not allowing you a good night’s rest with my prattling. I have to keep watch, after all.” He tugged on the bottom of his vest, and as he did, his form shifted back to that of Bella.
“Do you honestly believe you can trick them? Even if I do not give you up, they know her. They have traveled with her for years. How do you think you might hide from them?”
“Simple. I am a woman.” The false Bella smiled. “No one notices a woman’s moods, and if they do, they explain it away to her nature. She is an accessory to them, nothing more. Even Bella.”
“Even if what you say is true for Alfonzo, Eddie loves her. He will see the change.”
“No, I do not think he will.” Zadok-Bella walked over to where Eddie slept and nudged him with her foot. The sleeping hunter did not wake, caught up in the vampire’s illusion. “Eddie does not love her. He merely thinks he does. He loves the idea of her—the beauty and purity that traveled at his side for so long.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps you are right, and he will see straight through my charade.” Bella smiled a sickly-sweet expression. “But if I am wrong and he does not notice? What then? Are you willing to wager a bet on it?”
She shook her head silently. No, she wasn’t. Because his words were true. Eddie’s love for Bella was not a lie. But it was shallow.
“Oh, but—let’s wager anyway. I do so love a game. Come now, what is a silly bet between friends?” Zadok executed a perfect imitation of the girl. Her voice, her tone…everything. Zadok was a good actor, and it was clear he had been observing her. “We are friends, aren’t we, Miss Parker?”
Perhaps Alfonzo and Eddie wouldn’t notice. “This is cruel, Zadok.”
“Ah-ah.” She ticked a finger back and forth. “I am Bella, remember? You will play along, or the real girl dies. Now. Let’s wager. I bet I can go…oh…two days. Two days and nights like this without them noticing anything is amiss. That is, if you do not interfere. What do you think?”
Two whole days? Without Zadok slipping up? It seemed impossible. She was going to curse herself for this later. “What is on the line?”
“If I am right, then I want you to touch me.” At her disgusted noise, he grinned. “Not like that. That’s not how I want to touch you—simply hand-to-hand. I want to feel what the Master feels. I want to know why he loves you. I want to know why everything is worth putting in danger for you. Why he lets someone who can destroy him walk this world. I want to know why I have been banned from ripping these stupid mortals limb from limb and being done with it. I want you to press your palm to mine, and I want to understand.”
“I could destroy you. I might do it accidentally. I might do it willingly.”
“I know. I don’t rightfully care. Now, what do you want in exchange? If I lose, what do you want?”
Maxine paused. She didn’t know. She shook her head dumbly.
“A favor to be named later, then. I wouldn’t worry overmuch about deciding your fee too soon. I doubt you’ll win.” The false Bella sat on the edge of the window and took up her watch of the street outside, farcical as it was. “Sleep well, my dove. I will see you in the morning. At least the sun will no longer rise to trouble me.”
Maxine did not know how she was expected to sleep in a room knowing an imposter had taken over Bella’s post. But she supposed he was truly no more or less a friend to her than Alfonzo or Eddie. Eventually, she lay down and shut her eyes and tried to let sleep come back to her. Slowly, exhaustion won over her reluctance and troubled thoughts.
It did not matter who was in the room while she slept, human or vampire. She was to spend the rest of her days a prisoner.
There were only two variables left to resolve. Who held her chain…and how long she would survive as their slave.
7
Vlad should not have been surprised.
When he walked into the room to speak to Mordecai, the eldest and the captain of the demons in his armies, he should not have been annoyed to find him as he was—lying sprawled out on his back on a chaise lounge, fully naked.