Adrian was with me today. Ryder had allowed him to come to the club to keep me busy. Ryder noticed the walls closing in around me, as I waited for him to turn up any information on my would-be assassin. Outside of the little field trip last night, I’d been kept inside, and it was driving me insane. I wasn’t as bothered by staying inside as I was by being idle. I wanted to be doing something helpful, and all I was doing inside was sitting and waiting. Waiting sucked. I'd tried not to let it show, but some of it must have, because Ryder had allowed my ex-boyfriend to come in and keep me company while he'd gone out to hunt today.
“So, how are you adjusting?” Adrian asked from where he sat across the table.
We'd ended up sitting at one of the many booths on the club’s ground level. The club looked abandoned in the early morning hours, and the only people inside were Ryder’s crew. Mazzy Star’s Fade Into You was playing softly over the club’s music system. “I'm adjusting,” I said as I lifted my eyes and met his vivid turquoise ones. My world used to revolve around those eyes, until he'd left me to think he was dead for years. I was tempted to confront him about his stretching the truth about the night he ‘died’ and the choices he’d made, but I wasn’t really ready to rip that scab open yet.
“Cute fangs,” he said, smiling as he reached up to move his spiky bangs away from his bronzed skin.
I grinned impishly. “I'm not going to say the same thing about yours.”
“Didn't figure you would.” He smiled and licked his fang wickedly with his tongue.
“You know you’re an ass, right?”
“Always. You expected it to change?” he asked, raising a brow.
I smiled softly and shook my head. I was glad he was here, and, yet, I felt uncomfortable under his close scrutiny. It wasn’t the same as it had been before, when we'd been together. “No, I always knew better than to think you’d change.” I grinned, and toyed with the tea bag in the glass mug that sat untouched before me.
Ryder had ordered the tea before he’d left today. He had been a little overprotective since I had gotten sick back at the house, but I hadn’t had another bout of losing my cookies since that awful morning. I knew already that when I tasted it, it would be perfectly made. He knew exactly how I took my tea, and that worried me a little bit. I hadn’t drunk it around him before, so he shouldn’t have been able to figure out that I liked it with sugar. I brought the mug up, and inhaled the soothing chamomile. The light scent of sugar made my lips quirk up. I tasted it, and a smile broke across my face.
“Wish it was me who brought that beautiful smile to your lips, Synthia. I'm thinking it wasn’t though,” Adrian said with a soft, comforting smile on his mouth.
“He ordered my tea, right down to the two teaspoons of sugar,” I said as if he should know how it made me feel, or that I was a little worried that Ryder knew it.
Adrian gave me a confused stare for a moment, before moving it to the glass mug. “You like tea?”
A smile tugged on my lips. “And coffee,” I answered.
“I knew you liked coffee; had no idea you liked tea though,” he replied as something behind me caught his eye. “We got company.”
I turned, watching as Adam, his dad, and Ryder's men approached us. “Syn, this is my dad. He has a few things to talk to you about,” Adam said with a little more formality than I was used to from him.
I blinked. I had no idea how to address a King, and Adam's father was just that. He was the freaking Dark King! “Uh,” I faltered. Even dressed like a human in jeans and a button down dark-green shirt, the man had a regal bearing and radiated power like a generator. His height and frame were exactly like Adam’s was now. However, his facial features, like the sky-blue and sapphire-blue two-toned eyes and blue-black hair that was much like Ryder’s, set them apart.
“Synthia, it's a pleasure to meet you. I have heard nothing but good things about you from my son,” The Dark King said with a patient smile, and ancient eyes that probed my face.
“I haven't heard much about you at all,” I replied honestly.
“May I?” The Dark King asked, indicating a chair next to the booth we sat in. I watched him pull it closer, waiting for my answer.
“Of course,” I replied, not sure which I wanted more at the moment—to run from the Dark King or to hug Adam. I met Adam's gaze and smiled. “You’re okay?”
“I've been through hell, but I think I’ll be okay. You?”
“Same, been through worse.”