Page 17 of Tempt

I push against it, but it starts to give me a headache. This is getting to be too much. If I don’t walk away now, I’m going to ruin this one good thing that might offer me a chance to get past Eissa, so I smile at Xander and then turn to find my brother.

God only knows what he’s up to, and I have a feeling it’s not working out.

The last time I left him on his own, I found him sitting cross-legged on the gym floor, eyes closed, doing absolutely nothing. He called it meditating; I called it a waste of a perfectly good mat.

This morning I want to make sure his gym experience involves actual movement since that will also keep me distracted from whatever the hell is going on with my head.

It takes me a bit, but eventually I find Dante on the other side of the room, on an actual treadmill, talking to someone vaguely familiar. I rack my brain for a name but come up short. Not that it matters. As soon as Dante clocks me, he switches to SimCom and introduces his new friend.

I give the curly-haired stranger a nod and a small smile.

‘This is my brother, Luca,’ Dante signs and then adds, ‘He’s Deaf. Luca, this is Zane.’

Surprisingly, the blond-haired stranger lifts his hands and signs, ‘Nice to meet you. I know a little sign. Everest and I took a class.’

His signs aren’t great or even fluid, but I fucking love it when people try to bridge communication gaps by giving it their all. Even if their all is pretty bad. I’ll take that any day over someone asking me to lip read.

‘Nice to meet you,’ I offer. It’s a conscious effort to make myself sign slower, but it’s worth it when I see that Zane understands me.

He jerks his chin up at me in understanding, and his pace slows a little. ‘You come here a lot?’

I shrug, but Dante bursts into laughter. “All the time,” he SimComs. “He lives here.”

I drag my fingers under my chin in both the Italian and ASL way to say, ‘Fuck you.’

Dante grins and looks unapologetic, but then it’s obvious his gaze catches on something, and I look over to see Quilliyn coming our way. I’ve always liked him. He’s different than most Vyastil I’ve met.

They’re all pretty jacked, but Quilliyn has put on muscle since taking over the gym, and he’s always walking around in very tiny shorts with no shirt, showing off all his piercings. He flashes fang with his grin, and that’s when I feel Zane tense beside me.

The look on his face is definitely not the same kind of expression he had when he met me. He catches me staring and looks away, but Dante doesn’t notice as he hops off his treadmill and jogs over to say hello.

‘Your family know a lot of monsters?’ Zane asks when he catches my gaze. His fingers and face are full of derision.

‘I know some. They are really friendly.’

Zane’s face changes, something dark passing through his eyes. He tries to cover it up with a smile, but I can tell it’s forced. He can’t hide that from my Deaf and Italian eyes. I’ve spent my entire life reading strangers through their facial expressions and body language. It’s in both sides of my DNA.

‘So…you know Ceelo,’ he spells Cielo’s name wrong, and that makes something uncomfortable curl around my stomach and squeeze.

‘Cielo,’ I correct, probably too fast for him to get. ‘Yes, I do. He’s nice.’

‘What about Rathyn?’

The way he’s rapid-firing questions at me makes me feel like I’m being interrogated. It’s bizarre, and that’s the moment I realize there’s more to Zane than I originally thought. And it’s not good. ‘I met him,’ I answer very cautiously. ‘He seems nice too.’

‘You know how they get in and out of the portals?’

My hackles are up. ‘What the fuck is this about? What are you asking for here?’

His brows furrow. ‘Sorry. Don’t understand.’

I don’t know if I believe him or not, but I had been signing at Deaf speed so it’s very likely he’s telling the truth.

I shrug and refuse to repeat myself, instead turning my gaze to the row of machines to decide which I want to use first. In my periphery, I can see him staring at me like he’s debating if he wants to get my attention to grill me more, but in the end, he gives up.

He turns off his machine, but instead of stepping off, he twists his body and stares at where Dante and Quilliyn are still chatting. I’m on edge now. I don’t like the look he’s giving either of them, and I will kill him if he even thinks about going anywhere near Dante. I’ll extend that protection to Quilliyn too.

Finally, he stalks off, heading for the free weights, which gives him the perfect view of Quilliyn and my brother, so I take a few steps to the left where a pull-down bar isn’t being used. I set the weight without really taking my eyes off Zane and begin a few reps, but I catch a wave in my periphery a second later and glance over to see that Quilliyn’s gone and Dante is standing beside my machine.