Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) - By Fionn Jameson Page 0,37

I stopped, head down, not entirely trusting myself to turn around. I couldn’t trust myself to keep a straight face.“Yes, Emissary.”

There was a dull thud on the metal railing, almost as if she leaned her hip against it. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you’ve badgered Ryder into taking you down?”

He drew in a short burst of breath. “Eve, that’s not —”

I touched his arm dangling over my left shoulder, stopping him from making a complete liar out of himself. “I’m looking for…something.”

“That seems suitable vague,” she said with a short laugh. “I hope you find what you’re looking for, Ailward.”

I wished she’d stop calling me that. As if I needed a constant reminder of something I dreaded. “I hope so, too.”

Ryder’s arm forced me down the rest of the stairs and all the way down, I felt her thoughtful gaze on my back like a searing hot brand that wouldn’t dissipate.

The staircase went down several more levels lit by harsh lights that seemed to flicker at odd intervals, but Ryder led me down the first hallway, with the thick crimson carpet and soft green wallpaper. Were it not for the lack of windows and the terrible lighting, I thought it might have looked the same as the inside of an upscale apartment building.

The spacing between the doors made me think perhaps the rooms that laid beyond were quite palatial…insofar as underground suites could be. “Do you live here?”

“As does most every nonhuman who works for Vincent,” he said and coughed nervously at my expression. “Look, it’s just convenient. I mean, you could go live elsewhere if you wanted to, but then there’s rent to pay, security to worry about, the fact you’re going to have to feed yourself if you want to be fed at all…here, at least we’re with people we know and around familiar surroundings. I mean, Vincent’s not bad, as far as Lords go. He doesn’t ask us to pay him a tithe, unless that’s what taxes are for. He’s really not that bad. Trust me. I know.”

Interesting. A useful fact I could carry back to the Elders. Assuming I was still alive when the time came to make my report. “You are very open about this. I don’t think this is a known fact, is it?”

He shrugged. “You’re an Ailward. You’d find out sooner or later.”

Surely someone couldn’t be this harebrained. “Sooner or later? Are you this willing to talk about your brethren stronghold in such a lackadaisical manner?”

His eyes widened in incredulity. “Are you kidding me? You honestly think I’m worried about this place getting targeted by some group like the Fellows or whatever the fuck they’re called? Lady, this place is safer than a fucking Cold-War bunker.”

“Hypothetically speaking,” because I didn’t need him to start suspecting me, “I could come down with a flamethrower and burn the place down.”

The vampire laughed so hard he almost fell over. The reason most of the doors were locked and no one kicked open their door to yell at him I attributed to the general middle of the night. Most, if not all of them, would be upstairs or out doing whatever it was they did. I liked that. Made finding Jason easier. In a way. “A flamethrower? Here? You’re really something you know that? Just because we’re down here doesn’t mean a damn thing except we’re here. You think we sleep when the sun rises? You really think you’re going to make it past the front door of the club? Don’t think so. Two things. One, we’ve got just as much of a right to live as you do. You try to burn this place down, even if you don’t actually go through with it, you’ll be in jail for a very long time. Vincent’s got more power in his little finger than your so-called Supreme Court. And I mean that both literally and figuratively.”

A valid point. Still, it didn’t stop me from contemplating. “I believe it.”

His lips twisted in a parody of a smile. “Besides, good luck trying to burn stone. He dug a damn pit in the ground and lined it up with concrete and brick. Minimal steel. He knew what he was doing. ”

“So he had considered the possibility of fire, then.” Not really a question, but he answered it as though it was.

“Let’s just say that what he doesn’t already know, he makes it his business to learn. Fast.”

I was running out of doors to check, but gamely continued on.