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Well, that changes things.I kept my look of bemused disappointment on my face—no sense letting him realize he’d put me on high alert.
A vampire’s One was the person they declared they’d love for the rest of their days. Even after the One died and months, years, and eventually centuries passed.
Killian—the deadliest of the Dracos Family—declaring he had a One was essentially announcing he had a giant weak spot that could easily be attacked.
I made a show of rolling my eyes and setting the blood pack into a cupholder. “Your One? I guess you really are Ambrose’s offspring. The lot of you are a bunch of romantic sops.” I sighed and leaned into the leather interior that covered the door, appearing indolent. “And? Are you telling me this so I can say a few sweet words about you when you croak because the wizard gets herself killed? I suppose I could do that. They’ll be lies, of course, but that’ll be more fun for me.”
“Hazel isn’t going to get herself killed,” Killian said. “She’s the protégé for the Wizard Elite on the Midwest Committee of Magic.”
“Mmhmm.” I hummed and made my expression bored as I looked out a tinted window at the city streets that rolled past.
The wizard’s background had been why I was so sure the entire thing was a power play.I should have visited sooner. This is what I get for trusting that he’s competent. Goodbye, vacation. Goodbye the dream that I could spend a few moments of my life not babysitting or picking up after Ambrose’s millennium-lasting mistakes.
“I’m extending her life,” Killian continued. “So she’s stopped aging. Eventually, I hope to turn her.”
“Wait, you’refeedingoff her?” I barely kept my disappointment off my face and was able to keep my obvious reaction as shock. “You, who has made Uptight-and-Paranoid not just a personal philosophy but a lifestyle?”
Feeding put us vampires in a position of weakness. If we drank fresh blood from a human, it usually made us pass out in an odd cross of euphoria and relaxation.
I hadn’t experienced such a high in centuries. Given my power, I didn’t need to ever take so much blood that I’d get to that addled state, and I’d never been a fan of the feeling. It made vampires sloppy.
Previously, Killian had subscribed to my opinion on the issue. It seemed that was no longer so.
Just how big a mess am I going to have to clean up?
“I am,” Killian said. “And whatever you’re picturing for wizards; her House isn’t it.”
I settled myself in for some stupid lovesick talk. “And how is that?”
“All wizards in her House train—not just in magic but weapons, firearms, defensive maneuvers, everything. They’ve helped my Family multiple times, and act more like Drakes than the whining wizards that grace most Curia Cloister halls.”
If the wizards have helped the Drakes, perhaps this is more of a power play than he wants to imply and he’s using the love claim as a front.
Regardless, I was going to need to hang around Magiford longer than I’d initially intended: I had to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Whatever that was—there were too many worst-case scenarios to pick at the moment.
Staying at Drake Hall won’t help me. Killian is too much of a tyrant over his Family.
Since Killian established the Drakes centuries ago, I’d been trying to turn one of them to me so I could use them as an informant. None of them had budged—though his Second Knight sent me a scrapbook every few years that chronicled Killian’s greatest achievements, and his First Knight occasionally emailed me.
No, if I wanted to be free to observe the situation, I’d have to follow my original plan and disappear into Magiford where none of Killian’s minions—whose competence would now be an annoying hinderance—could get in my way.
It seems the original plan still stands—in theory if not in spirit.
“When do I get to meet this dearOneof yours?” I asked.
“Ideally, never,” Killian said.
“What, afraid I’ll sweep her off her feet?” I smiled winningly.
“No,” Killian said. “She mocks me for my age. Given how much older you are, she’ll likely think of you as some doddering, babbling, historical artifact.”
I laughed as I glanced out the window.
We were at the edge of Magiford, leaving tightly boxed in suburban neighborhoods for stretches of fields filled with half dried corn stalks and soybeans. This would be a good time to just stop the motorcade with my power and get out. I could put all of them, Killian included, under my thrall, controlling them so they wouldn’t follow me.
But I couldn’t recall if I’d seen Killian’s Magiford home before, and it would be best to know it—and review his Family’s faces so I’d know who to watch for—before I left.
It’s been a while since I’ve managed an infiltration. Perhaps this could be some fun after all.
