I straightened up, tucked my hands into the pockets of the suitcoat I’d swapped to after leaving Jade at that odd book shop, then smiled—something I knew Killian would find annoying.
“Killian, you finally greet me. How delightful.”
Killian scowled as he stalked up to me. “You slipped past my guards and didn’t announce your presence.”
“I was testing them for you,” I said, filling my voice with false humility. “I know you train them so, and that you’re obsessed with making them into warriors. I thought I’d made it through unnoticed, but it seems one of them must have caught on?”
“My First and Second Knight saw you on a camera,” Killian said.
I sighed. “Alas, I’m losing my touch. It’s the old age that eventually gets you.”
“You say that, except youwavedto the camera.” Killian’s frown grew deeper and a touch sour, as if my presence was putting him out.
Boo-hoo for him.
Killian continued, “My siblings have gathered in a sitting room.” He looked down the hallway, his disgust still in place, which probably meant I wasn’t the only one responsible for his dour mood. “Are you ready to face them?”
“I didn’t think I could avoid it any longer,” I said. “Who came?” I started my stroll again, and Killian waited to fall in line with me—keeping his pace as slow as mine.
“Margarida, the twins, and Baldwin.”
“Baldwin?” I asked. “What is he doing here? I bankrupted him and cleared out all his personal funds less than five years ago. He shouldn’t have two coins to rub together.”
Maybe I really was losing my touch.
“The twins brought him,” Killian said. “In their private jet.”
I groaned. “Of course, they did.”
“You haven’t visited the twins in a while. Maybe they’re about due.” Killian stopped outside a wooden door.
“Nice try. You won’t be getting rid of me that easily.” I eyed the door. “This is it?”
“It is.”
I adjusted the gold ring ornamented with a red garnet that I wore on my index finger. The ring had belonged to Ambrose Dracos, Killian’s long dead sire. “Right, then. Let’s get this over with.”
Killian opened the door and stepped inside first, prowling like a jaguar. I took my time, swaggering because I knew that would annoy the snake-brats.
“Hello, children!” I smiled wide. “Uncle Maledictus is here! And I’m-oh-so-touched you all came here to see me.”
Margarida—the youngest female of the Dracos line—stood up from where she was perched on an embroidered armchair.
Today, she was wearing the traditional clothing of her home country of Portugal with a thick bright red skirt adorned with thin stripes, a white chemise with blue embroidery serving as a blouse, and a red and black bodice that had even more embroidery.
Her dark brunette hair was pulled back and partially covered by her red headscarf, and the bright ensemble matched her big smile—Margarida was also the best tempered of the snake-brats, which was why she was possibly my second favorite after the competent Killian.
I still had to drag her out of the occasional slump—she insisted on getting attached to humans and then went into a depressive spiral whenever any of her favorites died—but in general she was good humored and needed far less…helpthan the rest of her siblings. Killian excluded, of course.
“Sire!” Margarida declared.
Killian exploded into a coughing fit that sounded too close to amusement for my taste. Behind Margarida, seated together on a fainting couch, the twins—Auberi and Amée—scoffed.
“Margarida, you overstep,” Amée said, her voice as severe as her hairline. “Considine isnotour Sire.”
Margarida rolled her eyes and stopped approaching me long enough to look back at her siblings. “Please. I’ve known Considine for twice the years I knew Ambrose Dracos, and he’s been the guardian of our little Family for so many years now that you can’t deny he’s due credit for the role.”
“Guardian, or torturer?” Auberi muttered into his chalice of blood.
