Kira considered, then waved her hand in dismissal. “We will think on it.”
“You mean you’ll wait to see which side will come out on top and join at the last minute like a coward?”
Violet bared her canines, which had already elongated. I ignored her. She was half my age, and she should’ve known her attempts at intimidation were wasted.
Kira’s smile was self-satisfied. “I mean we will think on it. And if you do find yourself tipping the scales in your favor, we’ll be happy to press our thumb down in your aid. But I would suggest you avoid losing ground, Lucian. Our history isn’t a spotless one, and the Whites have a long memory.”
I watched the two women go, feeling like that had gone about as well as I’d expected.
But the conversation was a reminder of the kind of danger I’d already put Cara in. She was a target for Bennigan. A chink in my armor.
I didn’t know why he hadn’t tried to exploit it yet, but I thought it was only a matter of time.
And if what Kira said was true, the order had already been on shaky ground before I’d been gone. If the vampires who opposed it had gained momentum, it meant we were all in far more danger than I’d even known.
17
Cara
I covered a yawn while I sat with Lucian in his dilapidated manor house. The fire was going beside the couch I sat on, which I suspected was for my benefit. By every indication I could gather, Lucian didn’t feel the heat or the cold.
I had to admit I found him to be incredibly considerate and sweet when he wasn’t focused on being a sarcastic, surly grump of an immortal.
Lucian sat across from me with one ankle resting on his knee. He was sitting perfectly straight with a focused look in his eyes, watching the fire. I’d helped him shop for more “casual” wear, but the most casual I’d convinced him to dress was what he had on now—a blood-red button down and dark gray slacks that hugged every line of his long legs.
It was dark outside, which meant Lucian was recovering from the long day of being dragged around in the daylight with me. It seemed to take him a couple hours after dark to get back to normal. Those were also the periods of time where he was most likely to do and say sweet things. My guess was that he made a conscious effort to keep me at arm’s length when he was at full strength, but when he felt sun-fried, he lacked the willpower to pretend to be as much of an ass.
“Did they say when they would be here?” I asked. Seraphina and Alaric were supposed to be arriving any moment for a ‘technology briefing’ I’d arranged. The three vampires were absolutely hopeless, and I’d begun to worry about their complete lack of understanding when it came to all things modern.
Lucian shook his head. “They’ll be here.”
Alaric kept buying new cars and crashing them because he insisted he knew how to drive horse drawn carriages and shouldn’t need to “suffer the indignity of some pimply teenager judging his worthiness to receive a driver’s license.” Seraphina apparently was quickly gaining a reputation with the police for her tendency to steal anything she wanted. She hadn’t quite grasped the concept of security cameras or the idea that she couldn’t use her powers of suggestion to convince them to pretend they hadn’t seen a thing.
Then there was Lucian. I’d caught him composing a dorky hand-written letter with a fountain pen to some vampire in New York who was a higher up in his “order” the other night. He had a stack of supplies and was planning to “work through the night if need be.” He looked completely baffled when I explained the concept of cell phones to him.
So I’d set up a sort of intervention. The plan was to familiarize my ancient, temporary friends with the world they’d woken up to. I’d considered including Lucian’s wild, strange roommate, Vlad, in the intervention, but he had been awake this whole time. There was no reason the man should’ve needed my help navigating technology.
Both vampires were late, but I eventually had all three of them sitting in the living room. With the help of Lucian’s bank account, I’d dragged him sunglasses, hoodie, gloves and all to a phone store and set up three phones for them. I handed one to each vampire and watched them turn the devices over with curiosity.
“I’ve seen the humans staring at these,” Seraphina said. “Vampires as well.”
Alaric nodded. “Yep. I was too embarrassed to ask anyone what they were, but the one time I got a look at someone’s screen there was a moving picture of two turtles. It looked like they were having intercourse. The turtle in the back appeared to be enjoying it quite a bit.”