Page 11 of Call of the Blood

“No, I died. I died at the right time. He used another vampire’s blood to make sure I got back up.” I smiled, pointing a thumb back at Alexius. “Considering I helped him learn some really important stuff, he thought I deserved it. Now I work with him.”

“For me.”

“With you,” I corrected once again.

Nancy leaned back, crossing her hands over her lap.

“And here you are, a young vampire, no bloodline, a dangerous coworker⁠—”

“Boss,” Alexius growled softly, clearly annoyed. A couple of women made noises. None of fear. More taunting, teasing, as they all listened in if they were close by behind him.

“A dangerous coworker,” Nancy continued, repeating her and smiling mischievously at me. “And you live in one of the strangest cities in the country… Certainly one of the most haunted.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“I like her,” Nancy said, slapping her hands on her knees, then getting up faster than one would expect of someone in their nineties. “She has my vote to enter the Shroud. She’s fun.”

“That’s not what you should be judging her for,” Alexius grumbled.

“Oh, please. We couldn’t deny her even if we wanted to. You have never once raised a single objection to a single witch or even the odd fae we’ve added to the Shroud. You have also never asked us to add anyone else, not even Jacob or Isaiah. You want her.” Nancy reached him quickly, leaving me shocked in my seat at the words. “Only her. An odd nervous little thing who used to work for your son and smiles when she brings up her own death, the moment her normal life was stolen from her by your kind. And she works for the first and best real vampire hunter. She woke up and decided killing her new fellows was the right choice. Aside from a fair word of warning she needed, because you wouldn’t think to give it, everyone here is only here for the principle of the matter. For the party, even. No one is going to say no. And we’ll gossip about this for generations. You’re just going to have to live with that.”

She raised her chin, and Alexius gave in, moving out of the archway to let her walk through it.

I was left alone with him, all the witches outside the room moving away politely from the archway where they had all listened in. He sighed heavily when he looked at me.

“An odd, nervous little thing,” I said, trying to make a joke out of it. “I thought I was getting better at the whole social anxiety thing.”

“You have been. Nancy was intentionally making you squirm to see the measure of you from her perspective. It’s a good thing, too. Reminds them that you’re human, fallible, safe. If you had been too put together, too closed off about how you really felt, they would have been suspicious of you.”

He got closer, moving to put his hand on the back of the chair where Nancy was just sitting. I watched him, considering my next move. There was something he wanted to say. It was all over his face. Other people would read the dispassionate look as something else, but to me, he was itching to say something. His fingers tapped the chair. A tiny sign of energy, the burning of whatever was on his mind. His head was angled just right for the light of the fireplace to make the brown come out, lit up by the orange glow. I saw the tic in his jaw. He was fighting the urge to speak.

And I had a really solid guess what the topic was.

“Do you want to ask about anything?” he finally asked, looking away as the words came out.

“Is there anything you want to explain?” I countered, not walking into a topic I knew he didn’t actually want to discuss, even though the words were flying unspoken around the room. It left me with a thousand thoughts, but I knew he wasn’t going to explain it clearly.

There really was no good explanation.

“I don’t know how,” he muttered.

“Then we leave it on the table for later,” I said, standing up.

There was nothing to consider at this moment, in public, or ever. It was crazy. It was insane to consider the reasons why he was willing to do all of this for my protection when he never even offered it to Jacob. Jacob, his son, and the person who pulled him out of a feral state of mind and gave him back his humanity. Jacob, who became his family, who loved and admired him and was loved and admired in return. He would have been the perfect recipient of this gift.

Or even Isaiah, a member of the Tribunal, who could really use a place where no one could find him and was important to the leadership and law of the vampires. A rational choice, to help a ruler and friend feel comfortable and safe in his city.

He didn’t give either of them protection.

He wanted it for me.

And he’s going to drive us both mad because of it.

“I can’t… do this tonight,” I finally said, walking out of the room to see the sea of witches, deciding this was easier than him.

5

CHAPTER FIVE