Page 29 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
He walked back around his desk, sat. “I’ll talk to Marco about obtaining safe passage. I know nothing about him, as yet. What do you know of him? How do you feel about him?”
“He’s apparently one of the boogiemen of the vampire world, according to a friend who, it turns out, is a freaking eagle shifter. As for how I feel about him? I recognized him right away. I knew, without a doubt, he was the man from my dreams, and as soon as I saw him, I knew the psychiatrists and therapists who were so sure my young brain had created a savior, some kind of avenging knight who vanquished my enemy, as some kind of coping mechanism—”
“Yes, that we all misjudged the situation, assuming we were dealing with the mundane, temporal world and not a brutal fight between vampires that resulted in a child’s memory being overwritten. In this case, you knew your mind, and we were flat wrong. Every one of us. Did he deny who he is, or did he readily admit it?”
“The latter, and he telepathed, talked to me in my head, right off the bat when people were around who didn’t need to hear what we were saying to each other. He’s promised to never lie tome, and then took it farther and promised to never be dishonest, and I want to believe him.” She took a breath. “Idobelieve him, which I understand isn’t good at this early stage, but I know in my heart he won’t hurt me, and lying to me would hurt me.”
“Okay, and wewilldive into that, but let’s get some easier things resolved and answered first. Text my office when you have an address and the okay for me to come tomorrow evening around 5:15. If he doesn’t want me to know where he’s bedding down, and he may not, I’ll need to speak with him directly to work out a place and time.”
She nodded, and he moved back to his usual chair. “Anything I can answer for you?”
“What are you?”
“I’m a werewolf.”
“Do you know someone who can teach me how to shield my brain?”
“I do. She’s a therapist, though she isn’t accepting patients at this time. I’ll contact her and give her your information. She’s quite busy, but I’ll find someone else I trust if she isn’t able to.”
“What is she?”
“I can only tell my own secrets. If she wants you to know what she is, she’ll have to tell you.”
“Which means she isn’t human?”
He shook his head. “She knows about supernaturals, as do you. I can’t speak to her humanity, or not.”
They spent the rest of the hour talking about the two kisses, then how her attitude about the trauma at five had shifted now that she’d met her knight in shining armor. The sense ofrightnessshe felt, knowing for a fact what she’d felt was the truth all her life — the dreams were more accurate than her memories. When he brought up the instant trust she was assigning him, Aury told him while she’d decided to believe him,she wasn’t going to stop using discernment, stop considering his motives, his words, his actions.
When her time was up, she was delving into the fact she hadn’t dated, hadn’t had normal boyfriends, because she’d been waiting for him to return.
When Aury made it home, she opened a document on her laptop to type out everything she’d learned about Axel. He’d grown up in South or Central America, based on the spider that bit him when he was human. He was one-third demon but didn’t know it until centuries after being a vampire. He was ruthless as a human, and apparently even more so after being turned. He’d lived in France when she had, but lived in Egypt now.
This meant he was likely multilingual, and she made a note at the bottom of the document for questions to ask, the first being what languages he spoke.
When she finished writing everything down she knew, she did a search for when chess was first played, and then researched how the rules have changed over time. She tried to figure out how that might make him play differently than someone who’d recently learned, but wasn’t terribly sure she could make reliable speculations.
She had a live event scheduled for two o’clock, and she touched up her hair and makeup, changed into a shirt that showed cleavage without being slutty, and went into her studio. She prided herself on having more followers than anyone else in the chess world, but her numbers weren’t close to the big-name influencers and podcasters.
But that was okay. She had a huge, loyal fanbase. She made some slight adjustments to the lights, tested the sound, and then looked through her bulleted list of things she needed to cover.
She talked about chess-world stuff first, covered the latest news, postulated on who might have the upper hand in an upcoming tournament, and then finally talked about herself.
The pretty young girl with the horrible limp who frequently used an electric scooter for longer walks through hotels and conference centers was well known. She’d long ago told her fans that an injury when she was five years old had messed her knee up, including the growth plates. She’d shared that she was going in for a total knee replacement beforehand, and had kept everyone updated on her progress, so today she told them she was walking around downtown a little, still having to take it easy until her physical therapists gave her the all-clear.
She’d been so relieved when she’d finally been able to take baths again, and soak in the hot tub, and she’d shared that news with her fans weeks earlier.
She ended the broadcast with information about how to contact her if they wanted one-on-one lessons or strategy help, with a link that would lead them to her rates, and she signed off.
For years, she’d published lessons in how to play chess, delving into the different strategies and moves. They were tagged as beginning, intermediate, and advanced, and her analysis was that the intermediate lessons got the most views over the long term, so she mostly focused on those, with the occasional advanced lesson. She’d covered everything in the beginner category she could think of, but once a month she made an updated version of an older beginner video, redoing it with snazzier effects in her current hairstyle, and clothes in fashion now rather than years before.
She enjoyed the short walk to talk to her Maman, who’d of course watched her live broadcast, and then walked back to her place an hour later, changed into the outfit she’d wear for her date with Axel, and stopped to get food on her way to Ruby’s apartment.
Ruby wasn’t home, which wasn’t surprising. Aury had a key and let herself in. It was warmer today, nearly seventy degrees, but she decided against eating on the balcony. Had Ruby chosenthe top floor to make her inner bird happy? The two of them needed to have a serious talk about that kind of thing, and soon.
Aury set her meal up on the island, sat at one of the barstools, and considered what she’d advise a friend in her situation.
And quickly realized everything she planned to do went against the advice she’d give a friend. Still, it was a good exercise.
