Edged Blade (19 page)

There was a world of things unsaid in those simple words. As the silence stretched out, I processed all those unsaid things. As he remained quiet, I asked him, “How long did she keep you?”

“Two decades.” He looked at me, haunted. “By the end of that time, I well knew what I was. Nothing but a toy. Her blood-whore. Her bed-toy, when she wished it. Her whipping-boy, should it please her.”

The word
blood-whore
made me flinch. I couldn’t stop it. And I knew then why I felt
like
I understood him.
Like recognized like
.

He’d been a toy, a pawn…a
thing
. Just like I had.

I moved closer to him, stopping just a few feet away. I had to angle my head back to meet his eyes. The nearness of him did not make me uneasy, but I wasn’t surprised by it now. He was no longer just the undead. He had faced the same things I had. Oddly enough, that made him more human than anything else. I wonder if he would laugh at me if I said that.

“When did it stop?”

“When Ezra Allerton killed her. Eve was of his line and he discovered that she had been feeding too freely of the humans in her territory.” He shrugged dismissively, as if the past was of no concern to him. “She had moved us to Salem. The disappearances had become noticeable, but she didn’t care. When Ezra came to speak to her, she laughed and brushed it aside. She insinuated that people would look to Boston for those who had gone missing, or that nobody would care. Ezra said she missed the point. He cared, and if he cared, others would. If she would not get her appetite under control, he would do it for her. The next day, she killed a newlywed couple. She was dead before the sun rose.”

I found myself respecting Ezra Allerton more than I wanted to. I knew little of the man, other than the fact that he was the current head of Allerton House. He’d stepped in when Jedidiah Allerton died. I say
died
when the truth is that he decided to kill himself. I hear they do that sometimes.

“Why did Allerton take you in?”

“He chose to. Tradition dictates that a vampire who kills another vampire may deal with one’s flock as he chooses. He could have killed us all, or taken us in. He chose to take us in.” Once more, he reached up and touched a faint scar on his neck. It was nearly imperceptible. It was two neat bite marks. They were almost surgically neat, but I knew what they were. They were the marks Eve would have given him when she first bit him.

“For that, I am forever grateful. I did not choose this life, but I also did not choose to end mine.”

Taut, heavy silence fell, weighted and thick, nearly smothering us both. Uncomfortable with it, I moved behind my desk and sat down. “I’m sorry.”

I laid my hands flat on my desk. I wanted to reach for one of my blades. The need to have something in my hands that was strong, but it seemed inappropriate. “I wish I knew what else to say. I just don’t.”

Abraham studied me. “You did nothing wrong.”

“What happened to you sucks. If I didn’t feel bad about it, I would be messed up.”

“Perhaps this is why I like you, Kit. You are human, yet… not.”

“Feel free.” I settled more comfortably in my chair and watched as he did the same, practically sprawling in the chair across from mine. I would have expected him to sit rigidly. After a moment, he made a soft, sighing sound. I rarely heard vampires breathe. They had no need to, but it was almost out of habit. This was almost as if he needed to relax more than anything else.

“You need not apologize to me. It was my own foolishness that put me where I was. And I ended up far better off than many who made the same mistakes that I did.” He gave me a weak smile. “I was not Eve’s only blood-whore. Yet, I am the only one who still survives.” He leaned forward then, pinning me with a stare so penetrating I wanted to hide. “Perhaps you can understand me when I say that there are certain things that do not sit well with me. Would you like me to elaborate? Or… what is the phrase, ‘Do you know where I am coming from?’”

I tensed. “Please. Don’t.”

“Understood.” The intensity faded from his face, though some remnant of it lingered. “Bits and pieces of us die with the soul, Kit. There is no changing that. But memories do not die. And they will fade only if we let them. And those memories hold our salvation, perhaps even the essence of our soul. I remember. Many of us do.”

In the next moment, the phone rang.

There were any number of ways we could have played it when Justin announced he would be meeting me at my office. He didn’t know that Abraham would be joining us, but what he didn’t know would help me.

I hoped.

Justin had done some thinking, he’d told me, and decided that maybe the best way to handle the abductions of the clan was to just work with me on it. After all, he’d drawled, he still had to get to the bottom of it and he could try to do it on his own but the job offer had already been extended toward me and he knew I’d get a more than fair payout.

Why risk getting maybe a third of that and getting stonewalled at every other turn?

Translation: He’d already been trying to do just that and doors were getting slammed in his face.

The clan was secretive as hell, something I’d learned back when I was trying to find Doyle all those months ago. I’d had a giant Damon-shaped shadow at my back and I’d
still
been pulling teeth.

Things were different now—for me, at least—thanks to that Damon-shaped shadow and the doors that Justin was banging his head against would open on oiled hinges before I even lifted a hand to knock.

Justin would know this.

Sometimes, he could be smart.

The silence lingered as I pondered that phone call. I hadn’t mentioned Saul and neither had Justin. He knew it wasn’t done, but if I knew him, he was going to hope he could handle it during the down time on this job. Or in all likelihood, while I was doing the legwork for the clan case, he’d be doing the face-work for the Saul case—as in smashing Saul’s face in.

“You don’t intend to let it go with Saul.”

I looked at Abraham. Canting my head to the side, I said, “No. No, I do not.” Closing my hand over a dagger I kept on my desk, I started to toss it, letting it dance in the air until it became a blur over my fingers. Abraham’s gaze flicked from the dagger to my face and back. “Justin’s so caught up in this, he can’t see the forest for the trees, but once he lets himself look, he’ll see it. It’s too connected. Too tied up together. You can’t separate the strands of a thread and not expect it to unravel.”

Abraham leaned back, his gaze thoughtful.

I continued to play with the dagger.

He continued to watch me. The silence was…odd. I didn’t feel uncomfortable in his presence, something that made more sense to me now.

Still, it was strange. Almost every person I knew in my life, almost every person I called friend was somebody I’d known for an extended period of time and we’d gotten closer after they’d somehow…
proven
themselves to me.

Even Damon, in a way.

Doyle, too.

But this odd kinship I felt for a
vampire
was…bemusing. It wasn’t anything remotely romantic. That idea was laughable. I couldn’t deny the fact that I felt comfortable with him, though.

“Allerton House needs to know what is behind the abductions, Kit,” he said, interrupting my contemplation.

“Understood.” I caught the dagger by the handle and put it down. Shifting in the seat, I leaned forward and met his gaze. “Let me guess…when Justin gets here, you want me to tell him that I’d already agreed to work with you on this.”

He slid a hand inside his jacket. It was heavy weight, something with the sheen of real velvet and it moved with his body with supple fluidity. It was an old world affair and put me in the mind of afternoon teas and walks in the gardens. From an inside pocket, he pulled out an envelope. I sighed at the sight of it.

Some of the biggest headaches of my life had come in the form of written missives.

Not everybody dealt in written correspondence anymore. So many things had gone electronic, but in a world where many creatures had been around before such inventions had come to be, the tried, true and traditional were still in use.

“This is from Icarus, and it’s co-signed by the head of my house, Ezra.” He placed the heavy-weight vellum on my desk. “It’s for five hundred thousand dollars, Kit. Should you choose to work with Justin, then you may split it equally with him. You may work it alone. It is completely up to you.”

Hot greed lit inside at the fee he’d laid out. So many zeroes…

Wow. I could pay off the new car. I could buy my condo.

I could maybe buy my office—or screw that. A
new
office.

But…

“Why do they need me? You seem to be their go-boy on all of this. Justin’s friend Padraig all but wept tears of envy at the sound of your name.”

“Did he?” Lips twitching, Abraham settled back in his chair. “I’m good at what I do. I always have been. But there are doors you can open that I cannot. And to be blunt, you impressed Icarus. You impressed me. I think you will see things I won’t. We want answers, Kit.”

Answers. Grimly, I stared at the envelope waiting for me to open it.

“What happens if I don’t solve it?”

“The money is yours simply for taking the case.” He leaned forward again, holding my gaze. “There are risks associated with this, as you already know. You must agree to tell your lover of the case, and of the risks. We will not risk war between our house and the clan. But I believe your lover wants answers as much as we do.” A look passed over his face, as though he waged an internal war. Then, after a moment, he nodded.

Decision made
.

“I know of Samuel Allerton, and I know of the actions he made—
mistakes
he made. Samuel was always a greedy, power hungry bastard.”

At the sound of that name, my blood went cold. My heart froze in my chest and my mind spun back to a day when I’d watched Damon striding away from a vampire’s home. He’d killed said vampire—because said vampire had supposedly been willing to talk to my grandmother. Nobody knows just what he’d told her, because Damon had killed the son of a bitch.

He’d also killed a number of other high-level NHs.

That was also the day I’d been kidnapped by Jude Whittier. Another vampire.

I could tell by the look on his face that Abraham was aware of that day’s timeline of events. Samuel’s death. My abduction and disappearance. He didn’t know the events that took place between them.

I could remember them, each and every minute, carved into my heart—etched into me. Those old scars on my soul.

And while I had a feeling I could like Abraham, even apart from this weird connection I felt with him, there lay a complicated mess between Allerton House and the clan. Samuel might have been a greedy, power-hungry bastard as Abraham had called him—I couldn’t say, I didn’t know him. But his death at Damon’s hands wasn’t going to be overlooked by others in the Allerton family. Vampires were brutal and cold-blooded, but they were loyal.

“There’s no question of whether or not I’ll tell Damon,” I said bluntly. There were times and jobs when I’d have to keep things from him, a fact I knew well. This wasn’t that time and this wasn’t that job. “But if you think this is going to make things all nicey-nice, well…you don’t know Damon.”

A quick laugh escaped him—it sounded rusty, like Abraham wasn’t used to laughing. I could imagine he wasn’t. “On the contrary, I know him…rather well,” Abraham said after deliberating on his words. He scraped the nail of his thumb down his jawline. “Samuel and Annette were very much alike. I had to clean up more of his messes than I care to remember, just as Damon spent a great deal of time cleaning up after her. We came into contact quite often.”

The idea made me frown.

Damon’s comment rose to my mind:
Allerton’s one of the few that I don’t immediately want to skewer
. I was running it through my head as Abraham rose and made a lazy circuit around my office. He paused at my weapons wall, studying them in much the same way I studied the swords that decorated the wall in Chang’s office. He slid his fingers along the chain of the three-section staff I was determined to master.

“Trust me when I say that I don’t see Damon making ‘nicey-nice’ on anything,” Abraham said, his voice wry. He moved away from the staff and eyed the military sabre that took up position next to it. “Can you use all of these?”

I didn’t answer right away. I was too busy thinking about just
what
it would look like to see Damon making
nicey-nice
. It was really kind of baffling. Shoving it into the forget-about-it file, I rose from my desk. “I’ve got a rudimentary understanding of every weapon I own, at least, or if I don’t, I learn it.” I lifted a shoulder. “It’s all about breaking down the style, or understanding it. I’m very good at that.”

A smile curled his lips. “I imagine you are. Perhaps one day, we could spar.”

A hot thrill raced through me. He’d just spoken my language.

I inclined my head. “Maybe. I usually work with one of Damon’s lieutenants, Doyle.” I didn’t elaborate on the connection between them. “He’s got an interest in blades as well. Maybe you can join us—or Justin.”

“I think I’d enjoy that.” He turned to face me, then. “Justin will not be pleased to have me involved in this. He will not have any say in the matter.”

I glanced at the envelope I had to open. I needed to get on that. But for now, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Just how involved do you plan to get?”

My head was officially throbbing.

If I had any more shit thrown at me today, I was going to just lock myself in a room, preferably a bathroom with a giant tub and a pool of bubbles, while I pretended the rest of the world just didn’t exist.

Particularly the canny bastard in front of me.

“Ain’t happening.” Justin lifted a shoulder in an elegant shrug, his green eyes glinting with a mix of feigned humor and a polite
fuck-you
. “Sorry, Abe. Tell Icarus we’ll be on the look-out for anything affecting vampires, but we’ve got other issues to handle and we can’t be distracting ourselves with leeches.”