Page 49

I nodded, and after Leomaris opened the van’s sliding door, we hopped down and headed toward Reynard’s idling sedan. Leomaris had said the address we were heading to was only a fifteen minute drive away.

“A token, to help ease your nerves,” Reynard said. He held out a small blue paper flower.

I plucked the delicate origami flower from his fingers. Of couse, it had been perfectly crafted, without a crease or fold out of place. “Victor, thank you. Whoever says vampires are heartless is wrong.” Zee had said it.

We climbed into the back of his car, and Victor clicked his belt home. “It’s not easy holding onto your heart after many lifetimes of hurt.”

“You got that right.” I caught Victor’s side-eye and quickly looked down, jabbing my seatbelt into its socket. “I mean, you must be right, not that I’d know anything about that. Keeping hearts, I mean.” Uh . . . “Not actual hearts. That would be weird.” I glanced up to see if this was going as badly as I thought, and saw his eyes narrowed some more. “Erm, so.” Time to change the subject. “Victor, I know you’re very good at hiding your feelings, but are you alright?”

“Your concern is unnecessary.” He straightened and stared ahead. “I will be fine, as is always the case.”

I placed the little flower on the back shelf, where it was safe. “It’s alright to feel. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be who you are, and I think who you are is special.”

“You think that?” He looked over so fast, his hair swished over his shoulders. “Why?”

“I, well . . . oh, okay, you want me to explain why?”

“Yes. You hardly know me, Adam. You know nothing of my past, of the things I’ve done to arrive at this moment, with you. We met just a few weeks ago. Why do you feel I am deserving of your care and attention?”

“I sense it, I guess. I don’t know. You know nothing of my past either, but here we are.” There was something about Victor Reynard that spoke to all the parts of me that had made mistakes and carried regrets. We were alike, him and me, although we didn’t look it or sound it. Inside, where it mattered, I understood him, and he maybe understood a little of me.

“I doubt we can compare atrocities, when I’ve had several centuries to collect regrets.”

“You can assume that, and you’d be wrong.” I held his gaze.

“Indeed,” he relented. “I forget you are not what you appear to be. It is at rare times like these, you remind me.”

I smiled and shifted in the seat, getting comfortable. “I’ve no idea what you mean, Mr. Reynard. I’m just your personal assistant out for a ride after a long, hard day at the office.”

“Of course.” A few seconds passed by with the San Francisco bay sparkling to our left before Reynard said, “I bought a print of a cat for my office wall.”

“Oh good. That’s nice.”

“I thought so. And regarding my business, Princess Daisy is exerting pressure on my finances, attempting to extort me into surrendering you.”

That wasn’t so nice. Although, I wasn’t surprised. I’d have been more surprised if the vampires had let us walk away with Reynard without trying to get him back. “Are they threatening you?”

“Her tactics alternate between threats and reward. She’s currently insisting I give you up, and in exchange I’ll be given a dukedom and take Spry’s place in the royal household.”

“Oh.” He’d be a duke. “Duke Reynard.” It did sound good.

His long lashes shuttered, and his lips hinted at a smile. “Of course, I’m not entertaining such demands, but vampires are used to getting their way . . . and we have endless patience. She will not give up. Her rewards and threats will become ever-more outrageous.”

I sighed. “One problem at a time.”

“I fear there is more happening behind the scenes that I no longer have access to.” He sent his gaze out the window again.

“Such as?”

“Such as reopening the veil, Adam.”

“What?!” I spluttered. “Do they know how?” If that happened, everything changed. More Lost Ones would pour through, now they’d mostly been accepted here. But they’d bring their wars, politics, and strife with them, and humans already had enough of their own crises without adding supernatural disasters to them all. And then there was me.

“I attempted to get some information out of the scribe, Pierce, but he was not forthcoming, now I’m an outcast.”

“Lost Ones have been trying to reopen the veil since it slammed shut in ’24. It’s probably nothing.” I hoped it was nothing.

“Indeed. Probably nothing.”