Chapter 175 - Choices, Choices

The main hall was a room spacious enough to fit a couple dozen people and furnished in Avarice's favourite lavish style of seventeenth-eighteenth century Russian nobility. Instead of a single big table, the space was separated with several smaller ones, each of which had their own seating spaces and was placed at enough distance from others to create a feeling of privacy.

One table had four of Avarice's people something and exchanging words in hushed voices; they fell silent when JJ entered and followed him with cautious looks. On the other side of the room from them, Ghost was telling Panda some story, accompanying it with energetic gestures.

JJ didn't walk farther than a step away from the entrance. "Bon appétit, ma chèrie. I wish I could stay and chat over food, but it would be awfully rude of me to keep overstaying my welcome any longer. I will stay close, though." He reached out to cup my cheek and smiled until playful creases surrounded his eyes. "In touch, isn't that the modern way to say it?"

"You got that right," I smiled back and put my hand over his. "How close?"

"Maybe I will take a walk right outside. If I will find an umbrella here."

I nodded. "See you soon, then."

When JJ left, the suspicious thugs immediately returned to their own conversation, while Panda and Ghost pulled out of theirs enough to notice me. I hurried towards their table and the food that was generously stacked there. Even more, there was a third set of eating utensils, obviously prepared for me. Who else for?

"Good morning, Diana!" Ghost was the first to greet me with his usual cheer. Panda joined soon after, much gloomier.

"Hi, you all." As I plumped down on a free seat, I stared, salivating, at the deliciously looking stacks of oily toasts, fried bacon and eggs sunny side up on my plate next to a steaming cup of black tea. Panda's and Ghost's had a similar ensemble, except that theirs was already chewed at. "Do I need to give a litre of blood in return for all this?"

Ghost laughed. "I doubt anyone here needs it now, after all the blood Avarice and Jean-Jacques must've drunk from the shapeshifters. But Avarice was really most generous with her hospitality. I become to like her."

"Same," Panda said in-between bites. "But I won't say it about all the people around," she nodded towards the other taken table. "I don't know what to make out of these guys, but they don't look even close to law-abiding citizens."

I shrugged and swallowed a bite I already had. "Avarice's a loan shark, at the very least. I won't be surprised if she ran a few cartels on the side. It's… bad, isn't it? But it doesn't feel like it, because she's been decent to us. And when compared to some others…" I remembered Christina. Yeah, comparison did everything. "I'll say that Avarice has something of a good side, and something of a bad one. At the very least, she is sane and deals without pretences."

"That's deep." Panda raised her brows. "But true. You have a good judgement for people, Diana… at least as far as I knew you. I mean, you did shackle with Andrey at some point."

I jolted in my seat as I remembered about him. "That's it, Andrey! Avarice didn't put him down yet, didn't she?" I said, or at least tried to say. Since my mouth was mostly filled with delicious bread and bacon, it came out mostly as indecipherable humming. I swallowed and repeated the question.

"No, he even got breakfast, too… Though, it was dog food." Panda frowned. "But Jean-Jacques still kept him under, so I'm unsure if Andrey even cared."

I huffed, but relaxed somewhat. Yet a heavy weight continued to press on my chest, and the food didn't look as appetising anymore. I still ate it in bits as I spoke. "This sounds like a sort of humiliating Avarice would like. Uh… I don't know what to do with him." I admitted. "JJ keeps him like that for my sake. If I gave a green light, everyone around would've been eager to tear Andrey into pieces, including him, I imagine. But… it would be the same as if I killed him myself. And if I let go, who knows what he'd do in a future?"

"This is quite a dilemma you face, Diana." Ghost smiled at me encouragingly and patted my arm. "I wish I knew what to advise you. My logic tells me you don't leave enemies out of your sight."

Panda frowned. "And Jean-Jacques can't hypnotise Andrey into… I don't know, not being a dick? I thought he was good at hypnosis."

"Pretty good as far as I've seen! But I can tell you what I remember about shapeshifters…" Ghost hummed, raising his eyes to the ceiling in thought. "They have one soul, but two bodies, you can put it this way. An animal and a human, and two brains. You can hypnotise a shapeshifter, but when he will change form, the influence will weaken. I think I remember someone writing an entire book about the connections between hypnosis, brains and souls… Silly, silly. They are inseparable, brains, bodies, souls. All in the same aura, the same being. With shifters, a part of them is always safe from outside world. You could hypnotise them in both forms, but you won't be able to do it fully with each!"

"This is… so convoluted," Panda shook her head. "God. Well, here goes that."

"Here goes that," I agreed. "And Elena called me back to the headquarters… I imagine there's another shift of healing in sight. I guess I could ask JJ to watch over Andrey until I decide on something to do with him, but… It's pretty inconvenient. Though, since it gives JJ a chance to suck Andrey dry, I guess he won't be that against it?.. But then he won't be able to go with me around."

A decision had to be made… but my head was out of those.