I shrugged, unconcerned. It was his life. "Sure, that works too."
Connor's gaze was almost amused. "You're very different than I was told."
I paused, not sure I liked the sound of that.
"Oh?"
The corners of his lips tilted up in a tiny smile. "The stubbornness is the same though."
I considered that, then nodded. Fair point.
"Look, if you want me to consider giving you a job, you have to convince me you're worth the inevitable headache you'll bring to my door."
Since Thomas was pretty much a package deal when it came to Connor, there was no chance of that happening.
My relationship with our sire wasn’t as fraught with tension as it once was, but that didn't mean I wanted to get drawn deeper into Thomas's orbit. If I let Connor work for me, that's exactly what would happen.
No, thank you.
Better for everyone if I kept Connor at arm's length.
To say I didn't get along with Thomas was an understatement. I no longer hated him, but he was still manipulative and autocratic. Controlling in the extreme. All things I avoided when I could.
"You want me to prove myself."
I stopped, staring at him with something that approached consternation. That hadn't been exactly what I meant.
Connor nodded once to himself. "I find these terms acceptable. I will work to earn your trust."
I opened my mouth to argue. Last thing I wanted was for him to stalk me some more.
"Do you know him?" Connor asked before I could correct his mistake.
I glanced in the direction he was staring and frowned.
The bright red scarf caught my attention first. It was a splash of color in an otherwise colorless night as its tip trailed over the front of a black suit. The next thing I noticed was the umbrella the stranger held over his head, casting his face in shadow.
It was a strange affectation when there was no form of precipitation, not even a cloud in the sky. I had a feeling that umbrella was the reason I couldn’t see his face even with my enhanced eyesight.
Taken all together, it was weird. I'd learned to pay attention when things got weird. Not paying attention was how I ended up a vampire.
Humans tended to justify and explain away details of the strange and unusual. It was how they'd gone so long brushing up against the edge of our world without ever really knowing what waited in the shadows they refused to see.
That was how I missed the signs all those years ago when Thomas approached me in that bar.
Now, I paid better attention.
"No. You?" I said.
Connor's head moved in a tiny shake.
Great.
It didn't fill me with confidence that Connor, a vampire much older than myself who had also spent considerable time in a Fae court interacting on a regular basis with monsters, didn’t recognize the big bad creature standing across from us.
If my encounter with the shadow creature in the precinct wasn't in my not so distant past, I would have been tempted to keep walking. As it stood, it was hard not to draw parallels and connections between the two.
I opened myself up to my magic sight, dropping into a world I'd learned only a very few could see. The ability made me valuable in ways I didn't yet fully comprehend.
