Page 80 of Life and Death

I covered it with mine.

She smiled, but then she winced.

“Sorry,” I said, pulling away.

“No,” she objected. “It’s not you. Here.”

As carefully as if my hand were blown from the thinnest glass, she rested her fingers on my palm. Copying her caution, I folded my hand gently around them.

“What was wrong just now?” I half-whispered.

“Many different reactions.” Her forehead wrinkled again. “Royal has a particularly strident mental voice.”

I couldn’t help it; I automatically glanced across the room, and then was very sorry I had.

Royal was glaring daggers at Edythe’s unprotected back, and Eleanor, across from him, was turned around to glower at Edythe, too. When I looked, Royal shifted his furious eyes to me.

My eyes darted to Edythe, the hair standing up on the back of my arms, but she was glaring back at Royal now, her upper lip pulled back off her teeth in a menacing scowl. To my surprise, Eleanor turned around at once and Royal dropped his threatening stare. He looked down at the table with a suddenly sulky expression.

Archie looked like he was enjoying it all hugely. Jessamine never turned.

“Did I just piss off—” I swallowed before I could finish.A bunch of vampires?

“No,” she said fiercely, then sighed. “But I did.”

I glanced at Royal again for a fraction of a second. He hadn’t moved. “Look, are you in trouble because of me? What can I do?” The memory of his livid eyes trained on her small body had a wave of panic rolling through me.

She shook her head and smiled. “You don’t need to worry about me,” she reassured me, a little smug. “I’m not saying that Royal couldn’t take me in a fair fight, but Iamsaying that I neverhavefought fair and I don’t intend to start now. He knows better than to try anything with me.”

“Edythe . . .”

She laughed. “A joke. It’s really nothing, Beau. Normal sibling issues. An only child couldn’t understand.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.”

I looked at our hands, still folded so very carefully together. It was the first time I’d really held her hand, but wrapped up in the wonder of that was the memory of why she’d offered it to me in the first place.

“Back to what you were thinking,” she said, as if she could read my thoughts.

I sighed.

“Would it help if you knew you weren’t the only one who had been accused of obsession?”

I groaned. “You heard that, too. Great.”

She laughed. “I was entranced from start to finish.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“Why are you apologizing? It makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one.”

I stared at her, skeptical.

“Let me put it this way.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Though youare the one person I can’t besureabout, I’d still be willing to place a very large wager that I spend more time thinking about you than you do about me.”

“Ha,” I laughed, startled. “You would totally lose that bet.”