“In all of Colorado, actually,” Itachi said.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I replied. I twisted in my seat to look back at Maven.
The young woman—the vampire—lifted her chin, eyes flashing. She had been leaning casually against the wall next to the office door, but when she straightened up, she didn’t look like a spacey barista anymore. When she spoke now, her voice was queenly. “I’m flattered. But I’m here as an advisor only. Itachi is in charge.”
I eyed her. She was practically glowing with something: Charisma? Charm? “Like hell,” I said.
A surprised smile twitched on her face. “It’s true that I have more years than Itachi,” she allowed. “But I assure you, he is in charge of the state.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her—it was strange how Itachi kept glancing at her, and there was some kind of vibe between them I couldn’t get a bead on—but I dropped the subject. “If you’re an advisor, ma’am, would you mind joining us up here so I don’t have to turn to look at you?” And so I don’t have a stranger at my back, I thought.
“Certainly,” Maven said graciously. She stood up and darted to the visitor’s chair next to mine. Her shuffling walk had been supplanted by the same lithe, efficient movements I’d seen in all the vampires I’d met so far.
For his part, the leader of the Colorado Old World simply picked up the conversation where it had left off. “So, Sergeant, Quinn tells me that you were unaware of the Old World until you met Darcy and Victor. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you survived two encounters with them,” Maven mused. “Interesting.”
“I had help both times, ma’am,” I said plainly. I wasn’t trying to be modest, but I also didn’t want to claim credit I didn’t deserve.
Something about my choice of words seemed to amuse Maven a little, because the corners of her lips turned up just a little. “More than you know,” she told me. Her eyes cut over to Itachi, like she was cuing him.
He caught it. “Until a few days ago,” he said to me, “I was unaware of your niece. Like you, I initially thought Victor and Darcy had stolen the child for their own needs. It wasn’t until Quinn told me about his encounter with her at John Wheaton’s house that I understood what she is.”
“What is she?”
“Charlotte Wheaton is what’s commonly called a null,” Maven explained. “A human being who nullifies the magic within a certain space around him- or herself. Of the four creatures that remain in the Old World, nulls are the rarest. I have met several before”—her eyes went unfocused and distant for a moment, then snapped back to mine—”but it has been over a century since the last one.”
“Can you elaborate on that definition, please?”
Maven smiled. “Nulls can undo power,” she said simply. “When we are physically close to one, our magic disappears. We are human again until we move away.”
I considered that for a long moment while the two vampires sat unmoving. My first thought was how ridiculous it sounded—the idea that Charlie, who considered the greatest things in life to be Sesame Street, climbable furniture, and personal boxes of raisins, was some kind of traveling magic-free zone? Come on.
But then I thought of how I’d been able to hurt both Victor and Darcy, and the way they’d both healed supernaturally fast when they moved far enough away from my niece. And how they’d been able to get into John’s house in the first place. “How close is physically close?” I asked finally.
“Anywhere from a few feet to perhaps ten or fifteen,” Maven answered. “The area tends to expand, however, when the null loses control of her emotions.”
“When she gets upset,” I clarified.
“Yes.”
More pieces fell into place. I wanted more time to think about it, to reconsider the distances at the Depot and at John’s house, when Charlie was screaming mad, but I wasn’t sure how long they would just sit there waiting for me. Already Itachi was looking bored. I decided to accept what they were saying for the moment and spend more time processing it later.
“I guess I can see how it could be valuable to you all to be human again sometimes,” I said slowly, “but it hardly seems worth risking an AMBER Alert, especially after Victor and Darcy failed the first time. Why risk so much to kidnap a baby just because she’s a null?”
Maven’s eyes widened a tiny bit, and I had the immediate impression that I’d made an error. “Lex, being able to neutralize magic isn’t just valuable,” she said rather patiently. “It’s far beyond invaluable for the Old World. Werewolves can stay human during the full moon, and witches, who have no supernatural strength or healing ability, are actually safe from a physical attack by either of the other factions. And vampires, well . . . we can go out in the day.”
“There are those of us who would do much worse than risk an AMBER Alert, as you said, to be in the sunlight,” Itachi added.
“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid.
“To put it another way,” Maven continued, in a voice gone soft and cold, “a null can also get to anyone in the Old World, regardless of their magical defenses. She could walk right up to me and shoot me in the chest, and I would die. If you managed to find such a person while she’s young, and still programmable . . .” She trailed off, letting me fill in the blanks.