I was considering any other options when it dawned on me, and I groaned.
“What?” Considine asked.
I grimly set my shoulders and hoped this recent development wouldn’t be the end of my career in Magiford. “I’ll also have to warn my family.”
“Your identity has been blown?”Mom asked. A naked sword blade balanced on her lap.
Off camera, my dad roared—his voice was so full of feeling I couldn’t understand a lick of what he was saying.
My parents had not taken the news well.
I shifted my laptop—I had it set up on my kitchen counter so I could peer in my fridge, which was right next to my front door. The idea was to get myself some food, but it was just to buy myself a few moments to think. “I wouldn’t say blown.”
“Potential enemies know your human identity. I’d say that’s blown,” Mom flatly said, though her eyes were directed off to the side—likely at my still storming father.
“My apartment is spelled.” I shut my fridge and leaned against it. “I hired a fae to go over it.”
“Mmhmm.” Mom’s eyes moved—following Dad as he moved around the room based on the way his voice faded and then suddenly grew louder. “I thought having Considine Maledictus as your next-door neighbor was a good reason to move. Now I’m not so sure.”
“Why?”
“Because a vampire as old as him who is still invested enough in life that he’s enjoying playing cat and mouse with you would be furious if anyone tried to launch an assaulton your apartment building,” Mom wisely said. “It would be enough to make anyone think twice before attacking you.”
“You’re saying he’s the lesser evil?” I stared at the windows at the back of my apartment, where the weak morning light cast an amber hue on everything. (The second I’d gotten home from my shift, I’d videoconferenced my parents to let them know about this development. After this conversation was over I’d eat and head to bed.)
Mom shook her head. “I don’t know enough about Considine Maledictus to know for sure. A vampire that old is inherently dangerous to us slayers. But the psychology behind his attachment to you… You’ve interacted with him more. What do you think?”
I itched to pull a dagger, but the closest one hidden in my apartment was in an upper cupboard. Although I could move it now since my identity was out, and there was no need to hide that I was a supernatural. “I think…”
“That you should open the door to let the lesser evil strategize with you.”
I jumped, spooked by hearing Considine’s voice through my door.
Mom frowned. “Was that—”
“Yes, it’s Considine Maledictus himself.”
I unlocked my door and opened it. “How did you hear what we were talking about? Did you listen through the walls?”
Considine, still wearing the clothes he’d driven home in, stood so close to my door that he completely filled the doorway. “No. I was leaning into your door, trying to figure out if you were awake or had gone to bed. You told your parents about your identity being outed?” He looked past me, into the kitchen where the laptop was angled.
“Yes.” I automatically started to step back to let Considine in, until I remembered he wasn’t just Connor, and stood my ground.
Something flashed in Considine’s eyes—not anger, more like…recognition.
He smiled at me—thankfully he had the good sense not to use his usual Connor smile, but something new. Something smaller, and maybe a touch rueful, but still affectionate. “May I come in?”
I hesitated, then glanced back at my laptop.
I guess it might be good for Mom to see him and judge for herself. But is Mom okay if he sees her face?
We slayers wore masks not only to keep vampires from tracking our family lines the way we tracked them, but also because on assignments we needed to use our human identities to scout out vampires.
Even the most puffed up vampire could recall the face of a human who seemed particularly interested in them a couple hours prior.
“Mom?” I called to my laptop. “Do you want to meet Considine?”
There was a moment of tense silence—well, silence except for Dad’s rants, but he must have left the room because his voice was muffled.
