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Silence.
“I know it’s the end of your office hours. ”
I could practically hear the crickets chirping.
“I had an idea I wanted to discuss with you. ”
Immortal black eyes, watching. Calmly. Waiting.
I couldn’t help it—that stare was too disarming. Apparently, his silence was, in fact, an awesome tool, because here came my babbling questions. Anything to make him speak. “I mean, you do have a minute, right? Is this an okay time? Do you need me to come back tomorrow? Because I can, if that’s better. ”
The inelegant outburst made me cringe.
Finally, a small smile curled his mouth. “I always have time for you, cariño. ” The words rippled over me, a rich and sensual hum, warming me. Teasing me.
Check that. Toying with me.
But this wasn’t my first tango with Master Alcántara. He’d tried this crap before, using eyes and voice and touch, trying to mess with my mind. I inhaled deeply, until my lungs burned, and held it. As my head cleared, I gave him an artfully naive smile.
He laughed then, a bright, crisp bark of a laugh that seemed to surprise him as much as it did me. “Truly, it is lovely to spend time with you again,” he said. “Just when I’d begun to fear you were avoiding me. ” He kicked out his feet, no longer looking like he was plotting either how to bewitch me or bite me, and I relaxed a little. “I confess,” he said, “your roommate surprised me. I hadn’t thought she had such depths. ”
“Frost?” I smiled, going with it, because my roommate was an infinitely better topic of conversation than me. “Yeah, who knew? I thought her inner world began and ended with irregular Norse declensions. ”
“Funny, is it not? How two talented minds can be so very different. But I’d guessed you wouldn’t be friends. Not your type. ”
He’d guessed? “So then why’d you assign me as her roommate?” I had no doubt the vampires micromanaged every decision on this island. Who roomed with whom, who got which weapons, hell, what food they served on any given day—it would’ve all gotten equal attention.
“Not I, querida. Acari Frost”—he shrugged like he found the name as silly as I did—“she is Alrik’s project, not mine. ” Alrik, meaning none other than Master Dagursson, our resident Viking vampire.
“Master Dagursson can rest assured,” I said blithely, “that girl is just as fascinated by him as he is by her. ”
His eyes shuttered. Note to self: Vamps don’t like gossiping about other vamps. Unless that vamp was Carden, who did enjoy a nice rousing round of gossip…And you can bet I shoved that thought away as quickly as it’d appeared. God only knew what mind-reading talents Master Al was privy to.
“Why have you come?” he asked frankly, those coal-black eyes suddenly laser focused. “Certainly it is not merely to tell tales about your peers. Is it that you have…extra time at your disposal?”
Crap. He was slipping back into our old rapport, a rapport that involved his creepy flirting and my panicked evasions. Clearly this was a reference to Carden and how he’d disappeared—a fact that surely hadn’t escaped Alcántara’s notice. Carden was gone, and boom, Drew had free time.
I must’ve looked freaked out, because he added an amused, “Am I mistaken?”
“I do find I have some extra time on my hands,” I said, too smart to lie. There was no pretending with Alcántara, just avoidance and redirection. “That’s why I came. I have a proposition. ” I blushed furiously. “Not that kind of proposition. I mean—” Oh God…where was I going with this? Well, if he thought I was flirting, so be it. Whatever I had to do to get closer to that castle. “I was wondering if you needed an assistant for this term. ”
His eyes widened. I could tell he hadn’t been expecting that. “An assistant?”
“Yes,” I replied, feeling a tiny rush of triumph. Anytime I could keep a vampire on his toes was a good time. “You know, a research assistant, like they have in college. ”
“What would you do as my assistant?” That last bit came out in a low, suggestive drawl.
Oh. God. Yuck. Not like that.
I needed to become intimate with the secrets of the keep without, you know, getting intimate with Alcántara. Some things I just would not do.
“I could help with papers,” I said, keeping a breezy smile pasted on my face—that good old avoidance and redirection strategy. “Sometimes you come to class with lots of materials. I could help you carry and keep track of things. I can do additional research projects for you, too. Just like at a real college. ”
He tilted his head back to study the ceiling. Apparently, our vampire instructors weren’t accustomed to assistants. While he studied the dark, gabled ceiling, I stole a furtive glance around the room. There were all manner of mysterious cabinets and books and boxes…a gold mine for a girl in search of answers.
I sensed him shifting and zipped my attention back to him. My innocent smile was beginning to hurt my cheeks.
He sighed thoughtfully, studying me. If he suspected my motives, he didn’t show it. Which wasn’t to say he didn’t suspect me, because I was certain he suspected me of all kinds of things. No doubt—the sky was gray, the sea was cold, and Alcántara was suspicious.
