Demon Blood

been massacred until the Guardians had told them.
    “So I called her,” Camille continued, “and I spoke with Svetlana, who told me that Rosalia wasn’t home. I thought nothing of it because she was so often gone. But later, I received a call from a young human woman asking if I’d seen her. And that they hadn’t seen Rosa for months, and she was looking for her.”
    That would have been Gemma. “Her vampires never asked you?”
    “Not once.” She lifted a shoulder as if it was nothing, but Deacon heard the note of sadness in her psyche. “Rosalia has always been about protecting her family. Her family has rarely offered the same to her.”
    Deacon would have torn Europe apart looking for her. To know , if nothing else. And he’d have given his life to protect her.
    “And I’ll tell you why Lorenzo didn’t just kill her: Without Rosalia standing in his way, he could have taken over all of Europe as he planned. But he hated her too much not to rub her failure in her face. So he’d wake her up and let her see what he’d done.” She looked down into her champagne. “That is the one and only thing I thank the nephilim for. If they hadn’t killed him when they did, we’d all be dead, and our communities under his rule.”
    “I don’t think anyone shed tears over him. Not even Rosie.”
    “Who would?” She expelled a disgusted breath. “As it was, even with Lorenzo dead I didn’t have much hope once I heard she was gone. Then when Rome was destroyed, followed by Berlin, I had none at all. She’s held the balance in Europe since she became a Guardian, and without her, the balance was gone. Everything was spinning out of control. I wasn’t even surprised when you turned on the Guardians for a demon.”
    “But then she came back.” If there was any reason to be thankful for Caym, that was the single one. If not for the demon, Rosalia might have still been in those catacombs.
    “Then she came back—and I should have known that she would. If there’s one thing about Rosa, it’s that she won’t quit. She won’t lose faith, even if she loses hope. And after she loses hope, she still fights on, she still endures.” Camille looked up at him with a smile. “And she can be insidiously clever and patient while she’s about it. I’ve learned to never underestimate her. If she told me that she’d planned this ninety years ago, intending to put you in this position as a way to pay you back, I’d have believed her.”
    Ninety years? “Pay me back for what?”
    “You have no idea?” When he shook his head, she said, “I didn’t either, not then. I thought it was all for me. She said, Here is a man who helped me out once. He’s a good man. He needs someone to make him laugh, and you need someone who will laugh at you. And I liked you. We had fun those early years, didn’t we?”
    “Yes.” But he still didn’t understand. “ What was for you?”
    “Sending me to you. I simply thought it was her way of helping me. No, that’s not fair—it was her way of helping me. But Rosa, she never has just one reason. And if she can kill fifty birds with one stone . . .” Trailing off, she took a sip of her champagne. “Afterward, I looked back, and it was true that every single move she asked me to make helped me. But it helped you, too—and I realized, you had always been at the center of it.”
    Deacon’s mind reeled. He knew what this meant—but he couldn’t take any of it in. Couldn’t believe it. His heart pounded. He set the champagne flute aside, afraid he’d shatter the glass in his hand.
    She sighed. “But I suppose that is why you are not with her now. How could you be? She will never trust anyone so much that she will give them her heart. She wraps herself in reasons, and they are all true, but the one reason that makes her vulnerable, she never gives. After what her father was, and Lorenzo—how could she? But what is love without trust? And I know you, Deacon. You could not stay with a woman who has many reasons to be with you, but will never say she loves you.”
    The admission tore from him. “She did.”
    Camille stepped back, staring at him as if he’d struck her. “And you left ?”
    She read the answer in his face. Her eyes filled.
    “Oh, Rosa,” she whispered. Camille averted her face, and when someone called her name, telling her to come for the phone, she went quickly inside.
    Deacon stared blindly out into the night. His fingers bit into the balcony railing.