As I drew closer to Perkatory, I saw Vivien was conversing with someone else at our usual table. The perfectly styled hair and burgundy suit gave him away. Timothy.
I connected eyes with Aaron who was still behind the café counter, making someone’s latte. He was likely too far away to hear what they were talking about, but his mouth was turned down. His eyes were serious as they bounced from me the two talking.
Something about his expression told me I was better to skip the Perkatory line, and head straight over there. As I approached, Vivien caught sight of me. Her lips tightened as she leaned back in her chair. A signal to Timothy to stop talking. Something was definitely up.
I stopped between them. “What are we talking about?” I asked in a falsely casual tone.
Vivien pouted off into the plants, while Timothy stared at her with a hard look.
Timothy was a god who knew how to keep things locked down like a steel trap. So I moved my focus onto Vivien and crossed my arms, waiting.
She still stared at a green frond but shifted in her seat.
I could almost feel Timothy willing her not to break.
I simply waited.
Vivien straightened in her seat, still avoiding my gaze. “Nothing,” she mumbled, looking down at her barely touched blended sugar coffee.
The tension in Timothy didn’t let up. It was a battle of pressures on her, but Timothy didn’t know he’d already lost.
“I don’t think you should kill Xander,” The words burst out of her as her hands flailed in defeat.
“I agree!” Bob practically shouted, though no one else could hear him.
“Vivien,” Timothy cried out in exasperation while rubbing the spot between his eyes.
A smile barely twitched onto my lips at winning the battle of wills before it disappeared again. I slipped into the seat, after a quick glance around to make sure no one around paid attention to the vampire casually bringing up the fact I murdered someone every night.
“What is going on here?” I pressed, interlacing my fingers and setting my forearms on the table. And why the hell were they talking about my situation when I wasn’t present?
“Vivien asked to speak with me,” Timothy said, still shooting daggers at her with his eyes. She was suddenly preoccupied with sucking noisily from her straw.
“She thinks I should let you out of the ‘deal,’” he said using air quotes.
I turned to my friend, who avoided my eye like a kid caught with their hand in the proverbial cookie jar. “Okay, first off, why aren’t you talking to Grim instead of Timothy? And second, I’m not on the hook to Grim or Timothy about this.”
Vivien’s auburn mane swayed as she shook her head. “I try to keep personal matters and business separate with Grim. It’s better for our relationship.” She practically rolled her eyes saying it, which told me it was his rule, not hers. I could only imagine the damage my well-meaning friend could cause when he was trying to judge souls for the Afterlife or obliteration.
“And you are doing it for them. They are the ones who asked you to do this. But you don’t have too, Miranda.”
“That’s what I was tellingyou,” Timothy waved a frustrated hand at her. “This is her choice. Hers and Xander’s.”
“It’s a terrible choice,” Bob muttered, though no one else could hear. “All that sticky blood.Gew.” I felt him shudder in my coat. To appease him, I’d spent considerable time cleaning him in the evenings. But my blade acted like a prissy pony.
Not so hard. You missed a spot. We need more oil, don’t rub me dry!
Vivien shot a glare at Grim’s aide. “Timmy, this isn’t so simple anymore.”
He visibly cringed at her nickname for him. The two bickered like a couple of siblings.
“They have feelings for each other,” Vivien went on in earnest.
“Vivien,” I cried out at the betrayal, my palms slapping the table. How could I freaking forget that if the vamp couldn’t hold her load for anyone else’s secrets, how could I expect her to keep her trap shut about mine?
A serious mask replaced Timothy’s ire as he turned to me. “Is this true, Miranda?”
My cheeks heated up and suddenly I wanted to be anywhere else. Thank god, I hadn’t yet told Vivien about how physical things had gotten. But it was all a game, and she wouldn’t understand that.
