Page 265 of Dragon Slayer

“I wish,” Annabel said, without a trace of a smile. “It’s an old acquaintance of my husband. A mage named Liam. They used to work together, bound to serve the same master.”

Mia frowned. She was still struggling to understand the whole vampire-mage-wolf thing that Annabel had explained. “Is Dad just collecting people with supernatural powers?”

“More or less. Liam is–” She shuddered. “Look, I don’t want to tell you anything about your dad that will make you even angrier with him…” But her face said that she was dying to tell someone this and be understood. Almost pleading.

Mia had a horrible realization. Val wasn’t the only prisoner here.

“You and your husband aren’t hospitable hosts, are you?”

Annabel hesitated a moment, then shook her head. “No. Fulk keeps telling me to leave, to sneak out on my own – he’s the one they really want. He woke Vlad up, and they don’t know how many other of the Old Guard they might be able to discover and need awakened.”

“So Val was right. Vlad really was sleeping?”

Annabel nodded. “Checks and balances. It takes a mage to turn a wolf, and a wolf to wake a vampire. Keeps things evened out.” She sighed and glanced toward the closed bedroom door. “Vlad says there’s a war coming. Someone – we don’t know who – is trying to wake his uncle up. There’s some old, dark magic that’s been popping up in the Middle East. Romulus’s magic. Turnings gone bad. People that aren’t people anymore.

“Mia, your dad is trying to put together a superhuman army to put down that threat. That’s not a bad thing. But. The way he’s doing it…Liam has kids. Young ones. Ones who were born from surrogates and raised like lab experiments.”

“Are you serious?” She felt faint, and it wasn’t because of the tumor.

“I met one of them. A girl.” She shook her head. “She got away, though, so now we’re back to square one.”

“And now the father – this Liam – is coming.”

“Vlad needs a mage. Or, your dad thinks so, anyway. He wants to do it very traditionally. I think he thinks there’s some magic in that.”

Mia slumped down on the stool and tried to wrap her head around all of this. She couldn’t.

“I’m sorry. I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you love him?”

Mia lifted her head in surprise. “What?”

Annabel’s expression had gone soft. “Val. You’re in love with him, right?”

Mia sighed. “Against probably anyone’s advice. Yeah.” She shrugged, but this was something of which she was sure. On the flight over, she’d wondered if that kind of panic would set in – a crisis of heart and soul. Did she really love him? Or was that just a convenient fancy for a sick, lonely girl? But no. Her conviction hadn’t wavered. It was the only part of this nightmare she didn’t even have to think about.

Annabel smiled. “Good. I just wanted to make sure.”

She sent the other woman a questioning glance.

Annabel held up her index finger. “I like Val. He tries to be this smarmy bad boy prince type, but he’s a sweetheart. He’s had a shit life, and he needs more people to love him. And.” A second finger. “In my experience, knowing where your heart lies makes this sort of thing easier.”

“This sort of thing?”

“I don’t knowwhat’sgoing to happen, butsomethingis about togo off. Get ready.”

Mia took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay.”

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