What, exactly, she would do if and when Sawyer called, Eva still didn’t know. She would likely just ignore it. Maybe with a text message about how she shouldn’t be contacted for a few days because of whatever reasons.
If she saw an opportunity to taunt him with it that wouldn’t cause him to run, she would probably take it. Maybe a text message right as she launched a surprise attack.
“They can’t be trusted,” Nel said, hands on her hips. “They’ll stab us in the back the moment they see the chance.”
Eva had her face buried in the pillow, but she still used her blood sight to track everything around her. She trusted Nel and Serena to an extent and didn’t think that either would attack her. Like Nel, she didn’t believe in the vampires to half the same extent.
The tenants in the neighboring rooms were still asleep. No one was outside and she couldn’t see all the way to the manager’s office. She wished that they were in a room closer to the vampire’s thralls, but she’d just have to make do.
Eva half expected a bunch of thralls to show up around noon to break in the windows. She would have to keep an eye on her blood sight and watch for anything suspicious outside.
“They made a fuss over Lucas for two reasons. Reason the first,” Serena held up a finger as she spoke, “one of their number had just exploded. They were scared. The other reason is that Kuvon couldn’t appear weak in front of his den. They would have eaten him alive if he had shown weakness. Literally, probably.”
“So what, since we’ve assuaged their worries they’ll just fall in line?”
“Nooo,” Serena said, drawing out the word with a shake of her head. “They’ll fall in line because Eva promised them a whole case of her blood.”
Eva just groaned. “Don’t remind me,” she mumbled into her pillow.
“It might not have been the wisest thing to do,” Serena said with a sage nod.
“I didn’t want to fight. Even if I could have clapped my hands and killed all the vampires, I don’t know that I would have held up against the thralls. And there were a good number of them. With me useless and Nel,” Eva paused, turning her head to the side just enough to stare at the augur with one eye. “Well, you would have had to deal with them on your own.”
Nel just huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. Though, Eva didn’t count that as a disagreement.
“And then there were the extra vampires you mentioned. The ones that might not be there.”
“Those were August strain vampires,” Serena said. “They tend to like large groups. Six just feels small. Even for a town this size.”
“How many more would you expect?”
“Four to six. Ten to twelve in total. Minus the one called Lucas, obviously.”
“So we would have only killed off half of them. Probably wouldn’t have been able to trick the other half into drinking blood either.”
“They would have realized something was suspicious if we offered them a few vials.”
“There you have it,” Eva said to Nel. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, having them as our allies is much better than fighting both them and Sawyer. Doubly so because our fighting would probably draw Sawyer’s attention prematurely.”
Still with her arms over her chest, Nel huffed again. “We should call the Elysium Order. Even if they’ve suspended operations, they can’t ignore an infestation of vampires and a necromancer.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’d be thrilled as can be to receive a call from you, me, and another vampire,” Eva said with a wan grin. It was half covered up by the pillow, but she was fairly certain that the augur got her meaning if her averted gaze was any indication. “Besides, this is our revenge. I want Sawyer’s blood to rain down around me. Not to watch from afar while some nuns fumble their way into letting him escape again.”
Nel narrowed her eyes, but didn’t respond.
Eva just burrowed her head back into her pillow. She really didn’t care what the augur thought at the moment. Her head was hammering. As Sawyer cracked open another casket, it was all she could do to keep from rushing to the bathroom again.
The side of her bed sank in under Serena’s weight as the vampire sat down. “I know you’re not feeling well,” she said in a gentle voice, “but it would be better for you to drain your blood for the vampires now. So you can rebuild your strength before we go meet them again.”
Eva groaned. Serena was right, but that didn’t mean that she had to like it. “You just want a taste.”
“Maybe,” she said with a light chuckle. “But I suppose I can save it for the vampires given our limited supply.”
Grasping around behind her back, Eva’s fingers curled around the hilt of her dagger. She brought it around and jammed it into her shoulder. The pooling blood left the surface of her skin and hovered in the air over her back.
“Just set out the empty vials we got back,” Eva said, ignoring Serena licking her lips. “I’ll take care of the rest. And, if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d appreciate quiet for a while. If anything happens with Sawyer, I’ll let you guys know.”
—
Around noon, Sawyer finally finished with his gruesome task. In the process, he gave Eva some hope that he wouldn’t do anything particularly terrible for the remainder of the time she had to spend with him.
Her hopes were quickly dashed.
Sawyer closed the lid of the last casket and proceeded to direct the skeletons around. They carried off the caskets to fill in the ritual circle rings.
Not every slot got a casket placed into it. Sawyer skipped over a few of them.
That was cause for some concern. Eva didn’t know if they would be filled in later with more appropriate corpses or if they were intentionally left blank. If it was the latter, Sawyer would need less corpses. He would be finished sooner. Regardless of what the ritual did, Eva did not want to see what would happen if she let him finish it.
But for the moment, he was taking a break. After heading back to his warehouse, Sawyer decided to get something to eat. It was somewhat shocking to see this horrible, terrible person slip a bowl of macaroni into a microwave and then proceed to eat it while looking over a tome. Eva couldn’t read whatever language the tome had been written in; undoubtedly, it was a necromantic text on some fiendish activity that he intended to unleash on the world. But the situation itself was just so normal–something that Eva could see herself doing–that it was almost surreal.
At least until she realized that he hadn’t washed his hands since having them elbow deep in several corpses. The same pale light that had killed the maggots earlier briefly lit up his arms before he had started to eat. That might have killed off bacteria and such, but it didn’t help all the grime coating him.
Eva almost vomited again at the thought of pieces of dead bodies falling into his meal. Little chunks of skin, stomachs, or intestines.
Haemomancy was not a clean art. Between her own blood and others’ blood, it was just the opposite. Eva was hardened against most feelings related to blood. That didn’t mean that she sat around drinking it all day like some sort of vampire.
She might occasionally get coated in blood. She might occasionally go elbow deep into someone’s body. They were typically far fresher bodies than Sawyer’s corpses, but it was a similar ordeal. But Eva at least washed her hands or showered before eating.
Eva immediately regretted thinking such thoughts as soon as they had crossed her mind.
Sawyer finished with his meal, dumped the bowl in the sink, and proceeded into the shower as if he had read her mind.
Of all the things that Eva didn’t need to see in her life, Sawyer showering ranked among the highest.
Though, on second thought, him showering was far more preferable to him cracking open more caskets and releasing the noxious fumes contained within. At least he was getting clean.