After leaving Sam’s office, I walked quickly to the lift and waited for Ian to join me. I wasn’t as annoyed at being pulled in to work a case as I acted. I was actually a bit relieved. I hated mandatory leave time. Although I enjoyed spending time with my family, more than a day off and I became cranky. I hated having nothing to do. I tried to make myself useful around the pub, but I got in the way more oft than not. The only thing that kept me from being bored to tears had been spending the evenings reminiscing and drinking with Jarrett. But sitting around getting drunk and whining over old times wasn’t really either of our styles and somewhere near dawn this morning, we had decided we would take a trip out into the Outer Zone tonight to see if we could get a little action.
Thankfully, Sam had scryed this morning, and although I had a bit of an ale-induced headache, I was glad to be doing something productive, even if I wasn’t happy about the circumstances.
I don’t know what drove Jarrett to go skulking around the Blade offices this morning after I stumbled drunkenly to bed, but I was grateful he had. It didn’t matter that I understood why Sam had sent agents to question my family after I left, I still didn’t like it one bit. At least I knew Jarrett would watch out for them and not let anything they said be misconstrued. I also knew his presence would at least put Pinky and Anya more at ease. River had only met him once, last night, so I wasn’t sure if it would make a difference or not for her.
I had the feeling that once he awoke this evening, Jarrett would be thanking me for suggesting Sam pull him off leave to be on the stakeout detail. The poor guy would have gone crazy with two weeks of leave time and nothing to do but sit around and think. Hardly ever a good thing for vampires, or Blades. Never a good thing for Kukri.
I tapped my foot as Ian strolled up the hall at a slow, leisurely pace. It was as if the man’s favorite pastime was infuriating me. Okay, so maybe I deserved it for that dilly-dallying remark, but I’d be damned if I’d let him win. Reaching up, I grabbed the gate handle. The instant he stepped inside the lift, I slammed the gate down, barely missing his foot.
I pressed the crystal into the hole for the first floor and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over my chest as the lift slowly descended.
“Bought a horse yet?” I asked, snidely.
“No, and I doubt I will. But I know my rickshaw won’t do very well on the road out to New Nashville, so I will borrow a horse from the stables, like I usually do,” he said, way too reasonably.
“Fine,” I said, a little irritated that he robbed me of the chance to make a dig about the impracticality of his vehicles.
The lift came to a shuddering stop and Ian lifted the gate before I could reach for it, irritating me just a little more, though I couldn’t say why. “I have a stop to make before I go to the stables.”
I turned and walked across the main entrance area and into the maze of halls and offices that made up the first floor of the Black Blade Guard Headquarters. While all the agent offices were on upper floors that were accessible only to authorized personnel, departments that dealt with the public or the Blades Training Academy on a regular basis kept offices or reception areas on the main floor.
I expected Ian to go on down to the stables to get his horse, but I felt him behind me when I reached the door I was looking for. Ignoring his presence, I knocked twice before opening the door and stepping in, Ian on my heels.
The office was a large room filled with three worktables covered with crystals of varying shapes and sizes. A woman with short, silver-white hair and kind, gray eyes sat at a desk in the corner, peering at a crystal through a magnifying glass.
“Hey, Leesa,” I said, cheerily.
She looked up from her work. “Fiona! Oh, I’m so glad you stopped by. I wanted to thank you for sending over Millie.”
She stood and came around the desk, stopping when she noticed Ian. My gut twisted with a sharp pang of emotion I refused to name jealousy as her gray eyes slid over him in obvious appreciation.
“Hello,” she purred, obviously not concerned with the fact that she was old enough to be his mother.
I waved my hand absently at him. “Leesa, this is Ian Barroes. Ian, Leesa Parks.”
“Ahh, yes. The celebrated head of the Blade chargers. I’ve heard many wonderful things about you. Very nice to meet you,” he said, pouring on the charm as he extended his hand to the blushing woman.
“So, Millie came by already?” I said, breaking up the exchange between the two.
Leesa dropped Ian’s hand, which I think she’d held just a bit too long, and looked at me. “Oh, yes. She is here now, actually. She is with Drew in the store room, learning how to log the inventory.”
“Oh. I was actually coming by to tell you about her. I knew there would be a test coming up, but I didn’t think she would get her results back so fast.”
“She came by three days ago, I think right after speaking to you. She doesn’t take her mage-level test until tomorrow. But, since you sent her over and she was so eager to show me her skills, I gave her a mini-test of my own.” Leesa walked back to her desk and sat on the corner. “Millie is very talented, Fiona. Though her actual skill is low, due to sub-standard training, she has a natural affinity for working energy into crystals, one that I haven’t seen in a long time. I have a feeling her power level is going to be off the charts.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I was genuinely happy to hear Millie was doing well. “That is great. So, she is working here?”
“With the raw talent she has, she should have been apprenticed two years ago. But there is nothing we can do about that now. She will be apprenticing here, at least until her test results are back. I am going to try to talk her into applying to the Academy. If her scores are what I think they will be, there won’t be a problem getting her schooling paid for through the Charger’s Guild, if she agrees to a two-year work service contract when she graduates.”
“That’s great,” I told her, sincerely. “When I sent her to you, I thought you might be able to help her find a job or apprenticeship. I never imagined you’d put her to work here. Thank you. I hope it works out.”
“No need to thank me. I’m glad you sent her. Like I said, she is very talented and very eager to work. I think the arrangement will benefit us all, and I’ll do what I can to help her get on a path to reach her full potential,” Leesa said.
“If you have any problems, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do to help,” I said, turning towards the door to go.
“Will do,” Leesa told me in a matter-of-fact tone. Then she turned to Ian and her tone was flirty again. “You stop by any time.”
Ian gave her a charming, awe-shucks grin that I wanted to slap off his face, but thankfully stayed silent as we walked out the door.
Irritated, I started back down the hall, Ian on my heels. The problem was I wasn’t so much mad at him as I was aggravated at myself. I was not jealous of anyone, ever. I didn’t like it. I doubly didn’t like feeling this way about Ian Barroes. There was nothing between us. But that wasn’t true—there had been a kiss. And oh, what a kiss.
Just as my brain started turning to mush and sliding down memory lane to think about what it had been like to have Ian’s arms around me, his mouth on mine, a loud squeal sounded, jerking me back to reality. I turned and saw Millie Linton coming down an adjoining hallway at a fast clip. I was genuinely glad to see the girl, and not just because she saved me from my own musings.
“Mr. Barroes and Miss, um, sorry, Fiona! I’m so glad to see you,” she said when she arrived in front of us, slightly out of breath. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see either of you again, and I really wanted to thank you.”
“I’m glad to see you, too, Millie. But, you don’t have anything to thank us for,” I told her.
“Oh, yes, I do! Because of you, I’m going to be able to take my test tomorrow, and I have an apprenticeship here at the Black Blades Headquarters. I’m apprentice to the head charger, and I’m makin
g three times as much as crabby old Mr. Fegley paid me.”
When she stopped to take a breath, Ian said, “That’s wonderful, Millie. But you earned this job on your own. From what I understand, you are a very talented young woman.”
Millie’s face flooded with bright red, and she stared at Ian with hero worship in her eyes. I wondered if he knew just how much those few simple words probably meant to the young girl. When I saw the red creeping up his own neck, I realized he did.
Ian said something to Millie and she responded, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. I was too intent on watching them. The way she giggled and he smiled at her in an indulgent, big brotherly way. She was chattering away and he looked at her intently, obviously listening to every word. He may not have known how to deal with her exuberant hug a few days ago, but it was apparent he had no problem chatting with an excited teen girl. He even looked like he was enjoying the conversation.
I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me, considering the man had chosen to be a professor at the Academy when he could be doing any number of other things with his money and power. I had always thought it was because he liked feeling superior to everyone else. That he liked knowing more than others, doling out the information as it suited him, and making those who didn’t measure up to his intellectual standards feel inferior. But, what if that wasn’t the case at all? Perhaps he enjoyed being around kids, and maybe, just maybe, he was a professor because he wanted to help them gain the knowledge they needed to pull themselves out of the ruts society had put them into.
A pang of something I couldn’t quite name slammed into my gut. For the first time, I looked at Ian and didn’t see a necromancer or a stuffy academic, but a man who seemed to truly care about people. But just because he was nice to one young girl didn’t mean anything. Did it? No, I decided, as I pulled myself together. Being nice to one kid, especially one as sweet as Millie, didn’t make him a saint, but maybe he wasn’t quite as inhuman as I thought.
“That would be so awesome!” Millie squealed, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Agent Fiona, do you teach at the Academy, too?”
“Um, I’m sorry. My mind wandered for a moment. What was that?”
“That’s okay,” Millie said, unperturbed. “You probably have an important case on your mind. I was just asking if you teach at the Academy, too. Mr. Barroes said that if I were to go to the Academy, I would take some of his classes.”
“No, I don’t teach, but it is great that you are thinking about attending,” I told her.
“Well, I don’t know if I will be able to. Maybe if my test scores are high enough, and I can get a work contract with the Chargers’ Guild.”
“I bet none of that will be a problem for you. Will you keep me informed? Leesa knows how to contact me.”
“Oh, yes, I will. But, I better get back now. I have some crystals to polish, and I’ve been away too long already.” She darted down the hall before either Ian or I could reply.
Ian laughed, “I wonder, Fiona, did you have that kind of exuberance when you were her age? Or were you born moody?”
No way was I going to take that obvious bait. Ignoring him, I strode down the hall toward the stables.