“Remain silent,” Viktor advised me. “Miss Parrish wants to speak privately. Christian has exceptional hearing, and that is why I could not invite him. Shepherd is busy—”
“Polishing his axes,” I finished with a chuckle. “I walked by his room earlier, and it looked like an armory. I hope I don’t have to carry all that on me.”
“That is how he prepares. We all have our rituals.”
When we reached the glass building, I stomped the sludge off my boots and opened the door for Viktor.
The black granite walls drew my eyes up to the lofty ceiling. While Viktor signed in at the long black counter, I ventured farther in. I’d heard about this place. It made the news when it was first built—a coveted high-rise for millionaires. I’d always wondered what it was like inside. My boots knocked against the hard floor, dirty snow still clinging to the toes. Upholstered chairs were clustered alongside the windows on the left, and it had a business vibe. Not so much a place I’d want to live in. I peered down a hallway to my right, wondering where it led. Probably a mail room… or a wine cellar.
Viktor led me past a huge column to the elevators. “There is a pool, a restaurant, a club, a theater, and in-house food delivery service. One never has to leave.”
“Sounds like a real ant farm.”
A tall Chitah stepped out of the elevator and tipped his hat as we went inside.
When the doors closed, I noticed all the buttons—more than I’d ever seen in an elevator. Viktor pressed 61.
“Top floor?” I asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Why would a Vampire want to live in a condo surrounded by glass windows? All that sunlight—she must be a masochist.”
“Let us keep the chatter to a minimum,” he said quietly, hands clasped in front of him.
The elevator moved swiftly and quietly. Lenore lived on an island before coming to Cognito. It was too bad the myth about Vampires burning up in sunlight wasn’t true. All it did was hurt their sensitive eyes, so I didn’t get why she was so eager to surround herself with it.
Poor Viktor. I wondered how he’d been getting on these past weeks after Christian scrubbed his memories. Christian had cut a deal with Lenore in order to restore my life, so we had to erase his memories of her joining up with Sparrow. For all he knew, she broke it off with him. She had some nerve summoning Viktor up to her apartment. Granted, she was his primary contact with the higher authority, but this could have easily been handled over the phone or a video conference.
My stomach dipped when we reached the top floor. The doors opened, revealing a private hallway lit in blue. Penthouse suite meant she had the entire top floor to herself. The other door had a picture on it with a person walking down the stairs.
I reached inside my open jacket to make sure my dagger was accessible. If worse came to worse, I might have to slice off all of Lenore’s toes one by one.
A girl can dream.
I shadowed behind Viktor while he rang the bell.
“Viktor, darling.” Lenore opened the door wider to invite us in. When she offered him her hand to kiss, he took it and bowed instead. “Make yourself at home,” she said, gesturing to our left.
I crossed the threshold, avoiding eye contact since I was on duty. A guard’s role was to remain invisible.
“Hello, Raven.” Lenore’s tone was unexpectedly laced with amusement.
Without replying, I entered a large room and stood with my back against the wall. With the hallway to my immediate right, I had a good strategic view of the loft as well as the entrance. The floor-to-ceiling windows covered the left-hand wall and the one straight ahead. The open space wasn’t a perfect rectangle, as one corner came inward. White drapes softened the edges of each window, matching the furniture. Everything was immaculate. I wanted desperately to press my face against the glass and look out at the city. Instead, I scanned my surroundings. The pastoral paintings and nude statues were familiar, ones she’d hauled over from her old mansion. Lenore clearly had an obsession with cold, inanimate objects. Even her fireplace against the central wall was marble.
“The ceilings are fourteen feet high,” she bragged, walking the floor like a real estate agent. She gestured to an entryway that cut through the central wall. “This connecting room was previously a library, but I converted it into a bar. Would you like a drink?”
“Nyet.”
“Please, let me take your coat.”
Viktor removed his long trench coat and handed it to her. Lenore assessed his brown slacks and grey cardigan, no doubt wondering why he hadn’t bothered to dress up for her. I thought he looked great, but when Lenore turned away to put his jacket in the hall, I saw her snobbishly arch an eyebrow.
“The original tenants had wall-to-wall carpeting,” she said, hanging his coat on a hook. “No one had changed it until I moved in. Absolutely dreadful. Marble floors are much easier to clean. Wouldn’t you agree?”
To clean the blood, I mused. If I had to guess, she really installed hard flooring so she could hear her enemies sneaking in to kill her.
Lenore floated past me and crossed the spacious room. “Oh wait. Of course you know. I forgot you have that old stone. Are you sure I can’t get you a drink?”
Viktor put his hands in his pants pockets and walked toward the sofas. “There is no need to make this social. You have a very nice place.”
“Nice,” she said, letting the word roll around on her tongue. “That’s one way to put it.” She gestured for him to sit on one of the two white sofas and then sat across from him, facing me. “Unfortunately, I had to sell my home because of the scandal. No one will ever attend a party there again. And besides”—she crossed her legs—“I couldn’t get the stench out from all the bodies you left behind. I always thought Christian was a man who picked up after himself.”
