Eternal Seduction (32 page)

Logan stared at the empty space where Trinity had been and smiled. In less than two hours she’d be standing in front of the man who’d chosen “life” for her before she’d made the decision herself.

What would she say? What would he say?

Nervousness crawled up her spine. It’d taken almost a week to realize she cared for him, but what if something had changed for him during that time? What if she saw him again and the goblin in her belly disapproved?

Stop. He’s good, I can tell.
She chuckled out loud. Great. Her beast was quoting lines from Disney movies. How messed up was that?

She’d have taken more time to consider the irony, but a loud knock brought her thoughts to a screeching halt.

Logan walked across the room to her front door. No doubt, Lawrence stood outside, and all she could do was hope they had something in common. Otherwise, life as a
Servio
would be rough. She’d rather be on the street than attached to someone she didn’t get along with.

She inhaled the deepest breath possible and pulled open the door, revealing a man with long blonde hair, who stood only a few inches shorter than her. Dressed in a white button down shirt and khaki slacks, his light brown eyes and hard features seemed vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until he beamed a bright white smile that realization struck.

His two top teeth were chipped at the bottom.

Logan blew out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Larry? Holy shit! You look so…clean.” And he did, he looked nothing like the man who’d sold her heroin for the last three years. And had it not been for his teeth, she’d have never believed they were the same person.

Larry let out a laugh in a voice much deeper than she’d ever heard him use. “I could say the same about you.” He motioned past her. “May I come in?”

“Yeah, of course.” She stepped back and gave him room to pass. “Wow. This is crazy. Your hair isn’t brown and greasy.” She slowly shook her head. “Why didn’t Trinity just say Larry?”

He turned around. “Probably because you wouldn’t have believed it was me when you looked through the peephole.” When she smiled, so did he. “You didn’t even look, did you?”

“Nope.” She stared at the white metal door and wrinkled her nose before she pushed it closed. “I’m not exactly used to having a door yet.” She offered him a seat on the couch, and then sat down in the dark grey chair across from him. “What’s up?”

“Not much. I came to take the newest Nelek
Servio
to her first Court. And I must say,” he looked her up and down from beneath a single raised brow, an appraisal that didn’t make her skin crawl nearly as bad this time, “the newest is looking pretty good.”

She smoothed the bottom of her black sweater over the waist of her jeans. “Thanks. I don’t feel too bad either.”

“I heard. Congratulations on getting clean.”

“Thanks.” She relaxed back into the chair and shook her head again. “Why the hell do you stand on the corner down in Brooklyn and sell drugs?”

He tipped his blond head back and laughed. “Because believe it or not, I hear everything when I work down there as Larry. I know who’s doing what, with who and why. Most of the Fledglings and
Servios
in the city haven’t put Larry and Lawrence together yet, which only works to my advantage. I’m respected by day as Lawrence, but I’m informed when I’m a dope dealer named Larry by night. Besides, being down there doesn’t bother me. Not everyone I sell to is a bad person; they’re just addicted to some chemical that helps them get through their day. It’s not my place to judge them.”

Logan tilted her head. “Is that what you thought about me?”

“I never really considered you a hardcore addict. Most of the people I served, I saw at least once a day. You came on Wednesday and Sunday like clockwork. If anything, I’d say you were dedicated, not addicted.”

She grinned wide. “What a nice way to put it.”

“Hey,” he thumped a hand against the arm of the couch, “I know a good apple when I see one. I just wish it hadn’t taken Trinity so long to claim you. I told her about you a few months ago, but her nice immortal ass likes to take her time.”

Logan stiffened as his last sentence fully wrapped around her. The goblin in her stomach surged to life for the first time since Odin had berated her, and felt like it was roller skating on razor blades, shredding her insides to ribbons. “You told Trinity about me a few months ago?”

He nodded. “I thought you’d be a good addition. You always seemed too smart to be a street urchin.” He sighed. “Besides, I had a feeling you’d started to suspect vampires were real. But it wasn’t like I could just come out and ask. If I did and was wrong, I didn’t want to be responsible for breaking the Veil or having to kill you to cover the breach.” He straightened the collar of his shirt. “I hope you aren’t mad I told her about you, Logan. You know how important the Veil is now, and I figured if everything went well you’d end up in a better place.”

Stay calm…
“I’m not mad that you told her about me. I guess I’m just a bit confused.” She rubbed the back of her neck as heat spread through her body. “The night you saw me with Kerestyan, you obviously knew who he was, so why’d you ask if he was my boyfriend? Why didn’t you just go talk to him?”

He crinkled his nose. “Kerestyan and I don’t get along very well. Plus, Trinity told me the day before everything went down that she’d asked him to retrieve you for her. I just assumed that’s what he was doing.” He cracked a big grin. “I called her when we finished up our deal to let her know he had you, and she couldn’t have been happier. But, so was I. Like I said, I wondered why she took so long to move on you.”

Logan inhaled a slow, deep breath. If Kerestyan had been part of Trinity’s plan all along, she’d kick his fangs so far back in his head his brother would feel it.

But it didn’t make any sense. Why would he have been so concerned she wouldn’t make it past Stefan if Trinity had already gotten permission? And why would Trinity have been so insistent that Kerestyan didn’t know Logan was in the alley that night?

Was she covering for Kerestyan? But if she was, why did he threaten to kill her first?

Vampires and their stupid fucking mind games.
She rubbed a finger in small circles over her right temple. Well, at least that thought was purely her own.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Logan nodded and gave Larry her best smile. She needed to play this just right or it could backfire in her face. “Well, since you were nice enough to save me from being homeless for another fifteen years, did Trinity tell you about what happened after I saw you that night? Did she keep you apprised of my situation at all?”

“She hit me via telepathy later that day and said she cooked you a steak. She said you guys talked about being a
Servio
and you took the info about as well as she expected.”

Damn, everything he said so far was true…

She shifted and stared blindly at the lamp setting on the table next to her. “I think the worst part was going through the whole withdrawal process just so I could meet Stefan. I wasn’t happy at all. Get clean so the man doesn’t kill me on sight, but he might kill me later anyway…not odds I particularly cared for.”

“Yeah, I heard the whole situation was pretty hard on you,” he laughed. “I don’t mean to laugh at you,” he raised a hand and offered an apologetic look. “I know it’s not funny, but Trinity said she had to hold you over the toilet for a good hour while you gave back the steak she made for you.”

That lying bitch.
Logan looked over at the clock. She still had an hour before Court started, which meant if she hit the subway station a couple blocks away she had a good chance of getting to Kerestyan’s penthouse in Manhattan before he left.

She was willing to bet everything she owned that Kerestyan didn’t know what his sister had done. Otherwise Trinity would’ve never needed to lie to Larry about helping Logan through withdrawal. And considering she had obviously manipulated the circumstances surrounding her and Kerestyan’s “chance” meeting in the alley, he deserved to know he’d been played for a fool as hard as she had.

Logan focused back on Larry, Lawrence, whatever the hell his name was. “I know you’re supposed to take me to Court, but Trinity told me how to get to the Estate. Would it be alright if I met you there?” She stood and stretched her arms above her head. “I’m going to take a quick trip to Manhattan before I dive head first into vampire politics.”

He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and dangled them in the air. “Would you like a ride? After all, there are certain perks to being a
Servio
. I don’t mind being your chauffer for the evening.”

She would’ve accepted his offer, but she wasn’t sure she could trust him. “Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll pass. It may sound funny and a little stupid, but I actually started to miss a few places in this city while I was training. I think walking the cracked sidewalks and jumping over potholes might be just what the Vouclade ordered.”

Larry stood up and laughed. “I’d offer to keep you company, but I rather enjoy the modern convenience of a vehicle.” He tapped the face of his watch. “Make sure you’re at the Estate by Midnight or before. You don’t want to be late on your first day. Everyone will turn and look at you as soon as the doors open. And even though the vampires here are all young, you don’t want to give them a reason to stare at you any longer than necessary.”

“Understood.” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I won’t be late. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how to get around the streets of New York.” She waited for Larry to pass before she stepped out onto the landing of a thin stairway and pulled the door closed. “Where did you park?”

He started down the stairs. “Out in the lot behind the building. You haven’t seen this place before tonight, have you?”

She followed his lead, wishing he’d move a lot faster. “No. I know where I am though, don’t worry.”

He laughed as he pushed open the heavy metal door leading to the street. “I won’t. I figure if you’ve made it on the street for this long, your sense of direction works just fine.”

She stepped out onto the sidewalk and once again did her best to smile at him. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

He gave a curt nod before he turned left and began walking away. “Remember,” he tossed over his shoulder, “don’t be late.”

“I won’t.”

She waited for him to disappear around the corner before she cut right and broke into a full run. The cold February air bit through the single layer of her sweater, but she didn’t care. She needed to get to Kerestyan and tell him what Trinity had done.

“You’ve been everything I expected…and more.”

Logan growled as Trinity’s voice echoed in her mind, flooding her veins with anger. Between Vouclade’s reaction upon learning Trinity had explained to her what being a
Servio
meant, and Trinity’s own high pitched comment concerning the chances of Logan running into Kerestyan in the alley that night, she should have known something was going on.

You did know…you just didn’t know what to look for.
She pushed her legs faster, but not so hard she risked the Veil. How fitting the training Trinity had given her was exactly what helped her uncover her dirty little secret.

As far as Logan was concerned, her strings lead straight back to Trinity Nelek. All she needed to figure out now was how many times the bitch had pulled them.

“She’s baaaack!”

Kerestyan jumped and sat up when Trinity’s unexpected voice cut through the silence of his bed chamber. “What?”

She stood at the foot of his bed, her cherry red lips parted in a smile, black eyes dancing with excitement. “Logan. I just dropped her off at her new apartment in Soho. She’ll be making her debut on Lawrence’s arm at your monthly Court. And I should warn you, she can’t wait to see you.”

For a moment, Kerestyan couldn’t do anything but stiffen and blink. Had Trinity lost what was left of her sex crazed mind? “What do you mean she’ll be at Court? Why would you do that to me? How could you do that to
her
?”

She frowned at him. “What? I thought you’d be happy.”

“I’d have been happy had you brought her here first.” He threw back the heavy, velvet comforter and climbed out of bed. “I can’t talk to her at Court! If I so much as gaze at her for a little too long every vampire in the goddamn city will know I favor her. She’ll become nothing more than a target. What the hell were you thinking? And Lawrence,” he raked a hand through his hair, “for God’s sake…why would you put her back with the man who supplied her drugs? A man you know I’m not fond of?”

She stared at him, as if his concerns had absolutely no merit. “Logan isn’t going back to a life of drugs, Kerestyan. We both know that. And Lawrence happens to have a great head on his shoulders and will be able to teach Logan all she needs to know about the politics of New York. As for your Court, the Fledglings are so busy trying to gain
your
favor, most of them won’t even notice her. You need to calm down.”

“Do not tell me what I need to do. I’m
your
Elder, and you are standing in
my
home.”

She rolled her eyes, which only served to send his beast stalking. “You known damn well had I brought her here first neither of you would’ve made it to Court. Besides, did you ever think maybe she needs a little time to collect herself? She didn’t know she was coming back today until about an hour ago.”

He fisted his hands at his sides. “If it’s time she needs to collect herself, why are you sending her to Court?”

Trinity tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling, as if the answer to his question could be found amongst the white paint. “Because she’s a
Servio
.” She lowered her head and stared hard at him. “Because it’s a perfect opportunity for her to see nearly every Fledgling in your city. You know, the ones who’ll try to use and abuse her to get what they want. Going to Court her first night back gives her a chance to memorize every face in the room before she gets sucked into youthful politics and games. Don’t you think she deserves any head start I can give her?”