Page 69 of Throwing Shade
“It was blemished.” He dusted off his hands. “I don’t tolerate imperfections.”
He made his desires sound almost reasonable. After all, everyone wanted their money’s worth, but most of us would utilize the refund option rather than remove the offending item from the face of the earth. My jaw grew tighter and tighter. He could clothe himself in the finest outfits and surround himself with renowned art, and it didn’t change his utter inhumanity.
I took a deep breath to calm my galloping heart. The strain of not blurting out my true assessment of his character was exhausting. “This has been a wonderful tour and all, but—”
Emmett entered the gallery from the opposite end to the office and pulled up short at the sight of me. If it was possible for golems to look wan, then he rocked that pallor. He wore a pair of drab sweats belonging to Jude that she wore to clean her apartment, the top stretched tight across his shoulders.
Zev glanced over. “Do you two know each other?”
“Something like that. If I may?” It was not better to ask for forgiveness than permission with this vampire.
“By all means.”
Zev’s acquiescence was like a starter gun going off. I stormed over to the golem and shoved him up against a large bronze frieze of cavorting gods and goddesses. “Saving your ass instead of saving Jude?”
Emmett twisted his clay fingers, smoothing out a callus. “Golems aren’t heroes, we’re servants,” he said. “If I can’t do that, then I have no purpose.”
Zev coughed politely.
Cold rushed down my back as it dawned on me that I’d turned my back on the vampire, which might be yet another breach of protocol. I released Emmett and turned around, giving a small bow.
“Sorry for the outburst,” I said.
“Did you mark my frieze?” Zev said in a bland voice.
I shoved Emmett out of the way to check the artwork, my head bunched into my shoulders. Thankfully, it was blemish-free. “No.”
“Hmm.” He turned his attention to a text that had come in. It was hard to tell if he was pleased or disappointed.
My nerves were ground down to raw nubs. “Did you sic him on me?” I hissed at Emmett.
“You don’t get it, do you?” The golem whispered back and waved an arm. “This is the safest place for me to be.” Especially if the rival gang planned to have the only golem in town.
The vampire slid his phone into his pocket.
Emmett spoke louder now. “You should thank me. You’re only here because you’re Jude’s friend and Mr. BatKian looks after his people.”
“I endeavor to protect my family.” Zev clasped his hands behind his back.
He couched his psychopathic narcissism in fancy words that I longed to throw back in his face. How’d you misplace Jude then, hot shot?
“We share a common goal,” I said. “Where is Jude and what have you done with Laurent?”
“Let’s discuss this like civilized people, shall we?” Zev said.
I wagged a finger. “That would be a challenge as you are neither civilized nor people.”
With a gasp, I clapped my hand over my mouth. Oh, fuck. I’d said that out loud, hadn’t I? My life flashed before my eyes, but there was an odd sort of relief to having committed to a suicide mission and I took the first full breath since I’d encountered the vampire.
Zev’s brows drew together, but there was a faint smile on his face, like he was curious to see how committed to this path I was.
“He’s totally civilized,” Emmett said hotly. “He doesn’t even drink human blood.”
“True.” Zev wiped some dust off an ornate frame. “Developments in synthetic blood have made it possible to live without the real thing.”
“Yeah,” Emmett said. “Mr. BatKian’s been funding research into plant-based heme. The stuff in those veggie burgers that bleed.”
The vampire tilted his head. “I was lucky that the University of British Columbia is one of the pioneers in this area. It was one of the reasons that I relocated here.”
