“How long have you been doing this?” I asked.
He crunched on the candy. “A few months.”
I laughed. “That hardly makes you a pro. What did you do before this, stand-up comedy?”
“I was a guard.”
“Who did you work for?”
He groaned and rubbed the side of his face. “Not that kind of guard. A bodyguard contracts his professional services; he’s not an employee. Most people hire Vampires since we’re not easily detected and don’t require sleep. We protect their lives with our own until our services are no longer needed.”
“Your last gig must have been a doozy if you ended up here instead. Did you rush through a hail of bullets and fling your body over his, only to find it was too late?”
Christian dodged my gaze. “He was a she, and she was no longer in need of my services.”
There was a lot of implication wrapped up in that tidy little sentence. “And did you still need hers?”
He tipped his head to the side and tapped his fingers on the armrest. “You remind me of her in just one way. She always had to have the last word.” Christian bit down on his candy and put his feet on the floor, widening his long legs. “Why so glum this afternoon? Where’s that pocketful of sunshine you always carry around?”
I gave him the finger.
“Ah, there it is.” He chuckled softly and reclined his head.
Christian looked like he’d taken a pair of scissors to the collar of his thin sweater to make it wider. It showed off his collarbones and drew attention to his dark features.
“Tell me, Raven, will it be the dress tonight or the sweats? Because I’ve seen your wardrobe, and it’s astonishingly limited.”
“The black dress hasn’t failed me yet.”
“I seem to recall a few failures on the night we met.”
I put my feet flat on the floor. “Pickings were slim. Food is one thing, but I don’t fail when I’m on the hunt for justice.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Ah… justice. Tell me more about that.”
I pulled my long hair around to one side. “What exactly is your job tonight, to keep an eye on me? Do you have a scorecard in your pocket to keep track of all my points?”
“I’m your guard, remember?”
“Be my backup if you want, but I don’t need a guard. I never have.”
When I stood up to leave, Christian sprang to his feet and blocked my exit.
“No need to get your knickers in a bunch. And for feck’s sake, you can look me in the eye. I’m not going to charm you.”
“Are you going to wear that?” I asked, pointing at the loose threads hanging from his neckline.
He flashed a dark smile. “Hasn’t failed me yet.”
“I guess if you’re going to be a bad dresser, go for gold.”
“You’re a chirpy little bird.” He lowered his head, looking down his nose at me. When he hooked his finger beneath my chin to tilt my head up, I looked away. “And a pretty one at that.”
I stumbled backward, almost tripping over the edge of the sofa. “Stop trying to rattle me. I know what you’re trying to do. You want me to fail.”
“Is that so? My job is to make sure that you don’t blow our cover tonight. You might think that’s a swank little dress, but on the night we met, you smelled like the cheap soap they use in public toilets. So I hope this time around, you take a little more care with your appearance. Viktor didn’t flesh out the details, but let me clarify a few things. If you’re painted into a corner and start chatting about our group, you’ll put us all in danger. Maybe you don’t give a shite, but I do. No matter what happens—if they strap you to a train track or dangle you off an airplane wheel—don’t mention names, locations, what we do, or how we like our eggs cooked. You need to develop total fecking amnesia.”
“Don’t let this body fool you, Vamp. I’ve also got brains.”
Christian wasn’t just trying to rattle me; he wanted to sabotage me. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t trust me, and that made him a threat.
Even though Vampires didn’t give off energy like other Breeds, I could have sworn that I felt a magnetic buzz that tingled across my skin. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I didn’t bother to slow down my heart, which was thumping a fraction harder than it had been just a moment before.
But he said nothing, and I left it at nothing.
Chapter 9
That night, I armed myself with a push dagger strapped to my inner thigh. It was small enough that my black dress could conceal it, but there wasn’t room for any other weapons. While daggers were convenient, my fangs and ability to pull energy were the tools I relied on most.
I knocked back the tequila, practically rinsing my mouth out with it. The scented oils from my bath earlier made my legs look spectacular, and I crossed them as I scanned the room.