Dracul (14 page)

It’s actually kind of fun.

At the same time, we’re practicing our non-verbal communication skills, which for now we use mostly for telling each other to refill our snacks. Constantine is especially helpful in this respect, because he can teleport away, buy rotisserie chickens or whatever we’re craving, and return with the food before Felix has finished shuffling the cards.

On Thursday evening at sundown, Constantine arrives with more than just chicken. He has a fake ID for Felix.

“Vasile?” I read the name out loud. “You made him a Romanian citizen?”

“Not too bad, hmm?” Constantine looks pleased with himself. “It even sounds a bit like Felix.”

“I dig it.” Felix takes the ID and places it in his wallet.

“But you don’t even speak Romanian,” I remind my brother. “What are you going to do if someone tries to talk to you in your native tongue,
Vasile
?”

“I’ll pretend to be hard of hearing or something. It’s going to be fine.”

“It’s going to be fine,” Constantine repeats, and whips out a bunch of large luggage bags from over his shoulder. “Now, some clothes for you to wear this weekend.”

“We’re dressing up? I thought we could just wear whatever, like a nice top and some slacks, or something.”

“You can wear whatever, but I think you will find your role easier to play if you’re dressed for it. Besides, the right clothes can add drama, which is a helpful distraction factor. Felix, for you.”

Felix hangs the bags on the nearest doorframe and unzips them to reveal a couple of dark blazers and some spendy jeans.

“Shoes, socks, t-shirts in this bag.” Constantine tosses him another bundle before presenting the last couple of garment bags to me. “These are for you. Of course you do not have to wear them. You may wear whatever you like. But I think,” he clears his throat and walks past me, hanging the garment bags on the wide wood frame without meeting my eyes. “You may like them.”

He produces a smaller shopping bag. “Here are shoes and accessories. I wanted to give all these things to you ahead of time in case you need to make adjustments.”

I’ve never been huge into dressing up and the fuss that goes along with it, but like all dragons, I’m drawn to sparkly things. So I unzip the first bag and gasp with surprised delight. “Wow. That’s a lot of rhinestones. You don’t think I’ll draw too much attention, do you?” I run my fingers over the halter-neck black gown, its bodice a swirl of stones and sequins.

“In Vegas? Considering the bankroll we’ll be playing, you might draw attention if you don’t dress up.”

Pleased in spite of myself by the first dress, I unzip the second bag and gasp again.

Not because the dress is stunning, though it is.

Not even because it looks crazy expensive, being completely covered with petal-shaped stones like mermaid scales.

No, I gasp because the gown is the exact shade of robin’s egg blue I take on when I’m a dragon.

Chapter Fourteen

“Is it too much? Too low cut? I apologize if I have offended you. When I saw this dress, it seemed to scream your name. It’s as though it matches your soul.”

“It matches her soul all right,” Felix agrees with a chuckle. “That’s her signature color. Nailed it.” He guffaws a little too loudly.

But I’m grateful for his overboard response, glad I have a goofy little brother here who can fill in the awkward silence while my mind is screaming with questions.

How did Constantine know?

He doesn’t know I’m a dragon. Nobody outside my village in Azerbaijan knows I’m a dragon. Obviously my little brother knows, but that’s it.

He would never tell Constantine.

No one could have told Constantine.

Did Constantine see my wings when I fought the vampire for my backpack last week? I honestly don’t think so. If he had, he surely would have asked me about it.

Unless he had a reason
not
to, like maybe if he was the vampire I fought, which I still haven’t completely ruled out.

“If you do not like it, I can return it,” Constantine offers. “Perhaps I should have let you pick. I thought it would be a fun surprise.”

“It’s lovely,” I squeak, still trying to sort out what and why and how. Is robin’s egg blue really the color of my soul? Do souls have colors?

I am so confused.

Granted, my eyes are the same color as my dragon self—but the catch is, my eyes, like all dragon eyes, glow. They’re seriously luminescent, or maybe even more than luminescent. I’m really not an expert on the terminology of light emission. All I know is, I wear contacts that dull my eyes, so in addition to not glowing and freaking people out, my eyeballs don’t look robin’s egg blue whenever I have my contacts in.

And Constantine has only ever seen me with my contacts in.

So how did he know, and perhaps more importantly, why would he let on he knows?

Is he trying to get me to admit something?

I’m not telling him anything, certainly not when I don’t know for sure whether he can be trusted. Maybe he’s befriending us for nefarious purposes. We and our kind have been betrayed plenty of times before.

But what can I say? I can’t ask him what he’s up to without giving away that there’s a reason why I’d ask. So I just have to play it cool.

“It’s breathtaking. Seriously.” I find my voice at last. “It’s just completely unexpected, and I’m a little worried about how the baggage handlers at the airport will—”

“Don’t worry about that. I will transport it for you. I only wanted you to see it ahead of time in case you need to plan your ensemble accordingly. I know very little of such matters, only that this is a beautiful dress and I should like very much to see you wear it.”

“Thank you. It’s amazing.” I can’t look at Constantine. He can read my face too well, and right now, there are too many questions screaming out of my every pore.

We sit down to play cards, but we don’t play very late. Partly it’s because Felix and I clearly have the whole card-counting thing down just fine, and we’re pretty good at the strategy of the game, too. Anyway, that’s the reason Constantine gives for heading out early.

But more than that, I think it’s the silence, the strained emptiness in our conversation that lurks like an extra shadow at our table. What game is Constantine playing, really? I have a hard time believing the color of my dress is some odd coincidence, or the result of his freakishly attentive insight into the true nature of my soul.

Constantine gives us instructions for tomorrow’s trip to Vegas—flight time, hotel information, all the basics. Then he leaves.

Once I’m sure he’s completely gone, I unzip the garment bag again and look at the dress.

Felix stands next to me. This time, he’s not laughing.

“How did he know?” Felix asks, the note of accusation not completely hidden by concern.

“He can’t know. Nobody knows.”

“Nobody can know,” Felix agrees. “But then, how do you explain this?”

I extend my hand toward the dress, but instead of touching it, I let my fingers hover just in front of it as my arm changes to its dragon form.

To my dragon color.

I blink a few times in wonderment. They match with eerie perfection.

Even the scale-like jewels have a reflective, iridescent sort of quality that almost mimics the luminosity of my dragon scales.

“Want to know what I think?” Felix asks as I change my hand back to human.

“Hmm?”

“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you.”

“What?” I turn and meet my brother’s eyes. I’ll read it on his face if I have to.

But his expression is a troubled one. “I’ve watched you two interacting together.”

“And?” I prompt when he falls silent for too long.

Felix shakes his head. “Maybe I’m putting myself in his place, reading myself into his actions. I don’t know how a vampire thinks.” He crosses to the table and begins clearing away the remains of our snacks.

“But you know how a
guy
thinks, so your perspective is bound to be closer to his than mine. What do you think Constantine is thinking?”

“You heard what he said about vampires breeding with humans—they make weak vampires. Human women who bear vampire babies have a hard time of it. He said he would never ask someone he cared about to do that.”

“I think he was speaking in a general sense—”

“He was looking at you as he said it. I believe he said it about you.”

I pinch my eyes closed like a child trying to hide by covering her eyes. But closing my eyes won’t make any of this go away. “What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s chemistry between the two of you, and you know it.”

“He’s a vampire. I’m a dragon. If we had offspring, they’d be demons.”

“Exactly. You know you can’t be together. He thinks you’re human, but what difference does it make? He knows you can’t be together. But that doesn’t stop him from feeling.”

“I don’t—” I start to protest, but I’m not sure what to say. I can’t deny that, yes, I like Constantine. I’ve enjoyed the time we’ve spent together, I’m fascinated by all the things he knows about the parts of history I care about most, and honestly, I wish I could get to know him even better.

But I also know the feelings I have for him aren’t going anywhere, because I won’t let them. No matter how strong the attraction between us, I am stronger than my feelings. I am master of my emotions. “I don’t understand what this has to do with the dress.”

“He knows the two of you can’t be together, but he still wants to see you in that dress. He knows that’s your color, even if he doesn’t know why.”

“Why would he care what I wear?”

“Because he wants you to be happy. It’s like me and Nia.”

“Ram’s wife?”

“You know Ram and I fought for her affection. Ram won. I stepped aside because I want Nia to be happy. I loved her, but she wasn’t happy that Ram and I were fighting over her. She wasn’t going to be happy with me—not as happy as she could be with Ram. So I gave them my blessing. She’s happy. I’m happy that she’s happy—it makes me happy to know she’s happy.”

“You don’t sound happy.”

“I’m lonely. I miss her. I miss my brother, believe it or not. It’s hard to be around him when he’s with her,” Felix admits begrudgingly. “It’s hard to be around either of them when they’re so happy together.”

“So, the dress…”

“Maybe I’m putting myself in Constantine’s place, but here’s what I think: he cares about you. He wants you to be happy. He bought you the dress because you’re going to look fabulous in it, and not even the blackjack dealers of Vegas will be immune to your charms. You’re going to win him money in that dress and look great doing it. He bought you the dress because he cares about you, even if he knows you can’t be together. That’s what I think.” Felix shrugs. “But I don’t know how a vampire thinks.”

*

True to plan, the next day, Felix and I fly to Vegas after my last class. We have no problems checking in to the suite Constantine reserved under Felix’s Vasile pseudonym.

Constantine raps on our hotel room door as we’re settling in.

“Everything went smoothly?” Constantine asks, stepping past me into the room the moment I open the door. “You weren’t followed?” He’s wearing a black satin-striped suit of the latest design, and he looks flawless.

“I didn’t know we were supposed to watch to see whether we were being followed,” Felix admits.

Constantine’s walking briskly around the suite, peeling back the curtains, crouching low to peek under the sofa. He’s checking every crevice, his movements smooth, the cut of his suit impeccable. He’s looked good before, but in this outfit, it’s almost distracting.

“What are you looking for?” I follow him on his paranoid pursuit.

“Bats. You haven’t seen any, have you?”

“No. Have you?”

“Yes.” He rises from looking under the bed. Suddenly he’s surprisingly close, his scent way too attractive, his face inches from mine.

It’s the first time I’ve looked him in the eyes since my conversation with Felix last night—the one where Felix insisted Constantine cares about me with some kind of tragic, unrequited love.

I’ve been telling myself ever since that Felix’s theory is nonsense, a bunch of projected emotion from his own failed romance with Nia.

But the look in Constantine’s eyes says maybe there’s something to it.

Something more.

“You saw a bat?” It takes me a second to find my voice, which comes out uncharacteristically shaky and maybe a little husky.

I must be exhausted from my flight.

All two-and-a-half hours of it, in a plane.

Right.

“Downstairs in the lobby as you were checking in. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and then he was gone. I did not get a good look at him.”

“You’d think in a nice hotel like this—” Felix starts.

But Constantine cuts him off. “The kind of trouble they watch for here is at least five feet tall. Besides, this is no ordinary bat. He knows how to avoid detection. Your room, at least, is clear.”

“For now.” Felix kicks off his shoes. “They can teleport, too, can’t they?”

“Only to a place they’ve visited before—or to a person with whom they hold close connection. Precisely why I had to knock on your door before bringing you your things. One moment.” With that, Constantine disappears.

“A person with whom they hold close connection,” Felix whispers, waggling his head at me. For all that he’s grown up in the last few years, he will always be my little brother—and sometimes acts like it.

Before I can chide Felix or beg him not to say another word on the subject, Constantine reappears with our garment bags.

“I’m ready to hit the tables. You may follow as soon as you’re dressed. And remember—if they suspect us of working together to count cards, they may review previous footage for signs of interaction between us. Let’s keep that to a minimum. Any questions?” His dark eyes flit from Felix to me. I can feel his gaze lingering on my face.

Suddenly I’m aware of so many things—the way his suit fits across his expansive shoulders, the olive tone of his skin, which is pale, but not the bedsheet-white of the cinema vampires. The way his smirk, when it’s not smirking, makes his lips look oh-so-kissable.

No.

Not kissable.

“We are strangers,” Constantine reminds me, one winged eyebrow jutting upward with a knowing challenge.

And then he disappears.

I wonder how much of my thoughts he read on my face.

“What was that?” Felix has been pulling his clothes from the garment bag and hanging them in the wardrobe, but he was still paying enough attention to see whatever just passed between me and Constantine.

“Nothing.” I shake my head in hopes of disguising the blush of my cheeks.

“We’re up against real dangers,” Felix reminds me. “We could get caught counting cards. There could be bats. Vampires. Impalement. Let’s focus on that, not on whatever can’t be between the two of you.” He grabs his toiletries bag from his carry-on. “I’m taking a quick shower.”

True to his word, Felix is out of the shower minutes after he entered. He’s dressed and ready to go while I’m still brushing my hair, wearing the same jeans and t-shirt I wore on the plane.

“I’m headed downstairs. You going to be okay?”

“Fine.”

“If you’re not down in half an hour, I’m coming back up to check on you.”

Normally I’d tell him not to be silly, that I’m a big girl who can take care of herself. But today, I smile past the lump forming in my throat. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

It takes me nearly all of the half hour to shower, slip on the black gown, do my hair in an elaborate up-do, and apply way more makeup than I ever wear in Montana.

Vegas requires vastly more eyeliner than Bozeman.

Then I strap on the spikey black platform heels Constantine picked out for me (gorgeous shoes, but since I’m already tall, the extra five inches make me look like a giant—apparently part of his distraction strategy), and I head for the blackjack tables.