"You dare to assault me?" Radjedef hissed.
"If I assaulted you, you'd be missing your head," Mencheres responded coldly. "Yet I am well within my rights to stop you from putting your hands on one of my people without my permission, Guardian. "
Radje's gaze burned with the promise of vengeance, but both of them knew it was futile. He wasn't strong enough to break Mencheres's hold, and the laws were on Mencheres's side. He allowed himself another moment to enjoy Radje's helplessness before releasing him from the hold of his power.
As soon as he could move, Radjedef backed away from Kira as though she were a snake. Then he caught himself, glaring at both of them.
Mencheres smiled. Kira hadn't moved since she'd detached her arm from Radje's frozen grip, showing more poise than the ancient Law Guardian. From Radje's furious expression before he schooled his features into blankness, he knew he'd been shown up by her.
Radjedef flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture at Kira. "I've seen enough of her." Mencheres glanced at the house, and Kira turned around without a word, leaving the garden. His respect for her grew once again. If she'd panicked before, or argued with the Law Guardian over his deliberate, baiting treatment of her now, Mencheres might have been forced to punish her - which was what Radjedef wanted. But her poise left Radjedef with nothing to do but simmer in his own impotence. The very laws he could have invoked to punish Kira kept him from being able to do anything now.
And once Kira was safely back home and Mencheres was gone, both of them would be forever past Radjedef's bitter reach. Mencheres smiled again at his old enemy.
"You know the way out, Radje."
Chapter 6
Two days passed. Kira watched more TV than she'd seen in the last month, plus sunned by the pool, something she hadn't done in, well, she couldn't remember how long. Who would've thought this was how she'd spend her time as a prisoner in a house with vampires? Still, she didn't have much else to do. Every time she left her room, she knew she was being politely shadowed by Gorgon, which was equal parts unnerving and annoying. She hadn't seen Selene, Kurt, or Sam since that afternoon in the kitchen. Kira hoped they hadn't gotten into trouble for talking to her. None of them had seemed to be afraid of their circumstances, but again, Kira had only seen the surface of life among the undead. Much more might be lurking within the depths, and chances were, a lot of it wasn't pretty.
Kira also hadn't seen Mencheres since the day he'd had that ominous visitor. She shivered at the memory of Radje, as Mencheres had called him. So much for her thought that all vampires gave off a calming aura as part of their camouflage. As soon as she'd seen Radje, her instincts went into overdrive with alarms of "danger, danger!" Her short time in the garden with him had been like standing near a rabid pit bull - any sudden moves, her gut warned her, would result in a vicious attack.
And that was before the cold-eyed bastard had tried to bite her. Kira was beyond relieved that Mencheres made good on his vow that no one could touch her while she was with him. When Radje stared at her while Mencheres somehow managed to freeze him into place, she'd felt waves of malevolence pouring off him. He hadn't just wanted to bite her, she could tell. He'd wanted to hurt and humiliate her even though she was someone he'd never met before.
Even though she hoped never to see him again, coming across Radje had relieved some of Kira's anxiety. Even staring at him from her perch in the tree before his vicious display in the garden, something about Radje had put her off. That proved her instincts could still transmit danger warnings, even with vampires. It gave Kira hope that Mencheres wasn't just lying to her in anticipation of the day when he'd use her memories to enslave her. After all, he shouldn't care if Kira liked her captivity or not. Someone as fast and strong as a vampire didn't need to worry about consent.
It might be frightening to admit it, but Kira was already powerless when it came to her circumstance. She'd just been deluding herself by thinking that Mencheres would need to control her mind to force her to remain here.
On the plus side, she'd finally managed to reach her sister on the phone. Kira told Tina the same cover story Gorgon claimed to have given Frank - that Kira was home sick with the flu. Tina had been concerned, but both of them knew she couldn't risk visiting.
Not while Kira supposedly had a contagious virus that would weaken Tina's already-compromised immune system. It didn't escape Kira's notice that each of Tina's laughs ended on a coughing fit, and her voice was thicker, her words heavier. At twenty-nine, Tina was already in the autumn of her life expectancy, as unfair as that was.
The thought was so depressing that it drove Kira out of her room. She'd just spoken to Tina yesterday, but now she wanted to talk to her again. She needed to assure herself that for the time being, Tina was still here, still part of her life.
Kira went downstairs, looking for Mencheres or Gorgon. If she just picked up a phone without checking with one of them, for all she knew, alarms would go off. Then they might not believe that she'd been innocently trying to reach her sister and think she'd decided to call 911 after all. Annoyance flared in her. She might understand why vampires would be protective of their secret existence among humans, but she was still the one paying the price for that for the next few days. At least, she hoped that was all the time she had left to pay the price for unwittingly discovering their existence.
She reached the first floor and did a quick check of the living room and kitchen. No one around. Next Kira went out onto the patio, but the pool area was empty. So was the garden. Kira came back inside, about to check the laundry room next, when a voice right behind her made her jump.
"Were you looking for someone?"
She whirled around, taming her gall oping pulse, to see Mencheres. He hadn't been here a second ago, as if she needed a reminder of how blazingly fast he was.
"I should put a bell on you," Kira said before she could think.
Instead of being annoyed or confused, Mencheres tilted his head. "Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you."
So perfectly formal. So rigidly in control of the situation at all times - except for that morning at the warehouse. Which was the real Mencheres? Do you really want to know?
an inner voice questioned.
No, she probably didn't. Especially not in these circumstances, when she was his pampered prisoner.
"I wanted to call my sister again." A part of her hated to ask permission to do such a simple thing, but the other part reminded her that if Mencheres were a more ruthless person, she wouldn't even be alive. Dead investigators tell no tales of vampires, Kira thought wryly.