Robert hid his wrist until the bartender turned away, but there was no need. When he looked at the bite marks, there was nothing there. As promised, Ethan had sealed the wound back to smooth skin.
“Wow. I’m either already drunk or definitely not enough. Anything else you need?”
“You’re hard to read, Mr. Mayor,” Ethan said, “but you taste amazing.” He blushed once he realized what he’d said.
“Thanks?”
“I appreciate your time,” Bash said. “Drinks are on me, and you can call in that returned favor any time. The PI license you can have sent to my home. I’ll be in touch with any additional details. Oh, and….” He clamped his hand down on Robert’s wrist—the same one Ethan had bitten—before he could run away. “Keep your phone close and a driver at the ready. I may need you on short notice someday very soon.”
“Sure, Bain, whatever you need.” Robert nodded dutifully.
“Always a pleasure.”
“Yeah. And uhh… nice to meet you, Rookie. Just don’t corner me in any dark alleys. I’m a little worried I wouldn’t fight back.” He downed the last drink, replaced his sunglasses and hat, and lumbered off, a little more unsteadily but as swiftly as he’d arrived.
“I don’t get it,” Ethan said, turning back to Bash with a furrowed brow. “I almost felt human around him, but I couldn’t tell if I liked him or….”
“If you really wanted to punch him in the face?”
“Yes!”
“Side effect of what he is. You either love him, hate him, or feel nothing at all, usually at the same time. Perfect for a politician, really.”
“He’s not human? Or a shifter? So, what is he?”
“He’s human, but Robert Hedin is also something very rare, almost as rare as you and me. All you need to know is that the way he made you feel, he makes everyone feel, which also makes him incorruptible by supernatural influence and the perfect mayor to have in my pocket.”
Understanding shone in Ethan’s eyes, though a playfulness touched his expression too. “Seems pretty corruptible by you.”
Bash smirked. “Bari may have his charms, but the award for most corrupting is mine.” Taking Ethan by the neck, he ran a thumb along his jaw. It was tempting to kiss him right then, but not here. “Come on. You I trust. Now it’s time to find out the truth about your uncle.”
Chapter 20
ETHAN HAD never had comms in his ear before. And there were so many voices. It was as if the entire inner circle was tied in, because he could hear nearly all of them while he waited in a corner booth at the coffee shop for Leo to arrive.
“I still say we just jump the bastard and kill him out back. Sorry, Ethan,” Preston said.
“Think tactically,” Siobhan countered. “Killing him doesn’t give us any answers, which could come back to bite us.”
“Lizards always think like that.”
“You mean smartly? Why yes, we do.”
“I’m tactical,” Luke said.
“You’re a kitten, sweetie. You jump at your own shadow.”
“Hey!”
“Enough.” Bash’s voice cut through the rest. “You’re all anxious, I get it, but we need Ethan to keep calm. We’re all outside the shop, Ethan, ready to come in the moment you need us. The place is filled with other shifters, so he won’t smell that anything is amiss.”
Ethan nodded. They’d been through the plan plenty of times, and the fact that almost everyone was there to back him up, save Deanna and Bari keeping Rio and Jay occupied respectively, made it feel less insurmountable.
Even when the door chimed and Ethan looked over to see Leo enter.
He hurried over to Ethan quickly, but Ethan was nervous and unsure and couldn’t bring himself to stand. He kept his body guarded and his hands to himself as Leo sat.
“Thank you for seeing me, Ethan, but this is too public. We need to—”
“You kept me hidden. You kept me prisoner.”
“It wasn’t like that,” Leo said, so believably earnest, it almost stung worse. “I was protecting you—”
“And I was lonely. All the time. Because of you.”
“Ethan….” He tried to reach for him like he had the other night, but Ethan pulled back.
“Did you kill my parents? Just tell me. Are you a vampire? Did you do this to me?” He wanted an honest answer, the truth, the whole truth, but he needed Leo to say it.
Leo didn’t. He spread his hands on the table as if to steady himself and said, “I can’t explain. Not here. But if you come with me—”
“No,” Ethan snapped, slapping his left hand on the table—on top of Leo’s, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Leo opened his mouth to counter but stopped, as the veil lifted just as Nell said it would. He must have felt it, because Ethan did. The punch of familiar hit him like slamming into a wall. Familiar because it was his own scent echoed back.
“You are a vampire. You did this.”
“Ethan, listen to me.” Leo tried to pull from his hold, but Ethan wouldn’t let him. “You don’t understand. None of this is what you think.”
The sound of clipped steps echoed before either could speak again. “Oh, but it is,” Bash said as he came up to the table, followed by Siobhan, the others holding near the entrance to not draw as much attention to their numbers. “But you come quietly and we will be happy to hear your explanation.”
Ethan was ready for a fight. The others were too. But Leo didn’t put up any. He slid his hand out from under Ethan’s loosened grip and sagged in his chair like he’d accepted defeat.
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” he said.
“Then defend yourself,” Ethan spat. He wanted that, to believe his uncle wasn’t this cruel, but Leo wouldn’t say more.
Siobhan came forward to lift him from his seat, but still, he didn’t fight. He let her lead him from the coffee shop into the van outside. The others followed, but Bash remained with Ethan, waiting for him to be ready.
All he could do was stare after his uncle, numb now after having to accept that the man who’d raised him had ruined his life multiple times over and wouldn’t even deny it.
As Ethan rose to follow Bash outside, he didn’t notice the other pair of eyes watching him.
EVEN THOUGH Ethan had moved into his room upstairs, the bed was still in the basement. Leo sat on the edge as Bash stood before him, with Ethan held back by the door. Bash had been grilling him for information, but there was very little he’d given up.
“You’re a vampire,” Ethan said. “You did this to me. Just tell me why. Tell me the truth. Did you kill my parents? Why won’t you say anything?”
Leo flinched at Ethan’s shout but looked away, not meeting his or Bash’s eyes. “Let me leave. You’ll never see me again if that’s what you want.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Bash said.
“The spell that was on me, I’m sure your Shaman can do something similar.” Leo glanced up. “Do that for Ethan. Make him disappear. That’s how I kept him safe.”
“It’s how you kept me prisoner,” Ethan snarled. “And alone.”
The expression on Leo’s face carried no malice, and while it should have made Ethan angrier that Leo was still pretending instead of admitting the truth, it only made him more unsettled. “I’m sorry it caused people to shy from you, Ethan, but it was the only way. It’s too late now, but you might be able to hide. Take the Alpha with you if that’s what you want, but make yourself invisible…”
Ethan shivered at the intensity in his uncle’s eyes.
“…and run.”
LATER, ETHAN sat slouched in an armchair. He hadn’t been able to stay in the basement any longer, even though Bash remained, prying for anything he could get out of Leo. Preston and Luke were with Ethan, but they’d fallen into companionable silence after Ethan proved less than chatty.
The couple shared the sofa, with Preston working on his laptop, presumably doing the accounting, as Bash had mentioned,
while Luke dozed beside him. It was sweet seeing them so normal and domestic. Well, if Preston lighting a scented candle on the coffee table with no more than a wave of his hand was normal.
After a while, a low rumbling noise began.
“Is Luke… purring?” Ethan asked.
He was, but before Preston could respond, the sound of fresh voices filtered in—and it wasn’t any of the usual suspects.
It was Bari, Maximus, and Jay.
Bari sounded joyful, laughing even, as they entered the living room, but the sight of Maximus and especially Jay made Ethan’s hair stand on end with uncertainty and shame.
Jay was smiling at first too, laughing with Bari at whatever they had been discussing—even Maximus looked somewhat amiable—but as soon as Jay saw Ethan, he froze, and his expression dropped.
“H-hi,” Ethan said stupidly since everyone else went quiet. “Bash is, umm… still in the basement with my uncle.”
“And no one’s guarding the door?” Maximus snapped, back to his surly self.
“Siobhan is,” Preston said, unimpressed, with Luke groggily stirring at the addition of voices around him. “Un-bunch your panties.”
“Preston dear—” Bari clucked his tongue at Preston’s language. “—is that any way to speak in front of an Alpha?”
“I wouldn’t want anyone censoring themselves on my account,” Jay said, tearing his eyes from Ethan with obvious pain. “I don’t ask that of my circle, and I appreciate the freedom Bashir grants… most of you as well.”
He’d been about to say “all of you.” Ethan had a good idea why he’d curbed those words.
Maximus seemed put out that he’d been so effectively countered and gave a small huff before storming across the room, presumably to join Siobhan.
“Jay, why don’t I get us a drink while we wait? Anyone else?” Bari turned to the room.
Preston raised a hand, but everyone else stayed quiet, Ethan unable to stop staring at Jay and how he was very purposely avoiding looking at him now.
The pair excused themselves into the kitchen, and Ethan rose as if pulled by an invisible tether. He went only so far as the doorway, mostly out of eyeline, so he could watch them in the other room without being too obvious.
Away from Ethan, Jay’s posture relaxed, the tension smoothed from his face as well. He carried a sadness in his unguarded expression that Ethan knew was his fault. Bash’s too of course; it wasn’t as if Ethan had broken up some grand romance—Bash didn’t love Jay—but that didn’t assuage Ethan’s guilt.
Jay’s somberness didn’t deter Bari but seemed to inspire him, ever ready and eager to lighten the mood and draw out fresh smiles and laughter. They had an ease around each other already that said the past few days had bonded them. And while Ethan guessed Bari was good at bonding with most people, he wondered….
A quick glance from Jay caused their eyes to meet. Ethan, like a fool, ducked back into the living room. Spying like that would not help the situation.
It didn’t help that, a few minutes later, Jay and Bari came back in, and Jay said, “Ethan, may I speak to you for a moment?”
If Maximus had been within hearing distance, he probably would have protested, but he wasn’t, meaning Ethan had no recourse for escape.
“Uhh….”
“Just for a moment,” Jay repeated, gesturing toward the foyer.
Everyone’s eyes looked to Ethan. He couldn’t say no, so he nodded and let Jay lead him from the room, wondering if getting him alone was how Jay planned to murder him.
“I-I-I, um… I just want you to know that… uhhh….”
“You don’t need to be afraid of me, Ethan,” Jay said in a low, patient voice, though not entirely friendly. “Usually, even as an Alpha, the wolf is the one who’s supposed to be afraid of the vampire.”
Maybe—if Ethan had any desire to fight back should Jay choose to attack him.
But no, that wasn’t what Jay wanted.
“It’s more that I think you hate me,” Ethan said, leaning against the staircase banister for something to hold on to.
“Because you’re a vampire? Or because you slept with my fiancé?”
The blood drained from Ethan’s face, a sensation he was more attuned to, no longer being human. “Both? But I thought he wasn’t your fiancé anymore.”
Hardness flickered across Jay’s face, and Ethan felt like a jackass for saying something so thoughtless. “He isn’t. He can’t be. Not now.”
“I’m sorry.”
Jay sighed, losing his powerful stance, and with it, his hardness cracked. “I know you’re a victim in this as much as any of us. I’m not in love with Bashir. He certainly doesn’t love me. It was political, duty. I’d just hoped that duty could have somehow ended romantically too.” He smiled, however somber, prompting Ethan to smile back. “It was a nice fantasy while it lasted. Almost a shifter fairy tale—two Alphas bringing their packs together out of necessity and kinship only to find love where things might have remained cold.” His smile twitched as he glanced aside. “That isn’t Bashir’s style, I know. But it was fun to imagine for a time.
“Plus, he is super hot,” Jay said in such a teenage crush sort of way that Ethan laughed before he could stop himself and clapped his hands over his mouth.
Jay laughed too. Then they were laughing together, and it didn’t seem so awful between them.
“That’s about the only thing he and Bari have in common,” Ethan said.
“I’ve noticed.” Jay looked back into the living room, where they could just make out Bari’s profile as he sipped from his drink while holding Jay’s in his other hand with a wide, unwary smile that wouldn’t have fit on Bash’s face in quite the same way.
“Was that all you wanted?” Ethan asked, bringing Jay’s attention back to him.
He didn’t seem as stiff or unfriendly, but he was still an Alpha, and he pulled on a strong façade, like slipping on a manifestation of his title. “This is difficult for me. I’m trying not to hate you, because I know this isn’t your fault. But I also need you to understand something.”
Taking a step closer to Ethan, Jay became immediately more imposing, and Ethan clutched harder at the banister.
“If your sire enthralls you to act against us in any real way and Bashir is unable or unwilling to intervene… I will.”
A shiver rippled through Ethan’s body, but he said, “Thank you. The other circle members might hesitate. I’m glad there’s someone who won’t.”
Jay nodded, appearing just as thankful that they understood one another. When he stepped away again, he softened and offered a small smile. “Not that we need to worry. Your uncle is captured and not putting up a fight, I hear.”
“Yeah….”
“You’re skeptical?”
“I don’t know.” Ethan slumped. “He’s my sire, he has to be, but he keeps talking in riddles and won’t admit to anything.”
“Maybe he means to throw you off so you drop your guard.”
“Maybe.”
Jay studied him, considering the situation carefully, like Ethan imagined he did with all his decisions as Alpha. “If every answer in life was easy, my kind wouldn’t need packs,” he said with a nod to the other room.
Although Preston and Luke were visible from where they stood, Jay’s eyes drifted more to Bari again. It was an unfairly familiar face for him, after all, one that had lied to him and let him down, but that wasn’t what Ethan saw in Jay’s expression. There was nothing sour or resentful. There was longing.
And not just for a matching face.
“Um, do you like fashion and romance novels?” Ethan asked.
Jay blinked at him.
“Where are they?” Bash’s voice echoed from the living room, distinctly different from Bari’s.
They hurried back inside, finding Bash at the other entrance, with Siobhan and Maximus behind him. Siobhan’s expression didn’t change, but Bash and Maximus both startled at seeing Ethan and Jay come in together.
“No,” Bash said. “Only repeats for me to hide you and take you away from here, but he’ll admit nothing. It’s all to protect you, he says, and I think he believes that, but what he’s not telling us… I can’t be sure.”
“So kill him,” Maximus growled. “Who cares if he won’t talk?”
“Please.” Ethan surged toward Bash. “Don’t. He’s still my uncle.”
“And your sire,” Bash reminded him. “Who might have killed your parents and has lied to you for half your life.”
“I know, but…. Please not yet. He hasn’t admitted to any of it, even if it has to be him. We don’t have proof.”
“Are you joking?” Maximus scoffed. “Why am I not surprised you’re defending him?”
“Is the basement secure?” Jay spoke over Maximus, addressing Bash with that strong Alpha mantle back in place.
“Yes. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Then I agree with Ethan.”
Much as they’d come to an understanding before, Ethan was surprised Jay would side with him. Bash and Maximus both seemed to feel the same.
“We’ll wait,” Jay said, “and see what else we can discover. If there’s proof, we’ll find it and decide from there what to do with him.”
IT WAS already late. Even though Ethan no longer required much sleep, he felt exhausted when he finally headed up to his bedroom. The emotional drain was taking more of a toll on him than any physical one.
How could he sleep when Leo was two floors down, imprisoned?
Now that they were so near one another, Nell had cast a new rune on Ethan, one to block any signals from Leo to ensure he didn’t try anything during the night. That meant there should be no more strange dreams, though Nell admitted that a true separation between fledgling and sire was beyond her power.
Ethan wanted to ask Bash to stay with him or if he could stay with Bash in his room, but he also wanted to think about how to get Leo to tell him the truth. In the end, he chose solitude and lay on his bed alone. It smelled like Bash and what they’d shared earlier, comforting Ethan at least a small amount.
By the Red Moonlight Page 19
