Page 119 of The Shade of Things
She’d almost killed me and still, all I wanted was to figure out how we’d been put into these positions and by whom. I could let her murder attempt go, but there wasn’t any walking away from the mystery of our past until I’d solved it.
I wasn’t going to steal the Ascendant from her, and I wasn’t going to rat her out to Zev.
Where did that leave me?
I had to buy time with the vampire.
“Please, just promise you’ll keep Sades home behind the wards. You too. Call in sick.”
“Miriam.” His plaintive tone stopped me in my tracks.
How quickly I resorted to keeping secrets. I bunched the hem of my shirt in my hands.
How terrifying to trust people, though.
“Tatiana found out about my parents. She has the magic artifact that they went after her for, and which Zev hired me to find for him. I need time to straighten everything out, but I will. I want the past over with once and for all, Eli, because it’s been slowly killing me all these years.” I swallowed. “I want to live for the right reasons. Will you help me?”
He searched my face for a long time before nodding. “You’re not alone. Remember that.”
“I will, but it’s too dangerous for you to get involved.”
“Oh, not me. I meant the kid. Between magic and her hormones? Yikes.” He threw me a thumbs-up. “Go kick butt, Feldman.”
I kissed his cheek and hurried back to my place, my brain whirring for the best excuse to give Zev, but I’d barely gotten inside when one of the shadows in my living room moved.
I screamed, bashing my shin on my sofa.
Zev sat forward, a streetlight casting his features as the purest marble. The puzzle box sat unopened on the coffee table before him. “Tell me you have good news, Ms. Feldman.”
I’d stood a chance, a slim one mind you, had I sent a text to Zev to buy time until I’d spoken to Tatiana. In person was quite another matter.
“I—” I swallowed thickly.
His eyes were feverish and tendons stuck out on his stiff neck. He didn’t even glance at my blood-soaked shirt. “Where is the Ascendant?” His words were rushed and totally unlike his usual clipped pronunciation.
“It’s complicated. I need another day.”
“There is no more time.” There was the barest quiver in his unfailingly polite tone. Then he slammed his fist onto my wooden coffee table, shattering it.
I fell to my knees, sweat beading on my forehead. He’d pulverized the puzzle box. I pushed my fear—that he’d exposed us to something demonic and all hopes of destroying the game—down in the face of his presence.
My time had run out.
I could warn Emmett that Tatiana had to close her wards against Zev before he could get to her, but if I didn’t tell him the truth, he’d kill me. “Tatiana has it.”
Zev’s eyebrow twitched. “Tanechka?” The whisper of her name was barely more than an incredulous puff of breath. For the briefest instant his face lit up with what I could only describe as salvation. “Excellent work.”
“Please don’t hurt her.”
“As if I could,” he said softly. He stood up. “We’re going to pay a social call.” He motioned for me to leave my phone. “Come along.”
Eli’s curtain twitched when Zev led me outside, but I shook my head and the curtain fell back into place.
A familiar black limo idled partway down the block. Rodrigo opened the back door and I got in, followed by Zev, who sat across from me.
The ride was smooth as silk, the interior was all posh leather seats, inset speakers, and an entire bar, and I’d have climbed out the moonroof had I been able.
The terse silence choked me as I pointlessly tried to scrape blood off my shirt. Would Tatiana try to end me again? Who would Zev protect if it came down to me or her? I’d led him to the Ascendant, but she was his Tanechka. Whatever that entailed.
