“Well, the boy’s got a reputation. I know you love him, that’s obvious, but do you love-love him?”
I mashed the button for the lobby hard enough my pointer smarted. “I haven’t figured out that part yet.”
“Fair enough. Do I get to know who his competition is?”
“Competition isn’t the right word.” The elevator stopped somewhere in the middle of the building, and a couple entered the booth, deep in conversation. A tingle swept down my spine, alerting me to the presence of vampires, and I tightened my grip on the phone. “I don’t have to choose.”
“No, you certainly don’t.”
“Goddess, Neely, that’s not what I meant.”
Busy choking on his coffee, he couldn’t answer.
“I meant I could stay single.”
The woman noticed me, and her stare intensified until I stopped counting down the floors. Murky green eyes swept over me, and a furrow gathered on her smooth brow. The coil of red hair crowning her head glistened under the soft lights and complemented her smart black pantsuit. Her bolero-style jacket, studded with silver, was the only flash in her ensemble, but the overall impression was stunning.
The man was her mirror image, red hair and all. Equally well turned out, he wore black slacks with a matching button-down shirt and boots. The silver flash in his outfit came from the studs adorning the wide leather belt slung low on his hips.
The couple held still the way predators do while hunting, and the man flared his nostrils, drawing in my scent.
“Are you new to the building?” Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “I haven’t noticed you.”
Unsure if that was an insult, I kept my expression and tone neutral. “I’m visiting a friend.”
“Some friend if he lets you wander unescorted,” the man huffed. “The Faraday isn’t a playground.”
“I’m not a child.” A clipped note sharpened my voice. “And I never said my friend was male.”
“She does smell of female…and cat,” his companion agreed. “That means she’s to my tastes and not yours, brother.”
“A pity,” he allowed, smirking. “Although, I am quite persuasive.”
“You didn’t hear the last five things I said, did you?” Neely buzzed in my ear. “Should I call back later?”
“No,” I all but croaked. “Keep talking.”
Concern at my voice breaking overrode his annoyance. “Are you okay? I hear voices.”
“A couple of Linus’s neighbors are introducing themselves to me.” I bucked up to keep them from closing in. “That’s all.”
The siblings recoiled at his name, their backs hitting the sides of the elevator.
The woman blanched as white as a corpse. “You’re the potentate’s guest?”
Holding on to the fragile connection with Neely, I nodded.
“Forgive our impertinence.” Her brother slammed his gaze to the floor at his feet and kept it there. “We meant no offense.”
“None taken,” I assured them, though my palms still sweated. “It was nice meeting you.”
The doors opened, and they huddled in their corner, allowing me to exit first.
Hubert looked up from behind his desk, spotted me, and charged across the marble foyer. “Are the accommodations to your liking, Dame Woolworth?”
Yep. He had spoken to the Grande Dame.
“Woolworth,” the woman gasped as the elevator sealed the siblings away from me.
The numbers ticked up—not down. They had decided against joining me in the lobby or sinking lower, into the parking deck, assuming that’s what the P button meant on the panel. For whatever reason, the combination of Linus’s name and mine had spooked them back to their room.
“Dame Woolworth?”
Swinging my focus back to Hubert, I told the polite lie. “Linus has a lovely home.”
“Are you going out? Alone?” Frantic to please, he trotted after me. “Shall I call your driver? Or would you prefer to use our car service? Only the best for our residents, and their guests of course.”
“I have a driver, but I appreciate the offer.” I picked up my pace to escape the lobby. “Still there, Neely?”
“Maybe? What I’m hearing on your end doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
“This is Linus’s world.” I shoved out into the fresh night air and sucked in lungfuls. “It makes no sense to me either.”
This whole trip was beginning to make me feel like a country mouse to his city mouse.
Savannah’s supernatural population averaged three necromancers to every vampire, which was to be expected in a city under necromantic control. But we didn’t get much variety outside that.
Mom and I had always played human, so I hadn’t come across more than the occasional necromancer or candidate for vampirism during our traveling years. We kept our heads down, settling in small towns and avoiding big cities. Even later, with Maud, we made social rounds together, and she kept to Society functions or human amusements like museums and libraries, things that fit the role she had carved out for me.
Linus was coaxing my eyes open to all the things Maud had hidden from me, starting with an education and ending with exposure to the world beyond the Lyceum and its rules. His break from Savannah ran deeper than I first realized. This wasn’t a rebellion against his mother, this was him thinning ties with her and the Society. He truly was living his own life here rather than coddled in a Society enclave like me.
“This is the real world,” Hood rumbled from his station near the door. “Your Society owns a chunk of it, but not all. Take a look around, Ms. Woolworth. What you see might surprise you.”
Startled he had spoken to me, I nodded my thanks for the advice. “I’m working on it.”
On my right, Cletus rippled into existence and evaluated Hood with a tilt of his head.
Hood’s answering chuckle allowed me to exhale with relief that I hadn’t inadvertently insulted him. “You do that.”
The doorman melted back into the shadows, and I started ambling with no destination in mind. Mostly I wanted to escape the Faraday and its menagerie of peculiar residents before having my reality stretched thinner. Cletus stuck to me, allowing me to walk off some of my jitters.
“I’m putting you on hold,” I warned Neely. “I have to call for a ride.”
“Don’t you dare.” He clicked his tongue. “I’m halfway to the car. I’ll pick you up.”
“Thanks,” I said thickly. “I could use a friendly face.”
I located a MARTA bus stop and collapsed on the slatted bench where my right leg started bouncing like it was pumping a bicycle tire.
Neely arrived fifteen minutes later, and I sprinted for the passenger seat of his car with all the grace of an antelope a hairsbreadth from being dinner for a lion. With the door shut behind me, I buckled up and exhaled like I’d run a marathon.
“I need to call Linus.” Severing the connection, even with Neely beside me, was hard. Vampires spooked me these days, a serious failing for a necromancer. “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.”
“You’ll feel better after some retail therapy,” he assured me. “I always do.” He pressed a to-go cup into my hand. “Perk Up’s hot chocolate isn’t up to your Mallow standards, but it’ll do in a pinch.”
I drained half the cup before dialing Linus. “Hi.”
“You left without telling me.” A door slammed in the background, and a cat yowled with muffled rage. “What were you thinking? Did you listen to me at all?”
Never in all our time together had he used this tone with me, and it felt like a slap in the face. Perhaps a deserved one, under the circumstances, but that didn’t lessen the sting.
“I heard your warnings.” I stared at the ceiling of the car, wondering if Neely was aware there was a soda-colored stain in the shape of a giraffe up there. “I brought my keycard with me.”
“Tell me exactly what happened from the moment you left my apartment.”
“Yes,” I feigned cheer. “I am with Neely, and we are going shopping.”
“I see.”
“You’re more than welcome to join us.”
“I planned on it,” he clipped out. “I was changing so I could go with you.”
Meiko was a dirty, rotten liar.
“Oh.”