Needing a drink, I headed straight for the tap. “Do you want one?” I asked Liam, who seemed as uncomfortable as I did in the presence of crying females.
“I'll have whatever you're having.” Liam sat at the bar, nursing the drink I slid his way, never once taking his eyes off Bryn.
“Cassiel?” Bryn’s mother's name filtered through the air like a sunken prayer, hopeless and lost.
Her mother had been imprinted to Gabriel. I clenched my fists at his name, thankful he came after me tonight and not Aylin.
“She's healing, slowly, but surely. She's got mental and physical scars from being in captivity for so long, but I assure you, she will visit when the time is right.” Nadia joined Liam at the bar.
I drank half my drink in one gulp, then topped it off again. When Aylin and Bryn followed Nadia, I poured Aylin a shot of precious whiskey and slid it down the bar. She downed it and slid the empty glass back my way, never once meeting my gaze.
“I want something fruity!” Nadia's eyes widened, like that of a child on Christmas morning.
I eyed my options, smiled, and poured her the girliest drink I could find—a light beer. I placed the glass in front of her. “Here you go.”
“Hmph.” She wrinkled her nose and chanted a few words. A bright pink umbrella appeared in her drink. She sipped. “There, that's better.”
Bryn took a seat next to Liam and scooted closer to him. I handed her a cup of water.
“Thanks.” Her tone was harsh.
I cringed, not sure what I did to tick her off.
It wasn't unusual for women to hate me on occasion. I was a scoundrel on my better days and worse on others. For years, I had played women and tried to manipulate a soul bond, but I never could. Then Liam became imprinted and my efforts doubled. But my days of searching ended with Aylin, which was why Cat had been so pissed.
Liam raised an eyebrow and cued me to spill my guts on tonight's events, so I told them how Cat had enlisted Brad and his posse to beat me up.
Aylin, true to the redheaded persona, slammed her second shot glass on the bar. “So, the flavor of the day turned sour. What was she, your easy Tuesday or your slutty Thursday?” Her eyes roamed across my body, taking in my swelled eye, bruised face, and battered outfit. The light did little to hide what the darkness of the parking lot had. I was just shy of a train wreck and not healing nearly as fast as I should be.
“The bitch,” she muttered, pointing to my swollen eye. “You should probably put ice on that.”
I didn't have the heart to tell her, it wasn't my eye she should be concerned with. I rubbed my hand up the side of my shirt and felt welts forming around my stomach wound. The dull pain amplified and I forced my panic down. I would recover.
“Oh, darling, are you worried about me?” I asked casually and placed a hand over my chest in a light-hearted joke. When the sweetest flush crept up her neck, I was pleased.
Nadia's grin split her face, but she just sipped her umbrella drink and eavesdropped on our conversation as if she were a pack member and not part of the Table.
“But why didn't you go back to your date with Cat? Aylin left with me and the night was still young,” Bryn asked. She was too perceptive, asking the same thing Cat and Brad had wanted to know.
The answer was and would always be, Cat wasn't Aylin. Period.
“Umm...” How did I tell them that it was because Aylin had rocked me to the core? Just the briefest of touches, and she had consumed me from the inside out. I settled with, “I just wasn't feeling her anymore.”
Aylin whirled on me, fire in her eyes. “You're a bastard, you know? A one and done, thank you, Ma'am. Maybe I shouldn't go after Catherine for sending Brad after you. Maybe I should just kick your ass for being a womanizer.”
“Nothing happened between me and Cat.” My defensive tone shocked me. I was that guy once and wouldn't apologize for it, but I wasn't him anymore. I wanted to feel more. Be more. My soul craved a soulbond, a connection with Aylin. I needed her to know that I wasn't that man any longer.
The lights swirled around Aylin's wrist in an intricate dance. The anger boiling between us increased their movements, like strobe lights reacting to the beat of war drums. And I noticed a slight black tint to an otherwise golden glow.
“Well, that'd be a first.” Aylin spat, then sat next to Bryn.
“All right, ...” Liam held up his hands, “...children, we have more important issues to discuss. Like Gabriel.”
“Yes, Gabriel,” Nadia agreed. “Don't think for a second, he won't come back after any one of you. He is determined to kill all imprints. He failed to kill Bryn. He failed to kill Cassiel. Worst of all, since Cassiel remains in our realm as a member of the Table, he doesn't have the power of their imprint. He needs it and will stop at nothing to get it.”
“You think he'll try to capture us like he did Cassiel?” I asked. “Use our blood as a power source?”
When Bryn met my gaze, regret flashed in her eyes. But she didn't speak. I was flabbergasted with how such an evil bastard could create such a kind person. Bryn was Gabriel's polar opposite.
“What? He just randomly showed up and decided he wants your blood, Connor?” Aylin spoke to me, but eyed Nadia as if she held all the answers. “To capture you? You don't possess power.”
I didn't trust an Augur, especially one who showed up at such a convenient time.
“No, it wasn't random. I was targeted.” I recalled Gabriel's words about not being imprinted yet. That meant I would be one day,
