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But with the glimmering of the lights bouncing off the tinsel and other shiny decorations, along with the swaying of bodies and blinking of lights—the stillness at the round table in the corner plucked my attention over and over.
I finally stopped and sought out one of my mate’s eyes. They were at a table with Jeremy, all of them laughing and drinking. It was a merry night for everyone, except one.
Storm’s blue eyes met mine, and he stopped all conversation before getting up to walk over. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” He sidled close enough to whisper but not close enough to inhibit my motions, which could be frenzied on a busy night. Sometimes I flailed like a Muppet on crack. Part of the job, I supposed.
“Erik looks miserable,” I said, jutting my chin toward the corner where the vampire was sucking the life out of the room without even a flash of his teeth.
“He’s been like that since the battle,” Storm replied.
“Did something happen at the battle? I mean, besides going to war with Dean? Is he hurt? Does he have some kind of post-traumatic thing happening?”
Storm shook his head. “I think it’s more than that.”
“Can we find out?” I asked. My mate would do anything I asked, within reason.
“Only for you.”
Storm stopped by the table where Jeremy and my other two mates sat and, in minutes, all of them stalked toward Erik. The vamp didn’t even look up when they approached. Not very vampirey at all.
Something was wrong.
After a short conversation, all four of them approached the bar and nodded toward the back. It was my break time anyway.
“What’s going on, Erik?” I asked though my mates clearly already knew.
“I can’t get over it. I was never over it to begin with but seeing her there…”
I blew out a breath. I needed a shot myself. “Erik, explain, please.”
The vamp looked up at me. Pain deeper than anything I’d ever experienced haunting his shadowy irises. “Diana, my love, came back for you. I saw her in the battle. She never left me. All this time, decades, I thought she had left me but, when I saw her there…she was murdered, Valentina.”
I took his cold hands in mine. There was no growling from my mates. He was our friend. “She told you she was murdered? Who murdered her? She’s the one with the flapper dress, right? I saw her.”
“She told me she was murdered, and now I have to find out who robbed me of my happiness.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“There was no time.”
Chapter Five
Onyx
Asher’s mothers took my arms and ushered me into the house, leaving their son and Raven to follow. “Leave the bags in the car, dear,” Olivia, the brunette mom called. “I’ll have them taken to your room.”
“I know, Mom,” he said. “I haven’t been gone so long that I think you’ll allow me to lift a finger around here.”
“Don’t sass your mother,” Caroline, a stunning redhead chided. “Honestly, Onyx, I don’t know how you girls put up with him. We did our best with all of our children, but the twins…well, sometimes we despaired. Tell us, is he a gentleman?” They towed me along a long, high-ceilinged corridor, all of us in a cloud of pricy scent that clung to the two of them. Different scents, but they blended harmoniously together. Did they do it on purpose? Raven rarely wore any kind of scent, and mine were part of my hair-and-makeup trick that I’d once thought was my only power. With a hint of mischief, I added one of my favorite scents to theirs, just a trace, and Caroline sent me a glance.
“The room is right up these stairs.” Olivia didn’t visibly react to my stunt, either because she didn’t notice or maybe didn’t find it dignified. “I hope you’ll be comfortable and won’t hesitate to let someone know if you need anything.” Walking between the two of them, even though they’d let my arms go at some point, was like being carried along with the tide. I wasn’t sure where Raven and Asher were, but I didn’t hear any footsteps close behind us so thought they must have dropped off somewhere along the way. They’d pay when they did show up for leaving me in this very uncomfortable situation. We went up one flight after another, the two women showing no signs of being out of breath or anything while I huffed and puffed.
“Here is the room. It’s not Asher’s childhood room, which is too small for three of you, but I think you’ll find it comfortable.”
I followed them into a room right out of my childhood fantasies of a bedroom. Growing up the only girl in the family, and with no mom from an early age, I never had any frills at all, and when I left and got my own place, I was a trained assassin assigned to kill my own cousin. Somehow lace and a canopy didn’t go with that persona.
I shuddered to remember what I had become at that point. Valentina forgave me, and I didn’t kill her or even try, but it could have gone such another way. My father had succeeded in utterly ruining my brothers, but for some reason with me it didn’t take.
“Onyx?” Olivia’s tone told me it wasn’t the first time she’d spoken. “Are you with us, dear? You must be tired from your long trip.”
