Page 27 of Vampire's Choice

“She sparred with Merc,” Clara said. “And held her own.”

“Really?” Medusa’s interest increased. “If you need additional practice partners, count me in.”

“Have you sparred with Merc?”

“In a way.” Ruth noted the reserve in the response, similar to Clara’s reaction. “We had a couple run-ins where I emerged unscathed. My snakes don’t care for him, so we avoid one another.”

Not really the answer she wanted to hear, but Ruth let it pass, since today wasn’t about solving the mystery of the male she was supposed to have met here for the first time.

She’d handle that part of things with him soon. She didn’t like deceiving her new employer. Even if it was information that hadn’t been requested, she knew the dangers of a lie of omission. She would tell Yvette, but she’d discover the reason for Merc’s strong aversion to that first.

“Good stage name,” Ruth observed. “Are the snakes on the water part of your performance, or do they just like to tag along?”

Medusa glanced at Clara.

“No, I haven’t told her yet.” Clara turned to Ruth. “Medusa is that Medusa. The turning-to-stone eye thing, the snake hair-do. All of that was a curse. JP went through an alternate dimension time thing facilitated by Maddock—he’s a sorcerer and Charlie’s boo.”

“Though it took them an eternity to admit it,” Medusa put in with a female eye roll.

“Tell it, sister. You’ll meet him eventually,” Clara added. “Adan knows him, too. Maddock worked with Yvette on some of the later modifications to the Circus’s way of traveling through portals. Anyway, Maddock helped JP and Medusa end the curse.”

Medusa smiled at Ruth’s expression. “The Circus’s inhabitants all have their own stories. I suggest taking them one bite at a time.”

“Maybe not the best way of putting it to a vampire,” Ruth rallied. “It doesn’t take much to encourage us to get fang-y.”

Clara looped arms with Ruth. “I like her a lot already.”

“I can see why.”

The softening of Medusa’s gaze as it touched Clara reinforced what Ruth was picking up. Everyone was worried about the fortune teller.

When they left Medusa to continue her practice, Ruth put aside her fascination with her new environment to focus on her charge. “How long have you been here, Clara?”

“Ever since I left college. Initially, it was a temporary gig. That was the first time my clairvoyance attracted the attention of a bad guy. It was scary, but compared to now, it was so much simpler. I saw something I shouldn’t have seen, my cluelessness brought it to the attention of the wrong people, and they came after me. Thanks to Alexis and Dante’s connection to the vampire and angel worlds, the Circus was determined to be a good safehouse. So I joined the troupe. By the time the danger was past, I’d decided I liked it here.”

Clara lifted a shoulder. “Can’t take the gypsy out of the blood. My great grandmother was a traveling fortune teller, too. I ran away from college to join the Circus. I never really got past the general curriculum to settle on a major, anyway.”

She took a breath. “A few years ago, my abilities started changing. Theories differ. Some think it’s because of all the energies of the Circus, but I don’t think so, because I left it for a while to hang out on Medusa and JP’s island, and it just kept expanding. I started to tap into bigger plans, from bigger bad guys. Things that affect the fabric of our world. Maddock believes it’s a natural evolution of a gift the universe wanted me to have.”

She grimaced. Her shrug looked like it was resisting a weight pressing down on her shoulders. “Gives me terrible headaches afterward. Like my head is going to explode. Charlie can put her hands on it, and not necessarily make it go away, but it’s like some of the pain goes into her hands. It’s even better when she has Marcellus do it and overlaps his hands with hers.”

She managed a glimmer of that natural twinkling personality that Ruth was realizing wasn’t gone, but it had taken a beating. Maybe a lot of beatings. “The first time she thought of having him do it, I told him she’d given me a great reason to have a headache. He didn’t think it was funny, but that was when he was way more of a sourpuss. Plus…he doesn’t like to see me in pain. Let’s look at the sky.”

She folded herself down among the wildflowers, her skirt billowing around her calves. As she stretched out, stacking her hands behind her head, her colorful outfit and jewelry made her a picture among the equally vibrant wildflowers. Ruth sat down cross-legged, but Clara pulled on her arm, so she stretched out next to her. “If you lie here long enough, quietly enough, sometimes the pixies will come land on you. They’ll ignore you, talking among themselves, but they’ll braid flowers in your hair, paint pictures on your skin, things like that.”

Clara gazed up at the sky. “You know, when I first realized I was clairvoyant, which seems like a hundred years ago, I would see things that I couldn’t change. People’s deaths, terrible things that were going to happen to them. Sometimes good things, though. Now…I can make a difference. I pass the information on to Marcellus, Maddock and Yvette. Depending on what I’ve shared, they make sure the information gets into the right hands. It’s like I’m an undercover spy. The problem is, it’s not undercover enough. There’s something that happens when I really lock into a vision, where my presence can be sensed. And tracked.”

When Ruth sent her a sharp glance, Clara offered that grimace again. “It’s like the universe wants to balance the advantage I didn’t ask to be given, with a downside I really don’t want. The way the Circus moves around, in and out of portals, makes it very difficult to pinpoint my location. If I stay out in the world too long, and whoever detects me hasn’t been dealt with, they’re looking for me. To use, or dispatch as a loose end. Since the Circus only does three-day bookings at a time, and to date, thanks to Maddock and Yvette’s skills, no one has associated me with them—knock on wood—me sticking with them is a win-win. And we’ve taken other precautions.”

She lifted a lock of her hair. “Like this. The consensus from the security squad was that I had ‘far too noticeable’ red hair. Yvette changed it for me. I miss it sometimes, but a least she left me a hint of the original color.”

She gestured at Ruth. “Part of why you’re here is I’m no longer Marcellus’s sole responsibility. He was injured when he was initially assigned to me. That scar on his chest, and another on his back, beneath his left wing, are the only remaining evidence of it. It’s taken a while, but thanks to Charlie and his own angelic powers, he’s healed enough he can command a Legion battalion again.”

“He definitely seems like someone who should be ordering troops around.”

“Yeah. He rocks that sexy commander thing. But he deeply missed being part of them. It’s a brotherhood. I’m glad he’s able to do it again, though I miss and worry about him when he’s not here. It’s a lie, that nothing can kill an immortal. But you know that, don’t you?”

Ruth nodded. Clara pressed her lips together. “Some of the things I’ve seen have increased the Legion’s responsibilities, over and above what they were already doing in the universe. Sometimes he has to be with them. He doesn’t like it, but we both know it’s needed. So I agree to whatever protection measures he wants when he’s gone, within reason.” Her mouth set in a stubborn line. “Being reasonable isn’t his biggest asset.”

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