He looked a little hurt. “Well, don’t say I didn’t offer. It’s really quite fascinating.”
“I’m sure it is, science boy. But give me five seconds to call Dr. Byrne, and let’s pick up where we left off from before, okay?” I pulled him closer, reaching for his hand and pulling it toward my stomach. “I’m pretty sure your right hand was here,” I said, laying it against the bare skin between my waistband and the hem of my shirt. “And mine was—”
“Make your call,” he said impatiently, his eyes darkening with desire. “Quickly.”
I was feeling more than a little sheepish the next morning when I stepped into Matthew’s office for our weekly coaching session. Under the weight of his gaze, I made my way to the chair across from his desk and sat, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of my sleeve.
He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We might as well get this over with. You know, like ripping off a bandage.”
“Go for it,” I muttered, bracing myself.
He regarded me coolly, his hands folded on the desk in front of him. “You had a good time yesterday, I take it.”
My cheeks immediately flooded with heat. “Ugh, this is so not fair.”
“Trust me, in this case I’d have to agree.” His cheeks were almost as red as I imagined mine were.
“Just what did you sense?” I asked, suddenly overcome with a morbid curiosity that, mercifully, vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. “Never mind. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
“Good, because I sure as hell don’t want to tell you. But I am starting to wonder if I should have a little chat with Aidan.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh my God. Please don’t. This is embarrassing enough as it is. And . . . trust me, okay? You don’t need to be worried.”
“No offense, but that’s kind of hard to believe after the read I got from you yesterday.”
My cheeks burned hotter still. “Can’t you just . . . I don’t know, turn it off or something when I’m with Aidan?”
He leveled a glare in my direction. “Can you turn off your visions?”
“Okay, never mind. I get it.”
The truth was, Aidan and I had pushed the limits yesterday. If it weren’t for the fact that he was a vampire and I was a Sâbbat, well . . . maybe it was a good thing that we were. We’d gotten a little careless and a lot carried away. But then, I was eighteen now and Aidan, well . . . he wasn’t a virgin. Besides, we were genuinely in love. I started feeling giddy all over again, just remembering the way he’d . . .
“Can you please stop that?” Matthew snapped, pulling me from my thoughts.
I rose on shaking legs. “Okay, I’m leaving.”
“Why?” he countered. “It doesn’t make a difference if you’re sitting right there in front of me or not. You know that.”
With a groan, I slumped back into my seat. “Great. So I have to watch what I’m doing—or even thinking—so that it doesn’t affect you, but you can do whatever the heck you want with Charlie in your room in the middle of the night?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The other night. When we were on the phone. I heard her.”
Several seconds passed in silence but for the ticktock of the clock on his desk. “Not that it’s any of your business,” he said at last, “but we weren’t in my room. We were in the lab.”
“The lab? What were you doing in the lab together?”
“Charlie is a biochemist. We were working on something. And obviously not having nearly as much fun as you and Aidan were in the loft yesterday.”
I winced as his words hit their mark. “Why don’t you tell me about Charlie, then, instead of keeping her a big mystery. It’s only fair, don’t you think?”
He leaned back in his chair, his hands folded behind his head. “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “How did you meet her? What’s she like? Stuff like that, I guess.”
“I met her my junior year at MIT, and we’ve been close ever since. Actually, we both went to Winterhaven, but not at the same time—she’s a few years older than me. Her father’s a teacher here. I think you had him last year for history.”
“Dr. Penworth?”
Matthew nodded. “Charlie’s the reason—or at least I thought she was—that I took this post at Winterhaven. She did her PhD at Columbia, and I wanted to stay close by.”
“So she is your girlfriend,” I said, ignoring the ridiculous and unexpected stab of jealousy.
“Charlie knows about the whole Megvéd thing,” he hedged. “She knows she can never come first in my life.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” I pointed out.
“Because there is no answer to it. My relationship with Charlie is what it is. She knows that if a better offer comes her way, she’s welcome to take it.”
“Wow, that’s awfully noble of you.”
He shrugged. “What else can I do? It’s not like I have a choice—not really.”
I was dying to know if they were sleeping together, but I knew I couldn’t ask. It would be crossing a line, for sure. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder.
“You said she’s a biochemist?” I asked instead.
“Yes, a brilliant one. She’s still at Columbia; she’s got her own life, her own work.”
“So, what were you doing in the lab together?”
“She’s helping me with Aidan’s cure. And . . . well, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but things are looking pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll have it by graduation. I just wish there was some definitive way to test it beyond the cellular level. Anyway, is there anything else you want to know?”
“I guess that about covers it,” I said, even though it didn’t, not really. Like a true scientist, he’d omitted anything about feelings. He hadn’t said if he loved her, or if she hated me for coming between them. “I’d kind of like to meet her, though.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, shaking his head.
Which probably meant that she wanted to rip mine off. “Well, this has been enlightening.”
“Though not very useful, as far as coaching sessions go.”
“Oh, please. Why do we even pretend that they’re still coaching sessions? We’re just hanging out. Might as well call a spade a spade.”
“I suppose you’re right. So . . . has Aidan told you about the attacks?”
My pulse leapt with alarm. “What attacks?”
“In Eastern Europe and somewhere in Asia. Unexplained deaths—a rash of them. Wounds to the victims’ necks.”
“Where did you hear this?” I asked.
“From Aidan. I guess this Luc character told him—you know, his scary-looking new bodyguard. Between these civilian attacks and the assassin that came after Aidan in Atlanta, well . . . things are definitely escalating. What’s going to happen if this war breaks out before school ends? Have you given any thought to that?”
I shook my head. “I’m just hoping that it doesn’t. But if it does, well . . . I assume Mrs. Girard will somehow excuse me from finals and grant me my diploma, even if I’m not around to finish the semester, right? I mean, she’s the one making me play a part in all of this.”
“Wait, that reminds me . . .” Matthew rose from his chair and went to a cabinet against the far wall, where he rummaged around for a bit. When he returned, he had something in one hand—a vial of some sort. He moved to stand just in front of me. “I’ve been meaning to test something out on you.”
“Okay,” I said warily.
In one swift movement, he removed the cap.
Immediately, my senses exploded. My right wrist burned; my entire body seemed to vibrate. Glancing down, I saw that the blackish red bloodstones on my bracelet were roiling angrily, glowing now.