Part 10 (1/2)
”It's not, it's . . . G.o.d, I don't know.”
Now he looked amused, and it annoyed her. ”Would it be easier to take if he were a woman?”
”Honestly, I have no idea. Although since I had no idea you were bi, it does kind of force my perceptions to realign a little, and I wasn't expecting that.”
”Oh, I wouldn't say bi, exactly. If you add up all the people I've slept with in three hundred fifty years, men account for less than two percent.”
”Except that you weren't with anyone else for a full decade, were you?”
”Well, no.”
”So you can see why this throws me just a bit?” Miranda's thoughts and emotions were falling over themselves, and she didn't like it. She wasn't going to be some jealous wife who couldn't stand being around her husband's ex when that ex was his best friend; it was a long time ago, and besides, he'd had plenty of women in his time, including a wife. Why was this any different?
”I understand that you're upset,” he told her, touching her face. ”I wish I'd realized you didn't know. We could have talked about it before they got here. I'm sorry to have dropped it on you like this.”
”It's fine,” she insisted. ”I mean, it's not fine, as in I'm a little freaked-out, but not because . . . I mean . . . it's just . . . weird. I learn something about you every day, and I love that, but considering how significant this one is, maybe you could have mentioned it at some point?”
David was thoughtful for a minute, but then he said, ”There are a lot of things you still don't know about my past, beloved. I have about three hundred twenty-five years' worth of history on you.”
”I know,” she said. ”I think about that a lot.”
He met her eyes. ”Then ask,” he told her gently. ”Whatever you want to know, just ask. I don't ever want you to think I'm keeping secrets. There are some things I don't like to talk about, true, but if you want to know, you deserve to. We're going to be with each other a long time, and that means we have to be honest. No hiding.”
”Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed his nose, smiling a little. ”I take it since you never talk about that part of your past, and you're not together anymore, it's not an entirely happy story.”
His eyes flicked away from hers just long enough for her to know she was right.
”It didn't end well,” he said. ”At least, not for me.”
”Wait . . . you mean he dumped you?”
David's smile was touched with regret, and it made her heart hurt, realizing how much pain was underneath the words as he said, ”Unceremoniously and resoundingly.”
”But . . . why?” Even before the question was out, though, she knew. ”Because of Jonathan. That's why you left California. It wasn't about getting your doctorate as much as it was about getting away from Deven.”
”Yes.”
”Were you in love?”
Again, the smile, but it faded quickly. ”Very much so. But everyone knows that a Prime is destined only to be with his Consort. Everyone in the Court thought that the Signet would choose me, but it didn't, and within six months, it chose someone else that Deven had known for all of ten minutes. The two of them fell for each other instantly, as if they'd been struck by lightning, and I . . . I ceased to exist.”
”That little b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
He made an indefinite move of his head: half a shake, half a nod. ”He was as confused by it as I was, I think. I pretended everything was all right between us and that I understood, but of course I was a wreck. Jonathan was the one who realized I was lying, but by the time Deven grasped how badly he'd hurt me, I had fled California, and I never went back.”
There was old, old grief in his voice, and she took his hands and kissed them, almost regretting bringing the subject up at all. ”I'm so sorry.”
”It took years to repair our friends.h.i.+p,” David went on, staring down at their joined hands, stroking her palm with his thumb. ”As soon as Jonathan had the vision that I would take the South, I began to understand why Deven and I had never Paired, and that helped. I had my own path to take and I couldn't do it with him. Not to mention,” he said, smiling again, this time without such sadness, ”I had you to look forward to.”
”But it still hurt,” Miranda said, moving closer to him. ”You still had your heart broken.”
He put his arms around her and said with a sigh, ”Yes. Worse than I think I ever had in my life . . . except for when I thought you were dead.”
She leaned back enough to look him in the eye. ”And I'm supposed to like this guy?”
David chuckled. ”I hope you do . . . although I imagine it will take the two of you a while to get there. Dev is hard to know at the best of times. I think you'll find Jonathan much easier to get along with. He's more open, friendlier. But please, Miranda . . . give Deven a chance to win you over. For my sake.”
”I'll try. But I'm going to have a hard time not kicking him in the b.a.l.l.s for hurting you.”
His smile broadened. ”If you want to kick him in the b.a.l.l.s, you have my blessing. G.o.d knows I wanted to for a long time.”
”Can I ask you one more thing?”
”Anything, beloved.”
”How the h.e.l.l does he put on all that eyeliner without a mirror?”
David laughed, but before he could reply, his com chimed. He sobered, sighed resignedly, and said into it, ”Star-one.”
”Sire, it's Faith. I have news about Jake.”
Prime and Queen looked at each other. Faith sounded unusually subdued. ”Go ahead,” he told the Second.
”He's gone, Sire. Someone took him-without his com.”
”How is that possible? They can't come off.”
”They can if the hand comes off, too.”
David closed his eyes. ”You found his hand.”
”Yes. It had been severed at the wrist and left in the middle of the sidewalk. There's a lot of blood. The team had a forensics kit so they were able to determine it was Jake's. But there's no other evidence we can see. We're trying to track them, but so far there's just nothing to go on. No footprints, no fingerprints, nothing on the sensors. No body. He could still be alive.”
”G.o.d,” Miranda whispered, resting her head on the cool gla.s.s of the car's window. ”Poor Jake. And poor Lali . . . they were friends.”
”Keep looking,” David said. ”I'll run a search and review activity in the area. Return to the Haven before dawn and give me a full report.”
”As you will it. Star-three, out.”
”He might be alive,” Miranda muttered, holding back tears of both sorrow and anger. ”Why would someone kill him and just leave his hand?”
”I don't know. If they wanted him for information, it stands to reason they'd remove the com so we couldn't find him . . . but even for a vampire that's a serious wound.”
”Would he bleed to death?”
”It depends.” David unconsciously rubbed his own wrist. ”It would be easy enough to reattach the hand; almost any vampire could do that in a few minutes, though it would take several hours to get all the feeling back. Without the hand . . . if it were me, I could stop the bleeding and force the wound to close, a.s.suming I was conscious, in about twenty seconds. But if he had other injuries, or had been knocked out, or was hung upside down so gravity was working against him . . .”
”That's enough,” Miranda said, covering her face with her hands. ”I get it.”
”We don't know for sure,” David told her. ”Let's not a.s.sume the worst until Faith reports back.”