Greywalker - Kat Richardson [75]
I shook my head and pushed myself deep into my chair. “Cameron, sometimes you are a whiny little brat, you know that? You’re spoiled. Oh, and there’s something else you should deal with,” I added, stabbing a finger at him. “Sarah. You did all this for her, remember? Leaving her thinking you might be hurt or in trouble is cruel and selfish. And don’t start in on another pity-wallow with me. Of all people, Sarah is the most likely to believe your story. She could have ended up the same way. Or worse. If you go and tell her the truth, not only will you be helping yourself, you’ll be helping her. She doesn’t understand what Edward did, and she’s beaten herself up about it. You got into this by playing hero, so play on or take a hike.”
He started to say something, then shut his mouth with a click and looked at the floor. “All right. You’re right. Do you know where she is? I haven’t seen Sarah since this started. I assume she’s not staying with Mom.”
“She’s living in Bellevue, over by the mall.”
“At Grandma’s house?”
“That’s the place. No phone, so you’ll have to go there in person.”
“I’ll go. Right after we’re done, I swear.”
“Good. She might have some suggestions about talking to your mom, too.”
He burst into a megawatt grin. “Yeah, she might!”
“And when you call your mother, ask her to call me,” I said.
“You don’t trust me?”
“Not one hundred percent. Not yet. Trust isn’t a gift, Cameron. You earn it, and it’s not cheap.”
He shook his head and looked at me sideways. “You are tough.”
“So I hear,” I said. “Now, give me your list of names and how to get in contact with your vampires. I’ll start working on it as soon as I hear from your mom.”
He gave me a short list of names and places and we worked out a contract for the job. I shoved my copy in a file and returned my attention to Cameron.
“All right. Now tell me what put the wedge between you and Edward.” He looked anywhere but at my eyes and began to fidget. “If you think I’m a bigot who’s going to be offended that you went to bed with a man, you can forget it. Half this town’s gayer than Paris in the spring.”
“I’m not gay,” he protested.
“I don’t care,” I pointed out. “Do you want me to repeat that?”
“No, I get it.” He took a deep breath he didn’t need and launched in. “He’s an arrogant ass.”
“How very diplomatic of you to tell him so.”
“I did, too.”
“Was that all?”
“No. I didn’t say that much more, but it was all pretty much on the same theme. I mean, I had figured out that he was weird, kinky, sadistic, and a major control freak before I even got close to him, from what Sarah told me. It took me a while to get how psychotic he is. He just doesn’t believe that the consequences of any of his actions are ever going to boomerang on him. He’s beyond arrogant. He’s a sociopath. Nobody’s rules apply to him.”
I gave a slow nod. Maybe sociopathy was in the eye of the beholder, in this case. If you’re not a mortal, why care what they think? I started mulling the implications, then stopped. Cameron was staring at me, as if he could see the processes revving up in my head. He made a bitter little stretching of his mouth and went on.
“He didn’t give a damn about what he’d done to Sarah. It was five minutes’ diversion for him, and then he forgot it. He didn’t give a damn what he did to me or what he’s done to me. He never asked for anyone’s consent.”
“You said you went along with him willingly in exchange for Sarah,” I reminded him.
“I did, but I didn’t understand the whole thing. How could I? But he knew I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was stupid for jumping into a situation I didn’t have a real handle on. But what happened was not what I agreed to. Somewhere along the line, he changed his mind. I didn’t know he was going to—to turn me into a vampire! I don’t think he meant to, at first. But he just went ahead with what he wanted and he didn’t care about what I thought.
“I wasn’t mad at first. I was too scared and confused. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I still wasn’t sure that he was a vampire.