Roger snarled. The shadows coiled at his thought. They only needed direction.
“Roger!” Dmitri called. “Listen to him! Vincent is asleep! That’s all!”
With a feral growl, Roger pivoted toward Dmitri. The rainbow sigil on his chest shone in gentle, shifting colors, and the sight of it brought to mind the rainbows of his mortal days. A long-distant memory flickered through his mind, and he saw Dmitri standing on the edge of the ship with a breathless laugh on his lips. He hadn’t seen a rainbow in ages. He loved their light. “A promise that the rain will leave us new,” Dmitri had declared in his thick Russian accent. The wind had tossed his hair, and Roger had known love.
“You are better than this,” Dmitri said in the present.
I am. I have to be. The shadows of centuries clung to him, but Roger pushed them away like he had that first brush of love. He was not his rage. His anger was a vent upon the ocean floor, spewing heat, but the pocket was not endless, nor did it have to dictate the motion of the waves. He eased the way he gripped that sharp piece of his soul, and the shadowy tendrils melted into the floor.
Josefina stepped through the doorway leading from the side entrance. Her eyes had the remnants of tears. She took in the room and demanded, “What is going on?”
“Oh, nothing,” Bastian drawled, “just two practitioners coming into their powers.”
CHAPTER 41
Roger set Vincent on Thomas’s cot in the small room and moved to stand in the doorway. He leaned his back against the frame and crossed his arms over his chest. His inner sea continued to churn. There was something agitating it, but so far as he could tell, his anger wasn’t the source.
Thomas had disappeared with Lacey and Amber, though since valuable belongings remained, Roger assumed they would be back at some point. Likely, Thomas wanted privacy as he discussed with his daughter and cousin what had happened to Zack.
Josefina had seen that the building wasn’t crashing down and declared she was taking the other vampires back to their residences with an attitude so cold Roger knew something was wrong with her.
That left Noah, Bastian, and Dmitri.
And Bastian’s gray tabby cat, who strode underneath Roger’s legs and entered the room as if they owned the place. They sat at the end of the cot and watched Vincent with feline intensity.
A familiar scent drifted on the air. Roger took a deeper sniff, but it fell apart underneath the overpowering aromas of dust, wood, sweat, and cat.
Dmitri stepped into the hall. At a soft, gentle volume, he said, “Bastian would like a word.”
Roger could hear the end of the conversation happening in the second classroom, though it was muffled to near silence. In the relative silence of the building, Roger shouldn’t have had a problem eavesdropping. They must have used a spell, but his hearing was sharp enough to pierce it.
“I have to take this back to Pendragon,” Noah said fiercely. “It’s one thing allying ourselves with a vampire who wants to fuck up the status quo. It’s an entirely different thing to throw our lot in with a vampire warlock who could be using us to stage a coup.”
“I don’t think he’s like that,” Bastian replied. “You saw how he didn’t have control over his magic. He’s new at this.”
Noah sighed, his frustration clear. “Look, I think backing Roger is the right move, but I can’t speak for the whole community. Pendragon has to weigh in.”
“Youcould still work with him, even if Pendragon won’t ally the Burrow.”
“And that is a whole other conversation I have to have. With my husband,” Noah replied. “Which, knowing him, he’ll say yes, but I still have to talk to him. Plus, I’m fucking tired. Do you have this?”
“How long will the sleep spell last?” Bastian asked.
“I infused it to run a natural course. Kid looked exhausted, so at least a few hours. You shouldn’t have any problem lifting it if you have to. If you do, call me,” Noah said.
“Will do. Be careful.”
Noah snorted. “You’re the one sticking around with two ticking time bombs and a bunch of killers.”
A door opened and shut, and then there were only three heartbeats in the building. Roger pushed off from the doorway and took a step toward the lit classroom, but the steadyheartbeats pulled him to a pause. Something was off. Quickly, he isolated each. Bastian’s was the steady of thrum of someone who’d been in conversation and was now moving toward rest. Vincent had settled into a deep sleep, and his heartbeat reflected that.
The cat was weird. Roger moved back to the doorway and frowned at the creature. Their heart moved at a pace similar to Bastian’s. For such a small beast, that waswrong. It should have been at least twice what Bastian’s heart was doing.
Not wanting to leave Vincent alone with a potential shapeshifter—or some other mysterious creature—Roger zipped into the room and grabbed the cat. Predictably, the cat was not a fan of that course of action, but Roger was faster. He managed to grab the cat by the scruff and hold it out in front of him so they couldn’t scratch him.
The cat meowed pitifully, then began to snarl as Roger carried them into the lit classroom.
Dmitri silently stepped out of his way and moved to lean against the wall beside the door inside the classroom.
