Free White Lies: (The Uruwashi Series #4) by Christina Moore Page B

blurted, “Wren.”
    Ash flinched. “ To—Toshiro ? Does… does Desmond know?”
    “I doubt it.”
    “I see.” Ash paused for a moment, watching Yukihime silently study her. There was more, much more, to this story than said and Ash just hoped it didn’t mean putting Tristan in danger. “Then he is going to be very angry with you. And I am as well, for your information. Wren is a good man and you know it.”
    Ash wasn’t worried about Tristan and Wren together—in fact, she thought they just might get along. Besides, she trusted Wren. He wouldn’t do anything rash. Tristan on the other hand…
    The old vampire tisked, trying to act as if she didn’t care but Ash saw the tension she was holding onto. Something had set the vampire on edge and Ash intended to find out what.
    “I’m glad you’re not mad at me anymore.”
    “I never said that,” Ash snapped.
    Yukihime smiled despite Ash’s obvious anger. “But you’re still here and that’s what matters. Don’t think I didn’t notice how worried you were when you first came in.”
    Ash couldn’t deny that. It was simple habit, falling into old ways. That’s what she told herself anyway. “I only came for my biblos.” A pythia’s spell book was sacred. That Yukihime thought she could keep it from Ash was beyond reason.
    Outside, Malik’s thoughts stirred but he didn’t send out a direct statement.
    Yukihime stuck her lip out in a thoughtful pout. “Is that all?”
    “What is this all about? What are you scheming now?”
    “I’m not scheming,” she answered with a lot of emphasis on the last word.
    Ash, not believing her, sighed, shaking her head.
    Yukihime gave her own sigh and stretched out, laying on the floor on her side. “I needed to be sure.”
    “Sure of what exactly?”
    “Tristan.”
    Ash tensed for more than one reason. Malik was expressing his opinions of the man and Ash was having a hard time ignoring them. “Explain.”
    “Oh dear,” Yukihime said in a tone that was more norm. “There is nothing to say on it really. Just an old vampire being senile.”
    “Yukihime,” Ash said in a firm tone. She was still angry with the old vampire for the part she played in her and Tristan’s fate. She ruined so much, Ash wasn’t sure it could be fixed anymore.
    “You’re afraid of him.”
    Ash flinched. “I— no . Of course not, don’t be so absurd.”
    “Yes,” Yukihime insisted and sat up. “You are.”
    “No, not him. I—” She looked away and then forced herself to meet Yukihime’s eyes again. “Lilith, all of the things she has seen and spoken of… I am afraid of her truths.”
    “Ah, now that I believe. So after all of these long years, you are finally trusting the things she speaks of?”
    Ash curled her nose up at the old Master vampire. “Fear and doubt are two completely different things.”
    “That is the truth.” Yukihime let out a long breath and stretched. “How about some tea, my dear?”
    “Yukihime?”
    “Oh yes, of course. How silly of me, we cannot drink tea.”
    “Some, perhaps.” Ash always found it queer that they could tolerate alcoholic beverages and none other. But then, she’d always had this theory of the “spirit” of spirits and what vampires really took from living blood. No one else but a pythia would ever entertain her wild theories; vampire most of all, so afraid of change and truth.
    “Yes, but not the amount I would like.”
    Ash considered her for a moment, head cocked to the side. “Do you often think of such things? Wanting to be… human again?”
    The other woman burst into laughter. “Oh my dear, I wouldn’t be a vampire if I didn’t.”
    Ash had to smile. “No, no you would not.”
    “How was it being spelled human in Greece?”
    “The truth?”
    Yukihime nodded. She almost seemed like an adult with that look on her face.
    Ash frowned, then straightened looking stern and proud. “Mildly intolerable.”
    Yukihime chirped a little laugh. “Sō ka? It couldn’t