“’Tis no matter,” she said, and then her voice changed. It morphed into a timbre he recognized from his own little trick, when he spoke and people obeyed as if compelled. “You will leave this place. Find the mist.”
A shot of pleasure dosed straight to the least controllable parts of his brain, coating them in a desire to obey. Her voice was like sugar and sex, and no part of him even considered defying her.
“The…mist?” he asked, irritated by the slur.
“Find the mist, David,” she purred, “and when I leave this room, you will forget I was ever here, won’t you?”
“Of course,” he said. Why would he bother remembering her? That made no sense.
She cupped his cheek. “The longer you take, the more it will hurt.”
He blinked, and before he could reply, the woman slipped from the room, closing the door with a soft snick behind her.
David stared at the door, trying to remember what he’d been doing, why he was standing in the middle of the room instead of settling in the chair before the fireplace as he’d intended, but he couldn’t make sense of it.
He shook himself and glanced at the flames, wondering who’d lit it. Ice slithered down his spine as he sat, and before he reached for his book, an urge woke to flee into the darkness outside. David wanted to see the mist as it descended over the estate in the early hours of the morning. Heneededit.
But that made zero sense, and he refused to rise from his seat. No. He’d remain right there, exactly where he wanted to be.
He would not move.
He wouldn’t.
A spark of pain ignited in his chest.
CHAPTER 5
SEAN
So maybe Sean hadn’t imagined that flash of purple in the desk clerk’s eyes.
The woman who’d shimmied her way across the dance floor toward him definitely had glowing eyes. And she wasn’t the only one.
At first, he’d ignored it. Chalked it up to odd reflections, mere tricks of the neon and LCDs that trickled over the crowd like tainted stardust. Or maybe his blood was too riddled with alcohol to see correctly.
But no. This woman flinging her arms around his neck had glowing purple eyes. Faint, yes, barely shimmering in the depths, butglowing.
“What’s your name?” he asked over the music.
In the midst of writhing bodies, she gave the sort of smile that made Sean think of scarlet bedsheets and lace-covered skin. A pretty girl, sure, but those smiles had never worked on him. Not from women. Not from men. He’d always been—and would always be—deeply uninterested.
“Why don’t you come with me and I’ll tell you?” she purred intohis ear. Her arms slid tight about him. Their bodies pressed together. The music’s bass reverberated through the floor and channeled up through his body, hijacking his heartbeat.
Sean glanced toward the bar, where Cole attempted to garner the bartender’s attention. “Can’t,” he told the girl. “I’m not alone.”
“Bring your friend.” She nipped playfully at his jaw, and he fought the urge to shove her away.
Perhaps if he hadn’t doused his good sense with ethanol, the purple light would be more alarming, but he’d already half convinced himself it was some sort of trendy contact lens.
“I think he’s a little shy.” Sean offered his most endearing smile as he extricated himself from her grip.
The purple light flared. “I can work with that.”
Maybe the purple was a side effect of some new street drug. If so, they should call it Purple Rain because if he looked close enough, he swore he could see it swirling, sparking strangely in the dark of her eyes.
He opened his mouth to turn her down, but she spun away, giggling, and bumped into another woman in a pink fedora.
Pink Fedora took one look at her and raised a hand toward Purple Rain’s heart, whose face screwed into a grimace. Sean caught her weight reflexively as her knees bent, and Pink Fedora drew back. The grimace evaporated from Purple Rain’s face. The woman looked up, blinking.
