He looked over at her. “I told you that you never had to worry about this blade being used to harm you.”
“Accidents happen.”
His mouth pulled up in a smug, lopsided smile. “Not unless I want them to, cookie.”
“Stop calling me that.”
And the other side of his mouth followed, forming a full-fledged grin that made her blood heat in her veins.
Damn the man. How did he get to her so easily?
“Were you followed?” Valin asked when Bennett and Annie got close enough, beating her to it.
“Don’t think so. Though it’s hard to tell around her.” Bennett jerked his head toward Annie.
“Hey!” Annie yanked her arm from his, her lips pulling into an offended pout before turning to Gabby. “If we were, we lost them. We played the subway game for a good half hour.”
“You better hope you did.” Gabby jerked her head toward the stairs. “Inside. Now. Before your father comes roaring out here.”
There was some mild grumbling, but Annie fell into step beside Gabby and the men behind them as they climbed. With each step, Gabby felt her frustration boil closer to the top. Annie pouted as if her foolishness wasn’t the cause of this, Valin was watching her ass (she could feel his damn eyes skimming over her curves), and on top of all that she was tired again. Which meant, damn it, she was going to have to slip out from under his watch to feed again.
“Damn it, Annie. Do you have to pull this crap when I’m around?” Gabby snapped and then immediately felt guilty for taking out her frustrations on her. Not that Gabby should. It was Annie’s fault she was up this early. Her fault too that Valin was here, since it was Annie and her cohorts who’d drawn the Paladins’ attention.
“You make it sound like it’s a personal affront to you,” Annie grumbled.
“Maybe not, but when you do it when I’m around, I have to deal with your father.” Gabby glanced up the stairs. “And, crap, there he is.”
Jacob was indeed pissed. And the moment Annie got within reach he took her by her elbow and walked her briskly down toward his office. It was a testament to how smart Annie actually was that she didn’t give her dad any of the lip she normally gave Gabby. Still, Gabby just knew she was going to hear about this later.
Jacob was desperate to keep his daughter safe, and when the options he presented to Gabby had come down to either eliminating the two Paladin or keeping them close until their trustworthiness could be determined, Gabby had urged the latter. She might have wanted Valin gone, but that didn’t mean she wanted him dead. Unless it was by her hand, that is, and right now she was severely tempted.
It was on her word that Valin and Bennett had been allowed the freedom Jacob had granted them. Jacob knew she had past dealings with some of the Paladin and had trusted her assessment that Bennett was too honorable to break a vow and Valin (whom she wouldn’t put it past to break a vow) was simply too willing to thumb his nose at authority and wouldn’t give them up to the wrath of the stuffy old council. How stupid had she been? There were only two reasons for Bennett to be outside at the same time Annie was, and despite what she might have implied to Valin, she knew it hadn’t been as an accomplice.
“And you!” She rounded on the frowning Bennett, who stared down the hall after Jacob and Annie.
Bennett blinked, turning back to her. “Me what?”
“Who were you chatting with out there?”
“Chatting with?”
Gabby couldn’t tell if he was being deliberately obtuse or not. “I could sense you reaching out across the miles. But once you tapped in I couldn’t make out much of anything.”
Valin stepped closer, his gaze narrowed on her. “You’re able to pick up shielded projected thoughts, by people who aren’t even near you, and through the base’s shields?”
“Shields I made,” she reminded him, then sighed when both men continued to stare at her. “Yes, okay?”
The men exchanged looks, which had her squirming. And how the heck had the tables been turned on her?
“What?” she snapped.
“Nothing, cookie. Just impressive for a merker.”
Her jaw dropped open, her breath momentarily hung up in her lungs. “Merker?” she finally managed to gasp out. “You think I’m a damn merker?”
She could feel her face heating. Her entire bloodstream was heating. How could Valin believe that? And if he really did believe her to be Ganelon’s child, then why the hell didn’t he use his damn knife on her?
“Or…uh…maybe just part merker.” He at least had the decency to look a little bit remorseful for saying it, but he still said it, damn him.
She glared at him, hard, and wondered why he didn’t fall down and bleed out on the pavement. Probably his superhuman Paladin genes made him resistant to the daggers she was sending him out of her eyes. He did get all defensive though.
“Roland said once that your mother was pure succubus and, well, your daddy couldn’t have been human if you can do what you say you can do.”
“If I say I can?” And now he thought she was a liar too? And, okay, she could maybe see why he might have come up with the conclusion he had. Succubus were nothing if not liars, using their seductive powers to imprint ideas in the heads of naïve fools across the globe. But they couldn’t actually project or receive exact thoughts. Still, it pissed her off that his only conclusions were either the grand title of Liar or having Ganelon’s blood in her veins. Not that her mommy’s demon blood didn’t make her heritage pretty questionable, but somehow being the daughter of a succubus seemed a lot better when she knew her real daddy had been a Paladin. Ergo she had no relation to Lucifer’s right-hand bastard, the betrayer Ganelon.
“There are a lot of other possibilities besides human,” she told him in a dangerously quiet voice. “But whatever, you’re going to think what you want.”
Valin started to open his mouth to speak, but she turned her back on him—she’d deal with him and his holier-than-thou thoughts later—and directed her gaze at Bennett. “Now that your matey here has gotten me even more pissed off, maybe you want to make nice and tell me who you were chatting with.”
“I told Annie, but if it eases your mind, I’ll tell you also.”
“Thank you,” she ground from between her clenched teeth. Righteous bastards. Both of them. She’d let Jacob deal with Bennett after she determined the extent of his indiscretion, but Valin? Well, she hoped he had his will in order.
“We’ve been gone long enough I thought it best to check in with the council, else they might start wondering and searching.”
“You thought it best,” she sputtered. “Even though both Logan and his daddy could doubtlessly tell exactly where you were contacting them from?”
“I didn’t contact either Calhoun.”
“No?”
“I contacted Karissa.”
She worked her jaw, not sure if that still pissed her off or not. Yes, Karissa might be able to figure out where Bennett had been—the woman’s shields had certainly gotten better if Gabby hadn’t been able to sense it was she whom Bennett had been speaking with—but Karissa was much less apt to pass that information along to her estranged father. She might tell her brother though, and she said as much to Bennett. “You don’t think she’ll tell Logan where you guys are? No offense to pretty boy, but I don’t think he’d stand up long against his father if Senior really wanted the information.”
Both men shuffled uncomfortably, exchanging looks.
“What?”
“Gabby…” Valin reached out, taking her hand in a gesture that was not so alarming for the contact, but the fact that he felt the need to do so.
“What?” She stomped her foot.
Another set of exchanged glances, and then Valin cleared his throat. “Logan isn’t, uh, in any sort of state to be speaking with Karissa right now. Or his father.”