Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(59)
Hours had passed—enough that I knew it was the next day. Without windows or the ability to use my Mage gift, I couldn’t be certain of the exact time. When I finally emerged from the bathroom, Houdini was nowhere in sight. I glanced in the cubbyhole and saw a thermos, two beignets, sugar cubes, and a small container of coffee cream. For whatever reason, it made me smile that he didn’t know everything about me. I always took my coffee black, something Christian knew.
Christian.
He must have been cursing up a storm.
In the dark room, I plopped down on the mattress, my back against the wall and knees pulled up. My heart did a somersault when I noticed two dim lights moving on the other side of the glass. They weren’t lights but eyeshine from a white panther. When he rose to his feet, a low growl rumbled before he walked into the shadows.
Minutes later, Houdini casually crossed the room, wearing tight black pants that ended just below his knee. The light from the fridge blinked on, and he grabbed a carton of milk. After filling two plastic glasses, he strode over to the recessed cubbyhole and slid one of the cups to my side. When his hand briefly appeared, it made me wish I had impalement wood. Even if I managed to do it, where would that get me? He’d be paralyzed on the other side of the wall, and I’d be trapped in this room… forever.
“Please eat something,” he urged. “I give you my word I haven’t spiked the food or drinks.” He put his hands on his hips. “You need your strength.”
“Only if you stop this.”
“You can’t stop inevitability.”
I stared absently at the glass wall, catching a ghost of my reflection. “I’ve had a shitty life, you know. I’ve never complained about it because when all you know is bad luck, you just learn to deal with it. But something good finally happened to me—for once—and now it’s gone. I’ll never have just one good thing in my life. You think humans are expendable, but can’t you empathize with their situation? I don’t understand how someone who seems as normal as you do can ruin so many lives. I just don’t get it. Each person you made carries a part of you inside them, whether you like it or not.”
He guzzled half his drink and returned to the chair by the table. “You’ve always intrigued me. Even now, all you can think about are those humans and not your own plight. Why is that?”
“Because I can’t stop whatever’s going to happen to me, but maybe something I say will make you think twice about doing this again.”
He smirked, his voice soft. “I’ve finally kidnapped my conscience. Fate has a wicked sense of humor.” After a quick glance at the screen, he angled the laptop away so it wasn’t shining directly on him. “This is what I’m good at, and the way I see it, I’m giving these humans immortality. We could go round and round with the ethics of it, but life is a gift no matter how it’s given. Things change, and buyers aren’t all malevolent bastards. I can’t stop the evils of the world from happening. I’m not the one hurting people. I’m giving them what they desire, and their fate is whatever they make of it. If I didn’t intervene, those lost souls might have committed suicide or landed in an abusive relationship. Would you hold me responsible for that?”
When he took another sip of milk, I pulled my arms against my chest and sighed. How many women had sat on this same mattress, begging for their freedom? Even worse, how many didn’t?
“Is there something I can make that you will eat?” he asked, licking his milk mustache. “I’m not the best cook, but I’m not the worst either.”
“I don’t need food.”
“Of course you do. I’ve seen you famished on a number of occasions. You’re not entirely Vampire, so that means some of your gifts are altered.”
That was an interesting way to put it. “And what would you know about a crossbreed?”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Plenty, because I am one.”
Impossible! What had happened to me was a fluke. There was no way he could be like me.
He stood up and dragged his chair up to the glass to see me better. When he sat down, he rested his arm on the edge of the table. “That’s how this whole thing began, you know. When I first saw you after your long disappearance, I couldn’t help but watch. You didn’t look like a Vampire, and it didn’t take long for me to notice your other abilities. Curious, I hired a Mage to put his light into a girl right after I turned her, but she died instantly. Maybe your Creator had strong light, or maybe you’re one of a kind. I began to wonder if I could pass my other half into a youngling. Maybe I couldn’t make another like you, but what if I could make someone like me?”
“What other half?”
He tilted his head. “I’m part Shifter.”
I glanced behind him, having just assumed he was some weirdo with a big-cat fetish.
“Remember?” He tugged his earlobe, which no longer had a black plug in it. “We met once before in a bar. I rubbed up against you, and your partner didn’t seem to like it very much. He’s a little possessive.” Houdini stretched out his legs, his feet on the glass. “When I buried him in that tomb, I hoped he wouldn’t show up for a while.”
I drew in a sharp breath.
“I love collecting favors, and when I saw one of Darius’s men in the trunk of a car, I gave him a call and offered to hide the body. For a favor, of course.”