Page 325 of Dragon Slayer

“For entertainment. You had the theater back then, right?”

That earned him an unimpressed look.

“There’s movies about zombies. And…about vampires.”

His brows lifted. “I was under the impression that mortals at large are still ignorant as to our existence.”

“They are. The movies are just pretend.”

Vlad cocked his head, thinking it over, then finally shrugged and looked back at the map. “In any event, the first order of business is retrieving Romulus and killing him. If we can.”

“There’s a chance we can’t?”

“I made only a weak attempt before,” Vlad said, grim. “He’s the son of a god, you know. He doesn’t die as easily as the rest of us.”

Faintly: “Right.” He thought he might pass out. “What if – what if Romulus isn’t there?”

“He will be. And then we will find and eradicate any of his spawn.”

“Yes, your grace.” The title came to him easily, to his surprise. He was used to calling someone “sir” or “ma’am.” Vlad was unlike any CO he’d ever had in his military career, but he found himself responding to the presence of him as such all the same. He’d reached the limits of belief and just wanted, selfishly, to fall in line at this point.

Vlad eased back in his chair; a lazy, panther-like movement undercut with an energy just shy of a threat. Eyelids at half-mast, he should have looked relaxed, sleepy – but he didn’t. He was terrifying. “There’s no royalty here in your country. Does it pain you to call be by a royal honorific?”

“No. Sir.”

“Hmm. You are a soldier, used to bending to authority.”

“Yes, sir.”

Vlad picked up a letter opener shaped like – oh, no, that really was a knife. Long, slender, double-edged, meant for stabbing rather than slicing. He walked the hilt down his knuckles in a quietly dazzling, deft movement, twirling the blade at the end in a fast arc and beginning again. Hypnotic. It felt intentional. “But you are repulsed by me.” It wasn’t a question.

“I–” Jake faltered.

“I can see it in your face. I can smell it on you. No need to lie.”

It took a degree of effort not to squirm in his chair. As evenly as he could, he said, “You’re not human.”

Vlad waited.

“You drink blood. You cut off a man’s head without a second thought – and maybe he was expendable, to you, and maybe he was a jackass, but he didn’t deserve todie. And with Adela–” He bit off the rest; he’d already said too much.

“Ah.” Vlad caught the knife’s handle and it stilled, angled so the blade became a bar of reflected sunlight, its threat obscured. “This is about Adela, then.”

Jake grit his teeth.

“You care for her.”

“She’s a fellow soldier and a member of my team. She’s my subordinate. And you turned her without her consent.”

This, of course, neither bothered nor shamed the prince. He said, “I asked you, Major. I asked what she would want.”

“Iknow.”

“The question then becomes,” Vlad drawled, “which of us do you hate the most? Me for turning her, or yourself for allowing it?”

“It isn’t that simple.”

“Of course it is.” Maddeningly calm. Jake gripped the flimsy arms of his chair until the tendons stood out in the backs of his hands; until the wood creaked. “Everything is simple.”

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