Page 85 of The Last Slayer
I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the ground. If I looked at him, my resolve might weaken.
And that was the damnedest thing. Our bodies were made for each other, but when it came to the thing that mattered the most—trust—we were such a miserable failure that the knowledge burned like a hot poker. Weird how when I looked at him, I saw more than a terrific roll in the hay. I wouldn’t have given a damn about all this if my attraction for him hadn’t gone beyond the physical. But who was I kidding? It could neve
r work. I was too stubborn, and he was too arrogant. He was a demon, and, for better or worse, I was a hunter. We weren’t meant to reach any compromise.
There was no middle ground.
“I’m sorry. I need to get Valerie,” I said. “This…isn’t enough to keep me here.”
Fifteen
“So there’s really nothing to tell?”
It had been over an hour since we’d left Besade, and Valerie had been rather patient. I’d expected the inquisition to start sooner.
Dressed in a white Armani robe, she looked like a fairy snow queen holding court. Her living room was decorated with furniture of the palest ivory. Every shelf held silver-framed photos of Valerie with Jack or her friends or her current boyfriend. Some even had me—well, the old me. In an odd way it made me feel special, because she didn’t like having ugly things in her home, and I was definitely ugly in the photos. She didn’t keep things she didn’t like, either. Pictures of her boyfriends were always burned the second the relationship ended. Valerie didn’t believe in carrying excess baggage.
Her bare feet rested on a birch coffee table with a glass top, ruby red toenails startling against the paleness of the wood. Since my condo was now nothing more than a charred pile of rock and lumber, she let me crash at her place, and I preferred that to a hotel room. I watched her as we sipped white wine together. It was our small treat before work, especially given all the things we’d had to put up with. Out of everyone I knew, she had the best collection of wine. I always enjoyed it, and today was no exception. Drinking dry Riesling reminded me of Toshi and his melon wine, though. I was going to miss him.
“Nothing, other than, well, you know.” I gestured at myself, feeling like a fraud. But I didn’t want to discuss my relationship with Ramiel or the outlandish warning by the Advisors or my encounter with Leh and Nathanael. Ramiel and I had no relationship worth discussing, I didn’t believe the Advisors’ mumbo jumbo, and who my mother’s current lover was—that was nobody’s business.
“Well, your voice is still the same. Eyes too, of course.” She pursed her lips slightly. “But if your mother is a slayer, doesn’t that make you one? I thought they were matriarchal.”
“I guess…” Except Ramiel had called me a dragonlady, not a slayer. I had no idea why that would be unless I was a dragonlord’s daughter.
But was I?
The lack of hard information was beginning to irritate me. Nobody in the supernatural world had wanted to tell me much except for two things: my mother was the last slayer and I wasn’t the Triumvirate of Madainsair’s favorite person. I wanted a little more biographical data than that if it turned out that I wasn’t who I thought I was all this time.
But Ramiel’s lies had forced me to go along with him instead of getting the answers I’d wanted so dearly. Every time I’d been tempted to make him explain himself, I’d had to consider whether it would be worth delaying getting the antidote for Valerie. His deception had forced me to agree to Nahemah’s offer—which I would’ve never done under other circumstances—and then when I’d finally managed to see my mother, all too soon I’d had to leave instead of spending more time with her.
He’d played me brilliantly. And I was the idiot who’d been played. If what I’d done so far hadn’t been enough for his mysterious vow, he was shit out of luck. I wasn’t jumping through any more of his hoops.
Valerie took a sip of her wine. “It’s so strange seeing you blonde. And supernaturally gorgeous. And pale.” She glanced at her hand. “Ugh, look at how disgustingly pasty I am. We should go to the beach. Get some sun. We totally deserve it after what we’ve been through.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“And tonight, we should hit some karaoke bars. Stir up a little trouble.”
I nodded.
Valerie grinned at me, but then the grin faded and an awkward silence descended. After a few moments I started feeling sad. We used to be able to talk about anything, but I was afraid we were different now. I was different.
Finally Valerie sighed. “Well, I guess we need to go in.”
“I know.”
“You think Andersen’s going to be upset?”
“Uh…probably not.” I took a deep breath. “I have a feeling he’s in league with some of the dragonlords.”
Valerie cocked an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “Just a feeling.”
“I didn’t know you could tell things like that.”
“Seem to be sharper since visiting Besade. You know, my super sixth sense.”
