more people.
“She looks green.”
In response, my stomach rolled again and I stopped in place, unwilling to move, just in case I really did lose it again. “Please. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Being reminded makes it harder.”
Breathing shallowly through my nose, I felt shame flood through my body. What sort of Ailward was I be if I couldn’t even keep my stomach from rebelling? If they killed Jason while I was hacking a lung out in the corner, I was going to be exceedingly put out.
The walk seemed inordinately long, even though in all actuality it only took about a minute to make it down to that final room, the room with the gilded double doors, the shining handles that glittered like gold in the moonlight.
The closer we got, the more distinct became the small, uneven grooves set in the handles and I realized that it didn’t just look like gold, it really was gold.
A smile jerked up the corner of my lips. “Gilt simply isn’t good enough for you vampires, is it? You must have the best in everything, don’t you?”
Vincent looked at me and in his eyes, I saw a smile reflected back in those green eyes. “It comes with age. The older we get, the more we appreciate what is good. And the more we want it. There are some who say there can only be the best for the best.”
“And you?” I asked. “What do you say?”
His fangs glinted. A purposeful move. He had wanted me to know he was not human. “If we can have it, then why not?”
“Sounds like something your...” My voice trailed away. What was the word I should have used? “...people would say.”
Vincent laughed, a slow sound that made my skin tingle. Or was it crawl? All I knew was the longer I spent around these creatures, the less I saw them as the enemy. And that was dangerous. Noir had to be gone posthaste or else I feared my edge would be dull forever.
And once that happened, I was useless.
To be useless was worse than death.
I shook my head and tried to take a deeper breath. It was easier this time, and I took another breath.
A faint lightheadedness remained, but for the most part, the initial rush of nausea had faded away, as though it had never existed in the first place. “It’s gone.”
Ryder turned me toward him. “Are you sure?”
Eyes searching my face, he seemed...worried.
“Yes. I think I will be of use now.” There was something about the way his gaze flitted over to Vincent I did not, could not trust. “Is...something wrong?”
His smile seemed disingenuous, to say the least. “No. I mean. Why would you ask that?”
Jason cocked his head to one side. “Perhaps if you were a better actor, she wouldn’t have caught on.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, confusion warring with frustration. Why was it impossible to get a straight answer out of anyone? “Jason? What’s going on?”
But even he just shook his head. “I wish I knew. But I don’t. Vincent? Perhaps you would like to enlighten us?”
“Enlighten you?” he asked and then laughed softly. I wondered if they could hear us through the doors. “Enlighten you in what sort of way? Quite frankly, they are fascinated. And frightened. Not a particularly good combination in any sort of situation, I’m afraid to say. To be faced with such a anomaly that is protected by a member of an order with the sole purpose of exterminating our kind...can you understand why my people are...wary?”
A voice seeped through the cracks underneath the door and another hot wind pushed across my face, stinking of blood and something else, something that seemed not of this human world.
“We have been waiting for some time, Vincent. Do you seek to keep us waiting even longer?”
With a noncommittal shrug, he pulled the door open, letting in the faint candlelight that bespoke of presence of older vampires, the old ones who had, apparently, never warmed up to the idea of saving wax and relying on electricity like the rest of the world. “Do forgive us. We only thought to impress the importance of this meeting to our...guests.”
Someone snorted. “Guests? That’s only because they’re harder to kill than cockroaches.”
Jason smiled at me. “Cockroaches, they say. How do you like being called a pest?”
I matched him smile for smile. “That my prey would consider myself a nuisance merely means I am doing my job.”
Vincent gave me an odd glance. “Don’t misunderstand, hunter.