connection,” Aidan said quickly, ever the cautious diplomat. “It could be nothing but a coincidence. The Serbian community is very small in San Francisco. His visit could have been about something totally unrelated.”
“Are we going to check it out?”
William and Aidan exchanged glances that told me all I needed to know. This was off limits to me.
“Olivia, I will look into this,” Aidan said sternly. “The Council is a fragile organization, made up of many competing interests. Certain protocols must be maintained. It would not be appropriate for you to ask Nikola about this.”
Elsa peered out through the blinds, checking, I guessed, to see who was working in the main bay. “We can’t discuss this outside of our group,” she said.
“What about Gabriel?” I asked, unsure if she included him in this discussion.
“Yes, of course,” Aidan said, “But always in private, never in open rooms, hallways or elevators. Understood?”
His question was posed to all of us, but I got the feeling his directive was mostly aimed at me. “Understood,” I said, nodding my head.
The meeting ended on a somewhat subdued tone, with Aidan clearly distressed about this new wrinkle. I knew from our previous conversations that he was no fan of the Eastern bloc delegation. Now he would have to seek them out to discuss something uncomfortable, possibly illegal.
William and I remained silent as we stepped into the elevator to leave. As the doors opened on the main floor, we ran straight into Nikola. I couldn’t have imagined worse luck, considering Aidan’s last words to us.
“Olivia,” Nikola said. “How are you? We heard that you were injured recently.”
William squeezed my hand, a subtle warning not to pick a fight. I nodded, smiling warmly. “Yes, but I am feeling better. How did you find out?”
“Gabriel, of course,” he said. “It’s standard for the Council to issue a report when a staff member is injured under unusual circumstances. In our line of work, that kind of information can be important.”
“Well, I’m fine now,” I said. “I’m not sure what happened. One minute I was walking down the street, the next I was knocked down by a piercing pain in my head.”
“What a shame,” he said, although I knew he was not even remotely sorry. “Do you know anything about the robbers?”
“I heard they might be Serbian,” I said.
Nikola smiled, his perfect vampire teeth gleaming back at me. “Yes, of course I have seen the news reports, but who knows what the truth is? Western media love to blame everything on Serbs. We are the perfect villains for the twenty-first century.”
“You would know better than I about these sorts of things,” I said innocently. “I’ve been so busy with my campaign work that I haven’t given the robbery a thought.”
Nikola doubted me; I could feel it. But I knew I had gone as far as I could with this conversation, so I changed the subject. “Nikola, I apologize for my poor manners. Let me introduce my close friend, William.”
They eyed one another coolly, vampire to vampire. I suspected this was not the first time they had met.
“You are full of surprises, Olivia,” Nikola purred. “You become the first human to work for the Council, and then you take a vampire for a lover. You certainly like to live dangerously.”
“Indeed, Nikola, I’ve surprised myself sometimes with my choices,” I said. “I hardly know what I will do next.” At that William dug his finger into my palm.
Nikola tossed back his head and laughed, clearly amused at my insolence. “How exciting,” he said. “I must remember to keep a closer eye on you in the future.”
With that, Nikola nodded curtly at the two of us, and walked into an open elevator. After the elevator doors had closed and we were alone, William regarded me with a look that was one part amusement, two parts fury.
“You can’t do that, darlin. You’re not prepared physically or mentally to pick a fight with a thousand-year-old vampire.” he said. “He is more cunning and far more ruthless than you.”
“Maybe I will surprise you,” I said, feeling prickly, but William stopped me from speaking further.
“If you want to pick a fight, then you need to be prepared to see it through. Now let’s get out of here before we get ourselves into trouble.”
We walked through the park toward my house in silence. I was feeling sullen, like a small child told to mind her manners. I wasn’t allowed to ask questions, I mustn’t speak in the hallways, and I couldn’t