Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 215(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
“He doesn’t trust easily, mostly because he can’t handle chaos in any shape or form. So he keeps his life in order. He has a sweet nature, Bain. Is a truly good person who needs that order desperately. This has thrown him off so much, he’s feeling…vulnerable.” Xavier pinned Bain with his black eyes. They’d always reminded Bain of polished onyx, the brown around his pupils so dark it blended. “I’m trusting you to set him at ease. Make him feel safe. He needs it.” He paused, gaze probing. “This human is special, and he doesn’t know it.”
Bain frowned. “What do you mean special? I thought all humans were special to you.”
“There are some who are more.”
Rolling his eyes, Bain dropped into the chair that was across Xavier’s desk. “Again with this cryptic shit? You know how much I hate that. If there’s something about this human I should know, then you should tell me.”
Xavier shook his head, his black hair swishing across the book open on his desk. “In time, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.”
“In time?” Bain crossed his arms on his chest. “You’re my best friend, Xavier, and have been for so many years we should be sick of each other by now, yet still you keep important things from me. Do you have any idea how much that annoys me?”
A rare smile tilted one corner of Xavier’s lips. “I’m aware.”
Bain waited for more, knowing he wouldn’t get it. Still, he always tried, always fought with his own impatience when it came to getting information out of his friend. With Xavier’s ability to know, well, all things, he’d only once told Bain that sometimes information should be doled out in doses or it disappeared in the chaos that was life. That everyone derived meaning and understanding in certain ways. Ways that worked for their own individual personalities.
He’d also told Bain more than once that his impatience wasn’t a virtue.
But he was who he was.
“Does this Clive have any idea which company could be after him? And how does he even know that it’s one of his new clients?”
“The first threatening email ordered him to stop working on all his accounts, but it came soon after he took on a lot of new ones.”
Bain frowned. “But that’s ridiculous. It could be anyone threatening him.”
“That why I need you on this job. I’ll be sending Alaric along to help as soon as he returns. When you go to his hotel, tell him that I sent you and that you’d like a cup of coffee. It’s a code phrase he asked for.” Xavier opened a drawer on his desk, then tossed Bain a pair of tinted glasses. “Wear these around Clive. You’ll need them.”
Now that truly stumped Bain. He used a glamour to mask the parts of his human-form looks that didn’t pass for human—his eyes—and he had complete power over his ability to mesmerize with them. And to kill with them, though that only happened when he took on his other form. Xavier knew this; he’d been around to see Bain struggling to control his powers when his exhaustion with his long life had set him back. So Bain lifted an eyebrow at his friend.
“Trust me.” It was all Xavier said.
And the truth was, Bain did trust his friend. More than any other being in the world. He owed Xavier everything.
“I’ll take care of this, Clive. No worries.”
Chapter Three
Clive
This was all wrong. All of it.
Clive stood in the center of the hotel room, agitation tightening every muscle in his body. He needed his things around him. Needed his home. The bed here wasn’t soft enough, the sheets itched his skin, and he’d been too alarmed at sleeping in a public bed to even remove his shirt, so only his arms had felt the sandpapery texture. The shower had some sort of weird mold in the corners. And there was a funky smell coming from one corner of the room that alarmed him.
Plus, he didn’t have all his teas. He needed them, especially the calming ones.
The fear was so intense he couldn’t find a way to relax. It felt like it had taken on a life of its own inside his chest, a dark presence that writhed and grew until it would explode from his chest like the alien in that old movie. He began to pace the small room, sweating in the pajama pants and T-shirt he’d worn to bed the night before. When he’d heard someone breaking into his house, he’d just run with only his wallet and phone. He’d ignored the strange looks from the hotel employees as he’d checked in, then spent the night staring at the door. This morning, he’d searched out a security company. He needed help.
Clive was not a big man, and he had no self-defense skills to speak of.