Page 17 of Absolution

Pull Seiran’s hair.

“Just concentrate. Focus on your goal. Want him to feel it,” Gabe coached.

I let out a deep breath I didn’t need and stared at Seiran’s hair willing it to move or feel like it moved. Whatever. Nothing happened. Seiran glanced up and frowned. “Do you need blood? Your eyes are red. I thought they were supposed to be black when you guys haven’t fed.” He glanced at Gabe.

Shit. I shut my eyes and turned away from them. Usually my eyes only went red when I let the monster out, but I didn’t feel any different. No anger or irritation, just normal, everyday Sam.

Gabe tapped my shoulder and handed me a pair of sunglasses. “You’ll get better at controlling your eyes in time. Black when you haven’t fed. Red when you’re using your vampire power, or if you’ve gained enough control the color will glow more along with your natural eye color.”

“I thought they turned red when I’m mad.” I put on the glasses.

“Anger is a lack of control. Which means you’re letting your powers take control of you instead of controlling them. Try again. With Kelly this time.”

This time I focused on Kelly, letting the brown haze of the glasses fuzz through my vision as I thought of the way his blond hair barely touched the nape of his neck. It was straight and sloppy, like he spent a lot of time on a windblown beach, but I knew the truth. Kelly spent a lot of time on that hair, dyeing it, bleaching it, cutting it, styling it. He was about as metro as a guy could get.

Gabe patted my shoulder. “You’re not focusing. I can almost see your thoughts wandering.”

“Sorry,” I grumbled and he was right. I returned to try to get Kelly’s hair to move. “There is no spoon,” I said to myself gaining a snicker from Kelly. “Shush,” I told him. I must have stared at his hair for a good half hour with no result. He seemed more bothered by my gaze than any suggestion I tried to put in his head. The elevator dinged, knocking me out of focus. “Maybe we should go to a playground and practice on some little kids. You know, like non-Dominion kids. Start on the super easy.”

Gabe shook his head. “Keep trying. You’ll get it and when you do, you’ll be surprised how easy it is.”

Luca sat down beside me just as Sei got up to pull food out of the oven. “I was hoping to be back before you woke up,” he told me. “Hungry?”

Starving, but I shook my head. Oddly enough the smell of the food wasn’t bothering me as much anymore, but maybe that was because Luca smelled pretty damn good. He must have gone home because he was wearing different clothes. And like mine—his bruises were gone.

“That smells amazing,” he said to Seiran. He turned my way and smiled at me, though I was pretty sure he couldn’t see my eyes through the sunglasses.

Jamie trudged into the apartment from the door that led to the underground parking lot with grocery bags in hand. Kelly and Sei went to work helping him put things away as the food cooled on a rack on the counter. Jamie’s long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and he looked like the sort of guy who did personal security rather than the nurse he was. But he did work as Seiran’s private bodyguard whenever Gabe wasn’t around. The two of them looked nothing alike, Sei and Jamie, though they were biological half-brothers, sharing the same father. Jamie was brown all the way around, skin more tan than white, pale brown hair, brown eyes, and so muscular that he always looked like he could burst out of his clothes any minute and become the Hulk. He was attractive in a male physique sort of way, but way too much man for me.

Beside me Luca, dressed in fitted jeans, a snug T-shirt, and a draping zip-up sweater, open and hanging off his shoulders, made my mouth water. I knew what was under those clothes. The tight ass, the flat, muscled stomach, the smooth chest and long legs. Fuck, I longed to have him wrapped around me.

Luca must have felt the intensity of my gaze because he looked my way and gave me a sexy smile. He flicked his eyes toward the bedroom I used, and I shook my head. I was not getting off with him while everyone else could hear.

Gabe took a small dark cooler from Jamie and popped it in the freezer. I returned to my silent brooding over not being able to make Kelly think I was moving his hair by thinking about it. They all began to dish up and Sei offered food to Luca who accepted quickly.

The microwave whirred and I suspected Gabe was warming a QuickLife. I hoped he didn’t want me to drink it. A second later he set a mug steaming with dark liquid down in front of me. It smelled like blood, old blood. Gross, dirty blood. At least QuickLife smelled clean, fresh. It had always been a bit like water, bland, with a horrific aftertaste. This was…I swallowed back a gag. Gabe laughed. “It’s real. Human. Not as fresh as from the vein, but not as bad as QuickLife.”

Real? I put the cup hesitantly to my lips. The first sip had me sputtering and coughing. The guys in the alley had tasted better than this. I took another sip. Okay that was really awful. “Why is it so bad?”

“Donation blood is not the same as someone you’d be naturally drawn to feed from. We may think we choose someone based on availability or even appearance, but it’s the smell that draws us. You do it now, gravitating to those more powerful like Seiran, Luca and even Con.” Gabe pointed out.

I gulped. Was he going to say I couldn’t live with Con anymore? That I was a danger to him? I really didn’t want to be part of their romance novel by living with Sei and Gabe full-time.

“We’re not always lucky enough to find willing donors that we’d prefer. This is what all vampires used before QuickLife.”

“And after they become civilized,” Luca whispered. He sat down beside me with a plate full of food. “Bet that stuff doesn’t taste as good as me.”

Understatement of the year.

“Wear something nice for tonight,” Luca said.

“What’s tonight?” Was I working? I glanced at Gabe who was typing on his laptop at the counter beside Seiran.

“I thought we’d do a little dancing. At least until your deadline is up and we can actually talk about vampire things.”

“Deadline?” Seiran asked. “What deadline?”

“It’s no big deal,” I told him, not wanting them involved.