King Zeller’s brows rose. “You’re just now figuring that out?” Wide lips quirked. “Or pigs, as you put it?” Standing between King Collins and Cain, he slapped his hands down on their shoulders. “I told you she was alright.” Of course, he had. He had probably heard…“It sounded like she whacked him when he went for first base.”
My eyes narrowed on King Zeller, his eyes twinkling merrily, even as he grinned a bit sloppily…because I could feel the gentlest brush of Vampire power, the barest bit I might not have felt if I wasn’t standing so close…my glowing gaze flicked to his hands on their shoulders, realization dawning he was sending some type of emotion. King Collins didn’t appear affected, just glaring at the door behind me, like he wanted to punch the pig behind it, but from Cain’s relaxed, unmoving posture…well, that told me enough, especially when he didn’t move out from under King Zeller’s hand, letting himself be calmed with Vampire power.
Instantly, I inhaled heavily and shook my head, trying to gain control, my glow dimming a bit. “I’m more pissed at myself than him.” I waved my hands at the group behind them. “There’s no emergency, but,” I waggled my slightly illuminated pointed finger, “I do need a place to sleep tonight, so you’re all going to have to make room.” The hotel was booked with the planned arrival of the One and the Chosen, so much so, they were all sharing a large suite.
As one…every single Lajak appeared standoffish, pensive, except for Cain who was still standing relaxed. My brows slammed together at their reaction, but I inhaled slowly, still trying to calm myself…and froze. My eyes narrowed as I inhaled again, sniffing the air a bit. Leaned toward my King, and sniffed once. Leaned toward King Zeller, sniffed. Tilted toward Cain, sniffed.
My eyes found Sin over King Zeller’s shoulder. “What the hell did you rope them in to?”
“Me?” he asked innocently, even though he continued to glance over my head at the closed door, a silent calculation I knew all too well in his gaze.
I snapped my fingers above my head, drawing his attention back down to me. “Only you or I can ever put that look in someone’s eyes.” The look of someone afraid of being caught. My finger flicked to my King, but kept my gaze steady on Sin. “Vodka.” Finger flick to King Zeller. “Whiskey.” Finger jerk to Cain. “Beer.” A twirl of my finger. “And lots of cigar smoke.” Waggling of my finger at Sin. “I know you’re behind my Lajaks getting wasted.”
Elder Farrar chuckled quietly from behind King Collins, and it sounded a bit slurred. “We’re just having a little fun.” A shrugged shoulder. “We’re off duty.”
I blinked, and turned my attention back to Sin. “A boy’s night?”
And…he shuffled on his damn feet. “Um…”
Another slow blink. “Talk.” My brows lifted. “Now.”
Instant. “There may be a few spirits Elementals involved in our poker game.”
He was shoved from behind by Brann, who wobbled, grumbling, “Goddamn tattle-tale.”
I continued to hold Sin’s gaze. “How many, and who?”
“None of those Upper family snobs,” Elder Samson muttered. Then burped behind his fist. “Just a few of the elite Guardian representatives.”
I closed my eyes. “Are they as drunk as all of you?”
“Even more so,” Sin murmured, his tone vague, a touch of a pause. “They’re trying to keep up, but…well, you know.”
Yeah, I did know.
“Have none of you been listening to me?” Sighing heavily, glow firmly diminished by now, I opened my eyes, calmed. “What all of you don’t seem to understand yet, is the way life works around here. They are probably sober, only pretending to be drunk, waiting until all of you are.” Take Leric for example. He resorted to spirit long honed, cunning tricks to the point I wasn’t even sure who he was on the inside. “These people are masters of manipulation and subterfuge. Their peaceful life, also means they are bored, so they resort to games.” I grabbed King Collins’s and Cain’s arms, tilting my head toward their door, two down behind the group. “Come on. I want in on this game.” Somebody needed to take control of this situation.
“Dammit,” Sin muttered under his breath. “I knew something was wrong.”
Cain grunted, still under King Zeller’s power, and his lips lifted a bit. “I’ve only had two beers, pouring water into my bottle the rest of the time.” He chuckled quietly. “The spirits have been doing the same.”
I blinked up at him, my head tilted way back, while my other Lajaks glared.
He shrugged his shoulder under King Zeller’s hand, navy blue eyes peering down at me peacefully. “I believed it would be better for one of us to be on duty at all times while we’re traveling, which I was going to mention earlier, but spirits,” a glance to Sin, then back to me, “just started showing up in our suite.”
Mmm. I…was thinking he had stayed sober for another reason entirely, but it worked, and it might have actually been the truth, anyway. “So, you were going to take every one of my Lajaks money once they were sloppy drunk, too?”
He chuckled quietly, his tone gravelly, pleasant and deep. “And the spirits, eventually.”
King Zeller muttered a curse under his breath, and dropped his hands from Cain’s and King Collins’s shoulders, muttering, “Not happening, asshole.” He turned on his heel, turning his fingers in the air at my other Lajaks. “It’s time we got our damn heads in the game.” He bowed his head. “If anyone knows deception and maneuvering, it sure as hell isn’t them.”
Manly grunts all around with even a few fists pumped in the air.
I kept a tight grip on Cain’s arm that had turned rock solid, his muscles fairly vibrating, King Zeller’s power now gone from him. I tightened my grip, glancing up at him, where his head had instantly swung to the door behind me. Jiggling his arm a bit, letting go of King Collins when they all started moving back down the hallway toward their room, I shook my head when he glanced down to me, his jaw tight, muscles ticking on the side, nostrils flared, eyes glowing the slightest bit. I barely breathed so no others would hear—even though those who could were too drunk to listen. “Even though he tricked me, it was my own stupidity which allowed that to happen.” Another slow shake of my head. “No one else’s fault but my own, since it was my choice to get into his bed, even with your warning.” I rubbed my thumb soothingly on his arm, staring steadily into his gaze. “You and I have an agreement, and I plan to stick to it.”
His gaze flicked back to the door, muscles still ticking on his jaw, his own voice a mere breath. “You hit him?”
I nodded once.
“Hard?”
Another nod.
“Answer aloud.”