“It’s one of my best traits,” he smiled. “Come sit with me.”
Poe hesitated at first but decided that it was safe enough to sit on a crate in the alleyway with the well-groomed vampire. One scream and the people inside would come running. She clutched the gun in her pocket to let him know she was no pushover. Over twenty bicycles, which weren’t there when she went for a walk, leaned against the alley wall.
“Are you with Sainvire?”
“Yes. I am,” he answered clearly but dripping with sarcasm.
“Um, what was that?” Poe asked, cocking her head with interest. The vampire sounded so caustic and 272
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rancorous that her eyebrow ascended a few notches on its own volition. “Care to elaborate?”
“We despise each other,” he explained flatly, shrugging his shoulders, “but we implicitly trust each other.”
Poe slapped her forehead as if conveying that either Jacopo was an idiot or she didn’t understand English. “Um, my years underground must’ve zapped my brain’s ability to decipher cryptic nonsense.
Explain yourself.”
“I apologize for the confusion, Julia. My last remark didn’t make any sense.” He laid a thick hand on his thigh. “I detest Sainvire because the woman I love has given her heart to him, and he refused it.”
“Oh, now I see,” Poe remarked, her eyebrows arched like a pair of wings. “What a prick! He should’ve accepted the gal’s offer and remained your best friend, eh?”
“Something like that,” Jacopo smiled. “And there’s also the rub that I nauseate him. Sainvire abhors my very presence.”
“Why does he hate you?”
“Because, because I broached the idea of milking the cattle to the Council.”
“But I thought he came up with the idea.” Poe sat up straighter, forgetting about keeping the gun still.
“It was his idea. He told me about it in passing, but more as a joke,” he sighed. “But I told the Council about it without Sainvire’s consent. The Council had already voted to pass it as law when Sainvire learned of it. He never forgave himself for telling me. Our friendship has never been the same since.”
Jacopo sat in silence mulling the past.
“I’m no longer involved in vampire business, Jacopo,” Poe flatly declared. “I’m on my own now, 273
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and that’s how I want it to be. So there’s no need to spill your guts any further.”
Jacopo added a twig to the fire. “That’s the reason I’m here. To tell you to lay low for a while. Something big is going to happen within the next couple of days.”
Poe’s ears reddened in anticipation despite her pretense of disinterest. “What’s going to happen?”
“You’ve not been told of it, and I’m not about to betray another secret,” Rodrigo Jacopo said with finality. “I merely warn you so you may not do anything foolish and inadvertently cause harm to my friends.”
“Oh please,” Poe said, insulted. “I already know. I have ears.”
“What do you know?”
Poe shrugged. “You’re planning to raid the three biggest blood farms in downtown on the same day.”
She’d heard snippets of conversation at the restaurant when people thought she was asleep.
“Apparently I’m not the only talebearer busybody around here.”
“Guess not. The restaurant is crawling with them.
Can’t get it in their heads that a person with their eyes closed can still hear,” Poe sighed. “I still don’t know how you all plan on freeing and stashing over three hundred cattle in one day.”
“Planning’s been in the works for over a year now. It’s been hastened by the library fiasco. And that had a lot to do with you.” Jacopo’s jewel eye glinted.
He could almost see the girl flush in the dark. “We’ll take Union Station and use the trains to transport the cattle.”
“You mean the produce and meat trains used by the holy rollers and farmers?”
Jacopo nodded. Even he was impressed by the boldness of the plan.
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“But the train routes only go to food farms. Lots of fanged farmers will be around.” She swallowed hard. “That’ll endanger your people unnecessarily, won’t it?”
“Sainvire and I have been supervising the clearing of alternative rail lines of cars and other debris for the past few months. The tracks should be completely repaired and clear by tomorrow. And if they’re not, on board the trains we’ll have vampires and halfdeads that can toss a car or two out of the way while laying down new rails.”
Poe was too overwhelmed just contemplating the gutsy plan. She remembered Kawana’s awesome strength. “And you have real farms where cattle can go and recuperate?”