“Yes. First I want you to practice reading people by their pheromones.” His eyes briefly scanned the room before landing on a young couple. “Start with them, and tell me what their scents tell you.”
“Uh … you want me to smell them?” I asked. “Should I get up and go over to them?”
“See first if you can smell anything from here.”
Andre had officially lost it. Not only was the room filled with the overpowering smell of food, people had perfume and cologne on.
The thought triggered a memory. When I met up with Andre a few hours earlier, I could smell his scent underneath the cologne. Maybe it would work after all.
Slowly I breathed in the smells of the restaurant. I began tracing the much more overpowering smells back to their origins, getting the hang of it. I quickly sorted out the overpowering smells of food and perfume, and focused on the fainter but more primal smells. It was like distinguishing colors.
I followed the different scents back to their various owners until I caught the young woman’s. She was smiling, but a familiar cloying scent betrayed her.
I turned to Andre. “She’s scared.”
Andre only smiled. “Now the man.”
It took me a few minutes to sort out which smell led back to him. When I did, I couldn’t place the scent. I looked at Andre, but he gave me nothing, so I guessed. “Guilt?”
“Can you confirm it?”
“How could I possibly—” And then I smelled it. It was the smell of another woman, and it was all over his skin. “Ugh, gross! I think I’m going to be sick.” The man was cheating on his girlfriend, and he had the audacity to not even take a shower before meeting up with her.
Andre raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, it’s definitely guilt.”
“Good. You did fantastic. One of the benefits and frustrations of being a vampire is being able to sort out smells. It’s a great tool for reading people, and eventually it will be how you figure out who is willing to let you take their blood.”
“Ew.” I hugged myself, no longer hungry.
He ignored my response—as usual. “Smell can also be a huge distraction, both because when you’re in a crowded setting, it’s hard to distinguish separate smells, and because there are those who purposefully manipulate vampires with smell. Considering you were almost killed the other day because you didn’t sense your attacker, it is especially vital for you to know the boundaries of your abilities.”
My hackles rose at his last comment. “You expected me to sense my attacker in that sexpot club of yours? While my dead mother was bespelling the clubbers?” My voice rose at the end of the sentence, and a few of the nearby couples glanced over at us.
Andre’s eyes thinned. “Of course not. You are ignorant when it comes to our world. But that is my point—”
“If you’re going to call me ignorant, then I’m leaving.”
“Until you learn, Gabrielle, you are ignorant.”
I stood up and threw down my napkin. “I think I’m done for the evening.”
Andre stood up as well, and his height was staggering and oppressive. “We’re not finished yet.”
“Oh yes we are.” I pushed past him and walked out of the restaurant.
He followed behind me. “Gabrielle.” He spoke calmly, yet there was a distinct sense of authority to his voice. “This is not optional, and you cannot—and will not—disobey me.”
His statement pissed me off. I turned and yelled at him. “This is not the 1300s, I am not your slave, and you cannot command me—you giant misogynist!”
His hands clenched. “I am your king!” His voice boomed.
I turned away from him—big mistake.
He whipped me back to face him. Only his eyes were no longer filled with anger. Desire flashed in them a second before our lips met.
The energy that always thrummed when he was near became a living, breathing thing. It danced from my skin to his and back again.
My surprise faded into passion, and I responded to his kiss. I heard him groan, and the kiss deepened. He gathered me up and held me like a drowning man holding onto a life raft. I wrapped my arms around his neck, consumed by the kiss as our energy circuited through us.
Eventually—reluctantly—we split apart.
“Gabrielle …” he said, his voice low and his eyes deep. “I think—”
Laughter interrupted his words. The hair along my flesh rose. He was here, the man in the suit.
“Oh God …” I backed away from Andre.
“Gabrielle, what’s wrong?” Concern had crept into his voice.
“You mean you didn’t hear it?”
“Hear what?” He was looking at me curiously.
“Laughter.”
Then I saw him, beyond Andre’s shoulder. He was hardly more than a darker shadow amongst the shadows. I put a hand to my mouth.
Andre turned quickly and followed my gaze, scanning the area. But even though the man in the suit made no effort to hide, Andre couldn’t see him. I already knew that no humans could see him, but I had desperately hoped that supernaturals could.
“Let’s get you home.” He led me back to his car.