Page 44 of Try As I Smite
“She’s not here,” Naiobe lied without even a blink of her big, deep brown eyes.
Using the serious, no-bullshit glower that got most people to move—usually with hustle—Alasdair leaned over to place his hands on her desk, leaning in to her. “We both know that’s not true.”
He’d timed this deliberately to find Delilah in the office. He’d also had help from two unexpected sources—though maybe not so unexpected once he’d gotten over the shock—figuring out his best move.
Naiobe pursed her lips and gave a speaking look to his hands before lifting a pointed gaze to his eyes.
He didn’t move, which earned him only mulishly narrowed eyes. “She’s in a meeting.”
“With her parents. I’m well aware.”
That finally got a real reaction, her shoulders coming back like a soldier at attention. “And how do you know that, may I ask?”
“Because they told me to be here at this time.”
“I see,” she said slowly, and slid a glance to Delilah’s door, then back to him. Then she rose to her feet and placed her hands on her desk, mimicking his posture, going nose to nose. “You hurt her, and you answer to me.”
“I understand.”
She gave a perfunctory smile that did not reach her eyes. “I don’t think you do. To start with, I’m a freed djinn.”
Djinn possessed access to more magic than mages, not having to pull it from themselves, but from the power found in nature. Of course Delilah would have one for an assistant. She’d probably freed Naiobe herself, he had no doubts.
“You believe you understand what that means,” Naiobe said, eying him. “But you don’t. When I was enslaved and given that power, I was already more than human. Ever hear of an adze?”
Holy shit.
As the leader of all his kind, Alasdair made it a point to know all supernatural creatures. Adze were rare. From the depths of his memory he pulled out a general idea. “The legend in the Ghana and Togo region of Africa—fireflies who in human form become vampires?”
“Vampire is such a loose term.” Her smile sent a chill through him, controlled just barely. “We like to eat fresh internal organs. Human, animal…” She gave a negligent shrug as though it didn’t matter which. “I’m a particular fan of—” Her gaze dropped to his crotch.
Alasdair grinned, obviously throwing Naiobe off, based on another nose twitch. “I should have known Delilah wouldn’t have just anyone as an assistant.”
They stared at each other across the desk for a long moment before she gave a reluctant half smile, then sauntered to the door. “I’m not the one you need to worry about.” She paused, her hands on the door handles. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s been… I’ve never seen her like this.”
“She’s not the only one,” he confessed.
“Fix it,” Naiobe ordered. Then opened the door. “Sorry for the interruption, Delilah, but Alasdair Blakesley is here and insisting on speaking with you.”
He walked in to find Delilah standing beside both her parents, no shoes, and an expression caught somewhere between irritation and panic before she buried it under that layer of ice he hated.
“Remiel. Hazah.” He nodded at her parents.
Delilah whipped her head around to stare at her parents. “I’d hate to think you had anything to do with this,” she said through tight lips.
“Apparently, daughter, you learned nothing of the lessons I sent you through.” Hazah stepped up to Delilah and placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered something he couldn’t catch but that sent red flags of color into Delilah’s high cheekbones.
“You have both our blessings,” Remiel said, also giving her a kiss.
Then Remiel took Hazah’s hand in his—a gesture Delilah’s gaze shot to, and she couldn’t quite disguise the vulnerability that flashed across her features—and they disappeared. No sound. No wind.
“Must be handy to teleport indoors,” Alasdair murmured.
The face she turned to him was perfectly composed, not an emotion in sight behind the glacier she’d erected. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss my parents’ form of travel.”
“No.”
“So, what can I do for you?” She started to move behind her desk.
