“You’ll make sure she can’t do this again?”
Miriam nodded.
“Fine, take her.”
Brax huffed. Even as a wolf, he managed to convey his disgust. I shrugged at him. A favor and a semi clear conscious was a good trade to me. He’d just have to be satisfied with Victor’s payment.
He threw his head back and howled, the sound hauntingly powerful.
I jumped.
Standing so close to a wolf howling was entirely different to hearing them from several miles off. It was wondrous and terrible, beautiful and deadly.
When his howl trailed off, Brax dropped his head, staring at me for one timeless moment before he loped away.
“We’ll be off then,” Miriam said, turning and using her magic to lift her apprentice. Her feet glided over the grass soundlessly as she moved through the cemetery, Angela floating behind her like some oversized balloon.
Sometime during the wolf’s howl and Miriam’s departure, the sorcerer had stalked off, leaving Liam and me in the cemetery alone.
“Now, time to discuss our unfinished business,” Liam said, his voice grim.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I STUCK MY hands in my pocket and braced. I’d had a feeling this was coming.
“I don’t remember any unfinished business.”
Giving the draugr his trinkets back had been both calculated and impulsive. He deserved to keep the mementos from his human life, but I was lying if I said I didn’t see the opportunity such a chance offered me. I hadn’t examined all angles before deciding. There was a chance I’d missed something and the vampires still had a claim on me.
Liam arched one eyebrow, saying without words he knew what was going through my head.
I gave him my inscrutable face. I’ve been told people had found it intimidating in the past. Liam didn’t seem too impressed.
“You’ve only delayed the inevitable.”
I breathed an internal sigh of relief. Delayed sounded an awful lot like my plan had worked. I’d take it over being forced from my home. There was also the fact that Aiden hadn’t been able to cement the bond when he’d tried earlier. I did not want to go through that pain anytime soon.
“We’ll eventually find a way around the mark. You’ve made an enemy of the sorcerer so I’m sure he’ll be most helpful in that pursuit.”
“Not if he ever wants that cuff off,” I returned.
He inclined his head, conceding I had a point. “You haven’t won this, just gotten a reprieve.”
“Yeah, yeah. I hear the warning. What you’re not understanding is that when that time comes, I’ll figure something else out.” I gave a wry grin. “It’s what I do.”
“Why? From what I can see, you’ve never had any real encounters with us. What makes you so sure you can’t thrive under our care?”
I tilted my head back and stared at the stars. How to put this into words he would understand? I didn’t even know if I understood all of my motivations.
“I’m guessing you’re old. At least a couple hundred years.”
His mouth quirked in a small grin.
“Something like that.”
I mentally added a few hundred years to the two I’d guessed.
“You grew up in a different age than me. Totally different mentality and social values. I’m not sure my reasons will make sense to you.”
