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“The plan is well underway, Zander. I just got word that Adam met with the Mistress.”
“Yeah, and how much blood was shed?”
He laughed, “None. Well, not much inside the club during the meeting.”
That was surprising, “How did the meeting go? I saw the video you sent earlier of his request for a meeting. Did he really have to kill those people?”
“Zander don’t be soft. Those that were killed were followers of her. You would do well to remember that. The meeting itself went rather well. Although I do believe that Adam would have liked to have gotten time alone with her. He has something of a lustful crush on her. Maybe after I am done with her, and have control of her power, I can allow him to sate his vicious whims.”
I frowned. What did I care of that nonsense? “What about your request?”
“She refused to come to me, of course. I didn’t expect her to accept my invitation. She had the gall to tell Adam that if I wanted her, I would have to come to her.”
“What if you did? What if you went to her? Wouldn’t that surprise her?”
“Aw, no doubt it would, but I will not play by her terms. She might thing she is the Mistress and ruler, but she is not. She will come to me. It will take some time, but I have no doubt she will come to me.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Zander, do you really question my ability?”
“No, I’m not questioning it. I’m trying to figure out what you are up to and how I can assist.”
“Your time is coming,” He sighed, “You never have been a patient man.”
And my patience really was wearing thin with this whole thing. Why couldn’t he just go to her, bring her back, then take her power? What was he waiting for?
“Yeah, well, you’re right. I’m not patient and I’m bored. I need more to do.”
“Soon.”
“How fucking soon?”
His voice lowered, “As soon as I say it is time.”
“Whatever,” I muttered.
“I will speak with you again soon, Zander. I told you that you would be important, and you are. You are what will bring her to me.”
“Me? Why the hell would she come to you for me?”
“Because I have something that she will want.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“I have you, dear son. I have you.”
He hung up before I could even utter a sound. I stared at the phone in my hand. What the hell was he talking about?
I threw the phone against the wall, watching it shatter into a million pieces. My frustration at an all-time new level. Laura appeared in the doorway from our room.
“What’s wrong? Why did you just smash your phone?”
“Because I’m tired of waiting for that man to tell me what the hell is going on. He thinks I’m just going to keep sitting here while he tells me to wait. I can’t keep doing that. He wants to take over the power, control the breed, well, he needs to let me help him.”
Laura came to my side, “Zander, relax. Your father knows you want to help, sweetheart. When the time is right, you will.” She leaned forward and kissed me, then pulled back and winked.
“Are you leaving now?” I asked her as I took in the dress she wore.
“Yes, you sure you don’t want to come. I think you could use a night out.”
“I’m sure I could, but I wouldn’t be very good company. Besides, I need to clean this up and get myself a new phone. Although if I don’t replace it, I won’t have to take his calls anymore.”
“Stop being silly. You need to take his calls. Otherwise you won’t know when it’s time to help him.”
“Somehow I think I would get the message.” I muttered but she didn’t reply. She waved a quick goodbye and was gone.
I exhaled loudly and went to retrieve the pieces of my phone. After I’d collected almost all of them, I set them on the counter in the kitchen and froze.
My gaze was locked on the phone, but the counter was different. Instead of the brown and black granite that we had, I could see a wooden counter and another phone, a very old model shattered into pieces. Beside it was a mallet of some kind, I almost felt like I could reach out and touch the pieces, but I couldn’t. Suddenly, hands scooped up the remnants and discarded them into a trash can. The movements almost angry, regretful. This was the first time that I could remember something that gave me a date in history.
Those types of phones hadn’t been around in a very long time. The devices we used now were smaller, more technical, but maybe it wasn’t a phone. Maybe it was something else.
The image was gone when I blinked, and I couldn’t pull it back up. All I could do was rehash it like I had rehashed two dozen more over the last couple of weeks. They were coming faster, more frequently, and starting to clear up visually. How long would it be before I could see all the details? See the faces that appeared before me? The sounds of the voices that went with the moving lips?
Maybe I should have gone out with Laura tonight. I could use a distraction. Where did she say she was going? Out to dinner near the boardwalk? What if I went and met her there? Would she mind? I doubted that, in fact, she would probably be happy that I came. On my way, I could stop and purchase another phone.
I went to change clothes, and then called a transport for myself. On the way to the boardwalk, I had the driver stop at a local store and I collected a new phone in minutes. Now that I had a new phone, I could call Laura and tell her I was going to be there, or I could surprise her.
I opted for the surprise. I had the driver drop me off in the center of the area and felt around. She was here, and it wouldn’t take me long to find her. I could tell that she was happy, laughing, having a good time with her friends. Hopefully, they would be able to pull me out of the funk I was in.
I stepped into a bar along the boardwalk. It was filled with our kind, and I nodded at few of them, shook hands with a couple of people I knew and made a beeline for her table. Laura stood, a look of surprise in her eye as she saw me, and her gaze darted to someone at the table before she came around to me, pasting a smile on her lips.
“Zander! What a surprise.”
I kissed her cheek, then glanced over her shoulder at the man she had exchanged a look with. He was tall, young for our kind with brown hair. Beside him was a pretty woman, with big expressive dark brown eyes. The pair of them watched me carefully. Were they doing so because they had heard of me? Or for another reason?
When had I become so concerned with how people looked at me? When did I start wondering what people knew of me? What might get back to my father?
I waved to everyone else at the table, as Laura asked for another chair to be brought over. Everyone shifted around as I took a seat, and Laura started to go around the table and introduce the people I did not know. Which was most of them.
When she got to the man and woman, I felt her tense as she glanced my way. I had already picked up on the fact that the woman was a human-turned. Did she think I would do something to her? I could care less if she lived, as long as she did what was asked of her, I wouldn’t care.
“Zander, this is Gabriel and his mate, Olivia.” I nodded to them, not recognizing their names. They said hello and then she continued on around the table as if she hadn’t been nervous to introduce them.
As we drank and ate, periodically, I would glance at the couple. Olivia had thrown her head back to laugh at something, and I froze. My eyes dropping to the table as a vision of a woman standing in the middle of a mini-tornado came to mind. A laugh filled the air around me, there were others there, but I couldn’t see them. I could feel them. The laugh was the same and my head popped up. The words on the tip of my tongue to ask her a question when Laura put her hand over mine and the words were gone.
I glanced at Laura, she was smiling, laughing at something, she darted a look at me, then smiled brightly before leaning forward to kiss me and letting go my hand. The vision that had filled my head had vanished along with my words, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t recall what it was.
I leaned back in my seat, trying desperately to recall them, and wondering what I might have wanted to ask Olivia—but it just wouldn’t come back to me and I stared at Laura. How had she made me forget?