“About the wine.” Zack stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get back to what I was doing.”
Seamus smiled, and this time, the expression seemed genuine. “It has been a long time since I felt a passion forinformation like that. We have a little time before dawn. If you sit down, I’ll tell you about dragons.”
The information was likely to be biased, but itwasa starting point. Zack dropped into his seat.
Seamus poured himself more wine and took a sip before beginning. “The dragons have been plotting their return to our realm for the last two hundred years …”
CHAPTER 32
The moon provided little light in the graveyard. The stars glimmered in their distance, with the rare cloud passing silently to obscure them. Only the general light pollution of the city kept them from true darkness. Takashi stood beside the granite headstone with his hands inside his coat pockets. The coat was as new as the grave before him and as bespoke as the calligraphy for Katie’s name was beautiful. Anton had gifted it and the tailored black suit he was wearing to him. He hadn’t asked how Anton knew his measurements. Perhaps he was observant; maybe he simply hired the same tailors that Takashi had already used during his stay in Chicago.
Midnight was swiftly approaching. Katie had been in the ground for three nights. This cold, beautiful evening would be her first opportunity to rise.
The mortal man at the other end of her grave had finally given up shouting into his gag. Takashi wouldn’t have had sympathy for him—a fledgling had to feed—but Anton had allowed him to assist in finding the offering. They’d dug up a pissant who had messaged Katie inappropriately on a semi-frequent basis. He’d thought he was meeting her to “show herwhat being a grown-up was like.” The world needed fewer of his kind, and Katie would be rid of one potential stalker.
Anton sat atop Katie’s gravestone like he was a statue of a gentleman. He was dressed in black as well, and his gaze was fixed on the dirt. “Can you feel her yet?”
“I promised you that I would mention when she stirred,” Takashi replied. The silence, both within the grave and around them, was excruciating. The night might prove fruitless. Though Takashi was finally out of the mansion, waiting in a graveyard wasn’t much of a change of venue. “Will we have any problems with the mages?”
“Zack did us no favors by releasing the other two girls,” Anton said. “Luckily, Magus Coldwell is an old prick who doesn’t care for much besides prestige. Should Katie show that she has kept even an ounce of her arcane powers, then he may actually be ecstatic. She’s on an ‘errant’ branch of the family tree, apparently. Not a Coldwell in name, her mother and grandmother both having married mundane men.”
“He cares more about reputation than her well-being?” Takashi asked.
“That was the impression I received. His son has a soul bond to a warlock. He seemed more upset that another scandal was about to drop on him after finally managing to mitigate the last.” Anton tapped his fingers on Katie’s headstone. “How did Zack take the news?”
The slightest hint of mist formed close to the ground. A spark lighted below, but it caught and bloomed in the ground. The spark twisted and grew into an invisible rope, tugging Takashi toward his new fledgling. “She’s awake.”
“Fantastic!” After a long moment of quiet, Anton said, “Convenient escape from my question, however.”
Takashi could feel Katie’s fear as she realized she was trapped in the coffin. Swallowing that and allowing her tocontinue without interference was the tricky part. He could reach through their bond and settle her fears, but she needed to emerge on her own strength, mental and physical.
“We came to an understanding,” Takashi said.
“I have been attempting to figure out what she will be to him. Do you think sister or cousin would fit better?” Anton said.
“You could let them figure it out.”
“Oh, don’t be dull. We’ll be a family, the five of us, and I want them to get along.” Anton nudged Takashi’s shoulder. “What do you think would work best?”
The last few nights had been odd, even compared to what had been going on in the mansion beforehand. Zack was more pensive than ever before, rarely speaking. He didn’t withhold touch; in fact, he often dragged Takashi close to cuddle. But unless Seamus whisked him away, he was always reading, always thinking, always writing notes in his notebook.
Seamus had spent much of the evenings out of the mansion without any of them. “A war chest to rebuild,” he had said.
And Anton, for his part, had been caught up in preparations for Katie. He’d consulted with Takashi, asked his opinion far more than Takashi had thought he would, and had seemed to settle from his manic games into the genuine role of vampire-father-to-be.
At a glance, Takashi would have to admit that Anton had a point. They were a vampire family. Seamus’s pets should have been considered a part of the household, but they were shadows rarely seen. Zack had mentioned that two of them were dead, bringing down the number in Seamus’s collection. Yet in all of Takashi’s wanderings around the mansion, he hadn’t discovered where the mortals actually lived. Nell’s mansion hummed with life; Seamus’s remained a freezing tomb.
It wasn’t the home Takashi wanted. Walking on a tightrope was easier than a conversation with Seamus or Anton, butsomething close to kinship was forming.I’m merely making the best of the situation.Or perhaps that was simply the effect of growing closer to Zack. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable with the house or Anton or Seamus at all, only with him.
Except talking with Anton was becoming almost pleasant.
Could they be a family with a monster at the head of the table?How long until Zack is strong enough to chop that head off?
“I think you should give them time to bond,” Takashi said.
The crack of wood was distinct despite the heavy earth on top of Katie’s casket.
“That’s what we’ve been missing. Bonding activities,” Anton said brightly as he took out his phone. “What a fantastic idea. She’s not close to the surface yet, is she? I don’t want to miss her emergence.”
