Page 133 of Even Vampires Bleed
I hope so.
“Rooftop position then,” he answers the question I didn’t ask.
I’m about to go, but I stop in my tracks.
“Has Cassiopé come back to Notre Dame since she left the forest?”
Elhyor seems to size me up.
“A couple hours ago. She was in bat form and flew directly to her room.”
I don’t even ask him—or myself—how he knows that it was Cassiopé that he saw and not any other bat, since they almost all live inside of Notre Dame. I’ve seen her size. I think she’s the smallest bat I’ve ever seen, and I don’t think her size is particularly common, so I’m just trusting Elhyor’s words or I’m going to go mad quickly.
I make my way to the top of Notre Dame’s stairs and join the team up there.
Of course, it has to be that asshole Pierre who is leading the team, but I’ll keep my mouth shut because this isn’t the right time to complain.
This isn’t the right time to do anything else than comply and follow orders.
“Elhyor sent me. Where do I go?” I ask him in the most matter-of-factory way.
Pierre sizes me up, and unlike Elhyor, seems to find something lacking because there’s a small sneer that appears just a second before he schools his face.
“With Marcus and Anna, on therue du cloîtreside.”
He turns and walks in another direction before he even finishes to say those words.
I don’t know how that man managed to be in the position he is from the way he talks to people.
It’s an aberration to me.
Or maybe he’s just like this with me.
Maybe past me peed in his cereals. I don’t know.
And probably never will.
I make my way to Marcus and Anna, and I realize quite fast that they don’t need me. They’re more than teammates, they’re lovers, and it seems that they work best in tandem. They try to include me in the conversation as we watch over the street on our side of the cathedral, but it’s all the little looks exchanged between the two of them that make me feel like I stick out like a sore thumb.
And it makes me long for Cassiopé’s company.
I still stay at my post and it’s only when Marcus shakes my shoulder that I realize my body was indeed on watch, but my mind wasn’t here anymore.
“You should go to sleep kiddo,” he tells me, and I want to argue but he adds, “It’s been hours, the birds won’t show up, and there is going to be a new team coming in forty-five minutes. We’re going to be okay watching just the two of us.”
How did he know about the new team? I see him turn his wrist and his holo glints under the light of the moon.
Oh, thanks to his holo.
I’ve been without one for only two weeks, and I didn’t even seem to realize that I would need one again now that I’m back.
“You’re sure?” I ask. At the same time, I release a big yawn.
We’ve been here for five to six hours. The sun set more than three hours ago, and I’ve been struggling with watching efficiently.
Those damn bats all have better night vision than I, and maybe someone should have made me stop a while ago.
I see Anna looking over her shoulder at the other side of the rooftop—where Pierre has his back to us.
