All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [61]
Vida law forbade making deals with the vampires, even to save one’s life, but that law was designed to keep witches from betraying each other or sacrificing their beliefs as part of a deal with a creature who could not be considered trustworthy. Zachary had made a mistake, but it wasn’t an unforgivable one, in Adia’s eyes.
“That’s it?” she asked. She had seen only one photograph of Zachary. It was possible it hadn’t been like the other ones, that it really had been just one fight gone bad. Jerome could have been messing with her. He would have known she would assume the worst, given the other images.
But Zachary shook his head. “After that, it ate at me. I got sloppy. I think part of me was trying to lose fights, so they would kill me and I wouldn’t have to admit to the rest of you … or to myself …” He dared to look up a minute, but whatever he saw in Adia’s face made him look away again.
Jay said, “You lost a fight, Zachary. That’s not worth losing yourself over.”
“You don’t understand,” Zachary replied, his tone utterly flat.
Adia shook her head. “Zachary—”
“No,” he interrupted. “Just … no. You know perfectly well I couldn’t tell you. I certainly couldn’t tell Dominique. I couldn’t tell anyone except—” He swallowed thickly.
Adia saw Jay’s eyes widen as if he knew something Adia didn’t know and had just made the connection.
“Believe it or not,” Zachary said slowly, “vampires will pick out their favorite hunters. And other vampires know about it. My ‘patron,’ as she puts it, made it clear to me that she wouldn’t reveal me to others of her kind, but that if I got in trouble, I could say her name and she or one of her associates would come get me. I swore up and down I’d never use it, and I never have, but she and her friends frequent a lot of the rougher circuits, so sometimes I don’t need to. I’ll be in a fight, and then suddenly it’ll be over and …”
When it became clear that he wasn’t going to say more, Jay asked, “The guy who helped Nikolas pull Sarah off you was one of your friend’s friends?”
“What guy?” Adia asked, startled … and yet not. Jerome had said he had warned the twins, and that had been when they had found the first photograph, which she realized now hadn’t been left accidentally. It had been a message, though not to her.
“I didn’t see him, since I was locked in the closet at the time with a broken arm,” Jay answered. “I just heard his voice.”
“Jerome,” Adia said.
Zachary flinched and nodded. “I’m sorry, Adia.”
“Why didn’t you ever talk to me?” she asked. “I’m not Dominique, Zachary. You could have told me what was going on, and we could have worked it out. We could have gone after them together, or just—”
“Because you needed to be better than I was!” he shouted. “Adia, I know I’m weak. My entire side of the line is. My mother went mad after my sister’s death. She went out, and never came back. My little brother followed her, and we never saw him again. The only reason I’ve survived is because Dominique looked out for me, and you know what kind of perfection she demands. I couldn’t spread my weakness to you and Sarah.”
“There is no such thing as perfection, Zachary,” Adia said, aware she was quoting Jerome. The vampire had been right.
Jay collapsed dramatically to the couch. “I knew your line was weird, but I never even imagined how profoundly messed up you all are. It’s no wonder Sarah had a fling with a serial killer, or that Zachary unwinds with the undead. You’re all so obsessed with being perfect, you end up hating yourselves.”
Zachary tried to glare at him again, but in Adia’s view, the expression seemed halfhearted.
No one was perfect.
Maybe that was true—obviously it was true. Adia had known for a long time that she was far from perfect, but she had always managed to fake it by looking to Zachary, and Dominique, and Sarah as examples of what she could be. But it had been a house of cards, and now it had all come tumbling down.
Adia jumped as her phone buzzed, announcing that she had a text message. She read it and felt her blood go cold.
No