A cold sense of betrayal washed over her, but she stuffed it down. It wasn’t on Bureau 7 to give her the rundown of every project they had in development, even though it felt like Polidori had been laughing at her. This wasn’t about her. It had to be about the science.
His regard didn’t seem so remote or condescending anymore. He was just John again. “Hey, chin up. You’ve made strides where no one else has. You’re still the one who gets to move forward with the research. Don’t let something as silly as human morality keep you from accomplishing something great.”
She pressed her lips together. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Elizabeth saw something in his face and spoke again. “If you tell me it’s a need to know basis and I didn’t need to know, I’m going to kick you.”
John laughed. “It’s like many things between us, I thought it was understood. You’re a brilliant woman, Elizabeth.” He left the rest unspoken, just like the knowledge that passed between them.
Warmth suffused her at his praise. In his position, she wondered if she’d still be able to see the world as he did. As something to explore and discover. Part of what made her job hard was lack of time. There was never enough time to do everything that needed to be done, or everything she wanted to do. The hands on the clock always seemed to be spinning. But what if they weren’t? If she had nothing but time, what would she do with it?
“Did I render you speechless, dear Elizabeth, with my compliment?” His smile was warm and genuine, no trace of the predator, only John.
“I was thinking of other things unspoken. Those that I know to be true.” She referred to the fact he was a vampire.
“Shall we speak of them now, in this moment before the fall?”
She knew exactly what fall he spoke of. This moment, it was brand new. It was a beginning. It was infancy. It was innocence. What came next was… something else. Something that would make this time inaccessible, even in memory because it would change them irrefutably. “No, I don’t suppose they matter anymore now than they did then.”
“I must. Just this one thing. You remind me of her.” His regard was keen, as if even know, he was stacking and weighing her merit.
“Of Mary?” Something in her rebelled. She was so tired of being compared to her by people who didn’t actually know either of them, but this creature who did? A million times worse. She wasn’t a silly little girl running off to marry a tragic, aged poet twice her age. She was a doctor, a scientist.
“I know that’s not what you want to hear, but yes. She had an insatiable curiosity. A certain fire. Once she set her sights on something she wanted, there was nothing that could stand in her way.”
“But all she wanted was a man. I’ve got bigger plans.”
“Are you sure about that?” Polidori eyed her. “Maybe she’d be just as disappointed with her legacy as you are.”
“Really?”
“She wanted to be a doctor for the same reasons you did. Her mother died of a brain tumor. Seems the Wollstonecraft line is rotten with them.”
He was a master manipulator. She knew his words had been designed to push her forward, to jump into this aberration with both feet. Elizabeth had made her choice, but not because Polidori told her to. Or implied that if she didn’t, she’d be the one with the brain tumor.
“Then why wasn’t she? Why she did she spent her holidays at debauched house parties and chasing after a married man?”
“I’m surprised at the moral judgement in your tone.”
“She was a child. A silly child that wrote a silly book.”
Polidori seemed all predator again. “There are things you don’t know about that night. Things no one knows. Mary trained as a doctor in secret. That’s why we were all together that night.”
“And the orgy, don’t forget that part.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
“So we engaged in a bit of fun, the four of us. What does that matter?” Polidori smiled, his teeth too white, too perfect. “I wanted to change them, you know. Bring them with me on the rest of this journey, but George wouldn’t hear of it and Percy was taken from us much too soon.” Polidori was silent for a long moment before casting a sly glance in her direction. “And Adam. He wouldn’t allow me near Mary with those thoughts in my head.”
Who was Adam? But she didn’t ask, because she could see how badly he wanted her to. He was so eager to share this information with her, to make her dig it out of him. She refused to indulge him.
She began gathering her papers. The subjects from the mainland would be there any moment.
“Don’t act as if I haven’t caught your interest. Come now, Elizabeth. Ask me. You’ve seen the scars on my biceps. You know you’re curious.”
“Of course I am, but you’ll tell me in your own time. Or you won’t. I’m not going to dance for you.”
“But you do it so prettily.”
“How does anyone not know you’re a vampire? You’re textbook.” She shook her head.
He laughed. “My apologies, my dear. It seems I can’t help myself from taking advantage of your good nature. You must forgive me.”