There were two drop-dead gorgeous men squaring off less than ten feet away. At some point during the night she must have died and gone straight to heaven. As cliché as the saying went, it explained her situation better than anything else.
Cicero turned those glittering black eyes toward her, and Alice’s heart roared. He scanned her in a single visual sweep, as if he took in every detail of her face, memorizing every cell. “What do we have here?”
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It was supposed to be just a glance at the men. Not a full-on ogle.
His lip lifted in distaste as he turned toward Sebastian. “Is this the reason you’re putting off the men for another night?”
Sebastian glared at Alice. “No, she’s not the reason.”
“Fuck her. Feed from her. Whatever...but do it, get rid of her and then get your fucking priorities in order. The full moon is seven nights away.”
Stepping into Cicero’s way, blocking him from her sight, Sebastian’s body swelled with agitation. “You report to me, not the other way around. What goes on in my private time is none of your damned business.”
“Except I plan on reporting your casual indifference to the Council, so it just became my business.” A pause. “But I’ll make you a deal. Let me feed from her too and instead of reporting you, I’ll just wait for you to hang yourself with your own ineptitude. She looks sweet enough. I haven’t had a pure human in some time, and it’s almost worth staying quiet for a few days.”
“I don’t kill them,” Sebastian said quietly.
This conversation had gone from zero to beyond eerie in no time flat. What were they talking about? She got the fucking part, but feeding? And killing? Hello! What did they mean?
“Move,” she muttered to her paralyzed feet, willing them to take her in the direction of a back door or any other overlooked entrance. To her dismay, they failed to listen, and never had she wished for a baseball bat more than now. Damn it, why had she come this way first?
Cicero peered beyond Sebastian to lock gazes with Alice again. “That’s up to you. Do we have a deal?”
Chapter Six
As tempting an offer as it was, Bast mirthlessly chuckled. “Of course we don’t have a deal.” He stepped closer to his second lieutenant. “Get the fuck out of my house and don’t come back unless invited. Tell the Council whatever the fuck you want. Afterward, go fuck yourself.”
He could feel the stirrings of unease moving the contents of his stomach around, but Bast ignored the sensation. Of all the people he feared discovering he’d come down with an illness, Cicero Nadeem, a true Hassassin of ancient days, topped the list. He’d be the loudest and most adamant about Bast’s immediate removal from the Council guard.
They hated each other as fierce rivals, but there was probably no one better suited for serving beneath him than Cicero. Even Gray didn’t have all of the skills Cicero had honed over the years. In the heat of battle, Bast trusted him as much as any of his other men to guard his back against lycans and any other threat to the Council. Right now though, they weren’t in battle.
Cicero snapped his gaze to meet Bast’s. There was fury firmly tucked in it, but the expression on his face hadn’t changed one iota. “Your warrant, hybride.”
Hybride. Bastard. Mongrel. Impure.
He’d been called all of those names and worse. This early in the morning, with Alice staring on, he wouldn’t let the slur get to him. Instead he tilted his chin toward the front door. “Gray knows my mind. I expect that you will follow him without hesitation. For the time being, see yourself out, Lieutenant.”
Cicero stared past Bast one final time, a dangerous look slanted in Alice’s direction before he turned on his heels. The sound of retreating footsteps and then a door closing drifted to him seconds later. Bast stayed in position, not allowing himself to move either. Not yet.
His hands shook with barely contained anger. But the longer he worked on reining in his roiling emotions, the more confusion took over. Which infuriated him the most: Cicero’s intrusion or Alice’s decision to ignore his warning?