Watercolour Smile (37 page)

“How long would that take?”

“A long time—but some of the Voda’s power is always transferred to their first child. Even before the death of the Voda, the Voda heir will have a certain influence over people.”

Poison was right. Quillan
did
have an influence over people. When he gave a command, most people acted before there was even a chance for them to consider his words properly. His eyes harboured a melting pot of power that was able to wrap around you and buy your allegiance, your obedience. I remembered wishing that Tariq and I could have lived with Quillan instead of Gerald. I had wished to be near him, and I was always ready to obey his every command.

I wondered, then, if I had ever said no to Quillan.

I couldn’t recall.

Danny and Mike pulled up in the driveway ten minutes early, and I eyed the sleek, navy-blue convertible from an upstairs window, wondering—once again—why Danny worked at a tattoo parlour and drove a car like that. Maybe he rebelled against his rich Zevghéri parents by taking on a part-time job. We descended the stairs and Mike flushed a light pink as he took in Poison’s high-waisted leather skirt and loose silk blouse. The blouse was completely see-through, showing a child’s Spiderman singlet beneath, cut off at the midriff. She had a piercing through her bellybutton in the shape of a moustache, and beneath her boots she wore knee socks that were also decorated with moustaches. Somehow, she pulled the whole ensemble off and managed to look like a slightly insane supermodel. Danny only glanced at her before turning to me, which struck me as odd and sweet all at once. He was leaning up against a hall table, his arms folded; his signature posture.

“Hey, Duchess.” He straightened and walked back out to his car, so I followed.

“Hello,” I said to his back.

He opened the passenger door for me while Poison and Mike fell into the back.

“Pick your music.” He reached over me to pull open the glove box, revealing a stack of CDs.

I sorted through them until I found a band name that I recognised, and then I inserted the Coldplay disk.

“So,” Danny said between songs, “this isn’t a date, right?”

Poison inserted her head between our seats. “My little munchkin doesn’t date. She’s too pure for high school shenanigans.”

“I see.” Danny’s tone was easy, but there was a frown pulling at his mouth. He was probably thinking about the fact that I had been living with the Adairs and pretending to be their sister this whole time. That wasn’t such a
pure
thing to do. “Well I’m glad you chose me to… not date.” His frown tipped into a smile. “Should I fight off the other guys tonight or go home with another girl?”

I knew my jaw was a little unhinged, but then again, Danny wasn’t exactly the type of person to dance around an issue.

“You can do whatever you want,” I said.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

We arrived at Reds and Poison told me to wait in the car while she went in with the boys. Ten minutes later she came out and got into the car with me, handing me an ID.

“What’s this?” I held up the card, examining the picture of the pretty, dark-haired girl. Her name was Sally Harold.

“I just borrowed it.” Poison pulled my hair around my face to partially blur-out my features and then she dragged me out of the car.

The security guard barely even glanced at my card, and Poison returned the ID to its owner once we were inside. We found Danny and Mike in a booth that was raised on a platform to look over the dance floor. Danny stood and motioned for me to take his seat.

“I’ll get drinks,” he announced. “Any preferences?”

“Beer.” Mike was watching the dance floor.

“What do we feel like?” Poison turned to me.

“Anything but tequila.” I made a face, remembering the hammer that had taken up residence in my skull after my night with Silas in Belle Haven.

“Vodka sodas for us,” Poison told Danny.

He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned toward the bar. I watched him go, taking in his black jeans and the white t-shirt that clung to his broad back, leaving his tattooed arms bare. He looked kind of… mean… but he was so easy-going I barely even noticed his outward appearance until I really focussed. I watched him lean against the bar. The bartender grinned at him, dipping forward so that he could shout his order into her ear. Her red lips pulled into a polite smile and she chatted with him—as much as was possible in a club as loud as Reds—while she made our drinks. As she laughed at something he said, I saw the interest spark in her eyes. I cocked my head to the side, examining Danny again. As if he could feel my eyes, he turned his head and caught me staring. His smile revealed the hint of metal in his mouth and I quickly turned away, a little embarrassed that he might misconstrue my interest.

“He’s a little contradictory,” I told Poison and Mike, who had both witnessed me staring.

Mike laughed, stretching his arm out over the back of the booth. He must have been touching Poison’s shoulder, because she arched her eyebrow.

“He’s nice.” Poison nodded toward the bar, and I caught the sarcastic smile that hinted behind the polite curve of her lips. “You could do worse.”

I bit down on my lip to keep from either laughing at what she had said, or scowling at her for saying it. Danny returned and slid them their drinks before handing me mine. I thanked him and sipped at the straw, turning my attention to the dance floor. I flinched when I spotted Cabe. He had a girl on each arm; they appeared to be halfway to drunk and all the way arguing with each other. Cabe didn’t seem likely to interject anytime soon, even though they were leaning around him to sneer at each other. One would lay a hand on his arm to tell a joke and the other would pinch her in some place that Cabe couldn’t see. It was so amusing to watch that I was almost able to ignore the bond urging me to pull their hair out for standing so close to him.

“Do you want to dance or something?” Danny asked, turning to look at what held my attention. Not wanting him to see Cabe so early in the night, I quickly grabbed his arm and his eyes snapped straight back to me… or more specifically, my hand.

“Ah. Yeah, sure,” I said. “Who doesn’t like dancing?”

“Me.” He was smiling that easy, wide smile that I had come to expect from him.

I released him, trying to be covert about moving a few inches away. I covered up the movement by leaning over the table for the little stand that held the cocktail menu. I played with it, spinning it around in circles.

“Aren’t you a musician?” I asked, recalling Danny playing the drums in music class.

“Hmm,” Danny answered. “That’s right. Musician—not dancer.”

“You should come and see us play some time,” Mike chimed in, looking from me to Poison. “We play down at the Door on Friday nights. It’s a pretty cool crowd.”

“You’re in a band together?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Danny replied. “You’ll meet the others tonight probably, they said they were going to be here.”

“Cool.” I tried to covertly look back to the dance floor, but Cabe had disappeared. “I’m just going to run to the bathroom.”

“I’ll come with,” Poison said, as the boys got up to let us out of the booth seats.

She led the way, since I had never been to Reds before, but I grabbed the back of her skirt to pull her up once we were out of sight.

“Have you seen Noah yet?”

“Nope.” She came back to me and we pressed ourselves to the wall, peeking back to the dance floor. “I saw Cabe earlier.”

“Me too—oh, I found him.” I pointed out Noah, who stood with Cabe by the bar. “I can’t see Amber.”

“I can.” Poison dragged me out a little further and pointed to the booth we’d left Danny and Mike in. “Seems like she’s moved onto your date.”

I stared at the back of Amber’s head. Her silky black hair swept into the crook of her neck as she dipped over the table and planted her elbows against the surface. She was facing Danny, but I couldn’t tell if she was talking or not. I realised, watching Danny, that he barely ever showed any real emotion. He was easy, he smiled, he flirted a little, but he never seemed… affected. He was grinning casually at Amber right now, and when she reached over to brush his hair back from his forehead, he caught her wrist. I waited to see if he would push her away or pull her closer, but he simply held her wrist as she continued to flirt with him. After a few minutes of watching them, I dismissed the scene and sought out Noah and Cabe again. They were walking toward the booth and there was a blond girl on Cabe’s arm. She looked vaguely familiar to me, but the dots didn’t connect until she slid into the booth seat beside Danny, leaning over to kiss his cheek in greeting.

“Oh no,” I said. “It’s happening.”

I almost ran back to the table as Amber straightened and turned to Noah. She saw me coming over his shoulder and smirked, stepping into his personal space. My mind went blank and my tongue felt like it weighed a ton, otherwise I might have shouted out something. Noah’s hand lit upon her waist and he pulled her into him. I turned away, then, a heaviness forcing all the moisture from my dry mouth to gather in my damp eyes.

Now that I was faced with the actual act of interfering, I found that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. What right did I have? I had gotten angry at Silas for insinuating that I owned them in some way, yet here I was, proving him right.

It wasn’t fair on them. I didn’t want to trade places with Amber. I was pandering to the will of my bond, something that I didn’t even consider a
part
of me. Yet, somewhere along the way… I had stopped fighting it.

Maybe I never started fighting it.

I kept my head down and swept past them, my eyes on the table.

Don’t look. Don’t look.
Don’t look
.

A hand snagged my arm before I could sit down, and then I was gliding over the sticky club floor. I blinked at the retreating vision of Amber’s furious face until the hand pulled me around the corner.

“Let me go!”

“No,” Noah growled. We fell into a dark hallway and he slapped a hand against the wall beside my head, finally releasing me. He lowered his face to mine, whispering, “What the hell are you doing here?”

I laughed, and his eyebrows shot up. I couldn’t help it.
This
was how I managed to stop him kissing Amber? All I had done was walk past them. It felt good to release the terrible premonition, even if it could happen again in five minutes time—I had still managed to thwart the very vision that had been plaguing me for so many days now. A finger caught my chin, lifting my head. My laughter died off immediately, because Noah’s mouth was an inch from mine. His face was too close to see his expression, so I dropped my eyes and pushed against his chest. He didn’t budge, and my own chest was suddenly aching terribly. Noah’s fingers tightened, lifting my face until I wasn’t sure whether the sudden pressure against my lips was the warmth of his breath, or the touch of his mouth. The anxious pricking spread over my skin, turning my lips numb and forcing a darkness into my head.

I slumped, and he caught me.

“And here I was thinking that you were going to make her cry.”

Noah stumbled away from me as Cabe walked over to us, his attention on his brother. I began to tremble, using the wall to support my unsteady weight. My negative reaction to them was significantly stronger all of a sudden, and I didn’t understand why. I glanced at Noah; his features were masked in the same confusion that danced around inside my chest, wreaking absolute havoc with everything that I had believed, until now. Was the itching feeling something supernatural? Like the bond? I had assumed that it reflected my feelings, but my feelings for Noah hadn’t
changed
, I didn’t think.

I ran back to the table and slumped down next to Poison, snatching up the drink that I had abandoned earlier and tossing it back. Danny cocked his head from the other side of the booth and I stood up, muttering something about getting another drink. He caught up with me halfway to the bar, his fingers brushing lightly over my shoulder.

“Hey there, rebel without a cause, I should probably get this for you. You don’t have an ID.”

“Oh. Right.” I stopped moving and he walked up to the bar and ordered my drink.

“Everything okay?” He returned, pushing the glass into my hand.

“Sure,” I mumbled. “I just feel funny.” I attempted to take a sip but the room tilted violently to the side and Danny’s arm shot out, catching me.

“What’s going on?” His brows pinched together, forming a severe line. “You only had one drink. Did you take something? Is that why you keep disappearing?”

“Take something?” I asked as he righted me and stole my glass, tipping back the rest of my drink and setting the empty glass onto a nearby table.

One of his hands was still on me, somewhere between my waist and my hip; his fingers were biting softly through my blouse. Something tickled in the back of my mind, telling me that Danny touching me was not something that I wanted, but then the room spun again and his other hand wound around my arm, almost fully supporting my weight.

“Stephan… um… Seraph?” he stumbled over my real name, as most people had been over the course of the last few days. “What the hell?”

I blinked at his face, trying to bring him into focus, and then I smiled widely. He blinked back at me, surprised.

“You’re scary,” I whispered, flicking the black metal bar that cut through his left eyebrow. I stuck out my tongue and his eyes dipped down, something heating in his expression, a slow boil of emotion that threatened to reveal itself to me. “Show me,” I demanded.

He grinned and the tongue piercing appeared briefly, pushed out between his teeth.

I peered at it and then gasped and reeled back. “It changed colours!”

He laughed and shook his head. “Nah, Duchess. You’re just high. What did you take?”

“I’m not high.” I frowned, turning toward the railing that bordered our raised platform. I ran at it, coming up hard against it, laughing. I leaned over, watching the dancers below. I felt Danny beside me a moment later, his eyes heavy with curiosity.

“I should probably take you home,” he mused.