Page 57 of Tell Me Why
She pressed her lips for a moment, then went on.
“So my father went against them. Tried to squash the trade, and it… moved away from him. He still wants to hunt it down and break it, but we need to know who the actual men are who aredoingit.”
“Fool’s errand, my lovely,” Tell said. “Once the power starts to flow, it’s like water. It forms ruts thatremember. It just takesanother big storm, and everything starts back up exactly the way it was.”
“Are you arguing that it’spointless?” Isabella asked.
“I am,” Tell said, shifting. “And if that’s what Keon sent me here to do, to help you hunt down and kill vampires who are drunk on power… he’s misunderstood everything about everything. Even if he were only doing it pragmatically, to protect his station in the world, it’s impossible. He can either muscle in andtakethe whole thing, keep running it to keep everyone else out, or he needs to figure out how to age gracefully. There’s no middle ground.”
“Seriously?” Tina asked. “You’ve got vampires factory-farminghuman beings, turning them and then commoditizing theirbodies, and you just shrug and say que sera sera?Really?”
“Do not mistake Keon’s interest in this for humanitarianism,” Tell said. “He doesn’t like that the low vampires got uppity and he wants to put them back into their place. He is not theheroin this story.”
“Butwe could be,” Tina said.
Tell’s feet scuffed against the tree trunk as he shifted to get up.
“Tina, have I ever taken you for granted?” he asked as he came to stand on the limb next to Isabella, en route to getting down.
“Probably,” Tina said. “But not that I would complain about.”
“You have reminded me of a great many things that I used to be,” he said. “Things I had forgotten. And you point towards hope and optimism in the use of effort, that things can matter and that we are able to change them. Iappreciateyou for those things. But there’s a reason I’ve lived in the same city for as long as I have, and that I refuse to leave. That I don’t travel at all. I turned my back on thesebigthings. I am adetective. I do what I do because I am good at it and it issafefor me to do it. Becauseyou have no idea how intoxicatingpoweris. How carelessly she could toss you aside, how she wouldlaughat your helplessness. And not because she isfundamentallyterrible. Because the things inside of us that make us what we are… I don’t know if it comes from being a vampire or if it just persists from our humanity… it makes that power to decide the fates of others a source ofgiddiness. I know myself. I won’t do it again.”
There was a truth there that he’d never hinted at before. He’dtoldher, but not in a way that made ittrue.
She nodded.
“Okay,” she said, and he nodded back, shifting down to the next limb.
“But you are a detective,” Isabella said, not moving yet.
Tell paused.
“I am,” he answered.
“So what if my intention in telling you all of this wasn’t to recruit you to my cause, but toinformyou as an employee?” she asked.
He lifted his chin.
“I’m listening.”
“I need you to find the men who are hidden within Daryll’s organization,” she said. “They’re spying on both of us, trying to run him out of business. I need to track them back to the men who employ them - I believe there are multiple organizations represented here, already - and get that list to my father. Names and the location of their headquarters.”
“And meanwhile keep you alive,” Tina said, and Isabella shrugged.
“I fear little for my actual safety,” she said. “But, yes, if bodyguard services are included.”
Tina looked at Tell, who drew a slow breath, then nodded.
“You played me,” he said. “I won’t forget that.”
“I had no options, by the time you arrived,” Isabella said. “I didn’t know if I could trust you. I didn’tplayyou. I verified that you could be trusted, just as I will every time we meet in the future. We aren’t bound together, Tell. I thought you were more correctly cynical than that.”
“If I am going to help you, I need a legitimate role within your home, not just to be Daryll’s hostage,” he said.
“I’m working on it,” Isabella said. “Hecan’tknow why I’m here. I havenoallies here, before this night. And he doesn’t like you. You don’t help, you know.”
“He is…” Tell started, then nodded. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to get along with him. He is not of a kind that I can natively associate with.”
