Somebody saw me and the Red Devil last night? A shiver went down my spine. Who’d seen us? It didn’t matter, it just proved to me how closely I was being watched.
I wanted to call Thierry. I wanted to talk to him. But I had no idea how to do that without raising Gideon’s suspicions. I couldn’t get him any more distrustful until I, at least, had that BlackBerry of his in my hot little hands.
The plan that had seemed so sparkly a few minutes ago now seemed like a dull grasping at straws.
Since I had told Gideon I was seeing Quinn that afternoon, that’s exactly what I did. I met him at Bodacious Bean an hour later and we spent the rest of the day together. We chatted about innocuous things that, if overheard by Gideon’s seemingly invisible spies, wouldn’t sound like anything except two people who liked each other spending time together.
Quinn and I strolled around downtown and window shopped in the Eaton Centre, the coolest mall in the universe. Then we wandered along the frozen streets of Yorkville—
probably my favorite part of Toronto, with cute boutique shops and the possibility of celebrity sightings in the trendy neighborhood. Normally it would have been a great day, but obviously my concentration was elsewhere.
“Hey—” Quinn squeezed my hand. “Earth to Planet Sarah.”
“Sorry.” I swallowed hard. “I’m a bit scattered today.”
“Just today?”
“Ha ha.” I gave him a look. “I guess I’m perfecting my craft.”
“It’s going to be okay. You know that, right?”
“It is?”
He nodded firmly and grinned at me. “We’re both going to get everything we ever wanted. We’ll both find the happiness we’ve been searching for. And you know how I know that?”
“Please share with the class.”
His smile grew. “Because we’ve damn well earned it.”
I eyed him. “You smoking crack?”
“No drugs necessary. Why, don’t you believe me?”
I breathed out and watched the air freeze into a cloud. When I was a nightwalker that wouldn’t happen. I didn’t have to breathe, and being outside in the cold would lower my body temperature. “I’m not sure what I believe anymore.”
“Then I’ll have to believe enough for the both of us.”
“Since when have you become the motivational speaker of the group?”
He shrugged. “One of us has to be and I guess today it’s me. You’ve lost your optimism.”
“I think I just misplaced it somewhere.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “If you had the chance to be human again but it came with a heavy price, would you take it?”
He thought about that for a moment. “I’ve done my share of chasing after easy answers to hard questions. Nothing worked out how I thought it would. But if somebody presented me with a special pill today that would make me the way I used to be.” His brows drew together. “I don’t think I’d go for it. I’m okay with who I am now.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What if you were cursed?”
“I felt like I was for a time after I got bit. Now I know I was blessed.”
I rolled my eyes. “I think I liked you better when you were angst-ridden.”
“Oh, trust me, I still am.” He smiled and squeezed my hand. “But life presents us with lots of forks in the road. We never know what the right one is until we walk that path and see where it leads.”
“Please stop.”
“Sorry. I can’t help myself.” His smile fell away and a shadow moved over his expression.
“I think somebody’s following us.”
I tensed. “So what do we do?”
“Just act natural.”
The sun had set. It was almost completely dark and not long before I could go and see
Gideon.
“Look at us, having fun together,” Quinn said tightly, loud enough for any passersby to hear.
“Totally,” I agreed. “So relaxed and calm and ready to enjoy our wonderful lives.
Together. Quinn and me. La la la.”
His jaw tightened. “That didn’t sound very natural.”
“My acting abilities aren’t what they used to be.”
He pulled me off the sidewalk and against the wall of a high-end fashion boutique. “This is for appearances only.”
“What is?”
“This.” He kissed me. I was surprised, but knew it would definitely help show anyone who might be watching that Quinn and I were together romantically.
I’d kissed Quinn a few times before, and there had been some great chemistry between us in the past. But this? This was just for show, and the attraction I’d once felt for him was all but completely gone.
Still. The ex-hunter had some amazing lips on him.
He finally pulled away enough to whisper in my ear. “Sorry about that.”
“Sorry?” I managed. “Don’t be sorry.”
“I wonder if the Red Devil witnessed that one as well.” I felt him grin against the side of my face. “I know he’s keeping tabs on you. Must have given him quite an eyeful just now.”
Well, that was possible.
I knew then, without a doubt, that along with anyone Gideon had tailing me, the kiss had also been witnessed by Thierry. I concentrated enough to feel his presence through our vampire/sire connection.