Page 36 of Vampire Visions

“Is Jack going to be with you?”

“Him and Grim, yes,” I admitted.

He made a thoughtful noise. “Have them hang out in the void. Don’t let them be seen with you when you walk in.”

“I have six mates, Simon. Should all of them act as bodyguards? That seems a little excessive.”

I heard him suck in a quick breath. “Six? Fuck, Lo. No, they can’t all walk in with you. You’ll be a threat already, so you need to be smart about this. Send two of them with Jack. Walk in with four, your vampire as a date and three posing as guards. When you need the others, have them step across the void to join you.” He meant for me to call Jack telepathically when I needed them.

“Thanks, Simon. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” I ended the call, sighing heavily. At least that was a portion of a plan. After my entrance at the party, everything would basically be a rough outline.

“I’ll tell the guys what he said,” Vaughn offered.

“I have an idea, Vaughn. I don’t know if it’ll help or blow up in my face, though.” I paused to scrub at my face with the heels of my hands. “You, York, and Stone come from different realms, right?” I waited for him to nod his head. “I think having the three of you with me would be the smart move. To show the heads of Vampyre that we’re a strong… unit? They won’t know immediately that I have as many mates as I do, but once the rumors start… That sounds kinda weird, but do you get what I’m saying?”

“I do.” He nodded his head at me again. “I think you're right, on both fronts. It could show the elders that we’re a strong group and that we’re serious. It could also backfire. It might make them think that you’re too busy with other realms to lead them properly. Either way, it will definitely be threatening to Kadence because she thinks you’re dead.” He grimaced. “I have an idea too, and I think it may make her second-guess her plans.”

I laid back on the bed, my feet hanging over the edge as I stared at the ceiling. “What is it?”

He twisted his body to sit sideways at my side, his knees brushing against my hip and thigh. I let myself think back to last week. Back to the night we’d spent laughing and talking, how I’d wanted to throw myself at him, and how badly I’d wanted him to kiss me. That was before everything became so much more complicated.

“I think we should go out.” I snapped my eyes to his, and he held up a hand. “Hear me out. I know we’re not supposed to let her know you’re alive yet, but I think that vampires in general are nosy. They’ll see you and Novak, start talking about how you’re both here for the party, wondering if one of you two are taking over. It’ll get back to Kadence as ‘speculation’. She won’t want to believe it, and it’ll plant a little seed of doubt in her head. She's so sure that you are dead that the rumors will cause her to second-guess herself. She’ll start to wonder if Taylor actually killed you, and now she can’t call on him to have him confirm again. She’s already made a mistake, now we just have to capitalize on it.” He shrugged his shoulders.

I smiled up at him. “You’re sexy when you’re plotting and devious.”

He huffed around a wry chuckle. “Growing up in the winter fae court will do that. I may be able to give you a run for your money.” He winked at me, but I was stunned to hear him bring up his past, even just the slightest. One of the guys had said that he never talked about it, and I had so many questions I wanted to ask. I think he knew too, because he changed the subject.

“How does this house look so small from the outside, when it’s so big on the inside?” He stood, stretching his arms above his head. His shirt rode up to reveal that delicious V at his hips. The fae in front of me would put Adonis to shame. Godsdamnit. He was sex personified, wearing nothing but a plain white t-shirt and dark wash jeans that hugged his thighs in the perfect way.

“Magic,” I whispered to him before I forgot his question.

He grinned down at me. “You gonna lay there and drool all day?”

“No,” I quipped back too quickly. “Maybe,” I corrected myself. “If you’re gonna stand there looking like that all day? Probably. Yes. Absolutely.”

“Yeah.” He flashed me a big smile. “That’s almost all the ways you could have answered that question, and somehow you still didn’t answer.”

“Mmm,” I mumbled, trying to talk myself into standing. Once on my feet, we stood chest to chest. He made no move to step back, but he did hesitate. I didn’t like it, but I could work around it. I reached my hand up, gently cupping his cheek. Leaning onto my toes, I pressed a single chaste kiss to his lips. “You don’t have to force this, Vaughn. Whatever it is that you don’t want to tell me, it’s not going to change my mind. I liked you before I knew you were my mate.”

He remained silent, his pleading eyes fixated on my face. I called that a small victory. He’d at least think about it now. “You tell the guys the plan. I’m going to go change clothes.” I gave his hand a quick squeeze and left him standing there to mull it over. I knew he’d come around. We had time. There was no need to rush into anything if he wasn’t ready. I didn’t know if I was ready either. I just didn’t see the point in making things more difficult than they had to be, and he and Palmer were doing exactly that.

Palmer was my next target. I needed him to know that I’d noticed the distance and that I didn’t understand. Like Vaughn, I didn’t expect him to tell me everything right out of the gate, but… how were we supposed to get to know each other if he wouldn’t even look at me? The last few days had been strange with him.

So, what’s a bitch to do? Thinking like Jack helped, and I devised a plan that I didn’t think Palmer would say no to. After changing into a flirty black dress with bright pink flamingos on it and foregoing panties, I went to find my mage. I thought I’d find him in the small library my father had here, but no. I found him in the dining room, typing furiously on his laptop.

“Hey, Palmer?” I called, not waiting for a reply. “I need some assistance.”

He looked at me curiously. “With what?”

“How do I make a spell last for longer than I need it to?” I grinned at him.

He shook his head, not understanding. “What?”

“Yeah, like…” I wobbled my head from side to side. “Say I wanted a spell to last for, I don’t know, ten years. How do I do that?”

He furrowed his brows. “An’ what kind of spell are we talking about here, Love?”

I wanted to grin again, but I kept my face carefully neutral. “A birth control spell.”