The door to the bathroom was open, and I passed it on my way down the little hallway to the rest of the room. The rectangular interior was basically fashioned like a hotel room, with one large bed in the middle, a desk to the side, and a small seating area.
I stopped abruptly when I saw the individual sitting in one of the two uncomfortable armchairs facing an equally uncomfortable loveseat, upholstered in a green flowery pattern. There went my fake-evening.
Twelve
“Ah crap, now what?” I asked, starting forward again as Ja looked up, her petite frame and pretty face proving the cliché “you can’t judge a book by its cover” accurate. “Come to ask for another favor? Would you like us to get you out of the shifter commune this time?”
She smiled, and I broke out in shivers. It wasn’t a pleasant sentiment coming from her.
Darius glanced up as I came around the loveseat.
“Good evening, mon coeur,” Darius said, standing up out of respect, and then sitting down again as I did. “How was your dinner?”
“Very rare.” I watched Ja closely. You just never knew when she’d rush you, I’d come to realize. “What’s this about? Trading pleasantries with friends?”
“Your wit never gets old,” Ja said, and though it wasn’t said sarcastically, she meant it that way.
“We were waiting for you, though I’m not sure why.” Darius entwined his fingers with mine and then thought, She is up to something. Be on your guard.
“She’s always up to something,” I said out loud, because that really wasn’t a secret, and Ja didn’t have any feelings to hurt.
Ja crossed one knee over the other, her pink satin gown very strange for a shifter compound, where the fashion of choice seemed to be a mountain-man style involving lots of plaid. Even Darius had dressed down to a less flashy look of jeans and a gray button-up. A little clutch sat on the ground next to her, and I wondered if she’d just come from a ball or dinner party or something. I didn’t mention that, though. I didn’t need another comment about my wit.
“Being that relations are somewhat…strained between you and Vlad, Darius,” Ja began, “I thought you might want the truth of the past.”
What my father had said about Vlad’s skeletons rattled through my brain.
“Of course,” Darius said after a brief pause, probably thinking along the same lines.
“The nature in which you were made was a lie,” she said with a voice as silky as her dress.
I thought back to the story Darius had told me in Seattle, before I gave him blood for the first time. The memory was fuzzy, since it had happened before the vampire bond upgrade, but I recalled that he’d been besotted with a very beautiful woman. He’d wanted to marry her even though it was a bad match for whatever reason. But she was a religious fanatic, and somehow she got it into her head that he was a vampire. Quite ironic, since she ended up playing a pivotal role in him becoming one.
She’d lured him with the promise of a secret rendezvous, only to have him killed when he showed up. The attackers didn’t do the job properly, however, and he lay there for hours, near death. It was then Vlad had found him, apparently, and changed him into a vampire.
We hadn’t talked about it since that night. I’d honestly forgotten about it. Probably a dick thing to do, but in all fairness, I’d had a lot on my mind.
“Go on,” Darius said.
“The woman you suspected did hire those men to kill you,” Ja said. “She did think you were a vampire.”
“I am well aware, yes,” Darius replied.
“She didn’t come to that conclusion by herself, however.” Ja smiled sweetly. “Did you never wonder why a woman of minimal education became convinced you were a vampire after finding a few artifacts in your home?”
“Thinking people were vampires was very in vogue at the time,” Darius replied.
“It was and it wasn’t. I remember that time well. I was accused a few times myself, but always by people who had pretty obvious clues to go by, such as always being out at night but never in the day, the deaths of my lovers, that sort of thing. You didn’t have those obvious signs, correct?”
Darius watched her, not saying anything.
“A dish with an image, a trinket, and the shape of your bushes?” She clucked her tongue. “Quite a leap.”
I wondered how she’d known all of that, because Darius’s lack of a reaction confirmed it was true. Her evidence was clearly giving weight to the big reveal that would happen sometime soon. My stomach twisted in anticipation. This wouldn’t be good news. I could see the painting on the wall.
“She was a religious fanatic, yes, but the signs she thought she’d found were not obvious. They were occult in nature. Only someone educated would’ve guessed at their meaning.”