“Don’t make light of your situation, Blood.” Captain Reese leaned back in her chair, making it creak. “You are a member of the task force—we take your safety very seriously. Ruin—Considine, that is—threatens your safety.”
“Indeed,” Sarge said. “The question is, does Killian Drake know what he’s doing and simply doesn’t care?”
“Possibly,” Captain Reese said. “Or maybe he can’t do much given how much older and more powerful Considine is.”
Sarge scratched his jaw. “Then how about we publicly tell him?”
Captain Reese peered up at him. “I’m listening.”
“We could wait until a Regional Committee of Magic meeting and tell all of them.” Sarge gestured with his hand—he must have been upset because I saw the water in the glass sitting on Captain Reese’s desk ripple.
I watched the water until my brain caught up with what he was saying. Wait, the Regional Committee of Magic? The supernatural leaders of the Midwest, who rule over their species. You want to tattle to them that Considine is here?!
I opened my mouth to argue, but Sarge was quick to stop me.
“Blood, if you claim that the Committee doesn’t need to hear about this just because of you, I swear on my favorite sea that you will be adding three additional pages to your paper and those pages will be all about the worth of your life to the Cloisters.”
I snapped my mouth shut so hard my teeth hurt.
Does he have some oracle blood somewhere back in his family lines or is he just that good at reading people?
Most likely, Sarge really was just that good.
Maybe I should ask him for help at being a better communicator. But would that be a burden on him?
“I like the idea,” Captain Reese said. “But I’ll have to take this before the Commissioner. If the Commissioner approves, we’ll take it to the Committee. That unfortunately means we’re looking at a fairly long timeline—likely it will be early to mid-November before we actually tell the Committee.”
I kept my mouth shut because my superiors didn’t need me chiming in.
Sarge thoughtfully frowned. “We’ll have to make it work; I suppose. Times like this make me wish we could find a partner for Blood. It would solve most of my work stress.”
“We’ve exhausted that avenue,” Captain Reese said. “There are no proper candidates—for now. We can only hope someone will show up in the future.”
What?
Sarge had mentioned wanting me to work with a partner before, but I didn’t know he was so serious about it that he’d brought the idea up to Captain Reese and they’d actually looked for candidates!
I thought it was quirky but fine that our department was modeled after human entertainment. Maybe I was wrong, they shouldn’t consider changing the department protocol of sending us out in teams just because of me.
“Will you get in trouble for sharing this information with us, Blood?” Captain Reese asked. “You used slayer resources for Cloister business.”
I rested my hands on my belt. “Officially? No. The vampires are vaguely aware we have ways of tracking them. However…” I paused.
The only noise in the office was the ticking of the second hand of Captain Reese’s wooden clock that was constructed out of a slab of a tree stump.
“However?” Captain Reese prodded.
“If my family—the O’Neils, the slayers—realize I’ve been facing off with Considine, they’ll come get me.”
Sarge narrowed his eyes, which took on a stormy shimmer. “So, he’s even more dangerous than you’ve let on.”
“Vampire slayers don’t trust elder vampires,” I said. “And as I am the only slayer in Magiford, and vampire-slayer relations have never been great… it would make my family very nervous.”
“Understandably so,” Captain Reese acknowledged.
I nodded, then fell silent as I clenched my hands so I wouldn’t wring them in my nervousness.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us, Blood?” Sarge asked.
I hesitated. “It’s in my report on what happened when my team and I went to House Tellier, but Considine showed up on the House’s front porch and… acted as my backup.”
“That’s right, I did see that in the submitted paperwork.” Captain Reese twisted her spinny chair back and forth. “House Tellier is another conversation we need to have.”
“What is there to say?” Sarge asked. “It’s almost certain they did it.”
“Yes,” Captain Reese agreed, “Except the Wizard Council gets fussy about being the ones to dole out punishments, and they’re claiming we don’t have enough hard evidence.”
The Wizard Council was the subcommittee that governed wizards in the Midwest. They were considered below Elite Bellus—the wizard representative on the Midwest Committee of Magic—but while Elite Bellus took care of all big picture items like the wizards’ place within the supernatural community, the wizard board handled more of the day-to-day problems wizards faced like fights between Houses—which almost never happened, until House Tellier and a couple of other wizards had started trouble with House Medeis—April’s wizard House.
“Perhaps,” Sarge said. “But there’s enough circumstantial evidence that they have to agree to let us further investigate things.”
“Nope.” Captain Reese lost her friendly edge, and a growl leaked out of her that sounded as though it came from deep in her chest. “The council is claiming it should be their responsibility and that this is a wizard issue.”
Sarge must have reached a whole new level of irritation because the water in the glass on Captain Reese’s desk sloshed. “How can they claim that when the matter involves humans?” Sarge asked, his voice icy.
“They claim it because the wizards are desperate to retain every ounce of power they have, even if it means defending wrong doers.” Captain Reese said.
The Captain and Sergeant both glanced at me seemingly expecting some kind of observation.
I didn’t think I’d be expected to have thoughts on supernatural politics for this job. Maybe I should start brushing up more if this is a requirement.
I strained my memory, recalling some of what April had said before. “The board did this same thing—refusing to punish wizard Houses—before, in the case of House Medeis’ inheritance, right?” I waited, hoping one of them would jump in.
They didn’t.
“It seems they’re simply doing it again,” I concluded, wildly hoping that was the right thing to say.
Captain Reese nodded. “You’re right. I’ll see if I can talk to Adept Hazel Medeis,” Captain Reese said, naming the leader of April’s Wizard House, who also happened to be married to Killian Drake. “She might be able to get farther than we can. But that’s not what you were thinking of when you said Considine acted as your backup, is it, Blood?” Her eyes drifted back to me.
More talking? I just can’t get a break.
I cleared my throat. “No, Ma’am. It’s just… Considine is a risk because he’s so powerful. But.” I struggled, trying to figure out what I was even attempting to say. “He helped with the fae snake when he didn’t have to,” I finally said. “And he didn’t have to back me up at House Tellier, either.”