“And he trusted you.”
“Not quite. He just didn’t think I was a threat.”
“You think I’m a threat?”
Gah, another game of vampire chicken. I fidgeted.
“You’re older than I am,” Rick said. Casually. Like he didn’t just make the bottom drop out of my stomach. I studied Roman, and of course he didn’t look all that old, maybe a well-worn midthirties. But vampires could apparently smell the age rolling off each other—and they could mask their own power, hide their age, keep others from finding out. Not flaunt it, encourage others to underestimate them. Arturo had believed Rick was only two hundred years old.
So. Rick had just told Roman that he wasn’t fooling him.
“Age is not the only criterion for power,” Roman said.
“No. But it’s a start.”
“I could let you think about it. If you think you have that much time.”
“There’s always time,” said Rick, the way only a vampire
could.
“Of course. For some.” Roman gave me a pitying glance. He stood. Meeting over. “I’ll confess, Ricardo. You aren’t what I expected.”
“I’m not sure I want to know, but what did you expect?”
“I’d have expected someone who snatched his territory from its former Master by wit and guile to show a little more fear.”
Okay, this guy knew far too much about us and what had been going on here. I didn’t need to know so much where he got such information; plenty of people knew about what had happened, but I wanted to know why he was so interested.
“You play much poker, Roman?” Rick said. Oh, I was so totally going to ask him about Doc Holliday.
“Some. Here and there.”
“We should play sometime,” Rick said.
Roman leaned forward. His smile was thin and wicked. “I thought that’s what we were doing.”
“Touché,” Rick said, chuckling, and the tension faded. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath.
Roman’s smile seemed a little more relaxed, a little more genuine. “You need time to think it over. I understand.”
“I’d appreciate it,” Rick said. “Come back in two nights.”
“I look forward to it. Good night, both of you.”
“Good night,” Rick said. I waved weakly.
Roman walked straight to the front door, not even glancing at the slinkily dressed women who followed him with their gazes. He clearly had someplace more important to be than here.
I didn’t like this. These two had taken the situation in an entirely different direction, one I wasn’t sure I could follow. When he was gone, I asked, “What are we going to do? We need his help.”
“I can’t let him in, Kitty. He isn’t just here for the demon. That’s an excuse.”
“Can we worry about that later?”
“Not if you want there to be a later,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “When vampires get this pretentious, all I really want to do is make fun of them. Can’t you give us little people a break? This thing, this demon or whatever it is, is trying to destroy my world piece by piece, and if this Roman guy knows how to stop it, we have to listen to him.”