I warned him with my eyes before I spoke. “Oi, you can stop that right now.”
“What?”
“You know bloody well what, so don’t muck about.”
“I like looking at you.” He shrugged, all innocence.
“Well I don’t like you looking at me.”
He edged a little closer. “You wanted me last night.”
“And you said no.”
“It wasn’t a rejection, I told you why.” His hungry gaze travelled over me again. “I won’t say no now.” He ran the rim of his bottle down the length of my bare arm. I held back a quiver. “Sam.”
“No.”
“No? Why?” He was amused.
My God he had to know that even if I was up for shagging someone who suffered from Obsessive Consort Disorder – which I definitely wasn’t, honest – I would never have given in to him so easy anyway after the way he had snubbed my offer last night. Feminine pride was a big thing. “A girl can change her mind.”
“Then change it back again.” He edged closer again but still didn’t touch me. Thank God. It was hard enough just having him that close and feeling his breath at my ear.
“Can we go through this file please?” I said impatiently.
He looked about to object but then his grin became crooked and he narrowed his eyes. “If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do.”
I picked up the file and sat on one of the leather-cushioned table chairs. At the forefront of the contents was an A4 photograph of a middle-aged bloke – although he could be centuries old in vampire years – with quite a friendly face. His shoulder-length sleek hair was almost white and his deep-set amber eyes were framed by sparse black lashes. He had a child-like button nose which was probably the main factor in giving him such a friendly appearance.
“That’s Connelly. Rupert Connelly,” added Jared as he sat on the chair next to mine. “He’s the High Master of the entire Caribbean and other places like Hawaii and Brazil. He’s a Keja. He’s about two centuries old. Worships Antonio. Any time he’s ever visited The Hollow he’s stuck to Antonio like a fly to shit.”
“Is he as friendly as he looks?”
“I’ve honestly never met anyone so giddy. Very sociable. Giggles a lot. One thing I know for certain is that he’d never betray Antonio. If an attack does happen, he’ll align himself with Antonio and do everything he can to help protect The Hollow.”
“Will his gift do much good in an attack?”
“That depends how involved he is during the defence. He has infrared vision, so if he was leading his own legion as opposed to having someone else do it then he’d be able to point them in the right direction of where the invaders are.”
I took a moment to memorise Connelly’s face before then moving on. The bloke on the next photograph didn’t look much older in human years than me, but his almond blue eyes held a twinkle of wisdom so I guessed he’d been around for a while. His facial structure was sculpture-worthy and made all the more appealing by the hood of sandy tight curls that hung down to his cheekbones. Very broad shoulders, I noticed.
“That’s Carlos – he doesn’t use a surname. A Pagori. High Master of quite a few places like Spain, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Portugal...He doesn’t reside anywhere in particular, he likes to travel. Sociable enough but only interested in serving his own interests.”
“So if he deduces that Bennington’s plan of attacking The Hollow has a high chance of succeeding, he could easily align himself with Bennington.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Oh yeah.”
“His gift?”
“He’s Psychometric. By touching something he can give details about its past, present, future – that kind of thing.”
“Just objects, or people too?”
“Not sure, actually.” He snickered at the next photograph as I moved on from Carlos. “Rowan Murdock,” he drawled. “Not the nicest of vampires.”
Rowan looked as though he had been Turned when he was in his late forties. He had long, dark incredibly straight hair and the largest eyes, largely glinting amber. Clearly a Keja vampire. With his chunky lips pursed and one dark eyebrow arched he gave off an arrogant vibe. “He looks stuck up.”
Jared giggled. “He mainly lives in Italy, but he’s High Master over Greece, all the Greek islands, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt and more. He’s got an extensive bloodline.”
“So he’s quite the biter.”
“You could say that. He always takes his life-partner with him to the gatherings. Marcia I think her name is. She’s very...prim and proper.”