Shatter the Earth (Cassandra Palmer 10)

“So, you want me to make her do it,” I said, finally seeing his point. “You want me to fire her.”

“I want you to do what you think best, of course.”

I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t help it. Rico knew I’d grown up in a vampire’s court, and that I’d been Mircea Basarab’s . . . something . . . for much of the summer. Yet he tried a lame ass manipulation tactic like that?

I should have been insulted.

But, mostly, I was just worried.

Rhea had finally landed, over by the big item under the sheet, which wasn’t under a sheet anymore. But I still didn’t know what it was. We started walking that way and Rico never took his eyes off her. I didn’t believe in love at first sight, but their attraction had been pretty darned close.

So he had an agenda. And while he was a fairly straight shooter for a vamp, he was a vamp. If he could turn circumstances in his favor by planting a seed of doubt in me, he’d do it.

But that didn’t mean he was wrong.

Rhea and I needed to have a talk, but that was just it: we had talked. Several times. But I didn’t know if anything I’d said had actually gotten through. It honestly hadn’t looked like it.

What if that was because Rico, accidentally or not, was right? What if Rhea’s seemingly never-ending impasse was because she didn’t like the job but she felt she couldn’t leave? What if her subconscious was protecting her from moving forward into a future she didn’t want, when there was another one, walking right beside me, that she did?

I hated to admit it, but it would explain a few things.

But, of course, there were other possibilities, too. Considering Rhea’s upbringing, there were a lot of them. Damn it, I just didn’t know what the problem was, and she wouldn’t tell me. Or even admit that there was one!

“Ah, they did get it, then,” Rico said, as we approached a swarm of older initiates at the end of the street.

“Get what?”

“A more grown up toy,” he said, as somebody turned on the mystery item, and I finally realized what I was looking at.

“Oh, damn,” I said, vaguely horrified, as a huge mechanical bull started doing its thing, bucking and gyrating and lewdly flaunting itself all over the place.

Milly was going to shit.

“What is it?” Rico asked. “You do not like it?”

“No, I like it fine,” I told him. “But some of the acolytes are a little . . . uptight.”

He laughed. “I have noticed.”

And then Rhea looked up and saw us, probably drawn to the booming laugh. And Rico’s smile changed. He really does love her, I thought, watching the expression that flitted over his face.

I glanced back at Rhea, and couldn’t tell much about her own expression at this distance. Except that she was smiling. And I guess that was good enough for Rico, because he was suddenly on the move.

“Rico!” I called after him.

He turned around, still jogging backwards, and spread his arms. “If it is not going to be here long, we should enjoy it while we can!”

He turned around, ran to the bull, and didn’t even wait for it to stop. He jumped on and, with vampire reflexes, made that thing his bitch. Even on the highest setting, they couldn’t knock him off.

I walked over to Rhea, who was laughing and clapping like everyone else. Until she saw me and started to drop into a curtsy, because she’d been raised at the old Pythian Court and lifelong habits die hard. But she caught herself in time.

“Lady.”

“He’s good,” I said, watching Rico. Somebody had thrown him a cowboy hat, and he was working it.

“Yes, very good.” She smiled at me, a little nervously. “Thank you for your help last night. I heard that you were the one who stopped . . . everything.”

“Yeah, about that. I think we’ll hold off on training for a while.”