When he remained silent, seeming to be waiting, she added, “That’s why I decided to leave Punta Cana. So I wouldn’t make trouble for Vasco and the others anymore.”
“And you moved to Montana,” G.G. put in.
Ildaria nodded. “Jess invited me to stay with her while I figured out what I wanted to do. She’s the one who suggested I get a degree at college or university.”
When she stopped talking again, G.G. said, “And you chose accounting at university, but then your friend was raped.”
“Yeah.” She breathed the word unhappily. “I didn’t have enough experience to wipe her memories, but I did what I could to blur them for her. Soften them so she wasn’t so terrified and traumatized.”
“And then you went vigilante,” G.G. suggested, bringing her gaze sharply to his. Smiling at her expression, he shrugged. “Like I said, the Night Club is gossip central. I did hear a little of why you are now in Canada and being watched like a hawk by Lucian and the boys.”
Ildaria grimaced, and took a sip of her drink, but then nodded. “Yeah. Well, when I read her mother’s mind, I saw that they’d learned that Alicia wasn’t the first victim of this rapist. They suspected the same man was responsible for at least three other attacks. There was a serial rapist on campus, but they weren’t advertising it because they didn’t want the female students to panic, and risk female enrollment dropping,” she said bitterly. Angry that the school would choose profit over concern for its female students. “So, I donned leathers and started going out at night looking for the bastard.”
“Leathers?” G.G. asked, distracting her from her anger.
She blinked at him and then shrugged. “Injuries mean a need for more blood, and while I was working full time as a waitress, making great tips, and my rent with Jess was ridiculously low, university is expensive. I couldn’t afford a lot of extra blood,” she explained. “Short of a Kevlar bodysuit or something, leather is the best thing you can wear to avoid or reduce injury. So I bought black leather pants, a black leather jacket and whatnot, put my hair in a ponytail or bun to prevent it being used against me and went out looking for him.”
“Did you get him?” G.G. asked when she fell silent.
Ildaria shook her head slowly. “No. But I got a lot of other assholes up to no good.” A small smile played around her lips as she recalled the people she’d helped and the criminals she’d dumped in the hands of local mortal law enforcement. But after a moment, she sighed, and added, “Unfortunately, there are a lot of fricking people out there with cell phones happy to film anything and everything everybody is doing. I got caught on film once or twice, which was bad enough. But then one of the people I rescued was an FBI agent . . . and didn’t that just make them hot to catch me?” She rolled her eyes, thinking that was gratitude for you, and then said irritably, “Which, of course, caught the attention of the North American Council.”
“Ah,” G.G. murmured, picking up his own drink, but merely holding it as he said, “Which is how you ended up here in Toronto under Lucian’s eagle eye.”
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “In truth, I was lucky. He could have had me executed. I was drawing attention that could have led to the discovery of our kind, and that’s a no-no with every Council so . . .” She breathed out unhappily. “I just wish I’d caught the bastard who attacked Alicia before Lucian caught on and came to Montana to shut me down.”
G.G. was silent for a minute, his expression thoughtful, and then he asked, “And what happened here?”
Ildaria turned to him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Why did Lucian make you drop your night courses and switch to days?” he asked almost gently in that deep bass rumble of his. “Were you donning your leathers and—”
“No,” she assured him quickly. “Nothing like that. I do learn from my mistakes.”
He waited. Silent.
Ildaria could have refused to explain. It wasn’t really any of his business. But she found she wanted to. She didn’t want him to think she’d run off half-cocked and repeated her error. “I didn’t go looking for trouble this time. But a lot of bad stuff happens at night on campus, and I can’t just ignore someone’s screams for help. So . . .” She grimaced and admitted,