Masters and Domains

CHAPTER 6

Mary-Lou Chang had spent the entire week exploring Manhattan. She traipsed around the city, visiting restaurants and movie theaters. She went sightseeing most days, marveling at the very tall buildings and stuffing herself full of street food.

She had spent most of yesterday at Central Park, amused herself at the zoo and on the carousel and took the subway back to her apartment in Harlem.

Now, she stood in front of the dreary building they had held the secret meeting exactly a week ago, an abandoned warehouse of some sorts. It amazed her that only herself and a few people authorized by Titania could see the building. A couple of humans walked by a few feet from her and some even glanced in her direction but all they could see was her.

She got out a lollipop from her glittering purple bag and popped it into her mouth, remembering why she was here on a beautiful Saturday morning instead of taking a walk in Morningside Park. Her mother’s bracelet.

She must have dropped it when she was last here. When she’d settled in her new apartment the next morning, it wasn’t around her wrist anymore. She had spent the entire week procrastinating but she couldn’t afford to lose that bracelet.

She took out the lollipop and went through the open entrance only to hit a firm obstacle that sent her crashing backwards and landing on her ass, her purple skirt bunched up around her waist . “Shit!”

“Sorry!”

She scowled when she looked up. “Morgan? What are you doing here?”

He helped her up and adjusted his bag strap on his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”

She eyed him up and down, taking in his black jeans and cashmere sweater. He looked like a typical nerd with his dark-rimmed glasses and curly dark hair which she noticed was slightly wet. He was a very beautiful man, very exotic-looking with brown eyes and luscious brown skin. His accent was sexy too. African, she guessed, since that was where he lived.

“I dropped something. A bracelet. I came back for it.”

Morgan’s hand disappeared into the side pocket of his bag and he held it up after a little digging, a rose gold bracelet dangling from his hold. “This it? I found it by a broken pipe. Figured it belonged to one of you ladies.”

She snatched it out of his hands. “Have you been sleeping here?”

Morgan looked away, shuffling his feet uncomfortably. “Yes.”

Mary-Lou decided not to press. “Well, I have an extra room in my apartment and I could use the company.” She smiled when he looked up at her with wide, hopeful eyes. “Not that I’m nice or anything but it would be good to have someone there to stop me if I decide to go all Sick on the other tenants of the building. I don’t think my mother would be happy with that.” She shrugged. “Bad publicity and all.”

Morgan beamed and she noticed a dimple on his left cheek, making him look more boyish than he already did. “Then by all means, lead the way.”

She turned around to go when he called her back. “Actually, I could get us there in a second.”

She shrugged. “How?”

“I’m a Gifted,” he said proudly. “Teleportation. All you have to do is close your eyes, gimme your hands and think of your apartment.”

She placed her tiny hands in his much larger ones, smiling at the beautiful contrast of white against dark. “I’ll have to fuse myself into your thoughts to get a feel of your apartment so I’ll be able to get us there.”

When she nodded her consent, they both closed their eyes. She felt his grip on her hands tighten and she tried to expel every other thought from her mind, picturing the blue and green walls of her apartment and the provocative painting on the wall above her TV. She felt a sharp jerk on her entire body and gasped, reflexively pulling her hands from Morgan’s.

She looked around and smiled at the familiar surroundings. They were in her apartment. She looked up at Morgan whose curious eyes were taking in every inch of her space.

His eyes widened slightly when he saw the painting of two women and a man, naked and wild-eyed in a very erotic entangle. “That’s…interesting.”

She chuckled. “Of course it is.” She dropped her bag down on the gray couch and flopped down next to it, kicking off her pink knee-high leather boots. “So are you going to tell me why you’ve been sleeping in that rat-infested hellhole?”

Morgan took a seat on the couch across from her, setting his bag down behind him. “I did something really bad back home. My father would have every vampire in Africa looking for me so I ran. I…I’m not here to represent him.” He nervously scratched the back of his ear, right over his domain insignia of a lion’s head. Very befitting for Africa.