Page 14 of Shift in the Blood
Growing up, I’d read the novels. All about a vampire who came along and saved the day in all the ways. I’d wanted my very own Edward. Who didn’t? I mean, outside all the strange perverse people who for some unknown very super wrong reason preferred Jacob and the wolves. Even now, I didn’t get it. It was always Edward, even with his flaws
Wishing for an Edward and getting one of your own, however, were two vastly different things. I was excited, and nervous, and excited, and scared—that whole idea that people would really be in shock if they got what they thought they wanted seemed appropriate here.
Leaning back against the headboard, I considered my options. There was no way I could just pop on back to working with Maxim. With him, when you were out, you were out. While there wasn’t any proof he’d sent the guy who cut me, I knew in my gut it was him.
Why? Because the man had been going for my eyes. Who else would care whether I could see or not? Very few people knew me, or even saw me all that much. I’d become a recluse. I preferred it that way.
It felt safer.
But Maxim—he knew what my eyes were to me. It was that, more than anything else, that told me he’d discovered I was meeting with Didier, and had sent someone after me. That meant that I had to remove him as a possible future source of income.
My accounts were still frozen. If I hadn’t been paranoid all these years, we would have been in a bad way. But I was paranoid, and I’d hidden stashes of money where I could find them. Just in case. Those stashes wouldn’t last forever. So while they were holding us over now… it was a finite solution.
If I left, there was no guarantee that Maxim would ease up. I was glad to have the ties between us cut… but it made my life very difficult from this point on.
All of this meant I’d be on the run. Which meant that Carina would be on the run.
It looked like my choices weren’t really choices. Not really. I had one choice.
And that was the choice I was going to take.
I closed my eyes, feeling tired and older than my twenty-six years.
The whole not-really-any-good-choices thing sucked.
Chapter Six
Didier
Icould feel her indecision after I left the room. I could also feel her desire. She desired me. She was curious about the vampire me.
Her heart beat faster even after she could no longer see me.
And there was anger… bordering on rage. Not at me, at least not directly. She was angry. Given how her former employer behaved toward her, I understood.
Now what I hoped to make her understand was that she had choices, she could take control of her life once more.
She could exact revenge.
Not that I sensed Clara Manning was the type who sought vengeance. But it was human and vampire to want those who harmed us to pay.
“Neville.” I walked into the kitchen, where my man-of-all-trades, my daytime person, Neville Stanford, stood in front of a stove. He loved to cook, but it was a wasted skill on me. Having someone here that did eat allowed him to cook for more than just himself.
There were large windows along the far wall, but they were all blacked out with tinted film. It was comfortable for me to be here, even during daylight hours.
“Yes?” Neville didn’t even turn around.
“Why didn’t we know that Clara Manning worked for Maxim Popov?
At that, he did turn around, his spatula hanging in mid-air. “What?”
“She worked for him. I believe it was him who arranged the attack last night. She’s worked for him for years.”
“He kept that very well hidden.”
“Yes, he did. I need to send him a message.” I sat down in one of the barstools along the island.
“How big of a message?” Neville returned to his food. It looked like an omelet.
