Chapter Ten – Luna
Chapter Ten
Luna
“I’m coming with you.” Jack was bone-headed and stupid in so many ways, but he was not going to die tonight.
He’d kicked me out of Dark Ink but I’d had a feeling about her.
I’d been involved in too many dark arts to not know when some sick being full of goodness had arrived—which begged the question why the hell Jack—a vampire! —had not seemed to know it.
“No, you’re not,” he said.
“Didn’t you see what she can do?” Because I had—I’d turned, once outside, and seen the power I’d felt manifested into levitation.
She’d had all the nearby objects floating up, rotating planets.
Rosalie had warned me about creatures like her before, all pure and sacred, thinking they were better than everyone else, just because they could walk beneath the sun during the day but they still died.
What was the point in being ‘good’ and believing in ‘eternal life’ if you didn’t actually get to live it?
“I saw it in reflection.”
“Then you know that it’s not safe for you! She’s dangerous!”
“Show me that,” he said, ignoring me as he held out his hand.
My new Master had said nothing about hiding the nightblade from Jack but I was reluctant to show it to him all the same. I handed it over, slowly. He took it and turned it, exploring every side, trailing a finger along its edge, weighing its handle in his palm.
“Where did you get this?”
“Rosalie.”
“Before or after she died?”
I flushed, remembering the moment my new true Master approached me, and how. “Are you accusing me of stealing?”
“No. It’s just that it’s clearly very powerful,” he said—and handed it back. I took it, feeling safer with it around.
“It only works on good people.”
“Good people?” His lips quirked.
“You know. The kind we’re not supposed to be?” I ran my free hand through my hair and it caught on a tangle. “I can’t let you go out alone with her.”
“You don’t trust her word?”
“Would she be safe from you if the situations were reversed?”
“Likely.”
I swung the nightblade out at him. He didn’t flinch, but he did chuckle. “Just checking,” I complained.
He didn’t bother to hide a smirk. “It’s going to be all right, Luna. I have something she wants—information.”
“And after she gets it, what then?”
“Then we’ll part and go our separate ways.”
“You don’t understand, do you? If something happens to you—what do you think happens to me?”
“I asked Maya,” he said, looking increasingly bemused. “She said no take-backs. You’re fine.”
“That’s not the point!” I shouted at him.
What would my new Master do if Jack died? I was on a mission! Would our arrangement be null and void? If I had to find a new master to serve, and start again—the disease I carried might not give me enough time. Every day I lived as human my clock was ticking.
“Luna, if I die, you go back to Idaho, or Indiana, or Wisconsin, or whatever other state your parents are in being very depressed about your life choices right now.”
“Fuck you,” I muttered.
Jack snorted. “Stay here if you want, or go home. Clearly you have keys. Do you need money for a ride?”
I looked up at him, biting my tongue, dying to say what was on my mind—Who’s to say you won’t come home and find your precious Paco staked? Would but for my Master’s wishes, I’d stake both of them tomorrow at dawn. It wouldn’t have been the first head I’d sawed off a body—or the second.
“Here,” Jack said, taking my silence for agreement. He reached for his wallet and pulled out a twenty. “You did a good job here today, Luna, and I appreciate that. I promise Dark Ink will pay you what you’re owed in full.”
That was the only true thing he’d said all evening. One way or another—he was going to pay. For Rosalie, for the disruption of all my hopes and dreams—I snatched the twenty from his hand and stomped outside.
Glinda-the-Good-Witch, a.k.a. Sam, was waiting outside by a red convertible with the top down. She gave me a nod of acknowledgement. I flipped her off and started walking.