Part 35 (1/2)
I wanted to ask if their mother hadn't liked them, but resisted. I turned to Micah. I gave him a look that I hoped said clearly, These are the best of the five? These are the best of the five?
”One of the other gold tigers is named Envy,” Micah said, face as empty as he could make it.
I wanted to ask if he was joking, but knew he wasn't. ”Elementary school must have been interesting,” I said, finally.
”We were homeschooled,” Pride said.
”I'll just bet you were,” I said.
Jean-Claude breathed through my mind, ”Do you sense it?”
I sensed they were arrogant and way too full of themselves, but suspected that part of it was bravado. Bravado always hides fear, or at least uncertainty.
”Sense what?” I asked him.
”Something,” he said.
Out loud I said, ”You were homeschooled.”
”I just said so,” Pride said.
”Okeydoke, have you ever been this far from home?”
They looked at each other, and Mephistopheles glanced back at Jake and then quickly back at me. ”No,” Pride said.
”Why does that matter?” Mephistopheles said, and his arrogance went up a notch to almost angry. He was hiding it well, but he wasn't comfortable.
”Just trying to get a feel for things,” I said.
”Your Nimir-Raj picked us for you,” Pride said.
”And I'm going to be talking to him about that later,” I said.
Micah leaned in and whispered a bare brush of air against my ear. ”The others were more scared, or angrier.”
I put my hand on his thigh through the jeans. I wanted both to comfort him and be comforted, and touch did that. I didn't like these men. I sure as h.e.l.l didn't want to keep them permanently.
Nathaniel leaned back against both our legs, letting his hand begin to play over my calf inside the knee-high boots he'd chosen for me. He didn't like them, either.
Asher moved to stand behind Jean-Claude, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder. I knew why Asher wasn't happy with them, and why Richard wasn't, either. None of us were happy with them. Jake and I would soooo be having words later.
”Do you guys want to stay with us?” I asked.
They looked at each other again, and Mephistopheles caught himself before he could look at Jake again. Pride said, ”We were told we don't have a choice.”
”I'm a big believer in choices,” I said.
”If we leave here, they'll kill us,” Mephistopheles said.
”If you want to stay here until it's safe to leave, that's one thing. But what I want to know is, do the two of you want to stay here with us and be our tigers?”
”What will you do if we say we don't?” Pride asked.
”I really don't like to force people to do anything.”
They looked at each other again. ”That's not what we heard,” Mephistopheles said.
”What did you hear?” I asked, and that first thread of anger trickled into the words.
”Didn't you make him your Bride?” Pride asked. He nodded toward Nicky.
”Yes.”
”That's force,” he said.
I couldn't argue with that, and I didn't know them well enough to explain that I'd done it to save the two men sitting next to me, that Nicky had kidnapped me and I'd used the weapons I had at hand. I couldn't explain myself to them, so what could I say?
”Yes, it is.”
”But you don't want to force us?” he asked.
”Let's say I'm not wanting to add to my list of sins today.”
They frowned at me. ”Sins?” Mephistopheles said. ”What does that mean?”
”It means that taking someone's free will away forever seems sort of evil to me. I'd rather not do it again.”
”What would cause you to do it again?” Pride asked.
”Self-preservation, or protecting the people I love.”
He looked past me to Nicky. ”Did you threaten Anita and her people?”
”Yes,” Nicky said.
”How?”
”Can I tell them?” he asked.
I thought about it and then said, ”Sure.”
”I helped kidnap Anita, and we threatened to kill Micah and Nathaniel and Jason, who's Anita's wolf to call. We took her weapons, we used magic to make sure she couldn't call for help, and we injured her. She used the powers she had left to make me willing to do anything to protect her and the men she loved.”
”You don't blame her?” Mephistopheles asked.
”No.”
”Why not?”
”I don't think I can.”