“And?” Ophelia said, nudging her with an elbow to the ribs.
“And please accept this extremely exorbitant check as a symbol of my sincere regret,” Sophie deadpanned as she held out a creamy linen envelope.
I reached out tentatively to take it, fully expecting her to grab me in some sort of wrist hold and rip my throat out.
Sophie gave me one last glare before asking Ophelia, “Am I done now?”
Ophelia gave her a frosty smile. “Quite. I’ll see you at the next meeting.”
Sophie strode off the porch without so much as a backward glance. I turned toward Ophelia. “What just happened?”
“I’m sorry that Sophie dropped the ball so dramatically. She knows better,” Ophelia told me. “But she’s always been a bit oblivious to human needs. I doubt she realized you were in danger of being drained until you were nearly dead. And she figured as long as you were walking around, you’d be fine. Also, she had a dinner party she was trying to get to and didn’t want to be held up.”
“Yes, how inconsiderate of me, taking up so much of her evening,” I muttered.
“She’s been removed as Darla’s foster sire, if that makes you feel any better.”
“That does, actually.”
“Dick arrived at the Council headquarters after your disastrous appointment, angrier than I’d ever seen him. When my secretary tried to stop him from marching into my office, he tossed her desk into a wall and walked right in. I’d never seen him show anything but oozing charm toward a female, so I had to admit I was intrigued. After explaining the state he’d found you in and how Sophie was responsible, he informed me that I needed to ‘put my boot up Sophie’s ass’ or he was going to do it for me.”
“Hence the begrudging apology and the ‘exorbitant’ check?”
“And she’s on probationary status as a Council officer for the next three years. Before you mock the check, you might want to count the number of zeros,” she said, smirking at me.
Brows quirked, I opened the envelope, scanned the check, and pronounced several elaborate curse words I’d only heard Jane say when she’d gotten her hand caught in one of Mr. Wainwright’s bite-y relics.
“There you go,” Ophelia drawled.
Sophie had given me enough money to take a very nice vacation . . . for the next several years. It wasn’t exactly retirement money, but I certainly wouldn’t have to worry about the Council keeping me on retainer. My savings and cozy apartment were safe as long as I kept some reasonable income stream.
“And Mr. Cheney says that you’d like to limit the number of surrogate appointments you keep with the Council’s constituents. Actually, I believe he said, ‘She’s never going to risk her neck for one of your frickin’ appointments again,’ but I thought you’d like to clarify for me. We would hate to lose you as a surrogate.”
“Isn’t it sort of counterintuitive to try to get me to stay in your employ right after handing me a big fat check that eliminates my need to keep a second job?”
“Well, the big fat check was the polite thing to do,” Ophelia protested primly. “Also, it hit Sophie where she lived, so it was a fitting punishment. I don’t want to hold financial security over your head, Andrea, though I will admit that would be the quickest and simplest solution. I want to provide the best for the vampires living in my region, and you’re the best. And that requires your willing and enthusiastic participation in the process.”
“Thank you, that’s very—”
Ophelia continued, “Because I’m bound by a host of very annoying human laws about your safety and well-being.”
“It was so close to being something nice,” I told her. Ophelia shrugged, and I continued, “I would like to limit my appointments . . . to nearly nothing. To be honest, I’m not sure if I want to continue at all, but if I do, I’d like to help out in the occasional special case. And only under Dick’s direct supervision or yours.”
Ophelia’s dark brows drew together. “You have become close to Dick, haven’t you?”
I wasn’t going to comment on that. For all I knew, the whole conversation was a trap. Instead, I just continued on my rant. “And I will also stop seeing my private clients, though I’d appreciate it if you kept that to yourself—both for professional discretion and because it’s going to take me a while to work up the nerve to tell Jane.”
“She’s going to be completely obnoxious about it, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is,” I said. “I appreciate all of the kindness the vampire community has shown me over the years, but the risk has just become too much for me.”