Page 75 of Bent Out of Shade
Vincenzo was systematically going after those who’d killed his second, but his insistence on my help meant he truly had no idea who had done this. Whomever had changed Sabrina hadn’t done so as a direct attack on him, though that didn’t preclude Vincenzo and Sabrina being used as pawns in an attack on Zev.
“I’ll go see BatKian,” Vincenzo said, “as soon as I’ve checked on Bree. Tell me where you are.”
His soft command burrowed into my skull. Gritting my teeth, my defenses hanging by a thread, I hung up and exhaled in a long, exhausted breath. Really, dude? I do the impossible, find your fiancée, and this is how you repay me? By backseat driving my head?
I wrung an invisible vampiric neck and then turned my phone off for good measure.
Tatiana tore free of Laurent’s hold. “That bastard,” she hissed.
The full weight of Laurent’s gaze rested on me. “You can’t just avoid him.”
“I know.” I rubbed my wrist, assuring myself that blood oaths weren’t tracking devices. “Sabrina’s vampirism, the murders, all of that is going to be horrible enough to share with Vincenzo.” I pushed the phone away like it was cursed. “But we must protect Sabrina until she wakes up, and that means putting Vincenzo off from freaking out that she’s a vampire and I put her in a coma. People do rash things in the name of love.”
“You don’t know that you’re responsible for her condition,” Laurent said.
Tatiana wrapped her chiffon robe around her. “Now isn’t the time for delusions, Lolo. Juliette only sensed that interference after Miriam removed the dybbuk, so we make a plan to keep Vincenzo away from all of us until Sabrina’s shadow has grown back, she can be roused, and Miriam goes back to being the fixer who successfully reunited Vincenzo with his fiancée.”
Tatiana always acted like she could bend the universe to her will, but right now, the combination of her no-nonsense tone and a plan allowed me to stand a little straighter. Plus calling me a fixer in my own right. Hell yeah, that felt good.
“Then it’s settled,” I said. “We stall until Sabrina wakes up and can choose for herself how we proceed.” I grabbed my phone. “Start throwing out ideas, people.”
Since Sabrina was as stable as possible, and it was after midnight, Juliette opted to grab an Uber and go home to sleep. She promised to come back later in the day to check on the patient.
Emmett had passed out on one end of Laurent’s sofa, snoring away with his dying bagpipe wheeze, and Tatiana was clearly fading, her lids half-closed as we discarded idea after idea.
I rested against Laurent’s side, both of us sitting on the floor. He’d built a fire to ward off the chill, the flames dancing and the wood crackling, but as calming as it was, the best we came up with involved all of us hiding out here in the hotel until Sabrina’s shadow grew back.
I scraped my fingers into my hair. “This is hopeless.”
Laurent shifted his weight to stretch out his back, but when he settled himself and I didn’t return to his side, he pulled me against him, resting one hand on my hip to keep me close. “There is one move we haven’t discussed,” he said. “BatKian.”
Tatiana slammed the arm of her chair. “No.”
“You know I’m right,” he said reasonably.
She glared at him.
A piece of wood popped sharply, and Emmett snorted.
Zev had compelled Tatiana to hand over the Ascendant, and I didn’t want to be around him for a number of reasons. Yet he’d soon know the other vampire was here to collect his fiancée and wouldn’t take kindly to Tatiana and me stalling that reunion for no discernable reason beyond Sabrina needing to rest. Plus, he’d been invited into both our homes. I snuggled closer to Laurent. At least Eli’s side of the duplex was off-limits to him.
The smart thing to do would be to tell BatKian about Sabrina, since shit would fall on Blood Alley when Vincenzo learned of her undead state, but I clenched my jaw and Tatiana’s clenched fists had gone white.
My boss finally conceded Laurent’s point with a defeated nod. “Go to Blood Alley, Miriam. Zev is the only one who can hold Vincenzo off, and it’s in his interests to work with us.”
I tapped my wrist. “You realize I’ll have to get him on staff first, right?”
“I do.”
I toyed with my cuff. “There’s one other potential hitch.”
“What?” Laurent’s growl rumbled through me.
“Still tired, pussycat,” Emmett slurred sleepily and rolled over.
“I saw something I shouldn’t have,” I hedged. Much as Laurent and Tatiana would relish hearing about the vampire’s humiliation at his sire’s hands, my gut screamed that sharing this knowledge would get all of us killed.
Tatiana gave me a piercing stare, and while Laurent had to fight from shifting his fingers to claws, I kept my chin up resolutely, and they finally backed off.
