Addict (Hunter #2)(11)

I saw an opportunity in that face. I sighed and let myself look down, like I’d been properly chastised. What I wanted to do was beat the shit out of both of them. I would settle for getting the hell away. “I’m not hungry anymore. What’s the next thing on my schedule, Your Highness?”

Quinn’s face fell. I suspected his wife had told him to make friends or else. “But I had a lovely meal planned and then I was going to show you your rooms. The apartments are beautiful. I connected two units and completely renovated the bathroom per your trainer’s instructions. I understand you need a peaceful setting.”

“I’d rather see my office, Mr. Quinn,” I replied. “I’m jet-lagged and I just want to get through the day. I want to be able to go to my cell and be with my boyfriend.”

“It’s not a cell, Kelsey,” Donovan insisted. “There are no bars on the doors.”

“I can come and go as I please?” I found that hard to believe.

Donovan’s face fell. “No. You can move around the complex all you like, but I need to know when you leave and where you’re going.”

“Then call it what it is, Your Highness. A cell,” I said, knowing it would make him feel guilty and therefore more amenable to what I was about to suggest. “I would like to see my office and meet my assistant. If Mr. Wells wouldn’t mind?”

The Brit smiled. He was a dapper gentleman and he held out his arm. “I would be delighted, dear. I suspect I’ll be seeing much more of you. The king requested I spend some time here. Am I taking over her training?”

Donovan nodded shortly, his brows knitting together in a defeated expression. I was frustrating to him. I got the feeling the king preferred to be the good guy, and I constantly put him in a position to play the opposite role. “Yes, she needs an academic. I would love a shot at training her myself, but I doubt she would allow me to do it. You’ve trained Hunters before and you don’t have a companion.”

I put my arm through his and he placed his hand over mine. He sighed and I knew he felt the sensation, too. Marcus had explained it as something like being on the same frequency. An academic’s brain worked differently than the other classes, and for some reason it harmonized with mine.

“I do have a mistress,” Wells reminded the king.

Donovan shook his head, his jaw tightening. “Then don’t sleep with her, Hugo. She has a boyfriend. Marcus managed to keep his hands off her. I don’t understand this whole connection thing.”

“Because you’re not an academic, Your Highness,” the British vampire replied.

The fertility god was back. “Daniel, it’s a little like a drug, the connection between trainer and Hunter. I don’t understand how it came about, but it serves an important purpose. Academics form close bonds with the females they take to their beds. Kelsey would be able to feel the emotion from her academic lover. It teaches the Hunter that she’s desirable and lovable. It trains her to be able to accept love and affection from others. It’s extremely important. She’s dangerous if she doesn’t have close connections to others. It’s why I advised you to allow the Italian to train her. He wanted her the moment he saw her.”

Daniel smiled sadly. “I think there have to be reasons Marcus chose to leave her alone. Your host has done an awful lot to push Marcus as far from our circle as he can.”

“He will have to accept it one day, but for now, perhaps it is best Marcus doesn’t watch Evangeline grow up. It could be…disconcerting later.”

“Yeah, I know,” Donovan said. “I’ll miss the hell out of him though.”

The faery wrested control of his body back from the fertility god with a deep frown, as though he hadn’t appreciated the conversation. “We don’t have to worry about it. Now Kelsey, feel free to look around. Hugo, her office is on the fifth floor. Justin Parker is going to be assisting her, but he won’t be up until nightfall, which is almost thirty minutes away. I’ll let Angelina know to send him up to the office. He has all the information you need on your hours and the generous salary you’ll be provided.”

I nodded as Hugo was finally able to lead me out of the dining room door and into the hallway.

“What was all that stuff about Evangeline?” My curiosity was growing about the feud between Quinn and Marcus. I wished the fertility god had kept talking because Marcus was mum on the situation. “That’s their baby girl, right?”

Wells nodded. “She’s the biological daughter of the faery prince and the queen. She’s also an extremely bright companion. She’s almost as bright as her mother, probably will be as she matures.”

A lot of stuff finally made sense. “Quinn thinks Marcus will want to take her as a companion one day.”

“I suspect so.” There was a hint of chill in his voice. It wasn’t rude, but he lowered my hand and walked beside me without touching me. His next question had a hint of disdain to it. “Is your lover a supernatural creature?”

He was upset with me about Marcus. I hid my smile as we walked toward the elevator. “Yes, he is.”

“And how was Marcus when you left him?” It took everything I had not to giggle. He was worried I’d ripped Marcus’s heart out. I had a vision of Marcus forlorn and heartbroken over little old me.

“Asleep.” It had taken me several minutes to force myself to leave him. He’d looked beautiful sleeping peacefully in my too-small-for-both-of-us bed. We’d had to cuddle, and this morning I hadn’t wanted to leave the comfort of his body behind.