The Death Thief

Unspoken Agreement

I then left the lounge without further disruption and I emerged to find the last bit of orange choked out by the dark hold of night. Since the town was nestled in the mountains, the days were short, even during the spring and summer. Though the town was founded before vampires were counted amongst the population, I still speculated that the Archmage Elizabeth took such things into consideration when she broke ground on her very unique town.

With the night young and dark, a near full moon still climbed up into the sky. I wondered about Sheriff Hathaway and his pack. I wondered if they prowled somewhere in the trees not far from the fields which neighbored the lounge. I wondered what a strong, rugged man like Everett looked like as a wolf. However, I shook the thought away and reminded myself that I didn't have time to be concerned with werewolves. At the moment, I had an agitated zombie and a shady vampire to worry about. I couldn't save Calista the day she was murdered, but this time I wasn't lost in the woods, stumbling over my own mortality. This time, I saw a chance to have purpose.

"Del."

I jumped. Shocked from my thoughts by a soft, flat voice.

"You looking for something?"

I turned around and saw Scarlett trotting towards me with her arms crossed and her tired eyes glancing between myself and the dusty sidewalk.

"I...Aren't you having dinner with Antonov?" I asked.

"He asked me to come out and talk you back in." She kicked a stone on to the road, halting her march to meet me.

"I don't want to." I wrung my hands and took a step away, but Scarlett didn't budge from where she punted another pebble from the sidewalk.

"I know," she said with a half smile, "and Antonov didn't compel me to come out here. I'm here of my own accord so you don't have to worry about me pushing you to do anything."

"Thank you," I mumbled.

"Don't thank me. Thank Lord Antonov. He could have compelled me, but he does value your freedom. He knew it wouldn't matter if you were there by force."

"Does he value my freedom or his? Doesn't he get in trouble if he uses aggressive courting?"

Scarlett just gave me another crooked grin and shrugged.

"Can I ask you something real quick Scarlett?"

"Sure, it will take them awhile to cook my chicken sandwich, they've never gotten good at cooking anything here." She followed it with a dry laugh and I wondered if that was the first time I heard true amusement in her tone.

"Who does the other VIP booth belong to?"

"That's Lady Desrosiers'. But it's a Monday so my lord has reign over the club. I mean they have separate booths so they don't have to deal with each other, but they still ended up working out a schedule so they never accidentally run into the other. What's funny, though, is that they never sat down and made that agreement. It just all came about naturally."

"So who was in that booth if it wasn't Lady Desrosiers?"

"There's only one other person allowed to use that booth and that's Bernadette's lover, Matias. A vampire she created about fifty years ago."

"Her lover?" I more mouthed the question than spoke it, but the bemused grin on Scarlett's face seemed to indicate she heard enough to know my meaning. In fact, she even went so far as to answer it.

"Vampires often have a very one-sided view of love," she said with a shrug and a shake of her head.

"I hope this doesn't come off wrong and you don't have to answer," I said, eager to make use of Scarlett since she seemed to be feeling chatty that night, "but do you love Lord Antonov?"

She took a breath and turned to the sidewalk in order to kick another stone. "I did once and I think a part of me still does. I honestly don't know. I frankly don't know anything about me anymore. I thought for sure I could have a beautiful baby with him, but now even my body is failing me. If I can't manage to do what a woman should, what can I be sure of anymore?"

I almost took a step forward, my hand even raised up from my side in order to grab her shoulder, maybe even pull her in for a hug. I saw my reflection in her sad eyes and I remembered how desperately I needed and still needed someone to simply remind me they were there. Yet, I froze, incapable of closing that gap between us.

I'm not sure she noticed my struggle. If she did, she ignored it.

"If you think that Matias might be a good option," said Scarlett with a bit more conviction in her voice, "instead of Bernadette or Lord Antonov, don't bother. Bernadette makes Natasha look accommodating in comparison. Bernadette won't even allow Matias a feeder. Doesn't matter if the feeder is male. She doesn't want to risk the chance for intimacy to build. So she instead just drains from her own feeders — all of which are women by the way, because she thinks that somehow makes what she does to Matias right — and feeds that blood to him. She's not a woman to trifle with, which by association makes Matias untouchable."

"I see," I murmured, looking back out over the street where no sign of either the zombie or vampire could be found. "Thank you for the warning." I then turned back to Scarlett, my resolution set to go find Calista and if I fell short of that, seek out Kyra for help. "I really need to go. Will you be okay telling Antonov I won't be coming?"

At this she responded with a pure smile, even revealing some teeth from between her parted pink lips. "I may not totally love him, but I still can't resist the man. I'll find a way to distract him. Don't worry about me."

And with that, she wished me good night and headed back into the Nightshade Lounge.