It only meant she didn’t have a chance at defeating him.
“Please don’t do that,” he asked in a calm voice. “I’m not the enemy.”
Maya gave a mirthless laugh.
“Maybe you should give her a demonstration,” Thomas suggested.
“No. I don’t want to frighten her anymore than she already is,”
Gabriel replied.
“No, no, please, do give me a demonstration,” Maya mocked. “I’ve got to see what you vampires do.”
When none of the three so-called vampires moved or did anything to prove that they were really vampires, she knew she’d called their bluff.
Now she was convinced this was all a big setup. Her colleagues from the hospital had probably all chipped in and hired a few actors to play a prank on her. Hadn’t they said only weeks ago that she was working too hard and needed to relax?
“Thought so. Now, tell me how I get out of here. Or do you expect to be tipped?”
“Tipped?” Gabriel gave her a dubious look.
“For your performance. Frankly, at first I thought you guys were Mafia. You should have stuck with that angle. Bodyguards, taking care of things – those were good lines. It would have been more believable.
But vampires. Really? Honestly, nothing against your acting skills, but that’s a tough role to pull off.”
All three looked at her like she was some lunatic on leave from the asylum. She felt almost guilty for having spoiled their fun.
“Truly, you were good. But the vampire thing is just too much of a stretch. Sorry. Hey, what time is it? I hope you guys didn’t make me late for my next shift.”
Maya looked around trying to find her shoes.
“It’s denial,” she heard Yvette say.
“Clearly,” Thomas agreed.
“I don’t know how to explain this to you without frightening you, but I swear, I’m trying,” Gabriel said.
Maya’s breath hitched when she caught a movement next to him.
Yvette had grabbed the candlestick from the chair. “Catch!” Faster than her eye could process, Yvette flung it at her.
“No!” Gabriel yelled, but a moment later, Maya found herself seizing the candlestick effortlessly. She stared at the item in her hand and couldn’t explain how she’d caught it when she’d barely seen it coming toward her.
She’d never even been a ballplayer – her hand-eye-coordination sucked way too badly for that. And now she’d caught a candlestick flying at her at the speed of a car? How had that happened?
Gabriel turned to the woman. “You could have hurt her!” His voice was harsh, scolding.
“Her reflexes are much sharper than those of a human.” Yvette merely shrugged her shoulders, then looked straight at Maya. “All your senses are enhanced. And you’re stronger too. I knew you would catch it. It’s a reflex.”
“Next time, you clear things like that with me. Do we understand each other?” Gabriel hissed at Yvette who crossed her arms over her chest and ignored the reprimand.
Maya shook her head. “It’s all a trick.” She had no idea how she’d done it, but there was no way she could have caught the candlestick by herself. Something was wrong with her. She could feel it. With effort she pushed back her rising doubts. She wouldn’t let herself be tricked by them.
She set the candlestick onto the small antique sideboard. The fragile wooden piece splintered under the force with which she’d dropped the item. Startled, she stared at it. Had she misjudged her own strength?
“Do you believe us now?” Gabriel asked.
“No!” This didn’t prove anything. Maybe the sideboard was some cheap prop designed to crumble under the slightest impact.
“Then go into the bathroom.” He pointed toward a door near the fireplace. “There’s a mirror over the sink. Look into it and tell me what you see.”
Maya hesitated. Doubts had started bubbling up in her. She had nothing to lose by looking into a mirror, did she? Without letting Gabriel or the other two out of her sight, she cautiously walked to the bathroom door. She pushed it open and glanced inside. An elegant white marble bathroom greeted her. It was much more luxurious than what she was used to.
“I’ll be waiting here,” Gabriel said.
Maya stepped into the bathroom, but kept an eye at the door. As she approached the sink, she looked at the mirror over it. She stopped right in front of it, but there was no reflection of herself. She did a double-take, then leaned forward to inspect the mirror more closely. Nothing.
“Another one of your tricks, I see,” she commented. She’d heard of movie props like this: mirrors that weren’t really mirrors so the light on a movie set wouldn’t reflect back into the camera.
“It’s not a trick. Vampires don’t have a reflection. Our auras transmit on a frequency that the mirror can’t process. So it reflects nothing back.”
“I guess that means you don’t show up in photos either,” she mocked.
“We do if you use a digital camera,” his response came from the bedroom.
“Bull,” she answered. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working.”
“Take anything in the bathroom, a towel, soap, whatever you can find, and wave it in front of the mirror.”
She snorted. She had no intention of following his stupid suggestion.
What would it prove?
“Do it,” Gabriel ordered in a voice that brooked no refusal.
Fine, she’d do it, and then she’d walk out of here and tell him to try his idiotic tricks on somebody else. She was done with this. It wasn’t funny anymore. In fact, it hadn’t been funny from the start.
With an impatient gesture, Maya grabbed the hairbrush from the white marble counter and held it in front of the mirror. As if held by an invisible hand, it appeared. She moved it, and it moved in the mirror.
The mirror was working. Now that she looked more closely, she noticed that it reflected everything behind her, the shower, the toilet, the towels on the towel rack.
