“I’m very well aware of your opinion of Mr. Dalton. Until you have proof—”
“I just followed him to a meeting with Alec von Leer. Is that proof enough for you?”
Vanessa gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide in surprise. God, she even made shock look flawless. I turned from her to continue the conversation. It wouldn’t keep her from listening in, but at least I wouldn’t have to look at her.
Virgil Graves remained silent for several seconds. “Are you sure?”
“What could I possibly have to gain by telling you about this if I wasn’t sure?” Was he serious with that question?
“There are other things at play here, things you aren’t aware of.”
“Such as?”
“Katy.” The voice sent me spinning around. When I saw who’d been in Vanessa’s room and who now stood in the doorframe behind her, everything went limp as the shock drained me. The phone slipped from my hands and smacked the tile floor.
Spencer opened the door the rest of the way and waved for me to enter. Like hell. I stood my ground and readied my light call. “Perhaps we should talk.”
“And perhaps I should tell the Council where you and Alec have been hanging out.”
“They know, as they were the ones who sent me there in the first place.” He motioned for me to join him inside the room. “Please, this conversation is best had in private.”
I stormed into the room and kept my hands at the ready in case this was a trick and I just walked into a trap. Nothing jumped out at me. He closed the door after Vanessa and turned to me. “The Council brought me in under the pretext to train you when in fact I’m here to watch you for signs of you going dark like your mother. After less than a week’s time, I can say without any doubt they had reason for concern.”
“I call bullshit. You sliced open my hand and injected me with some dark spell. I’m not dark.”
Vanessa channeled the prick and flashed a haughty expression that, of course, looked amazing on her. The bitch. “Now I call bullshit. I knew you were dark last year when you nearly killed me in the shop.”
“Because you attacked me.” I practically cried. No way would I let her fuel Spencer’s hate fire for me.
“See? I told you she was crazy.”
Spencer casually strolled to the bed and picked up a pink furry throw pillow, holding it in his hands. What did he think he was going to do with that? Smother me? That’d be my luck, to survive countless attacks by dark elementals, only to die by the hands of the very guy the Council imported to babysit me.
Death by shag just took on a whole new meaning.
“Are you sleeping with this one too?” I regarded him as I nodded toward Vanessa. “Using another one of my roommates to dig up dirt on me?”
“You really think quite a bit of yourself, don’t you? My acquaintance with Vanessa has nothing to do with you.”
“I caught him at my house talking to my dad,” she explained. “They told me he’s working for the Council to make sure you weren’t going to wind up destroying our world and to stop you if you tried. I’m the only one he can talk to about it.”
Yeah, bitches. That does make this about me.
“Why would the Council keep me as the prophecy if they were worried about me going dark?”
“That is something I still don’t quite understand. I was to be given the prophecy. That was the agreement for me coming here.” He tossed the pillow back on the bed.
Was he kidding me right now? The Council used the prophecy as a bargaining tool? What the hell was wrong with those guys? And this guy?
“Maybe they see the darkness in you like I do, the same darkness you’re trying to force into me using dark magic.”
“Ah, yes.” Spencer’s lips curled into a half smile, half snarl. It contorted his usually handsome features into the monster I already knew him to be. Vanessa had her back to him and didn’t see it. He strode up next to her. “Through the slice in your hand. May I see the cut?”
Crap. I made a fist, hiding my palm. “It healed.”
He gave Vanessa a look that I wanted to burn right off his arrogant face.
“You already knew that. You even said so when you met with Alec in an abandoned warehouse down at the docks.” I caught the way Vanessa inched away from him when I said that. She might have known about the Council’s involvement in all this, but she definitely didn’t know Alec’s. Now that she did, her instincts told her not to trust him, even if her brain hadn’t quite caught on. “How’d you and he get to be such good friends?”
“A most fortunate turn of events. His timing was impeccable. He cornered me my second day here on the island, offering a seat next to him when he takes over the Council after defeating the prophecy. He can’t defeat you alone, so he recruited me.”
Something didn’t feel right with that statement. “You mean he believes he recruited you.”
“Of course.” His lips twitched as he stepped behind Vanessa, so she didn’t see the gesture. But I did. I was sure that was by design.
I shifted toward the door. Something definitely didn’t feel right. About any of this. He didn’t seem to have a problem with me knowing his little secret, yet wanted to keep up this charade with Vanessa and everyone else. I had to get to the guys, had to tell them what I knew. “Well, if story time is over, I have to go.”
Spencer popped out and back in, blocking my way to the door. “Is that your way of saying you don’t believe me?”
Regarding him coolly, I crossed my arms in front of me.
