Reap the Wind (Cassandra Palmer 7)

That hadn’t exactly been the response I’d been hoping for.

“What?” Fred asked me. “She wasn’t even playing.”

“See that the kids get fed something,” I told him, and went after her.

I found her in my bedroom, making up the bed. Which seemed kind of a waste, considering the state it was in. “I was going to have the bedspread changed,” I began, only to have her rip it off. “Rhea, it’s okay.”

She shook her head, sending dark curls flying. “It’s not okay! It’s dirty. They should have changed this al—”

“Rhea—”

“—ready, in case you woke up and wanted to—”

“Rhea.”

“—change beds or have a nap or—”

“Rhea!”

She abruptly stopped, clutching the awful bedclothes to her chest and staring at me.

“I don’t need a maid,” I pointed out.

And saw her face crumple. “Then I’m no use to you!”

“No use? You had the vision about Ares.”

“And maybe I was wrong! I don’t know anymore!”

“You weren’t wrong.”

“I don’t—” She caught herself. “Yes, Pythia.”

“Don’t do that!”

She jerked, and flushed guiltily. “I-I’m sorry,” she told me, gray eyes huge, although I doubted she had any idea what she was apologizing for.

“Or that,” I said, moderating my voice. “I don’t need an apology when you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“But you said—”

“That I don’t want a yes, Pythia or a no, Pythia if that’s not what you really think. I need someone who tells me the truth. Especially now.” I glanced at the door, because no way everybody in the damned apartment couldn’t hear us.

This whole lack-of-privacy thing was really starting to be a bitch.

“The truth is, I don’t have visions,” Rhea blurted as I looked back at her. “I don’t have anything. I was supposed to be a seer—they tested me, and I passed. I passed, and you know they don’t let you stay at the Pythian Court unless you score very high. But then—”

“No, I didn’t know that,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to slow her down. “I wasn’t brought up there.”

“No,” she agreed, casting a nervous glance at the door. “You grew up with them.”

“Well, not with them, exactly. I grew up at the court of another vamp, a guy named Tony.”

“He—he must have been good to you,” she said, obviously trying for diplomacy.

“Tony? Tony wasn’t good to anybody. Tony was a bastard.”

Rhea seemed taken aback by this information.