CHAPTER NINE
It had sounded like glass breaking. A woman screamed seconds later.
“That’s coming from Miriam’s shop,” I said, already reaching for the door.
Liam hit the locks, twisting the key in the ignition as the car rumbled to a start.
“You’re not going to help her?” I asked.
“You expected different from an unfeeling jackass?” he mocked.
“Forget it,” I said. I put my shoulder into the door, the metal squealing in protest as I slowly forced it open.
Liam swore and hit the button, unlocking the door.
Knew he’d see it my way, I thought smugly as I shoved it open and got out.
“Aileen, don’t be stupid. This is the witch’s problem,” he argued, not getting out.
I leaned down and looked through the open door. “Guess that’s the difference between you and me. You can watch as someone is hurt because they’re not one of yours, while I never could.”
I slammed the door on whatever response he might have made, jogging back toward the shop. It would have been nice to have a weapon, not that my gun would do me much good if I faced golems.
To my relief, Miriam hadn’t gotten around to locking the front door behind me. I slipped in, grabbing the bell on top of the door to stop it from announcing my presence.
The front of the shop was still empty, shadows making the counters and collection of items seem more ominous than they would have normally. There were a lot of good places for an enemy to hide in here.
I moved forward, my feet whispering across the tile. An ornate umbrella, one of those paper ones that would melt in the rain, caught my eye. As a weapon it was lacking, but it was better than nothing.
I plucked it from its place and crept forward. A woman chanted in an unfamiliar language. I’d only heard it a few times, but I recognized it. It was the witches’ unique language of power, used to channel their magic in ways that had never been properly explained to me.
She shouted one last word, the spell’s trigger. There was a burst of air, like someone had punctured a balloon and all the air rushed out. Then the tiny shop shook, the glass rattling before settling.
I dashed into the other room, not letting the logic-bending sight break my focus. I’d been in here before so I knew what to expect.
Miriam’s back room had a stone floor and glass walls and roof, with an antique table in the middle of a mass of greenery. Every plant you could imagine took up room on every available surface. It was a gardener’s paradise, a greenroom where there shouldn’t have been one, the smell of dirt and growing things permeating the air.
Miriam stood in the midst of it all, her back against a wall, several of her plants knocked over at her feet.
Across from her stood another woman, her face wrinkled in rage as she faced down Miriam. Her skin was sallow and cracked, her hair lank around her face. She looked sick. And oddly familiar.
Between the two women, Miriam’s oasis had been turned into a nightmare scene—golems in the midst of pulling themselves out of pots. These golems were different from the ones of last night. For one thing, they were thinner, almost reedy-looking and a lot shorter.
For another, there were green leaves growing from the dirt of their skin. Some had flowers sprouting from their arms. They looked less menacing this time and more like the jolly green giant if he’d been hit with a flower stick.
Miriam spat another word, a ball of magic the color of midnight hitting a golem in the chest and sending it staggering back a few steps. It shook itself, advancing on Miriam again with slow ponderous steps as she backed along the wall, trying to avoid any more of her pots.
I drove my umbrella into the back of one golem. It sunk into the creature’s chest with a wet glugging sound. I tugged on it, but the umbrella didn’t budge.
The back of the golem’s head melted, a face forming.
I jerked back. Not fast enough, as ropes of mud shot up from the umbrella to wrap around my arm up to my elbow.
Oh, that wasn’t good.
The other witch cackled. “Bet you wish you’d sold me the diet coke and candy bars now.”
The gas station. That’s why she seemed familiar. She’d looked a lot better then, nothing like this pale, sickly creature in front of me, lips cracked and dry and the skin under her eyes sunken and dark.
I didn’t waste time arguing with her as I tugged harder. My arm didn’t budge.
The mud crawled higher, reaching my bicep. I didn’t dare touch it with my other hand, too afraid the mud would latch onto that hand as well and I’d be stuck defenseless, both hands trapped.
There was a thump as the enemy witch slumped to the ground, Liam standing over her with an amused look on his face as he watched me struggle.
I waited, expecting the golems to fold in on themselves. When the mud inched higher, I let out a sound of frustration.
“Are you just going to stand there?” I asked.
He tilted his head and smiled. It wasn’t a particularly nice smile, more like one a wolf gives its struggling prey. “Yes.”
I growled at him as the mud crept higher. It was almost at my shoulder now.
Liam’s smile turned seductive. “Say please.”
“What?”
“Say ‘please Mr. Jackass, save me from my pride.” His eyes twinkled at me.
He was having fun. I was so glad.
I turned back to the golem and gave another vicious tug. There was no way I was begging him for a rescue like some damsel in distress. This damsel was perfectly capable of saving herself. She just needed to calm down and figure out how.
I forced myself to take stock of the situation, to ignore the mud creeping past my shoulder and analyze what I saw.
By this point, Miriam had given up on destroying the golems. She’d locked herself in a bubble of magic that shone with the ferocity of a star.
A faint flicker of magic in the center of the golem called my attention. These were simple constructs. Break the magic it housed and the rest should fall.
That was the theory anyway.
Instead of fighting the onslaught of the mud, I gave into it, plunging both hands deeper. I took a last deep breath, noting distantly that Liam had jolted forward. I was too occupied with my battle to care.
I reached with everything in me for that tiny spark, throwing both my physical and metaphysical self at it. I strained until it was nearly within my grasp, crushing it with my mind and extinguishing its small light even as my physical hands reached the lodestone at its center and yanked it out.
The golem crumbled into dirt. One by one the rest of the golems followed it.
“Guess I didn’t need your help after all,” I told Liam.
He gave me a slow clap.
Miriam’s protective shields slowly dissolved. She looked around at the disaster of her back room with displeasure.
I propped one muddy arm on my hip. “So, Miriam, who’s trying to kill you?”
“I told you she was holding something back,” Liam murmured, coming to stand at my side.
I ignored him. We didn’t know that for sure. Someone had tried to kill us and we were still no more knowledgeable than we were last night.
Miriam’s expression was furious as she took in the greenhouse, her plants in disarray, the roots ragged, her pots cracked and on their sides. I didn’t blame her. The place really was a wreck.
She didn’t answer my question, shooting black lightning at me faster than I could dodge. Pain crackled along my nerve endings, my aborted scream cut off as my lungs seized. Black raced along the edges of my vision, consuming everything.
*
“I’m going to kill that witch,” I groaned, bringing my hand to my head. It pounded with the fury of a thousand drums.
I shouldn’t have dropped my guard. There was no one to blame for my predicament but myself. Stupid mistake, Aileen.
“Consider it done,” a voice rumbled from next to me.
I stilled. It hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t alone. It should have.
I squinted over at Liam. His eyes snapped with blue fire. To someone who didn’t know him he looked haughty and remote, but his eyes blazed at me, hinting of anger and worry, and a depth of feeling I would have said was impossible if I hadn’t seen it for myself.
He didn’t move a muscle, just sat there staring at me. Abruptly, I became aware of my hand cradled in his, his thumb stroking slowly over my skin.
“You didn’t actually kill her, did you?” I asked suspiciously.
His face lightened, just slightly, enough for a hint of a smile to come out. “Not yet. Though I cannot say her condition is entirely as it was. The other witch wasn’t so lucky.”
I snorted at the small display of humor. I tried to sit up, groaning, and abandoning the endeavor halfway.
“For once, I’m not going to get angry about your tendency of solving all problems with extreme violence,” I said, wincing.
My entire body ached. Even my teeth hurt. It felt like someone had poured an entire city block worth of electricity into my body. It was not a comfortable feeling.
“Your forbearance is appreciated,” Liam murmured. He watched me closely, his body tight.
“This feels worse than anything the sorcerer ever did to me,” I said.
“It should. She was trying to kill you,” Liam said, his voice grim and his expression turning frightening as his inner monster peaked out.
Everyone had one. A monster they kept buried deep inside, forgetting it even existed until some situation or stimuli triggered its return. Most humans liked to pretend they didn’t have one, and for the most part that worked. We lived in an era where people could lie to themselves and pretend they were civilized—that violence didn’t live in them.
Vampires didn’t have that luxury. Our monsters were close to the surface—just waiting for the slightest spark to set off a killing spree, complete with requisite bloodbath.
His words gave me pause. Miriam wasn’t my biggest fan, but it was hard to wrap my brain around her wanting me dead. Especially considering I’d just helped save her ass.
It would also help to know why Dahlia’s pendant hadn’t worked. I patted my chest for the item in question.
Liam watched me. “Looking for this?”
He held out the small pendant.
“Where did you find it?”
“On the floorboard of my car.”
I examined it, noticing the clasp was broken. That would explain why it had done nothing to repel Miriam’s attack.
Liam’s face was carefully guarded as he watched me. “That is a dangerous toy. I’m surprised the djinn injected so much of her essence into it.”
I gave him a quizzical glance before looking back at the pendant.
“You must be closer to her than I realized,” he said.
He had an odd look on his face as if he didn’t know whether to be happy about that fact or not.
“Should I not wear it?” I asked.
He folded my fingers over it. “Keep it. At least until whatever is going on has run its course.”
I nodded.
“Where is she?” I asked, forcing myself upright.
Liam’s hand tightened before he reached around to steady me.
“Whew, that was a lot harder than it should have been,” I said, finally sitting without assistance.
“We have her in a secure place,” Liam said.
“I’d like to talk to her,” I told him. My body felt shaky and weak.
“No.”
“No?” I ignored my weakness to fix him with a death stare.
He didn’t look phased by it, but that might have been because I looked and felt like a stiff breeze might blow me over at any moment.
He lifted an eyebrow as if daring me to argue.
I shut my mouth and studied him. He looked intractable, an unmovable mountain that would just get more stubborn the more you argued.
I left the matter for now. We’d come back to it when I didn’t feel quite so weak.
“Where are we?” I asked in a shift of topic.
The bed I’d woken up on was nice, masculine, in a room that matched it.
“The Gargoyle,” he said, his gaze telling me he was anticipating my reaction.
I nodded. The base of operations for the vampire in charge of the surrounding territory.
“Is there a reason you brought me here?” I asked calmly.
“Because I told him to,” a voice said from the doorway.
I twitched but didn’t react, my gaze fixed on Liam’s. Maybe if I ignored the source of the voice, he would go away.
The action seemed to amuse Liam, and he lifted an eyebrow at me as if to ask how long I could pretend the giant prick in the room wasn’t there.
“You couldn’t have brought me anywhere else?” I asked him.
He relaxed back into his chair. “I thought this place had a certain charm.”
I just bet he did.
“Pretending I’m not here won’t make me go away,” Thomas said, his voice patient. Despite that, I thought I detected a note of frustration in his voice.
That was something at least.
“Will it make you fix my damn stairs?” I asked, finally looking over at him.
He gave a long-suffering sigh. “There was a delay in construction. The human company I employed is suffering from personnel problems.”
Another excuse in a long line of them. I believed it as much as I had the last one. If he wanted, he could have the problem solved in less time than it took me to get dressed in the morning. All he had to do was work his vampire mojo and the humans would be falling all over themselves to fulfill his desires.
My expression must have said as much because he gave me a charming smile, though its affect was completely lost on me. I’d never fall for that smile again.
“You are welcome to call the foreman and find out for yourself,” he told me.
Like that would help. The human would probably just end up parroting whatever Thomas wanted.
Such was the case whenever humans brushed up against the spooks. Most times they came out the losers. And Liam wondered why I refused to give my alliance to the vampires.
I chose to ignore Thomas and the tangle of problems he represented. “I’m awake now, so we can go on about our business.”
Liam didn’t move, his gaze sardonic. “Our presence is required here for the remainder of the night.”
His words stalled me right as I was contemplating the chances of me remaining on my feet if I tried to stand.
“You’re joking,” I said.
That seemed to amuse him. “I’m not. You will be required to portray the part of Thomas’ yearling.”
“You must know that’s not happening,” I said flatly.
He gave me a victorious smile that said checkmate as clearly as if the words were spoken out loud. “But it is.”
Rebellion skated across my face.
He leaned closer, pressing one fist on the bed at my side as he said, “Just earlier tonight you accepted employment from me. Do you remember the terms?”
My scowl should have lit paper on fire. I didn’t speak, anger strangling my vocal chords. I got a sinking feeling I knew exactly where this was going.
He drew back, his smile widening at my expression. “You agreed to follow my orders.”
Yup. I’d been right.
I narrowed my eyes at him. No. Just no.
“Checkmate, darling,” he whispered.
The urge to go for his throat tingled through my body. I might have tried it too, if I didn’t ache so fiercely moving would send me crashing to the ground.
Liam straightened as I remained silent, fuming, so angry I couldn’t even formulate a response. “I need to get ready. Thomas will brief you on what is expected and find you clothes.”
He walked out of the room, leaving Thomas and me alone.
I bent my head and sighed. Point to Liam. He’d out-maneuvered me. I’d compliment him if I didn’t want to slap that smug look off his face.
I lifted my head and sent a dour glance in Thomas’s direction.
My sire was the handsome sort. It enabled him to lure his prey to him, lulling them into a coma of lust pheromones so he could royally fuck up their life while they were still none the wiser. His jaw was strong and hinted at a personality nearly as stubborn as mine.
“Many think Liam is the more reasonable between the two of us, but I’ve always found his games to be rougher and more vicious. They sneak up and hit you in the face while you’re not looking,” Thomas observed. If I didn’t know better, I thought I detected a hint of sympathy in his voice.
“You would think it’d be the other way around,” I said.
Thomas inclined his head. “You would. Yet, I tend to prefer blunt force to achieve my desires whereas Liam goes after what he wants in a decidedly sideways manner.”
It was odd to agree with my sire, but there we were.
“Now, let’s see about getting you dressed in something appropriate,” he said.
*
After an hour of poking and prodding, of people pulling me one way and then another, and Thomas critiquing dress after dress, I was ready.
I had to admit he had good taste. The dress he’d chosen was silver, setting off my grayish blue eyes to perfection and turning them stormy. One of the humans, a male, grabbed my shoulder-length brown hair and pulled it back, braiding pieces of it so its reddish tint caught the light and shone.
In very little time, I stood there, makeup perfect, hair styled back in an elegant swoop. I had to admire their work. I would never have been able to pull this look off had it just been me.
I looked elegant, infused with danger, the type of person you’d treat with respect even while trying to figure out how you could get closer to their orbit.
To my eternal surprise, Thomas hadn’t abandoned me when the stylists arrived. Instead he’d tutored me on his expectations of me for the evening. It seemed a yearling vampire’s duties were much the same as children from an earlier time in humanity’s history—to be seen and not heard. I was expected to be a pretty ornament, gracing my master’s side until he decided otherwise.
In a weird sort of way, it made sense. Vampire society had many things in common with a feudal one. You wouldn’t want a page possibly offending important visitors. No, the page or apprentice was there to learn and observe so when they went off on their own, they would know what to do. In this instance, a yearling might see how vampire dealings were conducted so if and when they rose to a position of power, they could conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.
Only one problem. I had no plans to take my place in vampire society. There were no positions of power in my future; no circumstances where I would want something similar to what Thomas had.
It made me question why they’d gone to all the trouble of securing my presence at this shindig. It wasn’t like they needed me as a guard. Liam and his enforcers would be plenty of protection for Thomas.
I had no expertise to offer, no skills they needed. It was not a good place to be, when knowing your footing was paramount to surviving the shark-infested waters the vampires liked to swim in.
Not knowing where else to go, I ended up standing in the main entrance foyer. The one thing Thomas had forgotten to brief me on before leaving to get himself ready, was where exactly this event was supposed to take place.
I was all dressed up with no clue where to go. It left me wandering aimlessly, hoping to find someone who could point me in the right direction.
“Thought I might find you here,” a voice said from above me.
I turned to see Rick bound down the stairs toward me. Stairs I’d just come down, and I hadn’t seen anyone in the corridor. It left me questioning how he’d managed to arrive unseen and unheard.
The enthusiastic vampire reached the bottom of the stairs and gave me a courtly bow with all of the mannerisms of a born courtier. It was a gesture suited to his current attire. Like me, he was dressed to impress in a full tuxedo, his auburn hair styled and his curls tamed.
I still wasn’t sure where he fell in the territorial vampire hierarchy. He seemed to be on good terms with Liam’s enforcers, but I’d seen him act as an advisor to Thomas before as well.
His face was open and welcoming as he straightened, grinning. As a redhead who hadn’t seen a lot of sun since his turning, Rick had a smooth, pale creaminess to his skin I would have envied when I was younger. His bright green eyes stood out with his pale coloring, reminding me of a cat’s eyes.
Or the Fae, I thought, as those same eyes went unfocused and soft, as if they were looking at a scene only he could see.
I waited quietly to see if he’d return to the present. This had happened once before during the drama with Caroline. He’d given me a warning afterwards, one I hadn’t been able to make sense of until much, much later. At the time I’d simply thought him a little wacky.
He shook off whatever he was seeing to give me an even brighter smile than before.
He held out his arm. “Shall we?”
“What? No dire warnings this time?”
“Can’t make it easy for you every time,” he murmured gently.
I barked out a laugh. “I’m all dressed up. It would be a shame to waste all this work.”
“For the rest of us, as well,” he said roguishly, looping his arm through mine.
His arm was surprisingly sturdy under my hand, given he wasn’t muscular like the other enforcers I was used to hanging out with.
Rick was a warm presence at my side as we made our way through the mansion. The Gargoyle appeared big from the outside, but once inside, its layout threatened to send the mind into a tailspin. The interior was a maze of corridors, each neatly folding in on themselves. You needed a map just to find the kitchen.
I slid him a sideways glance, wondering how much information I could get out of him before he realized what I was doing. As part of the Gargoyle’s household and someone who probably interacted with my sire on a regular basis, he might know something that could prove valuable down the line.
“Have you met the visitors yet?” I asked, keeping my voice idle. I didn’t want to scare him off by seeming too interested.
His cheeks creased with a smile. “Indeed.”
“What are they like?” I asked. “Are they different from the rest of the Fae in the city?”
Liam had referred to them as High Fae but I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. I’d never met one before, despite meeting many of the Fae who’d called the city home.
“Very,” Rick said.
I struggled with impatience. One-word answers weren’t feeding my need to know more.
“How?” Two can play the one-word game.
“They’re more.”
Two words this time. That was an improvement at least, though it still didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.
“You’re more like us than you think,” Rick said. Seeing my confusion, he went on, “Vampires learn from the start that staying one step ahead of everyone else is the only way to ensure survival. Our kind like to play at diplomacy. We walk the fine line of power. We’re rarely satisfied, always grasping for more. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to fall to the wolves below.”
His voice became that of a mentor lecturing a student.
“Huh. I’ve never been one to pursue power,” I observed. It was nothing but the truth. Even as a human, I’d gone out of my way to avoid leadership roles. I was promoted to sergeant despite my best efforts.
“Don’t you?” he asked. “There are different kinds of power. You may not desire a leadership role, but you crave control of your own life and your own little piece of this world. You just have a different way of going about it.”
We walked through several more corridors in silence as I digested that. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with him, but I was willing to consider the point.
I dropped the facade. “You didn’t answer my questions. Not really.”
His smile turned wicked, rivaling Liam’s for deviousness. “I didn’t, did I?”
He seemed pleased by my claim. I didn’t know what to make of that.
He patted my hand. “The Fae are never what they seem. Our unwelcome guests even more so. The High Fae have assumed the mantle of leaders of all they consider theirs.”
I frowned. “Even in another’s territory?”
“And therein lies the problem,” Rick said in a soft voice.
We stopped near doors I recognized. The ballroom. I’d been here once, during the selection of the territory Master. This place didn’t hold a lot of pleasant memories for me.
“Ask your friend these questions,” Rick said, lifting my hand from his. “He among us all is uniquely suited to provide answers about our new guests.”
I looked where he indicated. Liam stood at the end of the hall, brutally handsome in his formal wear. It was a kick to the chest seeing him like that. Most of the time I forgot just how breathtaking he was, lost in the irritation he engendered simply by breathing.
But dressed like this, his hair styled away from his face to reveal his fierce bone structure, eyes blazing at me as Rick leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, I couldn’t help but see and wonder. He was like a beautiful painting come to life so it could plague and tempt me.
His face tightened as if he saw something he disliked, abruptly turning unhappy.
“Good luck,” Rick whispered near my ear before striding away, sending a jaunty wave Liam’s way.
Liam’s face grew even more taut at Rick’s statement, his eyes snapping back to mine. The expression on his face said he thought I was an idiot.
I gave him a narrowed-eyed glare telling him he was the dumbass who forced idiot me into this situation.
He huffed a little, impatience in the sound. He stepped forward, capturing my arm and hauling me after him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as he propelled me into an alcove off the hall, using his larger body to block the view of us from anyone who might pass.
“What are you doing?” he returned. “Rick might seem harmless and fun, but he’s every bit as dangerous as the rest of us. Probably more so, because no one suspects what waits beneath his mask.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I was pumping him for information, not offering to do the horizontal tango with him.”
Liam propped a hand on the wall behind me, caging me in as he loomed over me. Suddenly, the intimacy of the situation struck me, awareness coursing through me.
“You might think you’re in control, but Rick has a way of turning things to his advantage,” Liam said, destroying the moment.
I blinked at him, then blinked again. “Yes, because I am a helpless woman who doesn’t know her own mind. I will just fall prey to his lascivious urges. I can’t help it. Really.”
Liam glowered at me in displeasure, not appreciating my humor in the slightest.
I sighed and shook my head. “Is there a reason you pulled me into this dark alcove?”
He straightened. “Yes, but I’m not entirely sure I should share it with you anymore. Your choice in companion shows a distinct lack in judgment.”
I gave him my death glare. He remained unmoved. Hm, it seemed my death glare could use a little work.
I shrugged, affecting a nonchalance I didn’t feel. Curiosity about what he’d planned to tell me burned in me. “Suit yourself. I’ll just go find some of that Fae wine Nathan told me about and make even more poor judgment calls.”
The way he took up the small space meant making a grand exit was out, so I settled for gazing up at him expectantly.
He sighed and reached into his jacket. “You’re a pain in the ass.”
“The Judge,” I gasped, snatching the gun from his hand.
I hadn’t seen my old friend since Nathan confiscated it during my last visit to the Gargoyle.
I’d missed it. Of all my guns, this was the one I most preferred. It was a revolver, a .45 caliber long Colt. Its stopping power would put most things in the ground, especially when you took into account my homemade ammunition incorporated silver nitrate into the mix.
“Where’d the ammo go that was in here?” I hissed when I noticed the rounds had been switched out.
“These are iron, much more appropriate for the current situation,” Liam murmured.
I lifted my head, slightly surprised. “This wasn’t all just an elaborate excuse to get me all dressed up, then?”
His gaze turned amused as he tweaked a piece of hair that had slipped free to curl against my cheek. “No, that’s just a happy bonus.”
I leaned back against the wall. Iron for our Fae guests. They were said to have a weakness for it. The Judge was the perfect weapon, effective on our potential enemies and next to useless against a vampire.
This indicated trust from Liam—but only to a point.
It didn’t make me any less surprised to have my friend back. Vampires didn’t like when guests went armed in their homes. I’d almost kissed any thought of getting the Judge back goodbye.
“You’ll need this,” Liam said, handing over a thigh holster.
I made a face. Those never fit as well as they should. Not to mention they were crazy uncomfortable. Still, the thigh was the only place I had a hope of disguising a revolver.
Liam loomed between me and the rest of the hall, giving me privacy to slip my dress up and attach the holster to my leg.
His eyes gleamed appreciatively at the long expanse of bare skin.
“You could be a gentleman,” I told him.
His grin was roguish. “I was never that. A lord’s airs don’t suit me.”
My fingers paused on the fastenings. This was a rare, tantalizing hint to who he might have been before his transition to vampire.
I wanted more. The knowing look on Liam’s face said he guessed as much and was waiting for inevitable questions.
For that reason, I kept my silence and straightened, testing out the holster’s ability to stay put. It would hold, I concluded after several experimental movements.
I looked to where Liam still waited, watching me with the kind of look a man gives a woman he intends to get naked. I let confidence infuse my movements as I sauntered over to him, placing my hand on his chest.
I was gratified and emboldened when his breath caught. I shifted onto my tiptoes, my lips hovering near his, not quite touching. “It’s too bad. The gentleman would have received a kiss in thanks.”
I dropped back to my heels and smiled up at him, enjoying the slightly frustrated expression. That should teach him to taunt me.
I swished past him out of the alcove, my shoulder brushing the front of his tuxedo as I began to slip by him.
His hand shot out, cupping the back of my neck as he pulled me slightly into him.
“Aileen.” He waited until I turned to look at him. “Only use it if absolutely necessary.”
I nodded, understanding the warning as his hand slid away.
I stepped fully out of the alcove, never suspecting my promise would be tested so quickly as I staggered to a stop.