“You can’t stop inevitability.”
I stared absently at the glass wall, catching a ghost of my reflection. “I’ve had a shitty life, you know. I’ve never complained about it because when all you know is bad luck, you just learn to deal with it. But something good finally happened to me—for once—and now it’s gone. I’ll never have just one good thing in my life. You think humans are expendable, but can’t you empathize with their situation? I don’t understand how someone who seems as normal as you do can ruin so many lives. I just don’t get it. Each person you made carries a part of you inside them, whether you like it or not.”
He guzzled half his drink and returned to the chair by the table. “You’ve always intrigued me. Even now, all you can think about are those humans and not your own plight. Why is that?”
“Because I can’t stop whatever’s going to happen to me, but maybe something I say will make you think twice about doing this again.”
He smirked, his voice soft. “I’ve finally kidnapped my conscience. Fate has a wicked sense of humor.” After a quick glance at the screen, he angled the laptop away so it wasn’t shining directly on him. “This is what I’m good at, and the way I see it, I’m giving these humans immortality. We could go round and round with the ethics of it, but life is a gift no matter how it’s given. Things change, and buyers aren’t all malevolent bastards. I can’t stop the evils of the world from happening. I’m not the one hurting people. I’m giving them what they desire, and their fate is whatever they make of it. If I didn’t intervene, those lost souls might have committed suicide or landed in an abusive relationship. Would you hold me responsible for that?”
When he took another sip of milk, I pulled my arms against my chest and sighed. How many women had sat on this same mattress, begging for their freedom? Even worse, how many didn’t?
“Is there something I can make that you will eat?” he asked, licking his milk mustache. “I’m not the best cook, but I’m not the worst either.”
“I don’t need food.”
“Of course you do. I’ve seen you famished on a number of occasions. You’re not entirely Vampire, so that means some of your gifts are altered.”
That was an interesting way to put it. “And what would you know about a crossbreed?”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Plenty, because I am one.”
Impossible! What had happened to me was a fluke. There was no way he could be like me.
He stood up and dragged his chair up to the glass to see me better. When he sat down, he rested his arm on the edge of the table. “That’s how this whole thing began, you know. When I first saw you after your long disappearance, I couldn’t help but watch. You didn’t look like a Vampire, and it didn’t take long for me to notice your other abilities. Curious, I hired a Mage to put his light into a girl right after I turned her, but she died instantly. Maybe your Creator had strong light, or maybe you’re one of a kind. I began to wonder if I could pass my other half into a youngling. Maybe I couldn’t make another like you, but what if I could make someone like me?”
“What other half?”
He tilted his head. “I’m part Shifter.”
I glanced behind him, having just assumed he was some weirdo with a big-cat fetish.
“Remember?” He tugged his earlobe, which no longer had a black plug in it. “We met once before in a bar. I rubbed up against you, and your partner didn’t seem to like it very much. He’s a little possessive.” Houdini stretched out his legs, his feet on the glass. “When I buried him in that tomb, I hoped he wouldn’t show up for a while.”
I drew in a sharp breath.
“I love collecting favors, and when I saw one of Darius’s men in the trunk of a car, I gave him a call and offered to hide the body. For a favor, of course.”
Houdini was talking about the goon I’d killed who worked for an extortionist. Christian had driven the man’s car to a cemetery to dispose of the body, and someone snuck up and staked him from behind.
“You were the one who put Christian in the crypt? But how?” I shot up to my feet and approached the glass.
Houdini studied his short nails. “Vampires tend to ignore animal sounds in the woods. I followed him there and—”
“Why would you do something like that? He could have died in there.”
Houdini lowered his hands in his lap. “You always think there has to be a motive—a reason or goal. Sometimes people do bad things because it feels good. He was talking to himself, you know. Saying that you wouldn’t bat an eyelash if he turned up missing or was burned at the stake. Fire seemed a little excessive, so it became an interesting experiment. How people react under duress fascinates me. I do love a good plot twist.”
I flattened my hands against the glass and glared down at him. “I thought you were an observer.”
“Once in a while, I meddle.” His eyes flicked up. “I got close to him once, Raven. I can do it again.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“I brought you two closer together, and yet you’re complaining. What would have happened if I hadn’t intervened?”
That night, Christian had almost left Keystone, and I was on the outs. We might have gone our separate ways had he not disappeared unexpectedly, prompting me to go on a search.
I recoiled when Houdini poked his finger through one of the airholes and touched my stomach.
“No one will believe you if you tell them what I’ve done. I erased Claude’s memory of me in his salon, and you have no documented evidence linking me to a crime. They’ll think you’re paranoid or crazy, but more likely, they’ll think the person who kidnapped you replaced all your memories with a lie. How much do you know about Vampire magic? Not only can I erase someone’s mind, but I can create a whole new reality, making them believe they were born a different person.” As he rose to his feet, my hair stood on end. “Do you know how rare crossbreeds are? I’m not talking about the Breeds who can have children, but the ones who can’t. We’re the future, Raven. We’re Adam and Eve. There’s always a chance I could make someone else like me, but I can’t help but wonder what might happen if you put your light into one of my younglings.”
“I’m not a Creator.”
Just as soon as the words left my mouth, I shut my eyes. Like everyone else, Houdini knew that not every Mage was a Creator. He was carefully manipulating his words to access new information about me.
And I’d just given it to him.
He rested his forehead against the glass. “You want so desperately to hate me, but you can’t. You should thank me.”