Illuminate Read Online Free PDF Page A

the voice I’d heard in whispers earlier. She floated down the grand staircase from the second floor, long and lean with a model’s proportions. She wore a fitted black suit jacket over a knee-length black dress, a frill of lace peeking out above the front buttons. She held a clipboard in her hands and now had her light locks pinned up in a French twist, soft tendrils escaping to frame the sharp, unreal angles of her face. We watched her without a word. Lance shuffled over to stand near Dante and me, the three of us side by side like soldiers.
    “Hello, I’m Aurelia Brown, owner of the Lexington Hotel. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She came up to each of us to shake our hands. I had never seen anyone this stunning up close. Her sapphire eyes were clear and welcoming, sparkling even. Her skin was bone china, smooth and firm, without a single line etched upon it.
    “Nice to meet you,” I said finally. Her fingers felt like twigs, so slim, but then they tightened around mine, nearly crushing them.
    “And this . . .” She gestured behind her. I hadn’t even noticed that a man had appeared, seated, legs crossed, leaning back just enough on the mammoth ottoman to show he didn’t have to try hard to look this way. He wore a slim gray suit and a satin tie of pink and purple checks, all so precisely tailored it took me a moment to realize he looked fresh out of high school. His features were impeccably carved—an almost-too-delicate nose, chiseled cheekbones, full lips. He had slicked back his hair in a way that made him look like he had stepped out of an old movie. It had never, until this point, occurred to me to describe a guy as being beautiful, but he was. “This is my second in command, Lucian Grove.” He stood now, buttoning his suit jacket and adjusting his cuffs. When he stepped forward to greet each of us as Aurelia had, the thrill of those impending few seconds of attention wracked my body.
    “A pleasure,” he said to Lance, shaking his hand. They were nearly the same height. Everyone here was impossibly tall. I felt so small, so insignificant.
    Dante was unflappable, offering his effortless “So nice to meet you, great to be here.” But my fingers trembled even before Lucian took my hand. When he did, a sharp jolt charged through me, a hot tremor hitting every nerve in my body. I hoped his fiery grip wasn’t reading my pulse. His eyes, gray woven with threads of crystal blue, burned into mine, and then he arched one eyebrow at me—playful, knowing—and smirked. My heart stopped. What did that mean? He hadn’t seen me watching him and Aurelia earlier, had he? I mean, it had only been a flash, a few seconds. And yet, from his look, I felt like he had found me out.
    Dante read some of this from the corner of his eye. “I hope there are more like him around here,” he whispered into my ear, after Lucian had turned his back to us to resume his place at Aurelia’s side. “I want one.” I took a deep breath and felt my feet return to solid ground and my pulse begin to slow. Aurelia was speaking, so, with some effort, I refocused my attention on her.
    “You’ll be working closely with a group we’ve already assembled as part of our social outreach cadre: we call them the Outfit.” At that, as though choreographed, a group of people flowed and floated in from rooms on our right and left. Though there were many of them, collectively they sounded as hushed as fluttering butterfly wings. Ten men and ten women all the caliber of Aurelia and Lucian, perfectly attired and all wearing black suits and dresses. All, I guessed, to be in their late teens or their early twenties at the most, yet they seemed worlds older than me. It was something about the way they carried themselves: regal, with proud, straight backs, and their heads tilted just a touch upward. They swarmed around the three of us, creating a cocoon with their bodies. They didn’t say a word and didn’t look at us, but kept their eyes glued