Julianne rubbed her temple. “Sir, I thought Celestina gave you a talk about appropriate ways to encourage someone.”
“Was that not an encouraging thought?”
“Not even close.”
“I see.” Josh turned his garnet red eyes back to me. “Then please allow me to try again. If Rupert dared to seriously injure you a second time, he wouldn’t survive the experience, so you can at least be comforted that he won’t be attempting to inflict the maximum amount of pain.”
Julianne sighed. “Has anyone seen Celestina?”
Sigmund—a lean vampire I’d faced previously, slightly bowed his head to me, then furrowed his forehead at Julianne. “She must not be back from her appointment. She was visiting a mankist, I think?”
Julianne blinked. “What’s a mankist?”
“He means a manicurist—or a nail salon.” Celestina strode into the room with long, sure strides despite her stiletto heels. “I got my first pedicure!” She stuck a foot out for us, so we could look at her pink toe nails through the peep-toe shoes.
“How pretty!” Julianne cooed.
Gavino bit into a roll as he inspected Celestina’s feet. “Is the color supposed to help you in some way?”
“No—it’s purely fashion.” She glanced at the dining table—which was full—and closed the door shut behind her.
“Then what’s the point?”
“I said fashion.” Celestina beamed when she saw me. “There’s my favorite wizard! Have you been off to see Killian today?”
“Nope,” I said. “I was too busy getting beat up by Julianne and frying her in return.”
Celestina nodded. “Understandable. You ought to be the one to bring him his evening blood pouch, then.”
“Feeling generous tonight, are you?” Gavino asked.
“I’ve gotten more afternoons off since Hazel arrived than I have in the previous decade. If our wizard’s presence encourages that behavior, I’m going to make certain His Eminence sees her as much as he wishes.”
“I also was given time off.” Josh tapped the rim of his empty wine glass—he’d already downed the first glass of blood. “I believe it might have been the first occasion I’ve ever managed to clean my entire weapon arsenal in a month.”
Manjeet—one of the vampires sitting farther down the table—laughed and raised his wine glass. “To our wizard—life has gotten so much more interesting since you arrived.”
At least a dozen of the vampires seated around the table chorused, “To our wizard!”
I grinned at the laughing Family. “Hopefully this makes my smelly blood forgivable?”
“Honey.” A male vampire with a thick southern accent chuckled. “You stopped smelling bad to most of us weeks ago.”
I blinked in surprise. “I did?”
Celestina daintily seated herself in the free chair next to Josh. “You’ve smelled neutral to the majority of us for quite some time.”
I stabbed a roll—cutting a hole in the side, which I filled with soft honey butter. “Neutral—that means you don’t necessarily trust me, but you don’t distrust me, right?”
“Indeed,” Josh said.
“Aww, you guys! I’m going to tear up.” I played at fanning my face before I took a huge bite out of my butter-stuffed roll.
This roused another round of chuckles from the vampires—except for Rupert, who stared at his blood drink.
I started to dig into the main course that night—carbonara, one of my favorites since the head chef always added extra bacon and cheese—when a flicker of shadows caught my eye.
I glanced up, freezing when I saw Killian leaning against the frame of the doorway—which was open just wide enough to admit him.
He looked amused—or perhaps bemused—with our dinner party, and perhaps a little disheveled. His necktie was gone, and the top two buttons of his dress shirt were open. When he caught me looking, his smirk grew.
Celestina peered at me, then turned around in her chair. “Your Eminence!” She swiftly pushed back from the table and stood so she could bow to him. “Did you need something?”
Hastily, all the other vampires leaped to their feet and bowed as well.
Killian swatted his hand at them. “It’s fine.”
Celestina was not so easily convinced. Her shoulders were set with steely determination as she pushed on. “Did you want us to send up your blood packs early tonight?”
“No,” Killian said. “I came to inform you all that we’re going to have…” He tipped his head back as he thought, and his smirk turned devious. “Let’s call it a field trip.”
“Where to, Your Eminence?” Josh asked.
Killian’s smirk was so wide he flashed his pronounced fangs. “Tutu’s.”
Chapter Seven
Hazel
I dropped my fork on my plate with a loud clack. “You talked to her? What did she say?”
Killian strolled into the room, his free hand shoved in his pants pocket. “She won’t bend the rules and let you skip the paperwork—particularly since the Wizard Council took such a strong stance that you need to re-register. It would be bad publicity.”
That was bad news, but Killian was too smug for that to be the end of it. Warily, I glanced at the other Drake vampires, but none of them showed the concern I did. “What did she offer as an alternative?”
“A trade.” Killian sucked his blood pouch down and tossed the garbage on the table. “Tutu has quarterly tests of her security systems at each branch location. She alternates between holding a manual employee test, and a field test where a team is hired to try and break into the building. The test for the Magiford branch location is next week. She’s agreed to hire a team from the Drake Family to hold the field test.”
“Let me get this straight.” I set my elbows on the table and clamped my hands on the side of my head so I could be certain my head was on right. “You want us to try and break into Tutu’s? A bank which is universally acknowledged as one of America’s safest magical storage methods?”
“She’s hiring us—we’ll have contracts that will legally protect us and her,” Killian said. “And if we just so happen to liberate the contents of your lockbox while we are there…” He grinned savagely.
“But would it hurt her reputation more to have something stolen from her bank?” I asked.
“Only if you plan to report that items were stolen from your lockbox,” Celestina pointed out.
I blinked in surprise. That was actually a very good point. If we were hired by Tutu, and neither I nor her staff registered a complaint about my lockbox, we’d be in the clear.
“We won’t take anything else,” Killian continued. “And Tutu set up the contract so when the team makes it in and out, we have to bring proof with us. Your lockbox will be our proof.”
“I think I get it.” I slowly nodded. “But who is going to be on the team? I obviously can’t do it by myself, and you said Tutu hired the Drake Family?”
“Precisely. So for the next week we’ll be practicing to see who qualifies to be on the team. It will be a wonderful bonding experience.” The purr in Killian’s voice made me think the next week was actually going to bond us the same way childhood traumas can serve as bonding experiences for siblings.
“That sounds…great,” I said.
“I’m glad you think so. Come downstairs after you finish dinner. We begin drills tonight.” Killian sauntered from the room.
The second the door closed behind him, the vampires dashed to the table, downed their blood, and tore into a few snacks.
“Come downstairs as fast as you can, Hazel. Oh—but don’t make yourself sick!” Celestina licked her lips after she finished off the last of her blood, then bulldozed her way past Josh—who was putting his veritable armory back on.
Julianne winked at me. “See you in the gym, Miss!” She and Gavino sprinted from the room.
I was a little confused. They seemed…excited. Which, I got that the Drake Family drilled and practiced endlessly, but that didn’t explain why they’d be excited about breaking into a magically warded vault—even if it was legal.
I chewed a mouthful of carbonara as I thought.
And why was Killian doing this? What did he gain by potentially risking his Family? Because let me be straight, Tutu’s was warded to the basement pipes with magical traps and wards. Even if Tutu had invited us to break in, the danger was still very real.
I doubted he’d go this far just for me, so…what was his angle? And what did he get out of this?
Four days into our ‘preparation’, I started getting worried.
Not because Killian hadn’t yet announced who was on the team, but because of the wide variety of activities he was putting everyone through as part of the testing phase.
The night he announced the deal with Tutu, there was a weightlifting and flexibility competition. The following day we all went down to the pool for a demonstration of our swimming skills.
Today, we were practicing climbing on a rock wall I hadn’t even known existed out by the swimming pool.
“Um, Killian.” I watched Celestina rappel down the wall. “Is there something you want to tell me about what we’re going to find inside Tutu’s?”
Killian stabbed a straw in one of his blood pouches—which always reminded me of juice packs. Disgustingly, Killian’s attractive looks weren’t ruined by the childish picture. He made it cool. It was incredibly irritating. “It’s fine,” he said around the straw.
I stared at the climbing gear fastened around my waist and legs—which I had no idea of how to use. “I don’t think it is, actually.”
“We won’t be dodging dragon shifters if that’s what you’re concerned about,” Killian said. “Though it’s pretty safe to assume there will be fire traps.”