Page 70 of Throwing Shade
“A true visionary,” I said. In for a penny…
“I do like pushing boundaries. Conquering new frontiers, so to speak.”
I threw my hands up. “Your vamps in Blood Alley haven’t gone vegan. Their snack of choice is still GMO-fed human.” I flashed back to the fight room. “Some of them even tenderize their food first.”
“A very human impulse to beat their meat.” Zev removed a pocket watch from his pocket, turning it absently over and over.
Emmett snort-laughed and I glared at him. The golem stepped sideways to stand next to the vampire.
Okay, that was a good one, but BatKian didn’t get to joke. He was a monster and I resented his sense of humor. Stick to menacing.
“Every visitor to Blood Alley is a willing participant,” Zev said.
I notched my chin up. “The man Lindsey killed tonight wasn’t.”
Zev wound the watch. “You assume our humanity died with our bodies, but that’s not the case. We were teachers, fathers, doctors, carpenters. I, myself, was a rabbi. In fact, the Jewish prohibition on drinking blood fueled my funding in heme and alternate protein sources, which helps the entire planet. Vampires aren’t wiped clean upon our rebirth. Our past experiences stay with us.”
I crossed my arms. “Teasing that argument to its logical end, then you were all immoral murderers comfortable with taking a life when you were human, which proves my point that you’re still a monster in death. Your acquired hungers have only exacerbated that.”
Zev’s hand tightened on the watch and his eyes darkened. “Do take care, Ms. Feldman. You are a guest here and as such, I’ve permitted you a certain leeway, but I find my patience growing thin. Speak your piece regarding Judith.”
I moderated my tone to be more deferential. “These are the facts as I understand them, and please correct me if I’m wrong. Jude has been abducted by a rival gang run by a dybbuk. You can’t get her because of the sunlight bulbs they’ve strung up in their bunker. Give me the location, return Laurent, and I’ll get her back for you.”
“That’s one version,” he said. “A more likely one is that Jude defected. Betrayed me. You will fetch her and bring her here.”
“Betrayed? No way,” Emmett said. “I’d have divined it.”
“A fair point,” the vampire said, “which begs the question of why you didn’t? Is your magic failing, rendering you of no use to me, or did you deliberately withhold this information?”
“Neither,” Emmett sputtered. He grabbed me and shoved me in front of him.
“Where are they holding her?” I said.
“The old Kemp substation off Highway One,” Zev said.
I curbed my impulse to fist pump. We had the location! Everything I’d gone through tonight had been worth it. It wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but I could take things from here. The hard part was done. Jude could be saved—provided I convinced the vampire that keeping her around was in his best interest.
“Did you have an exclusive contract with her, specifically stating that she was not to contract her services to anyone else?” I said.
Zev laughed. “More of a handshake deal. Do you think I should sue?”
My heart leapt into my throat. Was that a throwaway or did he know where I worked? I pointed to his desk. “Have you got proof of this betrayal?”
“One of my vampires alerted me to the situation and the golem confirmed it. Judith went of her own free will to those people.”
Emmett shifted uneasily.
The vampire put the pocket watch away. “What’s it to be, Ms. Feldman? Will you bring my escapee back for me to dispose of, or will you insist on making this messy for the both of us? Is it to be your life or Jude’s?”
Would my death be instantaneous or would the vampire wield pain like a conductor with a baton, breaking me under a symphony of torture, until all that was left was my discordant begging to end it?
Or would the true torture lay in leaving my daughter without a mother and dooming her to relive every day that moment when she first woke up, happy, only to remember I was gone? She was only a year older than I’d been when I lost my parents. Would the scent of my favorite perfume catch her unawares in the middle of a department store one day and send her searching for my face, even knowing that was impossible?
Would my loss turn her into a shadow of all she could have been? I wouldn’t do that to Sadie.
But I couldn’t live with Jude’s death on my conscience either.
“No deal,” I said.
