He touched my cheek. "We are safe."
"Am I interrupting?" Devlin asked icily.
His hands were fisted both sides of him, and his lips had a rigid set. Blazer hanging open, I glimpsed his impressive physique as he turned his gaze to Breandan. Impressive but odd, he didn't have any marks. All boys had marks. Not as many as Breandan, who had enough tattoos for three, but Devlin's skin was completely pure.
"Rae, aren't you going to introduce us?" he asked and stared at Breandan.
Without looking at him, Breandan replied as he entwined his fingers with mine. "I'm no concern of yours."
Fingers firm and warm rubbed against mine. I was hyper aware of the touch. It reminded me of the last time I had my hand in another's, in a vampires. That thought pulled me up short. The vampire had touched me and I'd let him. Wow. I was seriously messed up. Years of being unable to interact with others, and I let demons drape themselves all over me. I tugged my hand away but it was a pitiful attempt. More for the sake of telling myself I had resisted, rather than actually wanting him to let me go.
"Interesting," Devlin said. "I thought only Disciples, Clerics or Priests were allowed at Temple. I'm new here, but I've never seen you before. When did you enroll?"
They peered at each other warily. Backs straightening and necks stiffening, they became silent.
A pressing need to defend Breandan had me stuttering, "It's no big, Devlin. He's my, uhguest." I shrank back as Devlin's glare turned on me. The last thing I needed would be for him to run and spill Breandan was on Temple grounds. I did tug my hand away this time and fisted it on my lap. I felt annoyingly bereft that he had released me. "I want him here," I added in a rush.
Breandan went still beside me, and I felt his focus shift to my face.
It grew cold. The lights flickered and ominous silence draped over me. A weird feeling crawled over my skin, so I tensed. The lights blacked out. The room temperature hit rock bottom, and an icy gust of air lapped at the back of my neck. I clutched Breandan's hand tight in mine again. Was it him doing this? He needed to stop because he was making it a little too obvious that he didn't belong. I squeezed the hand I held. The moisture in my eyes stung, and the pores on my skin shrank. Then 'it' passed and the lights came back up. The air warmed.
"Power outage," I said tactfully.
My mind was not able to deal with the concept of anything other than that. It was an easy lie. Breandan snorted and rested an arm over my shoulder. He made soothing circles on my wrist. It was nice, the lazy soft brushes against my skin.
"Rae," Devlin said slickly, "Would you like to come with me? Somewhere private." He smiled, nice and slow. The kind of smile that suggested not much talking would be going on once he got me alone. "We could get to know one another some more?"
Confused at his sudden suggestive undertone, rejection was on the tip of my tongue. I had a vampire to get back to, so my plan was to extract myself from this conversation as soon as I could and leave. Who knew what Tomas would do if I was not there when he woke up. All of this had passed through my mind in a split second then flew out as quick. Breandan's reaction to the invitation was explosive. Snarling, he moved startlingly fast and blurred into a dark streak, a shadow.
Chests heaving and eyes blazing the boys faced off nose to nose.
I was confused and stared at the vacant spot the fairy-boy was moments ago. My reactions caught up and I made a noise of alarm. I jumped up to push Breandan back a few paces, with difficulty since he packed a truck-load more muscle and height than me. I tugged his chin down to look him in the face. Tense seconds clicked by as I looked into the eyes of someone alien to me. Breandan glared at me with traces of disgust and disbelief. I felt bad and annoyed because I wanted answers from him, but I couldn't have him butting heads with other Disciples. If Devlin told a Cleric I'd let a strange boy into Temple, I'd come under question. Hell, if Devlin threw in he knew I was hiding a vampire in my wardrobe, I would never see the light of day again. They would probably lock me away for the rest of my life. Or kill me if they could prove I was a demon and a threat.
"I think you should go," I said wearily.
