“You could say something flattering,” I suggested light-heartedly.
“I just...I never expected them to be in such control. It took my squad a long time before they reached that point. Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m not saying that I didn’t think you were capable -”
I interrupted before he tripped over his words. “It’s alright, I know what you were trying to say.”
“I’ve got to ask: you’ve been around my squad, right? Did you pick up any excess energy around them?”
I bit my bottom lip. “Yeah,” I finally admitted. “And there’s a little around you, too, if I’m honest.”
“Really?” He looked mortified though he was smiling. “I guess you’ll have to give me and my squad a lesson some time. You know, you’re a good coach. I take it you had a good coach to pick that up from.”
My smile faded. “Not exactly.” Before he could ask for me to elaborate I quickly asked, “So did Jared decide not to stay and watch?”
“He stayed to the end but then scarpered pretty quickly. Said he had somewhere to be.” His tone suggested he hadn’t believed that excuse. “Have you two had a falling out or something?”
I giggled. “Jared and I have never had a friendship to fall out of. Even our business relationship is beyond strained. Antonio employing me hurt his ego. You must know how your brother cherishes that ego.”
There was silence for a moment. “I don’t think it’s just that.”
“You mean the fact that I ‘wouldn’t let him screw me’, as you so aptly put it during your telepathic conversation with him.”
His cheeks reddened. “I can’t believe you heard that. Jared said absorbing some of his energy must have made you tune into it. He wouldn’t say much about the absorbing his energy part.” His tone was probing.
“There’s nothing to tell. I was in a bad way after killing Victor, and Jared let me absorb some of his energy.” I shrugged as if to emphasise the simplicity of it all.
“Well that confirms my suspicions.”
“Suspicions?”
“Jared doesn’t give anyone anything, let alone his energy. Like I said before, I don’t think his problem is just a wounded ego. I think he likes you, a lot actually.”
I gave him a doubtful look. “I fail to see how you could make that conclusion when he barely speaks or looks at me. He asked me to join his consort collection, yeah, but that’s just about sex. He’s been sulking ever since I said no.”
Evan pointed a finger at me. “But, see, that’s the thing with Jared. He’s never really liked a woman in more than a physical sense. So he doesn’t know how to handle it. He just knows that he wants you and probably thinks that if he screws you it’ll all make sense.”
“So you’re attuned to him, are you,” I mocked playfully.
“It’s a twin thing. Actually, when we were human we were really close. There wasn’t a part of his life that I didn’t know about, and vice versa. We did almost everything together.”
“What changed?”
“Jared.” He didn’t say it with bitterness or even disappointment, but understanding. “As soon as he was made Heir he totally changed. His ego was more inflated than ever before. He loved the attention and the respect and the rewards and the power that came with it all.”
“So he forgot about you, kind of left you behind?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. He wanted me to live the high life with him. He had the power to give it to me, he had the girls to share...but I wasn’t interested. He never took it personally, he respected that – even though he didn’t understand why – I didn’t want that kind of life.”
“You are a bit of an enigma.”
“I am?” He sounded amused.
“I get that power and attention isn’t what you feel you need in life. But everybody feels that they need something; little or big. And yet you just plod along, but always smiling. Even though you’ve never been short of offers from women you’ve turned them down, though I’m told that in the very beginning you were almost as bad as Jared. I’ve never once seen you even harmlessly flirt with anyone. Should I assume that there was a woman from your human life who you can’t forget?”
He smiled and then scrutinised my face. I got the idea that he was wondering how much or how little to say on the subject, whether or not he could trust me. I tried to assure him with my smile that he could.
Finally he made a puffing sound and sat down on the lawn outside the rear of the Mansion. “You know Luther has visions, right?” he asked. I nodded and I sat beside him. “Has Antonio ever asked you if you wanted to have one via Luther?”
“Yeah. I didn’t understand it, though.”
“In mine, I was in the rainforest somewhere, and I was waiting really anxiously for someone, worried they were in danger. Then Jared and two women appeared, and I almost collapsed in relief. One of them had blazing red hair and pale blue eyes and the most amazing smile you’ve ever seen. My emotions in the vision weren’t very clear, but I could feel that she was mine. Since then, I couldn’t bring myself to be with another woman, it would have felt like I was being unfaithful. That might sound weird.”
“No, no it doesn’t at all. You’re waiting for her. It’s really sweet.”
“After time just kept dragging on and she never showed, I was starting to think that maybe she was never going to. That maybe I’d made some sort of decision somewhere along the line that had changed the future. But then you came, and you can’t imagine how much optimism flowed through me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were the other woman in my vision. You and Jared brought her to me.”
My eyebrows jumped up. “Oh.”
He laughed. “Yeah, oh.”
Well I really didn’t know how I felt about that.
“Spooked?” he asked, amused.
“Sort of. You’ve never told Jared about her,” I realised.
“He wouldn’t understand. He’s always loved himself too much for anyone else to have a chance,” he added jokingly. It truly wasn’t an insult, more of a playful comment. He was so close to Jared and yet so far apart. It made me sad. “I knew that if I told him he’d laugh about it and say she must be a really good screw for me to feel that. I didn’t want to hear that, I didn’t want him to taint it.”