“Thanks,” I awkwardly said.
Sarge nodded and stormed down the hallway. “You haven’t told Considine you’ve figured out who he is?”
“Correct.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way. With any luck, the committee will force Killian’s hand if he really does know about Considine, and he’ll have to act.”
“Yessir!”
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Considine
Inodded to the red-haired vampire that opened the door to Drake Hall for me and cast a glance around the grand entrance.
Nothing looks broken. That’s disappointing.
With four of his siblings staying with him, I thought for sure they’d try Killian’s patience and for once I wouldn’t be the only one driven crazy by the Dracos Family.
A thud made me look up to see Killian standing on the landing, resting artfully on the double spiral staircase and leaning against the railing.
Dressed in a black perfectly tailored suit, Killian looked as spotless as ever… except for a slight twitch in his left eyebrow. “I give in,” he snapped. “You win. What godforsaken hole are you hiding in that I can’t find you?!”
I laughed, sliding my hands into the pockets of my black trousers. “What’s wrong, Killian? Had enough of your family?”
“I have had my people search the house of every blasted vampire Family within reasonable reach of the city—they even roused some sleeping elders and cracked a few heads in the process. No one was even aware you weren’t staying with me, much less housing you.” Killian clenched the stone banister of the elaborate staircase. I wondered for a moment if it would crumble in his murderous grasp.
Happily, that show of emotion meant he was unaware his vampires had gotten quite close to finding me. They’d nearly followed me all the way back to my apartment a few days prior—I’d been forced to turn into a bat to escape their detection.
Of course, I always could have just used my powers, but where’s the fun in that?
As old as I was, I could command nearly every vampire I came across—the Drake vampires included. （I had used it on Killian occasionally to get him to stop asking questions I didn’t want to answer, but I’d never given him an outright command. I had an inkling that if I tried, it might not work. Even if it did, when he came out of the command there would be hell to pay.）
“I can’t believe you’d even think I’d make myself put up with the inane prattle of another vampire Family, when I can barely stand yours,” I said.
“You aren’t staying with the werewolves, and you think too little of humans and wizards,” Killian continued. “I can only imagine you’re staying among the fae except my One happens to be good friends with the Night Queen, and she hasn’t heard anything—and her paranoid head of security would have sniffed you out if you were among them.”
“Ahh, yes. Your One,” I said. “How is she? I’m terribly upset you haven’t yet introduced us.”
“Cut the act, Considine. Where are you hiding?”
“It’s cute that you think I’d actually tell you.” I tilted my head back to study him from a new angle. “If you’re sick of your siblings, why not go stay with your One for a time?”
“As if I could leave the lot of them in my home without any decent supervision. I want them gone. The fastest way to achieve that goal is to find wherever you are hiding, so that I can dump them on your front porch and be done with it.” Killian glared at me, but his eyes were such a dark shade of red that they were almost black. I was fairly certain he wasn’t all that angry with me and was more fed up with his siblings.
“I’d apologize, except I’m not sorry,” I said. “Rather, it melts my heart to see someone else who is competent deal with them.”
“I still don’t get why you don’t just leave them to their own devices—they’ll all be dead or asleep in less than a decade. Tops.” Killian sauntered down one of the two stairways, shaking his irritation off with a shudder.
“Ahh, yes. If only I could.” I briefly clenched my hands into fists, which made the gold band of Ambrose’s ring bite into my finger.
“Whatever.” Killian ran a hand through his dark brown hair, then glanced meaningfully at a couple of his vampires, who marched off, visibly armed to the teeth. “I’m more and more certain you only stick around us because of Ambrose.”
He was right—obviously because of my promise to Ambrose. But I’d had the recent, unpleasant realization that I no longer could remember what Ambrose’s laughter sounded like.