on Blue. I had a ton of Blue properties in my trouble folder. And I had to ring the hospital to check on Rhys without further delay. Which I dreaded in no small measure.
Kyros rubbed his eyes. “Basilia, it’s your weekend.”
“Kyros, don’t think I haven’t noticed you using my name. Stop it. I’ve told you only my grandmother calls me that.”
“No, you said that only one person calls you that,” he replied.
Fuck. I had. And I just mentioned my grandmother.
I riffled through the drawers under the television, pulling on a pair of trackpants under my towel. Turned away, I dropped the towel, my back bare. Rolling the waistband of the pants several times, I found a long-sleeved merino number and pulled it on, turning back to Kyros.
“It’s Sunday,” he repeated huskily. “Go do human things. See your friends and family.”
I jerked violently at his words, and he stilled.
“No,” I said casually as my heart took off—something he couldn’t fail to notice. “I don’t want to.”
I had no family that I could visit without everyone finding out I was Basilia Le Spyre. Tommy hated me, and I had no other friends. Dammit, maybe guilt wasn’t the only reason I felt like working. I could easily forget misery when busy.
Kyros swung his legs over. “You’re not working today.”
“I am,” I snarled. “Why the fuck should that bother you? I work for you.”
He studied me in the dark. “My life is my job, and I don’t wish for it to become yours. You’re upset about your friend and using work to avoid thinking about it.”
The mention of Tommy was a knife in my heart.
Dragging in a ragged breath, I snatched up the tatters of my dress for no other reason than to have something in my arms. “I’m not talking about this with you.”
He paused. “She still loves you.”
Which meant he’d heard everything. No surprise there.
I strode for the door but slowed when I reached it. “I just thought it would take more than a couple of weeks of lies to destroy our friendship is all.” I’d thought nothing could break us.
“The stronger the friendship, the quicker it dissolves. Weaker friendships are willing to put up with more. There is bittersweet solace in that.”
Dissolve was all I heard. Like sugar in boiling water. That was me and Tommy. How did I let it get to this point?
I willed the burning behind my eyes away—away for good. I was sick of feeling so close to tears. It was almost as bad as actually letting the damn things fall.
Kyros’s voice was soft. “Why don’t you cry, Miss Tetley? You’ve gone through more than most will in a lifetime in the last few weeks.”
The question was nearly my undoing.
I balled the gown in my hands tight, letting my nails dig into my palms through the material. “I’ll take Laurel with me. More if she thinks it necessary. That okay?”
The vampire didn’t move from his position perched on the side of the bed.
Seconds, each heavier than the last, stretched between us before he sighed. “Yes, that’s fine. Fyrlia won’t try anything. It’s their roll tonight.”
“Good,” I whispered, wrenching open the door.
“She’ll come back to you,” he called just before I pulled the door closed.
So what if she did give me another shot? I was tied to these creatures, to this tower, for the rest of my pitiful fucking life.
I leaned my forehead against the wall in the stairwell, knowing full well he could hear me. I hated that my grief wasn’t private.
Tommy wouldn’t come back.
I’d pushed my best friend away, and there was a great reason for it. That’s what I had to remember.
No matter how fucking hard it was.
I’d had no luck with anyone in Blue. I had thirty trouble houses in that suburb and the occupants of the six I’d visited were either out for the day, on vacation without their teens, or had gates and weren’t answering their com.
Fucking rich people.
“I called the hospital while you were yelling into the com,” Laurel said, casting a look at the male Vissimo from last night who I’d learned was named Fernando.
Hearing his name had only reminded me of Fernando’s Eighth Ab and made me heartsick for Tommy.
I caught the Indebted’s steady gaze in the rear-view mirror. “Is he still here?”
“Yes, but he isn’t doing so well. The nurse I spoke to said he took a turn for the worse during the night.”
Blood pounded in my ears. Oh god. I did that to him. I put him