Page 49 of Bent Out of Shade
Damn you, Little Shop of Horrors, for making the dentist song so catchy. Cloaking was useless against the vampire as was deploying any magic attack. I couldn’t even get into the KH through any of the shadows since Blood Alley was a hidden space.
Zev picked up the estrie’s left hand and straightened her index finger.
I ground my teeth together. He’d shown her kindness—the carrot—and now he was going to use the stick. Or whatever that torture device was. Kian was a tool to him, same as Sadie.
The vampire went to town—on the estrie’s cuticles. She hummed softly, rubbing against Zev’s side like a cat, while I openly gaped at them.
Zev raised an eyebrow. “The Lonestar?”
“Right.” I rubbed my arms briskly, but it didn’t dispel the cold. “Yoshi told me.”
“Good.” He snipped away. “I understand Detective Chu is a liaison with the Lonestars.”
In light of Yoshi’s warning about pulling Eli from that job, I wasn’t sure how to answer, but there wasn’t any point in lying. “He is.”
Zev pointed the cuticle cutter at me. “You will feed me all the information that the good detective learns. As he learns it. Understood?”
Was this Zev’s way of offering Eli amnesty in working for the Lonestars or would Zev seek vengeance on my ex regardless of whether I gathered useful information from him?
It sucked that I couldn’t ask because Yoshi could kill me for breaking his confidence.
A hot kernel of anger lodged under my skin, dispelling some of the cold in here. Why drag me into this prison with the demon when Zev’s office would have sufficed for this meeting? Had Zev set this scene as theatrically as he had with Sadie? A bit of psychological manipulation to coerce me to agree? My lower back seized up, and when I flinched, something in my shoulder tweaked painfully like a nerve pinched all the way up my neck.
Zev would never give me the full truth, but after everything we’d gone through from the Torquemada Gloves to bringing Kian here, I doubted he’d resort to showy ploys. Besides, nothing about his interaction with the estrie felt staged for my benefit. Zev was tending to his sire, whom he truly cared about. Multitasking with our meeting was merely the best use of his time.
Perhaps once he’d viewed me as much of a child as he did Sadie, but we were beyond that now.
Iwas beyond that. Zev had given me his word to keep my family safe and I’d hold him to it, no matter what it took.
“I’m not privy to Eli’s police investigations,” I said evenly.
Zev moved on to his sire’s other hand. “Then cloak, go to the police station, and get the details.”
Did he even hear himself right now or had he existed in such an exalted place for so long that any nonsense sounded reasonable? “No.”
Zev paused his ministrations to raise an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”
“No, I won’t ask that of Eli, nor will I steal intel from the cops.” I held up a hand to cut off his protest. “May I remind you that you’re hiding the only estrie on earth? You have a lot of secrets, whereas I no longer have any.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Nope, just a reminder that I don’t appreciate threats either. I don’t want to be your enemy, and should you wish to hire me through the proper channels, I will do my utmost to succeed on your behalf.”
Zev’s brow furrowed like I had spoken an incomprehensible language, but the estrie narrowed her eyes, an almost thoughtful expression on her face.
“You’ll do as I say.” He gave a dismissive wave.
“Or what? Will you threaten to come after me and my family? Rescind your promises whenever it’s convenient?”
“It’s not convenience when it pertains to my well-being.” He gave me a wry smile. “You of all people should understand the fine print.”
“Oh, I understand a lot of things, including the fact that you have a reputation for your word being your bond, but I guess that’s as fake as the trappings in this cell.” I twirled a finger at the carpet, cushions, and tapestries. “Dress it up all you want, the cold, hard truth is still there for everyone to see.”
A red haze descended over the vampire’s eyes. “You forget yourself.”
“No, you do.” I was playing a dangerous game, but I couldn’t stop now. I wouldn’t. His manipulations ended today. Ever since I’d reclaimed my magic, I’d given myself props for becoming empowered and ending this years-long feeling of invisibility and helplessness. Yet as soon as there was a threat, I ran to him for protection.
Look where that had gotten me.
