Promises to Keep - By Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Page 0,34
“If I see her, I will—”
“You have her,” she said. “I know you do. You came to the party to tell me you had her, but Exequías distracted you. Give her back.”
She considered the things she needed to deal with now that her head slave was missing, such as buying and distributing food for the other help, or procuring medical supplies. With the shapeshifter absent, such activities were simply not getting done.
It was a temporary measure—Jay would make it a temporary measure with a knife if he had to—but he said, “Perhaps I can assist you until she is returned.” He didn’t want to make this a SingleEarth problem. If the powers that be in Midnight decided he had stolen the slave, he could be claimed as payment. He would not ask SingleEarth to harbor him. “I just need to tell someone where I am headed, so they don’t think you’ve stolen me away,” he said.
Brina nodded.
Jay stepped into the front office, with Brina just behind him.
“There has been some confusion as to the location of some of Lady Brina’s property,” he explained to the nervous-looking secretary, who had overheard the entire conversation. “I’m going to go with her for now to help with her household until this is sorted out. Would you make sure Caryn is notified?”
Caryn and the rest of their kin would be able to retrieve him if necessary, or otherwise smooth the way for him to escape. As a last resort, he had his knife.
In the meantime, he was hardier than a human; oil paints wouldn’t harm him, and he could make sure Brina didn’t accidentally starve her staff.
“You may drive,” Brina said. “I did not bring a vehicle. I will give you directions.”
So kind of her.
He drove; she directed. He noticed they were going into Pyridge just in time to feel them cross the border of the circle into Midnight’s land.
Why did he feel it this time? What had changed?
They stopped in front of a Victorian-style home with large bay windows. He parked in the driveway, and Brina “allowed” him to open her door and escort her onto the porch.
The house was pretty, he decided. It would have been odd for a vampire to have so many windows, but sun wasn’t actively dangerous to vampires—only fatiguing—and Brina was an artist. She needed the light.
Brina opened the front door without a key, and a lanky feline launched itself at her.
She caught the spotted beast in her arms and pulled it to her chest with no concern for the white and gold fur that stuck to the silk bodice of her dress. The cat looked up at Jay with pale blue eyes and then looked away, apparently unconcerned.
He reached for it mentally, and received a sense of New toy? Not in the mood to play now. Dinner? It’s time for dinner. Dinner!
The cat nipped at Brina’s cheek, demanding food. It wasn’t starving, but whatever routine its meals had been set to had been disrupted, and it was annoyed that Brina seemed to want to snuggle instead of feeding it right now!
“I think your cat is hungry,” Jay said.
Food! it demanded with a plaintive yowl.
I’m working on it! he replied. The cat’s ears twitched and its tail lashed, as if to say, I did not give you permission to speak to me.
“Oh,” Brina said, dropping the cat. “Well, you can feed it. The kitchen is somewhere around here. I need … to get back to my work.”
She disappeared, leaving Jay alone in the front hall with a cross cat staring at him with ice-blue eyes.
CHAPTER 15
JAY TESTED THE front door. It had no apparent lock but didn’t budge at a casual push.
Well, then. He would deal with that later, after SingleEarth had some time to work out this snarl, and Jay had made an attempt to reason with Brina. For now, he had more important things to do.
The cat’s body was dense and its ears rounded, as if it had some wildcat in it. Hopefully that would be useful; his connection with Lynx made it easier for him to communicate with other felines.
Where’s the food? Jay asked it.
It darted from the room. Follow!
Funny—the cat and Brina seemed to have a lot in common.
Jay scraped a can of food into a hand-painted porcelain cat bowl, then watched while the irate feline ate. Once it had finished its meal, he wrestled with it for a few minutes, gradually getting himself more attuned to its mind and letting it investigate his.