Page 79 of Bishop's Flight
“People think having athletic ability is rare. Not everyone is tall and good at basketball, you know? Not every personexpectsto be good at sports.”
“But all people expect to be smart?” Brigid turned back to the door and started to feel around the seams. Maybe the hinges were vulnerable.
“No, but no person wants to feel dumb.”
She turned to look at him again. “That’s true.”
“Yeah.”
She started heating the bottom hinge of the door, sending heat into the joint as she applied pressure with her shoulder. Any movement would mean—
“Fuck me!” She jumped back when the trigger released again. A cloud of frost and the smell of cold air filled the room. “Lucas, you okay?”
“It’s liquid nitrogen,” he said. “It would take a lot more than that to poison me. You wouldn’t die, obviously. Vampires can’t die from asphyxiation. You just stop talking.”
His clinical voice rubbed her the wrong way and she didn’t know why. “Do you like being smart, Lucas?”
“What kind of question is that?”
She looked over her shoulder.
He was smiling at her. “It just is.”
Brigid smiled back. “Yeah.”
“Better question.” He scooted to the edge of the bed. “What’s your favorite thing about being a vampire?”
“Honestly?” She leaned against a wall so as not to frighten the boy. “I love being someplace empty. A field or an island or something like that. Something with lots of fuel where I can feed my fire and the energy grows and grows and consumes everything. It gives me strength. I feel powerful and alive.”
His eyes narrowed. “You can’t feel powerful here because if you let go of your power—your fire—you’ll kill me.”
She nodded.
“But if you didn’t care about killing me, you could escape easily.”
She pointed to the wall she was leaning against. “I could explode. Turn myself into a bomb and blast my way out. If you weren’t human, you might even survive. I’ve done it before.”
“But Iamhuman, so I’d die?” Lucas nodded. “That’s probably what Zasha wanted, right? To make you feel powerless.”
“I’m sure that’s something they’re enjoying, yeah.”
“And since you’re an ethical vampire, you won’t kill someone you were hired to protect.”
“I wouldn’t kill you even if I didn’t know you,” Brigid said. “You’re an innocent.”
His cheeks reddened. “Not really.”
“In my world, you’re an innocent. Trust me.” She smirked. “For a teenager? I don’t have any idea about that.” His face was still red and his blood smelled even more delectable. Brigid swallowed the heat in her throat and turned back to the wall, feeling the panel for something—anything—that could be exploited as a weakness. “What’s your favorite thing about being a genius?”
“Chess.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Chess?”
He nodded. “It’s a battle game. Did you know that? It originated in India as a military strategy game. The pieces we call castles or rooks were chariots. The bishops were elephants.”
“I’ve known a couple of bishops in my life. One might be mistaken for an elephant.”
It was useless. Brigid turned, let herself slide down the wall, let her arms rest on her knees.
