Page 9 of Bishop's Flight
Agnes had told him that, but he wasn’t really sure if it was true. Could Agnes and Rose really find him? Maybe if he’d been on land they could, but not when he was in water.
He’d been raised his entire life by two vampires, and he knew that sometimes they lied to themselves and others to make their life easier or more manageable or less stressed. All adults did that, human adults too. They didn’t realize that kids knew.
Maybe kids knew better than grown-ups.
Life was a game. It was a really complicated game sometimes, but it was still a game. There were winners and losers. You could move ahead or fall back. You could come from behind and win when no one expected you to, and you didn’t always have to be the smartest or the best at the game to win.
A lot of it was just luck.
You play with the hand you’re dealt, kid. That’s all we got.
Lucas wished Miguel was here. Miguel had taught him cards. He’d taught Lucas how to curse and how to ride a bike and helped him with his homework when he was younger. Later he taught Lucas how to shoot and how to take out a vampire’s eyes with his thumbs if he needed to get away from one.
He knew Miguel had been hired to guard him, but he felt like—not a dad, because Lucas’s dad had died a long time ago—maybe a cool uncle. Lucas knew Miguel cared about him; he looked out for Lucas.
I hope Rose doesn’t kill Miguel for losing me.
She might, and if she did, Lucas would have that on his conscience forever.
Probably Agnes would stop her. Agnes would know it was his own fault.
He’d been stupid to run away; that was obvious now. He should have known better than to go meet Angel when she asked him to ditch school. It was daytime, he’d thought.
All the real monsters came out at night.
Agnes rarely played cards. She played poker occasionally, she said blackjack wasn’t fair because she could easily count the cards, and she didn’t like statistics enough to play craps. She never gambled anything, and she never played games of chance. Agnes had taught Lucas chess before he could remember, and that was how they spent time together.
This didn’t feel like a card game, like so many of the games in high school where hundreds of kids his own age scrambled for attention and admiration based on things they had no control over like how tall they were or how much money their parents had or whether they were good at sports.
This game felt more like a game of chess, and in this game? Lucas was a pawn.
His opponent was smart, but so was Lucas.
He glanced to the right. There was a small refrigerator with wrapped sandwiches inside and some sodas. Water bottles lined the small desk across from the bed. The bathroom was tiny, but there was a toilet and a sink and a small shower. There was an ancient desk clock on a shelf with the kind of numbers that flipped over as minutes passed, so he knew what time it was.
On top of the fridge was the newspaper they’d forced him to hold when he was blindfolded. It was from the day after he ditched school. Did that mean they’d come back today and take another picture of him with a new newspaper?
Proof of life.
That’s what they called it the movies, but he didn’t know if that was accurate or just Hollywood stuff.
His fingers itched for his mobile phone. He felt disconnected and edgy, as if someone had taken away one of his senses like sound or sight.
He reached for the newspaper, opened it, and started to read.
For now there was nothing to do. For now all he could do was wait.
Four
Carwyn scanned the closet of the teenage boy they were looking for. He was searching for a shoebox or a dusty backpack or any place a young man might stash secrets. Brigid was looking through the extensive bookcases filled with fantasy and sci-fi novels while Lee tried to hack the boy’s computer.
“He’s not an idiot, I can tell you that much.” The computer was proving harder than Lee had expected. “He’s followed guidelines on security, so it’s probably random.” He snapped the laptop shut and stood. “I’m going to need to take this somewhere that I can get it hooked up to my computer if I want to try something different. Also, I’m not a vampire, and I will need sleep before you guys. I’ll probably be up until midnight if you need anything.”
Carwyn glanced at Lee. “Agnes and Rose said we could take anything we want and the house is already set up.”
Getting secure lodging in foreign territory could be laden with complications. Since Carwyn and Brigid lived in Katya Grigorieva’s territory—even though they weren’t under her aegis—she’d been able to arrange a house via her diplomatic relations with Agnes and Rose. The house was light safe, secure, and Brigid had already checked it over.
“If you want to head out, take the van,” Brigid said. “I’m sure their driver can bring us back.”
