Page 87 of Tell Me Why
In acentury, she might be welcome through the front door?
With him?
It was like he had no idea how far down the food chain he was.
Or he thought that she saw him as above Tell.
She served him.
Served all of them.
Stayed invisible, as far as they were concerned.
“These guys,” he said. “They treat you little better than a fountain. If you want them to treat you like an equal, you’ve got to be with someone who demands that kind of thing.”
“Oh,” Tina said, and he nodded, touching her knee again.
“Tell is clever, and he’s old, and he knows alot, but he’s not doing right by you. You might think that you’ve picked the wrong vampire, but…” He shook his head. “Even those of us who are a lot younger and maybe even less powerful, we’ve got a lot more invested in bringing up an acolyte who’s going to be worth having around in twenty-five and fifty and a hundred years. You’ve got to think on those time-scales, and you’ve got to think about your own interests.”
Tina frowned and nodded, and he stood, offering her a hand back to her feet. He leaned in to kiss her cheek, a more familiar farewell, but nothing of implied romance, then he nodded.
“I’m leaving. Tonight. Have an answer for me tonight. If you wait any longer than that, it might be too late.”
“I’ll think about it,” Tina answered, and he nodded, then lifted a hand and started back toward the entrance of the warehouse, around the hillside, where a car would be waiting for him.
Probablyhiscar.
He was here as a free man, near as mattered.
Puzzled, Tina went in to find Tell.
“You ready to get out of here?” he asked, and Tina nodded, looking over at the technicians. She didn’t know if they slept here or elsewhere. There was a lot that went on here in the lab that she didn’t know about.
“Good,” Tell said, indicating the door. “So am I.”
“For a minute,I thought he was going to hit on me,” Tina said, eying her coffin as they sat in her room at the apartment.
“He wouldn’t do that,” Tell said. “He thinks you’re too far below him.”
“He swore that they aren’t all like that, when they aren’t at Daryll’s house,” she said. “That they’re just posturing for each other’s benefit. He was implying that he could actually beniceto me, under other circumstances.”
“Possible,” Tell said. “But I doubt it. He’s still too invested in social climbing to let himself get associated with you as anything but an underling.”
“Ginger tried tokillme, and she never treated me this badly,” Tina said, and Tell laughed.
“It’s a funny thing about mountains,” Tell said. “Some people get to the top and will fight to the death to keep anyone else from making it, and some people get there and wonder why in the world they ever cared.” He looked sideways at her. “Ginger found that she didn’t like anyone else telling her what she ought to want, and she’s never been under anyone’s control, ever since.”
There was something very liberating and very true about that, actually.
“He told me not to tell you,” she went on. “And that if I want, he’ll get me away from you.”
“I need to think on it,” Tell said. “Venus, though.”
Tina nodded, and he sighed, looking at the door, just working things through.
“It sorts them,” he said. “Almost completely. I’ve got a few more questions, then I need to work my way back upstream. I need to know who he’s working for and where they are. I’m close. You did well.”
“How much of it was a pure lie?” Tina asked.
