Takashi managed a weak smile, no joy reaching his eyes. “I ran away from home to become a trapeze artist with a traveling circus. My childhood wasn’t terrible, not in the least, but myparents were struggling, and I didn’t want the future I saw with them. The trapeze was exciting. Almost as exciting as the feelings I had for the boy performer. So I hid in the circus’s wagons. When the performers eventually discovered me, they were furious, but I refused to tell them where I came from, and the ringleader had too much of a heart to drive an immigrant boy away. I practiced with an untampered passion, even when my first two years were nothing but endless chores between those late-night practices. Eventually, I became what I wanted. I was even performing with the boy I’d fallen in love with.
“Some performers of our merry band were shifters. It’s a lot easier to ‘tame the lion’ if the lion’s a natural-born were-lion who has full control of his senses. We’d heard tale of Taliville, and the management believed it would be the perfect place to winter. I knew of vampires, was told not to venture out into the night on my own, and knew that the town didn’t have a mayor but a vampire mistress, Nell.
“We were set to perform for New Year’s in order to keep our skills sharp and garner some of that sweet applause we all lived on. The boy I’d secretly loved found out. He … he wasn’t happy about it.” Takashi paused.
Zack reached out and put his hand on top of Takashi’s. When Takashi glanced his way, Zack tried to smile. “He was an idiot?”
“A bigot as it turned out,” Takashi murmured, his smile still broken. He was trying, though, and he held on to Zack’s hand. “I don’t know if he let me fall on purpose during that performance or if it was an accident. Nell certainly blamed him. He was the one she’d brought to my grave for my first kill, so I never had a chance to ask him.”
Zack winced. “Brutal.”
“We are not kind creatures by nature,” Takashi replied. “But my making was a mercy. Nell thought me a light too beautiful to leave the world, so when I fell forty feet to the hard ground, sherushed to my side. If I hadn’t taken her blood, I would have had an eternity of painful minutes left on this earth.”
“You didn’t die instantly on hitting the ground?” Zack scoffed at himself. “I mean, of course you didn’t, because you had time to drink her blood. But was there any chance you would’ve lived?”
“No.” Takashi waited a long beat before continuing. “I wanted so badly to live, and Nell gave me her magic. I had a bit more than the average sireling, and the metaphorical water was far colder than what most sirelings receive.” He turned off the tub. “I think you had the same cold but something more like this volume.”
The tub was half-full. With the size and depth of the tub, it was enough water for Zack to submerge himself. And it was far, far more than the amount it had been before. He stared at the depths. “But he’d have to offer this much.”
“He would.”
Zack reached for the water. The memory of his last mortal moments began, but he focused on the present rather than letting it sweep away his mind. “I wanted the strength to destroy him. I wanted to avenge us. Why would he give me this much? What’s the point in setting all this up? What’s his angle?”
“I’m not sure, but figuring it out is my priority.” Takashi linked his fingers with Zack’s and squeezed. “I am grateful I won’t have to do it alone.”
“Roger’s out there,” Zack said. “We could break out of here. Steal my dagger back and run.”
“Close your eyes,” Takashi said.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Zack sighed and did so.
“Raise your right hand.”
Zack did.
“Now your left.”
“What is the?—”
“Just listen to me for a moment and do what I say.”
“Fine.” Zack raised his left hand.
“Drop them both to your lap. Head down, head up. Turn left.” Takashi kept the instructions quick. “Where’s Seamus?”
“Down a floor and one hundred and eighty feet to the north,” Zack said without thinking. Startled, he opened his eyes. “How the fuck did I know that?”
“You’re a brand-new sireling. You’re connected that deeply.” Takashi’s gaze was on the water for a long, long moment. Then he seemed to come back to himself. “You need to get cleaned up.”
“Will you help me?” Zack asked. “Feels like the dirt is everywhere.”
Takashi grinned, and this time, there was a bit of happiness in his eyes. “I’d be happy to, so long as we can keep ourselves from a lust spiral.”
“Eh, no promises.” Zack stripped off his filthy suit jacket. “It’s better to think about that than everything else going on in my head.”
