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I give myself a small shake. I didn’t realize that I’d frozen for so long. It was probably only fifteen seconds or so, but I’d stopped shuffling the cards. Standing there like a deer in headlights, even a human would have to wonder what came over me.
“Sorry,” I say, murmuring an apology. Aleks is coming closer—no doubt heading for me—but I already accepted this guy’s payment. I flip the first card. “The Fool.”
His brow furrows. “Okay. That doesn’t sound so nice. What does that mean?”
After all these years, I know the meanings of every card in my deck, whether they’re upright or reversed. Depending on who I’m reading and exactly what they’re hoping to get out of it, I sometimes make up my own, but I usually try to stick to the true meanings. I might be a fraud and a charlatan when it comes to Tarot, but I still respect it. I have to. Without my weathered deck of cards, I never would’ve survived being a lone wolf for all those years on my own before the Luna blessed me with my vampire.
The human doesn’t clear his throat, though he does shift his balance and that draws my attention back to him. Crap. He’s waiting, and I’m still a mile away, thinking of Aleks.
“Oh. Um.” Forget about Aleks for the moment, Elizabeth. You have a paying customer.Focus. The card is upright. “It’s not that bad, actually. This card means you can be a bit of a free spirit. You look on the bright side of life, and you’re open to new beginnings.”
“Really?” To my surprise, he’s listening in rapt attention to my explanation. He grins. “That’s cool.”
Look at that. I didn’t think he really cared about his fortune, and I’m pleased to be wrong. When he first approached my table, I got the feeling that he was more interested in stopping to talk to me than having his fortune told. Lust had seeped into his scent when he paused on the corner, doing a double take before backtracking to get in line behind the two teen girls I was already reading.
Of course, despite being human, his whole demeanor changed when he noticed the fang hanging off of the golden chain around my neck. The lust was still there, but so was the bitter tinge of disappointment, though he didn’t leave the line. He must be one of the humans in the know about supes—that, or maybe even a donor—because he is aware exactly what that means.
Sorry, guy. This she-wolf is currently off the market.
But even if I’ve been claimed by a vampire, that doesn’t mean I can’t spend the afternoon telling fortunes with my tarot cards. In fact, now that the whole Fang City knows I’m with Aleks, I can finally get away with it without worrying about being run off from my spot by the local law enforcement—or worse.
I flip the second. It’s the Temperance card, upright. “This one tells me that you have a big decision coming up in your personal life. You’re going to need patience for it. Don’t go for either extremes.”
A thoughtful expression flashes across his face. “Yeah… yeah. I guess that makes sense. And I get three right?”
He’s supposed to. That’s how I run my little hustle. For ten bucks, I’ll do a spread of three cards for a customer. It’s enough that I can be sure that at least one of them will be a hit, and not so many that I risk going into too much detail and dragging my client out of the haze of belief. Even someone who pays me for shits and giggles will feel cheated if I get it totally wrong.
That’s why I rely more on my shifter’s instincts than I do any kind of clairvoyance. I might be Luna-touched, but I’m no goddess. I can’t tell the future; if anything, I still can’t get over my past. Between my eyes, my ears, my nose, I can usually figure out a way to tell my customers just what they want to hear.
I would’ve for this male, too, only I never get the chance. Before I can flip the third and final card, an icy tendril reaches out at me, stroking my cheek. And maybe I could pretend it was the wind, considering it sends my hair flying around my face in a sudden gust, but I know better.
Since coming to live in Muncie at the beginning of the year, I’ve run across so many vampires. Only two were powerful enough to wield their auras as a tangible extension of themselves: Roman and Aleks. Roman because he was nine centuries old and the most recent leader of the Muncie Cadre. Aleks because he’s taken over for Roman—and because I’m his beloved so I’m exceptionally affected by him. I used to be able to sense Roman’s power like a crackle against my skin while Aleks’s has always been a gentle caress. Since taking on the mantle of leader, he’s only grown stronger.
Or maybe that’s because he’s bristling with obvious jealousy as he cuts the growing line of customers, stopping right next to the sandy-haired male.
“Hey,” the human immediately begins to argue. “It’s still my turn. You’ve got to wait—oh.”
Oh, indeed.
CHAPTER4
THREE-CARD SPREAD
On the outside, my vampire looks both dashing and contained. His curls are slightly windblown, probably from the speed he used to run from the center of Muncie to the downtown area where I’m set up, and his pale green eyes don’t have a single hint of red coloring his irises. At more than two centuries old, he’s had a lot of practice controlling his vampire side around humans, regardless of if they know about supes or not.
But I’ve gotten to know him pretty well over the last two months. Even if I didn’t, bonded males give off a dangerous edge when they think someone is poaching on their territory. Aleks thinks of me as his, and though I would never even look twice at another male, it doesn’t matter that he trusts me implicitly. The other male is too close to me. He can’t stand for that.
Instead of warning my customer back, Aleks smiles at him. He doesn’t flash any fang, but he doesn’t need to.
The human takes the hint. Muttering something under his breath that sounds like an apology, he steps aside.
Aleks takes his place.
I gather the two cards lying face-up, placing them back in the deck. I refuse to look at him as I do. I don’t actually think that, if I ignore him, he’ll go away, but I can’t help it. I’m torn between wanting to rub my flank against him, transferring my scent to him, marking him as mine and wanting to slap him for keeping last night’s close call from me.
I’m his mate. Maybe we’re not bonded yet, but in all the ways that matter, I’m his partner. I should’ve known.
He’ll be able to tell. Already Aleks knows me better than myself. I won’t be able to hide my conflicting emotions from him.
