Drac’s face twisted. “He doesn’t need one. He has always been able to persuade others to fall on their swords for him. Our father sent Radu and I to the Turks, but his precious heir was kept safely by his side. Mircea lived like a prince while Radu whored himself to get out of the dungeons and I was tortured every day for years!” I didn’t need to complain about the lack of emotion now. His eyes were glowing with it. “Even death worked in Mircea’s favor,” he spat. “When the treacherous dogs of the nobility lynched him, he was saved—by the very curse meant to destroy him!”
I stared into incandescent green eyes and finally understood. What I’d put down to madness was sounding a lot more like out-of-control jealousy. Even weirder, I could sort of relate. Mircea always seemed so sure of his place in the world: he was Mircea Basarab, scion of a noble house and prince of the supernatural world. He wore the assurance of his worth like a cloak, while the bastard he’d sired shivered in the cold. “He always lands on his feet,” I said, and not all the bitterness in my voice was fake.
“Not this time.” In a flash, Drac’s face was once again a bland mask. He regarded me narrowly. “As astonishing as it is, we have something in common, Dorina. One man has plagued both our lives for far too long. He made you the abomination that you are, doomed to live forever alone, shunned, an outcast, while he condemned me to an existence of perpetual suffering for a single mistake.”
I badly wanted to ask what he meant, but bit my lip to stay quiet. Questioning Drac was a risky business. You never knew when he would decide he’d had enough and start amusing himself other ways.
“I do not expect you to undertake the risk of challenging him,” I was told. “I merely require you to bring both of my brothers together in one place. Somewhere away from the Senate and the protection of this MAGIC enclave. I will do the rest.” He thought for a moment, steepling his hands like a bad impression of Sherlock Holmes. “A private residence would be best, somewhere secluded. Mircea’s home in Washington State would be perfect, and rather fitting. With the surrounding forest, it resembles the old country.”
The conversation was getting pretty surreal. Mircea and I weren’t what could be called close, and I’d threatened many times, loudly and in public, to kill him. But this was the first time anyone had ever taken me seriously. Did Drac think I hated Mircea as badly as he did? Had he honestly forgotten London, or did he think a century had blunted my memory? I repressed a shudder. That wasn’t the sort of thing that slipped your mind. Not in a century, not ever.
“I don’t think it’s too likely,” I commented blandly.
“There is a problem?” Drac asked, almost politely.
“Yeah. Mircea isn’t in Washington right now. The last time I saw him was in New York a few days ago, but I got the impression he wasn’t planning to be there long. And he’s not in Vegas. He’s on some mission for the Senate—I’m not sure what—but with a war on, I doubt he’s going home anytime soon.”
“Plausible.” Drac thought for a moment. “And Radu?”
I didn’t hesitate. Radu and company had a four-hour head start, not to mention a Senate escort. Telling the truth simply meant one fewer hurdle—how to get news of the move to Drac. “You might have more luck there. Radu is moving to his place and I’ve been invited along as bodyguard until another team can be assembled to replace the one you killed.”
“Why does he leave MAGIC’s embrace now, knowing I chase him?” Drac looked at me shrewdly. “Did you hope, little dhampir, that I would come after him myself?”
“The thought did occur to me, yeah.” There was no point denying it; no other explanation would make sense.
“And Radu’s ‘place’ would be where?”
“He’s never invited me over for dinner, so I haven’t actually seen it. But it’s in California, some old winery he bought for a song back in the sixties.”
“Why does he think he will be safe there?”
I couldn’t deny knowledge of this, either. As Radu’s bodyguard, there was no way I’d have let him choose that location unless I had researched it and determined that it could withstand an attack. “Mircea’s a Senate member. He has a lot of enemies, and Radu has always been seen as his weak link. Some major wards have been put up there, almost as good as MAGIC can boast, just in case anyone tries to get at Mircea through his brother.”
Drac did not do anything as human as relax back against his chair, but he somehow gave the impression of pleasure anyway. “Good. Then he believes himself secure. As his protector, you will have reason to inquire into the precise nature of these wards. You will communicate that information to me and arrange to have both of my brothers there at the same time.”
I fidgeted. “What if that isn’t possible? I told you, I don’t know where Mircea is. Not to mention that he isn’t likely to come running at my call. I could maybe find out about the wards, but—”
“I have other ways past the wards, Dorina,” Drac said, and although he didn’t introduce his mage friends, we both knew whom he was talking about. “Your information will make things easier, but it alone will not buy your life. An easier death, perhaps, but no more. I want Mircea.”
I swallowed. “What reason can I give him, assuming I can find him? He doesn’t completely trust me—”
“Of course not. My brother is not a fool.”