The Blood Heiress

Shift

Adella

Evander had been so off and on tonight. The expression, hot and cold came to mind. However, I was pretty sure that he never ran hot, lukewarm at best. He was the eptiome of a cold, aloof personality by which all others would be judged. His icy blue eyes loomed large in my mind, the way he had executed such judgement with one look. He was almost tragic with his one noteness.

There had been a few points tonight where I believed that maybe I could see more than that in him. But the whiplash he gave me most of the time made me hestiate. I hadn't spent enough real time with him to feel confident in what I thought I saw. And then tonight, one moment he was demanding physical touch, the next pushing me away. Supporting me and defending me, then berating me for things outside my control. Add to that the issue of my job title.

It wasn't as if I was particularly attached to being an Event Planner. Before the shift in my life's trajectory, I wasn't even aware I could be one. But I didn't even know what a protegé was, what that entailed. Or was I an intern? Three to one. Probably a protegé, sounded so fancy. I bet Ben would be thrilled. My brows drew together and I sipped on the Sprite Cass had been thoughtful enough to send to me after the minutes stretch into a whole hour. My inexperience with this scene apparent. Inhad misjudged entirely, midnight appeares to be a pretty popular time for a bar on Monday.

"Hello, beautiful," Cass's warm voice drew my attention to his devestatingly handsome self. He bent down and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. I greedily gathered all the warmth from him to me, I wanted nothing more than him to chase these bad feelings away. I pulled him closer and pushed my lips back to his. He responded by deepening the kiss, moving his lips against mine, teasing my bottom lip between his teeth. Warmth flooded through me. Parting my lips, I yielded to his tongue and allowed it to explore. A whistle went up from somewhere by the bar and we pulled apart both grinning like fools. This was good, this was exactly where I belonged. I knew my cheeks were flushed bright red but I didn't look away from his tender gaze. He rested his forehead on mine and gave me his signature smirk.

"Not that I am complaining. I will take a chance to see you any day, but didn't you have that event with CEO man? What are you doing here?" I scooted over for him to sit down and he did.

"Can't I swing by for a visit?"

Cassian bent down and drew my attention back to him as he cupped my cheek. "Like I said Dells, I am not complaining. Sloane is manning the bar, I have time. Want to talk about it?"

I leaned into his touch and drew some more comfort from it. I gazed at him and nodded, his lips drawing most of my attention. "Yeah, if you are sure Sloane is alright with working the bar by himself. I didn't mean to come and distract you. I just...needed a safe place to think and I missed you." A wide grin broke out on his face with my words and took my hand.

"Oh it is just fine with him trust me. Bastard makes twice the amount without me around to be stealing 'his' tips." I laughed softly.

I scooted closer to him and leaned my head against his shoulder. We sat for that for a good ten minutes listening to the music, the noises of the bar, soaking in eachother's company. Comfortable and content. Cass eventually nudged me.

"So, you want to talk about what happened?" I sat straight up I folded my hands in front of me on the table. What I said next surprised both me and Cass.

"Yeah, but first I think I need a drink." With an unreadable expression, Cassian flagged down his server and looked back at me expectantly.

"What's your posion Dells? Refill on Sprite? Water?"

Faced with the urgency to pick between all the possible choices I grasped onto the one drink that kept coming to mind. The one all the 'adults' were drinking. I am an adult dammit. How dare she!

"How about the drink you made me when I first visited? Does Sloane make those?"

Cassian's eyebrows knitted together but he looked to the server and gave the order. "Tonight was that rough, huh?"

I gulped and nodded eyes on the table again.

"Not gonna lie Dells, I am a little hurt. You won't take a drink whenever I offer but you will take the same drink from someone else. That had to be against the bartender's code." Though he tried to make his words sound light and joking, there was some truth to them.

"Sorry Cass. I didn't even know I wanted a drink until after you sat down. I didn't want to ask you to get up again. You trust Sloane don't you?"

"Yes, just surprised that you do." He huffed a little sending his employee behind the bar a short glare.

I fell silent with a pleading look on my face directed at him. I begged him with my eyes to let it go. He relented with a sigh.

"Next time you can make me whatever you want."

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and placed a kiss against my temple. "I will hold you to it. How about you tell me one thing to start. Did you enjoy any of your evening?"

I thought back over everything from 4 o'clock on yet again.

"Yes, I mean it started out alright. That is until I found out that I was going to be riding in his sports car to the event. Evander is really hard to get along with though. He is just hard to read and very irritating. Like he gets off on pushing buttons."

"Sounds like him." He put his chin on my head. The drinks came then. They both matched. I took mine and placed it on the table. Cassian took a drink from his and put it down next to mine. I studied the swirling crimson depths of both of them. "You going to drink it or just make eyes at it." I felt his chuckle rise from his chest.

"Everyone was drinking these tonight. I was surprised to see them there. I thought this was something only you made."

He shrugged. "It is my own spin on a timeless beverage."

I pulled out of his embrace and took a tentative sip. At first it tasted the exact same as the one from earlier. With time different notes came forward on my palate. Chocolate, lavendar, lemon. It was smooth and satisfying. I smiled as it warmed its way down to my stomach.

"I am pretty sure you didn't make that face when you tasted it the first time." He looked at me offended again.

"How do you know what face I made?" I gave him a scrutinizing once over.

"I have been known to be sneaky, and I couldn't take me eyes off of you."

I blushed. "Well, to be fair I didn't know how to feel when I first tasted it."

"Or you perfectly knew what to think...and you didn't like it" He huffed. What has gotten into him?

"Cass, it was my first ever drink and you made it. Don't forget." I smiled softly and kissed his cheek. That brought him around.

"I'm sorry. Ignore me. It really doesn't matter. I am happy you can enjoy your drink now. I know it didn't go so well the first time. I don't know why I am acting like a such an idiot."

"Seems to be a theme tonight." I shrunk down as the words left my mouth. Why did I just say that?

"Ouch, say what you really think next time." He tickled my side in retribution. I swatted his fingers away and looked up at him with a laugh.

"Behaving like an idiot." I placed a reassuring hand on his face and put lots of emphasis on the first word. "And it does not hold even a small candle next to what I have seen tonight."

"Yeah?" He prodded.

"Yeah. I mean most of the night was fine. Boring, pretty standard business conversations that left me feeling on the outside looking in. But fine. I was introduced to quite a few people too. Seeing as Evander had given me that as my goal for the night, I did pretty well. I got out there and sort of got to know 'the circle'."

Cassian snorted at that and took a long drink from his glass. "Circle huh? What did you think of his circle?" His eyebrows arched and he wore a lopsided grin.

"Most of them were fine, boring, disinterested. There was one who stood out as someone I could stand to get to know better. Timothy Fable. He owned the mansion the event was hosted at. He was also nice and not boring."

"High praise indeed, nice and not boring." Another chuckle.

"Well, he was the only one to give me his first name and say more than nice to meet you." I took a drink of my own. "And the best part was that he didn't seem to care for Jessica." I giggled and watched Cassian smirk.

"Jessica still works for old tightass? Figures." He finally relaxed into the seat and watched me with a soft look.

"She does. She was such a b***h" I covered my mouth at the candid admission. I meant it sure but it felt so damning to say. And I was going to have to work with her closely in the future.

"Wow, what did she do to earn that?" Cass finally asked when his laughter subsided. I blushed and took a drink to stall as I searched for the words.

"Just her general demeanor. Nothing in particular. Mean looks, snubbing me." I played with my dress.

"Seems ol' Jess thought you might be a threat." His eyes narrowed slightly and his lips quirked a little.

I shook my head and felt his eyes on me waiting for my response.

"Highly unlikely. Evander won't treat me any better than a child. I certainly won't be taking her job anytime soon."

"Jessica has her sights set a little higher than the position she has occupied for close to a decade."

"Oh," the unexpected labels that Evander had given me througout the night came to the forefront of my memory. "I guess he did introduce me as his intern but then later he changed it to his protegé." I took another drink, my glass almost empty now. "Whatever that means."

Cassian shook his head at my response and stared thoughtfully into his also nearly empty glass. "A little higher than that." He whispered. He drained his glass and looked back at me his eyes brighter. "So you are his protegé now. Quite the upgrade from event planner."

A rueful smile spread across my face. "It was all news to me." Protegé, intern, event planner...I wondered what other labels I would collect going forward.

Silence fell as the air started to buzz around me. I began to feel lightheaded and warm all over. I couldn't tell if it was the drink or the act of sharing my crappy night. Venting. Probably the drink.

"So how did you convince Ben to drop you off here?" I noticed his guarded gaze when I looked up.

The sequence of events that led me here playing through my mind. The buzzing intensified around me, the barely doused flames from earlier roared back to life.

"I didn't." I knew I couldn't leave it at that but I had to get a handle on this strange feeling in my core that had been threatening to spill over ever since I met with René. I was keenly aware that I was on a knife's edge right now.

"So you took a cab?"

"No I couldn't take riding with Evander anymore and demanded he let me get out of his car." I downed the final bit of my drink.

Cass sat forward his eyes blazing. "What did he do?"

"He was blaming me. That I shouldn't have needed help defending myself against a creep at the event."

"Wait, what?" Cass gripped his glass and turned to me a mix between concern and rage fighting for his features.

"Finnegan Yardley came up to our table and kissed my neck. After putting his hands on me" I started shaking. "I told him to back off but he wouldn't listen. I told him to leave me alone. But he just wouldn't listen until Evander came and had him escorted out."

Cassian rubbed my back, concern had won out and his eyes watched me carefully.

"We left directly after and in the car, I thanked him. But he just became angry or irritated. He said I should be able to defend myself." The soothing motion of his hand on my back stopped.

I heard very distinctly his whisper. "I am going to kill them both"

That snapped me out of stewing in my anger. I didn't want Cassian to get in trouble for me, for some forgettable thing that would blow over.

"Hey it all worked out. And look I am here with you. " Lifting my head I gave him my best smile despite the fact that the bar lights were annoyingly bright.

I squinted a little to compensate and put a hand on either side of his face, attempting to ground him. I didn't let him go until the murderous edge left his eyes. He placed a hand over each of mine and carefully took them off his face. Grasping each one and he gave them a squeeze and held my gaze.

His voice came out a horse whisper "I kept my head down. Didn't say a thing about you working with him, despite how I feel. Despite wanting to." He dropped my hands. His eyes turning glossy. "If something had happened to you..." Slowly leaning in, he pressed his forehead against mine. "I don't know what I would do." He whispered. I closed the short distance between us and caught his lips in a tender kiss.

We pulled apart and I was happy to see that he was in a little better mood. Though the fire in my belly seemed to still be raging. Despite the fact my anger had subsided.

"I am not going anywhere anytime soon Cass." I reassured him and he pulled me in to a hug. The table got in the way and knocked into my side. We laughed off the awkwardness. Instead, is he put his arm around my shoulder and I snuggled in against him. By now, faint whispers were filtering into my conciousness. I tried to shove them out, block them.

The light, giddy feeling that had started earlier grew inside me. It ran up and down my arms like an electic current, crackling and making my hair stand on end. Thrumming and pulsating around me. The air seemed alive. I knew that I was in trouble then. It became apparent that I was having another reaction. A more serious one.

I began catching larger snippets of peoples conversations from the bar as they wound down their evenings. Then the lights became insufferably bright, the bass of the music too loud. Giving in I closed my eyes to shut it out but couldn't turn off my ears. The bass pulsated through my mind, like a heartbeat. It became a steady throb. It appealed to me in an unspoken way. I focused on the beautiful rhythm. Let my frayed ends sooth themselves with its predictability.

I leaned into the throbbing and let it work through me until I felt it settle in my bones. I leaned further back into Cass and realized with a shock that it wasn't the bass from the music I had latched onto but a real heartbeat, Cass's heartbeat. The cadence of it called out to me and pulled me closer. I pulled out from under Cass's arm and swiveled my body to face him, eyes focused on his chest. His heartbeat a siren. Long forgotten were the irritatingly bright lights, the impossibly loud voices from others.

"You okay Dells?" I heard Cass ask but it didn't register. The thudding a dull roar now filling me. The fire inside bubbling to the surface threatening to engulf me. Drawn inexplicably closer I leaned in, I could hear now swishing through his heart's chambers. He grabbed my face and instantly I pulled back. His hands like ice against my face. He tired again, lightly turning my chin to make me look him in the eyes. His face went from questioning to worried in the space of a second. His hands moved to my shoulders and shook me a little.

"Dells, hey, talk to me." The sharp distress in his voice brought my focus back. The trance now broken, I looked immediately to the empty glasses. I was too lightheaded to do much thinking but knew that this was no coincidence.

"Cass, what is in those drinks?" My words sounded foreign, strange and slightly slurred. Am I drunk? Is this drunk?

I turned back to him and watched as doubt flitted across his eyes. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly.

"Cass?" I sounded far away now. My vision began to narrow, the edges blackened.

I knew I couldn't hold back the rising tidal wave cresting in me anymore. The long smoldering flames licked up from deep inside and began to consume me, at last bubbling over from wherever they had been kept. My eyelids began to droop, weighted down as I spent the last of my energy fighting to keep in control. I managed to fight out a plea as the fire fully engulfed me.

"Cass, Help me."

His panicked face was the last thing I saw before I gave out. My eyelids fell shut and I found myself to be floating in the darkness that was waiting. I stayed there floating, existing, for how long I do not remember. When I came to, it was dark and I was laying alone on the lawn of Occidental Park. The inferno still raging inside.