Page 129 of A Shade of Myself
The vampire dabbed his mouth with a linen napkin, then he gave me a pitying smile. “I knew what part of it meant, but thanks to you, I now have the entire puzzle sorted. Tatiana, your parents, and a magic amplifier.”
My heart sunk. “What do you mean, thanks to me? I didn’t know what it meant when Yoshi…” I faltered at Zev’s darkening expression. “When he learned about it.”
The vampire sighed. “No, but you left a trail that anyone with half a brain and a limited understanding of events could follow.”
I shrank back against the chair. “Did you kill James?”
“Ah, yes. Professor Learsdon.” He stood up. “Walk with me.”
He led me through an unfamiliar door and down a set of narrow stone stairs. I had my hands on the walls for balance because my legs shook so badly. There was only one thing down here.
The dungeon.
We stopped at a dead end. The single heavy door was lit on either side by electric torches.
“Look.” I pressed my legs together, my inner thighs sweating. “I don’t want any trouble and I certainly don’t want Tatiana to be hurt—hurt more than she has been.”
He laughed mercilessly. “You think that’s possible once she finds out what your parents did? Oh, she’ll be hurt.” He wagged a finger at me. “Tanechka has a legendary temper. I can’t wait to see its full extent once more.”
I gulped audibly, but if Tatiana got mad, then she didn’t already know. My shoulders relaxed. She hadn’t hired me because of the accident. Would she fire me for it? Worse? “What if I don’t tell her?”
“That won’t do. No.” He stroked his goatee. “You’ll have to set things right.”
“How? My parents are dead and I doubt an apology from me is going to cut it.”
“Aren’t you curious how Noah and Adele Blum, two grifters so minor as to be irrelevant, managed to get the jump on the only female macher in the world? A shark?”
I bit down on my lip so hard to keep from laying into him about shitting on my parents that I tasted blood. “I’m really not,” I said in a remarkably even voice.
Zev pressed his hand against a brass panel on the door and it creaked open. “You should be.”
“Let me out!” a man cried.
I peered into the gloom. “James?”
“Yes. It’s me. Who are you?” He squinted at me through two swollen eyes, leaning forward and rattling the chains attaching his handcuffs to the wall. Dirt matted his hair and his short beard was patchy. He stood with his weight on one foot, his other foot bent upward at a disturbing angle.
“Professor Learsdon,” Zev said. “I believe you’ve met Ms. Feldman.” He escorted me into the dungeon, his hand on my back.
I eeped, but the vamp didn’t leave me there. No, he stood beside me, immaculately groomed and smelling of a light cologne, where I stank of sweat and James of filth and urine.
“How long have you been here?” I said, attempting to block my memories of my previous visit to this place.
The man shook his head and Zev waved a hand like it was of no importance.
“Ask your questions, Ms. Feldman,” Zev said.
“I told you, I don’t know any more,” the professor cried.
Zev slapped him across the face. The sound cracked off the walls. “I despise whining even more than ignorance.”
“Help me,” James whispered.
Zev rolled his eyes then winked at me like we were co-conspirators.
I made a noise that was somewhere between a snort, a cough, and a laugh. I was numb, though whether from the cold dungeon or what I was about to hear, I couldn’t say.
“Proceed,” Zev said.
