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She opened her eyes really wide and blinked at him. “Oh really? You think so? I had no idea.”
He killed another growl. “You don’t need to be talking to him. Nothing good will come from it.”
“No, you are right. You are totally right. Let’s not talk to the enemy we are all going to fight at some point.” She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “Let’s not try to figure out how he thinks or what weapons he might use. Honestly, Derek? You did all that spy stuff for Jim for years. I can’t believe you.”
“Believe it.”
“I know!” She clapped her hands together. “Maybe we could all go into battle blindfolded.”
He had an urge to pull her off her horse and shake her until some sense appeared in her brain.
“I can sew you a cute grey blindfold with some little scars on it—”
“He’s a homicidal tyrant who’s been alive for five thousand years!” he snarled.
“Six. Longer, probably, but he admits to six.”
“Do you honestly think he’s going to let you see anything he doesn’t want you to see?”
“There are things he can’t hide from me. Things that only I can see.” She leaned forward. “He’s teaching me, and that means I’m learning how he thinks. Someone has to talk to him, Derek. Kate isn’t going to. That leaves me. I’m learning. I can make my own incantations now. I know how to build them and infuse them with power. That’s something Kate doesn’t know how to do.”
“Incantations?” She was out of her mind. “Have you used one in an actual fight?”
“Not yet. It’s dangerous.”
“So he’s teaching you something that may or may not work.”
She glared at him. “It will work. I haven’t used it yet, because it takes a crapload of magic. It’s my last resort, and I haven’t needed it.”
“Kate doesn’t need to incant. She uses power words.” He had no idea how they worked. He knew only that they came from an ancient language and commanded the magic.
“That’s what you think,” Julie said.
“That is what I think. He’s grooming you for something.”
“Don’t you think I know that?”
“Okay.” He spun around and walked backward facing her. “Tell me one thing that you’ve learned that we don’t know. One thing. Go.”
“Okay. Do you know what he did to Hugh d’Ambray?”
“He exiled him. He should’ve killed him and saved us the trouble.”
“No,” Julie said quietly. “He purged him.”
“What does that mean?”
“He took away his immortality. Roland was everything to Hugh. Father, mother, teacher. God. For sixty years, since he was a kid, Hugh did everything Roland asked exactly as he was told. All his life he tried to make Roland proud. And Roland cast him out. He stripped the gift of his magic from him and severed all magic ties between them. Hugh can’t feel Roland anymore, Derek.”
“And?”
“‘When God shall remove all his presence from a man, that is hell itself,’” she quoted. “Hugh is in hell. He’ll feel himself age slowly and know that eventually he’s going to die.”
“Good.” He had no problem with that. Hugh had tried to kill Kate, he’d done his best to murder Curran, he’d almost started a war between the People and their vampires and the Pack, and he’d kidnapped Kate and nearly starved her to death, all in the name of trying to force her to meet with her father. The man’s list of transgressions was a mile long, and Derek would happily take a payment in blood for every single one. If Hugh happened to step out of the shadows now, only one of them would leave this street.
“It would’ve been kinder to kill him,” Julie said.
“Why are you so concerned about Hugh?”
