Envious Of Fire (Kissing With Teeth #2)

20. Madame Rose.

—?—

Elias is on the road with Cade in the passenger seat. Layna and Jeremy are in the back, Layna worriedly trying to soothe her boyfriend. Elias had prepared a bag of ice from the freezer, which Jeremy is pressing futilely against his crotch, though it seems to do nothing about his situation, perhaps only dulling the presumed ache. The more time passes, the more Layna is appearing to believe this isn’t just a tiny medical mishap any old doctor can rectify, and she keeps glancing over her shoulder at the back window, as if expecting the horde of birds to be flying along with them in pursuit. Cade keeps nervously talking about anything that comes to mind while switching between stations on the radio every few minutes, never satisfied with the music that plays. Elias can hardly pay attention to any of it, too wound up himself with the place they are headed—and the uncertainty of where Kyle is spending his daylight hours. Is he even safe? Did Lazarus lie and devour him the second he arrived? Did he not even find this “mouth armed with teeth” and turned to dust in the morning sunlight of the desert? The nightmares persist, and with Kyle’s phone dead, turned off, or completely out of range, nothing right now can hope to ease Elias’s mind.

By the second hour of travel, everyone has gone as quiet as Jeremy. Even the radio is playing soft rock at such a low volume that the guitars and singing sound like distant animal wailing. The ice has melted, and it’s just a useless bag of water Jeremy holds as he lies back in the seat, bored. Layna’s head rests on his shoulder, forehead creased with worry.

When they’re in the homestretch, Jeremy is now squirming all over the place as a worried Layna rubs his back and keeps whimpering apologies at him. “Can we go faster?” she calls out. “I think he has to pee. Can guys even pee with an erection? I’m not a guy, I don’t know.” To which Elias says, “Going as fast as I can. Last thing we need is a cop pulling us over.” Cade keeps cradling her head in her hands, massaging away her stresses, whispering unintelligibly to herself.

“Jer, look,” says Layna a while later when they’re finally on the strip, driving slower through the Sunday afternoon traffic. “Didn’t you want to go to the M she decided what he would become. And what he is today is a far cry from that. No matter her efforts to hide it, the disappointment is as obvious as fire in her eyes every time she looks upon her son. All those dreams she had for him crumbled over the recent years. And as of last week, they’ve all but turned into dust in the desert wind.

He isn’t sure where he stands with his mother now. “No, I’m not high. I’m in danger.”

Her face remains skeptical, cold. “What kind of danger?”

“Vampires.”

The power in a single word. Her crossed arms loosen, as if the word just struck her somewhere sensitive with a needle. She peers past Elias at the others, a flicker of outrage in her eyes, the way one looks at someone who has just eavesdropped on a conversation not meant for their ears.

“Vampires,” he repeats, driving the nail in deeper. “You heard me right. In fact, I was just visited by a freakishly tall one in my bedroom while I was having an intimate moment with my boyfriend Kyle. He was a real swell guy, should’ve met him. Took a couple tastes of me, even complimented my blood, like leaving a comment card on the way out of a restaurant. Likely would’ve drained me had Kyle not played the hero.”

Rose reveals nothing further on her face. Her arms crossed over her chest, she just stares at Elias, listening to every word, her eyes like weapons of their own ready to strike.

“And now Kyle’s out trying to find them,” he goes on. “I have no clue if he succeeded, failed, alive or dead … I can’t just sit around anymore, Mom. I need what’s in that vault.”

Still, she says nothing. Shows nothing. As silent as stone.

Just then, a bird appears at the window. Then another. Then ten more, each of them finding perch on some narrow outer ledge, lining up along the glass. Only Elias, Cade, Layna, and Jeremy seem to notice, staring ahead as the birds appear. Rose continues to stare at her son, jaw tightened, silent.

Elias turns slightly, grimacing at Cade. “Would you, um … would you mind stepping out into the hall with Jer and Layna? I think my mom and I need some privacy.”

Her eyes still wide and affixed to the sudden gathering of birds, Cade smiles blankly and nods. “S-Say no more.” Then she turns to take Layna and Jeremy out. Suddenly she stops, her face twisting, and then she turns back. “Madame Rose, ma’am, if I might just add … I’m a mother, too. There’s nothing in this whole wide world I wouldn’t do to protect my child. Even if it means protecting herself … from herself .” She gives the window a wary glance before continuing. “I don’t know what it is you’ve got that Elias wants, but I hope you find it in your heart to help us.” She nods again, gives one last glance at that bird-infested window, then puts her arm around Layna, heading off with a grimacing, silent Jeremy following behind. The doors shut after them.

The moment they leave, the birds begin to leave, too, one by one fluttering away from the window, until all that remains is the blank afternoon sky and warm sunlight.

With just Elias and his mother in the room, the air at once changes. “Vampires?” his mother finally says, shakes her head, crosses her arms tighter. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m more in it than I’ve ever been, actually.”

“Why would you risk saying something so … so ludicrous like that in front of these so-called friends of yours? Why would you mention our family vault?”

“Oh, we’re way beyond that point. The people of Nowhere have seen far more than they’ve cared to, probably more than I even know. And since I’m now an honorary citizen thanks to Kyle, I have to do my part. We’ve got vampire eyes on us … and who knows what else. Please. Let me into the vault.”

“Kyle …” Her voice changes. “Your boyfriend, you said?”

“He’s incredible. He’s sensitive and smart and strong. And a little reckless and stubborn, too,” he adds, smirking. Then he sighs. “And I think he’s in deep shit, Mom … really deep shit. I don’t have the time for this. If you want to be pissed at me for leaving, fine, but let’s have that conversation later.”

“The fact you’re here speaks volumes as to why you should never have left in the first place.”

Every chat with her lately is a minefield. “Of course, Mom. You were so much happier when I was living in my cozy spot beneath your thumb. Protected. Or crushed like a bug. Is there even a difference between the two with you?”

“Oh, stop it,” she says with a roll of her eyes, leaning back against the desk. “You were safe when you lived here. Safe from any and all threats. Now, one week later, you’re already back.”

“I’m utilizing my connections and privilege.”

“So now I’m not even your mother? I’m a ‘connection’?”

“I need what’s in the vault. You said it was our contingency plan.” Those words cause Rose to freeze at once, her eyebrows pinching together. “Yes, I heard you,” he says, softer. “I heard a lot of conversations. I was watching when you weren’t noticing. I saw records of the payments you gave that man, sending him off to do something … to get something.” Elias comes closer to her, whispers the words. “I know you. You wouldn’t go through all that trouble if it wasn’t something important. You have … You have leverage against them. A weapon. That’s what it is in the vault, I’d bet my left hand, it’s leverage. Just in case.”

Rose closes her eyes. Elias imagines she’s reciting a prayer for the first time in years. The woman has a masterful poker face—until it comes to her son. And right now, Elias is seeing all he needs to see to confirm that his suspicious were right.

“You’re working with them,” he says.

She opens her eyes, looks at him.

“They threatened you,” he goes on. “I figured it wasn’t the first time. Guess what? I got to meet the head guy. Kyle and I both did. Have you met him? Name’s Lord Markadian. Yeah, that includes the silly ‘Lord’ part. Do you know any of them by name? Are they listed in the contacts on your phone? Do you meet up and strike business deals at the twenty-four-hour café? Memorized how much blood they take in their coffee? If you’re not aware of them, well, they’re sure as fuck aware of you. Our names are even on a Protected Blood list. Cute, huh?”

Rose pushes away from the desk, as if unable to hear one more word. It seems to take everything in her not to shout. But in her usual fashion, whatever sensitive part of her that just unraveled at her son’s words quickly tightens back up.

She faces him. “I suggest you stop whatever the hell this is,” she states, lips rigid, only her bottom row of teeth showing, dry and blinding white against her dark lipstick, “this mission of yours, this hero trip you’re on … and just go back home.”

“I thought this was my home.”

She turns, heads back to her desk chair, all ice, no feeling, and returns to her work, typing away.

Elias watches her for a while. He can’t seem to figure out whether she’s bluffing, serious, or scared. Did he strike a nerve? Should he not have named them? Most likely she’s reacting this way to prevent herself from becoming soft or emotional. She’s had to play the role of an iron fist for years. It’s all she knows, even when her instinct is to do nothing but love on her son. Elias is old enough to see that complexity now, even if the child inside him refuses to understand, feeling hurt and conflicted.

So Elias uses the one and only tool he has left. “Dad … he would have done something about them.”

Her typing stops.

“He … H-He would have spat in their faces,” he goes on. “Laughed at their threats. Made sure they knew he held just as much power. I may not have known much until recently, but I can see it now … all the clues and little signs … The vampires, they handed you a leash, and you put it around your own neck.”

“Stop.”

“And you expect me to wear one, too.”

“I said stop.”

Elias comes right up to the desk, his hands gripping the edge. She lifts her face, startled. “Whatever you’ve got in that vault,” he says, and now it’s his own voice that carries the ice of his mother’s, “I hope it’s doing you real good, along with all of your other riches and treasures and useless collections that go to waste in storage someplace. In the end, it isn’t any gold or money these vampires want. It’s blood. And they’ll come after mine next when they’re through with you … if we don’t take a stand now and use every bit of leverage we’ve got.”

His mother closes her eyes again, remaining still. After a while, it finally occurs to Elias that he has hit a wall with her. No amount of words will help. She won’t budge. Coming here was a waste of time. Elias nods, accepting that fact, then moves away from the desk, heading for the door, prepared to leave behind his mother and her cold eyes for good.

Until she says: “It isn’t a weapon.”

Elias stops, glances back at her, waits.

She takes a breath, then meets his eyes. “It’s … a book.” She cradles her head in her hands, mutters something to herself, perhaps about throwing caution to the arid desert wind, then rises from her chair once again, this time more pensively, gently. “I had my suspicions about them for a long time. I once thought they were mafia. Or a dangerous organized gang unit. I could never imagine what I was up against was …” She shakes her head and perhaps decides not to finish that sentence. “They are very dangerous, Elias. They don’t make threats. They make promises. I have seen … disturbing things. I am convinced they control the police, too. It would be a terrible mistake to underestimate their reach. They can eliminate any one of us in the blink of an eye. The only power I hold over them, if any, is my standing, my reputation, and my diplomacy. But fear can truly cripple even the bravest of us. I have fought for what we have. Fought tirelessly. But what does any of it mean if it can be so easily taken away? How can we stay standing when there is always a more terrible force standing over us? A force that is literally invulnerable? A force I can never hope to defeat?”

It’s then that she clutches her silver choker necklace, as if it brings her peace of mind to touch it. Perhaps it’s only now that Elias remembers his mother always used to wear gold jewelry. But these past few years since the Scarlet Sands was built, only silver adorns her neck, silver on her wrists, on her fingers.

Suddenly it seems quite deliberate.

Has Elias not been paying attention?

“Son …” She keeps twisting her fingers around the silver choker. “Son … if you could only pay witness to the bizarre conversations I used to have with myself every night before I attempted yet another restless night of sleep … I believed I was going insane. The things I considered doing … I considered checking myself into a hospital, leave the hotel and casino, run away to Mexico … I was losing myself.”

“I remember,” says Elias quietly.

“Yes,” she then says, “I work with them … but perhaps not in the way you think. Our relationship is merely to keep peace. I am a pawn in their game. And I foolishly thought they could become a pawn in mine … if all went to plan. Did you wonder how we got on that list of Protected Blood in the first place?”

The thought had certainly passed through Elias’s mind this past week, more than once. He almost brought it up once or twice to Kyle, but with their determination to move on with their lives, the timing never felt right.

“It was at my lowest that I finally had an epiphany … at my worst. I thought to myself … well, I am in an unconventional situation. Perhaps it merits an unconventional solution. So … I utilized my resources to secure myself something I felt could finally arm me against them.”

“A book?” asks Elias softly.

“An ancient text. Several hundred years old, maybe older. I decided against having it analyzed or examined by my people. I don’t know who to trust, who might be working for them, who might be … one of them , right under my nose, undetectable.”

“What’s in the book?”

“I don’t know. I can’t read it.”

With every answer, Elias grows more confused. “You mean it’s in another language?”

“I mean I can’t read it. The moment I try, my head spins, I feel sick, my bones ache … I can’t even describe a single word or illustration in its pages. There is something treacherous and dark about that book, Elias. It … It scares me.”

Elias shakes his head. “I don’t understand. Then how did you think this was going to arm you against the vampires?”

“Because it was allegedly written by those who had made it their life’s mission to end them. A secret society of hunters, if you will. Or so I’ve come to learn.” She meets his eyes. “I know you think your father would have fought these people off …”

“They aren’t people.”

“… but I have not been as submissive as you think. I made moves of my own. To protect us. I made deals, long ago, to secure our safety. I refuse to be their pawn. I’ve been fighting for our freedom from them for years . But … until I can make use of that book, I must play it safe … and so must you.”

“Then perhaps that’s the reason I’m here.” Elias leans in. “I think we can make use of that book.”

She scoffs at him, face wrinkling up. “But how on earth? It is entirely unreadable. It is like a … a bow without arrows … or an unloaded gun. Perhaps useless.”

“Maybe that depends on who’s reading it.”

She gives him a look. “You think you can read it?”

“No. But I think one of my friends can.”

She squints at him, perplexed.

“Take me to the vault,” he says, and perhaps it is the first time that his mother seems to acknowledge the request without instant indignation. “My friends are not what they seem to be. Nowhere is not what you think it is. And Kyle …” He grimaces as he fights back tears. Then at once the tears can’t be stopped. “Kyle needs me, Mom. You’re not the only one in this battle.”

And that’s when Rose becomes a mother again.

Her eyes soften as she stares into Elias’s.

For the first moment in perhaps years, the two of them are at once united, in this together, a glimpse of the mother who used to laugh and play in the sprinklers with her child, used to cuddle with him on an old couch in their first apartment and watch cartoons every Saturday morning, used to have tickle wars with him while his father laughed from the table, reading the newspaper with a mug of black coffee in hand.

“Well then,” says Rose through her shimmering, tear-filled eyes. “What the hell are we doing gabbing on in here for?”