What Not to Do (Kallisti)

[Jaxen Marveet]

So Jaxen’s wad of money was going to stay in his account. He might have been smug about winning the one-sided wager but for the implications of what it meant. Perhaps Zephyr wasn’t Atharim after all. The hints pointed to her, but surely she would have recognized the guy implicated in their HQ break-in. It was possible the Atharim was holding that embarrassing little breech of defense close to their chest, but the fake Mr. White interacted with a lot of Atharim henchmen that day, and the whim of Rumor was a bitch to control. If she was Atharim, she should have known about it.

Guess he was twice barking up the wrong tree then?

So Jaxen might have the wrong person. It was entirely possible Nox was flat wrong about his assumptions that Atharim were in the house. Nobody else seemed concerned with the flaunting of his power, either indoors or out. Though, come to think of it, maybe they were but were too intimidated by a powerful and sophisticated bloke like Jaxen Marveet to bother confront him? Now that was definitely possible.

With a smirk he glanced at the stage. Zephyr made all kinds of the wrong assumptions about Jaxen’s priorities.  He barely knew Nox, and ‘friend’ was a generous description of the guy he did know. So Jaxen made the universal scales-of-balance signal with face-up palms. 
“Sausage shaking it on stage? Or a hot girl?” 
and playfully winced with the absurdity of the comparison. He winked at her, then nodded toward the exit.

He stood soon after that, but not without finishing off the vodka. Beluga gold was too damn good to leave behind.