“I’m saying Claudette can hold down a steady job here and let one vampire suck her blood, or she can head back to Paris and become a sex toy and drinking fountain for an entire coven.”
Mina blanched. I felt sick to my stomach. But that was the ugly truth, and we stood there, wrestling with our emotions.
“God, this sucks,” Mina muttered.
I grimaced. “Please tell me that pun wasn’t intended.”
She winced. “Correction. This stinks.”
Slightly better, but that didn’t change things.
It also didn’t change another consideration we left unspoken, too ashamed to even admit to. Having Claudette giving blood freely to Henrik put us at less risk.
So, there it was: Real Life, with all its complications and contradictions. Did we protect Claudette or ourselves — and stand by Delphine? Did we turn a blind eye and consider this an act of Claudette’s free will, or did we intervene, knowing that circumstances didn’t offer her a wealth of good choices?
I found myself thinking of Roux and his hard-nosed, black-and-white approach to life. What would he do?
Drown defending his principles in a sea of nuances,the back of my mind muttered.
I ended up hugging my sister and grasping at slippery slivers of positivity.
Maybe I was overdramatizing. Maybe everything would be okay. I had found my way into several bad relationships, and I had found my way back out of them. So could Claudette. So could Delphine.
I hoped so anyway.
“So, what do we do?” I finally asked, defaulting to my younger sister role.
Mina thought it over, then swallowed hard. “I’ll talk to Claudette — and to Henrik.”
“He’ll be leaving soon, right?” I asked.
Mina frowned. “I can only hope. But until then, well… We’re safer keeping a snake in our sights than having one lurking around in the garden.”
True. But boy, would I prefer a reptile-free garden.
Chapter Four
GENEVIÈVE
A week passed without incident — as long as swooping dragons, outbursts of magic, and the guys’ constant bickering didn’t count asincidents. But otherwise…a normal week at Château Nocturne. Projects progressed, some faster, some slower, and the guys quietly celebrated the milestone of only two weeks left in their contracts with Gordon.
Henrik and Claudette seemed to have gotten enough (or too much) of each other, because they no longer shacked up at night, at least as far as I could tell. I wasn’t sure how they felt about it, but Mina and I were relieved, to say the least.
All in all, we’d all achieved enough of a routine that Mina finally allowed herself and Marius a four-day, belated honeymoon/getaway.
“Bye!” We all waved from the front steps to see them off that Friday morning.
Marius revved the motorcycle he’d borrowed from a friend, Mina hopped on the back in a leather getup that was about as far from her teacher persona as she could get, and off they roared, heading who knew where.
“Have fun!” I called.
“Oh, they’ll have fun, all right.” Bene smirked.
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Grow up.”
He laughed. “I’ll grow up when the boss returns.” He meant Mina, of course. “Until then—”
Roux growled under his breath. “Until then, we work. Mina left a list.”
