Page 46 of Thrall
It seemed they had nothing to say to that. But as she stepped through the door, she heard Hiro call out to her one last time. “Oh, and, Lucy? That article you wanted? Check your email.”
“There he is. L. Roman, library staff.” Mila paused her cursor over the blank spot where the headshot would be. “No picture. I guess we still don’t know if they show up in them, come to think of it. Maybe you should take a selfie with him next time, test it out.”
“We still haven’t decided if there should be a next time,” Athena said tightly.
Mila’s grin, which had already been strained, dropped. “Sorry, boss,” she said. “I was joking.”
It hadn’t been a real choice whether to tell them about the library vampires: Regardless of how they’d react, Lucy couldn’t afford to pass up a real lead just because Athena and Mila wouldn’t trust it. But that, of course, didn’t change the fact that they didn’t trust it. Lucy had been politely trying to ignore the speed of Athena’s heartbeat since the words came out of her mouth.
She hadn’t even broached the subject of the article currently sitting in her inbox. But given how much she’d already rocked the boat today, it was probably best to read it before making a big deal out of anything.
“Maybe we shouldn’t stay here.” Athena pulled open a desk drawer, sending a whittled stake rolling to the front. “The younger vampire could read your thoughts. He probably knows what suite we’re in.”
“Boss, nothing’s changed,” Mila said. “This building is still the safest place on campus. Even if they know where you are, they haven’t tried to get to you before now.”
“I really don’t think they’re a threat to us.” Lucy tried not to take it personally when Athena shot her an annoyed look. “Which is not to say they have our best interests at heart or anything. But you said it yourself, Mila: There have been five, now six, vampires on this campus, and surprisingly few victims. And I believe that Laurentius and Hiro want Vanya gone as much as we do.”
“It does explain the dead rabbits,” Mila said. “I don’t know about Sadie and Addison, but our friend doesn’t strike me as someone who’d settle for animals.”
Athena had stopped pacing, stopped fiddling with her belongings like she was thinking of throwing them into a box. But her gaze was still hard as she looked at them.
“Okay, then,” she finally said. “Let’s say they come back to you tomorrow, Lucy. Let’s say that they tell you they’ve figured out a way to help you. What do you propose we do, if that happens?”
“I mean…” Lucy faltered, aware she was about to say the last thing that Athena wanted to hear. “I think we have to take them up on it, don’t we?”
“I agree,” Mila said, which was somehow even more shocking than the fact that there were vampires in the library. “But I don’t think you should see them again without me, Lucy. You never should have been alone with them in the first place. Just because they don’t feel like a threat doesn’t mean that they aren’t.” She turned to Athena then. Ever deferential. “Does that seem reasonable?”
Athena still didn’t seem to think any of this was reasonable. But she exhaled slowly, and then said, “Okay. And, Lucy? If Mila doesn’t think it’s safe, promise me that you’ll respect that.”
Lucy nodded, and tried her best not to look sullen about it. She wished Natalie were there and not in class. Natalie would have backed her 100 percent. Natalie would already be at the library getting a warm oolong tea and the good gossip from Hiro Minamoto.
“All right, then,” Mila said. “If we’re all agreed on that, then we should head out, Lucy. The boss has a show to prepare for. And we should get some dinner before it gets dark.”
They were quiet for a while after Athena saw them out. Lucy waited until they’d put a fair distance between themselves and the studio. It was her own strange deference to Athena. It didn’t feel quite right to talk about her too close to her sanctuary.
“Thank you for backing me up,” she said.
“Strictly speaking,” Mila said, “I backed both of you up.”
“Oh, yeah, I know. I didn’t mean to…” Lucy paused to collect her thoughts. The daylight was a bit more bearable with every passing day, but it still muddled her head a bit sometimes. “I know Athena’s right. But…still.”
Mila moved a pace or two ahead of her. When she spoke, she addressed the words to the path ahead. “You know,” she said, “by the time I met Athena, it was a few months after she’d been attacked. Even after I discovered the radio show, it took me a while to call in. I thought she’d laugh at me, I guess, or pity me. I was pretty sure by that point that the show wasn’t fiction. But I was still ready for her to tell me I was delusional. Pretty much everyone else had, even when they didn’t use that word.
“But from the first few seconds I talked to her…I mean, you know how she is,” Mila went on. “She knew exactly what I meant even whenIdidn’t know what I meant. She listens to people when they talk. Really pays attention, like what you’re saying is the most important thing anyone’s ever said. I don’t think anyone listened to her like that, after she was attacked. I think that’s why it’s so important to her to give that to other people.”
She slowed a little as they started down the steep hill, allowing Lucy to catch up. “She hates being afraid, you know,” Mila said. “She hates knowing that her fear could get in the way of what she needs to do. She hates that she’ll never really know if every precaution she’s taken is enough. And she hates that all of that scares her even more. She’s so, so scared every single day, it’s like the fear is just another presence in the room with her. So if there’s anything you can ever do to be a little more cautious—you should do it. I think we owe her that.”
Lucy hummed, but didn’t say anything yet. Fear did get in the way. Fear could run a household, if you let it. If she were Athena, she would hate that she was afraid, too. For her own part, all she’d been trying to do since the bite was keep her own fear in check.
But she and Athena weren’t the same. However much trouble Lucy was in, she would never know what it was like to be hunted for years. To have her name called out, over and over, in the night. Mila might have been there during the day, but every night in that recording suite, Athena was alone with her own fear. It was her first and most devoted listener.
Jillian’s wide, hurt eyes flitted across Lucy’s mind. She tried not to think any more about her mother, now alone with her own fear, too.
“She’s lucky to have a friend like you,” Lucy finally said.
“Well. I hope we’re friends,” Mila said. “I guess we’re best friends. Though I don’t know if she’d see it that way.”
Lucy nodded. Her thoughts had already drifted back to the two vampires in the library. “You’re really willing to let me see those vampires again? You have as little reason to trust them as Athena does.”
