Shadow Aspect Read online

  “Right, anything else that we should attempt to not know about before we go into a fully loaded party and expect me to pull off some kind of miracle for you?” I ask.

  Tarin sighs down the line, annoyed at me. “I’m sure you can think on you’re feet, Katelyn. After all you come from the streets. You can handle anything right?” He says giving me a little pep talk that sounds more like patience wearing thin than anything else.

  “Of course.” I throw the shoe back on the bed.

  “Then we’re good here and I’ll see you at seven as agreed.” And with that he ends the phone call. I listen to the click on his end and look at my mobile phone. Well my nerves aren’t settled and my mind is racing. This is a weirdly new situation for me to agree to put myself into. I am actually unsure of what I can do, given circumstances.

  I look at all the items laid out on my bed and pick up the underwear. I’ve gone all out with the theme for my paranormal espionage debut. My underwear colour is called seashell and I’ve picked up a simple g-banger and that is it since wearing a bra with a backless dress isn’t an option. I am practically a walking buffet of femininity and boring pastel and skin colours. Who could resist that?

  Since Tarin hasn’t really been able to give me an information advantage, I figure I will have to work my feminine charms and this was how I plan to do it. By disarming all who see me with the complete opposite image of what I am.

  The only thing he’d told me without being aware of it, was that the guests we were going to be amongst, were players that appeared to be the type who would like nothing better than to usurp what was his. Or steal it.

  So my plan was I had to present like his lover, girlfriend as a delicious human little treat for some big, bad, powerful paranormal to notice and want. Then they could work some angle on me, that I supposedly couldn’t see coming and drag me away from Tarin. But in doing so, what they would actually be doing, would be playing into my plan and giving Tarin and I exactly what we were after. Free access for me to work.

  My brown hair was brushed straight and I teased the front a little to brush and raise it backwards, with the rest of my hair down my bare back. I took great effort in applying my make up perfectly. Unlike my usual look, of either none or heavy, I again, had to play my part in being perfectly boring and oh so human looking. So I went for natural shades of everything. I had that whole natural beauty look, happening. When in fact there was nothing natural about spending three hours putting make up on and ensuring it wasn’t caked on like a book cover.

  Instead of my usual red lipstick which suited me beautifully, with my dark hair and dark eyes, I used a peach lipstick called of all things, cream-pie, that I hated with a passion and added lip-gloss. I looked at my face, it looked clean and perfectly toned and without any type of uneven imperfection, my eye-lashes were dark and long, curling at just the right angle. They made my eyes stand out.

  Moving away from the mirror I slid on my g-banger, why I’ve no idea. Such a flimsy scrap of material, it already felt like it was barely there, I picked up my light pink, no, excuse me, blush coloured chiffon layered dress and stepped into it.

  It was a halter neck, that the collar of which was beaded with silver crystals and gems that extended to the edge of the dress towards my arms. I clipped it around my neck and watched the rest of the mini dress fall into place. Just as it had in the shop I’d bought it from.

  It clung to my form and complimented it perfectly, soft layers of chiffon ruffles dancing with every movement I made, and stopping at the top of my thighs. I turned around to check the other view. The back of the dress was, my back, it scooped down low to stop just before the top of my tail bone. Exposing my entire back in a simple, sexy display of flesh that no one could ignore looking at if greeted with the sight of it.

  It was perfect. Everything I wasn’t.

  I’ve moisturised my legs so they had a satin sheen to them and slid my feet into my nude high heels. I pulled out my regular hoop earrings and exchanged them for long, drop pearl and crystal earrings and slid a crystal beaded bracelet over my right wrist. Before re-assessing myself in the mirror. I was rather shocked by what I saw.

  The female staring back at me, wasn’t me. I could’ve come from some fortunate family in south Yarra and fitted right in. It was weird to look at myself and think I was pretty. Pretty in blush pink. I shook my head and turned away. I should know better than to think like that.

  Being around Tarin was doing something to me. Making me more aware of myself than I’d ever cared to pay all that much attention to before. It made me feel things, I hadn’t thought I could before. My security door intercom buzzed right on seven o’clock. I pressed the button back

  “Be right down.” I replied into it and scooped up my mobile phone and some condom packets and dropped them into my clutch purse and trotted down stairs to meet my date for my evening espionage.

  The doorway to my place was a thick metal sliding door, once you got past that, there was a locked screen folding door that you could see through, but I had to unlock it for entrance, there was a slightly covered entrance on the other side, that opened out into the lane way that the warehouse backed onto. A lane way you could park a car down, but only get out on one side of the car from, it wasn’t terribly wide.

  Tarin stood on the threshold under the covered part, his head down, looking at his shoes, shuffling around, his hands in his pockets, his silky blonde hair, was braided down his back. I wondered who had put their hands on all that silky sunshine and gotten to feel it, in doing his hairstyle. He wore a plain black fitted suit and white shirt with black bow tie. Classically elegant and stylish beyond reproach. He was smoking hot, basically.

  He lifted his head as the security screen door folded back at my behest. He looked me over then, and again. Tarin’s expression was priceless, he was utterly stunned by my presence. That much I could tell. His mouth actually dropped open and he wiped his hand across it and then dropped it to smile at me. “Katelyn, you look…”

  I waited for the rest of it. I had to know that out of everything I was up against, that my chosen weaponry for this job, was right on. That I’d read that much right before we even got there. Or I might just loose all my god damn confidence and arrogance in being able to pull this thing off. I did not need to head fuck myself before even beginning this job.

  “Beautiful.” He finished.

  “Wait till you see the back.” I smirked at him, still standing in the open doorway.

  Tarin lifted his hand and held up one finger and moved it around in a circular motion, indicating I should do a slow turn for him. I obliged and turned around, even going so far as to throw him a flirtatious glance over my bare shoulder as I showed him my back. I actually heard the intake of breath from him as he saw my back and only just covered, ruffle, chiffon, derrière. I turned full around to face him again.

  He looked at me then and I saw that look I’d seen the first night, back at his mansion in his eyes. “Oh hell no, we do not have enough time in the world for me to redo the make-up and keep this outfit pretty, Mister.” I said half turning to pull the metal door closed and then the security screen door which I padlocked into place.

  Tarin smiled, flashing fangs at me. A genuine cheeky grin of mischief. “Well then, we better get you to the party, the sooner, the better for you I’m afraid.” We walked down the cobblestones to the limo parked towards the entrance of the laneway. “Cause you look like far too much to pass up at the moment.”

  “Try not to get distracted from the job.” I threw at him with another bright eyed look as he opened the limousine door for me. He looked down the length of me again and rocked on his feet.

  “I don’t think you realise how hard that’s going to be when I keep imagining those legs wrapped around me.”

  I ducked my head and slid into the back seat of the limousine. Tarin slid in next to me but this time, did not sit so close to me as he had the first night he’d picked me up. He closed the car door with a thud. />
  “Guess, it wouldn’t help to tell you then that I’m only wearing a thing, scrappy, bit of material for a g-string underneath all of this then.” I said watching him hold himself tightly for a moment. “Or that the dress is only held together on me by one, click and press, stud, button.” I said emphasising each word to him. I laughed and looked out the back passenger side tinted window at the evening unfolding around us.

  11

  The party was to take place in another mansion. Only this one was about five times the size of Tarin’s suburban palace. Two mansions in one week, this was turning into a world of firsts for me.

  Tarin didn’t spoke to me the whole ride over to the party. He didn’t even look at me. I knew because I kept stealing glances at him. I wondered if he couldn’t trust himself to not touch me, as he’d indicated earlier on.

  Whatever, it didn’t bother me. As I was trying not to think too much about what I was going to do once we got inside the party. Looking the part was one thing, being the part I needed to be and carrying off my whole innocent butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth look for a girl who was used to putting cocks in her mouth, was another thing. Some people were freakishly good at spotting fakes and I felt utterly unlike myself and fake.

  Tarin adjusted himself as he helped me out of the limousine, before he took my arm. Part of me hoped I’d given him reason to be a walking, harden-on all night. I slid my arm through his and we walked together into the party, Tarin producing an invite to flash at some host like person. We like most others arriving, were right on time. There was a lot of movement, and a lot of people.

  I looked at a few guests. From the outside they looked like people, but then that was what paranormals did. It was how we blended so well into the world without being ostracised from it for being so different from those that apparently ruled it. Of course, not all the guests looked completely human, or apparently tried to.

  Tarin caught me people watching and I nodded my head at one male in particular. He was also in a dining suit but I could see his hands and a bit of a sheen of colour on his neck, his skin was odd looking, not scaly as such, but like well worn leather with a tinge of green and blue to it amongst the brown of his skin. He had aquamarine eyes and blonde curly hair with distinctly aboriginal features.

  “Dimkek.” He muttered to me softly. I looked at him blankly so he explained in more detail what he meant. “Rainbow Serpent.”

  I looked back at Tarin. “For real?”

  “Not one to be messed with easily.” So I guess I was hopping he wasn’t the mark then.

  We moved into the main throng of guests. There was a lot of bodies in a crowd that seemed rather endless, I wondered how we were going to sort through them. My whole plan had been to draw attention to myself, to get those who might be interested in messing with Tarin come to us. But what if those we needed to see never even saw us because of how many guests were at the party?

  Tarin and I stood together, scanning the crowd. “You need to parade me.” I said at him. He turned to look at me with a smirk, it was like something between lust and pride on his face. “Let’s walk around until we find out where you can get me a glass of something bubbly.”

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” He asked me in a low voice as we watched a pale skinned woman in a striking red gown, glide past us like she was floating on air. I couldn’t be sure though, her gown hid her feet. “Vampire.” Tarin muttered in soft annoyance. “And being obvious about it. Yawn.”

  I chuckled at his obvious dislike of her and her kind. “Why do you not like vampires so much?” I asked him as we began walking.

  “What exactly is there to like about them? Ever think of that?” Tarin replies to me in typical Tarin fashion.

  I shrug my bare shoulders loosely. “I don’t know. They’re usually pretty and sophisticated. Well they do a good game at pretending to be more highly sophisticated than I’d guess most of them actually were. They dress to impress…” Tarin looks at me drolly.

  “They give us shadows, a bad name by being so spot light fucking hungry for attention and adoration, they’re addicted to it. And humans tend to think anyone with fangs is fucking vampire vermin.” He grumbles back at me.

  I ensure my leg strides are full of hip swing and I smile the whole time. Let the world eat my charm, I think as I receive a few glances of jealousy and appreciation. Its hard to tell if it is aimed at me or Tarin himself. He doesn’t exactly appear ugly, rather he looks dapper with his hair braided down his back and his handsome face, of high cheekbones and blue eyes and clean shaven, jaw on display.

  We’ve almost completed a full circle of the room when we find a floating waiter and Tarin reaches for a champagne flute for me.

  “Would sir care for some vintage blood?” The waiter asks Tarin as he signals another floating waiter with a bucket in hand, that houses what looked like various bottles of wine. But I’m beginning to doubt that is the case. I glance at Tarin and I caning see him look at me from the corner of his vision.

  “No.” He states and reaches for a glass of red wine as the waiter dismisses the second waiter with the bottles of blood quickly. We stand watching the crowd mingle and start to move, as if in a dance.

  I wonder why he didn’t accept the blood. After all, I know he drinks it. Well I know he drank my blood. But does he drink other blood? Of course I have no idea how often he drinks it or why he does.

  “You didn’t have to do that.” I say quickly before sipping my champagne and watching those in front of start to swirl around into some sort of unified dance of suits and ball gowns as music filters through the room.

  Tarin turns to me stiffly. “I felt like red wine.” He says and I pretend I believe him as we then kept scanning the room.

  “Well, if you don’t feel like red wine, I’m okay with that, okay?” I whisper back at him, not looking at him.

  “There is only one way I drink blood and it’s not cold and it’s not in a wine glass.” He states back at me sharply. “You should know that.”

  I feel myself heat up at his words. Oh, he fucks and drinks at the same time. That is so dangerously dark and appealing to all the hormonal parts of me that I need to get a grip on.

  I notice, I amgetting quite a few interested looks, particularly from by not exclusively from males in the room.

  “In that case, try not to ruin the dress.” I mutter back at him. I feel Tarin relax slightly beside me. I’m glad to have alleviated the tension between us.

  I sip my champagne. Compared to most of the females in the room, I am practically, tastefully, naked and on display. There are a lot of evening gowns and necks, gripped in bling with arms and wrists dripping in diamonds and other sparkly jewels. It is decadence to be jealous of, if you went for that kind of thing. I didn’t.

  Besides, I have an obscene bank account at the moment, so who am I to care? It isn’t like I couldn’t afford diamonds if I want them. Not that I saw a point to wanting them. Actually, I don’t know how much diamonds cost, so they may still be out of my price range. I don’t look over done, but I look expensive all the same. So to one extent, I do fit right in.

  “Oh good.” Tarin mutters sarcastically under his breath.

  “What?” He nods his head towards our left and a small group of what looked like people moving across our side of the room. There is a male with bright blonde hair like Tarin.

  “Atweye.” He sighs heavily before sipping from his glass. I don’t recognise the language he is using and look back at him for more information. “My family is here.” He answers my look with. Before I can ask him if he means his family, or something else, maybe gangster mob related, we are face to face with a woman and a man.

  The male is six foot six tall, strapping and solid with short blonde hair, that is too long in front and keeps falling across in front of his eyes. He has baby blue eyes and an angular, clean shaven jaw. The female with him, is my usual height when I’m not in heels and she is. She has red hair, blue eyes and is wearing a strapless,
emerald green gown with some beaded work on the right side of her waist, where the gown gathers in lines to come into. Around her neck she houses, a upside down V of multilayered bejewelled necklace with both her arms displaying ample amounts of layered jewels wrapped around them.

  Tarin pulls me into his side, rather quickly so I teeter momentarily on my overly high, heels.

  “Tarin,” The female says without smiling or much warmth it seems in her voice.

  “Peyton.” Tarin replies cordially. Peyton looks from him to me. But Tarin is looking at the male now as I am.

  “Katelyn this is my brother Shaye, and my sister Peyton.” Tarin says by way of introduction as Shaye sticks out his hand to shake mine. I take it, he has a firm grip and he smiles back at me, no flashy fangs, just a regular human, dental teeth smile. His eyes hold mine and I think I smell sea spray on him mingled with citrus.

  “Didn’t expect to see you here.” Peyton breaks in and Shaye and I stop shaking hands all together. I look over at her as she addresses Tarin. “Where have you been hiding out anyway?” She smiles, trying for sweet at him but we all know it is insincere. “Tell us all his secrets Katelyn, where have you been keeping our brother?”

  I look at Peyton. She has a powerfully in your face attitude, no holds barred. There is absolutely nothing quiet and meek about her. “What have you done to him, made him civil or just kept him chained up all this time?” She keeps on.

  I go for my best, angelic looking smile that I can muster. Tarin’s sister is a bitch but he probably already knows that, given how stiff he is next to me. I want to tell him he doesn’t have to play nice with her for my benefit. But I refrain.

  I lean forward towards Peyton and watch her stiffen and her face drops dramatically to ill conceived disgust as I get close to her and cup a hand around her ear and whisper. “He’s only just recovered from me royally fucking his brains out. We had to have him do rehab on the basics like how to walk again.”