Exaltation (Insight #11)(12)
“I know who he is,” she said coldly. So harsh that the girls looked at her with wide eyes, clearly shocked to hear the tone come from her.
Duncan leaned back in his seat with a satisfied grin on his face. “Good to see you, too, Emery.”
Duncan laughed darkly as he watched Emery do her best to look calm and professional. “I must say I wasn’t surprised your children would pull a stunt like this, must be something in the genes. Poor father figure perhaps…”
On reflex Raven reached for River’s arm to hold her still. First of all, you never insulted anyone River held close to her, which was all of six people. Second of all, the father issue was a bit of a sore spot for River.
She wasn’t sure who hers was, and that bugged the hell out of her for several reasons. Mainly because she knew she was gifted in the way she read text, she could speak ten languages already, and when she looked at words she didn’t see them she saw the story. She was pulled into the text so deeply that it was more like a trance. She knew her mother didn’t give her that gift and wanted to know who did. All parental figures were silent when asked. The girls had their theories though, or rather hopes.
“Whether they admit it or not, we’re sisters…,” the girls had all sworn to each other more than once.
Everyone in the room heard the secretary giggle outside the door just before it opened. Instantly Raven turned white as a ghost. Realizing if her father was there, too, this was serious, way more serious than their past infractions. The twins had the same look on their face—that oh shit stare.
Emery flushed. It was a flush of relief and something else, more than likely that burn of passion they had between them, a connection she couldn’t explain. How he always knew when she needed him, when her back was against the wall.
Their silent love affair had lasted nearly two decades, but still felt new to her, like she could lose it at any moment. That way of thinking had put barriers between them but never halted the natural thirst they had for each other, for their family.
The ornery mood of LaDay vanished as he stood from his seat to greet Jamison, who looked like the girls’ own personal knight in shining armor. He was wearing one of his casual suits, just shy of the color gray. His blue tie reflected in his eyes which were like ice with a hint of gray.
His age was unknown to the girls, but he barely looked thirty, twenty-eight perhaps. It was the power that emanated off his tall, lean, warrior build that didn’t allow many to question how he had a daughter that looked as if she were only ten years younger than him.
One second Jamison could look fierce and the next, as playful as a teddy bear. Today he was sporting his calm charm as he shook LaDay’s hand.
“I wasn’t aware you were coming,” LaDay said to him.
Jamison gave Emery a subtle wink and when he did, she felt a rush of energy move through her body. It was all that she could do to not sigh, blush. The wave was his power, energy, known as vim, and he gave it to her freely. It strengthened the immortality he had gifted her long ago, along with a deep bond the girls were oblivious to.
Each time she looked at her girls, their family, Emery thought of all that went into to conceiving them, the obvious and the not so obvious, which became apparent to her years later.
In her mind, there was no way to look at her children and not see their father in their eyes, feel the emotion, sense the fate in play.
The girls were shifting their stares between each other. Questioning how much trouble they were in, as well as Emery’s reaction to Raven’s father. So none of them noticed how ‘Mr. Berries’ turned a new shade of red.
LaDay nodded to Duncan. “This is Dr. Duncan Newberry.”
Jamison’s mischievous half grin emerged. He glanced at Emery, once more, checking her mood before he reached to shake Duncan’s hand. He had never been face to face with the man, but surely knew of all the trouble he had caused years back. “Want to be mad scientist,” is what he told Emery Duncan was, more than once.
“I can’t say I’ve heard much about you. Have you been teaching here long?” Jamison said nice and smooth, just to aggravate Duncan.
“Long enough to know a fraud when I see one,” Duncan said, as his beady stare raked over Jamison.
It was a reaction Jamison barely managed to rein in. His hand squeezed Duncan’s within a fraction of breaking it, then let his vim jar forward—a deadly weapon when it needed to be. Duncan grunted as he pulled his hand away and glared, doing his best to act as if he felt nothing beyond the rage that was in his eyes.
Jamison walked behind the girls, let his hands rest on the twins’ shoulders as he kissed the top of Raven’s head. “My girls.”
As soon he spoke Duncan turned another shade of red. The girls each lifted a brow, doing their best to gauge the awkward mood of the room.
Jamison walked around the table and took his seat next to Emery. She looked so small next to him. Emery barely stood five three, had always had a dainty figure. Her dark hair was usually worn tied back in some sophisticated fashion and reflected well against her ivory skin and luminescent green eyes. Side by side, she and Jamison looked as if they belonged on the cover of some southern royalty magazine. There was an energy about the pair of them that everyone—but Emery—in the coven had picked up on and admired from a distance.
As if it were the most casual thing in the world, Jamison extended his long powerful arm around her chair.