That hadn’t happened and now I was awkwardly explaining myself to the man with the enigmatic gaze.
I took another step away from the shield. You could never be too careful with magical artifacts that might eat you. I meandered toward another table, taking the time to get my bravado back.
This plan would work or it wouldn’t. If it didn’t, they’d throw me out of the store. Probably ban me for life, which would affect any runs that might end here. They’d probably let my boss, Jerry, at Hermes know, in effect guaranteeing my subsequent firing.
I needed to stop thinking about everything that could go wrong. It was too late to turn back, and I didn’t have time to have a panic attack now.
I met the man’s eyes again, aware that they hadn’t budged from me during my whole internal motivational speech. That was alright. It was creepy, but who wasn’t a little creepy among the spooks.
“I’m hoping you can point me to a book that might have a rundown of who’s who on the supernatural side of things. If it has anything to say about the inner politics of the different factions that would be great too.”
“That’s a big request.”
Hence the reason I was essentially breaking into this place. I’d looked everywhere else. No one had anything that could act as a primer of the different species and factions making up this magically fucked up world. Or at least no one who was willing to deal with me, the no-power baby vamp who was marked by a sorcerer and at odds with the vampires.
“I’m aware.”
He finally looked away, his focus turning inward as he sank into thought.
“There might be something.”
Really? Hell yes. Maybe this hadn’t been such a bad plan after all.
“That’s great. Where is it? How much will it cost?”
I didn’t have much money, but perhaps I could put it on a layaway plan or something.
His lips took on a sly quirk.
I paused, not liking the way he suddenly looked like the cat who caught the canary.
“The where is simple enough, you just have to find it. As for the cost, that’s another matter. Some might say it will cost you nothing. And everything.”
Was that a riddle? It certainly sounded like it. I hated riddles. My thought patterns were too linear, and I rarely guessed the correct answer. Maybe I should start looking for this thing on my own. No way did I want to accidentally promise my first born and be stuck in a Rumpelstiltskin situation. Not that, as a vampire, I could even have a first born, let alone a second.
“What would I do with a first born?” the man asked in a bemused voice.
I narrowed my eyes at him. A mind reader. Must be pretty powerful to get through my internal defenses. I’d thought they were pretty secure after the incident with the draugr. The one that landed me in my current situation.
Guess not.
In my distraction, had I dropped some of the layers?
The man gave no visual reaction at my reinforcing my mental defenses. Had what I done worked? I couldn’t tell. I couldn’t slam shut a door, effectively kicking the mental peeping tom out. The defenses were more organic and relied on confusion and misdirection as they created a mazelike forest in my mental landscape.
Aiden, a vampire I had met briefly during the incident, told me it was rare for someone to create a fortress based on nature. He said it like my mental forest made me rare, the kind of rare that might be referred to as a freak in ruder company. But I might have been reading into that.
“Maybe this book isn’t for me,” I said.
His smile was sweet and innocent, not the sly one of before. No way was I buying what he was selling. This had devil’s bargain written all over it. The last thing I needed was to get sucked into another situation that was well over my head. I was barely treading water as it was.
“It’d be a pity if you walked away. The piece I have in mind would be perfect for your purposes.”
I gave him a tight smile. “Somehow I think the price is a little steeper than I want to pay.”
“Hm,” he said, his eyes blank.
I finally placed what it was about him that was making me uneasy. His expressions were only surface deep. As if someone had taken clay and begun to make the facial expression that matched the feeling but forgot to make the rest of the features reflect that feeling. His lips smiled but the skin around them stayed still, no dimples or wrinkles. The skin around his eyes and on his forehead remained smooth and unmarked.
