Part 17 (1/2)

”Of course.” The sound of dripping in the background of wherever she was continued. ”I can only a.s.sume the attacks on you are because of your a.s.sociation with me. But it's unlike weres to work with vampires. Most of them hate us fiercely.”

”Maybe some vampires are using the weres to cover their tracks?”

”Possibly. It does appear that some other Rose Throne Houses fear me.”

”I can't imagine why,” I said, as flatly as possible. Anna laughed. I'd only seen her slaughter a dozen members of her former Throne. She'd had every right to do it at the time, but some Rose Throne vampires were there, and all of them had long memories. ”Hey,” I went on, ”have you heard of a were called Viktor? Now that Deepest Snow's leaders.h.i.+p is changing, he's angry. Another were I know thought my attackers might have been sent by him.”

”No. I'll look into it, though,” she said. ”Do you have a were you can trust?”

”Depends. Why?”

”I need you to talk to the highest-ranking were you can find. Ask them for sanctuary.”

”Sanctuary?”

”Sanctuary, on my behalf. Use my name. Do it in a public place, where there's more than one of them. Sound as official as possible. They will not be able to refuse you.”

”Why?”

”It's an ancient pact from our persecuted days. If I make them responsible for your care, they have to protect you.”

”From ... themselves? Does it really work like that?”

”It's supposed to. You know how long it's been since there's been a nochnaya?” she asked me, using her original people's phrase for what she was, a living vampire. ”The time in which anyone's asked for sanctuary's slightly longer than that.”

”Longer ... or are you all only counting the times it was successful?”

She snorted on the far end of the line. ”Just do it, Edie. I'm not there, Dren can't watch you during the day, and Sike won't survive a fight with a were this close to the full moon. It's supposed to be too humiliating for a vampire to have to ask for were-help for anyone to do it. One way in which my humanity helps me-I'm too emotionally wrapped up in your survival to care about my pride.”

”I can't decide if that's comforting or not.”

”I can't tell you if it should be.” Behind her, I heard the sucking sound of an emptying drain.

”Where the h.e.l.l are you?” I asked her.

”In a charnel house. I've spent the last three nights hung suspended in blood. The first test is always hunger.” She inhaled and exhaled deeply. ”I have to sleep now, Edie. The dawn comes, and tomorrow promises to be just as long as today.”

And what did someone say to a teenage vampire whose fate was intertwined with her own? I shrugged at Asher's hallway wall. ”Good luck, Anna.”

”I hope not to need it.”

The line went dead.

I pushed myself to standing again, stretched out my back's kinks, and descended to the first floor. When I didn't find Asher, I decided to give myself a tour.

It was weird to be at his home without him in it. First, because I expected him to spring out and catch me snooping, and second, because without him, it seemed as sterile as the bathroom had the night before. With the exception of the library below, his bedroom was plain: a huge closet full of clothing-mostly nice, but there were some strange costumey pieces, a few additional tragic holiday-themed sweaters-but no photos on the walls. His bathroom was dull too, all white tile, wood, and chrome. I even looked in his medicine cabinet, but it only had extra tubes of toothpaste, not unlabeled bottles of Ativan. As I went from room to room, it looked like an open-house home, ready for show. You could put yourself into this house pretty easily. Just like last night I'd tried to put myself into Asher, via mouth-to-mouth.

There was one locked door, but I was a little ashamed about looking through all his other things, so it didn't bother me, much.

I grabbed what I hoped was an extra s.h.i.+rt of his and rousted Gina, helping her to strip and turn on the shower. She needed it. I found a tray of bagels in his kitchen, a half-full tub of cream cheese, and a note saying Help yourself in clean block handwriting. A fresh pot of coffee, still warm, was the only thing to prove Asher'd been there.

I was on my second bagel when Gina made it down the stairs. ”G.o.d, I'm so embarra.s.sed.” On her, one of Asher's s.h.i.+rts hung almost to her knees.

”Don't be. Everyone's been there.”

”I know. It's just that I'm not supposed to be that person. I didn't go to vet school for this.”

I proffered the bagels, and she shook her head, looking a little green. ”I'm just glad you called me.”

”I didn't mean to interrupt your date,” she said, and I stared blankly at her. ”That guy who was here. This is his house, right?”

I snorted. ”The only person I slept with last night was you. I have the tile prints on my a.s.s to prove it.”

She made her way around the kitchen and poured herself a gla.s.s of water. ”If you're not dating him, can I have his phone number?”

”He's not really rebound material.” Though I would bet that Asher wouldn't be above helping someone out with revenge s.e.x. ”He's a shapes.h.i.+fter.”

Gina made a face. ”Oh.”

”Yeah.” The clock on the microwave said it was ten A.M. I needed to get back home. Gideon was less independent than a houseplant, and the only reason I remembered to feed Minnie was because she'd tell me to. ”Gina-”

”It's just that they're going to ask. That's what sucks.” She set her gla.s.s into the sink. ”I introduced him to my parents, Edie. I thought he was the one.”

I didn't know what to say. I didn't think I'd ever felt like that. I'd stood on the edge of The Oneness before, and maybe peeked into the valley below, but I'd never made the final jump. I'd learned that if you thought of people as disposable, it hurt less when they disposed of you.

But that didn't stop me from putting an awkward arm around Gina as she slumped over Asher's kitchen sink and cried.

We gathered ourselves into my car not long after she stopped crying. As I drove she narrated a tangled web of semi-plausibility. She'd told her parents she was working last night, and now she'd pretend she had car problems and had to wait for the mechanics and a tow.

”Why's it so complicated?”

”I'm the baby of the family. I live with my parents. I just tell them I'm working when I go out on spend-the-night dates.”

”I'm the baby of my family too. When I turned eighteen, my mother flung open the doors and kicked me out of the nest.”

Gina sighed. ”It's different for me. I was working and going to vet school when my mother got early-onset Alzheimer's. One of my brothers died in the war. The other moved away. My sister has four kids-taking care of Mom and Dad just fell to me. One day I was living at home to save money, the next I was stuck there because my dad couldn't convince my mom to take a shower otherwise.”

”G.o.d. That's tough, Gina.”

”Tell me about it.” She shook her head. ”That's what I traded. The Shadows keep her from getting any worse, and they get me, on Y4.” I winced, but she was looking out the window. She went on. ”I've never actually gotten to be a real vet. What I would give someday to just take care of a yippy dog. Even just a hamster. Turn here.” She pointed in front of me. ”If I'd stayed bitten, I wouldn't have been able to keep my job. Y4 fires you if you fraternize too much-the Consortium won't allow it. It might make you too biased, I guess.”

”Nah-probably because then everyone would do it, and there'd be no one left to work on the full moon,” I teased.

She gave me a halfhearted smile. ”Really, if I lost my job, where would my mom and dad be? Part of me is afraid the Shadows will keep her alive forever, just to keep me trapped.”