Dalziel’s sigh was heartfelt. Under his breath, although he needn’t have bothered considering our exceptional hearing, he whispered as if to himself, “Welcome to the dark side, kiddo.” Even more quietly, he added, “Sadly, no cookies.”
Concealing my surprise at his unexpected sense of humour, which I guess went well with the way his speech was a confusing combination of three centuries’ worth of language, I hurried over to pull Charley back into the room. I wrapped an arm around him and tucked his head down to rest on my shoulder. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll get this sorted. I promise you,” I said, mumbling whatever comforting words and phrases I could come up with as I rubbed circles over his back. I couldn’t even be angry with Dalziel. There was no merit in hiding stuff from Charley. Much as it pained me to admit it, he was trying to help get Charley out of an impossible situation.
His breathing slowed, and I felt him tremble against me. “It’s such fucking bullshit,” he repeated.
I’d been brought up from birth knowing I was a shifter, so I could only imagine what a shock it must have been to Charley, having all the strange stuff that he’d managed to more or less convince himself was nothing, explained not as some correctible human medical condition but as evidence of mutated DNA, and on top of that, the potential to outlive almost everyone he knew. When I thought about it that way myself, it seemed like quite the mind-fuck. No wonder he was on edge.
Dalziel got to his feet. “There’s a lot we don’t know for sure about our kind,” he said carefully. “But to my knowledge, none of us have ever been able to do any of the tricks you mentioned. You might argue that tales of vampires disappearing like smoke have some truth in them, but I suspect they’re nothing more than exceptional speed in poor lighting. People see what they expect to, especially if they’ve been conditioned — by fear, perhaps. Anyway,” he approached us and patted Charley’s back gingerly, “let’s work with what we know, which is that you seem to have the ability to hide yourself from a video camera.” He jerked his chin in the direction of the table and I steered Charley to sit down again.
I asked him, “Do you want a drink, or something to eat?” I knew I burned through energy faster when I was emotional.
“No.” It came out sullen. I ignored it, because I figured he needed a metaphorical cat to kick, and I was tough enough not to care overmuch.
But Dalziel rounded on him. “You really are a rude child, aren’t you?”
Charley visibly gulped. “I’m not.”
“You are,” Dalziel persisted, his tone calm, but with an icy edge that made me want to put more than a table’s worth of space between us. “Your problems are only ours because Lucien here was kind enough to take pity on you when you tried to impale yourself on his car bumper. It was sheer dumb luck you picked one of the few men in the area, possibly theonlyman in the area, who could sense what you are, and take measures to not only keep you safe from your pursuers, but bring you to me, someone who’s spent decades helping our kind to adapt, and to hide. And all you’ve done so far is to complain and throw a tantrum, then snap at Lucien when he’s trying to help. You need to grow the fuck up.”
I held my breath. Dalziel was old enough and senior enough to say whatever the hell he wanted to, and for the person on the other end to take it. But did Charley have the sense to lower his gaze and keep his trap shut, like anyone with a whit of self-preservation would?
He did not.
“Like you actually care!” he spat. “You’re pissed to find out you’re a daddy. I get that. Must be one hell of a shock after three hundred years of fucking your way across the globe without a care. But spare a thought for me, would ya? Bad enough my papa never gave me a thought and sure as shit doesn’t want me around, butI’m. Not. Human.And yeah, maybe I’m having alittletrouble with that. I didn’t ask for you to be my sire, or master or what the fuck ever you call yourself! I’msosorry to be such a fucking inconvenience.” He shoved his chair back, the legs making an ungodly screech on the floorboards, and glared at Dalziel. “You know what? I’m done here. I’m not going to apologise to anyone for finding this whole thing a huge fucking ordeal! Luc, I’m sorry I wasted your time. I need my bags. I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Oh Jesus,” I breathed. Charley had a death wish. I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure Icouldmove. Even the slightest chance of Dalziel going full angry vamp was enough to keep me glued to my seat.
Dalziel sighed, louder than the previous time. “Stay right there.” The command was loaded with power. He didn’t even have to raise his voice for the hairs on the back ofmyneck to stand up; quite a feat considering we were different species and I’d been known to mentally flip off my own alpha even as he stared me down.
Charley didn’t stand a chance. His knees locked as if they’d been zapped. Half in, half out of his chair, he vibrated with anger, but was impotent to defy his sire. I held my breath until the tension in the air dropped down a notch from nuclear, and only exhaled as Charley eased his limbs back into his seat.
18
CHARLEY
I was done.I was beyond done. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but I didn’t have the energy to move, or to indulge in a therapeutic sobbing fit. I felt a lone tear slide down my cheek and I couldn’t even be arsed to brush it away. Fuck Dalziel. Fuck vampires. Fuck my life.
Dalziel walked over to the fireplace and pressed a button set into the wall. Within moments, Eleanor poked her head around the door. “Yes, sir?”
“Find a chaser please.” He glanced back at me. “A woman, I think. Someone motherly would be ideal. Come and find me when you’ve done it. In the meantime, send Pavel in with some dinner for my guests.”
He came and sat down again, his expression guarded. “You will eat,” he addressed me. “And then you will apologise to Lucien. I do not approve of your liaison but I can tell you have some affection for the wolf, and I would like to think your conscience will bother you if you don’t make it right between you.”
I nodded dully. I felt awful for yelling at Luc, but my head was a massive ball of soggy cotton wool and a throbbing pain had sprung up behind my eyeballs.
A pale, blond-haired man of indeterminate age entered the room, pushing a wheeled trolley on which were two of those fancy silver domes like you see in films where the posh hotel has room service. He waited until Dalziel beckoned for him to approach the table, then set two places, for Luc and for me. He removed the domes with a slight flourish, revealing two roast beef dinners. Luc moaned softly by my side, and my mouth watered. Perhaps I could eat. I was emotionally shattered, but my stomach didn’t know that.
Dalziel waited until we’d got stuck in, then rose. “I require some exercise. I shall return within the hour. Press the bell as you saw me do if you require anything, or return to your room.” He hesitated. “Or there is a library in the next room to the right of this one, if you prefer.”
We ate in silence apart from the metallic scrape of cutlery on porcelain. As I chewed, my headache began to recede. The food was exquisite, the beef almost totally pink, and I wondered why Dalziel kept staff who could cook when he obviously didn’t require human food. Oh, except Eleanor was human, I was fairly sure. And considering the size of this estate, he probably employed a handful of people to manage its upkeep. Stood to reason they weren’t all vampires.
I turned to Luc. “How come I can tell Eleanor is human? But I don’t think Pavel is? What am I picking up on, or am I fooling myself and I don’t have a clue?”
He paused in the act of spearing a chunk of roast potato. “I’m not doing all the work for you,” he said in a subdued tone. “Think about it, Charley. Think about the differences and you’ll work it out.” He sighed and picked up his glass of water. Pavel had brought us a bottle of red wine, but Luc hadn’t touched it so I left it alone too. I’d fucked up enough this evening, so I’d take my cues from him now.
I frowned, and tried to recall every detail of the people I’d met today. Dalziel, of course, I already knew was a vampire. Pavel was very pale-skinned, which could be a clue, but in this case I didn’t necessarily think so, so what about him was substantially different from Eleanor?
By the time I was setting down my knife and fork, I was confident enough to ask, “Is it their heartbeats? Eleanor’s is faster, similar to yours. But Dalziel’s is very slow, barely noticeable.”
