“Naw. It’s middle of the day for you guys. I’ll … I’ll come back out here if I need you.”
As Zack started to slip away from them, Roger caught his arm. Another of their staring contests began, but Zack quickly ducked his head. Slowly, Roger let him go. “All right.”
Takashi kissed his temple, then Roger did, and finally, Zack went away to the dark master bedroom. He shucked off the clothing and took a moment in the bathroom to wash the makeup from his face. His soul still felt raw, but nothing but time could do anything about that. He crawled into bed with the rainbow teddy bear Josefina had gotten him as a get-well present and wished for a dreamless sleep.
Anything else would be too cruel.
CHAPTER 31
“Should we leave him alone?” Takashi asked.
“I don’t like it, but it’s what he wants,” Roger said with a sigh. He slunk over to the bar and sat on one of the stools. His whiskey was waiting, and he took a long drink of it. The smoothness gave way to a burn, not entirely unlike the current agony rumbling in the back of his mind.
A lotwas a pale summary of what the night had been. Now that they were out of the club and a relative measure of safety wrapped around him, Roger sank into the terrible what-ifs of what might be happening to Dmitri.
Slowly, Takashi joined him. “Should we talk about what happened?”
“Just now or at that hellhole?” Roger finished his drink and poured another.
“Either. Both.” Takashi lightly dragged his glass closer to him and half spun it. “Roger, I have no idea what to say.”
“Come on, that can’t be the worst you’ve seen,” Roger muttered.
“Anton has Dmitri. Aren’t you worried about that?”
“I’m not worried that he’ll talk. If what Anton wants is answers, then Dmitri will deprive him to the grave and beyond.”Roger took a sip of his whiskey. It wasn’t strong enough to numb him, not with his supernatural counterbalances. If he kept drinking, perhaps that would work. Anything to banish the sound of Zack’s sobs or the sight of Dmitri hitting the stage floor.
“He’ll torture him,” Takashi said.
“He’s been doing so since the night he was made, some way or another.” Roger couldn’t look away from the glass, and he closed his mind to Takashi’s radiating emotions. The truth was painful enough without knowing whether or not he was striking fear in his lover. “I was encouraged to make sirelings, you know. Everyone in the coven is. Not Dmitri. Not a word has ever been said about his lack of sirelings. I thought, well, Dmitri didn’t choose this. He wouldn’t choose to make anyone.
“But tonight. God. Tonight. Anton had the whole thing orchestrated, didn’t he? From the moment he stepped out from behind that stage. Probably whatever else he was doing beforehand.” Roger knocked back half his glass. “Anyone else who’d attempted to kill Anton would’ve been dead already, or they’d have died on that stage. But Anton continues to hold on to him. I can’t help thinking that Anton didn’t want Dmitri to make sirelings. Makes me wonder if he interfered in other ways, too.”
“Like with your relationship with him?” Takashi asked.
“Dmitri was hot and cold when we were mortals. I thought the way we were as immortals was just an extension. But that last time. Just before I met you. He … the change was sudden, and I … fuck, why didn’t we ever talk?” Roger was whispering by the end. Too much had happened. That night, the centuries, the pain, Zack’s crisis, everything was mixing into a toxic sludge that trapped his heart.
“We can use this to our advantage,” Takashi said quietly.
The words were so brutal, the sentiment so foreign that an extremely old instinct kicked in, and Roger thought his heart skipped a beat. But he hadn’t had a beating heart in centuries.Takashi’s has long been silent as well, and it shows. But that cold thought wasn’t fair. Takashi had the benefit of distance. Zack would likely wake and consider something similar.
“You think Anton will be distracted,” Roger said.
“We could move up our timetable on Seamus.”
“No.”
Takashi pivoted to face Roger. “You saw the way he was looking at Zack tonight, didn’t you?”
Roger filled both their whiskey glasses and refused to look at Takashi. “I did.”
“I don’t know what his interest in Zack is, but you know nothing good will come of it. We have to strike.”
“We have to wait,” Roger said.
Takashi grabbed his arm roughly, and the barstool swung so that they faced one another. “What the hellfor?”
“I have to be certain they will follow me.” Roger slid off the stool and walked over to the double glass doors, whiskey in hand. He rotated it slowly and watched what remained of the ice cubes continue to dwindle. “None of us will be safe if the coven decides that I’m too weak for the role of leadership. Halloween and tonight were steps to secure my position. But I also can’t be seen to be just like Seamus. I won’t allow what he does. I can’t … I can’t stomach the killing, Takashi. They were dragging in innocents and slaughtering them tonight. And the gray bands, that can’t persist. But these vampires are used to that sort of violence.”
