Chapter 17 #2
Aster’s heels rocked on the edge of the building, coming to a sudden halt as she looked down.
And there Sylvia was, holding onto the side of the building with nothing but her fingernails, her eyes wide and terrified, her arms trembling.
There had to be a three hundred foot drop below her. Just cold, hard, pavement.
“Aster,” she whimpered. “Help me.”
“Oh my god, Sylvia, here, take my—”
Aster reached down in an instant, but the moment she took Sylvia’s arms, the woman’s entire demeanor changed. She grinned wide and sinister. Her eyes blazed bright red.
“Thanks for the help. You’re going to stay right here and watch me win.”
The Suggestion tore through Aster like a razor. Her arms stilled, and Sylvia hopped down, letting herself fall—her feet hitting what sounded like metal only seconds later.
There had been a fire escape below her the whole time.
“You absolute asshole,” Aster mumbled, unable to move the rest of her body.
Sylvia giggled, and blew a kiss up at her. “Takes one to know one.”
And Aster just watched as Sylvia began to climb down. Her muscles twitched furiously, wanting to move, but unable to. She knew this was checkmate.
Except, seconds later, her eyes cleared. She could move again.
What the fuck?
She blinked down at herself. Sylvia’s Suggestion usually put her in a stupor for hours.
Not mere seconds.
So it hadn’t been a fluke with Tommy.
Aster had slowly started to suspect that Sylvia had been forcing Aster to do all their Suggesting as some sort of game—something to push Aster out of her comfort zone, as Sylvia loved to do—but that illusion burst into flames as she looked down at her hands, flexing freely in the air.
Sylvia’s powers had genuinely faltered. There was something wrong with her.
Aster frowned deeply at the thought. But when she spotted Sylvia walking so casually, so cockily towards the police station, heels clicking, hair swooshing, she found that the worry in her chest was quickly suppressed in favor of another feeling.
Schadenfreude.
Aster grinned, and took an unconventional path down the other side of the building.
She flanked where Sylvia was walking, staying out of sight, before reappearing right in front of the doors to the police station.
The other vampire didn’t notice her until she was already climbing up the steps, then froze when she found Aster leaning against the door, arms crossed, grinning.
Sylvia spluttered, “What the— how did you—”
The disbelief on her face was absolutely delicious.
Also, the rest of her. God did she look amazing in that suit.
“Someone’s off their game,” Aster taunted.
Sylvia balked at her. “Am not.”
Aster lifted herself from the door, then stepped toward her, gently clasping her fingers around the collar of Sylvia’s suit. She bit down on her lip as she smoothed the fabric down. Her fingers grazed against the shirt for several long, arduous seconds.
When she looked back up, Sylvia’s pupils were full.
Not only were they full—they were staring directly at Aster’s lips. Hungrily.
Jesus Christ. Aster found it very hard to focus on what she needed to focus on. “Sylvia, is something wrong with your powers?”
Sylvia’s brow creased, as if she was frustrated that Aster was doing something that wasn’t related to fucking her.
God, we’re in public. In front of the police station. Why is she so turned on?
Aster frowned. Then realized, because she had momentarily forgotten who she was dealing with, that this was Sylvia Maroven.
She’s turned on *because* we’re in public, in front of the police station.
Probably minutes away from being put in handcuffs.
She is so ridiculously insane.
Aster was so in love with her.
Sylvia’s head tipped up, and thankfully she interrupted that train of thought before it could fester.
“My powers?” She huffed. “Of course not. My powers are fine.”
Aster rolled her eyes.
“Sylvia.” She pulled gently at Sylvia’s collar, which made the other woman emit the most distracting sound in the universe. But Aster pushed on. “Don’t lie to me. Your Suggestion didn’t work on me just now. And it didn’t work on Tommy before.”
“Ugh.”
Sylvia looked up—then down—pretty much everywhere but Aster’s face—before shrugging and going, “Yeah, ok. Maybe.”
Aster frowned, because honestly, she had really been hoping she was wrong.
She took another step closer, and pushed a hair behind Sylvia’s face worryingly.
“What’s going on with you?” she asked.
Sylvia trembled a bit at the gesture, at Aster’s hand gently touching her face, which Aster noted away for later in her pile of unexplainable Sylvia behaviors. But then she pursed her lips.
“If you must know. I’ve had a bit of a… mental block recently,” she muttered, cheeks reddening as if she was talking about erectile dysfunction. “With my powers. It’s happened once or twice before. Nothing to get your panties in a twist about.”
Aster frowned. She never remembered this happening before. Not in their time together.
“When? What other times?”
Sylvia’s foot began to tap irritatedly against the pavement.
“Ugh. Does it matter? Just—some other times. A long time ago. When we were apart. Remember, when you went up north, and I was in—”
“Bucharest, doing those social experiments on the prison guards?”
“Exactly.”
Aster frowned. “But didn’t you use your Suggestion on them for that?”
“Well, yes. But they were easy targets. Obedient pests like military officials and prison personnel are so weak minded. They follow orders like dogs.” Sylvia laughed coldly. “I got myself locked up precisely so I could focus on rebuilding my power using them as pawns. And it worked.”
Aster’s eyebrows creased further. “Wait, you got yourself locked up? You told me that it was because you and that woman were spotted in the yard—” The thought of Sylvia with someone else made her suddenly nauseous, even in distant memory, but she shoved it aside.
“You told me that I should go up north to see the lights while you were in prison. That you wanted some time to relax and enjoy some free meals courtesy of the Poli?ia Roman?.”
Sylvia didn’t meet her eyes. She waved her hand in front of her, the gesture she always did when she was eager for a conversation to be over.
“And that’s exactly what I did. Two birds, one stone.
I got my powers back, you saw a disappointing celestial event.
Anyway, the point is, it’s all fixable. I just haven’t had the time to—well—clear my head. Toy around with some new victims.”
Aster nodded slowly, then lowered her voice to a whisper. The kind of tone you’d use with a child who’s put himself in a corner and refuses to speak, “But what do you think causes it? The… mental block?”
Sylvia’s eyes slowly fell back to hers. Her entire face went impassive; frozen. She got that same look on her face that she did when Aster had kissed her. Like a thousand thoughts were caught in a traffic jam. Clearly, she knew something. Clearly, she had a theory. Sylvia always had a theory.
But it didn’t mean she was going to tell her.
“I don’t know,” she said. Shrugged. “Stress. Imminent bankruptcy.”
Aster laughed. As fucking if.
Something must have happened back then. Before Aster had left for Denmark in the 1800s. She had a vague recollection of something, but she couldn’t remember what.
She cursed her stupid, useless mind.
Whatever. It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, it must also be happening now.
She just had to pry Sylvia open a little bit more.
“Oh my god,” a voice squealed from a couple feet away. “It’s them.”
Aster and Sylvia both turned at once to find Tony and Andrew staring at them from the bottom of the staircase, eyes wide, jaws unhinged.
Sylvia chuckled.
Her worried expression wiped away slowly, and she patted Aster on the cheek, then leaned in towards her ear.
“Speaking of feeble minds,” she whispered seductively, and Aster’s entire body broke out in goosebumps. “Let me take a crack at these two? Might help in the healing process.”
Aster shook her head, but couldn’t help but laugh.
“They’re all yours. Just do remember we’re standing in front of the police headquarters.”
Sylvia gave her a brazen smile as she began to walk down the stairs.
“Good,” she giggled. “I love a challenge!”
Aster sighed as she watched Tony begin to back away slowly, absolutely terrified, and Sylvia transform into one of her many characters—one of those myriad walls she hid effortlessly behind.
Apparently, Aster thought, So do I.