Page 130 of A Shade of Myself
“Who did you tell about my magic?” I said.
The vampire shook his head and sighed.
A hot rush flared up inside me. Sorry if I wasn’t asking the questions to your liking.
“No one,” James rasped. “I swear. I didn’t want anyone else to know about you.” He got a dreamy look on his face. “I spent years following whispers about the Ascendant. Finding this treasure and unlocking the mystery of why an amplifier was valuable enough to kill for would have been my greatest achievement.” He broke into a coughing fit.
Zev narrowed his eyes and James visibly fought his coughs down.
“What about my parents?” I touched the fingertip that the raven from Poe’s cards had bitten, swallowing the question I really wanted to ask. Is killing in my blood? “What do you know about them?”
I’d made a choice, picked the side of loving them no matter what I learned. I’d had to hide my complicated emotions around them for so long because of the secrecy surrounding their murders and I felt like a dam had burst. I wanted to hear any scrap, any story, I could. And I wanted to finally talk to Sadie about them.
James looked at me blankly; he had nothing to contribute.
Heels clattered over the stone floor, growing closer. A busty blonde woman in red leather pants and a red blouse sashayed in, dragging an unconscious Rodrigo, who must have been three times her weight. She dropped him like trash at Zev’s feet.
Zev glanced down at his minion. “Did you kill him, Dagmar?” His voice was pinched.
I took another step back into the shadows to book it into the KH, but Zev calmly reached behind and clamped onto my wrist, hauling me forward to stand next to him.
The female vamp didn’t even glance at me, busy examining her long red nails. “Don’t be such a diva.” Her accent was pure Boston.
I stifled my laugh like my life depended on it.
Zev’s lips tightened, his fingers boring into my flesh.
She trailed one nail along James’s jaw. “Did you mess with the elixir formula?”
Even Zev watched the man intently for his answer.
“I didn’t. I swear. I told you it was never guaranteed—”
Dagmar lightly slapped his face. “That was your last chance.”
Part of me wondered what this was all about, but I was scared that even a hint of curiosity in my expression would draw unwanted attention to me.
“This was a waste of time,” she said to Zev. “Let’s wrap this up and I’ll go home.” She ran a hand along her sleek mane. “The moisture in this climate is shit for my hair.”
“Please don’t give me to her,” James begged Zev.
“I promised I wouldn’t. And I always keep my promises, don’t I, Ms. Feldman?”
“Ye-yes.”
Dagmar snorted.
Zev released me and calmly snapped James’s neck. The man’s head fell forward at such an angle that his lifeless eyes bored into mine.
Dagmar and Zev kissed cheeks, while I hyperventilated, wondering if I’d still be sane when I got out of here.
I inadvertently glanced at James once more.
Or alive.
“Never change, kid,” Dagmar said fondly to Zev. Kid? How old was she?
“Really, Dagmar,” Zev said with a touch of impatience.
