Dr. Mercurie's smile was as cold as his blue eyes. "He panicked under pressure. And that spell was not one of mine. Too crude."
"Gentleman, we have not brought Apollonius here to spar," Dr. Bellerose chided softly. "Or to argue the merits and efficacy of blood magic. Not yet, anyway."
"And your family? I imagine the head of the order has to be a part of the oldest, yes?" Apollo prompted.
Dr. Bellerose made an elegant gesture with a long, pale hand. A ruby the size of a grape set in gold filigree shone on one of her fingers.
"But of course. I was the first of my ancient family to properly decipher the family grimoire, which had recipes for some of our most successful products and experiments. I brought us into the modern age," she said, her voice tinged with pride.
Apollo smiled politely. "And what kind of experiments would those be?"
"Nothing slips past this one, Marianne," Lucien chuckled.
"We wouldn't be trying to recruit him if he wasn't bright," Dr. Mecrurie said. His cold eyes never left Apollo, and he wondered if 'recruit' was the right word Apollo would use for this situation.
He was also bright enough to know if they were revealing their identities to him, there was no way in hell they were going to let him go without a fight.
"Is that what this is? A recruitment?" Apollo asked, trying not to panic.
"It can be. You see, we have been watching the Greatdrakes family for a long time. You are famous in Europe. The magic in your bloodline has always been strong," Dr. Bellerose said, steepling her hands on the table in front of her. "And now theGreatdrakes have produced the perfect specimen. A powerful alchemist that can turn into a dragon."
Apollo laughed. "You don't believe that old legend, do you? I'm no shifter." It wasn't a lie. He hadn't shifted once.
"Really? Then how do you explain this?" Dr. Mercurie asked and pointed a small remote at the screen on the other side of the room. "We got reports recently of a dragon roar shaking the very foundations of Dublin. We knew of only one family that could have dragon lineage in Ireland, and our drones captured this."
Apollo's skin crawled as the screen lit up with footage. Bas, Apollo, Valentine, and Bridget were all in the back garden. Bas was shifting back and forth between human and dragon. It had been a part of their own tests.
"You were spying on us? That is incredibly gauche of you," Apollo said, his horror slowly being replaced by anger.
"Feel about it as you must. You can't lie about the dragons in your family."
Apollo crossed his legs. "I never lied. I can't shift. You grabbed the wrong brother."
"I wanted Valentine, but Marianne thought he would be…too much trouble," Dr. Mercurie replied.
"He would be. He would have demolished this place by now," Apollo said, and he couldn't help the flicker of annoyance that his magic had chosen to specialize in alchemy. He was dangerous, but he needed his elixirs to really create chaos. Valentine only needed to be in the wrong mood.
"No, we made the right choice. You have an alchemist's heart, Apollo, unlike your brothers." Dr. Bellerose got to her feet. "Walk with me. I wish to show you our vision."
Apollo didn't object. There was no point. Besides, he wanted to see what these assholes were really up to. He followed Dr. Bellerose out of the conference room and back to the elevator.
A guard appeared out of nowhere to join them. He had a severe blonde crew cut and a face that looked like it had been broken more than once. Despite that, there was a low hum coming off him that Apollo recognized as magic.
"Apollo, this is Mr. Viktor Kovacs. He's the head of our security branch," Dr. Bellerose said.
"So this is your new dragon. I thought he would be bigger," Kovacs grunted and followed them into the elevator.
"Let me guess. You're the one that taught Jean the suicide spell?" Apollo asked, ignoring the comment about his size. Just because he wasn't built like a tank meant nothing. He could probably take Kovacs in a fair fight, but nothing about his man suggested he ever fought fair.
"Good guess. Did you like it?" Kovacs asked.
Apollo lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Effective if inelegant."
Kovacs made a grunting sound, and it took Apollo a moment to realize he was laughing. "Effective is more important than elegance in my line of work."
Apollo didn't ask him what line of work that was. He knew that Kovacs was the Sanguis Vitae's brute that would do their dirty work. Apollo could all but smell the violence on him. And the crazy.
"Play nice, Viktor. Apollo was only making an observation."
