Addict (Hunter #2)(13)

“Not a simple client then? I can feel your emotion. You’re very angry with that woman. Take a deep breath. Acknowledge the emotion without letting it get the best of you. It’s all right. I’m with you. You won’t be forced to do anything you don’t like.” The vampire’s hand gently pushed the sleeve of my sweater up and his thumb rubbed soothing circles across the skin on my wrist. He pushed a sense of calm toward me and I accepted it. It helped me think with a clear head.

Act. Don’t react. My life had become a series of psychiatric homilies. Acknowledge the emotion so it can’t get the best of me. I remembered a time when I acknowledged the emotion by drinking a bottle of tequila and pretending it didn’t exist, like the rest of the human world. Of course, that was before I realized I had a violent, bloodthirsty she-wolf sharing my soul, and she loved to react. So I took a deep breath and promised I wasn’t going to fight. I didn’t need to. I won by simply staying calm.

Liv turned toward us and her eyes lit up. “Kelsey, they said you were coming back, but I didn’t quite believe it.”

She walked toward us, her heels clacking on the hardwood floors.

Everything about Olivia Carey was delicate and feminine. She was a witch of moderate power and I’d met her in high school. I’d been an outsider all my life, the weird kid no one really wanted to be around. Growing up, I’d only had my two brothers, Jamie and Nathan. Jamie was six years older, so he had taken the role of protector. Nathan had been my playmate. The man who raised us had been a hard, violent person who despised my existence for reasons I only so recently understood. It had been difficult to make friends under those circumstances. Liv had been the first person outside of my brothers to take that chance.

Of course, she’d also been the person who offered me up to the king on a silver platter. Rather than giving me a heads-up on the whole “you’re a freak and the king wants to put you in a cage” front, she kept her mouth shut and encouraged me to walk into the cage on my own.

“You look great,” Liv said with a wary smile.

She looked fragile, like she hadn’t slept much lately. It struck me that Liv was the type of woman the king would likely sit down with and discuss her troubles and find out how he could help her. He would treat a woman like Olivia with respect and kindness. He wouldn’t scream at her and slap leg shackles on her to see if she’d turn from Jekyll to Hyde for him. I wasn’t the girl men opened doors for or sought to take care of. I suppose that was why I’d immediately fallen for the two who’d done those things for me.

I turned my chin up to look at my escort. I focused on keeping my emotions buried under a nice protective wall. The last thing I wanted to do was upset Marcus. I’d managed to shield when the king had tested me. I wasn’t going to upset him over this. “Could you take me to my rooms instead, Hugo? It’s been a long day. I think I’d like to take a nap and wait for Marcus.”

Liv’s lips turned down as she turned from me to the vampire. “Kelsey, please. I need to talk to you.”

As for Hugo, his eyes narrowed as he glanced from Liv to me. “I read your file, Kelsey, dear. This is the friend who betrayed you?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I would prefer to avoid her.”

“You can’t avoid me forever,” Liv said stubbornly.

“I can sure as hell try,” I grumbled.

Wells took a step toward Liv, his eyes not unkindly. “It would be best if you waited to confront her when her trainer is around. She has strong emotions concerning you and while she’s doing an excellent job of controlling them, it would be easier if Marcus was the one with her. I’m merely a standin.”

“Why does she need someone with her?” Liv’s questions became rapid-fire bullets, pelting the vampire. “What are you doing to her hand? Are you trying to control her? I want to know what’s going on. I tried to call her for months, but someone named Lucia kept putting me off.”

“Ms. Owens is in training,” Hugo began.

The door to the elevator dinged suddenly. It startled me for a moment, a sure sign I was emotional. I turned, looking for a threat, but I smiled as my world was filled with glorious, grubby little boys. My mood went from dour to shiny in an instant.

“Kelsey!” Lee Donovan-Quinn plowed off the elevator and powered down the hall. He was nine years old and so heartbreakingly handsome I feared for women everywhere when he came of age. Now he was a boy in a T-shirt and jeans, with sneakers that needed to be tied.

I knelt down and braced myself for impact. I had a ton of reasons I didn’t want to come back to the Council HQ. Lee was the one reason I did. Somehow I’d formed a connection with this kid, and I didn’t even try to deny it.

“Hi, Lee,” I said as he threw his arms around me.

He’d written me while I was in Italy, his warm e-mails full of questions about how my training was going. We’d talked a few times over the computer, his little face a welcome sight as he told me all about how school was and which Xbox game he was currently playing. I’d written him back or told him about all the places Marcus took me to. Holding Lee in my arms made me understand how much I had come to care for the boy. I couldn’t help myself. I kissed the top of his thick dark hair. It felt right to be with him.

It had occurred to me that he was Donovan’s way of keeping track of me, but I didn’t care.