“Yeah. Maybe I’ll nearly die the next time I need something, too.” I leaned back. “Sucks you didn’t think of it.”
“Indeed,” Vlad said.
Darius delivered a cognac for himself and Vlad and then set a whiskey in front of me. He took his chair and then my hand.
“Ja visited us in the shifter compound. I’m sure you’ve heard,” Darius started.
“A few times, it seems.” Vlad took a sip of his beverage. “She is going to be a problem.”
“Agreed. She filled me in on the part you played, regarding how I was made.”
“Yes, I heard. I did not bring my pistols, sadly. How do you plan to settle this?”
Darius’s eyes glittered. Vlad was clearly making a joke, but the sentiment didn’t reach his cold, calculating eyes.
“Why did you never tell me?”
Vlad sat back, studying Darius. “You are a changed vampire since Reagan. Dare I say a changed man? You would not have treated the matter with such indifference back in the day. For a long time, that woman was a sticking point for you. You were not rational about it.”
Darius slowly took a sip. “It is true, then? You orchestrated everything?”
“No, as a matter of fact. I did not plant her. My driver would have run her over had I not stopped him. No offense, old friend, but she was a nobody.”
Darius didn’t comment.
“That was the first time you came to my notice,” Vlad said. “Quite gallant. Large for the time, strong frame, ease of movement… I looked into you then. You know what I saw.”
Darius inclined his head. Vlad would’ve seen his fortune, basically. His land. All of his assets. He also would’ve figured out that a man so adept in keeping his fortune had a keen business sense and intelligent mind.
“I did coax her toward you and seed her foolish notions about vampires, of course,” Vlad said.
“Were you fucking her?” Darius asked, and a flash of cold washed through me. I wasn’t even sure what had caused that emotion. I guess I just hadn’t expected Darius to ask. Maybe I hadn’t expected him to care?
Maybe I’d hoped he wouldn’t…
As if hearing my thoughts, he stroked his thumb across my skin.
I merely want everything out in the open, he thought.
“No, I was not,” Vlad said. “In those days, I would’ve tied blood with sex. I couldn’t take her blood, for obvious reasons.” Namely, it would have given her a different “vampire” to fear. “I doubt I could’ve seduced her, anyway. She was quite religious. Fanatically so.”
“Of course,” Darius said, his thumb still stroking my skin. “Reagan was amazed you went through the effort.”
Vlad slid his gaze to me. “Yes. Times have changed.”
“That’s what I told her. Have you experienced what the Underworld has to offer?”
“Will we race to sire a brood?” Vlad asked with the briefest of smiles.
Cold ran through me for a different reason, and then sparklers flared in my stomach. This time, Darius’s grip on my hand tightened.
“No,” Darius replied. “We are in no hurry. Reagan needs to decide what she’d like to do in the present before we look to the future.”
“But it’s in your plans?” Vlad asked.
Darius looked at me, his beautiful eyes soft and bright. “Yes, someday. If Reagan wishes it.”
I did wish it, but…not yet. Darius had his finger on the pulse of the situation. I needed to settle down and live my own life for a while. Only when that was going steadily could I think of creating another. I was thankful he understood.
That didn’t mean we needed to wait forever for…well, forever. Emery had wasted no time proposing, and he and Penny had wasted no time in tying the knot. I’d honestly expected Darius to ask when we were in Rome. It had been plenty romantic.
“Speaking of the present,” Vlad said, thankfully changing the subject, “I hear Roger is a lot more amenable to vampire activities in the Brink.” Just like that, I knew they’d put the issue about Darius’s making behind them. It was a small thing, obviously, in the face of much bigger issues, like Ja and the changing of the worlds. I was happy it had proven so anticlimactic.
I did wonder why Darius had wanted to have their meeting here, though. That seemed odd.
“Yes. I’d hoped to get your help there.” He turned to me. “Reagan, this will be vampire politics. You are welcome to stay if you want or—”
“Nope.” I let go of his hand and pushed my chair back. “I’ll make myself scarce.”
Darius and Vlad both stood when I did, gentlemen from a different era. Vlad would keep up the manners even if he was plotting to kill me, I knew. Which I definitely doubted, given my new standing.
I tried not to smile. But honestly, it was seriously cool.
“I wondered, actually,” Darius said before I could get away, “if you’d do me the honor of putting on one of the dresses upstairs and getting ready for dinner? I have a very important meeting to attend, and I’d hoped for your company.”