Bloodlines (Bloodlines #1)(117)

Abe held up a hand to stop me. "Enough, please. Because if that sentence ends with you saying you'll talk to the Alchemists, then by all means, let's get them out here and discuss all sorts of mysteries. Say, for example, like how Mr. Darnell lost his eye."

I froze.

"Strigoi took it," said Adrian impatiently.

"Oh, come now," said Abe, a smile twisting his lips. "My faith in you was just being restored. Since when do Strigoi do such precision maiming? Very artful maiming, I might add. Not that anyone probably ever noticed. Wasted talent, I tell you."

"What are you saying?" asked Adrian aghast. "It wasn't Strigoi? Are you saying someone cut his eye out on purpose? Are you saying that you - "

Words failed him, and he simply looked back and forth between me and Abe. "That's it, isn't it? Your devil's bargain. But why?"

I cringed as three sets of eyes stared at me, but there was no way I could acknowledge what Adrian was starting to put together. Maybe I could have told him if we were alone. Maybe. But I couldn't tell him while Abe looked so smug and certainly not with an outsider like Angeline standing there.

I couldn't tell Adrian how I'd found my sister Carly a few years ago, after a date with Keith. It was when he'd still been living with us and just before she went off to college. She hadn't wanted to go out with him, but our father loved Keith and had insisted. Keith was his golden boy and could do no wrong.

Keith believed that too, which was why he hadn't been able to take no for an answer when he and Carly were alone. She'd come to me afterward, creeping into my bedroom late at night and sobbing while I'd held her.

My instant reaction was to tell our parents, but Carly had been too afraid - especially of our father. I was young and nearly as scared as she was, ready to agree with whatever she wanted. Carly had made me promise I wouldn't tell our parents, so I sank my efforts into assuring her that it wasn't her fault. The whole time, she told me, Keith had kept telling her how beautiful she was and how she'd left him no choice, that it was impossible for him to take his eyes off of her. I finally convinced her that she'd done nothing wrong, that she hadn't led him on - but she still held me to my promise to stay silent.

It was one of the biggest regrets of my life. I'd hated my silence but not nearly as much as I hated Keith for thinking he could rape someone as sweet and gentle as Carly and get away with it. It wasn't until much later, when I had my first assignment and met Abe Mazur, that I'd realized there were other ways Keith might pay that would allow me to keep my promise to her. So, I'd made my deal with the devil, not caring that it bound me - or that I was stooping to barbaric levels of revenge. Abe had staged a fake Strigoi attack and cut out one of Keith's eyes earlier this year. In return, I'd become Abe's sort-of "retainer Alchemist." It was part of what had driven me to help Rose with her jail break. I was in his debt.

In some ways, I reflected bitterly, maybe I'd done Keith a favor. With only one eye left, maybe he wouldn't find it so "impossible" to keep it off uninterested young women in the future.

No, I certainly couldn't tell Adrian any of that, but he was still looking at me, a million questions on his face as he tried to figure out what in the world would have reduced me to hiring Abe as a hit man.

Laurel's words suddenly rang back to me. You know, you can be scary as hell sometimes.

I swallowed. "Remember when you asked me to trust you?"

"Yes..." said Adrian.

"I need you to do the same for me."

Long moments followed. I couldn't bring myself to look at Abe because I knew he'd be smirking.

"'Spunky' was kind of an understatement," Adrian said. After what felt like forever, he slowly nodded. "Okay. I do trust you, Sage. I trust that you have good reasons for the things you do."

There was no snark, no sarcasm. He was deadly earnest, and for a moment, I wondered how I could have earned his trust so intently. I had a weird flash to the moments just before Abe had arrived, when Adrian had spoken of painting me and my feelings had been a jumble.

"Thank you," I said.

"What," demanded Angeline, "are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing of interest, I assure you," said Abe, who was really enjoying this all too much. "Life lessons, character development, unpaid debts. That sort of thing."

"Unpaid?" I surprised myself by taking a step forward and fixing him with a glare. "I've paid that debt a hundred times over. I don't owe you anything anymore. My loyalty is only to the Alchemists now. Not you. We're finished."

Abe was still smiling, but he wavered slightly. I think my standing up for myself had caught him off-guard. "Well, that remains to be - ah." More knocking.

"Here's the rest of our party." He hurried to the door.

Adrian took a few steps toward me. "Not bad, Sage. I think you just scared old man Mazur."

I felt a smile of my own begin to form. "I don't know about that, but it felt kind of good."

"You should backtalk people more often," he said. We grinned at each other, and as he regarded me fondly, I felt that same queasy feeling return. He probably wasn't experiencing that exact sensation, but there was an easy, bright mood about him. Rare - and very appealing. He nodded toward where Abe was opening the door. "It's Sonya."