two cheeks on one side of your face.”
“Well, then, I sincerely apologize and commend your restraint. But you’ll need to explain what I’m doing wrong here. I’m honestly not trying to insult you. I’ve never been in a relationship like this before, and I don’t know how to handle it.”
“What kind of relationship do you think we have?”
“ This kind. Don’t tell me you haven’t felt the weirdness here. We used to flirt, Granuaile, and now we can’t, because you’re my apprentice.”
“You just got done telling me you’re not the sin police and celibacy is for people who hate themselves, and now you’re saying we can’t flirt?”
“That’s correct.”
“And you don’t see a contradiction there?”
I shook my head. “Not at all. The student-teacher relationship is sacred. This is true across cultures and throughout history.”
Granuaile scoffed. “You can’t be serious. People have messed around with their teachers forever, and vice versa.”
“Yes, but at the sacrifice of the relationship. Teaching and learning cannot continue once you cross that line. I would feel pressured to go easy on you to save your feelings. Or I’d lower my standards to ensure your success. You’d wind up being a much less powerful Druid, and I don’t think either of us is the type to settle for mediocrity. So we cannot even get close to that line.”
She looked away and down at her drink, carefully mastering her expression to be noncommittal. Perhaps she gave the barest nod of agreement. Whether she did or not, she wasn’t happy. That meant we were in trouble; she was having the same difficulty I was, but until then I hadn’t seen much sign of it from her. My neck twitched, and Granuaile’s might have as well. Guilt ferrets are bastards.
Is it Leif?
I lifted my eyes to the bar’s entrance and saw Leif walk through, his hands thrust in his pockets as he casually scanned the seats for us. I held up a hand to attract his attention. He spotted me and tilted his chin upward to indicate he’d seen us. He didn’t move in our direction, though. Instead, he carefully scanned the rest of the room, seeking out traps or escape routes or perhaps other people. It awakened my own paranoia, and I began to look around as well.
Oberon, do you still smell dead people?
According to what I saw in the magical spectrum, everyone in the bar was human except for Leif. Once we were both satisfied, he approached us.
Granuaile had never met Leif-he was nocturnal, after all, and she tended to stay in her condo at night-so she had no way of knowing if he looked the same or not. But as he grew closer, I had to school my features not to reveal any of the horror I felt. Leif hadn’t recovered fully after all.
Chapter 17
I could still recognize him easily-even from a distance in dim light-but up close his complexion had the consistency of a Play-Doh sculpture, lumpy and clumsily shaped with chubby fingers. His hair, once full and shining with undead lustre, lay lank and greasy against his head. Patches were missing; I’d salvaged only a few hairs in Asgard, so it was remarkable that it had even grown back in this much, but the effect was to make him look diseased.
“I know I have looked better, Atticus,” he said, extending his hand to shake, “but I have also looked much worse. And I am still healing, thanks to you.” I wasn’t sure he should be thanking me. Though I’d done my best to bind his head back together after Thor pulverized it into chunks of bone and brain, one could not look at him now without feeling seriously disturbed. The symmetry was gone. The shadows were wrong. One eye sat higher than the other-though it was a miracle he had eyes at all.
Taking his hand, I could not help but notice that his skin there was tight and smooth, in sharp contrast to his face.
“Leif, this is my apprentice, Granuaile.”
He turned his unsettling gaze to her and nodded once. “It is my pleasure.”
Granuaile bobbed her head in return, lips tightly pressed together. Perhaps she did not trust herself not to vomit; Leif’s head was more disturbing than anything we’d eaten at the Double Dog Dare Cafe.
“Please, sit,” I said. He took a seat opposite me, and the waitress appeared to drop off our drinks and take his order. She flinched when she saw his face, glanced guiltily down at her order pad, and flinched again when he ordered only water.
“So you will continue to improve?” I asked.
“Yes. The hair is coming in. The bones are still shifting around a bit.”
“How’s your memory?”
“There are gaps,” he admitted. “Hal told me we were successful but that Gunnar did not make it.”
My jaw dropped. “You don’t remember killing Thor?”
He shook his head sadly. “I wish I did. But it gives me great pleasure to know that he is dead and that I was the instrument of his doom.”
“What’s the last thing you recall?”
“The frost giants stomping on Heimdall. Did they make it out?”
I shrugged. “They might have. Last I saw, they were chasing Freyja. So you’re missing most of the battle.”
“Yes. Can you fill me in?”
“Certainly.” I spent some time rehashing our trip to Asgard-who died, who survived, and what happened afterward. Leif smiled when I recounted his face-off with Thor. His teeth weren’t straight.
“So what now, Atticus?”
“What do you mean, what now? We move on. That’s what I’m doing.”
“It is not that easy. My situation is a bit dangerous.”
“You mean the other vampires? I’m sure you’ll take care of it soon enough. Give yourself a bit of time. You’re not a hundred percent yet.”
Leif sighed, intensely dissatisfied-whatever he wanted me to understand, I wasn’t getting it. He cocked his head suddenly to the right, as if startled by a thought. “Did I tell you once that I was the shit? Or am I imagining that?”
“You said that once, yes,” I said, smiling.
“Well, I am no longer the shit, Atticus.” He twirled a finger at his face to emphasize the point. “I am excessively weakened, and I do not know when or even if I will regain my former strength.”
“So these other vampires are out to destroy you?”
“Some are. Others are working for Zdenik.”
“Zdenik? Your creator?”
Leif nodded.
I picked up my pint for a contemplative sip. “He’s in Prague, right?”
“No. He’s in Phoenix.”
That almost caused me to inhale some Smithwick’s into my lungs. I coughed a bit and put down the pint. “Um… why?”
“On our journey to Asgard, you’ll recall, I went to visit him in Prague while you and Gunnar remained in the forest near Osinalice?”
“Yes. You said you were paying your respects.”
“I also arranged for him to take over my territory in the event of my death or severe injury.”
“Leif, that sounds like an extraordinarily bad idea.”
“It seemed like a good one at the time. But now he’s bought Copenhaver Castle on Camelback Mountain. You know it?”
