CHAPTER 13
Esher had thought the sight of Aiko in her usual clothing had made her impossible to resist. He had been mistaken. She had every single drop of his attention, had his heart pounding and fingers itching with a need to sweep her up into his arms, as she moved around the warmly-lit room, drifting past the black coffin laden with red candles on its top, leading another couple into one of the booths behind the swag of a red velvet curtain.
He had to dig his nails into the black wooden table in front of him as she bowed, coming close to flashing her panties at the rest of the room in her ridiculous uniform.
She looked like a fucking French maid.
And damn, it got his blood pumping.
He just wasn’t sure whether it was with a need to fight, or make love with her, or possibly both.
She straightened, her hands still tucked in front of her white apron that sat over the short black dress, and spoke with the newcomers, her smile bright as she recited the same thing she had said to everyone she had brought into the gothic room.
Esher raked his eyes over her for what felt like the millionth time, unable to stop himself, letting them glide from the little white frill that arched over her head on a band, down over her black dress that thankfully covered her chest and her upper arms too, all the way down to the white stockings that started just a few inches below the end of her skirt.
The tops of them had frills too, and gods, he kept imagining smoothing them down her shapely legs, kissing every inch of milky skin he exposed.
One of the other groups called her over, and he barely stopped himself from rising from the red velvet couch that curved around the table, his eyes tracking her through the sheer black curtain that draped across both sides of the booth, tied to the gaudy gold columns that looked as if they were meant to be supporting the roof.
The table of males all grinned and jostled as they spoke to her, and she smiled at them.
Esher growled.
He was going to kill them. He was going to kill every damned male in the room, and then he was going to cover her with his coat and take her far away from this place.
He couldn’t bear it.
The sight of so many males paying attention to her when she was dressed in such a way, it was too much.
She bowed and giggled, doing only what was expected of her, but gods, it grated.
“So a mortal, huh?” Ares did his best to distract him, but Esher didn’t rise to the bait, just kept tracking her around the room as she relayed the order to the backroom staff and then reappeared, seating another group in the busy room, this one at the table near the coffin.
He assessed all the males in the mixed group, none of which were a match for him.
“Anyone else?” Ares sounded pissed, and he felt his brother’s gaze leave him. “Valen, be a dick or something.”
Valen growled at Ares. “Why? You’re being a big enough dick for both of us. Asking him about her being a human.”
It was odd having Valen in his corner. It almost distracted him for a second. Almost.
But then a group wanted to photograph the resident male ‘vampire’, a human dressed in formal attire with fake fangs, and one Marek had spent most of the evening glaring at, and Esher saw red when the male picked Aiko as his ‘victim’.
Again.
As the male took hold of her from behind and pretended to bite her throat as she held her hands up in front of her, mock surprise on her face, Esher shoved to his feet.
His brothers were too fast for him though.
Before he could move, Ares had left the opposite side of the booth and had hemmed him in, and all he could do was shuffle further along the curved red sofa to accommodate him as his brothers all moved along one place, putting Valen near the other end now.
Daimon sat beside Valen, offering Esher an apologetic look that told him if he had been nearest to the edge and not Ares, he wouldn’t have stopped him from stepping in.
“I need the toilet.” Esher was tempted to shove Ares, but the chances of getting scalded were high, and the last thing he needed to do was cause his older brother’s temper to spark.
The whole place would probably burn down.
Although, it would mean that Aiko couldn’t work here anymore, and that damned male couldn’t touch her again.
The vampire released her and went back to his station, serving other customers.
Keras gave Esher a doubtful look. “If you want her attention, you only have to ring.”
His older brother reached across the cluttered table, picked up the tiny brass bell and shook it.
Aiko immediately came over, her warm eyes locking straight on Esher as she readied her note pad. “What do you want?”
Esher raked his gaze over her, hunger gnawing at him. What didn’t he want?
He wanted to devour her, over and over again.
“Water,” he said instead, not wanting to make her blush in front of his brothers.
She didn’t seem surprised by his request, just smiled and wrote it down, and then looked at his brothers. “The air spirit needs another drink.”
Ares finished his fruity non-alcoholic cocktail at that moment.
Aiko took the glass as he pushed it away from him, and said in English, “Would you like another, Fire Spirit?”
“Bring us all the same again.” Keras’s green eyes were sharp as he eyed her, and Esher didn’t like it.
He scowled at his brother where he sat in the middle of the table, Marek and Cal flanking him, and then pushed aside his irritation so he could enjoy the sight of Aiko again. She cleared some plates from the table with the help of another waitress, and then disappeared into the kitchen, smiling and giggling to her companion as she went.
She was so vibrant, so full of life.
His little butterfly.
“Can she read?” Keras.
Esher absently said, “I presume so. Japanese definitely, but she’s studied English so maybe a little of that too.”
Keras huffed. “No. Read.”
He dragged his focus away from Aiko, settling it on Keras, and frowned as he thought about that.
“She must be able to.” Because he hadn’t told her what he was, and she had pinpointed Cal and Ares’s powers without witnessing them.
Which meant she was a Carrier, a human with Hellspawn blood in their ancestry. Megan, Ares’s female, was a Carrier too, possessing the talent to heal. Aiko could sense things in people, able to read the truth about them. The other form of Carrier could see the future in visions.
Keras plucked the damned bell from the table and rang again, and Esher’s gut tightened, his mood taking a nosedive as he realised what his brother was going to do.
He had tested Megan, and he was going to test Aiko.
Ares gave Keras a black look, one that relayed he was as happy about their brother’s plan as Esher was and he wanted to argue against it.
When Aiko arrived, all smiles and light, Keras stared at her, blocking him out, and said, “What am I thinking?”
Her face fell as she swallowed hard and glanced at Esher.
He tried to reach for Keras, wanting to punch the bastard for making her so nervous, but Cal caught his arm and held him back. A dangerous move on his little brother’s part. Holding him back was like trying to hold back a tidal wave. You just didn’t do it unless you wanted to get hurt.
“I don’t… invade… people’s heads like that. It is rude.” She shook her head, and he could see she didn’t want to do it, was afraid of what might happen if she did.
“Leave her alone,” he growled, and she looked at him, her nerves fading a little as their eyes met. He gentled his tone. “You don’t have to do this.”
She looked back at Keras, and gods, he admired her when she stood a bit taller and squared her shoulders.
She took a deep breath and stared at Keras for so long Esher started to get twitchy again, restless with a need to stop her from looking at his brother.
A wrinkle formed between her eyebrows as she focused harder.
“Books?” she said, and then shook her head. “Not books. I’m meant… to read… your mind?”
“Keep going.” Keras’s voice was dark, challenging, and the need to punch his brother grew stronger, because he was pushing her, ordering her around as if she belonged to him, or was his to command.
Megan found it hard to heal them because they were gods, and it was obvious Aiko was struggling to read Keras. It was taking its toll on her.
She glanced at him, gave a tiny dip of her head to say she was fine, one that did nothing to ease the need to give his brother a makeover with his fists, and then looked back at Keras and focused again.
Her eyes turned glassy.
“Your thoughts… hazy.” She swayed a little and reached out to grip the ebony table, leaned towards it and his brother as she peered deeper into his green eyes. “You are gods. I understand.”
She went deeper still.
“What’s in your pocket? You want something… in your—”
“Get out of my head,” Keras snapped and shadows whipped towards her, but Valen had her out of their path in an instant, tugging her towards him as she flinched and closed her eyes, her hand flying to her forehead as if Keras had physically struck her.
Gods only knew what would have happened if his shadows had.
Ares was quick to move aside, levelling a hard look at Keras. Esher was out of the booth and beside her in a heartbeat, taking her from Valen and checking her over, leaving no inch of her uninspected as a need to see that she was unhurt raged through his blood.
“Are you alright?” He smoothed his thumb over her brow as he cupped her head, across the point she had touched when she had flinched, and relief beat through him when she nodded and opened her eyes, and lifted them to his, and he saw in them that she was. He turned his head towards his brother, clenched his jaw, and bit out, “Happy now?”
Keras lowered his eyes to the table and didn’t respond. His hands gripped the black wood, so fiercely his knuckles were white, and Esher wanted to ask him what it was in his pocket that he desired and wanted to keep hidden from him and his brothers. What did he want to protect so much that he had been willing to harm a human to keep it secret?
Ares looked as if he wanted the answer to that question too.
If Keras dared to push Aiko around again, if he so much as looked at her funnily, then Esher was damned well going to find out.
He watched his older brother twisting the silver band he wore on his thumb around it, his eyes on it, a glimmer of something like pain in their emerald depths.
For now, Esher would let it go.
They were meant to be celebrating Cal’s birthday, not getting into a fight.
He shifted his gaze back to Aiko. “You’re sure you’re alright?”
She nodded and he reluctantly released her when a few of the waitresses started looking his way and talking to each other. Aiko moved away, but he didn’t miss the way she frowned at Keras before she went back to work.
Keras looked away again when Esher glared at him and slid back into the booth, on the edge of the red velvet seat this time, hemming Ares in against Cal.
“You serious about her? You seem serious. She seems a little young.”
“Valen!” Ares snapped.
Valen shrugged, his shoulders casually rolling beneath his tight black t-shirt. “What? I’m just saying what you’re all thinking. We all know Esher’s history with humans is as black as Styx. What’s the deal?”
Esher had thought they had agreed not to do this. He ignored them and continued to watch her. When she came with their drinks, he took his from her, and a thousand volts leaped along his bones when their fingers brushed. She stared at him, eyes wide deep dark pools that he fell into, forgetting the world for a heartbeat.
He leaned towards her, wanting to kiss her, and stopped himself at the last second, aware she was being watched again. She broke away, a blush staining her cheeks, and hugged the silver tray to her chest as she headed back towards the kitchen.
When she reached the other waitresses, they all burst into giggles.
“There’s no doubt she likes you.”
Esher turned a glare on Daimon. “I expected comments from them, but not from you.”
Daimon just smiled, a teasing one that said he wasn’t going to hear the end of this for a while.
“Are you serious about her?” Keras this time, and everyone looked at him again, seeming as surprised as he was to hear their older brother speak again so soon.
Esher looked back at Aiko and watched her as she talked with the other waitresses, all bright and beautiful. “She’s different to everyone.”
She made him see there was good in this world and gave him a reason to protect it.
When she took a tray of drinks and brought them to his table, setting them down in front of Valen, Daimon and Cal, he waited impatiently for her to be done. The second she lowered her tray, he caught her free hand, brought it to his lips and pressed a kiss to it.
She blushed again. “I’ll be scolded.”
But she didn’t take her hand away. She lingered, showing him that she wanted his kiss, needed his hands on her, ached for the contact as fiercely as he did. He groaned and relinquished her hand, and watched her go, that restless need gnawing at him.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go without holding her again, touching her again.
Kissing her again.
It was driving him crazy.
He felt his brothers watching him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Aiko, barely heard them as they spoke, lost in her and the need spiralling through him, one more ferocious than he had ever experienced before.
One that stemmed from the deepest place in his heart.
In his soul.
Ares’s words broke through, quietly spoken and with a teasing note that said he was being only half-serious, but they struck Esher hard as he felt the gravity of them and knew them to be true.
“I think he’s in love.”
Daimon’s muttered response echoed his thoughts.
“Gods help the world.”