He sipped again. “Not enough? He broke the life-tie between the vampire and werewolf. That’s…difficult. He had those vampire hunter idiots drowned. Well, killed then dumped in the ocean.” He shrugged as if the details of their gory deaths didn’t matter.
“All that seems a bit pedestrian for an ancient vampire, doesn’t it?” I asked.
Bathin was quiet long enough I wondered if he had an opinion on that.
“It depends on how you measure his efforts. Getting theRauðskinnafrom Rossi may have just been his most recent goal.”
He was calm, talking through it as if this were all supposition. But I was a cop. I knew when someone knew more than they were saying.
“You might as well share with the class,” I said. “Nobody here but me, and nobody out there is listening to me anyway.”
That got a small amused expression out of him. “Not like you to be so maudlin, Delaney. Where’s that Reed spine made of steel and tougher stuff?”
“What aren’t you telling me, Bathin?”
“Oh, so many things.” He pressed his lips against the rim of his glass, drank again, the thick red liquid leaving a shiny coating behind on the inside curve of the glass.
“What aren’t you telling me about Lavius that will help us kill him?”
“Better question,” he approved.
I waited. Thought about drinking the wine, but really, wasn’t thirsty. Still, I kept it in my hands, because that was normal and it gave me something else to focus on besides his wicked hungry eyes.
“Rossi will be angry if I tell you,” he said.
“I can deal with him.”
He pursed his lips, then set the glass down beside him and folded his hands together. “How much do you know about vampires?”
“More than most.”
“How much do you know about the ties they inflict?”
My hand went to the bite on my neck. “Like this one?”
“Exactly like that one. He bit you once. Just once. Did you stop and ask yourself why?”
“I didn’t have time to ask myself anything. He told me. He told me he did it to bring Rossi to his knees. To make Rossi give him the book.”
“And Rossi told you what about that?”
“That we could use the tie to hunt Lavius down. Use it to kill him.”
“Then why haven’t you?”
“He said….” I frowned. “He said it wouldn’t work.”
“Either it works or it doesn’t. Which is it, Delaney?”
“He lied.” It wasn’t a question.
Bathin nodded. “He lied.”
“We can use the bite, the tie to find Lavius?”
“A vampire could.”
“But he didn’t want to because…is he on Lavius’s side?”
