No, there was something deeply personal going on. But what?
The investigative part of me was itching to twist Clyde’s arm to work more out of him, but it wasn’t the time. Sara and I excused ourselves, and Trinity escorted us back to the guest house. If I was ever going to deliver that package of Analie’s, we’d need to figure out a way to travel without our babysitter. Maybe tomorrow I would see about having Clyde let us take the car without a driver. It was unlikely he’d allow it, but we could always ask.
Trinity hovered in the door once we were inside, frowning at us. I raised a brow in question.
“You two should be careful.”
Sara smirked, tossing her purse on the first step and leaning against the banister. “We’re doing our best, but I have the feeling your boss doesn’t care. You know something we don’t?”
Trinity backed out of the door, lowering her head. I wondered if she was trying to keep what she was saying from being picked up by the security camera, or if she actually felt bad about how Clyde was treating us.
“You’re doing better than I thought you would,” she said. “Still, it’s worse than you know. I can’t tell you, he’d—I just can’t. But trust me when I say you don’t want to be around when he finds out where this necromancer is staying. It’ll be bad—for all of us.”
With that, she turned on her heel and fled. We didn’t even get a chance to tell her the details about the van.
“What is it about vampires and cryptic statements? Is it physically impossible for them to say what’s on their minds?” Sara asked.
I laughed. “Yeah, something like that. You should have seen Royce when he finally admitted that he was hiding things from me. Never thought I’d live to see the day.”
“Yeah, well, you almost didn’t. How are you feeling, anyway? Arnold told me he’s still trying to find out what’s going on with you.”
That made me cringe. I hadn’t thought Arnold would talk to Sara about my problems, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised. They were dating, after all.
Sara must have gathered that she’d hit a sore spot. She clapped me on the back and then started up the stairs. “Don’t worry too much. Once we get out of here, I’m sure Arnold will find a cure.”
Being reminded of the illness didn’t make me feel much better. Though Sara had sat with me while I was spitting out that black crud in the bathroom, I wasn’t sure exactly how much she knew about what was wrong with me. I didn’t want to face the idea that I was part lycanthrope or part vampire or whatever I might be. It had to pass. Whatever it was, it had to work its way out eventually. The pain had lessened, and I wasn’t growing fur in weird places. It had to be working its way out of my system.
Lowering my head and rubbing my fingertips over my eyes, I did my best to put it all away in the back of my head. Worrying about the infection on top of what Clyde was hiding, where we were going to turn for clues now that we had to follow what was essentially a dead end, and what was going to happen if Sara and I blew the lid on where the necromancer was hiding, was just one problem too many. Oh, and let us not forget that I was obligated to figure out how to get Analie’s package to a bunch of werewolves that might eat me if I showed up smelling like vampires.
If I could, I’d avoid thinking about the infection the entire time I was here, and maybe even after I got back to New York.
Denial. Not just a river in Egypt.
Those pleasant thoughts in mind, I trudged up the stairs after Sara, wishing I could call my mom and dad and see how they were doing. My dad might not speak to me, but my mom—maybe she wasn’t biased against me for being involved with Others. Not to mention my brothers. Mikey hadn’t seemed surprised or upset by my involvement with the Others and had even offered to represent me in court if it came down to that. It was good having a lawyer in the family.
Damien, on the other hand, had probably found out from the papers if my dad hadn’t told him first. I would have to find another disposable phone, or maybe see about borrowing one from somebody outside of Clyde’s retinue to see how they were doing. Not knowing was killing me, and even with Royce’s assurances that he’d been doing what he could to take care of them—discreetly—in my absence, it didn’t make it any easier to cope with not having heard my mother’s voice in over a month.
As I changed my clothes and crawled into bed, I had to fight the urge to cry. Someday this would all be over. I could hug my mom again. I could tease Damien about his crappy taste in movies, and Mike about never getting married.
I could tell Dad what an asshole he was for trying to disown me, and then show him that I wasn’t so different from the little girl whose bruised knees he had kissed better.
It was a long, lonely time before I finally managed to get to sleep.
Chapter 13
The next day wasn’t much better. No one was available to drive us around town, and no one showed up to give us orders or any hints as to what we should do next. Sara and I met in the kitchen around noon, and we took some time to consider our next move. Though I didn’t like the idea very much, I thought it might be best to get Analie’s gift for her caretaker out of my hands first thing. After that, we could pay a visit to the other vampire master, Jimmy Thrane, to see if he might have any information on our necromancer friend or his zombie sidekicks.
Sara and I spent some time plotting out our route for the evening while Florencia cooked for us. The kitchen smelled awesome, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the meal of tacos and fajitas she made for us. The meat for the tacos was incredibly tender, more so than any steak I could remember having before.
“Florencia, that was great,” I told her as Sara and I helped her clear dishes from the table. “What was that meat you used for the tacos?” I wondered if it was a local thing, or maybe a cut of meat I could request from the local delis at home.
“Lengua,” she said, smiling.
“Cow tongue,” Sara translated for me.
I did my best to keep my expression neutral and managed not to barf once it really settled in.
Note to self: Ask about the ingredients before eating anything else in this town.
After we cleaned up, Sara and I hung out outside for a while, taking in some sun. The light was nearly blinding, but I didn’t mind. The heat and fresh air were welcome. Inside that air-conditioned house felt claustrophobic and a little too much like I was constantly under watch. Something to do with the security cameras hidden all over the house, no doubt.
With little else to do after I put Analie’s letter and care package near the front door, we spent the remainder of our time until sundown watching bad daytime TV. We had no computers to surf the Internet and no books to keep us occupied, but the old school Godzilla movie marathon on some cable channel kept us from going completely bonkers while we waited for Trinity to come get us for our next round of Find-the-Necromancer.
Once she arrived and we told her where we wanted to go, she started laughing at us.
She kept right on laughing until she realized I was serious.
“You’re insane,” Trinity told me. “Completely unbalanced if you think I’m going to take you into the heart of Goliath territory.”