Chapter 12 #2
“Crucible? Sounds like a demon. I thought you weren’t with anyone.”
“My ferret isn’t just anyone.”
“Ah. You have a ferret. Why need a creature to worry about? Why Crucible? That’s an odd choice.”
“Why the questions that aren’t relevant?”
He frowned. “You aren’t very civil.”
“No. But I am wearing shoes, and that’s practically the same thing.” I scowled at him and he frowned back. Finally, I shrugged. “It was the name of my mother’s bookshop.”
He flinched. Hard. His eyes were on me so intent, so fierce, so enraged, I took a step back, came up against Gavriel, and braced myself for being turned to stone. “How long have you been a vampire?” he demanded, his question a command.
“A century and a decade. Is this really relevant to giving me glasses?”
“Very. What did you do before you were turned? Did you wear glasses?”
“No.”
“And your mother? How did she die?”
“Her death is relevant? How?”
“Was it eye-related?”
I snorted. This was ridiculous. “No, it wasn’t eye-related. She had a heart attack and died instantly. I was right there.”
“No pain? That is lucky. What about your father? Did he have any eye problems?”
This was going to go on forever. Gavriel moved around me, sitting in a wingback with a stool in front of it. He was a clear target in that position. I sat down on the stool, trying to sit tall, the better to block whatever attacks the clearly unbalanced angel might make.
“I don’t know about my father. He was a soldier back in the old country where they met, before she crossed the ocean and opened her shop, so he must have had good eyes.” It was so ridiculous to talk about my life a century ago. Was any of this relevant?
“She never remarried?”
It was not relevant, but some people were like that: incapable of focusing on the topic at hand.
I could either leave now, or humor him, and we were sitting.
“No. She had me and the books. She didn’t want anything else.
She smuggled many valuable texts out of her country during the war.
There were so many wars in those days.” Hopefully, that was enough trivia to satisfy him.
“Yes. There’s always war somewhere.” He sat in the wingback chair across from us, shoulders hunched, face a sour frown, apparently lost in thought.
“Do you have any hot chocolate?” Gavriel asked.
I turned to stare at him. What was he doing? He gave me a sweet smile and touched my hand.
“Ruby gets cold, and this place is incredibly drafty.”
The angel grunted and then gestured, and an earthen mug appeared in his hand, steaming. He handed it over. “A vampire gets their warmth from their live victims. Why do you only drink from bags?”
I held the mug, feeling awkward. Another pointless question. Then again, he had given me hot chocolate. “I prefer to not get connected to another life.” I sipped the drink and then nodded at him after the rich chocolate had saturated my tongue. “It’s not too sweet.” It was actually perfect.
“Of course not. Sweetness destroys the flavor. Hartshorn, I don’t suppose that chocolate is what you want.”
“No, thank you,” Gavriel said, his hand lingering on mine. “You said you can help. Will you?”
The older angel snorted. “Me? Yes, I suppose I will. At ease, angel. I’m thinking.”
Gavriel finally pulled his hand away, leaving me with hot chocolate but not him.
I wanted to sit on his lap, wrapped in his warmth, his wings, and relax with this incredibly perfect drink.
But I’d just said that we weren’t together.
I certainly wasn’t going to lean my head on his shoulder and revel in his warmth.
Of course not. I’d never do that in front of a stranger.
Or any other time that wasn’t required for the mission.
I drank my chocolate and inhaled the steam, also Gavriel, but I didn’t touch him.
The older angel stood up, and so did I.
“Come with me,” the angel said, holding out his hand.
Was I supposed to take it? I hesitated and then slowly put my hand in his.
He smelled icy pure, like daggers of death and pain, but his skin was actually warm, comforting, protective.
He was a protector of innocents. Not that I was innocent.
He could kill me very quickly. I would prefer that much more than turning slowly into stone before shattering.
He took me to a small closet where it was dark, surrounded by electric cords, and had me sit in front of a machine that looked like it would swallow my head and rip it off my body. It didn’t, just flashed a dozen times.
“I’m taking pictures of your eyes.”
My eyes burned by the time he was finished. I stood up and gave him a polite smile. In the dark. Apparently, we could both see in the dark. “Thank you for taking the time. We really should go. Unless you feel that you have to kill me, in which case, do it quickly before Gavriel gets in the way.”
“Do you want me to kill you?”
“It would be a good death. Clean. You have that smell.”
“You can smell more than corruption. The demon that had you for a hundred years, how did he die?”
“I killed him.”
“How did you know how if you couldn’t do research?”
“I asked around.”
“What was the demon’s name?”
“Tralcon.”
He made a face like he’d bitten into something sour. “Not a good demon.”
“There are no good demons. Neutral is the most you can hope for. Can you get me glasses or not?”
“I can, but it will take time to craft. A week at least.”
“A week? Can you ship to Singsong City?”
He flipped out his wings. “I will deliver. Be careful with the angel. Angels can be very beguiling, even if you are a hardened spinster.” He opened the door and let me out into the main room, which was half kitchen/laboratory, and half library/living room.
When I saw Gavriel standing there with a book, my chest eased slightly. I’d been nervous about his safety without realizing it.
He smiled at me, and warmth spread through me. Angels were beguiling, particularly the deathly ones.
“I’ll leave the glasses with the scholar’s laboratory,” the angel said.
“Do you have a name?” I asked.
He raised a brow. “Are we doing names? I’ll need your human one in exchange. You probably don’t remember it anymore.”
I frowned at him. “You tell me yours first.”
“Ever Storm.”
I stared at him. That was the weirdest name I’d ever heard. “Oh. It’s lovely. I was Louisa Barlow, but after I turned I became Ruby Blood.”
He gave me a hard smile. “Tralcon’s Blood. I did hear about you. He trained you to kill for a hundred years. That’s how you could kill him, not asking around. Who do you report to? I mean, among the angelic ranks?”
“I don’t report. That’s Gavriel’s job. We do have the team leader, Richard.”
“Team Leader?” Ever frowned at Gavriel. “She’s met the Team Leader, personally?”
I stepped between them. “In prison. He interviewed me before he released me into Gavriel’s care.”
“You were in prison?”
“Yes. I was Mr. Good’s assassin as well as Tralcon’s.
I’ve worked with the best people.” I gave him a hard smile.
Giving him my human name made me very uncomfortable.
I didn’t like thinking of what I’d been.
That existence was finished. Like this interview.
The entire situation was so uncomfortable.
I was better alone. I was looking forward to going back to my prison cell once all of this was over.
But this time I’d make sure Crucible had someone to take care of him first.