Page 28 of Tell Me Why
The house was very much made of windows, and the fact that those windows weren’t designed to keep the sunoffher was apparent. Even in the basement, up against a wall that was basically cut down into the stone, she could feel the sun peering at her through a glass door and two layers of sheetrock.
It was hard to breathe.
The fact that she didn’tneedto breathe didn’t make it better.
She ached with the depth of the burn, the inability to escape. She’d reached the point, some time back, where she could shift slightly if she wanted to, perhaps going so far as to roll over to her other side, but this was a merciless incapacitation.
As the sun rose, it abated some, the stories of the house helping to insulate her more, but she had real, bitter regret for the first time in a while, there in her bed, that she couldn’t sleeppeacefullylike she had for the entirety of her human life.
Rest.
Vampires knew how to partake in indulgence and pleasure, and they seemed to move with a grace of motion thatimpliedrestfulness, but they didn’t rest. They just relaxed.
Oh, how she missed it, waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Dusk came and this time the stone wall actually did protect her. She heard Tell up and moving, heard him stop outside of her door.
“I’ll have someone in early tomorrow morning to improve our insulation on the east wall,” he said. “It won’t be that bad again tomorrow.”
Tina would have thanked him, but she felt like overcooked bacon, yet, and didn’t have the vitality to manage it.
Finally, perhaps an hour and a half later, she got up and stretched, dressing and grooming for the day and going up to find Tell in the kitchen on the main floor, eating yogurt.
“Last call for grocery service is surprisingly late,” he observed. “Finding a contractor to put in a lead wall proved more difficult, but I did find a wedding decorator willing to do some rather creative installation work for a gothic-themed wedding.” He looked over at the patio. “I may have agreed to flowers, though.”
Tina snorted.
“Thank you,” she said, and he nodded.
“It’s certainly not a comfortable way to spend a day for me, either,” he said. “If we weren’t incognito, I would have rented from a specialist who knows how to handle vampires’ needs, specifically, but we’ll make do with this for the time being. Once I’ve spoken to Isabella, either we will be able to go home or we will find more acceptable accommodations.”
“Why would we stay?” Tina asked. “This is just in and out, isn’t it?”
“I…” He paused, then went to get the coffee pot off of its stand and poured each of them a cup of coffee, resting with his elbows on the counter as he considered the rest of his answer. “I mistrust that this is anything like simple, or else Keon would have asked me simply for Isabella’s location. That he wants me tospeakto her… the more I think about it, the more concerned I am that there are important facts not yet in evidence.”
Tina considered this for a moment as she drank her coffee, then shook her head.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “I mean, I neverdidunderstand why they wanted to be sure thatIwas going to be here, if you were just here to deliver a message…”
“One question among many,” Tell said, motioning at her with his mug. They were cute mugs. Mooses on them.
Meeses?
“But how could it be any more complicated? All they did was ask you to come and find her and tell her something.”
Tell licked his lips and nodded.
“One of the… roadblocks to blackmail and hostage taking is being unable to communicate with your target,” he said. “If you can’t make a threat, they can’t be put under pressure to behave the way you want them to.”
“So we’re here delivering a hostage threat,” Tina said. “That’s charming.”
“I’d do it, to be out from under him,” Tell said. “But he knows me too well for that. I’d deliver the threat, then undermine its effectiveness, if I didn’t agree with what he was doing. I may not have always been a good guy, but I’mnevera soldier.”
“So why would he choose you to be the one who would deliver the threat?” she asked. “Instead of just asking where she was and sending Italian Andrew to do it?”
