Spencer pulled out his phone from his back pocket to call a rideshare. “How about I order you room service when we get back and you don’t mock my terrible taste in bed partners?”
Room service tonight and whenever I want.
“You drive a hard bargain, but I’m willing to pay it.”
If it stopped her from mocking him for how much he was looking forward to seeing Takoma again, then he’d order her everything on the damn menu.
CHAPTERFIVE
Takoma waiteduntil he was certain Spencer had made it back up to the bar proper before turning his head to look at Haitao. “Is Kateri still out front?”
Haitao nodded. “She’s your driver tonight.”
“Tell her to follow Spencer home. I want to know where he is staying.”
Haitao arched an eyebrow but was already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. “You want to keep a guard on him?”
“I want to know where he goes.”
“For murder purposes?”
Takoma sent him a flat look. “No.”
“All right. If he has a car, I’ll organize putting a tracker on it. Might need to have a human servant get it done tomorrow.” Haitao tapped away at his phone, focused on the screen. “He’s an SOA agent. Not the best kind of person to keep around.”
“He’s a mage with a particular kind of magic his government is afraid of.”
More than that, Spencer wasinteresting, and Takoma had a history of keeping interesting people.
Haitao snorted. “And we all know how you like to stick it to the federal government.”
Takoma shrugged, not bothering to argue with that statement. The federal government Spencer worked for liked to think it had any say in how Takoma conducted business in the cities and land within his territory. It had no right to anything since it had broken treaties with his tribe centuries ago and subjected his people to one horror after another.
No, the federal government never knew what to do with things that frightened it other than break them. Takoma could see Spencer being subjected to a kind of oversight that would eventually grind the mage down into a shadow of the man he’d fought with at the end of the world.
Soulbreaking magic was rare, but it wasn’t only Spencer’s magic that had caught Takoma’s eye two years ago. Not many mages would be willing to fight beside vampires without fear, but Spencer had been one of them. Takoma had taken it upon himself to be on the frontlines with Lucien’s Night Court, not wanting to let that mad bastard gain all their mother’s favor. And Spencer had needed someone to look after him while he’d laid the dead to rest by the hundreds, pushing forward with the other core group in that fight across Manhattan.
Spencer hadn’t hesitated to keep Takoma’s vampires safe either. There’d been no friendly fire incidents, no holy weapons used to take them down. Only and always the steady guidance of Spencer’s magic as he’d cleared them all a path through the dead. Takoma hadn’t left his side until they’d reached the Battery, and even then, he’d only stayed outside the fort because Ashanti had ordered him to.
But the mother of all vampires wasn’t here in his city, and the mage was, and Takoma had never liked sharing anything with the government that thought it ruled him.
The clack of high heels on concrete had Takoma looking at the archway that led to their alcove. Alyona Zaitseva stepped into view, inclining her head at them. “The mage is waiting for a rideshare. Are you planning the murder of a federal agent again? You know I prefer more than a day’s notice for something like that.”
“He’s planning a seduction,” Haitao drawled.
Alyona pursed her lips. “Well. That’s different.”
“No one touches Spencer. Spread the word on that,” Takoma said, ignoring the startled look Alyona shot him. “He’s one of the mages who stood with our mother at the end of the world.”
“He’s the one Takoma guarded and would’ve taken home if he could,” Haitao added.
Understanding dawned on Alyona’s face. “Ah. Well, then. I’ll pass along your order.”
Takoma had no doubt she would. Alyona was his most important and favored servant, acting as his proxy during the day when needed but also ensuring his will was done with Haitao’s backing. She was invaluable, the same way her ancestors had been.
The Zaitsev family had served his Night Court since they’d left the Russian Empire in the mid-1700s. They had escaped a banishment to Siberia and kept going east, eventually making it to the Aleutian Islands before a trade settlement in that territory had even been a thought in some colonist government official’s head. Takoma had spared their lives back then because survivors were always more ruthless than anyone else. It had turned out to be one of his better decisions in his long life.
Alyona came over to where they sat, sinking down onto the low table and crossing her leg over her knee. Her attention was on the tablet in her hands, neatly manicured nails not getting in the way of accessing the information she needed. “One of our contacts in the Seattle Police Department has informed me the captain who took control of the scene has transferred it to the Preternatural Crimes Bureau. Adler gave your name in her statement, but it’ll be a few hours until I can procure a copy of the police report. The museum is still being processed as a crime scene.”
