Ignoring him, I kept looking around, hoping to gain some sliver of knowledge from his home. No magazines or glasses sitting where they didn’t belong, and a low counter separated the living area from a small kitchen on the right. It looked no bigger than some low-rent apartments I’d seen. No windows. No vents that I could see. Yep. This could very well be a dwelling in the Bricks, but either underground or in a basement.
When he returned, he gripped the back of his chair. “Anything else before I get comfortable?”
I trained my eyes down to his Adam’s apple. “You play a smooth game at the club. Pretending to be a nitwit who can’t pick up chicks. That bit about your uncle was a nice touch.”
He sat down and touched the large black stud in his earlobe. “Your partner was eavesdropping, so I had to dumb down the conversation a little. I don’t pass for a Vampire, but sometimes people give away their age when they open their mouth. Everything else we talked about is all me. I’m not pretending to be someone I’m not. Are you?”
I sipped my tea and suddenly froze. For fuck’s sake, how gullible could I be?
“I didn’t spike it,” he assured me. “It’s just tea and honey. As I already explained, I regret that decision.”
“You almost sound remorseful.”
“I’m not without feelings.”
“Then let me go.”
He chuckled. “I’m also not without intelligence. Do you really think your plan was well constructed? Even had your trafficker been anyone else, he would have smelled the trap a mile away. I looked up heterochromia. Having two different eye colors is incredibly rare. Usually the condition partially affects one iris. Complete heterochromia is more common in animals than humans. It makes you wonder about the variations in genetic makeup that makes one person different than the rest of the population.”
“We’re all different.”
He waved his finger like a metronome ticking back and forth. “Not exactly what I meant. Yes, your eyes make you different. But have you ever wondered if that one genetic flaw has something to do with your being a crossbreed?”
I rested my arms on the table, all out of patience. “What exactly do you know about me?”
“That you’ve developed a bad habit of waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen. I thought spiking your drink might be the push you needed. I do miss the old Raven.”
Fuck it. I slurped down half my tea and shoved the cup away. “I don’t need you to psychoanalyze me with your demented version of the truth. You know what I’m asking.”
“Your immortal name is Raven Black. You’re a Vampire and a Mage, but you don’t seem to give a damn about the Vampire side. Guess what? That’s the side that counts. You’re only half a person.” Houdini leaned forward, and I could feel his eyes searching mine. “Embrace your darkness, and you might actually see the light.”
I chuckled. “Halle-fucking-llujah. You don’t just kidnap women and sell them to perverts, you’re a prophet.”
He drummed his fingers on the table. In my peripheral vision, I noticed his bored look. “I wish we could fast-forward through your petulant phase and have a more meaningful conversation. This is why I could never keep a youngling of my own.”
“I’m not a youngling. I’m independent.”
“Yes,” he muttered. After a quiet beat, he reached down to the floor and unzipped a rectangular case. A laptop appeared on the table, and he took his time plugging in the cords. “Our talks are always better when you like me. Under these circumstances, you’re intentionally closing yourself off, so we might as well get down to business.”
“Exactly how many times have we met?”
He stood up. “I’m going to put on something comfortable since it’s going to be a long night. If you want to do the same, there’s a change of clothes in the bathroom.”
I rose to my feet and approached the glass. “How long am I going to be staying here?”
Houdini walked away.
I pounded my hands on the glass. “How long!”
I refused to get cozy in a pair of jammies while my kidnapper was probably videotaping me. How had this happened? I replayed the entire evening in my head in search of mistakes. Boomer had been my primary target, and nothing about Houdini—and I mean nothing—made me suspect he was Breed. Vampires didn’t have strong Breed energy, and he didn’t have any Vampire characteristics. I felt easy around him, and because we’d run into each other a few times, he was so far off my radar that I’d actually trusted him enough to sit inside his car. Everyone could have been a suspect, but Christian and I came to the conclusion that our trafficker wouldn’t bother hiding his black eyes since it added to the allure. After all, these women were meeting him in hopes of becoming something supernatural.
Sneaky little fanghole.
I kicked the door, but nothing would break it down short of a battering ram. There were no vents, so the only fresh air I got was coming through the holes in the glass and the opening he used to pass over food. Even if I could make a weapon, it would be useless with the divider between us. I pressed my ear to the wall and floor, listening for anything that might hint if I was aboveground or below. It could have been a regular apartment building with the windows boarded up, but we were definitely in the Breed district. Houdini wouldn’t take unnecessary risks by keeping his victims in a location with other humans.
I searched for wire. My first thought was poking his eye out through one of the breathing holes, but maybe I could somehow pull his laptop close enough to peck out a message.
I rolled my eyes. Who did I think I was, MacGyver? Sherlock Holmes?
The bracelet continued to suppress my Mage powers. I couldn’t flash, draw energy to my fingertips, or even tell time. I couldn’t even get my fangs to punch out. What use would I be even if I could get the door open? Red marks covered my wrist from repeated attempts to remove or break the metal.
“You really should change,” he said, making me jump. “Leather pants aren’t very comfortable for long periods of time if they’re not broken in. I thought you liked sweats and tank tops?” With a red thermos in hand, he put a pastry in his mouth while he sat down. Once seated, he set the pastry on the plate and chewed while he typed, ignoring my very existence.
I sat in the oversized chair. “Can you at least turn off my light? I feel like jewelry beneath a display counter.”
Houdini licked his thumb and got out of his seat. “I wish you would make these requests when I’m already up.”
The light switched off, supplemented by the yellow lamp from inside his living room. Without all the harsh reflections, the glass melted away. He still hadn’t changed out of his leathers and tight tank top.
Houdini stood before the desk and penetrated me with his gaze, but I continued avoiding direct eye contact. “Anything else? Coffee? How about a beignet? I make them myself.”