All Just Glass - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [63]
“I’m not sure you fully understand how little respect Michael tends to have for authority figures,” Sarah muttered. “Besides, he never mentioned anything about Kendra when we used to hunt here.”
“Kendra has an arrangement with some hunters, with regards to whom and when and where they may hunt in her city. Would you have tolerated knowing of such a situation when you were still a witch?” No. Of course not. It didn’t even need to be said. She wanted to believe that Michael had set up the arrangement only after Sarah had left the city, but looking back, she wondered if he had instead subtly steered her toward safe hunts.
In other words, he had lied to her.
Though it wasn’t like he’d had any other choice when she had been a Vida.
Nikolas said, “I will ask Kendra if he has such a deal with her. In the meantime, should I even ask if you have anything suitable to wear to a theater?”
She glared at him. “Jeans and a T-shirt aren’t fine, I’m guessing?”
His expression held an almost amusing mixture of horror and sorrow. “For a modern American, perhaps,” he answered.
But not, she was sure, when one sat in box seats with two nineteenth-century gentlemen of Kendra’s line.
“If you want to return home, I’ll make arrangements,” Nikolas said, judging rightly that Sarah wasn’t about to say, Oh, goody, let’s go dress shopping!
“Thanks,” Sarah said. “Are you also planning to be the one to tell Kristopher you invited yourself and a vampire hunter on our date?”
Nikolas looked startled by the question. “I thought you would prefer it,” he said ambiguously before he disappeared, presumably to talk to Kendra. Sarah left immediately after, not wanting to linger in a place where she had already unexpectedly run into one hunter.
She realized she was nervous, not about spending time “off” in the middle of the dangerous chaos in her wake, or about the potentially bloody confrontation with Michael that might follow, but about this essentially being the first real date she and Kristopher had gone on, and she was suddenly sharing it with his brother. The dance Kristopher had invited her to once had been a disaster even before it was cut short by the appearance of Sarah’s sister, and Sarah’s plea for Kristopher to leave her alone. Somehow she couldn’t picture this one going any better, even if Nikolas hadn’t suggested their location to people who might want to kill them.
Sarah tried to give some thought to Michael’s question, but the Rights of Kin were in many ways very simple. Only the one who called them could declare them satisfied. If, goddess forbid, Dominique were killed, the decision would fall to Adia, but she would be honor-bound to fulfill her mother’s wishes. Sarah couldn’t think of any power on Earth that would convince Dominique to change her mind.
She checked in on Christine, who was sleeping soundly with a much-loved-looking stuffed animal in her arms. Was she still going to want to learn to fight? Heather had comforted her about her future, to an extent, but Sarah would rather encourage Christine to be a more active agent of her own future, not as dependent as Heather.
Sarah was a half page into some notes about how she could set up an introduction to self-defense when she realized she was planning her own future. She was only writing about fighting moves and breathing techniques, but in those words was a commitment to Christine that implied Sarah would be around for a while.
She hadn’t come to terms with eternity and wasn’t sure she would anytime soon, but step by baby step maybe she was learning to accept that there would be a tomorrow.
She put aside the notes, which were just busywork until she could talk to Christine more, and examined the bookcase in the back of the living room, wondering if something there might help her pass the time without dwelling too much.
It had been years since she had read a book for pleasure. She didn’t even know what kind of book she liked. That some of the titles weren