“Physically? To you? None. Take your gun, though. If Baldwin gets annoying—and he’s sure to—you can shoot him to shut him up. Killian won’t even get mad if you get blood on the carpet. He’ll be delighted.”
“They won’t attack me?”
“No. Even if they wanted to, you’re meeting in Killian Drake’s home territory. He wouldn’t stand for it.”
At least I had that going for me.
Killian Drake was scary powerful, but I had met him before being hired to the task force, when I’d been interviewed by the Regional Committee of Magic. He wouldn’t harm me—it’d be too risky politically. Not to mention his wife was a wizard who was the protégé of the wizard representative on the committee. I’d be reasonably safe with Killian.
But I was still going to bring weapons.
“Okay. I’ll go.” I studied the dagger I held. “This is crazy, though.”
“What, you didn’t picture having to meet your paramour’s unruly nieces and nephews who are older than your country? Shocking.”
“You’re not my paramour.”
“Not yet, but my seduction has barely begun. A few romantic nights of beating hoodlums while on patrol, and who knows what will happen?” An unexpected sigh burst out of Considine. “Maybe it would be better if you ran. This is an unfair request from me, which is the opposite of what I’d promised.”
“As long as I’m not in real danger,” I said with the confidence of existing as a walking, talking, anti-vampire weapon.
Slayer blood was deadly to vampires. Considine was one of possibly a handful of vampires who could survive it, and that was only because his healing powers worked faster than the poison that was my blood could harm him.
“You won’t be in danger. They know I’d kill them—despite how close I was to their sire,” Considine’s voice was dark with a promise I didn’t want to deeply consider.
“Great. Anything I should know?” I asked.
“All of them are annoying and insufferable. But if youmustmake friends, Killian Drake is the most powerful, and Margarida is the most affable.”
I put the dagger back—it wasn’t the right one to take out with me—and headed into my bedroom, grabbing my handgun and two extra magazines.
Next, I opened my closet and pushed aside my hanging clothes to study the assortment of daggers secured to the back wall. “Okay. Any human haters, or was that just you?”
“I was never a human hater. I just didn’t see the point in befriending them when their lives are shorter to us than a hamster’s is to a human.”
“And you wonder why we’re not dating?”
“I said that all in past tense. Obviously, I’ve changed my mind. Not about humans, just you. Let’s not expect miracles.”
“Sure. Do they have hard feelings toward slayers? I saw nothing in the database that indicated the O’Neils or the Carters had killed anyone close to them.” I set several daggers out on my bed, then spread out my clothes again to cover my closet.
“No, none of the Dracos offspring have been harmed by slayers. However, the twins—Auberi and Amée—and Baldwin are sure to get snarly about your heritage, because they’re unpleasant in general.”
A loud bell ran in the background of Considine’s phone call.
“You sound busy. Should I let you go?”
“Probably, yes. You’ll be okay?”
I rubbed my thumb on the pommel of one of my daggers. “You’re sure this isn’t the kind of thing I should call other slayers in for?”
“Yes.”
I nervously rubbed the back of my neck.
“It’s not as big of a deal as you’re thinking,” Considine said. “Killian is putting you on parade because his visiting siblings don’t think you exist. Don’t worry, I’ll make him pay.”
My apartment doorbell rang. “I think he’s here.”
