I mechanically turned and marched toward the door, intent on escaping.
Amée scoffed while Auberi fidgeted.
Vígí hopped to his feet with more agility than his size would indicate he was capable of. “Farewell, Slayer O’Neil. We hope to see you a lot in the future.”
“Bye-bye Jade!” Margarida merrily called by the time I reached the open door.
“She’s savvy, I’ll give her that,” Baldwin said.
When I ducked into the hallway, Considine was with me, sliding his arm across my shoulders.
“That wasn’t so bad,” he said.
I tried to shrug his arm off—I didn’t want anyone following us to get set off again. “You expected worse?”
“I didn’t expect Vígí, that’s for certain.” Considine squeezed my shoulder then let his arm slide off.
“You brought Hazel as leverage against Killian?” I asked.
“Yes, and to create a stir. I figured if there were two of you humans, it might go better for you. Also, Killian’s been hiding her from me, and I want him to know I’m perfectly aware of where she is,” Considine said.
I sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Considine asked.
“All the maneuvering—I’m not good at it.”
“That’s fine. You don’t need to be,” Considine said. “I’ll cover us in that area, just as you’ve taken on the role of being the conscience.”
There he goes, talking like we’re a couple.
When we reached the main entrance with the sweeping staircases, Considine glanced down at me, his smile tinged with bitterness. “Still don’t believe in my feelings for you? Well, I suppose I only have myself to blame for that.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I doubt you personally. This all just seems…unlikely.”
Considine laughed. “I suppose that’s an improvement—and hardly surprising given how rooted in reality you are. But that means I must continue the seduction, and eventually you’ll fall for me.”
I seriously doubted this—we were a vampire and a vampire slayer—but it seemed like it would be rude to say that, so I stayed quiet.
He appears content to keep on going, so maybe just continuing on as we are is the best plan.
It seemed harmless enough, but in my heart of hearts, there was a small, tiny part of me that was glad I finally had backup at work that was as strong and trustworthy as my family.
It wasn’tuntil late November that Considine and I were sent out on our first partner patrol with no team members accompanying. We still, however, had Orrin trailing along as our caboose since he was in Considine’s custody.
I studied the cute houses of the neighborhood we were patrolling—human mostly, but we’d passed the occasional wizard house.
“Any street in particular we should check out?” Considine asked. He sauntered at my side, watching Orrin—who was ahead of us, carrying a thermos Grove was lending him. I was pretty sure the thermos contained tea, but knowing Grove it could also be a poison.
I read a street sign and tried to ignore the still-new sensation of being bare faced while on patrol. I missed my slayer mask, even though I’d gone through multiple shifts without it. “Yeah, let’s turn here. Orrin—we’re changing directions.”
Orrin spun around and came slinking back toward us, cradling his thermos.
I waited until he joined us before turning up a new block. “Did Grove give you that thermos prefilled?”
Orrin frowned, and as we passed under a streetlight it had a halo effect on his gold hair.
Sensing he seemed upset, I tried to explain myself. “I’m not s-saying you shouldn’t have it—or you shouldn’t have taken it. What I mean is, Grove probably meant it as a gift, er…not, not a gift.”
