Page 23 of Even Vampires Bleed (Even Ever After #2)

Cassiopé

C hristina looks at me from head to toe. It’s more like she looks past my nakedness than anything else, but one of the men next to her can’t help himself and releases an appreciative hmm.

Did I tell you how much I hated those two?

“Elis, get the girl something to wear,” Christina says right after.

I guess she doesn’t like the way they look at me, either.

And I guess I now know the name of the scowling guy I followed here.

He grumbles, but still gets out to comply.

“Paul, Jean, I think everything is settled. I’ll see you next Thursday.”

Christina dismisses the two men like it’s nothing. They don’t seem to be too happy about it, but they still get up from the couch and walk for the door that stayed open after Elis left.

I see them going the other way, though, and it occurs to me that legend says the catacombs snake all around under Paris might be right.

It would be a good thing to double check if there could be access under Notre Dame.

“Now, tell me exactly why you want to kill the new royals, or I’m not helping you,” Christina says as she relaxes on the couch.

She says the word “royals” with so much disgust that I’m taken aback.

I might not be the only one hating them so much, but her question raises one in my mind too. She doesn’t like the idea of helping a shifter, for sure.

“Do you truly hate shifters so much that you wouldn’t accept my help?” I ask instead of answering her question.

I know I’m stalling, but I’m not sure I can hold it together in front of the hard stare of that woman.

She looked almost sweet when I saw her on the parvis last time, but I can see it now. I was wrong. She’s cold, assessing, and doesn’t seem to mind being curt or asking the right questions. Or in my case, the question I don’t want to answer.

“I don’t hate shifters,” Christina starts. “I just don’t trust them.”

Not much better.

“Then why help Elhyor and provide serums?” I ask, baffled.

“Because our interests align, and I would be dumb not to take help where I can find it,” she says.

I give her a look and answer tauntingly.

“And yet, you question my help…”

“I don’t question your help, I question your motivations,” she retorts without missing a beat.

“I know why Elhyor is fighting back the angels. He fell in love with the fallen one. I can understand that, but you… I don’t know why, and until you give me a good reason to believe you, I’m not taking your help.

You can either stay here and start at the bottom, which means cleaning duty, or you can go back to your safe walls. ”

She seems unbothered by what she just told me, even if I’m pretty sure I saw the glint of envy in her eyes when I revealed my talents upon my arrival. She looked interested, like she might already have a mission that could fit my special set of skills.

And yet, she doesn’t really want me here, either.

She’d rather me being gone and missing an opportunity than keeping me here without knowing my motivations.

I grit my teeth.

Except for my dad while he was sleeping, I haven’t talked to anyone in more than a week, and even to my dad I didn’t say a single thing about what happened to Léandre and how it hurt me, how it’s still hurting me.

“They took everything from me,” I finally say between still gritted teeth.

“You don’t look like everything was taken from you. You just look like a little girl whose toys have been confiscated,” she says in a deprecating tone.

You bitch; you didn’t just say that.

“You have no idea what I went through. You have no right to judge me based on what you think my life is,” I tell her, and I have yet to relax my jaw.

“That’s where you’re wrong girl,” Christina says without even bothering to use my name. “ You come to ask for my help. Don’t misunderstand it. I don’t need your help. I’d gladly use it, but I don’t need it. So I can judge you all I want.”

She picks up an apple from the table between the two couches and bites it viciously.

We’re definitely not going to be best friends.

But I’m not here to make friends though, right?

I steel myself and try to relax a bit. It’s easier said than done, though.

“My dad is in a coma because of them, and they stole the man I loved,” I tell her.

Here, see, I can do short answers when I want to.

I probably took some shortcuts though, because dad is in a coma because of the former Michael, even if there is a high possibility that Ambrose also knew about it, and well, I don’t know if I can say that I loved Léandre.

I definitely was falling in love with him, but it was still very new, and I don’t really know if I felt that way.

Except, I’m not about to explain all of that.

She’s already scrutinizing me with what I just said. I’m not going to give her more ammunition to hit where it hurts.

There is a pregnant silence for a few seconds, and then it’s broken by the arrival of Elis, who dumps all of my clothes to the ground at my feet.

“Christina, I don’t get paid enough to pick up someone’s dirty underwear,” he says as he slouches on the couch in front of her, with his back to me.

How dare he? My underwear aren’t dirty! I put them on barely an hour ago.

Might have sweated like a pig after getting up the stairs to the Sacré Coeur though, a tiny voice in my mind reminds me.

Oh well…

“You don’t get paid at all, Elis,” Christina says to him in a bored voice.

“Maybe you should change that,” he bites back.

I make quick work to get dressed again while I listen to them bickering.

“Isn’t my company rewarding enough?” she asks with a saccharine smile.

“Nope, not even one bit,” Elis mutters under his breath and I realize he said it just loud enough for Christina to hear when she laughs.

It sounds almost weird from the hardened woman.

“Don’t worry, Elis, we might have a way for you to be rid of me very soon if Cassiopé stays a bit with us,” Christina says when she finally stops laughing.

So, she does remember my name.

But her phrasing makes me immediately wonder if Elis isn’t one of those people Christina aligned with only because they had a common goal.

“Can’t wait,” he responds, and I can hear all the sarcasm in his voice.

He might not want to be here with her, with us, but he also doesn’t really want to do what’s going to be needed for whatever they need me for.

“Let’s get ready to rob an archangel or two,” Christina says with glee in her voice.

I guess my motivations were good enough for her.