where she dressed me in a glittery red dress that clung to my neckline with a deep V in the back, exposing a
lot of skin and barely covering my ass. She gave me a backless bra that stuck to me and held my brea
sts up.
 
I felt beautiful in it
but it seemed just as ridiculous as the swim suit she'd made me wear.

Parker ch
anged his tie to match my dress and
dressed in all black like Francis, who wore a silver tie. He'd looked upset when I first came out sporting a different outfit, but Parker didn't seem to mind at all. Why would Francis care?

Our first stop was a bar in my neck of the woods where I eagerly sipped on a fruity drink until I told them I was ready to leave. It didn’t seem like good manners to sit and drink while they all stared at me. Sam got plenty of attention and kept herself busy, but looked thankful when it was time to go.

We ended up at a club I never knew existed, mostly because it seemed to be a vampire hotspot and humans wouldn't know about it unless they came with one or was a willing donor off the menu.
 

There were no signs on the outside of the
towering,
dark brick building indicating what it was or what it was called, but once inside, there was a large red neon sign that read
'ETERNITY'
before you walked down a long black hallway, opening up into what seemed like an endless dance
floor, all w
hite with lights illuminating the square plates,
and only a few lights hanging from the tall ceil
ing. I could see perfectly well
though I'm sure my friends could see even better.

On the wall in the hallway, right before you entered the actual club, was a list of rules we all had to obey.

1-No biting unless willing

2-No fighting inside the
premises

3-Tip your waitress

Simple enough.

A room hung above u
s with glass floors and sides
, revealing everything and everyone, including the sexual acts that were being displayed to all the onlookers. It might've been
a part
of the club scenery since no
one seemed surprised, but it seemed like a little much, though it didn't bother me.

Parker kept me close to his side with Sam and Francis protectively standing in front
of
and behind us. I felt like a burden to them, nothing more than a nuisance at how weak and vulnerable I was in their normal
surroundings
.

We grabbed on
e of the many open black booths
since mostly everyone was gyrating on the dance
floor with multiple partners to w
hat could only be described as
 
erotic
music
blaring from all sides of the room.

There were hundreds of people on the dance
floor, but only a handful close to our vicinity, making it easier to talk to one another in our almost secluded corner of the club.

Francis grabbed one of the few human's available and brought her closer to the crowd before feeding from her while moving to the music. Sam did the same to one of the hunks t
hat looked more like decoration;
shirtless with a grin, almost too happy to be dragged away and fed on.

There were a few Pulpa's here,
their red eyes giving them away
though no
one seemed to have a problem with them. I though
t they were in some sort of war
but
guess I was wrong. And was it my imagination or did they really keep looking in my direction?

“Sorry if it's too loud. We don't need to stay long. Sam will forget all about us soon enough.”

Parker sat next to me
,
not letting me out of arms reach as if afraid someone would try and take me. A waitress came by and he ordered a few drinks before she disappeared into the crowd to get them.

No matter how hard I tried
not to,
my gaze would always drift back to the glass room above us every few minutes.

“I'm fine. It's kind
of intense in here
but it looks fun.” I smiled at him, hoping to reassure him.