Part 14 (2/2)
Could it really be over so soon? And when it was done, what then? Adia knew the truth about him. So did Jay. He wouldn't be able to stay around, but he didn't know what else to be, or how else to live.
Adia hung up without saying goodbye.
”Where are you headed?” Olivia asked as Zachary put his phone back into his pocket and stood.
He shook his head. She knew he never told her outright where his hunts took him.
”Judging by the time, the people involved, and the mention of intermission, I'm guessing you're headed to Broadway,” she said.
”Guess whatever you like,” he said. ”I have to go.”
”Zimmy, you know I have no power to interfere with Kendra in Manhattan, right?”
He hesitated in the doorway and then shrugged. ”I do now.”
He felt calmer when he sat behind the wheel of his car. Adia had said it would be over that night. Maybe then he could rest for a while.
CHAPTER 22
SAt.u.r.dAY, 6:29 P.M. P.M.
SARAH FELT ABOUT as stupid as she ever had in her life, sitting in front of the full-length mirror while Christine did her hair. Christine had insisted on helping, and short of shoving her down the stairs, Sarah couldn't figure out how to convince her otherwise. as stupid as she ever had in her life, sitting in front of the full-length mirror while Christine did her hair. Christine had insisted on helping, and short of shoving her down the stairs, Sarah couldn't figure out how to convince her otherwise.
The evening had taken a surreal turn somewhere. Maybe it had been when she had tasted a symphony, or when she had spoken to Michael, but she was pretty sure it had happened somewhere on Madison Avenue, on a rack between Chanel and Vera w.a.n.g.
Going shopping for formal wear in New York with a vampire who had once founded a mystery cult in the days of the Roman republic, and who tended to chatter about the fall of empires in the tone most people used when discussing the weather, was a unique experience. Kendra referred to Nikolas as ”Nikki,” a nickname she claimed he hated. She also referred to Tizoc Theron, one of the most powerful mercenaries in all of vampiric existence, as her ”Tizzy.” The Inquisition was ”a dreadful inconvenience,” World War II was ”a little spat” and the fall of Midnight, the vampiric empire that had reigned for centuries, was ”an unfortunate event.”
If Sarah lived two thousand years, maybe she would look back and agree. For now, the sentiments were almost as unsettling as the expression on Kendra's face when one of the shop managers-who had instantly appeared to wait on Kendra when she had crossed the threshold-presented a dress she found unattractive.
Now Sarah was in a turquoise dress with a neckline slightly lower than she was used to but, fortunately, no eighteenth-century-style hoops-something she had been a little worried about, given the individuals she was going with. Even better, she was almost certain no one had died in her acquisition of the dress, or in the search for shoes to match it.
”You look far away,” Christine remarked.
Sarah tried to pull herself back to the moment. ”Did you know Nero played the lyre, not the fiddle?” she asked. ”There was no such thing as a fiddle yet.” The misconception about which which musical instrument Nero had played while Rome burned was apparently one of Kendra's pet peeves. musical instrument Nero had played while Rome burned was apparently one of Kendra's pet peeves.
”Um, okay,” Christine answered, pulling Sarah more truly into the correct time and place.
”I feel like an idiot,” Sarah said aloud for the first time.
”You look beautiful,” Christine insisted.
”Not because of that.” Sarah shook her head. ”Despite people trying to kill me, I just spent two hours shopping shopping. With, I'm pretty sure, an outright psychopath.”
”That's most of the line, or so I've heard,” Christine murmured, her tone so dry Sarah actually laughed.
”Where do I fit in, then?” she asked.
Christine shrugged. ”Wherever you want to. What show are you seeing?”
”I don't remember.” The name had been meaningless to her. She was hoping Kendra was right that she would like it, but wasn't convinced that her tastes and those of a millennia-old vampire were likely to be the same.
When someone knocked on the door, Sarah called out, ”Come in,” without realizing that it was still an hour before the time Kristopher had agreed to pick her up. Christine tensed, and this time Sarah was the one to put herself between the human and the vampire, making no attempt to hide her anger.
”What do you want?” she snapped at Kaleo.
Kaleo quirked one brow. ”I'm not here to hurt the girl. I just need to speak to you, Sarah.”
”Out! In the hall.”
The Roman looked amused by the order but obeyed, which Sarah found a little unsettling. She took a minute to rea.s.sure Christine and then followed Kaleo.
”Nikolas and Kristopher aren't here,” she said flatly. ”So what do you want?”
”Are you under the impression you are such a nonent.i.ty that I could not possibly be here to speak with you?” Kaleo asked.
”If you have something to say to me me, then just get on with it. You freak the h.e.l.l out of Christine just by being here.”
”Kendra mentioned you are going to a show tonight,” Kaleo said.
”Yeah, she does like to chat,” Sarah quipped.
Kaleo glared. ”Do not confuse Kendra with some of our line. She may appear outwardly indifferent to reality, but she has been one of the driving forces behind the rise and fall of empires for two thousand years. She has a fondness for Nikolas, a pa.s.sing fondness for Kristopher, and thus far a limited tolerance of you that extends just far enough for her to suggest I might want to pa.s.s on a message.”
The sharp words were enough to make Sarah step back and attempt to control her temper long enough to listen rationally. ”You don't strike me as the errand-boy type,” she said, not as an attempt to insult, but in a search for Kaleo's agenda. He did not seem likely to blithely agree to deliver messages.
”I may not like you, and I am certain you do not like me, but like it or not, we share blood. Beyond that, you risked yourself to save Heather, and I trust that you would do the same for any of our people. Your blood and your actions make you kin to me, and so I chose to come here to warn you.”
Sarah nodded, taken aback by his tone and the absolute sincerity behind it. It was hard to reconcile this Kaleo with the one who had tortured Christine and killed the Ravenas' father. Of course, it was hard to reconcile the Nikolas she now knew with who she had once thought him to be.
For now, she accepted the tentative truce implied in the words.
She hadn't entirely resigned herself to the idea that living in this world meant not killing him, but if he insisted on talking like he gave a d.a.m.n about his human bonds and the others Sarah cared about, she feared she might start hating him a little less.
Kaleo continued. ”Michael has spoken to other hunters,” he said. ”They do not know what theater you will be in, but they know you plan to rendezvous with the Arun afterward. Kendra has elected not to stop the hunters forcefully, because she believes it is a confrontation that will happen sooner or later. She has asked that you try not to disrupt the play”-he quirked his mouth in a half smile-”but understands if it cannot be helped. She a.s.sures me that there would be no way to smuggle a large weapon into the theater, but would like me to remind you that not all hunters insist on engaging their prey up close, and the streets can be exposed.”
Though the Vida line preferred close contact in a hunt, she knew crossbows were favored by some hunters-the kind who would shoot the silent weapon from a rooftop or a higher window, or even across a crowded theater if they could get the weapon inside.
”Do you need to sit?” Kaleo suddenly asked.
The solicitousness seemed out of place until Sarah realized she had not responded to his warning, and several seconds had gone by.
Long before their short fling, Michael had been her best friend. But this new life of hers was full of betrayals by those from the former one, so why was this surprising?
As Kendra, through Kaleo, had said, this confrontation had to happen sometime.
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