AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"She'd be wrong, Boss. If you say you will, you will."
I play the piece again, just to stop him from teasing me. It isn't so bad once I focus. I bite my lip and concentrate, paying close attention, trying to get my fingering just right during the most difficult section. I come to the part that gives me trouble and play slowly, starting and stopping to get it right.
"That's as good as it gets without a lot more work."
"Then work."
I start over, not really upset, for I do love the piece.
"What are you?" I say. "The phantom of the opera?"
He laughs and leaves me at the piano, going to the entrance, then starts carrying in boxes, depositing them in a space by the sitting area. I stop playing and go over to check when I recognize one of my chests. I look inside the boxes – they're from my apartment.
"What are you doing?" He keeps carrying boxes in, ignoring me. "Why are you doing this? That's from my apartment."
"You're not safe there any longer. You'll have to live here now."
"Do you think you might have talked to me about this first?" I grind my nails into my palms. " I have rights. You can't just move me in."
He stops and puts a box down.
"I just did." He stands in front of me. "Eve, you're living in a dream world. Wake up." He snaps his fingers in front of my face. "This is the real world, not the one you wish it would be. People make other people do things against their will all the time. Why," he says, cocking his head to the side. "Weren't you all tied up in Luke's warehouse just yesterday?" He brushes hair off my cheek. "Now go back and play. I like listening while I work."
I close my eyes, trying to control my anger.
"Vasily, she's not obeying me again," he says, his voice all mock-angry. "Do I have to wait until Tuesday?"
"One day has gone since she hurt her head. You might be able on Monday."
I turn on my heels and go back to the piano without another word. I don't want to listen to anymore of Julien and Vasily's teasing repartee. I'm a pre-med student, blood witness with the SCU, dammit. I'm an adult. He's turning me into a dependent.
Of course - I realize it as I start to play Ballade once more. That's his goal. Total control. Me as his prized Adept, the one promised to him when I was just a child, helping him police the treaty. This is what he always wanted. I sigh and decide that I'll comply without saying a word – as if it doesn't matter to me one way or the other.
If I'm going to handle Julien, I'll have to stop letting my emotions get the better of me.
Chapter 3
“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song.”
Plato
The next day, I go back to the SCU. Julien accompanies me and there’s an awkward silence in the car as Vasily drives us over. Julien spends time in the office with Ed while I sit at my little desk by the corner and check over the case file, reviewing the tests that have come back from forensics.
About an hour later, Ed comes out and motions for me to join him.
"I want you to get right back in the saddle again," Ed says as we enter the break room to get a cup of coffee. As Ed picks through the donuts in an open box, he explains. "I thought we might do some biochemical analysis of the vampire blood we have on file. You'll have samples from every vampire in the facility for the last few years. There are tests I want run that we don't have facilities for here."
"Whatever you want. What are you looking for?"
"We're looking for novel proteins, amino acids, seeing if there are any biochemical pathways that might be responsible for vampirism. All this work has been done, but we don’t have access to it. It’s military. It was mentioned in some of your mother's work. Fill out the requisitions and I'll sign them. The more basic research we do, the bigger our grants."
"It sounds exciting."
"There's nothing new on the case, so you might as well try to get some of your mother's work replicated."
Ed pours us coffee and we go to a small table by the window.
"Why don't you take a trip to the lab in Virginia, see if you can work with one of the Council researchers there? You can cut a lot of corners if you have contacts in the labs. Add a flight and hotel onto that requisition. It'll do you good to get out of Boston for a few days."
