Page 54
Three dots. Then:
ICE PRINCE: Equipment room. The back entrance. Wait for me.
I stared at the screen.
Of course, I thought. Of course he’s in the one room with a camera.
He was already there when I slipped in, standing in the shadows near the rear door, arms folded, dressed in black from collar to boot. I’d been running for ten minutes and my face was hot and my heart was going like a jackhammer. He looked as calm as a man waiting for a bus.
“Explain,” he said.
I held up the little black box. He took it from my hand. Our fingers touched. I noticed. I chose not to notice that I noticed.
“Found it in here, behind the goalie bags. Ten minutes ago. It’s got Derek’s name on the bottom.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “And I just heard him. He’s got more. He said ‘cameras,’ plural, and he thinks you’re doping, and he’s been watching you for a week and—”
“How many?”
“He didn’t say.”
“He has been filming me,” Maksim said, evenly, “for at least six days. I heard the first one on Monday. I assumed I was imagining it.” He turned the device over in his long fingers. It looked very small. “I had hoped it was a lens on a hunter’s rifle. I confess I did not consider a teenager with a smartphone.”
“He’s twenty-nine.”
“He is behaving like a teenager.”
“You’re not worried? “
“I am worried,” said Maksim. “I am simply better at hiding it.”
“That is not comforting!”
“I did not intend it to be.” He looked at me. “This is not your problem, Lex.”
“Yeah, well, it’s about to be everybody’s problem if Derek posts a video of you doing something superhuman.” I crossed my arms. “Unless you want to be a viral TikTok vampire, we need to find them and get rid of them. Now.”
I saw the argument on his face. The thing where he tried to tell me to go home and I looked at him and he stopped.
“Very well,” he said finally. “We find them. All of them. We destroy them. And then we consider the problem of the footage.”
“Cool. Great plan. How do we do that without getting caught?”
“Dinner is in progress. The Northmen eat at six. It is six-oh-eight.”
“You timed this?”
“I am a vampire, Lex. I do not get caught.”
“Your ego is showing.”
“And your concern is showing.” His eyes glittered. “I thought you did not care about me.”
“I don’t. I just don’t want to room with a viral sensation. Bad for my street cred.”
“Of course.”
We stood there staring at each other a beat too long. I cleared my throat and looked at the floor.
“Fine. Cameras. Let’s go find them before I change my mind and let Derek expose your sparkly ass.”
