Chapter 21 #3
“God, it’s always you and that word. Supposed to.
What? Did we ink some promise down in blood?
I don’t think so.” Sabina groaned. “I had no idea you had taken our conversation before so literally. Mother let you go to America for a few years so you could play around and scout out new targets across the sea.”
Sabina took out one of the magazines from the newspaper stands and flipped through it idly. “But it doesn’t seem like you’re doing a great job on your assignment. I mean, have you even eaten anyone interesting yet?”
“Sure I have,” Bella countered bitterly.
Sabina looked up from Smooth Living, perking immediately. “Oh, who?”
“None of your business.”
Sabina dropped the magazine with a whine.
“It is so my business.” She came up to Bella and shook her by the shoulders.
“You are the darling of the family, Bel-Bel. Do you know how miserable it is being the main soul-sucker now that you’re gone?
I can only drag so many men by the ankles back to our house per day!
They’ve gotten so much heavier in the twenty-first century. Too many processed foods.”
Bella shoved her off. “Do I know how miserable it is? Are you seriously asking me that? Why the hell do you think I left?”
Sabina groaned. “Sure, whatever. But now you’ve had your vacation time! You took your little cruise across the ocean, lived in dazzling Manhattan. Don’t you think it’s been enough? The workload will be so much more manageable between the two of us.”
“Three of us,” Bella snapped. “Hasn’t Teodora been helping you?”
“Bella,” Sabina deadpanned, rolling her eyes. “I love Teodora dearly, I would die for her at a moment’s notice, but she’s as useless as a wet sock. Sometimes she brings home a river otter instead of a human and asks Mother if that would be sufficient.”
For the first time since Sabina arrived, Bella let out a genuine laugh. Sabina grinned back at her, exposing that little dented fang she got back when they were kids.
For a moment, Sabina was just her older sister again, tickling her feet when they swam in the lake. It made Bella’s heart sick at what could be something nice between them.
Bella sighed. “You can drop the pretense about being a tourist, Sabina. I know you’ve been burning down those houses. I’ve been watching the news.”
Sabina’s smile faltered.
“Ah. So you have.”
Bella wanted nothing more than to ask her why Yasmine’s house had been a target, but she couldn’t risk it. If they didn’t know about their closeness yet, then she would keep that true for as long as she possibly could. Hopefully forever, if she could manage it.
So she left it broad—“Why those houses? Were the people living in them special?”
Sabina smirked. “I knew you still cared.”
Whatever. Let her think so. “Are you going to let me in, or what? You beg me to rejoin the family business, but you’re keeping me in the dark?”
Sabina studied her for a moment, evidently sensing bullshit. Fortunately, Sabina had never been a very good judge of Bella. She saw what she wanted to see.
“Well, it’s really nothing you don’t know already,” she said, beginning to walk in a circle around Bella. “I assume you’re up to date with the latest in the vampire world? The fall of the bothersome Council? The eradication of that man—Leonard?”
Bella’s eyes followed her apprehensively as she walked. Her feet were scorching the floor, leaving burn marks. It would be hell to fix.
“Yeah. It was sort of impossible to miss. The economy nearly went into a freefall.”
“That it did. Until it didn’t. Strange, isn’t that?”
Bella’s stomach tightened. “What are you getting at?”
“Oh, nothing. It’s just interesting that even though a certain two vampires managed to kill off all the people responsible for the world’s economies, those economies only endured about two days of stress and confusion before an intervening force seemed to—” Sabina made a motion with her hands as if she was re-adjusting the frame of a painting.
“—Set everything back into place. Not really something a human would be qualified to do, I don’t think. ”
Bella’s breath came faster, ragged in her chest. She tried to keep it steady as Sabina turned towards her, and pressed an accusatory finger at her chest.
“You know if it came down to pure strength, agility, prowess, intelligence—we would be on top of this world, ruling it, not prowling around from the sidelines as we’ve had to do for so long,” she spat.
She sounded so much like Mother. “The only thing we have always lacked is the power of Suggestion. The ability to actually command influence. No one in the world has wielded it since Evanorah Maroven fell, and now that there are no other ruling powers keeping us at bay, we have a real chance of attaining it.”
At that, Bella scoffed. “Sister, are you actually delusional? What do you plan on doing? Tracking down Sylvia Maroven and making her your little pet? Good luck. Look at what happened to the people who tried doing that the first time.”
“Do you take me for an idiot?” Sabina smiled. “We aren’t interested in Sylvia, silly. Everyone knows she doesn’t own the contract anymore.”
Bella paused, her heart clenching. “What contract?”
“The Mass Suggestion contract,” Sabina said. “It belongs to Yasmine Sokolov now. The Nightmare Queen. Remember her?”