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She leans forward in her seat, placing her elbows on her knees. “Why?”
“I think they made some comments about that night to Alastor because he keeps talking to me about it.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it? My goal was for nobody to ever find out what really went on in there.”
“You’re right.”I’m being ridiculous.
“But it bothers you?”
I take a long sip from my cup of tea. “It’s just that… I think some of the things they told him about sound very…” I rub my hands on my knees. “Degrading?”
Celeste narrows her eyes, brows drawn together. I’m beginning to learn to read her face, the subtleties of what I first thought were neutral expressions. Now, her face bears the hallmarks of disgust. “Oh?” She picks up her glass of wine and takes the last sip. “Well, either they dreamed it up or they’re lying.”
I shake my head. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, right? It never happened.”
“But itdoesbother you,” she repeats.
“I just hate that they really think they got away with…” I shake my head again, not wanting to finish that sentence. “And they’re gloating about it like… like it’s some kind of achievement?” I set my cup down a little too hard. “It makes me angry. I want them to know they got their ass kicked. Iwantto kick their ass. You were right, they got off easy.” The speed and volume of my words surprises me.
She smiles sadly. “Justice can be hard to come by in this place.”
“I suppose,” I say. “I’m glad at least that stuff didn’t come from your mind.”
“Of course not. Did you really think that?”
Staring into my tea, I say, “No, not really. But you said yourself that you can’t stand vampires. And you only saved me because you wanted a spy–”
She raises her hand to stop me, getting up with her glass. “Now you’re just being unfair.”
I shrink at the thought that I made her angry, but as she walks past me towards the kitchen she pauses to place her hand on my shoulder. “I think vampires cause a lot of pain in this world, inadvertently or otherwise. But that doesn’t mean I stand by while you suffer. I’m not a monster, kitten.”
While she’s gone, I carefully prod the darkness in me. The topic of that night seems to have stirred it up again and I can feel the anger brewing in me. Celeste returns with another glass of wine and sinks back into her seat with the kind of expression that signals she’s had averylong day.
Before I can bombard her with more questions, I hear the opening of the front door. A moment later, a mop of dark curls pokes into the living room. The woman it belongs to looks briefly from me to Celeste, then says with furrowed brows, “Am I interrupting?”
Celeste sighs and gets up, throwing a disappointed glance at her full wine glass. “Not at all.”
“Did you still want to do the… uh…” She glances at me briefly, “the new moon ritual? Because the sun is up soon.”
“I won’t be a minute,” Celeste says as she gathers her glass. She thoughtlessly runs her hand over my arm as she passes me, saying, “Sorry, kitten. I have business to attend to.”
I stiffen as goosebumps spread over my skin, trying to suppress an involuntary shudder, not sure whether it’s pleasant or unpleasant.Totally normal reaction,I tell myself sarcastically.
Though I assumed that Celeste did have to interact with people to be a smuggling mogul or whatever it is she does, I am surprised to find someone just snowing into her house this early in the morning. Even after I’ve returned to bed – Celeste gives me an apologetic wave as I pass the kitchen, where she is standing over a collection of flasks and bottles with the other witch – I continue to hear the front door opening and closing all throughout the day. Though the soft bed really helps with my sleep, I occasionally wake to hear voices in the house, Celeste’s always cool and even among them. Each time, it’s as if she whispers directly to the vampire side of me, awakening that primal hunger.
8. VERY BEAUTIFUL AND INCRDIBLY TOXIC, DO NOT DISTURB
The days after Celeste drops me home pass in nervous anticipation. I agreed that I’d keep working for her as long as I didn’t have to do runs for Charon’s Veil anymore. The more time passes, the more convinced I become that I’ve screwed it up and she will never ever get in touch with me again, for no logical reason except that I can’t stop wondering if I was awkward or rude during our late night conversation. Not that I care what she thinks – I just need the money.
And though I had high ambitions about finding other work, after two days of handing out resumés to unwilling managers, I get the sense that every workplace is run by an Alastor-type who I’d rather not have anything to do with. Meanwhile, Mav has been dreaming of teaching himself how to code but has no computer and the public library only opens late only one day of the week. After paying my fines, rent, and getting blood, there’s surprisingly little money left. I spend it on a set of sheets, one fitted which I keep, and one flat which I give to Mav. The days where we’re both home, we lie on our backs, staring at the dead flies in the ceiling lamp and make plans about how we’re going to furnish our dream apartment when we finally save up enough money.
After a lengthy argument about whether or not we should get a Nintendo 64 or SNES to go with our super wide flatscreen that we’ll definitely be able to afford, Mav declares me a lost cause and decides to watch cartoons on his phone until I come to my senses. Since the best my phone can do is a pixelated version of Snake,
when it finally buzzes with a message from an unknown number, I’m so surprised that it slips from my hands and lands on the floor with an unsavorysmack, the battery popping out and scattering across the room.
Mav takes off his headphones. “You need to replace that old thing.”
I frown as I piece it back together.It survived a jump into the Styx,I want to say, but then I realize that I can’t tell him that, being a secret spy and all. “Would you rather I save for a security deposit or a phone?”
