Ch. 47
We headed back to the hotel at three so that we could clean up and present ourselves to the Court on time.
I put my hair up in a bun with chopsticks in keeping with my Chinese theme and put on heavier makeup than usual to make my eyes dramatic. As I was putting on my lipstick, an understated shade of red, James came into the bathroom. “What is taking you so long?” He broke off as he came around to lean on the doorframe and saw me.
Dubious of the wisdom of the ensemble chosen for me my hand froze, lipstick halted mid swipe.
“What? Is it too much?” His reaction made me question Tonya’s choices. She could pull off exotic, not me.
He was shaking his head, an odd expression on his face. “It’s so…I’ve just never seen you look so, dramatic. It’s perfect, they’ll be very impressed.” Pushing off the doorframe, he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, lowering his head to my neck. James rubbed his lips along my neck and down to my collarbone. My insides fluttered and my breath caught; he chuckled at my reaction and the vibration had me biting my lip.
I had to swallow a couple of times first, but managed to warn him off. “If you want me to walk out that door, you are going to need to take two very large steps back.” Slowly he pulled back and I missed his cool touch as soon as it was gone. In a blink, I thought of something I hadn’t before. “James, are we going to have to hold onto each other the whole night? Are they going to let us stay together? Or do you think your eating will be enough?”
There was a flash of the dread on his face I knew he’d been attempting to hide from me. With our connection, I had been feeling more and more from him. I knew he was nervous about this meeting as much as he tried to deny it. Our bond also let me in on something he hadn’t vocalized, the fact that he did not fear the Court. There was someone there he trusted. Someone he didn’t want to tell me about. The knowledge hurt and I reminded myself I didn’t want to know about his former lives, or lovers. “I don’t know what it will be like,” he said carefully. “I’ve never gone before them with a human.”
Fighting the trepidation I felt at meeting them was the simple-minded giddiness of what it meant that he had never brought a human to the Court. I was a first for him and it felt good since he was a first for so many things for me. “Do we have time to call Henry? Maybe he has some advice.” Really I wanted to ask about Stephen and find out if they were okay. “We need to tell him about the two earlier, don’t we?”
Shaking his head, he looked at his watch. “No, he’s tied up right now.”
“How do you know what he’s doing?” I studied him. “Do you have some sort of psychic link or something?” Nothing was beyond my belief at this point.
James patted his pants pocket. “Cell phone. We’ve been in regular contact while you and I have been here. He’s monitoring the situation here as well as stateside. Sasha has been handled,” he added almost as an afterthought.
Relief coursed through me at the confirmation that my friend and his family were okay. Then I hesitated. “When have you had time to call him? I haven’t heard you make one call.” Curious, I sought clarification. “Did they kill her?”
He gave me a look like I was missing something. “You do sleep, and yes, she and one of her females is dead. The other ran off. They will try to find her before they have to come home but if they don’t it doesn’t matter, one young vampire won’t attack a clan of weres.”
My temporary relief was quashed knowing the clan was still seeking out vampires. I nodded at him, “Okay.”
He understood my sudden lack of pursuit of the subject and kissed my head. Stepping away, he rubbed the tops of my arms, whispering quietly. “We should go.”
Mutely, I nodded again and we walked back into the main bedroom, gathering the last of our things before we left together to face a very scary group of very scary vampires, asking them if I could keep breathing. I wondered whether it mattered if we asked them to consider helping to stop Bradley from bringing a war before or after we asked for my approval, or if they were more likely to do something to one of us if they were displeased by either request. My imagination kept feeding me images of James’ head torn from his body or a silver stake being plunged through his heart. Goose bumps covered my arms as we stepped out our door.