Unsure what to say to that, I kept swiping my tongue along my teeth, going for a thoughtful silence.
“Linus is every bit as skilled as Maud was at his age.” Amusement suffused her voice. “How is Boaz? And our Amelie?”
“She’s adjusting, bored out of her mind, but she’s making peace.” I got all gooey inside when I told her, “Boaz came for a visit when he heard I was hurt. I wish he could have stayed longer. I miss having him around.”
The sound she made in the back of her throat could have meant anything from ain’t true love grand to it’s easier to miss what’s not in front of you. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Odette.
Without question, her attachment was to Linus. She was fond of Boaz, in the way Maud had been, content with our friendship as long as it led to nothing more. But I lived in fear of her picking a side, not that there were sides to be chosen, but I wanted a surprise. I wanted to make my own choices, my own mistakes, even if that meant getting my heart broken.
“You’re excited,” she decided. “I can tell. What’s making you happy, so I can join in the celebration?”
“Linus invited me to join him in Atlanta for a short trip. He’s meeting a colleague at Strophalos to work on a project, and he thought I might enjoy a tour of the campus.”
“Ah. Already he has learned the way to your heart.” She cackled. “What do you need from me?”
“I don’t always call begging favors.” Thinking back on the reasons for my last several calls, I deflated. “Maybe I do only call when I want something, but I don’t mean to. I don’t want you to feel like I’m using you.”
“You’re family,” she chided. “You can ask me for anything, bébé, and I will give it to you if it is within my power.” Laughter threaded her voice. “You want me to spend a few days with Woolly, yes? To keep an eye on Amelie while you’re in Atlanta?”
“I thought you couldn’t read me?”
“You have an unorthodox houseguest. You have an unorthodox house. You want to go on a short trip, and you would never leave either unprotected. You don’t have to be a seer to understand that, Grier.” The ocean roared to life across the line. She must have stepped out onto the beach that was her backyard. “I will pack my things. Let me know when you need me.”
“I’ll do that.” I paused. “Odette?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re more than welcome.” Seagulls cried in the distance. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
Pivoting on my heel, I tapped the phone against my chin and watched Woolly for a moment.
I might have won this battle, but the war was far from over.
Eight
“Seventy-two hours,” I stressed to Woolly. “Three days, a long weekend.”
Woolly killed the lights throughout the house, leaving me standing in the dark.
“Amelie will be here,” I reminded her. “You won’t be alone.”
A death rattle of laughter shook the blacked-out chandelier.
“Okay, bad example.” Woolly’s grudge was airtight on that front. “How about Oscar?”
Light flickered in a single bulb. She was listening.
“I can’t bring him with me. It’s too dangerous. You’re the only one I trust to protect him.” I played my trump card. “And I asked Odette to stay. What do you say to that?”
Two more bulbs sparked to life, and a third blinked with indecision.
“She doesn’t know about Oscar moving in yet,” I tempted her mischievous side. “Think how much fun you two can have with her until she figures it out.”
Brightness exploded in the room, and my eyes ached like they had been stabbed, but she was onboard.
“Boaz might have been half the reason I was always in trouble as a kid,” I told her, “but you’re the other half.”
Warmth spooled up my leg from the floor register, and I leaned into her hug. Right in time for her to blast arctic air up the leg of my pajama shorts.
“Dang it.” I hopped out of range. “That was evil.”
Lights winked to life throughout the rest of the house as her laughter trailed her.
With two out of three parties in agreement, I sought out the third. I found Amelie in the parlor Maud had decorated as an office. She never worked in there. It was all for show. But Amelie was putting it through its paces. With her damp hair swept up in a bun on top of her head, and her matching pajama set—a marked improvement over the tank top and boy shorts combo—she looked like a young professional at work. If you overlooked the Smurfs frolicking across her thighs.
“So,” I started. “Atlanta.”
“You cleared it with TPTB?” She kept writing until she finished her thought. “The trip is a go?”
“The Powers That Be have agreed to let Odette hang out while I’m gone.”
“Woolly is still mad at me.”
“Yeah, she is.” She took things like attempted murder seriously. Given Maud had bled out on these planks while Wooly bore witness, unable to save her, I couldn’t blame the old girl for clinging to her remaining family.
“That’s fair.” She tossed her pen on the desk. “I hope you have a good time.”
“Me too.” I sank in the chair opposite her. “I’m nervous.”
“This is your first trip after…” Her lips twisted against speaking the word. “You’ll be fine. Linus will protect you.” A shrug rolled through her shoulders. “He proved that at the Lyceum.”
Amelie’s recollection of those events was hazy at best thanks to the whammy from the wards Linus and I had used to contain her aboard the Cora Ann. All she recalled for sure was what happened after, during her trial, when Linus uncovered a plot to send half a dozen vampires to attack Woolworth House.
The Grande Dame had played to her audience and made them all believe the vampires had wanted to do me harm, but we both knew the truth. They wanted to capture me and drag me back to the Master.
At least Volkov was no longer booking our honeymoon trip. Though his absence might make things worse. There was no guarantee just because he was out of the picture that the Master hadn’t lined up another goon to tie the knot with me in the misplaced hope it would bind me to his clan by vampire law.
“I’m tired of being protected,” I sighed, “but you’re right. I’ll be safe with Linus.” And Cletus.
Amelie twisted her fingers on the desktop. “Grier…”
“Hmm?”
“I support what you’re doing. You’re making yourself stronger and smarter, better able to take care of yourself.” Her hesitation told me I wasn’t going to like what came next. “But you have to keep in mind there’s a reason why you’re being protected.”
Ice glazed my spine as I stood there, frozen, waiting on her to out me as goddess-touched, and it was almost a relief to have it in the open.
“First Atramentous, then Volkov, then me.” Her chin dipped. “It’s like you’ve got a bull’s-eye painted on your back. I don’t know why that is, but maybe we should find out?”
Torn between relief and disappointment, I nodded. “I’ve been thinking along the same lines.”
“That’s why you contacted the Marchands,” she realized. “You’re already digging.”
“Yeah, I am.” How deep, I couldn’t tell her. Not yet. Maybe not ever. “I want to know what happened to Maud.” While the truth, it wasn’t the whole truth. “There might be answers there.”
After all, Maud had known what I was, and had been terrified enough to lock her library and throw away the key to keep others from reviving her knowledge.
“Have you tried asking Woolly?” Amelie glanced around the room. “Your connection is back online, right?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed hard. “And no. I haven’t asked her.”
I had no excuse for not posing the question now that our bond had been revamped. Except fear. More like pants-wetting terror.
Whatever she had witnessed would get shot straight into my head, and I…wasn’t sure I could handle it.