That was different. I waited for her to explain, and when she didn’t, I leaned forward in my chair. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“Kinds of magic are capable of stealing power more permanently. Certain body mages. Death mages. And of course, life mages. You call them, I think, arcane mages now. They can truly transfer power, permanently. But it’s quite difficult, even for them.” She waved a dismissive hand, airily, as though the incredibly heavy topic didn’t matter at all. “I have never met a dragon who was any kind of mage other than some sort of elementalist. Control of water or wind can hardly do such dangerous things. So perhaps it is entirely out of reach for a dragon. I am certain that it is for your cousin.”
And that was true. Sexton was an elementalist, just as she’d said, and he’d have never been able to use that to drain my power.
For a moment, I considered calling Sage McKinley, since he’d given me his card back when his familiar had discovered Suzy. He was an arcane mage, so no doubt he’d know more about the idea of stealing someone’s power.
But the whole thing was silly, wasn’t it?
Sexton had been attacked, and they had stolen not his power, but his energy, as I’d been expecting. It wasn’t like Sage could help with dragons being dicks. He wasn’t famous for that, just for being an arcane mage.
Besides, I wasn’t sure where I’d put the card he’d given me. Davin might have even thrown it away when he’d cleaned out the back office in the shop. I should have called him to let him know that Suzy had found her mage, if nothing else.
Oops.
Story of my life.
Mei, a little like Davin, didn’t seem to either notice or care that my attention had drifted off, and waved her hand in theair again. “I am not suggesting that you change yourself. Merely that you should be cautious. I would dislike losing my little dumpling to a less than judicious reaction to an untrustworthy family member. That would be a tragedy.”
But she was wrong about this. I didn’t need her to agree with me, but I was sure of my own belief. Sexton had done what he’d done out of fear and ignorance, and maybe those things couldn’t be ignored, but my cousin had actually been trying to do better. He’d acknowledged that he was wrong, and he was improving himself. I wasn’t just trusting him because he was family. I was trusting him because he was making changes, and hadn’t proven himself unworthy of my renewed faith in him.
He would never be like my mother or Davin, the people I was building my foundation on, but I didn’t believe for a second that Sexton was going to betray me. Not now.
Besides, even if he did have ill intentions, Sexton was as cunning as every post-season-one Baldrick in the British TV show Blackadder. He was a hammer who thought he was a lock pick.
Across from me, Mei gave a sigh, and when I looked back up at her, she was shaking her head sadly.
Crap, I’d done it again. “I’m sorry?”
But she wasn’t annoyed with me for my straying attention. No, it was so much worse than that. “Not at all, little one. I remember being human. Being able to love like that.”
Davin, who’d been in the process of pressing a panel into the wall, froze, and turned to look at her. “What do you mean by that?”
For a moment, she stared at him. Then she shook her head and motioned to me. “I refer to his faith in his ineffective cousin. But you have no need to worry about your own emotions, daywalker. Dragons are longer lived than any vampire I have ever met, perhaps including the ever-irritating senator. Youshouldn’t have to live with the betrayal of death. So perhaps you will retain that measure of humanity most of us lose after a few dozen decades.”
The betrayal of death.
What an odd way to look at death. As though humans chose to be so short-lived and abandon their vampire loved ones.
But didn’t they?
They chose to remain human, which meant that one day they would leave.
It had never even occurred to me, even before learning I was a dragon, to ask to be made a vampire. It hadn’t been a conscious choice, but it had beenachoice, and one I’d made easily. I had never wanted to be a vampire. Mother had never suggested it.
Somehow, I suspected that if Wu Mei had been my mother, that would not have been the case.
As much as I liked Mei, I thought maybe I was better off.
Davin turned back to his work, clearly still unsettled. I would have to talk to him later, when it wouldn’t be a clear insult to the woman who was about to write us a check with a lot of zeroes, to tell him that not all vampires forgot how to love people.
My mother wasn’t effusive, but she was the oldest vampire I knew, and I had never once in my life doubted that she loved me specifically, let alone that she was capable of love at all. Davin would never stop being able to love new people just because he was a vampire, with or without me. He was too inherently good for that.
Mei was just a different kind of person than them. That was all.
When we were all finished with the installation, setup, and training, and Davin was taking the first batch of his tools down to the car, Mei came back to me with a check that was even bigger than the amount we had agreed upon. The sharp look shegave me said not to say a damn word about it, let alone question her.
Twist, who was curled around my shoulder surveying the scene with sharp blue eyes, noticed the other thing Mei was handing me first. “What is that object, Father?”
