Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K. Hamilton [53]
His whole body was hunched in upon itself. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said he was in pain. Come to think of it, maybe he was.
I had just bullied a very fragile human being. It hadn’t felt very good, but it beat the heck out of knocking her senseless. I had not hurt her physically. Why didn’t I believe that? Now, I was going to question Phillip because he had given me a clue. The proverbial lead. I couldn’t let it go.
“Phillip?” I asked.
His shoulders tightened, but he continued to stare out the window.
“Phillip, I need to know about the freak parties.”
“Drop me at the club.”
“Guilty Pleasures?” I asked. Brilliant repartee, that’s me.
He nodded, still turned away.
“Don’t you need to pick up your car?”
“I don’t drive,” he said. “Monica dropped me off at your office.”
“Did she now?” I felt the anger, instantaneous and warm.
He turned then, stared at me, face blank, eyes hidden. “Why are you so angry at her? She just got you to the club, that’s all.”
I shrugged.
“Why?” His voice was tired, human, normal.
I wouldn’t have answered the teasing flirt, but this person was real. Real people deserve answers. “She’s human, and she betrayed other humans to nonhumans,” I said.
“And that’s a worse crime than Jean-Claude choosing you to be our champion?”
“Jean-Claude is a vampire. You expect treachery from vampires.”
“You do. I do not.”
“Rebecca Miles looks like a person who’s been betrayed.”
He flinched.
Great Anita, just great, let’s emotionally abuse everyone we meet today. But it was true.
He had turned back to the window, and I had to fill the pained silence. “Vampires are not human. Their loyalty, first and foremost, must be to their own kind. I understand that. Monica betrayed her own kind. She also betrayed a friend. That is unforgivable.”
He twisted to look at me. I wished I could see his eyes. “So if someone was your friend, you would do anything for them?”
I thought about that as we drove down 70 East. Anything? That was a tall order. Almost anything? Yes. “Almost anything,” I said.
“So loyalty and friendship are very important to you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you believe Monica betrayed both of those things, it makes it a worse crime than anything the vampires did?”
I shifted in the seat, not happy with the way the conversation was going. I am not a big one for personal analysis. I know who I am and what I do, and that’s usually enough. Not always, but most of the time. “Not anything; I don’t believe in many absolutes. But, if you want a short version, yes, that’s why I’m angry at Monica.”
He nodded, as if that were the answer he wanted. “She’s afraid of you; did you know that?”
I smiled, and it wasn’t a very nice smile. I could feel the edges curl up with a dark sort of satisfaction. “I hope the little bitch is sweating it out, big time.”
“She is,” he said. His voice was very quiet.
I glanced at him, then quickly back to the road. I had a feeling he didn’t approve of my scaring Monica. Of course, that was his problem. I was quite pleased with the results.
We were getting close to the Riverfront turnoff. He had still not answered my question. In fact, he had very nicely avoided it. “Tell me about freak parties, Phillip.”
“Did you really threaten to cut out Monica’s heart?”
“Yes. Are you going to tell me about the parties or not?”
“Would you really do it? Cut out her heart, I mean?”
“You answer my question, I’ll answer yours.” I turned the car onto the narrow brick roads of the Riverfront. Two more blocks and we would be at Guilty Pleasures.
“I told you what the parties are like. I’ve stopped going the last few months.”
I glanced at him again. I wanted to ask why. So I did. “Why?”
“Damn, you do ask personal questions, don’t you?”
“I didn’t mean it to be.”
I thought he wasn’t going to answer the question, but he did. “I got tired of being passed around. I didn’t want to end up like Rebecca, or worse.”
I wanted to ask