Page 13 of Seer Prophet

He clasped my outstretched hand with both of his. His skin was dry but strangely cold despite the warm air.

“Welcome!” He beamed, squeezing my fingers. “Welcome!”

I gave Revik a bare glance and saw his eyebrow quirk at me.

A flicker of his light reached me, part pain, part humor. Something about seeing me execute the formal seer forms often had that effect on him.

Still, I felt the tension there, along with that harder wall in his light.

For good or for bad, this thing had begun.

Chapter4

Legion Of Fire

Isat carefully, conscious of the shortness of my dress as I lowered my weight to the expensive white leather.

Once there, I didn’t cower, however.

I had my role to play, too.

I crossed my legs, wrapping my light in the consort cloak I’d used in Beijing. Subtly highlighting specific structures there, along with the more vulnerable and open areas of myaleimi, I settled deeper into the white leather and stretched out my legs. I didn’t open my light so much as tantalize with it, inviting speculation around what it might feel like if Ididopen it.

Next to me, Revik shifted his weight on the leather couch.

I wasn’t sure if that was pretense until I glanced down, and saw he was having a physical reaction, too. He didn’t look over, but I felt him fight briefly to control his light, even as he kept his eyes firmly on our host.

Turning to smile at Dulgar, I opened my light slightly more, particularly around the area of my heart and chest. I gave a light toss of my head when Dulgar returned my smile. Then I leaned back, arranging my hair so it fell over my shoulder and slightly down over my breasts. Re-crossing my legs, I placed my hands deliberately on the white leather, stroking it softly with my fingers as I resettled in my seat.

From my light, I projected indifference, like I was bored, or at the very least, utterly at ease in my clothes and location.

The Lao Hu training in such things, what they called “The Courtship,” was thorough.

By then, I had pretty much every male seer in the vicinity staring at me.

It didn’t hurt that I’d gotten really good at switching off my emotions when it came to playing this particular part. Thanks to Ditrini and others, I’d also gotten really good at splitting my consciousness, especially during the act itself.

My mind clicked over the logistics of the room as I smiled and murmured a thanks when one of the bulky guys in a dark suit made a respectful, half-nervous gesture in my direction, letting me know with a more subtle set of hand-gestures to ask him for anything I wanted.

I felt female seers staring at me by then, too, despite their relative distance from our sequestered booth.

Of course, I saw seers staring at Revik, as well.

I’d been warned this particular “family” was extremely male-centric, and not only in numbers. Likely due to the nature of their businesses, particularly their longtime involvement in seer and human trafficking, they adopted a very female-as-subordinate view of the world.

From what Revik muttered, female-as-property was more accurate.

That kind of thing wasn’t normal for seers.

I felt even more eyes on me in the Barrier than I did in the physical, looking at those structures in my light.

Rather than dial things down, I relaxed deeper into the leather booth, shimmering slight sparks of those pieces of myaleimiinto the wider construct, once I knew I had their attention. I didn’t give them more than a taste.

It was enough to pull them closer to my light.

When they followed my sensual pull, I gently shut them out, right before they would have gotten a real look at what I felt like under those shields.

It was a maneuver meant to tantalize?and yeah, to frustrate.

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