Chapter 21
Inside my car I turned the air conditioning on full blast. Sweat chilled on my skin, jelling in place. I turned the air down before I got a headache from the temperature change.
Phillip sat as far away from me as he could get. His body was half-turned, as much as the seat belt would allow, towards the window. His eyes behind their sunglasses stared out and away. Phillip didn't want to talk about what had just happened. How did I know that? Anita the mind reader. No, just Anita the not so stupid.
His whole body was hunched in upon itself. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said he was in pain. Come to think of it, maybe he was.
I had just bullied a very fragile human being. It hadn't felt very good, but it beat the heck out of knocking her senseless. I had not hurt her physically. Why didn't I believe that? Now, I was going to question Phillip because he had given me a clue. The proverbial lead. I couldn't let it go.
"Phillip?" I asked.
His shoulders tightened, but he continued to stare out the window.
"Phillip, I need to know about the freak parties."
"Drop me at the club."
"Guilty Pleasures?" I asked. Brilliant repartee, that's me.
He nodded, still turned away.
"Don't you need to pick up your car?"
"I don't drive," he said. "Monica dropped me off at your office."
"Did she now?" I felt the anger, instantaneous and warm.
He turned then, stared at me, face blank, eyes hidden. "Why are you so angry at her? She just got you to the club, that's all."
I shrugged.
"Why?" His voice was tired, human, normal.
I wouldn't have answered the teasing flirt, but this person was real. Real people deserve answers. "She's human, and she betrayed other humans to nonhumans," I said.
"And that's a worse crime than Jean-Claude choosing you to be our champion?"
"Jean-Claude is a vampire. You expect treachery from vampires."
"You do. I do not."
"Rebecca Miles looks like a person who's been betrayed."
He flinched.
Great Anita, just great, let's emotionally abuse everyone we meet today. But it was true.
He had turned back to the window, and I had to fill the pained silence. "Vampires are not human. Their loyalty, first and foremost, must be to their own kind. I understand that. Monica betrayed her own kind. She also betrayed a friend. That is unforgivable."
He twisted to look at me. I wished I could see his eyes. "So if someone was your friend, you would do anything for them?"
I thought about that as we drove down 70 East. Anything? That was a tall order. Almost anything? Yes. "Almost anything," I said.
"So loyalty and friendship are very important to you?"
"Yes."
"Because you believe Monica betrayed both of those things, it makes it a worse crime than anything the vampires did?"